CHAPTER 11
Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. He practiced Occlumency before he even got out of bed, and it only took him half an hour to get his memories in place—where yesterday it had taken two hours. After brushing up on his defenses, Harry got up and greeted Hedwig. Harry then changed into a black undershirt, and a dark blue pair of workout pants. After putting on his new sneakers, he trotted down the stairs, and into the dungeon.
Thirty minutes later, an exhausted Harry left the workout room, I was barely able to do any of it! He thought with disappointment, I'll just have to keep at it till I can. Harry took a fifteen minute shower, dressed himself in jeans, a white t-shirt and one of his black robes, then jogged down to the kitchen. Bacon, eggs and a glass of milk was his breakfast, and then he was off to the dungeon once more.
Salazar was waiting for him in a picture frame above the worktables, "You read up on the basics?" he asked immediately.
Harry nodded. He'd explained Snape's teaching method to Salazar before he went to bed. In short words, Slytherin had not been pleased, that was being polite, and had ordered Harry to study a chart of which ingredients to not add together. "Then get out a pewter cauldron, and the ingredients for a basic, pain-relieving potion."
Harry summoned a potions book from the bookshelves upstairs, having forgotten to transfer his potions texts down to the dungeons, then got out a standard cauldron.
Looking it up in the book, Harry summoned the required ingredients off the shelves. Salazar walked him through it, having a good view of what Harry was doing from his frame. It was a potion Harry was supposed to learn in his first year, but Snape made learning anything practical in class, impossible. The potion, since it was only used for bruises and cuts, only took thirty minutes to make, and twenty to cool; so Harry would bottle it after his next lesson.
Helga was in the kitchen, since it was the best place to prepare things, and the best lit. Because Harry didn't have access to the plants needed (he didn't know the area around Black Manor well enough to search for them) for Herbology, it was mainly bookwork. Helga described where to find them, what they looked like, and what they were used for while Harry sketched a picture, and copied down what she said. His homework from Helga was to explore the nearby area, and map it. Before going to the study to find Ravenclaw, Harry dashed downstairs, and bottled his potion; Salazar deemed it perfect. Harry cheerfully and carefully labeled it, then put it in a cupboard he'd decided to dedicate to his completed, and useable, potions.
Arthrimacy turned out to be the study of spell making. Some of the books from the Potter vault were Arthrimacy texts, so Harry didn't have to go out and buy more. Harry learned that in order to truly master a spell, you had to understand how and why it worked. He'd expected it to be fairly boring, but instead he found it rather interesting. The time passed quickly, and Harry left with a new topic to discuss with Hermione.
Lunch was a quickly made turkey sandwich with a butterbeer, then he raced up to the dueling room for defense with Godric. Since they didn't have that much time, they spent the lesson going over what Harry already knew on the dummies. Most of his spells were around five, except for his patronous—it was an eight. "Very nice!" Godric told him as the stag disappeared. "Two more and you could possibly ride it!"
Harry lowered his wand, "Ride it?"
Godric nodded, "Some people can create a patronous so strong, they are solid enough for someone to jump on and ride away—if the patronous is large enough of course." By the time he left, Harry's goal was to make all of his defense spell reach at least eight, and his patronous ten.
Helga found them in the dueling chamber, and said it was her turn to teach. Instead of having Harry demonstrate every charm he'd learned, she asked him, and he answered yes or no, and good or bad. Satisfied that he was at OWL level, she began to teach him more advance forms of those he'd already learned, and brushing up on the ones he wasn't great at.
Hogwarts History was also in the dungeons (Harry got the idea that Salazar liked it down there), and Harry brought 'Hogwarts: A History' down with him. Thanks to a chalkboard in his picture, Salazar was able to describe and map the creation of Hogwarts. When Harry mentioned that he had a map of Hogwarts, Salazar asked to see it.
"But we made it unplottable," Slytherin murmured as Harry showed him the Marauders' Map.
"Well, maybe it's because it's a map of Hogwarts," Harry suggested, "Not the area around it." Salazar admitted it was possible, and spent the rest of the time lecturing about the different, complex wards the four founders had put on the school; Harry found these incredibly helpful.
Half and hour before dinner came the lesson Harry'd been waiting for—animagus training in the living room. "Hello again Harry," Godric greeted from his place in the picture frame.
"Hi," Harry replied, and sat down in an armchair he'd turned to face his instructor.
"Well, tonight you'll attempt to discover one of the four totems you happen to be so lucky to have," he began, "I want you to clear your mind Harry, and call them forth."
Harry took deep, even breaths; feeling the muscles in his shoulders loosen. In the black space of his empty mind, four shadowy, yet shimmering creatures appeared. Too fussy to identify, they hovered at the edge of an invisible barrier.
"Don't try to call them closer," Godric's voice instructed softly, "just try to see them. Look at one first, only one." So Harry let three of the creatures fade from his mind slightly. They were still there, but not distracting him. The remaining creature began to brighten, the fuzzy edges began to disappear. Whiskers sprouted, a tail thrashed, and four legs solified—the animal let out a roar, startling Harry out of his relaxed state.
"A panther Harry," Godric told him, though Harry didn't see how he could know. "Congratulations. Your mortal creature of light is a panther."
Harry grinned, "I remember seeing a panther at the zoo once, a black one."
Godric nodded, "Well, this lesson's over. But I'll see you again tomorrow, I don't think we have to do Quidditch today, fly around tomorrow for your lesson. You know, to get used to the broom."
Harry was surprised at the rapid pass of time, and said that he would, then left for the kitchen. After some chicken noodle soup, Harry went back up to the library for Ancient Runes. There wasn't much practical work, seeing as how he was taking it for the first time. It was mainly getting used to the concept that runes played a major part in most of the older spells. Rowena told him to find an Ancient Rune book, or buy one, and also look in the bookshelves for a book that was written in runes.
Since Godric cancelled Quidditch that evening, Harry read for half an hour on potions, trying to get an idea on what Snape had caused him to miss—which was a lot.
CoMC with Helga was a lot like the Herbology lesson she'd given Harry earlier. She apologized for not being able to do hands-on lessons, but Harry assured her it was fine. He studied Chimeras in the first lesson, he supposed it was because of the Chimera room on the top floor. Slytherin was making plans for tomorrow's lesson , so Harry went straight to Wizarding History.
Wizarding History was an improvement from Binns' class, and a big one at that. Rowena made the troll wars and warlock conventions of her time much more interesting to Harry, and he took quite a few notes.
Again he practiced Occlumency before returning to bed, and it still took him half an hour, but he was still happy with his progress after only one day.
The morning routine went by quickly, he now had an hour for each, and he was dressed in the same way he'd done yesterday. Right after some cold cereal, Harry met up with Godric in the living room for animagus training. Using the same techniques as before, Harry was able to call his dark mortal animal into detail within half an hour—it was a cobra. "Slyth'll be happy," Godric said with amusement. Harry wasn't sure he was going to be comfortable with being a cobra, mainly because it reminded him of Voldemort's snake, but Godric assured him that it only meant Harry was cunning; and that could be a good thing if used in the right way. For the last half hour, Harry learned to quickly bring both the cobra and the panther into his focus, which would later play a part in transforming.
When Salazar asked him how the animagus training was going, Harry told him about the two forms.
"Wonderful snake in my opinion," Salazar told him, "I myself was a basilisk, but I also had the option of a mortal fox." Because Harry now owned more than one cauldron, Slytherin told him to start on the antidote to the simple sleeping draught he'd made in the first half-hour. The draught was a tiny shade off in color, but Slytherin said it would only cause the potion to take longer make the drinker fall asleep—about ten minutes more than the usual five. Once he'd turned off the stoves so the antidote could cool, Harry bottled the sleeping potion, labeled it, and stored it in the cupboard. Harry finished with ten extra minutes, so he started to read his potions manual, much to Salazar's approval. After going through the same process of bottling, labeling and storing with the antidote, Harry ran up to the dueling chamber for Defense. He warmed up with a few simple shielding spells and evasive maneuvers, and stopped when Godric appeared in the picture frame. He ordered Harry to repeat what they'd done yesterday, protecting himself from the dummies to gauge his power. After half an hour of that, Harry went through an evasion trial. He had to duck, jump, and roll to escape the stinging hexes the dummies threw at him. The idea was to teach him how to evade attacks if his wand was ever taken.
"That exercise room will come in handy with this," Godric told him after he'd been stung for the eighth time. "I'd wear your exercise clothes too," he added after looking at Harry's sweat dampened robes. Harry nodded, and went downstairs for lunch, trying to catch his breath. For his hour break, he took a bath—allowing the warm water to ease his muscles. It's kind of sad that I'm this sore after only thirty minutes, he thought dryly, well, I did work out this morning, and it's only my first week. Maybe it'll get better.
For the rest of his free time, Harry read some of the defense books from his previous years at school, mainly to refresh his memory. He'd gone through his first four years (minus second year, seeing as how Godric didn't really teach them anything) and started on the D.A. meeting when he saw Salazar popping through frames, heading towards the dueling chamber.
Quickly marking his spot, Harry left for his first offense lesson. As soon as he entered, Salazar ordered him to demonstrate every offensive spell he knew against one of the defensive dummies. Salazar recorded them in his notebook (where he got it from Harry didn't know), and also recorded the power level. Most of Harry's spells were at eight, except the Bat Bogey Hex (which amused Salazar greatly) and the Cruciatus curse (which he was hesitant to use, even on a non-living object): they were at five. Once he'd finished writing, Salazar put the book down and began to talk. "Now, the reason I wanted to teach your offensive lesson is because, not only do I have the most knowledge on the subject," he said smugly, "but I am the only one who can teach you spells that can only be used by people like us—people who can speak Parsletongue." Harry straightened, intrigued. "You see Harry, people with our abilities also have the ability to cast what is called 'Parsloz', or spells in Parsletongue." He gestured at a dummy, "Try a simple stunner."
Harry faced the dummy, and shouted "Stupefy!" in a hissing voice. Three green bolts of light shot out of his wand toward the dummy. It registered the hit as a ten. "Whoa!" Harry exclaimed, lowering his wand in open-mouthed surprise.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" Salazar asked him proudly; Harry could only nod in answer. The rest of the hour was spent casting all the curses he knew in Parsletongue, each resulting as a power level of ten. Before Harry left, Salazar asked him one last thing. "Tell me, besides the increase in power, what is the advantage of Parsloz magic?"
Harry thought for a minute, "Well, if your enemy isn't familiar with it, it can give you the upper hand in surprise."
"How so?"
"For starters, they won't know what spell you're casting," Harry began," Because, they can't understand what you're saying, and since the color of the spell changes, they won't recognize it either."
Salazar nodded, "Very good. We'll do this again in two days."
For his Quidditch lesson, Harry got his map of Black Manor, activated it, got his new broom, and went outside with Hedwig. "I'll be right back," he told her, "I just want to make sure it does what Alex said." Giving her the map to hold for the time being, Harry mounted his Star Blazer and kicked off as hard as he could. The broom shot upwards so fast, the wind screamed in his ears, and it was barely possible to breathe. The air got cooler as he rocketed upwards and reluctantly, Harry slowed down to a stop. With thirty more seconds, he would've been in the clouds, and such thoughts only excited him more. Casting an advanced cushioning charm on the ground below, Harry decided to test the broom's breaks, and shot down like an arrow with a hundred pound weight on it. His eyes started to water, but he forced them to stay open. Five feet from the ground, Harry pulled up. The result was a sudden jerk of a stop, which sent him flying. I didn't think the breaks would be that good, he thought as he pulled himself up off the grass. Thanks to his spell, he didn't break anything.
After getting the map from Hedwig, Harry began to fly in an outward spiral pattern, starting from Black Manor. Hedwig flew by his side as Harry's map began to copy the landscape below them. With ten minutes to spare after returning to Black Manor, Harry tried some basic seeker moves, which were harder on the new broom. After those, he tried a few intermediate, like a few from the Quidditch book he'd bought, and read after evening Occlumency. The broom handled quite well, and as long as Harry pulled up steadily instead of jerking it up, he had no more repeats of his first crash.
Hogwarts History was the same as before, and they continued on the topic of the spells and wards originally put on it. Dinner was spaghetti, which Harry was proud of even if it was a bit undercooked, seeing as it was his first batch. For his free evening, Harry read about potions, dueling and Quidditch tactics. After practicing Occlumency again, he went to bed.
Wednesday passed by quickly. The workout was still exhausting but Harry knew it would prove invaluable in a fight. Charms lesson was on household ones, like cleaning and washing. In Arthrimacy, Harry continued on the theory behind the stunner curses. Herbology was again book work, but Helga told him to report on his exploration of the woods around Black Manor. When Harry activated the map to show her, he got a surprise. In bold, dark blue writing was the title: 'In honor and loving memory of Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs, Tallon presents: The Hideaway.' Harry grinned, he had a new name for Black Manor.
Since he had two hours before his next class, Harry teleported to muggle London, ate a burger from a fast-food restaurant nearby, then went to buy some more exercise clothes—his others were getting dirty rather quick, and he'd need some more while washing the others. So, five shorts later, Harry teleported with his purchases back to The Hideaway. He quickly put the shorts away, then rushed to his Wizarding History lesson. Again, it was like the first; they went over his notes, then started new ones. CoMC and Ancient Runes were the same—long, but not boring.
Since he wanted to move ahead in Arthrimacy a bit, Harry quickly ate some dinner, then read his texts on the subject until he had to practice Occlumency.
In Animagus training the next morning, Harry finally called his first magical creature into focus—it was a phoenix. (A/N: Yes, he does have one bird form, but he won't use it that often, don't worry) "You can guess whether that one's light or dark easy," Godric joked as Harry smiled. Again, he practiced calling his three totems into focus, while always making sure the fourth, undecided totem, was there.
Harry made his first simple healing draught in potions. It took forty-five minutes to make, and when it cooled, Harry could use it for small cuts, stings, or bruises.
Thinking ahead, Harry had spelled his workout clothes with a cooling charm; in hopes that he wouldn't sweat right through them. Defense was the same grueling practice, and Harry was glad the charm worked; now he didn't have to spend his entire break in the bathtub.
Another sandwich and butterbeer was his lunch, and Harry flipped between dueling tactics and Arthrimacy reading during his one hour break. Offense was more Parsloz magic, both offensive and defensive. After half and hour of that, Salazar instructed Harry to activate all the dummies, then leave the room for three minutes. Once he came back inside, he was hit by a stinging hex. Salazar laughed at the cross look on his face. The object of this practice was to expect everything. Harry left the room and tried again. He was able to stun four of the dummies (three offensive and one defensive) before he was hit in the back with a stunner. The lesson ended soon after.
Harry got to go outside on his broom, while Godric watched through Harry's bedroom window. When Harry returned forty minutes later, Godric spent the remaining time telling Harry about his strengths and weaknesses.
When Harry asked Salazar how long they'd be talking about wards, he told Harry at least one more day, then they'd move onto the Chamber of Secrets. Dinner was chicken and a glass of milk for Harry, then he immediately went up to the library to study Ancient Runes and Arthrimacy.
During Occlumency, Harry was able to organize and clear his mind in just twenty minutes. At this rate, it'll only take me a second by the end of the summer, he thought happily after climbing into bed.
Friday dawned bright and early, waking Harry who immediately began Occlumency. Since he had originally planned Occlumency to last an hour (he hadn't expected to progress so quickly) Harry decided on days with Helga and Rowena, he would use the time to work out, and on days with Godric and Salazar, he'd use it to read. Charms passed rapidly, and Arthrimacy did the same. "You're coming along very well," Rowena told Harry as he packed up, "You should catch up to OWL level a little after school begins." Harry smiled and thanked her, then departed form Herbology in the kitchen. Helga sent him on an errand to find a plant called 'wootgrass' from a certain part of the forest. She warned him to get everything, "Roots 'n' all." It took him forty minutes to find the blasted thing, and ten more to get it. "Stupid roots," he growled, "They kept getting bigger." She laughed, and asked if she'd forgotten to mention that. He scowled, which only sent her laughing more.
Harry ate a bagel for lunch, and then went up to the library to study again. By the time he finished the tenth chapter in his Arthrimacy text, it was time for Wizarding History; today's topic was the first goblin rebellion. It was because of this rebellion that Gringotts was run by goblins, and not wizards. CoMC was now on phoenixes. Some of the old tales Helga told him helped Harry greatly. "Well, my magical creature of light is a phoenix," he explained when Helga asked. This launched her into a sermon about all the possible symbolic meanings. Harry had a spot of trouble hiding his boredom—this is why he didn't mention that he'd taken Divination.
Ancient Runes flew by, and Harry was finally done with his first out of seven weeks of training. During his evening, Harry wrote a letter about the broom to Alex as requested. Once finished, Harry decided to add a question. "Thanks again for the broom, but I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go out for lunch next Sunday or something? If you're busy that's fine, I was just wondering. Hope to see you soon. – Harry."
"What do you think?" He asked Hedwig. She looked at him, eyes supportive. Taking a breath, Harry began to practice Occlumency.
Coming Up:
More lessons
(animagus transformations!)
G.B.'s second strike
Harry's Parents' will
Then:
Sunday lunch
A second wand
A character death
Review Responses:
wdrayton: The four founders didn't live only ten years ago. Ten years ago Harry was alive, and Voldemort was gone. (response to review of ch.7)
Smeagle: Yes, I purposely didn't put in Transfiguration, since Mark took care of it; thank you for putting that in though. (response to review of ch.10)
Also, I would like to thank all of you who have put in reviews. Thank you for your advice and support!
A.S. Leif
