A/N: Thank you to all of the reviewers! This story has generated a lot more interest much more quickly than my previous story, Unlocked Knowledge. I will be continuing that story next, for all interested parties; it is not abandoned. Somewhat unfortunately school, exams, simultaneously dating two girls, and other real life things have interfered to give me less time than I used to have to devote to writing, so I took some time off from it. Things have slowed down a bit without school, though, so I'm back! That hiatus instilled a bit of block into my Unlocked Knowledge story, which has recently been overcome, and thus the long wait. I should update that story well within a week, I should think.
Harry Potter and the Alchemist's Apprentice
Chapter Two: The Reserve
"Welcome to the Flamel Magical Creatures Preserve, Harry, one of the best-kept secrets in England." Nicolas said with broad gestures toward the part of the forest partitioned off by the three golden chains. "Only a very few are allowed to enter, and those selected rarely substantiate the rumors that abound about this place. Amongst wizard children, it is particularly legendary, for their minds fabricate creatures far more splendid than have actually ever existed; respected naturalists, however, can occasionally come here and study some animals in, for the most part, very natural surroundings. Some of my finest work exists here: altering the environment – sometimes quite radically – to suit some of the more exotic creatures. I even built a pyramid two centuries ago with some friends to house a sphinx properly. It was quite tricky work, but we ended up replicating some ancient Egyptian curses that a Curse-Breaker acquaintance of mine introduced me to." Harry was suitably impressed; if creatures like sphinxes were housed within, that slender gold chain must have been much stronger than it looked.
"I'm not really an expert in caring for creatures like this…maybe you should trust someone else with this…" Harry began, intimidated.
"The creatures in here don't need much attention like the stables, Harry. I've completed some modifications not unlike your own work, though more comprehensive, to take care of them. However, some of the creatures have valuable by-products that you need to collect. The unicorns – we have twelve, now, and two foals, it's really quite the herd – for instance need their tails brushed and the hairs given to Ollivander for wands. We are, actually, the sole providers of unicorn hair for him." At this, Flamel handed Harry an ornate silver brush with which to brush the unicorns. "We certainly don't kill enough dragons, however, to provide for him, so that comes from a Romanian preserve. Dragon dung, however, I need for my greenhouse as you well know, so you'll be collecting a bit of that from the Hebridean Black family that is in those caves up there. Also dragon eggshells, if there are any to be had that have hatched. Finally, the Basilisk needs to be milked for its potent venom, and gather its shed skin. That is probably the hardest job, Harry, and I think the best way to do it –" Flamel started before Harry smirked and interrupted him with, "Actually, I don't think that one will be a problem, Master. What about the strategy for dragon dung collection?" Flamel eyed him somewhat oddly at the pronouncement of the ease with which he could handle a basilisk, but didn't object.
"Alright, then, I'll leave Agnes to your ministrations. As for the dragons, make sure they aren't around the droppings, and try to go after they've been fed. It really shouldn't be a problem, Harry; you can Apparate now, after all. Use that to get out of trouble if you need it. Well, I'll leave you here to explore for the rest of the day. Be sure to greet the merpeople for me, and try to remain whole and fully functional if you can. Perenelle will surely be quite upset if you miss supper." Nicolas grinned and Disapparated with a 'pop', leaving Harry alone in a forest filled with incredibly deadly monsters. 'Thinking about it that way won't help anything, Harry; stay positive…this might be fun…for Hagrid.' He managed a bit of a chuckle at that. Hagrid would, of course, die a happy half-giant for the chance at a few minutes here, if Flamel was at all telling the truth about this place. Harry looked for a break in the chain anywhere, but, not finding one, he merely Apparated across the barrier – Nicolas had recommended it, after all.
The forest on the other side of the chain seemed just as unremarkable as it had from the outside – Harry was almost expecting a wild jungle or scorching desert to pop up suddenly, from the little description Flamel offered before leaving.
'Well, I guess its time to find a herd of unicorns, a family of dragons so that I can steal their dung, and a basilisk. At what point did things like this become commonplace?' Harry reflected in a rather whiny self-commentary. As he traipsed through the woods blindly, he had the first real chance since he'd arrived in this time period to really be alone with his thoughts. Flamel – and, Harry admitted, he himself – had assigned so many tasks and so complicated were they that Harry had been to busy. Even Hermione hadn't ever kept the kind of manic schedule Harry had adopted lately, he said with a snort. She'd be so proud of his work, no doubt bursting into tears. 'But no, I'll never see her burst into tears. Nor Ron get excited as he makes a save in Quidditch – when he beat Slytherin I think it was the happiest I'd ever seen him!' Harry wiped away some stray water from his eye – must have been the pollen in the forest or something, not the thought of never seeing his friends again, he thought wryly, when he suddenly froze. Something very large was near him, he realized, and he'd been too wrapped up in his self-pity to even realize it. Large, deep breaths – 'Probably the kind dragons take just before attacking humans,' – were coming from his right. Only shaking slightly at the prospects of again facing a dragon, this time without his Firebolt, he drew his wand and slowly and quietly as he walked closer to the right. Emerging in a clearing after passing by some thick brush, he was staring into the face of something enormous. With large horns.
Thankfully, it wasn't a dragon, and was just grazing in the meadow – this must have been one of those climate changes Nicolas talked about, because it was nearly 20 degrees hotter after he emerged from the forest and looked like an African savannah. The enormous grayish creature, seemed to ignore Harry as he thought about what it was. Large, big horn…Bicorn? No, Graphorns are purple, so it wasn't that…Erumpent. Hagrid had written four requests to the Ministry to get one in Harry's fourth year, he remembered, but the climate was too cool and he thought it wouldn't be happy, so he eventually dropped the idea. Nicolas apparently hadn't let a silly thing like weather stop him, so this was likely the only specimen on the continent. Now what could Harry remember about the creatures? Little, as he never paid much attention to lectures without demonstrations; he was cursing himself for that now.
"Good Erumpent…don't hurt the poor little wizard." The Erumpent raised its head at the sound of his voice and seemed to glare at him a bit. Harry backed away, back into the forest, from the dangerous creature and quickly walked along the edge of the forest, thinking that if he stayed between two different climates, maybe there wouldn't be as many encounters; he had no evidence to back this up, but did hope dearly.
"Hunt…meat…kill…" He heard suddenly as he was still in the forest. He looked to his left, away from the savannah, and saw a massive cave that looked to descend into the earth.
"Damnit!" He heard himself hiss angrily. He contemplated shutting his eyes quickly, and also just Apparating far away from the cave, but merely kept a firmer grip on his wand as he advanced towards the cave, just passing the mouth.
"Hello, is anyone there?" Harry called out, still aware of his hissing. He hoped this might give the basilisk pause, though it hadn't exactly worked with the last one he'd encountered.
"I smell manflesh, yet hear the great Tongue of Serpents. How can this be?" When he heard the reply from inside the cave – he'd only advanced perhaps 20 feet or so – Harry immediately shut his eyes, thinking that he needed some other way to see.
"Hi, I'm Harry…I've always been able to talk to snakes, it's kind of a gift, I guess. So I was wondering if we could maybe talk without you turning me into stone? I like my flesh the way it is, so…" Harry froze in the next instant as he felt the light touch of a snake's tongue flicker across his ear. The basilisk was right behind him now, and probably encircling him; for some reason, it was more terrifying in this manner than it had been when he was twelve and it was outright attacking him.
"You have nothing to fear from my gaze, human. I do not care to eat rocks, and so I spend most time with my eyes shut. Unlike the things I eat, snakes have much more sensitive senses, and therefore do not need to use vision to navigate. And I assure you, my senses are a thousand times more sensitive than any other snake you might meet." At this proclamation, Harry lit up his wand with a thought – the first time he'd done nonverbal magic, not that he was aware of it – and he opened his eyes just a crack. The basilisk's head was perhaps two feet in front of his own, and its eyes were indeed closed. The rest of the cave was pretty much as Harry expected; slightly wet, there was a trickle that ran near Harry's feet that probably collected at some point deeper in the cave, and smelled strongly of basilisk.
"So what brings you to me in this manner, human? Even the old human does not do so in such an arrogant fashion." The snake questioned.
"The old man – I think you mean Nicolas – can't speak to snakes either, though. From what little I've encountered, you snakes don't usually hurt Parselmouths…unless instructed by another Parselmouth, I guess. Anyway, instead of finding another way to get some of your venom, I just figured I'd ask for some. Oh, I'd also like to collect your shed skin, if that's alright." Harry said, readying a quick Apparition in case the basilisk took offence.
"A pity. I rather enjoyed my attempts to bite the old human, but he would be a formidable opponent even for me. Very well, I will allow you a sample of my venom. I believe the collection jar that the old man used is lying in the corner," the snake gestured near the entrance with his tail – something snakes seemed wont to do, Harry thought as he remembered his encounter with the snake at the zoo – and Harry removed himself from the coils of the basilisk to retrieve it. It was a simple glass jar with runes etched in silver running all along the exterior, and the top was covered in what looked like rubber. Harry even recognized some of the runes and was able to guess at their function – the power runes were obvious and plentiful, and there were the runes Harry used for transportation, so he guessed the venom would be Vanished to Nicolas' lab. The snake, apparently knowing how this worked, spread its mouth wide in a matter that caused Harry to gulp only slightly before it drove its fangs through the rubber top and acid green venom spewed into the jar. Sure enough, when the venom filled the jar up enough to start pooling at the bottom, the venom began Vanishing, no doubt filling up one of Flamel's jars in a potions laboratory, never filling up much beyond that slight pooling. After nearly a minute of milking the venom, the basilisk removed its fangs from the jar – causing the rubber to seal back up, no doubt the result of another rune pattern – and Harry replaced the jar from where he found it near the mouth of the cave.
"So, human, what are you to do now that you have obtained my venom?" The basilisk questioned.
"Er…well, I need to collect dragon dung and unicorn tail hair still. The unicorns I'm not too worried about, but any idea how to avoid dragons?" The basilisk was quiet for a moment, then responded.
"Why does that old man use a speaker of the Great Tongue as a mere errand boy? Surely a wizard of lesser importance could be used for these simple tasks!" The basilisk sounded somewhat angry as it continued, "If the ancient Dark Lords knew of how their legacy had fallen, they would be greatly displeased! After all, they were the greatest wizards of their time. Their spells beat down their enemies and easily swept aside the sheep of the land, tearing nations and power as they rightfully deserved, and now you, the only Speaker to have found this Great Serpent, are a mere errand boy for an old man! Why?" Harry was somewhat paralyzed in more than a little fear at the temper tantrum the basilisk seemed to be throwing – who knew how unpredictable snakes could get, after all?
"Er…I'm actually the old man's apprentice. He's kinda been training me for a few weeks now, and some of my tasks, which I think are really excuses to practice spells, involve gathering this stuff. For instance, I'm going to need to Vanish the dragon dung all the way to the Flamel manor, and that's good practice using that spell. Things like that; I'm more than just an errand boy. Well, sometimes. The old man, my Master, is really knowledgeable and pretty famous too, so I'm learning a lot from him." Harry said placatingly; his words seemed to calm the great snake some.
"That is well, then. It is the way of things for the young to learn from the old. Learn well, young Speaker, for it is the natural order that Speakers dominate amongst humans. Enjoy your games with the dragons and unicorns." The basilisk withdrew deeper into the cave after its farewell, and Harry allowed the breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding out. In the distance, he could see the shed basilisk skin – it was at least 30 feet in length, though noticeably smaller than Slytherin's basilisk had been – and decided to gather it too for Flamel, shrinking it with several uses of the Reducing charm.
Finally, Harry departed the basilisk cave, almost dreading the expected return visits that would no doubt also leave him feeling threatened by the monstrous snake, and emerged once more into the forest to search for the next creature on his list – the unicorn herd.
Signs of the creatures were all over the forest, Harry knew, though he'd yet to glimpse a sight of them. Here or there was a gleaming white hair unmistakably from their tails caught in a bush or twig; tracks and droppings littered the forest where the herd had passed through, so Harry decided to merely follow the tracks, since they had to eventually lead him in the right direction.
Unfortunately, three hours later this left him still following the tracks, though he'd skipped trails a few times to find more recently made tracks, to be sure, and he was just about to give up entirely. Just as the thought of giving up – not to mention the thought of clipping all of the creatures' damn tails entirely so that he'd never have to track them again – popped into his mind, he emerged upon a beautiful spring bathed in rainbow light, where eight unicorns, including the two foals, were drinking and playing at the pond. Also, to his surprise, were three leprechauns bouncing off of the giant toadstools near the pond's edge. Knowing how skittish unicorns could be from his lessons with Professor Grubbly-Plank and Hagrid, Harry very slowly approached the gleaming equines. As he neared, they made no attempt to run, but the adults in the group were obviously keeping a close eye on him. The two golden foals, however, seemed to be quite glad of the new plaything they'd found, and trotted over to Harry, causing the adults' heads to snap even quicker towards him. Harry began by simply stroking the two young unicorns' necks a bit; his lack of an assault seemed to put the other unicorns somewhat at ease, so he carefully and slowly withdrew the brush that Flamel had handed him, using it to stroke the tails of the young foals; he was rewarded with four tail hairs from this work, not a bad haul, all things considered.
He was quite surprised, however, to see that now, three silver unicorns – this indicated that they were slightly older than the golden foals, he knew from Hagrid's class – were also making their way up to him and curiously regarding him. These, too, were rubbed affectionately by Harry – one of these even nuzzled him a bit like the foals had – and then their tails were brushed, leaving him with a total of ten tail hairs. Finally, one of the large white unicorns, the largest that was in the clearing, came up to him apprehensively as the silver unicorns had before it. Following the same pattern, he was this time rewarded with three more hairs double the length of those obtained from the younger unicorns. Just as he was about to back slowly away, for none of the other mature unicorns seemed anxious to approach him, all of the gorgeous creatures looked up suddenly and bolted from the clearing. The leprechauns, too, Harry noticed, had left abruptly – their songs and laughter no longer like chimes ringing. Finally, Harry also saw that it seemed to get darker, and the rainbow was no longer shining on the stream. Almost instantly knowing that he'd rather remain ignorant, he glanced up into the sky, where he instantly panicked as he saw a sight he wished he'd seen the last of in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Sprinting to the edge of the clearing seemed to have no effect on the dragon, however, besides forcing it to knock over two full-grown trees before it grabbed Harry in one of its claws, which painfully dug into his side.
"Ouch! Does this have to sting that much?" Harry cried angrily as the burn ointment got into one of the grooves carved into his flesh by the assaulting dragon; possibly, it was actually from one of the trees he'd hit one of the times he'd been dropped, he wasn't sure. Nicolas merely grinned at his rather rough-looking apprentice.
"I do believe that I told you to Apparate away from the dragon, not wrestle it." Nicolas said, humming as he handed Harry two more jars of something or other. Harry vaguely recognized one as murtlap essence, which he'd become quite familiar with after Umbridge's detentions.
"I did Apparate away!" Harry protested weakly. Nicolas grinned at him.
"Well, I suppose you did, in a way. Next time, don't use the same clearing where he first picked you up as a destination, however. Someplace safer would have been preferable…possibly here? Maybe back in the basilisk cave, though…you seem to have a rapport with it, it usually takes me most of a week to get that much venom from Agnes." Nicolas said lightly as he rubbed salves on the other side of Harry's body.
"Why do you call it that, anyway? I wasn't aware that basilisks have names. Besides, I think it's male." Harry said somewhat shortly; understandable from the day he'd had.
"Oh, you are quite right. That plume on its head – definitely a sign that it's male. But then, so was Agnathus the Vile, who hatched the basilisk just before suffering his defeat at my hand those 500 years ago. My, I was as fresh as a spring chicken then! Of course, I had to sprint off because of that goblin business just afterward with Eargit the Ugly, who I had to negotiate with and offer a place on the Wizard's Council in 1394. In exchange, the Goblins freed up some of the land that had been long hidden by their ancient sorcerers, and I was personally granted the forest in which to keep the basilisk away from anything sentient that it might kill. I named the snake after Agnathus once I got back home, which I thought was fitting." Nicolas' explanation was a little winded and contained many nuggets of fascinating history, as Harry now expected from the old man who'd made a great deal of that history.
"Alright, Harry, now I believe that you owe me two jars of burn-healing paste, one of murtlap essence, and a bit of dittany – for the scarring, you know. So you can do that after we eat some supper with Perenelle and Elwood. That reminds me, Harry: I do believe you should go by a surname other than 'Potter' while you're here in the past. The Potters, after all, have been well-known since even before the Norman invasion –" Harry decided to cut off the Alchemist this time, even if he was marginally interested in the history of his family.
"That's a good point, Master. I also assume that I should use a false name around Elwood?" Harry inquired.
"Precisely. Much as he seems to be a trustworthy lad, it might slip his tongue, not to mention being plucked out of his head by a Legilimens. Safer for everyone the less he knows, I believe." Nicolas said.
"I agree. So what should my new name be?" Harry asked. Truthfully, he didn't mind anything but "Malfoy". "Snape" would be just as bad, though, he conceded.
"Why not use Elwood's name. Everyone at school will believe you brothers anyway, so I think it perfect." Nicolas said with a smile, "not to mention, I think Elwood would be most pleased – he's really taken to you, Harry."
"Yeah, it's been fun having a little brother, and getting to teach him and everything. Makes me wonder if I'd have had one if my parents weren't killed." Nicolas smiled sadly at this and ushered Harry upstairs, then, for supper.
"Harry, where were you? Did you have a Potions accident? It looks WICKED!" Harry was glad Elwood thought so, because personally he thought that having half his face, left arm, and side covered in orange paste was less than awesome; his right side, along with parts of his left, were covered in the murtlap and dittany to aid healing of the claw marks and tree scrapes and abrasions.
"Dragon accident, actually. And really Elwood, less than cool. More painful than wicked, I think." Perenelle rolled her eyes at this exclamation.
"Dragons, Nicolas? After two weeks? Goodness I thought you'd learned better than that how to keep these apprentices of yours alive. Really, Harry, I apologize, but I'll have to take a firmer hand in your education from now on – Nicolas really can be such a child sometimes, even if he's had ample time to grow up. What on earth were you doing with dragons, anyway, dear?" Perenelle asked lightly. It was rather refreshing behavior for an adult female, he thought, much as he appreciated Mrs. Weasley's smothering. Perhaps it was why Charlie ended up chasing after dragons in the first place.
"Well, I was actually obtaining unicorn tail hairs when it kinda swooped down on me. I panicked stupidly and tried to run instead of Apparate away. After a bit of a struggle, I ended up getting away, so I Apparated back here." Harry said, giving a rather amended version of the story.
"Were you scared?" Elwood said with his eyes wide. Harry looked at the boy incredulously.
"Of course I was scared – it was a dragon! That was the most scared I've been in a while, because I was alone, too. Things like that are not quite as scary when you have friends with you. Still scary, though, of course. Haha, I think anyone who isn't scared of dragons is pretty crazy, Elwood." Harry chuckled slightly even though it hurt his burned face – Hagrid was certainly at least partly mad, in his book; pet Acromantulas, training a Giant to speak English, certainly all fairly crazy.
"I'd have been scared, too, I think. Maybe not if you were there, though, Master Nicolas. You'd have run him right off, right?" The little boy said as he turned to Flamel, who was sipping his wine nonchalantly.
"Oh, I don't know – that big Hebridean male is pretty ferocious, Elwood. Perhaps Perenelle and I together would be better matched against him. Though I have been practicing my Tickling Charm, so who knows how we'd fare…" Harry smirked a bit and rolled his eyes at the reference to the Hogwarts motto. Nicolas was crazy enough that it had likely come from something he'd done, Harry thought.
"I believe that is quite enough talk of dragons, Elwood. Why don't you tell Harry about your lessons with me this afternoon?" Elwood eagerly launched into a full play-by-play of the lesson. He'd learned his first color-changing charm – he chose to learn blue – and had promptly begun changing everything he could in the house to the color. Perenelle herself had been blue three times throughout the day when Elwood snuck up on her; Harry thought he might have discovered why a Statue had been erected against Underage Sorcery that had nothing to do with abuse of Patronus Charms, but kept his thoughts on the matter to himself.
Soon enough dinner was over and Harry was in the Potions lab with Nicolas as he began on the two burn-healing pastes simultaneously. A thought about some of the work he'd done came to him as Nicolas was sitting at a bench penning what appeared to be a tome.
"Master Flamel? I couldn't help but notice that the Reserve had loads of spells on it. Not to mention wards and everything." He began. Flamel looked up and straightened his glasses, nodding.
"Yes, of course. Those creatures are in many cases quite rare and require constant care, so I ensured it for them."
"Of course. But the animals here at the stables need constant care too, and I believe you mentioned that you hadn't had an apprentice in quite a few years. Did you used to do all the work each morning yourself?" Harry questioned.
"Oh good heavens no, my time is much too called upon for me to do that most mornings, Harry." Nicolas said with a smile.
"I figured as much. But then why weren't there any wards or any magic at all on the stables when I arrived? I had to look all of that up and erect them, when you could have done it any time in the past six hundred years." Harry said, making a point that had been bugging him for some time.
"I don't believe that I ever said that there were no wards when you arrived. I have had many apprentices over the years, Harry, and each of them has erected wards similar to your own on those stables during their time here." He said, returning to his work.
"So you took them down when I got here so that I would have to do more work and learn them and everything?" Harry got no reply from the old man, and so went back to his cauldrons, unable to deny that though the work seemed trivialized, he had certainly learned a lot from the repeated warding of the stables; he certainly would be able to keep a nice farm after he finished Hogwarts, he reflected.
"I have a bit of a different assignment for you tonight, Harry," Nicolas said as Harry was cleaning his cauldrons from the long night of medicinal potion brewing. "After all, you had an exciting day, so the assignment should reflect that, I believe." Harry began dreading dragon wrestling as an addition to his morning chores, but was thankfully mistaken.
"All I want is a simple essay – can't have you lose that skill before going back to Hogwarts, after all. Detail your methods of fighting off the dragon, and why they were ineffective. You should include positive aspects of your strategy, and what you'll do if put in a similar situation as you continue to collect dragon dung for my greenhouse plants." Nicolas smirked what Harry recognized as his malicious grin when Harry inquired as to the length and replied, "Whatever you feel appropriate, my boy." Harry knew from this response that it would be a long night as he penned the essay.
...Aside from my failure to properly utilize Apparition to escape from the deadly situation, several successes were made in dealing with the dragon. While in its claws the second time, I managed to force the creature to release me when I hit it with a Releasing Charm. Upon later reflection, this is a significant achievement due to dragons' usual resistance to magic of this type, and it is good to know that that particular charm is effective for me against dragons.
Unfortunately, the creature then released me above a forest, causing me additional abrasions and bruises as I fell through the branches to hit the ground. In the future, a Momentum Stopping Charm would be effective for stopping my descent from causing injury; another method might be a Featherweight Charm, which would reduce the force of impact.
After the dragon breathed fire on the forest in which I'd landed, I should have cast a flame freezing charm, instead of allowing the fire to burn me. Furthermore, I should have quickly moved from the location where I landed from the fall, which may have made the dragon less likely to hit me with its breath. Apparating back to the manor after I suffered the burns was probably the only thing that I did absolutely correctly throughout the encounter.
Harry shook his hand a bit the next morning as he finished up the last foot of his essay for Flamel, his hand cramping slightly as he released the quill. After he finished the essay, he made sure to cast each of the alternative spells he'd mentioned in it, and was quite pleased. His Momentum Stopping Charm was far from perfect – very far from it the first time he'd leapt off his bed and attempted it, resulting in a sprained wrist until he muttered an "Episkey" that fixed it instantly. The Featherweight Charm, however, though it was a simple First year spell, had a similar effect in that the fall had no force behind it. The Flame-Freezing Charm was another simple charm he'd known since his first year – it had traditionally been on the curriculum because of the dangers of Muggle witch-hunting and stayed there since – that he'd never even thought of in his battle with the dragon.
His next encounter, however, would be different, thanks in part to Nicolas books that dated to a time when owning dragons wasn't unheard of. Some of them would certainly have been useful when he was preparing for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, he thought wryly, but then Hermione had really done a large part of that research anyway, his poor study habits markedly changed due to Nicolas' demanding apprenticeship.
Dragons have some of the most acute senses found in the natural world, read one book that had been particularly enlightening regarding avoiding dragons. It is perhaps the most popular strategy to use a Conjunctivitis Curse to blind the beast; however, this does not take into account the additional senses at its disposal, disregarding the likelihood of enraging the beast, making it even more deadly. For this reason, encounters with dragons should always be attempted with Silencing Charms and Scent-Masking Charms; if the Conjunctivitis Curse is not to be used, then Disillusionment Charms are also encouraged. With three of its senses hampered against the opponent, most dragons will flee to avoid the unknown danger rather than face potentially deadly force. This is not necessarily true of nesting mothers, however, who will often fight fiercely…
And so those techniques had also been put into his essay and had been practiced after Harry looked up the scent-masking charm. It was apparently quite common in earlier times, along with nose-numbing charms, which allowed wizards to live near to muggles; wizards had in those days bathed more frequently due to the Aguamenti charm's ready supply of fresh water. Harry turned in the essay to Nicolas before setting off to complete his chores. The stables and greenhouse were taken care of within an hour, now that Elwood was doing some of the work, and thus it was still early when Harry once more found himself in the woods of Reserve.
Agnes the basilisk participated for her milking just as easily as she had the first time; she once more insisted that Harry hear a bit of the history of the power of Parselmouths from the past, which he listened to merely because the basilisk could very easily swallow him whole. He was a bit less leery of the snake biting him after his two harmless encounters, but still on edge at all times he was in the cave. He also thought this a perfect time to test his charms developed for the dragons.
"Such measures are wise when dealing with dragons, brutes though they may be, not possessing the elegance of creatures such as I." The basilisk said after it agreed to tell Harry whether or not the scent-masking charm was totally effective. It also bragged about how its senses were far more developed than a mere dragon – a bastardized snake. Harry cast the spell confidently and forcefully, then cast a Silencing Charm on himself the same way. He was happy to note that unless the basilisk opened its eyes, he should he totally invisible to it. The basilisk looked back and forth, flicking its tongue out as it did so. It moved back and forth as Harry evaded its movement, then gave what Harry could only assume past as a smile amongst snakes and nodded. Harry cancelled the charms and grinned broadly at his success.
"Yes, your magicks were quite effective to hide yourself from me. I would most certainly have been forced to open my eyes if I wanted to detect you. That, however, would be easily countered by another spell from you. My former master had that ability himself, to disappear from sight. If I had any difficulty, then I assure you, those lizards you are worried about will not have the slightest chance at finding you." The basilisk said somewhat superiorly. Harry got the oddest image of "Agnes" sporting blonde hair and a sneer, while the dragon had Hermione's bushy hair and was carrying a book. Apparently blood racism existed everywhere, he thought with a barely concealed grin.
"Thank you for all of your help, mighty basilisk. I will see you tomorrow." Harry said graciously as he departed.
"Yes, and next time, you will advise me of your progress with your teacher, that I might compare it to the prowess that I know my former master had. I may be able to advise you in training, since I was constantly around in that mighty wizard's formative years. Farewell, little wizard." Harry's eyes widened a bit at this proclamation from the basilisk – after all, did he really want the basilisk to know his abilities in such detail? 'Don't be foolish, Harry, if he wanted to kill you he'd just open his eyes a bit and you'd be a statue decorating his cave,' Harry mentally berated himself. Besides, he didn't have enough meat on him to be a proper meal for the basilisk anyway. Somehow not comforted, he went back to the unicorn spring, as he thought of it, and this time was able to brush three adult unicorns in addition to the foals and yearlings. Apparently word spread amongst the herd fairly quickly that he meant them no harm. Still, some of the brilliant equines regarded him carefully, but he made sure to make no sudden movements and thus was able to obtain quite a few unicorn tail hairs.
It was during this collection that, once again, the unicorns ran off, though not quite as suddenly as they had when the dragon arrived the first time. Apparating immediately to the edge of the woods so that he was out of direct line-of-sight, Harry scanned the skies warily, but found nothing. A little surprised at missing a black dragon in the skies when he was used to spotting and grabbing a small golden ball from a further distance, he continued to sweep the sky ominously, and thus failed to notice the creature behind him until its breath hit his neck.
Harry jumped away in fright and shrieked, landing on his hands and scrambling up to face his attacker, only to see a thestral herd that had apparently approached. He attempted to calm his racing heart as he audibly laughed to himself, petting the thestral that had scared him to within an inch of his life once it approached him again – his own reaction had frightened it, apparently. Relieved that he wasn't about to have another encounter with a dragon, he reached out and pet the recovered thestral. Three more likewise came up to him and nuzzled him as the younger unicorns had done. Perhaps they, too, wanted to be brushed. Patting their coats a bit, Harry ran the brush through their untamed coats down to their long, flowing tails. Thestral hair was surprisingly sleek; even unicorn tail hair was not so fine as the thestrals, Harry thought. After perhaps fifteen minutes of brushing them, the thestrals left for the spring, leaving Harry with a surprisingly large batch of thestral tail hair to take back to Nicolas – Harry had never used it as an ingredient for a potion of any kind, but it might prove useful for something.
Finally, Harry moved on to collect the dragon dung. He Disillusioned himself – he may not have been totally invisible like Dumbledore when he cast the spell, but Harry thought himself fairly blended with his surroundings – and cast the silencing and scent-masking Charms he'd practiced with the basilisk. Hoping it was enough, he glanced upward at the hilly region above the forest, where the tallest mountain – the dragon cave visible on the side – loomed above him as he neared it. The forest faded a bit as he gained altitude, climbing the increasingly steep slopes. Every so often, he'd see a pile of dragon dung where it had fallen from the cave and Vanished it to the enormous barrel that Nicolas kept that was now running low in the greenhouse. Harry certainly wished that he could just duplicate the fertilizer as he could most other substances, but the replicated fertilizer lost so many of its nutrients when that was done that it was no better than manure from nonmagical creatures. The pile Vanished properly, no doubt added to the greenhouse supply, Harry marveled at how far his Vanishing skills, in particular, had come along in just the few short weeks. To think that during his O.W.L. exam, he'd had trouble Vanishing a little lizard into nothingness; true, a load of dragon dung was far less complicated to Vanish than a vertebrate, but having a specific destination made the spell much trickier.
Harry ascended ever higher as he grew emboldened by his success, until the sound of massive wings flapping alerted him to the dragon's proximity. He froze just as he was Vanishing a sizable pile of dung, praying that his Disillusionment spell was strong enough. He glanced up, and apparently his hope was misplaced as the dragon swooped down.
His concealments were enough to give the beast pause, however, as Harry hugged the cliff face and remained totally still, gripping his wand tightly in preparation to Apparate away to safety, despite not collecting quite enough dragon dung for Flamel. Glancing around, he saw only rocks on the mountain, nothing with which to distract the dragon. Vaguely, he heard Flamel's voice in his head from earlier, "It's a good thing you're a wizard…" and he chastised himself for his foolishness. He had passed his Transfiguration O.W.L., after all. He nailed a rock on the other side of the dragon with his transfiguration spell and watched as it morphed into a sheep, 'baa'ing wonderfully to draw the dragon's attention away from Harry. Both Harry and the dragon moved instantly; the dragon flung its long neck to the side and clamped down on the transfigured rock with its powerful jaws, tossing it up in the air before catching it in its mouth and completely devouring it. Harry, meanwhile, took advantage of the inattentive dragon and scrambled away as fast as he could. Fortunately he was silent, had no smell, and was mostly invisible, because the dragon seemed to have forgotten about his earlier presence and took to wing once more, retreating to the cave high up. Not before, Harry noticed, depositing another load of the fertilizer he sought on the next ledge above Harry.
A little Featherweight charm later – Harry wasn't particularly strong enough for continuous mountain climbing without it, of course – and Harry had gathered enough dung for the day to keep Flamel happy; all without coming to any harm, surprisingly. He Apparated back to the manor, where he happily reported his success back to Nicolas.
"Excellent work, Harry. I'm glad to hear of your success concerning the dragon dung collection – much improved strategy from yesterday, I think. Your essay provided you with some good thoughts on that, I believe, and so it was beneficial, even if I don't normally assign such things." Nicolas said with a smile.
"Alright, so what are we doing for the rest of the day?" Harry asked, seeing that no potions were brewing or any other work waiting obviously for him to set upon.
"Now that you have most of your afternoons free, excepting some potions that need to be brewed, I believe that its time for you to get started on some Occlumency, Harry. I think we should spend at least two hours each day on that instruction for you. In addition, we'll begin to embark upon some more complicated Arithmentic problems and their relation to curse-breaking, specifically – it is perhaps the most interesting and practical application available to us, so I believe you'll enjoy it." Harry and Nicolas began some simple exercises where Harry would sit and purposefully not think about anything, wiping thoughts from his mind.
"Now, Harry, when faced with an attack, you must simply force the thoughts from your mind in that same fashion; you may also bring other thoughts to your mind and manipulate what your attacker is seeing. Now look into my eyes and we shall begin."
Nicolas' eyes seemed to flash as Harry's met them, and Harry found his thoughts running wild through his head.
Death Eaters rushed in the door, quickly incapacitating his friends while they slammed him into the hourglass, green lights rushing at him…Dumbledore in his office with Fudge and the Aurors attempting to arrest him before he escapes and leaves everyone stunned…The group who went to the ministry mounting the thestrals and heading off…Ron, Hermione, and Harry in their first year fighting the troll…Professor Quirrell with Harry in front of the mirror fighting to protect – NO! Harry threw the thought from his head viciously with all of his might, only to find Nicolas on the floor from the force of it. The old man smiled with Harry's success.
"Excellent work there, Harry, I'm glad you were able to keep some information from me. Though I hardly suppose it matters to me what's hidden a century in the future. In any case, try to recapture that feeling, and close your mind off to it. You know how to do it – your instruction seems to have capitalized on a practical method as well, for even that success is considerable. Normally it can take up to a decade for a well-organized mind to be sufficiently cleared, but you have made remarkable progress in only a single term. Let's try again, shall we?" Nicolas said amicably, apparently not remotely upset at Harry's violent Occlumency reaction.
The next three sessions went similarly; after that, he and Nicolas once more did the meditative mind clearing together for an hour. Harry was somewhat tired, of course – his second attempt threw Nicolas out even faster than the first, but by the third his discipline had wavered significantly and took him much longer to succeed – but overall pleased with how well the lesson went when compared to Snape's. Even if Nicolas had complemented Snape's technique as exactly the kind of inspiration that Harry seemed to need, Harry didn't have to like it. He was so caught up in how great the lesson went that he totally failed to notice that his scar didn't even twinge once throughout the process, unlike when he had been with Snape.
Afterward, Harry and Nicolas began the Arithmancy instruction. Despite Nicolas' claims, this was infinitely more complicated than he had let on – and infinitely more complicated than any Arithmantic problems Harry had thus far completed – and Harry spent the entire evening determining the possible counter-curse for the ward Nicolas had erected, a simple Repelling charm. At midnight, he'd finally gotten it down, and Nicolas smiled and released him to bed; Harry'd caught the old man himself nodding off during his attempts, which he thought rather unfair.
As he entered his bedroom, the prophecy orb sitting on his shelf once again drew his attention. 'After I can protect my mind with Occlumency, then I'll listen to it.' He thought tiredly.
Harry's schedule varied little throughout that first "term" of his Apprenticeship; technically it was still short because of the string of parties Nicolas was forced to attend that began in early December, but it was how Harry thought of it. However, several additional topics of study were introduced.
Collecting the by-products from the Reserve remained a constant test of Harry's skills, keeping his Defense, Transfiguration, and Charms spells well in hand. The potions ingredients he collected, of course, were put to good use almost each night as he sat up with Nicolas until late in the evening in his laboratory. The dragons, in particular, were where he constantly attempted new strategies. He had now created herds of sheep – his greatest achievement in transfiguration was 10 sheep at once from a pile of rocks that the two adult dragons left their cave to attack, levitated the dragons leaving them bewildered enough for him to Vanish their dung and Apparate away, mastered his concealing charms enough that the dragons couldn't see him from the sky and the baby dragon hadn't seen him when he was two feet in front of it, and on one particularly close call, shot the female mother dragon in the eye with a Conjunctivitis Charm and pelted her with enlarged branches of trees until she took wing; after this, Harry had made sure to Vanish the dung pile quickly and Apparate to safety before he required more burn salve. He had only four times in three months suffered any real damage from the dragons assaults, and those all in September during those first few weeks.
In addition to the basilisk venom, unicorn and thestrals tail hair, and dragon dung collecting, he'd also moved on to gathering graphorn and erumpent dung (both collected in separate barrels of the greenhouse), mooncalf dung (which required a special midnight trip with Nicolas and Perenelle both during each full moon to gather almost all of the droppings of the elusive mooncalves) that was a particularly rare and unique fertilizer, Acromantula silk – Harry hadn't even known that there were acromantulas in the forest he'd be wandering around in, and Harry had even managed to befriend the enormous Re'em that lived within the Reserve. He had yet to attempt to withdraw any blood – an enormously valuable potions ingredient that grants the user a temporary increase in strength that through an alchemical process could become mostly permanent if so desired – but Nicolas seemed to be unhurried for him to obtain this particular ingredient.
Harry had also had encounters with creatures that Nicolas didn't instruct him to obtain anything from. The bicorn herd – there were four now – had valuable horns, but taking them usually resulted in their death; without a horn, they were pathetic combatants without any aggression and were easily slain by normally weaker creatures. The Snidgets were possibly the most interesting creatures on the Reserve – long thought extinct; they existed only in pockets like at the Reserve. They were hunted for Quidditch games and used as Snitches in early history for their maneuverability and speed. Also spotted were some Diricawl, which usually popped away as soon as he came near them. Harry also had befriended a few of the wood nymphs that lived in the forest. Unlike the bowtruckles, which were also tree guardians, the wood nymphs were lovely creatures with enchanting voices that Harry would sometimes listen to for great lengths of time if he'd brought some particularly challenging homework or needed to meditate for his Occlumency exercises.
His Occlumency had come along remarkably well in that first term; he was able to force Nicolas out of his mind before he could view any memory. Harry was, however, still painfully obvious when forcing Nicolas from his head; there was absolutely no capability for redirection or subtlety with his method, just a brute-force, knee-jerk reaction that kicked Nicolas out instantly. Nicolas was totally perplexed by this, having never taught a student at once so adept and so miserable at the Art. Harry was also likewise terrible at Legilimency, displaying only a few pathetic attempts with his wand to even concern Nicolas; his eyes had never even been able to make an attempt on Nicolas' mind.
The Reserve also brought some additional opportunities for ward-crafting experience for Harry. Usually the process was that he made a careful study of the existing spells around an area, wrote a lengthy dissertation discussing the finer points of rune choice and placement – placement of runes was a new study for Harry, and involved some Arithmancy to predict optimum distance between runes, thus working out shapes like a puzzle – which Nicolas would critique and correct. After Nicolas thought he understood them well enough, they might work together to bring down the existing scheme and leaving Harry to re-erect it after hours – sometimes days, in the case of the erumpent pen climate control rune scheme – of diligent carving. This had introduced him too to the additional runic schemes used by Nicolas in his advanced work. Futhark was wonderful for beginners to learn Runes, Nicolas had said, but variety led to more focused work that was thus more powerful. Harry had memorized the Futhark runes now, and even the Egyptian ones after his work on the pyramid with the sphinx enclosure, but had also been introduced to and given thick translation books on Celtic, Sumerian, and Mayan runes. Nicolas was confident that Harry's diligent work on the runes would pay off wonderfully, but they tended to blur together to Harry after long nights of ward scheme translations; he had trouble telling Sumerian and Mayan runes apart when his eyes were crossed.
Harry's Arithmancy lessons had gone quite slowly in Harry's mind, since they only covered three or four major topics in depth, but Nicolas assured him that his progress was fine; apparently each of the processes included nearly all of the O.W.L. level calculations, so he had caught on quickly. The basics still sometimes eluded him, embarrassingly, and he'd have to refer to the beginning chapters of a basic Arithmancy book as often as he would Nicolas' notes on optimal distance calculations for power rune placement when erecting weather-altering wards. Most interestingly, Nicolas had also begun to teach Harry one of Nicolas' specialties within Arithmancy – blood ward calculations. Unfortunately it was too complex for them to hit upon more than the basics before Nicolas' party season emerged upon them and he was forced into the public spotlight, but Harry looked forward to continuing his studies, particularly since blood wards at the Dursleys had protected him since he was small.
Elwood had also come along well in the few months that he lived with the Flamels. While he was certainly not pushed as hard as Harry – one might also say that he didn't push himself as hard – he had now come to take over many of the chores Harry was once responsible for in the stables, even learning the rather complex Charm to use on the brushes for the horses and other equines. Harry still usually brushed a dozen or so at once, but left the others for Elwood to do individually.
However wonderful Harry considered his apprenticeship, and indeed he was greatly enjoying his time with the legendary Alchemist, to be sure, Harry did still feel quite lonely here in the past. He had buried himself effectively in work, of course, and that allowed him less time to dwell on the likely permanent loss of his friends, but it still crossed his mind occasionally. When he taught Elwood to fly on a broomstick, for example, and all about Quidditch, Harry tried to instill Ron's fervor into the speech, and even related some of the more impressive stories of Ron's latest season catches. Elwood was growing quickly, so while he had a nice Seeker build now, Harry decided to start him on Chasing so that he'd grow into it. When Harry's studies got to be overwhelming and he didn't think he could handle it, he tearfully thought of Hermione going mad in their third year as she took every class available with the aid of a Time-Turner. Even Muggle Studies as a Muggle-born, he thought with a grin. Thinking of Hermione's Muggle Studies made him think of Flamel's own preoccupation with Muggles, which rivaled Dumbledore's. Usually once a week, Harry and Flamel would head into the nearest muggle town, and Harry would show Flamel some new Muggle invention like the recent telephone, which certain establishments were beginning to get as the latest fad. Some Muggles in the bars they'd occasionally visit would swear that they would never own one of the 'blasted contraptions', and that they were useless. Harry also introduced Flamel to the Muggle boat, and they took a ride in the Channel on a rented boat, which Flamel was ecstatic about afterwards, talking to Perenelle for over three hours about the 'Water machine'.
"And the sails on it, Perenelle – it was like magic for the Muggles!" He said somewhat excitedly when they got back. The trips were always fun for Harry, who didn't understand – even back when Mr. Weasley did it – why wizards were so fascinated by the simplest Muggle things. Of course, Harry himself was always fascinated by simple magic things, so he supposed it was a fair trade. The Flamels, however, were far more versed in Muggle culture than Mr. Weasley had been, even if their "Muggle disguises" had, before Harry corrected Nicolas, included a knight's breastplate. Nicolas couldn't imagine that the Muggles had moved on fashion-wise. "It's preposterous, Harry, this is the height of Muggle fashion! It'd be like wizards no longer wearing robes!" He objected loudly. Perenelle's formal gown was actually less out of place in Victorian England than Harry would have believed, however, so she didn't require much of a wardrobe modification. Elwood and Harry, however, had great fun picking out a bundle of Muggle clothes at a shop in Exeter with the help of a shopkeeper. Their knickers and white shirts, complete with suspenders, made Harry think of how ridiculous he'd look in his own time.
The shopkeeper also insisted that Harry, being older, obtain a more formal three piece suit complete with bow-tie. Nicolas too was fitted, and Perenelle a new dress that was the fashion from Paris – it had a more natural fit for the hips than her older dresses, but retained the tight bodice. Nicolas said that these formal Muggle "costumes" were necessary because the three of them would be attending Queen Victoria's Ball this year, and needed proper outfits. Elwood would not be attending this Ball, instead staying at the Potters for that evening, Nicolas informed Harry with a grin – they had a son his age that Harry wondered if he was related to. Elwood would be going to all of the wizarding functions with the Flamels, however, much to his disappointment. Nicolas' presence was required at several functions in France – Harry was looking forward to that somewhat, as he'd never been to France – and a few prominent gatherings in London this season. To top it off, Nicolas promised a trip to a gathering at Durmstrang after Christmas. Harry was particularly eager for this, as he well remembered their students from the Tri-Wizard Tournament – particularly Viktor Krum – and how they'd described its harsh climate and beautiful grounds.