Just wanted to point out, I don't own the characters of this story. There may be one or two OCs, but that's about it. If you see anything in this that you think is from another fanfic, then it's by complete accident. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling (sadly). Also wanted to say that all reviews are welcome, but if you have a problem with something in the story try to keep it to something constructive so that maybe I can change/fix it. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the fanfic. Rating is just in case.

'Parseltongue'

[Thoughts]

Stars of Avalon

Where there is darkness, there must also be light. Where there is light, there must also be darkness. But where there is so much darkness that light is swallowed…that is where a star is born.

Chapter 5 - Familiar Feelings

When Harry got up the next day it took him a moment to remember all that happened the previous day. When he was finally all caught up, he was jumping in excitement. [Another power to practice! If I'm not careful I might actually get a busy schedule with all this stuff I need to practice.] While he was happy for more power to protect himself with, he really was enjoying the somewhat laid back way of learning he had. So, any more things added and he might have to cut down his reading, only slightly of course.

Now that Harry thought about it, he got quite annoyed. "I just wrote the stupid schedule, now I have to write it again?!" Yelling at anything and everything, When all he got were echoes of his yelling he grumbled, "I wasn't quite expecting a response, but an apology would have been nice. "Oh well, back to the schedule I guess."

With that Harry sat at the desk he has in his room and started to create a whole new schedule, hoping that it would work

Sunday - Duelling, Elemental

Monday - Warding, Arithmancy

Tuesday - Arithmancy, Duelling/Element in duelling

Wednesday - Library, Elemental

Thursday - Mind Magics, Elemental

Friday - Warding, Arithmancy

Saturday - Arithmancy, Mind Magics, Elemental

While it was a lot of work throughout the day, Harry hoped that it would help his magic grow strong so that more options would be open to him in ways of magic. Now that he got his schedule down, he got to work.

It only took later that day for Harry to learn that he was able to stay in the Abyss longer if he just didn't choose somewhere to go and it only took til Thursday of that same week for him to figure out that he could stay under whoever he chose to go to and listen to them, but it was hard to hear exactly what was being said. It all sounded like listening through water. He hoped that practice would fix that problem.

For the next year things went smoothly and he was learning in tremendous leaps and bounds as usual. He was to the point where he could effectively use his shadow travel in a duel without completely hindering himself. The dummies seemed to have adapted though, so it was getting progressively harder to get the drop on them, so he was having to get creative with how he used his abilities and skills. He figured out that it didn't matter how large or small a shadow was, he was able to travel both ways through it, but the smaller shadows tended to be harder to get through. He made good progress on staying in the Abyss, but after ten minutes he started to get too cold to stay in any longer. He usually practiced this ability with the spying one so he could kill two birds with one stone. Since he could only stay in for ten minutes at a time, he didn't get to practice for long periods of time and didn't make much progress on getting words spoken to sound clearer. They did sound better, but he could barely make out the garbles for words.

Warding and arithmancy were the two he got the furthest in. With arithmancy he actually felt that he could pass any test given to him on the subject. There were just so many books in the Potter Library that in this short time it seemed that he had practically mastered the subject, for now. He could always go back and study it more, but it was decided to switch arithmancy for another subject. All Harry had to do was find the subject first. Warding, while not as far as arithmancy, was a close third. Duelling was second. He could put up wards, but it took him around fifteen seconds to be able to put them up. He was able to make countless of his own wards, but putting them up seemed to be the issue. The problem was put down to not having enough magic or control, so Harry dedicated himself to try to up his magical prowess by adding more mind magic practice where arithmancy used to be. Now that he hopefully fixed his problem, he got back on the grind with the hope that he could accomplish the goals he set for himself.

The harder he worked, the faster time seemed to fly by. It was slowly coming up to his tenth birthday, so to speak. Yes, his body was only around seven at this point, his mind was that of a ten year old. Not counting the added mental age added by large amounts of mind magics. He was now a third way through his training journey and the people who once knew him wouldn't have believed how far he had come. Mostly because none of them liked him, but that's beside the point. He had come far and he decided that for his technical tenth birthday, he would go into the forest that was on the grounds of Potter Manor and see what all was in there. It was quite lucky that his ancestors thought to put the forest in the area that the time ward covered because being stuck in the manor for fifteen years wouldn't have been a fun thing to deal with. Decision made, Harry opened the manors front doors for the first time since he arrived and went looking around for the forest. It would seem that the forest was on the completely opposite side to the front door, so Harry had to walk quite a ways to get to the tree line. It wasn't all bad though, he got to see the sights of the outdoors after not being outside in years.

When he got to the tree line he peaked in to see if he could guess what it would be like inside. Once he realised he would have to just dive right in and find out, he sighed and started walking between the trees.

It felt like he had been walking for a while. Harry had looked back a few times and after the third time, couldn't even see the light of where the trees ended. He was most likely in the middle of the forest or close to where the wards ended when he heard it. It sounded like a mix between a squeak and a growl. Maybe it was just a high pitched growl? He had no idea, but he wanted to know what it was, so using his shadow travel, he got as close as he dared. Which happened to be right behind whatever was making the noise. If it was anyone else they probably would have been a bit more careful, but what's the point when he could easily protect himself. Hopefully.

What he was expecting to find was possibly two animals fighting or perhaps an injured animal, what he wasn't expecting was to find a young bear cub. It wasn't injured, nor fighting. Just laying there making, now that he could see it, cute noises. A baby gurgling would be a close comparison. Creatures wasn't one of the subjects he focused very much on, but from what he could tell, this wasn't one he had seen or heard of before. He looked around to see if there was a mother or any family in general around. Seeing none, he wanted to bring it back home with him, but first he would wait in a tree and see if anything came looking for it.

He spent around an hour or two waiting to see if any creature would come and claim the cub, but after he felt enough time had passed, he shadowed down and slowly walked up to the little thing. Still moving slowly, he reached to pet the animal and the moment his hand touched its fur a shock went straight up his arm into his head. Not expecting that to happen, Harry yelped in surprise and jerked his hand away. When the shock reached his head, he felt his mind slightly expand. While reading, he had heard of a familiar bonding and while it was incredibly rare for a witch or wizard to ever find their familiar it happened from time to time as there were recorded bondings that were studied. Based on that research, it would seem that Harry was one of those lucky few. Knowing that he now had a bond with the cute little creature, Harry didn't hesitate to pick the little bundle up and snuggle with it. Not really having anything living to have contact with, house elves notwithstanding, seemed to all culminate into this moment because if Harry wasn't careful, he might accidentally strangle his familiar before he even gets to name them.

Once he got himself under control and got all the cuddles out of his system, Harry decided to walk back to the manor so that he could get to know his new friend on his birthday. [This is really the best birthday present I've ever gotten! Let's just pretend I didn't give it to myself though.] Harry decided that for the next day as well he would solely spend time with his newfound friend. It seemed that having a cute fluffy thing to snuggle with was all it took to take a break from all the work he was doing. Harry enjoyed those two days greatly, carrying the newly dubbed Baorus (Pronounced Borus) everywhere. While Baorus probably wouldn't remember anything, Harry gave the little cub a tour of the manor. Hoping that the little one would know its way around once it grew older. After those two days of caregiving, Harry got back to work, but always made sure that Baorus went with him wherever he went. Harry even warded a specific spot in the duelling room so the cub could watch him train. This would end up helping in the long run, because once Baorus was older, Harry would start to incorporate him into the duells so they would work smoothly together. It was a great change of pace for Harry to have someone or something to work side by side with and he didn't know it yet, but that little cub that he found would end up being his best friend and the strongest of allies in his future. Only time would tell what was in store for the familiar of Harry Potter.