Chapter Five!
It had been four hours since Harry awoke from his dreams and during this time Harry had taken the first two potions to help him become healthy and strong. He'd also taken an hour-long run around the town. After his run, he went to the nearby forest and unpacked his tent, which amazed him even more once he saw it from within and had some breakfast - a full English breakfast. So here he was, sitting in the main bedroom as he thought about his forms, he was still shocked that not only did he had one, but in fact he had five Animagus Forms, a Shadow Wolf of some kind, a Kneazle, some kind of black dragon, a battle unicorn and a black owl. What was also shocking was that out of the five of them, four of them were magical and three of them were both powerful and had an elemental power, shadow, fire and lightning, respectively.
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard, Sirius's voice, "Harry Potter!"
As he heard his name, Harry picked up the mirror, "Hi Sirius." Harry said, the image of Sirius appearing in the mirror as he placed it on the bedside table.
"Morning Harry," said Sirius, "How was your night? Did you find your form or forms last night?"
"Yeah you could say that," Harry said with a smirk, and then he began telling Sirius the dream that he had the night before.
Once Harry told Sirius about his dream, he saw that the man's face was covered in naked shock, and he wasn't sure why. Worrying... Wasn't this what was meant to happen? "Sirius what's wrong, wasn't I suppose to have that kind of dream?" Harry asked, concerned.
"Not..." Sirius started, but stopped and reworked what he was saying,"You're only meant to get an image of the form/forms you're meant to become. Not... sharing a body with them. Not where you feel what they feel and all that, so you know everything there is you need to become them. That's what research is normally for, to learn everything there is to know about the beast you would become before you begin the transformation. If your dream was for real, then half of your work is already is done and so you don't need the notes your parents and I had for all the forms you might have been.Although I can say that like me, your parents would be proud and just as surprised by your forms, we would never have thought you would become a magical animal, although we hoped you might, let alone havefour."
"What do you mean papers that you and my parents made?" Harry asked, "And now that I think about it, why did you give me the box? I don't think you would have given it to me simply to live up to being Lord Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived. Sirius, what aren't you telling me?"
Sirius sighed, he had hoped he wouldn't have to tell Harry this so soon, but he had the right to know, so with a sigh he said, "You're right Harry, there is more to it than you living up to being Lord Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived, although you being Boy-Who-Lived is part of it. First off Harry, what do you know of prophecies?"
"If it wasn't for the end of last year, I would say it was load of rubbish," Harry said honestly, "Are you telling me that I have a prophecy hanging over my head?"
"I'm sorry Harry but put simply; yes." Sirius said sorrowfully, "But right now I'd rather not tell you exactly what it is. You see, there are people that can take it from your mind. So until I know you can protect it, I won't tell it. This is why I'll be teaching you Occlumency."Seeing Harry confused look, Sirius went on to say, "Occlumency is a kind of mind magic, it helps to protect you from people who can use the mind magic Legilimency, which allows to read a person's mind, which I'll teach you once you learnt Occlumency. Anyway, I was going to teachyou Occlumencyas it'll help with your Animagus related stuff. Once you transform into you Animagus formOcclumency will helpyou to protectyourmind from your animal's mind, it won't completely suppress it and I'm sure for the first few times you'll do things you normally wouldn't do as a human.But once you've transformed for a few timesyou'll start to have more control until the animal mind won't really affect you at all. Do have the Marauder's Box, as I like to call it?"
"Yeah I have, give me a minute," Harry said with a smile, he liked the name for the box. He took out the three by three inch box from the bag he brought with him, Harry correctly realized that if the saying "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,"would expand the box,then saying "Mischief managed,"would put the box back to the three by three inch box.
After saying the password that would make the box bigger, Sirius said, "In the third drawer the first two books you'll see will beA Beginner's Guide to Occlumencywhich will show you the basics of how to build up your mental shields. Now the next book that you'll find under it, is calledAn Advanced Guide to Occlumency,this book will explain ways of trapping your mind and setting up defences in case someone attempts to break in. But I wouldn't worry about it, you won't need the second book for a while yet, but I thought it be useful to understand what Occlumency can do."
Once Harry took the two books out of the third drawer, he looked through the first book, A Beginner's Guide to Occlumency. As he did so, he said honestly, "You know Sirius, I still shocked that I've got an Animagus form let alone five of them, four being magical and three of them were powerful ones."
"I wasn't worriedthat you weren't going to bean Animagus," said Sirius, "Because both of your parents were. So it wouldn't be a surprise that you were as well. Yes, your mum was an Animagus too, I'll tell you that story another time." Sirius added as he saw Harry about to inquire further, "We never thought you would become a Multi Animagus or a Magical Animagus. I have to say Harry, you must be very powerful. The three powerful are the most powerful of their race. The Battle Unicorn you already knew about, however, the winged shadow wolf you saw is known as the Royal Shadow Wolf, the most powerful and rare of their kind. The same for your dragon form, no one knowsits true name, but we call it the Black Royal Dragon due to every known dragon acting like it's their king. But from what you told me, I'm a bit surprised, as none of the dragons that we knew of can transform into a dragon/human hybrid. If what you say was true, then we need to research more about dragons. Anyway, once you learn the basics of Occlumency,we can start you on transforming into the shadow wolf,seeing that it was the first you saw and isyour main form."
Harry was understandably surprised but excited at the news about his wolf and dragon form, they were both rare and very powerful that they were treated like royalty by their species, at least the dragon was. Harry wished that Sirius was with him so he could have a face-to-face talk with him. "I wish you were here, Sirius, it would make things much easier."
"I know, Harry, I know,"Sirius said sadly, "But as you know, in England I'm a Wanted Criminal, and I would be given the Dementor's Kiss the moment I was caught."
"I know, Sirius, I know, but -" that's when he thought of something, something that he was thinking about since Sirius escaped Hogwarts. "But Sirius, I think you can come back, and don't give me that look," Harry added as he saw Sirius giving him a look that he was crazy, "Are you or are you not a wizard? Are you going to tell me that there aren't any spells to change your looks?"
Sirius blinked stupidly as his mind froze. He'd never thought about changing his looks, he wouldn't have to run and he could help his godson with the idiotic destiny that fate set for Harry. However, something came to him, "Harry, that's a great idea,but there a problem with the idea,"Sirius said grimly, "There's a spell that can cancel spells if a wizard or witch wanted, it's a small chance, but still a chance, that a wizard or witch could cast that spell and find out who I am."
Harry didn't think about that, if a wizard or witch cast that spell on Sirius, he would be taken away from him again, something he didn't want. Then he remembered his second year, when he and his friends used a potion called Polyjuice Potion, where they changed forms. He knew that potion won't work for Sirius, but still, "Sirius, is there a potion that can permanently change your looks, a potion that somebody can't cancel with a spell and needs another potion to undo?"
Sirius had to think about that. To be honest, apart from the Polyjuice Potion and a few other potions, he wasn't sure if there was a potion that could semi-permanently change a person's looks. However, it didn't mean that it couldn't be done, and he thought that he had heard once that his family knew about such a potion. So he said with a weary smile,"Harry, Ican't say for sure there's a potion like that, but before you say anything orbecome discouraged, Iseem to remember hearing about a potion that my family made that could be similar. I need to do some research about it first, but if I'm remembering right, your plan might work. But the problem would be if there is such a potion, is my identity."
"Well I've thought about that too," Harry said slyly, "And I got an idea for your new name from your nickname, Padfoot. The name I was thinking was Patrick Footman, Patrick from Pad, as many people call a person named Patrick, Paddy. And the surname Footman, from, well," Harry left that as it was; there was no need to explain where the name came from, as it was easy enough to know. "As for the paperwork, if you're willing to spend a few hundred Galleons, I think that the goblins would be willing to help you to gain a new identity."
"Harry, are you sure that the Sorting Hat didn't put you in the wrong house?" Sirius asked disbelievingly, the idea was rather devilish, something he hadn't thought of within the time he'd been free."Your idea is worthy of a Slytherin and a Ravenclew."
"Well the Sorting Hat did say I could do well in any of the houses, and that I would go far in Slytherin." Harry replied. "But it was after meeting Draco Malfoy and finding out that the person who killed my parents came from Slytherin, I asked not to go there - so I ended up in Gryffindor."
Sirius could only but nod at this new information about his godson, if he met Draco Malfoy and found out that the killer of his parents was in a house that he meant to go in, he wouldn't want to go there either."Harry, before I leave and let you readA Beginner's Guide to Occlumency,so you can start learning to transform in your forms, there's two other things I need to tell you about."Sirius said, "The first is that I want you to start wearing thebracelet, as the changes in your bodywill start soon.Next, in the first drawer, you'll find a silver like potion. I want you to drink it as soon as possible, although I'm not sure, I suspect there might be some blocks on your magic. As I said, I'm not sure, but the silver like potion will undo any blocks you might have. So if there isn't anything else, I'll talk to you soon, it'll be a few days, maybe a week before we can talk again, and if I'm lucky the next time we talk I can tell you that yourplan has worked."
"No, that's all Sirius," Harry said after a moment of thought, a bit shocked that he might have some magical blocks on him. "I'll talk to you soon, andpleasebe careful." He stressed before closing the mirror.
After shutting the mirror down, he put the bracelet on, and as he did so, the bracelet slowly sunk into his skin; until the only thing left was a small black tattoo. As the tattoo appeared, Harry examined it; it looked like a rope of chain wrapped around his wrist. The links were thin, but long, and it was more of a really dark blue than black, like he'd first thought.
After examining the tattoo, Harry took the silver potion that Sirius told him about. As he drank it, he didn't seem to feel all that different, as he thought he would. So he assumed he didn't have any blocks on him. He would have been wrong however, as the first few were from his parents, put on him to keep his accidental magic at bay, and themselves, safe. A few others were from Dumbledore, to make him weak and easy to control. But thanks to the potion, they were now slowly dissolving, a little at a time to allow him to get used to more magic. He would never know about them, even when September rolled around, he wouldn't notice, as he would put the extra power down to his training, and learning his Animagus Forms.
o0OoO0o
For the rest of the summer Harry spent more and more time in his tent, away from the Dursleys. To Harry the more time he was away from them, the better, only going back now and then to keep up appearances. The Dursleys thought it was great to have the freak away from the house as much as possible, so for all involved it was the best summer they'd ever had.
For the first week and a half he spent reading A Beginner's Guide to Occlumency,page by page and beginning to work on his Occlumency shields. The book told him there were many ways to build Occlumency shields, the basic way is to clear one's mind and build an invisible shield around your mind, using force to expel the attacker from one's mind. A true Master of Legilimency could break though these shields so the book explained that the best way to protect the mind isn't to shield it, but to hide the memories in an imaginary construct like a castle or mansion. You used a construct because you could hide the memories within the rooms and according to the book it said that with the help ofAn Advanced Guide to Occlumency,you could set up traps and defences within the construct to protect your mind should someone look for your memories.
After some thought Harry decided to go for the more advanced way of protecting his mind as he suspected that both Snape and Dumbledore knew Legilimency. It would explain how they knew things that they shouldn't and so he made his mindscape, as the book called it, a forest like he dreamt about with his wolf form. He began to hide all his memories in the portals that were in his Shadow Path, it would take him most of the summer to complete the task but by the time he returned to Hogwarts all his memories would be hidden. He had also began to think about the defences he would use to defend his memories and he decided that he would put his inner animals into the Shadow Path. So even if they could access that part of the forest and find their way into the Shadow Path, they would still have to face his inner beasts before they could get to the portals and he very much doubted anyone able to get into the Shadow Path would get far with the wolf, dragon, and his Battle Unicorn in there.
It has been almost two weeks since Harry last talked to Sirius and Harry was getting worried seeing that he hadn't heard anything from him yet. Sure, Sirius said he might not be able to talk to him for a week as he had a few things to look into but Harry thought that he would contact him if something had came up. He knew that with the mirrors Sirius could have sent him word. It was at the end of the second week and Harry was taking his morning run before heading back to his tent in the forest to use the exercise room. As he was running he was also thinking on how he could find out what happened to Sirius, knowing that he couldn't go to the magical police, seeing that Sirius was a wanted criminal.
As Harry was thinking about how to find out what was happening with Sirius he saw a man looking in his mid thirties with red hair, sky blue eyes, wearing dark blue jeans, a white shirt, a black leather jacket and a black backpack on his back walked up to him. There was something about this man that made Harry feel that he should know this person but he didn't know how this was possible. As far as he could tell he'd never seen this man before so when the man started taking with an American accent he was surprised, "I'm sorry, young man, but can you help me, please?"
"Of course, sir," Harry replied, "What can I do to help?"
"My name is Patrick Footman, Padfoot to my friends," Patrick said with a playful smirk, "I'm looking for my godson, Harry Potter."
"Padfoot, is that really you." Harry whispered in surprised shock.
"It's me, Harry." said Patrick, "I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you in the last week but once I found a potion to change my appearance I wanted to get all the paperworkdone before I came to see you. I know I should have called you but I wanted to surprise you."
"Oh Patrick." Harry said happily, as he gave Patrick a hug, "I don't care, I'm just happy that you're alive. So 'they' were able to get the paperworkthat you needed?"
"Yeah, 'they' were able to get me everything I needed," Patrick answered, "They even opened up a new account for me and made it so it looked like I'd been with them for years."
"That's great, Patrick," Harry smiled, "Let me show you where I'm staying for the summer." Seeing Patrick's confused face, he lead him to the forest and to where he was camped.
As Harry led Patrick to the forest, the disguised man was surprised that his godson was living in a forest. After all, shouldn't be living with the Dursleys? That was until Harry told him that he'd had a better time here, as both he and the Dursleys were happy that he wasn't living in the house anymore. Harry explained to Patrick that he could train better in the forest, seeing that there were many things he could use to get better at fighting and hunting. Patrick was happy that his godson was preparing himself to fight the Dark Lord that had ruined his and his godson's life and he committed himself to doing anything to help Harry live his life and get back at Voldemort.
So for the rest of summer up until the 24th of August Patrick helped train Harry to successfully transform into his shadow wolf and Kneazle forms. Apart for helping Harry with his transformation forms Patrick also taught him about the Dark Arts. When questioned about this,Patrick explained that most of the time people made the Dark Arts evil, not the magic itself. Sure sometimes the dark influences of the magic did turn people dark and twisted but that was when they didn't perform a cleansing ritual to remove the negativity of the dark magic. Normal people who didn't perform the cleansing ritual ether didn't know about it or they thought that the dark influence of the magic would improve their 'Dark' spell casting. Harry was shocked when he heard this as many people had told him that the Dark Arts were evil, corrupting people until they were dark and twisted and if they only needed a cleansing ritual, why wasn't this taught?
Patrick explained that it was the wizard or witch using the magic not the magic itself that was evil, after all, everyday sort of spells like the levitation charm, the stunning curse or the summoning charm could be used for evil. The levitation spell, for example, could be used to levitate a person out over a cliff or high enough so that when you cancelled the charm the fall would kill them. For the stunning curse, if you put enough power into it, you could stop a person's heart and kill them. As for the last one, the summoning charm, you could pull someone head first down some stairs or try and summon them though a wall.
He then went onto the Dark Arts and explained that there were many he considered evil to use, like the Cruciatus Curse and spells that meant to kill people. When Harry asked what the Cruciatus Curse was, Patrick explained it was considered one of the three Unforgivables. The three Unforgivables were the Cruciatus Curse, a curse that causes great pain to someone, and in Patrick's opinion there was no way to use the curse for a good purpose. The other two Unforgivables were the Killing Curse and the Imperio Curse and to Patrick they shouldn't be called Unforgivables as they could be used for good. The Killing Curse could be used when a person was dying a slow and/or painful death which couldn't be healed by spells or potions, it would be a humane way of killing the person, quick and clean with no chance of it going wrong. As for the Imperio Curse it could be used in three ways, one would to stop someone from committing suicide, the other was as a means to get someoneover a phobia and the last was to control someone when they were threatening another person's life, after all if they were under your control they couldn't hurt anyone.
After hearing Patrick's reasons and warnings, Harry was more than willing to learn the Dark Arts.
When Harry began to learn the Dark Arts, he made sure to ask if it had anything to do with the prophecy that was hanging over his head. Sirius explained that this was the reason, and after checking Harry's Occlumency shields, which surprised Sirius as they were the best he had seen in a novice, he told Harry the prophecy. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month die… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…' Sirius went on to explain that Harry's parents had told him the prophecy in case something happened to them, so that he could tell him about it when he felt the time was right. Sirius also explained that neither of them knew what this 'He will have power the Dark Lord knows not' was but Dumbledore who heard it firsthand had thought it was love and forgiveness. Both Sirius and his parents disagreed, James even had a good laugh over hugging the inhuman monster to death, so he and his parents planned to teach Harry everything that they knew, ensuring that Harry would know how to defend himself. Harry was outraged when he heard this, Dumbledore had known all about this and hadn't said or done anything to help Harry get ready for when Voldemort would one day return, causing Harry to start questioning Dumbledore's motives and planting a seed of distrust.
Although Patrick was teaching Harry many things about magic the main thing that he taught Harry was Parselmagic. The reason for this was twofold, not only was Parselmagic wandless, any opponent he fought wouldn't be able to understand what the spell being cast was. The reason people thought it dark was because not many people were able to do wandless magic, and of course the magic was spoken in Parseltongue, which is a sign in British eyes that the wizard or witch was dark in and of itself. For this magic, Patrick brought Harry many Parselmagic books from the Black library that they had used when generations ago there had been a daughter to the current head of theBlack family who could perform Parselmagic.
During one of their lessons Patrick suggested to his godson that he should start to build his own power base. When he saw Harry's concerned look he explained that when Voldemort returned one day he would have his own fighting force and to have allies in the Ministry of Magic ready to support his cause. After all, he pointed out, Dumbledoredidn't seem to be trustworthy so couldn't be relied upon to be on the same side as him.
By the twenty-fourth, his godson was a completely different child from when he'd helped him escape from Hogwarts. Harry was more confident in himself and had fixed his atrocious studying habits. He was well on his way to mastering wandless Parselmagic and he'd painstakingly gone over every spell, rune, arithmetic formula and potion he'd learned up until then and casted, carved, memorized and brewed them until he'd mastered them. He was also making good progress on his Animagus transformation, as yet only his Shadow Wolf and Kneazle forms were mastered but he could hold the others for a few seconds, aside from the dragon, as that form was proving more difficult. When Harry left on the twenty-fourth Patrick told Harry that he would see him over the next holiday for sure.
Harry decided that this had been the best summer that he ever had. Apart from having to spend some time at the Dursleys it had been brilliant. Living in the forest within the tent his godfather given him, where he had spent his time exercising and using the forest to get better at fighting and hunting. He'd also spent his time with his godfather and for the first time really got to know him and his parents.
As Patrick talk about his and his friends' past, he told Harry that to his great shame, he, Harry's father and their friends were nothing more than bullies when they started Hogwarts and sadly, James was the worst. Although most of the time their victims were people who 'deserved it' there were times when their victims had done no more than upset their group. James, the worst of them, used to bully people who looked at him wrong, didn't defer to him, or, when he got older, anyone who wanted to date his mother, Lily. Harry was upset and angry to hear this and had already guessed that their main victim was Snape, as it explained why Snape treated him the way he did. James did more to Snape than the rest of them and whilst they pulled pranks on him, it was only when he deserved it. Patrick explained that for James, apart from one time when he, Patrick, pulled a prank that went wrong and James saved him, James did everything he could to hurt and humiliate Snape, simply because he was friends with Lily and liked her a lot.
Harry, while understanding why Snape treated him badly, could clearly see that he wasn't like his father, since he hadn't bullied or humiliated Snape, promised himself he was going to call Snape out on his treatment at the next opportunity; pointing out to Snape how he was acting like a petty child with a grudge, or probably worse in Snape's opinion, like his father. Harry also felt ashamed of how his father and the other marauders had acted and was angry at them due to them being the reason Snape treated him so badly.
Patrick did explain that his father had changed after his sixth year but by then it was too late for Lily's and Snape's friendship and that they had split up just before the end of their fifth year. James had pulled a prank on Snape and when Lily tried to defend Snape, he had for some reason called her a Mudblood and ruined their relationship. For the following year Lily had spent most of her time alone and learnt to became an Animagus, her form being a Tiger; leading him and the others to call her Tiger-Lily. It was during the start of their seventh year when James changed that Lily finally, after years of disliking James, gave him a chance and not long after school they got married. Apart from other stories of his and Harry's parents' past,Patrick warned him that Snape had became a Death Eater, a follower of Voldemort, until he became spy for Dumbledore for reasons he didn't know. Knowing that Snape had become a Death Eater, Harry's opinion of Dumbledore fell further. Why was he was allowed to teach children? A more worrying question being, was he influencing those neutral in the Slytherin house to turn to Voldemort when he returned?
He was pleased with his progress with learning Parselmagic, he had also been able to transform into his Shadow Wolf and Kneazle forms. The first few times he made sure he was locked up in the tent, so that if his animal instincts took control of him it was within a controlled environment. But once he placed his animal sides into the Shadow Path within his mindscape, he began to explore the forest in both of his forms. The first time he'd come across a cat in heat when in his Kneazle form his control over his animal mind had shattered and his animal mind and body had then processed to fuck the cat. After the first round of mating, after he'd returned to his normal self, he found that he enjoyed the experience immensely, and he proceeded to work the female cat over until he was exhausted. From that point on his favourite hobby was to fuck any cats he could find when he had some spare time, causing Miss Figg many sleepless nights, kept awake by the yowling. By the 24th of August he had, by experimenting, also discovered that he could become human/wolf hybrid and was working towards becoming a human/Kneazle hybrid.
The last thing that happened to him before the 24th was that he learnt that his scar was something called a Horcrux. It was a few days before he had to leave for the Weasleys and he had a strange nightmare about Wormtail, a snake and a strange looking baby. They were plotting to kill someone, him, he thought and at the end of the dream the snake killed someone he didn't recognize. After telling Patrick about the dream, he got worried and began to run a few spells on Harry. He was horrified to find out that Harry's scar was a Horcrux and explained that a Horcrux was basically a soul jar. A soul jar allowed the creator to remain alive making it impossible for a person to truly die. And by the looks of it, Patrick believed that Harry's scar was Voldemort's Horcrux. Thinking about it, Harry asked Patrick if the enchanted diary in his second year could also have been a Horcrux and if so about how they would find out how many HorcruxesVoldemort had made. He also asked how they would remove the Horcrux from his head without killing him. Patrick, not knowing how to make a Horcrux, let alone remove one, assured Harry that it would be immediately fatal. After all he'd had it for years, but that he would look through the Black library for an answer and call in some favours he was owed whilst Harry was back at Hogwarts.
When the 24th of August came he went to the Weasleys for the Quidditch World Cup and for the first time he was sad to leave his holiday home, as he would be leaving his godfather; something he didn't want to do but did so as not to raise any unwanted questions at the moment. So, saying goodbye to Patrick, he went to the Dursleys' homeand waited to be picked up.
During his time at the Weasleys he went to the nearby forest to have some fun in his forms, spending most of his days exploring. During the Quidditch World Cup he was upset about the Death Eaters attacking, but decided he couldn't do anything about them even though both he and his animal sides wanted nothing more than to show them who the alpha male was. The risk of everyone discovering what he could do was too great, however, so he had left them be.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Authors Note:Here is another chapter of Mishap, I hope that you like the chapter and I hope you'll review and let me know what you thought and any ideas you would like to see in the story.
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