Order Only: Private Message to Severus Snape and Harry Marvolo

[alt_hermione]

Thank you again for the demiguise blood. It worked!! Are you going to have trouble getting the replacement stock before Professor Slughorn notices it's gone?

I have another question, not for me, for someone who wishes to remain anonymous. It might be something you can't answer, though, I don't know. It's about the relationship between natural occlumency and natural legilimency.

So the first part of the question is whether someone who is a natural Occlumens can also be a natural Legilimens, and I think I answered that already, that sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't, right?

But then the second part has to do with how the ability manifests itself and whether it can happen spontaneously without the person intending it. Or whether it usually happens that way or whether it's usually developed deliberately.

And I guess the third part would be what someone can do to stop one's legilimency from developing, if it happens to be developing without any sort of practical intervention (which supposedly it's not but why else would someone worry about it?).

I know that Professor McGonagall and Sirius have some form of occlumency because they're Animagi, but I don't think that's the same sort of occlumency that this person has, I think it's the truly natural kind.

Comments

[alt_severus]

Your concern is appreciated, Miss Granger; however, I would not have provided you with the ingredient had there been any chance its lack would be noticed before it could be replaced. When next we meet, I will show you the apothecary order I prepared as smokescreen: your assignment will be to identify at least seven other common and inocuous potions that could be brewed from the ingredients upon the list, and we will continue our discussion regarding means of subterfuge, misdirection, and hiding in plain sight.

As for your inquiries: the answers, as is so often the case, are more complex than can necessarily be imparted through such an imperfect medium as this, but I shall attempt an overview. To take your questions in order:

№ 1: You are correct; in fact, it is quite common for an individual to have one but not the other. "Natural" Occlumency skill is far more common than "natural" Legilimency, but even when they do not occur together in a single person, the latter is still not unheard of — indeed, while Legilimency is both inherent ability and learnable skill, the purest and most subtle (and undetectable) forms can only be practised by one who is possessed of that inherent ability as well as the discipline necessary to exercise the learned skill. Without inherent ability, which is (as you know) quite rare, the most that can be achieved is a pale fraction of the whole.

№ 2, and following upon that: if one is possessed of said inherent ability, the first manifestations are often, if not always, subtle enough that the possessor is unaware of what he is doing. The inborn Legilimens often believes himself (or herself) to simply be adept at understanding people, or at observing small subtleties, and uses those excuses to explain away the small flashes he perceives. It is often not for many years that the true cause becomes obvious, and even then the possessor often seeks to explain away his ability as intuition or coincidence; in many instinctive practitioners, the ability goes entirely undeveloped when its possessor does not realise the underlying cause of those glimpses of others' thoughts.

№ 3: As there is little agreement among theorists as to the cause of these abilities spontaneously manifesting, likewise there is little agreement as to how one could cause them to cease. However, I do not believe there is any guaranteed way, other than exercising the learned skill to the point where the individual can exert conscious control over the use of the inherent ability.

If this is not merely a theoretical question — that is to say, if one of your confederates believes himself to be in the process of discovering the inherent ability while simultaneously being horrified at the thought of practising the learned skill — the usual remedy for such a person is that he or she overcome the moral qualms at such practise, find a skilled practitioner of the ability to serve as partner, and train both inherent ability and learned skill until its use is under conscious control. However, an untrained Legilimens operating entirely on instinct is unlikely to achieve sufficient proficiency without experienced instruction, and there are many ways in which he might cause damage to said compatriot without conscious decision to do so while operating entirely on instinct.

I will not ask you whom the individual is, nor will I risk revealing my identity to offer myself as tutor. The best way (and the only way I am aware of) to master the ability is for that person to reveal his suspected skill to a trained Legilimens (both one who possesses the inherent ability and is practised in the learned skill, I should specify) and receive instruction. If this is truly impossible, he or she might be able to achieve some small and imperfect measure of control over the ability: he should practise meditation as often as possible until he is intimately familiar with the sense of his own mind and thus able to identify (and block) the feeling of that which is not his own mind, and study the practise of Occlumency in as much detail as possible, consciously construct and hold his mental barriers, and hold tightly to the vision of turning his focus and attention inward rather than reaching out, mentally, to any minds around him. Practically speaking, he should also avoid direct eye contact with others to the best of his ability. (To avoid doing so ostentatiously, and thus giving one's observers the hint that one is seeking to hide the ability, I suggest learning to focus one's gaze on the bridge of one's interlocutor's nose: the difference in focus is only a fraction, and thus only the most diligent will notice, but it will suffice to avoid allowing the connection to form.)

This is, however, at best a stopgap, and at worst utterly useless. If there is any way for your theoretical suspected-Legilimens to obtain expert tutelage, I strongly urge him to do so.

I am pleased your project has proven successful. In accordance with our agreement, visit me at your earliest opportunity to show me the results.