Harry Potter and Death appeared in the middle of a large forest, the green and browns of millennia old trees surrounded them and for the first time in his life he seemed to feel life surrounding him welcoming him to itself. Harry felt as if this place was home in a sense that he never knew before, it was almost as if he was supposed to be there. He walked around completely forgetting the fact that he was not alone, whilst the companion watch in amusement as the youth petted and spoke words of greeting to the trees. Finally he spoke,
" There are many things that you must learn before you are ready to take the place that is set aside for you. Here is where you will start the journey. Often times we, the gods, have heard that you have wish to be alone and not bring danger to those that you care for, so I have brought you here. You will not be disturbed for quite sometime, and perhaps when you are you shall be ready. Everything that you need is right here. So I will go, I shall see you again." With that Death was done and Harry was alone in a forest and he felt a peace, that he had never felt before.
Deciding to look around his new home he found that the wood was alive with thousands and thousands of voices guiding him as to the best places to find food, fallen wood for housing and the best ways to build it. Time passed slowly as the wood taught him how to live, both in the forest and with the things that happened to and around him. Over the first several months there, Harry had built a nice little house filled with all of the things he might need. He was learning things about the world and the things inside it that he was sure that he would never see the world in the same way ever again. Months turned into years and he heard the sounds of conversations everywhere on the wind, from animals, the trees, the sky everything in the wood spoke to him and wanted to teach him how to live, how to survive. All throughout this time he missed his friends dearly yet he knew that what he was learning was as important to the learning of magic, he was how ever concerned that so much time had passed and he was here. Years passed quickly and though he had more companionship than he knew how to deal with there was still something missing in his world. Then one day, in what seemed like several hundred years in the wood, Harry got a visitor.
The years had been kind to him and the learning that was given and the solitude had given Harry a quiet wisdom that showed itself through his every movement. Over the years he had learned the order and the processes of life, how to move silently and quickly, how to change form, talk to any form of life, hunt, fish, built, garden, he learnt the properties of all manner of flowers, herbs, and the like, in short he learned the ways and the processes of life itself. He could manipulate nature in much the same was as elementals and he could navigate his way through The Wood. Now it had taken Harry many years before he found out the significance of where he was, and once he did he made sure that he would be able to find his way through it. Druids believed that trees were sacred and that they stood for the very basic elements that made up life. It was believed that there was a great central tree that represented the whole world, and in a sense they were right and it stood in the very centre of The Wood, what was not so commonly known was that along side the Great Tree was that the wood it self was a way between the worlds, time and space. This is where Harry spent his time; this is the place that Harry learned from. Living the way that he did made him strong, stronger than he was before and he was taller. In the first 5 years Harry grew 8" to 6'6" filled with a complex array of muscle that made him faster, stronger and more agile.
On this day Harry was just finishing a mediation technique that he had learned over the years. The air was fresh and Harry felt rejuvenated, he looked over the horizon and felt a strong entity coming his way. A figure approached him and as he arrived spoke saying,
" The time that you have spent here has come to an end. You must go out into the world and learn of magic as you have learnt of life, you must become knowledgeable in the power that you possess and be willing and able to use it to save the Order from destruction."
Over the years alone with no company bar the trees and animals Harry had almost forgotten the speech of men, slowly the words made sense to him and he stared blankly at the other.
" Please sit with me, talk with me it has been some time since I last spoke with a creature such as me and I fear that I have missed it greatly." So saying Harry lead the way to a table in the study that he had made for himself. "Tell me, who are you who come to me this day so that I may welcome you properly."
"I am Life, guardian of the living; you have met my brother sometime ago, let us eat as we speak" Life said as he sat, food appearing on the table. " You have changed much in your time here and you still have further to go. You must go into the world of men that you have been separated from these many years and learn." Harry recognised the truth of what he was told and as they ate and drank, Harry felt a strange sensation spread throughout his body almost as if he had drank a large quantity of Pepper-up potion, at length he recognised what was happening and was lost as to what to say. Harry had just eaten of the Fruits of Life and such as it was, things had just changed forever.
During there meal they spoke of things of no consequence and enjoyed their fellowship. As Life left, Harry knew that it was time to go and thought of where he should start this great odyssey of learning and could think of no better place than on of the greatest library ever to be beheld in human history, The great library in Alexandria. Knowing his way through The Wood, he stood and left sending a found farewell to the place he had called home for the better part of half a millennia.
