Picking up the book once more, he settled down to embark on the next stage of this new adventure.
Harry Potter and the Heir of the Light
Chapter 8 - Breaking the Binds
For the next hour he sat and read the book, paying close attention to the details on how he would mask his magic from the Ministry's sensors and give him the freedom he needed and craved. He went as far as taking notes on a spare piece of parchment that Winky handed him. Usually he would not take anywhere near this amount of care with his work, but this was important and failure could be disastrous, bring attention onto him that he really did not want.
It turned out that there was a spell placed on both a wizard's wand and on themselves. The spell on the wand was activated hen the wand was purchased, if the wizard who was purchasing it was under seventeen. The second spell was placed on every witch and wizard at the moment of their birth, and was linked to their magical core. It automatically de-activated when the wizard reached their majority. Both spells worked in conjunction with one another, the spell on the wand was linked with the one on the wizard as soon as it recognized their magical signature - hence the warm, tingly feeling of contentment one felt when they found the right wand for them.
In order to mask one's magical signature from the Ministry, one had to perform a series of wandless incantations and small rituals, which in simple terms transferred the Ministry tracking spells from the wizard and their wand to a physical location. Normally, wandless spells were very hard to cast, and could only be done so by those who were powerful and focused. In this case however, as the spells were being cast from the wand rather than from the wizard, they could be done by anyone who had the knowledge. This method had the obvious flow that it would therefore not work if one was traveling or constantly on the move, but as most underage magic violations were performed at home, this flaw was never corrected.
The book said that the masking ceremony had to be performed at sunset, as this was considered to be a time of high magical convergence. As this was only half an hour away, Harry did not have much time. Instructing the elves to make sure that the house would be kept clear of interruptions, he sat down to re-read the instructions one more time. He marveled at the in-depthless of the book. It explained not only the instructions, but the methodology and rational behind them in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. He actually felt that he truly understood what he would be doing, instead of just blindly doing it. The elves left to do his bidding whilst he returned to his work.
It was approaching sunset with only a few minutes left when Harry got up and checked that he was ready one last time. Then, just as the lower rim of the sun's disc touched the horizon, he moved to the farthest corner of him room and start walking, following the wall, turning when he got to a corner and continuing in this manner until he reached the door. The ceremony required the person wishing to be masked to walk around the perimeter of the location which they had the strongest connection to, which was usually their home. In Harry's case, this would have been his family home of Godric's Hollow, but as he now lived with the Dursleys, however unwillingly, that would have to suffice. Also, as he did not want to draw attention to what he was doing by going out of the house, he would have to make do with walking around the internal perimeter of the house.
Walking out of his room and turning right, he walked into the bathroom and walked around it, then along the first floor landing and into Dudley's room. Dobby and Winky had played their parts well and it was empty. He proceeded through his Aunt and Uncle's room, then a dark and dusty walk-in closet. Now came the most difficult part. He walked down the stairs, keeping as close to the outer wall of the house as possible, then continued along the ground floor hall, into the toilet, kitchen, dining room and finally the living room. He then completed the circuit by making his way back to his bedroom. He wondered vaguely what his friends, and anyone for that matter would say if they could see him, the great Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, savior of the Wizarding world walking round an empty house muttering to himself. Yes, for as he was making his way through the house he repeated a long Latin incantation over and over again, placing particular emphasis on the corners of the house, for these would mark the boundaries of the 'mask placement' zone.
"Clausus mihi , servo mihi , os mihi ex ut quod peto meus substantia.", "Clausus mihi , servo mihi , os mihi ex ut quod peto meus substantia.", "Clausus mihi , servo mihi , os mihi ex ut quod peto meus substantia." he repeated, ending on the final syllable just as he stepped over the threshold into his room. He could see that the room seemed to be bathed in a pulsing dome of fiery red light, the same color of the setting sun, the centre of which was just touching the horizon. It was time. Doing just as the book had said, Harry pulled out his wand from his pocket, held it in front of him so that one end was touching a point towards the centre of his chest, the other pointing towards the centre of the sun's remaining visible disc. He took a deep breath, and hoping that everything would work, intoned "Tutis is quod ego secuutus , universa is quod ego votum. Finite.".
There was silence as he waited, not even daring to breathe. Then a jet of bright blue light erupted from his wand, hitting the still pulsing dome and seemingly disappearing into it. There was a brilliant flash which left him seeing stars for a moment, but when his vision return he saw that everything was back to normal. His wand felt a little warm, but apart from that it was as though nothing had ever happened.
He turned to look around the room, and only then noticed Dobby and Winky standing behind him.
"Is everything going well Mast- Harry?", inquired Dobby, looking unusually anxious.
"I don't know, I really don't know.", Harry replied. "But I guess there's only one way to check. Pointing to Hedwig's cage, which had been placed in its usual place by the elves, he said "Scurgify.", giving his wand a flick. The cage cleaned itself, the owl droppings and loose feathers disappearing as he knew they would. It was not just a question of waiting, and seeing what, if anything would happen.
Thanks to: Nightwing509, jkarr, Gibblegobblethesquirrel, athenakitty, greeneyes, WickedMoonie, WesleyPeppers, Darkyingfa122090, crazyjav89 and Jamo for your reviews. To address a few points:
I know the chapters are short, but I find it easier to write short chapters and keep the story going than long delays (when I can avoid them) which may cause peeps to forgot where the story was. I know I myself have about 10-20 fics going at the same time which I'm reading and it can be difficult to remember what's happening in any given one. No there will be more than two house-elves, but that's a way off. I'm in the UK, so UK books are where I take my references and titles. Cheers.
