Harry Potter: The Flag Bearer of the Throne
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter world. This is a work of fiction.
Reference: Harrys Teachers
Mr. Mike Langdon (American) – Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Occlumency Legilimency , Dueling, enchanting the objects
Mr. Filip Sondros (Swedish) – Charms, DADA, Runes, Warding, Dueling
Mr. Arthur Kluvait (Dutch) – Potions, Herbology, Magical Creatures, History, basic healing
Axeblade (goblin) – various magical languages, goblin culture and handling of weapons,
Sharpclaw, Axemage and Norgruk (goblin) – His holdings with Gringotts, how to invest them and other aspects of being Pendragon and Peverell Lord
Nagnok and Rootclaw (goblin) – Basic cures breaking and Warding
Ms. Elin Darby (squib) – Muggle Science (Physics and Chemistry) and Muggle studies
Dr. Jason Thorpe (squib) – Medical science and Muggle Finance
Dr. Ian McKay (Squib) – Computers and Architecture
Mr. Alastor Moody (English) – Battle strategies and combat dueling
Chapter 3 – Learning the Magic
Last Time
Harry (He) slept thinking about the next adventure he had decided to take on with help of goblins. He hoped that Ragnok would take care of problem of Dursley for this summer. He was also sure that with strong family magic guarding him, he was in safe hands for first time in many years. Whenever the family totems make their appearance, the feeling they invoked is similar to one always associate with Hogwarts – feeling of true Home. With all those thoughts jumbling in his head, Harry slowly drifted in the world of Morpheus.
-TFB-
5th July 1994, 7.00 AM, Office of Director Ragnok, Gringotts Bank, Diagon Ally
Next day Harry woke up early in the morning. A simple tempus charm told him it was 5.30 in the morning. He finished his morning rituals quickly and had already finished a small breakfast Sharpclaw came to his room at 6.15 AM. Since Harry was all set, they immediately went for director's office. Once inside Ragnok briefed him a general about procedure they would follow before entering the time chamber. His teachers would come there by 6.35 and then they would take an unbreakable oath with Harry. He also explained that by taking the oath, Harry would be the only person who would have control over knowledge of this particular adventure. Ragnok also told him that he himself would bind in unbreakable oath with Harry to protect this knowledge. Ragnok then explained him the process that Harry had to follow so that he could take the correct oath from his teachers. He also assured Harry that he had taken every precaution as far as wordings of the oath is concerned which would make sure that their enemy could not exploit the small missing gap in the detail.
Ragnok also informed him about their other adventures. Sharpclaw had managed to successfully ward of the threat of Dursley. As far as Dursley were concerned, Harry would be attending the summer football camp of Arsenal. He would be away for most of the summer and would only return sometime in mid-August. They had also managed to add the mail redirection ward to Sharpclaw's office. Ragnok told him that he would personally transfer all the mails written to Harry regularly until Harry gives further instruction to them.
Ragnok also updated Harry that Slytherin ring was most likely a former Horcrux according to Gringotts curse breakers. Goblins had tested it for all kinds of curses, traces of old magic and found two very powerful traces. According to the curse breakers present in Gringotts, one trace was of Dark Protection Magic. This was likely the curse that dark lord would have planted on the ring to protect the Horcrux, Ragnok had theorized and Harry agreed to that sentiment. Harry also learned that the second trace was most likely of Horcrux itself. Since there was not a single Horcrux that goblins had dealt in past two centuries, it was difficult to assert the fact about Horcrux trace; but Gringotts was certain that it was definitely a Horcrux trace. They were also not sure about the originator of Horcrux, but personally Ragnok was quite positive that it was from Lord Voldemort. He assured Harry that ring was perfectly safe now and Harry could use it anytime he wanted to use it.
Another point that Ragnok mentioned to Harry was, report given by Surgiknife. According to her, Harry's magic had gone under a transformation and now it was more powerful than before. This might cause him some issue while using the current wand according to Ragnok. But according to Ragnok, Harry would be able to use this wand by pouring more magic. If and when he would receive the new wand, he would have to reduce the magical power while performing most of the spell. Harry was further assured by Ragnok that he would be learning to control the magical pouring in a spell as it was part of his mind magic training and dueling. Ragnok also suggested that Harry should think about purchasing a new wand only after completing his education in time chamber. This would then ensure that Harry's magic is well stabilized.
While both Harry and Ragnok were going over these topics in latters' office, Sharpclaw and Norgruk were assigned to bring all the teachers in director's office. Once all the professors were assembled in Sharpclaw's office, both goblins directed them to director's office. There was obvious curiosity and awe to many of them when they saw the obviously and casually displayed wealth of goblin nation. Thankfully everybody kept quiet about it till they reached the Director's Office. When they reached the director's office, Ragnok welcomed each and everybody and introduced Harry to them. After introductions were done, he again briefed them about the tasks they were supposed to do.
About teaching Harry he commented, "Make sure you push him to limit. He wants to learn the right way then show him that it is not an easy way. Even if he is paying you, give him every reason to hate you by expecting and extracting best out of him. He himself has admitted that he had been lazy while learning in Hogwarts. So make sure that you remove it thoroughly. Next time when he thinks about word 'Lazy', I want him to remember this training and shudder. He is in your capable hands from now on. And although all of you can come out at any point in this training, he cannot come out from time chamber unless I am there to authorize it personally. So give me every reason to stay away from him for next 5 days." He then flashed the famous goblin smile to Harry and Harry gulped audibly. He knew at that moment, his teachers would push him to his limits. But in his mind this was good news. He had always performed well when he was under pressure. This would be another such occasion and a stage to prove himself to his new teachers.
After answering few questions about whole contract business to some of the teachers, Ragnok asked them and Harry to complete magical oath part. Ragnok himself initiated the process by giving his oath first. This was followed by three account managers working for Harry giving similar oath to him. After that, all the wizards and witches in the room took careful look at the wording of oath before giving it to Harry.
Once that was done Ragnok lead them to time chamber. Here Nagnok was waiting for him with his team. Here Nagnok gave the unbreakable oath to Harry along with every member of his team. After that Nagnok and Ragnok went over the time chamber functionality with Prof. Mike Langdon. Finally Harry entered the time chamber at 7.15 AM with his teachers. It was his first but giant step to become the true king of magical Briton.
-TFB-
Inside Time Chamber, 1st Day
Inside the chamber, they entered in a beautiful 3 story house. Harry immediately went to explore the house along with most of his teachers. It was very spacious building and had a large ground in front of him. In the backyard there was a greenhouse containing most of the standard magical plants. Inside the house, the ground floor contained mainly kitchen and living room along with very spacious hall. The general meeting room which had a long table along with very comfortable chairs was also there on the ground floor. There was also a basement, but it was actually a heavily warded dueling area explained Prof. Landon to Harry. It was currently empty room apart from few stone crystals kept at fixed positions. Harry assumed that they would add more material as and when they would require it for dueling. The library and most of the small classrooms were occupying the 1st floor. Each classroom was slightly different than other and Harry assumed that his various teachers must have provided specification of these beforehand. The 2nd floor had a potions lab. It also contained another large room which Harry thought could be used for some spell practice. The Physics and Chemistry lab were also present on second floor along with Biology lab. The 3rd and final floor was reserved for bedding. Harry's room was at the far corner and he was surprised to see that there was trunk full of many pairs of cloths suitable for Harry. He assumed that Ragnok must have arranged them as he had not brought any cloths with him. Nonetheless he was very happy with this surprise from Ragnok. He made a mental note to thank Ragnok for this gift. He was also very pleased to find his invisibility cloak and Firebolt being present there. Beside Harry, there were few rooms reserved for goblins. On the other side of central staircase the remaining teachers' quarters were present. Once the tour was completed, Prof. Langdon told everyone to assemble in the meeting room.
Once everybody was present in the meeting room, Prof. Langdon took control of it. "Ok everyone, I am Mike Langdon and you all can call me Mike. Let's do this job in a right way. As far as my contract is concerned, I am going to be here along with Harry till very end. As I am the senior most faculties among you, Ragnok has asked me to take the role of mediator between us and goblins. So for a time being, I will act as mediator between you all and Harry and the goblins. Now let us all chalk out the plan about how to teach Harry and what to teach him. Whenever you have any concern about plan, please raise it immediately so we all can resolve it and come to agreement suited for all of us. Any questions till now?"
When everybody declined, he continued with referring a sheet he had taken from Ragnok, "According to this sheet given to me, Prof. Kluvait here is a healer."
Here Prof. Kluvait raised his hand and said, "Ah, the name is Arthur, Prof. Kluvait is very formal for me. I am not a trained healer but I was working with Aurror department and learned few basic healing techniques for battle field emergencies."
Mike acknowledged that and continued, "That is absolutely OK Arthur. All Harry need is introduction to healing arts and you are more than qualified for the job. Although I want you to check Harry every month so we all can access him better. According to Ragnok, his magic had undergone some massive change very recently. Harry, do you want to add something here?"
Harry took a look at everybody and slowly said, "I am not exactly sure what has happened yet. But couple of day's back my curse scar was removed in the Gringotts healer wing, which caused some reaction. According to Ragnok this was a precise reason why my magic has changed. You all know about my scar right? Now look, it is healing. This has never happened."
Once Harry finished, he showed them now almost invisible scar on his forehead. Arthur then asked him to come to his side and started casting various diagnostic spells. Once he was done, he took a paper out from his pocket and wrote few things on it. Then he announced the results to waiting crowed. "According to my tests, Harry is very powerful and hyper active young lad. But his magic is yet to stabilize. That should be our main priority. Unless his magic is stable, we would any wand classes would be useless for him. His body also shows traces of malnourishment. There are also few old injuries he had in the past but nothing that I cannot heal. I will make few potions which will help him in healing these old wounds and his malnourishment."
After some more idle chatter and discussion on how they should teach Harry – most of which was going over his head – they decided on the final plan. As Harry was reading it in his bedroom, he thought it was not that bad. He had liked the teachers around him for most part. They were all open and friendly to him. They had asked him various questions and sometimes asked to demonstrate a spell or two. This had helped them in preparing his plan so that it would suite him best. The plan itself was very interesting, Harry mused.
General Schedule for Harry Potter
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday – Magic Classes
Tuesday and Friday – Muggle Classes and Other Extracurricular Activities (Such as learning Wizarding culture, Muggle Culture, goblin culture etc.)
Saturday – Dueling and other extra activities (like Animagus, Apparition, Shadow Travelling, Elemental, Flying etc.)
Every Muggle Evening after dinner – Occlumency and Legilimency
Term break of 2 weeks after every 3 months Term,
Summer break of 6 weeks,
Christmas/new year of 2 weeks
A day off, every time a new teacher comes or one of existing ones leaves
According to Mike, they would have to start with Occlumency immediately and in all likelihood it would continue for initial few months. This particular branch involved lot of meditation and it should help Harry stabilize his magic according to Harry. Till that time, all wand classes would mostly cover the theory and history part of different spells. Practical part would start only after stabilization of his magic. Arthur had explained Harry that in reality it should take long time to achieve the complete stabilization of his core. However they could stat the wand classes after he learned enough control over his own magic. This was something interesting for Harry. He had not known that his magic was so wild. Arthur had assured him that once he starts meditation, it should help him a lot and he would get finer control of his magic thereafter. Arthur had also said that this meditation period would be worth because once he starts using magic; he would feel positive change in his casting power. Mike had also assured him that physically he was still weak and they want him in peak condition to use magic. Thus he had to get up at 6.00 in the morning and run around the house for 20 laps. They all thought it would be highly helpful.
His classes were supposed to start at 8.00 AM in the morning and they would end at 5.00 in the evening. Since they were covering Astronomy via charts, it was part of magical courses. Breakfast was available from 7 to 8 in the morning, lunch from 12 to 2 in the afternoon and dinner from 6 to 8 in the evening. Everybody had to adjust their schedule accordingly. Harry had permission to fly every day as long as one of the teachers was there to monitor him. With all this agreed, the term was going to start from next day and Harry was looking forward to it eagerly.
-TFB-
7 months later, Inside Time Chamber
Harry who was lying on his bed, had already finished two terms inside the chamber and tomorrow his next term was about to begin. In the first term, he was not permitted to use wand and hence all wand classes were theory only classes. To his great surprise so were the classes for Herbology and Potions. He was spending all classes covered by Mike in meditation along with his mandatory Occlumency and Legilimency training hours. On top of this he was also practicing the meditation before going to sleep. This extensive meditation had helped him immensely. Now he could feel his magic. He could see how wild his magical core was when his emotions were running high, or how peaceful the core looked when he was in meditation and his mind was not stressed. This exercise had produced an added fruit – the one he had not revealed to anybody yet. He could feel other magical beings in his surroundings. He had started to realize this particular effect very recently and was looking forward to meditation exercises. Harry was certain that if he developed this particular gift to highest level possible then he would get unquestionable high ground in battle environments as he would no longer had to depend upon his other physical senses such as eyes or ears to detect the enemy.
Apart from the sessions with Mike, Prof. Filip had discussed lot of theory as far as charms and runes were concerned. This has helped Harry in building his foundation for charms. He also realized that runes were quite easy for him and that it had a flair for the subject. He was gutted when he remembered that he allowed Ron to dictate the terms and took the fraud subject called Divination.
Arthur on the other hand had mostly spent 1st term about discussing various ingredients used in potions and their connections to Herbology. This had given Harry a basic idea why many of his potions were gone wrong in the past. All in all he was very happy at the outcome at the end of 1st term.
His muggle classes on the other hand had started rigorously. In the first term they had covered the primary school stuff. Although Harry was well aware about this stuff, he had been forced to not perform by Dursley family. So he had requested his teachers, Elin, Jason and Ian to start from the scratch. They all had agreed and had put Harry through a rapid fire primary school course in first term.
In the second term, the study was mostly of the subjects taught by Elin and Jason. They were a couple and had found it easy to come together here to teach Harry. They had stated the secondary school courses – not all, but most important – and this was the portion Harry was not aware due to his education in Hogwarts. However, once he got back in the groove, he had picked up the speed and was performing to outstanding level according Elin. This has pleased Harry to no end as first time in his educational years; he was performing to his best of abilities.
He had also grown physically due to morning exercises and potion course given to him by Arthur. He had now started to run 30 lapses instead of 20 in the morning. This along with his Quidditch workouts had helped developing his body. As far as dueling was concerned, it was still at the very basic stage of dodging. Mike and Filip had given him stern warning and his wand was taken by Mike on 1st day of dueling when he complained about no spell casting. Now both the dueling experts were casting simple stinging hexes at Harry and he had to avoid them. According to Filip, this exercise would continue till he could demonstrate his skill by evading continuous 100 hexes. After two tiring terms, Harry had barely reached the count of 40. It was frustrating to Harry but as he was picking up his ability of magic sensor, he had observed that he could last much longer in the dueling arena. He hoped that further exercise would help him to reach the targeted goal much faster than everybody expected.
As far as Magical subjects were concerned, in second term Mike had continued with his meditation training, while Filip had started on basic charms. The first time he had cast the levitation charm, he was surprised by the sheer power that had flowed through his body. After that most of the term was passed in regulating the power used for casting. Filip had decided to stop working on runes for now. He was afraid that till Harry had a finer control of his magic, they should not start on Runes, as it might cause few unwanted accidents. Arthur on the other hand had started with Potions and Herbology. He had also introduced Harry to proper history of wizarding world. According to Arthur, Harry had a very good understanding of potion ingredients and thus was a prodigy at Potions. This was also due to the fact that Harry could very easily identify the potion currents. Due to his this particular ability – a manifestation of his sensor magic – Harry had a knack of identifying simpler methods to get the potion done. Arthur had used this to teach Harry more about potions and about accidents that could happen if proper care is not taken. He had gone as far as to ask Harry repeat many simple potions with different methods. Sometimes, Arthur would disturb a potion knowingly and then ask Harry to solve the mystery and get the potion back to acceptable level. This had helped Harry immensely and increased his understanding of how different potion ingredients work. Their discussions on such topics also helped his cause in Herbology.
All in all Harry Potter thought, he had learned more in past seven months than his last three years in Hogwarts – especially in Potions and History classes. Yes they had not started the magical casting very seriously, but the progress was definitely there. According to Mike, once Harry had better control of his Magic – and he was very close to achieving it – the wand subjects would be a piece of cake for him. Harry seriously hoped that is the case.
But he was not worried as his teachers were very patient and would explain every detail to him when he asked them some questions. Mike was stern but very easy-going person. He reminded Harry of Remus as a teacher. Filip on the other hand was most cheerful of the lot. He always took interest in anything that he was doing while explaining every detail to Harry. Arthur was like is namesake Arthur Weasley and was much more laidback than others. However, he could give Prof. McGonagall run for the money in strictness when it came to lab etiquettes, as far as practical potions were concern. His all teachers had allowed Harry to develop the skill of using the library well rather than depend only on books – like Hermione was. Arthur and Filip had taught him to think independently. Yes the books still provided him the basic information about spell and all, but it was his mind and magic that would eventually apply them. Thus thinking differently and quickly was very important part of his learning. As he drifted in to realm of Morpheus, he was looking forward to start the new term.
-TFB-
End of 4 Years, Inside the Time Chamber
As Harry sat in the meeting room while waiting of Ragnok and everybody else to join him in meeting room, he was very happy. This was the best summer vacation he had. For last 4 years, he had put some serious efforts into his studies and it had paid off rather handsomely – at least that is what he liked to think. He would know soon enough, he consoled himself.
Right on the time, his teachers and Ragnok entered the room. He waved to Ragnok; glad to see the old goblin again. Ragnok smiled and said, "It may be a long time for you Harry, but for me I saw you all only yesterday." Harry smiled sheepishly at that and was teased by Jason immediately.
As per the custom, Mike took a charge of the meeting and one by one each teacher submitted the progress report of Harry in their subjects.
Jason and Elin confirmed that he had reached the high school graduation level in Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology (although it was not his favorite and was a bit weaker in it) and Muggle Finances. They assured that they would continue his education in muggle studies to best of their abilities for next few years. Also Ian would start taking very active part in Harrys training hence forth as he would start teaching the architecture and basic of computers.
For Arthur, Harry's first report was medical one. According to him, most of old wounds which were curable were cured. His physical condition was very good and he had reached a physical maturity in synchronization with his magic – that means whenever Harry's magical power would increase, it would be done in the harmony of his physical power. This magical and physical power synchronization would ensure that there won't come a time where he would not be able to cast a strong spell because of lack of physical power. This was a rare gift to him and was mostly due to long and tedious efforts taken by both Harry and Mike. The long time that Mike forced Harry to spend in meditation had done wonders to his body and magic.
As far as the main subjects were concern, Harry was at OWL level in Potions, Herbology, Magical Creatures and History of Magic classes. Although he would have to practice some practical stuff as far as subject of Magical Creatures was concern. But this was in time chamber and it had few limitations that they needed accept. Arthur said that he would continue working with Harry on these subjects for few more years and gradually introduce the healing at the later part of his education.
Filip was next and he had some very positive news for everybody. When Harry thought that DADA was his best subjects, he was lying. It was Runes first and then DADA. According to Filip, Harry was already at NEWT level in both the classes. The rune maps that he had generated were exemplary. He also had a unique gift of finding the problem runes in very complex rune structure. Filip was gushing over his students' forays in runes and declared that he would be the best curse breaker and warder in the world. Everybody was surprised to hear that comment. According to Filip Harry was also OWL level competent in Charms and the only reason he had not progressed further was because Filip himself was doing lot of variations in simple charms with Harry in his classes. The results were outstanding success.
Finally it was Mikes turn and according to him Harry had adequate knowledge of Transfiguration and Arithmancy up to OWL level. They had covered this portion in record time as most of first five terms were spent on meditation purpose. Mike admitted that Occlumency training was going at much slower pace but Harry was able to detect the external probe by now and had already placed quite a few shields around his mind. Mike was going to start the animagus transformation training for Harry from next term. As far as dueling was concern, they were still on dodging part but would soon start the formal dueling training as Harry had reached the count of 95 just few days back.
Ragnok was quite pleased with progress made by Harry. Once all other things were covered, he asked Harry to wait behind so they could talk about few other things. Once only the two were left, Ragnok started the discussion, "I am very pleased Harry with your progress. This is well beyond my expectation. You have done great job. When I saw you initially – in office of Sharpclaw – I was not convinced about you. You lacked any kind of proper knowledge and magically looked mediocre at best then. But now look at you. You have done wonderfully well in each and every subject."
Harry blushed at the praise and replied, "It was not easy. But I knew that already. You have to put efforts if you want to achieve something. The teachers you have found are also great, especially Mike. He allowed me all the time to do proper mediation. There were moments when nothing was working for me and I was really frustrated. In those cases he cajoled me, rapped me and sometimes forced me to do right thing. But finally it paid off. Now I feel much more clam. And I can sense the magic."
Ragnok was happy to hear that. He asked about how Harry was feeling about this foray in magical realm in general. To this Harry replied, "Normally I am very comfortable to the schedule we have decided on 1st day. I think for 2 or 3 more years we should continue it. After that some new subjects would start."
Once Ragnok acknowledged him, he restarted the discussion saying, "There is one more thing that I would like to talk to you. It is about an interesting ability I think I have; though I have not spoken about it to anybody here. Since I can feel my magic very easily now – after extensive meditation, mind you – I can also sense magic from others. As my Occlumency shields have progressed, I can easily identify a magical being in my close vicinity. The magic to each one is unique and I can sense that. I initially thought of it as nothing, but when I met you today I am finding this more useful. Before you all came to room, I could sense all others and then there was one extra – a new entity. It was your magic because I can sense it even now. I am sure it is the other persons magic because, each one is unique. Like Mike and Filip have a very strong and bursting core while Arthur has a strong and clam one. I could even sense a very faint magical pulse coming from the Muggle Studies Profs that we have here – mostly because of their squib heritage. Actually this is the ability that helps me in Runes. I can feel them easily and the problem runes will always show themselves as danger zone. What I do is I put a very small undetectable magic to the rune structure via my fingers and then sense it. If there is a problem there then it will show up immediately. The magic around such rune is very different – it gives aura of destruction. If no such problem is present, then the entire rune structure would glow and give happy aura. Have you heard about such ability before?"
Ragnok thought for a long moment before replying negatively. "Alas I haven't heard of such technique Harry. But as I said before you are a wonderfully talented wizard. If you have this kind of sensory ability, keep it and protect it. As for developing it, I would suggest, the wards and charms set on this house would be a great start. Also try to use it as your second breath. No efforts from your side while using it. This should help you in finding your enemies early. Magic is used everywhere in our world Harry. Next time when I would be here, I would bring few more complexly warded materials with me – both good and bad. They would help you to develop this ability further."
When Harry agreed to this, Ragnok continued, "Now I would also suggest that you wait till your animagus transformation, before starting on your elemental skills. I have done some more research on your elemental abilities and most of the spells that you would need are NEWT level. This portion would be covered in next few years and you might complete your animagus training by then. Also I have a gut feeling that your animagus form is related to your elemental abilities. As far as shadow travelling is concern, I would again suggest that you wait till your apparition study. From what I have learned, it is similar. So that should help you."
Harry agreed readily to these suggestions and thanked Ragnok. Ragnok for his part updated Harry on their other missions. Harry has still not received any mails. Hedwig – his faithful owl – was now at Gringotts and had made home in the director's office. Ragnok was very amused by the said owl as it was very intelligent animal according to Director. Since Harry had joined a football camp, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley had forced Dudley to join one as well. Unfortunately for them, nobody accepted him due to his high weight issues. Now he was on strict diet and would most likely join boxing camp soon. The Potter Account Audit was finished and there was grave news for him. Ragnok assured him that they could recover any money that had been misplaced/theft. But he also said that he would let Sharpclaw and company explain the whole thing to him when they would come to start teaching Harry. He was expecting them to finish the audit process by next day morning in real world. After thanking Ragnok once more for all the efforts he was taking, they parted the company with Harry looking forward to new adventures in magical domain.
-TFB-
End of 7 Years, Inside Time Chamber
They were once more gathered in the meeting hall. This was a first time when some of them were going to leave. Goodbyes were just around the corner. Few more would join them soon but the feeling of a room was clear. It was heavy with unshed tears and unsaid words. As usual, Mike started the meeting after taking permission from Ragnok and Elin gave her report first.
According to Ian, Elin and Jason, Harry had finished his training in various muggle subjects till university level. They have covered all the things they could. The only blemish being extensive use of computers for practical purposes. Although, Ian had promised Harry that if he was still interested in learning it, he should contact Ian and they could do few hand-on sessions. Harry certainly was not at the master level in any of the subjects or held great amount of interest in most of them but he was fairly competent in all the muggle subjects.
This knowledge helped Harry in his magical lessons as well. The two subjects that attracted him most were Architecture and mathematics. He was certain that his prowess in Arithmancy were due to deep understanding of Mathematics. He had thought that once he finishes his Hogwarts education, he would join the university to get the mathematics degree.
Architecture on other hand was interesting him for complete different reasons. He knew that the old Potter Manor – which was somewhere in Wales – was destroyed by Voldemort while killing his grandparents. So he wanted to build a home which in few generations down the line would become the ancestral Potter Home. This was the reason he studied architecture class in very detail.
The other muggle class that held his interest was Medical Science. It was similar to healing and there were quite a few quick solutions to small wounds which were useful in case your wand is lost or broken. He was also interested in experimenting with both Muggle and Magical Healing methods to achieve the best results. But again this was a project well suited for later part of Harry's life.
After this Arthur went next. On Harry's medical part he had nothing to report other than the fact that Harry was progressing well. The only difference was that Harry seems to have gain even more control of his magic. The control and amount of Magical Reserves that Harry possessed amazed Arthur who free admitted he had never seen something like this before.
As far as his magical subjects are concerned, he had clear and definite understanding up to the NEWT level for subjects History of Magic, Herbology and Magical Creatures. He had finished the OWL level work of Astronomy. His Potions though were another story. He had almost completed his mastery in the subject. The only part remaining was about carcass rendering from magical beast. But in pure potions he was a prodigy. Harry himself had been left wondering why so many of his potions in Hogwarts were such drastic failures. According to Harry those failures were most likely due to sabotage from his Slytherin counterparts. He had an unbelievable skill of mixing correct ingredients in the potions. Due to this, Harry was able to modify many standard potion methods for better and brewed the potions in much easier and faster ways.
Hearing this news, Elin agreed with Arthur and said she had also observed similar things in his Chemistry practical. Harry for his part knew this was due to the magic sensing part that he was developing steadily. He glanced at Ragnok who knew not to press the matter there. So he deftly turned to Filip expecting his report and sidestepping the old issue.
Filip had also very positive review about Harry. According to him if Harry sat for his Mastery exam in Charms, DADA and Runes then he would ace it. He was so ahead in all three subjects, it was phenomenal. His control over magic was excellent and this with the extra practice he had put over the past few years, his stamina for casting was exceptionally high. He had started basic warding with Harry and was very sure that he would be a great warder.
As per the usual norm, Mike was the last person to give his report. For his subjects, they had again concentrated heavily on mediation as it helped in both Occlumency and Animagus transformation. Mike said, "Harry can easily get Outstanding in Transfiguration and Arithmancy NEWTs." His greater understanding of Mathematics and Logic was definitely helping Harry in Arithmancy.
As far as Harry's dueling skills were concern, he could now dodge the spells for 360 straight attempts. Filip and Mike had finished instructing him on the different dueling techniques. From next term, they would start the practical dueling with him. Each week he would duel with both of them and Arthur would also join the duels to provide the different enemy methods.
Mike also promised to start the enchantment in next term as Harry had not completed his mastery level in Arithmancy yet. As far as Occlumency was concerned, Harry had finally reached the stage where he was fully protected according to Mike. Arthur concur the sentiment as he was also invited by mike in last few terms to check Harry's defenses. He was definitely a neutral to this as was suspected by goblins. Mike joked that he would feel sorry for anybody who would try to peek in Harry's mind unannounced. The protections Harry had developed were outstanding and of highest level. Once he got hang of his magic and understanding of what is the actual meaning of protections, it was just a walk in park for Harry. He had also shown a great deal of imagination while creating the defenses. He had made sure that no two defenses were of same elements and he had freely used thunderstorm and lightening in his mind protection. According to Mike at this level, Legilimency would not pose a real problem and Harry would be able to complete it in 1 year timeframe.
Last but not the least was report on Harry's animagus training. This was the area which was unknown to everybody else but harry and Mike. They had maintained a firm silence on this training course from the beginning. Thus it was the report which generated most interest. Unlike many other wizards or witches, Harry had 3 animal forms available to him with one of them being magical animal. One was Thunderbird, second was an Eagle Owl and third was a Mongoose. This was because of extensive meditation Harry had undergone with Mike while stabilizing the magic. According to Mike, almost every wizard who had completed the animagus transformation has had more than one animal form available to them. But each of the inner animals would reveal themselves to their Human if and only if the said human has appropriate physical and magical condition. That means if your inner animal thinks that your physical or magical fitness could not sustain the transformation then it would not show itself. Mike had also explained to Harry that every magical being has at least one inner animal but most of the time these animals remain dormant in your body. If you doubt yourselves and your capacities then it was unlikely that your animal would eve show itself to you. Harry had thought that Hermione might fall in this particular category. Also the use of potion to find the animal form would eliminates the possibility of finding other forms available to user. This was because the potion would force the inner animals to choose the most suited animal for the user among themselves and that form becomes the dominant form afterwards. This was a major reason why Mike had insisted on finding the inner animals via Meditation method which was more tedious than the potion based method. Mike had also revealed that he himself had two forms – a Labrador and a Fox. Harry thought that they suited his personality perfectly.
Harry had started working on his only magical form; Thunderbird – on Harry insistence – and he had completed the first complete transformation last week. The future plan was to master the various magical capabilities of thunderbird before starting the process of transformation of other two animals available to him. Harry was yet to master even simple task of flying with thunderbird transformation and Mike had suggested that it might help Harry if he finished the same process with Eagle Owl form first.
At that moment Harry in the Thunderbird form. Everyone was clearly surprised not expecting sudden transformation and just stared at him. He was very happy to see the reactions. Filip stated that magical animagus had not been observed since the time of Merlin. Arthur just stared at the bird with childlike awe. He was partly justified as Thunderbird was not seen for past 2 centuries. This was gold for him as he could study the magical and mystical Thunderbird from very close distance. Harry's three muggle study instructors – Elin, Jason and Ian – also looked at him in wonder. After about 5 minutes, Harry changed back explaining, "That is all I can do in one go. It is very taxing for some reason. I don't know much about it and I can't fly yet but I hope to complete those parts in next term."
After discussing Harrys progress in magical and muggle culture, Ragnok asked others to leave so he could have the private chat with Harry alone. Once everybody was gone, he started, "That is very impressive progress Harry. Now that you have completed Occlumency I am eager to learn few information pieces about Lord Voldemort that you may have."
Harry replied, "Ah, director, I will have to disappoint you there. I have not really started going over those memories yet. Although now all I need is some time off. Most likely I will do this in next summer break. I have also not taken up the Gryffindor and Slytherin rings yet for same reason. But I have some good news for you. My magic sensing ability is growing and working extremely well. I have not yet reached the stage to continue using it without any conscious efforts but now I can sense a spell coming at me even if I don't know the spell previously. As far as I have tried the only wards that I cannot understand clearly are magical contracts or oaths. But in a way it makes lot of sense. If I can understand them, then I can also find a counter to them. If this happens then it eliminates the purpose of such contract/oath."
Ragnok was little disappointed to not have any more information about Lord Voldemort but was happy to learn the progress of Harry's Magical Sensor. He then handed over a small trunk to Harry while explaining, "It is a multi-compartment trunk Harry. In this trunk, you will find that there are numbers of objects stored in each of the compartment. Each object has few enchantments placed on them. Some of them are curse objects as well. The amount and severity of curses placed on an object increases as you go in downward compartment direction. In this trunk, the last compartment contains various magical objects with highly dangerous curses placed on them. I have asked Rootclaw to monitor you when you are working on these items. Promise me that you will follow these orders to the word. Some of the curses placed on these objects can kill you in case something goes wrong. So I want you to take adequate precaution while developing your magic sensor. Also do not touch any object placed inside the trunk without exclusive permission from Rootclaw. What you can do here is that you can take out one object. Then study it with your sensors and try to find the solution to lift the enchantment or curse placed on this object. This would help you in both curse breaking and magical sensor. Am I clear here?"
Harry quickly agreed and replied, "That is all right director. I can do that. I only have one question though, does Rootclaw know about my ability?"
Ragnok nodded at his answer before giving answer to Harry's question, "No, he does not. I have told him specifically that you have developed a very different approach to do such job and that I want to see how much further you can go. He won't challenge or question my authority. So don't worry about that."
Once Harry was assured, Ragnok continued after giving him one more trunk, "This trunk contains various books on alchemy Harry. There are also few journals and memories. I have taken a liberty and procure a good quality pensive for you. It is also present there. You can ask anybody here about how to use pensive. They will help you. With pensive you can actually view the past memories and learn from them. The person who gave me this told me to inform you that you should take correct journal with you while viewing the memory. When I observed the material in my office today, all journals and memories are tagged. I could not relate the tagging, but knowing the creators eccentricities I am sure he would have done something like this to secure the ancient knowledge of alchemy. According to person who gave this material only the worthy magical person could unlock these protections – he himself was unable to use them. I have acquired the material on your name the man was hopeful that you might be that worthy heir to knowledge of alchemy. The only thing that I cannot do here is disclosing the identities of the people from whom I have acquired this material."
Harry was overjoyed by hearing this news. It seemed that his stars were finally changing for better. He profusely thanked Ragnok who waved it off and then continued, "Now, we come to main phase of your training. Till now you have learned all the basic stuff that you would have done in Hogwarts. After this your training would be more combat-oriented. It would be more professional oriented as well. I have formed a team of best curse breakers and warders that we have here in Gringotts under Rootclaw. They will teach you all about their job. Learn it and use it with your other abilities. From now on your three account managers would also join your training. I want you to practice your elemental abilities with them. When you will master the Thunderbird, it will help you with your major elementals."
Harry carefully noted the serious tone in this discussion. He knew that Ragnok had invested heavily in him and was helping him better than anyone else. He also understood the stakes were high in war and that he must ensure that they all came out on top at the end. He solemnly nodded to Ragnok and promised to do well in remaining training as well. After some more less serious discussion, the pair went up to meet everyone in living room.
Here Harry gave a warm hug to all three muggle instructors – Elin, Jason and Ian. He was very sad to see them leave, but understood that henceforth his training must be all magical. They have done their job properly and he would always remember them for that. Past 7 years were blast according to him but now it was time to move forward. After another round of warm goodbye, they left with Ragnok.
Harry and company waited for few minutes before the goblins and their team entered the house. The curse-breaking team was of 7 wizards, who all were looking like they have fought huge battles in their life if lost limbs were any indication. Their magic was also strong although it had a different tinge than his teachers. Harry liked them all as far as their first impressions were concern, though he was more eager to start the work with his account managers. He had plans and for them to execute perfectly, he needed correct information – the information which was brought by them. His goblin culture classes would also begin from now on. For temporary purpose, Mike suggested that they keep the previous schedule as it is with goblin teachers taking classes on Tuesday and Friday. Everybody agreed to this plan and they continued with Harry's education.
-TFB-
End of Year 10, In the Time Chamber
Looking back at past 3 years, Harry was mighty pleased with what he had achieved. He was waiting in the meeting room for his usual one-to-one discussion with Ragnok. Their common report meeting with other teachers was already done and Harry was very pleased to say that he had finished mastery level education in Charms, Transfiguration, DADA, Runes, Potions and Arithmancy. This was a great achievement in everybody's eyes and his application level and his determination to succeed were lauded by all. He had also finished mastering his two main animagus forms – Thunderbird and Eagle Owl – completely. He could fly well in both forms and could also use most of the magical powers of Thunderbird such as lightening and storms control. This had presented opportunity to Arthur who with the permission from Harry had studied the Thunderbird for past three years. Arthur was now planning to write a book describing the Thunderbird in the future. Right now though the man in question - Harry himself – was musing about creating havoc on the enemy forces. He thought with Thunderbird creating lot of storm and lightning, this would be a perfect distraction for enemy while other team members from his force could take their positions to trap the enemy. His musings were cut short when he detected the magical presence coming his way – Ragnok.
Harry was already on his feet, greeting Ragnok fluently in the Gobbledegook. Ragnok was surprised for a moment before realizing that Harry had a gift of magical speaker. Once he was out of his shock, he greeted Harry back and spoke with him in great delight. Once they were settled, Harry started the discussion, "Once more hello to you Director. Sometimes I converse in Gobbledegook with my goblin tutors while explaining some things. This helps in better understanding between two of us and also helps me in learning more about goblins."
Ragnok who nodded his acceptance said, "You are right of course Harry. And it is good to see that you still respect us as your equals. No offence to you but many people of your race treat us like filth even when we handle your gold. That is where all problems begin in a way. Discrimination of any form is the main cause of the conflicts that we constantly find ourselves in. But let's not waste our time on these issues right now. We had more or less covered your educational progress in the common meeting. I am eager to hear about your progress in other areas we have been discussing."
Harry nodded his acceptance and started his report on most private topics between Ragnok and him. "That is alright Director. I will go over them one by one and you can remind me if I have missed something. First is my sensory ability. I think I have full control over it now. It is constantly active and I can easily find if some other magical presence is there beside me. I can for most part pinpoint its location as well. This has its own limitation of course. My estimate is that I can be sure about location of magical presence in 50m radius. The cursed objects you had given me, they were dead useful. I learned a lot about controlling this sensor through them. It also helped me understanding the difference between good spells or enchantments and dark, harmful curses. I asked Rootclaw to enchant a particular object for me to try out certain things. I have removed all the curses from all the objects that you had given me till now. As I said they helped a lot for me to develop this ability in right direction and thank you very much for providing these objects. I think I can also determine the minute difference between passive magic and active magic. Also the difference between simple ward and danger curse is also easily identifiable. Rootclaw has the items with the trunk and will give it to you when he returns later in the day. What I am planning to do in next few years is develop an object which would help me in limiting my sensory ability. Now that it is constantly active, I could become overwhelmed if I am in presence of highly ambient magic buildings such as Hogwarts or Gringotts or even Diagon Ally."
Ragnok nodded and was pleased with the result. He had added few items in that trunk on the gut feeling that Harry might be able to remove those curses. These objects were goblin made and goblin nation had lost many lives while re-acquiring them. But for all of their combined efforts, the curses placed on them by many old families were impossible to remove. The goblin nation had lost many top curse breakers before keeping those prized items away. But now Harry had done a great service to the nation. The objects were back where they belonged. This was definitely very good news.
Once Harry saw Ragnok was ready for next piece of information, he started, "Now the more interesting part – the Horcrux hunt. Excluding me, Tom Riddle – true name of Lord Voldemort – had decided to create 6 Horcruxes as a part of his 7 fragment soul theory. When he came to Godric Hallow on the Halloween all those years back, he had already created 5. He was ready to create 6th after my death. Because of this reason, I became a Horcrux. His body was already prepared for Horcrux creation after my death. So when he casted the killing curse on me that night his soul was damaged and a small piece of it was broken from original soul of Voldemort. It attached to my body after searching for any living creature in that vicinity. Since I was the only living thing remaining there I became the unknown and unintended Horcrux of Voldemort. Normally Voldemort would have guided the newly broken soul piece in one of the pre-made objects. This object then would have become the Horcrux."
Harry continued his explanation on Horcruxes, "Now out of 6 known Horcruxes that he had created, 3 are destroyed. I am the obvious one, so is the Slytherin ring. Then there was diary of Tom Riddle. I had destroyed it accidentally in my second year. I will come to that particular incident later. There are three more Horcruxes left but I am not able to pinpoint their safe location. All I know is that he had kept one in Hogwarts, one is in some kind of cave and final was given to Bellatrix for safekeeping. It is likely that this particular Horcrux is there in her vault at Gringotts. Voldemort had a fascination to major magical symbols like Gringotts and Hogwarts. Since we know that he had kept one in Hogwarts it is likely that he might have asked somebody to place one in Gringotts as well. And I know for sure that he had given one to Bellatrix and one to Luscious Malfoy. He had not informed them about exact nature of the objects but had told them that these objects held some great value to Lord Voldemort."
"Now, if we can find one more Horcrux then I think I can use it to sense the remaining two. But it would be tedious job but we could definitely try to pinpoint the locations. Also there is a likely possibility that Lord Voldemort has created one more Horcrux to complete his 7-part soul theory now that he has enough power to do some magic. He was not aware of Horcrux in my head, so from his point of view he had only 5 Horcruxes. But we will see about that later. For now let's concentrate on finding one of the three we surely know he had created. You can check if such object is present in Gringotts right?"
Ragnok, who look mortified at the prospect of keeping such a dark object inside Gringotts, replied back, "I will definitely do that Harry. But we may come to dead end there. Unless we have control or access of her vault, we cannot remove any objects from the vault. This was due to the ancient treaty that we goblins have signed with wizards. But at least we will definitely know if such object is there or not."
Harry who looked little disappointed with this information, shrugged and responded, "In that case I hope Gringotts would still take a look into this matter. If we do find such object we would have to plan an ambush to get it back. But for such plans, we must know that there is a Horcrux present in Gringotts. Also check all the options of how we could control that particular vault – of Bellatrix. Some contract or debt to one of the houses that I have direct claim or may have some indirect claim to it; may be there, which then we can exploit. We may get lucky."
Ragnok nodded his acceptance to this. So Harry continued, "Now about my elemental study. I have finished most of my study of elemental magic. My inner Thunderbird helped me in that. I have sufficient control over them now. I still don't know about exact finer control and details but I feel I have sufficient control over them and my inner Thunderbird agrees. That was a great suggestion by the way. Thank you so much for it. Mastering the elemental ability is very nice change and I can use those spells without wands as long as I am in direct contact with air or water. I will of course continue to work on the minor elementals after I finish my third animagus form."
This was also a big progress made by Harry, Ragnok thought fondly. The decision he had made few days back in Sharpclaw's office has already started to pay off handsomely it seemed. He asked Harry to continue his tale.
Harry was little tense here. Now was a very delicate subject that he was planning to discuss with Ragnok. He started, "There is one more discovery I made from memories of Voldemort that I received. It seems that his original plan was to control the wizarding Briton and model it to his views. But he also recognized that many of his supporters were thugs. Some of them were excellent fighters but majority were thugs. Thus in later part of his quest to conquer the land, he developed a very cunning plan. He realized that if he wanted to eliminate the resistance completely then he was also eliminating some top class talent. So he devised a spell which was similar to killing curse but acted in a different way. This curse would put the victim in permanent sleep and then transport them in a dimensional vault that Lord Voldemort had created. His plan was that once he conquers the Briton, use these captured victims as his slaves and fighters. He also wanted to use some of the victims in various rituals which would help Lord Voldemort to steal their magic. Fortunately he was not very sure about the exact ritual magic and method although his research was definitely going on in that direction. With his original way, he wanted these captured people to become powerful symbols of his dominance and control over the British islands. To my count around 24 people we believed dead are not actually dead. They are in permanent sleeping condition reversible by Lord Voldemort himself. And this count may be more as the memories are not very clear."
This was big shock for Ragnok, who closed his eyes thinking about the information he had just heard. He let the information sink in his body for few minutes before he opened the eyes back. Harry had patiently waited till all this time. When Ragnok nodded for him to continue, Harry continued the tale. "From what I could gather, my parents were also not killed. Many MacKinnon's' were also part of his plans. The Prewitt twins are also there in permanent sleep. So you may get the idea. What I would suggest is; if Gringotts have a way to check the life force of a vault holder then you should use it to verify the status of first war victims. Also remember that Lord Voldemort was not averse of taking witches along with wizards. Although I think he had different plans for witches. They were definitely not there in his plan of making an army. But let's continue. The good news is we can rescue them all. I do have a basic idea of how this entire process works from the memories that I have from Voldemort and with the help of somebody like Dumbledore; we can rescue these unfortunate people. The problem right now I see is that we will have to wait for this. Doing this kind of mission, while making sure that Voldemort remains unaware is very difficult. Accessing the dimensional vault without the permission of owner will generate huge magical energy. This may attract the ministry or some other unwanted attention. We will also need to plan this whole operation carefully. It may also require huge ambient magical energy. So you can see the problem. Planning this mission with Dumbledore will remain my focus for next year along with finding the Horcrux hidden in Hogwarts. "
Ragnok was pleased to hear this news. He assured Harry that Gringotts do have a method to check if a particular wizard is alive or not. This is normally used when the goblins have to disclose the contents of a will. If there were any dispute to the death of concern wizard then goblins could use that method to establish if said wizard is dead or not. Unfortunately for them when entire family line is killed in a war, the wills disputes were few and far. Because of this such travesty was not detected beforehand. Ragnok knew he would definitely check each and every wizard and witch that died during the war at hands of Voldemort. At least those he knew and those who had a Gringotts account. For all other victims they would remain dependent on Harry solely. If they could save all those victims, it would bode well for their side.
Once this was done, Harry started the new subject – Alchemy. He assured Ragnok that the material that he had acquired was very good and in next few years Harry would be able to do lot of high level stuff in alchemy such as making Philosophers' Stone. His ultimate aim was to create "Mithril" using alchemy – though Harry did not state this in open; even to Ragnok. With the new lab that Axemage was setting up for him and the new notes that his alchemy teacher had provided Harry (the intended beneficiary was the one who could decipher the Gringotts vault number through the initial material provided so far – 711 vault) via his vault, Harry was sure that he would be able to achieve his goals before end of his time in time chamber.
Next item on their agenda was Houses that Harry was controlling. Harry told Ragnok that he had taken the control both Gryffindor and Slytherin house. The first condition for both those houses was for their intended Lord to be a magical adult. Incidentally Harry became Lord Gryffindor and Lord Slytherin because of the events transpired in his 2nd year.
For Gryffindor House Clan – as they were clan and concept of house only came forth in the Camelot Era – he had to face the unimaginable and deadly foe (a Basilisk and/or Memory Riddle) with nothing but true courage (Harry faced the Basilisk and memory Riddle with next to nothing magical knowledge). Additionally this courage was to be shown for the noble cause (saving a friends sister – Ginny Weasley). When he killed the basilisk using Gryffindor's sword, Harry became the intended Lord Gryffindor as the conditions for the Clan Head of Gryffindor were fulfilled adequately.
The Slytherin House was slightly more complex matter. To understand the actual conditions required to became Lord Slytherin, one had to understand the history of Salazar Slytherin first. Harry did exactly that to Ragnok by explaining him the necessary history of Salazar Slytherin.
As many had thought what would be a necessary condition for this title, Harry needed to be a true Parselmouth. However this was a lot more common gift than many assumed. Many wizarding families could trace their bloodline back to Slytherin house and thus most of them had the gift of Parseltongue. Only select few in magical Briton had the courage to show their talent of Parseltongue to the outside world (like Gaunt's) because of the discrimination of Parselmouth speakers in magical Briton. Harry knew this because of the knowledge that had been passed to him and his own research done in tracing the history of various magical families back to Camelot to determine their efforts in helping the British Magical Family. The reason he became Lord Slytherin though was because of his Gryffindor bravery Harry had mused.
Since Salazar had lost his parents at very early age to witch hunting muggles; he was an orphan who was helped by Godric Gryffindor. They had become very good friends and shared a dream of teaching and rescuing the magical community around the world. When Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff joined their forces, the four founders could form the Hogwarts School of which they had dreamed for long time of their life.
Most of the enhancements to school were done by Salazar. This was mainly because of his fear of muggles finding their secret hiding place. The initial days of school were very difficult. It was long time before Rowena Ravenclaw came up with the Muggle Repealing Charm. Before the charm was placed however, there were many attacks on the school and its occupants. In those ensuring battles with muggles; Salazar and Godric used to fight at the direct offensive line. These fights left Salazar very paranoid in his later stages of life. He had lost his family to muggles and as the battles at Hogwarts became more and more fearsome, he was very worried that the school may not survived. This obsession with security of school caused the birth of Chamber of Secrets and its beast – The Basilisk. The chamber of secrets was built by Salazar as a last protection mechanism for Hogwarts. Salazar knew that only a true Parselmouth could repel the Basilisk gaze and command its allegiance. So to ensure the safety of school in an event when the utmost security function must be operated, – the Basilisk – Salazar devised a cunning plan true to his nature.
He was not a married man by then and knew that no true heir for Slytherin family could be found in through Salazar. The Slytherin Clan would be continued through his distant cousin who was a squib. The plan of Salazar involved various stages. In the first stage he created a hidden chamber inside Chamber of Secrets where he kept his most useful notes, journals and other material with time preserving charms placed on them. At the second stage he performed a ritual by which he transferred important part of his knowledge to few selected items – his ring, locket and dagger. With the help of this knowledge one could access the hidden tomes and true magical knowledge of Slytherin Clan from Chamber of Secrets. He made sure that whoever touches these objects in the foreseeable future (according Salazar the enchantments would only fail in 2 to 3 centuries time) would get the Parseltongue ability if they were a magical being. Then he had decided to donate these objects to few selected clans so that the knowledge would always remain there in the open.
However this did not solve the problem of finding magical heir to Slytherin line. To do this Salazar enchanted his ring to always find the true heir. But to become a worthy heir of Slytherin, one had to have certain skills and needed to prove himself to the Slytherin family magic with few acts of heroism.
The act of heroism that Salazar Slytherin deemed worthy for his true heir was saving the Hogwarts from an internal enemy. For Salazar the Hogwarts was his one and only home as he was the orphan from very young age. Thus he wanted nothing but to protect the Hogwarts at all costs. He had correctly expected that in the future there would come a time when internal fights between students may cause the security concerns for the Hogwarts castle. He had already taken care of the external security problem as far as muggles were concern. There was enough warding done on the castle grounds which would prevent the enemy from entering the Hogwarts and doing some great damage. After placing muggle repealing ward on the entire Hogsmeade valley, muggles were unknown about this particular dwelling. As far as the magical elements who would oppose this educational system were concerned, Salazar was sure that his expertly placed wards would hold strong against them at any time in the future. Also in case of emergency the fury of basilisk could always be unleashed on them. He had made sure that knowledge to control his pet snake was out there in the magical world. He hoped that the efforts he had put into security of castle would made sure that it would be neigh impossible for any external enemy of Hogwarts to gain strong hold inside the castle.
However, when a rotten apple from within the school would cause problem to safety and existence of Hogwarts, he had no practical solution against it. The only viable option he could think about in such case was that the culprit was found out early by the headmaster or some other teachers. But this was not a best case scenario for paranoid man such as Salazar Slytherin. He wanted to make sure that in case the very existence of Hogwarts was challenged then his true magical heir would come forward. This would ensure that Hogwarts would continue to exist by removing the internal threat. In worst case where Hogwarts was fallen to enemy, his heir would have enough knowledge through which he could reclaim the Hogwarts. This was the original plan. However, to provide such safety mechanism to castle as large as Hogwarts was always going to be difficult even for the extraordinary brilliant minds of founders.
The cunning and dedicated mind of Salazar Slytherin however found a solution to this particular problem by developing a ritual. This ritual required the sacrifice of magical human (Salazar himself was ready for this sacrifice) but if completed successfully then it would give the ultimate sentient awareness to Hogwarts castle. It would be like Salazar's own spirit guarding the castle. This would ensure that Hogwarts was always protected from any internal threat. This would also make sure that Hogwarts castle would always recognize the current and true headmaster and follow his orders. If the headmaster himself was internal enemy that castle recognized then castle could go against him to achieve its survival. This awareness would also grant the requisite help to the true Slytherin heir so he could claim back the Hogwarts back from the enemy.
Thus he decided that the magical being who shows enough courage to fight the internal fight and would be triumphant over enemy of Hogwarts (of course the internal one) would finally become an heir of Slytherin on his magical maturity. The Slytherin ring would then able to find the Heir irrespective of its then location.
To achieve this supreme goal, Salazar wanted to perform this ritual in his later years. Over this very ritual he fought with his mentor and best friend Godric and other two witches in his life – Rowena and Helga. The main argument against the ritual was the requirement of sacrifice. All the founders accepted that the internal threat could occur but were against Salazar performing the ritual as they did not want to lose their friend. Rowena even argued that they all could put the brains together to find a different solution but Salazar pointed out that any form of Passive magic won't help the cause of Hogwarts in the future. They might able to avoid few incidents with the clever enchantments or wards they might create but only a true magical awareness would be needed to make sure that Hogwarts always remain secure from both internal and external forces.
So after the long and heated fight with Godric over the usefulness of this ritual, Salazar left the castle and immediately went back to Chamber of Secrets via the secret tunnel he had left in the Forbidden Forest. There for next 3 months he prepared meticulously for the ritual. Finally, on the Halloween that year he performed the ritual to grant the Hogwarts castle ultimate magical awareness. These magical senses of Salazar also made sure to fight many internal Hogwarts battles on its own and always protected the innocent students. They were also able to judge the capacity of each student about the potential to become next Slytherin Heir. Thus by sacrificing himself, Salazar Slytherin had essentially tied the Slytherin magic to Hogwarts castle and made sure that his own magic would judge the true heir of Slytherin.
Thus when Harry bravely fought against the Basilisk and spirit of Tom Riddle who threatened to destroy the very soul of Hogwarts and won, the lingering spirit of Salazar Slytherin finally detected the worthy heir. And when Harry became emancipated he also inherited the title of Lord Slytherin.
When Ragnok heard the complete history of both Slytherin and Gryffindor houses, he was enthralled by it and understood that Harry was judged worthy by some very powerful Magic throughout his stay in magical world. This was extremely rare knowledge for Ragnok and he thanked Harry for sharing the same. Harry told him that most of the knowledge that Salazar wanted his heir to have is still hidden inside chamber of secrets and that he would search for it once he went back to Hogwarts.
The final piece of business they had was discussion about Harry's finances. According to the audit performed by goblins, Mrs. Weasley had taken some illegal money from his trust vault. It seems whenever his key was with her, she had taken liberty to remove the money in his name. She had also submitted a Marriage Contract between Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter although goblins had since found out that it was not binding due to lack of correct blood seal. The blood seal was used when the contract is done between head of house and some other party. To make the seal permanent, it must be signed by both parties with blood quill in front of goblin witness. Since she could not get Harry to sign such contract using the needed blood quill, she had produced his blood as the needed proof. Thus the teller goblins at the front booth accepted the contract for further processing. Now that Harry had taken the position a legal heir to House Potter, the entire Potter account was audited and all papers related to this house were cleared. Thus this contract came to surface. Harry also noticed that Mrs. Weasley had submitted the contract just before his introduction to magical world. Also the contract allowed her to use few potions on Harry to make sure that his marriage with Ginny was a successful one. This contract further allowed her the rights to make withdrawals from Potter accounts.
Harry had already directed his account managers not to bother with this. He always wanted to pay Weasley family about the support and home they had provided. This would only help the matters. However, he had added the mental note to go over their behaviors in detail afterwards. When he had done this, he found four major suspects – Ron, Percy, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. Their behavior towards him was most suspicious.
In case of Mrs. Weasley he remembered the incident in 1st year. Then he was not aware of the location of platform no. 9 and ¾. But he was miraculously saved by Mrs. Weasley who was loudly asking about said platform and talking about muggles; just in front of him. A very convenient way to impress the eleven year old child, Harry thought. He also remembered that most if not all purebloods normally go to Kings Cross station via floo or apparition. All except Weasley family since Harry started the Hogwarts. He also remembered that all Weasley family members were notoriously late goers and they all could barely catch the train for past two years. But this was definitely not the case in his 1st year, he was early (45 minutes to be precise) and Weasley family was also early by almost 30 minutes if they were just there when he finally saw them. There was a likelihood that they were simply waiting there for Harry on the muggle side of platform.
As far as Ron was concern, Harry was not sure where to begin with. He was his first friend, but sticking with him was a costly affair. He had constantly performed well below his capacities so as not to antagonize Ron. Ron's jealousy was legendary and it had already cost Harry number of friends. Harry was also sure that when Ron joined him in his compartment 1st time around, he was doing it purposefully as his reason of not finding any free compartment was non-valid. Harry was sure about it because of the fact that Hermione mentioned when she had told her about her 1st journey to Hogwarts. She had said that while initially she was sitting with few pureblood girls who all ignored her when she started talking about books, she went on to find number of free compartments at the end of train, one of which she occupied with Neville for later part of journey. So Harry's friendship with Ron was in balance.
Although Harry had no direct proof against both Ginny and Percy, he was intrigued by their behavior. While the twins were easy going and always up for the fun, Percy behaved like the ultimate power garner men in authority positions. Harry also thought Percy as Luscious Malfoy without money; a man who would do anything and everything to gain more power. Ginny on the other hand was always shy around him and was definitely in the category of Fan-girl. She liked his fame – one thing he hated above all else. So when he found the marriage contract with her Harry was obviously on red alert about her since then.
Harry had decided to wait and watch space. He knew this year everybody would start moving the pieces and he would judge each individual in their own capacity. Thus if and when Mrs. Weasley – or anybody else for that matter – tries to manipulate him further, he would act very severely. When Harry explained his thinking to Ragnok, he agreed with a course of action that Harry was taking.
The main thing that Harry wanted to discuss with Ragnok about business however was different. In his interaction with other goblins, he had received the knowledge about an Island near south cost which was under goblin rule. It was a large island and huge enough for the project that Harry wanted to undertake. In goblin world this island was known as "The Tailbird".
So he asked Ragnok, "Director Ragnok I have a business proposal for you. This is a business deal between Goblin nation and House Pendragon. I want to purchase the Tailbird Island. What would be the cost of this?"
Ragnok was shocked to hear this. For one, the knowledge of Tailbird Iceland was virtually unknown. It was very safely guarded secret in goblin world. The major reason was – goblins believed that island contained huge amount of gold reserves. This gold would be useful once the other reserves that goblins had were finished or were unusable for some reason. This Iceland was also used by goblin nation as ultimate security exit. In case they were threatened and that they had to leave the Gringotts branch, this Iceland was there gateway. Thus there was very strict security put on this island by goblins. Even the current Ministry of Magic was unaware of its existence. So hearing Harrys request was a literal shock for Ragnok.
After thinking over this for a minute, he replied, "Harry, I don't want to disappoint you, but even if we combine all the wealth you have right now at your disposal, I am afraid the price of island would be much larger than that. I don't know why you want this island but unless we get something that is even more valuable to us, I don't think the goblin nation would allow such sale to undergo – even for you as our King."
Harry was expecting similar answer. Thus he was studying hard in the field of Alchemy. Once he has the "Mithril" the goblins were sure to make this deal happen. So he told Ragnok, "That is ok director. I hope by the time we meet again, I would have enough resources to pull this heist. All I want you to do is preparatory work at your goblin council. Once I am out of this chamber, I would like to conclude the deal as fast as possible since so many of my plans for the next conflict depend upon acquiring such Iceland."
Ragnok reluctantly accepted this answer but warned Harry that unless he could generate some serious resources, it was next to impossible. Harry agreed to this and told him for not to worry about the resources as he was working on that particular problem. After this they discussed some more about financial matters of Pendragon and Peverell vaults. Ragnok also informed Harry that he still had no letter from any of his friends. Finally after some less serious discussion, Ragnok decided to close the meeting and they parted the company for at least 3 more years.
To Be Continued.
Author Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing in advance. This chapter is not proof corrected. I do not have a beta writer who would kindly do such things so you may find few mistakes. Also please note that English is not my First Language. So for any mistakes in the chapter, I take total responsibility for it and am very sorry for the same.
On the side note, this was a filler chapter – much longer than I expected. Here in this chapter, I wanted to make few things clear – like how I perceive the Salazar Slytherin and why Hogwarts responds only to the true headmaster (remember OoTP and Umbridge, anybody). I also covered most of the educational work that Harry had undergone in the time chamber.
Next chapter would be more interesting. In next chapter I will introduce Mad-eye Moody to Harry. The battle strategies would be discussed and Harry would complete his stay in time chamber. However, I have not really started writing the next chapter yet. So the update might be late.
Thanks once more and bye for now.
Also Merry Christmas to all of you and Happy Holidays.
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This chapter was published on 25th December 2014.
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