Chapter 2: Finding Väinämöinen

A new and completely unexpected world greeted Harry the next morning. The Real World was almost merged with The Ghost World of his dream, there was still the part where time flew as before and this was the new Real World, and there was the part where time didn't flow and this was the new Ghost World. Everything was more vibrant and intense: the colours, the tastes, the smells. His perception of it all had also become much sharper: if he concentrated a wooden table surface could become like the Grand Canyon, and he could hear conversations a mile away. And all was filled with currents of aurora lights and the music they produced.

The first thing he had noticed was an unusual concentration of aurora lights around the Dursleys' house. This had led him to discover ward stones around the property marked with the runes "mother", "love", "sacrifice" and "protection". From the stones there were currents going to aunt Petunia, Dudley and him. He knew he had been placed there by Prof. Dumbledore… so he was "important" to Prof. Dumbledore to require this kind of protection, and Prof. Dumbledore wanted him as far as possible from "corruption" by fame and possibly falling under influence of people like Lord Malfoy… This meant he was being schooled to adhere completely to Prof. Dumbledore's vision in preparation of him becoming the new beacon of "light" in the Wizarding world, or worse he was a "pawn" to be transformed into "queen" in the right moment to end the confrontation with Voldemort. After the last night, it was likely that he was given all the tools to do that, and perhaps even overkill.

The first few days were spent in the surrounding forest and on a nearby abandoned construction lot, testing and trying to discover what he was able to do in the real world. He could do a lot by just using natural flows of aurora currents, which didn't require casting of spells: telekinesis, enhanced speed, enhanced strength, floating/flying/jumping over considerable distance. But efficient use of these abilities meant practice and training was needed in the real world. The forest and the construction lot would do for the summer, but what during schoolyear? Probably wouldn't be allowed to run in the Forbidden Forest, maybe to set a "Danger Room" in the Chamber of Secrets?

The Ghost World was now kaleidoscope of the real world, where space had maximum curvature, where all possibilities coexist, where past, present and future happen at the same time, and from where one could open doors to access any particular reality, so he renamed it the Crossroad World or the Zero-Point World.

He didn't need to be asleep to access the Crossroad, he could just blink, and blink again to return to his existence in the real world at the same moment he had left. Bringing an object into and taking an object out from the Crossroad required opening a portal. There were no living beings in the Crossroad, only spirits and echoes of people connected with a particular object.

When he first entered the Crossroad and looked at himself in a mirror, his jaw almost dropped: "I bloody look like Prof. Dumbledore!" He could see his present form, but he could also see his future self, an old man with long white hair and beard. But why was the form of this old man glowing like Gandalf the White? This form would be useful to visit the Crossroad version of Hogwarts, and other magical places…

The term zero-point he learnt during his visits to the Crossroad versions of the British Library and the Museum. Those visits were more instructive and interesting than even his visits to the Crossroad versions of all magical places on Earth. Visiting the magical places and learning about various forms of magic practiced and the ways it was perceived by magical beings like goblins, veelas, dragons, and the forms of magic practiced by wizards and witches, led him to conclusion that magical beings practiced magic in the natural ways of Earth, and wizards and witches practiced magic according to the ways of Merlin – sometimes against the natural ways of Earth. Why?

At the Library there were millions of documents in multitude of languages, in multiple forms: books, disks, memory crystals (a fancier version of pensive), and more, giving all sorts of knowledge, and he had all eternity to read them and learn. This led to feeling greatly perplexed, many of those documents spoke of alien civilizations as if they really existed, as if the humanity had made contact with them. He would have to check this more, but how and where?

At the Museum, as he went to see the Ancient Egypt exhibit, he came upon a giant black metal ring with some glyphs on it and the information plate beside it had the words: "Stargate, discovered at the Gizeh plateau in 1924". As he touched the black metal, the rings came upon him, there was light, there was the roller-coaster rush he had felt before, and when the light receded a voice greeted him: "Welcome to the Great Alliance Museum and its Depository of knowledge…"

After this visit, feeling greatly overwhelmed, he walked back to the Crossroad Little Whinging, sat down on one of the swings in the park, thinking about all what he had learnt, especially about ascending and about the spirits living in parallel realms, like the giants of the crystal skull. The power and the knowledge at his hand were lightyears beyond Voldemort and his horcruxes. He could simply close his eyes and ask magic to kill Voldemort, but should he do it, was it the right way, was it the right time?

He closed his eyes and started pushing his mind with desire to open his awareness to perception of the truth and the completeness of the Crossroad and his place in it. He was thinking about the lights and the music, the form they had used to have in the First World, and the form they had now. He was trying to see where the lights and the music were going, trying to see them in the same manner he could see objects in the Crossroad – to see their past, present and future in the same moment. He was thinking about the lights and the music inside him, produced by the nodes along his spine. He was trying to move the lights and the music inside him in the ways they moved around him. He was starting to see the patterns within the patterns. The shapes moved, and suddenly he was able to see it: the future of his interaction with magic. Evolution of the lights and the music followed the Mandelbrot set which had Buddha-like shape, and he was at the centre of this set. He knew everything, he was everything. The magic was the force behind the lights and the music, it was alive and sentient, and he could wield it in the ways how it wanted, like a friend and a lover, giving himself completely to the force.

There were soft and warm lights starting to glow and caress him, and he started to float, and the shape of his body started to change and disappear, being replaced by the shape of the lights…

He was about to surrender his consciousness to the force and go on with the next big adventure as Prof. Dumbledore liked to say, when something completely unexpected happened and caused him to refocus on remaining Harry Potter. There were other humans in the Crossroad!? Through the force he was able to hear voices in the Crossroad, one of them familiar.

They were located in the Crossroad version of Devon.

"There Ginny, this was the last of it, no more taint of Tom Riddle on your magic. All is as the Mother Nature meant it to be…"

"Thanks a lot Luna, you have no idea how much this means to me…" was said through tears of happiness.

"Actually, I do. You are very strong to have supported it for so long. And you're welcome, Daddy is glad that his invention can be used to help others. Even if he was unable to reach the echo of my Mum, I can use it to enhance my perception of magic and create this dream-world in our minds which allowed me to locate the taint and clean your magic to its natural state…"

So, there was a witch who could access the Crossroad, interesting… and unknowingly she had helped him complete his ascension. Time to put this to good use…

…

"So, Col. O'Neill, let me get this straight… 'The Swiss Army Knife Shadow' helped your escape from Chulak?..."

"Yes, General sir, it is the best I can describe it. The Jaffa were about to start killing the hostages on the orders of Apophis, and Teal'c heeding my plea, turned his staff against them, when this 'Shadow', which I guess was hiding up to that moment in the dark corner of the cell, jumped in and used 'all-in-the-book' to incapacitate every Jaffa on Chulak. It started with the ones in the cell, it blew up the hole on the wall, got out and continued with its work outside, on individual Jaffa soldiers and the gliders alike"

"All-in-the-book?..."

"Yes sir, telekinesis, bolts of lightning, laser beams, projections of ice, fire and water, it created localized earthquakes, its tentacles turned to spikes…all-in-the-book…"

"Thank you Col. O'Neill, I get the picture…" said the General, closing his eyes and pinching the root of his nose… yes, the Swiss Army Knife Shadow was the most logical way to explain to his superiors why there were 10'000 Jaffa and their families miniaturized to ant-size in the miniature fortress of Apophis locked in a storage room on Level 26.