As classes began for the year, I didn't waste any time to vault my self to the top. By the time lunch came around, both Hermione and Neville, realized I stopped holding myself back. The previous year, I would only answer questions from time to time, leaving them to Hermione for the most part. But now, I would raise my hand for every question, sometimes faster than Hermione. From all our study sessions together, they both knew how much further my knowledge base was and that the classes were just used to fill any holes in them. By the end of the day, Hermione and I started a competition between us, on who could gain the most house points by the end of the year. Neville had, unfortunately, for him became the score keeper for our competition. And at the end of all the classes for the day, I took a conservative 30 points lead on her, I didn't want to push it too much on the first day.
I told Hermione and Neville that I would skip out on the study session for more adventuring around Hogwarts, as it was still the first day. Being used to my wandering habits, they didn't ask any questions as I left the two of them alone. I went straight to the Room of Requirements, after making sure nobody was around with the Map. I asked for the Room of Hidden Things as I walked back and forth, in front of the spot I knew the door would appear. I spent about an hour looking for the diadem, and when I did find it, I called Sebas right away. I pointed out the diadem and told him that he will need to bring it to me later in the year when I ask for it. I now had 2 out of the 3 Horcruxes, I was going to destroy this year.
The following day I had my first class with Gilderoy Lockhart, and he was just as arrogant, conceited and self-absorbed as shown in canon. I didn't take his pop quiz seriously at all, didn't care one bit about his personal details but didn't want detention with him so just guessed everything. Hermione was fawning over him the entire class, until he let out the Cornish Pixies. They quickly became chaotic, as expected. A few of them stared smashing vials that were stored around the room, a few tried to attack the students, and some of them even tried getting out of the room. His lack of skills became very apparent after his first spell failed to get them under control because he immediately started panicking. He didn't have anything else he could do, even though he had managed to keep his wand this time around. Before they could cause anymore chaos, I pulled my wand out and cast the freezing charm on all of them and then banished them to their cages. The class had still been disrupted too much to continue anymore, so Lockhart let us all out with an embarrassed expression on his face, he had spectacularly failed his first class.
Hermione had been shocked at the mismatch of the actual person we had met in class and the figure she imagined when reading Lockhart's books. I made her create a timeline of all his achievements to get her answer. Though confused about at my direction, she still went through with it. I had to freeze her on the spot when she finished her review of Lockhart's life. She was adamant about calling him out on his lies right away. I calmed her down by explaining that hiring Lockhart was probably Dumbledore's plan to expose him. When he failed to teach anyone anything all year, it would show that he was a fraud. I think it was because she was still just a child that she believed me, I didn't have the heart to tell her that he was the only one that wanted to apply for the position, according to canon at least. If Hermione didn't know about that particular curse yet then I wasn't going to be the one to tell her. Besides I was hoping with the death of Voldemort, it would go away very soon.
After the Pixies incident, things had calmed down for the next few weeks. Classes continued on as per usual, while I kept training for the fight with the basilisk. Quidditch practises had started up after the first week of classes, and this year Oliver had designed even more tactics that put me into the attack formation. He wanted Gryffindor to win the tournament with even more dominance than we did the previous year. He had taken to organizing some morning practises as well, wanting to give the team every opportunity to get better. It seemed the increased intensity that Oliver was showing bothered the Slytherins. And just like in canon, they got a note from Snape that gave them permission to take the field from us. Draco had bought the entire team the new Nimbus 2001s and was arrogantly showing them off. Hermione wasn't around this time, so nobody got cursed with a mouthful of slugs. Though this time it definitely would have been Draco.
As we left the field, the Slytherin players made sure to laugh us away. Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that we would have the last laugh. Knowing what Draco was going to do this year with the 2001s, I also had the elves buy the new brooms for the entire Gryffindor team. I did give them the brooms, but we decided to keep them hidden until the first game; everyone still practised with them but in secret. After we left the field, all the Gryffindor players lauded me for making sure we didn't lose out to the Slytherins and lamented the poor Slytherins for their ignorance. They thought it was quite the coincidence, well all of them except the twins. I could tell by their expressions that they knew I had somehow found out what Draco was going to do beforehand. I made sure to give them a mock bow to acknowledge their speculation.
Over the summer, I did get the opportunity to introduce the twins to Sirius, unfortunately it was with entire Weasley family as well. When I had sent an invitation for the twins, Molly Weasley had taken it to assume the whole family was invited as well. Fortunately, we had made the invitation for Grimmauld Place, not Potter Manor. And because the entire family was present, the first meeting of the twins and Sirius was very subdued. If they had been alone, we probably would have started discussing the various pranks the other has pulled at Hogwarts, maybe some of the graphic ones as well, at least in Sirius' case. He had told me some very funny stories albeit extremely inappropriate for someone my age. Maybe they would even talk to Sirius about the joke/prank shop I assumed was still their goal for the future. But with the matriarch of the family present, the conversations were all wholesome and family friendly. And unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to meet with the twins alone again, but Sirius had still enjoyed meeting them, nonetheless. Though he too would have liked to meet them away from Molly, and Percy. Sirius didn't get a good impression of him either, but that was not a surprise. Percy was too much of a stickler to be someone Sirius enjoyed spending time with.
After the incident with the Slytherins, Oliver made our practises more sporadic so they wouldn't be able to pull anything else. Without having to worry about them, the rest of our practises went very smoothly. And so, between classes, training, and Quidditch practises, time flew by fast. And before I knew it, I was waking up on Halloween morning, feeling very antsy. The elves had kept watch of the bathroom the entire time and neither Ginny or any other student had visited it and opened the Chamber. And so, I had to wait for the day I knew it would be opened.
The morning of, I had a hard time keeping still, my legs were constantly restless. As such, I spent the entire morning and afternoon in the Room of Requirements, working off the jittery feeling. I needed to have a clear head going into the battle so I needed to get all the nerves out before. Thankfully, it was Sunday so I didn't have to worry about classes getting in the way. During the Halloween feast I made sure to eat my fill, not overstuffing my self, but enough to give me all the energy I would need. I confirmed the battle would happen today as I had noticed Ginny missing from the first-year students.
After the feast, as all the students made their way back to the dorms, we discovered the petrified cat, with same message inscribed on the wall that I knew from canon. And knowing how canon Harry got blamed by Filch for being the closest to the cat, I made sure to stay in the back of the crowd. As a result, it ended up being Draco that got accusations hurled at him, being the closest one. Too busy trying to fend off accusations against himself, he had no time to make racist remarks this occasion. Dumbledore tried to calm Filch down but he wasn't having it, he wanted Draco punished. And so, it ended up being Draco, who was taken to Lockhart's office. I wanted to laugh so badly, but I restrained myself as that would have instead drawn suspicion to myself. But still, I hadn't even planned for that at all, I thought this time nobody would get the blame but I guess Dumbledore really valued Filch, to go along with his eccentricities. Though, to be fair, Dumbledore was fairly eccentric himself.
I joined the rest of the students, heading back to the dorms. When I got to my bed, I quickly closed my curtains and waited for one of the elves. I didn't know whose turn it was to watch over the chamber but it seemed they couldn't stop Ginny from going into the Chamber the first time. After 10 seconds of waiting, it was Sebas, who appeared with the diary in hand. He apologized for not being able to stop Ginny but Moaning Myrtle was present at the time, so he could only wait for Ginny to come back. He got his chance when she returned, probably right after inscribing the message on the wall, with Myrtle being away from the bathroom this time. Since Ginny was completely innocent in all this, I made sure to tell the elves to be as gentle as possible when dealing with her. And as instructed, all Sebas did was use a simple sleeping spell to incapacitate her and then took her back to her room. It wasn't hard for him to find Ginny's room, as he lived in Hogwarts for a few years. I had Sebas keep the diary in safe place, I told him I would ask for it very soon and then had him take me to the 2nd floor bathroom, I made sure Myrtle was away using the map. I then had him fetch my broom, while I quickly stretched a bit so I didn't pull anything. After Sebas came back with my broom, I took it from him and then dismissed him, telling him to be ready for my call to bring the diary to me and then to immediately go back for the diadem.
Once I was alone, I walked up to the sink with the snake engraved sink-tap.
"SSOpenSS," I hissed in Parseltongue, for the first time in my life.
I had previously chosen to avoid using the ability, to reduce the risk of strengthening the effects of the horcrux inside me. Considering I had the ability at all showed that it already had some effect on me.
As the sink opened up, I slid down the large pipe that was revealed, with my broom in hand and when I landed on the ground, I found myself in the corridors of the Chamber. I got on my broom and levitated into the air and made my way inside. I found the old skin shed from the basilisk, and it was the 60ft basilisk from the movies. Damn it! The books had a 12 ft one, why couldn't I get that one. The corridors were very maze-like, as I twisted and turned, left and right until finally coming to the giant door that led to where I knew the basilisk would be. The door itself had seven snake shaped locks that slithered outward, while an eighth snake slithered around the edge. Before I opened this door, I conjured my blinders and then activated my magic perception spell. I chose not put on my alter-ego as there was nobody to hide from, and the basilisk didn't care if I was an adult or not. Then I, finally gave the command to open the door.
It was only when the door was fully opened, that I was able to sense the inside of the Chamber. Either, the door was made of a special material that wards off all magic, or it's been created to be as such. I mentally added a note to come back and research this door and then proceeded inside. It looked exactly like in the movies, statues made of stone in the form of the basilisk heads lined the entire chamber. I stayed right on the outskirts of the chamber for a few seconds; my spell had detected the Chamber's occupant in the internal part. I closed my eyes took a deep breath in and let it out after holding it for a few seconds, and repeated once again and one more time after that. Each time I took a breath in, I was rousing the magic inside me, to it's peak. After the deep breaths, I flew further inside the chamber, with my focus on the basilisk the entire time. It wasn't stirred at all as I got deeper and deeper into it's home. Being on the broom, allowed me to be completely silent in my approach, as I knew basilisks had ears unlike normal snakes. As I got to the where I knew it would come out from, I reached my hand out and gathered my magic, and then called out to the overgrown lizard.
"SSHoney, I'm home!SS " I tried to hiss in a friendly manner.
I sensed him stir and make his way out while he hissed at me.
"SSYou dare invade my master's home. Kill! SS" he hissed in anger
Taking that as a sure sign he's coming out for blood, I let loose a wind blade aimed right where one of it's eyes should be. The shot hit the basilisk right as it came out but it was quick to turn it's head and the blades cut passed it's tougher skin. It only resulted in a shallow cut.
If it was mad at me before, now it was enraged as it made a beeline for me. As I took a deep breath in, I waited for it to come closer. Just as it made it to bite me, I took off past it's head to the other side. It turned around and made to chase after me. Using the manoeuvrability the broom provided me, I weaved in and out of the stone statues. I would use the basilisk's momentum against it, as every time it made to bite, I would draw gusts of wind to push it just past me to hit statues head on. I always made sure to direct the wind to go along with the basilisk's momentum as much possible, affecting it's trajectory just enough so it would hit the statues instead of getting me. This way I conserved a lot of magic each time, as my focus was on precision and not power.
After one too many knocks on the head, it gave up trying to bite me and started using it's tail to try and whip me into paste. Whatever advantage I had gained, I lost as the tail started destroying the statues every time it missed me. I was able to stay ahead of it's tail but now and then I would slam against the walls of the Chamber or get hit by rubble from the destroyed statues. I don't remember the basilisk in canon being this fast, or clever. But even though it was turning out to be a difficult battle, I was also very excited. This was the first time I was being pushed this much in the wizarding world.
When most of the statues had been destroyed, the basilisk started using both it's head and tail to attack me. Seeing that it was getting serious, I decided to get serious as well and called my wand out to my hand in its full form. Instantly, the wind blades that I had been continuously casting became sharper and denser, increasing their cutting power. I flew up, down, twisting left, twisting right and around the basilisk's entire body, littering it with deep lacerations. Eventually, I was able to get both it's eyes, though it did take me awhile, it was a lot smarter and fiercer than what the movies had shown. Even without it's eyes, it was still very dangerous as it thrashed around violently hoping to kill me by chance. Utilizing it's blindness, I manoeuvred myself to the back of its neck and sent multiple wind blades down on it. But it continued to flail about to get at me so it still took some time but I was able to behead it, eventually.
As soon as it's head hit the ground, I flew over to it and then got of my broom. I walked up to the head and used my hands to find it's eyes. When I did, I called my wind magic again to obliterate them, didn't want to take any chances. Only when I was sure it was safe did I vanish the blinders. When I took stock of myself, I realized I was covered in scrapes and bruises. The pain from my injuries only now being felt as the adrenaline of the fight left my body. Taking a look at the dead basilisk next to me, I was stunned. Caught up in the battle, I never took in it's size as we began fighting the moment it came out. But now looking at it, lying dead in front me, was mind-boggling. I couldn't believe I had just fought that thing. When I was finally able to collect myself, I got the rest of the night underway.
"Kreacher" I called the bitter elf. He was bound to respond to me as Sirius was my guardian making me part of the Black family.
As soon as he appeared, the expression on his face turned pale, the first thing he saw was the basilisk. But soon enough, his expression turned to glee. He now understood why I needed the extra months to destroy the locket. Without saying anything to me or even looking my way he disappeared and then returned moments later with Salazar Slytherin's locket. I knew it was a horcrux right away, my detection spell picking up the dark magic in it.
"Master Harry! Here it is, please destroy it." He pleaded with utmost sincerity, presenting the locket to me.
"No Kreacher, you were given this task to complete and have been trying for so many years. It's only right that you get to be the one to do it." I replied, pushing the locket back to him. He accepted it back with tears forming in his eyes. I didn't comment on it, understanding the gravity of the moment for him.
I pulled out one of the basilisk's teeth out from its mouth using wandless levitation, wasn't going to risk touching the venom. I placed it right in front of Kreacher and told him to use it to stab the locket but make sure to get something to hold the tooth first. Or at least tried to, before I could complete the sentence, he had already bent down picked up the tooth and stabbed the locket. A ghast wail came out of the locket as, Kreacher and I, both saw a mist of black flow out. I knew it worked when I couldn't detect any darker magic from it. Huh, I thought I would have to open the locket with Parseltongue first, but I guess not.
I then called Sebas who brought the diary with him. He looked absolutely aghast at my injuries and then nearly fainted when caught sight of the dead basilisk. He muttered something about stupid, arrogant, genius, powerful wizards and then proceeded to forcefully care for my injuries. As Kreacher all ready had the tooth in hand, I tossed the diary to him and told him to destroy it as well. He obliged without any insults my way, instead with a pleased expression on his face. Now that I had come through on my promise, his entire demeanor towards me changed. Just the same as the locket, the diary gave out a deathly wail and puff of black smoke as another part of Voldemort's soul was snuffed out. When Sebas was finally done bandaging me up, he went and retrieved the locket. He was adamant about taking care of injuries first, and thankfully, they could all be covered up. Once again, I had Kreacher kill the shade of Voldemort in the diadem, as well. And just like that I had destroyed 3 of the 6 horcruxes. Hopefully, the 7th one never come to be. As it would mean the death of the innocent Bertha Jorkins.
I had Sebas take the remnants of the Horcruxes to Potter Manor and hide them somewhere nobody would find them. I wanted everything to be taken care of without anybody realizing what had happened. I hoped that by the time fourth year came and the Triwizard tournament came to be, I had all of Voldemort's horcruxes destroyed. Though getting the last two will be difficult, the ring had a curse that even Dumbledore couldn't stop and the Cup was secured in Gringotts. Not to mention the one inside me!
Before having Sebas drop me off at my room, I had him take me to where the possessed Ginny inscribed the message on the wall. I remembered Filch being unable to remove it in canon, even with using some type of all magic removing spray or something. I hoped that with the destruction of the diary, the message would be gone as well, or at least removable. When we got to the wall, it was indeed blank. The message had disappeared, though I would have to keep an ear out to see if any professors had done it instead, just out of curiosity.
The next few weeks at Hogwarts were very enjoyable. All the talk was around the Chamber of Secrets and what it could mean if the stories were true. Hermione was the one helped the rumors spread the most by asking Binns about it during class. The brief history lesson on whatever the old ghost knew of the Chamber had spread to every student, possible even making it home in letters. Draco, had come out looking much worse as a result. The fact that the heir was suspected to be in Slytherin due to the Chamber's origin, he had to bear the burden of suspicion again. Everyone, quickly forgot how he was just the unlucky one to be closest to the cat. He tried to take advantage of the infamy the first few days, picking on first years and some smaller second year who were afraid of him. But just as quickly the tables turned for him, as the older years started picking on him. Asking him to call his so-called beast if he really was the heir. He soon became the target of the twins as well, and I think that was the worst punishment he could get; one day they had his entire robe charmed pink, the next day turned his hair the same colour as the Weasley's well known red, and the next charmed his voice a few octaves higher, and on it went for the rest of the year for the poor guy.
The bad luck followed home to the Malfoy family as well. After dealing with the basilisk one of the first things I started doing was sending Lucius Malfoy encyclopedias, one volume at a time. With each one, containing a sock, hidden towards the latter end of the book. I had gotten Lucius' schedule from Dobby when he got caught during the summer. And so made sure the books were sent to him when he would be in the presence of the energetic elf. It took until volume E for him to toss one of them to Dobby to get rid of. From what I learned from the extremely grateful elf later, Lucius would just burn and destroy the first few, disgusted at "muggle filth" being in his house. But by the time volume E got to him, he was fed up and tossed it to Dobby. Lucius would never come learn who it was that facilitated the release of his house elf.
At Hogwarts, in the same week that I had released Dobby, I also gave more misfortune for Draco. The look on his and all the other Slytherin player's faces was priceless, as the entire Gryffindor team came out with the Nimbus 2001s as well.
"Did you think you were the only rich student in Hogwarts?" I asked Draco rhetorically, with a smug expression on my face, while his had taken on a sullen expression, that was mirrored by all the Slytherin.
Whatever advantage they thought they would have with the brooms was gone. And it seemed like that was what most of their strategies relied on. Every single tactic they executed would have worked, if they had the advantage of better brooms. But since that was gone, we picked apart their offense and defense. And without the cursed Bludger, we handed Slytherin one the worst losses ever. As all the Gryffindor players were heading to the change room after our win, I caught sight of Slytherin's captain Flint, berating Draco. This year was not a fun year for the guy, but better him than me.
Unlike Halloween that caught me off guard, I welcomed the winter break as it arrived. With the main goal I had for the year completed without any issues, I could go explore that magical building. The work on the board games was pretty much done, Sirius had put it all together over the months I had been at Hogwarts. Though he would constantly update or ask advice from me, via the elves. We still had not decided on a name yet, Marauders' Inc. remaining as our place holder. As always, I had Tipsy pick me up from the compartment. When we got home, Sirius was not present so I ended up just lounging around, practising my fire magic. I still only trained with candles, any bigger flames and I lost control quickly. It was going to be a slow progress for fire.
When Sirius got home, he told me that he just came from a meeting with Dumbledore. He wanted to know if my so-called guardian had paid a visit to Hogwarts unannounced, once again. He looked at me expectantly after that, to explain if "he" was there. But I denied it and it was the truth, technically. Sirius had told the same to Dumbledore but it didn't seem like the headmaster had believed him. Though Dumbledore asking Sirius about my guardian meant he suspected someone to have stopped further attacks from happening at Hogwarts, the primary suspect being my alter-ego. I asked Sirius if Dumbledore had explained why he wanted to know but apparently the headmaster had avoided answering Sirius' questions on the matter. As per canon, it seemed Dumbledore wanted to keep everything quiet which worked in my favour. Nobody except the elves needed to know about my adventures with Voldemort. And I had 2 more elves for help, in Kreacher and Dobby. Both swearing allegiances to me as soon as they could. Though Kreacher still technically belonged to Sirius, neither interacted with each other at all, as Sirius had the other elves to call on.
The first day of the break was spent playing our finished games with the elves. Sebas was the best at Quibble, with surprisingly Nabel giving him a tough competition. Dobby and Sirius had begun to play their own game of making up words, but none of them counted on the parchment. When we played Empire, it was my time to shine. By the time any of the others could even begin building their manors, I was already building my castles. I had landed on Hogwarts and the Ministry, early on, and it set me up for the whole game. We ended playing for the entire day, only stopping for some light meals.
The following day Sirius went off to meet with some wizards he had met recently. The elves had decided to restructure their work schedule to accommodate Kreacher and Dobby, since they knew how difficult it was to be the new elves, so to speak. Before they got busy with that, I had one of them drop me off close to where I knew the magical building to be. It was fairly chilly outside so I had to cast a wandless warming charm. There were a few people out and about, as I walked past them to my destination. When I got the spot, I cast a glance at the disguised building. Without activating my detection spell, even I wouldn't think twice about the normal looking town house. Once I did activate my spell, I immediately detected the large amounts of magic radiating outward. As I walked up to the unassuming building, I focused on my wand to have it at the ready, just in case.
"Yes, how can I help you" asked an older looking gentleman, who answered when I knocked on the front doors. He was wearing a set of robes that I would have pictured Jedi, from Star Wars, wearing. Definitely was a magic user.
"Um, yeah hi! I wanted to meet the master; I mean owner of the building." I explained as politely as possible.
"I am the person in charge of this building, how can I help you?" He asked amused. I think being a kid, he was willing to entertain me.
"No offense, but the magic radiating from this building is too powerful to have come from you." I tried not to offend him with my comment but my detection spell was good enough to tell the magic of the building was on a whole different scale. If he was surprised at my ability to detect magic, he didn't show it at all.
"Well, you are right young man, I didn't create or enchant this building but I have been given the responsibility of keeping watch over it." He clarified, not taking my comment to heart.
"Oh, I'm sorry Mr.-" I tried apologizing when I realized I didn't even ask the guy his name.
"Sol, Sol Rama. And that's okay, now tell me where are your parents?" He inquired.
"Their indisposed at the moment, but I have permission to be out if that's what you're worried about." I didn't want to lie but it wasn't necessary getting into my backstory with him.
"Hmm, okay follow me. There is someone who would love to meet you." He said after thinking over it for a second.
When he led me inside, I almost stumbled in my steps but thankfully Sol had not noticed. I had to cancel my detection spell; it was picking up too many things in the building. It was like trying to focus on a computer screen but too many pop-ups were getting in the way. I could spend days in this building learning about each and every magical artifact in here. Sol was oblivious to my thoughts as he led me to three floating portals, that led to different looking places. Spatial magic…I was seeing Spatial magic at work in front of me! Before I could get lost in trying to figure out how it worked, Sol led me through one of the portals.
In an instant, we had travelled across the world, to India but I didn't know that right away. Out the window of the building we ended up in, was a bright and sunny day, where as in London it was a gloomy, clouded and chilly day. That was how I knew we had traveled a great distance away, with Sol clarifying where exactly when he noticed my bewildered expression. He told me this place was called Kamar-Taj and I had to hide the shock on my face. I had somehow stumbled onto the location of the Ancient One. And so, I knew exactly who Sol Rama was taking me to see. The Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme before Dr. Strange took up the mantle.
Sol took me to a large courtyard where many others were practising various katas. When they caught sight of me, they would all stop and stare. Not sure if it was because they were wary of strangers or because I was a child. As I was looking around the courtyard, Sol had gone to get the person he was referring to. I was shocked when I saw Sol coming back with a woman behind him. Even though I didn't have my detection spell active, all it took was a glance to confirm, she was the Ancient One. She exuded a lot of power, to be anyone else. It meant I would have no idea how the marvel stories will play out. I didn't remember any stories where the Ancient One was a woman.
"Hello young man, I'm the Ancient One, the leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, Sorcerers if you will." She introduced herself as she came up to me.
"Hello, I'm Harry Potter." I saw her eyebrows raise in surprise. "So, you've heard of me?" I speculated.
"Yes, Mr. Potter. Even us sorcerers have heard of your feat against the infamous Dark Lord." She confirmed with a light smile
"That's strange, if Sorcerers are aware of what happened in our world, why didn't I find any information on sorcerers in any of the history books?" I asked with clear confusion in my voice.
She answered my question as she led me away from the outer courtyard to one inside the main building. The inside courtyard was much smaller and more intimate. It was only her and I now, as she continued answering my question.
Coming back that, she told me that long ago, in the ancient times, all manner of magic users existed. But overtime for one reason or another, wizards began getting more and more insulated until it got to a point that they started looking down on other magic users. Eventually, they completely segregated themselves, the most powerful wizards believing themselves to be better than all other magic users. And when magic users as a whole started getting burned at the stake in many places around the world, the wizarding society blamed the other magic users for being so open with magic. And cut contact with all magic users. They even went as far as removing all mention of other magic users from history books. To reduce the risk of some wizards getting enamoured with different forms of magic and becoming the cause for the entire wizarding world getting exposed.
Eventually, she asked me about the spell that led me to detect the London Sanctum, as I had come to learn it was called. As I described the spell for her and how I went about creating it, she couldn't hide the admiration for it. She explained that normally it would be very difficult for a child to have that much control of their magic. And she was right, if it wasn't for the Dursleys being abusive guardians I wouldn't have become as powerful. It was the pain from going hungry for so long that finally broke the limitation on my magic, but she didn't need to know that.
Eventually, I asked her if I could be taken in as a student and she readily agreed, saying that with my aptitude in magic, she felt obligated to help me become better a magic user. She added in that she wanted to see how the future would change, as she had not expected to meet me at all. That confused me a bit, I didn't remember the Ancient One having the ability to see the future, at least not in the comics.
I took advantage of becoming a new student of hers and asked her about Soul magic, whether it existed and what were the possibilities with it. Instead of answering me with her words, she instead reached out to me with her palm. Just before she made contact with my chest, I leapt backwards. She tried to calm me down, saying she wasn't trying to hurt me but rather help me learn more about Soul Magic. That it was easier to show it first.
"I understand, and that's what I assumed as well. But that's why I jumped back. The reason I asked you about Soul magic was because I have part of someone else's soul inside me, that I want removed." I said solemnly.
"The Dark Lord?" she asked gravely.
I nodded with my head in confirmation, and she instantly became alarmed. She asked me to wait for a bit as she quickly left the inner courtyard. In 5 minutes, she came with 3 other people, one being Sol Rama. She introduced the other two as the protectors of the New York and Hong Kong Sanctums. The three protectors would be present in case anything went wrong, and only then did I realize that she was planning to remove the horcrux from me right away. The hesitancy must have shown on my face, because she explained that with help from the three protectors, everything would be fine.
Though I didn't know her well, I still felt willing to trust her. Part of it was from the familiarity of knowing her counterpart from the comics, and part it was because she came across as a sincere and trustworthy person. When I indicated that I was ready, the three protectors circled around me while the Ancient One stepped up to me again. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. I wanted to use my detection spell to see if I could sense the magic, she was calling but I didn't want to mess anything up so I did nothing. Eventually, she hit me with both her palms and just when she made contact, a bright white light flashed and blinded me. When my vision cleared up, I saw my own body on the ground looking lifeless. And just then, I heard a low but ghastly wail to the left of me.
When I turned to where I heard the wail, I saw the same shrivelled body that represented part of Voldemort's soul that was in the movies. It was fairly weak but still alive right now. As it looked around, it began panicking, realizing it had somehow ended up outside of it's host. But before it could do anything about it, it got hit with 4 distinct beams of light, coming from the Ancient One and the three protectors. The soul piece was too weak to be able to contend with four Masters of the Mystic Arts. And in less than a minute it was completely destroyed, with nothing but a soft whimper. Maybe it was because it was getting attacked on 4 different fronts, but the scream it let out was much weaker than the other horcruxes.
I thanked them profusely for helping get rid of the horcrux, especially the one that would have been the hardest for me to destroy. Since, I didn't want to take the killing curse head on, in an attempt to destroy it. That was too much of a risk to take, even for me. And I willingly faced a 60ft basilisk that can kill you with a glance. The Ancient One then spent quite a long time with me, teaching me the basics of the magic they used. It was a little difficult in the beginning to grasp, as the focus was on drawing magic from the different dimensions of the universe, rather than from within myself. It required a complete shift in my thinking to start making some progress. With wizard magic, I wanted to feel the magic within myself, it was an extension of me that could be used to change the world to my liking. In the case of the magic the Ancient one was teaching me, I had to surrender the fact that the magic was not my own and was something I borrowed by essentially asking the various dimensions. I could see why the wizards of past, and honestly a lot of present wizards as well, would have issue with using this type of magic. Considering a lot of wizards are obsessed with blood purity, they would obviously reject any magic that doesn't come from oneself.
After a few hours with the Ancient One, I asked if it would be possible for me to bring others here to learn as well. She didn't have an issue, as long as they were respectful, as it was wizards who had the grievances not the other way around. I assured her they would be, as they were some of the best people I knew. And then I left with Sol, who had waited to guide me back to the London Sanctum. I apologized for interrupting his duties, but he assured me it was fine since he had someone fill in for him.
"Ah, Harry meet Karl Modo, Karl, this is Harry Potter, our newest part-time student, as of today." Sol introduced the man who greeted us at the London Sanctum, when we got back.
We didn't get to talk much since he and I, both, were in a hurry but I was still able to tell he was a humble and honest person. Completely different from his comic book counter part, if he was supposed to be a version of Baron Karl Modo. In the comics he and Dr. Strange battled against each other quite a bit, would he eventually become a bad guy? That's already another thing about the Marvel side of this universe that is completely different from what I know. While the uncertainty of what was to come in this chaotic universe gave me a bit of anxiety, it was the good kind. It was going to help keep me on my toes, and not get complacent.
As I made my way out of the Sanctum, I quickly found a secluded spot and got Tipsy to take me back home. Sirius wasn't back yet, so instead, I got to writing some letters, not mentioning anything of the sorcerers I found but rather asking to meet me at the earliest, tomorrow if possible. I wrote a letter for Hermione, Neville, the Tonks family, and the twins; made sure to specify that the invite was for the twins only. I knew if Molly or Arthur found out, they would tell Dumbledore right away. And right now, I didn't know if Dumbledore knew of sorcerers and kept them a secret because of the prejudices that many wizards have.
Sirius arrived back home, just as I gave the letters to the elves to be delivered. I instructed them to wait for a reply before coming back. If possible, I wanted everyone to be there tomorrow, when I went back to Kamar-Taj. I told Sirius to cancel all his plans for tomorrow as I had a big surprise for him. He tried to get it out of me all night but I didn't relent. I wanted to see everyone's expression at the same time. I expected the adults, Dora included, to have larger reactions. They grew up not knowing that another secret magic society existed.
This is winter break already started on a beautiful note. Not only had I luckily found the Ancient One but I was 4 horcruxes down, and only had 2 more to go.