The Taste Of Your Magic Chapter 14, a harry potter fanfic

Harry was excited. This was it, the beginning of everything. In just a matter of minutes he would be receiving his Hogwarts letter, and then a few scant months later he would be at King's Cross Station sitting in the Hogwarts Express with all the young, impressionable students.

He was sitting at the table with his aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon Dursley for the first time in his life, and feeling very very glad he had been taken safely away by Bella. A few curses and charms had been tweaked and added to make them act as though everything was normal to keep up the charade, with Bella very unhappy that she had to postpone their nightmare for another time.

Dudley, still under the blood magic that made him look like Harry, was safely locked up in the cupboard under wards and a magical coma. Probably the best thing that ever happened to him, Harry thought.

It was true; Dudley looked like a walking corpse. His thin body was underfed and scrawny, covered with bruises and scrapes. His mind had been filled with memories of harsh chores, beatings, and 'Harry Hunting' where the other children would chase and bully him. Funnily enough it was led by his little brother, a fat, bloated thing called Dudley Dursley who was, unknown to his family, the Second.

Ironic how things turned out.

Harry had thought that perhaps they should send Dudley the first in his place, just to see the look on Dumbledore's face when he realised what he had condemned a child to. Unfortunately, they had not planned for this as he himself would not receive a letter in that case. Besides, the name Harry Potter was famous, there was no point in wasting it.

So he sat at the table, trying to choke down his single slice of toast while he waited for a Professor to deliver his letter and whisk him off to Diagon Alley.

Food. How did people stand it? All kinds of strangely textured matter turning mushy and lumpy in their mouths as it mixed with saliva while they chewed, then forcing the resulting glob of foulness down their throats only to be expelled as even more foul waste later.

It was utterly disgusting. He would never get the hang of it. The sisters had let him get away without eating all these years right up until just after his tenth birthday. Since then he had been training himself to ingest food and act normally, but it just went completely against his nature.

After the first time, he vanished the contents of his stomach. Never again.

Liquids he could cope with. He had been drinking magic-infused breast milk his whole life, but now he had added other liquids to his diet. Strange how he now knew the difference between hunger and thirst.

A small noise announced the arrival of the mail. Vernon looked up to order the brat to go get it, but found him already headed for the door.

Harry collected the mail and quickly spotted the thicker envelop. He hid it in his expanded pocket and passed the rest of the mail on, waiting for any minute now when Minerva Mcgonagall or Albus Dumbledore, or perhaps on of the other professors to knock on the door to explain the letter and give him a more detailed explanation.

Nothing more happened. Breakfast was finished, Vernon went to work, and the others went about their day. Harry opened and read the letter under a few notice-me-not charms, everything was as expected. A typical Hogwarts letter.

What was going on? Where were they?

After an hour of waiting, Harry decided this was ridiculous. He went out the back door where a sleek black bird flew to his right shoulder and nibbled on his collar. The coast was clear. A glossy white bird, the mirror of the other, landed on his left shoulder moments later.

He held the birds gently in place and turned on the spot, concentrated, and disapparated with a small pop to arrive in their den. The black bird morphed into Bella and the silvery white one into Cissy. Harry burst into a long suppressed rant.

"What's going on? Surely they don't plan to leave it at that! Every first student from each family gets a visit from the staff! And I'm meant to be practically Muggleborn! And half beaten to death, too, apparently!"

Bella growled out at that. "Dumbledore's gone mad. Absolutely snapped."

"No, no I don't think he has." Everyone turned to look at Cissy. She went on, a little defensively at their glares.

"Think about it. Harry would have had even less information than the meanest Muggleborn. We know this as his replacement hasn't even been told about magic. He would have been completely dependant on whoever Dumbledore sends. I think Dumbledore is planning to wait until just before the start of term, giving 'Harry' much less time to take in the revelation or to discover more information about the wizarding world.

"This set up also allows much greater control over the experiences Harry might have had in Diagon Alley were he given more time to explore. Why, he might have even bumped into a couple beautiful witches willing to train him up."

Bella snickered. Harry nodded along before asking his question.

"What do we do now?"

Cissy smiled. "What do you think, Harry? We have several options."

He considered this. It was not uncommon for the sisters to turn choices into lessons.

"I could live with the Dursleys until the start of term, playing along with whatever encounters Dumbledore sets up. I could reply to the letter and pretend to have some knowledge of things, which might or might not surprise Dumbledore as he has had no contact with the Dursleys except for minuscule updates from the Squib down the road. They might not send a professor at all in that case.

"I could invent a wizard, witch or family that took me in or tutored me, or even actually memory charm a family into thinking the same. Though this might, no, it would fall apart under closer scrutiny, which Dumbledore is likely to give."

He smirked. "Or I could have run away, and been found by a couple of beautiful witches who took pity on a poor little boy?" He ended on a hopeful note.

Bella sighed. She so wanted to go along with that, to be able to just announce their association and be with him in public, but it would never work. Narcissa sighed, too, followed by Harry. They all knew there wasn't really a choice.

No one bothered talking about it, they just went to the bed and had a proper goodbye. Harry fed from both of them with even more zeal than usual, and they cuddled for a while until they simply couldn't put it off any longer.

Harry needed to return to the Dursleys to get into character, a much more difficult feat than he expected, and be there just in case Dumbledore made a move.

Narcissa had more political webs to weave and solidify her position further before term started. She had taken on a part-time position in Hogwarts several years ago as something of a counsellor/tutor for the upper years. Dumbledore had some hidden concerns but was eager to give her a 'second chance', and a distraction from her missing son. It helped that she had applied the year before that, was excellent at her job, had well known reasons to hate certain darker families, and would have no official contact with one Harry Potter for at least several years even after he did eventually arrive.

Lemon drops laced with subtle truth potions and compulsions gave even better evidence that she would never work against Harry Potter, though she didn't realise this for some time afterwards.

Bellatrix had to go to America to learn the latest news from Sirius about the condition of their puppet army and status of their plans. They had decided America was the best target with its distance both physically and politically from Magical Britain. Sirius and the doped up and cursed prisoners-turned-soldiers raided the wealthy magical families, and sometimes businesses, avoided attracting too much international attention, and followed Narcissa's plans of making wealth in the Muggle world.

A little magic, appropriately warded against the authorities, made things so much more profitable. Muggle gold, jewels, and materials were just as valuable while lacking Goblin tracking, and their devices held many possibilities when combined with clever runes and enchantments.

While the wealth was mildly interesting to Bella, and the devices fun to tinker with, she was going there to train their pawns and some of the newer recruits that inevitably showed up wanting a place to put their less legal skills and inclinations to work.

A few pairs of extremely well, and secretly, made Vanishing Cabinets between Sirius' hideout and the Lestrange manor made things quick and easy compared to the half-dozen odd illegal portkeys needed to make the distance and confuse any trail.

So they said their goodbyes and vanished with a pop, a flash of blue, and the close of a cabinet door.

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Dumbledore would die a horrible, painful death for this. Two weeks after the first letter, two entire weeks, and still there was no visit from Hogwarts. Harry had not responded to the first letter as the owl had been chased off by Vernon Dursley, thinking that to send it by another owl would ruin the cover he was trying to keep.

He should have sent it and let his cover be damned.

More and more letters had been sent, with the Dursleys doing their utmost to keep him from them. At least they had let him have an actual bedroom now. Not that he had actually slept in that filthy cupboard, using his personal vanishing cabinet to the flat in Diagon Alley before apparating to their Den, but still.

Besides, the cupboard was pretty full with his doppelgänger, Dudley the first, in there.

Eventually Harry had gotten sick of the thousands of letters and snuck one away to reply in what he hoped was a confused yet excited tone. Writing upside down and left handed to mangle his normally more elegant handwriting, too. Just in case.

The owls and the letters had stopped, but still no one came! Narcissa still thought Dumbledore was taking his time and would have someone show up at the last hour. Well the last hour of his patience was rapidly approaching so whoever it was better get a move on fast before he-

Suddenly a massive fist burst through the front door in some demented version of a knock.

Great, Harry thought. The half-giant.

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Hagrid was an absolute fool. And a drunkard. And an idiot. And an unforgivable loudmouth. What was he thinking, announcing him like that? He might as well cast a gigantic glowing arrow pointing at his scar, following him wherever he went.

And then in Gringotts, only giving up the key to his trust vault! As if his parents weren't dead, and he not the last living Potter! As if he didn't have full access! Though that was probably all Dumbledore's fault. As if the overly large oaf would have the intelligence to attempt to steal from him.

Though that fit in with his plans just fine, come to think of it.

The journey down to the deeper vaults was just as exhilarating as the first time, though this was the first time he had made the journey in human form. He had made the trip several times as a dog and a bird, courtesy of Sirius' and Narcissa's innate animagus forms. Bella's innate form of a sleek black panther was too large for the cart, and would have attracted far too much attention. The dog was bad enough.

Discovering the ability to imbue another's inner magic with other pathways was a great boon. Now Sirius, Bella and Cissy had three forms each, shared with each other. They each preferred their innate form and found it easier to assume, but could use the others gifted to them just as well.

That had taken almost as long as copying the transformations for himself at first, but it got easier with practice. Now he could help them master new skills as he learned them himself.

Harry, naturally, had all three animal forms too. Unfortunately he seemed to lack an innate form himself, likely an unplanned consequence of copying the forms of others. Or perhaps he simply could not find it yet under the impressions of the other adopted forms.

In any case, the ride down was more fun without the threat of being caught on the draft. Harry had removed a sizeable amount of gold into one of the charmed bags, adding much more when no one was looking. The most interesting part of the whole excursion with Hagrid was the stop to collect whatever it was that Dumbledore had stored in one of the security vaults.

Harry had, naturally, attempted to sneak a look or perhaps even steal it, but the object was highly magical and heavily warded. Even the most subtle attempt at theft would likely have failed against any one of the numerous wards. And it was being guarded by a half-giant. Dumbledore must value this object greatly.

They purchased his wand at Ollivander's, where he was intrigued to learn his new Holly and Phoenix feather wand was the brother of Voldemort's. It almost made up for the fact that his new wand was made from Holly. Bella would tease him mercilessly for this. He, the next Dark Lord, with one of the most Light-orientated wand woods in existence? Known mostly for it's protective nature and aptitude for driving away dark spirits?

Nope.

This settled it, he would learn wandcrafting and make himself a second wand, not merely a backup, more suited to his desires. This would be his first true wand, but he would have two. Why limit himself to one handed duelling? An empty hand could be used more easily for more subtle wandless magic, but hand gestures were not strictly necessary. The second true wand would be very useful, as no matter how skilled, wandless magic was weaker than it would have been channeled through a properly made conduit.

Fortunately the Phoenix tail feather core would overcome the Holly's lack of Dark Arts inclination with it's incredible versatility. While it would take longer to master, Phoenix feather had the greatest range and depth of possible magicks. Actually now that he thought about it, this was probably for the best. One wand for school, another for his hobbies. One best suited for defence, the other for offence.

As he reached this conclusion and slipped the wand into his left hand, he felt it warm as if in appreciation of his acceptance. Yes, he thought, this was a good thing after all. Learning to use it left handed would also make his Hogwarts lessons more challenging and worthwhile, while freeing his right hand for the deadlier wand to come.

They went from store to store picking up all the standard required first year equipment, though with a few additions. Harry made sure to appear very interested in learning everything there was to know about magic, from reading books in the store to asking dozens of questions on every subject. A love of learning and books would account for any information a normal first year wouldn't have.

So he bought additional books and dragged the half-giant to a few extra stores. By the end he had replaced his standard trunk with a more expensive, professionally charmed one, with an Undetectable Expansion Charm on it's single compartment. It's lid opened to reveal what appeared to be a standard trunk, with perhaps a little more storage space than logic would dictate.

By tapping his wand, or a finger, against a particular spot on the underside of the lid, however, the compartment would fold into itself like an accordion to reveal a ladder leading into a large, well furnished room. Basically, a false bottom covering most of the expansion charm.

The fake was normally sized at twice what it appeared, and contained miscellanea in case of curious schoolmates.

The actual compartment underneath was a large room that was a combination of study, library and storeroom. The furniture had cost extra and was brought in and installed from a variety of stores, but was worth it. Inside this main room, lining the base of the back left corner and lying side by side were a dozen additional single compartment trunks. By not combining them all into the one main trunk as separate compartments, Harry was able to save quite a lot of gold and also be able to access them all at the same time, without having to laboriously switch between them.

Two were pure black inside and held blank Undetectable Expansion Charms, making them something like a void with massive internal space that is not available nor noticeable to any save himself and any he chose. Rather like the Fidelius Charm, none could discover it without his telling them. He would use one as a storage room and simply summon the desired objects out from it, the other as a messy library for less handled books.

The third trunk was a walk in wardrobe fit for a lord, though mostly empty for now. He would add some of his clothes from home later. The fourth was a training room complete with duelling platform and obstacle course. Another was a potions room set up with stasis charmed cabinets and ventilation charms. The sixth was set up for various rituals and runic enchantments.

The six remaining trunks, to the right after a placeholder in the corner, contained similarly sized rooms, though completely empty. He could use them as he wished.

All inhabitable areas including the empty trunks were carpeted and comfortably decorated in a variety of colours. Harry didn't particularly care which, so long as they weren't offensively bright or ugly. The dozen secondary trunks were shaped and cushioned so they actually appeared to be a comfortable bench to lounge on, a rather clever disguise. A half dozen large charmed windows gave more 'natural' light in addition to the magical chandelier, and could show any of several scenes depending on the chooser's mood.

The single greatest thing about the trunk was that it held a perfectly concealed and protected Vanishing Cabinet. It and it's twin were protected by some of the most powerful of wards and charms known to wizardkind, up to and including the Fidelius Charm, with Tinker as the Secret Keeper. Ordered not to tell anyone, and hardly communicating anyway, the solemn house-elf was perfect for the role in that he could not accidentally reveal the Secret by dragging someone along through it.

By accessing it's portal linked to it's twin, Harry could travel to and from the Lestrange Manor without anyone in Hogwarts knowing. He could then apparate wherever he pleased.

It was his link to home.

Hagrid did not know exactly what the new trunk contained, having not paid attention when Harry purchased it. Fortunately he missed the detail of it having been commissioned months prior. That might have had something to do with a few strong compulsion charms Harry cast on him, though.

All Dumbledore, or anyone else for that matter, would know is that Harry bought so many books and interestingly charmed objects that he had to go back for a larger, expanded trunk. Hardly worth noticing, beyond reinforcing the idea that Harry Potter was a lover of books and learning. It was not uncommon, after all.

So Harry covertly paid the eager store owner before casting an Obliviate on him, removing certain details of their transaction from the greedy man's memory. All the man would remember was performing a certain, harmless task for a special client and being paid for the service and the anonymity of his forgetfulness. Gold in hand and no harm done, who was he to complain?

Such was the way things were handled for certain wealthy, private persons.

It would be years before the overlapping Obliviations, used just in case by a certain wary young man, began effecting his short term memory.

In the meantime, Harry noted with no small measure of glee that the spells he used were coming far more easily with his new wand then ever before.

It was amazing how much of a difference a matched wand made to his spell casting. His wandless magic, while powerful and now quite skilled, was more like trying to cut down a tree with his bare hands by comparison. Previous practice wands were like blunt instruments, but this wand, his wand, was like Goblin-forged steel honed to a perfect edge.

All the easier to use for the strength built up to compensate for it's lack.

Yes, he decided, this wand was worthy. It was interesting to feel exactly how alive it was as it warmed further in his hand. Previous practice wands with their dulled cores were simply conduits to send his magic through, focusing it. But this wand was practically sentient. He could feel its magic, feel it swirl inside and through its wooden case, feel it pulse with something just shy of emotion as he accepted it as his own and came to take pride in it.

Yes, he would be taking up wand crafting one day. Another few books to read before the start of term, it seemed.

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Another filler-y unedited chapter, compliments of no sleep. Sorry guys. It's getting there, though! Besides, you just gotta do the whole "expanded trunk of everything" thing. At least I put a little of my own twist on it, I think anyway. We saw expanded stuff brought into an expanded car, let alone shops and such, in canon so I figure trunks within trunks makes perfect sense.

Any thoughts on how Harry and his girls view Snape? How does Snape see the now single Ms Blacks? Particularly the blonde. How will Snape view a Ravenclaw Harry?