[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

It was later than Odhrán thought when he finally looked up from his book. It was pitch black outside. Even the street lights in Knockturn Alley had been extinguished a while ago, not that they were bright to begin with. His office was swelteringly warm. The fireplace and candles had been burning for hours, so it was no wonder. Odhrán stepped to the window, opened it wide a drew a deep breath.

His most recent case had him stuck, and even the hours of research he'd just put in hadn't taken him closer to finding a solution. It wasn't surprising, but that didn't mean it wasn't frustrating. He wanted to help and being forced into the role of a passive bystander never sat well. Alas, he had reached the end of the line on what he could do today. A bath, sleep, and some food, not necessarily in that order, would be a good idea before taking another stab at his problem. He'd think better once his batteries had been recharged.

Odhrán stepped back from the window and looked around his office, noting that he hadn't filed away his herbs and medicinal potion supplies. He had been experimenting earlier on in the evening, thinking he'd finally come up with something, only to notice that the needed ingredients wouldn't combine in the medically necessary proportions. Perhaps, it was time to involve a professional potioneer who had more experience with stabilising magically volatile mixtures. Dynamics between potions ingredients had never been his strong suit. There was a reason he ran a spell damage and memory clinic rather than a pharmacy.

As he was vanishing a failed brew from the inside of his cauldron, he heard somebody knocking on the door. This was strange. It was well past his usual office hours and naturally Odhrán wasn't expecting anybody at the clinic. He had few friends who would stop by unexpectedly. The likely scenario was that it was either his mother or sister apparating in to check up on him. He supposed he'd been expected back home a couple of hours ago. Nevertheless, it was confusing. Why not just send an owl or call via the floo? He didn't like the idea of either woman loitering around the clinic at night on their own. Knockturn Alley was not a safe place for ladies.

He descended down the stairs to investigate. When he opened the door a rather unexpected sight greeted him. There were two men standing there. One he did recognise, the other he was certain he hadn't seen before. Judging from the vacant look in the unfamiliar man's face all the lights were turned on, but nobody was home. An accident then?

"Come on in," Odhrán said quietly. "What happened?"

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

"I am sorry for intruding at such a late hour, but the choice was here or St. Mungo's and I decided you were the better option" the comment was spoken in a cool even tone though the man's body language betrayed some of the panic he felt. It was supposed to be a run of the mill operation for the Unspeakables. Pyxis and his partner, under the effects of Polyjuice Potion, were to attend a gathering hosted by a family rumoured to hold tomes and artefacts related to magic of the mind. As the strongest Occlumens hired by the department, at least under the age of fifty, it had been decided Pyxis and William were the best ones for the task. A task which had been going well until it wasn't.

With a flick and swish of the twenty six year olds wrist William's body floated several inches from the ground and was directed on to Odhran's couch. The physical exertion of dragging the man, who was completely unaware of the outside world, would have been more trouble than it was worth. "William here has been in contact with a cursed object! I suspect it had a compulsion charm, even his Occlumency wasn't strong enough to resist."  The ability to sense and resist mind altering magic's was usually one of the advantages of possessing a talent for the more passive of the two well-known magic's related to the mind. But it had failed them this time.

"I used legilimency to try and figure out what was wrong, but well... I'll let you see for yourself" the words spoken in a grave tone. The Pureblood had never been a fan of admitting he was incapable of something. When Pyxis had entered William's mind it had looked as though the equivalent of a mental bomb had gone off. The man's memories and cognitive functions were disordered jumbles and there were holes for lack of a better word. A sense that there were places that should have held memories, but didn't only leaving a sense of emptiness in their wake. It was what he imagined the mind of those who had suffered from long term exposure to the Cruciatus Curse looked like; although he'd never inhabited such a thing to be sure.

"I have been trained to extract information, but healing damage... that wasn't something my teacher found worth focusing on" he admitted simply as explanation for turning to Odhran rather than trying to handle the matter himself. The Unspeakable left the fact he feared further damaging the man's mind unsaid. There were limits to the amount of weakness the proud pureblood was willing to show. He sighed as he eyed the mind healer. Asking and not demanding help wasn't something the Briton was used to. "Would you be willing to help us?" It went unsaid that between his Ministry wages and living in a home owned by the Abercrombie family he was more than able to cover any expenses.

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

"Come on in, and do close the door behind you."

Well, this was unexpected. Odhrán lifted both hands to help with levitating William onto one of the sofas in the reception area. A cursed item doing severe mental damage? Ouch. That had to have hurt a lot.

"I'll take a look." Odhrán promised, but his attention shifted back from William to Pyxis. "How about you? All good, or did you get some of the blast as well?" A quick once over told Odhrán that Pyxis was probably fine, but it always paid off to make sure. Sometimes, people missed their own trauma in a bid to help a friend or loved one.

"He is gifted as well?" Odhrán asked, just to confirm. If he was, that made the whole thing a little scarier. It wasn't easy to get the better of a trained ministry occlumens. What kind of energy had been feeding that cursed object for him to not be able to evade. Crap. Odhrán's immediate instinct was that there might not be much he could do about it. But, first things first. He would never give up on a patient before he'd even started a proper investigation. Something would come to him. Something always did.

"Do you know anything about the object? What was it designed to do?" Answer probably no, but it didn't hurt to check that either just in case.

How curious that Pyxis had come to him instead of St Mungo's though. The man had chosen to forego official channels to see him and he was hardly the ministry's favourite person. He had little doubt that the other man knew who he was by now and what people said about him and still he was extending his trust. That was a big compliment in a way. Odhrán appreciated it.

"Would you like to learn some first aid for this kind of thing?" Odhrán asked. He'd never really tried to teach mind healing before, but he liked his young ministry friend and maybe he would do some good by spreading the knowledge to someone who could actually apply it.

Retrieving his wand from a slim pocket on his frock coat, Odhrán cast a quick legillimens on the patient to establish a loose mental connection. With the man more of less catatonic there wasn't much resistance as he had a look around. Yes, Pyxis was right, there was definitely a disrupted quality to this man's mind.

"I ... assume I shouldn't look too closely as there might be things for me to see here I shouldn't know about, right?" This was his best way of asking exactly what business these two were involved in. "Is there a chance that, um, there is something specific your mate here would normally remember that was the target of this curse? A superficial look tells me that someone, well I guess something, attempted partial obliviation here. Very clumsily, I might add. Still, my first impression is that the goal was to erase something specific in this mind and the rest being collateral. Any thoughts on what that could be?"

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

Pyxis offered the healer an appreciative look as he welcomed them into Meridian. When Odhrán queried on his wellbeing he shook his head to let the older man know he hadn't been caught in the blast. While the Abercrombie's ego liked to think he would have fared better against the compulsion charms cast around the object it was more likely he was just lucky to have not been in the room at the time. Thankfully, there was no need for the Unspeakable to go into such detail.

When Odhran queried about William's abilities he nodded in agreement, but before he could elaborate any further the man had moved on to his next question. While not a healer Pyxis knew the importance of timing in these situations and therefore decided it was time to keep his responses to the minimum until Odhrán had asked about all the things he needed to know. "I would. I think tonight has clearly demonstrated why it would be good to expand my knowledge of Occlumency." The comment was offered in a somewhat aloof tone, but Pyxis was in fact rather excited by the opportunity to expand his knowledge of the more passive mind art even further. While he wished it was happening in better circumstances there was no denying he enjoyed learning new things about the areas of magic that interested him.

The twenty six year old watched with keen interest as the healer established a connection between his mind and William's. He sighed as Odhran began to question him about the exact nature of their activities that evening. It was a question he had known was coming and felt he would have to answer given the circumstances. It went against every instinct to share a part of him not even Farren knew about, but there was something about Odhrán he felt he could trust. He was certainly a more appealing option than the hacks at St. Mungo's. If left to them his Unspeakable status would be public before the morning edition of the Daily Prophet was released. While not quite as infamous as more prominent members of the Abercrombie and Hartridge families his close association with his cousin Farren still made him a figure of public interest.

"William and I... we do occasional work for the Unspeakables. Mostly following leads related to books and other objects related to areas of magic that have perked their interest." The admission was somewhat of an understatement, but there was no need for him to reveal all of their secrets. "We were assigned to attend a gathering at the Payne Estate and do some snooping around while we were there for signs that the rumours of them holding an array of artefacts related to magic of the mind were true. We got separated and I can only guess the rumours must be true as I found William like this a short while ago." Pyxis didn't mention the fact that he had used a particularly well cast confundus charm to persuade the few who had witnessed it that Pyxis had simply left with William after the latter had one too many drinks.

"So what can we do to help him" the young purebloods use of the word 'we' was intentional. There was no scenario in which he'd refuse the man's offer to not only teach him something new, but allow him to help his co-worker in the process.

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

Unspeakable. Well, he should have seen that coming. Odhrán let out a little sigh. "Say no more. I know better than wishing for any involvement with The Department." That was the phrase his father had usually employed when talking about his workplace. Nothing good had ever come from the stories of that place.

There was one little tidbit that captured Odhrán's attention anyway, despite his best efforts to employ selective hearing.

"The Paynes. Spicy."

It was a family name he'd heard before, usually mentioned in conjunction with the Harsents and prostitution if memory served. People didn't have a lot of good to say about these individuals and their dealings had always been questionable. Having a sideline in potentially illicit mind magic seemed like exactly the kind of thing these families were usually involved in. To what end though? Maybe they had pledged allegiance to that... Odhrán didn't even want to finish the thought.

"Sounds to me like you both got lucky getting out of there at all. I'd tell you to be more careful, but I suppose this sort of thing is an occupational risk for you."

Odhrán returned his attention to the patient. He seemed stable enough, though Odhrán cast a slew of diagnostic spells just to make sure that he hadn't missed anything that might not have been obvious at first glance.

"I think," he ventured carefully, "given the parameters of your mission that this was a defensive rather and offensive tactic. A way of making your colleague forget what he's seen."

"Rather fortunately for us I have a lot of experience of dealing with obliviated patients. I'm sure you'll have picked up the general facts about the spell at some point, but something people often miss is that the spell doesn't really erase anything, it just suppresses the memory from consciousness. Facts or knowledge of a specific thing are quite easy to remove, but memories tied to emotion are much harder to render inaccessible. Often, only partial suppression is archived, where episodic memory is affected but emotional and scent memory remain intact."

Odhrán stepped to one of the medicine cabinets and produced two bottles of potion, one black and the other purple.

"Our starting point here is to find something that William has only partially forgotten. If you know anything about his personal life this might come in handy here. A person he loves, a time he was very happy or very sad. I doubt your artefact will have done a good job on something like that. If you can find a loose end, unravelling the whole becomes so much easier."

He unstoppered the purple potion and poured the content into the air holding it in suspended animation with a touch of wand-less magic.

"Now the other thing worth knowing is that obliviate, and actually a lot of curses, are parasitic in nature. Undoing an obliviate on a non-magical being is a lot easier than doing it on a witch or wizard. The innate magic of the victim keeps strengthening it. A lot of people think the only way to get somewhere is torture, but of course that's not necessarily true. Torture accomplishes two things. It activates an emotional response and the pain disrupts magical ability. Well, let's see if we can disrupt the latter temporarily in another way."

His fingers reached into the suspended potion and he spread it out into a thin layer. Odhrán applied a transfiguration spell to the liquid, changing its colour twice before vaporising it into a fine mist and sending it into the patients airway.

"Try pushing a thought now. Just anything personal you think would normally get you a reaction."

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

The Unspeakable said nothing when Odhran made his dig at the Department of Mysteries. While he had been a small boy when the scandal with the healer's father occurred, and therefore hadn't been made privy to the specifics, Pyxis knew enough to guess there would be a certain level of bitterness there. It was best not to touch on that he decided. While he sympathised with the man, Pyxis couldn't imagine having his own father torn away, he lacked the influence within the department to help the older man and his family in any meaningful way. And he could just imagine the reaction of the elders in his family had he gone to them pleading on behalf of a man far below them on the social hierarchy.

The twenty six year old listened attentively as Odhran explained the mechanics of Oblivation. While he had some knowledge of such matters the refresher, and in some instances expansion of knowledge, was useful nonetheless.
   
Pyxis watched with interest as Odhran spread the potion into a thin layer before transfiguring it into a fine mist. Under the current circumstances his curiosity was muted though he made a mental note to enquire about the process if there was time later. 

"A thought" he repeated in an arguably gormless manner. The Pureblood was certain that Odhran's assessment that torture was not the way to go was the correct one. He recalled reading of cases during his studies into mind magic where it had the opposite effect and forced the patient to retreat into themselves. However, what would be a suitable emotional tie to bring William back to them? The man was a work colleague not a close friend whose deepest secrets he was privy to.

The Legilimens smirked as an idea came to mind. With a wave of his wand and a whispered "Legilimens" a connection was established between the two. However, in what may have been a surprise to Odhran, Pyxis drew on a rather personal memory of his own rather than something directly connected to William. It was one of Pyxis as a small boy; he couldn't have been older than two, with his governess singing a traditional lullaby to him. It was a soothing memory and the closest thing to maternal Pyxis could draw on since his own mother had been more concerned with entertaining the ladies who lunch than spending time with her children.

With an ease that only came with practice the Unspeakable was able to push forward a more recent memory, a memory which added context to his previous unorthodox choice. It was of a young woman in her early twenties with delicate features, shoulder length black hair and a rather stunning set of blue eyes. The most important aspect of the memory though was the bump that was a tell-tale sign of pregnancy. The woman in question was William's wife Emily. Pyxis had only met the woman on a handful of occasions, but he knew from working alongside William long term the man was excited to become a father.

It seemed the Abercrombie's efforts had some effect. A small section of the man's jumbled mind seemed to pulse and while he wouldn't use the word order to describe it, it was certainly much tangible to the Legilimens senses. It wasn't much, but the change did allow Pyxis to grab on to a memory of his colleagues. The memory in question was clearly an intimate one. It was of the moment Emily had shared with him that he was going to become a father. William's happiness was so overpowering, so pure, it made even the aloof Abercrombie feel like perhaps there was a hole in his life.

The Legilimens sighed before he projected the tune of the earlier lullaby once more and partially withdrew from William's mind. The connection between them was now a tenuous one which allowed Pyxis to communicate with Odhran once more. "Sorry, that was the best I could do! What would you advice to do next? Or would it be easier for you to complete the next step?" While a proud man, arguably a supremely arrogant one, Pyxis could at least acknowledge there were times when it was better for him to cede control to another.

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

Odhran kept a close eye on proceedings given that he was working with an inexperienced friend who hadn't really tried to use his talents for healing before. To his surprise Pyxis seemed very proficient in pushing thoughts forward, which was a skill very few legillimens ever got any good at. Usually, obtaining information uncaught was more profitable than sharing information. It was therefore quite gratifying to see the man work so flawlessly and with apparent ease. He'd clearly put in a lot of hours studying technique.

The content of the image sent appeared appropriate as well. Odhrán didn't recognise the child in the memory and assumed it was the son or daughter of the patient. Reminding the man that he had a child he loved was a good idea. Odhrán expected a near instantaneous reaction from William, but it didn't come. How very strange. It was rare, in his experience, that parents didn't have strong emotional responses to their children. Maybe, he had been obliviated hard enough to not only interrupt episodic memory, but emotional memory as well. If the latter was the case, they would have to work exceptionally hard to address this situation.

Odhrán was about to interject with new instructions when Pyxis tried another image of a woman being pregnant. Now, that seemed to get a reaction. Interesting. Did their patient dislike his own child? It was a matter of curiosity, but now was not the time to ask questions. Pyxis instinctively reached for a memory that was bubbling to the surface and he tugged on it. Hm, the boy had good instincts. It wouldn't take very long at all to teach him how to be effective.

Then a slight misstep. Odhrán wasn't convinced the tune was the correct play to make. It was soothing, but it didn't seem to spark anything deeply personal for their patient. Still, it was an exceptionally good first attempt and he was quite impressed.

"Very good," he said simply. "You're understanding the principle of what to do. If you visualise obliviation as a barrier, you need to find a way to tear it down. Now, getting one thought pulled through is a start, but not enough to bring a mind back into focus. You need all his thoughts pushing at the barrier, and more cracks will form. I think the image of the woman, is a pretty decent place to start. Now, here is where you need a lot of technique and mental discipline to be effective. You need to latch onto the next thought before you let the first one go, and you need something that will cause an emotional chain reaction."

Odhrán shifted his stance a little to get a better angle for looking at the patient. He reached for William's arm, putting his hand there. "Physical contact can help with giving you a better connection. You have the right instincts here working with wand and spoken incantation. You want the cleanest link you can get for something like this. Let me show you how. This might take more than one attempt to damage the obliviation sufficiently."

Producing his wand, Odhrán established a fresh connection of his own with a loud and clear 'legillimens'. His plan was to rely on passion and feeling. Having seen the image of the woman he projected it again, but unlike Pyxis before took his time before choosing one of the emerging thoughts to reach for. Rather than tucking on the patient's paternal feelings, he went for a memory of a passionate moment William had shared with the mother. He didn't like pulling at such memories particularly, but they were usually quite visceral and therefore suitable for the purpose at hand. Other images seemed closer to the surface now. Odhrán reached as deeply as he could and pulled on a passionate moment shared with another lady. That memory sent him down the trail of a family argument, family faces blurred into childhood memories, childhood memories into memories of going to school. The look of concentration on Odhrán's face was intense. Sometimes, he seemed to be looking at two or three thoughts at the same time. Whenever something seemed to spark more, he was on it instantaneously, trying to liberate another memory in the man's mind.

Educational history blurred into images of joining the ministry and Odhrán sighed deeply. Oh, he so didn't want to look at anything these two men had done together. He closed his eyes and let the connection sever.

"Do you understand the technique? You need to cause an avalanche that leads you to tonight and whatever it was your colleague saw that triggered the obliviation. These spells tend to shatter like glass if you can find the one memory in there that anchors the spell. You saw that the quicker you react, the more comes to the surface. You just keep going. Now, I can do this for your friend, but I have no doubt the Department would prefer it if you did. I'd rather not know if I don't have to."

Odhrán looked around and pulled a chair from behind a desk bringing it over to the patient bed. "Best you sit. This can be really exhausting to do, especially if you're unused to holding a connection for a while."

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

The Pureblood offered Odhran an appreciative nod as he gracefully sat himself on the proffered chair. He extended an arm out so it made contact with his colleagues shoulder. While Pyxis was capable of establishing a connection without it the physical contact would certainly help ground him and make the connection even stronger and therefore more effective.

With a flick of his wrist the young Legilimens entered William's mind once more while uttering an audible "Legilimens". There was a noticeable difference in his colleague's mind after Odhran's efforts. Where before there had been holes and a sense of coldness and a stifling stillness; there was now pulsing energy. This was a mind that wanted to find its way home it only needed to be shown how. However, the man's thoughts were still an intimidatingly disjointed mess, but thanks to the older wizards instructions Pyxis felt a bit more confident about facing the challenge.

With a determined nod the twenty-six-year projected forward a memory of the two of them meeting as fresh faced twenty one year olds. A Legilimency connection this intimate made it harder to hide his feelings and with the memory Pyxis projected the nervousness he had felt at the time. Without giving himself time to stop and think Pyxis immediately latched on to a memory that suddenly came to his attention. It was another meeting between the two where William had helped Pyxis get back on his feet after a particularly embarrassing mishap in Legilimency training had resulted in the man landing flat on his backside. The Legilimens struggled not to smile at the memory, which was the day a comradery, if not friendship had formed between the two.

The Pureblood found himself flittering from memory to memory. Some he barely paid any heed to instantly dismissing them as completely irrelevant to his search for the memory of earlier that night. Others he considered promising only to realise they were from an earlier mission for the Unspeakable's rather than their current one.

The aura of discomfort and the grimace that appeared on his face when Pyxis came across a moment of passion between William and his wife may have proven to be particularly comical to an outsider observing his efforts. That was not a position he had ever desired to see his friend in. Pyxis squirmed as the feelings of both wanton passion and deep, intense and pure love washed over him. Pyxis felt uncomfortable; the Legilimens felt like he had just crossed some sort of line and intruded in an area of the man's mind he ought not to be in. These were not the type of feelings he was used to encountering in his every life. It was then that the connection between the two was suddenly severed; whether the severance was a result of Pyxis' discomfort or William's mind sensing it and shutting him out was unclear.

The Abercrombie took deep breathes as he became aware of the world around him. His face was flush with exertion as sweat dripped down his brow. Pyxis was not used to such extended applications of Legilimency. The nature of his work generally required gentle, non-invasive scans with the goal of preventing his victim from even realising he was there in the first place. A connection like this was something else. "I'm fine. Just give me a few seconds" he offered while lifting his hand from William's shoulder to forestall any expressions of concern Odhrán may have wished to give.

Once he felt adequately recovered Pyxis returned his hand to William's shoulder and once more intoned the incantation needed to establish a connection between the two. However, his efforts were in vain, whereas before he had a modicum of success now the memories kept slipping from his grasp. The Legilimens was able to only gather shadowy impressions at best before the memories would pop for a lack of a better word. Fearing further damage to his friends mind he broke the connection once more after only a few minutes had past.

"I can't I'm sorry... I just I need a break I think... and maybe a drink if you have any" he offered between laboured breathes from the mental and emotional exertion.

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

Odhrán had withdrawn his mind, but obviously was still watching Pyxis as best he could without being a part of the legillimency. It seemed that his friend had come across some images that were hard to digest. He could see how Pyxis' pose altered from relatively comfortable to stiff and awkward as he was tying to process what his friend William was letting him see. Odhrán could tell that the connection was about to snap. Pyxis' breathing had started to become affected, and he was starting to blink overly much. These were the usual signs that a connection was about to snap. Ah, and there if was. Pop.

The young man allowed himself a moment to gather his bearings and then made another attempt. Something seemed wrong with it right off the bat. Odhrán thought that perhaps Pyxis hadn't given himself enough time to recover. It was an easy mistake to make. He'd certainly been at the point himself where his own inner turmoil had grown out of control and sabotaged his every effort to be effective as a healer. It also had to be acknowledged that what they were trying to do was quite hard. There was a reason why many healers enjoyed no success with breaking obliviation.

The connection was broken again, and Pyxis looked up at him. "Yes, you can. You'll surprise yourself finding out what you can bear," Odhrán told him in a way that seemed somewhat merciless and allowed for no contradiction. "I know it's painful, but how you feel doesn't matter right now. Don't let it get in your way." His mind flashed back to being told these same words many years ago by his own mentor, Helene von Wittgenstein. He had been so angry with her at the time for being so hard on him. He wondered if Pyxis would similarly resent him now, but he needed to hear it. If he wanted to learn and truly understand how to do this, he would have to overcome his emotions.

Being somewhat more kind than Helene bad been with him many years ago, Odhrán put a hand on Pyxis shoulder. "I do agree though that you need a break. You're too worked up to be able to hold a connection. Don't worry, I won't let you do any harm or make this worse. I will stop you before you lose control." He thought these were the things he would have wanted to hear from his mentor those many years ago. Something kind and reassuring to soften the blunt truth of the fact that using these kinds of techniques was painful, invasive and as taxing on the healer as it was on the patient.

"Come with," he commanded Pyxis and ushered him into the little kitchenette behind the reception desk. He filled a kettle with water and cast a quick charm over it to heat it up to a suitable temperature. "Do you want anchan flowers or valerian?" He was pretty sure that Pyxis hadn't been asking for herbal tea but combining legillimency with alcohol was a terrible idea and he would not have it. Not on his watch. Retrieving some teacups and jars of tea leaves, he put some anchan flowers into a cup for himself and waited for Pyxis to give his verdict on the tea.

"You're probably better at concealing than at reading, aren't you?" It wasn't really a question so much as a way of opening a conversation. "And I'd imagine given who you work for everything you do is about subtlety and being undetected. When you are healing, there are no barriers and boundaries. You also need to do a lot of things that are quite unnatural, holding connections for a long time, applying a lot of brute strength to it. If you're unused to that it can be quite overwhelming. Most of the time, you can't talk about what you see, and that can be distressing too. I find committing memories to a pensieve after a session can help, but I do fray as well. Don't feel like you're doing poorly. That was a pretty impressive first outing."

"Now, lemme try to help you with technique so that when you try this again,  - which you will -, it'll become a little bit easier. I think you've figured out the basic idea now of creating a chain of events. You pulled different memories as fast as they came up, trying to keep a hold. It's pretty wild as a process; you try to reach, but things come that you didn't necessarily want to see and that don't bring you closer to where you are going. Now, controlling this is hard, but there are a few things you can do."

Odhrán added some more hot water to his tea and stirred it in carefully. "If you draw a very emotional moment, usually those moments trigger others that are similar. So, when I showed you I pulled a moment with one lady, which gave us another moment with another lady and then gave us a connection to family. Now, I pulled there to show you because I thought it was the least likely to lead me to anything I shouldn't be seeing. If you remember any emotional moments from working together or something more closely related to what we're trying to get to, well, that should help."

"You can try to split focus while reaching for the next memory. Now, this is hard to learn to hold two things in your mind at once, but it can be done. Viewing one memory closely while skimming over a few others to decide which one to pull at next. I did when I showed you and just pulled the one that seemed the most emotional each time, but of course you can try to sort this by subject matter. It's possible though to run into dead ends if you do that, where you reach a memory that sparks nothing else. Am I making sense?"

It was strange trying to put how legillimency worked into words. Not something he normally had to do, and he wasn't entirely sure the attempt was successful. He'd never fancied taking an apprentice of his own, even if Helene had suggested it to him before.

Odhrán opened one of the kitchen cabinets and retrieved a block of Swiss chocolate. "Take a piece, helps with more than dementors."

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

It was a clear sign of the emotional turmoil he felt when Pyxis sighed in response to Odhran's harsh words. The Unspeakable knew the healer was right. He was the only one present with the skills needed to free William from the curse, at least without bringing down the wrath of his bosses on the Unspeakable and putting Odhran in danger, and he would be in danger. Pyxis was under no delusions about the dangerous nature of the people he worked for. It was one of the main reasons he worked hard to ensure those he cared for remained completely separate from this part of his life. That and he feared his Aunt Victoria would seek to use him for her own means if she knew of the connections he'd formed within the Unspeakables and just how powerful at the mind arts he'd become.

The Pureblood wizard followed Odhrán to the kitchenette as commanded choosing to take a seat while the man began to brew tea for them both. "Valerian would be lovely" he answered politely while longingly thinking of the bottle of Schletter's sitting in his study. While alcohol sounded positively delightful the brunette also knew that mixing new forays into Legilimency with liquor was far from a good idea.

He nodded in quiet concession as Odhrán called him out on his inclination towards using Occlumency more often than it's more offensive counterpart. Pyxis had always been quite good at concealing his emotions. He had been raised in a family who were proud of their longstanding history and had strict standards of behaviour as a result. Emotions were seen as a sign of weakness, which could only to be shown in one's most private and intimate moments, if at all. His skills in Occlumency were a natural extension of this mind set. The idea of others pilfering through the contents of his mind without permission was horrifying to the brunette. Plus, it was kind of fun playing with skilled Legilimens when he came into contact with them. Allowing them to think they had an advantage over him when in reality he was only allowing them to see what he wanted them to see.

The Unspeakable listened with rapt attention as Odhrán further explained how the process worked. It was obvious just from hearing him speak that the man was truly a prodigy in the fields of healing and the mind arts. It was no wonder Pyxis' research into the healer after their previous encounter revealed the man had become a department head at such a young age. What Pyxis couldn't understand was what a mind as brilliant as this was doing working in a dingy little clinic in one of the dodgiest areas of London when he could be leading a team at any one of the world's finest healing establishments. It was only then that Pyxis realised the events of his earlier forays into Legilimency had left his Occlumency barriers less iron clad than usual. Had Odhrán heard his musings? That would have been decidedly awkward. He had come to the man for help not to offend him after all.

He took the proffered chocolate and decided to try and push pas the potential social faux pas by softly commenting "I can do split focusing. I mean I've read the theory behind it and while I've never had reason to actively practise it I feel I have enough of a foundation to pull it off." It seemed a bit of chocolate and time to process what had happened not to mention hearing the words of an expert had helped to restore his confidence. Pyxis was a natural talent at the mind arts. He had always been praised by his bosses at the Unspeakables as such and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

"You clearly know more about this than the vast majority of Legilimens in the country. Why do you use these skills for healing rather than something else?" There was no judgement behind the words he was simply curious. Pyxis knew something of the issues with his sister from gossip amongst their peers, but why stay in healing when she was doing so much better now? And why did he run a small clinic in Knockturn Alley rather than something more lucrative elsewhere? While he chose not to judge Odhrán for his choices in life said choices were hard to comprehend for a former member of the house of ambition.

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

Odhrán looked at Pyxis with a bit of indecision. After discussing technique his friend had quite a personal question and Odhrán wasn't sure if he had a good answer to it. He wanted to encourage Pyxis and reassure him, but he was unconvinced that sharing his history would accomplish that. At the same time, if he was teaching this young man he probably deserved a bit of a background as to who Odhrán was that didn't come from a ministry file.

"I'm not sure I have a very useful answer to that, but since you are taking a break, I suppose we have time for you to hear it."

There was also a part of him quite excited about making a friend and letting somebody in.

"Believe it or not, I never wanted to be a legillimens. It just happened to me. I'm even less sure if I wanted to be a healer. But my sister, which I think you'll have read all about in your ministry files, needed me to be both. And when obligation calls you answer."

There was no point In making more words of it. Legillimency hadn't felt like a choice he'd made and healing certainly didn't either. He'd been in a situation where that path had been his only option and where no other choice had felt possible.

"I learned the mind arts for the sake of being able to communicate with my sister when she could no longer speak for herself. That's why I'm a vastly better legillimens than occlumens. My particular brand of mind magic isn't suited to clandestine operations. Combining with healing came naturally and I quickly fell in love with it. I think there are few people who can claim to have a calling. I do. Even if I don't always enjoy it. Even if I'd have liked to be a musician. Sometimes, you just know something in your life is meant to be a certain way. I was meant to be a healer and a legillimens too. Both run in my blood. I think fate would have always delivered me here."

It felt heavy to say those words. Odhrán wasn't a big believer in fate, but as far as his path was concerned, no matter his many doubts, his burnout, his struggles, he was certain it was the one he was meant to be on. Something about it resonated deeply.

"But I can see the question in your eyes. Why here when I've held a few positions more prestigious than this one? Well, I don't like taking orders from idiots and the managerial challenges of running a hospital don't interest me. I also missed home. Working from Canada was brilliant for a while, but it just made it hard to see my family. And St Mungo's was never an option. They couldn't afford me if they wanted to and there are no circumstances under which I'd consider working for Aurelius Audish. I believe I already said, I don't take orders from idiots. Or  crooks."

He gave Pyx a little smile.

"Okay, that's enough storytelling. We ought to fix up your friend. You should make another attempt before you start to feel the tiredness in your bones."

[Pyxis Abercrombie]

Pyxis nodded in confirmation when Odhrán correctly guessed he'd done some research into the man after their last encounter. There were very few people the Pureblood would profess to care about. There were his parents, though in truth that at times felt more like a social obligation expected of him than anything else; there was his sister Cordelia, and of course his Cousin Farren who felt more like a second sister down to the constant bickering they shared. The Pureblood couldn't imagine what it would be like to have them standing before him, but in such a state they couldn't communicate or show any other signs of awareness. It sounded like a terrible fate, arguably worse than what Miss Ní Dalaigh had gone through depending on her level of awareness during that period. Pyxis was also certain he'd have learnt Legilimency also in Odhrán's position.

The twenty-eight-year-old listened politely as the mind healer spoke with such conviction about his calling. Pyxis knew his work with the Unspeakables was important, but did it invoke such passion in him? Did his goal of one day joining the Wizengamot to play his part in maintaining Wizarding tradition inspire him? Or was he simply leading the life his parents had always told him he should want to live?  It seemed his experiences that evening had left him unusually self-reflective and contemplative.

The Pureblood shook off such musings and instead chuckled with quiet amusement at the dig made about Aurelius Audish. Pyxis hadn't had too many personal dealings with the man. The Abercrombie and Hartridge families preferred to avail of the services of independent healers, but what he had heard wasn't promising. The man sounded like an odious human being. There was definitely something more to the string of recent deaths experienced by those who found themselves under his care. The fact many of them had been survivors of attacks by this new Dark Lord and his cult couldn't be a coincidence. Now if only there was a way for him to prove it.

Pyxis readily agreed when the mind healer declared it was time for them to get back to work. A cup of tea and a few minutes to collect himself did wonders for the man's willingness to proceed.

When they returned to William, Pyxis instantly drew his wand and softly incanted "Legilimens." The first memory Pyxis succeeded on latching on to was a fairly innocuous one of William with his wife at a restaurant. It seemed his earlier forays had the woman firmly on to his mind. It took some effort, but he succeeded in latching on to another.

Bang There was a scene of the two of them cuddled up on the furniture. Bang There was a tender moment shared between the two of them shared before bed.

And so the cycle continued with Pyxis' mental rummaging getting faster until Bang there was a memory of him leaving his wife in the dead of night with a feeling of guilt.

With extreme focus Pyxis was able to split focus to skim over several memories the feeling of guilt invoked before choosing one related to his work. Bang There was a scene of William duelling wizards on a case bang William interrogating one of said wizards with legilimency. Here Pyxis was able to direct the man's thoughts to memories relating to mind magic.

Bang He was learning it from a mentor with the Unspeakables Bang He was trying to use Legilimency on Pyxis which led to Bang Earlier that night when William was stood in a doorway, about to enter a secret storage cupboard he'd found only when he crossed the threshold...smash.

....

Everything was so foggy, Where was he? What was happening? It was so hard to focus on anything. Why did his head hurt? Wait was that Emily? Oh she was so beautiful and he loved her. He couldn't wait to meet their son, to be a father! No, no, no bring back Emily! What was that building? Why was he sitting at a desk? Who were those men he was fighting? Wait, that man! He knew him! He knew him somehow! Business partner! Friend? Yes! Wait this room, no he didn't want to think of this room!

Pain, all consuming earth shattering pain filled through every fibre of his being as he felt something break in his mind. William just stood there for what felt like an eternity to the man, but must have been no more than a few seconds to the outside world before opening his eyes. "Pyxis?" He gasped out in a hoarse tone. His mind still somewhat murky! Wait where were they? And who was that with him?

[Odhrán Ó Dálaigh]

Odhrán still found it strange how easy it was to converse with Pyxis. They were so different he would have never expected to find a friend in the other man and yet it seemed like he had. It was nice, even if the circumstances of their meeting tonight were anything but. Hopefully, this little incident wouldn't have too many consequences for his friend and their partner. The Unspeakable Department was a dangerous place and from the little insight Odhrán had gained there was every reason to worry about the motives and loyalty of Pyxis' colleagues there.

As the young Abercrombie stepped closer to the patient, Odhrán's attention shifted to the treatment again. His friend was learning quickly. His way of reaching for and discarding memories was a little blunt and unpolished still, but a whole lot more effective than during his last attempt to traverse through his colleague's mind. With a bit of luck this attempt would be it. Even looking in from the outside, it felt like William was relinquishing his memories a little more readily. No doubt the patient wanted to come out of this now and open his eyes again.

Finally, the barrier broke. Odhrán winced, even though he hadn't been the catalyst setting things in motion. However, experience had taught him what this had to feel like for Pyxis and of course their patient. Odhrán's hands moved seemingly of their own accord, casting a few spells to dull the pain in quick succession. Shifting William's headache entirely was probably not possible, but at the very least he could try to make the man a little more comfortable.

"Don't move," he said gently. "Your system had quite a shock. It's best to take things slowly." As he spoke, Odhrán was weaving another diagnostic spell, just to check that everything was looking the way he would expect. They really were through the worst of it. He half-turned towards Pyxis to check over him as well.

"And how are you holding up? It's probably best if you both don't return to active duty for a few days. I suspect your colleague will struggle with holding mental defenses and concentrating for a while." Odhrán paused. "I can give some potions to help with the pain and headaches. Honestly though, it would be best if he checked in here or with his usual healer once or twice."