Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its characters, and the Harry Potter Universe belong to JK Rowling. I only lay claim to the situations I am about to put them in for your entertainment. I hope you enjoy my writing but warn you it will sound different than JK Rowling's style.

Chapter 13: Core Curriculum

Hearing the scream, snapped Harry out of it. He jumped off his bed and went sprinting towards Hermione's room. With his wand at the ready, Harry was prepared to fight whatever foolish death eater thought to attack them in the castle. Harry's heart was pounding as he rounded the corner and feared the worse since there were no lingering sounds of battle. As he entered the room, all he could see was Hermione breathing deeply on her bed. She was looking all around for an invisible foe.

"What happened Hermione, who attacked you?" Harry asked as he surveyed the room.

"No one, didn't you feel it?" inquired Hermione.

"Feel what? I was sitting in my bed when I heard you scream." recalled Harry.

"You didn't feel that suffocating feeling, like your head was covered in a plastic bag? There was also that overwhelming sensation of static electricity and pressure. I swear I could see sparks fly between the air and the walls... Didn't you feel any of that?" Hermione said exasperatedly.

"Hermione..." Harry said sheepishly as he struggled to look her in the eye. "I think I owe you an apology... I think I did it while trying to control my magic. I tried pushing it away from me, but all I felt was a large current of power, like a dam bursting... but from me. I think my magic caused you to feel the way you did. I can try to do it again to confirm my suspicions. If you are ok with that?" Harry said tentatively.

"I think... I think that's ok, just don't do it for too long. Now that I know what it is, it won't catch me by surprise. That being said, it wasn't all together pleasant. I would prefer to be warned in the future." said Hermione as she tried to calm down.

Harry felt ashamed that he had scared Hermione half to death, but was also a little excited to confirm his suspicion. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it would reach you in your room, nor what it would feel like. I will try to practice farther away for now, until I can control it better. I can't say how quickly I can make it happen, but if you give me a minute I can try to recall how I did it before. Are you ready?" Hermione nodded and Harry focused on the humming sensation he had learned to find only that day. As he did it, he realized it was like trying to shape a pool of water. He felt it pulsing and subtly flowing around him and the only way he knew to direct it was with righteous indignation. He applied his source of control like a mallet, forcing the contents of his magical core outwards. He felt the sudden rush of power and watched as Hermione's eyes widened in panic. With that signal he stopped the flood of power leaking into the room and watched as a few sparks dissipated into the castle.

"That was brilliant Harry! Terrifying... but brilliant! It was one thing to feel it, but to see you as you made it happen is something else entirely." Hermione said in awe.

"What do you mean, to see me do it?" inquired Harry.

Hermione was clearly excited and thought for a second before responding, "Did you see any of the sparks I had mentioned previously?" Harry nodded his head once and Hermione immediately continued. "If I had to guess they must be concentrated pockets of magic dissipating into the environment. Well those sparks are nothing compared to what is happening around you. When you pushed your magic into the environment, magic flowed between your fingers and limbs and the environment. It looks similar to how electricity flows around a Tesla Coil."

Harry tried to bring an image to mind, but drew up blank. "What does that mean in English, Hermione?"

"It's kind of like lightening, but instead of the bolts coming from clouds, they generated from you in rapid succession. Better?" replied Hermione with an air of indignation.

"Wicked! Though I'll have to take your word for it for now, I think I better go to bed before I pass out. The whole process if fairly draining." Harry said as he stifled a yawn. "I am struggling just to stay standing after doing that twice. I'll see you in the morning, and don't worry, I won't be surprising you again with that tonight. Good night, Hermione" Harry said as he slowly shuffled out of the room.

***HPGoBP***

The next day Harry was eager to continue his training, but before he left for the Burrow, Hermione asked that he stop by Madam Pomfrey's office when he returned in the afternoon. She felt that she may want to study the effects of Harry's latest skill and its impact on his core. He quickly agreed before grabbing a quick breakfast and flooing to see Ginny. He was so excited to tell her about his discovery, that he nearly left his broom at Hogwarts.

When he got the Burrow though, he temporarily forgot his own excitement. Ginny was frantic with worry. She had received and owl from the Puddlemere United Reserve Team asking for her to come tryout. A chaser had become ill and they needed to start training a replacement straight away. Because of this, the tryouts were in about an hour and her nerves were kicking in. Harry pulled her into a hug and sat her down at the kitchen table. Upon finding out she hadn't eaten breakfast, Harry immediately started cooking eggs and toast on autopilot from his days with the Dursleys.

As Harry cooked, Ginny started making a list of all she had to remember to take with her for the tryouts. As breakfast finished, Harry glanced at the list that was nearly a foot of parchment long. He rolled his eyes and went to the shed to get her quidditch gear. This consisted of mainly her broom, a broom service kit, chaser gloves, and her quidditch robes. Upon his return he sat at the table and started waxing her broom and making sure it was in top condition for the tryouts. He looked over to see Ginny still contemplating her list as he handed her the broom and then kissed her. It was enough to calm her down to the point of rational thought. "Ginny, I've brought all you need. You'll be brilliant and they will be lucky to have you. Odds are you will be shooting against Oliver Wood, so remember he favors blocking the right and center hoops. That means when in doubt, shoot left. Got it?"

Ginny looked at him slightly calmer and simply gave a him a head nod back. "I'm nervous Harry. What if this is my only shot?"

"It won't be, but you'll be fine. That is as long as you get there on time. You better get going, and good luck!" Ginny gave him a quick kiss goodbye and was off. Harry was left to clean up the kitchen and then head back to Hogwarts.

Since he was back early he decided to find Hermione and Madam Pomfrey. He navigated the halls until he reached the hospital wing. As he entered, Harry could tell he had walked in on a discussion about himself. Since they were exploring uncharted territory, it was a more of a brainstorming session than a lecture. He decided not to interrupt as they seemed to have a lot of momentum at the moment.

Hermione was insistent that the key to the situation is the lead she had found while in the room of requirement and started to run with it. "What if the core you have been monitoring for the last seven years was actually tied to the Horcrux? The prophecy stated that Harry would be marked Voldemort's equal. What if when Harry was accidentally made a horcrux, he was given an identical magical core to Voldemort's marking him Voldemort's equal? That is why the holly wand, which was a sister wand to Voldemort's, would have chosen Harry. When he is using magic from that core, the holly wand responds, but when he is using the core he was born with, the power the Dark Lord knows not, his magic feels stunted."

Harry decided to jump in and make his presence known; "But when I repaired my wand, it still recognized me. If Voldemort attacked his own horcrux when he tried to kill me, wouldn't that core have been destroyed?" asked Harry.

"It's hard to say. It is thought that the soul requires at least a modicum of magic to survive. Purebloods would deny it, but it is thought even muggles have a spark of magic in them. The amount is so insignificant that their bodies wall it off and stop them from accessing the tiny bit of magic they possess. This is a protection mechanism that works in all humans. In wizards this can be seen in those who have "burned out" their core from magical exhaustion. If a wizard's magical levels get too low, the core will shut down and protect the necessary amount of magic to sustain life. This prevents the levels from regenerating and the witch or wizard will never be able to use magic again, but they will remain alive. If a strong enough spell is cast before the wizard's core can react, the caster will die. I go into this explanation because it is not fully known how the killing curse works. The leading theory is that the spell drains all of the magic out of the target's core. It's important to note that it would NOT have to destroy the core in the process. In Harry's case, the core maintaining Voldemort's soul was drained. This destroyed the soul fragment, but since it was not Harry's magical core, he would have been left alive." theorized Madam Pomfrey.

"That all make sense, but how did the magic get into the extra core to begin with? My wand always worked before, so how was I using Voldemort's magic instead of the magic from my true core? Also, why does that core show up first when people are assessing my health and why did Voldemort's curse hit that core instead of my own?" interjected Harry.

"I think the first questions are the harder to answer. The last two could be related. When Voldemort made you into a horcrux, it was by accident. The soul fragment embedded itself into you superficially. This means during assessments, it was easier for the Mensio magias facultas to assess that core because it wasn't as deeply embedded into you. Likewise, since the horcrux core was more superficial, the killing curse reached it first. As far as how you used the magic from that core and how it refilled, I can only assume the soul fragment was feeding off your magical reserves like a parasite. This caused a connection between the two cores. If the connection was directly or indirectly through Voldemort himself, I do not know. But we do know that you had a connection to Voldemort, so it is possible that all of the horcruxes were connected in some way. If you had been tapping into that connection and subsequent core accidentally, the wand would have responded to the difference in magic. We also do not know how low the parasitic core was keeping your true core's magical levels. It could have been that it was always near empty, so you tapped into the magical reserve of the Voldemort core." deduced Hermione.

"So are you saying that it is possible that as long as I live Voldemort could come back, since there is a remnant of his magical core in me?" asked Harry .

"Not at all. Voldemort himself drained all magic from that core, eliminating the magic that sustained his soul fragment. While you may have two cores, you are only you. If someone else had used the killing curse on you, his magic might have tried to fight the spell like the other horcruxes did and you may have died, but since he was the caster, the curse went to the easiest target. We will never know at this point, but it is my belief that Voldemort's insistence on being the one to kill you, led to his ultimate demise." chimed in Madam Pomfrey. "Now my apprentice here, tells me that you have recently achieved a new level of control on your magic. I have been warned it is quite alarming to see and feel, but if you are willing, we would like to watch your magical levels as you perform the feat. Is that ok with you Mr. Potter?"

"Of course, but it is quite draining, so your analysis will have to be quick." said Harry. Hermione had been relegated to watch the drained core while Madam Pomfrey would watch his true core. As they cast the spells, Harry prepared his state of mind but was quickly interrupted by a startled Hermione.

"Madam Pomfrey, you need to see this." stated Hermione.

"What's wrong my dear? is everything ok?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

Hermione ended her spell and allowed Madam Pomfrey to recast her own. "Very interesting. I think we may find our experiment more intriguing than initially planned." Harry gave the pair a look of concern and intrigue, but allowed them to continue. "I feel the answer to your question may lie in the moments ahead, Mr. Potter. Hermione, please watch his main core and we can proceed." added Madam Pomfrey.

Harry was feeling left out of the loop, but didn't argue. Once Hermione cast mensio magias facultas Harry tried to slip into the right state of mind. Suddenly he felt the torrent of power rushing from him as he pressed his magic into his surroundings. This time he was able to stay more observant and noticed the sparks flying to nearby objects. He turned a bit farther and caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. A storm raged around his body. His eyes glowed with an ethereal magic that was terrifying to behold and lightening radiated from his being. He noticed his scar was illuminated and glowing with the magical lightening as well. As he held the feeling a moment more, a stream of magic shot from him and struck his likeness in the mirror in the head right where he had been staring the moment before. Anticipating that the mirror would shatter, he abruptly released his control on his magic. He waited a second for a crash that never came.

"That was extraordinary Mr. Potter. What were your findings Hermione?" inquired Madam Pomfrey.

"I would say he was able to drain about a quarter of his magic in a matter of seconds. It's hard to be exact since his primary core has so many colors. The opaque colors representing his magical stores, just seem to slowly fade into the translucent empty space of his core. And what did you see?" asked Hermione.

"There was a small influx of magic in the beginning, but it was barely noticeable. Right before Harry released his efforts, there was a surge. I would not say his extra core is a quarter full at this point, but maybe somewhere around fifteen percent. The bulk of that came in the last seconds of Harry's efforts. Did you do something different before you quieted your magic Mr. Potter?" added Madam Pomfrey.

"I didn't do anything intentionally, I noticed my reflection in the mirror and could see that my scar was alight with the discharged magic. That's when a bolt of magic shot towards the mirror and seemed to strike my scar. I thought the mirror was going to break, so I stopped forcing my magic outwards." chimed in Harry.

Madam Pomfrey quickly took over the conversation in an extremely matter of fact tone. "What you did today could be extremely dangerous to your health Mr. Potter. You will need to learn control of this process and should not try this exercise more than twice a day for a similar intervals as you just did. If you have performed a lot of magic throughout the day, you should further limit this skill as you could risk burning out your true core. That being said this has a significant potential to increase your stores of magic since you have managed to divert some of your magic into your back up core."

Hermione jumped into the conversation rather excitedly "Can you try using the holly wand now Harry?"

Harry took the wand and cast a patronus. The stag shot out of his wand, and his magic flowed freely through the wand once again. "My magic doesn't feel stunted anymore." said Harry.

"Harry would you be up for one more experiment? All you will have to do is cast that spell one more time with each of you wands while Hermione and I measure your magic levels." added in Madam Pomfrey.

They proceeded with the experiment to find that Harry would preferentially use his true core when using the elder wand, while his holly wand generally used magic from his extra core. These findings lent credence to Hermione's original hypothesis and the group decided they had enough excitement for the day. As they proceeded to dinner, they excited discussed the possibilities surrounding their findings.