Disclaimer: not mine of course.
Chapter 7But he didn't go to dinner. Instead he went and sat by the lake. He didn't think he could face the other students, not tonight at least. And it had been so long since he had eaten, he'd probably forgotten how. So he whiled away the time by throwing rock in the lake.
Draco tried to enter his mind to talk to him a few times but Harry rudely blocked him out and continued to drown in his misery. He slowly began to sober up and the hangover pain was burning horribly in his head. He also began to think. He hadn't thought clearly about anything except alcohol and that was hurting him to.
Suddenly a tall blonde man appeared beside him.
"Salazar" Harry acknowledged the god in a bored, spaced out voice.
"Dumbledore wishes to speak with you, Harry," he said in an equally bored voice.
"Do I have to?"
The god smiled slightly. "Yes you do. I think it might be quite rewarding" then he shimmered away into nothing. Harry stared at the spot where the god had just been for a second before heading back to the castle. There was a few lingering students in the entrance hall and they stared at Harry as he wandered past.
Dumbledore was sitting at his desk when Harry showed up.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked dully.
"Come and sit down, Harry" Dumbledore spoke without looking up. Harry stepped over to the desk and sat quietly in the waiting chair.
"Claire has just been to see me" Dumbledore had finished his letter and was now watching Harry intently. Harry didn't say anything. He should have expected this.
"Could you tell me what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong" Harry lied. "Is that all you wanted?" he made to stand up but Dumbledore stopped him.
"Are you worried that Voldemort and Abu Kahim will join forces?"
"Not really. Abu Kahim doesn't seem like the type of person – or thing – that would take followers but we're screwed if they do"
Dumbledore nodded.
"Tell me, what was your summer like living with Sirius?"
"It was fine until you sent Jenna, on my Birthday, I might add. You have no idea how close I came to murdering them both."
"And did you get the feeling that Sirius stopped caring about you because he found a more intimate family member?"
Harry nodded.
"What about Lupin, from what I heard he was continuously coming to your defence."
"I thought he cared but I finally figured that it was because he hated Jenna as much as I did."
"They do care, Harry, we all do"
"Well that's not the impression I get." Harry could feel anger bubbling in his chest and he didn't do anything to hold it back. "When I left to live with Drew, Lupin came to talk to me by the car. He didn't ask if I needed money or anything like that. Did you know what he asked? What about Voldemort. You have no idea how many people have asked me that. They don't really care about me. It's all about them. If I die then Voldemort wins and everybody dies! I'm just sick of living my life in the extremes! If I'm angry I blow a crater in the ground. If I'm upset I become isolated and depressed. I'm faced with sibling rivalry but instead of petty squabbling I try and kill her. Everybody has enemies, right? Well how many people can say that their enemies have tried to murder them on ten separate occasions! I'm scared of having friends in case I get them in trouble or I end up killing them myself. I feel Voldemort growing inside me more and more each day and I don't know how long I can last before I do actually murder someone!"
Dumbledore sat, processing this information for a long time. It also gave Harry time to cool down.
"How do you feel about Claire? She told me you wanted to break up because you felt dangerous and unstable."
"Claire" Harry said sadly. "You know, I only went out with her in the start to make Cho jealous. Then I had to go and fall in love with her and I just don't know what to do anymore."
"Harry" Dumbledore said suddenly. "What if I was to tell you that I know a place where the people can help you get better"
"Great, you're sending me into rehab."
"Not exactly. There's a special school up north. It's called Oakenshire and it specialises with people, like you, who have too much built up magic. Tokugawa told me last year that your magic stream is all tangled. These people can straighten it out."
Harry's jaw dropped. "There's other people like me out there?"
"Not as many as there used to be, but yes, there are a few. Would you like to come and see it with me tomorrow? You can decide whether you want to go there for a while or not."
"I don't think I should miss out on anymore school, sir" Harry said dubiously.
"Tomorrow is Saturday."
"Oh"
"Nine o'clock tomorrow morning in the entrance hall. I suggest you bring your broom"
Harry nodded and walked towards the door.
"Harry?" Harry paused and turned around. "When was the last time you ate a solid meal?"
"Last week, I think, give or take a few days." He answered after a moment's thought.
"Go down to the great hall now and eat. Don't worry, the other students have finished."
Harry nodded and left.
The great hall was indeed empty but there was a small feast left waiting for Harry at the Gryffindor table. Harry approached it carefully, as if it had the potential to be an enemy.
He sat down in front of it and slowly began loading his plate with food.
But he couldn't eat it. For some reason all he could do was stare at it, as if this would simply send the food to his stomach via teleportation. Finally he picked up his fork and clumsily speared a potato. At the same time, the double doors at the end of the hall opened and Harry dropped the food and fork on the floor.
"Don't worry, Potter, I'm not going to kill you" Malfoy came striding down the hall and planted himself beside Harry.
"What do you want?" Harry asked quietly, though he was quite grateful to see the other boy.
"I'm hungry. I missed dinner 'cause Dumbledore had me out hunting you." He reached over and picked up a pork chop and broke it apart with his fingers before eating. Harry noted this and did the same. After the first swallow, his fear of food seemed to vanish almost instantly and he couldn't stop eating.
The two boys sat until late into the night, talking and eating. It was the first time in a month that Harry had laughed and truly meant it.
When Harry finally retired to the Gryffindor tower he found that the rest of his house had gone to bed. Odd, he thought, Friday nights everyone was usually up getting drunk. Was there something happening the next day that he didn't know about?
At the moment Ron entered the common room from the portrait hole behind him.
"Harry!" he said in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"I was just eating" Harry mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly at his friend.
"Great. I wish I could have eaten."
"Why didn't you?"
"I had detention with Tweed since the end of classes until now"
"Why?"
"I got in a fight with Goyle and accidentally turned his face into dog shit. Hermione should be back soon, and Neville, they got detention too."
"Hermione got detention?"
"Yeah, she tried to tell Tweed that it wasn't my fault. Which it wasn't, so she go detention and then Nev tried to get Hermione out of it and well…his detention was even longer."
"Lucky I wasn't there"
"Yeah, Lucky"
Hermione and Neville made a spectacular appearance at that moment.
"You shouldn't have said anything, Neville! That was an idiotic thing to do!"
"Harry would have done it! And you wouldn't be getting up him!"
"Yeah but Harry is an idiot. Right, Harry?"
"Right" Harry grinned. He couldn't believe how much he missed this.
"Hoi, would you lot pipe down? People are trying to sleep!" Ginny's friend Olivier poked her head out the door of the girls' dormitories.
"SHUT UP!" Hermione screeched at her. Harry, Ron and Neville made a run for the door.
Harry was almost late for his appointment with Dumbledore the next morning due to the fact that he had overslept. He got up and began a hurried search for a clean uniform. It was then that He realised his school clothes hadn't been washed in over a week so he quickly pulled on a pair of baggy black jeans and a black shirt with 'Death to those who touch my girlfriend' written across it. He then looked at himself in a mirror and tried to smooth his hair down. His eyebrow ring glinted gaily in the morning sunlight and Harry was reminded briefly of the day he had gotten it.
It had been the Christmas before and he, Malfoy, Ron and Zabini had all subjected themselves to the needles torture. That had also been the day he had gotten Sirius' pet dog, Jill, and the bad boy clothing that he wore now.
With a last sweep of his messy belongings, Harry grabbed his broom and ran from the room.
Dumbledore was standing to one side of the hall, speaking quietly to Malcolm Diggory and one of his friends. Harry paused at the bottom of the stairs and waited for them to finish. He didn't want to speak to the young Diggory, the death of his brother still fresh in his mind.
Dumbledore finally bid the boys good day and strode over to where Harry was standing.
"Are you ready?" Dumbledore smiled slightly as he took in Harry's outfit but he didn't say anything as he led him from the castle and down to Hagrid's hut where a golden carriage, fitted with four Thestrals, was waiting for them.
"Bit feisty today" Hagrid said gruffly, smoothing a massive hand over the closest Thestral. "But once they're up they should calm down"
Dumbledore nodded curtly and thanked Hagrid before ushering Harry into the carriage.
"Oakenshire is at the very top of the country." Dumbledore explained as the carriage took to the sky with a great whoosh. "But the Thestrals are fast so it should only take half of an hour."
Harry nodded and peered out the glassless window. Hogwarts was fading rapidly behind them and they were now flying over rugged countrysides with massive farms containing cows, horses and orchids. Harry leant further out the window and pointed at a long row of fruit trees.
"Accio apple!"
Seconds later he had a juicy red apple in his hand and was smiling triumphantly.
"Do you have to use incantations?" Dumbledore asked interestedly as Harry bit into his prize.
"Not all the time. Sometimes I don't think I'm even using Magic. It's just like raw energy."
"Like when you…explode?"
Harry nodded and took another bite. "And when I attacked Abu Kahim. I attacked him with lightening. I've never done that before." Dumbledore nodded.
"And catching things? Claire told me you grabbed her without touching her at all."
"Oh yeah." Harry looked out the window thoughtfully. "I call it the invisible hand. I'll show you." Harry made his grabbing motion and caught Dumbledore by the wrist.
"Interesting!" Dumbledore said. He smiled and the sparkle in his eyes danced. "I actually learnt the invisible grab when I was your age."
"Cool"
Harry and Dumbledore spent the rest of the trip playing wizards chess using only their invisible forces; a rule Dumbledore made up to strengthen Harry's capability.
Not surprisingly, Dumbledore won.
They reached Oakenshire in record time. Oakenshire was a bit like a barracks. It consisted of a large stone castle, several smaller buildings, fighting arenas and a huge acre of lush green grass. On one side it was guarded by a forest full of ancient trees, thought to be extinct, and on the other side it was backed by the ocean. The rest was held in by a wall, ten meters in height.
The golden carriage landed with a soft thump on the road outside the great arched drawbridge.
The drawbridge came smoothly down, not rattling at all, as Harry had expected, and student and headmaster entered side by side.
"Albus!" a jolly looking man with long white hair and a scruffy little beard approached them, arms open wide. Dumbledore and the man embraced like brothers. "It's about time you came to visit! I haven't seen you since you bought me Tom Riddle!"
Harry's jaw dropped.
"Tom Riddle? Tom Riddle as in Voldemort?"
Dumbledore and the man laughed.
"Harry this is master Jui Hungai. Jui, I've bought you Harry Potter."
Jui nodded wisely.
"Yes I thought you might end up bringing the boy in due time."
Dumbledore and Jui continued to talk about why Harry was here, unaware that their subject of speech had tuned out.
Harry had just spotted two little boys, no older than five, playing with toy cars in a patch of dirt nearby. One had blonde hair and the other had red.
The redhead snatched at the Blonde's car. They tousled for a moment then the blonde exploded, literally.
His entire body caught on fire and he was literally a human fireball. He raised a hand and sent a jet of flames at the redhead.
The redhead was ready with a shield of what looked like water.
"Odd" Dumbledore mused and Harry realised that he and Jui were watching the boys turn into elements with relaxed looks on their faces. "I thought you kept the water away from the fire."
"We found a way for them to play without destroying each other. It's a bit complicated so I wont go into details yet but I'll tell you one thing, it's not healthy to keep them separate because they're different. It'll make them think that the other is the enemy. I believe that's where we went wrong with Tom." Jui smiled slightly as he remembered. "Nathan, Brenton! Come here for a moment!"
"The two children went back to normal in the blink of an eye and abandoned their cars to race each other to Jui.
"Harry this is Nathan" Jui pointed to the blonde. "And Brenton. Boys, how about you show Harry where the Quidditch pitch is? I see he bought his broom and Albus and I need to have a long chat."
The boys each grabbed one of Harry's hands and dragged him in the direction of the castle.
"Oh and Harry!" Jui called after him. "I suggest you keep your guard up. Some of the youngsters around here like to test the strength of the newcomers. Its kind of like a welcoming tradition…"
Harry let the boys pull him across the field while he took in everything around him. Two men stood in a ring, not far off simply staring at each other. A second later one of them was blown off his feet by an invisible force. Harry guessed that they were having a telepathic battle.
Harry heard something shuffling in a shrub to his left and he had only just enough time to bring up a shield before he got hit with a ball of purple fire.
"Don't do that, Ray!" Nathan yelled at a seven-year-old girl who giggled and apperated.
The two boys led him to the edge of a cliff and Brenton pointed across the next field.
There, down below, was the biggest Quidditch pitch Harry had ever seen. It was even bigger than the world cup pitch.
Harry could see several people zooming around it. Not really playing a game, but several small games.
The boys led Harry down a winding track and over to a side door where a girl with purple hair was standing. She had a broom over her shoulder and she watched Harry with narrowed eyes.
"What position do you play?" she asked in a rough, southerly voice.
"Seeker" Harry replied almost immediately. Her face suddenly broke into a grin.
"Great! You can play for our team!" she turned and led him into the change room. "My name is Mandy" she handed him a set of white and gold Quidditch robes and watched as he pulled them on over his clothes.
"I'm Harry. Harry Potter."
"Harry Potter!" She looked suddenly delighted. "We've been waiting for you to show up! C'mon, games starting now"
The small games that had been going on had stopped and the flyers were now waiting expectantly in the stands. Other people were filing into the stands from outside and there were two teams on the pitch. One wearing the same robes as Harry, the other wearing Black and silver.
"Make it a clean game, guys" A woman wearing red was standing between the teams with a comet two-sixty hovering beside her. "You all remember what happened last time."
"What happened last time?" Harry asked, though he wasn't really worried. He knew Quidditch was a rough game. He'd just have to deal with it.
"That guy over there" Mandy pointed to a bulky man on the other team, one of the beaters. "He got to angry and blew up the pitch. We all ended up in the hospital with burns."
"You found a seeker? Great. Now the England international Team is here watching. I heard they're looking for fresh players so if you play well they might pick you up." The woman in red pointed to a practically empty part of the stands where four men and two women were watching with keen eyes.
"Mount up!"
Harry straddled his broom and the second the whistle blew he was in the air, zooming around the pitch with the other seeker in close pursuit.
Most of the other players, except Mandy and another girl on their team, looked middle aged and professional players.
The crowd in the stands screamed and Harry looked up just in time to see the other team score.
"Ten nil!" a commentator shouted. "And ball is in possession of Mandy, now Rupert, back to Mandy. And look at that! Black is back in possession with a shifty catching from chaser Bob! No sight of the snitch yet but White has a new seeker. He's riding a Firebolt! Does anyone know who he is?" the commentator paused as someone told him. "I can't believe it! Harry Potter! We have Hogwarts own Harry Potter on the field!"
White scored once while Black scored three more times. Harry was searching the pitch eagerly, loving the feel of the wind in his hair and feeling completely at home. The other seeker was watching Harry carefully when he got a look of sudden excitement on his face and went into a plummet. The crowd gasped and Harry didn't move. He couldn't see the snitch anywhere and he could tell that this guy was faking it. He looked around and spotted the golden ball about ten feet above his head.
He laughed at the other guy's misfortune and went zooming towards the snitch, catching it in his left hand before it even got a chance to put up a good chase.
"He's got it! On his first game! Potter beat Chudley Cannons seeker Bernie Thompson!"
Chudley Cannons? Harry whirled around just in time to duck an aggressive curse fired at him from Bernie.
"Hoi!" Harry shouted angrily. "What the hell was that for?"
Bernie gave him the finger and flew away.
Harry landed on the ground with the rest of the team who congratulated him on his spectacular performance.
"That was great!" Mandy breathed. "We haven't won a game since that cannons guy showed up here!"
"Harry Potter?" Harry turned to find the English team standing behind him. "May we have a word?"
"Uh…yeah, ok" he glanced at the team, which was staring at him in awe, before following the famous players to one side of the pitch.
"We like the way you play, Harry" one of the ladies said, "tell us, how did you know he was faking?"
"I don't know…because he was trying to get my attention before diving, I couldn't see a snitch there and he's just a down right lousy actor."
The lady laughed. "I'm Ruby," she said before gesturing to the other players in turn, starting with the other female. "This is Sarah, she's our second chaser, after me, then there's Bill. He's a chaser as well. Gary and Jay are our beaters and Oliver, our Keeper."
The one called Oliver stepped into the light and Harry got to see him clearly for the first time. His jaw dropped.
"Hows it going, Harry?" Oliver Wood, the former captain of the Gryffindor team stood there, right in front of him, smiling.
"Wood?"
"Stop it, Harry" Harry closed his mouth and grinned before giving Oliver a hug.
"You two know each other?" Sarah asked in amusement.
"I used to play with Harry on the Gryffindor team. Told you he was good, didn't I?"
"How long are you here for?" Jay asked. He had a pair of gold wings pinned to his robes, meaning he was team captain.
"Just for today. I'm here with Dumbledore, having a test run."
Jay nodded. "Well I reckon you should come here for a while. This is an exclusive school for only the strongest out there. We come here every year to have a look at the Quidditch players… come back up to the castle, Harry, I need to have a chat to your headmaster."
As they walked back up the cliff towards the castle, Harry found himself walking next to Oliver.
"So who have they got on the team at school now, Harry?" Wood asked as Harry transferred his broom from one shoulder to the other.
"Ron's Keeper. Ginny, Olivier and Colin Creevy are Chasers and they're having tryouts for beaters next week. We don't know who the captain is yet. The season hasn't started. Tell me though, how long have you been playing for England?"
"Half a year." Wood said, a little flushed as they entered the castle.
They didn't have to go very far until the found Jui's office. They went in, single file and when Jui saw Harry he beamed. Dumbledore, however, gave him a questioning look.
"Albus" Jay said, shaking Dumbledore's hand firmly. "We've just been watching Harry play Quidditch and we found his talent quite spectacular."
Harry blushed slightly and Oliver gave him a nudge.
"Our seeker retired a few months ago" Ruby continued. "And we've been searching frantically for one before the season starts. Harry has potential and we want to take him on a test run."
"I see…" Dumbledore said slowly. "Harry, what do you think of this?"
"I'd love to" Harry said breathlessly. He couldn't quite get it around his head that the English Quidditch team, the best team in England, were asking him to join.
"Great" Jay smiled warmly. "Our first game is on Saturday in two weeks against France. Will he be able to make it?"
"I'll make sure he does." Dumbledore smiled and shook each team members hand in turn. "Look after him, wont you, Oliver?" Dumbledore winked as he shook hands with his former student. Oliver nodded solemnly. The team left and Harry was excused to go and explore some more.
He found Mandy in an empty corridor, waiting for him. He told her his news and she jumped up and down, shaking his hand excitedly.
"You wanna come to a charms class?" she asked after showing him a little more of the castle and introducing him to a few people his age.
"Sure" he replied, bringing up a shield as a little redheaded girl tossed a ball of light at him. "Can they just apperate anywhere?" he asked, watching as the girl disappeared with a crack.
"Nah, just inside the grounds. There's a charm on the walls so anyone under fifteen is locked in. everyone else is free to leave when they want, though not many people do. It's great here, really calms the nerves."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm a Metamorphmagus," she informed him, making her hair change to blonde with a small pop.
"I have a friend who can do that," Harry pointed out. "Tonks."
"Nymphadora Tonks? Yeah, she's my aunt."
"But that doesn't explain why you're here. You shouldn't need help to do that."
"I don't. I'm also partly elemental. I can turn myself to liquid. I kept turning into a puddle and then couldn't turn back, so my father sent me here for a few months."
They reached the designated classroom and Harry was surprised to find that it was filled with only teenagers.
"Only teens need to take classes," Mandy explained quietly as they found seats at the back of the room. "The kiddies are to young to learn magic like this. All they need to do is bond with other magical people. The elders have already done it so the just need to perfect their skills."
"On a Saturday?"
"We only have to come three days a week. On the other days we're supposed to commit to straightening out our magic and stuff like that. Everyone here has a certain skill about him or her. Most of it is elemental. I'm water. Cyril over there is air; he can turn himself into a cloud. His problem is changing back before the wind scatters him. Fire is the most common and easy to handle. Metal is the rarest. There is only one person in the entire school who can do metal. His name is Tobias. He's about twenty-four. He can turn his skin into any kind of metal he wants. He's practically invincible. What's your type?"
"I…don't know" Harry replied.
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I have to much magic stored up. I have violent mood swings and when I'm angry I blow up."
"I've never heard of anyone like that before" Mandy frowned. "People here get angry. Really angry. But they've never blown up. Hey…have you ever killed anyone?"
"No!" Harry said, quite shocked. The door opened and a blonde haired man wearing the same robes as Jui entered.
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