Glass Ceiling [OPEN 7TH YEARS]

[blaise leo zabini]

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September 4th, 2025 - Thursday Morning

The idea of teaching his seventh year students the basics surrounding Occlumency and Legilimency hadn’t even been considered during the planning of his first year teaching. The concepts behind the abilities weren’t inherently difficult for a seventh year to comprehend, though the actual application of them was. Average teenagers neither cared nor understood the reasoning behind clearing and defending the mind, and while he had talked with a few students the prior school year about potentially training them, that had gone virtually nowhere. At the same time, that had given him the idea of adding a few lessons on the subject into the curriculum. Starting off the fall term with an almost unattainable feat for most felt perfect to him. It was more than any of his Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had ever done for him during his time at Hogwarts. Very few of them had even been qualified in the first place. Blaise, on the other hand, felt like he was almost overqualified for the position. He could spend an entire year just teaching the nuances of memory charms, harkening back to his days as an Obliviator, or even recalling any number of high profile arrests he had achieved as a Hit Wizard.

Trying to convince students that he knew what he was talking about seemed almost impossible at times, and he had to remind himself daily that they were still children and didn’t understand what things really were like outside of the corridors of the castle. They liked to remind him that they did (just as his own kids had done to him), but they truly didn’t. There were just as many adults that were in the dark about the going ons of the magical world too. Giving his students a glimpse at ways they could mentally protect themselves should they end up in positions of power was the least he could do. He was sure at least one or two of them would latch onto what he had to say and run with it.

So finally the first lesson for the seventh years began, a Thursday morning class, and Blaise had barely managed to make it up to his classroom from the Great Hall by the time the first of the students started filtering in. That gave him also no time to enjoy the cup of coffee he had brought with him, instead forcing him to start preparing the chalkboard and lesson plans on his desk. He really didn’t need the notes he had written up on Occlumency and Legilimency. He had been practicing the former for almost thirty years now, and while the latter had come later in life, it was fairly easy for him as well. There had been almost no reason for him to utilize either ability over the last few years, which was unfortunate, but they were still second nature to him.

Flipping over his wrist to check the time on his watch, Blaise was satisfied to see that it was time to start and waved his wand at the door to close it. Before he could even clear his throat to do his introduction, a flash of red hair, a clatter of chairs scratching on the floor, and a chorus of giggles from the back of the room had him rubbing on the bridge of his nose to keep himself from yelling. “Potter, sit down before I charm your chair to you for the remainder of the school year. It’s the least you could do for forcing me to teach you again,” he sighed as she did as told, ignoring the less than hushed whispers coming from her to her desk mate.

“Anyways,” Blaise cleared his throat loudly to get everyone to look back at him, “Welcome back. Each of you should have a syllabus in front of you on what we’ll be covering this term. There will be a separate one for the spring, because knowing the way this class works, we will be behind schedule by Christmas. If you have any questions about what the class will entail this year, I’ll leave the end of class open for that…” He pulled the chalkboard forward so that it was easier to see, the front of it labeled ‘Occlumency’, the back ‘Legilimency’. A piece of chalk hovered in front of the board, prepared to write as he spoke. But first, he wanted to get a general idea of what the students actually knew. “As you can see, we’ll be starting off talking about Occlumency and Legilimency. Anyone care to give a brief explanation of what both of those are?” he asked as he took a sip of his coffee, pointing at the first student that raised their hand to answer.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 4, 2025

Defence Against the Dark Arts wasn't the worst class, although Max Greyback guessed that she was in the minority with that opinion. Professor Zabini was fairly strict, though she had learned that most of what he assigned was essays, anyway, and it was easy enough to get ahead on those if she stayed organized. As a prefect, too, she couldn't say that she really disliked Professor Zabini; he was her Head of House, so she did what he asked of her.

No sooner than the lesson had begun did Max hear a commotion from farther back in the classroom. "Oh, Merlin, Lily," Max shook her head in disbelief with a hushed giggle, stopping herself from laughing as soon as Professor Zabini spoke up to call Lily out. It was sort of weird to have Lily Potter in her own year after she had been held back, but it was cool, too; Adrian had completed school, and Lily was something of an honorary Greyback.

"Anyways," Professor Zabini began after that distraction, "Welcome back. Each of you should have a syllabus in front of you on what we’ll be covering this term. There will be a separate one for the spring, because knowing the way this class works, we will be behind schedule by Christmas. If you have any questions about what the class will entail this year, I’ll leave the end of class open for that…"

Max looked down at the syllabus and back at the chalkboard, which the professor was dragging farther forward. "Occlumency" and "Legilimency" were already written, with a piece of chalk enchanted to continue to write. "As you can see," Professor Zabini continued, "we’ll be starting off talking about Occlumency and Legilimency. Anyone care to give a brief explanation of what both of those are?

Raising her hand, Max was unaware that she was the first to do so. Her bet would have been on Kaylee Mahi'ai, but that wasn't important. What was important was that Professor Zabini had called on her to provide an answer.

"Occlumency is the art of clearing one's mind of all thoughts and emotions against Legilimency, which is the use of magic to enter one's mind. For example, to know if someone's lying or to access their memories."

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

blaise leo zabini && maxima ruqayyah greyback

defence against the dark arts wasn't her best subject. she did enjoy it but it didn't seem to be her forte, not really. that didn't mean she didn't try either it was just no matter how much she put into the spells that might one day save her life she never really seemed to nail them like she could charms. she casually flicked through the paper on the desk before her while listening to the commotion that was happening at another desk, her attention drawn to it for a second, bringing a smile to her face as she watched the other people in the class start to settle down. she went back to the paper, flicking through it but there was two words on there that drew her eye instantly and got her excited. occlumancy and legilimency.

the ability to do both those things was something she wanted to aspire too someday. after all she wanted to work with unlocking the secrets of the mind, wanted to understand what made people tick and more importantly if there was something that made dark wizards the way they were. she didn't believe it was all exposure and environment, there had to be something of a genetic part to it or some mutation or anomaly that could cause it too. or that was her thought on it at least. she'd had a fascination with the wizards who had turned to dark magic since before she could remember and it didn't feel like it was changing anytime soon. she listened as maxima greyback told professor zabini what the spells could be used for and they pretty much summed it up as far as she was aware. though there were other aspects to the spells, such as. she waited till maxima had finished speaking before she added her own voice to the room. "legilimens can also be used to meddle with someone's mind, not just know what's in it."

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

September 4, 2025

At least it wasn't Potions class so early in the morning. At least Professor Zabini was telling off Lily Potter and not her. At least the first lesson was on something she understood. At least she hadn't raised her hand and been put on the spot… There were no shortage of sentences that came with caveats that filled Penelope Bainbridge's head as Professor Zabini gave his introduction and called upon Max Greyback to answer his first question.

She wasn't the type to speak up in class, but Penelope didn't doubt that most people in the room already knew what Occlumency and Legilimency were. Even though those arts generally weren't taught at Hogwarts, they were seventh-years. That made it seem like Kat Krum was trying to show off a bit when she spoke up straight after Max—not that Penelope was going to mention that.

Still, Penelope knew better than to assume anything when it came to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Zabini was the sort of teacher she didn't care to cross, and so she got her quill and parchment ready to take notes on what he had to say. After the events of the previous year, she didn't want trouble.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[blaise leo zabini]

▲

While Blaise didn’t want to say that it was no surprise that Maxima Greyback raised her hand first, it also made sense to him. Nobody else had anyways, and he figured that being the first lesson and early in the morning had something to do with that. The last thing he wanted to do was look like he was playing favorites by choosing one of his Prefects.

Her explanation of both abilities was, at its core, the most basic of what they were. But he had asked for a brief explanation, and that was what he got. It wouldn’t really be a class if it started and ended with one question. Before he could elaborate on both, a voice spoke up from somewhere else in the seats, and Blaise’s eyes flicked over to the speaker. The Krum girl decided to add on that Legilimency could be used for more than just accessing memories, and she wasn’t exactly wrong. “Both of you are correct. But next time, please raise your hand Miss Krum,” Blaise stated flatly, as he motioned with his hand for the chalk to start writing on the board. Under the Occlumency header, ‘block/suppress’ was written, with an arrow pointing up at ‘Legilimency’. Likewise, it placed ‘access’ under its opposition.

“Since it was brought up, using Legilimency to meddle with someone’s mind, as you put it Miss Krum, would be more like planting false thoughts or visions in that person’s head. Only unbelievably experienced Legilimens are able to accomplish something like this. And likewise, expert Occlumens are able to protect themselves by putting equally fake layers up to throw off their attackers.” A few more notes were added under each category to list these skills, though Blaise really didn’t want to get into the inner workings of those just yet. He had to go over the basics first, and then they could start wading into the more complicated bits and pieces.

“Now, practitioners of Occlumency are called Occlumens. The most basic form of this would be akin to wiping or erasing all thoughts from your mind. Your everyday thoughts and memories are often called your true mind, so the goal of Occlumency would be to protect that.” He paused to look over the class, seeing quite a few faces already glazed over. Once again, he felt like he could attribute that to the fact that it was still early. “Any questions so far, since we seem to all be paying attention?”

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 4, 2025

Professor Zabini stated that both she and Katiya Krum—who had chimed in—were correct about what Occlumency and Legilimency were, though he cautioned Katiya to raise her hand the next time. The piece of chalk ready at the board began to write, and Max got a sheet of parchment ready to copy down the diagram as it was written.

As a clarification, Professor Zabini added that what Katiya had said was, indeed, possible, but that only those unbelievably skilled in Occlumency or Legilimency would be able to work with such things. More information was written on the chalkboard, and Max copied that down, too.

"Now, practitioners of Occlumency are called Occlumens," Professor Zabini reminded them. "The most basic form of this would be akin to wiping or erasing all thoughts from your mind. Your everyday thoughts and memories are often called your true mind, so the goal of Occlumency would be to protect that." It seemed that some of the other students in the class had already blocked out the lesson, if Professor Zabini's response was any indication. "Any questions so far, since we seem to all be paying attention?"

Max didn't have any, but she waited to see if any of her classmates did.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[blaise leo zabini]

▲

Even though he was trying to stay on the topic of Occlumency, and have the students ask questions about that, of course there had to be one raised hand and a question that would only specifically pertain to one situation. “Yes Potter?” Blaise asked, his exhaustion towards her already apparent as he saw the redhead’s hand pop up in the back of the room. She was practically standing on her chair to make herself taller so that he would see her. If there had been other questions, he would have entertained them first before getting to them. The problem was that he also couldn’t really turn down her question, because he hadn’t taught this last year. While there was a general assumption that she should know something about Occlumency and Legilimency, when it came to Potter there was no telling. “Can a werewolf use Occlumency when turned?” she called, her chipper voice piercing the silence of the room. While an honest question, it was also sort of a stupid one, considering she should know what the state of her own mind was whilst turned. “Seeing as werewolves lose control of their human mind during transformation, I think it’s safe to assume that they are unable to utilize Occlumency.”

He thought it was a good enough answer, and was about to continue with Legilimency, when she butted in with another question. “Then could a Legilimens use it on a werewolf?” Blaise let out an audible sigh, because the answer was virtually the same. “No, because there is not the presence of a human mind that a Legilimens can access. Some magical creatures, like the Wampus cat, are capable of using Legilimency, but not to the extent that humans are.” Somehow that seemed to satiate the Gryffindor’s questions, and she sat down again, Blaise watching her as her pen scribbled furiously in her notebook. At least she was taking notes this year?

“Anyways, exceptional Occlumens have also been known to be able to outright prevent or reduce mind altering magic, such as the Imperius Curse, veritaserum, and potentially even possession. That last one has never been outright tested, so if you do find yourself an Occlumens one day, please do not go looking for something to possess you.” Under the correct header, Blaise labeled what he had just explained and a few other spells that the ability was known to protect against. Ones that he had run into personally while an Obliviator, mostly. “Any final questions about Occlumency before we continue?”

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 4, 2025

It was Lily Potter who next had a question for Professor Zabini. She was practically popping out of her seat, Max noticed, so it must have been something that Lily thought was very important.

"Can a werewolf use Occlumency when turned?" she asked.

It was a fair question, but Professor Zabini raised a good point. "Seeing as werewolves lose control of their human mind during transformation, I think it’s safe to assume that they are unable to utilize Occlumency," he answered her.

Of course, Max had to wonder if there were exceptions—under Wolfsbane Potion, for instance. Could a werewolf use Occlumency then? Their human mind was retained that way.

Max didn't have time to bring it up, though; Lily cut in quickly.

"Then could a Legilimens use it on a werewolf?" she asked.

Professor Zabini sighed. "No, because there is not the presence of a human mind that a Legilimens can access. Some magical creatures, like the Wampus cat, are capable of using Legilimency, but not to the extent that humans are."

Max made a note to check with Professor Zabini about how—if at all—Wolfsbane might affect Occlumency and Legilimency for or on werewolves at another time. Seeing how frustrated he was by Lily's questions, she didn't want to press on with the subject of werewolves too much. She continued to listen as Professor Zabini resumed his lecture, taking notes occasionally as he spoke.

"Any final questions about Occlumency before we continue?”

No, Max thought, she didn't have any pressing questions, but she waited to see if anyone else did.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

September 4, 2025

Lily Potter was the next person to raise a question for Professor Zabini, which turned into a back and forth between her and the professor over the logistics of how Occlumency and Legilimency would work in relation to werewolves. Penelope wasn't really focused on it, other than that it was distracting from the lesson. Listening to how exasperated Professor Zabini sounded, she was glad that she wasn't the one who had asked him anything. She wasn't sure how applicable Lily's questions were to the majority of the students in the class, though.

Professor Zabini continued on, mentioning that "exceptional" Occlumens could resist mind-altering magic such as the Imperius Curse and Veritaserum. Both sounded extremely useful, and she took notes quickly. Maybe Occlumency would also keep her mind from doing whatever it was that it was doing around so many other people. Even if it turned out that it was just anxiety, clearing her mind of everything momentarily sounded like a good idea.

"Any final questions about Occlumency before we continue?"

Hearing that it was her last opportunity, Penelope raised her hand cautiously.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[blaise leo zabini]

▲

The fact that the raised hands so far had consisted of Potter, who, albeit asking in a disruptive manner, asked a decent question in a roundabout way, and the Krum girl interjecting, Blaise could already tell this was going to be a slow class. Here he was, trying to teach them about two of the most advanced and difficult forms of magic (of which one of them would maybe accomplish a base understanding of how to apply either Occlumency or Legilimency someday), and it had resorted to mind control and trying to read werewolf minds. Expecting anything less out of this class was on him, because he knew what they were like. The unfortunate part was that he couldn’t even blame any of their previous professors like his year used to do when he was in school, because he had taught them last year as well. Apparently it was just going to be one of those years again.

After asking for final questions and not seeing anything immediately, Blaise turned back to the blackboard and started scribbling a few more notes down underneath the Legilimency header. He already knew this was going to get Krum to ask more questions because she had already tried to get into it earlier. Turning back, he spotted a hand raised by one of the Bainbridge triplets. It was safe to assume that she had some time to think about Occlumency while he was writing. “Yes Miss Bainbridge? Question about Occlumency?” he asked her, as he went back to the board and added keywords like Incantation, Detection, and Influence while waiting for her to ask the question. While Legilimency was newer to him, he still found it to be the more difficult of the two. One could easily steel their mind against invaders with enough practice. Invading someone’s mind and digging through everything to find what you need? That took skill and intent.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

September 4, 2025

It took Professor Zabini a few seconds to realize that she had raised her hand to ask a question, which really wasn't anything new. He asked if she had a question about Occlumency, and Penelope nodded her head as she began to speak.

"Sir, erm, you mentioned that a very strong Occlumens can prevent or reduce magic like, er, the Imperius Curse or Veritaserum…" She wanted to make sure that she had properly contextualized her question first. "But, erm… Must an Occlumens know what it is they're trying to resist in order to resist it?" she wondered.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[blaise leo zabini]

▲

It made sense that the majority of the questions thus far were about the more complicated aspects of the ability. He wouldn’t be lying if he said even he hadn’t mastered specific parts of the skill. Twenty-five years of practice and honing his Occlumency in two separate fields where it was extremely necessary and Blaise refused to call himself a master Occlumens. There were far stronger users out there, and that went for Legilimens as well. While he could claim victory over achieving both, which not many could do, it was a completely different thing to achieve complete mastery of either of them. That was where it seemed like the class seemed to be getting hung up the most. Had he said that Occlumency could block some very strong and potent magicks? Yes. Was it conceivable that someone trained as an Occlumens could pull that off without realizing it? Sure. All the time? Nope.

“Of course. How can they suppress their thoughts if they don’t know what exactly is affecting them? We’re talking about extremely high levels of Occlumency here when it comes to outright preventing the Imperius Curse or Veritaserum. Someone drinking from a Veritaserum poisoned cup or hit in the back by Imperius isn’t going to know what hit them. Is it possible to fight it off throughout it? Maybe. In more direct approaches I’d say that a master Occlumens might fare better with either of those. At least they’ll know what they’re dealing with then.” Blaise knew this was only simple to him because he had spent his whole life working on it. If Hogwarts had done their due diligence, neither of these would have been pushed off to the side until seventh year. Any student that was looking to get into law enforcement or politics would eventually run into someone that was proficient in either ability. Those that had secrets to guard or could benefit off of knowing anything they wanted thrived at the tippy-top.

“Occlumency is used to fend off those attempting to access your mind. Knowing what the attacker is employing on you is the first step. That’s why it works effectively as a counter to Legilimency, which would be the most common attempt anyways, and why you don’t see many examples of things like what I’ve already mentioned. I’d hazard that anyone guarding against the Imperius curse, while probably having a strong will and remarkable mental fortitude, is also probably an extremely paranoid individual.” And while there were a lot of horrible things currently happening in their world, there weren’t too many things the average witch or wizard could implement that would prevent the most atrocious of magic from effecting them. That was the unfortunate fact of it. “In short, there’s almost no point in guarding against it if you don’t know what it is in the first place. How do you build a defense against that?”

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

September 4, 2025

"Of course. How can they suppress their thoughts if they don’t know what exactly is affecting them? We’re talking about extremely high levels of Occlumency here when it comes to outright preventing the Imperius Curse or Veritaserum," Professor Zabini reminded her. Penelope hoped that her question hadn't been quite so obvious. The way that the professor was answering it, though, made her far less certain of herself. Did everything else in the classroom think that it was a pointless question? She didn't know, but she was nervous that her classmates thought that she was stupid.

Professor Zabini also mentioned that someone drinking from a cup laced with Veritaserum or hit with the Imperius Curse wasn't just going to know that that was what had happened, which also sounded blatantly obvious once it was explained to her in that way.

He continued. "Occlumency is used to fend off those attempting to access your mind. Knowing what the attacker is employing on you is the first step. That’s why it works effectively as a counter to Legilimency, which would be the most common attempt anyways, and why you don’t see many examples of things like what I’ve already mentioned. I’d hazard that anyone guarding against the Imperius Curse, while probably having a strong will and remarkable mental fortitude, is also probably an extremely paranoid individual."

Penelope nodded a little.

"In short, there’s almost no point in guarding against it if you don’t know what it is in the first place. How do you build a defense against that?"

"I, erm…" Penelope began to feel foolish for having asked the question in the first place and looked around before looking back to Professor Zabini. "I don't know, Professor…"

blaise leo zabini
@katiya

[Deleted]

blaise leo zabini && maxima ruqayyah greyback & penelope raisa bainbridge

kat had spent most of the last few moments lost in her own thoughts about occlumency and legilimency. they were two skills that she wanted to learn because with what she wanted to do when she left hogwarts they'd come in handy with what she wanted to do. to get into the minds of dark wizards and to explore and dissect and learn if there was something that connected them all, some sort of pattern of thinking or whether it was all just random. she'd always been interested in how the brain worked and how people became what they did so it was actually an exciting topic for her.

when she was listening. she shook her head a little as she started to pay attention to professor zabini again just in time to hear penelope ask him a question. the question was a little confusing but obviously there was an answer, wasn't there? otherwise he wouldn't have asked it. she leaned forward after penelope said that she didn't know the answer and even though she'd been reminded just moments before, she forgot to raise her hand again. "isn't some defence better than none though? so even if you don't know that someone is using occlumency against you, isn't some mental strength going to form barriers they need to work harder to get through? or is it only defendable with legilimency?"

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 4, 2025

Max was beginning to feel sort of sorry for Penelope Bainbridge and glanced over in the Hufflepuff girl's direction as she practically shook in her seat. She didn't sound very sure of herself at all as she responded to Professor Zabini, and Max understood why she would have been confused by what the professor was saying. He was asking her a number of questions that were almost certainly rhetorical, yet Penelope seemed to feel compelled to answer him as though he weren't asking her something that was intentionally (and maybe a bit unfairly) complex. Was Professor Zabini expecting an answer out of her? That seemed sort of harsh, though Professor Zabini was hardly known around Hogwarts for being a soft touch.

Still, she waited with her quill at the ready, resting it so that ink didn't spill out of the writing instrument and ruin her notes. If there was anything worth taking notes on, Max was sure that Professor Zabini would place enough emphasis on it—and Penelope Bainbridge would probably be reduced to tears by that point, too, she assumed. There wasn't very much that she could do to help her, though.

The Slytherin turned her head away from Penelope when she heard someone else speak suddenly. It was Kat Krum who had interrupted once again without raising her hand to be called upon, though her having spoken up was probably Penelope Bainbridge's saving grace at that point in the lesson. She questioned if it was still the case that some defense was better than none—which seemed to be Max's own thoughts on the matter, too—and if some sort of mental barrier was still better than leaving one's mind vulnerable to the reach of a Legilimens. If it wasn't, then what was the point of trying to build any sort of defense that wasn't completely perfect? Why would anyone even try to learn Occlumency? No one would be an expert at it overnight, so wouldn't they just… give up?

The fact that Kat had spoken out of turn probably wouldn't be seen favorably by Professor Zabini, of course, but maybe it would be enough to distract him from the conversation and save Penelope from so much embarrassment, Max considered. Moving her gaze back down to her notes again to pretend that she wasn't actually watching on to see what would happen next, she took in a little breath for Penelope's sake.

blaise leo zabini
@katiya