Darkness Falls

Twenty Five

1993 - Third Year 

"Are you sure you have to go home for Christmas?" Hermione asked Draco.

Draco looked up from his book as he lay across the sofa in front of the fireplace in their room, he observed his Gryffindor friend as she surrounded herself in books and parchments, studying for exams that were months away.

He couldn't help but smirk at the sight before him, unsurprising that this was how she had chosen to spend her evenings leading up to Christmas. Hermione did not look up from her books as she spoke, she simply turned another page and continued to make notes.

"Unfortunately yes, I'm sure. My father has some business he wants me to attend to with him."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"That makes two of us." He sighed, resting his book against his chest before he looked up at the ceiling, losing himself in his thoughts.

Before he lost himself entirely in what Hermione could only imagine would be a dark place, she broke through the silence.

"How confident are you in your skills of Occlumancy?"

"Pretty confident."

"Pretty confident?" she mimicked as she looked up from her book.

"I can invade almost as good as I can keep out, and I'm pretty confident I could keep anyone out of my mind by now. My mother's main focus recently has been teaching me to manipulate my memories."

Hermione placed the book she had been reading  down, along with her quill and looked up at him with her full attention, waiting for further explanation.

"For a while she wanted me to be able to master the ability to be able to deter someone away from a particular thought, take you for example. I have to be able to force someone into a different direction if they were getting close to discovering my memories with you. That was never ideal, but it was a start." Draco placed his book down beside him and shifted himself into an upright position on the sofa.

"Then I had to be able to replace the diversion with another memory I wasn't too bothered about being discovered, again, not Ideal but that would at least lessen the suspicion somewhat."

"And now?" Hermione pushed herself up from the ground and moved to the sofa where Draco lay, taking a seat at the end.

"Now I'm learning how to create false memories."

"But what use would that be?"

"To a mildly skilled legilimens, not being able to access someone's mind or only being able to reach a fraction of the memories whilst not being able to make complete sense of it all, that would be expected. My previous teachings will work fine in that instance. However, to a highly skilled legilimens, that would raise alarm bells, that would give away that I had been trained, therefore raise suspicion as to what I was hiding for me to need to be trained in the first place."

He paused for a moment as he moved his legs from the sofa, stretching slightly before he rested his arms against his knees and faced the floor.

"Being able to create false memories would mean that someone highly skilled wouldn't know any different, there would be no diverting, no confusing patches of memories... to them, they would all be there, only I would know that what they're seeing is false, but it's hard work and takes a lot of practising." Draco emphasised the words a lot, making Hermione wince slightly.

"Does this technique hurt?"

Draco remained still for a moment, his eyes fixated on his feet.

It was difficult to explain to someone who had never had their mind invaded what the pain of it felt like and he'd hoped she would never find out. Although he had gotten over the initial pain of someone entering his mind, became skilled enough to stop almost anyone from even trying to, with each new technique he learnt came a whole new pain.