— Clara POV —
There are few things which can make me nervous, but speaking before hundreds of students was one of those. While I had already memorized my opening speak and it was literally just that, as the rest would be done by Henry, I still felt nervous. The biggest problem was my age, as I was teaching older students. I also didn't know, why Henry wanted to hold the first lesson at Monday in the morning, as most students already start occlumency training way too late.
I came into the classroom that morning, fifteen minutes before it was starting and then just waited. I had nothing to do, no reason to be there already. A few seconds later, the first students came, followed my more and more, until the whole classroom was filled with students, segregated after their respective years and houses, which Henry is furious about, as I could see. His poker face is still bad. I was chuckling a bit at that thought.
At the start of the lesson, Henry started with a silent sonorus before saying: „Silence please, introductions first. Clara will start, followed by myself." I took in a deep breath, before standing up and starting to talk: „As you know, I am Clara Ollivander. I won't be teaching this class. Most won't have much interaction with me. My primary job will be the fast track class, though you cannot really fast track the mind arts. It would be better to title it genius class. I will pick out those in this class, with the professors help, and will teach those. You can also apply yourself, if you think you are qualified. If you have a problem with me teaching you, you can naturally refuse my invitation. Apart from that, I can assure you, that you will learn to hate me in the coming weeks, if not just days, but professor Flacks will explain the rest." I said, before giving the stage back to Henry.
He started with: „I am Henry Flacks, professor Flacks for you. I am a grandmaster of the mind arts and will teach you for the foreseeable future. Like the headmaster already said, everyone who thinks he is qualified can test out of my class, though I can assure you, currently none of you are anywhere close to doing that. If you do not agree with that judgement, you are allowed to try anyway, though it could end humiliating for you. Like Clara teased, you will also learn to either hate or fear me, if not both. In this course I will talk about all the different types of mind arts, their applications and usefulness, though only in theory. In practice, we will mainly work on occlumency with a few small interludes.
While we are not bound by any law, I still require your signature on a magical contract. This one stipulates, that you will not try any new mind arts, without consulting Clara or me first. This clause will be in effect until you get a mastery in the mind arts. Additionally, you will swear an oath of silence about anything you discover through the use of mind arts on other students, protecting their and your own privacy, as teaching this large of classes, even if we separate them into years or even houses will be hard. There is a reason, that normally I only apprentice one person at a time.
Another clause will be about self discovery. Occlumency is about self discovery and taking away a part of that could spell disaster in the long run. Anything, which is not said in classes or is written in my books, will not be able to be shared without getting permission from me.
You are also not allowed to share your knowledge outside of this classroom until you have a mastery yourself, which is the long term goal of this course for all of you. This also means, that this room will be open for you 24/7. I will also be here most of the time to answer any questions you might have. If it is important and I am not in the classroom, you can also ask Clara. The reason for this is simple, as while the mind arts are not inherently evil, there can still be problems and mistakes and there is so much, that could go wrong.
Another clause is one of peace and that as long as you are in this school, you will not use the mind arts to harm any other student or teacher in any way. If you ever get invited into Claras class, you will sign an even more stringent contract, though you can just refuse if you don't want to."
There was a wave of murmurs, before he continued: „While I cannot make you sign that contract, I will say two things. Firstly, your peers will leave you in the dust, as even occlumency alone boosts your learning ability and understanding by a lot. You will also not have free time, as while you won't take part at these classes, you will work with either Filch or madam Pierce in these periods. Additionally, you will have this chance only once a year. If you refuse now, I won't take you in until next years first class. Now before I continue with the first lesson: You have time until next week Monday to sign this contract, just come to me and we can do that. For everyone who doesn't know about magical contracts and their importance, there will be a defense against the dark arts lesson about them on Friday. You are naturally allowed to send that contract to your parents or a lawyer as well, to get their input, though you do not need their consent. This contract was also checked by the headmaster as required by the schools rules and even if you break it, it is not instant death or servitude, but just a selective purging of anything to do with the mind arts."
He gave the room a few minutes of whispering, before continuing: „On to more information. There will be a yearly exam about the topics we have spoken, which covers the theoretical part. The practical part of occlumency gets sporadically and randomly tested by either me or Clara and can happen at any moment, as long as you are on school grounds. Now, any pressing questions?" He asked. Multiple hand shot up and he picked a random one: „Why does the contract stipulate mastery as goal and not just the ending of our schooling?"
„Excellent question, mrs?" The girl answered: „Susan Bones, professor." Henry continued: „Because the mind arts are dangerous. This is an amplified version of a normal apprenticeship contract. While the mind arts are not inherently evil, you can do a lot of evil with it. This is a problem in most magical disciplines. If an unqualified occlumen tries to teach someone, it could end in a brain dead person or it could even lead to death. And occlumency is the safest of all mind arts to practice, so think about the consequences of hundreds of uneducated occlumen, who spread their knowledge without any supervision. The mastery at least ensures some safety and while the guild system is anything than perfect, we didn't have a mass murdering legilimens over the last few decades since its establishment. Did that answer your question?"
„Yes professor, thank you", she said, before Henry promptly pointed at another student: „My name is Cedric Diggory. I wanted to ask, what are the benefits of mind arts? You talked a lot about their danger and while I know some of the benefits, I recon most here do not." Without missing a beat, Henry answered: „While you would learn those over time, it would be helpful to know a few. Comprehension and retention of school content would be one I already introduced. Another would be protection of your mind, soul and privacy through the use of occlumency. There are also various jobs like mind healers, where it can be useful and the most important one for me is sanity. There are a lot of rituals, spells and curses with questionable side effects. Occlumency is one of the best ways to protect yourself from those. It is also helpful to process past traumas, counteracts dozens of genetic diseases or other maladies, helps your magic control and it can even help you find your soulmate over vast distances. There are many more, but most of those start becoming obvious at the grandmaster rank, which is in the far future for most of you. Next", he said, pointing at the last remaining hand: „My name is Ginny Weasly sir. Do the mind arts change your personality in any way?" At which point Henry raised an eyebrow, before sighing: „If we are talking about improper use of it, yes. If you are afraid, that you will become another person through practicing it, that can indeed happen. It is for example possible, to build mental barriers like some in this classroom and if you do not lower them often enough, you will start to experience side effects. But with good enough guidance, there is only a minimal chance of that happening, as the moment I see that happen, I will step in and try to help and as I already said, I am a mind healer and things like that are exactly why that profession exists. There also exist harsh personality swings for some as they come to realize and see their true self. The best example would be a shy girl losing her shyness in the long term, as she built confidence through practicing occlumency. But even if it happens, most of it is reversible, if you don't just delete your entire memories. If you want to talk about that fear more, my door is always open."
„Now, continuing with the class, as most questions will be cleared over the course of this subject. The first topic is meditating. The whole of mind arts depend of this." What followed was an hour long talk about meditating, its advantages and common misconceptions. The homework for the foreseeable future was practicing exactly that."
While I already knew most of it, it was still an interesting and good lesson. At the end we had a group of students, who apparently practiced occlumency together, trying to either test out of class or get into the fast track class, though they failed horribly. Their defenses were practically non existent, copy pasted from some book they found in an abandoned classroom. For the last five minutes of the class they were displaying a theatre play on stage, while most of the class laughed and those who wanted to try themself changed their mind pretty fast. After all students had left the room, Henry asked me: „Saw someone promising?" To which I replied: „Luna talked me into private tutoring, so she will probably join my class, while I will invite Hermione, Harry and possibly Ginny, if she doesn't drop out of the class. Daphne Greengrass is another interesting candidate, though she could be a tough nut to crack, as her current emotional blocks are concerning. The Weasly twins are another idea, though I think the Ollivander twins would be the better teachers for those two, but we will see how they all do over the next weeks, before I set anything into stone." He looked thoughtful for a second, before replying: „I understand most of those, but why Harry Potter in particular?"
„I don't care about this savior bullshit, neither his status or fame, but I think I can help with his past and current traumata and if I realize that I am not up to it, I will just lock him into a room with you. He also has a good head on his shoulders, though it is buried under Rons laziness and Hermiones kindness. And maybe, just maybe I can get that smart kid to shine through more. What about you, any stand outs?" I replied, before asking him. „No, but we both know that I have unnaturally high standards to begin with, especially after you, and that is exactly why you teach the fast track class and not me. In the future we will probably see a few talents spring up and maybe I like one good enough to take as an apprentice, maybe a seventh year, who will then make his mastery as my apprentice here at Hogwarts. Maybe even let him teach the first years…", he said, after which he began to daydream. He likes teaching, but such a huge amount of it is still annoying for him.
I left him there, before slowly walking to my new classroom and quarter. Yes, as an assistant I now had my own quarters, though I would still be using the dorm for most of the time, but for a few experiments and teaching the fast track class it would be useful. It was once a quaint little classroom, but now it was a huge simulated open air stadium with different environments and even a few animals living there. I had Hogwarts to thank for that, as this kind of magic was nowhere near my current capabilities.
These environments were a good place to meditate, especially if you just started. While most think, meditating is easiest if done in an isolated room, it is even easier, if you find an environment, that you feel comfortable in. Isolated and quiet rooms are just neutral you could say, which had neither benefits nor drawbacks.
The next weeks went by in a flash. I read books, meditated a lot and was busy with setting up most required things for the fast track course, espacially the contract, as it needed to be airtight. I originally just wanted to help them with occlumency and its different applications, but I realized that while they were in the initial stages, it would not be helpful at all. Together with Henry bugging me about my reasons, why I didn't want to go into other disciplines of the mind arts, namely legilimency, I relented in the end. I still don't believe, that it is a good idea, but it will help them more than anything else I can teach them, so … yeah, lets pray, wait and see I guess.
My twelfth birthday came and went, the only exciting thing being, that I made another self reflection ritual, using my third true birthday as catalyst, instead of my third false birthday. It was something I had theorized to work, as my birthday was on the twenty-ninth February, which gave me leeway in such things. And it worked at least somewhat, so I now had sixteen years until an eventual ritual of passions. Just how do I explain that to the Ollivanders, if at all possible.
A few other things happened during that time as well. The local upheaval, caused by Dumbledore, spread around the globe, though in a mostly good way. Other major magical schools followed his example, distancing themselves from politics, though with differing results.
Beauxbuttons declared independence without much trouble, the french ministry supporting this decision.
Durmstrang didn't need to change, as they already were independent, no one knowing their schools location in the first place.
Ilvernmory on the other hand was annexed by MACUSA, before they could even make a statement. During that time, their headmaster was killed due to some bullshit made up reason. This incident split MACUSA into two parts, nearly sparking a civil war. The international community could stop the war from starting, but negotiations were still ongoing and it could erupt any second.
Small schools did not do much, but they banded together and appealed to the international confederation of wizards and proposed a new legislation. They wanted to be independent from individual ministries, while still having an international panel, which would replace the local departments of education. While generally a good idea, most ministries were strictly against it, though most powerful wizards thought it to be a good idea. Even with their support, it was shot down very quickly, the justification being a clause in the confederations and ministries convention.
Another piece of news drowned in all this fuss. Nurmengard castle being raced to the ground, Grindelwald declared dead, with no other victims, though I already know, that Grindelwald was very much alive, bound to Dumbledore by the slave contract. This action could only fool the global populace, but that was their goal, to vanish out of the public view. You could say anything about those two, but they were really good planners and schemers, especially if brought together like now. Consequently, I was pretty sure, Grindelwald also learned about the wider world and was right now probably polishing his rusted muscles and skills in preparation for his ascendence. This was due to a nifty clause in the rules, which allowed slave- and soul-bound parties to know about it.
I also started learning programming languages, which was easier than I thought. In less than three days, I had learned a bit over 100 programming languages, like SQL, C++, J, A-O and COMIT. These was tremendously helpful, as I had hundreds of ideas for improvements and new stuff for my mind, which I also implemented a few of. This increased my thought processing speed by double and the only reason that I hadn't implemented all of them was missing time and context, as future magical languages could also be useful in some regards, which meant that I didn't want to do double the work if I was not one hundred percent sure about its usefulness. I also realized, that my key value pairing was rushed and as a consequence incomplete and faulty.
Next project: Magical languages.