Chp 9: Troll Incident

Occlumency is more like building a maze in your mind. It can conceal your memories, emotions and thoughts from a Legilimen, someone who practised the magic of delving into someone else's mind. A skilled Occlumen can also create false memories to prevent their real memories from being seen.

At the same time, it can also defend against memory magic to a certain extent. For example, the Memory Charm, also known as the Forgetfulness Charm. Even a wizard could fight against the Imperius Curse if their will is strong enough.

That is, of course, if their Occlumency has reached a high level. In fact, there are very few people in the world who can do this.

The reason why the three Unforgivable Curses are called unforgivable is because there is no counter-curse to them. More importantly, very few can resist the temptation those spells bring to their psyche.

Many people who practised the Unforgivables were prone to become dark wizards. Only someone with strong will power can resist them. Even then, they rarely used them. That's why Occlumency is classed as a high-level magic.

Only then did Brian understand why Occlumency was listed separately in his skill tab, instead of being classified together with other branches of magic like Charm or Transfiguration.

In addition, Brian was interested in Legilimency, which was the opposite of Occlumency. But there was no way for him to learn it now. So, he went back to studying Occlumency.

After a few weeks of practice, Brian was able to eradicate all emotions, which surprised him a little. You know, it took Harry a long time to use it proficiently under Snape's teaching.

'Maybe it's because of my mental age that I was able to pick up Occlumency quickly.' Brian attributed his success in learning Occlumency to him being a transmigrator.

The days passed quickly, and before long it was Halloween. He had Charms Class that morning. As usual, Professor Flitwick praised Brian for successfully casting the Levitation Spell. To be frank, he had already mastered this spell ahead of class. But he wouldn't refuse the opportunity to add some points to his house.

Later, during the Halloween feast, he rose from his seat and quickly made his way to the girls' bathroom before Professor Quirrell arrived to announce that a troll had entered the school.

He was going to try to knock down the troll and see if he could get a point. To be honest, bringing down a troll isn't too difficult for him. Trolls are dumb magical creatures. The only thing he needed to watch out for is their monstrous strength.

A few days ago, he was able to get the recipe for the Draught Of Living Death, which is a powerful sleeping potion after helping Professor Snape with a few chores. He then paid a few coins to the senior Slytherins to purchase the ingredients for the potion.

After a few failed attempts, he finally made the sleeping potion. Later, he poured the potion over a piece of raw beef he'd gotten from the house-elves in the kitchen.

When Brian reached the girls' toilet, he noticed an unpleasant stench in the hallway. The troll stood there with his back to him, and in front of it, Brian could make out the retreating figure of Professor Quirrell.

Seeing that Quirrell had disappeared around the corner, Brian cast a levitating spell and sent the beef in his hand to the troll. After that, he quickly ran into the toilet and locked the door.

The potion takes a while to work, and that's enough time for a troll to beat him to a pulp.

When Brian pressed his ear to the door, he could hear the troll eating the piece of beef that he had laced with the Draught of Living Death as expected. The troll's small brain never registered how the beef could appear so suddenly.

The chewing sounds abruptly stopped, and heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the door. It appeared that the sleeping potion still needed some time to take effect.

A faint sobbing sound could be heard coming from one of the women's cubicles. Brian paused and called out in a low voice, "Hermione?"

Hermione's head emerged shortly after the crying stopped. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her thick, bushy hair had become a tangled mess. She expressed surprise at the sight of him.

"Brian? Why are you here? This is the women's toilet!"

"Shh..." Brian put his right index finger on his lips, and peered outside the door. "Lower your voice. There is a giant troll outside right now."

"A giant troll in the school?" With her arms crossed and a voice full of suspicion, Hermione stepped outside and asked, "Are you lying to me?"

"No, I didn't lie to you, there is really a giant troll outside right now," Brian repeated.

As he spoke, he put his ear against the door. The footsteps could no longer be heard. All that could be heard at this point was a loud snore.

"I think we can go out now." When Brian opened the door, he found that the troll was sleeping soundly. Its massive wooden club had been thrown aside.

"Oh my god! That's a troll!" Hermione covered her mouth with her hands, revealing only her wide eyes as she muttered in shock.

"We have to leave now. The professors will arrive shortly. I don't want to be caught by them." Brian pulled Hermione away hurriedly.

As they ran through the hallway, Hermione shot him a questioning look. "Why are we running away from the professors, Brian?"

"I don't trust the professors right now. Someone must have led the troll inside," Brain lied to her. He already knew it was Professor Quirrel who brought the troll into the school. He just didn't want to be questioned by other professors, especially the whitebeard Dumbledore.

"But Hogwarts is the safest place in the world. Surely Professor Dumbledore…" Hermione tried to argue before Brian cut her off.

"The Headmaster is old, Hermione. You can't expect him to save you all the time."

As they spoke, they soon saw the frenzied crowd of students walking in the hallway ahead of them. Hermione split up from him and went to mingle with her housemates. Meanwhile, Brian went to join the other Slytherins.

A few seconds later, he heard a loud ding inside his mind. He brought up his system and looked at the prompt he just received.

[Altered the troll incident's plot, point +0]

Brian almost wanted to rub his eyes, trying to make sure he hadn't missed a number or something. At this time, he only had 1.7 points, not a little more.

'It seems I can't change the plot,' Brian thought, rubbing his chin.

This meant that he couldn't just take over as Harry and handle everything; rather, he needed to be actively involved in the plot to get points. But his identity as a Slytherin made it impossible for him to get close to Harry, let alone Ron.

They were more likely to be wary of him. Unless he mastered the Disillusionment Charm or something and kept following Harry like a stalker. But that was obviously impossible. He can't follow them all the time.