Chapter 2: The book and the "kid"napping

When the Dursleys woke up that morning without Harry as their extremely annoying alarm clock, all three of them poked their heads in to see why Harry hadn't screamed yet, and when they saw him lying on his bed reading Dudley taunted Harry, but was silenced when he saw the look of pure hatred he got from his cousin. Vernon immediately burst into a screaming fit about Harry treating his family with respect, but Harry just turned away and resumed reading his duelling book.

In the week that had passed since Dumbledore's visit, Harry had nothing on his mind other than his training and reading in his new books. On his third day of training he realised that the food he was able to get his hands on at the Dursleys wasn't going to be enough to help him build the muscle mass he needed, so he dug deep into his trunk and tried to find some muggle money. But all he was able to find was a couple of pounds, and he knew that wasn't going to go very far. In frustration he picked up his moneybag, which was still a quarter full of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, and threw it as hard as he could across the room.

As soon as he let go of it he regretted it, as he could easily imagine the noise it would make when the many heavy coins hit the wall. In the split second before the pouch hit the wall his only wish was that it had been full of crisp new pound notes and not dusty old gold galleons. As the bag hit the wall above his desk nothing happened, no noise came. Puzzled Harry went over to the moneybag and picked it up, astonished at how light it was. Without thinking about it Harry opened the purse to see what was wrong, and instead of gold and silver, he found a stack of neatly folded muggle money!

At that second his owl Hedwig soared in through his window, did a circle above his head, and landed on his shoulder with a large piece of parchment attached to her leg. By now Harry didn't even think about what he did he just sent his owl of again to return the unopened letter to its sender. It had become second nature for Harry to just send the letters he got return. He didn't have time to think about trivial things as letters. All he wanted to do was study his books and do his training, so one day he would be able to avenge Sirius. He knew he didn't want to kill anyone; it was just not in him to do something like that. But he had to bring those responsible for Sirius', and his parents' death to justice. Even if was the last thing he would ever do, he would bring them to justice.

The next morning when Harry went for his morning run, he stopped in a muggle grocery store he had discovered the day before, and bought two big bags full of all the different kinds of food his training book suggested he should eat, and when he got home he stored it all safely beneath the loose floorboard in his room.

Another week had passed and Harry was starting to feel a great difference in his stamina, and he was now able to run some relative long distances without getting too tired. His reading was also coming along quite nicely, he had read a lot in both his Dark Arts book, and his duelling book, and he was surprised to find that even though he was one of the better students in his DADA class, there were loads of new spells in his book, he needed to learn, and his duelling book had lots of exercises to teach you how to dodge spells, how to fire spells faster, and also on how to "plan" a duel. He hadn't even touched his book about wandless magic since the first night, but this night Harry felt himself drawn by curiosity to the book.

He brought it over to his bed and sat down with his back against the headrest, and tried to open the book. He couldn't.

After sitting and starring at the old dusty book he remembered the first night where he had run his hand across the book, and the title had appeared. He decided it was worth a shot and he ran his hand across the cover of the old tome, and just like before gold letters appeared to show the title, and the book magically cleaned itself.

Once again Harry found himself wondering whether Dumbledore had given him the right book.

He grabbed the cover of the book prepared to try and use force to get it to open, but as soon as he even thought about opening the book it opened itself to the first page. At first the page was blank and Harry went to grab the page and turn it, but it was as if the rest of the pages in the book were glued together. Words started appearing on the page in the same neat gold print used on the cover of the book:

I'm the ultimate guide to wandless magic.

In order to gain knowledge from me you must command me.

In order to command me, I must deem you powerful enough.

If you succeed I will always serve you and none other.

If you wish gain knowledge from me - command me!

Use "I command you" to open me.

"I haven't got a clue what that means, and since it's obviously a magical book, I probably need to use magic to do it, the only problem is I can't use magic outside school" Harry muttered to himself. To his surprise, the book seemed to "answer" his question, as words immediately appeared bellow the first lines.

Wandless magic is not monitored by the Ministry of Magic.

They don't think anyone as young as you will be able.

If they knew just what you're capable of Harry James Potter...

Now – Point at me and say "I command you".

Remember you must desire for me to open, or it won't work.

Harry knew very well that he wasn't supposed to trust anything with a mind of its own, but he thought that since Dumbledore had brought him the book, it probably wasn't harmful. He decided to ask one more question before trying anything. Just as the thought formed in his head "Will anything happen if I'm not powerful enough", words again appeared in the book.

I will close, for the duration of one year.

At that time you can try and open me again if you desire.

But don't worry about that.

Now – Point at me and say "I command you".

Remember you most desire for me to open, or it won't work.

As the book repeated it's instruction at the bottom of the page, Harry was fairly sure, that the book was trying to hint to him, that he would be able to open it. So without any further thoughts about underage magic and evil books, he pointed his right hand and index finger at the book and said with a firm voice "I command you".

Immediately a bright golden and red light sprang from the centre of the book and completely surrounded Harry and the book. Harry felt an enormous surge of power flow trough him and he thought he could hear a voice in his head much similar to the voice of the Hogwarts sorting hat. "Yes, great power he has. Great Power. And destined to do great things too. Oh and he has the skill – he has shown it already. Yes he will do fine. No – that's not true. Not fine – he will do wonderful. I'm most lucky to have such a great apprentice. Yes – I accept you Harry James Potter as my sole apprentice."

As the voice in his mind died out, so did the golden shine that surrounded him and the book. Instead the book snapped shut, and a soft golden glow shone from the back of the book, while golden letters inscribed themselves on the back. The letters spelled out his name in nicely swung golden letters. Harry new instantly that this book was truly his now and that only he would ever be able to open it.

When the shine disappeared from the book, everything in the room went dark and silent. After a couple of seconds Harry realised he was holding his breath, and he let out a sigh, and took a deep breath. He was now looking at the old dusty tome, which he first laid his eyes on. Now more curious then ever Harry opened the book and started reading.

It was definitely the most exciting book Harry had ever opened. It was a mixture of a normal book and a clearly intelligent being. Whenever Harry didn't quite understand something, or had some kind of question, the book seemed to realize it, and just changed the text right in front of his eyes so that he found his answer in the very next line. Harry found this immensely helpful. Also the book seemed to be planning his education in wandless magic on itself. Every few pages there would be small exercise which Harry had to complete to the books satisfaction, before he could turn the page. That night Harry didn't sleep at all, but instead read on and trained without a single moments break. It was first when the sun started rising that Harry started feeling a bit sleepy – but he insisted on reading on as it was simply too exciting to stop. Apparently the book seemed to have other plans with Harry, as it suddenly refused to let him change the page, and on the bottom line insisted that Harry went to sleep and got some rest before continuing his studies. When Harry woke up later that day he immediately reached out for his book, but found that it wouldn't let him open it. In his head he heard a small voice: "You will continue with your ordinary training schedule and you will continue studying your other books. And when you are ready, we will continue."

Harry reluctantly got out of bed, and started his daily routine. He ate a bit of breakfast from his hidden stash, and then put on his running clothes.

The last couple of days Harry had been running for almost an hour, and he usually ended up running somewhere between 10 and 15 kilometres. He didn't leave the neighbourhood though as he was sure Dumbledore wouldn't appreciate him getting too far away from Privet Drive. So he would just run in circles.

Suddenly he realised something was wrong. It was as if someone was following him down the narrow path he was running on in the park. Harry glanced over his shoulder but couldn't see anyone there, but he was certain someone was running no more than 5 steps behind him. Harry's brain was working in overdrive, what was he going to do. There was only on thing that sprang to mind. Whoever was running behind him was clearly invisible, and if you were invisible you were clearly a wizard, and if you were a wizard running behind someone and you were descent you would introduce yourself. Harry could only think of one thing to do. And he did it. In a split second he bolted around, and stood his ground hunched over, so his "companion" would run directly into him.

As soon as he felt someone hit him, he summoned all his physical strength and sent whoever was following him flying. Almost immediately he heard a thump as a body hit the ground and when he turned he could see what seemed to be a pair of legs sticking out of thin air. "An invisibility cloak" Harry thought, right before he drew his wand and fired a stunner at the place where he figured the person following him was lying.

Harry went over to the stunned person and dragged the cloak of him.

Harry was speechless. Right there on the ground next to him laid Remus Lupin, best friend of both his parents and of his godfather. No matter what, that wasn't whom Harry had expected to find following him in an invisibility cloak! Quickly Harry calculated the odds of someone using a polyjuice potion to follow him around as his former DADA professor. In Harry's mind that didn't seem very likely, so he whispered the "enervate" spell to revive Remus, but kept his wand pointed at the chest of the man lying on the ground.

Remus seemed a bit confused for a second, and then grinned broadly at Harry.

"Hi Harry, I didn't count on you hearing me"

"How do I know you are you? You could be an impostor with the help of a Polyjuice Potion – or you could be a metamorphmagus!" Harry's thoughts were spinning as he addressed the man lying on the ground. How could he be sure this was his father's friend?

"Well, Harry that is a valid, and actually quite good question, but it fortunately has an easy solution. I can just give you some piece of information that only the real Remus Lupin knows. Let's see – When you face a Boggart, it turns into a Dementor. Will that do?"

"NO. It won't'. Any number of students could hold that piece of information. Try again. But you better make it good, I'm kind of nervous here, and I just might hex you if you don't prove you are real very soon!" Harry's voice was now sounding pretty angry, and for a second a mixture of anger and amusement played across the face of the man on the ground.

"You're quite right of course Harry. Silly me. Lets see, hmm that should do the trick. Dumbledore brought you four books one night a couple of weeks ago. If I remember it correct, one is a muggle fitness book, one is called Duelling trough the ages, another is called THE COMPLETE AND MOST ADVANCED GUIDE TO PRACTISE AND DEFENCE AGAINTST THE DARK ARTS, and the final one, I must admit, I don't even know what's about. Dumbledore wouldn't tell any of us Order members. He just assured us that if everything was as he expected, it would be very handy for you."

Harry Immediately pocketed his wand, and stretched out a hand to help his former professor of the ground. "I'm so sorry Professor Lupin, I should have known someone would be following me around!"

"That's quite all right Harry. You did the right thing. I'm just glad I got you to believe me before you tried out some of the new hexes, you most have learned from your book, on me. And please Harry, I'm not your professor anymore, so call me Remus, or if you like, Moony. But come on Harry it's not safe to talk here so I'll walk you home, under the cloak of course, and then we can talk in your room."

"Ok Professor Lu…, sorry Remus"

"No problem Harry"

Harry then started running again, and was now very aware of the steps following him close by. When they reached number 4 Privet Drive, Harry made sure to keep the door open just long enough to make sure Remus could slip in, before he closed it. Harry quickly made his way upstairs into his room, and closed the door silently behind him and Remus. As soon as Harry had closed the door Remus took of the cloak, and quickly muttered a silencing charm while waving his wand in a complex motion all around the room.

Harry recognised it as a very powerful and advanced silencing spell designed specifically for keeping entire rooms soundproof. He had read about it in one of his new books. When Remus was done, he turned around and inspected Harry from head to toe. It didn't look to Harry like he was very pleased with what he found. Remus had quickly adopted a look of concern and displeasure, when he had surveyed Harry's rather gangly frame. The fact was that even though Harry was now exercising on a regular basis, he was still dangerously thin and he looked like anyone could snap him in pieces between their fingers.

Harry hated the look on Remus' face, and didn't want to take about his health, so he tried starting a conversation, that was a bit more common ground.

"So how long have you been following me around?"

"Well Harry, we have been watching you 24/7 since the minute you left Kings Cross. At first there were loads of volunteers, but since you took up running so seriously, there has become farther and farther between the people willing to "nanny" you. Actually I'm one out of only two people who are sharing the responsibility of keeping an eye on you at all times. I'm actually not supposed to tell you this, but the other is Tonks. She really cares about you, you know. She was the one on duty when you went for your first run, and when she returned to Headquarters, they couldn't get here to stop crying for half an hour. She was so shocked by your appearance and how sick you looked. It took three order members to keep Mrs. Weasley from coming and getting you right then and there."

"I'm not going Remus. I can't go to The Burrow, it will just put everybody in danger. And I won't go to Headquarters. I'm not ready to go there. I'm not sure I ever will be, the only thing keeping me sane right now, is all of my training and studying. If I start thinking about…. him… again, I will probably loose my mind."

"You know Harry, you're not alone. If you wish to talk I'm always here. I know I can't replace Sirius, he was your godfather and I'll never be that. But I still care very much for you. As do your friends. You should talk to them. Let them help you. They are so worried about you, and you know you have to face them at Hogwarts, if not before then"

"I just can't Remus. Can't you see? They are in ten times more danger just because they know me. If I can make everybody believe that I don't care for them anymore, then maybe Voldemort will leave them alone. But I really don't want to talk about that. Dumbledore mentioned something about arranging for me to start training some of the stuff I've studied in my books when I had made enough progress in my physical training. I was wondering if you could ask him to make those arrangements? I've more or less learned all the theory in my duelling and DADA books, and I'm kind of stuck until I can get some real wand practice?"

"I don't know anything about that Harry, but I'll speak to him, and pass on your request. Now I'm afraid I must go, I have to get to Headquarters so we can come up with a plausible explanation for the use of magic in the park earlier. No worries Harry, we will make sure everything is sorted out, but now I really most go. Goodbye Harry."

And with that Remus Lupin strode out the door while in one smooth motion lifting the silencing charm, and swinging the invisibility cloak over his shoulders.

Over the next couple of days Harry grew more and more aware that someone was following him whenever he was outside the house, but so far neither Remus nor Tonks had tried to contact him and Dumbledore hadn't given any signs of letting Harry start training his duelling skills. So whenever Harry wasn't running or doing other exercises, he would practise wandless magic with his book.

In the beginning the book had him doing concentration and focusing exercises, but as he soon mastered these, the book made him practise some of the most basic spells Harry knew. The very first exercise the book had him do was actually the same as he had done on his first day at Hogwarts. Using "Wingardium Leviosa", he made his quill float around his room. After practising this for 10 minutes Harry could make the quill do loops, change direction suddenly and move at tremendous speeds.

Four hours later more or less all of Harry's belongings were floating around the room, while all Harry was doing was keeping a small amount of concentration on them, while the rest of his mind was reading in his book. The book seemed very pleased with Harry's progress and was especially impressed with the fact that he was able to keep more then 30 objects floating at various places in the room, when he at the same time kept reading. Harry wasn't worried about any of the Dursleys disturbing him, and finding him doing magic, because since his nightmares had stopped none of them had even opened the door to his room.

After a couple of more days of running and training without any word from Dumbledore as to when he could start his training sessions, Harry was growing frustrated. He really wanted to get some practise with his wand. He thoroughly enjoyed doing magic without it, but it also had its limitations. Harry found that after the initial fast progress with the Wingardium Leviosa spell, things were going much slower now as the book had him practise some slightly more advanced spells. Last night when Harry had grown extraordinarily frustrated that he didn't make any progress with the spell he was working on, and he had slammed the book shut. He regretted doing that an instant later when, the book in a bright glow roughly forced his head back to the once again open book, and made him read the words that appeared on the page in a somewhat angry writing. Basically the book explained to him, that it wouldn't accept that kind of behaviour, and that the reason he wasn't making any real progress, was that he needed to practise the spell with his wand first to get a feel for the magic. After that the book suggested in very clear terms, that it thought that Harry should get his practise arrangements in order, so they didn't waste each others time.

The next morning Harry had decided to take matters into his own hands. He wanted to speak to Dumbledore, and he wanted to speak to him now! He thought about simply telling his guard to contact Dumbledore, but figured it wouldn't work since he in a way had already tried this by asking Remus. No he needed something far more radical. But what? He couldn't just call the Knightbus and go to Hogwarts. He had no way of knowing Dumbledore would be there and going to Headquarters was also out of the question; so what to do? He needed to use the facts and assets he had available. Slowly a plan started forming in his mind. Dumbledore would probably kill him for what he was going to do, but Harry really didn't care. He needed to speak to Dumbledore!

When Harry was sure he had gone over everything in his head twice, and was certain that he could pull it of, he dug out his invisibility cloak from his trunk, and stuffed it inside his sweatshirt. Them he put on his trainers, and silently went down the stairs and out trough the front door.

Harry ran a slightly different route than he used to, and at a much greater speed, to make sure whoever was following him would have their work cut out for them. He had on one of his first early morning runs spotted an old abandoned house lying on the outskirts of town, and that was where he was headed to carry out his plan. He would have done it closer to privet drive, but it was absolutely vital that he was away from the prying eyes of muggles.

When he reached the old house he kept running right in trough the front door, trough the hallway and into the centre of the house where there wasn't any windows. As soon as he entered the room he spun around, and with a quick movement of his hand cast "Petrificus Totalus" on the person he could hear following him into the room. Following the soft thump that could be heard, which marked that someone had fallen to the ground in a full body bind, Harry quickly pulled out his wand, and cast a simple silencing spell he had read about in his new DADA book. Even though he hadn't tried it before, it fortunately seemed to work perfectly, as a single yellow ray of light emitted from the tip of his wand and struck thin air approximately 30 cm above the ground.

"Well, that was the easy part Harry thought" as he pulled out his invisibility cloak and hurriedly put it on. Now came the challenging part of levitating an invisible person all the way home, whilst keeping him self hidden under his own cloak.

It turned out it wasn't quite as difficult as Harry had feared it would be, in fact he rather enjoyed walking back slowly in the rising morning sun, listening to the birds singing, and watching the early morning people step out of their houses and make their way to work. Although Harry was now a master of "Wingardium Leviosa", he still had to use a good deal of concentration to not drop the body floating in front of him, and that resulted in the only noticeable event on the way home, when Harry almost walked right into a mailbox, as he was concentrating on the spell whilst trying the best he knew to focus on the song of a bird that sounded particularly beautiful.

When Harry neared Privet Drive he sharpened his senses to make sure nobody else from the wizarding world was around. As he came to his aunt and uncles house he stopped at the front door and looked closely around, and listened intently with one ear on the door. Everything seemed quiet, and so he opened the door silently, and quickly floated the body inside, and closed the door and pulled off his cloak in one swift motion. As Harry made his way up to his room he cursed at the noise it made when he accidentally bumped the invisible figure next to him into the wall, but fortunately the Dursleys didn't seem to wake up.

Safely back in his room Harry locked the door and floated the invisible figure onto his bed. He then took a deep breath and walked over to the bed and fumbled around a bit, until he found the hem of what he recognised as an invisibility cloak, and pulled it back. He wasn't surprised to see Remus lying there completely stiff the only thing able to move was his eyes. "Wow, if eyes could kill I would most certainly be dead by now" Harry thought, as he looked down at Remus. He quickly leaned forward and whispered while looking into Remus' eyes.

"I'm really sorry Remus, but I really need to talk to Dumbledore, and the only way I could think of to get him here were if my guard didn't turn up after his shift. I hope you can understand that. He's the only one who's ever been able to apparate in here, and he's so clever, so I hope he will be figure out what has happened, or at least come to talk to me to see if I know what happened to you. I really am sorry Remus, but I have to cover you up again, in case the muggles should come in here for some reason."

Remus' eyes didn't look nearly as deadly anymore Harry thought, and if you really tried hard, they maybe even showed a bit of understanding. Harry covered up Remus in the cloak again after he had made sure he was as relatively comfortable as possible when you're in a full body bind.

Harry had removed the silencing spell without the use of his wand with the "Finate Incantatem" spell, as this was one of the spells the book had succeeded in teaching him before he came to this standstill. He wasn't too worried about the fact that he had used his wand when cast the silencing charm in the first place, as he did it in a house that was all the way across town, where he really shouldn't have any business. And anyway he figured Dumbledore would soon be around and then he could tell him everything. Well maybe he would wait until he had done a bit of shouting, and made it clear to Dumbledore, that he wanted a place to train, and he wanted it soon.