#408 - Chapter 408 Snape's Unique Technique

After dinner, Harry left the Great Hall and walked along the empty corridor towards the dungeon, pondering in his mind as he went.

Professor Slughorn had mentioned that Professor Snape was very strong, and Malfoy also said that Professor Snape was good at Occlumency. It seemed that asking him for help was the most appropriate thing to do.

Most importantly, Professor Snape was one of his closest professors. If it was him, it didn't seem like a big deal if he saw a little bit of his memory.

Harry's footsteps echoed softly on the stone floor, and as he walked deeper, the surrounding air became cooler.

Finally, he stopped in front of the familiar black wooden door, took a deep breath, and then raised his hand and knocked gently three times.

The door did not open immediately, but Snape's low voice came: "Enter!"

Pushing open the door, a mixture of herbs and potions rushed to his face. The overhead light in the office was off, and only a magic desk lamp was turned on on the desk, the light was soft but with a hint of mystery.

Snape sat in a high-backed chair, looking down at a magic book that looked quite old.

Seeing Harry come in, the lines on his face suddenly softened a lot. Although his voice was still the usual low one, it was much gentler than when he spoke to others: "What can I do for you?"

"Professor," Harry walked closer, scratching the back of his head a little embarrassedly, "I was wondering... could you help me practice Occlumency?"

"Oh? Aren't you always practicing with Sebastian?" Snape closed the book, a hint of an imperceptible smile on his face, and pointed to the chair opposite: "Sit down."

"It's like this, Professor Slughorn and I agreed on a six-month deadline, and now the time is almost up. I want to ask you to give me some extra tutoring."

"A six-month deadline? I heard that you don't have nightmares anymore. Haven't you met Sebastian's requirements yet?"

"Not enough," Harry nodded, "Professor Slughorn said that the standard I have to reach is that even if I stand in front of Voldemort, he can't see through my true thoughts."

Even the Dark Lord can't see through his thoughts. That old swan's requirements are really not low.

Snape raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly: "It's not easy to achieve this goal in half a year. Also, don't say that name, he can feel it."

"Like this, you wait for me here for a while, I'll go do some preparation."

With that, he stood up, returned to the bedroom behind the office, stretched out his wand and pressed it against his temple, carefully extracted some memories, and then put them into the Pensieve.

After doing all this, he returned to the office again and said to Harry: "Since you have already practiced Occlumency, let's go directly to the offense and defense stage and let me check your current level."

Harry nodded, took a deep breath, and silently began to operate Occlumency: "I'm ready, Professor."

"Then count to three, you first try to resist my attack and test your defense strength," Snape raised his wand, "1 — 2 — 3, Legilimens!"

Solid and full of toughness, the basic skills are very solid.

"Use all your strength, let me see where your limit is." With that, Snape began to increase his strength, violently cracking the defense that Harry had built in his mind.

Harry concentrated his mind and tried his best to resist the waves of attacks. Soon, fine beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead.

The pressure was great, not comparable to Malfoy's attacks at all. Coming to Professor Snape was indeed the right choice.

"The toughness is good," after a long time, Snape lowered his wand, "There are no loopholes, you have done a good job in this regard."

"However, you should be clear that this method is very exhausting, so in most cases we only use it to warn, to detect other people's prying in the first time."

"The key is still the memory maze, we must make the enemy unable to distinguish between true and false."

"Still count to three," Snape raised his wand again, "Feel free to deceive me. Legilimens!"

In an instant, Snape saw some thoughts in Harry's mind:

Today's dinner was good, the chicken legs were delicious, and the borscht was also delicious;

What to eat tomorrow morning? Still drink milk? Drinking it every day is a bit greasy;

What to eat tomorrow noon?

What to eat tomorrow night?

Looking at the scenes flashing through Harry's mind, the corners of Snape's mouth slowly curled up.

Not bad!

Being able to think of packaging himself as a foodie in the memory maze, and using the memories of dinner to make everything in his mind extremely natural, it looks like it's real.

Being able to do this shows that Harry has indeed put a lot of effort into this.

"Very good, instead of simply using false memories to deceive the attacker, you know to use some daily redundant memories to fill the memory maze. It seems that you have mastered the essence," Snape praised.

"Get ready, next I will start to conduct verbal stimulation and verbal guidance on you."

It was not until this step that Snape discovered a flaw in Harry's memory maze.

That is, the other party's memory retrieval speed is always half a beat slower. After a little thought, Snape understood why this was the case.

To put it bluntly, it was Harry processing the corresponding memories, which led to the half-beat delay.

To be honest, Harry's performance completely exceeded Snape's expectations. If he was not proficient in Occlumency, he would not have been able to discover the subtle differences.

"Harry, your memory processing speed is a little slow, and it's always half a beat slow, which seems very deliberate," Snape began to explain Harry's shortcomings.

"When processing memories, don't think about completely replacing them with fake ones, but have both true and false. In extreme cases, it is enough to have nine truths and one false. The purpose is to speed up memory processing and make the reaction more real."

"In addition, high-end Occlumency tests acting skills. You need to consider what kind of personality the enemy you are facing is. When they speak, you need to use what kind of language, actions, and thinking to confuse the other party."

"You need to pay more attention to this aspect. Don't rigidly let the other party look through your memory maze, but take the initiative and control the situation in your own hands."

Snape patiently instructed Harry, every sentence was precise and straightforward, without reservation.

He unhurriedly imparted his experience, guiding Harry to improve Occlumency from the perspective of acting.

This brand-new entry point opened Harry's eyes and he exclaimed that he had benefited a lot.

The two of them, one focused on teaching, the other greedily absorbing, were all immersed in this rare learning atmosphere.

Just as Harry was trying to integrate the skills taught by Snape, a sudden knock on the door broke the silence in the office.

"Severus, are you there?"