Julian spent another few hours with his friends before heading to the library to gather every scrap of information he could on the mind arts. People noticed him moving through the corridors and whispered to one another, and there was more of the same once he entered the library itself. Julian ignored all of it. He was too focused on what he needed to do.
He started at the first shelf and worked methodically, scanning titles and spines as he moved down the rows. He did not expect to find anything on Legilimency, Occlumency, or Obliviate in the normal collection, but Stupefy and Confundus should be present.
He was right.
He found two tomes that covered those spells and their effects.
In an unexpected stroke of luck, he also uncovered a book on Occlumency, hidden behind a cluster of volumes on warts and toads. Satisfied, Julian carried the books to a table tucked into the "ancient" section, out of the general line of sight, and began devouring the text.
...
The Stunning Spell, as it turned out, was similar in effect to being punched. It overloaded the mind with sensory input, essentially forcing it to reset.
The Confundus Charm, however, was where things became ugly.
According to the book, it prevented the mind from forming new memories while leaving the victim unaware of their surroundings. Julian's expression sharpened into something grim as he read, because it fit too neatly with his own recollection of a recent moment, a stretch of time he could not account for.
Thankfully, the book also stated that the charm could be blocked by Occlumency shields.
Julian did not linger on the rest of the two spellbooks. They were attack spells, and his time was limited. He refused to waste it learning magic he did not currently need.
...
The Occlumency book was both helpful and infuriating.
It explained how to begin, but beyond that it became maddeningly vague. The writing was dense, slippery, full of carefully chosen phrases that said everything and nothing all at once. Julian gritted his teeth and spent the rest of the day picking through what felt like the ravings of a demented mind.
The author clearly understood the art.
The author also clearly wanted it to be as difficult as possible for anyone else to understand it.
Julian could not see the point of that kind of deliberate obstruction, but he eventually stopped trying to rationalize it and simply accepted it as a wizard being a wizard.
...
By the time he finally closed the book, he had skipped dinner, but he also had a decent base to work from. It was not enough to master anything, but it was enough to begin further research without stumbling blindly.
There was no elf in his dreams that night.
Julian slept peacefully.
...
He woke at dawn on Sunday, stretched, and yawned. Then he sat up on his bed, closed his eyes, and followed the book's instructions.
First, he cleared his mind.
Then he imagined his magic entering his mind like fog.
This step was supposedly the most time consuming, but Julian had a degree of direct control over his magic, and that made it easier. He achieved it quickly.
The next step was the problem.
...
The mindscape.
Occlumency required creating a personal representation of one's ideal environment inside the mind, using the gathered magic. The difficulty was cruelly simple. There was no reliable way to know what scenery would work until it actually did.
Which meant failure, again and again, until success happened.
Only then could true defenses be built.
...
Julian tried.
A volcano.
No.
A library.
No.
A forge.
No.
Over and over, he searched, adjusting, testing, trying to match whatever hidden requirement his mind demanded.
He failed five times in rapid succession without even a hint that he was close.
After an hour of repeated failure, Julian opened his eyes with a long exhale. Ron and Harry were beginning to stir awake in their beds, and the dorm was shifting into morning movement.
Even though Daphne practiced Occlumency herself, he could not ask her for advice. Everyone's mindscape was different, and what worked for one person meant nothing for another.
Still, he was not discouraged.
This was simply work.
And Julian was willing to do it.
...
After breakfast, he went straight back to the library and moved into the "ancient" section, digging with renewed focus.
When he saw what he found, a wide grin cracked across his face.
Six books on Occlumency and Legilimency.
Four more dedicated to single subjects within the same field.
Ten books on the mind arts in total, an absurdly rich collection considering how rare and guarded the knowledge usually was.
It did not surprise him to discover that two of the books were authored by Salazar Slytherin himself. The man had been notoriously well versed in every aspect of healing, and the mind was no exception.