Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters whose names can be found in the Harry Potter books.
As soon the party returned to the Potter manor Lilly let out a sob and threw her arms around her oldest son.
"Matt," she cried.
"Muuum, please." Matt begged. "Not now."
Lilly pulled away, tears still in her eyes and a silence descended on the room as the occupants absorbed what they had just witnessed before Sirius broke the silence.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" He yelled, grabbing Matt in a head-lock.
"You were all, I'll never give up and he was all I will kill you and you were all-"
"Sirius," James interrupted, laughing. "We know what happened."
"But it was so cool," Sirius whined.
"Yes it was wasn't it," Dumbledore agreed. "Matt please come and collect your memory and Harry, would you come forward."
Stepping forward first Matt looked at Dumbledore for instructions.
"Just put your wand in the pensieve and put the memory back in through your temple." Dumbledore said.
Matt followed his instructions and stepped back, looking quiet pleased that Sirius had thought what he had done cool. Harry stepped up to the pensieve. Putting his wand to his temple Harry pulled forth a silvery thread and deposited it into the pensieve.
"Let us go then," Dumbledore said, "on three."
Again the group gathered around the pensieve.
"Three," Dumbledore said and again the group was tossed into a memory.
The group watched Matt take Harry down and then after he left, Neville jumped up from behind the arm chairs and revived him. Matt's eyes went wide when he released Neville had been in the room the whole time. Harry hadn't told anyone his side of the story.
The group watched in horror as Harry walked through the black flames alone and they were again faced with the scene of Matt lying cornered. As the scene played out Harry continued to stand motionless then when Matt was knocked out it was as if someone had flipped the switch in his brain.
"NO!" He screamed and whipped around to face Quirrell, "you hurt my brother." Harry eye's narrowed and Quirrell took a step back in shock.
"KILL HIM FOOL!" Voldemort yelled.
"Yes master," Quirrell replied and pointing his wand at Harry. "Avada Kedavra!"
A blinding green light erupted in the room and Harry hit the floor, the curse missing him by inches.
Rolling over so he was in-front of Matt, Harry flipped to his feet and his gaze fell on Quirrell.
"You may no longer harm my brother." Harry said, dangerously.
"Avada Kedavra," Quirrell cried again but this time Harry merely stepped to the side to dodge to curse which hit a foot above Matt's head.
"You will not hurt my brother!" Harry cried out and a light erupted in the chamber, it encircled Matt and swept outwards towards Quirrell who stood there in shock before the light engulfed him.
The memory ended.
The party lay panting on the floor after they had been thrust from the memory. Even Dumbledore who almost always kept his calm could be seen to have been effected by the light.
"Well," Dumbledore said. "It seems we were mistaken." Dumbledore paused and gazed at Harry. "It seems another member of the Potter family has faced Lord Voldemort and lived."
The room seemed to take this in for a few seconds before Dumbledore spoke again much happier this time. "It also seems that there is another elemental."
"What?" James turned around as if trying to see who it was.
Dumbledore smiled as every one in the room looked very confused before his eyes fell on Harry whose eyes showed understanding. "Harry," Dumbledore said. "Has this ever happened before?"
The whole room's attention was fixed on Harry in a second.
"Um" Harry said, as everyone stared at him, awaiting his answer.
"The old man knows you're going to have to tell them. Don't tell it all though, for your greatest weapon is surprise." Aidan said.
"I've done it before" Harry said, feeling proud as he saw his father's face light up.
James whooped in excitement and tackled Harry to the floor. They went down in a pile of legs and arms.
"Another elemental in the family," Lilly said happily.
"Why didn't you tell us Harry?" Remus asked as he helped Harry off the floor once James had gotten over his excitement.
"Um…"
"You didn't believe it." Aidan supplied.
"I didn't believe it." Harry said.
"Well," Dumbledore exclaimed. "It appears that we will now have another member in our lessons Matt." Here Matt groaned.
Dumbledore chuckled while Lilly gave Matt a sharp glare. "We train on Monday's and Wednesday's nights Harry. I have a special room set up so that no one gets burned. Matt will show you when school gets back together."
Harry smiled, "yes professor" he said.
"You mentioned that you had other incidents of elemental magic. If I may ask, what happened?"
"Um… the first time it happened all the lights dimmed and flared and I taught myself to conger flame."
"Really?" Dumbledore sounded very excited. "This I must see." He took a small trinket out of his pocket and waved his flicked his wand and transformed it into a candle.
"Could you light that for me?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry nodded and the wick burst into flame.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in shock. "Very well done. Could you increase the flame?"
The flame became hotter and the wax was quickly melting, the candle become shorter by the second.
"Amazing." Dumbledore whispered, his eyebrows having disappeared up into his silver hair. "Could you extinguish it?" He asked, gesturing towards the candle.
Harry nodded and the candle went out.
"Well," Dumbledore said, as if unable to come up with another word to sum up this feat of magic. "That was quite amazing" he finally decided on. "In fact, that has to be the most controlled display of elemental magic I've seen in all my years. Can you do anything else?"
Harry broadly smiled at this question. "I've been working on manipulating the fire." He said. "I've pretty much mastered it, except sometimes the fire does get away from me."
Dumbledore nodded. "It is to be expected, fire is a very flighty element and hard to control. It's no wonder it sometimes gets away from you but when you say you have been manipulating the fire what do you mean?"
"I'll show you." Harry volunteered. Raising his arms to waist level he clasped his hands together and breathed out slowly. Then carefully as if was pulling on a spiders web Harry began to move his hands apart. A string of fire stretched between his hands, licking at his skin. The room let out a collective gasp. Then the fire began to move. Harry pulled his hand up and the fire followed, moving slowly with the slightest gesture of his hands.
"Amazing," Dumbledore whispered, as the flame whipped around Harry's head. Then Harry threw it into the air, the flame extinguished as soon as it left his hands.
The room burst into applause as the show finished and Harry took a mock bow, grinning happily.
"That was brilliant Harry!" Matt exclaimed, coming forward. "How did you do it? I mean I've been learning for a year now and I can't even get the candle to light." At the end his voice had gained just a hint of jealously.
"Should I tell them?" Harry asked.
"No," Aidan said. "They are not ready to learn everything yet, there are reasons beyond yours or my control."
"I just read books about it" Harry said. "The rest came naturally."
"You are a very talented elemental Harry." Dumbledore said, making his presence known once again. "Control like that has not been seen for thousands of years, in-fact Merlin was probably the last elemental with control like yours. While you may not excel in wand magic your elemental skills by far make up for that. I've never seen a talent like this before, even Lord Voldemort has only limited control over any of the elements. It is puzzling though, that you should exhibit such incredible control while Matt, even though he is advanced for his age his skills can not compare to your own. It's strange and puzzling.
"How so Albus?" Lilly asked.
"Like I've said, Matt's control is excellent for his age, to even have elemental abilities is quite amazing. But Harry here, not only has these abilities but displays perfect control after only reading books. I suspect that he has a deeper connection with the fire then many others and I'm interested in this fact because generally twins display the same sort of powers. But I guess these have never been ordinary twins." Saying this he smiled at Matt.
Dumbledore grazed around the room, until his eyes finally came to rest on Harry and his eyes twinkled in mirth.
"I'm sure we can expect great things from you Harry, just as we do from every Potter and now that that is sorted. Do you have any cake?"
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Two days later Dumbledore was back at the Potter residence. Out on the grounds Harry and Matt were sitting on the quidditch pitch, both with crossed legs.
"Alright Matt you know what to do, start meditating remember what we did last week, set up a breathing pattern. Even breaths, yes that's it, now just allow everything to disappear from your mind. Now Harry I want to talk to you for a second. You said that you had been reading books did they say anything about meditation."
"Yes professor."
"Oh good. How far into a trance can you go?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean professor."
"You know about layers that protect your magic core right?"
"I know that they exist but I don't know much about them."
"Oh it's quite simple," Dumbledore said. "They are just there to protect the core and the more powerful you are the more layers you have."
"Alright," Harry said.
"When you meditate have you passed through the layers?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'm not sure, I've gotten to my core but I don't think I passed through layers."
"Oh you've gotten to your core." Dumbledore said, sounding surprised.
"Yes," Harry said. "I've been able to access my core for a while."
"So when you meditate you don't pass through any layers?" Dumbledore asked again.
"No professor, at least not that I know of."
"Alright then." Dumbledore said after a second. "Well this is another puzzle that must be solved. For all wizards have some layers, even weak wizards have at least one. This is very curious. Never mind that for now though, we'll meditate for a while then I want to test the full extent of your powers."
"Yes professor." Harry said, closing his eyes and allowing himself to slip into a mediative state.
"Hey Aidan" Harry said.
"Hello Harry. Go ahead and ask me, I can feel your curiosity."
"Heh," Harry laughed nervously. "Yeah, I want to know what Dumbledore meant, about the layers. I mean why don't I have any?"
"Mostly because you don't need any." Aidan replied.
"Um…can you expand on that?" Harry asked.
"Well what are the layers for?" Aidan asked.
"Protection."
"Exactly," Aidan said. "Now your magic core is very powerful and normally you would have 30-40 layers but they're not needed because you have something else to protect your core."
"And that would be…" Harry said, leaving the statement open. "Don't leave me hanging here Aidan."
"Me." Aidan said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Me, I'm protecting your core."
"Um…what?" Harry asked.
"I'm your familiar." Aidan said "and I'm also a magical familiar so my very presence protects your core."
"Alright," Harry said. "Hey Aidan do you remember how long Matt has been learning this?" Harry asked.
"Half a year, give or take a few months" Aidan replied.
"He's still on meditation. I don't mean to sound cocky or anything but that's really easy stuff."
"For you maybe," Aidan said. "It's like I first told you. Matt's magic core is connected with his wand not his body. He has to build totally new path ways and that takes a long time."
"But that's really only for the actually fire controlling part. What about just plain meditation. I mean I got that in like two seconds flat, Matt just sits there napping."
"Yes. Like I said before, for you it's easy because you were born to it. It's very hard to explain but think of it like this. Magic doesn't think like a living being however it has certain instincts. Essentially magic is sort of alive as it grows and changes but it doesn't have its own thoughts, it's not an independent being. Magic is what you make it but magic cannot be forced. It can be directed and channelled. Wizards channel magic with a wand but for magical creatures it is different and I'll explain that in a minute. The rule that magic can not be used by a wizards unless through a wand does not always apply. Powerful magic wielders can manipulate their magic to their will however it fights the magic's natural instincts. A magic's natural instinct is to flow through a focus and the wand creates a focus. When normal wizards use magic the wand is the focus. When magic creatures use magic they use a focus they were born with. Such as their mind acts as a focus or their hands. Your magic is like a magical creature's magic as in you were born with the focus. When you mediate you are just channelling your magic through the natural focus you were born with. When Matt meditates he isn't allowed to use a wand and he has no natural focus so before he can use magic he needs to make a focus. He needs to make a focus so his magic can flow in his body without the wand. To do this however he needs to use his magic which defies the magic's natural instinct."
"Why doesn't he just use a wand to create the focus and then use it?" Harry asked.
"The focus can't be created with a wand because the magic wouldn't accept it."
"Ok then but I'm still confused. Matt did accidental magic and that is wandless so didn't that create a focus."
"No. You see accidental magic is done in a highly emotional state. Your emotions act as a focus for the magic and the magic is controlled by your emotions."
"That's kind of interesting." Harry said. "I think I'd better get back Dumbledore wants to talk to Matt and I, talk to you later Aidan."
"Harry, Matt!" Dumbledore called for the fifth time.
"Sorry Professor," Harry said.
"No trouble at all Harry. How did you find it?"
"It was good." Harry said. "Um…professor, I was wondering, how far has Matt gotten?"
"Well lets find our shall we?" Dumbledore said, before pointing his wand and Matt. "Amisveo!" A jet of water spouted from his wand.
Matt spluttered under the torrent of water. "What!"
Dumbledore chuckled. "How were you getting along?"
Matt's face broke into a smile. "I got to the fifth layer!" He exclaimed happily.
"Well done!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "You're making great progress. Now Matt I want you to concentrate on lighting this candle. Just like last week, I need to test Harry's level. Will you be right with that?"
"Yes professor."
"Ok then, now Harry." Dumbledore's eyes moved to rest on Harry. "We know that you have very good control of fire when you are concentrating on it. I want to see how well you can multitask." Withdrawing a feather and a candle out of his pocket Dumbledore placed both on the ground at Harry's feet. "We'll just start with something light then make it heavier. I want you to lift this feather off the ground and light the candle the same time and regulate the flames heat."
"Ok" Harry said.
"Aidan," Harry asked as he breathed in.
"Yes?" Aidan replied.
"Should I lift it wandlessly?"
"There's no harm in giving the old man a bit of a shock but I think it would be better to practise your wand control."
"Awww come on."
"No, use your wand."
"Fine," Harry sighed.
Pulling out his wand Harry levitated the feather and used his wand to light fire but the feather dropped as soon as he took his mind off it.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry said, again trying to light the fire but with little success as the feather dropped the instant he went to concentrate on the flame. After fifteen more attempts with the same result Harry was beginning to lose his temper and it was obvious to Dumbledore that emotions were running high.
On the sixteenth attempt Harry had the feather in the air and as soon as he went to light the flame it dropped. "Ahh!" He groaned in frustration, throwing his hands up. As soon as he lost his temper the wick burst into flame and the candle was reduced to a mere puddle of wax in seconds, the feather also burst into flame and became little more then a pile of ash. The tension immediately left Harry.
"Oh my gosh! Professor, I'm sorry I didn't mean to I was just."
"It's fine Harry." Dumbledore grinned, looking in amusement at the remains of the candle. "I expected that would happen. I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did. Fire elementals are not known for their patience, at most I thought you would only last five attempts before you lost control, I'm quite impressed. Now though we can see what we need to work on. In battle you won't have the chance to concentrate fully on the fire, you will need to call it instantly whist casting other magic. We'll also need to work on improving your magical stamina if we are to play to your strengths. I've heard you have quite a bit of physical stamina, now to improve your magical stamina I want you to cast at 30 spells morning and night, preferable powerful ones. That should tire you out quite a bit at first. We'll increase the number you have to do every week. Now I want you to keep at this exercise while I see how Matt is going. The candle and feather are both self repairing." Looking down Harry saw this was quite true as both the feather and candle now sat in the same position in mint condition.
"I'll be back to check on your progress later." Dumbledore wondered off to see what Matt was doing and Harry went back to practising.
At the end of the session Harry had made only a small amount of progress. While he could lift the feather, lighting the flame made it very difficult. He had found it a bit easier to lift the feather wandlessly but even then he had only managed both for a few seconds before either the flame went out or the feather dropped. In the process the candle and feather had been destroyed a grand total of four times.
After Dumbledore had gone Harry was sitting in his room reading but his thoughts kept straying from his book.
"What's bothering you Harry?" Aidan asked.
"You said there was another reason why I couldn't tell them everything. A reason that was out of both of our control. What's the reason?"
Aidan sighed. "Do you remember when your powers were unbound?"
"I remember parts, I was in the forest and I turned around and then I saw this unicorn. He kept calling me great one and I thought he met Matt and he said something about me having great power. Then he told me to lift up my shirt and he put his horn on my scar and then I don't remember anything. The next thing I knew I was waking up and Ginger was talking to me."
"That is the gist of what happened." Aidan said. "But I believe there was more that happened."
"So how do we find out?" Harry asked.
"We have to revisit the memory." Aidan said.
"How?"
"It's quite simple actually, you simple have to recall the memory and I can handle the rest."
"Alright," Harry said, breathing deeply.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Ok."
There was a slight whooshing where Harry felt himself being dragged backwards. It was a lot like travelling by portkey and as quickly as the feeling started it stopped.
Harry was standing in the forest surrounding the Potter manor. He recognised the area, it was about half an hours walk from the manor. He knew pretty much all areas of the forest, it was where he was raised. Harry gazed around the area when he heard a soft song coming from a tree above. Aidan floated gently down from a tree branch to perch on Harry's shoulder. Stroking his familiar's head Harry's graze fell on his younger self. He looked scared and helpless compared to the magnificent form of the unicorn, its pearly white head held proud. Harry watched the exchange between himself and the unicorn and as his younger self was knocked unconscious. As soon as his younger self's eyes closed the memory went black but then a voice echoed through the darkness.
"Now young one, I have unbound your magic, because before this your body wasn't ready for all the power you were born with we had to bind you but now that your body is strong enough to deal with the power. I was sent to unbind it. From now on you will bloom and grow. You will grow so strong that you can harness the endless power of the sun. You young one are the child of the dragons of old who saw a great darkness approaching within two thousand years so they chose to give a mortal the power of the dragons. The power to hold the sun in his hand's. You are far greater then any mortal who has ever lived you have descended from dragons, child of the sun."
As the magnificent creature murmured his last word the memory faded away and Harry found himself back in his room, Aidan perched on his shoulder.
"What does he mean?" Harry asked turning to Aidan who in turn fluttered over to perch on the back of his desk chair.
"Mean by what?" Aidan asked, pruning his feathers a bit.
"What does he mean that I'm descended from the dragons of old? If I am doesn't that mean Matt is too?"
"Not necessarily." Aidan said. "While you and Matt are related by blood you're not related by magic."
"What?"
"Normally when children are born their magic is related to their parents. It's created from the two sources of power just like the child itself is. You however are a different case. Like the unicorn said the dragons of old foresaw a great darkness and so they sealed their powers away so that their own powers would be used to create a child so that the child could vanquish the evil. So while your body is the child Lilly and James Potter your soul and your magic is the child of the dragons."
"What, so, what, what does, I, does this mean I'm not really related to Matt. That my parents aren't really my parents." Harry stuttered, unable to comprehend the fact his parents were in-fact not his parents.
"Yes and no. Lilly and James are most defiantly your parents by blood you are related by body, you share their genes however as you get older you will notice definite changes about your body. This is caused by your dragon heritage. For example you might grow wings, your skin might become resistant to spells, you might grow horns or spines, you might even get fangs. Just as humans go through puberty so do dragons. You'll start to see some changes in the next year or so."
"WHAT! How will I hide horns?!" Harry exclaimed.
"That could be a problem but you should be able to cast illusions and no one will be the wiser. I do believe that you will be called to the dragons though."
"What?" Harry said.
"Your magic is descended of the dragons and you will be able to take on dragon form, you will need to learn to use this form and use your magic to the full extent. I believe you will called to a place where you can be trained."
"How on earth will I explain this to my parents? Mum Dad I'm actually descended from dragons and they want to train me?"
Aidan snorted in amusement. "I do believe that you have been enrolled in a school for magical creatures."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Contrary to popular belief humans are not the only creature intelligent enough to create schools. There are in fact three schools for magical creatures. They are situated in Australia, Brazil and the Pacific Ocean. I don't think many wizards actually know of their existence."
"So I'm enrolled?" Harry asked.
"Yes I believe your letter will be arriving any day now. That's why I've told you now."
"So I'm just going to one of these schools to learn my dragon heritage?" Harry asked.
"That about sums it up." Aidan said.
"Do you have any idea which one I'm going to be accepted in?" Harry asked.
"I believe the favourite was Australia. The schools are in those places because they have huge areas of unoccupied space and with different environments. The Pacific obviously has the oceans and mostly marine folk attend that school but I have heard of exceptions. Then there is the school in Bazil, this one is found in the amazon, in the jungle. Mostly earth based creatures attend there. Then there is the school in Australia. The sheer amount of desert makes it good for both fire based creature and air based creature. There is very little human civilisation so that makes it ideal for flying and the heat is good for fire based creatures. That pretty much sums it up. There are other creatures of course like vampires that don't fit into any of those categories but those creatures generally attend the closest school."
"How would I get there? Are there portkeys or something?"
Aidan burst into laughter at this suggestion. "You have a lot to learn. You still think very much like a human. Magical creatures don't have portkeys. The students who can fly generally fly but there are students who can't and there are mentors who pick them up. I think there are drop off zones and everyone travels as one. The letter should tell you everything you need to know. In the meantime all you can do is wait."
"How is it you know all this?" Harry asked.
"What do I think I do when you are running around in the forest? Sit there and prune the whole time."
Harry just looked at him as if to say, yes.
"Well I don't." Aidan said. "I actually talk some of the creatures and they have some very interesting news."
"You mean you gossip." Harry said.
"I do not gossip." Aidan screeched, outraged by the idea. "I listen for news." Harry just raised his eyebrows.
"Oh go have your dinner." Aidan said. "Lilly will call you in a minute." Right on cue Lilly's voice echoed through the house.
Harry just raised his eyebrows before walking out of the room. Leaving his familiar to enjoy the time that he had to stretch his wings.