Where Dark Meets the Light

The Third Task

It took Severus a few days to come to term with the new information. When he eventually did manage to wrap his head around it, he demanded a demonstration.

That's how Jay found herself sending spell after spell at training dummies, dueling Nev, and getting questioned on all subjects she had studied.

At the end of it her head was pounding. And they still had occlumency to go.

Severus had to admit that she could hold her own, but still needed some practice with someone who knew how to fight dirty. Up until now most of her fights had been when she went looking for one, which gave her the upper hand.

But when she would eventually betray the Dark Lord, that would be different.

Instead of being only the hunter, she too would be hunted. And he could tell she wasn't nearly as prepared for that.

"Enough." He said. Jay stopped sending incendio's at dummies. "You told me about your mind shields?"

"Yes. Are we testing them next?" She asked, slightly out of breath.

"Indeed. Prepare yourself." It was all the warning Severus gave before he casted a legilimens. What he found shocked him. The shields were barely there. He slipped past them with ease and couldn't help but wonder how this happened.

He sorted through memories without anything stopping him, right up until he hit a wall. They were strong shields, but they were not protecting her from anything on the outside, it was more like they were protecting her from something in her own mind.

He gently eased out of her mind.

Jay was breathing heavily, and there was no doubt that she would have a pounding headache. He had used a lot of force to get in initially before realizing there was no need. It was then that a small trickle of blood dribbled from her nose. Severus swore and conjured a handkerchief. He asked the room for a couch and it appeared out of the floor.

He gave her the handkerchief and instructed her to squeeze her nose shut and lean forward. He awkwardly lay his hand on her back and sighed.

It was a few minutes before Jay broke the silence. "What happened?"

"Your mind shields were far less strong as I had thought they would be. Therefore, I used excessive force, which lead to the nosebleed and undoubted a fierce headache."

Jay shrugged, "It's not so bad. I get worse ones from the dreams." She checks once more if her nose has stopped bleeding and when satisfied that it had indeed stopped, waved her wand over her face and disappeared all the dried blood. She looks forward for a few beats. "Were they truly that weak? I worked quite hard on them." She mutters in disappointment.

"The first shield was."

"The first?"

Severus sighs. "You mostly learned occlumency to stop the nightmares, correct?"

Jay nods.

"Well, it appears that you did indeed have strong shields, but not in any traditional way."

"What does that mean?" She asks confused.

"It means that while you outward shields are weak, the ones within you mind are very strong."

Jay is stumped. "I didn't know there was such a thing."

Severus looks pensive and considers it for a moment. "I have heard of it before. Of people who shield off specific parts of their mind, to protect the rest of the minds from it. But the working theory was that the Dark Lord was sending these dreams to you, correct?"