A et across the room opened, revealing a beautifully carved workbench adorned with intricate patterns and faint magical glows—a clear sign it wasn’t an ordinary table.
Leading Alex over, Lily expined, "This workbench is very versatile. You store, visualize, bine, a runes on it. It eves us create three-dimensional runes, which is impossible ur part. Watch this."
She spoke a and, and the rune for ‘fly’ appeared in the air above the table, shimmering faintly.
Alex watched, fasated, as Lily tinued her demonstration, bringing up several more runes and effortlessly bining them into a simple, ft formation. "This is the rune bination for the Levitation Charm." With a slight push of magi her wand, the energy flowed through the runes and shot toward a quill resting oable.
The quill lifted smoothly into the air, floating as if held by invisible threads. Alex was amazed; Lily hadn’t used the Levitation Charm itself but had instead eled her magic through the runes, achieving the same effect. It was far more exg than simply reading about runes in a book.
Lily turned back to Alex. "Some spells and runes be dangerous or too powerful to test directly on the workbench. So, what do we do?"
With a knowing smile, Lily picked up a small, crystal-clear sphere from the edge of the workbench. "These store runes safely. Watch." She held the ball close to the rune bination, and with a faint shimmer, the runes were drawn into the crystal.
Alex looked around and noticed two rows of these crystal spheres lined up beside the workbench. He had assumed they were merely decorations, but now he realized their purpose.
"In this way, we store rune binations ahem in other locations," Lily expined.
Alex’s fasation deepened, and he couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for learning more about rune magic.
Lily noticed his excitement and added, "While you’re staying here, you’re wele to borrow this workbench. There are already many recorded rune scripts ihat you study, and I’ll show you some on binations, including the prote and reinfort runes I used in my amulet."
Alex was thrilled. "Really? Thank you so much, Lily!"
With a warm smile, Lily began expining how to use the workbench, and Alex listened ily, abs every detail.
Over the few days, Alex settled into his studies, but his tration leasantly interrupted when his Christmas gifts finally arrived, albeit a bit te due to his temporary ge of address.
Vivian’s gift came first: a colle titled *Magic Symbols.* Though she pyfully scolded Alex for saying it directly, she had clearly chosen something thoughtful and useful. Charles sent him a poster of his favorite Quidditch pyer, Ludo Bagman, along with a note expressiement about the poker set Alex had gifted him. Charles had already taught his family how to py over the holidays.
Professonagall’s gift was a scarf embroidered with silver arrows—a nod to her favorite Quidditch team, the Appleby Arrows. Alex chuckled, noting how dedicated the magical unity was to Quidditch. Upon researg the team, he found their cim to fame was a 16-day mat 1932, a fact that left him in disbelief.
Professor Flitwick had sent him *The Fifth Element: An Exploration,* a sixth-year textbook with a note suggesting it was advanced but well within Alex’s reach. Alex leased with this gift, finding it one of his favorites, sed only to Vivian’s book. When he opened Professor Slughorn’s gift, he couldn’t help but ugh—another bottle of Euphoria. He suspected his head of house must have a stash of the potion, giving it out freely.
Hagrid’s gift was simple: a soft leather cushion made from magical creature fur, incredibly fortable and warm. Alex immediately decided to use it while studying.
After cheg each gift, Alex settled down on the fur cushion, ready to dive into his project: Occlumency. He had read that Occlumend Legilimency were plementary skills. By mastering the former, it would be easier to pick up the tter. His books, *Theory of Magical Defense* and *Mystery of Magical Defense,* detailed Occlumency as a teique to protect the mind from invasive spells like Legilimency.
Occlumency required a calm and focused mental state, merging ohoughts with magical energy to form a mental shield. Unlike many spells, it involved no intations or wand movements, which made it difficult for most wizards. The easiest way to practice, acc to the texts, was to have a skilled user attack the learner’s miedly, allowing them to build mental defenses.
But Alex dismissed this method immediately; he had no desire to expose his thoughts to anyone.
Instead, he reviewed the alternative teiques listed: the potion-assisted method, the passive practice method, and self-imagination. The potion-assisted method required a calming potion to ease mental focus, which Alex sidered, as he had a bottle of tranquilizer. However, he was most intrigued by the self-imagination teique, which his book described as ption. This teique involved emptying the mind and creating a mental image of oneself, often as a creature or being that could defend the mind.
Alex decided to give it a try. He focused on calming his breath, theed himself and assumed a basic meditation posture.
Once he settled into the stance, he emptied his mind, allowing only the flow of his magic to fill his awareness as he gently guided it toward his mind.
Alex’s goal was to create a mental image, not of himself as some fantastical creature, but as a deep, endless bck hole—void of light, drawing in and abs his magic. This visualization was difficult at first, yet, after several attempts, he felt a subtle shift. Gradually, he succeeded in merging his magic with his sciousness, and as the bck hole pulled in his energy, it formed a protective barrier around his thoughts.
When he finished, Alex opened his eyes, surprised at how natural the process had felt. He had expected it to take many attempts to grasp even the basics of Occlumency, but his progress felt smooth, almost intuitive, as though all his prior training had prepared him precisely for this.
“Did I just… succeed?” he thought, recalling the descriptions he had read about Occlumency.
