Julian could not help appreciating the obvious care Salazar Slytherin had poured into his writing. It was clear the man held nothing back when he crafted the book, and that kind of dedication to teaching was hard to ignore. Because of that, Julian shamelessly stole the tome for his own growing collection. He valued what was inside it far too much to leave it behind.
Truthfully, he wanted to take the entire "ancient" section and call it his, but even he understood that sort of theft would be noticed immediately. An absence that large would cause panic and investigations within a day. So he restrained himself, limiting what he took to the rare treasures, the real jewels hidden among the dust.
...
The clarity of Slytherin's writing made the book almost effortless to consume. Julian only needed about an hour to memorize the entire thing, which was ridiculous considering how much information it contained. Energized by the ease of it, he immediately reached for the next book bearing Slytherin's name, and his mood lifted when he realized the two were meant to be read together.
They were a set.
This second volume assumed the first had already been studied. It moved directly into higher level applications of both Legilimency and Occlumency, and the strongest focus throughout was healing, not invasion. Nearly half the tome was dedicated to repairing damaged minds. Slytherin had cataloged what felt like every cause of mental harm and paired each with methods to treat it.
...
Some parts carried a darker undertone.
In a few passages, Slytherin wrote as if he had personally driven someone into madness through torment, only to rebuild their mind afterward. Julian could easily see how someone might read that and decide the founder had been monstrous.
But Julian saw it differently.
To him, it did not read like cruelty for pleasure. It read like ruthless efficiency, the sort of approach that chased results no matter how ugly the path looked. Dark wizards were the ones who sank into the dark arts and lost themselves. From Slytherin's tone and structure, Julian got the impression the man walked into darkness because he needed to understand it, so he could pull real victims back out again.
...
It felt like a waste that none of this knowledge was widely known. It could have helped people broken by the Cruciatus Curse during the last war, those driven into ruined, hollow lives with no real hope of recovery.
The remaining half of the book shifted into the deeper tiers of the mind arts. Julian read through it and committed it to memory anyway, even though he knew it was not immediately useful. It was still valuable to have the knowledge waiting in his head for later.
...
When he moved on to the other tomes he had gathered, his enthusiasm dulled.
Most of them covered the same concepts the Slytherin books had already explained, except they did it in a far more bloated, rambling, and needlessly complicated way. Julian ended up skimming through most of those texts, picking out only the occasional detail that was not redundant.
By the time he finished, he had gained only a handful of additional insights that Slytherin had not already provided.
That left him with around four hours before dinner.
...
Julian tucked the second Slytherin book away into his personal collection. The rest, he returned to their shelves. Then he left the library, keeping his senses spread and alert as he walked, refusing to be caught unaware again.
When he reached his workshop, he found Helena exactly where he expected.
Still playing with the hammer.
"Good evening," the ghost said lightly when he entered, then immediately went back to her entertainment as if nothing else mattered.
Julian returned the greeting politely, then sat down with his back to the wall, legs crossed, and closed his eyes.
He tried again.
He pushed into the mental space he had been searching for and attempted to shape the mindscape.
He failed.
And failed again.
Still, something was changing. Some attempts lasted a fraction longer than others before collapsing, which told him he was narrowing in on the right direction. Instead of repeatedly throwing entire environments at the wall, he started isolating what seemed to work. He tested individual elements, identified the pieces that held longer, and carried those forward into the next attempt.
...
By the end of the four hours, he had pinned down three features that stayed consistent no matter what else he tried.
A small pond of water.
A full length mirror.
And stars overhead.
Slytherin's book had stated that a mindscape could be endless in theory, so the idea of an open star filled sky did not surprise him. What did surprise him was what his mind rejected.
Neither the sun nor the moon would hold.
They simply did not belong in the space, no matter how he tried to place them.
It was strange, but he accepted it as another clue rather than a problem.
Even without a full breakthrough, Julian felt satisfied with the progress. He headed to the Great Hall in a good mood, though he kept his guard up, still wary of traps.
...
That evening, Dumbledore spoke.
Julian disliked the man enough that he normally would have tuned him out, but the words that followed forced Julian to set his grudge aside, at least for the moment.
"Students, it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of grave news," Dumbledore announced. "Earlier this very day, the dark lord Grindelwald has escaped from his prison in Nurmengard Castle."
The Great Hall erupted into noise at once, a wave of panic and disbelief rolling through the students. Julian watched faces tighten, saw fear spread, and he noted something else as well.
Quirelmort did not look pleased.
Not even a little.
...
"I recommend writing to your families as soon as possible," Dumbledore continued, voice steady over the chaos, "so they may prepare for whatever may come of this. And if possible, I ask that you all contribute what you can to aid those who would stand against the dark lord."
That last portion was aimed like a blade.
Dumbledore's gaze landed directly on Julian, and then the man bowed his head.
The meaning was unmistakable.