It's summer solstice down under, so I'm giving you all an extra chapter this week in celebration!

Happy Summer Solstice to all by Southern Hemisphere brothers and sisters! And Happy Winter Solstice to all of our Northern brethren.

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Harry didn't remember of going back to the cupboard. He didn't remember disarming his wards or re-arming them. He didn't remember getting changed and crawling into bed around his warm jar of bluebell flames or pulling his mum's blanket tightly around him, over his head.

In fact, in the morning, when he woke up surrounded by books and completed homework and study notes with little no recollection of studying at all. He felt cold and exhausted, and empty.

He must have studied, he wouldn't have been able to sleep after that. So he must have studied. Because school work was safe. Safe and predictable and cold. School work he could manage. Schoolwork stopped his mind thinking. Anywhere was better than being in his head. So he must have done it. And while he didn't remember it, the names and dates in his notes felt familiar now.

He must have worked late into the night, falling asleep on his books, but he didn't feel rested at all.

Now that the first task was over, Harry had given himself a week off before he tackled the egg. He'd buried himself in his reading, studying and other projects like working on his trunk, working on the protection wristbands he's been toying with, writing to Bill and Charlie, studying traditions and etiquette as well as the Goblin books. This proved a good distraction from everything over the weekend. And the books Greengrass had recommended, when he'd retrieved them, were fascinating. Much better than the intro books. It was a bit of a relief to just burry himself in normal things for a change.

Harry spent most of the morning huddled in his cupboard, with a hot jar of Bluebell flames in his lap, and plenty of blankets around his shoulders, studying. It was almost December, and the lower dungeons were getting colder and colder. He could constantly see his breath in the air now and had taken to casting many warming charms over himself all the time, so he stayed toasty and warm. He'd decided to keeping a jar of Bluebell flames with him at all times now and had taken to wearing layers and layers of clothing, along with a scarf and gloves everywhere he went. It also had the added bonus of hiding bruises and marks leftover or still healing from the bullying, and hexing.

Thought it was Saturday Bill wouldn't be at the shack until after lunch, some curse having escaped the night before, keeping him up late. When Bill did met Harry in the shrieking shack, however he immediately said, "Send Charlie a proper letter, will you? He's worried about you, he sent me this."

He pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it over. Harry winced, cursing his transparency. He didn't want anyone to worry. He didn't want anyone to notice, to see, to see him.

"Bill,

You see Harry on Saturday, yeah? Give the kid a hug for me, will you? He needs it. No matter what he says, he needs it. There's something he's not telling us, and he's shut down. I'm worried. Talk to him please? Or bring your mirror so I can, or just get him to write about something more than books, will you?

Love ya bro,

Charlie"

Harry frowned, his eyes prickling, betrayingly. He scowled.

"I'm fine," he said, "really! It's just hard sometimes. I'm okay."

"Really?" Bill said, "because I agree, your letters were off this week."

"I'm okay," Harry replied in what he hoped was a voice more confident than he felt.

Bill opened his arms, but Harry shook his head, his jaw clenched, "if you hug me, I will cry. I don't want to cry. I have too much to do," He mumbled, pulling out his notes, "I may never stop." He muttered to himself more quietly.

Bill sighed, but said, "he was worried about you on Wednesday too, he told me about both of your meltdowns."

Harry nodded, "I fell asleep on him too," he admitted to Bill, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, and deflecting.

Bill chuckled, "yeah, he's a bit like that."

Harry smiled weakly, "best sleep I had all month. I'll be fine though."

Bill snorted, but Harry changed the subject, "oh, I have your birthday present here too! I won't see you tomorrow so I thought I'd give it to you now!" Harry exclaimed, pulling out a thin package from his bag.

"Thanks, Harry!" Said Bill with a grin, "you didn't have to though."

"No, but I wanted to," Harry said, letting Bill hug him very briefly.

"Can I open it?" Bill asked eagerly, poking at the paper, childishly.

Harry laughed and nodded.

Inside Harry had wrapped one of the sharp flint daggers he had made. He had made a smooth handle out of horn and wrapped leather from a squirrel he had caught in one of his snares and had used runes to instil the blade with strength to never break and an ever-sharp edge.

"Brilliant Harry!" Bill said, carefully testing the blade's edge, "where'd you get it?"

Harry smiled proudly, "Firenze is teaching me the ways of the forest. He taught me how to make them."

"You made this?" Bill asked incredulously, "they are teaching you? Willingly?"

"Yes on both counts. I'm very lucky. We have a mutually beneficial system in place." Harry explained.

"Well done. This is a really brilliant knife, thank you," Bill said hugging Harry tightly for a moment.

"So," Harry said, pulling out his books, "before we start on everything else, can you look over my warding notes? The ones on my trunk were broken into. This is what I've done to make them better."

They spent the afternoon picking away at his new warding project after Harry had reluctantly admitted the wards on his bed had been broken too. They went over various detection spells, some for checking objects like Bill used for Cursebreaking, and some for testing things for poison and spell work in food and drink.

"Now how's your Occlumency travelling?" Bill asked when they'd put away Harry's notes, "having any luck finding the heart chamber through meditation?"

"Not much luck overall. I still can't feel my magic, but I'm starting to get a sickly squirmy sensation inside when I try to feel it now. I think it's stopping me getting to the heart chamber." Harry explained.

Bill hummed for a moment, "okay, keep practising. I didn't expect you to get it straight away. I think you'll get there. The blocks are just making it harder. But not impossible. Keep practising feeling you're magic and sinking into your mind. The more mental and magical self-awareness you have, the better."

Harry nodded, "what will I do if I get cornered by Dumbledore though? I won't know if he's using it on me? His magic is so powerful I won't really realise he's doing it. It's overwhelming, and I can't feel spells interacting with me anyway."

"The best we can do at the moment, other than not being alone with him, and not meeting his eye, is working on other techniques of mental discipline to keep him out," Bill said pulling a book out of his pocket, resizing it and flipping thought it.

"If possible, it may be best to try and restrict your thoughts around him. Try to push things aside and not think about them too hard," Bill started, "I know it's hard but if you're not actively thinking about it, the thoughts will sit deeper in your mind and be harder to get to without you noticing."

Harry nodded, thinking of how he often pushed aside emotions, "that sounds do-able. Can we practice that focusing thing we tried last week?" He asked, "where you focus hard on one thing?"

"Yes, how'd you go with it?" Bill asked.

"Okay," Harry said, "it's a bit like meditating. It's hard to do other things at the same time, though." He said

"It is. Ot helps when you can access the heart chamber, you can withdraw your mind inwards and keep the outer mind focused on one thing as an outer protection." Bill explained, "keep practising it. it will help you with finding the heart chamber, and your mental discipline, which is what Occlumany is all about."

"So I guess it's a bit like muggle mindfulness?" Harry asked, "you want to be present only in the moment, not in the past, or in the future, but fully focused on the moment at hand and what you're doing. That way that is the only thing taking up your outer mind and that's what anyone will see if they go nosing about." Harry hypothesised.

"Exactly." Bill said, "once you have that, it's easier to find and retreat to the heart chamber and Occlumency gets much easier from there."

Harry nodded, and they practised that for a while, Harry focusing hard of different things, a crack in the floorboard, focusing intently on writing out the alphabet, imagining he was flying, staring at a point on the ceiling, on his own breathing, all while Bill used Legilimency on him.

Some worked better than others, and the more they practiced, the better he got. Not that he could tell how successful he was, but he was finding it easier to focus intently on one thing, or just focus only on what he was doing, and not thinking of anything else at the same time.

It was also rather stilling, rather grounding. He liked it. It wouldn't stop people getting in, but it would keep them from seeing anything too incriminating if he was careful.

It still left him with a headache from the strain, but when Bill told him he had improved afterwards, and to keep up the good work, he felt oddly pleased. Since when had he cared for others approval? He'd never gotten it before, but it was... nice?

"Right," Bill said, moving on to the next thing they had to go over that afternoon, "so the Slytherins will be teaching you etiquette and how to act like a lord?"

Harry nodded, "we start next week, but they wouldn't talk about what the old ways are and I can't find any books on them yet. No-one talks about it."

"Right. Let's look at that then," Bill said, after a moment, an odd quality in his voice, "we'll leave etiquette to them for the moment and look at culture and traditions."

"You've heard of Paganism in the muggle world?" Bill asked wondering where to start on the huge topic that was wizarding religions and the old ways.

"yes," Harry said, "read about it in the library in primary school. My relatives hated the word magic, so I tried to read all I could on it. Paganism is an umbrella term for many nature-based religions that often worships several gods and goddesses. Muggle Witchcraft is a big part of that, but it's different. It's a lot more about intent only and less about magic like we have. Their Witchcraft is gender-neutral as well, they're all witches. I wanted to be a witch when I was a kid. I wanted to work magic and make my world a better place, like they talked about in the pagan books."

"Well, modern muggle paganism came from the ancient times before the statute of secrecy, and came from the old magical religions." Bill explained, "everyone here used to be called witches too until politics came into it hundreds of years ago, and they decided it was too feminine for a male to be called a witch." Bill shook his head in mild disgust.

"Here in magical Britain, many people have turned away from being actively religious despite it once being a big part of magical practice and everyday life. It became less popular during the rise if Gridalwald and people started seeing the old ways as dark or evil as Gridalwald was."

"The old ways are not only referring to the old basic traditions and etiquette of the Wizarding world. They also refer to the old religions and practices of worshipping of the land and magic that we have followed for hundreds of years." Bill went on, "it's changed a bit over the years, and while it's not as popular as it once was, and it is still important. But it's also complicated." He paused.

"Complicated like quidditch is?" Harry asked, "As in, it's actually relatively straight forward but people think it's complex, or complex as in its actually quite convoluted and there are many different factors."

Bill laughed and said, "the latter one. Now there are a few sides of it. There are the old ways and the Darke. Then, there is the Lyght. But it's not that simple. The old ways are not always referring to the Darke, though you cannot have Darke, without the old ways. But you can have the Lyght without the old ways however."

And you can't explain the Darke without also explaining the Lyght." Bill went on, "and while politics enters into it, it's a belief system, with traditions. It's a way of life. It is not politics. Though it does influence politics and there are political factions named after them.

Now, today most people are neutral in terms of Darke and Lyght. But Neutral is very similar to Lyght. The Lyght believe that in the beginning there were duel deities, magic personified. They made the world and watched over it. Then they gave their magic to wizards. Magic is a gift from the god and the goddess.

"Huh?" Harry asked frowning, "so are those gods still around?" he was not sure he liked the idea of gods, especially not if they were like the ones in the mainstream muggle religions that he'd read about in primary school. Those gods seemed to have conditions to their love and seemed so controlling and manipulative. At least the god's churches and books did.

"It depends on how you look at it. They are still worshipped by some, not all, but they're not active beings that control or do anything today according to Lyght beliefs. It is more that they became the magic in people. Magic today, the tool we use, is a bit of the creative force that made the universe and holds it together. That's what makes us wizards, special." Bill said. "That is how the Lyght differs from the Neutrals. Neutrals do not believe in a god or goddess. Of any kind."

"And do they follow nature worship like the pagans?" Harry asked curiously pulling out a notebook and pen.

"Not so much as the Darke. In the old days, the 8 seasonal festivals worshipping the natural cycles were a big thing across the board. Not so much now, at least not by the Lyght. Now it has been rather muggle-ised or 'modernised,' by the Ministry, to the point of outlawing the old celebrations. They've done what the early Christians did to the pagan festivals. They replaced them with more 'modern,' festivals on the same date, to force everyone else to 'toe the line.'

Mostly it's now just celebrating Christmas, which was once Yule, Halloween, which was once Samhain, and Easter which was once Ostara. Some of the others fell away and were forgotten by many. Some were replaced with other smaller celebration that have little of the old magic left in them." Bill explained sounding sad.

"There are still links to the older traditions, but most are very subtle and have fallen away; like the use of mistletoe at yule, having a fire which is remnants of the yule log tradition and easter eggs are remnants of the celebration of life that is what Ostara is all about." Bill said.

"But there's more to it than that isn't there?" Harry asked after a moment, pausing in his note taking.

"Well spotted," Bill said, and Harry hid a pleased smile, as Bill continued, "now the difference is Magic and the way people view magic."

"Really?" Harry asked, "how? And how does that affect the holidays?"

"Well," said Bill, "the Neutrals and the Lyght practice and believe that magic is drawn from within. Say the words and an incantation, and magic is drawn from within, shaped by the words and the incantation to make things happen. It's a set pattern, an algorithm, an equation that is the same every time. It just uses will and internal magic to make the set patterns work.

The Lyght and the Neutrals use set patterns to cast spells. They do not create. One may use arithmancy in spell creation, to find undiscovered patterns but you're discovering what is already there, not creating from scratch." Bill specified.

"They do not use emotions to do their spell work, occasionally joy when necessary for the pattern, like the Patronus. They don't admit it's Darke. They shun any magic too chaotic or too powerful. So no blood magic, rituals are few to none and no sacrificial magic. Magic is calm, controlled, and a tool. It does not feel, it is not sentient. It only exists in the capacity to obey wizards."

Bill then looked at Harry to gauge his reaction. But Harry was frantically taking scribbling.

"Getting back to the holidays," Bill began again, "they used to have important magical rituals worshipping the natural cycle of the world that revered magic. Now the Lyght don't believe in any of them or their importance and the ministry outlawed them in one of their bids to get rid of the Darke.

So the old festivals and ways fell out of practice. While the Lyght observe much of the magical etiquette, they see many of the old traditions and practices as unimportant. So the Lyght, in some sense, follow some of the old ways, when it suits them but not the full extent, and they will nearly always deny it. The Lyght see etiquette as old and outdated, but not the old ways. The old ways is not a term the Lyght really uses or acknowledges. They will often shun any mention of the old ways."

Harry, still taking hurried notes, looked fascinated. He paused and thought about it all for a moment, then said, "that sounds sad. But if the Lyght believe magic is a pattern or a formula, not a living thing, what about magical creatures and plants?" He asked, "they're living, and magical. How can they think magic is so cold and wooden?" He asked with a puzzled frown.

"Yes, there are some things that are magical, plants and the like, but it's a different magic from wizard magic, and is still a cold tool, not sentient." Bill explained

Harry frowned, "really? That doesn't make any sense! Magic is magic, of course, it's not cold and unfeeling!"

"And that is what the Darke believes." Bill said, "but, a warning, Lyght is the most prevalent practice and political faction today. The Darke is highly frowned on and is very taboo. It's not talked about, and even the suspicion of being Darke can cause trouble for people, as can the old ways as the two are very closely linked." Bill warned

"Really? Why?" Harry asked, thinking of the reactions of the Slytherins when he had asked about the old ways.

"Well, to understand that, we need to look at the Darke," Bill said, "The Darke, the old ways, are less popular now. Even in Pureblood circles they are fading, with less true believers. The old ways are followed, but there are few truly Darke followers. The Darke draw on internal magic and external magic. The Darke believes that magic is in everything, and it is the universal energy that is in and connects every living thing. (The Lyght merely believe magic is a special type of energy, not that it is in everything.) We believe that it's one and the same."

Bill seemed to wince at the slip, but Harry ignored it (temporarily) and said, "that makes more sense."

Bill gave him an appraising look and continued, "sometimes emotions, will and desire, powers a spell. It's not necessarily just words and intent, though power comes into it too." Bill said, "Intent is super important. Sometimes you don't always need incantations and wand movements. The Darke create. To the Darke magic is more. It is alive and passionate and is a living thing that connects everything. It's the very fabric of the universe that holds everything together." Bill explained, getting more passionate. His voice held reverence, Harry noticed.

"To the Darke, Magic is sacred and sentient, to be respected at all times," Bill went on. "There is only one type of magic, the energy in every living thing. Muggles cannot feel it, Squibs can but cannot wield it and Wizards feel it and wield it. As do other things.' wizard magic, centaur magic and house elf magic are the same. It is all just magic just used and felt differently, same with plants."

"The Darke doesn't necessarily think Muggleborns are trash, but they are naturally weary as they often do not respect the old ways and muggles have historically treated magical's appallingly. That is where their distrust comes from." Bill went on solemnly "another reason the Lyght disagrees with them."

"unlike the Lyght, the Darke sees that magic is sacrifice; be it in energy, or in blood sometimes, or in life, the way your mum gave hers to save yours."

Harry sobered instantly, "she said in her letter, she was Darke, that it was wonderful, but to be careful."

Bill nodded understandingly.

"You're Darke aren't you," Harry said curiously, cautiously.

Bill looked at him for a long minute, "that is not something you ask someone. It's not something you talk about either, except with great digression with those you trust impeccably. It's too risky. But yes. It's not something my parents approve of. And it's something I keep very quiet. I could lose my job, have my home searched for the slightest suspicion, be arrested as a suspect on trumped-up charges. It's pretty serious, Harry. I mean it."

"Oh," Harry breathed, starting to realise the enormity of the trust Bill was placing in him, the risk he was taking even teaching Harry, "sorry. I don't really understand yet why it's so dangerous."

"Well it's like being in Slytherin," Bill said, using the unpopular house as an example, "a few horrible wizards gave that house a bad name, so they're now all seen with more suspicion. They are often punished more harshly, and their actions are judged more harshly and seen automatically in a less positive light. They're always the first to be accused and even when or if, proven innocent, they are still viewed with distrust."

Harry thought about it a moment, "so if people know someone is Darke, they'll automatically think Darke is evil. That it's dark, immoral or that you're doing horrible things, especially is the Darke have beliefs in regards to sacrifice. I bet people will jump to conclusions about that too."

Bill nodded, "just so. Blood magic and sacrifice may not always be harmful, but it has, like anything, the potential for misuse."

"So people frown on it and distrust it." Harry surmised.

"Yes," Bill said, "especially since Gridalwald misused it, and fucked things up for all of us."

"So he gave the Darke a bad name and Voldemort probably didn't help. Was he Darke too?"

"No, but he was dark, and extremest. I'll get to that later. It's different," Bill said.

"So because of them the ministry shuns it and tries to do away with the old ways, making the lives of any Darke practitioners very difficult," Harry guessed, "they could use it as an excuse to lawfully harass you, find reasons to fire you, fine you, arrest you on bogus charges..." Harry said his mind going wild, "be more likely to take bribes and find you guilty even if you're not. They could extend your sentence just because you see magic as the wonders thing it truly is. they could really be horrible to you and get away with it."

"Gasically," Bill surmised glumly.

"Bugger," said Harry, "I won't tell anyone, I promise. No wonder the Slytherins were so dismissive."

"Right." Bill said, "the Darke is actually a tiny community now. Most people know each other, so it's hard to 'get in,' now if you're not born to a family."

"Professor Flitwick lent me a book on it," Harry said slowly, "I meant to read it, and my mum had a book on it too. I'll have to look into them. It sounds really interesting." Harry said and really interesting felt too mundane a word for it.

"Glad you're looking at it with an open mind," Bill said, "let me know if you have any questions."

"What if I'm Darke? Will people know? Will they hate me for it? Because if what you said is true about beleifs, then I am Darke." Harry said, worry bleeding into his voice.

"Don't say that lightly Harry. It's a big deal," Bill said sternly but not unkindly, "don't be too hasty to make that choice. It's a big decision and not one to make on a whim. Once you make that choice, it's like an oath. It's hard to change your mind later. It's very serious. Don't set yourself up to be an oathbreaker."

"Oh, okay, sorry," Harry said feeling uncomfortable.

"Hey, it's fine. You're learning, no-one expects you to know everything strait away. You have every right to question, explore and make mistakes," Bill said slinging an arm around Harry and pulling him into a brief half hug. Harry had to suppress the urge to snuggle into his warmth, "if you do decide to join us, you'll be welcome, but don't take it lightly, and make sure you're doing it for the right reasons." Bill advice.

"Ah, okay, thanks," Harry said thinking a long moment before saying, "but back with the Lyght and their odd view of magic; magic just feels the same," Harry said, "has no one that is Lyght ever felt it? Even I realised that my magic feels the same as a mandrake's magic or a house elve's. Sure it's slightly different, it's clearly elf magic or plant magic, but it's still energy, still magic" Harry said curiously.

"It's not a common gift, being able to feel magic," Bill said, "it's also possible they didn't want to believe that either."

"Now politic wise, there are factions in the Wizengamot supporting different sides and different agendas. There is a faction for the Lyght that follows most of the politeness but does not see the importance of the old traditions and practiced. That's mostly the ministry at the moment. They shun anything Darke and the old ways and err on the side of Lyght and modernising.

There is the Neutrals or the Grey which is neither Lyght nor Darke technically, but err on the side of Darke as it's too dangerous to be openly Darke since Voldemort and Grindelwald. They are traditional followers of the old ways, worship magic, often practice the old religions and customs and believe in magic being sentient. They do not always shun Muggleborns and half bloods. They are all for integration, but the old ways are important and need to be taught first and foremost, as magic is sacred." Bill explained

Harry nodded and guessed, "then there are Dark and Light? The extremists?"

"Exactly," Bill said, "Voldemort, if you can guess, is a Dark extremist. He is all for magical supremacy. The Dark are big believers in etiquette and customs, when it suits them. Which essentially also weakens our culture. They hate muggles and Muggleborns. Darks are not actually that big on the Darke, more just power and supremacy. The ass holes." He added, making Harry giggle.

"Light is basically Dumbledore. Shunning the old ways, the Darke, and the Dark. They believe the old ways, the traditions, the festivals, should be done away with, and the muggle ones should be integrated instead. The muggle ones are better and more modern. They don't have a problem with Purebloods but shun the old ways, Pureblood culture and the Darke and any magical traditions."

Which prompted a further long discussion on Wizarding religion, how gods played into it, and the various beliefs and festivals practised. It was fascinating and enrapturing, and Harry felt like he could sink his teeth into it and belong. Especially when Bill lent him a book on the different gods and goddesses and why people chose to dedicate themselves to one or more.

Many of the old religions that had died out in the modern muggle world were still practised in the Wizarding world and had never really died out. Many wizards believed in a deity, though it was becoming less common, now that the ways of magic and the culture and traditions were not taught in school. Sadly it was becoming more and more common for whole family to forget about the gods and the old traditions.

In no time at all, it seemed, it was time for dinner and Harry was dreading going back up to the school to face everyone. But Bill was pulling him into a hug and he didn't resist this time, just hugged Bill back tightly for a brief moment, hanging on as if Bill was an anchor in a stormy sea, enjoying the warm tingly feeling it sent along his skin.

Harry pulled away shortly, reluctantly, but feeling a bit better than he had before. Not much, but a bit. He fought the urge to sniffle and resolved to write another letter to Charlie that night.

"Keep in touch. Keep working on your Occlumency. Hang in there okay, Harry?" Bill said giving him a second one-armed hug before he disillusioned himself, flew out of the shack's attic window and disapparated.

After Bill left, Harry went back to the Dungeons. He slipped through his wards and spent a good while updating them with the improvements that he and Bill had hashed out, and used a good bit of blood around the door. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep almost anyone out, he thought, as he pulled out his blankets and bedding from his bag. He wouldn't say it was warded tighter and safer than Gringotts, but Harry was pretty confident that it was now close.

He cast a strong cushioning charm on the floor over where he slept, then laid out his blankets and pillow in a little nest. He kept all his school books in his bag still, and his bow and weapons, but put the rest of his clothes on the shelf. His photo album and the little dragons from the task were placed on the shelves above the little door. The little dragons seemed rather pleased to be out of the bag.

He lined his other books upon another shelf, put a stronger alert ward on the door, and then for good measure, on each end of the corridor. If anyone else came near, he would know. He was safe here. His things were safe, he thought with a satisfied sigh, drawing back into this cupboard. It looked a bit more like home now. Especially now Winky had prepared and returned his mother's blanket. It really brightened up the place.

He smiled, stroking a hand over the blanket. Winky had cleansed it of the magic used to break it, had repaired the subtle soothing and warming charms his mother had put on it, then carefully had sown it back together leaving it looking just as it had before. Harry had been so grateful when she'd returned it that she'd burst into tears when he hugged her.

He glanced around the cupboard again and looked at the shelves on the right of the door. With a flick of his wand, they had been reinforced and looked more like a wooden ladder in the wall. The cupboard really was very tall, enough that you could probably stand three of him end to end and still have headspace.

He climbed up to near the top and transfigured some shelves into planks to make a 'floor' and a 'table' so he could use it as a brewing area or a desk. He cast a ventilation spell on the ceiling, for good measure and smiled. Yes, this was the perfect place, really.

He pulled out his notes and Moste Potent Potions, instead of going down to dinner. The purging potions were both in there, as Rodgrip had implied. They were, Harry thought, two of the most complicated potions Harry had ever seen, including the Polyjuice potion.

Luckily both the spell purging potion and the potions purging potion had the same base, and each potion had three parts.

The base was made in two parts that were brewed separately then combined.

There was a healing component and a poison component. The healing part was distilled moon water and powdered unicorn hair and one scraping of a unicorn horn. The poisonous component was aconite root and burning bitterroot syrup. Both were made at the same time and brought to the boil, and after boiling for an hour, it was left to simmer overnight.

Next, they had to be combined. They had to be poured into a new caldron, in a careful steady flow over 3 minutes while stirring twice in a widdershins direction, and once in deosil direction in a continuous pattern.

It then needed to simmer for a week, continuing stir two widdershins and a deosil every 12 hours. It could then be put under a status spell, to freeze it if need be.

The middle part was likewise the same for both potions.

Boil; Moon dew petals, unicorn tail hair, Dittany, Holly ash, Basilisk skin shredded, Billywig stings, doxy eggs, for 2 hours in a fresh cauldron. Leave simmering for 4 days until black and gelatinous.

Then add to the combined base. Do not stir. Put immediately under status, until ready to combine with the final component. Of course, if you were making both potions, the ingredients had to be doubled.

The last component was where they differed.

For the spell purging potion, you then boiled in a separate cauldron, elderflowers, distilled hazel syrup and 3 adder fangs all in adder blood. It then needed to simmer for 63 minutes. It could then be added to the combined base and boiled for a further 2 days before it was finished. It had to then be bottled while scaldingly hot, or it would lose its potency. It could only be placed in glass viles, not crystal.

The potions purge was made of peeled and chopped arnica root, yew needles chopped boiled in honey water boiled for exactly 36 minutes, before being added to the base and boiled for a further 2 days. Again it had to then be bottled while scaldingly hot. It too could only be placed in glass vials.

They both then needed to placed outside overnight, in view of the moon, for different lengths depending on the phase of the moon. 3 drops of his blood would need to be added after removing it from the moonlight to each vial.

Harry sighed. It would be a lot of work, and by the sounds of it, taking them would not be at all pleasant. But thankfully nearly all the ingredients were available in the student store cupboard or easy enough to gather in the forest, (or from the Chamber of Secrets.)

Harry had taken to keeping his eye out for the useful plants and potions ingredients now whenever he was in the forest. Sometimes with Hermione on a run, though not always as he now moved his runs around his time in the forest with Hagrid and Firenze.

Firenze was always pleased with his offerings and Harry was happily surprised about how many potions ingredients he could source in the forest alone. He had found enough unicorn hair last week by accident alone, to make both the purging potions.

The problem was, finding the unicorn horn it needed to be used as a stirring rod. Harry didn't have one of those and could not afford one.

Harry scowled but set about noting down the brewing schedule and set off, before curfew, to collect the ingredients he needed from the student store cupboard and the Chamber.

A he headed back to his cupboard much later that night, he wondered if curfew really applied when he was no longer welcome in the common room? When he was an outcast on his own? Did it matter when he was alone and safe on his now in the abandoned lower dungeons. Probably not. As long as no-one noticed. Which they never did.

After that Harry ate a very late dinner alone in his cupboard and buried himself in his mum's and Flitwick's books on the Darke. They were fascinating and by the time he looked up it was three in the morning, and he'd finished them both. Feeling more than ever, that the Darke might just be home.

0o0o0o0o0

I have not read (or watched) Fantastic beasts (either of them) or cursed child (and I'm not going to.) So I am not going to go into Grindalwald, or what actually happened, just what we know of it from the HP books. So if I deside he used Darke rituals to harm other to gain power, then he did.