Disclaimer; If I owned the rights to this would I be letting everyone in the world read it free? I mean, of course I would let you, my friends read for free, but the rest of those bums…
/This means people are talking to each other in their heads./
"Like it or not, you have status. You have fame. You are a rich man. You have responsibilities to society to not abuse these things. I will teach you how to live well. How to live a life of respect and influence. You will learn to be a cultured individual. When your battles are done, what I teach you will make life manageable." Saetan was pacing his office. Since he had no Jewels yet (he had laughingly been told that no, those weren't the right kind of jewels at breakfast when he brought out his horde), they had agreed to stick to subjects which didn't require Craft for the first week.
"We will begin by teaching you how to walk! When you walk, your posture, body language and demeanor screams out that you are a mere servant. This is unacceptable. You are a Warlord Prince, and you will wear a dark jewel, mark my words. That and your position in the Lady's Court requires that you learn to walk appropriately.
"When you walk, make your back rigid, your strides long and firm, and your face a mask of being incredibly busy. This will project your dominance and importance. You must be careful however that you do not appear a pompous overblown buffoon. Watch closely." Saetan demonstrated a basic self important walk several times before having Harry try. Harry did not seem to be able to pick it up as easily as he should have. Years of mental abuse had wreaked havoc on his self esteem.
Seeing that the subtleties between a swagger, a parade, and a strut would be lost on the boy before he recovered more confidence, Saetan moved on to an area where Harry had no trouble at all; entertaining and playing host to guests. He instructed Harry in how to mix yarbarah properly, how to properly heat it and serve it. He was just getting into how to deal with high profile guests when it became time for lunch.
"Sir, before we go down to lunch, something Daemon said to me last night confused me. I was hoping you could explain it since he said something similar about you."
"I will certainly do my best to explain, you are still new here and there is much to learn."
"He said I was the son of his soul, and offered to stand at my birthright ceremony so people wouldn't look down on me for not having family. He said you said the same about Jaenelle."
"Oh, I was not aware things had progressed like that. Basically when he offered to stand with you at your ceremony it was an offer of adoption. He is welcoming you into our family as his son. The part about being the son of his soul means he feels that the two of you are extremely similar. I assume he talked to you about his past?"
"Yes sir, and I told him about my life. I admit that we have both dealt with a lot of hardship."
"And it is because of that hardship that he feels he can trust you and respects you. Welcome to the family."
Daemon surprisingly showed up in his lessons with Jaenelle. They were working in one of Jaenelle's laboratories, which cause both envy and fear among some of the court. Envy in those that had never been privy to just how Jaenelle did certain things, fear in those that had. They knew that Jaenelle, for all she was a powerful witch, made mistakes, and being powerful, her mistakes were often exciting.
They traded potion recipes and basic healing techniques like using craft to seal a cut. Harry was determined to learn the recipes to whatever it was he and Sadi almost killed themselves with, but Jaenelle just smiled and refused. After a small explosion left them covered in purple dust and distinctly lavender scented, Daemon decided to take charge. He shoo-ed his wife out saying it was time for male bonding. Her opinion on that idea implied that she thought her supplies of liquor showed them sufficiently bonded already.
"If you are interested Harry, I would like to give you lessons too. Our lessons will be a bit different though."
"What would you be teaching me sir? Your family is already teaching me to fight, heal, business, and social skills."
"Well, let's think about that shall we? I was the most famous pleasure slave in the history of the Blood. I was also a virgin until after I met Jaenelle. Is there anything I might have learned in over 1,700 years of pleasing witches that a teen aged warlord prince might want to learn?"
Seeing Harry go red like a tomato, Daemon had to chuckle.
"Don't worry, we'll start with something that is both very simple, and yet skirts the boundries of the taboo. I assume, as a young man who is almost an adult, that you are aware of what happens to witches once a month? Well once we get your senses trained to work with your craft, it will be blindingly obvious when a witch near you is undergoing that cycle.
"I am rather famous for being cruel or sadistic. This is not always true, I am just extremely picky who I show favor too. The brew I am about to show you is one I invented for certain witches. It is one no one else knows, I would prefer to keep it that way by the way, and one that works far better than most."
Daemon began showing him all the proper proportions for his secret moon time brew. Harry, not being a shabby potions student if given room to work, picked up the simple mix easily. They prepared several tea bags so he would always have some on hand if he found a worthy witch in need.
"If however the witch is a black widow, or in the Twisted kingdom, you will need to add just enough powdered belladonna to coat the back of your fingernail. Black widows and those seeing visions, need traces of poisons to help their mind cope with the visions. Don't put too much, it is poison after all, but that trace will help keep them sane. The friend you mentioned was like my mother, it is likely she would need that blend."
"Come see me after dinner and we can get started on the other lessons if you wish."
"First, we will teach you how to walk," Daemon began later that evening.
"But your father is already teaching me that. I'm not very good."
"No, my father is teaching you to act like a statesman or nobleman. I am teaching you to seduce a beautiful woman. That we both chose to start with how to walk is a coincidence. In fact, am willing to bet that if you show up sober tomorrow morning Lucivar will start with how to move in a fight. All three are interrelated. All three require confidence that you can perform well. Once you have mastered all three ways of moving and body language, you will almost be able to hold a conversation without words.
"When you have learned to move as a nobleman, a seducing male, and a warrior, they will blend into something uniquely you. And that is a truly powerful thing, it will warn the males that you are too important and powerful, and it will let the females know that you are able to protect them and please them. And that is just the beginning.
"If you want to seduce a woman, it starts from the moment she sees you, not the moment you decide to open your mouth. The way you dress, the way you walk, the look in your eye and the smile on your face."
"I see. But what if I only want one woman?"
"Good, you're learning. The trick is to make every woman in the room desire you. Let them make fools of themselves, make them beg. But that one woman of your heart, when she comes to you, you give her what you don't give anyone else. Talk to her, pay attention to her, caress her, and dance with her. I can captivate an entire castle full of women, make them want me, lust after me, but when I only pay attention to Jaenelle, it makes them jealous and her feel even more beautiful. After all, I could choose any woman in the world, but I chose her. When you can make a witch feel that way, she is yours.
"But you must never abuse what I teach you. If you do, I promise that you will regret it until the day you die, which might not be too far off. I am not teaching you my skills so you may have a list a mile long of women who have visited your bed. I spent enough years as a whore to know there is no happiness there. I am teaching you so that when you find the right witch, you can please her like no man has ever pleased a woman. Now back to the lesson."
They practiced walking and body language, Harry began slowly building confidence and skill, though he was far from a master. Daemon eventually called a halt after a little while of practice, but decided to give a bit of home work. Calling in two thick books from the library Daemon set them in front of Harry.
"These books are manuals that healers study to get an idea of what makes people work inside. They use them so that they can heal. You and I will study them for a different purpose. We will meet again next week. When we do I want you to be able to tell me from memory where on the body the largest concentrations of nerves are found. I want you to tell me for males and females how to stimulate them for pleasure or for pain. From the simplest caress to stabbing them with a knife, I want you to learn what makes something feel good and what makes it feel bad. How to cause the most painful experience and how to make them melt in pleasure. Once you understand both, and for both sexes, we can move on to more advanced techniques."
"Why do I need to understand pain too? And why do I need to learn about men if you are teaching me about women?"
"There are many reasons. Sometimes pleasure feels better when mixed with pain. A woman who digs her fingernails into her lovers back for instance, or when a man nibbles on his witch's throat. When you learn about what causes pleasure and pain, you can learn how to mix them in just the right proportions. And you are to learn about men as well as women because I am not just going to teach you to please a woman. I will teach you at least the basics of all of my skills. I will be teaching you other skills that are more important if you are to be a male of the SaDiablo family, some that only I have a reputation for using. There is a very good reason the people of Terriele fear my name."
The rest of the week was pretty quiet, no crises or explosions. His assorted tutors gave him the theory behind what they called "basic craft" but he called amazing. He saw them pass their arms through solid wood tables, levitate and twirl objects, summon balls of fire, and hold objects in a pocket of reality only they could access. He saw Jaenelle and Lucy walk on air and water, and have snowball fights in mid summer. For every thing he saw that he had previously thought impossible however he found another that seemed to make him think his world had it right. While these people seemed to be masters of charms and battle magic, they could only perform the most basic of transfiguration or potions.
His own healing skills, learned the hard way through years of being Madam Pomfrey's favorite guest were at least as good as what Jaenelle was trying to teach him. His potions and salves were perhaps more effective than her own, though he could not use a healing web like she did and so could not perform more than basic first aid.
His work with Lucivar went well, and he was beginning to show promise. His years of quidditch experience gave him superior reflexes and the ability to dodge most blows, but blocking or attacking on his own still needed a lot of work. His practice with a bow and arrow left much to be desired. One would think that years of aiming a wand and shooting spells would prepare you for something like that, but he had to learn to aim all over again because arrows didn't fly straight. They fell and sometimes curved to one side or another. He had never had to adjust for range or wind before and found it challenging but fun. He already had some interesting ideas for when he could use Jewels like the others.
Saturday morning found Harry sitting with his back to a tree using charcoals and a quill to draw. Hedwig made comments from time to time, but mostly just slept against his side. She had had lessons of her own with various kindred and apparently had the equivalent of a birthright ceremony of her own for she now wore a pretty opal jewel on a band of silver around her neck. Harry and Hedwig decided that the next weekend they would go visit their friends for at least a few hours.
Lucy walked up, "Hello Harry, Hedwig, what are you working on?"
"Oh, well I am drawing myself as an owl, and Hedwig here is helping me. She lets me know when I draw feathers the wrong length or the wrong types in the wrong places. I've drawn myself like this hundreds of times, and still need to do a bunch more before I can transform properly. A few more weeks and I might be ready to try."
"Why do you need to draw to become an owl?"
"It's part of the process. I need to be intimately aware of every single part, every last feather of my form. Drawing this way teaches the wizard, err… warlord, to visualize each minute detail. Once I have a perfect image in my mind there is a charm I will use to make my body more flexible. When my body is flexible and my mind is ready I begin imagining each miniscule transfiguration of my body, turning one part into another. The first step, which I have already done, is to use a special potion to put a person into a trance and give them a vision where they see themselves approached by an animal totem. This totem then melds with the seeker, and a new form is presented before them.
"Because it takes three separate branches of magic or craft, and many hours of preparation, most people never attempt it."
"Why are the feathers on your head all messed up?"
"Well surely you noticed my hair is messy all the time. I can't help it. Not even magic can make it sit straight. So when I am an owl, my feathers don't sit right either."
"Oh! Most of us just thought you were lazy and didn't brush it."
Harry let out a bellowing laugh, Hedwig woke up and gave an annoyed hoot before biting his hand.
"Sorry to wake you up Hedwig, no, my hair has stayed exactly this long and exactly this messy my entire life. My relatives who I don't like tried to cut my hair a lot when I was young, but the next morning it was always back exactly how it was."
"Maybe you should tell the rest of the family that. They didn't think anything of it after you and father got drunk, but the past couple of days have made them start to wonder about you."
"I'll tell them at dinner then."
"Ok, could you teach me how to fly on one of those brooms you use? You said you would. Pretty please?"
"Alright you little rascal, I'll teach you. Here, you hold onto my sketch book and I will get us some brooms. It just so happens I bought an extra before I left because I didn't know about how you fly and was going to teach your mother."
"Ok, run up to your room and get them!" She squealed as she vanished the sketch book into the space she held with craft.
"I don't need to leave, that is what magic is for, ACCIO FIREBOLTS!" His own Firebolt and the new one still in its wrappings flew out of the window of his room and came to rest before him on the grass.
"Alright, the first thing you need to do is hold your hand out over the broom, palm open, and say in a firm voice 'Up'. You need to say it with conviction and belief. The broom will come into your hand if you believe it will. Like this… 'UP!'" The Firebolt on the ground next to him leapt into his hand with great speed and enthusiasm.
"Up!" Lucy's broom rose into her hand slower, but steadily. "I did it!"
"Good job, I knew you would get it first try. You belong up in the air and this broom is just another tool to get you up there. Now, put one leg over the broomstick and let your bottom sit just where the tail of the broom starts. Keep both feet on the ground for now."
"Hey, it's cushioned! I thought sitting on the wood would be hard."
"Yes, the cushioning charm keeps it comfortable. Now, when you lift your feet off the ground, you will be hovering. If you sit still the broom won't move. If you lean backwards the front of the broom will rise into the air as if you pulled up on the stick, if you lean forward it will tilt downward. Leaning left or right will cause it to drift. Lets focus right now on just drifting left or right. Don't think about flying forward or back yet, let's just drift from side to side."
After a few rocky starts where Lucy either tilted the broom and fell off or leaned so far she hung upside down, she eventually mastered drifting.
"Ok, now we move on to turning. Grab the broomstick in both hands and turn it while drifting. You should be able to move in a circle around me without facing away from me. Think of it as strafing a target if you move while shooting a bow."
She learned to circle him in both directions, going slowly at first, then gaining confidence.
"Lastly, how to go forward! To move forward, simply let your magic flow into the broom and will it to go forward. It helps a lot of people to think of it as "pushing" off the ground or some imaginary wall, at least at first. How hard you push determines how fast you go. To stop, push forward or just will yourself to stop. These brooms have pretty advanced stopping charms and if you aren't braced for it stopping suddenly can throw you off the broom.
"I'll go slow at first and you try to follow along beside me okay? Let me know if you need help."
As Lucy got the hang of riding a broom, she and Harry grew to really like each other. The afternoon was spent lazily circling the Hall and discussing the differences between the two worlds. Harry decided he really like teaching and thought maybe he ought to get more involved with the first years this coming term. They returned just barely in time for dinner and walked into the hall a few moments late after stopping to change.
There was great amusement over "Harry's hairy problem" as Lucy put it.