Occlumency was the magic of shielding the mind from intrusion and keeping one's thoughts organized and controlled. The crucial part, however, was how it worked. Occlumency functioned from the inside out, dealing with the structure and defenses of the mind itself, rather than meddling with anything biological.
Which meant illusions that tampered with perception through biological pathways still worked on Occlumens. If the information being sent to the brain was altered before the mind could process it, Occlumency had very little to push against.
Even after finishing the stack of books, Julian knew he was nowhere near done with his research on the subject. If he stopped now, the month long timeline he had given Snape would be wildly exaggerated. What he had so far was nothing more than theory and memorized facts.
What he needed was a genuine, personal understanding of illusion magic, something that only came with time and trial.
...
His schedule made the situation more complicated. The "month" he had quoted Snape was not a solid block of free time.
He still had regular classes, sleep, smithing practice to improve his craft, and hours spent with his friends. When he subtracted all of that from his days, he lost roughly two and a half weeks of usable time.
That left him with, in theory, about a week and a half of actual study time to gain a solid grasp of illusion magic.
Not a luxurious stretch by any means, but not impossible either.
The silver lining in all of this was simple. For Julian, learning was never wasted effort. The more he understood about magic, the more dangerous and powerful he became, and the stronger his creations could be as well. Every new subject he mastered made his future work that much more terrifying to anyone who stood against him.
...
He finished the last book in his pile at almost the perfect moment.
The twins burst into the library, looking around with manic energy until they spotted him.
"Oi, we got the thing!" they shouted together, their voices echoing off the shelves.
Madam Pince's expression twisted into immediate fury, and within moments all three of them were being firmly kicked out of the library.
"Did you have any idea we had to talk to, like, twelve different people just to get this bloody thing?" one of the twins complained at full volume as they walked toward Gryffindor Tower with Julian.
"I would not have made the deal if I did not think you two could pull it off," Julian replied with a shrug.
"Tell you what, though," he added with a grin, "since it was a bit harder than expected, I will teach you a spell that is absolutely perfect for pranks."
The identical faces lit up with pure, unfiltered excitement.
...
"So, it is called the Ghost Charm, and here is how it works," Julian said.
He explained the theory behind it, then demonstrated the wand movement slowly so they could follow along.
The twins immediately tried to cast it. On their second attempt, they cackled like madmen as their skin and clothes shifted in appearance, taking on the same pale, translucent coloration as the ghosts that drifted around Hogwarts.
They could not pass through walls or fly like the real thing, but that hardly mattered to them. The visual effect alone was more than enough.
They were already whispering together about the best ways to use the spell.
Julian could not help adding fuel to the fire.
"You could 'haunt' Draco," he suggested, eyes glinting. "Follow him around the corridors, moaning about unfinished homework. Or show up to class like that and make everyone think you died in your sleep and came back for lessons."
The twins loved every single suggestion.
Julian had underestimated how committed they were to their craft. Some of their ideas crossed the line from playful into borderline insane.
One particular plan involved rigging an invisible rope system across the Great Hall and using it to simulate a poltergeist attack in the middle of dinner.
Julian could only wonder how terrorizing the entire school in front of all the staff had somehow seemed like a reasonable plan in their minds.
...
Eventually, the trio reached Gryffindor Tower. A group of curious housemates had already gathered, eyeing the canvas covered, two foot tall cube sitting near the wall.
The twins stepped forward and shooed everyone back with a flurry of hands and jokes until they had enough space to work.
Julian crouched down and began carefully untying the ropes, peeling back the canvas layer by layer.
When the covering finally came off, he could not help but stare in admiration.
The furnace stood solid and compact, its main body built from a smooth grey stone. The front and back, however, were fitted with metal doors, sturdy and well crafted. On one side was a neat panel of dials and knobs.
Those controls, he knew, were for adjusting the furnace's temperature, focusing the heat in specific areas, and even changing the type of fire burning inside.
The first two functions were straightforward enough. Heat, intensity, distribution.
The third required a bit more explanation.
...
In this world there was, of course, ordinary fire. Most forges and kitchens relied on it.
But there were also arcane fires, special flames infused with unique properties.
Dragon fire, for instance, burned much hotter than normal flame and had the added side effect of causing metal to resist corrosion it would normally succumb to. Other arcane fires might cut through magical wards more easily, or infuse what they touched with resistance to cold, or carry specific elemental affinities.
There were many varieties.
This furnace was built to work with them. It needed a physical sample of an arcane fire to begin with, a seed of it. Once that was fed into the system, the enchantments inside allowed the furnace to recreate that fire on command, with the dial letting the user switch between stored types.
That versatility was one of the main reasons so few people ordered brand new furnaces.
The older a forge was, the more types of arcane fires it usually had stored, which made it incredibly valuable. That value also sent the price skyrocketing.
Julian had seen fire seeds listed in the system shop, and the memory still made him shudder.
Even the cheapest dragon flame seed cost nearly one hundred thousand points, while the most expensive, a void flame seed, climbed all the way up to seven hundred million.
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