Chapter 126: Occluding the Mind, Creative Wand - Making, and A Mid - Way Fright!

Hermione and Ron stepped out of the Gryffindor common room. They looked around but saw no one.

Completely giving up the thought of finding Dudley and Harry, they started to sneak around the Castle furtively.

On the other side, Dudley and Harry had already entered the dedicated training room for Occlumency specially built in the Room of Requirement.

The room was very empty, with several old Pensieve and some shabby memory bottles placed inside.

Apparently, no one had been in here for a long time.

The reason Dudley had Harry start to practice the advanced magical skill of Occlumency so early was that he didn't want Harry's memories and thoughts that shouldn't be snooped on to be spied on by Eris in the future.

Although Harry didn't know yet Eris's hidden identity, nor the plan that Dudley and Dumbledore wanted to implement and had already started implementing.

But Harry knew how deeply Dudley suspected Eris. He also knew that he could sense Voldemort and had discovered the current state of Voldemort's main soul in his dreams.

This information couldn't be detected by Eris.

So, Dudley decided that either Harry should learn Occlumency before Eris recovered from her injuries and was discharged from the hospital;

Or Harry should learn from Eris's method, extract some of his confidential memories and store them in a memory bottle, and then put it in Dudley's Personal Space to ensure absolute safety.

"Harry, I've practiced Occlumency, and it's quite easy to get the hang of!

Maybe for those simple - minded wizards, this skill might be even harder than reaching the sky. But for people like you and me who have studied psychological theories and techniques, it's just a somewhat difficult trick!"

Dudley said this in a very confident tone to boost Harry's confidence in learning. At the same time, his words weren't an over - exaggeration.

The Occlumency of wizards is to construct a false memory in one's mind to deceive those who use Legilimency.

The same technique is called self - suggestion and self - hypnosis among Muggles.

Learning this technique can also deceive ordinary experts with average micro - expression analysis abilities.

And Dudley had helped Harry master part of this technique half a year ago.

"Let's start, Harry! First, try to use the method of self - suggestion combined with magic power to construct a seemingly reasonable false memory in your mind to cover up your real memories and thoughts.

When you've almost formed a basic outline, call me. I'll use Legilimency on you to stimulate you to learn this skill faster!

If you encounter any problems on the way, come and ask me during the breaks while I'm modifying the wand."

"Okay, cousin!"

Dudley methodically arranged a learning plan for Harry. Harry immediately closed his eyes and started to meditate.

Then, Dudley turned the Smelting stick into a long and thin workbench. He opened his Personal Space, took out the old wand that Ron had given him at noon, and started to modify it.

Strictly speaking, this old wand, which was used by Charlie and then passed on to Ron, wasn't beyond repair. It was just that the tip of the wand was damaged, revealing the unicorn hair inside.

Dudley could easily use alchemy to incorporate some mild magical materials to patch up this flaw.

However, that would only repair the wand and wouldn't enhance its compatibility with Ron.

A wand core made of unicorn hair is just too loyal to its original owner.

With a sigh, Dudley got to work, using his wand - making skills to extract the unicorn hair wand core, which was loyal to Charlie, from the broken tip of the wand.

After that, he placed the wand body on the workbench. Then he took out a new piece of unicorn hair and a dozen or so bright red hairs, and started to twist and blend them to create a new wand core.

In the original story, after Charlie's old wand broke into two pieces and became completely useless, Ron went to Ollivanders Wand Shop and bought a new wand. That wand also had a unicorn hair wand core and a willow - wood wand body.

So, Dudley still chose unicorn hair for the replacement wand core.

As for those dozen or so bright red hairs, they naturally came from Ron's head.

Don't get the wrong idea. They weren't plucked or yanked out. Dudley just took them casually.

A healthy person loses fifty to a hundred hairs every day, which is a normal physical metabolic process.

With Dudley's skills, it was a piece of cake to collect some hairs from Ron's wizard's robe on his shoulders and from Ron's bed.

By blending Ron's hair with the new unicorn hair and using the power of alchemy to fuse them completely, Dudley could make a new wand core. This would surely greatly improve the compatibility between the new wand and Ron.

This was a new discovery Dudley made when he made a wand with Harry's hair.

If it weren't for the influence of the wand body, it wouldn't be impossible for a wand made in this way to achieve 100% initial compatibility with the owner of the hair.

Inside the Room of Requirement, Dudley was making a wand while Harry was in meditation.

On the other hand, Hermione and Ron, driven by their sense of adventure, were wandering aimlessly among the moving staircases and secret doors. They got lost and didn't know which floor they had ended up on.

To make matters worse, after they opened a certain secret door, they were face - to - face with Filch's rough and ugly old face. It was just terrible.

Filch had vaguely heard footsteps and was waiting there with his lantern. He thought it was the Weasleys who couldn't sit still tonight, and their footsteps were so messy and out of rhythm.

Who would have thought that he'd end up waiting for these two troublemakers.

The Teaching Assistant, sir, had told him not to make things difficult for these friends.

But now he had run into them face - to - face in the middle of the night. What the hell was he supposed to do?

While Filch was thinking, Hermione and Ron were absolutely terrified.

They had finally mustered up the courage to go on a night patrol, only to run into Filch, the ultimate nuisance and an absolute pain in the neck. What could they do?

Just as they were staring at each other, not far away, Mrs. Norris, who was patrolling with Filch, meowed. That gave Filch an idea.

He picked up his lantern and slowly turned around. Pretending to be old - sighted, he muttered to himself:

"Old age is catching up with me. I can't even see if there's anyone around even with a lantern. Thank goodness I have Mrs. Norris. Judging from its meow, there must be something going on over there. I'd better go and check it out right away!"

After that, the old and creaky Filch, with his old limbs, quickly started running, with Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. In no time, they vanished from Hermione and Ron's view.

"Are we invisible or something?"

Hermione exchanged a look with Ron and asked in disbelief.

"Come on! You're not Dudley. What invisibility? Didn't you hear Filch? His eyesight's shot!"

Ron replied carelessly, truly taken in by Filch's words.

Upon hearing this, Hermione rolled her eyes. She felt like she was talking to a brick wall. Frustrated, she explained:

"I was just exaggerating. Do you know what exaggeration is? Just because Filch didn't see clearly doesn't mean it's the truth. Do you think Filch let us go on purpose?"

"Ah?!"

Ron let out a yelp and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.

He'd used up all his brains and social skills for the day. After a moment's thought, he replied to Hermione, "Nah, I don't reckon so."

"Forget it. Let's keep wandering around!"

"Sure thing!"