Disclaimer: I own none of this, The HP universe and character was created by JKR.
Harry was awed when he first arrived at the castle. The first thing he did of course was explore. Knowing Sirius there was going to be a ton of secret passages and rooms. The castle had a distinct gothic feel, but not an evil feel. It felt more like the place was permanently Halloween. There were gargoyle statues, buttresses and the like. Harry decided he loved the place immediately. He loved the atmosphere, it was similar to Hogwarts, put it had a different feel. He could definitely call the place home.
He found the potions lab in the dungeon, it wasn't yet stocked. Harry decided to find the physical training room. Sure Harry got a workout from Quidditch, but flying around doesn't exactly help all of your muscles get stronger. He wanted to start some sort of routine, probably just some weight training and running around. I'll save you the boring details. After an hour long work out, Harry needed a shower, and based on a hunch, he found a wall panel with a secret stair case that led up to the top floor where the master bedrooms were. He found his room, and decided he was going to need to figure out how to password protect his room without a portrait, he assumed there was a spell, he would have to look into it. Maybe Hermione knows. Better yet maybe Daphne knows.
After an hour long relax time in his Jacuzzi, he got out and continued his tour. He found the dueling room, it was pretty expansive and there were a few Auror grade targets. Apparently Sirius has renewed some of his old contacts from when he was an Auror with his dad. Next he went looking for the kitchen. He discovered it, and to his surprise saw a familiar house elf working in there. Apparently Dobby decided to follow Harry here and work for Sirius. After a brief conversation with a very excitable Dobby, Harry discovered that Dobby was in fact the head elf, and there was 4 other elves working there also. After another suspicious hunch, Harry found another secret passage with a staircase which, unsurprisingly, came out right across from Sirius's room. Owing to Sirius' nature, you had to tweak the Mermaid statue's breast in order to access the passage.
After thoroughly exploring the castle several times, Harry, barring nothing else to do, went to his library and brought out some of his the books he took from the chamber of secrets and started reading.
After a few days working out followed by lounging around and reading, Harry started owling Daphne. It started off as fluff letters of inconsequential importance, but eventually he decided to ask her if she wanted to come over to the castle. Of course Sirius was more than happy to have company over in his more than adequate castle. He also revealed that he was currently planning a social ball in a few weeks time to meet up with old acquaintances. He was currently working on the guest list and estimated that there would be over 100 people. He wasn't worried about any potential death eaters because he had gone all out on his warding. There was a dark mark detection ward so anyone who was marked would appear outside the outer castle wall.
Daphne owled back and decided to come over the next day.
"You didn't tell me Sirius was building a castle." She laughed out loud upon arriving.
They relaxed in one of the foyers for a few hours just talking, then they went out to the pool and swam around until dinner time. Dinner was a quiet affair. Sirius nodded his approval and Remus just sat reading a copy of the Evening Prophet. Daphne agreed to come back in a few days time to have a repeat, they both enjoyed their day together, even if was still only as friend.
Harry was already looking forward to the next time she came over just minutes after she left. Sirius just smiled and gave a knowing grin. He hasn't said much all day, he seems to be plotting something, know him a massive prank. Harry could only hope that he was just enjoying the time with his best mates son.
Harry continued his work outs and even started weapons training. Harry knew he had a sword waiting for him at Hogwarts, so he was just using a dummy heavy sword. He was winging it, he doesn't know anyone who is a sword fighter, so he was pulling a Hermione and learning techniques from books out of the Black Library. Harry was starting to fill out good too, he was starting to notice slight muscle in places you usually don't get from Quidditch. Sirius was looking good too. He was eating healthy and he no longer had the haunted look on his face, he look normal, but you can still see the horrors of prison in his eyes if you pay attention close enough. Harry decided he was going to ask Sirius to join him for his work outs.
Harry asked and surprising enough Sirius agreed. They have talked about the first war, and they both had a feeling a second war was going to break out soon, it seemed like the calm before the storm. It seemed that Sirius was able to hold up to his name and be serious on occasion. He didn't agree to duel with Harry yet, mostly because he was out of shape, and even for an ex-Auror, way out of practice, and he didn't want to be embarrassed by a fourth year. However, much to Harry's delight, Remus agreed to teach Harry a few times a week, but he wasn't always at the castle. Remus was probably more skilled and knowledgeable than Sirius anyway, since he didn't spend 12 years in prison, and did teach at Hogwarts for a year. In fact that was the only year he actually learned anything in that class so far.
They mostly just dueled, Remus didn't teach him too many new spells, he left it up to Harry to research spells and discuss them with him, then he would use them in combat. Remus taught him proper form and techniques to optimize spell selection. He also showed how transfiguration could be useful in combat, but Harry was quite advanced enough to do that yet. Harry also wanted to try using both of his wands at the same time to duel, but again Harry realized he has to work on the basics first before diving straight in. "All in due time he thought to himself."
Harry had Sirius apparate him back to the chamber of secrets, he wanted to grab more books. He was getting of tired of having to ask him to take him places, he wondered if there was an alternate way to travel, or maybe he would just learn how to apparate even if he was underage. He brought along his trunk with him, so he took a ton of books, and on a spur of the moment he asked the portrait for a spell to password protect doors without a portrait, and it was a pretty simple modification to the locking spell "colloportus" he already knew, turns out you can use it like localized ward.
He returned with Sirius after taking well over 100 books. He was looking through one of his new parselmagic books when he found his travel problem. Apparently Salazar Slytherin discovered a way to apparate inside Hogwarts, and he dubbed it teleportation. The catch is that you can only travel in your line of sight, so you couldn't really travel through walls. This was still a major breakthrough for Harry. With enough practice you could chain a bunch of teleportation together and eventually reach your target. It might not be as good as apparition for long distances, but it is the best he's got right now and it does have its advantages; it can be used in Hogwarts; it's a parseltongue only spell and chances are Voldemort doesn't know the spell either because he hasn't seen this book.
He practiced the spell for a few hours before he had the hang of it and decided he want to try chaining it so he slowly teleported his way across the country side and made his way into London and eventually to Diagon Alley. It took him just over 10 minutes, compared to a few seconds, but it was his first try and he did take it slow. With practice and knowledge of the quickest path though the country side he could probably manage it in under a minute. He stopped by the ice cream parlor and picked out Daphne's favorite flavor and one for himself and took them over to her work.
Daphne saw Harry walk in and she ran up to him and gave him a hug. They just smiled at each other and they ate their ice cream. Harry decided to finally muster up his Gryffindor bravery. "Listen Daphne, I like you a lot…"
Daphne had a feeling she knew what was coming and was getting butterflies in her stomach. "…I like you too Potter."
Harry smiled big and then asked "Will you be my girlfriend Daph?" he kind of stumbled across the words but he managed to not panic.
"Oh I would love to…Harry!" she said excitedly. That was the first time she ever called him by his first name and he was happy.
"Well awesome! I didn't think you would say yes, but I guess there is hope for the world after all." Harry said with a laugh.
Daphne just liked back. "Well I do have to keep up appearances in Slytherin. One small slip and the guys are all over you. There shouldn't be too much fallout in the house though, if anything you will probably gain some respect for "landing the impossibly cold bitch" They both laughed together that time. "and besides, I really like you, a lot. I think this deserves a chance, don't you?"
"Yeah I do, I don't care what my friends will think, as long as our relationship gets a chance."
They just sat around inside the shop talking about the future. Harry told her about the ball and invited her to it, along with Tracey. She accepted right away. He only had a tentative list of other families who were going, some were his friends, and other were ministry officials and members of the older families. Sirius didn't invite the minister but he did invite Amelia Bones, along with quite a few people from the Auror department like the Head Rufus Scrimgeour, and Assistant head Gawain Robards. Also invited are his cousin Andromeda Tonks and her niece Nymphadora Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt. He invited a few teachers too, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sinistra, Vector, and Babbling. Harry thought the last two were a blessing in disguise; he would talk to them about getting into their arithmancy and ancient runes classes respectively. He also had a hunch that Sinistra was invited because she was mildly good looking, and only in her late twenties. The Weasley's got an invitation, but they weren't sure who would show up because there might be "unsavory" types there, but Arthur would be there at the very least because of the amount of ministry employees there. Ron probably would come, as Hermione might. The Gryffindor Quidditch team was also invited, in hopes of having a pickup game. The Longbottoms were also invited, along with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. A few other people from his year would probably be there but that was okay with him, he was long forward to getting to know the people in the school.
After talking about the ball for a bit they finally got serious for a few minutes. "There is a few things you should know about me. Harry told Daphne. "I am a target. I am on the top of Voldemorts list if he ever comes back. I was his downfall, and I am his greatest failure. When he rises again he will target me, and my friends. He will go after you to get me."
Daphne just gave a resigned nod. "I guess we will have to train! No matter what, being with you will be worth it I am sure. I look forward to getting to know the real Harry, even if that means putting myself in combat, I will do it just for the chance to know you."
Daphne offer to join Harry for a few hours every morning before she has to go into work. Harry agreed right away. The parted ways and Harry teleported back to the castle, he made it just under 9 minutes this time.
Daphne arrived early in the morning to the surprise of Sirius and Remus, Harry conveniently chose not to mention their new training partner. She joined straight away on one of the weight lifting machines without saying a word. Shortly after Daphne and Harry went into the spell chamber.
"I have a book on standard grade Auror spells, I figured it would be useful to learn them."
She nodded her agreement. They started off simple, with the stunning spell. Harry learned it last year but it generally isn't taught until 4th year. They also learned the standard shield charm which has the incantation 'protego'. Harry knew there were different kinds of shields, but this one was a good general purpose shield. Harry started learning the theory on the Titan Shield charm earlier in the week, it has a good use to block heavy physical objects. Harry made up a list late last night of spells he didn't know yet, but were simple and good enough for them to both learn together.
He list was a mix of offensive and defensive spells. Some of the defense spells were the few practical shield charms, disarming charm, the flame freezing charm as well as the patronus. There were far more offensive spells on the list, but in fairness a lot of them can serve more than one purpose. He had some powerful spells on the list like the bludgeoning hex, bonecrushing hex, blasting curse, bombardment curse, which pretty much an altered version of the blasting curse, the slashing curse, which is a step up from the cutting curse, various flame jinxes. He wanted to learn some of the more nastier stuff, but he couldn't even think about the entrails expulsion charm without nearly throwing up, plus he couldn't picture himself using a dark spell like that anyways. Heck he even found another killing curse besides the Avada Kedavra, and it wasn't even in a dark arts book. It was in one of Ravenclaws books. The only reason Harry could surmise why it wasn't considered one of the Unforgivables is that nearly no one knows of the existence of the spell anymore, and plus it is blockable unlike the killing curse. This is not to say that none of the other spells can't kill you, the heart stopping spell surely will if not countered within a minute, but if you get hit with this one you are dead instantly. Harry shivered at the thought, and remember he is the only one to ever survive the killing curse, he wondered briefly what would of happened if Voldemort used this spell on him instead. He shivered at the thought, and patted himself on his basilisk armor, and mentally filed away the incantation 'virtus vox nex'. Of course getting past the nastier curses he wrote down some passive spells like 'langlok', which glues the tongue to the top of the mouth, which could buy you valuable time in a fight.
He figured once they mastered some of these spells they could start working on combat tactics and battleground perception, of course he would have to convince Sirius to part with some of his auror knowledge. He would also have to learn useful transfiguration, he would probably ask for a starters guide from Dumbledore, rumor has it that he is the best. He also figured he might as well get started on his animagus form, there are a few methods, and after talking with a supportive Sirius about it. He decided to go with the potion method to discover his form, after that it's all about willpower until it becomes natural like apparition.
Training with Daphne was going good, she was quick to pick up on the spells and was a formidable partner, Harry has been using his old holly wand when dueling to keep them on fair ground. A side effect of the intensive training sessions was that Harry's potion brewing skills picked up. He was starting to understand better the reactions of the ingredients better, and the other subtleties of temperature and methods of adding ingredients of stirring. This is mostly a side effect of having to brew bone mending potions and various other healing potions. He wouldn't say he enjoyed it, mostly because he still resented Snape, but it was a necessary evil. He did brew the animagus revealing potion, actually he made enough for two people; he wanted to share the experience with Daphne. The potion wasn't overly complicated and he wondered why they didn't learn it in class. The only reason he could think of was that the process of learning to transform was very hard, but Harry had the distinct advantage of the Marauder Knowledge and his "special books" as he referred to his ancient texts. Sirius said it took 2 years for him to learn it, but with all the information he has he estimated he should be able to do it in 6 months.
They did learn a few basic healing charms, but most of the serious ones require finesse to use it properly, which takes years to master. He didn't envy Madam Pomfrey's job at all. Some of the healing charms had the benefit of being able to be misused and could be quite dangerous on an opponent.
Eventually the day of the first Black Social Ball came and Harry was nervous. He was unsure of how his friends would react to his girlfriend, but frankly he didn't find himself caring too much with his new outlook on life. He enjoyed Daphne's company a lot, even if they haven't kissed yet, a situation Harry hoped to fix tonight. He just hoped his other friends would loosen up and enjoy the event and mingle with the other guests. He barely even got any owls from them over the summer anyway since the world cup.
The first guests showed up; it was the Tonks'. Harry greeted them kindly and Harry started chatting up Auror Tonks about combat techniques and combat spell effectiveness. Harry learned a lot that hour, and Tonks was impressed with what Harry already knew. A lot of other guests arrived while they were talking, a lot of the teachers and ministry officials arrived, and Harry finally broke away from a conversation on the finer points of when to shield and when to dodge, (it's all about predicting your opponents moves) when he saw Daphne arrive. They gave each other a hug and they started to go around the room to meet with the other magic users in attendance.
He saw the Weasley's, well only Arthur, Bill, and Charlie. Charlie immediately gave his approval of Harry's new haircut, and they all laughed. They made small talk, and they approved of Daphne, so that was good in his book, but he had a feeling that Molly, Ron, and Ginny would be hard to convince, and he and impression that Ginny definitely had a crush on him, but he only thought of her as "Ron's Younger Sister". When Harry asked where the rest of the family Arthur said. "Molly didn't want them coming, she doesn't approve of such events, but I don't see why. This is a lovely idea and any event that gets like-minded families together, especially after the world cup fiasco, is a good idea. I'm not exactly sure what Molly thought this was going to be, but I'll be sure to have a talk with her."
They made small talk for a few minutes about dragons and wards. Surprisingly Charlie hasn't heard of a storm dragon before, but he said he would look into it. Bill talked about the basics about ward stones for buildings, a lot of it used ancient runes, which Harry only has a basic understanding of from the one beginners guide he started to read. That reminded him that he needed to talk with the two professors about the courses, and then ask Daphne to help him catch up. He decided to do that next.
By this time refreshments have been going steady, and appetizers were out. The house elves certainly did a good job setting this up.
Harry and Daphne spotted the two professors mingling with some unknown ministry officials and made their way over there. He quickly introduced himself around and shook several hands before finally asking the 2 professors what he could do. Luckily for him he only missed one year, which was just the introductory year for both classes. They both told him the same thing. If he would go through the respective books, understand the material, and pass the third year final before the semester starts, he can join the fourth year classes. Harry immediately asked for Daphne's assistance, as the professors told him that she was the top in both the classes for the year, she had a smug look on her face when they said that, and she readily agreed.
Sometime during the night the music started up, and Harry asked Daphne to dance. Harry never danced before and he would be the first, second, and third person to tell you that he was rubbish. Thankfully, once again, Daphne was a good dancer, and learned how to dance when she was younger. Apparently it's a side effect of growing up in a pureblood household.
Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye that his godfather was getting his moves on, as he predicted, with the astronomy professor, who looked to be enjoying herself just as much. Harry started getting more involved with the dance once he got the hang of it. After an hour of slow dancing where they just enjoyed the feel of each other, Harry finally decided to go for the kill. He slowly brought his face closer to Daphne, and she did the same until they finally met in the middle with a brief, gentle, but lingering kiss. They pulled back and smiled at each other, then both went back in for a longer, deeper kiss. This time it was interrupted by a catcall, of course it was from Sirius who was just grinning ear to ear. They spent the rest of the night just slow dancing, with her head on his shoulder. The guests slowly started to leave, after thanking both Harry and Sirius for their hospitality.
Daphne remained until the last guest left. Harry wasn't sure where Sirius and Sinistra went, but on the other hand he didn't want to know, so he offered to accompany her back to her house via floo. He met her parents for the first time, and didn't get his ass chewed out. He greeted them briefly and thanked them for allowing their daughter to come to the ball, and quickly left after a few minutes of small talk.
One week later it was Harry's Birthday. He nearly forgot about it until Daphne jumped through the floo with a birthday cake signing Happy Birthday. They decided to forgo training for the day and just enjoy time with each other. Daphne gave him his gift which was a book on the history of the Potter's. Harry just realized how little he knew about his own family, and he couldn't even get into his family vault to learn about them, and he was very grateful for her gift. Sirius gave him something he almost forgot about. He gave him his papers stating that Sirius was now Harry's official guardian, and that meant they were a real family. He said it wasn't much trouble pushing it through, they didn't even need to go to court. It turned out Dumbledore was Harry's guardian, but he was dropped quite readily when overwhelming proof was submitted of neglect, along with various borderline criminal charges concerning his actions of handling Harry. More blackmail material in Harry's opinion. He quickly learned Daphne's Slytherin motto "pick up dirt about everyone." Remus gave Harry three of his dad's personal journals from first to third year in Hogwarts. He hinted that there might be some notes on animagus transformation in there.
Harry brought Daphne up to his room for the first time, and she was impressed by the decorations, and she was curious about exactly what a TV was. Harry explained as best as he could, but then decided to just turn it on and let her see for herself. She was amazed and quickly enthralled. They watched a few random programs for awhile. Harry asked her to join him in his jazzuzi, she wasn't sure what that was but agreed anyway. She was surprised that it was a type of heated bathtub with whirlpools and jets. She quickly transfigured her robes into suitable attire, that is to say, a bikini that showed off her goods.
"Like what you see Potter?" she said with a smirk as she entered the tub.
Harry just gulped and nodded, and transfigured his pants into trunks and got in after her.
They spent the next 4 hours just snuggling and some kissing while half asleep. They both thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Eventually she left after the day was nearly done, but not before watching a movie with Harry on his bed.
The next week came and went, and it was time for the next Black Summer Ball. It went much the same as the first. Again Arthur, Charlie, and Bill were the only Weasleys that show up. Harry talked more with his other classmates. He and Neville talked for about an hour, he never really talked to the boy before but he was determined to have him open up. He noticed the guests were a lot more lively than last time. Harry was undecided if the cause was that they were just getting more comfortable, or the fact that Sirius spiked the drink.
The next day Harry decided was the day that he was going to use the freshly finished animagus form revealing potion.
He explained to Daphne what was to be expected. "It puts you into a kind of drug induced haze where you see through the eyes of the animal. The book says it is theoretically possible to have more than one form, and if you do the time would be split up evenly. It is just really rare because chances are that your form is some unspectacular and the person doesn't bother with it."
Daphne nodded and Harry poured out the two doses, they clanked their goblets together "cheers".
The taste was pretty vile, but it still seemed like wine compare to polyjuice potion. An hour later the potion induced fog episode was over and they sat there contemplating what they saw. It turns out that she was a hedgehog of some sort. It fits her personality; once you get past the hard outer shell, she's nice and cuddly. Harry had a gut feeling that she might actually be the magical version of the hedgehog, called a Knarl. They are known for being sneaky and cunning.
Harry had a very different experience. He figured that knowing his luck, he was going to have more than one form. Even having a magical creature as a form is rare enough as is. In the trance he immediately noticed he was slithering about, so it was pretty obvious he was a snake. He decided to pay attention to his surrounding to determine what kind of snake he was. He saw a lot of fire and smoke, and figured he probably was an ashwinder. He counted his blessings that he didn't pull the completely impossible and somehow was a basilisk, he would go crazy.
However his prayer was quickly cut short when his vision changed to a few feet off the ground looking out through some brush. It looked like he was in some sort of grasslands, probably a savannah. He could see a jungle in the distance so he figured he was probably In Africa. He couldn't tell what he was other than some sort of four legged predator, and he was fast, really fast. He had a feeling he was some sort of cat, he was large, fast, and a predator, and probably magical. That's where he would start. He was going to have to do some research for this one he decided. When he explained what he saw to Daphne, he also had a hunch that his snake form was not his innate form he was born with, but rather a trait probably picked up from Voldemort. That doesn't mean Voldemort ever completed the animagus training, he probably thought such things were below him or some such nonsense.
The next 2 weeks saw everyone do they usual training. Except now they were working on accessing their animagus form. They learned that once you get into the correct state of mind you will just transform into it. The common method of doing this is researching your animal completely from the inner biology to habitats. Harry did find a trick to speed up the process though, a trick the Marauders didn't use. It is called Occlumency.
Harry has read about it a few times in passing from a few of his 'special books'. It is not a commonly practiced art, so you won't find too many modern books on it. The whole purpose of occlumency is that it allows you to organize your mind and control your emotions, and you can set up a system to defend your mind against attacks. Harry liked the sound of this and wondered if it would help against the weird nightmares of Voldemort he has had a few times this summer. It turns out Daphne already knows basic occlumency, the basics are passed down through most 'traditional' pureblooded lines. She was by no means a master, but she knew enough to keep her emotions in check, and that is what Harry was aiming for.
Becoming a true master at occlumency would probably take a decade, but for the current project, organizing your mind should only take a few weeks even if you only do it for a few hours a day. So that's what Harry and Daphne did. Daphne worked on her mental defense while Harry organized his mind. He had to try a few different techniques before he found a cataloging system he liked. Anyone who walked in during this time would just see two teens who looked like they were meditating. They did this for 2 hours every morning after they did their physical workout.
Harry continued researching spells. He picked up quite a few useful spells from the parselmagic books. A lot of the spells were just the same spell as their common version, but in a different language, although a few of them were similar, but with a twist. He now knew 4 different versions of the stunner. One of them just had a different color beam, it kind of looked like the killing curse, but it was a darker. He could only imagine the havoc of people seeing him using that stunner, green beam flashes and people falling to the ground unmoving. One of the more vicious stunner variants he learned was one that stunned, and then lit the target on fire. A brutal way to go. The 4th one just stunned and sprouted a mushroom on the targets forehead.
There were lots of spells he learned multiples of, some of them were just aesthetic changes, others where some sort of spell combination like the stunner/mushroom. His current personal favorite was the parseltongue fireball with a delayed freeze charm. Of course it would work with the lower spell incendio, but the mid level spell fireball was much more powerful.
Daphne was mildly jealous of the parseltongue spells, so Harry tried not to use them too much when they were together, and he opted to find out a way to do it with normal spells. He figured out that there is 3 possible ways to combine spells. One is just crafting a new spell altogether, which with only rudimentary arthimancy skills this was not an option; you start basic spell creation and manipulation in your NEWT year's, while anything past that is done with an apprenticeship. The second option was to combine 2 preexisting spell formulas, again using arithmancy, but theoretically this is easier, and they would be learning the basic in fifth year. The third way was spell chaining. This is solely a technique when using a wand. It involves combining wand movements, where you match up spells that for example, the first spell ends the same way the next spell begins, and you save yourself a wand movement, and you get the 2 spells out faster. This isn't seen much, as there are not too many useful combinations, but Harry surmised that there is probably a lot more combinations possible if you use older versions of the same spell. As it stands right now it's not used very much in combat and it is seen a little bit in professional dueling. Harry knows that Professor Flitwick was a champion dueler back in his time and figured if they wanted to learn this technique he would be the one to ask, but for right now it was not really important. They both decided they would try to use arithmancy to combine the two spells. First Harry had to continue with his 3rd year learning, it wasn't too hard especially with Daphne to help. But the sooner they were on the same page the better.
Transfiguration was becoming a little easier. They both understood the theory better, Daphne more so. Her basic occlumency helps her focus better on the end result. Consequently, her occlumency is also helping her when they duel also, she is able to keep a more level head and observe her opponent more. All the more reason to learn it in Harry's opinion. They both started learning the theory of transfiguring something and levitating it into the path of spell, it takes a lot of focus. The other possibility is transfiguring an object and using animation charms, but that is seventh year material from 2 classes, needless to say it was beyond him by a big margin. He didn't quite have his dad's natural talent for transfiguration, or his mother's for charms.
If there was one thing that Harry was good it, it was learning spells, and teaching them. He got Daphne to learn the patronus charm after only a few weeks, coincidently it happened after the first ball. Harry had a hunch she was using their first kiss as a happy memory, God knows he was. His stag patronus was dazzling. Her patronus was a tiger, neither of them could figure out why, but there doesn't have to be a reason, but magic usually works in strange ways.
The third ball came and went, the event even got favorable reviews from the Daily Prophet. There were some new faces. Harry met Blaise Zabini for the first time, decent enough bloke he decided. The Chinese equivalent Minister of Magic came, it was surprising until he found out that he is the father of Su Li the Ravenclaw. No Ron, No Ginny, and No Hermione showed up, and he has only gotten a few letters from any of them. Heck he got more letters from the twins then he did from Ron, and at least their messages weren't just babbling about Quidditch, some of the twins joke ideas were really brilliant.
Eventually the last week of summer was upon them. Harry's spell repertoire was quite impressive, he probably knew more offensive and defensive spells than most Hogwarts seventh years, and probably more than Durmstrang 5th years (if what he read the school was correct, they learn about the dark arts, and while Harry has learned a thing or two, he hasn't studied them like they have.) He is lacking in some of the other spell fields though, but no more so than the rest of the students in his year. He does after all have to learn something during the school year.
Harry finished organizing his mind about a week ago and put up his first mental perimeter defense. It took him a whole week just to find out the best way to do it that suited him. One barrier doesn't do too much, but it will alert you to enemy legillimens in your mind, and Harry had a strong suspicion that both Dumbledore and Snape were legillimens.
Harry did make progress on two fronts with his wandless magic. He managed to light something on fire with 'incendio', and he also managed to light something on fire just by pointing his hand and thinking fire. A little known fact is that it is easier to pick up on wandless magic when you are younger. This has to do with the fact that your magic hasn't matured and attuned itself too much with a wand.
They both did some research on their animals. The knarl was a very cunning and sneaky creature. While it wasn't capable of real offensive, it has nasty defenses. The ashwinder was an interesting creature with an affinity to fire. He read in one of the ancient text that there are two types of ashwinders, the much rarer natural born ashwinder, and the common magically born ashwinder. The natural born ones pack a nasty punch, they can shoot fire out of their mouth, different than dragon breath, it's more like lightning. It has above average venom, but you would probably burst into fire before you ever got bit by one. The natural born ashwinder eggs are different than the magically born ones, they are normal. His second creature was quite a surprise. It is such an obscure creature that finding any substantial bit of information was trying, even with his ancient books. He was right though in that it is a large cat, so he figured that the anatomy is probably pretty similar to any other cat so that's where he started.
Eventually the time came where they were going to go do Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies. Harry decided to take Daphne there by means of teleportation, she has never seen it before. He made it in 3 minutes, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, nevertheless it was still impressive. They picked up their books, and Harry picked out some extras on battle combat, some auror books, some books on death eater tactics from the 70's. Not to mention a self updating ledger with the current ministry policies.
They restocked their potion supplies, well Harry damn near well bought a quarter of the store. He felt like Snape and that made him feel dirty. They decided to just floo back the castle and spent the last few days just relaxing about either in the Jacuzzi or in the pool.
Harry only had one thing left to do before school starts, and that is to take the two tests for arithmancy and ancient runes, and if all goes well drop divination and his free period. He thought about dropping care of magical creatures, but he thought better of it. It could help him with his animagus studies, some of the creatures are fascinating, and Hagrid is a nice guy. He didn't mind losing his extra free period; it was only because of Ron that he took the bare minimum of courses anyways.
Harry did end up passing both exams with flying colors and got his schedule all sorted out. The first of September finally arrived.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a/n This chapter is just a massive pile of shit. I realize the story is slow going so far, and there isn't too much dialogue in this chapter. There just isn't too much going on, but the stuff needs to be written as filler and background info. Powerful!Harry just doesn't spring up out of the ground, he has to work for it, and this chapter shows the starts of it.
OH and i finally got around to editing this chapter, I can't believe how poor it was, and still is. i've been in contact with a bunch of beta's but none of them went through with their offers.
