The Deepest Depths

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters, it all belong to J.K. Rowling.


The Deepest Depths - Chapter two: Meeting Richard

Beta by Sekhmet49

05/08/2012

It was funny how nice his relatives were being, now that he was going to leave in a couple of days. His uncle even offered to drive him to London to help ensure he was fully equipped for his journey.

He had politely declined saying it wouldn't be fair on them, since he didn't know how long he would take.

So here he was, waiting in a small pub in Diagon Alley for Richard to arrive.

Since he was early and hadn't eaten yet, he ordered himself breakfast, musing over everything he knew about what would be required of him on this trip.

Half way through his English breakfast, a shadow was casted over him, he looked up to see who it was. Seeing it wasn't the waitress or barman, he asked "Richard?" looking at the muscular figure in a brown worn trench cloak. Carefully examining the guy, one could easily see scars on his arms, a tell-tale signs of battle.

"Indeed, you must be Mr Potter, my Aunt spoke highly of your potential," he answered, before taking a seat across from him.

"Really, are we talking about the same person?" He asked, not being able to remember the last time he had received praise from his head of house.

"She wouldn't have put your name forward if you didn't," he said seriously, "please, tell me which other third year was able to master the patronus charm? Or killing a basilisk as a second year with just a sword?"

"You seem to know a lot about me then," he probed, thinking over the fact that the man knew so much.

"I know enough to judge you're capable. Normally, my Aunt only sends me NEWT students who have an interest in this career," he said seriously before pursuing, "I don't know how much my Aunt told you, but in this line of work, it is both dangerous and demanding, you either swim or sink, there no middle ground in this work."

"Yeah she said that, but I've faced my fair share of dangers," he replied, thinking over each fight.

"Do you have any questions about what is expected of you?" Richard asked.

"Not really, I've read up in advance to get some ideas of what we could possibly be facing, I was just unsure about what was needed? Since she didn't know, she said I would have to ask you for the details."

"I'll recap then. First we mainly guard the curse-breakers, in short, security, when we enter a site, we will be responsible for protecting them from physical guardians and any magical traps. We are shields for them. If and when we're not doing these duties, we generally hunt for any rare beasts, to increase our profits, as any bonus finds are shared, on top of our standard fare. There are also certain loots we are allowed to keep for ourselves," he explained.

"How big is this team? Because I read it could be as small as six of us, or anywhere up to one hundred if the site holds promise."

"This is a small team, you could say we are scouting a possible location; there are 11 of us in total, a healer of course, and maybe her assistant if she brings one, 3 breakers, plus one of them will probably bring their own assistant, and botanist, and the rest of us are shields. About where we're going, I can't say until we're underway. But it will be hot and wet, you can swim can you?" He challenged.

"Yeah I can swim, it's been a while, but I can swim. Not an amazing swimmer, mind you, but I won't drown, I just never had the need to swim much before," he admitted, since there was little point in lying, the man would find out in a couple weeks.

"Well you'll be swimming quite a bit; one of the sites is only accessible by swimming. But there are potions and spells that can help with that, which I'm sure, you'll be able to master because they are easier to learn than a patronus." Richard replied "It will also help you put on some muscle mass."

"Yeah, it'd be great," he admitted, since he would like to bulk up a bit.

"Now finish your breakfast, we need to get you a quick medical exam. Can't have you coming with us if you have some type of issue!" He said sternly giving Harry a quick look over.

"Fine, give me a minute, to finish this," he replied.

"While you are eating, I'm going to ask you some questions to assess your knowledge," Richard said.

"How come I get the feeling this is going to be a long day?" he said.

"You'll get used to it," Richard said with a smirk which reminded him of his head of house.

Sometime later

"Interesting Mr Potter," Alice said, whiles examining his medical results.

"Interesting, how so?" He questioned, wondering what was so interesting.

"First, you got several core blinding spells on you, which I'll remove shortly, a couple more years they could have cause some serious harm to you," she explained seriously. "You also have a lot of scaring and bone damage, and you're underfed, any reason for this?"

"Madam, everything said here will be kept private, won't it?" he asked carefully.

"It will, but I will have to tell Richard if it affects your ability to operate during an expedition, or endangers other members," she answered sternly.

Sighing, before carefully speaking "Let's just say my muggle guardians were abusive and often used me as beating bag. It only stopped, after I joined Hogwarts, since then they have just avoided me," he said.

"Well, I can understand your desire for privacy due to your status; I can provide you with some healing potions which should repair the damage. You won't be as good as new, but it is the best option, undoing your core bindings as well. It would be best if you'd avoid doing any demanding magic for at least the next couple weeks, to let your core settle down. Then take it easy," she said.

"So I'll still be able to go?" he asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not, I will have to tell Richard, so he can take this into account, but you have to promise me you'll follow the potion regimen I give you to the letter," she demanded.

"Yes Madam, but I'd like him to give an Oath to not to share the information without my permission or unless I am unable to pass on the knowledge myself," he asked.

"I'm sure he will understand," she said before allowing Richard back into the room and explaining the situation.

Richard looked at him, seemed to be pondering before saying, "To be honest here Harry, if I take you with me I could possibly endanger myself and my shield brothers and sisters, how bad is it?"

"It doesn't leave this room," he stated seriously, not wanting any pity.

"I promise," he said seriously, before making a vow.

"I didn't learn my name until I was five, was often beaten and half starved, and my bedroom was a cupboard, whenever something went wrong it was always my fault" he said before speaking honestly, "I'd much rather be fighting a Dementor, or a Basilisk again than stay with my relatives. But I'm forced back there every year due to blood wards. I am told they are the best means to keep me safe." He finished, thinking about his chat with the headmaster about the issue.

"Hmm, I'll take you with me, but consider this, blood wards only work if you consider them family, if you denounce any blood or magical connection with them, it breaks the wards permanently. So you would never have to return there, at least to my knowledge. But I don't understand why it would be still necessary," he finished mumbling more to himself than anyone else in the room.

"Well..." looking up to see both Richard and Alice watching him, he decided to tell them a bit about Lord Voldemort.
"Some evidence suggests Lord Voldemort somehow managed to cheat death that night, or had some type of safe guard in place, from what the headmaster said, and that my mother's sacrifice added a blood protection, therefore he can't touch me, or harm me with any spells, hence the need for me to stay with my mother's blood family," he explained to them, seeing them pale at the idea of Lord Voldemort being somehow alive.

"That's hard to believe..." Alice muttered, not believing what she was hearing.

"Well, a follower broke into Hogwarts in my first year, and admitted he had been sent by his master. But from what the headmaster said, Lord Voldemort went deeper into the dark arts than any dark lord before him. And there are rituals what can be done to ensure ones rebirth if you are willing and able to pay the necessary price, and he was certain that Lord Voldemort was more than capable," he described, trying to think about that chat he had had at the end of the second year.

"He said I was too young to be burdened with the details, but he was investigating it quietly, due to not wanting to cause a panic or to cause other death eaters to seek out their fallen master and assist in his return."

Both his listeners were deep in thought for several minutes. Finally, Richard spoke again.
"Thank you for being honest with us Harry. I have to admit, it was more than I expected, but I'll keep it secret. I can understand why the Headmaster wanted to keep it quiet." He then turned to Alice.

"I've encountered products from such early rituals, such as mummies in Egypt, I agree it's best to keep this quiet. How about you start removing the binding spells on Harry's core?" he turned, driving the discussion onto safer grounds.

Eventually, they left the private healer, and Harry was feeling lighter and more charged than ever before he turned to Richard and asked "What else do we need to do?"

"We'll pick most of your gear up over there, since you will find it hard to find the necessary gear around here for where we're going, unless you want to pay a small fortune for it. Far better to pick it up over there, at a faction of the cost, and get better equality"

"You still haven't said where we are going," he pointed to Richard.

"We will be around the Mediterrean for a bit, we found several under water sites, and a sunken temple on the sea floor," he answered while checking the alley over, making sure no one was eavesdropping.

"But for now, we're heading to Gangi'ih'Coh – Equipment specialist. It's the best place around here, he supplies most of our common gear, most of the stuff we buy through the guild connections, but he can outfit you well."

Couple more minutes passed until they reached a shop front at the back of an alley. Walking into the store, they saw it was covered with gear. It occurred to Harry that this could very well be a store where Indiana-Jones would get his outfit.

While he was examining the shop, Richard approached the man "Nice to see you again Gangi, I need to get my charge outfitted for the summer, with a standard pack, plus some other gear."

"Indeed, let me get one of out the back," he replied before heading out the back, just to return with a back sack of sorts, and addressed Harry.

"Lad, this backpack is charmed to be waterproof when fully sealed, light-weight, fireproof, and has an expansion charm on it tripling its volume," he explained before passing over the black backpack.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but it kind of looks like a muggle one" Harry dared to say carefully, hoping to not to insult the store owner.

Gangi chuckled for a bit before saying, "I am a muggleborn, so I often rework muggle items, so they can work around magic. Do you know why most muggle inventions have to be reworked?" he asked

"I am a fear not, I understand they react badly with magic, and just explode most of the time" he said, a bit embarrassed by his lack of knowledge on the subject.

"I'm not surprised. It's funny, you think Hogwarts would teach you the reasons behind such things, but in short, magic fails to work on synthetic products as they are not natural, because and they can't handle the magical energies, which ends up tearing their structure apart... I don't know the wording, something about atomic bonds or something. But that's the reason why most muggle items fail to work, due to their internal bonds failing. Hence they explode or they fail to hold the charm," he explained.

"Ok thanks, I think I understood about half of that, but thanks anyways," he replied trying to recall what little science he did at school.

"Now what else do you need?" Gangi asked.

"Standard potions kit, a translation necklace charmed for Greek, Latin, and Turkish, also a hunting kit. We'll pick out a weapon and necessary armour in a minute," Richard said, as if reading a list.

"Weapon? I thought a wand would be fine," he wondered while watching Gangi get the things together.

"A wand is not always the best piece of equipment for the job, and there are creatures, which are magically resistant where we're going, it would best for you to use a light spear, it is most effective for the environment" he explained.

"And the armour?" he asked.

"Better safe than sorry, besides, we'll be getting you some light armour which you can throw away at end of summer. Since I expect you to go through a growth spurt this summer, there's frankly no point getting you any heavy armour, especially since it'd be too heavy for you to use effectively. You'll be better off using light weight gear, relying on speed and agility for safety, at least until you bulk up enough for medium or heavy armour. Besides, such armour is extremely expensive. Most of the time, it's custom-made, and take anywhere between a month to a full year to be made, since there are maybe only a dozen crafters in world," Richard explained.

"Really?" he asked

"Really, this is not dragon-hide armour worn by Aurors, considered by most as heavy armour, but in our line of work, it is considered as light armour. For us, heavy armour is made out of plates of silver, with dragon-hide under-padding, silk and runes. In short, it's made for fighting, but looks like a piece of art." He detailed

"Wow, sounds impressive!" Harry let out with a whistle at the image.

"It is indeed, at times, our work is highly dangerous, as much as we like to think us wizards are civilized and controlled by collective laws. In truth, in most parts of world, wizards are at each other throats, and only care about two things, their own power and position. If we were going to South America or parts of Africa, I wouldn't have allowed you to come, because we would have been constantly in danger of being attacked or killed," he said soberly.

"I wonder why Aurors only use dragon-hide then?" he questioned, thinking over what Richard had said.

"Because dragon-hide is rather cheap in comparison and easy to repair and replace and one can outfit several hundred Aurors using just dragon-hide. Plus, most Aurors spend their time hunting minor criminals and by teams of four, so dragon-hide is more than enough. If they ever go Hit Wizard, they generally start getting more specialized equipment." Richard explained while looking through the shelves.

"I guess that makes sense," he said.

"Yeah, the ministry like any government is always looking for the cheapest option they can use, without upsetting its employees," he mused soberly.

Sometime later

Damn, it he had been a long day in the end, but Harry didn't regret it one bit, he had learned a lot, and was fully ready for his trip. After getting home from his shopping, he had gone down to the local gym, and had done an hour or two of swimming.

But everything had been sorted; he had also gone shopping in the non magical world to pick up some clothes, shorts, t-shirts. The rest of the gear would be taken off when they would finally go to the Mediterranean; he also picked up some hiking boots.

In short, he was ready to go on his great adventure. Gringotts Bank had been mighty helpful as well, he had set up all the paper work, and he also was going to take over the management of his accounts next year after he returned from the trip.

It turned out that the headmaster had signed the document stating he was to be considered an adult after his next birthday, which had been co-signed by his relatives. He had to admit he was interested to know how his head of house had managed to get that one pass the headmaster...

Sure he wouldn't be a full adult, nor could he take up his seat in courts, but he would be fully in charge of his accounts and management of assets. He had told his manager he would be willing to leave it all in goblins hands until he was at least 17, they just had to inform him before they did anything big.

Now, all he had to do was wait until Wednesday, and he'd be off.

End of chapter


I'd like to say thank you to Sekhmet49, for checking my story.