Chapter 17 – Magical Sight and Sensing, and a White Phoenix

Harry was walking in a long corridor; he couldn't make out exactly where he was walking since he had been blindfolded. Even then he could make out that the corridor itself was shrouded in darkness.

"Hope Godric knows what he is doing?" grumbled Harry

It had been six long months since Harry had started his Apprentice training, and today was his final test in the area of his Magical sensing and sight. He had told Godric of what he had seen when he had woken up after his door had been opened. Godric had explained that it was a rare magical talent that some powerful wizards pick up by accident, but it requires hard training to master. He said that mastering this talent could come in handy when he would have to pass through magical booby traps, or gauge his opponent's magical strength.

It had been scary for him the first time he had seen himself through his magical sight when he had stood in front of a mirror, all he could see was bright white light, it was soo painful to see that he had to turn his face away from the mirror.

Harry had tried to reason with Godric that it was a useless talent, since his main goal was to learn as much offensive magic as he could from Godric, but Godric told him that this gift could be useful if by any chance Harry lost his eyesight in the heat of Battle. Thus Godric's reason won out in the end.

He had been only provided with his daggers for the test, his main goal was to survive magical threats by Muggle means, or a little bit of wandless magic he had perfected with Godric, which was actually pretty negligible at the moment.

He took a couple of deep breaths to relax his beating heart, and concentrating on bring his gift forward, in the beginning the amount of input he would get was enormous, but with practice he was able to control the input to only see and sense what he wanted.

He could feel the whole room, the walls seemed to be bare, and there seemed to be no objects lying in the room. He took a couple of tentative steps forward, but soon stopped when he sensed a small booby-trap in front of him. He easily sidestepped that, and a couple of more, which were placed in front of him.

The Potter vault with the combination of the black vault had become a humongous vault, it was like a huge castle underground, and thus there was ample room for his training. Godric had specifically asked for wide open spaces which would be used for Harry's training, he believed that all his tests would need a realistic environment, which the gatekeepers would be able to create based on Godric's specifications.

Only when Harry would pass the test, Godric would move onto teaching other things. At times it was frustrating because some of the things that Godric wanted to teach him, it didn't agree with what Harry wanted to learn. But in the end the rules of the Apprenticeship had stated that Harry had to follow each of Godric's orders.

He had been blindly stepping over the many booby-traps wondering why Godric had made this test so simple. But as they say 'Be careful of what you wish for' Harry received his first challenge when an opponent starting firing on him. He had hoped that Godric had made his opponent's non- magical but it would seem that was not the case.

Harry had to keep on dodging the many curses that were fired upon him, but it was more difficult to make out where his opponent was with your magical sight then with real eyes. He was looking for his opponent's magical signature to pin point his location, but the curses seemed to keep distracting him, luckily his robes, and armor had deflected the few curses that had hit him.

Concentrate Potter, you can do this; get this bloody task over with fast, thought Harry

He soon pinpointed his opponent's location and with pinpoint accuracy threw one of his daggers. It hit its mark and the opponent fell down with a thud. He had perfected his throwing abilities a long time ago, and it seemed he had a particular knack for it. He itched to find his opponents wand to use, but Godric had explicitly informed Harry that he would have to do the task all over again if he used magic.

A grumbling and complaining Harry moved on to meet his next challenge.

After a couple of minutes which seemed like hours for Harry since it seemed to him he had been walking endlessly, three opponents starting firing on him.

"Godric are you insane," screamed Harry while trying to run away from his opponents as well as pinpointing their location.

This proved more difficult than he had anticipated; luckily his opponents were only programmed to throw harmless jinxes and curses like the tickling charm, impediment jinx, curses to change the color of his hair, etc.

But fed up of not being able to perform magic Harry threw two of his daggers where he saw the majority of the spells were coming from, one had hit because he had heard a soft thud of a body falling, but the other had clearly missed since he was still under fire from two places.

He tried to keep a shield charm running wandlessly, but it soon broke down due to the onslaught of the number of spells that had impacted it.

Soon Harry was left panting with fatigue because of his running around and dodging spells, he thus used his last ounce of strength to throw all his daggers in the general direction from where the spells were originating.

When he heard the twin thuds of two bodies falling, he breathed a sigh of relief. He summoned all his daggers and pocketed them keeping one long one the size of a short sword in his hand.

He knew his task was not complete yet, because Godric hadn't relieved him yet. Hoping the next opponent would be easy to handle he starting walking forward.

Soon he saw the magical signature of another opponent, but it seemed that he wasn't going to fire any spells, though he did notice a sword in his hand. The only reason he could make out it was a sword, was that because it had some magical properties which Harry recognized as those which were making the blade blunt.

With a yell he charged his opponent, the swords met together releasing a shower of sparks which went unnoticed by the two opponents who were battling with all their might.

Soon Harry was parrying and blocking his opponent's moves, but he had received his share of bruises, because even though the blade was blunt it was hurting him.

But luckily his opponent made a mistake and left an opening for Harry to attack, and he thrust his sword through his opponent's abdomen.

His opponent dropped on the floor with a thud, and his sword fell with a loud clang, which vibrated on the empty walls of the corridor.

Harry was left panting, and breathing heavily on the floor, and suddenly his ring portkeyed him back to the portrait room.

Once he removed his blind fold, he noticed that the portraits were viewing his fight on some sort of magical device, which projected a 3-D view to the whole room.

He waited for it to end, hoping Godric would not ask him to do it again. Once his breathing returned to normal, he waited for Godric's judgment.

Once it was over, Godric sat back in thought for a while, and nodded and mumbled, as if he was talking to himself and looked towards Harry.

"Harry James Potter, I have viewed your fight, and after careful scrutiny I find it satisfactory, and up to the standards I expected of you. Thus I pass you in this test" said a smiling Godric.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and fell back on the sofa.

"Thank God it is over, that was really tough" mumbled Harry to himself.

"Actually I didn't expect you to pass" replied Godric who had heard Harry

"What"

"Well I wanted to see how much you could endure" replied a still smiling Godric

"Excuse me! Endure?"

"Well I didn't expect you to pass the three opponents, I actually expected you to use some magic against them in frustration or do some accidental magic." Replied Godric

"You mean I could use magic, Jesus Godric if you were alive right now I would throttle you"

"Harry James Potter" screamed Lily "That is no way to talk to your elders"

"Sorry mom" replied a sheepish Harry.

"It's alright Lily I deserve his anger, but I am proud of him right now. It takes great courage to do what he did in there, he combined his gift with muggle weapons to survive, now wonder what he would do if I had given him a wand, mark my words Lily and you to Harry, once your training is complete you will be formidable"

Harry blushed at the praise he received. But nevertheless bowed to his master as per the rules. Godric nodded back.

In another place far away from Harry, Albus Dumbledore sat down to read the reports the various order members had sent him. It had been six days since Harry had gone missing and true to his words he had disappeared of the face of the earth.

He had even sent his faithful phoenix in search of Harry but even he couldn't find the young boy.

At least Voldemort is not gloating of his capture. That means wherever he is, he must be safe, he thought pensively.

Even Phineas has disappeared since that order meeting; he had yet to make an appearance.

With a loud sigh, he got up and prepared to call an order meeting to call off the search for Harry.

"I hope you know what you are doing child" mumbled Albus before he disappeared into his chambers.

Near a small stream somewhere in St. Ottery's , Ginerva Weasley was sitting with her back to a tree holding a small flower, lost in her own thoughts.

Her thoughts mostly centered around our Hero Harry and how everyone in her family was worried about him. It didn't help matters either that she was the only one who actually knew about the location where Harry was hiding and what he was up to.

Suddenly a bright flash of white above her startled her out of her thoughts. The first thing she noticed was that, it was a bird of some sort, but a very beautiful bird. But soon the bird started to sing, and she realized it was a phoenix.

Her mouth was hanging open and the flower dropped from her hand, she had never seen a phoenix other that of the headmaster's, and she had imagined them all being of the same color, but this white phoenix was simply exquisite.

The phoenix landed on her legs, and she noted that even through the bird like other phoenixes was big, she was relatively light on her legs (she assumed the bird was a she). Her song removed all thoughts of worry from Ginny's mind, and she felt happy, and very energized at the moment like she could do about anything right now.

She started to stroke the phoenix, which she noticed that the bird liked very much. Soon she noticed a letter tied to her legs.

"Is that for me?" inquired Ginny

The phoenix nodded and lifted her leg so that Ginny could untie the letter.

She opened it and recognized Harry's writing.

Dear Ginny

Hope you like my phoenix; please don't say anything to offend her, and do compliment her a lot, even though she has changed from an owl to a phoenix, her pride still remains the same, but between you and me I think it has increased. But gods forbid don't tell her that, she would peck me to death. I guess by now you must have realized who I am talking about, and yes this is my beloved Hedwig, who has now transformed into my familiar, I am sure you are thoroughly confused, so let me start at the beginning.

During the first week of my stay here with my master, I remembered a package that was delivered to me by Hedwig before leaving Privet Drive. The package was not signed by anyone, and thus its sender has remained a mystery. I inquired from Godric the mystery involving the liquid encased in the crystal. At first he was speechless, that confirmed that he knew something about it at least. But it got a little irritating after a while when some of the older portraits had the same expression, you know what I am talking about, open mouthed, in awe look, with only mumbled words coming out which soundly mostly like 'impossible' or 'it's a myth it doesn't exist'.

After about two hours wherein I had a nice conversation with my parents and Sirius, by the way my mother is very fond of Hedwig, she is one of the main reasons Hedwig's ego has increased (wink). Anyways by that time Godric got his ability to speak again, he called me over to him and told me a story involving Merlin of all people, so I shall narrate the story to you as well, hope you don't fall asleep, It's quite interesting actually (wink).

Merlin like Godric himself was a scholar looking for lost civilizations, his greatest dream was to bring all the divided magical settlements around the world together, so each can learn from the other, and live together in Harmony.

Once during a ravage storm, he along with his companion, who was a phoenix, took shelter in a dark cave. Now Merlin was a very curious sort of fellow, and thus sought to explore the cave while the storm continued to ravage oitside.

He set out with his companion to travel to the deepest pit of the cave. Hours had passed but he didn't stop, however just when he was about to give up, he saw some sort of light coming from one of the tunnels ahead.

He went to check it out, and to his surprise and amazement, he had stumbled upon a colony of phoenixes. He saw millions of phoenixes everywhere, he described the place as heaven on earth, by some great power, the place was full of greenery and even a stream. Now I have forgotten to mention that once a phoenix chooses you as a companion you can communicate easily with them. They are bonded to your soul, and they would be with you till your dying breath. But of course not all phoenixes' bond with humans, some prefer to live their lives in isolation.

Now Merlin's phoenix informed him that this was Eden. At first Merlin didn't believe him, but sensing that his phoenix was serious he dropped the topic. His phoenix trilled to get the attention of all the other phoenixes. They welcomed Merlin graciously, and he was soon introduced to the most beautiful Phoenix he had ever seen in his life, he said that it was much larger than the other phoenixes indicating that he was their pack leader, and the most astonishing difference was that it had a golden plumage.

Now the leader communicated with Merlin with the help of his companion. The phoenix said that Merlin was the first human to come to Eden since Adam, and Eve had left, and they wouldn't have been soo gracious in their hospitality if it weren't for his companion.

He stayed at Eden for a long time, communicating with the Phoenix's, telling them about the outside world, and learning many things about them. When he was about to depart, the golden phoenix provided him with a gift. They called it the Heart of a Phoenix. They said that whenever a golden phoenix dies, his heart survives in the form of a crystal, and if any other animal and human together were to drink its contents, they would be bonded for life, and the animal would become a phoenix. Unlike usual bonding, this is deeper.

But the crystal has a mind of its own, and thus will find a way to its new owner by itself, and there is nothing a person can do if it refuses to release the liquid.

After hearing this story I couldn't believe what I was hearing at first, I asked Godric and the other portraits if they were joking or something. But they weren't. Soon Godric with the help of Merlin (oh he also has a portrait and I have met him a couple of times, and he's as amazing in person as he is portrayed in books). Thus I was able to perform the proper rituals, and what you see in front of you is my beloved Hedwig, who has become more beautiful than before (Tell her that I might score some brownie points with her, wink).

Anyways I thought I should inform you that I am alive, and well, and my training is going well. Somehow only Phoenixes who know the location of the vault can leave and enter the vault. Don't ask me for explanation, I am just telling you what I heard. Anyways reply to me, Hedwig will wait for you. I would love to hear something from you and I have hoped I haven't bored you.

Tell me what's up with Ron and Hermione and whether you implemented your plans against them yet or not (wink).

Anyways my hands hurt now from writing soo much, so I will sign off here.

With Love

Harry

Ginny just kept on staring at Hedwig for a long time after reading the letter. Hedwig either choose to ignore that or didn't care because she was busy pruning her feathers.

"You are beautiful" mumbled a awe voiced Ginny

Hedwig puffed her chest out on hearing the compliment, causing Ginny to burst into giggles. She didn't know how long she sat there admiring the phoenix and stroking her not that Hedwig minded at all, she loved the attention that Ginny was providing, and somehow she felt very safe with her just like she would feel with her master.

After a while Ginny noticed that the sun was beginning to descend, realizing she still had to write Harry a letter she asked Hedwig to wait for her in her room, while she would walk to the Burrow.

Instead Hedwig jumped onto her shoulder and transported her directly into her room. Ginny had never traveled by phoenix apparition, but she wished she could do that her whole life. She felt warm, loved, protected; she had never felt this safe, she felt like Hedwig was watching out for her, it was the most wonderful feeling in the whole world she couldn't describe it in words. With a smile she thanked Hedwig, and sat down to write Harry a letter.

A/N: Sorry for the late update, I was in two minds whether I should write something about his training or not, and I also needed to chart out how the story would progress. So bear with me for the slow updates.