Disclaimer: Everything in the books belongs to J.K. Rowling & company. My original stuff is mine.
A/N-Very sorry for the delay, but if you would like the reason look in my profile. It's been rough. It's times like this that tell you how much you take life for granted. Another thing...I updated the chapter on a couple things that needed to be done, commas and minor things, or so you may think...;-)
Chapter 6: Lessons in Dumfries
The next 2 days were spent frantically finding everything that had belonged to Harry before he had come to Grimmauld Place. On the second day, he collapsed, tired with a full day's of searching.
"Ugh. I've only just finished packing. This is horrible. I like this place." said Harry, surveying his overflowing suitcases and trunk
"Me too, Harry. You get used to it after a week or two, eh?"
"Yeah. But I suppose that the headquarters in Scotland should be nice, right?" Harry asked, almost trying to reassure himself that the move to the place mentioned on the back of the peculiar artifact was worth it.
"I reckon so. I don't know why you don't stay here, though. Mum said Dumbledore redid the Fidelius charm, so new intruders couldn't get in. I don't see what the big fuss is."
"I suppose they want to make sure? I dunno. Voldemort isn't exactly stupid, is he?" asked Harry, noticing Ron's shudder as he mentioned Voldemort's name.
"No, he's not," Ron replied.
Prince Ivy then entered the room.
"Harry, we are leaving in a few minutes, are you packed?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm packed. Is the new headquarters already ready for us?" Harry asked incredulously.
"It most certainly is, Harry. Take your trunks and luggage and meet me downstairs, Harry. Dumbledore is waiting."
"See you Harry! I'll visit you soon!" said Ron, now running over to Harry, giving him a manly hug.
"Yeah Harry. I expect I'll see you soon," said Neville, still with that mysterious depression in his stature. He shook Harry's hand and nodded at him.
Sagging under the weight of all his stuff, he started to the 1st landing.
"Hey Harry, can I help?" said a voice that brought the butterflies to Harry's stomach.
"Uh sure, here take this," he said, handing Ginny one of his large suitcases.
The both of them struggled down the stairs, finally dropping everything once they had reached flat ground.
"Harry I just wanted you to know before you go…that I well…"she was obviously lost for words.
Harry pulled her in close and kissed her on the cheek. She proceeded to move her lips to his, but he backed away.
"Not now, Ginny. Next time," Harry felt very light. He knew that Prince Ivy would be down shortly; that is why he stopped.
He gave her a quick hug, and then said, "Ginny, we'll talk again, alright? This week has been great. You are great to be around. You make me feel good."
She beamed at him, kissed him quickly, and left him speechless on the spot. She ran up the stairs, while Harry was puzzled as to why she hadn't replied to him. He also felt embarrassed at how foolish his last remark sounded.
"Girls!" he said.
"Ah Harry! Put all of your stuff on this here platform," said Prince Ivy, entering the room.
He flicked his wand, and a large wooden platform appeared. It had a large pole in the middle.
"Just put your luggage on, and step on. That's right. Grab the pole. There you go. Portus!"
The pole glowed blue under Harry's hand. It felt cold to the touch. It then returned to normal temperature.
"Accio Luggage!" said Prince Ivy as his own luggage flew towards him, and landed next to him, on the platform.
The Prince put his own hand on the pole, and Harry felt that sensation of spinning fast and having a rope tug right behind his navel.
He landed in a huge, cavernous, wooded room. Unless Harry was much mistaken, he was in a mansion.
"This is incredible!" said Harry, looking at the lavish chairs and paintings that littered the room.
"I thought you would have liked it. A few people at the Order had it magically restored…"
"Restored? Who did this use to belong to?"
"It was abandoned. Some village people said it used to be one of Merlin's follower's hideout, but it's a bunch of rubbish. I like it too!"
Harry was a bit taken-aback by Prince Ivy's info. All of the Merlin stuff he had heard was all very controversial, and very slight. He wanted to know more about Merlin's tribes and powers.
"By chance, Prince Ivy, do you have a book or anything on Merlin and his tribes and stuff?" asked Harry, hopefully trying to find out a bit more information about the whole 'Foluscizar' mystery.
"I'm sure you'll find some volumes about him in the library," he answered, seeming a bit curious himself.
"We have a library!" asked Harry incredulously.
"Certainly. Go down that hallway," he pointed to a hallway that glittered with silvery light, "and it is the third door on the right. Be warned. Some rooms of the house have not been searched yet, including a few on this level. Try to come to me before entering a new room. In fact, I will come with you to the library. I have a thirst for a bit of reading, also," he said, all the while surveying the lavish surroundings around him.
Harry went down the silvery hallway, which he found was silvery because of a door left half open. Silvery light was escaping it, bouncing of the hallway mirrors and into the eyes of the hallway's two intruders. Prince Ivy walked, rather quickly, to the open door and closed it. Pausing for a minute, Harry was quite curious as to what the silvery light was coming from. He decided against it. He followed Prince Ivy into the library, where, with his jaw open, saw thousands upon thousands of volumes of books, all in rows, under a dark candle lit chandelier. The room was very spooky looking.
"Adustum!" said Prince Ivy, pointing to a table in the middle of all the shelves.
Lanterns popped out over the middle of the table and hovered there, perfect light for reading.
"Thanks, Prince Ivy," said Harry, now realizing it would have been quite hard to read without light.
"Anytime, Harry," said Prince Ivy with a smile.
Harry went from shelf to shelf, looking for any book relating to Merlin or the Foluscizar stuff. He was about to give up when his eyes passed over a golden volume, easily distinguishable from the rest. It was entitled: Antiquus Magiq. It was obvious to Harry what this book contained. He sprinted to the tables and opened the strange golden cover to golden pages littered with words the color of emerald. To Harry's dismay, he found the whole book was written in Latin.
"Er…Prince Ivy? Is there a spell to translate Latin words to English?" said Harry, and Prince Ivy looked up from his book to Harry.
"Of course, Harry. Here let me see the book. Reddotux! There you go."
As Prince Ivy was pocketing his wand, Harry grabbed the book back and saw, with much excitement, that all the words were now English. He read through the first page. It was just an introduction talking about Merlin's birth. Harry found it quite useless. He flipped a few pages, and read: The Subsisto Aetas Spell: pausing of time spell- The spell was figured out by Ytori Sulchen, a member of the Welzjairs tribe of Merlin.
Harry skipped down until it explained how to do it: To perform the spell correctly, one must always point the want point at themselves, as it will be only the spellcaster who is unfrozen in time, unless holding someone else. The incantation is as follows: Subsisto Aetas. Once spoken with the wand pointed at the one who wishes to stop time, all known activity will stop, except for the caster of the spell's. The spell lasts for varied amounts of time, depending on the amount of Foluscizar stones the caster possesses.
Harry stopped. 'Foluscizar stones? This is crazy. Dumbledore didn't tell me about that. Maybe Prince Ivy knows?' he thought.
"Hey, what are Foluscizar stones, Ivy?" asked Harry, seeing now that the Prince's face was back to its normal look.
The Prince walked over to Harry, and pointed to the necklace he had given Harry a few days before. "That necklace you have there Harry is the key to your power. The gems were given to my father by the leader of the Welzjair's tribe. Of course, my father decided it is more important for you to have than himself. The stones are more efficient on a necklace, so I made it into a necklace, and hence the present. Yes," he was thinking out loud, "I suppose I should start them. Yes. It would be the best. Harry, tomorrow we will start your training. The sooner, the better. Bring this book with you tomorrow. I warn you now. This magic is the hardest you will ever encounter. It is so hard to do, that only those…"
"That have been prophesized to use it may use it….Yeah you already told me that," said Harry, cutting Prince Ivy off.
"Well then I expect you to be ready. I think our time in here is done. Bring that book with you. It could be quite helpful," he finished, waving his wand at the lanterns, all of them dissipating in the process.
Harry followed Prince Ivy out of the room, and yawned.
"We will train tomorrow morning. I will wake you up at sunrise. Here, follow me. I'll show you your room," said Prince Ivy, now beckoning Harry towards the door.
Harry followed Prince Ivy through the door. Once again, they passed the room with a bit of the bright silvery light escaping under the door. Harry yearned to grab the knob and open the door, but he did not. He knew Prince Ivy would not approve, and Harry had a weird sense of security about this man's decisions. The Prince led him to the huge room, where the wooden-pole platform had once been. There were two extravagant staircases at the end of this room, which Harry presumed lead to the bedrooms.
"If this is such an ancient house, how come it seems so…modern?" Harry asked Prince Ivy as they trudged up the huge staircase.
"We have some expert wizard furnishers in the Order Harry… We are fortunate to have gained so many in number as to obtain 5 of them. They did quite a good job, didn't they?" he finished, still going up the stairs, but observing his surroundings more carefully.
"Yeah, they did." Harry replied.
Prince Ivy led Harry to the left once they reached the top, and then entered the second door on the right. Harry gasped. The room was monstrous. The wallpaper was gold; the floor glittered with golden tile. Even the ceiling had a golden tinged horizon (it looked bewitched, much the way that Hogwart's Great Hall ceiling looked).
"This is amazing," said Harry, still in awe of the sheer value of the room.
Harry sank down on the enormous king size bed, which also had the four-poster style to it. This was really a room fit for a king. There was a cot next to the lavish bed. It then dawned on Harry that the cot must be his place of rest. His spirits were dampened a bit.
"Well, g'night, then." Prince Ivy said, to Harry's surprise in nightclothes, and taking a spot on the small cot Harry had presumed was his own.
"I get… this bed?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"If you don't want it, I'd surely take it. Of course it is yours, Harry!" said Prince Ivy with a calming tone so strangely close to his father's it made Harry double check the room for signs of the Headmaster.
Harry gave a laugh, and then changed into his own nightclothes behind the curtain. Although he already had his respect, Harry felt that his relationship with the odd Prince Ivory Nillor would most certainly get stronger. He might even get attached.
After placing the weird golden-covered book on a table, Harry sunk into bed, while his thoughts flooded back to Ginny. He really liked her. But he liked Hermione just as much, in the same way. How would he work things out? Perhaps Ginny had told Hermione about what had happened before he left? And how come Hermione didn't say goodbye to him before he had left for this mansion? These confusing thoughts floated through Harry's mind as he fell asleep.
It was spring time, and everyone was outside. Harry looked down through the window towards Hagrid's cabin. He loved the way the grass thatched roof looked during the day. Sun streamed through the now clearing clouds, and broke Harry's vision. When the sun was blocked by the clouds again, Harry found himself in a large field of short grass, right next to a monstrous hill that had to be at least a half a mile long. Still surveying his surroundings, Harry turned around to see a boy about his size, with untidy black hair and glasses with his wand out, facing what looked like a Death Eater.
Harry ran closer only to see the boy he had presumed to look like him was in fact Harry. Harry kept his distance, watching the two, who were now dueling quite furiously. Harry saw himself firing off spells he knew he had never seen before. Someone tapped Harry on the back.
He turned around only to find Sirius staring him in the face. He looked very pain-stricken, as if he had been stabbed. Harry looked down to what his hand was covering on his chest. As Sirius lifted his hand, Harry saw a silver-ish light glowing from what was clearly a deep battle wound.
Feeling something warm brush by his ear, Harry turned around to see himself advancing on him and Sirius.
"Sirius, run!" Harry said, grabbing Sirius by the arms.
All of a sudden, Sirius's handsome, defined face started turning round and ugly. To Harry's horror, it was quite obvious it wasn't Sirius at all. Peter Pettigrew now stood before Harry.
"It's a trap! Run" said the other Harry.
Harry ran towards the hill, and then veered a bit to the right of the hill. He had reached the beginning of a forest. He'd been here before. When, he didn't know. He entered the forest, only to find Ron lying on a tree root, holding his leg.
"Harry! I think it is broken!" Ron said, squealing in pain.
"I know. Here. Take this," Harry said, handing Ron some chocolate.
"Thanks Harry! Let's get back to the feast," Ron said, getting up easily, and grabbing Harry's shoulder to lead him to the Hogwarts Great Hall.
Harry woke up in quite a state. He wasn't totally sure, but he could have sworn he had seen Sirius turn into Wormtail, who chased him to the beginning of a forest. And he had seen himself, only with this glowing ring around his neck. What a peculiar dream! With a guilty jump in his stomach, Harry realized he had not calmed himself before sleep. Perhaps that is why he had the weird dream. Or maybe Sirius was still trying to convey a message to Harry from the beyond?
Harry was quite confused. He jumped out of bed, looking for Prince Ivy, who was absent from his cot.
"PRINCE IVY! HEY PR…" Harry saw the prince apparate 3 feet to his right, "Morning, Ivy."
"Morning. Why were you yelling my name?" he asked, bewildered as to why Harry had screamed a few seconds before.
"I was wondering if I could go for a run. Y'know, clear my mind a bit." Harry said, all the while ashamed he hadn't followed his direction of always practicing Occlumency.
"Sure. I'll go with you. I need a bit of the same, myself. In fact, a warm up will do us good before the training." He said, walking over to the table to grab his silver wand.
Doubting a man of his age could keep up with Harry, he reluctantly agreed. Harry went over to his trunk and put on some running clothes. Prince Ivy pointed his wand at himself, and his nightclothes were replaced with running clothes quite similar to Harry's: sweatpants and plain white T-shirt.
Prince Ivy led the way; he walked out of the room, wand still in hand, took a right, and walked straight to the dead-end wall at the other side. "Ponere!" Prince Ivy said, pointing his wand at the wall.
The wall fell away, domino-like, away from Prince Ivy, forming a sort of platform in midair.
"Come on, Harry. This is the way out." he said.
"What? What do we do? Ride the platform?" Harry asked, seeing a chute like spiral under the wall/platform, leading farther down than Harry could see.
"Certainly Harry! In the muggle world, I believe they call it 'surfing'. Come on Harry! Lets go surfing!" he cried, pulling Harry onto the platform before he could refuse.
Once Harry was on the platform, and with a wand tapped on the end of the platform still connected to the hallway they came from, the platform/wall dropped, and Harry and Prince Ivy were sliding down a huge chute, swirling and swirling and swirling.
"Urgh… I feel sick" Harry said after a minute of spinning.
"It's almost done, Harry, "said the Prince, looking quite youthful standing on two feet, knees a little bent, and arms in the air as if he was really surfing.
Quite unexpectedly, the platform/wall burst through a wall at the end of the chute, launching Harry and Prince Ivy across what looked like an entrance hallway. As the platform/wall rode to a halt, Harry's stomach now resided rather closer to his throat than usual. Prince Ivy got off acting very giddy, like someone getting off a muggle rollercoaster. Harry looked around the hallway. It was very plain; it had sleek stone flooring, a dirt/stone wall, no windows, and a rather low ceiling. There was no exit. Prince Ivy walked towards the other end of the Hallway, where there was only more dirt wall.
"Ponere!" he said, and the dirt faded away to show an opening into the countryside.
Quite relieved he didn't have to go 'surfing' again, he walked outside with Prince Ivy.
"Ready, Harry?" said Prince Ivy, searching for a spot to start their run.
Harry didn't pay attention…the field that lay in front of Prince Ivy was way too familiar… he had seen it in his dream. Turning around, Harry gasped as he saw that he was standing before the same hill he had seen in his dream. What did all of it mean? Why had he been here in his dream?
Quite flustered with confusing thoughts, Harry started jogging to the right. To his surprise, Prince Ivy kept up quite easily. They ran in silence for a good 20 minutes. The whole area was rolling hills. It was beautiful. Harry passed beautiful bushes blooming with summer berries, which the squirrels and birds feasted on for breakfast before their eyes.
It was quite a relaxing run for both of them. The warm sunshine bathed their faces and backs as the both of them kept jogging.
"This way Harry, we ought to head back."
Feeling too good to say anything, Harry nodded his head and changed directions. Prince Ivy was quite a mystery to Harry. At age 91, for most people it would be a pain to walk the distance that Harry and he were doing. But no, Prince Ivy jogged it as if his legs were 70 years younger than they really were. There was something really special about that man, but Harry couldn't quite put his finger on exactly what it is.
As they neared the humongous hill that Harry had now figured out had the mansion hidden inside, the both of them slowed down to cool down. Both were breathing pretty heavily. They both collapsed on the ground and recuperated, enjoying the beautiful blue sky staring back at them.
"By chance, do you have that book you found yesterday, Harry?" asked Prince Ivy, now that he had caught his breath back.
"No. It is in the bedroom. I can go and get it if you like?" offered Harry.
"No, it is quite fine. Do you have your wand with you?"
"Yes," said Harry, starting to get excited now that he was going to have his first experience with the new branch of magic.
"Good. Accio Book!" said Prince Ivy.
The golden book was blinding Harry as it burst through the side of the hill, leaving a hole 3 feet up on the entrance-side of the hill. Prince Ivy tossed the volume to Harry, who noticed the volume was absolutely unscathed; it seemed that the hole it blew in the wall did nothing at all to the book. "Open to one of the pages and read to me. It's still translated, correct?"
Harry opened the blinding book, sitting relaxed on the soft earthy ground. Sure enough, the book was still in English, and Harry read the title of the page he was on, "The Oris Ceterus Blandita: the sight of the other charm- invented in the small Merlin Village of Peltox, this charm was often used by followers of Merlin to confuse their enemies. The charm put's the charmer's eyes in the charmed's point of view . The charmed cannot detect that their sight is being intruded upon, unless they see the spell in its process; although seeing the charm done to one's self is very rare. In order to complete the incantation, one needs to be behind the charmed. The wand is traced in a double circle fashion (Harry figured that the double circle fashion meant figure-8) and subsequently the incantation is spoken as follows, 'Influi Oris'. The charm lasts until the charmed see's the charmer's body. Then the charm's effect is lifted. Ivy, this is crazy."
Prince Ivy laughed, "Surely, Harry, surely. Since I just realized that if you do magic with your wand, you may be expelled, you will have to use mine. Here," he handed his silver wand to Harry, who noticed it was quite lighter than his own, even though his was wooden.
"You have your necklace on, right? Good, now try what the book says. I suppose this is a good starting spell."
Harry waved his wand in an infinity sign and chanted, "Influi Oris!", but he still saw the back of Prince Ivy's wild mane. Quite suddenly, Harry felt heat at the bridge of his throat. He grabbed at the heat source, and realized it was the necklace, whose normally clear crystalline gems were now glowing faintly from within.
"Keep trying Harry, you will get it," said Prince Ivy, who was surveying the beautiful Scottish countryside.
For the next hour, Harry tried this spell over and over again. Only instead of the necklace getting warmer, it glowed brighter and brighter. Harry felt the weirdest sensation inside of himself; it was like he had a ball inside his torso, growing bigger and bigger with every try. It was quite strange to Harry. He ignored it, however, and kept trying.
Harry was near giving up when it happened. Harry did the sideways figure 8 and said the incantation again, only this time a green aura spouted off of Harry's skin.
"Oh my God! What is happening!" Harry said, seeing the greenish light echoing off his body and collecting into what looked like a shield around Harry.
"You've unleashed it Harry! Well done! It is true! Harry, the power that has been stuck inside you your whole life, since the moment you were born, was just unlocked! Harry this is amazing. Quickly, try the spell again!" said Prince Ivy very excitedly.
Harry made the horizontal figure-8 and was in the middle of saying 'Influi Oris!' when he dropped Prince Ivy's wand by accident. He finished saying the incantation without noticing it dropping, since he was in such deep concentration.
"Woah! I think I've done it Ivy!"
"Really? Then what am I looking at right now?"
"A centipede! This is blood amazing! Now your…oh why did you stop!" he asked, as he saw Prince Ivy staring straight at him.
Soon after saying that, Harry noticed the wand missing from his hand.
"Harry, did you just do that without a wand?" Prince Ivy asked eagerly
"I dunno, I thought I had it. Must have slipped…"
Prince Ivy stopped him mid-sentence, "Here, try again. Without a wand, though."
"But there's no…"
"Just try it, Harry. Please."
"Fine," Harry obliged, looking down at the silver wand, knowing he was going to look stupid trying a charm without a wand.
"Influi Oris," Harry said as he made the figure 8 with his right index finger.
Harry felt the necklace grow hot against his neck; only he was now staring at a daffodil 50 feet away, now a shrub in the distance, and finally, a tulip 2 feet in front of Prince Ivy…
"I did it! It worked! I can see what you're seeing!" Harry said triumphantly.
Adrenaline was running through Harry's veins in large quantities now; he obviously was receiving just a taste of what he could truly be capable of. Harry's sight returned to his own, as Prince Ivy walked towards Harry.
"Harry, I never would have thought you would break it this early. This is amazing news. Damn amazing, I tell you. Here, I can see you are famished. Let's go get some lunch. Grab your wand and the book. There you go," Prince Ivy grabbed a flower off of the ground, "Portus."
The flower glowed blue for a second, and then faded.
"Here Harry, take hold."
As soon as Harry grabbed part of the flower, he felt the familiar tugging sensation behind his navel, and he plopped down in the huge room he had portkeyed to yesterday.
"Harry, stay here for a minute. I have to tell father the news. This…is…bloody…amazing." he finished, apparating with a crack.
Harry, quite tired now, retreated over to a comfortable looking couch near a wall, and sank into it. He took off the necklace, which he noticed had been glowing light green. After a while of having it off, the green faded into nothingness; the necklace returned to its normal clearness. The day's events so far had been quite hectic. Harry had done wandless magic, and very powerful magic at that. He had somehow conjured a sort of force field without even meaning to. And apparently he had unleashed his power that had been kept inside of him his whole life. 'What a morning,' he thought to himself.
Little did Harry know that it had not only been Prince Ivy who had knew what Harry had accomplished. For the first time since his Godfather's death, Harry's scar seared with pain. Harry experience a feeling of fear quite unrelated to his current emotions. Harry was quite startled by this bout of pain. Having not had the scar hurt in a while, Harry stood up shaking a bit, still trying to shake off the repercussions of the pain of his scar. How could it have slipped his mind to not tell anybody about the abrupt absence of pain? Harry was sure with all the murder that Voldemort had committed the past month had to cause some sort of emotion in him, thus triggering the connection between Harry's scar and Voldemort to act up. For some reason unapparent to Harry, it had not. Until two minutes ago.
'I've got to tell the Prince, or somebody,' Harry said, still rubbing his forehead, making sure his scar hadn't opened up.
The Prince appeared a few seconds after Harry decided to tell someone about his event. Seeing Harry's pained expression, he asked Harry about it. Harry explained what had happened and the Prince lit up with expectation.
"I knew it would happen sooner or later. Voldemort was bound to find out about what was keeping you so determined not to flood his thoughts lately. How he found out though, I have no idea." said the Prince, looking at Harry expectantly.
"So? He doesn't know how to get in here. We're perfectly safe in here." said Harry, more calm now that he realized Voldemort had feared the fact that Harry had found powers that Voldemort knew not.
"I suppose. Still, I'm going to bring more of a guard."
"I could swear you were my guard?" said Harry, remembering what Prince Ivy had said in Privet Drive the day Harry had met him.
"True, true. Still. Don't worry, I'll stay here," and with these words, Ivy flicked his wand, where a silvery arrow like thing shot towards the ceiling, passing straight through it.
Harry and the Prince sat in silence, until the grumble of Harry's stomach reawakened them both to the fact that they were behind 2 meals. The Prince led the way to the kitchen. After 10 minutes in the kitchen, the Prince had cooked up a nice large meal for the both of them, just as Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt apparated in the mansion. Harry could tell it was them because of their calls of, "Hello? Harry? Ivory?"
He ran over to the two, and motioned them into the kitchen. Both of them were hungry also, so Ivy went to work for 10 minutes more, only making Harry crave the food even more. After they had all ate, they went in the large room to converse.
Shacklebolt told them the perimeter was safe, and that they weren't being watched, currently. He suggested that whatever Harry and Ivory were doing they should do inside only. Then the three of them discussed possible plans of Voldemort's. The talk ranged from all out assaults on Gringotts to invasions of Hogwarts to breach in the Ministry of Magic. All of them were absurdly impossible. All four of them passed the time slowly, chatting about different things here and there.
"There is a toss up for the minister. Half support Amelia Bones, y'know, the head of the magical law enforcement. The other half supports that Jeff guy. Jeff Elderth. He's a good man. I dunno who I'd go for," said Shacklebolt, with the subject of the conversation now on the new Minister of Magic.
Fudge was going to resign within the next few weeks, according to Shacklebolt. "The new ministerial vote should be around the end of September," Shacklebolt added.
Lupin then explained to Harry and the Prince how things had gotten worse in the past few days. Three ministry Aurors were missing, and the house of 5 rich ministry-supporters were found obliterated, along with the owners. It seemed that Voldemort had finally begun his reign of terror and fear.
The rest of the day passed rather quickly, with it ending when Shacklebolt apparated back to the Ministry and Lupin, Harry, and Prince Ivy settling in for bed.
"Harry, we shall continue your training tomorrow, in the large room," said Prince Ivy, right before he slipped into his cot.
Lupin conjured his own cot as he said, "Mind if I watch? I'd rather keep an eye for a watch. I've always wanted to see this 'power' you speak of, Ivory."
"Please call me Ivy, Remus."
"As you wish," said Lupin, crawling into his bed, grinning to himself.
For the next two weeks, Harry continued to practice new magic out of the peculiar golden book of ancient magic. Harry had learned some quite useful and powerful spells; in the two weeks he mastered the Influi Oris charm, the Subsisto Aetas spell (pause of time), and the Accerso Phoenix spell (Phoenix summon), not needing his wand for any now. A strong emerald-colored forcefield formed around Harry every time he tried that kind of magic. Harry knew it was a force-field because when Lupin had tried to hex him to test the weird greenish semisphere around Harry, the spell bounced back upon Lupin.
Harry had been communicating with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny through letters sent with Kingsley Shacklebolt. Both Hermione and Ginny showed signs of returning Harry's feelings about themselves in their notes. His relationship predicament, Harry decided, would be best to be left until school started. He had other things to concentrate on.
It hadn't been until the week before September 1st that Harry looked at the weird map again. He had totally forgotten about it with all of the hard training he had been doing with his new powers. That day, after trying without success to perform the new Infodi Humo charm (earthquake charm), Harry opened his trunk to put away the golden book when he noticed the leathery sheaf sticking out between two pairs of jeans.
Still having Prince Ivy's wand in his pocket, Harry took advantage of the free time he had, and eagerly took out the map. "Foluscizar!" said Harry, seeing the familiar sprouting of the secret map that Dumbledore had told him the importance of.
Harry examined it close. Feeling a bit uneasy, Harry saw a forest whose illustration looked uncannily like the forest Harry had seen in his Sirius dreams a few times. Also, if Harry was not much mistaken, the hill that Harry now saw, entitled "Gryffindor Manor", was located, much to Harry's surprise, exactly where he was residing as he read it.
'I'm in Gryffindor Manor? I suppose Dumbledore inherited it from that Tiger-whatever woman? Whatever, this is bloody insane,' he said, now realizing he could navigate this map, now that he knew where he was located.
There were a couple more peculiarities on the map. Much like the Marauder's map, it moved. Small processions were seen every few miles, according to the map. One that particularly caught his eye was an animation of a lion fighting a snake. Under it were the words 'Infossum Cubiculum'. Further inspecting the map, Harry found that the forest Harry had seen in his dream was about 3 miles to the east of the hill. Harry knew there had to be something important to be found in that forest, which he now saw was named "Egi Abeo Silva". 'I'll ask Prince Ivy. In fact, he might want to join me on this adventure. We've been cooped up in this huge place for two full weeks. He'll want to get out."
Since Lupin had left yesterday in preparation for the coming full moon, Harry did not have to worry about bringing him along. 'He would have been harder to convince than Prince Ivy will be, I'm sure,' thought Harry, remembering Lupin's resiliency to most things the least bit dangerous to Harry.
As if he had heard Harry call him in his thoughts, Prince Ivy walked in the room and asked quite plainly, "Anything you want to do in particular, Harry?"
"Yeah. Mind taking a look at this?" he said, holding up the map as Prince Ivy walked closer.
"Ah. Father told me of this map. Let me see," he said, looking at it closely after Harry handed it to him. "Oh my! If I am not mistaken, this seems to be a map of, well, here!"
"Yeah I saw that. You wanna try it out?" Harry asked, with a gleam of adventure in his eye.
"I am sure father would not approve. Sure, let's go," he said, as Harry couldn't help but feel much more respect for the man who had enough courage to rebel against Dumbledore, let alone a father.
"It would be safer if we conceal ourselves." said Prince Ivy, starting towards the door.
"I've got an invisibility cloak!" offered Harry, starting towards his trunk.
"No, I have a better idea. Come over here Harry," said Prince Ivy, pulling out his wand.
"Penelope Rodern, a great niece of Nicholas Flamel, invented this spell. I learned of it last summer when I went to her great grandfather's, Nicholas, burial."
As Prince Ivy finished that sentence, Harry could sense a bit of longing in his voice, as if he wanted something he couldn't get at the moment. After a brief pause, Prince Ivy continued, "It is very, very hard to perform. I think me, Penelope, and a couple of her colleagues can do it. Now I warn you. This will feel very, very awkward. I am going to turn you into nothing more than a distinct cloud of steam. You will walk and talk just like you do, only you will be nothing more than steam.
Harry's face lit up in confusion. "What? What are you talking about? Just put a concealment charm on me or something!" Harry said, getting nervous at what Prince Ivy wanted to do.
"This is much safer, Harry. I don't want anyone to know you are here. Fumolux!" Prince Ivy said, waving his wand up and down in succession of each other.
Harry felt as if he was floating. He felt himself sort of detach itself from each other. Though quite painless, he knew he didn't want to ever do it again. It was quite peculiar. Prince Ivy, now content seeing nothing more than a light cloud of water vapor floating next to him, waved his hand, creating a small noise as if a blanket or cover of some sort had fallen on himself and Harry. Harry walked forward, feeling weightless as he moved his steamy legs.
"Both of us are completely invisible to any other's eye's Harry. Except perhaps Moody and my father," he said with a little chuckle. "Now, on to the map. I see it works very nicely. I believe it means for the reader to visit every little place where there are things moving. Well, the 'Philologus Cella', which I'm not mistaken means Scholar's room, is closest, so let's visit there first."
Harry nodded. Something occurred to him that could help him understand the map more. He asked Prince Ivy about it. "Ivy? Why don't you just translate the map? It would make what we are looking for much easier to understand."
"This is an ancient artifact, Harry. If I attempt to change it at all, it could erase itself and we will be left with nothing. That, Harry, is not worth the risk. Now let's move on, shall we?"
The two, with Prince Ivy leading the way, left the bedroom, but went to the left this time.
"We are taking an alternate exit. It is closer to this site, anyway." sensing Harry's question before it had been verbalized.
Prince Ivy went down one of the staircases to the cavernous room, with Harry close behind. They advanced to a hallway to the left of the staircases, where the Prince turned and entered the second door on the right. Harry followed him, and gasped at what he saw. It was a beautiful sight. A large, quartz staff stood, embedded into the ground, in the middle of a barren room with no windows. Even though no light was going through the room, the quartz sparkled and shimmered as if the sun was shining right behind it.
"What is it?" asked Harry, obviously perplexed by the mysterious, shiny staff.
"It is Iysdon, Harry. It is a mineral, thought only to exist in the most ancient of times, of which possesses powers of travel. Iysdon is rumored to be found in pairs. This is because according to the history of this mineral, each staff of Iysdon comes with a brother, of which it always transports the one's who touch it. Here. It will be much easier to understand if you try it. On a count of three, let us both touch the staff." said Prince Ivy, advancing to the mysterious mineral staff.
"Wait…why don't we just use the other exit? Isn't it a bit…well…safer?" said Harry, now staring reproachfully at the mysterious staff. He didn't quite get the Prince's explanation.
"I am relatively sure there is no harm, Harry. Come on," said the Prince, as Harry walked forward, recognizing defeat. "Three, two, one…"
Harry felt an odd feeling as he was transported several thousand feet. It had felt as if he had shot straight down through the ground as he grabbed the staff, now advancing at millions of miles an hour to his destination. Harry landed next to Prince Ivy, both of them clutching a rather light colored Spruce tree.
"This tree is a cover up, I believe. The Iysdon is inside. Still works just as well," he said, taking his hand away from the light colored bark.
Harry now understood what the Iysdon did. It simply transported the one who touched it to a set other staff of Iysdon. It was sort of like a portkey.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by Prince Ivy, "Come on then, Harry. Onward."
The two made their way through a few miles of hilly grasslands, with Prince Ivy occasionally looking at the map as he changed direction.
"It should be right here, according to the map," said Prince Ivy, looking curious as to why they saw nothing but a large patch of grass. With prior experience with activated maps, Harry asked to see the map again. Sure enough, right next to the animation of someone writing words on a piece of parchment were unrelated words in a bubble, as if the map wanted the reader to say them.
"Here, Ivy. Say what is on the map right here. Yes, that little bubble. Try it out. Point your wand at where the thing should be," said Harry, eagerly saying these words in anticipation of what he would see.
"Agnitio!" the Prince said. As soon as he finished the incantation, Harry saw a small, ancient looking stone house, propped up on a wooden porch floating 2 feet above the ground.
"Can you see it, Harry?" the Prince asked, just as in awe of the strange hut as Harry was.
"Yeah. I reckon we should see what's inside?" asked Harry, eager to investigate.
The Prince nodded, and they both stepped onto the porch, and went through the doorless entrance. It was a one-room establishment about as big as Harry's room in Privet Drive. There was a single stone desk with two rather elaborate looking quills on it, and many books scattered about. All of them were written in languages Harry did not know.
One particular thing caught Harry's attention. One of the drawer's of the stone's desk was emitting a glowing light. Harry walked over and opened the drawer. The blinding bluish light forced Harry to look away as his eyes focused. There was a small bluish orb inside. Harry was reluctant to touch it. His last experience with orbs had gotten his Godfather killed.
"Hey Ivy, take a look at this." Harry said, as Prince Ivy took heed of the mysterious light.
He walked right over, picked up the bluish orb, and the blue faded quickly, as if Prince Ivy was absorbing the energy of whatever the orb contained. The Prince made a motion so much like a retch that Harry moved out of the way in anticipation. But the Prince did not throw up; rather his eyes, once a dark brown, turned into a very light blue, much like his father's.
"Harry, I feel so….so powerful," he said as he looked at his surroundings with intensified curiosity. "I feel so much younger…so much stronger. Also, my sight is much clearer. I suppose it has something to do with this orb," he said, now holding the now clear orb closer to his eye for examination.
"Yeah…good call. Your eyes are blue now. This is weird. Let's get out of here." said Harry, now a little fearful at the weird way the Prince was acting.
"I suppose. Yes. Let us head back to the Iysdon. Here, you try holding it," he said, still surveying his surroundings much different than he usually had as he offered Harry the orb.
Harry's first instinct was to grab the weird orb and break it; his instinct changed as he took it from the Prince. When Harry's fingers closed over the orb, he had a very renewed sense of warmth and strength. Harry felt as if he could run a thousand miles. Now noticing his change in state, he supposed the orb had a strong healing charm or rejuvenating charm put on it. With reluctance on releasing the interesting ball, he placed it back in the Princes outstretched hand. The Prince pocketed it. The two then moved back through the door-less entryway and stepped off the small porch.
Harry looked behind his back a minute after he had left the porch; to his surprise, the floating stone house was replaced by the former clear patch of flat grass. So much of the 'ancient' things that Harry had encountered this year had Harry very confused; the map and its contents were on the top of that list.
After 5 minutes of relatively fast walking, Prince Ivy and Harry, still a vapor cloud, reached out to grasp the lightly colored Spruce tree in which the Iysdon was hidden. As soon as Harry's hand grasped fully on the trunk, he again felt the odd sensation of being driven straight into the ground.
Once Harry regained his sense of reality, Prince Ivy was walking towards the doorway of the Iysdon-room. Harry followed him. It was now near dinner time.
"Er…Ivy? Do you mind making me full again?" he asked as he felt uncomfortable doing the weightless walk he had been accustomed to performing for the last few hours.
"Oh. Yes, of course. Finite. There you go. Would you like some dinner, Harry? It has been quite a day. I daresay we should investigate a few other places on that map some time in the future. Perhaps the things we find in these places will be of some greater purpose? Here," he said, shaking his head, "let's go eat," he finished, with his hand in his pocket, handling the mysterious orb.
The two ate with excited chatter about what the room was like. Unbecoming to his real age, the Prince's deep grooves and lines in his face seemed to be fading; Harry couldn't help but tell he still had the most energy he had had in years.
The Prince excused himself from the table to go take a relaxing bath.
"I'll be back in the Parlor in about an hour. Meet me there and we shall perhaps go over the past few weeks. Heaven knows they have been quite big." said Ivy, excusing himself from the table and advancing towards the bathroom.
"Alright. Yeah…a lot of stuff has happened. I reckon we should go over it all again. Can't hurt, right," Harry asked, and with a nod of his head Prince Ivy exited the room.
Harry was now free to look about the house on his own; an adventure he hadn't been given the chance to do his whole stay at the large mansion because of the constant watch on him. Now a bit enlivened by the thought of being free in a very un-explored and interesting house, he got up from his dinner chair and walked towards the parlor. He had been meaning to examine the room with the odd silvery glow since the first day he had arrived.
With a bit of giddiness working its way up his torso to his throat, Harry sped up his walk towards the mysterious room, who Harry noticed still had the eerie silvery light escaping from the crack under the door as he came closer. Now a few feet from the door, with the silvery light encompassing his legs, Harry stopped to reconsider what he was doing. 'Is there any danger in what I'm doing? Well, yeah of course. I dunno. Why not, eh? No use in being curious all the time. I'll only be a few minutes, anyway. Prince Ivy will be none the wiser,' he thought in his head, contemplating his plan.
He pushed opened the door, and saw yet another windowless room with an obvious centerpiece that was to be the object of focus. There was a large 4 foot pedestal in the middle of the room, which ended with the edges moving out, forming somewhat of a very large cup or bowl. As Harry moved closer, he saw the pedestal was filled with a very bright silvery substance. 'This looks an awful lot like a pensieve,' thought Harry, remembering his encounter with Snape's memory last year when in an Occlumency lesson.
Harry now had his hands on both sides of the edges of the pedestal; he was now examining the mysterious silvery liquid. Quite suddenly, Harry realized that there was someone staring back at him through the silvery liquid. In fact, Harry realized it was more than one person; it was three people; James and Lily Potter, and Sirius Black.
Stunned by what he saw, he temporarily stood next to the pedestal, staring in awe at the three faces who looked at him. Then, quite foolishly, Harry said, "Uh Mum? Dad? Sirius? Can you hear me?"
Harry heard faint noises coming from the faces staring back at him. Harry's face was now two inches away from the mysterious substance; ignoring the notion that he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing; he leaned into the extremely bizarre substance.
Harry screamed. The silver liquid started to flow out of the pedestal onto Harry's forehead. It was molding over him like poured plastic. Quite rapidly after hearing the sound of something thudding on the floor, Prince Ivy apparated right outside the door of the mysterious room in a white bath robe.
"Oh my!" Prince Ivy said, surveying the tremendously strange scene while brandishing his wand.
"Expugno Iunctio!" Prince Ivy said, while a small yellowish orb escaped his wand, which sped towards the silvery substance now suffocating Harry.
He said this 3 more times, with 3 more orbs escaping and sticking to the silvery substance. Harry stood motionless, with the substance now down to his bellybutton. The yellowish orbs connected with the silvery substance, and, as if they were sponges, grew to enormous size, with the silvery substance flowing off of Harry into the orbs. The orbs were growing to roughly the size of basketballs when Harry was released from the stranglehold of the bizarre material. Prince Ivy flicked his wand at the pedestal, and the basketball-sized silvery yellow orbs floated a few inches to the pedestal, where they apparently popped. The silvery contents flowed back into the pedestal, and it was soon settled to stillness, very unusually quick.
Harry was lying on the ground, shaking his head, as if he were in a daze. Prince Ivy rushed over to his body, slapping Harry in the face, trying to bring him back to reality. In a few seconds, Harry's eyes opened, and he surveyed his surrounding environment: Prince Ivy looking worriedly into his eyes, a windowless, one-doored room, and the weird runed-pedastal holding the weird silvery liquid which caused him to talk to…
"Mum and Dad! Sirius! Where did you go?" Harry yelled, in quite a state.
Prince Ivy picked up the confused form of Harry, and proceeded, despite his old age, to carry him all the way back up the stairs and into the grand bedroom. Harry was talking animatedly to himself, making absolutely no sense to Prince Ivy. The Prince place Harry on the bed and, taking out his wand, said, "Subvenio Animus!" A golden like aura spread about Harry for a minute, making him quiet and asleep. After the aura faded, Harry woke up quite suddenly, finally back in his regular consciousness.
Harry's eyes glanced in Prince Ivy's with his first seconds of wake. Then he started, saying very quickly, "Prince Ivy! I was talking to…"
"Harry, you have acted very foolish. You had no business being in that room. The Iunctio could have suffocated you fully. Before you say anything, promise me you will not go back in the room, nor ever explore the contents of the Iunctio without my permission."
"But I want to talk to Mu…"
"Harry you must promise me…or I'm afraid my time with you is done. If you can't promise me, I cannot protect you, meaning I must give up my duty of being your guard." said Prince Ivy, with every pound and ounce of his last statement stabbing into Harry's heart. Harry quite liked the man. He didn't want him to go.
Grudgingly, Harry stated, "Fine, I promise. What is this Iunctio stuff, anyways? It made me talk to Mum and Dad! And Sirius, too! They were actually talking to me!"
"Harry, the Iunctio, like much of the magic you have seen in the past few weeks, is very ancient. There was a legend. It's actually more of a myth. It was said that Godric Gryffindor had found a way to pass the threshold between the worlds of the living and the worlds of the dead. No one has been able to prove this, because no one has ever found exactly how Gryffindor found a way to actually pass the threshold. See, Gryffindor himself, although quite noble, desired to find out the mysteries of Merlin's magic. After finishing with the school, he went to find a way to learn the magic of Merlin. But, quite plainly, no one, besides a few hidden tribes, knew anything about Merlin's magic. So he devoted the end of his days to finding a way to talk to Merlin, even though he was quite dead. In the end, it was rumored that Gryffindor had come across an animal who's blood had the capacity to cross the barrier between the two worlds successfully. My father has informed me of all of this, when we first looked at that room you were in," he said, seeing the confused face on Harry.
"It has been rumored that Gryffindor wrote about this creature and where to find him but no one has ever known where to find his writings, not even my dear old mother."
Very suddenly Prince Ivy realized there may have been more to discover in the room they visited that day than the mysterious orb.
"My God Harry! Perhaps the writings on the Iunctio and the creature is in there! This is amazing news!" Prince Ivy spit out, in an almost insane state judging by his extremities shaking with excitement.
Harry was starting to be infected with the Prince's contagious exhilarated state, but he was still quite shaken from his bout with the stuff that the Prince named Iunctio. Harry, changing his grin to a thin line, replied to the Prince, "That is great news and all, but I don't think we should go back there. Or at least I shouldn't. It just didn't feel right."
Harry decided to finally let out the information that had been bugging him since the moment they had entered the stone 'scholar's room'.
"Really? I don't know. Perhaps my father should take a look instead. Ah damn!" Prince Ivy swore as he realized he wasn't supposed to take Harry out anyway.
"Damn I'm really in a fix now. Oh, I'm sure he won't be too angry. He never gets very angry, does he Harry?" asked the Prince the crack of a smile starting to form on his lips.
"No. I don't reckon he will be too mad." Harry replied, mirroring Prince Ivy's grin.
"What do you say we go sleep on it, Harry? It is quite late, and it's been a huge day. You are feeling alright, right? I'm sure the effects of the Iunctio will wear off soon, you feel sort of feverish, right?" said Prince Ivy, changing his jovial smile to a curious thin line.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, what I saw was weird. I was talking to my parents." said Harry, remembering all that he had seen after the mysterious silvery substance engulfed him.
"I am sure that I will inquire about what you saw tomorrow. Let us rest," and with the last words, he walked over to his own bed and laid down for sleep, bathrobe and all.
Harry was in conflicting emotions; Prince Ivy had gone from being scolding and accusatory to apprehensive and exciting in a matter of 5 minutes. Also, Harry felt very tired and depressed. He had been talking to his parents and Sirius in a full-on conversation for a few minutes, but was torn away from them yet again. Also, Harry had an unsettling hunch that Prince Ivy was hiding quite a few things from him, whether about Iysdon or Iunctio or what exactly was going on in the world. Brooding on these heavy thoughts, Harry fatigued himself to sleep.
"Malfoy, are all of the escaped aware of our position?"
"Of course, my lord. They are awaiting your briefing next door," he said as he pointed to the bronze door on the pair's right.
Voldemort stood up from his lavish chair, and followed Malfoy to the door. A huge, poisonous looking snake slithered amongst the two towards the door.
Malfoy pushed the door open, revealing a large stage like platform in which around 300 men in dark cloaks and masks sat. They were all in neat rows. Voldemort walked forward; Malfoy and the snake followed. The large crowd quieted to a silence. The cracking of Voldemort's thin, milk-white knuckle could be heard throughout the room as he walked to a halt, overlooking the large array of dark-cloaked people.
"My servants, it is now time. It is time to finish what we had started only 15 years past. I have wasted too much time on this 'prophecy' that foretells the doom of myself to a lanky 16 year old boy who's parents were some of the easiest to rid the world of," Voldemort stopped as the room rung with raucous laughter. After it quieted down, he continued, "I have found the way to defeat this prophesized 'downfall' of me. Once we capture the last Myrrish tribe, they will tell me the location of the…"
A/N- I had to split this chapter because first of all it would have been too long, and second because there was really two whole different occurances/big ideas and it felt wierd to have them in one monstrous chapter. Look for the next chapter to be just as exciting if not way more. If enough people request, I will start putting a 'to come in the next chapter' section in each chapter.
Mrs.ChristinaFelton-Thanks for reviewing again. It's nice to read your warm-hearted replies.
I hope I'll pick up a couple more loyal reviewers with this chap. ;-)
