The Mysteries of Occlumency - High and Low

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 148498

> Steve/bboyminn wrote: 
> We have the examples (of occlumency) that come to us from Harry's 
point of view, primarily in the Occlumency lessons with Snape. Snape 
starts a cascade of thoughts in Harry's mind, and Harry tries to 
stop them from coming.

Goddlefrood:

The actual mechanism for blocking or compartmentalising a portion of 
the mind is not described with any great clarity. Harry's attempts 
are universally unsuccessful until he inadvertently (or as some 
speculate through LV's influence) performs Legilimency on Snape. He 
is later informed that he is too emotional to be a good Occlumens.

I find it reasonable to suppose that Occlumency usually involves eye 
contact, as indeed does Legilimency. However, due to its root in the 
word occlude it also seems reasonable to conclude that the actual 
process involves clouding a memory or cloaking it if you will. 
Perhaps not entirely dissimilar to what Uncle Horace originally did 
to his Horcrux memory.

Also when Snape briefly discusses Draco's Occlumency "skills" it 
seems that the memory Draco does not want Severus to probe is tucked 
away in a part of his mind that the attempting Legilimens can not 
access. This would lead me to the further conclusion that LV has 
done the same thing to block out Harry, that is he has erected a 
wall to access through telekinesis (which is somewhat akin to the 
process at work between Harry and LV in OotP).

The alternative, which may lead to further speculation regarding 
book 7 (but not by me at this stage), would be that LV has 
compartmentalised his memories of Harry and shut them off, 
effectively having no recollection of Harry until he accesses the 
blocked portion of his memory. 

> Steve/bboyminn (later in his article):
> http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/occlumency.html
> "Occlumency is the art of magically defending the mind against
> external penetration, sealing it against magical intrusion and
> influence - the defensive counter to Legilimency. A practitioner of
> Occlumency is referred to as an Occlumens."

Goddlefrood (with apologies to Mr. Van der Ark):

The lexicon, while ectremely thorough and most usually correct, is 
not infallible. One instance is its view on the Death Eater page 
that the big blond death eater and the brutal faced death eater are 
possibly one and the same when clearly that is impossible for 
reasons I intend to go into in a post regarding the skirmish at 
Hogwarts.

I would add to the definition by saying that Occlumency is practiced 
when eye contact is made, much the same as Legilimency (that is 
usually). A Legilimens would, in an attempt to extract information, 
explore the memories. An Occlumens would be able to put up a barrier 
to this, and in the case of a successful one the attempting 
Legilimens would not be aware of the barrier.

IMHO an Occlumens need not be constantly vigilant for attacks on his 
memories as, except in the case of the telekinetic (I use this for 
want of a better word) link that exists between Harry and LV, 
whomsoever wanted access to the memory would need to be in direct 
contact with the person holding that memory. This is perhaps why 
Occlumency is said to be a rather obscure branch of magic as it is 
rarely necessary due to the lack of skilled Occlumens or Ligilimens.

Hope this helps in some small way

Goddlefrood