Chapter 3
Acceptance
The first thing that registered to Harry as he passed through the door was the faint smell of flowers, then the sound of a peaceful brook caught his ear, followed with the sounds of birds chirping in the background. Standing just inside the door Harry was perplexed by the sight in front of him he was standing in the middle of a clearing in what seemed to be a forest. Turning his head he looked back at the door, only to see just a door frame, standing in the middle of the clearing. No walls, no ceiling, just a door still showing the hallway he had just stepped out of. Confused, yet still very curious, he walked around the door only to find as he passed behind the door, the door disappeared. As if it were one dimensional only to be seen from the front.
"Where the bloody hell am I now" was the only thing he could think of, his mind still dumbstruck from walking from a hallway into the middle of the woods.
"Excuse me, but who might you be?" came a voice from behind Harry. Turning Harry noticed a tall man, built like a swimmer wiry, yet strength emanated from his frame. He was leaning up against a tree with his face pointed down, he had his hood pulled down over his eyes, so only his nose and chin stuck out of the bottom. His stance was suppose to give the impression of a man relaxing against a tree, yet it was slightly ruined by his left hand resting on the pummel of his sword, dangling from his hip. His cloak hung around him covering most of his body but still the blood red color of his breast plate shone through.
"Um Harry Potter, Sir. Mr McDermott directed me to your door." Harry voice came out in a squeak, this man made McDermott look gentle.
The man rose off of the tree and gracefully started walking towards Harry. Then without warning the man apparated from view without a sound. Astonished Harry spun around looking for the man only to come within millimetres of a blade. The mans sword fixed right between his eyes, unwavering in his strong grip. Harry froze not even daring to reach for his wand, somewhere subconsciously he knew that if this man had wanted him dead he wouldn't be breathing now.
The man slowly raised the sword to brush Harry's hair away from his forehead. Then dragging the point of the blade just above the skin, mimicking the shape of lightning bolt scar.
"So you are" said the man in a calm voice finally taking his blade away from Harry's forehead and replacing it back into the sheath on his hip.
"I have been expecting you, Mr Potter!" the man said a slight smile on his lips. " Sorry for the introduction, I'm not a very trusting person. My name is Arthurius. I am the man the Brotherhood has deemed worthy of training you, if you should accept said training offered to you?"
"Tr...Training, I'm sorry I don't know what your talking about" Harry stared at Arthurius as if he had grown two heads.
"Why was I summoned here, where exactly is this WestHaven, and who is the Brotherhood of the mage."
"Ah I see, you really have no idea why you are here or where here is for that matter" with this said Arthurius gave off a small chuckle.
"Well lets start from the beginning shall we" with a wave of his hand two comfy leather chairs appeared from nowhere.
"Would you like some tea?" Arthurius asked waving a hand and a small table appeared between the chairs with two cups of steaming tea on it.
"Yes, yes sir, thank you" Harry said in a shaky voice, awed by the show of wandless magic Arthurius had just shown. he claimed a cup of tea from the table and sat in one of the chairs, Arthurius took the other tea and also sat down.
"Well Harry the brotherhood of the mage is an ancient sect of wizards, we are what you would call a war wizard, a mage. We specialize in fighting and defending for those too weak to defend themselves. We used to have thousands of brothers, but alas the last few uprising of dark lords has crushed our numbers to that of a mere hundred brothers. Grindelwald destroyed half the numbers we had at that time, we still havent fully recovered from his attacks on our kind. If it wasn't for Dumbledore defeating him, our brotherhood would not exist at this time."
"Now as to why you are here, we as the brotherhood wish to train you in the Art of War so that we do not have a reoccurrence of the tragedy that befell the wizarding world with the rise of Grindelwald."
"Voldemort poses a threat too great for us to just ignore any longer." Arthurius paused for a second to take a drink of his tea and regard Harry.
"After the first time you defeated Voldermort, the time you received that scar." he stated pointing to Harry's forehead.
"We had approached Dumbledore, asking permission to raise you and train you in the ways of being a mage. Dumbledore had refused our offer of help, saying that the blood from your mother was the only way to insure your safety. He also prayed that you would have the opportunity to grow up as a normal child. Without a care in the world. He did not want you to be raised into a "weapon" as he called it. Against our better judgement we allowed Dumbledore to have his wish. The Brotherhood owed Dumbledore too much for the help he gave us in the last Dark wizard war."
After his death we received a letter, requesting that if he should pass away the Brotherhood would contact you, and train you so that you, Harry can defeat Lord Voldermort once and for all."
"So the real question is will you, Harry accept our help?" Arthurius raised his eyes to stare at Harry with great intensity, patiently awaiting his reply.
Harry sat in a state of shock. He dropped his gaze from Arthurius and stared at his feet. Arthurius was asking him to turn his whole life, his very existence upside down in a sense. Yet even though his mind felt slow and drugged trying to take in all the possibility's of the fore given question, his instincts were at full blow. He felt the urge to except Arthurius's offer, almost as if his body demanded it of him. After living through five confrontations with Voldermort, one learns to trust ones instincts. So without more thought, Harry raised his eyes level with Arthurius still intense gaze. Meeting it with equal determination.
"I accept your offer." He stated in an unemotional, flat tone of voice.
"Before you fully accept this offer, know this. time flows different here within this forest domian. what may only be a few months outside, will actually be close to a few years. so even though training may seem as if it has lasted for years, in reality i may have only lasted a few months."
"Now if you do decide, you will be totally at our mercy, there will be no outside interference while your training is underway. No letters from friends or family, no outside visit's. There will be only training, there is no room for anything else."
"Ron, Hermione please forgive me." Harry whispered to himself. His heart pleading with him to reconsider the request. Yet his mind ran through what seemed to be a million different scenario's as to decide the pro's and cons of excepting the offer given to him. Finally it boiled down to a memory he saw in Dumbledore's pensive. A prophesy dictating what seemed to be everything in his life, him against Voldermort. He needed this training to ensure Ron an Hermione would be safe. That was the finally blow to his pro's and cons list. Their safety.
"I accept your terms, and your training." Harry stated, his eyes never leaving Arthurius's.