Chapter 25
Apprentice acquired.
09:58 am 25th December, Yamigadani, Japan.
In the thick foliage of Japan's heart, the youngest Weasley ran for her life, disregarding all the injuries decorating her bodies, as she was being chased by a congress of the infamous Asura Baboons, she shot spells all around herself as many as she could, and as faster than she ever had, one would expect her aim to be the said baboons, but they were not simply because of three reasons for one, they were magically resistant, two, it made them angry - how she had found herself in her current predicament afterall - and three, while they weren't as fast as her they were good at using the environment to overcome this difference quite effectively, so her only chance at escaping with her life and limbs was to slow them down as long as possible.
Then all of a sudden the chasing congress howled, she contemplated while still running that it wasn't a screech of anger like the one she had heard after their first encounter, her best guess was fear, and to the best of her knowledge there were only three things in this forest that could scare them off, the Lethifolds who are nocturnal hence being active at this time of , the day was quite unlikely, then there was the Jade Spider, another unlikely option since it was territorial and she had made sure to stay the fuck away from it, while she wasn't as afraid of spiders as Ron she did have some self preservation intintcs as she decided to not try her luck with creatures that made Acromantula's look perfefctly cuddly, then there was the third, A half giant with a golden mane, she hadn't been able to get a good look on the finer details before she sprinted away from him, because in all honesty it somehow seemed more dangerous than the former two combined.
Her sprint came to an equally screeching halt as she saw a pair of emerald eyes in front of her, a familiar pair of emerald eyes, and once again their bearer took her by her shoulder and the scenery changed, though unlike last time when she had been stranded in the godforsaken horror of a jungle, this time she was in a room with blinding lights and she had to take a few moments to adapt to her new environment, the contrast of light coupled with her fatigue was too much for her to adapt at instantly.
And then as she stared in the emerald eyes she mentally dictated a tirade filled with all the colorful words that she had learned from her brothers, and then gouge out those damned emerald eyes, and then the righteous fury that was bubbling inside her froze as soon as a piece of paper was floated in front of her with a simple sentence scrawled on it. "Congratulations Apprentice Weasley."
And then she beamed as she looked at her teacher's back as he went somewhere in the depths of this room, which she belatedly realized was some sort of lab.
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11:02 am 25th December, Near Hagrid's Hut, Hogwarts.
Harry had returned to school after he had teleported back his newly appointed apprentice back at her home, he was there for a simple task, he wanted to give a christmas present to Professor Mcgonagall, having done just that he was starting to trot out of the grounds, to be out of the wards and teleport back to the Law's household, he had as of late started to respect wards for the boundaries that they were and didn't simply trespass them unless necessary, like needing to reach the girl without being detected or being on a mission, though today for some reason Hogwarts charted a route for him, he didn't question it, after all the help he had received from the Castle he thought it behooved him to help out when requested, by the time he had made it just near Professor Hagrid's home the Headmaster stepped out of it and spotted him and then promptly with a smiled sporting on his face he called out, "Merry christmas young Harry! How are you?"
Harry for his part simply nodded to the ancient wizard, whose smile became even deeper, and continued his trot to the exit, then the Headmaster decided to escort him.
As they were walking Dumbledore said, "So you've already removed your wand's trace beacon?"
Seeing no reason to lie Harry simply nodded, as he knew that not only could the old man cross check with the record book at ministry but also probably knew how simple it is.
"Harry, you have more power than any of your peers, and not a little talent if your teacher's words are to be believed, so let me impart a piece of knowledge onto you, one that I've learned through paying a terrible price, one I hope you wouldn't have to, power is power, It is neither good nor bad just like people, it is simply their actions which determine the details, be careful with it, it can destroy you in ways that cannot be put into words, and death would be the least horrible outcome."
Harry nodded at the ancient wizard's wisdom, he was awake of what the man was saying, or at least he thought so, because he knew that a botched up experiment could mean different types of disfigurements that couldn't be fixed.
As soon as they were past the ward line he gave the Headmaster another nod and silently apparated away from there.
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12:37 pm 25th December, Crystal Cave, England.
While he had joined the Hit-wizard initiative to gain access to better resources for his projects, he still did wanted to learn how to fight in order to deal with Voldemort, though he had managed to get some combat oriented skills his overall skills were lacking, he knew of that perhaps better than anyone, his while his arsenal of Spells was quite versatile and his power made it easier for him to cover up quite some difference between experience, he didn't have fortitude for strategies, as Captain Lone Wolf put it, he was a Hard Hitter but also blunt like a mallet, his fighting style was awkward and quite straightforward he Powered through his opponents, and while that has worked for him thus far he needed to adapt, to learn how to improve in the other fields.
After the events in the Chamber of Secrets he had learned that Voldemort had created a Horcrux, which was how he had been able to stay tethered to the mortal plane, which answered quite a few questions and made it easier to narrow down on what he needed to do to defeat Voldemort, as a Necromancer he knew a score of different methods to keep one's self from dying, each had their own pros and cons, Horcrux - also, sometimes referred to as Phylactery - had the benefit that till the said instrument wasn't destroyed neither could the could the creator, of course the source sould could be trapped via various methods but that posed its own dangers, the only things that could trap a source soul for long enough would have to be durable enough that it wouldn't corrode but correspondingly it made destroying them equally harder when the time came, for reference Gold which is considered as the perfect element alchemically could host a souce soul only for about a single moon cycle, or from one full moon to another to be more precise, but that could be prolonged if the container would be enchanted with either Goblin or Dwarven magic, which again also made it harder to destroy.
After he had learned about Voldemort's origins from both the soul manifestation and Ginerva he tracked down what he could, unfortunately most of the sources that would have provided him any form of information were either dead or unreliable due to advanced age, though when he combed through the orphanage's records he was able to get a few things, for one, he found out about some kids who had gone missing during the time Voldemort had lived there, also he had found a ledger that recorded all the outings that his batch had undertook, investigating those locations got him here, it took his less than 30 seconds to recognize that the cave was infested with negative energy, and the magic that bound it was Voldemort's, having gotten a feel for it the time when they had fought for the Philosopher's stone.
Stepping in he discovered what some might consider to be a scene of horror, but Harry wasn't concerned, the various Inferi's that he had detected weren't a threat to him as he could simply teleport from one patch of land to another, wards against Apparition couldn't stop Teleportation.
When he reached the centre island he stared at the podium for a scant few seconds then a hypothesis formed in his mind, he ran a few scans which confirmed the said hypothesis, the Basin placed on the podium was made up of enchanted quartz and wouldn't allow others to access the artifact being guarded by the unrecognizable potion in it, and anyone who wanted to get their hands on it had to drink it, even his common sense made it clear it was some form of toxin but he wasn't able to determine the finer details yet, so he simply took up the shell-cup provided in the basin and started drinking the potion, it did nothing to him except make his magic flush it from his body at an accelerated rate, thus also proving his earlier assumption about it being some sort of toxin.
When he cleared the potion he took out the locket from the bottom and as the scans had informed him it wasn't a Horcrux, he opened the locket which had a note in it by someone named R.A.B it stated that he had found the Horcrux and possibly destroyed it.
If he could figure out who R.A.B was, then he could figure out the finer details.
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11:01 pm 25th December, North Tower 7th floor, Hogwarts, Scotland.
Dumbledore looked around the classroom with a small smile of his place, it was a messy yet bafflingly fun place, clearly projecting Sybill, he hadn't come here with a clear purpose in mind, some magic had brought him there, guided him, his, Hogwart's, or perhaps a mix of both, he didn't know.
As soon as he had entered Sybill started brewing some tea for both of them and he wasn't one to decline an invitation he took a seat on one of the chintz armchairs present, trying to make himself as comfortable as he could, although that turned out to be an attempt in vain because as soon as he had just started to lax into the chairs, Sybill who was now bringing over a tray for them suddenly collapsed and started seizing, wasting not a second he rushed to her but - in retrospect - before he could even get his wand out Sybill's hand shot out and clutched his wand arm in a vice grip, one he couldn't get out of, her eyes were bloodshot and glassy, as a fey voice was projected from her mouth, and then began a hymn.
"The Master and the Traitor are now one... bound in a pact borne out of desperation… and they are more for it dangerous like the cornered animals they are... and soon the Dark Lord shall rise again from his roots... and when he confronts his prophesied vanquisher it shall act as the beginning for the battle between Life and Fantasy... "
As soon as the prophecy was conveyed Sybill started coughing blood and the light in her eyes started to dim, the next thing to happen then was the room being engulfed in flames of gold and red.
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11:59 pm 25th December, Girl's Bedroom, Hogwarts, Scotland.
Sirius and Remus watched as Harry stroked the now sleeping girl's back in a clockwise motion as he always did, at least whenever he could be there to make her bed, then he got up and came to the Marauder duo who were staring at him.
Remus got the ball rolling, "Harry if I may? What is her name?"
The enigmatic boy didn't reply but simply cocked his head towards the right and stared at them.
Then Sirius piped up "Look I know that names have power and you might think that handing that kind of power over the girl to us is a bad idea but I would like to point out that we care for her as much as we care for you if not more, and we wouldn't do anything that could possibly hurt her."
Harry kept staring for a while and didn't reply, both the Marauders thought that this had been a failed attempt and then Harry took out his notepad and pen which started writing what he wanted to convey, "Yes names have power which is why I decided that she can name herself when she needs to be named, for now a name would serve no purpose, she's the only girl here; and the only child, as such when we aren't communicating with each other she's bound to know that we're talking to her."
The pair blinked slowly, from a certain perspective his reasoning made sense, but that point of view was quite narrow and flawed, so Sirius slowly began, "Harry as I've told you before common sense isn't exactly your forte - Harry simply nodded, remembering the conversation between the two shortly after Sirius started living with him - this is one of those things, surely names have power and it'd be nice if the girl could chose her own, but as it stands right now she cannot, and a name plays an important part in one's identity, while not the whole and sole of it, but it does serve to be the roots of who people are as individuals and its quite fluid in nature, while normally parents name the child in this case, you as her guardian will have to do so, not to mention if she doesn't like her name she can change it in future when she starts becoming more independent."
Harry pondered on this for a few minutes and then looked back at the girl and went by her bedside and started combing through her hair with his right hand, something that Sirius had noticed increasingly as of late, he had an idea or two for what was happening but decided not to mention it for the fear of things going south quite fast quite badly, he also had phrased his words about Harry being her guardian in that exact manner because he felt that was how Harry currently labelled their relation as, and labels being another form of name had power, ones that couldn't be forced, he knew for a fact that Harry was not ready to be a parent yet, of course no parent ever became ready for being one, it was a role one grew into, at their own pace with their own sets of trials in them, and if he had called Harry her parent right now the boy would've probably been overwhelmed and self sabotaged.
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12:08 am 26th December, Longbottom Estate, Wales.
Neville looked at the sky which roofed him as he lay besides his parents, he had a small smile on his face as he wondered how different it would've been if they had been here and they were camping here, surrounding a bonfire and cooking some smores on it, his grandmother, bless the woman, had told him about his mother as much as she could, though it was a pity that everyone on his mother's side had been dead long before he came in the picture, also the fact that death eaters had destroyed his parents personal estate when they were trying to hunt him down in the aftermath of Voldemort's downfall, they had a Personality Painting commissioned just in case that they wouldn't live to see him, unfortunately it too had been lost to the attack.
As the fall of Voldemort came to his mind, so did another topic, Harry Potter, it was a troubling topic to say the least, their biggest interaction was the troll incident in the first year, and nothing before or after that, while there were quite a few reasons for the lack of their interaction, mainly the fact that Harry wasn't one to be easily caught in one, right now Neville couldn't help but feel like most of them were self made excuses to procrastinate, especially after today morning uncle Algie slipped up about how everyone was speculating that the Longbottom-Potter alliance was going to break from the observed distance between the heirs of both the houses.
He thought at the end of the first year that either Harry didn't know of the alliance of didn't care, he wouldn't be surprised whatever the case would be after all it didn't take a genius or in-depth observation to know that the boy was for all purposes a disaster in social etiquettes and interactions.
So the coming term he would have to reach out, try however he can to at least be acknowledged, in whatever capacity he could, he didn't expect the raven haired boy to simply start running along with him and his friends, but at least a tenable relationship could be made, and from there they could chart a course for future.
Of course there was a distinct possibility that his attempts would be rejected, but that was a bridge to be crossed if it came to, it wasn't simply pessimism but well reasoned deduction, for one he could be rejected simply out of disinterest in any form of social interaction, if not for that then because of the difference between their magical capabilities and the fact that they hadn't approached him as soon as he had re-entered the magical world, after all it had behooved them to take the initiative as being the ones with knowledge, and though the fact that his grandmother had struggled to keep everything in order after his parents death made it impossible for her to do anything more than run a few inquiries with Professor Dumbledore, it wouldn't be straight out accepted by anyone who was in Harry's position, if they even gave that excuse after all it could be seen as a grave weakness.
There was also another facet that bothered him, always had, the fact that he is the Boy-Who-Lived, he didn't cared for the title, he always thought that somehow his parents defeated Voldemort, of course that may be in part because that's what Gran, Uncle Algie, and Dumbledore taught him ever since he could remember, but the troubling matter was the fact that his parents weren't the only ones who laid down their lives that day fighting the dark bugger, His godmother and her husband did too, and they were every bit as valiant as his parents, so he thought that they deserved more recognition than they got, and a part of him was scared that Harry hated them for it, for not recognizing his parent's contribution in Voldemort's downfall.
In the end he only sighed as he let the sweet allure of sleep drag him to the dream land.
A/n : I horrendously apologize for the delay, I was so focused on trying to get a right feel for it that I got stuck, I want Harry to develop as a person but I don't want it to be a overnight change but actually a slow trek where he learns to be right and wrong, he learns to slow down but also help those who are too slow, to make sure that they catch up to him, and my writing may be gobshite right now but someone recently reminded me my gobshite will remain gobshite until I keep trying, then failing and then learning from those failures, afterall a master has failed more times than the novice has tried, thank you for your patience with me and you dedication.