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Guess Who's Coming (to Dinner?)

By the time Harry finally get a hold of his brain and gave it a good shake, it was already half past seven, and he still had to warn the Dursleys of his late visitor tonight.

"This is going to be fun."

The Dursleys were in the sitting room ('Where else?' he snorted derisively), eyes completely glued to the telly and, in the case of both males, mouths munching some snacks mechanically. As soon as his presence at the threshold was noted by his aunt, she asked if he had answered his godfather's letter already.

"Well, you see." He tried with all his might to appear hesitant rather than amused. "The thing is, he doesn't expect a letter. Could be forged, he said. So, um, he has arranged a friend of his to come at eleven tonight to talk to me in person."

"Absolutely NOT!" bellowed his uncle, turning magenta in hardly a second. 'It's a new record!' thought Harry, biting his tongue to avoid snickering out loud, the cringe of pain easily concealed as fear of Vernon's anger. "I won't have any of your- your lot in MY house"

"Vernon, hush. The neighbours could hear" whispered Petunia franticly. His uncle took some deep breaths to regain calmness, and Harry made the most of it. "OK." He said shrugging and trying to look rather relieved at the same time. Sometimes he had to give it to the Sorting Hat; although rarely used outside of number four, he really had some qualities valued at Slytherin, even if he lacked some important ones too, like the willingness to cheat in quidditch and the nastiness so distinctive of the prominent members of the house. "What?" both his aunt and uncle said, looking at him incredulously. It was evident they found strange his easy acquiescence.

"Well, not even I am too keen on meeting a vampire, no matter how safe my godfather says I'll be" Harry enjoyed seeing the reactions of his so-called family had to his slight emphasis in that he was the only one of them supposed to be safe from the blood-sucking monster going to pay a visit to their home. "You'll tell him his not allowed to see me, right, uncle? Thanks a lot!" And he turned around to go back to his room, but was stopped by a shout of "Wait!" from his uncle. "You'll meet with him at the door and go to the backyard to talk. He will NOT enter my house, and you are to keep your voice low so no neighbours hear you. We will be getting to bed early tonight. Now go already." Shaking lightly from his contained laughter and with head bowed to hid his triumphant smile, he was the prefect image of a frightened and dejected kid when looked from the place at his back the Dursleys were standing.

Once in his room and the door safely closed, Harry collapsed on his bed and pressed his face into the pillow to muffle his hysterical laughter. "It's been hilarious!" he gasped as soon as he got a bit of air in his protesting lungs. "I wish I could have seen their faces, but I don't think I could have kept a straight face then. I barely held with how his voice was trembling."

Now Harry only had to wait till eleven.

Sitting on the doorstep of number four, Harry was getting increasingly nervous as the hour of his meeting grew closer. In his earlier excitement he hadn't registered much of what was going on. The first thing he worried about was how the hell the vampire knew where to find him. Everything this Aurelius Gladius wrote to him implied they didn't know who he was, so they shouldn't be able to know who to search for!

"Perhaps it has something to do with my acceptance to help them?" he muttered to himself, eyes scanning as much of Privet Drive as possible from his place. He really hoped it was that, as he was supposed to be safe in this house. After Wormtail got away, he had been worried about returning to the Dursleys, as the disgusting traitor had been posing as his best friend's pet for years and undoubtedly heard where he lived more than once. Dumbledore had convinced him to return here saying there where the strongest protections available and could rest sure that it was the safest place for him to be.

"Makes me think on what he considers safe, with how the Dursleys have treated me all those years" he grumbled angrily under his breath.

It was because of these supposed protections he was a little unsure. How would the vampire overcome those protections? Could he do it? A vampire was surely something the Headmaster would consider dangerous, so it stood to reason whatever it was that protected him here would try to keep him away from number four and they would be unable to meet. What would he do with the unlocking if Gladius couldn't reach him? Was there something that should be done that Harry wouldn't know without speaking to him?

But if the meeting actually took place, what would that mean? That the protections recognized he wasn't in danger? Or that they where not as good as Dumbledore said? Knowing that Sirius' innocence had slipped past the Headmaster had been a serious blow to his confidence in the old man.

At the beginning, Harry was convinced of Dumbledore's almost infallibility. Yes, he had left him with the Dursleys without ever bothering to check on him (something those protections helped to explain), but even with his recent discovery of his famous status Harry's sense of self-worth was low enough thanks to his loving family he couldn't help but think the old man surely had lots of more important things to take care of than a single kid, no matter how famous he was. But with every year, he had seen how seriously everybody took anything regarding him, even the Headmaster. And that made him wonder.

There was also the fact that, for the safest place in the world, Hogwarts had had plenty of dangers for Harry every year. Dumbledore used protections three first years were able to pass through to keep the philosopher's stone safe, something Voldemort was seeking in order to return to life. He didn't seem to know where the Chamber of Secrets was or what monster was sheltered in it, while his friends and him, even without half the information the man had were able to resolve the mystery. And all through last year, a supposed assassin was able to sneak into the school, and even once got to his dorm! He could have been killed easily if it was what Sirius was really after.

No, Dumbledore was far from infallible. So he didn't feel ashamed of doubting his protections.

It was only five minutes.

His wristwatch was old, as most things he owned. It was surely due its inaccuracy.

Or perhaps vampires weren't punctual. It was something self-centered people usually aren't, as it is a show of respect they wouldn't care for. Right?

Any moment now he would see someone turn the corner, so he should simply wait patiently instead of pacing nervously to and fro the front yard of number four. 'What the-' he thought alarmed at what greeted him after his last turn.

Roughly eighty feet from him was the only tree of the whole property. And right through its scantily in-leaf branches (thanks to the dry and heated summer), Harry could see a small, crimson shining.

Approaching cautiously, he tried to see whatever was causing it, but before he could, another strange thing happened. Two thick, blood-red ribbons of smoke began to raise from the same place the light came and were coiling around each other all the way up until there was a six feet column, when a shadow appeared in its midst for a moment before disappearing again. A loud thump and a snarl draw his attention to the ground, where someone laid sprawled in an undignified heap. He couldn't avoid a quiet, nervous snicker to escape his lips, but fortunately, whoever that was, was cussing to loud to hear him.

"Blasted bird! I told it somewhere not easily disturbed, but this is ridiculous. I'll smash its empty head as soon as I get back. Bloody feathered, overgrown rat... What of my reputation? If this got back to the Council, I would have to make sure they got a good tan before they were able to spread it, annoying gossipers they are." All through the rant, the man had gotten up and dusted off his robes, ignoring Harry's presence while he got a good look at him, as it was obvious this was Aurelius Gladius.

His first impression was of a younger Lucius Malfoy, as he had long, blond hair in a low ponytail and seemed to be no older than mid-twenties. The old fashioned but obviously expensive robes he wore reinforced the likeness, as did his regal posture and the disdainful movements with which he tried to smooth any wrinkle in his clothes. But the moment the vampire looked at him, he saw that their faces had nothing in common.

He was, not surprisingly, extremely pale. Much more than any human could ever be. His face was composed by strong, squared features, with a straight but slightly wide nose, broad chin and faintly thick eyebrows. His eyes, too, were different, a deep blue instead of light grey. The sneer directed at Harry was also more reminiscent of Snape than Malfoy, a resemblance he had been dreading since he read his letters.

'It's only he doesn't like that I saw him in an undignified moment like this, I hope' he thought. Taking some steps to get closer to the vampire, he said "You'll be Aurelius Gladius, Head of the vampire's Council of Elders, I presume?"

"And who would you be? I was supposed to meet someone important, not a snoot-nosed twelve years old. Are you a servant?" asked Gladius looking him up and down, distaste obvious in his every word and gesture.

Maybe it was because he was expecting more respect from the ones seeking his aid, as between the Dursleys and the Potion's Master he was pretty used to be treated as dirt, but this time Harry was unable to keep the anger from rising. "I am who you've come to meet" he answered, glaring. The vampire snarled.

"I don't care if the Champion is behind this stupid joke, but I don't have time to waste with the likes of you. Stop it or I will drain you of blood, no matter how meager a meal you would be"

"Then we only have to wait till midnight, don't we? You said that then all those aware of the ritual would be able to recognize me." That got the attention of the vampire, and for the first time took notice of the confidence of the kid. Cursing himself for not doing it at the very beginning, Gladius probed his mind and found he was telling the truth. As an elder, he had lots of faithful servants, even willing to share their blood, and confusing the boy as a servant he hadn't bothered to use mind magic with him.

"How can a street rat like you be the Champion?" he asked bewildered. His only response was a snort and the boy lifting his fringe to show him a scar. A scar shaped as a lightning bolt. His blue eyes widened and his mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before he finally gasped "The-boy-who-lived?"

"I prefer Harry, thanks" he said with a scowl.

"Well, being a Potter gives him the political weight to help us, as he will receive a Wizengamot seat with his inheritance, and his being famous will be enough to get his words spread through the masses, but..." The vampire said to himself, his eyes never leaving Harry's forehead, even when he pushed his bangs down to cover the scar again. Gathering his bearings, the vampire continued in a disbelieving tone. "But how can you ever understand us? The discrimination we suffer; the unwillingness to recognize we are different from the preconceived idea of us they have? You are their Golden Boy, after all" he finished with a sneer, making Harry wonder if all those rumors about Snape being a vampire were really true. 'Perhaps Snape really is a vampire! But he is around during the day, and even being a Potions Master, it's unlikely he has enough raw material to brew the amount of corrective potions needed to survive that much UV' he thought, even while the anger inside him kept rising. With his best glare, he spat at the vampire "You really are not that different than wizards, are you?" causing him to splutter a "How dare you-?" But Harry interrupted him.

"I dare because you seem to be as blind as they are! As I am their fucking savior, they only see what they want to see. Were you not mistaking me for someone two years younger a moment ago? Didn't you see the ill-fitting over-sized hand-me-downs and how obviously scrawny and underfed I was before knowing I'm famous Harry Potter? And hadn't you stopped seeing them as soon as I showed you that damned scar? And you talk about preconceived ideas" he scoffed with a snort. "And what about discrimination? You won't know what that word means until you're left at the door of a bunch of muggle relatives, whose feelings about anything magical match Voldemort's about muggles, in order to be raised by them when you were only a toddler. I could wear a pillowcase as clothing and go to live with a family of pureblooded maniacs as their house elf and never miss them!" Harry was already breathing hard, but was by no means finished with the again taken aback vampire in front of him. He had broken the damn and was unable to stop venting his frustrations with the wizarding populace.

"And I don't know anything about the Wizen-whatever, but I wouldn't be so sure my voice will get anywhere, either. Everyone at school thought I was attacking muggleborns because I can talk parsel, even when I didn't know what the hell a parselmouth was! If word got out I was friends with vampires I would probably be accused of being the next Dark Lord or some stupid thing like that. Bunch of arrogant, self-centered egomaniacs incapable of logical thought, the lot of them. How could they think I was the one doing it? One of my best friends is muggleborn and I fought a fucking mountain troll to save her in my first year, for Christ's sake! And the worst is it's infectious! Muggleborns throwing out the window the logic they've been using for years to join with the mindless ship! If I could I-" But he got interrupted by his listener, who he had forgotten was even there, clearing his throat.

"Well, it seems that at the very least you have a way with words and can get your point across. But if you expect me to apologize, you've not read what I had to say about vampires" he sneered, again. He suddenly scowled. "And you said you were fourteen?"

"I'll be in a month" he answered, his anger still simmering. The intense look he was receiving made him wary, and when the vampire cursed loudly he almost jumped away.

"This is not good. We never even entertained the idea of having an underage wizard as the Champion. This will complicate things a lot." Gladius seemed to be talking mostly to himself, so Harry tried to gain his attention again with a question.

"How does it complicates things? I know it will delay your plans if we really have to wait till I'm seventeen, but if you've survived so long, waiting some more years will be nothing to you" he attempted his own sneer, not really successful.

"It does not have anything to do with having to wait, although patience is not one of our virtues. What really concerns me is that you have not reached your maturity, either magical or physical."

"And what has that to do with anything?" Harry asked, curiosity pushing aside his anger. If it wasn't a matter of waiting, what could be so serious?

"A lot, after the unlocking. Don't you know anything? Puberty is a chaotic time for every living creature, and so much more for some of them. Emotions are unbalanced, the body develops new urges and desires and self-control is at its lowest. Now, think about adding to all that the merging of your new natures as vampire, werewolf and veela and the result could be complete disaster." Harry gulped.

"What exactly are you talking about? Am I going to go mad?"

"I have not come here to guide you by hand. Have you do not read my explanations? Make your own conclusions." Gladius snarled.

"Look, you'll have to start toning down your superiority complex if you want to work with me" growled Harry, forgotten anger returning swiftly and with renewed vigor. "It is you who have come to me for help, and it is because I accepted to help you I'll have to deal with this mess. You'll need to learn to hide your contempt at the very least if you really want to change the way wizards see you. How do you expect to be accepted by a race so full of themselves as wizardkind if you treat them as inferior to you, I've no idea. So you can begin practicing to treat others with respect and as equals with me, and help illustrate the ignorant while making him feel grateful of your aid instead of hateful and murderous."

"Who do you thing you are to talk to me like that?" whispered dangerously the fuming vampire.

"I'm your fucking Champion, you ungrateful jerk. Weren't you supposed to have perfect memory?" And this time he managed to pull off a worthy sneer.

"You have guts to say this to me, brat. I could snap your neck with a single hand, and I have done as much for half your offence" was the half-growled response. But then a cold smirk pulled at his lips. "But it proves you can be a worthy champion with enough preparation." It wasn't a warm compliment at all, but it was the less contempt-filled sentence that has left the vampires mouth that night, and it managed to calm down the anger and tension coursing through Harry.

"Then start heeding my advice. You'll have to learn how to disguise your contempt for wizards if you really want them to learn to accept vampires. Most of them are too proud and arrogant to accept this treatment from anyone, much less for what they consider lesser races, which is pretty much anyone not a pureblooded wizard. Most of the game of politics consists of buttering up to those with power, and you don't seem to have this skill mastered. I will have to practice it, too, if I have to be your ambassador. Why don't we begin with trying to talk civilly for starters?" Harry was surprised with himself. He knew he could be pretty eloquent when ranting, but this was the first time he had managed to give a speech worthy of Hermione. Could she be rubbing off on him more than he had known?

"Perhaps it is worth a try, as a training exercise. But don't be fooled, you will need more than that to really gain my respect" Gladius sneered for the umpteenth time. He proceeded to school a calm façade and began a stiff explanation. "The problem with your age is that the three races have strong, and sometimes contradicting, needs by themselves, and those would have unbalanced you enough, but the fact you are going to be suffering your own changes will magnify the effect of your merging with our races. The feelings of loneliness from the werewolves, the sex drive from the veela, the strong lust from vampires won't be tempered by your wizarding side, but amplified by the process of puberty you are experimenting. You will need to learn to deal with all this quickly, or you will be dominated by instinct and become little more than a beast."

"So I need to learn to restrain all this? Well I'm used to being starved when I'm here, it won't be so different."

"That is completely wrong" The sneer wasn't present, but Harry could sense he barely managed to hold it back.

"What?"

"It has nothing to do with anything you have experienced so far. In addition to the hunger, you will have a strong instinct to satiate it by any means necessary. You can't repress this urges, or they will grow till dominate you as I said. What you have to learn to do is to control them, to know how far you can go without satisfying them, how much you need to take to continue being in control, how to prevent taking more than what is really needed, and above all how to do it without being exposed" the vampire explained forcefully. "If you try to completely ignore the bloodlust, you will not only be weakened considerably and have problems concentrating in other things, it will grow until it drives you into a frenzy and you will attack anyone, anywhere, without regard to your own wellbeing. And the same with everything else. You want to be a killer? Or a rapist? Perhaps a thief?"

Harry shuddered and shook his head emphatically. Of course he didn't want to become anything like that.

"Then you have to understand you cannot control your needs. You have to control yourself, learn to quench them with subtlety and without leaving proof, always making sure your back is covered. And the same can be said of your new abilities."

"What happens with the abilities?" asked Harry fearfully. He was beginning to think he had made the worst mistake of his life accepting the gifts. It seemed they brought more problems than they were worth.

"Thanks to the ritual you will have an instinctual grasp of them, and instead of having to learn how to use them, all you will need is some practice to remember how to use them. The ones you received the abilities from had as much control over them as it was possible for them, but you do not have any experience with these powers. The result is that, when you are in control of yourself, you will have no idea how to use them, but if you lose control and act by instinct, you will surely use them as if you always had them."

"But that's good, isn't it?"

"In some situations, yes. But if you don't have them completely under control, you could unleash some unwittingly. When you were as angered as when ranting at me, for instance, you could have started throwing veela fire, or attacking my mind in order to get the answers you wanted. Doing so would reveal what you have become rather easily. So you will have to learn to control your emotions until the abilities are completely under your command. Due to you going through puberty, there is little hope you can't accomplish that for long, so beginning tomorrow you will have to train in earnest."

"But I can't train! I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school!"

"You can't be that daft! Do you really believe purebloods would consent to their children being deprived of doing magic unless while in school? Rendering them virtually muggles half the year? There are lots of ways to avoid detection. The ministry can only notice spells two ways: through trackers placed in the wands during their construction (and those only disappear seven years after the first proper spell is cast); or through sensing spellcasting in specifically monitored areas (like the muggleborn's homes). Purebloods only need to use an old wand of some ancestor and the ministry will be none the wiser, thinking the spells they notice are being cast by adults, if they notice anything at all with all the magic there usually is around from the wards. And if they really need their own wands for compatibility reasons, there are some obscure wards that can stop all tracking from the outside. Not that the Ministry would really care, as the Restriction of Underage Magic is undoubtedly another way to give old pureblooded families an advantage, keeping their offspring ahead of the other kids. And as I've been saying all through this rant, it is spells (that's to say, the deliberate use of organized wizarding magic) what they are able to notice, not wild or natural magic as you would be using with the gifts. They never appeared during your bouts of accidental magic when you were a child, did they?"

"They came last year when I blew up my aunt, and I didn't even have my wand with me" he replied stubbornly.

"Strange. You received a notification? Wait! Last year? You did accidental magic last year?"

"Yes, I did. I was really angry" he answered defensively. "And no, they didn't send a letter; they came sometime after to reverse it."

"Zeus! It shouldn't be possible. Accidental magic is the result of the magic leaking from someone's core taking the shape strong emotions direct them to. These leaks grow fewer with age until stopping completely about ten or eleven, when magical puberty starts. To perform accidental magic after this is impossible, as it is when your body finally gets your magic contained and under control in order to start growing. That means you have been attending classes without having your magic completely stable. And you've been able to manage all the spells they taught? You should lack power and control before the beginning of puberty to learn even basic spells!"

"Perhaps that's why I couldn't do a proper Patronus until the end of term" Harry mumbled to himself. Gladius' eyes widened comically at hearing that.

"Well, there is no doubt that given enough time you would have been a hell of a wizard in your own right, if you managed well at school before hitting magical puberty, as your power and control are at its lowest. And a Patronus charm at the beginning of puberty is an exceptional feat. Add to that all the new abilities and dragon's blood helping you with your magic now…" he let loose a soft whistle. "And nobody at your school noticed? It is equivalent to attending classes for kids two years older! Morons, all of them" he muttered shaking his head with a scowl.

"OK, back to the Ministry's detection. If you didn't receive a letter, it means they didn't pick the magic itself. Those letters are pretty much automated and get on their way even before anyone in the Improper Use of Magic Office knows about it. They could have been warned through other means. You said you blew someone up, don't you? If she had been seen by other muggles that could be the cause, as the security-breach detectors pick up muggles witnessing magical incidents, and the Improper Use of Magic Office had nothing to do with it. Or perhaps they were monitoring especially close any magic discharge in your home. Either way, they can only pick up wizarding magic, and only faintly when actively looking for it if it is not from a wand. You will be training in magic from other races."

"And what about Dobby the summer before my second year?" Harry asked in confusion. "He was a house elf who came to warn me his master was planning something dangerous in school, and he used magic that was blamed on me to keep me from attending"

"That's because house elves have been bound to wizards for so long that their own magic is weak and they need to help it with someone else's magic. Therefore, their magic is so much like a spell cast by that someone it is seen as the same on the Ministry detectors. Even if there had been another source of magic nearby, this Dobby would have used your magic anyway to accomplish his purpose, so the Ministry saw it like casting it yourself. So long you don't use your own wand and no one without previous knowledge of the magical world sees you, you can practice as much as you want." Here, Gladius looked at Harry thoughtfully a minute before starting to speak again.

"But we really need to accelerate your magical and biological maturation if it is only beginning now. We don't really want it to go on for five or six years while influenced by the quirks of our three races. The only way to do it quickly would be through the darkest of rituals, involving many unwilling sacrifices and lots of pain, but unfortunately, your unique nature after the "Champion's Awakening" makes it impossible to know what side effects could there be, so that is ruled out. There is a potion that will shorten the process a bit, but it would still take at the very least four years at the rate wizards mature now. It is a pity we can't…" the vampire trailed off and his eyes unfocused before muttering to himself, reminding Harry strongly of Olivander three years ago, when he was chosen by his wand. "Or could we? Having veela magic… Yes, yes. That will work."

Looking at him again, the vampire continued. "Did you know magic is a lot like a muscle, Potter? No? Wizards nowadays seem to have forgotten about many things. I'm sure some know a lot more than what they share with the world, like that Dumbledore fellow, but the way they are allowing ignorance to grow within them is pathetic." scoffed Gladius.

"Well then, magic does behave a lot like a muscle. And like the body's muscles, it's honed and developed through exercise. This doesn't mean that you can be super powerful with lots of training. Everybody has a limit, a set amount of room for magic to grow, determined by birth, like everybody reaches a point when he can't increase the amount of weight he's able to lift. And there is no changing it, not even with the most obscure rituals, without changing your very nature. That's what Voldemort did, by the way. He changed his human nature in order to grow more powerful. But even this way there is only so much you can change."

"What our ritual did was add to your human nature, not change it" he added, seeing Harry's outrage at the possibility of becoming anything like Voldemort. "You're still completely human, but a vampire, a veela and a werewolf too. And not part-anything, but completely the four, and a little more thanks to the offerings. In a sense, we haven't changed the source of your magic, but added new sources to it. Something that it's a first in History, if I'm not mistaken, and hopefully there won't ever be the need of doing something like that ever again. But as your "basic" nature, we could say, is that of a wizard, it is that nature the dominant one. That's why, even when your vampiric nature is that of an elder and the others are at least that of a mature individual, you'll be still going through puberty instead of maturing suddenly. But I digress" he paused.

"What I was trying to explain is that, as with the body's muscles, magic develops by being exhausted and regenerated. The sooner you start working it out in earnest, that is to say, the faster you go through repetitions of this cycle of exhaustion-regeneration, the faster you'll reach your peak. And the muscle similarity holds true as well for the fact that disuse leads to atrophy and the deterioration of your proficiency and power. You got all that? Good. I'm explaining all this for a very simple reason. There is another likeness with muscle training. It is not only because they lack power and control over their magic that students do not learn advanced spells. If they practiced those enough, they would not only get them with time, but it would make much easier to learn the simplest ones later on. The reason for that is because this strenuous exercise would force magic to grow faster and reach maturity sooner. Why don't do it, then? Because magical and physical maturity are closely linked, and reaching magical maturity too soon would stunt physical growth, as your body wouldn't be able to accelerate its growing to keep up with your magic but it would do stop maturing not long after the time your magic did. Haven't you observed that those in your year who have their birthday sooner have a little easier time learning? That females, who usually mature a little earlier, are in general a bit better than males at the beginning and it evens out in the last years? Or that the best of your classmates are usually the most mature?" Harry's eyes widened when he thought of Hermione, who fitted all those criteria. The rapid pace at which his eyes darted left and right informed Gladius he was recalling something, probably the identity of those matching what he said. He used the pause to take a peak in his mind.

'Hermione fits it all! Her birthday is soon after the start of term, so she is only in our year because of a few days, she is always ranting about how immature we are and is beginning to show how obviously a female she is, too. And no one has ever beaten her to the first place when trying a new spell in class. So it isn't only how much she studies? Does she know about all this?' Harry mulled. "But what does this has to do with me? My growth is stunted enough in my time here. I have no wish to be more of a midget than strictly necessary" was what he said aloud, scowling.

"There is where your future veela magic comes in. Their magic almost completely revolves about mating. The need to look their best to appeal to their mate; to have a clean genetic map to have the best offspring and not passing along any hereditary deficiencies; etc. Veela are usually pushed to mature as fast as they can their Charm so it is at its strongest even if they are not mature enough to mate, to avoid the off-chance that the opportunity to find their mate escapes their notice. But their physical grow is never stunted, as their very essence will be correcting this soon enough. And this same essence will be part of you. Furthermore, it will not only correct any inhibiting the faster developing of your magic could cause, but any problems you had before, too. And I'm almost sure it will help your body mature faster. We have discussed long about what the ritual would do to the eventual Champion. All we know will happen, and all we suppose could do, we have written in some journals I will be giving you in a moment. But let me give you a small preview. From what veela told us themselves, your eyesight, for example, is something that not only will definitely be corrected, but will surely be one of the first things to be done. And thatscar will become fainter, if it can't disappear completely." Gladius allowed himself a moment to enjoy smugly the look of astonishment in his young audience as that tidbit of info sunk, before returning to the matter at hand.

"When the time to go back to school arrives, you'll have to make excuses about your 'growth spurt' and doing a lot of exercise to explain the changes. I don't know what you can say about your eyes. You will probably have to use fake glasses to avoid any undesired scrutiny. I've heard rumors about a muggle contraption that does the same but goes directly on the eyeball, but I don't really give it much credit" He looked at his wristwatch and sighed. "It is almost midnight. You should get going. The unlocking won't be too painful, but you'll be a little sore and thoroughly exhausted by the time it ends. I think there is the specific ward to avoid detection in one of the books I am going to give you, but you'll need more specific information to wove it within the current wards. I'll owl you that one as soon as possible so you can start using magic here, along with as much information on magical puberty as I can get my hands on. We need a true champion, and you are far from it in your current state." The training in politeness had ended, as far as Gladius was concerned, and his sneer tried to make up for the ones restrained before.

Harry watched Gladius with curiosity as he extracted a small stone and placed it on the ground. A small puncture on his finger made with one of hi fangs provided the small drop of blood Gladius smeared on it, and from the cloud of smoke that raised appeared a stack of books and scrolls.

"Why can't you put up the ward yourself?" Harry asked while accepting the books the vampire was now handing him. He was really eager to be able to do magic in the presence of his family.

"Because there already is a blood ward here, and it wouldn't accept a new one from me. It took me five minutes to get around it in order to come here inconspicuously, even with how weak it is. The other ones were easy."

"There is a blood ward in this place? That would be the protections Dumbledore was so sure about."

"Dumbledore? No doubt about why it is so shoddy, then. This ward is tied to you and those who you share blood with. I suppose his intention was to strengthen the ward with the feelings of protectiveness families are supposed to have for one another, but as it obviously is not the case, the only thing maintaining the ward is the desire of protection he had when casting it, and even this is being drained by the feelings between them and you. But even this obviously amateurish ward would fight my attempts to cast another one, even using your blood. In the rather miraculous chance I managed to put up the ward without destroying the existing one (thus alerting Dumbledore immediately of my tampering) in the process, they would be both so weakened and unstable that the magical equivalent of a sneeze would bring them down. But even if it wasn't you who cast it, Dumbledore used your blood to do it, so it is tied to you. If you do it yourself, with your blood and magic, the new ward will not only cause no problems, but reinforce this one and bring its control to you at the same time. I would send someone to assist you, but I'm sure you are monitored more closely than even you think, so we will have to wait until you can do it alone. I don't know if I would have risked coming today, had I known who I was going to meet." With another glance at his clock, he made shooing motions to him while hissing urgently "Get going now! You don't want to be far from your bed when it starts" and disappeared with the same display of smoke he came.

And he was right. He had barely enough time to close the door to his bedroom when the feelings of being swelled like a balloon and his blood being replaced by melted iron began. An hour later he crawled into his bed, groaning and moaning. "It won't be too painful, he said" was his last thought before losing consciousness.