Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I make any claim to, the 'Harry Potter' universe. I claim the plot and whatever original characters I chose to create.

A/N: Yes, I know this chapter is very short, but I really couldn't add anything more without having it seem forced… or leaving it in a cliffhanger. You must appreciate the fact that I got this written and posted in record time, too. If you read the description of this story from the main menu, then you know what this chapter portends. I heartily thank everyone who has reviewed… every review is read and appreciated, even though I haven't had the time to respond to all of them… I will say, however, that FFdotNet is still submitting more reviews than PK… It still surprises me. (Word Count: 3116)

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Chapter 12: Innocence Lost

From The Life of Harry James Potter – Excerpt from Chapter 112: Advanced Offensive Transfiguration

There is so much you can do to attack an opponent using combinations of the most basic of spells. For example, I remember one of the first lessons we had back in McGonagall's class… changing a matchstick into a needle. It seemed impossible at first, but soon we were able to perform the transfiguration without even thinking about it. How can a needle be used as a weapon, besides poking an opponent in the eye with it? Read on…

Mutatio - Basic vegetable to mineral transfiguration… wood into steel. Compact, quick and simple. Once the basic spell is mastered, nearly any organic matter that is roughly the size of a matchstick can be converted into a needle. As a fifth year student, this process should be child's play to you. Multifluus Mutatio is a bit trickier, but can easily be mastered with practice and will change dozens, or even hundreds of matchsticks into needles.

Depulso - The Banishing charm that you learned is used to force matter away from you, just as the Summoning charm is used to draw matter towards you. Another basic, third-year spell. The fourth-year variant, the Multifluus Depulso, achieves the same thing, except that it banishes many identical things at once.

Then we have the Enlarging charm, Engorgio - used to proportionally increase the size and mass of objects. Yet another third year charm, and with practice, can affect many objects at one time.

You might ask how these three distinctly dissimilar spells could be used effectively in an offensive capacity? The answer is simpler than you might think.

These three spells have the same magical 'frequency.' This is known during your time, but what isn't yet known is that spells of the same frequency can be combined and cast at the same time by using a specific combination of the various incantations.

If you were to throw a handful of matchsticks - or pine needles, or any similar organic matter - into the air and then incant, 'Muldepultagio,' the spell would first send the relatively light matchsticks away from you at an extremely high velocity, then immediately transform the banished matter into needles, and at the same time increase their proportional size and mass, yet retaining their initial velocity. Naturally, the end result would be a hail of steel javelins moving faster than the eye can see. Quick, silent, and most assuredly deadly.

Of course, the incantation is presented here for reference... as I have stressed many times before that all of these spells should be cast non-verbally, both to invoke the element of surprise, and to keep any surviving opponents within earshot from learning the incantation. These techniques won't be fully explored and developed for many years from your time. (It's a shame that they don't teach non-verbal casting in the first year… it makes it so much easier to learn.)

There are many combinations of basic spells that can be combined to devastating effect. The most useful ones I will list for you here…

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Saturday, May 27th, 1989 6:23 PM

"Depulso!"

"Accio!"

"Depulso!"

"Accio!"

The grapefruit-sized rock sailed swiftly through the air. Before it even touched the snow and ice covered ground some thirty feet away, it suddenly reversed course and zoomed back towards the small boy who was wielding an apple wood wand. The rock sailed through the air at an alarming speed and it seemed that it would surely strike the boy squarely in his chest.

"Depulso!"

The rock reversed direction again as if it had bounced off of a wall just a few inches in front of the boy. Although the rock was mere inches from his body, the boy didn't flinch… he didn't even blink as he cast the banishing spell.

Not only was he practicing the spells, but he was also training to keep his fear and panic under control… he didn't want to live through the embarrassment and helplessness that he had experienced the past December which almost got himself, as well as his guardian and their benefactor, apprehended by the British Ministry of Magic.

He had just recast the summoning spell when Jaana stuck her head out through the window, "Harry! Come on in, it's time to eat,"

"Coming!" Harry called over his shoulder, but not taking his eyes from the speedily approaching rock. He waited until it was only a few feet away when he tried the banishing spell wordlessly. He flicked his wand and concentrated, but the rock was completely unaffected. It hit Harry in the chest with a sickening 'thud' that laid him flat onto his back and knocked the wind from his lungs.

With a pained groan, Harry sat up and gingerly opened the zipper of the heavy jacket he was wearing. He pulled down the front of his shirt and casually inspected the rapidly darkening contusion forming amidst the other black, brown and purple bruises caused by his previously unsuccessful attempts at non-verbal magic that day. He could tell that the last hit cracked one of his ribs.

He considered the pain an incentive to get the spell right.

Harry glanced back towards the house to make sure Jaana hadn't seen what happened before he breathlessly wheezed out, "Wynmae?"

A hitherto unnoticed misty vapor drifted up from a nearby clump of snow on the ground. It swirled and condensed into a tiny, fluttering, fairy-like creature that flitted up to hover before Harry's face.

"Again?" Wynmae asked in her slight, chiming voice.

"Please," he answered gratefully.

The little creature smiled just before it resumed its misty form. Harry closed his eyes and, with no small amount of effort, breathed in deeply and inhaled the floating mist. Harry involuntarily shuddered for a moment as the icy vapor snaked its way into his lungs. The cold almost instantly numbed his chest, which rendered him unable to breathe for a few moments.

Harry felt as though he were about to pass out from lack of oxygen when he suddenly and forcefully breathed out, expelling the foggy vapor which immediately reformed into the tiny winged creature that fluttered happily before his face. He felt the warmth returning to his body as he opened his eyes and smiled.

"Better?" squeaked Wynmae.

"Yes," replied Harry, obviously breathing much easier, "Thank you very much. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Wynmae gave Harry a dainty bow before she performed a back-flip and dove back towards the clump of snow where she resumed her foggy form which remained drifting eerily over the frosty ground.

Harry dusted the snow off from his damp trousers and headed back to the house. He had been practicing non-stop since lunchtime and found that he was famished.

As he entered the doorway, Jaana was just setting a crock of lamb stew onto the table.

"Hurry up and eat. I've got Miss Hansdottir coming in a few hours to watch you while I'm out with Jon to that new pub down the road. I expect you to be on your best behavior for her, and remember… no magic!"

Harry nodded with an ambiguous frown as he sat heavily into his chair and shoved a spoonful of stew into his mouth. He really didn't like the man that Jaana had been seeing for the past few weeks. He wasn't jealous… he just had the feeling that this guy, one that he had never even met, wasn't quite right for Jaana. Still, he kept his opinion to himself… there wasn't anything he could do about it, anyway.

Jaana sighed tiredly and said to him, "I know you don't trust him, but he's been okay so far, and I'll only be out for a few hours. We're going to that new pub on the west side, and I'll be back before ten.

Harry shrugged and ate some more of his stew. He knew what loneliness could do to people. She was twenty-one, and this 'Jon Jonsson' was the first man that she'd taken even a passing interest in since he's been with her. He'd accept it for now, but he didn't have to like it… and he didn't.

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Sunday, May 28th, 1989 1:47 AM

'Thump!'

Harry's eyes opened. He was lying on his bed with his blankets pulled high around his neck to ward off the nighttime chill. He lifted his sleepy head and looked around the room. He let out a tired breath through his nose, rolled over on his side, and closed his eyes.

'Thump-thump'

His eyes opened once more and he sat up on his bed. He looked over to his clock on the nightstand and saw the floating digital numbers, 1:48 AM.

'What's she doing, puttering around the house at this time of night?' Harry thought to himself. He was just about to settle back into his warm pillow when he heard a sharp crack, a muffled yelp, and something distantly clattering on the floor.

Harry threw off his covers and quickly took his wand from the drawer of his nightstand where he had kept it since before the old spinster, Miss Hansdottir, had arrived. He tucked his wand up into the sleeve of his pajamas and crept out of his room.

He looked in the doorway opposite his room and saw Miss Hansdottir sleeping heavily in the library's overstuffed chair. He then heard the sound of movement and a pained moan coming from the lower level.

Harry moved as silently as he could towards the open stairway leading down to the living room that took up most of the first floor. He could hear the faint murmuring of a male voice wafting up the stairway as he moved closer to the landing.

Harry craned his neck around the support post at the top of the stairs and saw Jaana sprawled out on the large sofa in the middle of the room with a rather husky, sandy-haired man lying on top of her. In the dim light cast by the dying embers in the fireplace, he could tell that the man's trousers and pants were pulled down around his knees and that Jaana's skirt was pulled up above her waist.

Harry looked at the scene in a kind of shocked surrealism… he kind of knew what sex was, but he would never have guessed that Jaana would be so promiscuous… especially after the very long-winded 'talk' that she gave him about the importance of sex and 'not giving it away' until marriage.

Harry's face burned with embarrassment, and he was about to turn away and go back to his room when he noticed that the front door was left wide open. As his eyes became more accustomed to the dim light of the room, he saw the wooden hat stand that was usually beside the front door lying broken on the floor next to the sofa.

He then noticed something that made his blood run cold and caused his wand to slide from his sleeve into his hand. He saw Jaana's head lolling down off the end of the sofa with her eyes closed… and there was a trickle of blood running down her cheek from the side of her mouth.

As Harry crept silently down the stairs, he found that could hear what the very drunk man was saying…

"…I don't take 'no,' you teasing wench… You'll thank me for this in the morning, you will… This will teach you to lead a fellow on, you tart…"

Somehow, he knew the man was muttering in Icelandic, but could also understand what he was saying, thanks to the magic that Wynmae had used on him months before. He also understood what was happening to Jaana. By the time he had reached the bottom of the stairs, Harry's face was still an expressionless stone mask

Later on, Harry wouldn't remember very much of happened in the following minutes. He just walked towards the sofa with a kind of tunnel vision focused directly on the man who was violently pushing himself down on his unconscious guardian.

Jon Jonsson looked up in bleary-eyed surprise when he noticed the young boy approaching.

"What's this?" slurred Jonsson, "The bitch has a kid? Go back to bed and leave your mother to me… wha?"

All Harry could feel was the numbing cold that was rapidly spreading throughout his body as he lifted his wand and began casting spells at the unfortunate muggle. He concentrated on the man's shirt and cast the strongest Depulso he could manage. The surprised man, dragged along by his own shirt, flew off of Jaana and landed on the floor some ten feet away.

Harry used a simple stunning spell to quietly incapacitate the man, and then he closed his eyes and silently called for his friend. A moment later, the familiar, wispy fog drifted into the room and solidified into the little Wynmae, who glanced down at the petrified muggle, and then looked expectantly at Harry with her wide, pupil-less eyes.

Harry looked down at Jonsson and used a spell that he remembered seeing in his book, a spell that was developed during 'The War of the Sexes' that was originally designed to throw the witches off-guard during battles… a spell that completely vanished all clothing from a person. As most witches tend to be almost criminally modest about their bodies and having values that were common centuries before, the spell was usually devastatingly effective at making the witches instinctively cover their nakedness with their arms and leaving them momentarily defenseless.

Harry wasn't using the spell to embarrass the drunken man.

Harry looked up at Wynmae and softly said in a calm, neutral voice, "Please bring him to Langjokull Glacier for me."

Wynmae smiled cheerfully at Harry and nodded in understanding before she flitted down to the floor and grabbed hold of one of Jonsson's fingers. Harry saw the pair evaporate into a wispy mist. He silently watched as the foggy vapor that was both Wynmae and Jon Jonsson quickly disappeared out through the still opened front door.

Harry then went to the kitchen to retrieve a damp cloth and carefully wiped the drying blood from Jaana's cheek and her split lip. The stoic look on his face only faltered for a moment when he smelled a faint odor of alcohol coming from his guardian. After checking to make sure she had no further injuries, he struggled a few moments as he replaced her knickers into their proper position and smoothed her long skirt back down over her legs.

Harry walked to the open door and looked at the two sets of footprints leading from a Jeep that was parked out on the road in front of the house. He saw that the smaller set of prints seemed to be dragged most of the way across the ground from the vehicle.

He went back into the house, carefully removed Jaana's shoes from her feet and put them on his own. He walked out towards the road and stood before the Jeep.

It took him a while, but he managed to dismantle the vehicle entirely, using basic transfigurations to change bits of the vehicle into clumps of ice and rock, and then banishing them to different places all along the road. Nothing was left except the faint tire marks in the hard-packed surface of the road, which he efficiently scoured to make them look much older than they actually were. With a solemn, impassive nod to himself, he walked back to the house. As he went, he used his wand to transfigure the snow, ice and earth, erasing the original footprints completely, leaving just his own, in Jaana's shoes, tracing the path from the road to the door.

Harry quietly closed the door, repaired the hat stand and righted it up beside the doorway. With a last look at Jaana, Harry climbed back up the stairs and, after checking to ensure Miss Hansdottir was still asleep and in the same position as before, returned to his room where he climbed back under his covers and immediately fell asleep.

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Sunday, May 28th, 1989 12:52 PM

"Honestly, I only had two drinks!" defended Jaana tearfully.

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Miss Hansdottir with a matronly edge to her voice, "I waited up until nearly midnight before I fell asleep. It's a good thing the boy didn't see you when you came in… whatever time that was!"

"I still don't understand what happened," cried Jaana, "The last thing I remember was Jon bringing me the second drink and then having a dance with him… everything after that is a blur."

"Well, if you're to be behaving like this, I don't think I'll be watching the boy again… good day to you, Miss Figg!"

Harry waited until the front door had slammed shut and he heard Jaana settle back into the sofa with a pained, halting sigh. Once he was sure the old bat had gone, he heavily treaded down the stairs.

"Jaana?" said Harry hesitantly as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Jaana looked embarrassedly away from where Harry was standing, but he managed to catch a glimpse of her swollen lip and the bruise on her cheek. She picked up a small ice pack and placed it against the side of her face as she quickly said, "It's about time you came down. Breakfast is in the kitchen, and when you're done you can read your book for a while… I put it out for you on the table. No lessons today… you can practice this week's lessons in the yard again."

Harry nodded, although he knew she couldn't see it and headed towards the kitchen. Before he disappeared through the door, he looked worriedly back at his guardian who had, by then, settled back into the cushions of the couch and was almost asleep again.

Jaana never saw the satisfied smirk that flashed across Harry's lips as he headed for the stove to retrieve his lukewarm eggs, bangers and mash.

He never mentioned the episode to a living soul.