Authors Introduction: This story is a slash adaptation of "The Awakening of a Magus" by the-dreamer4. I plan on keeping a good bit of her content intact as I think the story as she has written it is utterly fantastic. My reason for this adaptation is to change some of the Magus story-arc to a Harry/Draco pairing. I plan to keep the story line mainly intact at first and then I imagine some serious divergence will occur. This adaptation is done with the kind permission of the-dreamer4. Please take the time to read "The Awakening of a Magus" here at Fanfiction.
The
Greatest of the Ancient Magics
Prologue - Fri, Jul 21 - Day 1
A golden thread connected Harry's wand with Voldemort's. A golden cage of energy surrounded them. To the strains of phoenix song, Harry focused everything in him, concentrated on the beads of light strung along the golden thread, forcing the beads towards Voldemort's wand. Voldemort was shocked, fearful; his wand shook. Then the shadowy figures of the victims of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced their way out of the wand …
And Harry Potter woke up in his bedroom on Privet Drive, shaking and sweating.
Chapter
1 - Fri, Jul 21 - Day 1
Chapter 1
Almost every night in the weeks since he had returned to the Dursleys' house for the summer, he relived some part of his last confrontation with Voldemort. Sometimes, it was the murder of Cedric Diggory or the unbelievable fiery pain of the Cruciatus curse. More, now, it was those moments when his sheer, stubborn will overpowered Voldemort's when their wands were connected. Looking back, he often couldn't believe he had accomplished such a thing, especially after the pain and torture before.
The other nights he experienced dreams on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Harry had never had much of an interest in girls but, towards the end of the school year he had noticed that he was becoming increasingly attracted to some of the other guys in school. He resolutely ignored these thoughts and chalked them up to nothing more than the stress he was under during the tournament. But now he had started dreaming of a certain blonde haired Slytherin.
The strangest thing about seeing Draco Malfoy featured prominently in his dreams, although that in and of itself was strange, was the fact that Harry felt such a strong connection to him in the dream. The dreams were never of a sexual nature. As dreams go they were relatively tame. They would be walking hand in hand around the lake at Hogwarts and talking. About what, Harry could never seem to remember. All he remembered of the dreams were Draco's presence and the unbelievable feeling of peace he felt. That was something he had never had in his life and it felt wonderful. Still, there was something that felt not complete about it at the same time.
Even though it wasn't light yet, Harry decided to give up on sleeping and got dressed. "Hmm." Harry looked at the fit of his clothes. "Uncle Vernon will have a fit. I must be having a growth spurt. I don't think my shirt and pants are suddenly shrinking. At least I'm not growing in the middle, like Dudley," he muttered, then sat by the window. He had gotten used to staring out into the pre-dawn sky, thinking the end of the tournament, and the growing feelings he was experiencing towards Draco Malfoy.
Some time later, as daylight filled his view, he heard the Dursleys stirring. "Ugh! Today is the day we have to take that trailer out into the country and pick up all that junk Uncle Vernon inherited from his cousin … or was it aunt … or cousin-in-law. Of course, I'll have to do most of the work. Wouldn't it be great to just use Wingardium Leviosa on that junk." He thought back to the way Hermione had lectured the others on proper pronunciation back in their first Charms class. Harry smiled to himself, then decided to try to get on Aunt Petunia's good … well better side … and start breakfast.
When Aunt Petunia came into the kitchen and saw Harry already preparing breakfast, she sniffed, then turned around to greet Vernon and 'my darling Dudley-kins'. Harry wondered how his Aunt Petunia, harsh, brittle, and cruel to almost everyone, could be the sister of his caring, lovely mother Lily.
"Boy!" Vernon bellowed. "You had better not cause any trouble today. And you had better not damage anything. We should be able to get a tidy sum selling off Cousin Letitia's clutter. There are plenty of fools out there who will think that junk is worth something." Rubbing his hands together, Vernon smirked and chuckled, while Petunia beamed.
"What will you buy me with the money?" Dudley growled.
Harry just muttered, "Yes, Uncle Vernon," and tuned them out while he finished cooking.
After breakfast, they all piled into the car, rode out to the house of a co-worker of Vernon's, and borrowed an open trailer with tarpaulins and ropes to tie everything down. The ride out to Cousin Letitia's country cottage was another two hours of misery, but that was nothing new. Dudley poked and prodded, verbally and with his pudgy fingers, delighting in the fact that Harry couldn't use magic to get even or he'd be expelled from his beloved Hogwarts. Harry just did his best to ignore Dudley, sometimes closing his eyes and breathing slowly and deeply to calm himself.
Once they got to Letitia's cottage, Harry saw that someone had packed things pretty efficiently in boxes, crates, trunks and such. Obviously, neither Aunt Petunia nor Dudley would do anything but observe and make nasty remarks about his work. Probably Uncle Vernon wouldn't do much, either. He was strong as an ox, but since he was so overweight and out of shape, he had no stamina to speak of.
As soon as he was sure what needed to go, Harry started hauling boxes out to the trailer. To distract himself, he would think back on his dreams from the past few weeks, though occasionally, something seemed to give him an uneasy feeling as he worked. It looked like a storm was brewing, but should move away from where they were. Maybe it's just the storm getting on my nerves, Harry thought.
"Harry Potter! I thought I told you no trouble," yelled Vernon, then his voice dropped and he hissed, "No magic!"
"Huh?" Harry grunted as he heaved the trunk onto the trailer. "What magic?"
"You must be doing something unnatural, or you never could have handled that trunk. It took two grown men to bring it up from the basement." Vernon was torn between fear and smug triumph at supposedly catching Harry cheating.
All Harry could answer was, "Well, I think I'm in a growth spurt. Maybe I got a bit stronger." Harry started past his uncle, heading back to the house for the next crate.
With his face turning various shades of red and purple, Vernon grabbed Harry's shoulder with one hand, spinning him around, and raised the other preparing to backhand Harry for his insolence. Without thinking, Harry adjusted his stance to regain his balance, and his right hand reached up to grab his uncle's wrist. He felt a wave of … something … energy, fill him.
His uncle's arm stopped as though it had hit a wall, his face registering shock, and then pain. Harry released his wrist as though it were on fire, and saw that bruises were already beginning to show where Harry's fingers had been. "I … I didn't mean … did I do that?" Harry stuttered, glancing back and forth between his uncle's wrist and his own hands held in front of him. The energy still simmered within him, slowly filling every part of his body, as he somehow became aware of every muscle, every tendon, bone and joint, even the blood pumping through his racing heart. Then lightning arced between the dark clouds that had gathered overhead without his noticing.
Vernon jumped, stared a moment at the threatening sky, and bellowed, "Dudley, Petunia, inside the house. Boy, you cover the trailer and then I have a great deal to tell you, you little freak." Then they heard Dudley cry out. He had been snooping in the trailer and knocked over a crate on his foot. Petunia ran towards the trailer, calling out about her poor sweetling. Just as she climbed into the trailer, a lightning bolt struck a huge tree next to the trailer. Harry couldn't say why, but he knew the storm and the lightning were unnatural, created by magic.
As the great tree slowly fell toward the trailer, amid Dudley and Petunia's screams, an intense purple glow formed around Harry. Despite how the Dursleys treated him, there had to be something he could do. Reaching out one shaking, glowing hand, he uttered an emphatic, low-voiced, "No!" A beam of purple light shot out, engulfing the tree like fireworks. Then the light and the tree were gone as though they had never existed.
As he looked at himself, shocked at the glowing light still surrounding him, he was struck from three different directions: a sickly-colored lightning bolt from above, and two magic spells from the sides. All three attacks hit the glowing purple energy, which acted like a shield. Harry instinctively raised both arms as though to deflect the attacks, though their force didn't reach him. Tendrils of purple light tracked back along the path of the attacks at high speed. Harry saw the storm clouds suddenly disappear, and heard two loud snapping noises and screams of pain. Harry's legs folded. He sat back on his heels, hands on the ground, panting, trying not to pass out. The purple glow faded away.
Two figures appeared between the trailer and the house. Looking around, they focused on Harry. One of them declared, "Harry Potter, you know that students aren't allowed to use magic outside the school!"
Disclaimer: Major characters and plot elements in the Harry Potter world through Year Four, and some from Year Five & Six, belong to J.K.Rowling and are copyrighted by her and others. Major characters in the Magus story-arc belong to the-dreamer4 and are copyrighted by her.