Snow Point

by Quetzalcoatls

End of 4th year and Voldemort's back,but Harrys not waiting for him to make the first move SnowPoint Academy,hidden in the frozen reaches of the Antarctic ocean,is nothing like Hogwarts, but to win this war that may be exactly what Harry needs,but darker things are stirring in the shadows, and nothing is sure.fusion with Heralds of Valdemar(fut. AU)

11. It's Time

Bane145 got the 1000th alert

So anyways chapter 11 here, lots of magic gets explained here so hopefully its not too technical. I swear I was pulling my hair out designing the death magic class. Hopefully it actually makes sense, I had Kit look at it and she said it was alright so hopefully its alright for everyone else.

Also I have finally discovered proof that Miranda fairgold does in fact still exist! For those of you who don't know who that is, she wrote the best harry potter goes to another school story in the history of everything...then left the story at a cliffhanger after 2 1/4 of a trilogy right as things were coming to the big world ending battle. She hasn't updated in something like 3 years. So since she has apparently read my story and liked it enough to favorite it I would like to request that she continue the Arken series. PLEASE...pretty please? P_P

ONWARD!

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Chapter 11 - It's Time - Imagine Dragons

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BOOM!

Talyn shrieked in surprised and reflexively snapped a shield over his bed as the room was rocked by an explosion, he could hear Vera screeching across the apartment while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Were they under attack? His sleep fogged mind wondered wildly as the last tremor faded away. No, no, that the noise had been muffled, so the explosion hadn't been near them, but still! Was that their idea of a wake up call here?

Groaning he pried himself out of bed, wand held tightly in his hand, he was glad he had decided to keep it under his pillow or he would probably be trying to dig it out from under his bed right about now. Hesitating he made his way to the bedroom door and listened for a moment before opening it after hearing nothing but Vera cursing is several languages. A quick glance told him that aside from a few books having been knocked off the shelf he had transfigured two days before, nothing seemed to be wrong with the room.

"Vera?" He called, the cursing cut off and within moments Vera was peering out her own door at him.

"You wouldn't happen to be responsible for that bang would you?" She asked sourly, her eyes promising pain. Talyn shook his head no.

"Hell no, any idea what could have happened?" He asked, Vera clacked her beak in thought before shrugging.

"Perhaps some of the upper years couldn't wait to start trying to kill each other?" She asked faintly amused. Talyn snorted and allowed himself to relax a hair before glancing at the clock on the wall. 5:30. Breakfast didn't even start till 7. He shot Vera a grin as something occurred to him.

"Wanna bet that the headmistress is not a morning person?" He asked, Vera stared at him for half a second before chuckling.

"Indeed! Hopefully she will exact some revenge for those of us who do not appreciate being awoken before dawn?" Talyn nodded still amused before sighing.

"Well, might as well get ready, I'm sure as hell not going to be able to go back to sleep after a wake up call like that." Vera nodded.

"Indeed, you can go first." She agreed before turning back to her room. Talyn shot a look out at the dark sky beyond the balcony, the sky just beginning to glow on the horizon. Heading back into his room he grabbed a change of cloths before heading back into the living room and opening the door that they had missed at first, hidden in an alcove as it was, the bathroom was small. Well, as small as it could be given that it needed to be big enough for a gryphon. A large pool was sunk into the middle of the room, Vera had explained that it was fed by a spring. They had a similar system in her home, all Talyn really cared about was that he had access to a fantastic hot tub for when he inevitably got the shit beaten out of him and needed to soak out the bruises.

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"Well I guess that explains what the blast this morning was from..." Vera commented as they came to a blood spattered section of hallway, half of which was caved in. Talyn could only nod as he eyed the destruction.

"Think its safe enough to squeeze by or should we try and go around?" He asked, Vera studied the half collapsed hall for a moment before shrugging and casting a shield around herself before walking through the rubble strewn across the floor, keeping a close eye on the cracked celling. Talyn stared at her for a moment before sighing and casting his own shield before picking his way across.

"So whats your first class today?" He asked as they neared the great hall.

"I have history and combat today, you?" She answered as they finally rounded the last corner and the large doors of the great hall came into sight.

"Death magic and potions." He answered.

"Why on earth do you want to take Death magic?" Vera asked incredulously Talyn shrugged.

"I have my reasons, Vera. Its not just a passing fancy either, I need to know it." Vera studied him for a moment before nodding slowly.

"I suppose, but please be carful. Magics of that nature are very dangerous even at the best of times."

"Oh I don't doubt that." he responded with a laugh. "Ill be carful, don't worry so much."

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Talyn glanced around in surprise as he entered the potions classroom, it was nothing like the dark, dank dungeon that Hogwarts used. Although windowless, the room was brightly lit by almost a dozen of the glowing balls that lit the rest of the school. The desks were some kind of polished stone, easier to clean he figured, what with spilled potions being unable to seep into the material.

"One student to a table please." Talyn glanced up sharply not having seen anyone else in the room a moment before. Sitting at the desk in front of the room, that only a second ago he had been sure was empty, was a youngish looking woman. She appeared to be human, her hair was a dark brown with a pair of blond stripes running through it, her eyes were a normal dark brown. She smirked at the students puzzled looks and waved at them. "Are you going to sit down, or just stare at me all day?" she asked. A rapid flurry of movement later and the 6 students where in their spots. Talyn glanced around noting that only two of the others were from his year.

One of the faye, and the seer Wolfkin, the professor quirked an eye brow up at the Wolfkin who just grinned. The professor rolled her eyes and looked back at the rest of the class. "My name Is Aldora, I will be teaching you beginners potions. Now I'm sure someone of you are beyond beyond the basics which is what we will be working on today. I will be giving you a series of potion you are to brew, if you think the potion is beyond you abilities do not attempt to create it. The point of this is to help me figure out exactly where you each are in your studies, and I'd like to avoid any explosions on the first day. If you are unable to brew a potion I want you to write at least half a page on why you couldn't. I expect you to turn in those reports along with samples of the potions you finished at the end of class." she flicked her wrist at the board and neat writing appeared on it. On the far side of the board was a list of six potions. Talyn recognized the first 2 and the third sounded vaguely familiar. Next to the list were the instructions for the first two potions. "Ingredients and cauldrons can be found in the draws under your desks. Start now." Aldora sat back down and watched them begin to check the drawers and find out what was where.

Talyn studied the first set of instructions, it was a simple boil cure, the first potion he had ever learned. Reading the instructions through once he stepped back and started checking the drawers. The largest one held two different small cauldrons. He pulled out the basic brass one and set it on the desk before starting his hunt for ingredients. A few minutes later several jars and boxes set beside the cauldron along with several knives and a pestle.

Talyn hesitated eyeing the tools for a minute before casting a detection charm on the cauldron, he had been forced to learn it after years of dealing with Malfoy and his constant sabotaging attempts. The cauldron glowed a faint yellow, he shot a look up at the professor only to see her looking on in approval. So there was more to this test then just if they could follow instructions correctly, he sighed and cast another spell to determine what was on the cauldron before banishing it once he determined it was inert and wouldn't do anything weird because of additional magic. It hadn't been anything dangerous but once water and heat had been added to the cauldron it would have sent up a cloud of gas that would have dyed him yellow for a few days.

Talyn went on and checked all the ingredients and ended up asking the teacher for a different box of cattail root as what he had was slightly rotted. Serval other students had done the same, as they began preparing their ingredients before starting their cauldrons boiling. An outraged screech behind him alerted him to the fact that someone hadn't checked their cauldron first. A glance showed him a now bright yellow faye, he stifled a laugh and went back to his potion. Carefully adding and stirring in all the right places once he had the water at the right temperature.

Twenty minutes later he was looking at a near perfectly brewed boil cure, carefully pouring a dose into a vial for the professor he nearly jumped out of his skin she spoke and turned out to be standing right next to his table. He had been so absorbed in brewing that he hadn't noticed her approach.

"This is very good," Aldora commented studying the potion intently. "Good enough for the hospital wing, ill take the rest of this alright? Unless you'd like to keep it?" Talyn shook his head no, and watched as the potion was poured into a large jar and taken back to the front of the room.

Quickly banishing the rest of the potion in the cauldron he looked up to the next potion and continued. Three more times he had to get different ingredients because what he had was bad, but now on the fourth potion he was sweating, carefully stirring he added a beetle wing every third stir and backed off on the twelfth stir. The potion simmered before turning dark green, it was done. He breathed a sigh of relief. That was it for him he only needed to glance at the instructions for the fifth potion to know he'd be blowing something up if he tried it. Sitting down he pulled out a notebook and started writing, occasionally glancing up at the board to double check the instructions.

A sudden hiss made him look up while simultaneously casting a shield charm, the student in front of him( a strange boy who looked more bird then human) jumped back just in time for his cauldron to boil over while spitting a spray of neon blue liquid across the room. Shields flared up around each desk deflecting the spay away from the other students. Talyn blinked but kept his own spell up just in case. Aldora cursed and cast a multitude of spells on the hissing cauldron, neutralizing the unstable potion.

"Well, that was refreshing." She drawled and eyed the student sprawled in the middle of the room. "Now you get to write me two pages on where exactly you screwed up I expect it on my desk next class." The boy nodded shakily before picking himself up off the floor and approaching his cauldron warily as though expecting it to attack. Talyn considered animating the cauldron for a second before deciding he shouldn't risk pissing off Aldora during class, he remembered what the headmistress had said about fucking around in the potions class.

"Well I suppose we can call it a day there." Aldora called from the front making everyone look up, other then bird boy everyone had given up already and was in the process of writing. "Most of you are more or less moderately good, although Ashton and Mearra are a bit better. Mearra will be moved to the next class up but Ashton will be staying. Your good but you need to go over some of the basics a bit more, there seems to be some rather large holes in your education." Talyn nodded not offended, it was amazing he had done so well even after his review this summer. "Right then, put the rest of your supplies away and leave your papers and test vials on my desk. After that your free to go."

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The Death magic classroom wasn't as open as the potions room. There were no windows, and it wasn't dark, but it certainly had a sense of gloom to it. Talyn glanced around before picking a seat at the front of the room. He couldn't afford to miss anything in this class, it was his spring board to ending voldamort once and for all. Five other students entered the room over the next few minutes taking seats around the room, no one wanted to sit right next to anyone else, to much chance of getting cursed.

A door at the front of the room creaked open as soon the last one sat down, a rasp of scales on stone heralding the teachers arrival. Talyn frowned slightly studying the creature as he coiled his long black scaled tail up and looked over the class. The professor looked a bit like Kira in her Lamia form, but not only was the color different but so was the shape of his head. He still looked more or less human but he didn't have hair instead a frill of black spines covered his head and ran in a ridge down his back. They seemed to be flexible curving slightly as they draped down over his back. And unlike Kira his scales didn't end at his waist except for a scattering on arms and face, his whole upper body and face was covered in slightly glossy black scales. Like Kira he wore a vest over his chest, his was made of dark grey leather.

"For those of you who are no doubt wondering, I am a Naga." The professor drawled making Talyn wince slightly at having been caught staring. "My name is Alexander Devaran, you may call me Alexander or Professor Devaran. You are of course here to learn Death magic. Do not make the mistake of thinking you will be raising the dead or exploring the other side in this class, that is reserved for the Necromancy class. Here you will be getting a basic grounding in how the soul functions as well as how both living and dead souls behave on the living plane. I will be taking you through several rituals and skills you will need to survive if you wish to continue into Soul magic or Necromancy. These techniques will allow your soul to leave you body unharmed and without dieing, as well as allow you to interact directly with spirits." Alexander paused and glanced around.

"Any questions?" When the class remained silent he continued. " Before we begin, I need you all to sign the contract that was mentioned during the welcoming feast, if you do not wish to do so you will be dropped from the class and can take it next year." The other five students grumbled but signed all the same, far to interested to refuse." Good with that out of the way we need to go over the basics of how the Soul is constructed and how it interacts with the body, beginning with the relation between the soul and the magical core." At this he turned and drew a circle on the board. "Now first off, diagrams aside, the soul is not round contrary to what many think, nor does it exist in a specific spot inside the body. The soul is spread evenly throughout you. Think of your body as a cup, your soul is the water in the cup. It conforms to the shape of the vessel it is held in and fills all of the space inside. Everyone following so far?" He glanced back at them and at their nods he drew another smaller circle inside the first. "Your magical core exists within your soul, and does have the defined shape of a sphere that can normally be found somewhere in the chest, the exact location can vary but it is usually held in or near the heart. This is what gave rise to people thinking ones soul is held there and is a sphere. They would mistake their magical core for their soul."

"A magical core is, essentially, both a converter and a battery. Your core draws in magic around you and changes it slightly to match your soul while also storing it. A person magical power is determined both by how quickly your core can absorb and convert magic and by how much you can store. Theoretically even if it takes you a thousand years to absorb the necessary power if your ability to store it is great enough you could fight even the strongest mages. Its this variation that results in mages and normal humans as well as what are in current times know as squibs. A normal human has a magical core just the same as anyone else, without magic you die, end of story. The difference is that a normal humans core is only capable of converting and storing enough power for them to live. A squib however as the same or greater ability to covert magic as a mage but does not have the ability to hold on to that power. In ancient times the strongest of these people were known as Channels. A Channel if properly trained can absorb and covert massive amounts of raw wild power for other uses. They are not however capable of controlling the power they absorb in any way aside from directing it back out of themselves in a stable form. Mages have both the ability to convert significant amounts of magic as well as store it, its the ability to store the magic that allows the control necessary to cast spells."

"Think of it as the difference between a raging river and damed river. The damed river forms a calm pool that can be used to safely do other things like power a generator." Talyn stared at him for a moment before beginning to scribble madly. That was the first actual explanation he had ever been given for how magic actually worked. Hogwarts tended to simple take a 'its magic it works' view and never bothered to explain how beyond the visible effects. A hour passed in much this way, the teacher sketching out diagrams on the board and explaining the general mechanics of the soul and magic. School had never been this fascinating before, he had thought potions was great but this! About an hour and a half through Alexander gave them a 10 minutes break before continuing into the part of class that'd had him worried all morning.

"Now that we've gone over enough of the basics that you'll have some idea of what your looking at we'll take a quick look at the subject of that contract." Alexander took a look in Talyn's direction before continuing. " Now I'm sure you've heard at least something about the chaos thats been going on in the UK." Various snorts and chuckles sounded around the room. "Yes, yes. I know its humorous, but thanks to the UK's stupidity and their "savor' having a brain and getting the hell out of the country your getting a chance to study how he survived the killing curse." Utter silence met the professors words.

Talyn glanced around noting the looks of shock on everyone's faces. "Mr. Ashton if you could come to the front please." Talyn sighed and got up feeling the eyes of everyone in the classroom on him as he walked. "Although he is currently going by another name to avoid being dragged back to the UK, Mr. Talyn Ashton is actually Harry Potter."

"He's actually a student here?" Catcalled a dark haired teen from the back. "I figured he was just going to be a lab rat for us! Not that it matters, theres no way a Brit is gong to survive here even if he did manage to pass the entrance exam!" Talyn gave the speaker a flat look.

"I guess we'll just have to see won't we?" He answered with a shrug. "The fact that I got the hell out of there would suggest that I'm not quite THAT stupid wouldn't it?" Three of the other students nodded in agreement while giving him calculating looks, the guy in the back snorted.

"Right, 10 bucks says you don't make it 2 weeks." He drawled Talyn rolled his eyes and looked back at Alexander.

"Right then everyone here is familiar with the Avada Kedavra curse yes? Can someone tell me why this curse is fatal?" He asked before calling on the girl on the left near the front.

"The curse is fatal no matter where it hits because it gets caught in a persons magical channels and directed straight to a persons soul and magical core. It then breaks the souls connection to the body causing death." She answered. Alexander nodded calmly.

"Close, the Avada Kedavra does indeed travel through the magical channels to directly access the soul, but if all it did was separate the soul from the body, you would get a living soulless body and a disembodied powerless spirit. What the curse does is first break the connection between the magical core and the body. This is because the soul itself is not anchored very tightly to the body, the magical core however is. This is why a body thats been fed on by a Dementor remains alive for a while before finally failing. The soul is removed but the magical core being more strongly anchored remains and keeps the body alive for a time."

"The killing curse works by breaking that connection between the body and magical core allowing it to throw both the soul and magical core out of the body, killing it instantly without leaving a mark. The true danger of this curse is not that it kills, lots of spells kill. The curse can only be blocked by solid objects not connected to the targets magic. If the curse comes in contact with the targets magic in any way is latches on and is directly along your own magic to your core where it takes effects. It doesn't matter what form that magic takes whether its a spell that intersects with the curse or a shield." Alexander smirked seeing he had them all completely engrossed in his speech, it was always nice to know he could still awe a class on the first day.

"Now this is of course why Mr. Ashton's case is so intriguing. We know the curse didn't just come in contact with wild magic, we know thanks to that scar that it came in physical contact with him and wasn't blocked by anything. So how did he survive?"

"I'm going to cast a spell on Mr. Ashton thats going to scan and project a model of his soul and magical cores current condition, and Ill need one volunteer to allow for a comparison." The same girl who had spoken before raised her hand. Alexander nodded and waved her up.

"Now pay attention, I'm going to cast this on Miss. Fairla first." Turning he traced a glowing rune in the air in front of Fairla, it shimmered for a moment before flashing and changing into a glowing ball. Its was layered, with the outer layer being a soft white the inside being gold and a silver ball inside that, branching off the silver ball were threads of silver that extended through the soul to the outer layer. "Now the white represents the body, the gold is the soul, and the silver is the core and the threads connecting the body and magical core are you magical channels. Now for Mr. Ashton."

Once more the rune was traced in the air it shimmered and flashed before resolving itself into another sphere. The whole class went still, and stared dumbfounded.

"What the fuck?" Muttered someone from the back of the room. The outer layer of the sphere was glowing a deep emerald green, the same color as the killing curse. Inside the gold soul was glowing darkly looking more like polished brass then gold, and the silver magical core was glowing like a fallen star the threads that represented his magical channels started off silver before leeching into bright green halfway to the outer layer. But, stuck on the outside of the sphere embedded in the green outer layer like a malignant leech was a black blob. Tendrils like the roots of a plant were spread out over almost half of the surface, not appearing to have penetrated into the soul very much yet.

Talyn stared at the projections in faint horror, trying to figure out what was going on here, the green seemed easy enough to explain, if not in a comforting way, but what the hell was that black...thing on him?

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Quetzal - annnnnd cut! XD yes I'm evil but I was getting sick of explaining so much technical stuff in one chapter. That why this one took so long I got to it and realized I needed to invent an entire form of magic. Hopefully it came out in a sane way, if you see something that makes no sense please tell me, and ill try and fix my logic with it.

I felt like I might be going a bit to fast by putting this in this soon, but I don't think a theoretical discussion and a diagnostic spell are all that out of the question? It would get everyone interested before dragging them though the inevitable weeks of theory before they get to do anything fun, its just that poor talyn can't be normal and no one was expecting a result like that! And I'm sure you'll be happy to know were actually getting into the plot a bit more now!