5:30 PM


Mihai had approached Alberic the week before, discreetly, about learning how to build up his occlumency walls. He could feel them growing stronger, especially as he had abstained from memory alterations. However, it wasn't there. It wasn't complete in the way all the old writings made clear. Something was missing. It could've been a lack of practice,  but his suspicious nature told him otherwise.

If anybody could help him improve, it was Alberic. The necromancer was regarded as a powerful legilimens. He was also, you know, sketchy. Necromancy did that to a guy's reputation.

Now here he was, in a gothic office that definitely suited the necromancer. It was dark, just a bit ominous, and definitely had some overlying themes  of death. This office felt like it belonged to a more malevolent Morticia Addams.

Mihai crossed his arms over his chest, facing Alberic, mouth set in a stern line.

"I'm ready, when you are." How ready could one be, really, when it came to getting your mind probed?

Well, if he wasn't the eager one.  Hardly a week of vague acquaintanceship, and Mihai Zamperia seemed quite keen to go under the knife, so to speak.  Pityingly, Alberic gave a weak smile from across his desk.

"Your enthusiasm is commendable," Alberic said, tone dry.  He made no movement towards the man, instead leaning more into the stiff-backed chair.  Primrose had said his office had all the appeal of a morgue and the air of a torture chamber.  Alberic liked it that way.  It disincentivized spontaneous visitors, hangers-on, and at least fairly forewarned Mihai Zamperia of the nature of this visit.

He was not in a mood to be overly kind to the man, despite the man's openly pleasant demeanor.  Alberic had nothing against the man particularly--save, perhaps, his openly pleasant demeanor--but there was little that compelled Alberic towards niceties.  He needed nothing from this man and, all things considered, the possibility of help in the future was already secured by this... service... which Alberic had agreed to render.

"But," he said--closing in on the implied phrase that had been hanging, pregnant, in the air. "A bit premature, I think. We need to discuss the particulars of your situation."  Alberic had agreed, had established a meeting time, and Mihai had asked no more.  He seemed overly eager--which implied a desperation.  Desperate people slipped up.  Which could prove fruitful for Alberic.  It never hurt to gain some insight into the unchartered corners of another's minds.  The opportunity to legilimance an Obliviator--the custodian of secrets--was enticing, but he had to make sure there was no catch.

"To be truly informed in this effort, and focused, I would like to know what you have tried already.  It may surprise you to know that I don't exactly relish pulling every last detail from your mind. And I would like to know if there is anywhere--any thing, any time or place--you would like to strengthen your defense around, or would you prefer I approach at random?"

 He didn't want to wait, he didn't want to dillydally. Mihai didn't see the point in talking. He wasn't here to be friendly with Alberic Grimm. No. He respected the other man, but he did not entertain any lofty notions of befriending him. Part of the reason he approached Alberic was precisely because they were not friends. Mihai believed that someone who actually  cared about him would hold back, and that was not the sort of learning that he responded well to.

"The particulars." Mihai repeated. "I've practiced for years, with different people who are at different levels of occlumency or legilimency. I am a far stronger legilimens than I am an occlumens. Until recently, I didn't even feel the--" How could he describe it. "The wall, the barrier that keeps prying minds out. But now I can sense it, but it's just out of my grasp." It was a feeling, more than anything else.

I've practiced for years..." 

"Mmmhmm," Alberic mumbled in his throat, giving as good of a show as he could that he was actually listening to this man.  But the real task at hand... Where to start.  Childhood, so routine, so benign, so dull, was usually the first stop in things like this.  Sending out even just a touch of his own energies brought back an image of two children--a boy and a girl, both dark haired and panting--chasing each other about a room, the boy clipping a turn and nearly barreling into a tall, yellow glass vase.  The girl gave a squeal as her brother caught up to her. "Mihai!" a mother's voice sounded from the next room.

All that with little to no effort.  How about more recently?  There was a reason this man wanted to guard his secrets.  Ministry whisperings spoke of some discontent with  Zamperia's superiors at the Minster's own use of Zamperia. Well, his secrets might be secrets worth having, then--in which case, Alberic would not particularly mind a glimpse at...

They were in the Minister's office.  Last summer I met with some Hogwarts students," she said, eager to tell an anecdote.[1]  "They had formed a student society.  A club for support for werewolves.  They had a cute acronym I remember..."

Alberic blinked.  Cute werewolf acronyms.  Not what he had been aiming for.  The things Primrose Woolfolk would have to say about that.  It was very possible that the Minister was just as dull as most everyone else. 

"I am a far stronger legilimens than I am an occlumens," Zamperia had said.

"Yes," Alberic agreed dryly.  If Zamperia was worth his salt, Zamperia ought to have felt that one--just a touch into the liminal folds of his memory.  The delving would come soon enough.  He considered what the man had said about 'the wall,' shaking his head ever so slightly as Zamperia concluded.  "Thinking about it that way is likely to cause problems in and of itself.  It is not a physical entity, nor an external entity.  Occlumency is an ability, one might say an energy--and it's your own internal convictions which fuel it."

"Let us start with this, then. When you try to occult your memories and your mind from external forces, what exactly is it that you do? What is your first step?"

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