Harry decided that this was possibly one of the worst ways that he had ever woken up. Having a jet of water sprayed at your face from the uncle that you only met yesterday was not on Harry's list of good ways to wake up. The fact that it had only just gone six didn't make it any better,
"I told you to be up at six, now you know what happens if your not. Now get up, get dressed and be down in the kitchen in the next five minutes, dress to be able to move quickly" came the very stern voice of Hadrian Potter. Harry began to wonder if his uncle had some sort of split personality, after all he came and rescued him and taught him things about his family while sometimes shouting at him for interrupting and now he seems to have turned into some kinda of slave driver. Yet Harry decided it was best to follow his uncle's instructions and got dressed, putting on a light t-shirt and lose joggers. Meeting his uncle in the kitchen, under five minutes had passed since Harry's unwelcome wake up call and here he was eating breakfast consisting of corn flakes, fruit and a fruit juice.
"What are we doing today uncle?" asked Harry as he was eating his breakfast looking up to see Hadrian reading a newspaper, that seemed to have moving pictures on the front.
"We will begin teaching you about the basic concepts of magic and some more about the family traits. You've got another year before you can get your own wand, and not much time after that before you're off to Hogwarts" came the reply from Hadrian continuing to read his paper.
"What's Hogwarts?"
"Hogwarts is a magical school that will teach you about different branches of magic" explained Hadrian looking up form his paper to see that Harry had finished with his breakfast. Placing his paper on the table Hadrian stands beckoning for Harry to follow him down the hall and up the stairs that are in the middle of the house before turning and walking back along hall before stopping at a large dark door.
"This door here" Hadrian gestures towards the door he is standing near "is heavily warded, that means protected by magic in some way, this door can only be opened by a Potter and it is where almost all of your training will happen." Hadrian walks towards the door, opening it and walking in with Harry quickly following behind. The room is long and rectangular in shape, the floor here being a much lighter colour than the rest of house, being made from sturdy oak, about a quarter of the way down the room a long line of stone goes across the room separating the floor into too sections. "That row of stones acts as a ward line to prevent any spells from reaching this side of the room. This side of the line will be where you learn theory and that side shall be where you put it to practise" explained Hadrian, giving the reason for why the room is split the way it is. The walls are covered in large dark grey stones with a high vaulted ceiling above the room held up by large oak beams.
"What sort of things will I be learning?" curiously asked Harry wondering how different magic subject would be to what he had been doing at school.
"First, while in this room you shall address me as sir, in here I am your teacher and you shall treat me as such" pausing to see that Harry understood what he was saying, with confirmation from the nod of Harry's head yet Hadrian continued to look at him as if waiting for something before Harry finally realised what it was
"Yes sir" intoned Harry
"Very good. We will start by teaching you the basic theory behind how you use magic, we wont be going into the depths of magical theory, focusing instead on it's application and how your body uses magic." Hadrian began to recite as if he had prepared this speech for Harry before "We shall discuss more about our family and its' traits and any ability we discover you to have." Hadrian began to walk over to the other side of the room about to pass over the stone line Hadrian paused "Now I want you to go stand in the middle of that side of the room" Harry quickly complied breaking into a light jog, and a slight tingling sensation washes over Harry as he crosses the line of stone before quickly fading. Upon finding him self in the middle Harry turns to face Hadrian "Now, dodge!" shouted Hadrian, Harry's eyes going wide as he takes in a breath, a white spell leaves Hadrian's wand and travels straight towards Harry who quickly ducks spell.
"What are..." Harry didn't get a chance to finish as another spell was coming towards him, with little time to move it impacts on his right shoulder causing a stinging sensation as if he had been slapped.
"No talking Harry, the first thing all Potters learn about spells is to dodge. It doesn't matter what spells are thrown at you or who's throwing them if they can't hit you. Now dodge!" shouted Hadrian once more giving Harry a quick reason for why they are doing this, although Harry can't help but wonder if the rest of the training will be like this and if the Potters were slightly mad.
This dodging of spells lasted for about twenty minutes before Hadrian decided that was enough
"Not bad at all Harry for someone that has never had a spell fired at them you dodged about sixty percent or so of them" came the praise from Hadrian "with this as a starting point it shouldn't take long for you to be able to dodge all the spells I throw" Harry tried to reply, yet he was so out of breath and stinging in most places from the spell he had been hit by.
"Thank you sir" Harry managed to breathlessly force out as Hadrian approached him
"Come, Bandy should have left some water for you on the desk back on the other side of the room." signalling for Harry to follow to follow him back across the room where Harry now notices a large bookcase, desk and blackboard along with two sofas with a low table between them. "Sit at the desk and we'll get started on your lessons" Harry looked at him like he was mad, with how worn out he was from the exercise all he wanted to do was rest. "Drink some water, it will help" informed Hadrian as he went to get some books from the bookcase and Harry took his place at the desk sipping at the water that was placed there.
Already Harry could feel energy coming back to him, wondering how water could help him this much.
"The water has a little bit of pepper-up in it not enough to do much but just wakes you up a bit" supplied Hadrian upon seeing Harry looking at the glass in astonishment. "You can ask questions when I'm finished, no interrupting, understand?"
"Yes sir" Harry eagerly replied wanting to learn more about magic and his family.
"Magic is everywhere and in everything" Hadrian's lesson began "now every living thing has a magical core. In some things this core is so small that the person or animal displays no magic as is the case of muggles and mundane animals. Now this core is like a muscle you train it and work on it and you can increase it's size and the rate of which it refills, this is where it gets tricky this core doesn't exist as such, it is a part of your spirit and to 'do' magic you have to pull on magic from your spirit and channel it through your body, understand so far?" looking at Harry to make sure that he was keeping up with him.
"Yes sir" Harry replied understanding everything so far
"Now this part of getting the magic from your core or spirit to your body is the job of your mind. You see magic is formless, it has no shape, but to travel through your body it needs to have a form and it is your mind, through intent that wills the magic into a form that allows it to flow through your body. One the magic is in your body some people can form it enough with their minds to use it then, like so" a ball of light begins to shine from Hadrian's upturned hand "this is the lumos spell, a very simple spell that requires very little moulding of magic, as such it is easy to cast without a wand. Keeping up with me?"
"Yes sir"
"Good, you see with more complex spells magic has to be shaped further which makes it harder to do. Thus to be able to use these spells we uses wands, and through moving the wands in certain patterns we can shape the magic, now how wands do this is a much more advanced lesson than this so just accept for now that the wand helps. You can look it up later if you want, there's a library downstairs that should have something on it." encouraging Harry to look up more detailed aspects of magic now Hadrian decided would be a good idea, after all Hadrian didn't know everything. "I will warn you though to check with me before reading a book, like the Secrets of the Darkest Art book we found in your chest, contain things that it is best not to know about" Hadrian stated seriously looking Harry straight in the eyes to make sure that he understood his message.
"Yes sir, I will" promised Harry deciding already that he would try and find some books to help his knowledge, maybe there is something more in his chest from his parents to read through.
"Back to the topic, using a spell requires your mind to focus on it's intent this is often done with an incantation if you are unfamiliar with the way the magic needs to be shaped, but can be done without, this magic then flows from your core through your spirit into your body where it can then be used or shaped further through the use of a wand with specific movements, understand all that?" Hadrian summarised what he had explained so far to make sure that Harry did understand what he was teaching, after all he had never taught anyone before and only had his experiences with his father and Hogwarts to rely on.
"Yes sir" Harry quickly replied
"Good now, your magical core can be increased through use, but you also need to train your body too. You see there are conduits throughout your body, the pathways that magic flows though a persons body from their core, these conduits can only take so much magic before they begin to become damaged." continued Hadrian "Now this damage will repair itself over time, but with practise these conduits can handle more magical energy before they become damaged and when they are damaged the flow of magic can begin to damage the cells nearby, much like what happens when exercising. Therefore it is important that any wizard exercise their body both physically and magically to reduce the effects of fatigue and allow for longer stronger casting."
"Is that why you made me dodge all those spells to exercise my body as well as practising not getting hit" piecing together all the reasons for why his uncle would throw spells at him for over twenty minutes.
"Yes and we'll add in some light running at some point to help improve your stamina. With your healing ability you should be able to train harder than many others, with the added benefit that as you train and your magic tries to heal you the conduits in your body will be in use strengthening them and a drain on your core too." explained Hadrian showing how Harry could train himself magically though mundane efforts, although he tried not to think about the trauma a child would have to go through for his mind to have enough intent to want to heal himself and his magic to respond in kind. After all there is a reason why wizards don't practise spells before they are eleven.
"So I can get magically stronger by just running? That sounds amazing" said Harry in wonder at how simple it could be to become stronger
"That you can although it might be best to try and hide your self-healing, which I'll teach you how to do later, as that will be a massive advantage, and if you can you should always keep all advantages hidden. Plus it will also allow you to stop it using up your magic to heal minor injures when you're in a fight" explained Hadrian trying to get Harry to begin to understand about being cunning and using things to his advantage.
"Yes sir" Harry replied in a sad tone upset that he wouldn't be able to show off to others something that made him special
"Back to these magical conduits within your body, this is where the Potter family trait comes in. You see the Potters of long ago used magic almost constantly when they where being spies and the such, the constant casting of small spells repeatedly lead to the strengthening of these conduits far beyond any other wizard, and after many generations of doing this the family magic respond to it and generations began to be born with the ability to cast many more spells before becoming fatigued than anyone else, even without any training."
"Sir, what about the other family trait we have? The... The bloodlust" came the timid voice of Harry obviously still worried about what his uncle had said of it.
"Yes, the family of Percivale's magical bloodlust, it's both a cure and a blessing" Hadrians voice becoming sombre at this as if reliving some moment from his past before shaking his head and continuing "you see this only comes into effect in situations where you believe you could die, for example when I was making you dodge earlier you weren't worrying about dying were you?"
"No sir, I was panicking a bit and wondering why you were throwing spells at me but, no sir I wasn't worried about dying" Harry replied wondering about how Harry knew he wasn't going to die even though he had never had a spell come towards him and had no idea what it could do.
"the bloodlust only really comes in when you are in a real battle, a real fight with enemies that want to hurt you and you can fight back, it makes you want wipe them out, to remove everything that your magic sees as a threat to you. Now this is where the idea of a one man army of the Percivales came from, as when they were fighting as part of an army if they weren't familiar with those casting spells around them their magic would see them as a threat and cause them to attack them as well." pausing to take some of water from Harry's glass that had refilled itself "When the Percivales were in battle they relied so much on their instincts to get them through the fight, having to react to the slightest of movement of their opponents caused them to stop relying on logical thought and to just react leading to these magically enhanced instincts while shutting off logical thought. The problem is this logical thought also contained who was friend of foe and even the understanding of pain, causing them to acknowledge injuries yet not react to them."
"Why didn't I go into this bloodlust when my uncle hit me?" asked Harry confused about how someone would become part of it, not noticing the suddenly very stony expression on Hadrian's face at his casual mention of the abuse he suffered from his relatives.
"That was because you couldn't fight back. I would guess it's also something to do with the fact that until you hit about ten years old your magic is in flux, basically meaning it's all over the place, and it can behave very sporadically, hence why children aren't allowed wands until they are eleven by which point their magic should have settled down." Hadrian explained "Anyway back to the bloodlust, it will turn you into for lack of a better description a hurricane, you will destroy everything around you trying to get rid of any threat." upon seeing Harry's panicked expression from this "Don't worry though you can prevent yourself from giving into it even in fights that could cause you to die, through a skill you learnt about yesterday that I shall give you a book on, and begin to teach you about when you are finished with, called Occlumency" finished Hadrian trying to calm Harry "Which you found out by entering my mind"
"Sorry sir, I... I didn't mean to" quickly apologised Harry causing Hadrian to smile
"Don't worry about it Harry, especially not with the way you did it. You see Occlumency is about protecting and shielding the mind, it can help give you control over your emotions, thoughts and memories. Has an opposing branch of magic called Legilimency which is about entering another mind and navigating through their thoughts and memories and gaining information as you go, you see this is what you performed on me to see that memory of what I was thinking of at the time."
"How did I do that, I've never even heard of Legilimency until just now sir?" asked a very confused Harry wondering on how he had managed to perform a magic that sounded quite advanced.
"That Harry is because of your eyes. Now some more family history for you, Salazar Slytherin was always described as having 'piercing green eyes', now this wasn't just a description of how his eyes looked, no, they were literally piercing green eyes, they could pierce through Occlumency shields with little difficulty. Now many people always thought this was just a legend and since it never appeared with those that claimed to be his descendants it was decided it wasn't a family trait, however that seems like it's not quite correct either, maybe the Slytherin line has the potential for it but only certain members have it." At this Hadrian stopped begging to think again about Harry could come from such a well known family that was thought to have died out nearly a millennia ago. Snapping back from his thoughts to see Harry still waiting for Hadrian to continue "anyway the Potters always knew the legend was true, after all collecting details about people and things is part of what we do. So remember that Harry, all legends have some truth in them and listen to every detail you can as you never know what could be true and useful later on." seeing Harry nod his head as he committed that line to memory "These eyes were called 'The Eyes of the Snake' due to Salazar's obsession with the things and his unofficial title of 'The Snake Master', what else they can do, if anything, is anyone's guess"
"Now that's enough on magical theory and family today. We'll now begin teaching you about how the wizard world works and it's customs" upon hearing this Harry wasn't sure what to feel, sure learning about magic, even though he wasn't doing any magic he was still learning about it, but learning about people and how they behaved didn't sound like fun to Harry.
"Do I have to learn all that?" whined Harry
"Yes, you do" came the very stern and abrupt voice of Hadrian "and don't whine it's unbecoming, especially of an heir let alone the heir of the Potter family." this got Harry to stop, even after knowing some of his family history for a day he didn't want to do anything that might be disrespectful to his family and their values.
"Yes sir" politely replied Harry
"Good, now the Wizengamot is only part of the political sphere. The Wizengamot, as I've said before is like the house of Lords, or parliament since there is only one in wizarding Britain, and it is made up of fifty seats. Those fifty seats are broken down like this thirty-seven of them go to old families that were around when the Wizengamot was created, these seats are passed down through the male side of the family, with women only allowed to sit if no suitable male members of the family exist. Ten seats go to the heads of various departments in the Ministry of Magic, another seat to the Minister of Magic, with the chair of the board at Hogwarts holding a seat and the holders of the Order of Merlin voting between them as the last seat." pausing again to make sure that Harry was taking this all in, which he appeared to be doing, or at the very least feigning keeping up.
"And I'll have to remember all this, sir?" asked Harry wondering how much information about the government and the members that he would have to be able to remember
"Yes you will, and much more" chuckled Hadrian "you see it's part of being a Potter, know everyone as well as you know yourself as you never know when someone could become an enemy or a potential ally. Now of the thirty-seven family seats eight are inactive due to not having a head of house, which will be seven when you can take the head of house Slytherin, so that leaves twenty-nine family seats of which the Potters are one and the other twenty-eight are know as 'The Sacred Twenty-eight'" exclaimed Hadrian much more cheerfully than one would expect of having been left out of this group that seemed to be made of every old house but theirs.
"Why are we not part of that Sacred Twenty-eight sir?" asked Harry unsure why Hadrian found it so amusing
"Well for a start the phrase Sacred Twenty-eight doesn't mean anything, a lot of the families think of it as some mark of prestige. Yet it was made by someone just to spite the Potters, you see not long ago in the late thirties there was a man, father never mentioned who it was and the author kept his name hidden, that wished to marry Dorea Black, my mother, but she chose Charlus Potter instead. So to spite the Potters this man wrote a book of the who's who of the wizarding world, in this book was a list called the Sacred Twenty-eight which excluded the Potters but made a mention of them saying that we would have been included where it not for 'our love of muggles and disregard for wizarding traditions', which was mostly rubbish. Henry Potter who sat on the seat at the time wished to help the muggles in a large war they were fighting, world war one or something I think it's known as, because he could see how Grindelwald might try and use this fighting to his advantage, of course he was ignored but that didn't matter, so it had nothing to do with his 'love' of muggles the man was just thinking about protecting the nation."
"So the Sacred Twenty-eight doesn't matter then sir? If it's just a made up group?" asked Harry unsure why his uncle would mention it if it was just a name for some list someone wrote
"Well to us and many others it doesn't matter, but to a few it means a great deal and as such can be used to flair tempers or stroke egos to get what we want be that information, money or whatever. Remember the unofficial motto of the Potters, know everyone as well as you know yourself, so if you can use this made up club of self-important people to get a reaction you want then use it." finished Hadrian with a grin "Well I think that's enough for today, you will meet me by the door at six everyday including weekend, we shall start with half hour of dodging exercise before getting breakfast, I will then teach you for the next three hours on magical theory, runes and potions after which you shall lightly exercise for the next hour before getting lunch, showering and returning here at one for four hours on lessons about being an heir and a member of the Potter family. Understood" ordered Hadrian like some sort of army sergeant.
"Yes sir" stated Harry clearly not happy about the fact of having to get up before six every day and spend seven hours learning each day, but he would do it, he would do it to make his parent proud of him, to live up to the Potter name.
"Good now lets go get some lunch and go see what else is in that chest of yours" Hadrian said as he began to head towards the door.
One sandwich and a drink later finds Harry and Hadrian back in the Floo room where the chest still sits.
"I'll move this up into your room tonight and you can use it and read anything out of it that you want" came Hadrians voice losing the sharp edge that came into his voice while he teaching becoming something much softer.
"Okay" replied Harry "Why do you think my parents left me all of this?" Hadrian though for a moment before replying
"I would think it was some sort of fail-safe, you see since your parents went into hiding they must of believed that their was some threat to you or themselves so they packed this chest up and put it somewhere no one would think to look. There was probably some compulsion on it to make your aunt get it if someone asked about it, since no one would think to look their no one would think to ask."
"So my parents planned to die then?" confusion seeping into Harry's voice
"Nothing like that, more of a what if kinda thing, if they were to die then you would be able to get all this, since if it was in the vault you wouldn't be able to access if until you are of age, this way it gives you a bit of a head start and gives you anything you might need, like the Potter and Slytherin rings" at this a deep frown begins to adorn Hadrian's face "Come to think of it, since Mister Black or my self were supposed to be your guardians you wouldn't of needed any of this, the reading of the will declaring everything to be given to you would have allowed you to get the heir ring retrieved from the vaults. No this is like they expected some grand plot, with me away Mister Black was the only one that could become your guardian yet he was thrown into Azkaban on what we now know to be a lie thanks to your parents wills... the wills that were sealed" suddenly becoming silent.
"What does that all mean?" Harry began to wonder just what it was that his uncle his uncle was trying to figure out
"It means that I have some digging to do, now lets get back to looking at that else is in this chest" Hadrian said trying to redirect his mind away from thoughts that could turn very dark "Why is there a book in here that just as wavy lines on it" beginning to flick though it "every page too"
"Their not squiggly lines" came the very confused voice of Harry wondering if his uncle had ate something funny "Their just letters"
"You mean you can read this" looking at Harry to see him nodding "must be what the written form of parseltongue looks like then, what does it say?" Hadrian's curiosity peaking, handing the book over to Harry to read "In English if you don't mind" predicting Harry's attempt at speaking it in parseltongue
"To my darling son, this book contains all the information I could find on our family, that family being that of Slytherin, as well as a copy of parts of the Slytherin family grimoire, the original is in the Slytherin vault" Harry finished reading looking up to see Hadrian just as astonished as he was although the reasons may be different "My... My mum wrote this?" unshed tears begging to fill Harry's eyes at finally owning something of his mother, one that he had dreamt of for years now
"I guess she did, that also confirms where the Slytherin line came from then, and explains why your dad and her married" leaning back into the sofa the pieces starting to come together in Hadrian's head
"What do you mean?" came the hot reply of Harry "my dad married my mum because he loved her, doesn't that explain why?" anger now replacing the sadness and wonder that he was feeling not moments ago
"I don't doubt that he did Harry it's just... it's rare for a Potter to marry a muggle-born, not that we have anything against them or hold ourselves to some pure-blood supremacy ideal. No it's just most muggle-borns don't try and fit in to wizarding society, them come from a society that is completely different and they often try and make the wizarding world into a mirror of the muggle world and it just won't work. Now your mother is seemed to of spent a lot of time researching the Slytherin family and I would put money on it that some of that information was hidden away by those that would want nothing to do with half-bloods let alone muggle-borns so she must have been able to act and present herself like a pure-blood. Your mother must have done everything that being a Potter was about and I'm guessing your dad noticed" Hadrian explained himself wanting to calm Harry down as much as he could and not have him think that he was speaking ill of his parents. "Anyway Harry I think you should spend the rest of the day reading that, maybe write down anything you find interesting so I can read it?" this Harry agreed to readily "Now I need to head out for a bit, if you need anything just call for Bandy okay? He'll make dinner for you if I'm not back by then"
"Yes" and with that Harry held the book close to his chest and ran off towards his room wishing to read as much of it as he could. That was the sight to which Hadrian returned later that night Harry still in his clothes asleep on-top of the book written by his mother.
"Bandy" softly spoke Hadrian calling for the house-elf, before a soft pop was heard
"Yes Master?" asked the elf of Hadrian
"Can you get Harry into his night clothes and get him into bed?"
"Of course Master" and with a simple snap of his fingers Harry's clothes were changed the book placed on his night stand and gently floating in the air as the bed covers moved to allow a place for Harry to lay before placing him there. Hadrian thanked the elf before he popped away choosing to leave as well
"Goodnight Harry" Hadrian said as he gently shut the door behind him.