ON TWO LORDS AND A PRINCE
CHAPTER 20: ONE CHANNEL OF POWER
Harry didn't go to supper because he had arranged to meet Slinker straight after classes so they could begin channelling lessons. The lessons themselves were to take place at the ancestral Potter Manor in the Cotswolds rather than at Hogwarts, where there was a greater chance of them being discovered by someone who would react badly to the teaching of such a dark and dangerous form of magic.
They travelled by Portkey from his uncle's dungeon lair directly to the domed entrance hall of Upper Wimscot Manor. It was certainly very impressive, far more so than the one at Llyn-y-Fach, the home of his mother's family, with the long balconies running right around the hall on all of the four upper floors, each further inwards due to the curve of the dome. What made it impressive though was its simplicity, there was no ornate decoration, except for the full colour mosaic of the family coat of arms on the floor, and no doors, except the main doors leading outside, merely three archways on each level, leading to the rooms beyond. The largest of these, which was directly in front of Harry, led to the main staircase, whose wooden finish and panelling contrasted with the marble of the entrance hall. This archway was guarded by the only other decoration in the whole of the entrance hall: two statutes of stern looking wizards, presumably Potters of the past, armed with both wands and swords. It was easy to tell that they were enchanted for they seemed to stare at you distrustfully, piercing through you, straight into your soul, revealing your deepest secrets in the process. It unnerved and annoyed Harry greatly, but he refused to display this, even for a statue, as he regarded any show of a negative emotion as a weakness. The glare that Harry gave the enchanted statues in response should have shattered them, however, it had a different effect, causing the feeling to disappear and be replaced by a sense of acceptance and warm welcome. He knew that he had gained the acceptance of the ancient manor house and grinned as a consequence.
His uncle led him past the large statues and through another archway that was set under the staircase, leading to a plain corridor that led to the back of the house. Halfway along the corridor, past various doors that led into rooms on either side, two stone staircases led down into the dungeons of the manor, one on either side of the passageway. Slinker led Harry down the left hand one, which descended into a large stone chamber, also plain and undecorated, except for the sunken centre circle that marked the chamber as one designed for duelling.
"So, How do you like your future home?" Slinker asked, sounding vaguely like an aristocratic prince for the first time since Harry had met him. He interpreted it as a sign of pride in the ancient manor house, "I would give you a tour, but we don't have the time."
"Impressive," Harry said simply, he hadn't seen enough of it to say anymore, "I assume that we will have time to look around?" He was actually quite eager to have a good look around, because not only did the manor house belong to him, but also because of the splendour and glory that he had seen in the entrance hall. The fact that such a tour would also reveal more about his family's history hadn't gone unnoticed by Harry either, whilst most of the family had been dark and highly evil he was sure that there must have been exceptions, individuals who would most likely who would have been given prominence by his grandfather and father.
"After our next lesson on Saturday afternoon," Slinker replied, giving Harry a look of proud satisfaction, without managing to look demeaning, "I will need all the time we've got tonight to begin to teach you how to channel. It took me seven years to learn and you've got one. Most would say that teaching you in such a short time is impossible," the nature of his facial expression changed to an enigmatic smirk that made Harry instantly guess his next comment, "But what do they know."
"That doing the impossible is my speciality," Harry quipped cheekily, smirking even more than his uncle did, sounding vaguely smug in the process. If anyone had used the same tome on him, he would have punched him or her.
As it was his uncle only smirked even more, matching his nephew's expression almost exactly and said, "How fortunate."
The moment was broken in spectacular style, however, when Harry found himself flying through the air before landing gently against the feather-soft stone wall. It took him completely by surprise.
"What was that?" Harry asked irritably, picking himself off from the floor. He immediately looked straight at his uncle, convinced that he had been the perpetrator of his recent experience. His glare was terse as his uncle's expression and vocal tone was serious; he was not best pleased at being thrown across the room, even gently and with a soft-landing.
"Saidin," Slinker said, "The male half of magic, or more specifically the male half of the One Power."
"What do you mean the male half of magic?" Harry asked, as he made his way back to the centre of the room. Whilst the technicalities and precise names didn't bother him, he was surprised though to hear of a gender distinction, "Is there a female half as well?"
"Yes," Slinker replied, "Men use Saidin and women use Saidar. This means that men and women channel differently. It's not important at this stage, except to know that you can not sense when a woman is accessing Saidar, not that you can sense when a man is holding Saidin either, unless he's standing next to you."
Slinker stepped forward a few paces so that he stood just in front of Harry, in a position where his nephew should be able to sense his hold on Saidin, something he hadn't relinquished after weaving the flows of air and earth that sent the raven haired boy flying across the room and landed him safely against the far wall. "Can you feel it?" he asked, totally unsure as to what the response would be.
Harry's blank look answered the question for him, without the need to listen to Harry's irritated complaint of, "Can I feel what?"
"The magic within me," he answered patiently. An experienced channeller, such as himself could tell if someone was accessing Saidin from the other side of the room with little problem. He remembered doing the same thing as he was trying to get Harry to do on first time, but then he had been somewhat older at the time and far more experienced with dark magic. He also vividly remembered the moment when he had first felt the power contained within his mentor's hold on Saidin, and the awe it had inspired within him. His mentor, however, was somewhat more powerful than he is – as powerful as Harry is, in fact.
Surprisingly for Slinker, Harry still looked blank, unable to detect the flow of Saidin within his uncle. This was because the raven haired boy wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, in part because he was looking for the tingling sensation associated with wand magic rather than the somewhat steadier and more solid flows of the One Power. This was a distinction that Slinker had forgotten about, because he hadn't used wand magic since he had mastered channelling over ten years previously.
Instead, the vampire placed his nephews continued failure and second protest down to inexperience. Not that such a error in judgement really mattered, for Slinker, who, wary of the limited time available, decided to change tack and speed things up a bit. He couldn't link with Harry; that required a female channeller wielding Saidar to moderate and meld the two flows of Saidin. To get around this need Slinker simply grabbed hold of Harry's wrist and tried to direct a flow of spirit through him. He knew that such an act wouldn't harm his nephew, but he wasn't sure whether he would be able to feel the magic flow through him.
It worked. Harry gasped in shock when he felt the power flow through him, and mourned it when it disappeared as quickly as it had come. It didn't feel dark or dangerous as he had half expected; instead, it felt warm, glorious and blissful. Above all, however, was the best feeling of all, one of sheer power, which threatened to overwhelm him.
"You can feel it now?" Slinker asked, seeking confirmation, once he had released his hold and returned to where he had been standing previously. Harry nodded; he could dimly sense the same feeling and the same power that had shot through him surrounding his uncle.
"Good," the Vampire continued happily, taking immense satisfaction from the success of his own teaching, "I trust I have no need to inform you of the need to treat the One Power with the respect it deserves," Harry nodded, feeling a little annoyed at being told something that a five year old would know. It was obvious really if you didn't respect the power within you or anyone else that it would destroy you. His grandfather had told him several stories that proved that. "Also be careful how much power you draw – if you use too much it will sever you from your magic and turn you into a squib or worse." His tone was stern and his glare deadly serious, indicating that he was being completely truthful. A thought that made the raven-haired boy shiver in horror. Still it all made sure that he wouldn't forget the warning in a hurry.
"Not if the consequences of abuse are so serious," Harry answered confidently, in the serious manner, which he felt such matters deserved.
"Then I think you're ready to start," Slinker replied, causing Harry to grin eagerly at the prospect of learning to handle the great power which he had just experienced. His uncle ignored the expression because he knew his student would need the eagerness to learn when he realised how difficult a task learning to channel was.
"The technique used to access the one power is a nifty little trick named the 'flame and void'," he began, adopting his lecturers tone again, "which I actually learnt when learning how to duel from my father. It's got other uses too, but duelling and channelling are the most useful ones. To begin picture a flame – don't close your eyes, imagine it burning and the variations in colour and shape. Got it?" His vocal expression had subtly changed when he began to describe the flame and void technique, becoming softer as if to avoid drawing Harry's attention from his attempt to channel, an attempt which was currently progressing extremely well. Whilst, it was a little harder to visualise the necessary flame with his eyes open, years at the Dursley's had provided him with a vivid imagination, which he had used to wish himself somewhere other than Privet Drive. He understood the reasons for learning with his eyes open of course, as having your eyes closed in a duel was both stupid and suicidal.
"Good," Slinker continued, when Harry nodded in reply, the raven haired Gryffindor afraid to speak least it break his concentration. "Now clear all your other thoughts out of your mind by pushing them into the flame, so it's just you, me, the flame and the void." This took a little longer to achieve than the previous step, if only because of his momentary reluctance to relinquish his memories and thoughts of his manor house along with the lingering traces of his anger at being thrown across the room as part of a demonstration of the effectiveness of the one power. He could feel the power beyond the flame, pulsating at the edges of his near empty consciousness, threatening to break in to the void and fill him with the raging power that Slinker seemed to call Saidin. It was almost instinctual and certainly didn't require the absent instructions that his uncle refused to give, or the look of scholarly concentration on his uncle's face. He let the barrier fall, and the sweet power of Saidin fill the void. It raged within him seeking an outlet, while simultaneously trying to break through the control that Harry had somehow created over it, preventing it from scouring his mind and obliterating him completely. If his previous experience of the One Power had been blissful, then this, the feeling of floating in the sweet void was nothing less than orgasmic. It was just him and the void; everything else seemed distant, trapped beyond the distant edges of the void of power that filled him.
He did see the triumphant grin on his uncle's face, though, which he presumed was a result of his successful access to the one power. "Good," the vampire said, "Now relinquish your hold on Saidin and try again. Don't let your guard drop though, even a momentary lapse could see you made a squib." He did as he was told, mourning the momentary loss of the one power and welcoming it when it filled him again. Again his hold on Saidin was short lived, for once again Slinker told him to relinquish it, before launching into a lecture on the five powers of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, after which Harry spent the rest of the lesson trying to discern the five separate powers that made up Saidin.
I really hoped to have this out a lot sooner, but Plato, Machiavelli and my friend with the Monopoly addiction interveved. However, such distractions are going to be commomplace so I cannot promise updates at regular intervals. I can promise frequent updates of generally at least two chapters a month though.
Saidin, and associated concepts are borrowed from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series, with possible deviations that result from gaps in my knowledge of the specifics of these concepts. I will be willing to listen to any Wheel of Time fans who can correct me when it comes to the One Power. If you haven't read the Wheel of Time series, then I urge you to do so.
Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter 19. The reviews were much appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.