Shawn left the Library, but instead of returning straight to the Dormitory, he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, left the Castle, and headed for the Forbidden Forest.
Practicing Legilimency required living subjects capable of thought.
He couldn't use it on the students, and the skill was still too rudimentary. Its intrusion into memories was far too forceful.
His only option was to find more intelligent Fantastic Beasts in the Forbidden Forest, such as Acromantulas and Centaurs.
He spent the whole night at it. The chaos he stirred up deep in the forest hardly needed describing.
When Shawn slowly emerged from the Forbidden Forest, his black eyes had taken on a faint red tint, completely masking the intermittent violet glimmer.
A trace of savagery still clung to him.
Intelligent Fantastic Beasts were still beasts, and a beast's thoughts and desires were primal.
Even Centaurs, an astrology-practicing race with a civilization of their own, thought mainly about killing, eating, and breeding.
That went doubly for vicious creatures like Acromantulas.
Over the course of the night, Shawn had driven more than a hundred Acromantulas and several lone Centaurs insane with Legilimency.
Their primal thoughts and desires had put him through no small amount of torment.
Fortunately, the gains were substantial too. With max-level Occlumency as his foundation, he already had considerable control over memories.
With an expendable supply of test subjects on top of that, his Legilimency had reached level five quite "easily."
That should have been enough for his purposes.
By the time he returned to the Dormitory, dawn was only just breaking. Morning Study hadn't started yet, and Draco and the others had only just gotten up.
But all three jumped in fright when they saw Shawn.
Even the little cake Goyle had been secretly stuffing into his mouth fell