AN: Okay, I'm going to put a quick AN here, because I am really tired and falling asleep, and really thinking I should stop writing fan fiction at three o'clock in the morning... well, you get the idea. Anyway, the next chapter after this should have us back at Hogwarts, or at least on the express. Dobby hasn't done anything yet for reasons that will turn up later, and all of that sort of thing. I'm wondering whether Ginny Weasley should have the diary or someone else, might make my readers guess if I randomise who has it. Also, I would like to ask whether people think that Sealing magic would work on a horcrux and, if so, how much of an effect would it have?
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 4 – Visiting Professors
"Oh, this looks interesting." Harry muttered.
The morning following the shopping trip around the Alley found Harry, Isis, Loki and Reinforce sorting through all of his mail. Some of it was rather ordinary, a few of them were of the 'reply when you get this' kind of thing, and there were even a few with tracking charms on them.
Once all of those had been sorted and shunted off to one side, there was a rather large pile of stuff that had been sent for his birthday. Most of them were just cards and the like, wishing him a happy birthday, but there were a few gifts mixed in with them all too.
It made Harry feel a little warm and fuzzy inside that he was on good terms with so many people. While he wouldn't say he was friends with everyone in his year, he was in the same year as Draco Malfoy after all, he was at least on friendly enough terms that apparently people sent him birthday cards.
Amongst the gifts, there was something each from Daphne and Blaise, as well as something from Su Li and Sally-Anne. Huh, he hadn't thought about Sally-Anne in a while. That girl had really come out of her shell and, in a few years, it was already fairly obvious who she was probably going to end up dating, especially with how much time the two spent together.
There were a few other gifts as well, from people like Hermione, Neville, and... oh? It seemed that Dumbledore had finally given him James Potter's cloak back, anonymously of course, but there was no one but him who could have done it. Harry wondered what it was with Dumbledore not signing something, was it to seem mysterious or was there another purpose to it? Well, the possibility that he was simply forgetful did exist too, Harry supposed.
Anyway, the object that Harry had called interesting was, unsurprisingly, a book. He read the tag on it and blinked when he saw the name Luna Lovegood on it. Wasn't that the girl he'd met in Flourish and Blott's yesterday? Why had she sent him a birthday gift, he didn't even know the girl!
Opening the book, Harry blinked again. It wasn't written in English, nor was it in Japanese, German, French, Spanish, or any other Earth language. Reinforce, looking at the book over Harry's shoulder, recognised the text though, and she dropped what she was holding in surprise.
As Harry went flicking through it, her eyes got even wider. Each page seemed to depict a different... creature of some sort. Honestly, Harry thought that they looked like the imaginings of a young child, or possibly those of an insane asylum inmate.
A hand reaching over his shoulder distracted Harry from his browsing of the book. Noticing Reinforce's expression, he handed her the book and watched as she flicked through it, she seemed to be in something of a daze. Soon, Loki and Isis had joined Harry in observing Reinforce and the book.
"Special book, is it?" Harry asked, startling Reinforce out of whatever trance she'd been in.
"Yes." Reinforce replied hesitantly. "It's old, very old. It's a bestiary, but most of the species in here were wiped out in the Ancient Belkan wars a long time ago. It's... rather surprising to see something like this turn up again, especially here on Earth."
Harry took the book back and examined it for a moment. "Well, this one appears to be a duplicate of another book, so it's not an original. Still, I wonder why she decided to send me this, and why she decided to send me a gift at all."
"Who is it from?" Reinforce asked.
"Luna Lovegood." Harry replied. "The same girl that noticed you inside me at Flourish and Blott's."
"Blonde? Grey eyes? The one who asked whether you knew you were possessed? That one?" Reinforce asked in confusion.
"Yes, that one." Harry replied. "She said she was going to be a first year this year, so I guess that I'll get the chance to ask about it when we get to Hogwarts, or maybe even on the train if I can find her."
"Harry, you have a blank letter here." Loki spoke up, just as Reinforce had opened her mouth to say something.
Looking across, Harry saw that Loki seemed to have gotten a paper cut off of the letter in his hand. It was simple to heal it though, and he handed the blank parchment over to Harry. As soon as it was in his hand, Harry felt a small sting on his hand, and saw a few drops of blood fall onto it.
Loki looked on in surprise as words began to appear across the parchment. "Huh, there's a small spell on it so that whoever handles it will get a small cut. Most people would assume it was simply a paper cut on a sharp edge, but the parchment has been sealed so that only the desired recipient's blood will reveal what it says. I like it."
"The question is who would go to the trouble of doing so, and how they would have a sample of my blood to bind it in the first place?" Harry replied. "Blood is commonly used in wards and the like because it is simple to incorporate, and fairly difficult to break without an appropriate blood sample."
"Difficult, but not impossible." Isis added. "It is possible for someone to break through a blood-based seal without a blood sample, but the knowledge to do so is slightly uncommon. Blood's important in magic, it's why unicorn blood is so powerful."
"Shall we see who the letter is from, instead of just talking about it?" Reinforce asked.
Harry nodded, then looked at the bottom of said letter. "Oh? It seems to be from Hound, that Unspeakable from before." He quickly read through the letter, then summarised it for the others. "He's asking me to come to the Ministry at some point, because there's a prophecy orb there that he thinks I need to hear, apparently these orbs can only be removed from the shelves by the ones they are about. Also, both he and Madam Bones are looking into where the Potters might be. He says that this might take a while, because 'for every magical way there is for tracking someone, there is probably dozens of ways of hiding them'."
"From what I've heard and read, that was part of the problem in the last war against Voldemort." Loki said. "The Death Eaters would just turn up, cause some terror, kill a few people, then disappear. Because the Aurors were a reactionary force, they tended to get there too late to do anything about what had just happened."
Harry looked up in curiosity, having not read about that. Loki, with his specialisation in stealth, would probably have looked into how a small force of terrorists could elude the authorities for as long as Voldemort and his subordinates had. "Do you know why people feared speaking his name?" Harry asked. "People still flinch at the sound of it, even the kids who are too young to know about what things were like back then, they're being raised to react like that."
"Taboo." Loki replied. "It's a type of magic that can be cast over a wide area, like a country, and it acts like an alarm if a certain phrase is spoken aloud. When those who freely spoke the name Voldemort were the ones that soon ended up dead, they came up with other ways of referring to him."
They went back to searching through all of Harry's mail and presents, with Reinforce frequently looking back at that Bestiary Harry had been gifted. Harry didn't know how Luna had been able to read it, it wasn't in any language that was spoken on Earth, it didn't even resemble one of them, so how would she have known to send him it, and why would she have sent him it in the first place?
xxxxx
"Ah, finally! Come on in, you lot." Beth said, once she'd opened the front door to see Harry, Loki, Isis and Reinforce there.
She stepped back and allowed the four of them into the house. Harry had been surprised when he'd arrived at the address that Beth had given him. The house was obviously large, Harry would guess that it had around a dozen bedrooms, but it seemed really wild.
Oh, the house didn't look dilapidated or anything like that, but it was most certainly interesting to look at. The outside walls had a number of images painted on them, only a handful of which Harry could make sense of. When he got closer, he saw that each image was made up of a number of interlocking runes in various colours. The magic coming from them was also rather impressive, even more so than the wards that Harry had felt as he approached the place.
The garden was brightly coloured and incredibly disorganised, all kinds of flowers growing all over the place, and the only way he actually got to the front door was by following a twisting and winding path through all of the mess. There were fruit trees and bushes, as well as what seemed to be a small vegetable patch that was nearly overgrown with various edible plants of all kinds.
The inside was also clean, if just as miss-matched. The hallway that Beth was leading them down looked rather like what one would expect from an upper-class mansion, with oak furniture and a nice thick carpet. The rooms he glanced to on the way past, though, were rather varied. One of them was rather modern and futuristic looking, while another looked like it had been plucked out of the seventeenth century, and yet another one looked to be a workshop of some kind.
When they reached the kitchen, they found that Septima was there as well, munching on some toast with marmalade on it. She raised an eyebrow at Harry and his familiars, before her eyes zeroed on Reinforce. "Ah, is this the one who has given me so many interesting things to look at over the last year?" She asked.
"Hello, I am Reinforce. If you're asking about the magical formulae that Harry has been passing onto you, then yes, I am." Reinforce replied. She already knew Septima, Beth, and everyone else at Hogwarts, but none of them knew her, or knew she did, so she would have to be careful about what she said.
Beth sat down next to Septima as the Arithmancy professor instantly got into a discussion with Reinforce about her subject, something that Reinforce could easily contribute to. When Beth gave Septima an exasperated sigh and a smile of fond amusement, Isis gave her a questioning look.
"You know, you two seem... quite comfortable together, is there something going on between the two of you" She asked with a lecherous grin. Harry elbowed her in the gut, and rolled his eyes at the perverted unicorn.
"You're not the first to think that." Beth said, chuckling slightly. "The answer is no, me and Septima do not have a sexual or romantic interest in each other. You know that a lot of people died in the last war a decade ago, don't you? One of your classmates, Harry, Susan Bones is an orphan that lives with her aunt, several families were literally wiped out, many of them are down to having just a single heir or heiress, and so on." She frowned a little then, before she carried on.
"Both my family and Septima's were killed. We were friends in school, two oddballs. Septima was... rather obsessive about numbers, well, she still is but it has calmed down a lot as we've gotten older. I was similar, but I was always asking why, and that got on a lot of people's nerves. We were close, like sisters even, and maybe we did do a little... experimenting when we were younger, but we never really got involved with each other." Beth explained.
Loki looked curious. "The Wizarding World seems rather old-fashioned to me, would they really accept a same-sex relationship that easily?" He asked.
Beth chuckled. "It is illegal for two males to marry one another, but not two females. There is magic that can temporarily give one working genitalia for the opposite gender. With this, lesbians can get pregnant with each other, but, because it is only temporary, gays can't have children." She took one look at Isis' face, and Harry looked as well. He saw the pervert about to say something and clamped one hand over her mouth.
That didn't really deter her, and she began to lick Harry's hand. Harry shivered slightly at this, but didn't let go, preventing her from making some perverse comment or other. He felt her pout against his hand, and looked imploringly at Beth to get her to finish whatever she was saying.
She merely grinned at Harry's situation. "You know how the population in the Wizarding World is rather low? Well, there are several incentives to having multiple children, and the Weasleys and a few others do take advantage of this. Of course, some pure blood families decide to do the exact opposite, turning their noses up at those that would accept such benefits. Anyway, harems are acceptable, and sometimes even encouraged, in the wizarding world. It's also why gay couplings are illegal, but lesbian ones are acceptable, if unusual."
"Can we get off this line of conversation now?" Harry almost pleaded. "I don't know how we got onto it, and I am feeling more than a little uncomfortable right now, especially with what Isis is doing to my hand." Harry said, glancing over to the unicorn familiar who still had Harry's hand keeping her mouth shut.
"Oh, fine then." Beth said, rolling her eyes. Harry sighed in relief as he took his hand away from Isis' mouth and proceeded to wipe her saliva off of it. Isis pouted, and Loki just chuckled at her. Reinforce and Septima broke out of their conversation to see what was so funny, but didn't see anything particularly exciting, and went back to their discussion.
"So, looking forward to another wonderful year of teaching?" Harry asked.
Beth laughed. "Yes and no, I suppose. I get those in my class that really want to learn, those who chose it randomly because they didn't know what each of the electives could be used for, and those who take it because it sounds impressive. The first ones, I love to teach, but the other two are a bit of a mixed bag."
Septima heard her and gave Harry a sly look. "It's just a shame you can't choose electives until third year, I'd love having you in my class, I could pick your brain even more if that was the case."
Beth laughed again. "You wouldn't get anything done, you'd spend all of your class time grilling poor Harry about whatever new formula he'd brought with him. Either that or you'd start trying to duplicate some of them. No one else in the class would be able to keep up, and they wouldn't learn a thing."
Septima pouted and looked at Harry with wide eyes. "I wouldn't be that bad, would I?" She asked. Harry whistled and looked anywhere but at the professor. That made everyone else laugh, and Septima huffed good-naturedly.
"You have spent all of the time since we arrived grilling Reinforce about just such a thing, have you not?" Loki asked her. Septima went to reply to that, paused, realised that was exactly what she had done, slumped slightly, then proceeded to give Loki an evil glare.
Harry looked at her with amusement. "Seriously, if anyone at Hogwarts saw the two of you like this, your reputations as strict professors would disappear so quickly it wouldn't be funny."
Beth grinned at him. "You'll find, that if you do decide to take our electives, that we behave very differently in the classroom than we do with you. In the classroom, we are professionals, instructors, educators, and we act appropriately. When students come to visit us outside of class time, it is for help with one thing or another, so we have to be professional then as well. With you, we can let loose a bit, and show who we truly are."
"And Skeeter's rumours are just that, rumours." Septima added.
"What rumours?" Harry asked, linking in surprise.
"You don't read the Daily Prophet, do you?" Septima asked, before rolling her eyes. "It's been all over the paper that the 'Boy-Who-Lived' is being seduced by a professor at Hogwarts. I don't know where she got that idea from, and no one yet knows how much you talk with the two of us, but that's the rumour. Last I heard, they 'most likely candidate' for the one seducing you was... was it Aurora or Rolanda?" She asked Beth.
"Aurora." Beth replied, before looking at Harry's twitchy-eyed expression and chuckling. "The rumours will disappear soon enough, everyone knows that Rita Skeeter is a gossip-monger. It's just that wizards and witches are so gullible that they'll believe it, even if just for a short while."
Everyone's lips quirked in amusement as Harry's face made contact with the table. His muffled voice came from where his head was, his hair falling all over the place. "Really? I. Am. Twelve. Do they really think that a twelve year old would be receptive to something like that?"
Reinforce leaned over and gave Harry a hug. "I think it's less about it actually happening, and more about juicy gossip. You know what the newspapers print about celebrities in the muggle world. I guess that, as famous as you are, you should be thankful that you're not being swarmed by paparazzi."
"Now isn't this an image just worth a picture. Damn, where's a camera when you need one?" Isis muttered. Harry and Reinforce looked up to see Isis holding her hands together, her fingers moulded into the shape of a heart as she grinned at them.
Loki was also grinning at them, and both Septima and Beth were smiling at the two. "Don't you lot think I'm a little, well, old for Harry?" Reinforce asked, her cheeks tinted a little pink.
Beth snorted. "Please, it's not unusual for people to be a decade or a little more older than their partners in the wizarding world, it comes with having a longer lifespan."
"I'm a little more than a decade older than Harry." Reinforce replied.
"So am I, but that's not stopping me." Isis commented.
"You're a familiar, Isis. When Harry dies, so will you, but I will live past him, long after he is dead, for centuries, millennia or more." Reinforce snapped back. Harry hugged Reinforce closer for a moment, trying to calm her down. He really didn't know what had made Reinforce instantly angry like that, nor did he understand why he had literally felt her anger within him, as if it was his own.
"Er, excuse me, but I think we're missing a little context here." Beth spoke up, her and Septima looking a little bewildered.
Reinforce sighed. "Suffice to say, I am not as young as I look. I was also created, not born, so I am... a little different from anything you might know about."
"Has this got something to do with how the magic formulae Harry has shown us are so different to anything I can find?" Septima asked, startling the others and making them look at her. "Oh, come on! Did you seriously think I wouldn't try and research the spells that Harry has been showing me? It's like nothing I've ever seen before, like it's from a completely different culture of magic. Heck, for all I know, it could be alien magic or something."
"The magic Harry has been sharing with you is a mix of Ancient Belkan and Mid-Childan magic primarily." Reinforce replied. "Could you not spread that around? I know, like you found, it wouldn't lead anyone anywhere if they began looking into it, but people might start asking where Harry learned all of it, and that could lead to some uncomfortable questions."
"I agree." Septima nodded her head. "On the condition that you actually let me see some of this magic in action of course." She added on eagerly. Looking at the sparkle in her eyes, Harry and Reinforce slumped a bit, then accepted the condition.
"I'll agree as well." Beth said, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm not going to make things difficult for you, simply because of my own curiosity. Though, like Septima, I would like to see more of this magic in action."
"Gefängnis der Magie" Reinforce muttered, sighing under her breath.
xxxxx
Septima Vector and Bathsheda Babbling stared with opened-eyed amazement at the sight before them. Everything around them had turned a grey colour, and it was explained to them that the barrier would make sure that nothing was damaged during their fight.
It was then explained to them the difference between Knight Armour and Combat Equipment. They didn't really listen to that part though, just accepting that the clothing that Loki and Isis wore was called Knight Armour, while Harry and Reinforce had gone for Combat Equipment.
The two of them were sat on the roof of Beth's house, and waiting for the little sparring match to start. There were two teams that were going to be sparring against each other, one team being Loki and Isis, while the other was Harry and Reinforce.
Of course, they'd been told that the only one that really had any combat experience was Reinforce, and a lot of it as well, so just having her on a team kind of made it unbalanced. Still, Harry, Loki and Isis were going to show them what they were capable of as well.
Loki's Knight Armour was very similar to his regular clothing, from what Septima and Beth could see, but there were a few differences, some extra armour around the shoulders, knees, elbows, forearms and shins for example. Isis' Knight Armour seemed to be the sleeveless white trench coat that appeared when she summoned her armour, a few extra armoured segments appearing on her joints and forearms as well.
Reinforce's Combat Equipment took the form of a plain black minidress with a gold band around her waist, two crossing her chest and a red choker-like thing around her neck. She also had fingerless gloves, armoured boots and socks of two different lengths, the one on her left leg only covering her ankle while the right one went part way up her thigh. On top of that, she wore a navy-coloured jacket and duster with a gold trim to it.
Harry's barrier-type protective clothing was a little similar to Reinforce's. He wore black trousers which were tucked into black boots that seemed to be reinforced with metal bands around the edge, and a black t-shirt. His trench coat was rather fitted around his shoulders and torso, but was looser once it past his waist, allowed to billow out a little. Harry also wore fingerless gloves, but his had two jewels of some kind on the back of them, one red and one green.
Neither Harry or Reinforce held a weapon in their hands, but both Loki and Isis did. Isis held a staff of some sort that had a ruby-like jewel at the head, and Loki held a short sword in each hand. That changed after a moment, as a halberd appeared in Harry's hands.
Septima then took a look at the flight spells that each person was using. In addition to the pair of black wings Loki sported on his back, there was also a smaller set of wings on each of his ankles. Isis had white wings at her waist, knees and ankles, while Harry and Reinforce were using the same spell. The two of them each had four black wings coming from their backs.
"Well, this is certainly going to be interesting." Septima said, looking at the four people just hovering in mid-air.
"It is, it most certainly is." Beth agreed from her seat next to Septima.
A bright red flare of magic appeared right between the two groups.
Then there was an orange flare.
Then a green, and with that the spar began.
xxxxx
"Photon Lancer!" Harry called out, summoning Fate Testarossa's shooting spell into being and launching volley after volley of shots at Isis and Loki. So far, Reinforce hadn't participated in the fight, and neither Loki or Isis were particularly willing to tangle with her.
That left Harry to try and take on the two familiars by himself. Thankfully, Isis really wasn't a combat specialist. Outside of her basic shooting spell and her really strong shields, she didn't really use many combat spells. Loki's stealth speciality wasn't working so well when Harry kept shooting out masses of simple shooting spells around him, not aiming for anywhere in particular.
"Panzerschild!" He cried out, summoning a spinning purplish-black triangular shield to stop Loki's Feather Shot that had been launched at him. He was forced to dodge back a moment later as Isis had tried to get a sneaky shot in at his back. He was then caught in a bind, literally, as Isis had used her Shoot Barrett as a distraction to ensnare him with a Ring Bind.
Harry just managed to use a Bind Break in time to avoid the Shoot Barretts and Feather Shots that had converged on his position. He decided to ramp things up then, and called out "Scarlet Dragon Summon!"
A large magical circle, Mid-Childan in design, appeared near Harry. From it, came a dragon that had last seen action when the Tome of the Night Sky had still been the Book of Darkness. This dragon wouldn't be taken out by small scale shooting spells like they'd been using so far, so it would make things more interesting.
Harry hadn't used any of his 'Pebble Critters' as he called them, because this spar was all about showing Septima and Beth what Belkan and Mid-Childan magic was capable of. The fact that they seemed really intrigued by basic things like Shooting, Shield, and Flight spells meant that they would certainly be surprised when they brought out the big things, such as Bombardment magic.
"Damn it, Harry!" Isis called over to him. "You damn well know that fighting isn't my speciality! What the bloody heck do you expect me to do against a dragon!"
"Be creative!" Harry yelled back at her.
Loki, it seemed, had another idea. Instead of even trying to fight the dragon, he merely turned invisible. There was a small flash of light, and Harry knew he'd used Sonic Move or something similar to get out of the way quickly, but where that might be was unknown to Harry.
Isis had taken Harry's statement as a challenge. Well, either that or she had decided to play cat and mouse with the dragon. Her strong magical shields were the only thing that stopped the dragon swatting her out of the sky, but she seemed to be trying to do something.
"Chain Bind!" She called out, after one of the dragon's claws had passed her by. She then dragged the chains behind her as she flew over the dragon's back and began to entangle the dragons other front claw in the same chain, effectively binding them behind its back.
"Well I did say to be creative." Harry muttered to himself as he saw Isis extend the chains even further and began to tie the dragon up in a bewildering array of knots and tangles. "That wasn't quite what I had in mind though." He shrugged. The dragon would break free of those chains eventually, what Isis had done was only a temporary measure after all.
"Panzerschild." Harry said mildly, raising a shield to his left. "Restrict Lock." He glanced over and gave a frustrated Loki a grin. "Illusions are a speciality of mine as well, did you really think I wouldn't look up ways to counter them?" He asked, mirth evident in his voice.
Harry felt something at his back, and looked over his shoulder to see the silhouette of Isis with her weapon pointed right between his shoulder blades. His eyes widened and he looked down to where he could still see Isis dancing around the bound dragon. He laughed.
"Once Isis had bound the dragon, you switched her out for an illusion. Then, knowing I'd notice you, you distracted me while Isis sneaked up behind me! Nice, really nice. Also, very tricky, and something that definitely earns you the name of Loki." Harry conceded.
Harry's face then fell, as he looked up in the sky. "No! She's not... is she?" Loki and Isis looked up as well, and what they saw made their jaws drop.
"Oh, heck no." He looked at Harry. "Temporary truce?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'll agree to that." Harry agreed.
The reason these three had decided to team up for now? Reinforce.
It seemed that the Unison Device had finally decided to enter into the spar, but she had decided to do so in a very big way. Harry wondered if she could have thought of a more impressive way to enter the fight, there was little that could top a Starlight Breaker after all.
Up above, high in the air, Reinforce looked down on the other three. Loki and Isis had taken her non-combative attitude as a way to avoid her and focus on Harry. Harry himself had gotten in some practise against multiple foes, as she'd intended, but now that Harry had been caught out, it was time to end things with a bang.
"I summon the light of destruction down on my prisoners. Stars, gather, and become the light that pierces everything. Tear through everything in a blaze of light. Starlight Breaker!" She yelled, throwing the attack at them with as much power as she could.
She saw three shields go up, Harry's standard Panzerschild, Loki's Round Shield, and Isis' more powerful Multi-Defenser. Reinforce had put a lot of power into it though, and she had gathered up all of the mana that was left hanging in the air from Harry's fight with Loki and Isis.
The large pink blast tore through both Harry's Panzerschild and Loki's Round Shield without much difficulty, but it was stopped by Isis' Multi-Defenser. The three of them appeared from out of the blast and she could see Harry signalling his surrender, actions being copied by both Isis and Loki.
Looking down towards Septima and Beth, she could just make out their gob-smacked expressions. She wondered how much more shocked they would look if told that the spell was a collection type, meaning it didn't matter if they didn't have much energy for it, because it used ambient mana instead.
Oh, that would be something to see indeed.