Salazar Slytherins books were amongst those that covered both sides of the mind arts which meant that they could likely be used to heal others if properly utilized. Nick started reading one of these books and was quickly drawn into the startlingly well documented information written within. He learned from the book that in fact both occlumency and legilimency were in fact once the same subject but had been later split into two subject based on what they could accomplish. Legilimency was the magic of reading and manipulating the mind of others gently. It was a delicate and masterful art that required upmost control.-
Only amateurs or those not caring for the mental well being of others would brute force their way into the minds of those around them and Slytherin showed a clear level of detest for such individuals. Occlumency on the flip side was the magic of controlling and protecting ones own mind and was therefore much more forgiving on failures. Slytherin made it clear in his explanation of the subject that he believed that all wizards should have at least a basic foundation in both sides of the mind arts. The book stated roughly the same information in regards to starting out in occlumency as the previous book Nick read but with clearer details.-
The book also recommended learning and gaining proficiency in legilimency before attempting to build ones shields as it was easier once you were personally aware of the way you could be attacked. To learn legilimency on the most basic level one needed to understand which form they were attempting to learn as there was in fact two variations of the subject each with their own pros and cons. The first kind was silent legilimency which was the one involving eye contact but no verbal spell component.-
This form needed the caster to learn how to both cast spells without a wand as well as how to project mental tendrils from ones eyes. This is the reason this form was usually considered a state that only masters of the other form were capable of when in fact it could be learned on it's own without the other form at all. The pros were fairly obvious as it was silent , difficult to detect if not being attacked and fairly easily initiated. The cons however were that it was much weaker than the other form , it was easier to defend against and it also left one open to retaliation due to the concentration needed.-
The second form was the one that the art was named from "legilimens" and involved using the spell with ones wand as a medium to enter the targets mind. The pros were the stability , strength and precision afforded by using ones wand to focus their magic. The cons were that anyone in earshot will know what you're doing , it's illegal to use the spell on a person without permission and it is more draining on the casters mental strength due to being funneled through the wand.-
Slytherin went to great lengths to emphasize the benefits that learning the art could have from helping mental illness to making muggles ignore something they shouldn't have seen. As it turns out the obliviate spell was actually created based on this ability of legilimens for wizards who are either unskilled in the mind arts or in a rush. The way the spell worked was by flat out removing the memory from the part of the mind that remembers stuff effectively wiping it away. A skilled user of the spell may even do it in such a way that the target doesn't even realize that those memories were gone.-
The confundus spell on the other hand simply prevents the mind from forming new memories making it perfect for things like entering restricted areas that have guards. Slytherin goes into great detail about how a novice should go about training the two forms step by step. To start off with one needs to get used to controlling ones mental energy and the best target for this according to Slytherin is a simple insect such as a fly or normal beetle. After that the goal should be to move to larger and more powerful creatures such as rats , cats and dogs.-
According to Slytherin a novice legilimens should never fall into the trap that is human experimentation with the arts not only due to the danger it poses to the victim but also because the "fast" progress it brings is in exchanged for the arts true potential. By never using the art on a person but moving on to magical creatures instead the final potential exceeds the human path as one could use the art even on the mightiest of creatures such as dragons.
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