Author's Note: In writing this story, I did in fact realize that there would be a question raised about Harry's aging within the trunk versus the passing of time on the outside of it. I didn't wish to comment on it nor make a reference within the story about it, but due to a very good feedback review from ReflectionsOfReality I believe that I must address this issue within this next chapter. Thank you, Reflections.
Author's Note II: The folding of the hands do not really indicate which hand is your dominant hand, but it does indicate which side of the brain you use more. If your left thumb is over your right in a naturally folded position then you're more likely to be right-brained thinker. If your right-thumb is over your left then you're more likely to be a left-brain thinker.
This is the only thing that I have ever retained from my last year of High School Biology Class and it only contained brief overviews about human genetics. Left and right sides of your brain actually operate the opposite sides of your actual body.
Check this link (remove the spaces) if you're interested in more information about quirky human genetics: http:// www. genetics. org/cgi/ content/ full/ 165 /1/269
LEGEND:
"Normal Talk"
'Thoughts or Emphasis'
(...Parseltongue...)
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Chapter Three
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Let's start at Summer & Turning 11 years old
Harry was in his Arca currently studying Potions and various potions ingredients. He had been able to pick up more than a few books on the subject. Hagrid had been able to steer him away from the common shops of Diagon Alley and into the stores that would not be selling his first or second year books. These particular stores held the older stuff or the more obscure.
He was surprised upon his arrival back at the Dursleys that his Owl, who he got with Hagrid's help, was waiting with another package. Apparently the goblins took him at his word and sent him goblin children's books on how to learn reading and writing of the Goblin language. They wished him well in the endeavor, as it was very rare for a Wizard to even want to learn their complex language. They also stated that now that he had an Owl they would correspond by calling to her and that he was to send her to them when he needed the books replaced.
They knew full well that he would never understand the spoken language due to the nuances that had developed greatly over time. Also, they explained that the books which they were sending were from their own personal libraries and they indicated that any book that he wished to retain would have to be purchased new from the goblin stores. Their written language had a formal and informal form, much like the Asian languages that he was currently studying.
Harry loved all of the books that he had picked up and had received from the goblins. He was lucky to be able to find a semi-rare box set series called "Cauldrons Full". Each book in the set had a similar title and separated the types of potions that each book presented.
One was named "Cauldrons Full of Dreams", which contained many recipes for sleeping draughts and potions or how to prevent sleep.
There was another called "Cauldrons Full of Stew", which contained recipes for stews, they were not really any potions, but there were ingredients that were added to those that reacted in a potion like fashion to help increase nutrients. This was specifically in case a patient or individual did not wish to always have to take nutrient potions.
There was even one called "Cauldrons Full of Possibilities", which contained recipes for of stuff that was just plain fun, like 'Bean Gum Bubbles', 'Twisty-Etzels Twisters', 'Lolly Dingle Drops', 'Pom-Pom Puffs,' and so much more.
Plus, three others called, "Cauldrons Full of Healing", containing potions related to healing of magical and natural conditions, "Cauldrons Full of Sickness", containing potions of poisons and possible remedies to various poisons, and the last was "Cauldrons Full of Changes", which concentrated on minor changes, temporary or partially permanent, meaning set to expire a change after a specific time frame, to voice, eyes, hair, etc…
The resulting potions from these books were very interesting. They were basically the better beginner Potions books that Harry could have ever picked up in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the whys for this subject. Why things are done in a certain manner and not another? Why something is better to mix with one ingredient rather than another? Etc…
He was also able to pick up several different box-sets of books about beginner Runes, Arithmancy and Alchemical Equations, which was about some of the calculated combinations to the other two subjects. All of which were only selected because he had already advanced far into the muggle mathematics, that calculus, geometry and trigonometry were no longer all that challenging to him. He had moved past the secondary school requirements for that subject and felt that he needed to round out the magical versions of the same.
Runes were just another form of writing and they were obviously more commonly used in the past, so he decided to begin to study them. He thought of them as though they were more like 'short-form' or 'short-hand' writing rather than a whole new language. It wasn't as though those were unfamiliar in the Muggle World because he had read about the Norse Runes and the Greek ones from the library in his town. They were found in the fortune telling section, which was a growing hobby-like interest to many different muggles.
He found books about the Ministry of Magic and about all the possible levels of learning available in the Magical World. This was because of the first time that he had met his goblin Estate Manager that the creature had mentioned N.E.W.T.S. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) Level. With these books he was able to look over the testing requirements for the N.E.W.T.S., which was the final level for Ministry Testing, he found out that he could show up to the tests without ever having attended those classes in a school like environment. In fact all of the possible N.E.W.T.S. available fell under the same criteria, to which he was relieved, especially after finding out about the Potions Professor of Hogwarts.
So he could, quite likely, fail the Potions course in school, but take the Ministry tests at a scheduled date later in his life. There was always the chance that he could attend an earlier testing date and not bother to attend the class in the school. So he wasn't too concerned about that and figured that he'll make his decision after he met the teacher for potions.
Everything would depend on how most of the teachers acted at the school and what possible expectations they would have from him. He wouldn't be surprised if they thought he knew more stuff just because he was known as the Boy-Who-Lived.
'Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my eleventh birthday,' he thought. 'My relatives won't be pleased to know that I'm already aware of the Wizarding World. I wonder what's going to happen then.'
During his time in Diagon Alley, on that day after his tenth birthday, he had surprised the shop owner of the Doctrina Store by returning to retrieve the new specialty panel from under the glass counter.
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Flashback to the Arca Shop
The store that sold Arcas and their augments was called "Arc A Knowing". It was run by a man who was definitely surprised when Harry had returned from the specialty wand shop to claim a secondary specialty panel.
"I'm sorry," he told the surprised man. "It seems that I was wrong not to take it when I was just here." He shrugged his shoulders and said sheepishly, "I didn't want to seem greedy, but it was pointed out that I would be preventing the owner of the next panel the chance to acquire theirs."
"That's quite all right," the man said. "I was going to mention to you that the new panel looked like a compliment to the one you originally had obtained."
"I don't want to prevent anyone from getting the learning that they deserved," Harry said. "Again, I'm very sorry for inconveniencing you, Mr. Nicklesworth."
"Just call me Joe," the shop owner said. "It's short for Josiah, but I prefer Joe."
"Please call me Harry," Harry told him. "Now that I'm back here, could I ask you a few questions about the Arcas and the time they use? I did a few calculations and something doesn't make sense to me."
The shop keeper rubbed the back of his neck, nodded and gestured towards his back office. "You may bring your magical guardian with you," he said.
"Hagrid?"
"I'm wit' ye 'Arry," the half-giant said. "Only, Joe, can ye accommodate me size?"
"Of course I can," Joe said. "Come on in."
They settled into the chairs that the shop keeper had there and fixed for their size. There, they received a brief, yet convoluted explanation about the time, the Arcas and how they mixed together. "It happened about four hundred years ago that the first Arca was created. As many things in this world turn out to be or become, this happened to be a fortuitous accident."
"I don't really know how it happened, but a wizard was creating a trunk for his daughter and her future children. He was trying to expand the space in the trunk to form a school room or nursery learning room for the little ones. One of his Family ghosts happened to be a tutor that died of unfortunate means, but in this story… and this is still only speculation. The ghost wandered or drifted into the spell room just as the father cast his spell. The tutor was sucked into the trunk like compartment and then with another spell to compress the compartment, it turned into a panel, much like the ones I sell today."
"Poor ghost," Harry said. "Was he all right?"
"How long til the fam'ly found out?" Hagrid asked with curiosity.
"Tens years later, the father finished the complete travel trunk for his daughter. He started it when she was four years old. In those days, magical families used to create the items that a family would need. In other words they did their best to provide for the married life of their children. Some families had specialists who were able to provide, protections, quilts, material and immaterial things. Families in those days were clan like and lived in close communities, where they would gather twice a year to exchange goods and just plain celebrate the turning of another year."
"It's like the muggles in the past," Harry said. "Depending on where they lived and how they lived, their entire life was taken up with the purpose of surviving. Mostly ensuring that each human survived to create new life, pass on their history and grow. Many were land workers or foot soldiers for the Lord of their community, town or fief. Many people only lived to pass on their skills and hope that they had been able to pass on a better life for their children."
"'Ow do ye know tha'?"
"I read quite a bit about it," Harry said. "There are still people in small towns that still do things like olden communities. They throw town festivals or carnivals. Some women still gather to form quilting bees and others gather for bake offs, plus lots of stuff like that. Those places tend to be slower to receive the modern stuff that's common now in big muggle cities."
"That happens to be quite true," Joe said. "Magical communities are rare, but if they were to spring up then maybe their way of life might just revert to the times in the past. We certainly had more enterprising inventions come out of those times. Now with regards to the Arca, the father had decided to place the panel on the magical trunk that he had created.
It was a fluke that the daughter went in to inspect the learning room. It was only to have been a room that contained items to learn with, no tutor. But the young woman had been shocked to find the ghostly tutor living in the panel and when everything was explained her father and the rest of her family were able to create a few of the first Arcas."
"What about the time thing?" Harry asked, curious to know how that came about.
"It was another uncle, who was very familiar with mathematical magics that discovered a formula to adding time to the learning cycle without affecting the living person. The hourglasses in the Arcas were his invention because as with every discovery there is always a good and bad aspect to it. The family had discovered that they needed find a way to measure the time within a learning trunk versus the time that passed on the outside.
One of the family's healing witches had assisted the uncle and they calculated, mathematically and medically what needed to occur in order for a body to remain healthy. It turns out that to safely use an Arca with no ill effects, an hourglass had to be added and it had to be able to control the metabolism of the person that the Arca was linked to."
"Is that why I'm not aging?" Harry asked. "Why I don't look older? You see I know that I spend a lot of time in my Arca and I'm sure that I spend at least 7 normal hours in it a day for five days of the week and at least 12 hours on any given Saturday and Sunday. That means a total of 45 extra normal hours a week, if not more for me. It all adds up to about 98 more days a year in my life. I did the math. Shouldn't my body have aged about another year and a half?"
"That's exactly what the family corrected," Joe explained. "They didn't want to lose their real time so they used another series of complex magical calculations that helped to slow a body down within the trunks, while being able to work three times as fast in order to learn three times as much in a hour. That's the best I can do to explain it, but everything was calculated and tested so that there were no adverse effects. If a person didn't follow the rules set out in the Arca, then they have to deal with the consequences because anything else falls under the Ministry Laws for the Miss-Use of Time. They wanted to prevent time paradoxes and that is an entirely other issue."
Harry nodded his head. "I don't think that anyone nowadays could come up with those kinds of calculations. I've only ever read something about it in, 'The Founding Fathers of Howgarts and the Women Who Pushed Them.' I think Rowena Ravenclaw was very knowledgeable in that area and if that family had someone who understands even a portion of what that great lady knew, they must have come from her line."
Joe blinked, quirking his head. He was puzzled. "I have never heard of that book before. May I see it?"
"Sure," Harry said. "I found it in one of the shops that meet in the centre of Novusfelis and Canisantiquus. Speaking of paradox, that nexus-crossroad is very tricky. Reminds me of the Muggle's 'Bermuda Triangle'. I'll just be a minute."
"I been with 'im in there," Hagrid said. "O' course I gots ta hold on ta 'im or I'd be pulled in. 'E don' know about tha'. I just knows that I'm safe if I hang on ta 'im. Lots o' stores up tha' way, but he can travel in there like no one else I ever seen. 'E's tha' strong."
"You have to tell him," Joe said. "The boy needs to know this too or else one day if you let go by accident you'd be lost in there and he won't know how to get you out. He wouldn't even know that you're stuck."
Unknown to them, Harry was clutching a huge book to his chest and looking very worried. He took a step forward and asked, "Is that true?"
"Aye," Hagrid sighed. "Usually, no one chooses ta stop at the stores in tha' crossroad cause there be no telling wha' migh' 'appen in there. I noticed tha' yer not scared o' it, but I figures tha's cause ye didna' know. I don' want ye to be afraid to go some'ere ye can even if'n I canna' go with ye."
"Oh Hagrid," Harry said. "You should have told me. I would never have gone in, if you told me how dangerous that section is."
"It's not tha' it's dangerous, Arry," Hagrid said. "It's just tha' I never 'eard o' someone actually wantin' ta go inta them stores 'afore. There be a lot stories abou' tha'."
"I promise to try and be careful," Harry said. "There's an awful lot a stores in there and not all of them are there at same time. I just figured it was a magic thing."
"Don't you worry about that young man," Joe said. "I happen to know that those who're are Muggleborn and Muggle-Raised, believe the same thing and that's why they can navigate that section without a problem. They just accept it as it is. Those that have problems are mainly the witches and wizards raised in our world because we learn early on that some things should not be messed with."
"Like time," Harry said.
"Exactly," Joe said. "You're right that there have not been many innovations for a while and those that are created, usually come from the half-bloods, muggleborns and muggle-raised. It seems that they're the ones that want things to improve life. Personally I don't understand that, but that's what it looks like to me."
Harry smiled and the explained that the muggles were continuously trying to improve their lives by building on what came before. He gave them a brief example using the history of the radio and typewriters. How they've move from manual things to complex items with tons of wiring, but and he quoted Joe, "As with all new things there are the good and the bad. Television replaced the radio in one fashion and the computers are close to replacing the both of them because of the internet or World Wide Web."
"My cousin had books about that at home," Harry explained. "Think of the internet as one big Arca that anyone in the world can use, if they have the right password or codes to get in. Think of nothing being limited by anything. Access depends on whether you paid for it or not. Language is not a factor because some of the features include translation services."
"Anyone in the world?" The shop's owner asked surprised.
"Anyone," the boy confirmed. "Anyone living anywhere in the world from here to China to the Americas, anywhere."
"Wow," Hagrid said, impressed. "Wha's the bad o' it?"
"If you connect that way all the time," Harry began. "How long do you think it will take for people to stop leaving their house? How long do you think people will stay connected like that instead going out and making live connections? My cousin is a good example. You've seen him Hagrid. He doesn't go outside to play on most days and when he does he just sits around or chases me to try and beat me up. Not that he can catch me anymore," he said, petting his beloved Arca and looking at the two men listening to his not quite child-like opinions. "Thank you for that."
Joe shook his head to clear his mind from the seriousness of the discussion. Technically the boy had given him something to think about and yes technically the boy sounded like he knew what was going on. 'I suspect that he spends more time learning then his cousin,' he thought. 'There must be more to the internet thing then he is letting on, as his cousin doesn't sound to be very bright.'
"May I see the book now?" He asked.
Harry gave him the book to look over. It had a very funny cover on it with Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor looking down at their feet and then at each other to roll their eyes and then look back down. There was Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff on either of the men and they were shaking their fingers at them, as though they were scolding the men.
Joe smiled at that and then he opened the book. Looking closer it looked like a multiple compilation of the Founders of Hogwarts personal journals, plus everything related to the beginning of the school. "How did you find such a treasure?" Joe asked.
"In that crossroad," Harry said. "It was a strange little book shop that was above a tailoring store. I pick up some others, but this is the one that said that Rowena knew about time magics and the calculations for it. There are some notes of hers in there, but they're not related to anything I know about mathematical calculations. I figure that these were parts of ideas that she had to write down or else lose them. I do it too in some of my learning books."
"I would dearly love the chance to read this," Joe said.
Harry paused to consider it and then he considered something that has been on his mind for a bit. He wanted something that could help him hide while he was in the Wizarding World from time to time. He knew how celebrities were hounded by the media and he didn't want to be stuck running away all the time. He had an idea, but he needed another panel for it and he didn't know if his Arca could hold it.
Besides it wasn't that common a panel for a boy to obtain nowadays. "Um…," he said. "There's a panel I'm interested in…" Joe smiled and encouraged him to continue on. "I have an idea about how I might be treated when I come into this World for real."
The shop's owner frowned and had to ask, "What do you mean by that?"
"I'm hiding at the moment," Harry said. "I wear this oversized cloak every time Hagrid brings me here because it's not really the time for the witches and wizards to know about me or see me."
"Ah," the shop's owner said looking in Hagrid's direction. "So that's why you were looking for an Arca that would work in the Muggle World and for the older pieces that do not explain magics."
Hagrid nodded, "I wasna' 'is guardian then 'n I had ta keep tha' secret. I wasna' supposed ta look in on 'im, but I couldna' 'elp meself. 'E was such a tiny babe 'n 'e stol' me heart when he fell asleep when we was over Bristol tha' night. I had ta bring 'im, but it's na wha' I wanted ta do."
Harry put his hand on the big man's arm and smiled at his guardian. "I'm glad that he did what did. I'm proud to have this man as my magical guardian." He looked at the shop's owner and said, "I know that it's a tricky game to be playing, but for now hiding is for the best. At least until I get my Hogwarts letter, that is."
"All right," Joe said. "I understand. So what panel were you thinking about?"
"The sewing one," Harry said blushing, a bit, because that was considered a girly thing. "It's the one that teaches how to sew magically and how to match colours and stuff."
"That's actually a good thing," Joe said. "It will help you with an understanding for costuming."
"What?"
"Well your new panel is a compliment to your existing one," Joe said. "I'll lay the new over the other and soon you'll be learning everything about elements, plus emotions behind them and I dare say quite few other related things." He didn't have to know about the writing on the border of the specialty panels in order to get an idea of the type of learning they contained.
"Like what?" Harry asked curious about what else he could learn.
"Acting." The reply came. "Actors need to use a lot of emotion and most times it's all in their faces. If you plan to hide using concealing stuff, you'll need to know how to act differently from the person you're going to be when you are finally going to show the Wizarding World the Boy-Who-Lived."
Harry smiled and said, "I'm glad that you understand. So here's the deal. You can read this book and let me borrow that panel and once you've finished reading it or if something unfortunate happens, like the book is taken from you without your knowledge then I keep the panel for free. I'll of course be getting the book back anyway."
"How would you be doing that?" Joe asked.
"It's tied to me by my magics," Harry said. "All of my things are and I can call them to me, if I've misplaced them or they will appear in front of me if they are not in the place that they are supposed to be in the first place. In the case of this book, I'll tie it to you and this shop, so that if you walk away from it more then fifty paces, it will return to me. This way you can carry it to your home in order to read or leave in this shop for the duration. If the book is taken from your home or the shop by someone who's not you, then after fifty paces the book will return to me."
"It will also mean that something is wrong and that I'd find a way for someone to look you up just to be sure," Harry said. "I wouldn't want you to be hurting and no one knowing about it."
"Thank you young man," Joe said. "All right, we have a deal. However, if I read the book and return it to you, what happens then?"
"You sell me the panel at a discounted rate," Harry said.
Hagrid chuckled and the shop owner laughed. "You have a deal," he said. He pulled out a standard contract for and used very simple uncomplicated language. He named everything that they agreed on and the discounted rated for the panel was agreed at 17 percent.
Once everyone signed the contract was multiplied and copied for everyone. Hagrid called Harry's Owl in order to deliver copy to Crasgrasp at Gringott's in order to store it with other contracts that he felt needed to be protected by not being in his hut at the school. Joe was able to merge the two specialty panels and they all watched as the other panels shifted and merged in other ways.
Overall he now had a five by five grid of panels with the center clear for him to shift the panel he wished to learn from. His specialty panels merged and covered an area designated for four panels in the lower right hand corner of the grid.
He had newly obtained a gymnastic room, a climbing wall, a hiking terrain, and a herbology panel. The gymnastic room, climbing wall and hiking had merged with his existing panel of physical fitness taking up four more spaces in the upper right hand corner.
The herbology panel took two spots because it contained an inner glass-house for small plants and it had merged with his kitchen and potions lab, forming another larger panel in the upper left had corner using four slots. He had his Runes, Alchemy, Arithmancy and Languages merge into a large panel that formed in the lower left hand corner, also using the space for four slots.
That left four more slots in between the larger corner panels and one free space in the middle. He added the sewing one and then selected his crafting one to fit in between the larger upper left and right panels. He placed a second year woodworking and first year mechanical panel between the larger lower left and right panels. He had his muggle first aid and magical first aid between the larger panels on the left and finally he had his animal petting zoo, of small to medium sized creatures, plus an animal care panel in the two remaining panel spaces.
Before they had left the store for the first time, Joe had installed a huge library compartment as the last compartment of the trunk, explaining that it was the largest room in the whole trunk. The next largest was a storage compartment separated into four secure sections.
The final new compartment, which was significantly smaller, was where Harry's little Tertia was going to live. Joe had a huge selection of possible terrariums for a large variety of species. She was free to move about in that expandable space. Harry hoped that she wouldn't be too lonely, but he didn't want to leave her inside a learning panel when he wasn't there because he was afraid that time would affect her too.
He was right. He had asked about that and Joe said that she would be affected just like the rest if she didn't leave and come back. Harry's petting zoo and animal care were just panels to learn about specific animals of a certain size and the animals within were not real, but only came into being for his learning. Those panels did include the learning of magical and non-magical animals, which Hagrid had been pleased about, but he made sure that Harry was playing as well as learning.
That's why Harry got the crafting panel. It was a panel that had planned art projects and kits to work from and the only thing that they needed to buy for it were the ready-made kits that Harry was interested in learning. There were things like how to make your own stained glass windows, how to make your own wind chimes, how make a bird houses, how to make your own wooden toys, how to paint on china and many, many more.
Harry with the help of the shop owner and Hagrid had planned out his learning in conjunction with his original learning schedule. It helped to have advice from these sound sources because he was going to need to plan out his first year learning carefully around what he needs to learn in order to continue learning in his Arca.
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Flash-Forward – moving on
At the end of their massive shopping spree, they had returned to the wand-makers on Canisantiquus Lane and found that the Walking Stick had been successfully completed. "It took us some time to figure out how to add the four elements of your core to the diamond and wood portion of it," Elea explained.
"In the end we added the four components to the diamond shard and then inserted the shard into the length of wood through the top," Cassiope said. "We had to re-enforce it with these."
She pointed out the darker woods that formed a seal around the top of the stick, where about two inches of the diamond was still visible. There was also an added piece of metal at the base and she explained that since the hardest gem was used for part of the insert. They needed something to hold the whole thing together, which was why they selected the hardest metal available in the known Wizarding World called "Gigadurum Purat".
This was only available from the Goblin Guild of Metal Workers, but for some reason, this time they didn't have any problems acquiring the needed metal for the base of Harry's Wizard Walking Stick. The metal nub at the base of the stick had tendrils winding up the shaft in swizzles and whorls, circling the section that anchored the diamond to the whole of it.
There were four strands of metal that reached and clawed into the sides of the stone, but they did not obscure to top of it. In fact the stone itself looked to have grown its own tendrils downward in order to latch into the metal, further securing the entire structure.
Harry had to thoroughly test the expanding and shrinking elements of it, but it was clearly obvious to every one who witnessed his claim on the Walking Stick, that this device truly belonged to him alone. It was too powerful for the ladies of the shop to handle once it was finally put together. They couldn't hold it for long either, no one could.
They did provide him with several augments for his first panel and many more for his newly acquired second one. "Come and see us again, if you need to get more augments," the ladies told him.
He thanked them and was finally able to return to his relatives, who for some reason were not at home. He was able to store everything away before they returned to their home. He was just lucky to have copied the back door key when he did, so that he wasn't locked out of the house with his things.
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Before July 31, 1990
Just before he was actually able to go to the school, several interesting things occurred. On the day that Dudley turned eleven, Harry was forced to accompany his relatives to the London Zoo. His cousin was still being the pushy brat that he normally was, so it was perfectly reasonable that certain events took place.
Shoving Harry aside because the large Boa Constrictor behind the viewing glass in the Reptile House was moving and hissing, was about the final straw to Harry's tolerance level for the remainder of the day. His wizard magic, now that he knew it was actual real magic, still acted on his emotions from time to time. This was especially true during the times that he relatives pushed, mocked, dragged, commented, derided him and it was pretty much any time that they put him down, that his magic would flare with unforeseen consequences.
Anyway because it still did that, he wasn't too surprised to find that his chubby cousin was stuck behind the glass enclosure and the Boa was set free. It was about to slither away when Harry hissed a warning.
(…You won't get far…) He said.
(…Rats…) It hissed back and then it began to coil around Harry, as his Aunt and Uncle were fully occupied with yelling for help and getting all hysterical that they couldn't reach their son.
Quickly looking around, Harry pulled out a 'Magical Snake-Wrangling' sack that Hagrid had gotten for him for his last birthday. Hagrid knew that Harry was now taking care of his own education, but the big man still wanted the boy to have presents on his birthday and the sack was dead useful. The sack was something quick and very easy that he could keep in his pocket.
It was to help keep track of his little familiar when he sometimes let her out to wonder about in the back yard, while he did his chores. This was a protection for her because he could call her back into it and safely return her to her terrarium home. The sack was special because it called to the snakes, promising safety and security. Also, it truly pulled them into its centre and put the creatures in stasis like sleep until Harry could move them out of it.
He showed the sack to the Boa. (…Get in here…) He hissed. (…I'll find a way to release you safely back to the jungles you long for…)
(…Gracias Amigo…) The huge Boa hissed. The magical sack sucked the snake into it as soon as the head disappeared into it. It was a special sack that wouldn't even take on any weight, no matter the size of the snake that happened to be sucked in there because it was placed in stasis or suspended animation.
Harry quickly tucked the sack into back into his pants pocket without anyone noticing. They were all too concerned about the fat boy that somehow wound up locked within the animal display. However it didn't take too long after that, that his Uncle realized that he was the one responsible for his son's wet and confined predicament.
The messy haired, green eyed boy was confined to his room for the rest of Dudley's birthday week. This was something he really didn't mind because he could spend his time making better jewelry pieces and do other work inside his Arca. Truthfully, if it was a choice of coming out to eat stale left-over birthday cake or making his own stuff, he obviously preferred his own stuff.
It has been some time, but his relatives were slowly noticing the differences between Harry and their own son. They wondered how the Freak could look so much healthier than their baby boy. They refused to question him in the matter, though. They were afraid to catch his freakishness.
Soon there was about a week left until it was Harry's turn to have his eleventh birthday. It was during the time that his cousin was showing off his new ugly maroon and orange uniform, plus hitting things with his 'Smeltings Stick' when the post had just arrived.
Harry was told that he had to watch his supposedly 'new' uniform, cooking on the stove. He didn't want to attend any muggle school, but his Aunt was looking forward to having the house completely to herself during the days, that meant his 'Home Schooling' was no longer an option. They planned to enroll into Stonewall's General Learning Institute.
Surprisingly on this day, he was not told to fetch the post, but Dudley was ordered to get it. That boy wasn't curious about anything, so he just picked up the stack of letters and tossed in his father's direction. He even took a swipe his green-eyed cousin with his stick immediately after that, not that he needed a reason to strike out. He was just upset to have been forced to do something that he firmly believed was his cousin's job.
His Uncle was flipping through them when he noticed that there was a letter addressed to their no good nephew. It was even written to the 'Smallest Room in the House'. It was on that old kind of parchment paper too and he really wasn't pleased to see it. Harry was very much aware that the letter was his, but knew that his Uncle wouldn't let him have a look at it.
"Pet," he said calling out to his wife. She walked up to stand behind him and she too looked at the letter with frowning disdain. He nodded his head in the direction of what his wife called the 'Parlor' and what he called the 'Living Room'. Once they were in there, they had a hushed and whispered conversation.
"You know that Stonewall would send him back for the holidays," she commented softly. "I know that that school won't, not if we're clear we don't want him coming back."
"But what about our vow," he whispered. "We agreed that he wasn't to go. We swore it."
She whispered back, "Nothing has changed, has it? Maybe we can get rid of him sooner, if we do let him go now. We can probably set up his living account so that he has to send us a check every week. Maybe find a way pull out a lump for his education."
Vernon thought about that. It would be a substantial sum at two hundred pounds a week for the next six weeks, plus an additional forty-two weeks for the duration that the freak was completely gone. He whispered back, "How about we set that up? Get the money and send him off. Maybe we can send him off earlier. What do you think, my pet?"
Her face took on a sour look and she whispered in a spitting way, "I'll have to talk to the Freak about it. At least our Diddums won't know about any of this, I don't want him to even have an idea about this stuff."
The obese man nodded, as though his wife had just handed over pearls of wisdom. It came from her side of the family anyway, so she would know how best to act in this case.
"Can he leave here until he has to go to that place?" He asked.
She thought back to the times that her sister had to go and she remembered the one time that she had to accompany her sister to a pub in London. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed further because only her grandfather had been able to guide her sister further. Her parents and herself couldn't see much of anything. However she did recall that in that weird pub in London there was also an Inn that was part of it.
"He'd have to clean up his room and then we'd have to lock it, in order to prevent his freakiness from leaking out of it," she whispered back, convinced that what he had was catching. "You do know that his being here protects us from those others. You know that ones that killed his parents."
Vernon looked down at the letter in his hand. "Don't you think that there is a time limit to that? There has to be another way."
Her eyes widened and then she tried hard to recall what her sister had blathered on about the freakish security that they called 'Wardings' and such. Thinking very hard, she seemed recall that blood relatives needed proximity for a short amount of time in order to have protection year round.
"A month," she said and then scowled. "Maybe a bit less, but that would mean looking in her books for it."
"How much less time and why don't you get the Boy to look into those books." He asked because he knew that many things had expiry dates, so why not this. "Take a guess pet. If we decide now, then we can let him go, as long as he keeps paying."
"Minimum and this is guessing," Petunia hissed in a whisper. "Two weeks. That's the best that I can safely guess because we get the protection for the rest of the year, if we do that."
"Do you think we can get rid of him sooner?" Vernon said. "I mean permanently. I will not be beholden to the Boy just because of that and I don't care about that freaky protection, it's abnormal."
"We can't get rid of him permanently yet, not unless you want to lose the money," she replied. "He's the same age as our precious Diddums and even though I hated my sister, I could not in good conscience let her boy live without supervision until he was at least a couple of years older. I wouldn't want think that my sister would have put out my boy at so early an age."
He had to agree with his wife in the matter of turning the boy out too early because of his son. His own boy meant everything to him. He wouldn't want to see that happening to him. "Let's see, if something can be set up for a monthly sum for you to withdraw in his name, rather than him having to withdraw and hand it over to you. Perhaps, you can authorize a lump sum withdrawal for his school year. Even if we have to get that bloody meddling Advocate Lawyer mixed into this."
"If we plan it well we'd be able to get rid of him for fifty weeks out of a full year, but get a whole fifty-two weeks of money out of him," the whale of a man said. His greed was flashing, but he knew how closely these things were set up. They would have to be careful.
'There has to be a way to get all of that money,' he thought. 'That waste of space certainly has no need of it.'
Petunia didn't want such a huge lump sum from the boy's account because she knew that her husband would squander it. She knew he gambled a lot and she needed to protect some of that money to secure her own future. She wasn't under any delusion about that.
She did, however, agree to the rest and in the end they all went back the Bank, minus Dudley, who wanted to stay home with his friends or so he said. Actually he just wanted to sloth down in front of the television without his own father taking away his control of choosing the programming.
As soon as the situation was explained to the same Child Advocate Lawyer that they had met before, he thought that that might be a better outcome for this young dark-haired youth. 'He's such a surprising kid,' thought the Lawyer.
"I wonder if I may speak to the boy privately a moment?" He requested from the kid's relatives. "It won't take more than a moment. I would just like to clarify a few things with him, it is after all his choice."
They were reluctant, but they agreed and so the lawyer guided Harry into a secure office. Suddenly the lawyer pulled out a wand and directed several spells to the walls of this office.
Harry's eyes were the size of saucers, but he held back his instinct to pull out his Walking Stick that was currently the size of a wand and stored in his left arm bracer. He was also holding back his secondary instinct to fling a throwing knife at the guy.
"Wha…," he said, shocked that someone would do that in front of him.
"I can understand your skepticism," the Lawyer said. "Your estate manager sends his greetings."
Harry was shocked that his goblin manager would say anything in the matter. However he looked at the man and knew that he was waiting for some kind of question from him.
"Estate manager?" he asked, hoping that that was the kind of question that the man was looking for.
It turns out that it was precisely the question that the Lawyer was waiting for because after that he launched into an explanation of everything. He explained what was going on and options that the boy had in order to sort of 'get out from under the thumb' of his relatives.
"You see," he said. "I've been watching the transactions from your Muggle Bank Account."
"Muggle…?" Harry asked. "What's a muggle?"
"Non-magic folk," the man said. "I don't really want to tell you too much, but you must understand that I have a bad feeling that those people out there are going to try and get all that they can from you. So against my better judgment and my conscience, I'm about to tell you something very secret."
Harry leaned in and waited. He held his breath and hoped.
"You're a wizard Harry Potter," the man said. "You're one of the best in our World. I just don't know what you're doing living with those people, but I want to help you out. I don't want see you get hurt because of their obvious greed. So, tell me how to help you and I will. It was your estate manager's suggestion."
Harry sighed because it was very clear that this man was in awe of him. Still, if he could manage it, he would be able to pay off his relatives and find another place to live, one that didn't include them. Although there was that thing about the 'Blood Bond', he was able to read from his Aunt's lips and that had him concerned.
'Two weeks,' he thought. 'Two weeks with them out of every summer. That wouldn't be so bad, let's see what I can set up with Crasgrasp. I'm not going to tell this guy that I know he's full of it because he mentioned my Estate Manager. I know that a goblin wouldn't betray anyone in that manner.'
He then told the Lawyer, "I don't want to pay them anything, if I'm going away for school. That money was set up for my schooling, which I assume would include large tuition fees. That surely must cost more than what I take out every week."
"Actually it does, but that is because it includes you room and board, plus meals," the Lawyer said. "I think that the tuition does not even include your books and things. All told, if I recall correctly your fees for the school should be about, twelve thousand eight hundred galleons a year."
"Galleons…?"
"Oh, sorry," the man said. "It's about thirty-two thousand British pounds."
Harry's eyes widened greatly at that sum. "That much…?"
The man nodded and said that the sum included the cost of books, uniforms, possible luggage and any all equipment. He even hinted that there were chemical ingredients that he would have to pay for, only he stated that they were exotic elements for a chemistry-like class.
Harry sighed and said, "I wouldn't let my relatives know about that. I think that they should continue to think that I only need about eleven thousand pounds to live on. If they thought that I needed more, they would certainly ask for it."
"In this room, my oath is sacred," the man said, waving his wand about. "I vow on my magic that I will never divulge any of information of one Harold Jamison Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, regarding the monetary details brought forward on this day. So mote it be."
The spell light bound them in such a way that the man couldn't tell anyone about some of the information that came to light in this room. Besides he didn't want to lose the boy as a client because that boy was smart to seek out his advice for those contracts of his. He was no fool.
"All right then," Harry said. "Maybe we can change the limit so that I can write my Aunt a check for three months at a time or maybe a total of thirteen weeks that will equal to about four times a year. I'd rather that then have her remove the money in my name. Can that be done?"
"Absolutely," the man said. He soon had everything set up and Harry was able to present his Aunt with a check for the next six weeks of his summer. Then from the beginning of September (around normal time for starting any school) he'd send her a check for 13 weeks four times a year, until he was fully listed as an adult. Never once was it mentioned to his relatives that he had access to more.
It was only after she had received the check and that Harry had placed an order to get more paper checks, that his relatives gave him his official school letter. "You don't tell our boy about any of this," his Uncle told him. "He's not to know about any of it. Do you understand me boy?"
"Yes Uncle Vernon," Harry said.
It was all he could say, as he was being lectured about their expectations of him. They told him that he was to pack his belongings, as soon as they returned home. His Aunt was then going to drive him into London and drop him off a place that had a suitable Inn that he could very well stay at for the rest of his summer until it was time for him to go to school.
Harry was shocked. He thought that this was very disturbing. His relatives were actually letting him receive his mail. They were basically shoving him out of the door as soon as they could because of it. They didn't explain anything to him, other then fully expecting him to pack all of his stuff and get out of their house.
He read the letter and it was then that his Aunt explained that there was a place that he could stay at. "Go into that World and don't come back until you've finished your school year," she said. "We don't even want you for any holidays, understand?"
"Yes, Aunt Petunia," he replied. He then asked, if someone would pick him up at the train station when his school year finished or if he should just go back to the place that she was planning to send him now.
"Later," she said.
They had just arrived back at their house and Harry was given about two hours to clean his room and pack all of his things. She said that he was to prep his room to be completely closed off and that he was to use old dust sheets to cover the furniture in the room.
He was locked in his room in order to do that and he did so very quickly. He dashed off a quick letter and sent his Owl to Crasgrasp with an explanation of what was happening. He told his Owl, the one that he named 'Hedwig,' to stay with the goblin until she was sure that Harry was alone in the Wizarding World. In his note he expressed his hope that a room could be set up for him at the Leaky Cauldron, unless the good goblin knew of another quiet establishment that Harry could stay at until the beginning of his school year.
A short while later had Harry making sure that he had his ever-full jug of milk and ever-full bowl of fruits stored properly in his Arca. He had created a sleeping space within the library compartment to match that of his room because it was a space-saver. He had gotten everything to match, including to cooling-unit and the pantry cupboard just next to it. He moved his food into his Arca. Basically everything he could.
The only thing left in the Smallest Bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive was cloth covered furniture and a wall that looked to have been quickly re-painted a dull beige colour with magic. He had to set the window to reflect that actual room or else his relatives would definitely question the differences. He knew that they would sometimes be looking into his room.
Once he had everything packed into the tiny suitcase that his Aunt had given to him. Lucky thing his Arca fits into any space and that his school trunk could be stored in the Arca. He had everything with him. His Aunt had him get back into the family car and they drove off.
On their way to London, that was when his Aunt explained that there were things called "Blood Wards" around their house linked to him and her. "I don't know what any of that means, but I fully expect you to study up on that and get rid of it," she said. "I will not stand for that kind of nonsense around my home."
All he said to that was, "Yes, Aunt Petunia."
Then she said, "Don't you forget to send me those checks by proper methods."
"What do you mean, Aunt Petunia?"
"I don't want to see any freaky owls appear out of no where," she said.
"Owls…?"
"You'll learn, but I full expect the money by proper post," she said.
Then he said, "I could set it up to deposit automatically into your personal account without having to post them."
"No," she said. "Your uncle could then claim that you never sent the money." She looked over to him and told him that he did the right thing by not giving her a lump sum. "Besides the checks will help you track your transactions, don't forget that. Always track your transactions."
She pulled over onto a nearly familiar street. He'd seen it with Hagrid, but he didn't tell her that. "Look at the record store," she said. "Right next to it you should see a sign hanging down, that's where you're to go for the rest of this summer. Your Uncle will pick you at the end of your school year at the train station, but you must let us know what that day is. I expect that to come by regular post too. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Aunt Petunia," he said clutching the tiny suitcase. He was nervous because he was setting out on his own for the first time. She noticed his nervousness, but waited until he had crossed the street and had actually walked into the Magical Inn that only he and she could see the door to.
"Be safe," she whispered.
She had an idea of what might be waiting for him, but she hoped that he would do fine. She knew that her own son would never be ready for such a venture. That was the last of her concern for the boy, as she turned the car around and returned to her safe suburb home.
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TBC…
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45 hours per week multiplied 52 weeks = 2340 extra hours in a year
2340 divide 24 hours in one day = 97.5 extra days a year for Harry, which is about an additional 3 & a half months.