There was no such thing as a conjured lunch.

Casey knew this. Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration stated how food could not be conjured, along with gold. Although the way the O’Doherty clan collected on debts it was as if they were creating their own money.

So “conjured” food was just summoned food. An instantaneous summon. After all, that’s how the food appeared at the house tables at mealtimes. He’d seen the teachers do it for a snack or to cater a student extracurricular event. The Kitchen’s House Elves kept special counters of food stocked at all times and the castle’s staff had the authority to summon this food. Casey’s house elf, Dingy, had confirmed these suspicions when placed in the kitchen crew.

That is what interested Casey. Instantaneous Summoning. You didn’t see bread, meat and a serving tray fly up from the kitchens when a professor wanted a plate of sandwiches. It instantly appeared and the simple-minded folk considered this conjuration.

Although with Dingy’s service, Casey wasn’t interested in the instantaneous summoning of snacks. No, he thought bigger.

You couldn’t conjure money. Even Leprechaun gold vanished in a few hours. But what if you could instantly summon it?

It almost seemed obvious but Casey liked to think that everyone else was too feeble minded to have a brilliant idea like this. It would be foolish to attempt to summon money from his wing of the family vault at Gringotts. The goblin bank had too many protective enchantments.

Casey had been practicing since the idea ever entered his head. He scrutinized every Galleon, Sickle and Knut in his coin purse, memorizing the serial numbers and analyzing each imperfection. When he was undisturbed Casey left his coin purse open in a pocket. With his wand behind his back he practiced, a hand at the ready to accept the coin. He’d gotten good at nonverbal summoning. He pictured the coin he wanted, how it sat in the moneybag, and summoned it. He could feel the coin pop out of his pocket into his hand. At nights when the Slytherin common room was deserted he would leave the coin purse on his bed side cabinet then stand in the middle of the common room by the sofas, summoning his coins. Knuts were the quickest but not yet instantaneous. Once Casey cracked that, he would try for wandless summoning. Kids managed wild magic before they ever got wands, didn’t they?

So on the way to Professor Storm’s office, Casey performed a regiment of summons, the coins appearing in his hand in time with the snap of his fingers. His uniform was smartly pressed and his shoes shined. Casey knew that image was an important part of being presentable. Dingy had finally got the pressing down to under five minutes.

Casey knocked on the office door, entering at Professor Storm’s call. Casey had sent a request for the appointment after the Defense Professor’s bevy of career counseling. Everyone wanted to be an Auror. Pitiful. The job sounded cool but the training required an effort he doubted many students had. He imagined them failing once they entered the field.

However this meeting was preliminary. Casey had sat on the inquiry all year, gauging the expertise of Professor Storm, learning the tales and legends surrounding the man. If Casey were to learn Occlumency at Hogwarts, Professor Storm would be his safest bet. Now to ask him.

“Good evening, Professor Storm. Thank you for agreeing to meet me.”

“Good evening, Professor Storm. Thank you for agreeing to meet me.”

Ignan Storm looked up from his marking quill in hand, not at the third year, but to a desk three across from the student.
"You happened to choose a time I am here by habit." He commented, still not looking directly at the student and instead lowering his eyes to the fourth year practise exam questions he was marking from earlier that day. He recalled the rest of the sentence he had wanted to ink onto the student's parchment, added final punctuation and placed the quill down beside it.

Elbows resting on the desktop, and arms crossed, he peered down at Casey, fixing the sickly looking student with his usual level stare.
"What is your reason for interrupting my evening, O'Doherty?"

The boy was a third year, therefore Ignan was less inclined to be bothered with him - had the student been a fifth or seventh year, Ignan's wish to ensure their exam results were favourable would have suppressed his irritation of being requested a meeting with no stated purpose.

Not stating it either meant it was trivial, pathetic, embarrassing, or so large it was going to be a long term problem.

Casey was unfazed by the way Professor Storm ignored his presence. Half of it was called for, he supposed. Perhaps the request was a trifle too close to career consulting of the older students, the important upperclassmen that all wanted to be Aurors. Although a pity his strides during class did not gain more from the Defense Professor than annoyance at the start of this meeting. True, Casey's record was spotty on sustaining his spells be he was always amongst the first to cast a new spell correctly, having practiced it earlier before hand. But then Professor Storm was lacking in praise even if a student performed a miracle before his eyes. This was motivation for those ambitious as Casey: impressing the wizarding world's greatest critic.

"What is your reason for interrupting my evening, O'Doherty?"

With a simple motion with his wand Casey moved a chair to rest in front of the professor's desk then he sat. Giving more warning to the professor might have avoided some of this animosity, but the true request was not something you just wrote in a note. Even notes delivered by house elves unseen by the receptive party, a virtually untraceable form of communication.

"My apologies, Professor Storm, I did not want to suggest anything unless we could talk openly and privately. I trust you will be staying on to teach at Hogwarts next fall? I find that an important part of my request."

Casey paused for a moment. Now was the very edge of it. Now he had to face down Ignan Storm and say it aloud.

Easier said than done.

It helped that he matched the Defense Professor's level tone. "It is imperative that I become an Occlumens, sir."

"My apologies, Professor Storm, I did not want to suggest anything unless we could talk openly and privately. I trust you will be staying on to teach at Hogwarts next fall? I find that an important part of my request."

Professor Storm gave Casey a filthy look.
"Of course I will be here this autumn to teach, and who are you to doubt that?" He leered down at the third year. For all of Casey's perfectionism, he could be an irritating little boy.

"It is imperative that I become an Occlumens, sir."

There was a beat and then Ignan let out an almost uncharacteristic single 'ha!' of amusement and sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers.
"Imperative, O'Doherty? Why, are you scared a girl will discover you have been making eyes at her all term, or that your parents will discover you were lying about not spending the day studying this summer?" He mocked, in the way he usually tore strips off the students during lessons, especially ones who thought they were better than the rest.

Amusement desisting, he fixed the third year with a firm stare, and raised the challenge.
"State your case."

"Imperative, O'Doherty? Why, are you scared a girl will discover you have been making eyes at her all term, or that your parents will discover you were lying about not spending the day studying this summer? State your case."

"I am not motivated by anything so...petty," Casey decided after mulling it over. "And I assure you that my family finds my academic efforts satisfactory. But my family is a root cause of the venture. Whether you've heard it or not, the O'Doherty family business is in...finances, the loaning of our wealth to certain causes and reaching the ends of those contracts. I won't deny any rumors you may have heard. As such, you can imagine how our family would attract enemies. As I am slated to succeed my grandfather at at the helm of this enterprise I wish to take every precaution."

A condescending smile, directed at his family. "They are content to rest on the wealth, take to drink and other vices, and think themselves untouchable when in fact they are weak. I don't intend to give those enemies that chance to get the better of me."

"And..." a moment's hesitation. Beyond the fiscal practicality there was an even bigger underlying motivation for learning this skill. Even asking for a certain means of protection, such as Occlumency, suggested you had something to hide.  For sure Professor Storm would find his stated explanation to be reasonable but not the full truth. It would come up at some point but better to confirm a suggestion yet not affirm what that suggestion meant.

"...I assume you understand the desire of keeping the past in the past."

"I am not motivated by anything so...petty, and I assure you that my family finds my academic efforts satisfactory. But my family is a root cause of the venture..." He continued to elaborate in the magniloquent language the teenager habitually used.

"...I assume you understand the desire of keeping the past in the past."

"Assumptions rarely lead to success, O'Doherty." The Professor replied grimly. "You have no permission to allude to the past lives of your Professors either." He gave Casey a warning look with a raised eyebrow.

"Your family have loaned money to others in the past with poor decision - investment lacking in tight conditions? You would do better, O'Doherty, to seek alternative employment - not that I make assumption that your judgement in future investments would be similarly blinkered, but because you indicate that such investment brings equal risk to return."

The Professor folded his arms on his desk and leaned forwards a little to examine Casey more pointedly.

"Much as I am intrigued by your motives I might add you're a little young to consider such magic." He raised a finger suddenly to stop Casey interjecting, "However progressively you study alone above the average interests of your classmates." Finally indicating after a long school year that he recognised Casey's investment of time and effort into further study.

Ignan pressed his lips into a straight line thoughtfully.
"I will consider your request in the new academic year, following a review of your performance across all subjects," unless Snark or any potential successor thought it prudent to not renew his tenure, "and suggest that this summer you invest your time and abilities into understanding what you are looking to take on - not occlumency - but the business. There are more ways to protect yourself than your wand and the closing of your mind, and more ways to recover investment too."

"Assumptions rarely lead to success, O'Doherty. You have no permission to allude to the past lives of your Professors either."

So much for that piece of leverage. Well really, did he expect Professor Storm to sympathize if they both had secrets they wanted kept hidden? The talk of the family chioces, the known financial actions, was also somewhat expected. He honestly wasn't worried about the fortune; even modest investments he made with his inheritence on the side were sounder financial decisions than what his grandfather did after a drunken stupor.

"Much as I am intrigued by your motives I might add you're a little young to consider such magic." What?! Casey was about to list all the stuff he could do (well, a smaller list than what he had attempted) but the professor was ready for him. "However progressively you study alone above the average interests of your classmates."

It seems that Storm was a least giving him a chance. He knew his work was outstanding in the practical spells and he passed the other subjects. Really, what could happen? "I understand, sir. Thank you for your time. I just want to be the best."