Chapter 7
Beta: Darklord331

Harry –

I arrived at the locker rooms just in time, as people were already beginning to change their clothes. So I changed into my quidditch robes, grabbed my Nimbus 2000 from the rack, and I sat on the bench and tried to pass the time.

[Riders Aptitude] (Expert)

The user possesses great knowledge and skill in the art of riding, riding anything with natural ease.

"First game jitters?" Anna said as she sat to my left.

"Uh," I stuttered, not expecting her to ask me. "A little bit."

"Don't worry," Olivia said, sitting on my right, smirking down at me. "It's your first game, just do what we practiced."

"I– right!" I stuttered, before saying the last part loudly.

My other teammates looked at me before continuing their conversation. Olivia and Anna shared a smirk while I put my face on my hands, hoping the world would swallow me.

This is so goddamn embarrassing, damn you puberty. I could feel my face going red.

Jamie quieted the room, as we had a few minutes left before we had to leave.

"Alright, guys, first match of the season! The problem is, it's undoubtedly going to rain today." 'he said, and now that he pointed it out, I could hear it faintly through the door. "But other than that, there haven't been any problems. Now, everyone knows what we can do and remember, we're Ravenclaws, we planned for this!"

After his 'speech' Jaime led them all into one side of the stadium. They ended up in a large chamber, split into two halves by a line.

They waited there for a few moments, I couldn't hear the crowd so there was probably a ward against sound in here. I could feel my foot tapping the floor irritably.

"Hey calm down," Anna said, bumping her hip against mine. "We're here right with you." she said, motioning to Olivia and herself.

I tried to smile at them confidently, trying to say that I could handle it, but what appeared on my face was a blushing smile.

"WELCOME QUIDDITCH FANS TO THE SECOND QUIDDITCH GAME OF THE SEASON! PLEASE WELCOME THE HUFFLEPUFF QUIDDITCH TEAM!"

We could hear the voice throughout the walls and now the crowd was cheering.

The opposing team must have flown out as the cheers of the crowd reached a crescendo. The announcer called out all of their names with excitement laced in his voice.

After the crowd had calmed down, the announcer said, "AND NOW PLEASE WELCOME THE RAVENCLAW QUIDDITCH TEAM! THE THREE CHASERS OF ANNA OLSEN! HARRY POTTER! AND OLIVIA ADAMS! THE TWO BEATERS THAT ARE JOHN ROBERTS! AND JAMIE BELL WHO IS ALSO THEIR CAPTAIN! THEIR KEEPER ANTHONY BELL AND THEIR SEEKER CHO CHANG!"

As we were introduced we could hear the crowd chanting Ravenclaw and as we flew out, the crowd cheered even louder. As soon as we passed the doors, rain streamed into our faces. Looking out into the crowd as I fell in the line with my teammates.

"THE REFEREE IS READY, THE CAPTAINS SHAKE HANDS! THE QUAFFLE IS RELEASED AND THE GAME BEGINS! ANNA CLARKE STEALS THE QUAFFLE OUT FROM JEN LIN'S HANDS, STREAKS UP THE FIELD! PASSES TO HARRY POTTER! AND HE SCORES! 10-0, RAVENCLAW!"

Cho Chang –

After nearly an hour, the score was 80-90, to Ravenclaw. The Hufflepuffs were good, their beaters superior to ours, whilst our chasers easily streaked past theirs. After another hour, the score was 160-140, we were winning by a hair.

She was getting angrier as the snitch was already hard enough to see, now it was even harder to see in the rain.

"OH! ROBERTS BEATS THE BLUDGER TOWARDS JAX AND NO! HE DEFLECTS IT EASILY, BUT DROPS THE QUAFFLE IN THE PROCESS! POTTER CATCHES IT SPEEDS THROUGH THE FIELD!"

"MY GOD, POTTER MANEUVERS UP AND OVER THE BLUDGER! THROWS THE BALL! THE KEEPER MISSES IT ! IT CURVES ANDPOTTER SCORES!"

She wanted to cheer, but it still felt like she was doing nothing for the team.

Harry –

After our amazing win against Hufflepuff, Cho asked if we could learn how to play as other members of the team. Chaser becoming a Seeker, a Keeper as a Beater and the opposite. She said it was something about 'Three rings, Three Keepers, with offense being Four Chasers no one would expect it.' Jamie considered it, only if we were willing to do more drills with bludgers to get used to maneuvering around them. And so, a new routine started.

A few days later, I was making good progress and if I continued at this same pace then I would be halfway through the next year by the time spring came around. In my mind, it wasn't enough, I was making good progress but not something outstanding or unbelievable, and that is why I sent out the owl to order my ingredients for the ritual.

I thought as I looked at the runic array at my feet. The ingredients for the ritual arrived a day before our quidditch game, and I had to put it off until Friday for the weekend.

The ingredients cost a lot of money, thankfully I bought more potion supplies to hide it. I needed the new supplies as I was grinding for my potions skill relentlessly.

[Potion-Making Proficiency] (Apprentice)

Brewing to create substances with magical properties.

While I still had a long way to go, it was still a measure of my progress.

Back to rituals, it wasn't a particularly big ritual so the number five is more than efficient throughout the ritual. I would have been more scared but if it wasn't for the fact that I knew that Voldemort would be coming for me, then I probably wouldn't be as reckless with this.

Any extra magical items inside the pentagon could possibly interfere with the ritual, so everything so I had to undress just in case. So I stood in the middle of the ritual circle, the circle itself being composed of two circles one outer and one inner and between the gap of those circles was 5 smaller rings that would have distributed the power of the ingredients, and the outer circle would contain the power into the inner circle, where I will be.

Individual runes were etched into the 5 smaller rings, attaining to the effect I wanted to have and its ingredients at the top of the runes, which all fed into the center forming its own circle with the negative space, and a line of chalk made of powdered ashes of a Maple tree.

I knelt into the center of the ritual circle.

"Ingwaz." I said, as the rune glowed and the ingredient above it, a new sapling, levitated.

Goals, Growth, Change, Common Sense, Home. The rune marked the beginning of this ritual and would lay the groundwork for many more skills and rituals to come. It would also increase my growth and development so that I could easily grasp new spells and power.

"Ehwaz." I said even as I felt a headache starting to form.

Transportation, Movement, Progress, Trust, Change. Ingwaz would lay the groundwork and Ehwaz would increase my learning speed aided by Ingwaz. It's ingredient, centaur's blood.

"Perthro."

Quest for self-knowledge, Divination, and increased casting. A pair of dice.

"Algiz."

Protection, defense, instinct. Antlers of a stag.

The more I said those runes the more… I was getting tired.

"Dagaz."

Awakening, certainty, illumination, completion.

After I said that, the ingredients suddenly stopped moving. And as I fell to my knees in exhaustion, the last thing I saw was the ingredients burning and some light coming from beneath me.

And then everything went black.

Time Skip –

I learned something new as the days passed by. Casting was becoming so much easier than I couldn't actually tell what I thought and when I moved to cast, it just happened faster and faster.

Perk Gained
[A Sorcerer's Ambition]
Through a risky ritual you have gained tremendous boosts to your knowledge capabilities.
You advance faster in any skill relating to magic.

The changes were astounding as I could read any book and remember it word for word. Any information that I came across I could apply immediately, a spell chain in a book? I just need to know the spells and the sequence and I could do it, it's not as fast but the fact that I could immediately learn it, and then just keep practicing which already was made more effective by the perk, I would be unstoppable in a few years time.

Would be, is the key phrase. Even though I felt like I could take a break, I wanted to be more. And the fact that the ritual itself worked perfectly made me want to do more of them now rather than later.

Though it seemed to not have done anything to the horcrux, hopefully the second ritual can cleanse it.

But cooler minds prevailed, and I resigned to wait. Until next year at least and then I'll set up the physical portion of the ritual. As I had only done the mental aspect of it. Whoever created that ritual, must have become someone famous because even if the effects are halved, they could still make someone powerful.

And so I waited until I could do the physical rituals, and so after classes, I headed to the RoR to study and practice spells, and then later at night, I ate dinner and went to the library to check some books out. And for the rest of the night, I would practice either my potions skill or practice my dueling.

In the aftermath of the ritual, I made sure that I was still doing my studies and my assignments. And any time I didn't feel like reading or studying, I practiced quidditch and it also received the boost.

And then before I noticed it, it was Christmas time.

Minerva McGonagall –

When she heard his request, she couldn't deny him.

"See, this is for you, Mom."

Minerva closed her eyes. She felt the tears start to prickle her eyes at the sight. Lily's eyes still glazed over, somewhat staring at Harry as he offered his flowers.

He then put the flowers into the vase beside her bed, and then sat beside Lily as mother and son sat on the bed. Slowly and surely Harry reached out to hold Lily's hand, as he let his mother rest her head on his shoulders.

She left the room before she could let her tears fall.

A few hours later, she went to her personal office, as she gently led Harry there, after a few minutes she called a house elf for some food. Harry took a few biscuits and chewed on it.

He was such a silent child. So independent. So solitary. She had thought that his attitude stemmed from a new school filled with school. And as much as she couldn't, she could see Voldemort. In this boy, this boy who acted so much like an adult, who wants power. And yet, it is for love. The want of power to heal others is a noble pursuit, and she could only hope that he uses it to heal others rather than hurt them.

"I may not be your head of the house but how have you been?" She said as she started to grade some NEWT papers.

He seemed to be surprised at the question, before responding.

"Everything's fine, magic is great," he said, smiling a bit. "I made the quidditch team too."

In another world, it would have been his mother who heard this, or maybe he told Lily after she left the room.

"I really like DADA but Professor Quirrell seems to have a stuttering problem so I mostly self-study and…"

She had to hold in her smile at his enthusiasm, and she thought to herself that maybe everything won't be that bad.

Harry –

The next day was Christmas Eve, and I had already sent off my gifts, some were taken from the grocery stash that I stole before the term. As I woke up, I was greeted by a small pile of presents at the foot of my bed.

So I put it all in my inventory. The only one I opened immediately was the parcel wrapped in a silver, almost shiny wrapping paper. As I picked it up, it was very light. As I unwrapped it, I already had a suspicion on what it was.

Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it was held up by my hand, a note falling out of the parcel.

[The Cloak of Invisibility]
The Cloak was created by Death to make the wearer invisible.

It was strange to the touch, like silk but lighter. I threw on the cloak around and as I looked at a mirror, my reflection looked back with just my head suspended in midair and my body completely invisible. I pulled the cloak over my head and the reflection vanished completely.

I put the cloak into my inventory for safekeeping. And I read the note hidden in the parcel.

Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

[The Master of Death]

Objective:

Collect the 3 Deathly Hallows(1/3)

Rewards:

?

(Accept/Decline)

Why not right?

My progress shot through the roof as I had a few weeks without classes, it was an amazing opportunity to better myself. As I was determined to be as good as quidditch and brewing as they were the activities that took the most of my time currently. And then when they are good enough I can focus on leveling through everything else.

AN: Sorry for the really short chapter, I've just been busy.

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