'But what about other spies that they already have inside the castle?'
'I have no connection to them so I probably can't divine about them.'
A quick divination later Loki was sure he couldn't find out anything about their identities using divination.
'Hmm…either I throw out a bait for them to find me on their own, or I find them by myself by meeting various people at Hogwarts and seeing if I recognise any of them from their habits.'
'But how can I meet several students at once to observe them closely?'
'I could do it in the Great Hall? But I doubt I will be able to recognise them easily from a distance.'
'Hmm…I need a way to bring students to me, is that possible?'
Finding no way to solve his problem, Loki gave up for now and went back to his room where he pulled out a two-way mirror and began to talk to Elane.
"Waa~~~ Big Bwother!!! I did my first magic today!!" Elane exclaimed with joy as she spoke to him.
"No way! Seriously!?" Loki asked with shocked eyes.
"Yes!! I changed the colour of my doll's hair!!" Elane said with a joyous expression as she showed Loki a doll whose hair was pink in colour earlier but was now a shimmering silky blue.
"What an awesome job!!!" Loki praised, "Now my little sis will come into Hoggy Hoggy soon and become a genius star!" Loki said with a smile on his face as he looked at his little sister nodding happily.
"Yeaaaiiee!!! Now I can be with big bwother once again!" Elane said with a happy smile as she jumped around the bed she was sitting on.
"Haha~ Did you miss your big bwother so much!?"
"Un~un~ I miss Big Bwother sooooooo~ much!"
"Haha~! Don't worry, I'll come meet you this weekend." Loki promised as he held out his little finger only for Elane to pout and inform him about something else, "No Big Bwother! We can't meet this weekend. Aunty Cassandra is busy this weekend, she said she has to meet an old friend."
"Is that so?" ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅✦𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾✦𝗇𝖾𝗍
"Then let's meet each other next weekend!" Loki said with a smile and raised his pink finger for Elane who smiled and mimicked him.
"Pinky promise! A liar has to eat a thousand needles!" Both said simultaneously.
After Elane fell asleep while talking to him, Loki readied his bed and comforter and slipped into it.
"Haa~~ I'm going to enjoy having a relaxing sleep finally after a long time." Loki mumbled since he was always on edge when he had Riddle's diary in his room at Hogwarts.
But just as Loki was about to fall asleep, he jolted awake.
"Wait! I could become a fortune teller!!" Loki said sitting up straight on his bed.
'Becoming a fortune teller is just the right thing for me!'
'I can use my analysis abilities as a Cryptologist to make near-accurate predictions that are backed by arithmancy and fool them that I'm some sort of a seer.'
'I could also use the Mystery Pryer's soul in the Ring of Harvest to perform actual divinations.'
'In the meantime, as I observe more people, I can ascertain the identities of those who come to meet me.'
'Perhaps I can even gain enough reputation for the spies to directly come to me and ask me about Gehrman Sparrow's whereabouts.'
'And solving people's various puzzling questions should also allow me to digest my Cryptologist potion on the side like I did with the Newspaper last year.'
Loki was so ecstatic about his sudden idea that he failed to fall asleep once again and so spent the rest of the night doing various meaningless tasks, trying to increase his comprehension of magic in one way or another.
Finally, as the night approached a vanishing point, Loki who was practising methods to try and empty his mind of thoughts suddenly fell into a trance while thinking about ancient runes.
It felt as if all his thoughts regarding the matter were insignificant, as if such thoughts were silly and didn't matter.
He felt like a spectator in his own mind.
He felt serene and free.
The trance lasted for only a few seconds but Loki felt its impact deep in his core.
"Was that what it means to empty your mind?" Loki asked himself excited at the prospect of finally being able to progress his occlumency capabilities.
Having grasped it once, Loki began to analyse exactly how he had slipped into such a state of mind.
'It all of a sudden felt like all my thoughts were insignificant.'
'It felt like I was looking at the big picture.'
Loki closed his eyes and patiently tried to slip into the same state as before.
He first thought about ancient runes and as he became more and more focused on the topic, he became aware of his entire mind.
After taking the cryptologist potion, Loki's mind was no longer limited to thinking linearly. He could think parallelly whenever he wished, and so while he was thinking about ancient runes, slowly shifting his focus to become aware of his entire mind caused Loki to come to know about the emptiness in his mind.
He could suddenly see just how empty his mind was, and the noise created by his thoughts about ancient runes got drowned by the silence within.
As soon as Loki slipped into a trance again, he found himself feeling free again.
He could notice the most intricate details as long as he wanted while at the same time ignoring everything.
Slowly Loki returned back to normal and a beautiful smile blossomed on his otherwise sleepy face.
'Haa~~ That feels so good.'
Loki walked up to his bag filled with books and pulled out the book about Occlumency from it.
"Ha~! I've achieved the first step of mastering occlumency."
"Now all I need to do is finish making and creating a robust set of runes that will help me defend my mind." Loki said as he slipped into his bed and began reading the book to learn about all the complicated patterns and sets of runes that would help him protect his mind.
But it seemed like slipping into that trance state had relaxed Loki enough that he quite immediately fell asleep.
Loki woke up in the evening with a fresh mind, having a dreamless slumber had made him energetic as he slipped out of the bed and got down for tea served by Kreacher.
"Master seems to be happy today?" Kreacher asked as he noticed Loki hum a tune as he drank tea.
"Yes! Kreacher did you know Elane performed her first accidental magic!?"
Kreacher's comically big eyes widened further and before Loki could say another word he began crying.
"Mistress Walburga was right. Master Loki and Mistress Elane will save the family of Black."
Loki left the sobbing Kreacher to his own devices after telling him he could take the day off before he left back to his room and continued practising occlumency.
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