Chapter 69: Home, Potion, and Cure (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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Quinn turned back and closed the door behind him. He nodded to George and Elliot, who were standing there as he closed the door. ”I will be back in a few.”

Turning back towards Alan, Quinn slowly walked to the chair in front of the old man and took a seat.

”Hello, Mr. Alan,” greeted Quinn. Alan could see the clear signs of occlumency from Quinn's face.

”So, I hear you messed up,” Alan spoke, and Quinn just stared at his mind-arts teacher's usual, almost ever-present smile.

He hadn't changed a single bit in the three years. Alan D. Baddeley was still the joyous old man who had a penchant for peeking into other's mind,

”I did. I really did.” Quinn nodded in response. Alan was here to help him, so Quinn didn't gain anything from lying or hiding things. And, currently, with his occlumency operating full time, he had a serious edge of logic in his thoughts.

”I want you to ready your bracelet and get ready to defend yourself.” Quinn got straight to the point. ”This is what is happening with me.”

”Ah, yes. The rampaging magic I was told about. I think that is a good place to start.” Alan brought his hands together and touched his focus bracelet with his other hand. ”Go ahead. I am ready.”

The two people in the room didn't waste any time catching up after three years of separation. Both knew that they could do it afterward. Quinn desperately wanted to know what was happening to him and solve it to get this crisis behind him. While Alan could see that Quinn wasn't having a good time.

”Okay, here I go.”

The next second, Alan immediately pulled up a transparent shield just as a spell was hurled towards him. ”Oh, that was close.”

He watched with keen attention as various activities of magic manifested into the room. There was nothing to be observed from the out-of-control magic. As the name suggested, it was out of control.

After Alan was satisfied seeing this unusual sight, he turned his eyes to his young student, who had his eyes squeezed shut and struggle on his face.

Immediately Alan sent a mental probe into Quinn's mind, and he was a little surprised to see that Quinn's shields were fully down. Right now, he was no different from a person without an occlumency shield.

Alan dove into Quinn's mind and saw that the mindscape had changed in the last three years.

”Oh my, now that is a magnificent structure,” Alan smiled as he saw the enormous building in front of him.

Hogwarts castle stood in all its magnificent glory. Even the surroundings were changed to look like the surroundings of the real Hogwarts.

”He built this in three years? Impressive.” Alan was impressed because of the sheer size of the castle. He could tell that the castle was functioning memory storage and not a work in progress before a memory gateway initiation.

But right now, he didn't have time to admire the structure, neither did he need to go through Quinn's memories.

'Let's go check his emotional status,' said Alan, and instantly, he was not in the mindscape with the enormous castle.

The space he arrived in was grey, with the color tending towards black rather than white. Inside the grey, there were dark distortion-like vortexes littered around the space.

”Well, with his magic out of control, it makes sense that his head is not right,” noted Alan as he looked around. ”He loves magic after all.”

Alan was standing in Quinn's emotional representation. An experienced legilimens or occlumens could access their own or someone else's sentimental representation. You couldn't influence emotions from here, and this was just a place you could judge a person's emotions.

Emotions were a complex concept that every mind-arts user studied extensively. And if they were serious about learning about mind-arts and the mysteries of the mind, then there would come a time in every mind-art user when they would have to confront their emotions.

The dark greyness in Quinn's emotional representation clearly showed that Quinn was in a darker state of mind, and the darker vortexes that he was struggling with some mental problems.

Take Alan for an example: he was an avid advocate of mental health, and if anyone got the almost non-existent opportunity to get a look inside Alan's emotional representation, then they would find that it was a very light color of grey, a color very close to white.

The lighter the color of the space, the better mental condition they were in.

Alan took care of his mental condition and didn't have any delusions about himself. He confronted almost every issue about himself and got to the root of the problem. In doing that, he would attain closure and help his mental situation.

A complete white emotional space was only present in infants, toddlers, or very young children. Any age above that would have different shades of grey because such was life, and they were sentimental beings; no person was perfect.

The distortion-like vortexes were the real cause of problems; they were what messed up with Quinn's mind and, in turn, his magic.

Removing his eyes from the grey space, Alan gazed at the bright and colorful arrangement in front of him.

What Alan was seeing was a vast network of light orbs of various sizes connected to each other. The connections between them were of varying lengths and pulsed from time to time. Alan could think of every color he knew, and he would find it in the bright and colorful network.

There were so many connections that, to the naked eye, it was a complex network of lines and orbs. But, to a mind-arts specialist like Alan, it was nothing but an open book.

”No matter how many times I see this. It never ceases to amaze me,” murmured Alan as he looked at the complex network.

This was the core of Quinn's emotions. Every emotion he had ever felt connected to each other in a complex network.

This was a core part of Quinn West's personality. Personality was defined as the character sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors.

Emotions heavily influenced a person's personality and attitude toward things. The more you experienced various situations, the more you form opinions, and with those opinions would come emotions regarding those experiences.

”Hmm... this isn't out of coordination,” noticed Alan. There was nothing wrong with Quinn's emotional network. ”He isn't feeling unnatural bouts and spurts of emotions or nothing else.”

”Well, Quinn did state that whatever was done to him came undone.”

Alan remembered the day when George West personally had come to his door to request his help. It was a shock to see the influential man contact him personally and not through someone else.

George had told him that Quinn had requested his help. The initial information given to him was that Quinn's magic was out of control, and it was because he was under the influence of some kind of magic.

Quinn stated when the magic came undone, his magic went out of control.

”This enough for now,” said Alan.

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- (Scene Break) -

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When Alan came out of Quinn's mind, he spoke to his student.

”Alright, you can stop, Quinn,” spoke Alan.

With a sudden, sharp, and erratic intake of air, Quinn clamped down on his occlumency. Immediately, all magic stopped, and Quinn went expressionless.

Quinn's eyes remained closed for around a minute before he opened them and flatly asked, ”What is wrong with me?”

”Other than a darker state of mind, I have found nothing wrong with your mind,” replied Alan. ”Of course -.”

But a shout from Quinn cut Alan's explanation.

”What!” Immediately, Quinn's occlumency cracked slightly under the bout of anger. ”Did you just not see the rampant magic?! How can you say that nothing is wrong with me?”

Rampant magic once again manifested in the room as the temperature rose.

Alan sighed before he cast magic, and immediately Quinn's pupils dilated, and he calmed down.

”I am using mind magic on you to calm you down,” spoke Alan. ”How are you feeling now? Calmed down?”

Quinn nodded as he patched up his occlumency and detached his emotions from himself. Alan also retrieved his magic as Quinn brought himself under control.

”As I was saying, that there is nothing wrong with your emotions right now. They are functioning like a normal person, albeit a normal person under a lot of stress,” Alan spoke in a calming voice, making sure that he didn't agitate Quinn. ”But, we have only started. There is a good chance that I might have missed something, so have patience. You have already been like this for a few weeks; you can wait for a little while.”

Quinn nodded in reply and patiently waited for Alan's instruction.

”I will need some memories,” Alan said as he crossed his on his lap. ”I need to know what actually happened to you.”

Alan didn't even ask for Quinn's account of the entire situation and went straight for the memories. He was sure that his student would recognize that showing memories would be much more efficient and resourceful than Quinn telling him things using words.

”I expected that,” replied Quinn. ”It took me days under this condition to create a collection of memories that will get you up to speed.”

”Oh ho ho, you are prepared. That is nice,” Alan remarked at the news from Quinn.

”I had weeks to think about this situation. Even though I wasn't able to get myself better, I did make sure that I had everything in hand for you.”

Alan tilted his head and asked, ”What would you have done if I had refused?”

Quinn mechanically shrugged, ”I wasn't thinking about that. I am sure that if you refused, grandfather would have brought in someone else. But, if I am being honest, I knew you would come.”

If Quinn didn't have his occlumency detaching his emotion from him, then he would have been smiling, but he couldn't even do that as his magic would have come alive and shot out fireworks into the air at the very least.

Alan laughed at that statement, ”Well, it turned out you were right. Here I am sitting in front of you.”