The Shadow of the Wizarding World
By: Jamnaz79
Beta: Winged Seer Wolf
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Note: I do not own Harry Potter for the book, movies, etc etc etc. I could say that if I did own Harry Potter that I would have found a way for the tri-wizard tourney to contain more schools. It seems silly that there are only three wizard schools in all of Europe.
-SotWW-
Albus Percival Brian Dumbledore sat in his office leaning back into his old chair to watch a group of tiny silver artifacts sitting on his far wall. The artifacts normally spun together in a random patterns to tell the aged wizard the situation regarding one particular boy of interest. They had been setup ten years before when events unfolded that made Harry James Potter into the boy-who-lived. While Albus could not be there with the boy daily or raise him, heaven forbid that he was far too old! He did care what happened and found the boy important to his plans. Hence the old wizard was staring at the wall, since all of the artifacts at once had stopped moving.
Each of the five different artifacts were keyed the magical core of young Mister Potter. One was keyed to the wards that were strung through Harry's and his own Magical Core to provide protection to the boy. A second was placed to determine if the location of the boy, it would be able project the address of wherever the boy might go unless he was behind extremely powerful wards. The third artifact would display the relative strength of the boy's core growth. It could determine how powerful the young wizard was and project his learning and where it might become more powerful. The fourth determined the leanings of the heart, or so he believed, it helped to show if Harry was on the right path to a proper life as a light wizard. The final one was the most important as it showed that Harry was alive and living. So of course there was some consternation when all of these artifacts at once stopped and went silent.
In fact Dumbledore had just stood up about to go check on the devices as surely there was a mistake that they had somehow malfunctioned when three of the devices exploded shattering the shelf, dumping the rest of the contents to the floor and turning to silver slag. Luckily for Albus he was the Supreme Wizard of his age and was able to weave a quick wandless, silent spell of protection for him. Yet, he was not so lucky for his belongings in his chambers.
It had taken the aged wizard an hour to put back together the two artifacts that had not exploded. The artifact linked to young Harry's magical core health glowed bright as the noon sun when it was turned back on. It caused even his phoenix familiar to squawk in anger as the light disturbed it's nap, funny enough it had slept through the explosion. Albus took this to be wonderful news since this meant that Harry was fine magically and actually surprisingly out of the blue he had become extremely powerfully charged to his core.
The second artifact was the health tracer which now spun putting off a warm light. Albus could tell this meant that Harry was better now physically and emotionally then he had been ever before. Of course the fact that most likely he was partly responsible for the past trauma's and home life did bother the Leader of the Light. He knew that for the Greater Good was a great slogan and he wanted to always do what was best for the masses, but even to him it could still hurt the sacrifices that he had forced on young Harry.
It had been a trying few weeks since the end of the term for the Headmaster. He had time to think and think over his mistakes, which were numerous since he had such a long life. He knew he had made a horrible mistake now by putting the boy with that terrible excuse for people and a muggle family. He was quite certain if his sister were able to come back from the dead she would slap him for his mistake. He should have listened to Minerva when she mentioned the type of people that they were. Perhaps he could have placed the boy to be raised with the Weasley or Longbottom family or even raised by a different light wizard family.
The problem had been that the Longbottom's were a target too and just a day after the attack on the Potters if he had placed him there he most likely would have been killed when Frank and Alice were harmed. The Wizengamot would never have allowed Remus Lupin to take the boy, not to mention that the man became a drunkard and disappeared unable to reached until a few days ago. Perhaps bringing him in to become the teacher of the Dark Arts this year might help young Harry calm down and adjust, and be a good influence on the boy. Still, the question remained whom could he have trusted with the most important boy in the world. If you cannot trust your own family who can you trust?
Albus let out a sigh at the thoughts running through his head, he glanced over towards his phoenix familiar, "Do you think I will be able to get the boy to forgive?"
The bird seemed to bow its proud head towards the Headmaster before letting out a squawk. Albus gave the magical bird a smile the nodded his head, "I hope you are right Fawkes. I will give him some time to calm down then speak with him. Harry has the ability to forgive in his heart, I am sure I can make him understand that what I did was for the best for him."
The old man took out a quill and parchment and started to write a letter to the boy.
-SotWW-
It had been a few weeks since classes had let out. At the moment Harry was living in the London Flat that belonged to House Potter. His fate for who had the right to raise him was in dispute in the Ministry between the Diggory and Longbottom families. Not to mention more than a few families tried to make a claim to have the right to adopt the Boy-who-lived. A few of those seemed to have eager mothers that might play matchmaker, one most likely being Ms. Weasley.
Harry though was very happy in his flat for the time being. It was on a tenth floor condo located in downtown London with a beautiful view of the Thames River. The flat had four bedrooms and three bathrooms, a large sized kitchen with an open feel to the place. The place had been cleaned to a spotless shine by the happy House Elf Dobby.
The House elf had returned a week ago to Harry notifying him that he had this residence ready to live in. While it appeared that the Manor was not able to be reached till his age of majority, and would need exhaustive repairs that could only be afforded with his inheritance, Harry still had the right to live in the flat here or in Paris. Harry had already started to learn French, the chance to visit another country excited the boy!
Dobby's mission had been successful in a typical Dobby way. Harry first entered the flat to find an entire room stacked floor to ceiling filled with Potter family items and artifacts. What was worse was that each of the boxes were magically filled so there was literately enough heirlooms, books, clothing and random junk to last Harry all Summer to sort through. But, that had been resolved from a few orders from the boy which Dobby returned most of the items to the storage in Gringotts.
Dobby had acquired two paintings that were kept, along with numerous family histories and journals for the Potter family that Harry found interesting. These new books and portraits lined the walls of the library which was formally the fourth guest bedroom. Dobby had also found a tapestry which magically showed all of the Potter family relatives that carried up to first cousins. Unfortunately it appeared there was only Harry left on the chart, it was still a great resource to track in the future.
The two paintings that Dobby had found were of Theodore Potter, a former Headmaster of Hogwarts that lived from 1598 till 1621. According to one of the family books he was part of House Ravenclaw and grew in renown as a great scholar at the time and helped to invent the levitation charm! Ironic that the first magical spell that Harry had cast willingly with a wand was actually invented by one of his ancestors! The second portrait that was found was of Dorea Potter nee Black. Lady Potter was the wife of Charlus Potter, Harry's grandfather. He was excited for the chance to talk to her and connect to his own real blood family. Unfortunately both paintings had been asleep since they had been found. According to his roommates that would eventually wake up and be able to chat with him before the end of the Summer.
Harry figured that his next task for the dedicated House Elf would be to investigate his godfather Sirius Black, a known convict, and then perhaps he would set the elf over the school year to looking into details of the past of his mother's mysterious family. So far all Harry had been able to determine was that her House name was Turkish for Shadow. The question was why?
One of the guest bedrooms was occupied by Tonks, whom had become the unofficial guardian of the boy. Rather ironic that her mother Andromeda Tonks was one of the families trying to adopt Harry to raise him as well. Kingsley stopped by daily just to check on Harry but had assigned Nymphadora to the boy full time. Or at least till it was decided whom would be in charge of the care of Harry.
The residence was warded, as heavily as possible for a muggle condo could be, for the time being. But the ministry was taking no chances that any trouble could occur to Harry while he was under their protection. He had even been able to get Kingsley to submit and get approved a request to allow him to practice magic in the apartment for the time being. It was done under the decision that was in his best interest for "safety" due to recent events.
Harry's roommate Tonks had to do a daily regime work out for her Auror training, even on assignment it was expected for her not to slack off. So luckily for the boy he had been drafted into the same routine. The workout included a brisk run at the break of dawn, a series of physical exercises, weight training, hand to hand combat and finally meditation. She had "invited" Harry to join right away into these activities and to her surprise Harry had been happy to join. It could have had something to do with Tonks wearing a tight top, yoga pants during the work out and the boy being a thirteen year old with high hormones but Tonks had instead spun it that he looked up to her. In either case the important part was Harry was keeping up his new body and even working to improve it.
The part of the training the peeked Harry's interest the most was the meditation training. Tonks mentioned this was useful for learning to feel your magical core. Harry remembered the conversation with Tonks about it a few days ago.
Harry was seated on the couch enjoying a cup of tea with his mother's journal open in his lap. He had been reading up on her life from start to end. He craved to know every detail he could possible know of his mother and father. Unfortunately this morning he had not been able to concentrate to read anything so far from the book.
The reason of Harry's distraction was off to the right; Tonks sat on a blanket going through stretches. She was starting up some new type of eastern routine for physical training called Yoga. It seemed to involve stretching the body in random positions that to a guy might be rather painful, but to the metamorphic woman, it was rather easy. Not that Harry would ever complain, after all the way she bent her body was just too lovely a distraction. He couldn't help but wonder if some of the girls at Hogwarts could bend like that! Most girls at Hogwarts didn't have a matured body like this.
Harry sipped his tea as he watched Tonks lean her body forward in a push up position then drop her large chest to the ground before she thrust her firm backside into the air. The boy prayed to god in thanks to whatever muggle invented the spandex yoga pants. He watched the eighteen year old drop her ass back down to the ground only to push her arms upwards thrusting her chest, trapped in a sports bra, up as her hair whipped into the air. Harry couldn't help but think how much better this summer was then the Dursley Summers were, besides the almost dying part.
The boy's moment of enjoyment was interrupted as he heard Tonks speak up, "If you are going to stare Harry, you might as well join me. It will make you loose and relaxed."
Harry's cheeks turned crimson at being obviously caught but he swallowed his back while speaking, "I think I am loose and relaxed up here Tonks. I will do a bit of stretching before this new exercise you want to try today. What is it by the way?"
The woman sat down and crossed her legs before herself meeting Harry's emerald eyes with her own dark gaze. She let out a sigh and frowned, "I have two new exercises we will be implementing. First, daily we are going to start a dodging program for each of us. What we will do is one of us will dodge the other casting spells at them for a time period I determine. Nothing too serious, but it is good training as the first rule of defending in a duel is not to get hit."
Harry smiled at her and nodded his head accepting, "That sounds interesting to try out. But, painful."
The older teen's hair flashed from pink to black as she raised an eyebrow, "I am hurt Harry. Don't trust me to not hurt you? Or are you afraid nobody will be there to kiss your boo-boo's better."
The boy smirked at her, "I have you here Tonks."
The girl rolled her eyes at the younger boy, "Sorry, too young for my taste new body or not. Either way, this training will be done for an hour a day."
Harry grimaced at the idea of an hour a day having to dodge Tonks shooting jinxes and curses at him. Then let out a sigh, "Very well. What is the other conversation?"
The hair of the older teen flickered again from black to pink to blonde as she smiled at Harry warmly, "Harry, you know that I am a metamorphmagus correct?"
She paused but after seeing the nod of understanding from Harry she continued, "I have the ability to change my appearance and body in any way I can desire. It is a very useful skill to blend in to a crowd to get away from someone or follow someone."
Harry watched as the arms of the woman became muscular to skinny, her eyes flickered from bright red to matching his emerald green to become her normal black. She smiled at the boy, "It is useful to be able to blend in, to change as needed for an assignment. Harry, I could pretend to be anyone."
To make her point the features of woman shifted before his very eyes to become a mirror image of himself. The only way to tell the difference was the higher pitched and sultry voice speaking, "I can even become someone else if needed."
Harry looked her up and down and winks, "I am one damn sexy man."
The woman rolled her eyes and turned back to her normal pink haired self, "We are the perfect spies, assassins, and even bodyguards. That is why I am joining the Aurors."
Harry smiled and nodded towards the woman in understanding. A bit of a frown brushed his lips, "Tonks, do you ever get confused on what is the real you? Your real body?"
A chuckle came from the lips of the woman as she smiled, "No Harry. I always know my real form. I can hide it or change it but I can always revert back to whom I really am."
The dark haired boy raised an eyebrow as he spoke up, "Can I see?"
Tonks grinned teasingly, "Can you?"
The woman leaned forward and Harry got another lovely view down the sports bra of the girl. She rolled her eyes as she caught his eyes looking. Tonks let out a sigh. She couldn't help but wonder about the age of the boy before her. Some days he seemed so distant and quiet as a young child with no experience to the world around him. But other days like this he was a wonderful tease, a boy that seemed mentally and physically far older then thirteen. The question resounded in the mind of the young woman, who was the real Harry Potter? And did Harry Potter even know anymore? The thoughts were put on the backburner as she leaned back with a smile and tease to her younger friend, "If you were older you might, But, for now no you will not get to see."
Harry raised an eyebrow and tossed her his best smile, "Is it too personal to see the real form of you?"
Tonks frowned as a small tick came over her forehead, "Yes Harry, when I was younger I was often teased so I do not like others to see me. The real me is very personal."
Harry smiled sadly towards Tonks as she could swear his eyes sparkled in the light, "I understand. I look forward to the day that I will get to spent time with the real Tonks."
She met the gaze of Harry with her own smile before she spoke up, "Not to change the subject but my real reason for bringing this up was that you have some metamorphmagus abilities. I doubt you can do the extremes that I can do but with training you may be able to cultivate your talent. I am sure there have been times you wanted to disappear from sight?"
The boy nodded his head as he thought about first year and all of the whispers and stares, then second year the pranks, attacks and whispers about him, "Yes I can definitely say it is nice to sometimes not be recognized."
Harry smiled brightly at the woman, "So you will train me?"
The boy saw her give a nod of accent before he stood up and walked over to kneel before the teenager giving her a big smile, "Then I am in your hands to mold how you like Teacher."
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Thank you again to my wonderful Beta Winged Seer Wolf! I have to say it is amazing that we have this many favorites and follows already! In a week's time breaking 100 of each is amazing, I never expected that. Thank you so very much! I am glad that people like the story so far. My only hope is that I can keep you all entertained.
Please as always toss me some feedback for what you like and dislike. There should only been a couple of more chapters for Summer before we start up with School. Next chapter is the Case of Harry James Potter vs. Lord Lucius Malfoy.