"I've only seen it mentioned in a few books." Penny answered having only briefly read about the obscure branch of Magic.
"Well I found a journal and some school books that were my mother's when I was eight. She'd left detailed notes on a lot of Magical Subjects as well as her own thoughts, opinions and theories. Occlumency was one such subject. I was worried that someone could read my mind so I tried to learn it. It took months before I was able to make any headway, but I was eight, so clearing my mind was difficult and entering a meditative state was challenging. Once I'd finally gotten to the meditative point something was different. Instead of thinking nothing I found my consciousness in a dull void with multitudes of blueish-white and purplish-black orbs. After a while of experimenting I learned that these two colors could merge together to make a silvery-grey orb that was twice the size. I eventually made the decision to merge all of the orbs together pair by pair until only one remained. Immediately after I did that the new large orb pulsed, for lack of a better term, and I was knocked out of my meditative state. I slept almost instantly for over an hour and a half before waking up feeling, I don't know, lighter or stronger, maybe? But I was still exhausted so I went to bed and ended up sleeping for over ten hours."
"So that's how you can do Wandless Magic? You found some way, through Occlumency, to mess with your Magic directly?" Penny asked trying to get some clarification.
"That's my best theory. The dull void is apparently a magical representation of one's mind and Magic. By bringing all of my free floating Magic together into a single, I guess you could call it a core, it synced up with my body and that lets me access it even without a focus. Though I believe I made a single mistake between my attempts at Occlumency and what traditional Occlumens are taught." Harry explained.
"What mistake?" Tonks questioned since to her it sounded like Harry had done it better than most.
"I think I still had the thought that I was doing the meditation and trying to learn Occlumency because of Magic. I knew I was going through this process for the Magic of it rather than to try and clear and protect my mind. I'm working off the theory that because I was focusing on Magic instead of a cleared mind I found my Magic rather than a cleared and empty mind like normal." Harry theorized as he thought about his discovery of Magic.
"I see; you wanted to practice and learn Occlumency for the Magic so you found your Magic within instead of your mind. It's a fascinating theory; it could rewrite a lot of Magical Theory if it could be studied correctly. How one would go about studying it escapes me though." Penny mused as she thought about how much variation each individual could represent in such a study.
"So are you going to teach us this alternate Occlumency then?" Tonks asked still eager to learn Wandless Magic.
"That would be an appropriate name, I guess." Harry chuckled. "It did actually protect my mind in the end. My Magic keeps strengthening the protection around my mind as it continues to get stronger so maybe this is a new form of Occlumency?"
"Well I'm ready to start! Let's go!" Tonks grinned as she sat back down and waited.
"If you're willing to start now, Harry, we're both ready to try and learn." Penny nodded at him. Harry breathed deeply before exhaling and tried to explain the process he'd gone through step by step. The two older teens listened with rapt attention in hopes of learning this new path that had been opened up for them.
-The Next Saturday-
This wasn't fair! Sure Tonks had some prior experience with Occlumency. Sure Penny was an intelligent girl with a great work ethic. Sure he'd only been eight when he'd stumbled through it and sure he'd taught them so they didn't have to go through all the experimenting with trial and error. But a week! Really?! The Universe wasn't fair! He wasn't pouting!
"He's adorable when he pouts like that." Tonks laughed while Penny giggled lightly behind her hand.
"I'm not pouting!" Harry grumbled from his place behind his work table in his hidden workshop. Both girls just laughed again before asking for some instruction on actual casting. Both Tonks and Penny had completed finding their Magic and forming their cores. Penny proposed calling this second step 'Core Formation' or 'Coring' in future lessons. They'd all pretty much agreed that the first step would be 'Alternate Occlumency'.
"Before that I want to know how your Occlumency Defenses are forming." Harry inquired since he'd explained his 'Bramble Defense' that naturally occurred and started growing once he'd completed 'Core Formation'.
"Me first, me first!" Tonks exclaimed waving her hand over her head exaggeratedly. "My defense is a lot like water. It flows in streams from my core to my body and the whole mind is encapsulated in a sphere of water. I tried the 'seeing from outside' trick you mentioned and it's literally like a storm on the outside. All waves and whirlpools and a thick misty fog that makes it impossible to perceive anything." The happy Metamorphmagus explained getting a nod from Harry. He was still trying to figure out what factors played into how these natural Occlumency defenses formed. With more users maybe he'd be able to understand them, for now it was just a lot of questions and curiosities.
"Mine are more akin to metal. I have large beams that seem to connect my core to my body. From there they branch out and connect to each other in a frame work of smaller beams. So far these smaller beams have actually filled in the area directly around my mind and fused into solid walls of metal. Using the 'seeing from outside' trick, as Tonks put it, the beams of metal are slowly but constantly expanding and connecting to one another forming a larger more complex frame work with sections eventually filling in and forming more solid walls. I believe they'll eventually layer my mind with wall after wall of metal until it becomes impenetrable." Penny informed as Harry listened and tried to puzzle out whatever differences he could. Perhaps Tonks' defense was more fluid because of her personality? Or did being a Metamorphmagus make her Magic more fluid? Penny was a girl of structure so maybe personality did effect the defense formation? So many questions.