Chapter 5 – New and old scars
The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge was having a lousy week. No scratch that, he was having a lousy bloody month. He had just come back from a meeting with the muggle prime minister about the current situation of chaos that was now raging in the wizarding world and he knew that his appointment as minister was hanging on a very thin thread. Somehow, even after the catastrophic incident of death eaters and You-know-who t appearing in the heart of the Ministry of magic itself and Albus Dumbledore in the middle of the mess, he was still minister. Unfortunately, it seemed that Dumbledore had been right, even though he refused to admit that to anyone, and now because of his actions the year before, the stubborn man refused to discuss anything with him.
And then there was Harry Potter, who was another thorn in his side. It seemed like the boy had told truth's last year, which he had dismissed entirely. He was also under Dumbledore's thump and had shown that he would not be on the ministry's side in the war that was sure to come. Saying that Cornelius Fudge was in a pickle, was an understatement. He needed allies and he needed them quickly. If he just could get the Potter boy to see reason, to stand on the ministry's side, but how?
He had recently got the information on the sealed will of Lily and James Potter. The ministry had got a notice from Gringotts that they were starting a legal investigation on the unlawfully sealing of the Potters will. In the will, however, it had clearly stated that it had not been Sirius Black that had been their secret keeper, but Peter Pettigrew. So, Black had been innocent after all. That bit of information wouldn't make the ministry shine in any greater light either.
However, clearing Blacks name and making amends for his imprisonment may be the first step in winning Potter over to the ministry's side.
He sighed. He had hoped that he would have a long and successful term as minister, earn enough gold and then be able to retire comfortably somewhere and don't give a damn about the world. Now, however, those chances seemed bleak. But he still had some useful and powerful contacts that could maybe give him a little more time and keep him in power to somehow at least fulfill some parts of his dream. He tossed his pinstriped cloak on the chair by his desk, buzzed his secretary for a cup of tea and then turned to the fire to request a fire call with Lucius Malfoy.
It had been almost 6 weeks since Harry had come into his inheritance and Azoth had shown up in his bedroom, declaring himself to be Harry's new guide. Since then Azoth had been working him hard, ten hours a day, to master and control his magic, the demon codebook and training him in close combat fighting, knifes-fighting and swordsmanship. Harry's days consisted of hours of grueling exercise, the practice of dueling, and hours and hours of studying different kinds of books of different subjects.
It had taken some time for Harry to get used to all of his new abilities that came with being a demon. The day after he arrived at the Potter manor, he had woken up in the morning and was completely overwhelmed by sounds and smells. His heightened sensed made him feel like he was standing in a crowded room full of talking people. He could hear the fly's wings and how they moved up and down while buzzing in the window, trying to finds a way out. He could hear the house-elves running around in the manor and Tibby giving out orders. He could even hear Azoth in the next room, sitting and reading a book and the sound of him turning the page. All the sounds had come all at once and had given him a tremendous headache. But soon his ears seemed to get accustomed to all the sounds and he slowly learned to block out some of them. The same thing went for his sense of smell.
His body and its endurance had greatly approved since he started with the grueling workouts Azoth drilled him in, like a mad army instructor. He could run further and faster than before and his muscle strength had also increased tremendously. He found it easier to lift the weights and could see a big difference in the bulk build of his arms, legs, and chest.
Harry most of all appreciated his new ability to memorize the information and instructions that he was given. He had always been good at studying and liked reading, maybe not as much or as diligent as Hermione, but still better than average. However, he never had had a very good memory to memorize instructions or remember everything that he read. Maybe that's why he always been doing so badly at potions. Potions brewing required a lot of memorization of information and instructions, which was not always printed out in the more advanced potion books, because the author assumed that that kind of things should already be known by the potion brewer.
Now Harry found that he could read a book and remember the content perfectly and when given instruction, he could understand and do the task with little or no difficulty. This had helped a lot him when his practicing magic and spell casting. Therefore he had taken to revising both some of the older Hogwarts textbooks of his school subjects, although he hadn't bothered with History of magic or Divination, but also reading some of the more advanced books that were NEWT level or higher, including subjects like Ancient runes and Arithmancy. He had also taken up reading about Wandless magic and Occlumency; something that Azoth had begun to teach him. Both subjects were very difficult to master, but painstakingly slowly Harry had gotten better at both, with the help of Azoth. Azoth had assured him that mastering Occlumency and Wandless magic was the first step to mastering his own demon magic.
Harry had returned to his family vault at Gringotts and gone through its content of items and books. He found a lot of useful and interesting books on many different subjects that he brought back with him. The Potter manor was also a great source of information. He couldn't get to the books in the Black family vault yet, because there was still a week until the reading of Sirius will, and Griphook had advised him to keep his Lord of house Black and Potter quite for now, because of legal reasons and Dumbledore. Harry also knew that Grimmauld places library was full of interesting dark arts books, but it still was the headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix and he didn't think that he could just walk in there and start going through the library.
Harry had spent many hours going all the information about himself, his family legacy, parents, and Dumbledore's betrayal over the last couple of weeks. He had also discussed it in length with both Azoth and Griphook. He and Griphook had both agreed to keep as much information from both Dumbledore and the ministry for as long as possible. Some information was impossible to keep secret, like the opening and reading of the Potters will, as the ministry monitored magical wills and inheritance, especially of the older pureblood family's. However, the other actions taken by Gringotts could be safely be confided within the bank. They were planning to erase Dumbledore's so carefully house of cards and slowly gathering all the facts and information that they needed to expose him.
Sometimes he wondered how many others that were in on Dumbledore's schemes. Were Ron and Hermione in on it? Were they really his real friends or were they just working in secret for Dumbledore? He didn't want to believe it. He couldn't. Just thinking about losing his two best friends felt like a dagger of ice was showed in his heart and twisted painfully. He tried desperately not to think those kinds of thoughts and here it was a good thing that Azoth made him train so hard. It kept him distracted.
They were training with knives again. Azoth did not hold back and Harry had to summon all of his willpower and concentration on all of his movement, so as not to get slashed or stabbed. He was slowly beginning to get tired. They had been at it for almost three hours, but he knew that Azoth would not give up until one of them at least had a mark on their body. Azoth made a sudden lunge at him and Harry took two steppes back. Then Azoth changed direction and he had to quickly duck and spin around. It was almost like dancing, but dancing with very long and very sharp blades.
Azoth grinned. One, two steps around again. Aiming for the shoulder. Now Harry took the opportunity to go on the attack, but Azoth was too quick. He again changed direction in the middle of a move, spinning on his tiptoes and swung his arm upwards in one smooth movement. Harry barely saw the knife coming towards his face; he only felt the pain and the wetness of the blood. He gasped, stumbling backward and then swearing loudly. Azoth had cut him on his right cheek, from right underneath his eye, all the way down to the end of his jaw. Harry felt it tenderly. It was stinging like hell, was deep, and was bleeding heavily.
"I could heal that for you" Azoth said whipping the knife blade off with a rag. "But, I think you should keep it, as a lesson."
"And what lesson would that be?" Harry said annoyed
"Always watch your back and always expect the unexpected. The path of movement can always unexpectedly change and it is therefore something you always have to take into account. " Azoth said. "Besides, It looks kind of good on you", he added waving the knife nonchalantly.
Harry sighed. Another scar for the collection, he thought bitterly. He had gotten several now on many different parts of his body, but mostly on his upper body when they had begun the training with knives and swords. Azoth always made sure to mark him in some way as to make sure that he understood that he had lost the match, not caring how badly or deeply Harry was cut, as long as he survived. And afterward, Azoth always gave the same snide comment that he should keep the scars as a lesson learned. Therefore, in the beginning, he looked like ha had been the victim of several really bad cutting curses. Now, he seldom made the same mistakes twice, but the same stupid comment was getting really old.
Azoth had put the training knives back in its place on a red velvet-clad table and was smirking, as usual. He waved his hand again and Harry could feel the blood stopped gushing and the wound closing up. He walked to one of the mirrors and looked at the reflection. The long gash looked partly healed like it had been made a couple of weeks ago, but it would still leave a gnarly scar. Harry didn't really care. What were one another scar to him? His eyes darted up to the old lightning scar on his forehead. It was on the same side as the new one on his cheek. Yet another scar on my face to remind me who I am, he thought bitterly.
"I think you might be ready." Azoth said, picking up a pack of smokes and taking one out of and lit it.
"Ready for what?" asked Harry, turning around to face the demon again. Azoth tossed the packet with the lighter to him. Harry took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, lit it, and inhaled. He was smoking almost as much as Azoth now and found that he was thoroughly enjoying it. It was very relaxing. Azoth was now studying him with an odd look on his face. Then he took a deep drag on the cigarette and let out a big puff of smoke.
"Controlling your fire." He said while snapping his fingers.
In between his forefinger and thump there was a small, flickering black flame. He turned his palm upwards and the flame traveled to the middle of his palm and grew to the size of an orange. Harry stared at it. Then without warning, Azoths whole body was engulfed in black flame.
