Chapter 4- Phoros and Manipulations
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It is the property of J.K Rowling and I am not making any money out of this fanfiction.
It had been three days since Lance had pulled them out of the known magical world and into this strange new place. All of them but Ron had been reading generously. Ron being Ron thought it was a waste of time and instead spent hours playing chess with whoever was free or with himself. Each of them had an area they were interested in. Harry was delving into any book he could find on defence and warding. Luna was doing research on different magical creatures and charms. Hermione had nearly read every book on ancient and modern runes and transfiguration. Ginny was looking through books on Martial Arts and Neville had been reading books on plants in the magical world. Alice and Lance came to visit them occasionally talking to them about their adventures and what division they should choose.
Harry, Hermione, Neville and Luna were sitting in the living room with their trunks packed and wands in their robe pockets. Ready to leave at a moments notice. Ron and Ginny were still upstairs throwing things into their trunks as they had forgotten they were leaving in the morning. They were discussing what they training at Phoros training camp might be like in excited voices when a tendril of fire shot out of the dying embers in the grate and hit the door. The door vanished in shower of light. Alice and Lance walked in with a glass plates in their hands. Just as they sat down on the burgundy sofa Ron and Ginny bounded down the stairs and pulling their trunks behind them. They sat down on the last available seats and turned to Lance and Alice.
"Now everyone is here I have to ask you guys to tell us what divisions you have chosen. We'll start with Neville," said Lance while pulling out a gold pen from his denim jeans' pocket.
"Well, I have chosen tiger division," replied Neville
Lance slowly wrote his Neville's name on the plate and his division. Slowly the ink disappeared and Neville seemed disappointed, thinking it had rejected him but Lance smiled watching the in disappear. An orange badge materialised on the plate. It was shaped like a shield with Neville's name written across the top and tiger that was jumping onto an imaginary foe underneath. The photo like all other magical photos was moving. Lance handed him the metal badge which as soon as it touched Neville flew into his chest and disappeared. Neville looked shocked and started apologising to Lance and Alice who chuckled at Neville's shock.
"It will appear on your combat robes and gear and also your formal robes. There is no need for it other than that," said Lance, still chuckling.
The process continued from their on, with Lance recording the boys' results and Alice the girls. Harry had chosen to be a griffin, Ron a centaur, Hermione an owl, Ginny a scorpion and Luna a hawk.
When they were finished Lance gave each boy a piece of fine gold thread that was glowing and Alice did the same with the girls. The both grinned at each other before shouting. "O ut superus plagiarius!"
At Hogwarts
In the last few days Albus Dumbledore had been plotting on ways to get Harry and his friends back to Hogwarts. If they found out about him having a teacher killed they would lose all faith in him and it would be very hard to gain it back. They had to understand that it was all for the greater good. If Harry did not trust him then he would not follow him into battle and if Ginny did not trust him she would not allow him to feed her love potions. She had to fall in love with Harry for his entire plan to work out. Molly would kill him if she found out she would not receive the money she had been promised. If Harry did not die by Voldemort's wand then Molly would not receive her money, he would not receive the Potter antiques and Hogwarts would never reveal its last tower. You see all of the heirs of the founders would have to be dead for Hogwarts to control itself. As Harry was the heir of Gryffindor and he would weaken Voldemort and die. Then Dumbledore would challenge Voldemort in a duel and kill him. So the Slytherin heir would be dead to. The other two lines had died out almost 800 years ago as their heads were women.
He also had to make sure Ginny was pregnant with Harry's child before he died but that did not affect him. Only Molly. If Harry was still in the new entry apartments Dumbledore could get him by going through a portal door. He had found one in is long travels in his youth inside Rome. But if they had travelled to Phoros training camp there would be no way to get them back. He had to ask fast he wanted to catch them before he left. He stood up from his desk where all of his many silver trinkets lay still and walked out the door to spiral staircase. Bright purple robes billowing in a similar fashion of that of Snape's.
Phoros Training Camp
Harry, Ron and Neville arrived in large field. Lush green grass covered the ground and the sun shone brightly above. Not a cloud was visible. A cool breeze floated across the landscape and towards the forest. Large trees covered with fruits and berries. It was very unlike the forbidden forest which was almost permanently dark; this forest seemed to emit light. Around them were several large cottages made of American Cherry. Several people were walking in and out of the cottages wearing cream coloured trousers with brown coloured t-shirt and a black jacket. All of them carried wands of varying style. They also carried a weapon. Some carried swords, others daggers and some even maces. Almost all of them waved at Lance and glanced curiously at them.
"Come on," said Lance "lets go catch up with the girls."
He showed them around the campsite and then to the girls cottages. They met up with them around the duelling ring where to girls, dressed in a similar way to the boys except they wore boxing helmets and combat gloves.
"So, how do you like this place?" asked Alice.
"Great," replied Harry
"Awesome," said Neville
"Bloody brilliant," said
Alice smiled and said "Well then, let's go get you guys kitted out," and she led them past the girls' cottages and to the training area. When they got there they were surprised to see several shops as well as duelling rings, archery ranges. They walked towards one of larger shops that had a signboard saying 'εξοπλισμός.'
"What does that mean?" asked Ginny curiously.
"It means equipment?" replied Lance
As they entered a strong smell of polish attacked their senses. Ron and Ginny scrunched up their faces and Hermione was pinching her nose.
"Welcome to my equipment store, how may I be of service?" asked an old man with twinkling silver eyes. He was wearing traditional wizard robes that were bottle green in colour
"Mr. Alexios, these are new students, they need to be kitted out," Lance said.
"Yes, yes of course, if you kids would just follow me to the back we will have your wands crafted," said the man, smiling.
They followed him past the desk, through a door and into another room. This room was full crates each with a label of handle, wood or core. Half of the walls were covered in samples of wood. The other half covered in shelves which held core samples or handles for wands. In a corner there was a small desk with a glass cylinder which was filled with a mysteries blue fog inside it. Surrounding it were several gems.
"Now this is a very simple process, all you have to do is place your wand hand on that panel over there and magic will do the rest," he said while pointing to the panel on his desk. It was shaped like a hand and it glowed red.
Harry walked towards it first and placed his right hand on it. After numerous seconds it glowed green. Next two sample woods, two vials of liquid, a stone handle and a green diamond floated towards him.
"Let's see you have two wands with marble handles. The woods are black ash and yew; the cores are basilisk venom acromantula silk fibres soaked in holy water and your focusing gem is a green diamond," said Mr Alexios "your wand will come with the standard dragon hide holster, the ability to turn into a staff and it will also fit into your sword or gun and make them magical. The holster comes with an anti summoning charm and invisibility spell."
He placed all of the material in the glass cylinder and pulled out two holsters from one of the crates.
The cylinder gave a loud beep and two wands slid out from the sides on glass trays one of the wands was a creamy white and the other a greyish black. Both wands had a green diamond at the base of the handle. Mr Alexios carefully placed each wand inside a holster and handed them to Harry who accepted them with a quick 'thanks.'
It was like this for everybody. Ron received only one wand with a marble handle, Birchwood with griffin feather core and a ruby as his focusing stone. Hermione got two wands that were a similar composition of that of Harry's but she had white ash and phoenix tears instead of basilisk venom. Neville received two wands a well with oak and maple as his woods, limestone handle, unicorn horn dust and phoenix tail feather as his cores and a diamond focusing gem. Somehow Ginny and Luna received the same wands. White ash and black ash as their woods, steel wand handles, unicorn tail hair cores and white topaz focusing stones. After that they were fitted with clothes. Three sets of combat gear, like what the students normally wore, a set of formal robes and other garments like jeans, t-shirts, shirts, trousers, and skirts for the girls. The man led them out into the main reception with their purchases. Lance paid for the stuff using his wand. The vendor scanned it and deducted the amount from his gringotts account. Fully kitted out, they left the store with several bags full of clothes and their wands.
