'What the fuck? Since when am I an empath?' though bewildered at first, a few seconds of introspection revealed the answer.

  Occlumency, in the world of Harry Potter, isn't some magic spell you can cast and be done with, it's a discipline, an art of the mind, like martial arts are to the body.

  Technically everyone can learn and do it, but for wizards I'm guessing our magic amplifies the results.

  The Neuro-plasticity training that I learned from my previous life, could be considered an extremely advanced form of occlumency art focusing on memory and intelligence, instead of the usual defence. a technique that can significantly affect even muggles 'Hmm, I don't like that term, it sounds derogatory.' let alone wizards.

  I guess it's not difficult to believe it would have extra effects on wizards, when it's so potent even for mundane humans.

  I got out of my bed, and looked out the window. A blanket of white is covering everything in view, it's actually quite a sight, since I had never seen snow in my previous life.

  Looking out in front of the main door, something interesting and worrying was happening. An adult version of the actress who played Hermione is now ringing the doorbell.

  'What the fuck is she doing here?' I thought while dodging below the window. 'Oh right, she's probably here for Alice, why is here though? I thought Hermione was supposed to be working for the ministry of magic.'

  I stole another glance down to the front door and saw her walk into the house. 'Oh shit, if Mrs. Gray brings her to this room, there is no saying wether she can sense me or not, hell she might be able to do so from right there, because well, "Magic".'

  After changing out of my pajamas as fast as I could without waking Alice, I opened the door slowly, to make sure it doesn't creek.

  I slipped out of the room and booked it for the attic. The attic stairs could be accessed from a supply closet on the other side of the house, as I was passing through the staircase, I saw Liz jogging up the stairs.

  "Hey Liz, what are you doing here? I thought you started helping from ten." I asked, I knew she was probably here to get Alice, but I needed to be sure.

  Liz looked up at me and smiled, "oh, little Morgan, you're awake early, what's the occasion?"

  I pouted, "don't call me little, I keep telling you, now Anna, Jace and Andy have started calling me little too, it's all your fault, you know."

  Liz laughed, coming to me, the taller girl started ruffling my hair. "Hey! Don't do that." I said pushing her hand away.

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  Liz lifted her hands in a surrender, while still laughing. "Ok, ok, I'm looking for Alice, by the way, Mrs. Gray asked me to bring her to the office."

  "Oh, well she's still sleeping so, good luck." I half yelled already running away.

  "Hey! Wait," Liz tried to say something but I wasn't listening anymore.

  Since she wanted Alice in her office, it's likely they won't come up to the second floor, so I'm safe for now. A change of plans, I went to a white wooden door, and opened it slowly peeking inside, I could see a double decker bed, with two young boys sleeping on them and another bed near the other wall.

  Fortunately, all three boys inside were sleep, so I could easily sneak in. 'Huh, I wonder if this is considered creepy.' I took a second to assess my situation. ' Well, thankfully I'm four, had I been twenty-two still, sneaking into the room of three teenage and preteen boys, would definitely be creepy.'

  Having reassured myself, I tiptoed to the door leading to a balcony. This balcony just happens to be above Mrs. Gray's window that she tends to keep open, even in the dead of winter.

  I could hear murmurs, I guess I had overestimated my hearing, but more than anything, I felt. It was weird, like the empathy had been, even now I could feel the boys' emotions through the balcony door, like I could the mischievousness in Liz, though I found pretty quickly that I could tune it out pretty easily. Empathy, It's not like hearing, it's not even like feeling them myself, if anything it's like a new sense, like a person born deaf, had just managed to hear for the first time, and now looking through the floor to where the woman I'm assuming it's Hermione would sit, if I could see through the floor that is, I felt like I had been blind my hole life, and for the first time I could see.

  There were no colors to it, that is not to say it was white, what I meant was it wasn't exactly sight, I couldn't "see" the magic the way you see shapes and colors, it was as I said like a new sense but even more esoteric than empathy, something I couldn't even imagine it picture having just moments ago, and now I can't imagine life without it.

  Like how a lot of people attribute blindness to just seeing black, not understanding that being completely blind doesn't mean you see black, but you don't see anything.

  Right now, I can sense this halo or aura or thing, that I'm sure if I try to explain to someone else they would imagine me seeing a transparent light, like how those twentieth or twenty-first century anime showed mana or ki or whatever else they wanted to call it.

  I would pity them, those people who rationalized something they didn't, couldn't understand, into terms their brain could comprehend. Like a blind man trying to understand the beauty of Earth from the moon, or a deaf person trying to feel the emotions in a song just by description.

  I stared for lack of a better word, untill I "saw" another much smaller, let's call it aura, came closer and by the looks of it, entered the office. It wasn't difficult to deduce, the bigger aura was Hermione and the smaller one was Alice.

  I don't know why I hadn't noticed the aura previously, maybe, Hermione's large aura was like a shock to a new sense that my brain was just ignoring out of sheer bizarreness, previously.

  Now? I could feel, I want to say see, but associating this new sense with vision feels insulting to it.

  Actually, now that I was paying attention, I could also sense my own aura, at first it was like my brain had tuned it out, like how we don't notice our own noses most of the time, but now, I couldn't ignore it even if I wanted to.