Disclaimer: I have no intention of making aney money off of this story,I give all credit for characters(and histories of said characters)to J.K. Rowling

Chapter 2:

Learning Is More Fun Than He Thought

He woke up after hearing the door close loudly. He saw that a breakfast had been laid on his desk. He sat up, went over and sat down to eat when he heard a tapping on his window. He looked over to see a handsome black owl hovering outside. He opened the window and let the creature in. It sat calmly and let him untie the letter from its leg before flopping onto the bed in a rather ungainly fashion. He watched the awkward owl a second before unrolling the parchment.

Harry:

I knew that this would most likely happen at some point, though I admit I did not expect it so early in the summer. I have sent you some help, she should be able to teach you the basics of wand less magic, as she is rather adept at it herself, and on top of that, she'll be teaching you a few other things that you would not normally learn in the Hogwarts educational system, but I think might come in rather handy for the future.

Thank you for informing me as promptly as you did, and please, assure Miss Granger that you are quite well, as she is rather worried. Enjoy your holidays!

-Prof. A. Dumbledore

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Then turned back to the owl sitting on his bed, wondering what the Professor might have sent. But instead, he saw a rather small black cat, and the owl was nowhere to be seen. He stared at it before sliding his wand from his pajama pocket where he had slept with it.

Before he had gotten it fully out, the cat had shifted into a very, very small woman. She couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall, her hair was wildly curly and golden red, and pulled up in a ponytail on top of her head; but even so, it reached all the way down her back. Her eyes were as green as his, and as he looked closer, it seemed that she was wearing no clothing at all. His eyes widened, she had nothing covering her save a second skin, which looked as though it were green leather. Though it couldn't have been, as it faded into her skin where it met her neck and wrists. Her feet curled up into sharp points at the ends, the same way muggles imagined that elves' shoes did.

He couldn't help but stare for a few more seconds before closing his mouth and gripping his wand tighter.

"Hello." She said, her voice wasn't high-pitched like he imagined, but sounded smooth and melodic even. "My name is Alima." Harry was speechless. "It's nice to meet you." About a minute crawled by with Harry staring dumbly at her. "It seems you really are as talkative as Dumbledore said." She raised an eyebrow.

"Er-Harry. My name is Harry. Nice to meet you. Er, sorry, this will probably come out to be a bit rude, but, er, what are you?"

"I'm a dryad, we're from Greece. Forest sprites. Not a hamadryad, otherwise I wouldn't be able to leave. But, are you familiar with us?" Harry nodded.

"But... but I thought that dryads, and nymphs and sprites were generally shy... so why...?"

"Ah. Yes, my kind usually hide, unless provoked-"

"Or unless they're feeling troublesome." Harry put in. She smiled.

"Yes. We can be mischievous. I however, am not shy, nor am I mischievous...often. I like learning, and being around Dumbledore is...quite educating." It was Harry's turn to raise an eyebrow. "But, now that you understand what I am, allow to get to what I am here for: I'm going to teach you to use your new powers." He stared. "Please set you wand down, if you would."

"Already?" He asked, surprised.

"You did want to learn, did you not?" She looked at him questioningly.

"Well-yes-but-"

"Well then. Set down the wand, and grab a quill, a pen, a notebook, and a book from your desk and lay them all here across the bed." He stared at her a minute. Her eyebrows creased in impatience. "Now, if you would." He grabbed them all and set them on the bed, then gazed down at her. "Go sit back in the chair. I'm going to test you." He sat facing her. "Now lift the quill off the bed."

Harry concentrated, and it rose about three inches. "Good." She said, her eyebrows going up. "Now the pen." He lifted it up as high as the quill. "The notebook." It went up about an inch. "Now the book." He had to concentrate harder to make that one work, but in the end it floated six inches off the bedspread.

"How do you feel?" She asked peering at him closely.

"It was more difficult to do that than to do the remote yesterday. But fine." She peered at him a moment more.

"Eat your breakfast then we'll try some other things." She said abruptly. Harry turned around and looked at his cereal.

"Are you hungry?" He asked. "There's some fruit here."

"No, I'll be able to find my own food, but thank you." She said, she was walking around his room, tapping the walls at intervals, inspecting the doorframe, peering into his wardrobe, and then looking through his desk, keeping out of his way the entire time. Then she peered under his bed, she felt on the Firebolt for a second, then left it alone. After that, she started to tap on the floor, on every single plank there was. He watched her as he ate, wondering what she was checking for.

"Can I ask you how you met Dumbledore?" He asked abruptly. She had her ear pressed to the floor for a few more seconds before replying.

She sat up and looked around again, scrutinizing the whole room. "He caught me." She said simply.

"As in, out in the forest he caught you?" Harry asked in disbelief, it was nearly impossible to catch a sprite, especially when they were in their own forest.

"Yes, in my own too. It was so embarrassing. He was sitting, sleeping against a log near my friend's pool. I stopped above him, as he was the first human I'd ever seen so far into the forest, I was only a few centuries old or so then, but then suddenly he had me by the ankle. I still don't know how he moved so fast, but, once we're gotten a hold of, we can't get away until we're released willingly. Every trick and plea I had wouldn't make him let go. No promise, no lie...nothing. Then he promised to let me go if I would just sit and listen to his proposal. Of course, I thought he would just drone on and on about something useless that I had no interest in...So I promised. And he started talking, still holding onto me. He told about the wonderful school he taught at, and all the places he'd visited, and the wonderful things he'd seen and done. Soon he had me charmed. So entranced that I didn't even notice that I was sitting in front of him by my own free will, nor that I was asking him questions." He saw her smile vaguely. "I was his from then on." Harry cocked his head to the side in thought.

"Just how long ago was this?"

"Long enough ago that your dear headmaster had not a single gray hair on his head." Now she smiled widely. "More like a mane of auburn, he'd only been teaching for...goodness, two or three years." Harry's eyes widened.

"How old are you?" He asked in awe.

"About...five hundred and...Three, now?" She asked herself.

"How old is Dumbledore then?"

"Must be nearing ninety or so. But he'll be lasting to nearly one-hundred and fifty, I'm guessing, amount of power he's got." She nodded solemnly.

"When you say...you were his...?" Harry didn't finish the sentence. And Alima just smiled secretively.

"I'll let you ask my children that." And she winked at him. Harry's eyes widened once more.

"He-you...they're...bloody hell..." She laughed. "Half dryads? I didn't even think that was possible. Aren't you considered a different species? Two different species can't breed and make offspring..." Alima laughed.

"Look at the world we live in Harry, scientific laws hardly apply anymore." Harry was amazed once more.

"You know about scientific laws?" He asked, surprised.

"Yes, very well, seeing as I followed along with the latest scientific discoveries made by muggles over the last sixty years." Harry's jaw dropped.

"So...so...wow...you're... wow. You need to meet Hermione." Was all he could say.

"Back to the reason I'm here. You're finished with your breakfast, I'm assuming?" Harry nodded. "Well, then let's start teaching you then."

"Put the book on the desk." He stood to grab it. "Use your noggin!" She rapped on his head with a knuckle. He sat back and concentrated on it, and it slowly moved from the bed to the desk next to him. "Now put it back on the bed." He did so. "See if you can open that drawer." He concentrated on opening the drawer beside him, where the books all went. "Don't think so hard, just imagine that you're opening it, and then want it opened." Harry relaxed, and gazed at it, thinking about opening it, and how much energy he might need to open it...and it slid open easily. Alima smiled from behind him. "Now put the book inside." It floated from the bed to inside the drawer. "Close it." He closed it. "Was that hard?" She asked, turning him around to face her.

"Not once I got the hang of it. You don't need to concentrate as hard as I thought. You just have to want it to happen."

"Exactly."

The door burst open suddenly. Harry saw that he was holding a mewing black kitten in his hands.

"Another bloody animal? Put it out." Vernon had come with locks to install them everywhere in Harry's room.

"Did...did Petunia tell you...er...what happened...yesterday?" Vernon stopped, his eyes narrowing dangerously. Harry guessed that he hadn't heard. "Well, I, well I accidentally..." He tapered off.

"You what?" Vernon asked in a dangerously soft voice.

"I well...I gave the remote to Dudley, by, by...er... you know." Vernon's eyes bulged. "It was completely by accident! Turns out I can do it without a wand! It wasn't my fault! And now I have a teacher and I'm learning-" Vernon's face was purpling and contorting with fury. Harry was watching it get redder and redder; he was going on burgundy when he finally exploded.

"YOU DID WHAT IN MY HOUSE? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO NOT USE THAT IN MY HOUSE? AND THERE'S ANOTHER BLOODY MANIAC IN MY HOUSE? WHERE? WHERE?" He was roaring, but slowly catching his breath, Harry stood up, setting Alima down on the bed, holding his finger up.

"Like I was saying." Harry said reassuringly, afraid of another explosion. "I now have a teacher, and I'll be learning how to control this new power quickly. I need a deadline though, when is Aunt Agatha getting here?"

"Next week." Vernon growled.

"I should know enough by then to control myself. Would you like to meet my teacher?" Harry asked carefully. Vernon looked around the room again, and then reluctantly nodded. "Don't be alarmed." Harry warned, turning to the black kitten sitting quietly on his bed; only it wasn't a black kitten, it was Alima, in all her glory.

"My name is Alima, a dryad from northern Greece, I will be teaching Harry to control his newly found wand-less magic, and how to take animagus form, and some defensive spells also. Please, I would suggest not entering this room without knocking any longer, otherwise you may be very – ah – confused as to what you may find; and another thing, you need not install any locks, as we will lock the room ourselves."

Vernon's eyes were huge as she said all this. "Get that out of my house. NOW!" He roared. "I told you no bloody weirdoes coming over! And what's the first bloody thing you do? You invite one into MY house! Out! Now!" And he pointed to the window.

"I'm afraid that that is not possible. If you would like to not have Harry levitating things all around him, cursing you or your family by accident, or perhaps even making the house fall apart or shift itself, then I would suggest allowing me to stay here and teach him. I can teach him how to not do these things. By the way, the magic he knows, the Ministry of Magic cannot detect it, so he could do whatever he liked with you and your family, and they would never know it. You would be at his mercy." She said the last part gravely. "Do you still wish me to leave?" She asked after a minute of silence.

"What's a damn Anima...thingy?" He asked instead.

"An Animagus is a wizard that can shape shift himself into a particular animal at will. It is very advanced magic, but Harry is a powerful wizard, I'm sure he'll learn quickly enough." Vernon looked back at Harry appraisingly.

"Powerful, eh? Then how come he can't do a damn thing right? Like being normal maybe?" He grumbled. "You're on your own keeping the damn place locked up. If they walk in on anything... it'll be your bloody head." He pointed at Harry. "And you can't go wandering around my house looking like that." He pointed at Alima accusingly.

"Don't worry sir, inform your family that they have recently adopted a new kitten, and no one need ever know that I'm here." She said calmly.

"No, he adopted a new kitten, and he is finding your food, and he is taking care of whatever it is you might need. Not us." She nodded. "Good. Now that we are understood...watch yourself carefully, boy." He threatened one last time.

When the door was shut firmly, Alima turned to Harry. "Place a silencing charm on the door." He stared at her disbelievingly. "Without your wand, silence the door." He looked at it and gulped. "All you have to do is want it, and you can do it. You'll feel the magic move through you." He frowned, not feeling anything. Then, as he was whispering the words to himself, he felt it flow from his fingertips and into the door in one big surge.

He gasped, feeling strange and a bit light-headed.

"Can you feel it? You're probably feeling your magic more now than ever before, yes?" He nodded, knowing his eyes were wide behind his glasses. "That's your essence, that's a part of your soul, part of your energy. You use that energy every time you cast a spell, which is why after casting a certain amount of spells you start to feel drained." She paused and tapped her lip. "When you use a wand, the wand focuses the energy through it, like a channel, and it makes it easier to cast a spell. Now, anyone can do wand-less magic, because everyone has magic in them, but only people who use their magic often, and keep it going and healthy can control it and use it to their own benefit, without a wand. Your magic is just like your body, like a metabolism, you have to feed it, and keep it in good shape and well used to make it work the way you want it to. You have an abnormal amount of magic in you to start - unlike most wizards – who have to work their energy up to the right point so that they can use it. Therefore, for you, it is much easier to use wand-less magic. Not to mention the fact that by using advanced spells, and working with them as often as you do, you keep your magical self in tip-top condition."

"So...every witch or wizard has a magical energy core that they need to keep well conditioned, much like you would keep your body well conditioned and in good shape, basically?" Harry asked, making sure he was on the same page as her.

"Exactly. But like I was saying about the wand being a channel, that makes it so every magical person can do magic. Wand-less magic uses up vaster amounts of your energy, which means that your spells are stronger and will last longer. At the same time, it means that your energy gets drained faster."

"Yes, I see that. So that's the basic philosophy behind using wand-less magic and how it works. And you said that I have an unusual amount to start with? How is that?"

"Well, Albus and I spoke of this before I left, and we came up with a theory. You absorbed some of Voldemort's powers when he attacked you as a child, you speak Parseltongue, you're better than most at Occlumency, and you have a certain connection with him that no one else has. We believe that you absorbed a vast amount of energy from the killing spell that he placed on you also. Have you ever cast that spell?" She asked him; he shook his head. "Wanted to, I believe, said the words, but it didn't actually work, yes?" She asked gently, he nodded hesitantly. "That's because you have to put some of yourself into it, you have so drain a part of your soul, or a part of your magical essence into it to make it work, a whole piece of your magical energy goes into the casting. This means that a large portion of him went into you when he cast that curse fifteen years ago, you stole part of his energy. Now, the strange thing is, as most Dark Wizards who have killed before (if you've ever spoken to any), will tell you, there's a rush, like a high, that you get from killing. What that is, is the energy you put into the curse coming back to you, because the person is dead. Voldemort's energy never went back to him, because you never died. It never went back even now that he's alive again, because otherwise you would be much weaker. He's only partly as powerful as he was before, because you have his energy." Harry stared, and put his hand to his chest. "On top of that, you're as pure as pure can be, you have love for everyone and everyone has love for you. That's something he does not know or understand. That's why he can't touch you."

"I knew that." Harry said quietly. "I feel bad for him, almost, because of that. I honestly pity him." Alima smiled.

"Yes Harry, I do as well, and so does Dumbledore. I believe that is why he fears you both." Harry stared at her.

"He's not scared of me. He's seen me in combat, I use weak spells and school tricks to hold him off." Harry said scornfully.

"Yet while others have done the same thing in the past and been beaten easily, you seem to wriggle out every time, using simple magic and intelligence. That is what intimidates him about you. I'm sure he dreads the day you become a fully-fledged wizard, when you know how to use magic as advanced as his own, because then, not only will you still be using that keen intelligence of yours, that intuition," she tapped him on the forehead for emphasis, "but you'll have the magical ability behind it to back it up." She smiled weakly and leaned back. "You'll be one to cross, Harry, definitely."

He didn't know what to say. He had never thought he was anything too special, not someone to be feared, not overly able at magic, not keenly intelligent, but it did make sense. Harry felt proud. He looked to the ceiling unconsciously and smiled, wondering what his parents, had they survived, would be saying or thinking right now.

Author's Note: Okay, now this chapter I know was also slow...like I said before, It's going to take awhile before this thing picks up any speed.

Review please, I'd like to know if it's good so far or not, and if everything is making sense or not...let me know what I need to edit or fix.