Harry Potter and the Hermetic Arts

Chapter 8: Revelations & Repercussions

"Harry, I think the magical society may be systemically racist," Sarah said to Harry when he walked into the back room of Bourne's Comics and Games Saturday morning; he had not seen her since Thursday because she did not play Shadowrun, but she had clearly been reading.

"And good morning to you too, omae," said Harry, as he sat down across from Sarah. "What exactly makes you say that?"

"I've been a sociology professor for over a decade," said Sarah, before tapping the stack of books on the table before her. "I have never read literature that is as systemically discriminatory against a single group of people as the books from this wizarding society are."

"Can you explain in more detail?"

"Witches and wizards view non-magical people as inferior to them. This isn't just a minority view; all three books I borrowed were written by different authors, yet all three discussed non-magical individuals like they are less than magical people. They even have a special term they use for non-magical people: 'muggles'."

"I take that's like calling travelers 'pikeys'?"

"Worse," said the sociology professor. "It's more akin to the deep south of the United States during the time of the American Revolution; persons of African descent were considered less than human, and they had specific terms they used to dehumanize them, and the magical society is still doing this to the non-magical population. They systematically consider people of non-magical origin to be beneath them; if a witch or wizard is born of non-magical parents, they are called 'muggle-born' and can be called 'mudblood', which is a slur, as you'd expect, and if they have one parent with non-magical heritage and one of magical heritage, the term used is 'half-blood', in contrast to those of two parents with magical heritage, who are called 'pureblood', with all the things associated with the superiority of purity."

"That's really bad," Harry said. "But that's just one example, though. I mean, it's a terrible one, but I know you're not the type of person to just jump to conclusions so quickly; you have more evidence, don't you?"

"You would be correct," said Sarah, as she picked up Magical Creatures and flipped to one of her bookmarks. "Goblins, for example, are routinely referred to as 'beasts', even though they are apparently officially classified as 'beings' and are certainly intelligent enough to do the banking for the magical society at large. It's like when European explorers would call indigenous peoples 'savages' when they first met them, except magical society has known goblins for generations."

"I take magical society considers themselves enlightened," said Harry.

"More so than non-magical people," the professor said. "It's not hard to understand why they would, though; after all, they have magic. It would like an alien species with interstellar travel came to Earth and decided humanity was a lesser species."

"That's troubling," Harry said, rubbing his forehead with his palm. "Say I don't like the term 'muggle'; what term should I be using to describe people without magic?"

"'Non-magical' is one," said the sociology professor. "You could also use 'mundane', I guess, or, given that only a minuscule population is capable of magic, 'normal' fits perfectly well."

The boy considered the information he had just learned and sighed. "I'm going to have to give this a lot of thought."

"You should," said the sociology professor. "Change for the better doesn't happen without people thinking about ways to improve the world."

It wasn't what Harry had meant.

~ooOoo~

The hits just kept coming.

Harry knew something was wrong when Romy stormed into the back room Tuesday evening, face afire with indignant passion.

He had been reading History of Magic when he had looked up at the noise of the door slamming open against the wall, but the look on the chemistry post-graduate's face left a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He was about to learn something that would make his skin crawl.

"They can read minds, 'Squeak!" Romy snarled angrily without prompting. "Not only that, but they can manipulate memories too!"

"I take you mean people with magic?" asked Harry, sitting back in his chair and taking off his glasses, rubbing his temple between thumb and middle finger.

"They're like evil mind controllers!" Rosemary continued. "Can you imagine what they can do to people if they have that kind of power?"

"Use mind control to make sure nobody in a position of power helps me," said Harry darkly.

The comment stopped Romy dead in her tracks. "Harry, I didn't mean…"

"It makes more sense than bribery," Harry said with a grimace. "You can always track the source of money, but if they use mind control, there's nothing to trace back to them."

"I'm sorry 'Squeak," said Romy. "I wasn't trying to…"

"Doesn't matter now," said the boy as he dropped the textbook into his bag with a sigh.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find a way to defend my mind."

~~ooOoo~~

Enchantment was something Harry did not particularly enjoy doing. Creating the self-moving miniatures had been easy; when he had read the tale of the golem in a book of Jewish folklore, it had seemed like a perfectly simple thing to try, especially after he had learned of enchanting from the magic chapter of Shadowrun: Where Man Meets Magic and Machine, but the truth had been the complete lack of details made the process very opaque and research-intensive. While he was able to animate the miniatures as golems by simply inscribing them with אמת and then drawing power from the Astral plane and using it to suffuse each miniature, every other successful enchantment he had created afterwards had taken hours of dedicated research and preparation to produce the desired result.

Yet, enchantment was the only real choice Harry had in defending his mind; unlike other forms of magic, enchantments stayed active even after he was no longer focused on them, and it was the only form of magic he could trust to protect his mind even when he was asleep.

Thus, he found himself at the public library, pen in hand, notepad on the table and books of hieroglyphs, runes, sigils and symbology stacked around him. There were not many such books, but it was a good enough place to start.

Everything he had ever read about defensive enchantments, even if it was written by normals, was that such an enchantment began with an unbroken circle, and so he began his undertaking with one as well.

Harry had been lucky with finding a book of viking runes in the library's oversized collection; within it, he found the first step in creating a mental defense: ᛉ, algiz, a rune of protection, of the higher self, of the control of emotions. Carefully, he drew the rune within the circle, and the result was an upside-down peace symbol.

He then took some time to decide whether such a simple ward would be a strong enough defense against those who would seek to trespass against him; while simplicity was good, ultimately, those who would seek to do him harm would never be stopped easily given what his life had been like so far. If he was at the center of a conspiracy as he suspected, then it was safe to assume people would go very far to ensure they remained capable of influencing him, and that meant he would need a deeply layered defense.

Once he knew he wanted his mental defense to be layered, Harry consulted a book of numerology to find the best number of layers for the ward he was constructing. Six was the number he came away with, a number signifying responsibility, balance, fluidity, cautiousness, and, most importantly, protection.

Adding the Eye of Horus was his next step. He had found it in a book of Egyptian hieroglyphs and symbology and had read that it protected anything it looked upon, and for just that alone he was willing to add it as a layer of defense for his mind.

The tree of life, recognized by cultures and traditions around the world as a symbol of wisdom and protection, was the third layer. He reasoned, if it was recognized by people from all around the world in all walks of life, then it was likely because it held power.

The fourth layer of defense, he decided, would be a Celtic shield knot. A symbol of protection, it would further shield him from the intrusions against his mind if he layered his defenses correctly.

Harry could not deny the inclusion of the pentacle as a fifth layer of defense even though it was commonly attributed to the practices of satanists, particularly after he had done some reading regarding the symbol and its origins. Historically used as a pagan symbol to represent the four elements and the self, it was a defensive symbol that had been in use since the medieval period in Europe, and he saw no reason why people misattributing and misusing it while also inverting it should prevent him from using it in self-defense.

It took Harry many more books before he could find a sixth symbol he felt comfortable with as the final layer of his mental defense. Ultimately, Harry chose a labyrinth design within an ouroboros for the final layer of his defense; if he designed the layered defense correctly, the labyrinth would shuffle those who penetrated one layer of his mental defense into the next, and were they to penetrate that layer of defense, the labyrinth would shuttle them to another layer of defense, creating an infinite loop of protection for his mind.

Even after he had finished picking the layers of the defense, Harry still had much ahead of him. If he did not organize the protections effectively, it would all be for nought. Choose the wrong medium, and he might as well invite others into his mind with a welcome mat.

Considerations for medium came first. Jewelry was out of the question; it wasn't permanent and could be removed with only a small effort on the part of those who might wish him ill. Branding and scarification would be too obviously visible, making visible his defenses to those who might want to breach them. Given this, Harry felt his only real remaining choice was a tattoo, and one on his scalp no less; once his hair grew back, it would become effectively invisible.

The problem of tattoos, however, was materials. Normal tattoo ink would not be enough to hold the magical power from the Astral plane Harry would need to infuse into the tattoo, and were it possible, he would prefer tattoo made with an invisible ink so even if he were to lose his hair for some reason or another, it wouldn't be completely obvious he was protected. And for material information, he would need to consult with experts later.

Organizing the defenses of the tattoo, however, was something he could do now. The Eye of Horus would need to be at the very top, to watch over and protect everything within its view, and thus, everything beneath it. The labyrinth would need to be between algiz and the world tree, to link the two layers of protection for his mind together; since the tree of life had interpretations beyond protection and wisdom, it only made sense it would appear above algiz in the protective tattoo,so that it could also provide abundance, beauty and strength. The pentacle, connecting air, earth, fire and water to the spiritual, was even more broad than the tree of life, and would thus need to be between the Eye of Horus and the cosmic tree, leaving the Celtic shield knot as a last, complicated line of defensive layer at the very bottom of the design.

Soon, he would need to talk to Shaun about where he had gotten his tattoos. But first, he needed to do research about materials.

~ooOoo~

After a talking with Shaun that evening about getting a head tattoo, Harry spent the next two mornings in London, going to various florists and new age shops to ask questions about their products, mostly the meaning of flowers and the properties of gemstones. With what he had learned, he purchased a large planter of white cinquefoils, two pots of mint and two of sage, non-toxic plant all associated with protection; he could use the latter two in his cooking, and had no intention of wasting them on just the fabrication of ink.

Gemstones were much harder to procure, particularly in the quantities he needed them at, and he had to pay above market value for them, but pay for them he did. He was lucky Jason had been able to sell the gold Harry had left in his care and deliver eighteen thousand pounds as promised, and by Thursday night, Harry had a large chunk of labradorite, a piece of blue kyanite the size of his head, and a hunk fluorite that could pass for packs of playing cards encased in precious stones. All of the stones had been selected because of the defenses they were thought to provide: labradorite to serve as a shield against psychic attack and fixation, blue kyanite to prevent his mind from being manipulated in any way, and fluorite to cloak his aura to avoid psychic attacks, curses and sorcery.

From there, Harry began the process of manufacturing the inks he wanted to use for the tattoo. Having made sure all the ingredients he selected were not toxic, he set about creating an ink that would also hold be able to hold onto the Astral power he channeled into it; he had selected the color blue because it was associated with truth and protection. While he could easily reduce the stones and vegetable matter to a fine powder through his magic, combining them together with water to create a pigment capable of holding astral power was much more difficult; since the appointment with the tattoo artist was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, Harry skipped Friday night's Shadowrun to experiment with and run tests on inks, but still needed until mid-morning Sunday to finally create a half-dozen inks in different shades of blue for use in the tattoo.

~ooOoo~

The truth was, Harry had never been really close to Shaun, even though he knew the older man would never willingly put him in harm's way. It had been Shaun's warning that had kept him from flaunting his magic; Shaun's innate distrust of authority had led him to warn Harry of the possibility of being captured by the government and used in experiments to determine whether they could weaponize his magic for widespread military applications, and he had taken the lesson to heart, never showing his magic to anyone outside the regulars of Bourne's Comics and Games tabletop games. As Harry still had his freedom, the advice had served him well.

When he had told Shaun of the circumstances of why he needed to get a tattoo on his scalp, the man was understanding and arranged a meeting with a tattoo artist when her shop was closed for the weekend. He had sat with the boy as he got his head shaved by a licensed barber in preparation for the tattoo on his scalp. Now, he stood beside him outside the tattoo parlor, where the boy was about to do something there would be no coming back from.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Harry?"

"What other option do I have? Let them read my mind, wipe away my thoughts, control me by manipulating my memories?"

With those words, Harry rapped his knuckles on the heavy wooden door. After a long moment, the lock clicked and the door swung open; getting a nod from Shaun, he ventured inside, knowing his friend would only be a few steps behind him.

Unlike everything he had ever imagined a tattoo studio would be, the interior of the narrow shop was well-lit, with many framed tattoo designs hanging from the sparse white walls. Near the back of the room was a leather salon chair adjacent to a desk and a few filing drawers.

"Who do we have here?" asked a warm, silky voice, low with unspoken invitation.

Harry spun on his heels in the direction of the voice as the door clicked close behind Shaun; locking the deadbolt was a beautifully pale noirette in a white tank top, skintight black jeans and heavy-soled leather boots, intricately designed and colored tattoos covering her wrists to her shoulders like sleeves.

"Grace, this is Harry, the friend I was telling you about," Shaun introduced. "Harry, Grace."

As they shook hands, Harry felt himself being drawn in by Grace's gaze, her crystal blue eyes seeming to search his.

"How old are you, Harry?"

"Turned eleven on the last day of July."

Grace gave Shaun a disapproving look. "He's too young to have a tattoo."

Harry, meanwhile, gave Shaun a similar look. "Is she discrete?"

Shaun looked sheepish at the woman's veiled accusation, but gave the boy a quick nod.

Harry sat down on one of the chairs by the door, eyes narrowing as he examined the noirette. "I'm about to show you something that you will have to keep a secret," he said. "I won't show it to you unless you promise to carry the secret to your grave. And I mean this seriously."

"Is this secret dangerous?"

"Only if you tell someone, anyone, and even then, mostly to me."

Grace's brow furrowed as she considered the proposal for a moment, then smiled playfully. "Okay, I'm in."

Harry nodded, sitting up straight as he crossed his wrists right over left, thumbs hooked together and fingers spread wide as he exhaled with his hands near his waist in the Garuda mudra, incanting, "Rego auram."

The noirette's amused expression quickly gave way to eyes widening in bewilderment as she was gently lifted off her feet by no more than the air beneath her. Floating a couple feet from the floor for a few moments, she suddenly felt the weightless cushion beneath her disappear, and she safely dropped the short distance to the floor, landing on her feet with a thump as her heavy boots hit the hardwood floors.

"How is that possible?"

"Magic is real," said Harry. "There's a secret magical society that has existed for centuries, hidden away from normal people, and they have the power to read minds and manipulate memories, which is why I've designed a tattoo that will provide layered protection for my mind."

"They can tell what you're thinking and change your memories?" Grace asked in horror.

"Yes," said Harry, recognizing what the tattoo artist was stuck on. "That's why you have to carry the secret to your grave. You tell somebody, the witches and wizards will show up to erase your memories of magic existing, while the military will likely capture me to experiment on. So, you'll lose a bit your memories, but I'll get locked up in a lab and cut open like a science experiment."

The noirette swallowed as this information sank in. "And this tattoo will protect you from having your mind read and tampered with?"

"Me and anybody other magical individuals who get it," said the boy, once again recognizing where Grace's thoughts were headed. "For normal people, all it'll be is a tattoo; it will not work unless Astral power is infused into the ink while the tattoo is being created."

Another beat followed. Then, "How can I tell if I'm magical?"

"My understanding is, if you were magical, you would have received a letter during the summer of your eleventh year notifying you of your acceptance to a secret magical boarding school."

"Oh."

"So, are you willing to do this?"

"Why do you need it?"

Harry sighed as he once again recounted what was his life story thus far. "My parents were killed by a 'dark lord', words of others, not mine. I was then placed with abusive relatives; when Shaun and my other friends reported the abuse to police, nothing ever came out it. Wednesday before last, somebody suddenly shows up to tell me I'm wizard and I've secretly been wealthy and famous all along. I'm the beloved chosen one who defeated the last 'dark lord', again, their words, not mine, and they're going to scoop me up and take me away to a secret world of magic where people in the streets just can't wait to shake my hands.

"And the punchline is, the people plucking me from my plight are also the people who've kept me from my fame and wealth, both of which I might have been able to use to protect myself."

Silence hung in the room as the noirette digested the story Harry had just told her. Then, "May I see the designs?"

Without a word, Harry reached into his ever-present haversack and withdrew a manila folder and handed it to Grace, who leafed through the loose sheets of paper, each covered with a hand-drawn tattoo design. "I need these tattoos on top of each other, in a specific order."

"Each one of these will take somewhere between ninety minutes and three hours to complete, and you'll need four weeks for each tattoo to heal properly before I can do the next one."

"Magic can speed the healing," said Harry resolutely. "Does this mean you'll tattoo me?"

"Of course," Grace said with a warm, reassuring smile. "I do have to warn you though, a head piece is not a good idea for a tattoo virgin, and normally, I would never do a head tattoo on somebody who is getting a tattoo for the first time."

"Aren't I special?" said the boy, a little more sarcastically than he intended. "I'm sorry, I'm just under a lot of stress, being savior of a secret magical world and all."

Grace placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "What order are these tattoos meant to be in?"

"The Celtic shield knot is at the very bottom, then the Norse rune algiz inside a protective circle, followed by the labyrinth surrounded by the Ouroboros biting its tail and not eating itself. Next is the world tree, which is before the pentacle, and the Eye of Horus is last, but all of the tattoos have to be inside a protective circle that you will need to redo with each layer."

The tattoo artist considered what she had just been told. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Harry reached once again into his haversack, this time retrieving a rack of six inks in varying tones of blue and placing them into Grace's hands. "These are special inks I made just for the tattoos; they contain powdered flowers and gemstones which I have ascertained are non-toxic but will also absorb the Astral power I will be channeling into it as the tattoos are being made. The tattoo needs to be as large as possible while still being small enough so that my hair will hide it when it grows back, and while there can be breaks between tattoos, there can't be any while a tattoo is being inked and not between the the viking rune, labyrinth and world tree."

"This could take up to eighteen hours," Grace said as she looked through the designs again. "The viking rune, labyrinth and world tree together could take up to six hours in one go. Are you sure you're up for it?"

"I have to be."

"We best get started then."

~~ooOoo~~

In hindsight, a head tattoo was a not the best idea Harry had ever come up with, but at the time, it was all he could think of to protect his mind from trespassers and would-be mind controllers.

The tattoo took the better part of two days to complete, with breaks for relieving biological needs and restoring concentration in between the inking of different layers. While Grace was applying ink to skin, Harry found himself gritting his teeth against the pain, but it was really no worse than the times his cousin had kicked him in the head, and given what was at stake, Harry was willing to bear the agony of what felt like a needle being dragged through his scalp. He was, however, grateful for the earplugs the tattoo artist had given him, as it rendered the noise made by the tattoo gun bearable, though it did nothing to dampen the vibration that felt like they were rattling his brain around in his skull.

Between the layers of that tattoo, Harry had used his magic to rapidly heal the skin where ink had been injected; all it took was "creo corporem", the prana mudra and a burst of power drawn directly from the Astral plane, and skin which would have taken weeks to heal recovered in a matter of minutes. Every time he did this, though, Grace watched in wide-eyed amazement, and he had to remind himself that, for normal people, real magic was not an everyday occurrence.

Through it all, he kept Astral power flowing steadily into the ink as it was shot into his skin as part of the tattoo, and the design glowed faintly as it was suffused with magical power. Only when each set of tattoos was properly completed did he taper off the flow of magical energy to the defensive sigils, and even after the glow faded, he could feel them continue to draw from the Astral plane on their own without his help, and he knew the defenses would hold even without additional effort on his part, though he could strengthen them greatly at any time by infusing the mental defenses with additional Astral energy.

By the time Grace finally told Harry the tattoo was truly complete, the boy had become numb to the pain of the needle working over his scalp. One last "creo corporem", prana mudra and burst of Astral power healed the skin and the tattoo in minutes, then another "creo corporem" and prana mudra saw thick black hair sprout from his scalp, obscuring the tattoo in seconds as his raven locks once again became the tousled mop that topped his head.

Yawning as he rose from the salon chair, Harry reached into his haversack and retrieved a stack of fifty pound notes, carefully wrapped in a bill strap indicating its one hundred count, and tried to hand it to Grace, who looked stunned by the money the child was handling like small change.

"This isn't what we agreed on," she protested.

"We didn't agree on anything," Harry said with a smile. "Your quote was three thousand, six hundred eighty pounds. The other thousand, three hundred twenty is a tip. Thirty-five percent is pretty common, I've been told."

"I can't take this much," Grace insisted.

"Listen Grace," said Harry as he took one of her hands in his own, gently laying the stack of bills in her palm as he looked into her eyes. "I am wealthy well beyond you probably imagine I am, even if it is almost all in gold, and you've done me a huge service. Not only that, you did so at great risk to your professional life, and I'm still asking you to carry a secret to the grave."

The beautiful tattoo artist swallowed but could not find a counter-argument as Harry took her other hand and placed it on top of the money already in her hand.

"Besides, I might need more tattoos in the future," said Harry with a slightly predatory smile, "and I would like to start this relationship off in a positive manner."

Nodding to Shaun, who come to the tattoo parlor not long after his work day had ended, Harry cracked his back. "You can keep the inks," he said, nodding with his chin towards the half-used vials strewn across Grace's desk. "They contain mint, sage, white cinquefoil, blue kyanite, fluorite and labradorite, which can all be used in psychic defense, should a client come and ask for such a tattoo."

Harry wobbled on his feet; keeping a channel flowing with Astral power had been draining, and it was time to go back to The Footman and get some sleep.

Author's Notes: Penny in the air... penny drops... but I did say that some shit was going to happen this chapter.

As some people may note, Harry really likes using lexicon from Shadowrun.

Once again, my thanks to Shinshikaizer for the original pitch, and goalie12345 for proof-reading.