A/N: This is an updated chapter that has been beta'd. No major changes just punctuation and grammar.

Beta'd by the wonderful Vampygurl402

Chapter 2

A few hours later, Harry woke with a shuddering gasp and curled himself into as small a ball as possible hoping that it would somehow ease the pain in his head. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before, his head throbbed along with his heartbeat and felt like every memory and piece of knowledge was fighting to spit his head wide open.

Harry couldn't move, couldn't think; he just clutch his hands over his eyes and hoped they stayed right where they were, in his head. And as sudden as the pain came, it was gone. He inched his hands down and cracked open one eye. His eyes shot wide open and a panicked squeak left his mouth. For a moment he thought that something might have gone wrong and now he was blind, but when he raised his hands he could clearly see them as well as the rest of himself. But all around him was nothing just inky darkness, there was no sound, not even his own heavy breathing, and he was standing; he didn't remember getting up.

Before Harry could panic further a figure appeared in front of him. The man was only a few inches taller than himself and very familiar. The more he stared, the more he realized there was something very odd about the man standing in front of him. His form wavered almost like the air on a hot summer day and he had a faint glow about him.

"What...Who are you?" Harry asked, surprised when his voice came out soft but clear.

The man smiled softly. "I am an amalgamation of all the knowledge, memories, and power held within the journal."

Harry looked at the person (he couldn't bring himself to refer to him as a thing or being because really he wasn't) confused. "What's an amalgamation?" He asked slowly sounding out the word.

The man chuckled in amusement. "It's a combination of things. I am just an image that has formed from everything that was once contained in the book. I will be a sort of guide to help you learn to meditate and Occlude. I will be here to help you organize over 500 years of memories and knowledge and once that is done the magic that holds me here will meld with your own core."

Well that certainly explained why he seemed familiar, if the journal held memories of his future self than the image it produced would be himself only older. So Harry took a good long look at the person he would have become had none of this happened. His hair was slightly shorter and neater, the odd dress like garment he was wearing hung off of his frame and he was thin and pale; sickly looking. "Were you sick?" Harry asked quietly.

"In a way I suppose. You remember I told you that magic was dying," Harry nodded. "Well our magic is like the blood that runs through our veins and runs much the same way like a magical circulatory system, but you'll learn about that as we go. I made a study of it once I found out that magic was dying. Anyway to make a long story short, just like if you bleed too much you will eventually die, it's the same with our magic; we cannot live without it. Our magical circulatory system forms as we do in the womb and when we die our magic is supposed to go back to Mother Magic almost like reincarnation, but since our bodies were bleeding magic when we died from that loss there was nothing to go back to Her and less magical beings were born every year. I was very close to death when I made the journal that's why I look sick."

That was terrifying and if Harry hadn't been resolved to help before, he certainly would be now. He had so many questions he wanted to ask but wasn't sure where to start, fortunately he was stopped before he went on a tangent. "Tonight when you lay down for bed I will teach you how to meditate and then Occlude, so that you can start sorting through all the memories you now possess. But for now I will hold everything apart from your conscious mind so that you do not suffer. Now you must wake, Petunia is coming."

With a quick intake of air he opened his eyes to find himself still curled up on his side and a lingering ache at the back of his head, he could deal with that compared to the agony he felt before. Then his Aunt was banging on the door and yelling in her shrill voice for him to get up. Harry heaved a sigh and got ready to start another day with too much work and too little food.

…

That night signaled the beginning of Harry's lessons in meditation and after a week it became abundantly clear that he was just not very good at clearing his mind and when he mentioned this, it was met with a chuckle and 'just be thankful I am not the person who tried to teach me'. It also did not help that he had a million and one questions that his future self refused to answer, he would only ever tell Harry to be patient that he would know all as soon as he mastered meditating. He claimed he didn't want to confuse Harry and so with much reluctance he tried to push all his questions to the back of his mind and focus.

It took Harry 9 days just to learn how not to fall asleep while meditating and that seemed to be the hardest part, once he had gotten that down it only took another week before he had mastered it enough to start learning what Occlumency was and how to do it.

…

July 17 1990

For the most part things went the same as they usually did. Harry lay on his mattress, his hands resting lightly on his stomach and his eyes closed as he found his center. That place inside himself that was perfectly calm and he was happy.

The magical construct that was Harry's future self, allowed the younger boy to settle in that space before instructing him to turn his mind inward.

Once again Harry was in that black space that was not dark with his older self standing comfortably in front of him. "This is where we were before. And it's in my mind?" Harry asked a little confused.

"Not in, it's a part of your mind. Think of it like an antechamber; this will be where you set up your defenses against anyone trying to enter your mind and someone with that ability is called a Legilimens and they practice the art of Legilimency. That is not a skill we will ever possess, we may be able to enter someone's mind but we will never have the skill or finesse to do it without someone knowing that we are there."

"Enough about that for now, what we are going to start doing now is sorting through all memories and knowledge; yours as wells as mine and putting them all in their rightful place. I do have to tell you that while we are doing this you will live through every memory: ones that have already happened and ones that will or may not happen. There are only a handful of memories that I will shield you from and it will be like you are a third party but you need to experience as much as possible and once we finish the magic that holds me here will merge with your own core." The construct told him gravely.

"So you won't be here after?" Harry asked sadly. The older man in front of him may not be real in a way but he was there and he kept Harry's loneliness at bay.

"Not as you see me now. I will become a part of your magic since I am essentially your magic, but it nothing to worry about for now, we have just a little over a year to accomplish this and by this time next year you will know everything you need to." Harry nodded and pushed aside his sadness in order to concentrate; this was much more important.

"Right now inside your head is a mass of controlled chaos which makes it harder for you to remember things and control your emotions. You won't even have to wait until we finish to see results, once we are finished here tonight you should feel calmer and you will also gain perfect recall."

"What's that?" Harry tilted his head slightly in curiosity.

"Technically is called having an Eidetic Memory, and someone who has that can remember everything they have ever seen, smelt, touched and tasted; ever. Now most people who have a memory like this has been born with it but once you have organized your mind you will have trained it to remember and you will be able to revisit those memories."

"Woah!" He breathed in wonder.

The older man laughed lightly at Harry's awestruck look. "It is a very useful ability to possess but it can also be a very painful ability to possess; to not ever forget anything, good or bad. While we do have some happy memories, we have more bad and I just hope that you will not make the same mistakes I have."

"I'll do my best," Harry answered hesitantly and wondered what kind of mistakes they had made in the future and just how bad those mistakes were.

"Nothing to worry about just yet. Right now we need to work on building your mindscape, which is just what it sounds like, a landscape within your mind. Everyone's mindscape is different even if they are built in similar ways because everyone has different experiences. It will become anything you want it to be from a single room to a whole house, a field or forest, a school or library." He explained.

"What was yours?" Harry inquired.

"A school; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to be specific. Everything I wanted to keep hidden was put inside the school, disguised as pictures, tapestries and books. The stone walls were the second line of defense and the first line was the wards that surrounded the school except those wards were made of inane memories that I didn't mind being seen by anyone who tried getting into my mind. The school was my home for a long time."

"I am guessing that's where I'll be going, but when?"

"There is a reason I said we only have about a year to complete this task. About a week before your next birthday you will receive your letter of invitation to attend and on September 1st you'll board the train that will take you there. You'll know everything you need to before then." He waited for Harry's nod of assent and decided it was time to start.

"Now what I want you to do is close your eyes and picture a door and behind that door will be your mindscape and where we will store all your memories; you only need to picture it." He quieted in order to give his younger self time to think and wondered what the boy would come up with.

When he finally opened his eyes, Harry saw an ornate wood door standing against the pitch black that surrounded them. "Go on and open it," He told the boy as he just stood there and stared at it.

Harry flinched slightly at the sudden sound and moved slowly toward the door. He put his hand on the cool brass knob and hesitated slightly before turning it and easing the door open cautiously.

The man stepped through the door behind Harry and gazed around in wide eyed surprise at the beauty and elegance surrounding them. He had to dig deep to remember what this place is and how he knows of it. His younger self had gone to the library a few weeks before his journal appeared to get away from his Uncle and he found a book on architecture that someone had left out. They sat at the table and opened the book and daydreamed about his perfect home when he came across a picture of a library. The St. Florian Monastery Library; a beautiful place with its glowing light wood, floor to ceiling bookshelves and artistically crafted canopy like ceiling. The whole place radiated serenity and solitude; vast knowledge and wisdom.

The only problem was the chaos scattered all around the spacious room. Books, papers and photos that represented different memories could be found stacked on tables and on the floor and chairs. He looked down at his younger self and hated to take the peaceful look off his face but they had a lot of work to do so he clapped his hands together to get his attention, "Well time to get started, we will start with your earliest memory and go from there."