Author Note This is a Occlumency Lesson not bending which Occlumency will be very important for Harry to know.

But its not supposed to be the main part of this chapter remember

And to MrKristoffer1994 I loved your review. In my mind I envision Daphne as she grows up to gain the body of a Veela/Supermodel

But as the years progress I can say that Harry will gain a great body to.

Not over the top thoughg

Cheers

Chapter 28

December 28th 1990

Hogwarts

It was the winter break.

Daphne had gone home on the Hogwarts Express a few days ago where her and her family would be having their own family celebrations.

She had wanted Harry to come with her but he had found the ability to go into the library when basically no one was there tempting and to have bending lessons.

Harry had decided after getting permission from Professor Quirrel to explore the Restricted Section at the Hogwarts Library he found a book that shocked him.

So he found himself sneaking out of Hogwarts to make his way to see Master Dao .

"Harry,"He said, surprised. "It's nice to see you again but I thought you were spending the rest of the break at the castle. What are you doing here".

Harry held up the book Guide to Advanced Occlumency.

"Occlumency"Master Dao asked "What about it".

"Do you know how to do it?"Harry asked.

"Yes"Master Dao replied.

"Can you teach me? "Harry asked.

"Teach you Occlumency"Master Dao asked "What for".

"I dont want people to be reading my mind and finding out what i do and what i'm planning for the future"Harry said determinly "My thoughts are my own".

Master Dao nodded.

"Well i suppose that the stuff ive been teaching you this past four years are things that i dont want others knowing about"He said "We can learn this"gesturing for Harry to come in to his sitting room.

The two of them sat down.

"Ok the first thing you need to know about Occlumency is what the phrase, 'clear your mind', actually means. To do this, you must find your mindscape without assistance, and to do that, you must meditate."He said grinning "Which I hope is something that you have picked up from me".

Harry nodded and then frowned. "How does meditating help someone find their mindscape?"

"It relaxes your mind. Since you are not thinking of anything, eventually you will be taken to your mindscape."

"Is this how you learned it?"

Master Dao nodded "I learned Bending alongside it which helped me master the art which i hope it will for you to now close your eyes and clear your mind. You must know where your mindscape is if you are to defend it."

Harry did as he was told.

Thankfully because of his training with Master Dao he was able to meditate and clear his mind relatively easier than if he had not been practicing mediating for a good bit.

"Good job Harry. When some wizards learn wandless magic, the place in which they find their core is closely connected to their mind. Some wizards must find the mind first, and then follow the connection to their magic in order to access it, while other wizards function the other way, as they have a stronger affinity to their magic than their mind."Master Dao said before bringing out a mirror.

"This is a reflector mirror that sends spells back at you"He explained "Now because i can not use a wand you must use this spell upon yourself".

"Really"Harry asked, "What spell".

Master Dao handed Harry a piece of paper with an incantation on it that Harry sent at the mirror.

Harry gasped as he felt fire burning under his skin but strangely he reveled in it. He felt its ebb and flow until he found the pool of the fire. The core. The swirling mass of power that screamed to his soul, that felt more right than anything had ever felt before. He felt… complete.

"Now remember this sensation, your core's location. Don't forget it."Master Dao said.

Harry opened his eyes and described to Master Dao what he saw.

"Well"He said "I think after Water Bending it would be a good thing to work on Fire Bending after that".

"Now that you've found your core, you simply have to find whatever connects your mind to your magic and follow the connection back to your mindscape.

Harry nodded and felt for the ebb of his magic. It was slow to come, but soon he could feel the warmth flowing through his limbs, under his skin, but at the same time not really there. It wasn't like his blood, it didn't exist physically, but it was still there. He closed his eyes and let himself fall into that warmth, that light.

Light exploded around him from behind his eyelids as he mentally submerged himself in the river of light. Not so much seeing as a feeling, knowing, what path to take to find the pool. The source of his magic. The core.

It felt like home, Harry absently noticed as he floated in swirling current. The magic wrapped around him made him feel a sense of belonging, of purpose. It enabled him. It allowed him to do whatever he wanted. And right now, he wanted to find his mind.

As if in response to his need, his magic surged around him and propelled him out of the core and into a dark space, a nothingness that existed in between the arteries and veins of magic. He could see the entire web from where he floated, where it formed his arms, legs. He looked up, or at least what seemed like up, and followed the magic to where his head would be. What he found there was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. It was almost as bright with magic as his core, and occasionally he could make out rings of runes circling it, flowing through it… He propelled himself forward, into that mass of energy, and once he broke its surface, he found himself in a very strange place indeed. Was this his mindscape? No, that couldn't be right. This was an infinite web of light.

Harry decided to try to find the web of light

He felt around for his magic, and it responded to his call. His surroundings around him began to flicker and every time that happened Harry could see lines, and those lines connected to become a gigantic web. It almost seemed like they had created the mindscape. That they had forged the wiring, and then an illusion of colored cloth had conformed to the wiring to create tombstones, gray skies, the blackened and dead trees… It was a projection! His mindscape was like a projection of his mind! It was the way his mind presented itself to him in physical form so that it made more sense.

Entering back into the normal world Harry decided that in the week or so he had before the students arrived back on the Hogwarts Express he would spend the time working through his mind.

And as he found out when he got back to the castle and got to work on that, that was easier said than done.

The progress he was making was slow and sometimes painful, mapping out his entire mind, as he had to make sure that he didn't miss a single spot.

He was slowly feeling though that he was getting enough of a hold on his mind to be able to defend himself.

On New Year's Day after dinner Harry excused himself and went to his room for the rest of the night. Once he seated himself on his bed, he cast a tempus charm, noted the time, and then closed his eyes and let himself fall into his magic. He counted sixty seconds and returned to the real world. A tempus charm revealed that five minutes had actually passed. At least now he knew the approximate time difference. He didn't want to stay in that state for too long, because he had to sleep in a couple of hours.

So he let himself fall into his magic again, and just relaxed. Floated. Zenned out. He always felt mentally rested after he soaked himself in his magic for a while. It was like a drug. You didn't want to leave once you got there, but if you stayed for too long the real world came knocking, whether by a grumbling stomach or another person.

He let his magic carry him to his core, and from there he shot up through the empty space to reach the complex magical web, or matrix, that was his mind. He turned around just before entering it to see the magic flowing through his body. It was beautiful, really. It danced through his limbs and then returned to his core, like a solar prominence shooting off the surface of the sun, only to get pulled back into it.

Reluctantly, he returned to the real world. He cast tempus. It was already 9 pm. With a sigh, he lay back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

He was feeling good with his progress.

And what a productive Winter Break he had to say the least.

SCENE CHANGE
Harry then spent much of the next six months learning and practicing various Elemental items and he was really proud with his progress.

And even the weather seemed to be celebrating with him with the early June days being relatively cloudless and making everyone want to stroll onto the grounds and flop down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice and either play a game of Gobstones or watch the Giant Squid propel itself across the surface of the lake.

But they couldn't with exams nearly upon them and instead of laying around outside the students were forced to remain inside the castle trying to force themselves into concentrating and studying even as signs of summer started to appear.

Both Daphne and Harry studied hard and hoped their hard work paid off.

Soon exam week began and an unnatural hush fell over the third years emerged from Transfiguration at lunchtime on Monday limp and ashen-faced and started to compare results and complain about the difficulties of the tasks that they had been assigned to do including turning a teapot into a tortoise.

Daphne and Harry felt confident though about their results and just sat and relaxed for a few seconds in silence.

And then after a hasty lunch it was straight back upstairs for the Charms exam where they were tested on Cheering Charms.

Harry by now working on several more advanced magical spells found this to not be a problem.

And after dinner they headed back to the Common Room not to relax but to start studying for their other subjects.

And then at midnight they had Astronomy up on the tallest of Magic the following morning about the Medieval Witch Hunts and Herbology in the afternoon in the greenhouses which just so happened to be during the time when the baking hot sun was beating down upon them.

SCENE CHANGE

The next morning Harry awoke to see a piece of paper on his desk.

That was odd.

He didn't remember leaving anything there.

Maybe Daphne left it when she came by last night.

He opened the letter and saw

Dear Mr. Potter.

This is Professor Quirrell. I think it's time for us to have a little chat.

Do you remember a mirror that you would have happened to run upon when you started at Hogwarts with the saying Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

Does that ring a bell to you

I know you do since your friend Mrs. Greengrass happened to supply that information to me

And now I need you to help me

I am here at Hogwarts in order to acquire a certain object hidden on the Third Floor. And thanks to a memory from your girlfriend, I know that you have interacted with this certain enchanted mirror and successfully escaped its clutches under your own power.

I now would like to engage your assistance in retrieving the object of my heart's desire from its current resting place which is, I believe, within that mirror.

I and Mrs. Greengrass are presently in a room with that mirror under the Restricted Third Floor Corridor

In order to get her down here I Imperiused her last night to deliver this letter and lure her here

Your girlfriend now currently lies at my feet, bound by heavy ropes

I now invite you to join me here, Potter, to see if you can recover this object for me. You've already proven your ability to gaze into the Mirror without being trapped, so it seems logical to assume you can penetrate the Stone's protections

If you go to the Third Floor you will find a number of challenges originally set out by Dumbledore although you will find most of his traps already deactivated. Those remaining should be no problem for you. Tell no one, and come alone.

You have until eight forty today or I will killl Mrs. Greengrass

Sincerely

Professor Quirrell

Harry quickly rushed out of his room and over to Daphne's which was empty.

Shit and it was eight twenty already.

Cursing Harry grabbed his wand and raced out of the Slytherin Court Room and was in front of the forbidden door a few minutes after having run like a maniac.

Casting Alohomora on the door. It clicked open, and he quietly entered the room. Inside Harry looked around in the gloom.

And that's when he saw it.

A bloody Cerberus that he recognized from his studies.

Thankfully it seemed to be asleep though.

Off in the corner he noticed a harp laying on the floor.

That was probably why it was asleep.

Not wanting to wake the Ceberus he put Silencing Charms on his shoes.

Off in the corner he saw a trap door that was open.

That was probably the way to get down.

Walking over carefully Harry looked down.

Ok now how to get down safely.

He remembered something that Master Dao had taught him back in March.

Flashback Start

"Ok Harry so this is called the Beginner's Lift. In order to do this you need to sit cross-legged in the Lotus position or sit cross-legged with your back straight and set a bowl of water in front of you. Or, if you can, sit in front of a source of natural water, such as a lake or stream, or even the ocean. Put one or both of your hands on the water. Close your eyes, and repeat the breathing patterns we have talked about before. Once you've entered a state of blackness behind your eyes, visualize yourself in the position you're in. Visualize a white or blue glowing substance flowing through your body. See it flowing swiftly up from the base of your abdomen under your belly button splitting up into two streams at your chest, flowing through both arms and into your hands, filling the bowl or a small section of the natural water with the substance of your chi. It is what you will be using to move the water. Once the water is filled up with chi, stop feeding it chi and imagine small thread-like strings connecting the ends of your fingers to the chi in the water. Now, slowly pull your hands up out of the water, and at the same time visualize the water lifting as it clings to the threads at your fingertips. Pull it up maybe an inch or two... don't push your luck the first try. It may take several tries to even make a ripple. If you do this correctly, and work through it patiently, then the water should rise as you pull your hands up out of the bowl or natural source of water.

Flashback End

He had learned how to do the Beginners Lift about a month ago and now his thought was that he could use that to support him down the trap door.

A Spell came to Harrys mind.

"Augamenti".

As a stream of water came out of Harrys wand he increased its intensity until there was a good amount of water at the bottom where he was able to lift it.

Thankfully the drop wasnt huge so he was able to bring the water up to him.

Hoping this would work then Harry stepped on the water and focused on lowering it and was surprised when he got to the bottom without losing focus.

Deciding to deal with the water later Harry moved on.

He saw plants and some sort of thick moving vines at the edges of the room and a circle of Bluebell Flames that was keeping them at bay and a path leading to a door.

The next room was a large empty chamber. On the far side was a heavy wooden door that appeared to have hundreds of metal keys forcefully embedded into it.

As Harry drew nearer, he saw that each key had a set of wings that was fluttering uselessly. To the side of the door was a rack of brooms with one empty slot. He tried the door, but it was locked and resistant to the Alohamora. Harry looked around speculatively.

It was a big room with a high ceiling. Winged keys. And brooms. Obviously, the keys were airborne and you had to fly after them with a broom until you found the right one ... at which point the rest of the keys became hostile and attacked.

How was Professor Quirrell able to get through this he wasn't a flyer.

Harry looked towards the door and the twitching keys embedded in it.

"Damn it the key is on the other side!" he said angrily, coming to the realization.

Well if Harry couldn't make his way through the door he would just break the door down.

It looked like the door was made to resist Magical ways to unlock it.

But it couldn't have been resistant to Chi.

Forming a Chi Sphere in his hands Harry threw it at the door.

The Door then imploded violently.

Not wasting any time Harry ran through into the next room that was just as large as the last but with a much lower ceiling. There was a giant chess board covered in huge – and mostly broken – pieces.

Harry was glad that he didn't have to make his way through that.

The next room contained an unconscious troll which Harry passed quickly. The one after that was a small room with a table situated in an alcove. As soon as he passed inside, purple flames arose from the archway behind him and black ones from the one up ahead. On the table was a row of potion vials and a parchment containing what appeared to be a riddle which Harry started reading aloud.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onwards neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

Harry thought that of the Seven bottles: three of them where poison; two where wine; one would get him safely through the black fire and one would get him back through the purple

From the fourth clue, he could tell that the contents of the red and black bottles were the same. Since the potions that allowed the drinker to go forward or backward were unique, and from the third clue he knew the biggest one could not be poison, so the red and black bottles must contain wine.

From the first clue, the white and green bottles, to the left of the nettle wine, must contain poison.

From the second clue, the white and purple bottles had different contents but neither allowed the drinker to move forward, and since the white bottle contained poison, and the two bottles containing wine were known, the purple bottle must contain the potion to go back.

And from the third clue, the blue bottle, the smallest, could not be the poison, so it must contain the potion to go ahead while the yellow bottle was the third bottle with poison.

Taking the Blue and Purple bottles Harry drank the Blue Bottle and walked through the flames.

Coming out the other side his eyes widened.

"QUIRREL:"He roared.

Author Note Well I'm trying to figure out how I can work out the bending that Harry has learned into scenarios like this.

If you all have any ideas for scenarios you would like to see Bending incorporated into I would love to hear them