Chapter Six – Potion

Harry's House, Evening

Harry walked into his study looking for a way to cool off from a stressful day and let himself unwind for a while. He booted up the computer and started his favorite game. He had bought it the night before and was now enjoying the full benefits of membership and was looking forward to leveling his character up a little more. Out of the various levels available to him he hadn't gotten all that far yet, but he was already impressed at the imaginations of the people that had created the game.

As he worked through the various quests and killed imaginary monsters in the legendary world his character inhabited he allowed his mind to wander a little, thinking various thoughts as he did so. The game didn't yet take his full focus but it did direct his thoughts a little. So he thought about spells, and in particular the way he had used a stunner earlier that day. It wasn't the normal way to stun someone to put it mildly but it had been highly effective. It would leave them with some physical evidence that they had been in a fight, not that they would remember who with or why. They would just remember the green haze from before.

He hurled a fireball at a baby dragon on screen and thought about how cool it would be to be able to do that in real life. In effect it was an overpowered Incendio hurled at force across distance at a target.

Harry's lips pursed as he thought about that for a moment, due to his skill based learning he had become a spell weaver. They were relatively rare in the Wizarding world despite the fact that everyone used spells of one kind or another. Some were hired by the government, of course, to make new spells for various things. Luna's mother had been one in fact, before a spell she had been working on had killed her. Experimental spells were not the safest things in the world and when Luna had found out what he could do she had become very emotional and insisted that he be extremely careful with that particular skill.

Harry flicked his wrist out and looked at the ball of fire that appeared in his palm. Then back at the screen and sent a fire ball flying off towards a nearby critter. The fireball in his palm was much shorter and instantly cast unlike the game. The game though required limitations whereas the real world had some built in, though not very many of them applied to the field of magical science.

Harry clenched his hand, extinguishing the fireball and looked at the screen again, before logging out with a thoughtful look on his face. He got up and walked downstairs into his basement and then into his magical room and sealed the doors.

He gave the problem a great deal of thought before walking to his desk and hammering out some arithmency. Then a little rune work to help him come up with a conjuration and he was set to try something crazy.

He got up, fetched his wand from a nearby shelf and pointed it down towards the targets at one end of the room.

He performed the wand movements he had worked out and then intoned, "Incendia" in a strong and clear tone of voice.

A large ball of flame appeared on the tip of his wand and fired off down the range with a great amount of speed before splashing against the golem, making it explode into smithereens.

"Whoa," Harry said a grin on his face. Now all he had to do was cast it a few dozen more times before working on a silent casting method. Then he could move to a wandless one and then he could cast fireballs like his mage in the game. In all honesty as it stood he could see no real reason why he would ever need that spell, but if he got into magical combat at some point it would shock the hell out of another wizard to find that coming at them. It would also be a good idea for removing cover.

He conjured another golem and waved his wand, keeping the pattern much smaller this time and whispered, "Incendia." The effect was the same again, as he had made sure to channel the same amount of magic. The golem was destroyed in a spectacular manner and a grin spread across Harry's face. He repeatedly conjured golems all over the place in the room and destroyed them with his Incendia spell until he could do so silently. The heat in the room was steadily rising from all the fire he was throwing around but Harry barely noticed. Creating spells was a fun thing for him to do, especially considering the amount of combat he used to get into. Sending something unknown at an enemy was always a challenge to do without delving into ancient dark magic so creating spells of your own was the best way.

He placed his wand back on the shelf and conjured a lot more golems, this time wandlessly. He knew having a wand was very odd in the mundane world and the less he could come to rely on one the better. He was rather skilled at wandless magic already but if he could become even better at it there was no reason why he would need to have a wand unless it was during the creation process.

The movements of a spell and the incantation used where, in effect, a trigger to making magic do as you willed it to. Going without a wand meant you had to know how the magic felt for a particular spell, for the most part. Intent was also a big part of the picture and being able to focus your mind like that was not something that was easy to come by. Occlumency helped in that regard but it wasn't the be all and end all of the process. Luckily Dumbledore himself had gotten Harry up to speed on the process with both Skill Bundle based learning and practical tuition from the great man himself.

Harry raised his hand and incanted, "Incendia" in a firm tone growling when nothing happened other than his hand seemed to get warmer.

"Incendia," he tried again, this time pouring on the intent based focus and magic as well. A wand wasn't just a focus it was also a bit of a magnifier so it helped the user perform a powerful spell without using so much personal power themselves. Harry had forgotten to allow for that and so poured on the power.

A large ball of fire appeared in his hand and suddenly took off like a rocket down the range destroying at least three golems.

Rolling his eyes and brushing some sweat from his face Harry tried again, keeping a better control on how much magic he was putting into the spell. This time a good sized ball of fire was sent careening down the range to destroy only a single golem.

Then Harry practiced for half an hour dropping the incantation halfway through, he found he was able to control how big the fireball was as well and could, with aim, deliver a heart shot just as easily as he could one that would utterly destroy something.

Sweating like crazy Harry stopped what he was doing and went upstairs for a shower.

Half an hour later he was sitting on his couch with the MagiNet console in front of him researching spells to make sure he was the only one that had created such a destructive fire spell. Oddly enough it seemed he was the closest in function was a flame thrower spell but nothing that threw the fireball at the target.

He toyed with the web like interface of MagiNet for a while before thinking of a good way to test the information found there. Then he brought his hands to the keyboard, logged into the research search engine and typed, "Countess Margaret Isobel Theroux," into it and drummed his fingers as the magical search engine went to work. Several articles appeared along with the book they had come from. He clicked on an entry from a Wizarding history book and read the information with a growing sense of dread. The countess wasn't a dark witch as such but she wasn't good news by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, she wasn't dark the same way he wasn't. Neither of them preferred dark spells to do their talking for them but neither did they stop using them if a need arose.

During his war with Voldemort Harry had crossed the line between light and dark a few times, only pulling back because of his friends. That was even with the training he had gotten from Dumbledore and his donors. Voldemort was just such an evil man and his followers almost as bad it was hard to stay away from the dark when fighting them.

From what he was reading Harry decided that the Countess had her own obsessions and battles to fight and had gone much the same way he had. He classified himself as light Grey, whereas he might classify her as dark Grey.

She was born in Castelnois de Montmiral, in France during the 17th century and was one of the few actual witches to be caught up in the Witch Burnings. He had no idea why she had been caught as it was obvious just from reading about her that it was unlikely she lacked the power to get away. She had died in 1604 by burning, one of the worst ways to go and at the time had given a prophesy of her return via a descendant.

Worried Harry grabbed his console and walked to the kitchen counter where his laptop currently resided. He booted it up drumming his fingers as he waited for it to do so. Then logged onto the net and tried to think of what to find and where to find it. One of the things shown to him during his training was a lineage site where you could look up your family tree. So Harry started there, logging on to a fresh account. It had done a fair job of tracking his family despite their magical nature due to the fact that even wizards had weddings, registered births on both sides of the line and other database worthy information. So he was hoping this would work out the same. He opened a new browser window and sent it in the direction of Smallville High's intranet and logged on with his student ID. He looked up Lana's details, knowing full well that would be logged. He got her full name and birth details and put them into the website he had standing ready and used what little he had found on the intranet site to fill out the forms on the internet site.

It was slow going for a while as he searched through possibilities until he finally found the line he was looking for and then started to trace it back as far as the records went.

All in all it took him two hours of hard work before he frowned at the screen and walked back to his lounge with the console under his arm. He placed it on the coffee table and looked at the search results again. He chose a different book, and this one had a picture with it. Which would have saved him an awful lot of time had he just gone there instead. Lana was a dead ringer for her many-many times removed grandmother.

Harry sat back in his chair wondering what to do about this information. On one hand he could go to Lana and have it out with her, warn her and perhaps try to remove whatever fragment of the Countess there was in Lana. That had a few advantages. Because of Voldemort, in fact, Harry knew of a few ways to keep lodged in the physical realm. They had eventually found out why Voldemort had been so hard to kill and what had kept him alive. Finding the pieces of his soul known a horcruxes had taken two years and some dangerous travel but they had done it. Then they had found the one in Harry himself and a major research session had started.

In the end they had split out the remaining soul fragment from Harry's head and that had been what had prompted Voldemort to attack in his seventh year of Hogwarts. Despite absorbing most of the fragment, i.e. all the memories and knowledge Harry had retained the actual soul fragment in his scar. So they had needed to find a spell that could split out a soul. Oddly enough it was part of the spell used to create a horcrux that had helped them in the end. After all you needed to split your soul in order to create one. It had taken work but now Harry knew he would be able to remove whatever fragment of the Countess that existed in Lana. Explaining that to her and doing the highly complex spell at the same time would be tricky to say the least, the fact was that doing so while the fragment was dormant could also be problematic as well.

For one thing it might not take kindly to being removed and kill Lana.

It might also explain the runic tattoo that Lana had as well, in fact the rune could be what was tying the Countess to the physical realm, and Lana in specific.

Harry ran a hand through his hair in frustration, he didn't know what to do and that was rare. He was an always in action kind of man and that lent him to following his thoughts quickly after having them, constantly in motion all the time and now he was stuck on something and he didn't like it. He didn't owe Lana any special consideration or anything, but at the same time felt that they had some sort of connection between the two of them. Especially with her being some sort of wild talent witch from what he had seen of her magical core.

He sat back in his chair while gripping his hair again making it stick up at all angles. He let out a huff of frustration and crossed his legs. At least he had some information to give her now and when he saw her he was going to put some safe guards on her to keep an eye on her state, as well. That was all he could do for the moment, until he could get her alone to cast some spells on her. Or, on the off chance that she suddenly became the Countess, then he might be able to get some answers from the woman herself.

He got up suddenly and prowled around his living room before letting out a sigh, he needed some fresh air or something. He walked to his back door, the one he tended to keep warded but open all the time and focused his energies while drawing in a breath. Then he stepped out into the night and jumped.

This might seem like a highly odd thing to do unless you're able to turn into a raven halfway through the jump and take to the air; his wings beat a few times lifting him into the air. He hadn't had a chance to fly for a while now and it always exhilarated him to do so, as well as centering him.

It still wasn't clear why or how it had happened, though it was suspected that it was the fault of his donors but Harry was a multiple animagus. Several of the people that had donated skills to him had been animagi and that might have been the cause for his multi nature. Apparently he was the first in a long time, as in over two thousand years but Harry had shrugged that off. He was so used to being weird by most people's standards by that point it no longer bothered him.

He rose a fair way into the sky so he could barely see his house anymore, at the very limit of how high this form could go and then folded his wings behind him and dived. He was no falcon but he had found he could get a fair speed up by diving in such a way. Though he couldn't pull out of a dive the same way a falcon could.

He pulled out of the dive well above his house and drifted towards the Kent farm. He then floated to a standstill in front of an impressively sized Cockerel that was eyeing him suspiciously.

"Stop making a racket in the morning," raven Harry said in bird language. Thanks to his various forms he had found that most creatures had their own language and various members of the species understood well enough.

"It is my duty to wake the farm," the cockerel said puffing out its chest.

Harry let out a sigh and did a bird like shrug, "Worth a try," he said before beating his wings and taking flight again, off into the night.

The Next Day, Smallville High

"Have you seen Chloe," Harry asked, walking into the Torch and smiling at Lois as he did so.

"No – have you – because she ain't acting right at all," Lois said with a frustrated huff.

"Urm no, that's why I was asking you, and what do you mean?"

"She quit the Torch," Lois said, "and left me in charge."

Now Harry didn't know them all very well yet but that was definitely weird for Chloe and the fact that she had left Lois in charge was worryingly odd all by itself. "Riiight," Harry said drawing out the word, "Why?"

"She says that Clark needs her support," Lois said rolling her eyes, "Like Smallville even notices she's interested."

"She's interested in Clark," Harry asked perking up, "I figured he was interested in Lana."

"Shhh, I didn't tell you that," Lois said looking worried that she had put her foot in it.

She had, but Harry wasn't going to call her on it. "This is freaky, have you noticed that the football players are acting odd as well," Harry asked.

Just then Clark walked into the room, "You!" Lois virtually snarled.

Clark did a double take, "What? Hey – where's Chloe?"

"This is all your fault," Lois told him slapping a file into his chest, "So you can deal with the fall out for it."

"What?"

"What Lois means is that urh – well have you noticed anything odd lately?"

"Yeah, actually," Clark said, "Football players being overly attentive to their girlfriends and Coach Teague seems to suddenly have it in for me – which is weird because I saved his life not long ago."

Harry was leaving that hot potato alone as if his life depended on it. "I think the cheerleaders are doping the football players. I had a bit of an altercation with some of them yesterday and they weren't being reasonable."

"Oh no," Lois said looking him over, "You don't look black and blue."

"I did say I wouldn't be now didn't I Gorgeous?" Harry said with a slightly flirtatious smile, and then went back to business as Lois smirked at him, "Chloe may also have gone to the dark side."

"Dark side," Clark asked thoroughly confused.

"She's your own personal cheer squad," Lois explained to the now weirded out looking Clark. "She quit the Torch to root for you."

Clark looked shocked, "She did what?" Then he shook himself, "Look, I've got practice again today, but you guys let me know if you find anything. In the meantime I'll keep an eye on my team mates."

"Try not to be pummeled today," Harry said with a grin.

Clark glowered at him, "Like I said I think the Coach doesn't like me for some reason." With that he left them behind to hurry to practice.

Lois looked at Harry; Harry looked at Lois, "So cheerleaders."

Lois made a face, "You're obsessed, get a new hobby."

"No, I'm telling you they are up to something, and let's face it they are the beneficiary of the footballer's attentions."

"Okay, you might have a point there," Lois admitted.

"What do we do about it then," Harry asked.

"Leave that up to me, I don't think you want the football players after you anymore than they already are. In fact, I would stay away from that pool party too."

"I need to go to that for my piece," Harry protested.

"It's your life English," Lois said with a shrug. "Besides I think if the need arises that I can get Clark to go to the party instead. He at least isn't disliked by every member of the football team with a cheerleader girlfriend."

"No they just pummeled him on the field because the coach doesn't like him," Harry pointed out.

Lois rolled her eyes, "Just be careful okay. Like I said I really don't want blood on my shoes."

Harry smirked at her and looked down at her shoes, "It would be a shame to ruin them," he noted and then walked out of the door leaving a smirking Lois behind him.

Pool Party, Later

Harry slipped into the pool area after dark and looked around. He had briefly met up with Lois earlier in the day and had been brought up to date. Clark was going to the party, the cheerleaders had discovered the "love molecule," and Clark was investigating by pretending to be interested in one of the main trouble makers.

Harry had been unilaterally ousted from joining in the fun of the final investigation but that wasn't about to stop him from having a sneaky look for himself. For one thing he needed to find out a bit about the party so he could report on it and for another he wanted to have his friend's backs should anything go wrong.

Clark seemed to be doing okay but he had an air of competency about him that Harry would not have expected a Kansas farm boy to have in all honesty. It wasn't that Harry was underestimating the man; it was more than he only expected that level of ability from those that had been trained by him, fought with him or fought against him in the past. Clark appeared to be that competent and that worried Harry a little. It made him wonder why that would be the case. He knew from reading a few minds that Clark always seemed to be the center of disaster around the town for some reason and had always managed to pull various peoples fat out of the fire, notably Chloe, Lana and recently Lois too.

It made Harry wonder just how he was able to do that when most of the town repressed the information on meteor freaks, as Chloe thought of them.

Harry heard a growl behind him, a very human growl but it wasn't the sort of thing he liked to hear at any point and came face to face with Bret from the other day. "Hey Bret," Harry said, "Any chance of getting some quotes for the Torch?"

"Sure, how about 'die', and 'squashed like a bug,'" Bret put forth, his eyes once again enraged. With a quick scan Harry was able to see Bret didn't understand what had happened the other day but still blamed Harry for it even if he couldn't remember it. The potion was working overtime on the guy that was for sure.

Harry looked around, he was in a fairly secluded area with no one but he and Bret to see what he was about to do, "Goodnight Bret," Harry said and fired a stunner at the football player, who crumbled to the ground. This had to end tonight, and if he took the next day off, which he could since he had no classes, it was likely that Bret and the others would put it behind them and Harry would be back on their good sides again; though it would be best if he stayed the hell away from cheerleaders in future. This was fine by Harry if he were honest with himself. Eyeing up their bodies was all well and fine, but proving to be more trouble than it was worth.

Harry pulled the unconscious player to the side, off the beaten track and hid him away, quickly erasing the last few minutes from his mind. He turned back just in time to see the blonde ringleader cheerleader talking to a group of football players who looked angry and set to cause some problems. With a quick look around, Harry was utterly unable to see Clark or any of his other friends.

He set his shoulders, whispered, "Verus ex os" which was the special true invisibility spell and faded from sight. He silenced his footsteps and breathing and quickly followed the footballers. He was only going to get involved if something really nasty started to happen, and only reveal himself if he had to.

The true invisibility spell was a spell with great advantage over traditional methods but it did have some disadvantages to it. While it was much easier to use than his cloak it could only be used by someone with a fair amount of power. It was total invisibility unlike a disillusionment spell but took a few seconds to drop during which time a skilled dueler could get the drop on you. It did however allow you to cast spells under it, but obviously the spell fire gave your position away.

Harry wasn't too concerned about that at the moment though and just followed the cheerleaders and football players. Football players were semi dangerous opponents to those who weren't trained in combat because of their size and speed. A typical football player trains to be fast and is usually quite large which makes them less susceptible to sheer force than most other people. Harry though was trained to within a inch of his life in combat and, while he had a slender build, through judicious use of magic and training he was just as powerful as they were and twice as fast at the least.

They walked to behind the pool proper to the boiler rooms of the school and then to a locked room. They entered to find Lois, Clark and Chloe in the room with Lois cursing up a storm. Chloe looked to be out of her temporary insanity as well but looking slightly confused while Clark was quite calmly assessing the football players.

This interested Harry quite a bit actually but that would have to wait.

Lois made a comment about bringing it on and the football players made a move towards her. Harry rather liked her face the way it was, as it was rather attractive to look at, and had no intention of letting them rearrange it. He had a sense that she could look after herself but he wasn't going to let it get that far. Still invisible he struck out just as the pipe above them suddenly and without reason burst.

"How the hell," Lois commented looking at the pipe and the downed football players even as Harry was already hightailing it out of the room.

Clark just shrugged, "Bad piping?"