The Wizards of the Djinn
Chapter 2; The Guardian
Azkaban, Sub-level 6, cell 18; October 2nd 1996
It had only been three months and already Harry realised the pattern of things around here. Every day the Dementors would return to him for four hours. They would stand in front of his door and suck his happy thoughts away from him. He had taken advice from Sirius' stories and focused on the fact that he was innocent and like Sirius had said because it wasn't a good memory it wasn't taken from him.
His mind was working though, its whole purpose set solely on escape, he wanted out of this cell. A cell so far below the water that a drain on the floor constantly sucked out the water as it was flooded from the ocean all around him. There was no light hear apart from a single flickering light at the end of the hall.
In his three months in this place he had worked out a few things.
Flashback; July 30th
It had been almost twenty hours since the last time he felt the effects of the Dementors, he knew though that it was only a matter of minutes before they came back for him to attempt again to drive away his sanity. He felt calm now as he always did and it was the brief time of the day that he could think clearly.
For the first time in almost half a month he felt a flicker in his body. Something inside of him that wanted to escape, but not just escape but take him with it when it left. It took a few seconds to realise what it was. His magic was doing something strange.
He felt it slowly building up in his torso but when he concentrated he couldn't feel it in his hands. For the last weeks the manacles had slowly drawn out his magic from his core, just like his wand pulls his magic from the core to his hand these were pulling it out through his wrists draining his core.
But now he felt magic again in his core but nothing flowing in his arms to his wrists. With a grin he realised what was happened and he remembered one of Hermione's pondering debates on Magic. It was choosing itself what to do. For some reason it had reached a point where it refused to flow to his hands and was therefore able to regenerate in his core.
He had barely remembered this when his mind split with pain as the screams returned. His time of peace was up, but he grinned as he fell to his knees before the Dementors, he could feel his magic rippling with fury at the pain of its Master.
Hermione 1: Ron 0. . . Magic was very obviously sentient.
Flashback; August 10th
Time had passed in its usual steady passage. Harry had learnt a few things in this place as much as he hated to admit it. He was learning more in here than anywhere else. He had felt his magic building up inside of him but was shocked when he felt it reach its normal level and keep going. He had reached his normal level about five days before but since then it had been rising at the same rate until he felt it stop the previous day. Harry could feel that it was twice what it used to be.
It was about half an hour after the Dementors had last left him and Harry had just finished rebuilding his mental shields. One of the skills he had learnt in this place, along with hiding his magic. He had realised quickly that the Dementors absorbed magic around them and so when they concentrated on taking Harry's memories they also took some of his magic. He had focused on placing a shield around his body like he did with occlumency and after some work he had felt them hold in his magic. He had also felt the loss of Magic near the surface of his skin, something that he had always lived with so never noticed until his magic was sucked out of him.
Harry was once again pondering on what else he could do with this new skill when he had an idea. He saw in the pale light a flicker of white on what classed as his bed. A loose feather. He tried to remember the feeling of lighting up his wand without touching it and tried to remember how the magic felt when he lifted the feather in his charms class all those years ago.
He concentrated. Nothing happened, his magic stirred but refused to leave him to lift the feather. There was no prickle in his palms. Then Harry realised, because of the manacles his magic had cut off its flow to his hands to avoid being absorbed at the wrists. Harry wondered if he would ever be able to use a wand again.
His magic had still reacted though. He tried to remember Hermione's lectures about magic in the body. She had said that every part of a wizard's body had Magic in it; it was what allowed a Wizard to apparate, so if the hands had no magic in them then to apparate would leave them behind. Harry flinched at the thought. So apparition was out for him then. He thought of Hermione's lectures again.
She had said that the core was around the torso and from there moved to the hands but also to control your magic it was linked with his brain. Harry pondered that for a while. He had seen Dobby use Magic wandlessly. So could he use it with just his brain? He looked over at the feather again and concentrated and imagined the magic leaving his torso and head out in order to go to the task.
He grinned as the feather gave a lurch upwards before floating onto the floor beside the mattress. Harry was happier then he had been in his month stay at the prison.
Then the pain started again. He was shocked as the Dementors had not once broken from the patterns but then he realised that the pain wasn't just in his head but all over his body. It was like something was awakening inside him and pulling at his magic core and soul. Blending with him painfully.
Blackness took over him as he gave in to the pain.
End of Flashbacks
He still hadn't entirely worked out what had happened to this day but knew he had changed. He could see better, his need for glasses was gone as was his need for proper light. He could see every detail of his cell as if it was lit up by a lamp.
It was this day that things would change in Harry's life. It had started just after a visit from the Dementors but this time was worse. A few Aurors had followed the Dementors on their visit along with a person Harry recognised as the Minister of Magic. It had taken every bit of strength Harry had not to lash out at the Minister with his new abilities in Magic and he had allowed the five Dementors to cripple him in a prison of screams and his worst memories.
Harry had been practising his Magic in secret, doing simple charms that didn't involve lights. He had soon realised that with no firm point of exit his magic couldn't cast things like a Reducto which left a beam of light but he had little trouble with summoning and banishing his much abused feather.
It was just after the Dementors had left that Harry relaxed enough to hear the Minister taunting him. He generally ignored the mans attempts to get a response, but lost it when the man mentioned overthrowing the Headmaster. It seemed the man had only come to gloat. He boasted about using Voldemort's return to take the school away from the hands of the eccentric man. Something in Harry snapped at hearing this mans schemes and his head snapped up to look the man in the eyes.
That was Harry first bit of evidence that something had truly changed his appearance when the man in front of him yelped. There was something else too; he could see a glimpse of a swirl around the arrogant man. He was just about to blast the man across the prison when he heard it.
'Calm yourself my bonded!" a gentle and loving sound seemed to echo in his head. 'You are not trained enough to fight this man and keep your secret hidden.'
Harry had no clue who had said it but he reluctantly agreed with the voice. When he got out of the prison then he could show up the Minister. It was then that he noticed the Minister's rapidly retreating back as he ran back to the surface.
Harry slumped again so his back was against the wet wall. His voice was shaky after doing nothing but screaming in pain so it was a rough voice that asked the logical question. "Who are you?"
'I am your guardian,' at Harry's confusion it continued, 'lie down while I explain.' Harry just fell over to his right and rested his head on the crook of his elbow. The voice chuckled at the action. 'My name is Carver, I am an Alpha Marid and whilst I am only the same age as you I pride myself in being a lot smarter and wiser.'
Harry had to laugh at the attempt of humour. "Why would you say that?"
'I'm not the one that got myself locked up in Prison for no reason am I?' He sounded pleased with his retort.
"No, you're the one that chose to voluntarily put yourself here." Harry laughed slightly as he almost felt Carver deflate inside of him.
'As I was saying, my family has always protected your own but for us to actually bond to the person and teach you requires a different control of Magic that none of your family have achieved in over two thousand years since the uprising of the Wizards of the Wand.'
"Hey Carver?" he almost sensed the raised eyebrow if this Marid even had one, "Want to explain some of what you just said?"
The Marid just huffed indignantly but continued, 'Time for a history lesson. There are different types of Wizard. Each type is named after the way they cast Magic. My race comes from a time when the Wizards of the Djinn ruled most of the World. They are the closest to yourself. They could call up beings called Djinni to do their bidding.
'Half way through their reign a family, your ancestors, saved a Marid, my ancestors, and in gratitude we have always served to protect and teach any of you that can learn. Each of us is born when one of your family is and we die when you do. With our help your ancestors could summon Afrits, which are a more powerful version of a Djinn and also the regular Djinn and the weaker Imps. However, anything they summoned was friendly and loyal whereas the normal Wizards had to fight their own summons and keep them from betraying them with threats and beatings. I will teach you more on that later though.
'Two thousand years ago a faction of Wizards were dubbed Wizards of the Hand and another Wizards of the Staff who used magic similar to your modern ones, through wandless or through staffs. They overthrew the Wizards of the Djinn and your own ancestors who were the leaders of the Djinn, so as the only remaining person capable of summoning a Djinn you are the sole survivor of the Wizards of the Djinn.
'About a thousand years ago another turn of events led to the weakening of Wizards and tools like the Wand started to be used and therefore we now call your government Wizards of the Wand. I believe your headmaster is still a Wizard of the Staff and almost a Wizard of the Hand.
'As you can guess because you have the pleasure of being a Wizard of the Djinn meaning with your large core of Magic you can summon anything from an Imp to a Beta Marid.'
"When can I learn to summon?" Harry was shocked at this level of information and its implications to himself.
'When we are free of this hell that they have placed you in, my bonded.' Harry could feel the anger inside of him and knew it came from his bonded.
"How long will that be?"
'You can learn little more whilst in this place so as soon as we can, we will need a bit of help. These Dementors are descendents of trapped Afrits and neither I nor you have the strength to fight them now. My Father told me of an old family friend that could help.'
"Your family or my own?"
'Both I think, he is a powerful Djinni with a bad sense of humour and after so many years stuck in a mirror I am sure he will be glad to be out. He helped keep an eye on you when you were a baby and took up permanent residence in a mirror so that he could still give his annoying opinions on everything. But he was trapped when both my parents followed your parents to their death.
"If he's trapped how do we get him here?"
'Just do as I say, I will do much of the work until you know how, but it is tiring to do it myself for both of us.' Harry sat back up in anticipation. 'Now, concentrate on the floor in the centre of the room, and imagine allowing your magic to do as it pleases.'
Harry did as he was told and could feel Carver controlling his magic and pushing it around and out of him and to the spot on the floor. 'Now say these words "Bartimaeus, I summon thee."
"Bartimaeus, I summon thee!" His voice didn't echo like it should have and almost seemed to travel through the walls like they weren't there.
". . .back to formalities are we?" The voice seemed to fade into existence half way through the sentence. Harry looked to see a small mouse sitting on the floor looking confused. "Hang on," the mouse voice said, "No mirror! I'm freeeeeeeeee!" With that the little mouse ignored the boy sitting against the wall with a Marid's aura and started to hurtle around the room in ever tightening circles obviously having the time of its life.
Harry could only stare in astonishment as this 'powerful Djinni' started to chase its mouse tail whilst singing an off-key song. Carver laughed hysterically in his mind.
'Leave him for a bit, he's been stuck looking out of a cracked mirror for 15 years.'
The mouse's song suddenly turned into a song from dumbo and before Harry realised anything had changed there was a dog sized elephant flying around his cell using its ears to fly. Harry did as Carver asked though and let Bartimaeus have his fun and just watched as the Djinni became almost every conceivable cross breed of animal whilst laughing hysterically and occasionally singing like a drunk for the next hour.
A/N; Just thought I would clear up a few things. In response to a couple of reviews I will attempt to explain anything not usually in the Harry Potter series as you can see from this chapter, you don't need to read the Stroud series although it is a good read.
Thanks to all my reviewers, it warmed my heart to see so many reviews for a first chapter and a not particularly interesting or long one at that. . .Thanks loads!
