Ghost of Allknowing: LMAO. Come to think of it maybe he would just crap himself… But remember, he has just been carefully explained to that he is more powerful than any wizard or witch of all time, so give him a little air, lol.

Supermal: Thanks for your trouble though. I (this is Vanessa) have had very bad experiences with betas on other sites, as they tend to delete and edit a bit too much. One went so far as to edit review responses, and another deleted two huge paragraphs because there were 'words in it that some younger readers might not get.' Um, that's why it's PG-13…

Gary (who e-mailed me with his review): No, I abandoned it because I thought it was too complicated, and in ch. 12 in the old fic I made a giant mistake with the ratings and got like 10 flames... I just don't want a repeat.

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Diamond Mage

Ch. 3: Harry's Training

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Tonks was the only guard at Privet Drive when she watched a small scrap of parchment drop from the sky and land on her head. She just stared at it before running to 23 Magnolia Drive, the residence of one Arabella Figg. The Order had temporarily commandeered this house until Harry's return. She came in, wildly brandishing the scrap, reminiscent of a few hours ago when Remus did the same. She just handed it to Dumbledore. The scrap said:

'To Whom It May Concern:

Back in 22 days. Remember, to me it will be one and a half years, so you might not recognize me.

H.P.'

"One and a half years? 22 days? When will he be back?"

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By now, Harry had accepted the fact that he was, indeed a Diamond. He would be there for 18 months, training and learning how to harness his abilities.

His trainers would be Fispion, a tall, fair, muscular man with long blond hair (A/N: think Legolas on steroids…lmao), who was a Gold. Fispion would train him in Animagus abilities, physical condition, Muggle martial arts, and shape-changing abilities.

Also, there was Kiali. Kiali had light blond hair that trailed down nearly to her feet, and peculiarly long arms. Kiali would train him in spell creation, out-of-body magic, magical senses, and wandless magic. Kiali was also a Gold.

His last trainer was Merlin himself, who would train him in Elemental magic, magic conducted through a staff, dueling, and how to use all of his magic.

They would train Harry on alternating days. Fispion, Merlin, Kiali, Merlin, Fispion, Kiali, etc. Merlin went twice because he had more to teach Harry than any of the others.

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Harry walked to the council room from his room. Fispion was waiting for him there, but other than that the council room was empty.

"Hey Harry… ready for your first class with me?"

"Of course Fispion… what are we doing first?"

"Well, you are already an Animagus, correct?"

"Yes, I'm a cougar." It was one of the projects that Harry worked on last year in his spare time.

"Well, pick another animal. Any one. Once we get there, go through the same process that you do to transform into your cougar."

"Get where?" But just as Harry spoke this, the council room disappeared and was replaced by a large grassland, with a few trees, a large pond with a waterfall leading down to it, and a cave in the rock behind the waterfall.

"Harry, this is where you will have your lessons with me, Kiali, and Merlin. Now, go through the same process with… how about a horse?"

Harry did. He envisioned one in his head and soon he was a tall, regal, white Iberian stallion.

Fispion just smiled at him, and transformed into a gigantic palomino. After they both transformed back, Fispion said "You need to stabilize a few forms, though. You need at least one swimming form, two land forms, two flying forms, and one amphibious form."

Harry shrugged and dived headfirst into the pond. He did not resurface: Instead, a grey thresher shark could be seen swimming around near the surface. Fispion clapped his approval.

Harry once again surfaced and jumped into the air. He didn't come back down. What did come down: a white Phoenix, with green eyes and tail spikes. As it landed, it shifted into Harry again, looking very surprised.

"When you said 'unlimited Animagus', did you include magical animals?"

Fispion nodded mock-gravely. Harry thought for a minute, then smiled. "Do the animals have to look like they do in the wild, or could it be a color morph or something?"

"I think they can be any color that you want."

A few seconds later, a Hebridean Black took off from the field, and changed color to white in mid-flight.

The flames it made while laughing burned down a tree.

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The next morning, Harry woke up very early in the large, ornate cottage in the middle of the training grounds. He had been assigned to live in that cottage and practice in the grounds when he was not in training. After eating breakfast, which was mysteriously on the table and still warm (though it looked like it had been out for quite a while), Harry noticed a long, wooden box next to the door. There was a note attached to it. In flowing, loopy writing it read:

'Bring this with you to training. –Merlin'

Harry had time to take a bath and change before going to training. His jaw dropped when he saw his bath; it was at least the size of the on in the prefect bathroom, yet there was only one tap. However, all around the tap were almost a hundred different-colored buttons, all clearly labeled. He turned the main tap on, and randomly pressed about 10 buttons, resulting in the water turning an interesting shade of blue. He stepped in and found it to be the most comfortable bath he'd ever been in.

When he got out, Harry went to get changed. Strangely, in his closet all of his clothes were replaced with grey cashmere shirts and grey silk pants, and white leather battle robes. Also his shoes were replaced with grey leather boots. He dressed, and looked in the mirror; other than the clothes and white eyes, he had a streak of white on the right part of his hair, which ran from the back of his head to his face. He vaguely remembered doing that himself last night with a simple color charm.

He picked up the box and headed out the door, surprising Merlin who was just raising his hand to knock. They walked out to where Fispion had his lesson yesterday, where Merlin told Harry to open the box. He did.

Inside the box was the most beautiful staff he had ever seen. It was about five feet long. The body of the staff was ebony, and the body was carved to look like a dragon's tail. On the bottom was a diamond spike carved to look like the end of a dragon's tail. But the head of the staff was made out of diamond. It was carved to look like a dragon's head, and he found that when he concentrated on the head, it glowed and the mouth opened. The dragon's eyes were made of emerald, and they seemed to follow Harry whenever he turned the staff around.

Merlin's voice interrupted his thoughts. "We won't be using the staff today. Today we are going to be starting on Elemental magic, but first, I want you to form a ball of magic in your hand."

Harry blinked. "A ball of magic?"

Merlin put his hand up, and a ball of glowing platinum flame levitated a few inches above his hand. "Just tell yourself that you want to see your magic in a physical form."

Harry did so, and was rewarded by a flickering ball of white flame, about five inches in diameter, and glowing brighter than Merlin's. He smiled and flicked his hand forward, and the ball sped forward at incredible speed before hitting a tree and cutting it down at the fork.

"Now, use your Earth abilities to grow back the tree. Think of how much you want the tree to grow again, and how much you want the element of Earth to help you."

Harry did so, and the tree grew back, taller and greener than it was before.

Even Merlin blinked in surprise. "You are catching on faster than any of them so far. Probably because you are so powerful… Now, I want you to use Fire to burn that bush down."

Harry produced a ball of fire above his hand, and flicked it at the bush the same way he had done it with the tree. It went so fast that the bush exploded in flame.

Then he produced a ball of Water and flicked it at the burning fire. It went out instantly, but splashed all over, and then used Air to dry everything off.

Merlin blinked in surprise.

Harry pretended not to notice Merlin's shock as he formed a cloud using shadow and called a lightning bolt down from it. However, this was not just a random lightning bolt, veering off; instead, it was a huge column of electricity, nearly fifty times hotter than a normal lightning bolt.

For his grand finale, he produced a ball of liquid metal in his hand; solidified it; and threw it in the pond. Then Harry flash-froze the water drops from its splash and formed them into a ball of Ice, then threw the ball of Ice at a rock, where it shattered all over the field.

Harry turned to Merlin and said,

"Don't require much training in that field, do I?"

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When Harry went outside for his first training day with Kiali, she was nowhere to be found. When he got to the main training area, there was a note on the ground saying

'Regarden magoni'

He took out his staff and said the words. Nothing happened. He pointed it at himself and said it, and suddenly he could see Kiali inside an invisibility cloak, laughing at Harry.

"Took you long enough to figure out, didn't it?"

"This is going to be a long day." Harry groaned.

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A/N: Yay, 5 pages! Longest I have ever done a chapter! Um, I think Vanessa's record is 8 or 9… something like that. Anyway, I would like to present an honorary piece of strawberry shortcake to everyone who has reviewed so far. Extra whipped cream for you all.

Nanoo nanoo…

FRM