Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 6: Harry Potter and the Supreme Art of War

19 July 1993

Harry Potter opened his eyes and surveyed the Prince's Lair like a potentate studying his court. He was sitting comfortably on the Hydra Throne, and while the nine heads of the Hydra were silent at the moment, that was to be expected. The mahogany table was polished to perfection, and the brass adders atop the six chairs surrounding the table gleamed in the light. Harry turned his head to the right and saw that the silver placards identifying all of the prior Princes were in their proper place. Turning to the left, he saw that the great fireplace was cold, and with but a thought, he lit it up into a roaring blaze that further brightened the room.

Satisfied, the boy turned his attention to the nearest bookshelf and studied the titles. Harry's Charms Studies, vol. 1-2. Harry's Collected Transfiguration Insights, vol. 1-2. Harry's Potions Studies, vol. 1-2. He read each of the titles that represented his accumulated academic knowledge in turn. Then, he moved on to the more personal volumes. Harry's Favorite Recipes and Harry's Guide to the Perfect Garden were right where he expected. But then, he frowned at the next few titles. Harry's Worst Nights in the Cupboard. That Time Vernon Broke Harry's Arm. Harry Hunting. And a slim but ominous volume simply titled SUPPERTIME!

Despite his best efforts, Harry found it hard to focus on the titles to those volumes, so he turned his attention back to the academic section, only to frown ever harder when those titles began to change. Harry's Crahms Sutdies. Harry's Cloletced Trisnfagarutoin Insihgst. The remaining academic volumes were completely unintelligible.

"No," Harry said firmly, as if willing the words to unscramble themselves. Then, his attention was diverted by movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face the front only to realize that the great table and the six chairs surrounding it had disappeared, leaving the Prince's Lair nearly empty.

"No!" Harry said more urgently and with mounting frustration. Then, the Hydra Throne abruptly disappeared out from under him.

"NOO-oof!" Harry yelled out in surprise as he was suddenly and rudely deposited onto the bare floor of the now bare chamber, banging his head on the floor as he fell backwards. He hissed out an angry sigh and then closed his eyes.

Harry Potter opened his eyes and saw overhead the familiar ceiling of his room in Longbottom Manor. The first light of dawn was only just creeping in through the windows, and he reached up to rub his temples in hopes of forestalling the headache that was probably coming. Two weeks of practice, and he was still no closer to a stable memory palace. It was ... annoying.

Harry closed his eyes once more in frustration and thought back to his last conversation with Mr. X on the topic. Well, that topic among others.

8 July 1993
Room 13 at the Leaky Cauldron
(11 days earlier)

"I warned you, Mr. Potter, that this would be a difficult and challenging time in your Occlumency training," Mr. X said. "To progress beyond this point, you must have a stable memory palace to use as a basis for further developments of your psychic architecture. There are no short cuts."

Harry nodded but was still clearly frustrated. In the abstract, he understood what Mr. X was saying, but applying the knowledge to the inside of his own head was proving daunting.

"So explain it again, please, Mr. X. I'm trying to understand, but so far, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it."

"That is not surprising, Mr. Potter. Constructing a memory palace is one of the most difficult aspects of Occlumency training. In fact, it is the reason why most Occlumens never advance beyond level three. Had you not shown remarkable dedication so far, I would not even consider asking you to pursue this level of development at such a young age. So, to review: Your memory palace is based on a real-world location where you feel safe and in control of your surroundings. It should also be a place which is, for lack of a better word, somewhat cluttered. A library or storage area, for example. A place where you can imagine yourself leaving things behind to be picked up again later. Once you have this psychic safe house fully developed, you can store your most sensitive memories there in a partitioned area of your mind, one where you don't simply hide your memories away but actively protect them with psychic traps capable of actually harming those who push too far into your mind. Ultimately, your memory palace can even be a place where you store false memories and even false personalities that you can drape over your true self to deceive an intruding Legilimens. Instead of putting up a wall against Legilimency and thereby let your enemy know that you have secrets worth protecting, you can allow the Legilimens to see what you want, and thus he will be more likely to accept your false memories as truth without digging any further."