Occlumency

**Occlumency** is the art of organising one's mind to achieve a myriad of beneficial skills, the most famous of which is defending against Legilimency attacks.

## Levels of Mastery

In Occlumency circles, there are several levels towards mastering the skill. Each level involves a different skill surrounding the art, with an increasing level of difficulty. This creates a natural progress for beginners to start at.

### Level 0: Natural Occlumency Shields.

One out of twelve wizards are able to spontaneously develop shields (comparable to the strength of a third-level Occlumens) in response to regular exposure to high level Legilimency attacks. Although having natural shields is not a prerequisite for mastering Occlumency, it does help speed up the progress.

As such, many Occlumency masters check for these natural defences when they start training a new pupil, despite how painful the process is.

### Level 1: Perfect recall & Shields

The first step towards mastering Occlumency is retraining the student's brain to have perfect recall. With this skill, Occlumens will be able to perfectly recall any memory within their mind.

Shields also form the basis of Occlumens. These shields, when subjected to Legilimency attacks, are designed to prevent the user's thoughts from being read. If practised often enough, these shields can become strong enough to keep out all but the best Legilimens, even if the Occlumens doesn't move on to a second-level Occlumens.

### Level 2: Emotion Mastery & Constant Defence

The second step of Occlumency is Emotional suppression and clarity. By learning how to suppress emotions when needed and seeing through emotions, Occlumens starting on their journey to becoming very logically people. Without emotion to guide their actions, second-level Occlumens can act very logically, resulting in them seemingly being very cold and aloof to others.

However, Emotion Mastery starts the trend of dangerous Occlumency skills. The ability to suppress emotions can be used to "burn out" certain emotions from the Occlumens, resulting in them being unable to feel those emotions ever again. An example of this is when Tom Riddle used this skill to burn out his ability to feel empathy, resulting in him becoming the psychopath, Lord Voldemort.

Constant Defence is the other second-level skill required to move up to third-level. An Occlumens with this skill must be able to detect any intrusions in their mind at anytime, without conscious thought towards the goal, and be able to mount a consistent defence. This differs from the first-level Shields skill as first-levels Occlumens must be knowingly raise their shields when needed whilst a second-level Occlumens will always have shields up, regardless of their focus.

### Level 3: Emotion Understanding & Thought Stream Partitioning

Emotion Understanding is the first skill required to be third-level Occlumens. This involves the Occlumens recognising when they are acting in response to emotional stimulus rather than rational decision-making, thus impairing their judgement. This skill is useful to all Occlumens as it allows them to ensure they are always making the choices best suited to fulfilling their desires.

Thought Stream Partitioning is the second skill third-level Occlumens must master. This skill allows the Occlumens to focus on two (or more) different topics at once. This skill is useful to all Occlumens, as it allows them to quickly learn new skills and new spells, vastly accelerating their proficient with magic. Most Occlumens who are trained by the Department of Mysteries are able to maintain seven different thought streams at once, but the master of this skill is Augustus Rookwood who can maintain 49 thought streams at once, allowing him to prevent personality death at the hands of the Tabula Rasa curse.

### Level 4: Memory Palace(s)

The creation of a Memory Palace is the fourth level of Occlumency Mastery. A Memory Palace is the internal landscaping of the Occlumen's brain, based on a familiar location (i.e. a Potions lab for Severus Snape) in which all of the Occlumen's memories can be safeguarded and used as a fortress against powerful psychic attacks. Memory Palaces allows the Occlumens several advantages:

* A Memory Palace allows the Occlumens to organise their mind so they can disguise and lock away particular memories they need to hide from Legilimens.
* A Memory Palace can also be used to lock away other personalities that the Occlumens has developed so they don't interfere with the Occlumens daily life. These can then later be called upon should the Occlumens need of their skills later.
* A Memory Palace can be filled with traps that can harm any Legilimens attempting to enter their mind, ranging from causing physical injure to the Legilimens or frying the Legilimens brain. An example of one such trap was found in Rufus Scrimgeour's Memory Palace and was the memory of a "Cruciatus Curse conveyed through art" he saw whilst attempting to catch Vasyl Dobroshtan. When viewed through Legilimens, the effect is amplified, causing intense pain to the Legilimens whilst Rufus maintains the psychic link.

Particularly skilled Occlumens will also develop multiple false Memory Palaces as a method to trick or stall Legilimens, by providing them with false rooms and false memories they'll be distracted by whilst the Occlumens prepares their defence. An example of this is when Jim Potter gets trapped within a false memory palace created by Tom Riddle's Diary.

## Sub-Abilities

These abilities, although not required to progress to the next levels of Occlumency are incredible useful techniques.

### Perceptual Dilation

A third-level skill, perceptual dilation (also known as "Fixing the Mind's Gaze Betwixt the Seven Beats of the Heart"), allows the user to slows down their subjective awareness of time, allowing them to study surroundings more thoroughly and make decisions more efficiently.

Although a useful technique, it is very uncommon, due to the inherent danger of the skill. As the name suggests, it can only be maintained for a duration equal to seven beats of the Occlumen's heart, with the time experienced being longer the more skilled the Occlumens is with the technique. To master this technique, Occlumens must practice often to increase the time dilation between heart beats whilst also learning to remain calm (as a slower heart rate grants more time between heart beats). Using the skill for longer than seven beats or trying to extend the time between beats beyond the Occlumens' skill creates an increasing risk of suffering an aneurysm or stroke, resulting in brain-damage or even *death*.

### Advocatus Diabolicus

A fourth-level skill, Advocatus Diabolicus is a technique that allowed an Occlumens to manifest a true secondary personality within their mind, one that is neither based on themselves nor created from scratch. This usually develops into a personality based on the Occlumen's understanding of another real-life person. The usefulness of this second personality results from the Advocatus being able to give impartial advice and opinions on what the Occlumen's is doing, from reviewing homework to major life decisions.

Like other Occlumency skills, however, this skills does carry risks. Due to being an entirely separate personality from the Occlumens, the Advocatus may develop a dislike/hatred of the main personality, resulting in them attempting to disrupt or take control of the main body. As such, a strong Memory Palace is required to control the Advocatus, so it can be locked away until required.

### Memory Alteration

High-level Occlumens can alter their own memories. This skill allows them to create false memories against Legilimens attacks or fake a Veritaserum testimony, as they believe they are telling the truth.

## Special Abilities

Esoteric Abilities/Extra Known Info:

\* Being a **Natural Occlumens**. In which one wizard out of ten thousand gains the full benefits of Occlumency, the rarity is on par with being a natural Legilimens or a born Animagus.

*Note:* Being an animagus is completely unrelated with being an Occlumens, But it can provide a useful substitute. During the early phases of learning an animagus form, the wizard develops a dual-process mind. He simultaneously thinks as both human and an animal which provides a powerful defense against Legilimency.

## References

Book 2 - HP&TSE - Ch. 80 - Three Princes,

Harry explains how Tom Riddle used Emotion Mastery to burn out his empathy.
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 135 - The Fall of the House of Potter (Pt 1),

Rufus unleashes the Cruciatus Art memory at Rookwood whilst in a psychic battle..
Book 2 - HP&TSE - Ch. 74 - Endgame (Pt 1),

Jim gets trapped inside a false Memory Palace whilst investigating the Diary Horcrux..
Book 2 - HP&TSE - Ch. 66 - Home for the Holidays,

Mr.X explains the effects of Perceptual Dilation.
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 109 - Dreamscapes, Memories and Nightmares (Pt 2),

Snape recalls Advocatus Diabolicus in an attempt to stop Bellatrix.