The third chapter of the "Power of Eclipse" story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

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Innortal, ultima-owner, raynisia, davycrockett100, thank you for your reviews, folks!
7 Winds, yes, Zero will eventually graduate into 'proper' character from 'just a machine' she sees herself as now. But that won't happen soon. And she's never a romantic option (or whatever passes for romance for Eclipse Drivers), so this story won't feature Harry/Zero ever.
Jostanos, yes, Zero does have minor sensory abilities and she can detect wizarding magic (hello, quirrellmort?).
Duel, yes, Eclipse was nerfed compared to what it was in FORCE. But, remember, in FORCE it was so strong that TSAB was forced to use mass weaponry and biological warfare to contain it. I'm not having anything like that in my story. But, don't worry, Eclipse is still plenty strong, it's just not as game-breaking as before.

Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and "Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha" belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"
"telepathy"
「Devices speaking」
'thinking'
"spells"

Additional Disclaimer: The authors of this story in no way approve murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

Power of Eclipse
Chapter III: Magic and more Magic

Magic, at least in the form Zero was familiar with, was quite different from what Harry imagined. It wasn't done by shouting random nonsense in bastardised Latin while waving some piece of wood around. It was far more sciency than that: one was required to solve quite a complex set of equations to cast even a simple spell. And the math involved was quite beyond the green-eyed Driver's abilities, even with Zero doing her best to teach him stuff. Thankfully, the Strosek-girl was quite capable of doing all those calculations for him, and with inhuman speed and precision.

Unfortunately, her knowledge of actual spells was quite limited and didn't really go beyond a few simple utility spells, such as the one that created a small ball of light next to the caster. Such spells, of course, had their own uses, but… they weren't what Harry wanted. Yet, even if she knew no flashy and powerful spells, Zero still had quite a lot she could teach him when it came to Magic. Indeed, magical energy, mana, could be used in many different ways, and not just to fuel various spells. It could also be used to augment oneself by making the body stronger, faster and tougher. And, when he was using his Magic that way, it was a little easier for Harry to vent his anger - something that he was quite thankful for.

In addition to that Zero also showed him how one's magic could be used to temporarily manifest extremely durable magical armor into existence. For Eclipse Drivers like him such armor was called 'Combat Protective Clothing' and it could take pretty much any appearance he could envision. Harry immediately decided that he absolutely loved this way of using Magic. Indeed, now, for a small cost of his mana, he could have any clothes he desired without having to go through the trouble of stealing them from the shops. And these magical garments would also protect him from all but most serious harm!

The Strosek-girl also explained him a few things about his 'condition'. For example, his anger issues were a 'feature' of Eclipse Factor, meant to make those infected with it eager to fight. Hopefully, without them going rogue. Likewise, the temporary window of lucidity that happened after a kill or a particularly-brutal battle was a way to encourage the Drivers to keep fighting. As for that possession thing… Well, Zero actually didn't know for sure what it was, but all evidence pointed towards it being some sort of a bloodline power that woke up when she altered his Linker Core to be more Belkan, and then got warped by the Eclipse Factor into that bloodthirsty murderous thing that Harry had the misfortune to experience.

Magic and related stuff wasn't the only thing that Zero taught him. She also tried, with varying levels of success, to teach him mathematics, sciences like physics that were related to the spell-casting, and the languages that, supposedly, were commonly used by the magic users living on the Administered World. Funnily enough, one of those languages actually sounded a lot like some strange version of German… And speaking of the Administered Worlds, Zero also educated him about the organization that governed over them, the Time-Space Administrative Bureau.

The Bureau, as it was often referred to, was an interdimensional security force that was founded around seventy years ago to finally bring some measure of peace to the many Worlds that were ravaged by the Belkan Wars for the last few centuries if not longer. Zero actually didn't know when those wars started, but some records in her databases implied that the Belkan Kingdoms might have been in the state of nearly-constant warfare for over a thousand of years… Anyway, the Bureau consisted of several different branches that provided the security to member Worlds, monitored their political and cultural growth and provided them with disaster relief. They were also the keepers of knowledge and maintained an extremely extensive library that was said to contain a copy of every book in existence. Almost certainly a boastful lie, but, still, there likely was a good reason why that place was called the Infinite Library.

This Infinite Library probably had answers to the questions about Eclipse Factor that Zero herself did not, but, alas, going there wasn't possible at this time. While Zero did know the Dimensional Transfer spell, which allowed one to jump through Dimensional Space from one world to another, it was a piece of Magic that she just didn't have enough mana for. And neither did Harry right now.

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One morning in the middle of July Harry was woken up by a rather-uncomfortable feeling of being watched intently by some hidden observer. His immediate reaction was to roll off his 'bed' and draw his knife as he got ready to defend what was his. But as he looked around the room, he couldn't spot a single thing out of place; there was nothing that could give him a clue about where his mysterious watcher was… Then, a loud hoot came from the other side of the windows, causing the green-eyed Eclipse Driver to let out a nervous laugh. It was just an owl.

Or, maybe not: the moment the bird saw him put away the knife, it flew into the room through a hole in one of the glass panels and dropped a thick envelop right into his hands. Then it flew to an old bookcase in the corner of the room and landed atop of it. From there, the little feathered fiend continued to watch intently, as if it waiting for him to open the letter. Or, perhaps, it was waiting for him to write a response? Nah, that was just ridiculous.

Still, curious about who might be writing to him and for what purpose, Harry directed his attention to the envelope in his hands. It was made from rough parchment and bore big dark-red wax seal with some official-looking heraldic on it. On the other side of the envelope, written in emerald-green ink, there was his full name as well as the address of his current residence, right down to the room he was sleeping in. That was… creepy as Harry was quite sure no one alive should know where he lived, let alone the room he slept in. Did he have some undetectable crazy stalker who used owls of all things to deliver his letters?

Disregarding that thought and trying to banish the anger that came unbidden with it, he tore the envelope open and pulled out the pages that were inside. Apparently, this strange letter was an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And they were expecting him to sent a response via an owl… Was this a bad joke or something? Still, deciding to humor his mysterious prankster, Harry read the 'list or required materials' for this 'school of magic'. And as he did that, he was quickly overcome with annoyance and anger: some of the things on that list were just plain ridiculous and didn't fit anywhere within the quite coherent theory of Magic that Zero has introduced him to during their 'lessons'... The owl, which seemed to be waiting for something from him, apparently could feel his anger rising and shifted uncomfortable as it warily observed the young Eclipse Driver.

Deciding that this prank letter was no longer worth his attention, Harry crumpled it and threw into the far corner of his 'room'. Then, he turned his glare towards his feathered 'guest'. The bird clearly understood what will happen to it should it fail to vacate the room as soon as possible, and so it hurriedly flew out, quickly disappearing from the young Eclipse Driver's sight… Letting out a deep sigh, Harry headed downstairs: he really needed to blow his anger off right now.

Over the next week Harry received several more of those 'Hogwarts letters', each of them delivered by an owl. And he destroyed all of those letters without ever bothering to even open them. Then, apparently, the mysterious prankster finally got the hint and stopped bothering him with the useless correspondence. For a week that followed, Harry enjoyed his normal life and he was about to let this whole incident go, when, one day, he found an unexpected and uninvited guest invading his territory.

Said 'guest' was a giant of a man, easily twice as tall and six times as wide as Harry himself was and he was wielding… an umbrella… that gave the young Eclipse Driver a very strange feeling… Like it was more than it appeared to be. Plus, according to Zero, this man had some active Magic in him and his Magic was quite similar to the Magic Harry himself had before coming in contact with her and the Eclipse Factor. And that made Harry very wary of this man. Especially since he had no idea what his purpose in coming here was… was he the prankster/stalker or someone that person sent, or was he just passing through? Regardless it would be… dumb to just come out and attack him like he did with that invader in the spring due to this man being larger and definitely stronger. At least, he could easily avoid this giant man by hiding on the second floor: the stairs leading there were in a poor condition and wouldn't be able to support him.

As it was he merely waited on the second floor for the man to either enter the factory or leave the premises. Eventually he got fed up with waiting and banged a metal pipe against the railing, startling the large man and making him look up towards him.

"If you are here for me, state your intentions. If not, get lost!" He called from his above, anger clear in his voice. And to accentuate that he was serious, he pointed the pipe towards the man as if it was a sword or some other similar weapon.

"Harry? Is tha' you?" The mysterious giant asked, apparently not fazed at all by the angry preteen. Taking the silence he got in response as a confirmation, he continued: "You are… not wha' I expected yeh to be." There was a brief moment of silence before he added, his voice showing the notes of genuine confusion: "And didn' Dumbledore leave you with yer aunt an' uncle? What are you doin' here?"

The moment his name was brought up, Harry narrowed his eyes at the man while doing his best to keep his rising anger under some control. He was somewhat successful, but only somewhat: he was too mad at the 'giant' for how he dared to have some expectations about his life. Comfortable childhood in a loving middle-class family? Ha! As if the Dursleys could love anyone who wasn't their dear Duddikins! Pushing the unnecessary thoughts about those pigs in the human form away, Harry concentrated his attention on the man in front of him. How did this 'giant' even know his name? Was he working for that stalker person, Dumbledore, or something? Plus, regardless of how this stranger seemed to believe to know him, the young Eclipse Driver had no obligation to share anything about his life with him.

"What do you want?" He growled, feeling really really angry right now… Just a little bit more, and he might turn into a raging berserk that attacks without reasoning, even when faced against suicidal odds. But Harry didn't really want that - he loathed not being in control of himself - so, for his own reasons, he wanted the man to give him a damn good reason why he was intruding on his territory. The man seemed to fumble at the harsh response he got as well as the lack of answers to any questions he asked, and started mumbling something under his breath. He was brought back to reality when Harry startled him again by banging the pipe against the railings once more. Shaking his head, the man then called up to the green-eyed preteen:

"The Headmaster didn' receive a reply from you, so he sent me to come and get yer response in person, and if you agreed I'd be taking yeh to get your things." Surprisingly enough, this answer seemed to have actually dimmed Harry's anger a little. At least the mysterious stalked sending him strange letters might not actually be a stalker after all. Still, whoever that Dumbledore person was, he somehow knew exactly where he was living, and that aggravated Harry greatly… Plus, even if everything written in those letters was true, the magic this Hogwarts school taught was entirely different from anything known to Zero, and, right now, he trusted the Strosek-girl way more than he did the 'giant' in front of him or his mysterious boss. A few clangs resounded through the abandoned factory as Harry tapped his pipe against the railings while he thought up an answer.

"Prove me that your 'magic' thing exists, and I'll think about going to this school of yours." He said as calmly as he could. His request, however, seemed to have made the man quite uncomfortable.

"Well… Yeh see..." He began nervously. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'." It was clear that the man didn't really want to share the reasons why he wasn't allowed to do magic, so, for now, Harry decided not to pry. "But, well… Yeh think no one will mind if I be doing some anyway?" Taking a stony glare he was receiving as a sign of agreement, the 'giant' pointed his umbrella at a rather big rock on the ground and mumbled something that sounded like a garbled latin under his breath. A moment later, the stone rose into the air and morphed into a pretty decent chair. Appropriately-sized for the man who 'made' it, of course.

Now that was quite interesting, Harry thought. From his 'lessons' with Zero he knew that the spells that allowed the creation of simpler objects from raw materials existed in the Magical Systems used on the Administered Worlds, but those didn't violate the Principle of Mass Conservation. At least, not in such a blatant way… So, yes, whatever strange and insane Magic this local one was, it was real. And there might indeed be a school that taught the proper ways of utilizing it. Would attending such a school be a good idea, though, was a different question.

"Alright." Harry said, giving in a little. "But I can't exactly afford paying for my schooling." Indeed, while he did have a little money, that was only some spare change he picked up during his ...visits to the shops. Nothing that could last him more than a couple of days if he tried to live uprightly.

"You shouldn'ta worry about that, Harry." Hagrid replied, scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave you anything?" So there was magical money waiting for him to claim it? The young Eclipse Driver thought. He already suspected that his parents weren't actually penniless drunks like his relatives said they were, but this… Proper education wasn't cheap; to have enough money to afford it and then some meant that his late parents must have been quite well off… This day really was getting really strange... And Harry wasn't sure it was a good thing: his self-control was only that good. Any more shocks and he might lose it the next time something annoys him a little too much.

"Alright, fine, let's go." He said, feeling little desire to argue with the demi-giant. Plus, should the things go the way the way he didn't like, he could easily ditch the man and hightail to some faraway place… "By the way, where are we going to?" He asked as he descended to the ground floor, simultaneously changing his Combat Protective Clothing into something more casual-looking. "I don't think the stuff I need for this Hogwarts school is sold openly anywhere around here." Indeed, otherwise he would have already come across stuff like dragon hide or potion cauldrons during his shoplifting excursions.

"London." Hagrid said. "If yeh know where to go, Harry, you can get everything on yer list and more."

The ride to London went quite well. It was late morning when they got on the train, and with only a few people traveling with them Harry, who was still angry with Hagrid, was able to keep his emotions under tight control. Things took a turn for worse once they arrived to London, though. The young Eclipse Driver was immediately hit with the noise and the crowds of a megalopolis, which stretched his self-control to its very limits. And if it wasn't for Hagrid making a path for him as he plowed through the busy streets like an iceboat through frozen waters, Harry was sure he would've lost control and murdered someone before long. Eventually the two of them arrived to Charrington Cross.

"This is it." Hagrid said as stopped in front a of tiny, grubby-looking pub that the people around them seemed to completely ignore for some reason. "The Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." The pub looked a bit too shabby to be as famous as the demi-giant claimed, but Harry couldn't make himself care much about stuff like that, so his only response was an indifferent shrug. "A'ight, let's go, yer things won't buy themselves." Hagrid said as he pulled him inside.

The Leaky Cauldron didn't look the way Harry imagined a famous and well-off establishment either. It was small, dark and noisy. It was not a place he'd want to spend much if any of his time it. Thankfully, all that low buzz of chatter stopped almost as soon as they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid from somewhere; some of them even waved and smiled at him.

"The usual, Hagrid?" The bartender, who was an old and bald man that looked like a toothless walnut, asked as he reached for an empty glass. The Hogwarts gamekeeper shook his head.

"Can't, Tom, I'm showing a firs'-year around the Alley." The man gave a nod and affirmative before returning to his work. Meanwhile Hagrid led Harry through the pub and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. The noise there was much more tolerable, and the green-eyed youth let himself relax a little: keeping his emotions under tight control for any extended period of time was still quite tiring for him… "A'ight, Harry, watch closely. This is how you enter the Diagon Alley. Three up and two across." Hagrid said as he counted the bricks in the wall above a trash can, before tapping on that looked much-touched with the tip of his magical umbrella. For a brief moment nothing happened. Then, the bricks began moving, quickly rearranging themselves into a large archway that led onto a cobbled winding street that looked a lot like an image of a medieval market from some children's book.

Unfortunately for Harry, this street was as crowded and noisy as those the other side of the Leaky Cauldron. And the fact the people there were trading things that made no sense at all to him only made the situation worse. Still, he'd made a decision that he wanted to know a bit more about this strange magic, and he wasn't about to revise it just yet. Thus, steeling himself, he followed Hagrid into the Diagon Alley, absentmindedly noting how the archway reverted back into solid wall once they passed through it.

"Alright, where are we going first?" Harry asked.

"You'll need yer money to buy stuff, so - Gringotts. It's the Wizards' bank, ran by goblins." Hagrid replied, while pointing towards a large and somewhat misshapen building of white marble that towered over the nearby shops. There was a brief moment of silence, before he warned in a very serious tone: "Never mess with goblins, Harry." Then, the demi-giant continued in his normal voice: "Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts." That, however, sounded a lot like some marketing thing, so the young Eclipse Driver wasn't sure how much he could trust these words.

As Harry and Hagrid walked up the steps leading to the entrance of the bank, the goblin guards, clad in red and gold uniforms, turned towards the young boy and scrutinized him with their small, beady, black eyes. He stared back coldly at the one on the right, and growled lowly at it, making the small gesture as intimidating as he possibly could make it. This had a somewhat unexpected result as the creatures actually looked impressed by the sheer tenacity of this human kid. This exchange, however, went nowhere further as Hagrid entered Gringotts and Harry had to hurry after him.

The two of them passed through another set of thick ornate doors, before entering a vast hall finished with marble. Maybe a hundred of goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, serving the bank's clients or doing things like weighing coins or examining precious stones. And even more goblins were showing people in and out of the many doors leading out of this hall. Without giving Harry much time to look around, the Hogwarts gamekeeper made his way to the nearest free teller.

"Afternoon." He said to the goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's vault." The creature eyed the two of them for a long moment, before asking:

"And does Mr. Harry Potter have his key?" Before the Eclipse Driver could start panicking as he most definitely didn't have any keys to any vaults in his possession, Hagrid nodded and started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering things like moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The teller was certainly not happy about this, but kept his mouth shut.

"Found it!" The half-giant announced finally as he held up a small golden key with the number 687 etched on it. The goblin leaned forward on his stool to inspect it.

"The key seems to be in order." It said after a little while. "However, we would also like to verify Mr. Harry Potter's identity." The instant those words left the teller's mouth, half a dozen of goblin guards, all of them clad in polished steel armor and armed with gleaming halberds, appeared around them. Harry's immediate reaction was to draw his knife and fight for his life, but he forced himself not to do that. After all, it was clear as a day that he stood no chance against these opponents, and should he actually arm himself, they were all but guaranteed to attack. "The guards will escort you to the Chamber of Truth. And if you are indeed Mr. Harry Potter, you have nothing to fear from them."

That did not ease his anxiety in the slightest, but he followed the goblin and escort through one of the many doors and into a corridor. Hagrid tried to follow after him, but the teller-Goblin called out for him to remain behind as this was a private affair. It took a short while to get to the 'Chamber of Truth', which as the name implied was a moderately-large chamber, barren except for a simple stone pedestal at the center with an ornate bowl sitting atop of it. Each of the guards that had escorted him broke off to the walls as they neared the center, the teller speaking quietly with another Goblin that had escaped his notice before leaving the way they had come.

The new Goblin didn't waste any time, calmly leading Harry over to the bowl.

"To prove that you are indeed the one you claim to be, human, place seven drops of your blood into the ritual basin." The creature said, while offering the young Eclipse Driver a wicked-looking ceremonial knife. Harry eyed the blade apprehensively, afraid that it might be poisoned or something, but he then quickly dispelled this thought: why would the goblins bother with that if the guards here could slay him regardless? And so he took the blade and cut his hand, hissing in pain as it gashed his flesh. Then, he placed his cut hand over the bowl, hoping that he managed to draw enough blood and the Eclipse Factor kicking in and healing the wound wouldn't screw him over… Once the necessary number of blood drops was inside the bowl, he returned the blade to the goblin.

"What now?" He asked, having no desire to spend any more time in this chamber than was absolutely necessary. The goblin seemed to be actually amused by his hastiness.

"Now we wait." The ritual-master said with a snarl, baring his yellowed pointed teeth. "Did you expect the Magic to solve all of your problems in an instant, foolish human?" Harry let out a low growl, but didn't say anything in response as he waited for whatever Magic that the goblins used to verify people's identities to finish its job. And he needn't wait for too long: maybe half a minute later the bowl began glowing. This glow then spread onto the pedestal and the chamber's floor, forming intricate patterns that made sense only to the goblin who was conducting the ritual. "Hm… This is very unusual." The goblin said thoughtfully as he examined the glowing patterns.

"Huh?" Was Harry's response to that proclamation as he most certainly couldn't make head or tails from what he was seeing, much less find anything out of norm with it. Beyond the fact that this Magic worked in the ways that were completely illogical to him, that it.

"The blood you gave us doesn't match that of Mr. Harry Potter that we sampled when creating the trust vault for him. However, you are clearly recognized as a member of house Potter, son of James F. Potter and Lily J. Potter nee Evans. And you are of right age to be their only known child..." The young Eclipse Driver once again could respond only with an eloquent 'huh' as the ritual-master continued: "For that reason, I believe that our records have an error - the first one in many decades - and, rest assured, it shall be corrected. You are free to withdraw your money from our bank, human." Then he turned to the guards, barking the orders to escort Harry out of the 'Chamber of Truth' to them.

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