Servitude of a Peculiar Sort

Chapter Five: Order's orders

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

2:30 PM June 24th, 1996

Minerva's fists were clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms hard enough to draw blood. After an extremely short recount of the events that happened after Dumbledore's Funeral, she dragged him by his ear to her office, ranting about his failure to think the entire way.

Within half an hour she had procured him some clothing and called a full meeting of the Order of the Phoenix for him to account for his actions.

Harry already longed to return to the forest.

One by one, the members of the Order were filtering into the meeting room. Harry kept his body completely covered by an over-sized brown robe with a hood that obscured his entire face, even in the well-lit meeting room. He kept his hands inside the opposite arm's sleeve so that no part of either hand was visible. Depending on their point of view, one could interpret his stance as either one of sulking defiance or soulful meditation.

Every Order member seemed quite concerned about the identity of the brown robed stranger who sat next to Minerva at the head of the table. Remus kept sniffing the air like he smelled something vaguely familiar, and Moody was giving him appraising looks with his magical eye. Eventually, the battle-hardened Auror gave him a look that clearly said "I approve" before relaxing into his chair to wait for the last of the stragglers to wander in.

At last, Dung Fletcher came in, followed by Tonks. They took the last two chairs and waited for the meeting to begin.

Harry heard Dung muttering under his breath from he other side of the room. "I wonder who died? Too damn quiet." The corners of Remus's mouth twitched upwards indicating he'd heard but nobody else gave any outward indication of having noticed.

"I call this emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix to order." Minerva said from the head of the table. "The first ting on our agenda is an information update regarding Harry."

The room filled with excited murmuring and a loud cheer from the Twins. Minerva gestured for silence but people didn't respect her nearly as much as they had Dumbledore. She had to wait for the meeting to quiet down.

"We found him this morning inside the Forbidden Forest where he has been spending the last month. From what I understand he has been training in the forest and he reacted with some of the magic there and it...changed him. His physical appearance barely resembles the boy he once was. He is here today to give us the full story of what happened. After we leave here, he will be thoroughly examined by Madame Pomefrey for any harm this magic may have caused him. Assuming he is fine, he will be placed under glamors and sent to live with his relatives for the remainder of the holidays."

The other shoe dropped at some point during Minerva's speech and there were a few shocked gasps as people realized the tall, brown robed stranger was, in fact Harry Potter.

There were angry exclamations, confused muttering, and more than a few hurt looks. Molly Weasley's screeching drowned them all out.

"Harry! How irresponsible! Running off in the forest for a month without supervision! It's not safe! You could have been killed! What do-" She was just getting going when Harry cut her off, surprising even himself.

"Enough!" He said firmly, getting to his feet. He was aware at how deathly quiet the room had gotten. Alastor seemed to be the only one completely unaffected by Harry's voice. The Auror was leaning back in his chair, smirking like he was the only one who knew a joke was being played. "Mrs. Weasley, I love you to death, but you are not my mother. It is not your place to chastise me, for what I do and don't do."

Molly stiffened as if she'd been struck. "Well, I never." she huffed as Harry began his explanation.

"On the night of Dumbledore's funeral, I found myself wandering the forest because the only path up to the school was blocked by people I wasn't quite in the mood to see. I lost track of time and found myself further in the forest than I'd ever been. It was on my way back to the school that I stumbled upon the grove of a Dryad."

Again, the Order descended into chaos. The few people in the room who knew what a Dryad was were in various states of shock and disbelief. Strangely enough, Dung Fletcher knew something about Dryads and was explaining to the Twins and Tonks that it was "a magical bint that lives in a tree and can control a man's mind."

Harry smirked beneath his hood. Who would have thought that an Order could have this much disorder inside it?

Harry raised his hand to gesture for silence and immediately realized that it was a mistake. His hand was now visible and people were openly gaping at his green flesh. Harry re-hid his hand and continued his story.

"The Dryad in question overpowered my mental defenses with ease and proceeded to bond me to her, as a servant." Harry was just ignoring the gasps of shock and awe. He felt like he was telling his story to a room full full of children, not trained adult witches and wizards. "It didn't work. Something about the bond my scar gives me to Voldemort-" the room collectively flinched "stopped the bond from happening and the magic involved in the bonding had to be spent doing something else. It tried to make me resemble the dryad, and tried to bring me closer to her physically since mentally was not an option with the bond. That worked fine and it gave me a few gifts that are usually exclusive to Dryads."

Harry paused for a moment, trying to moisten his throat. The glass of water he had in Minerva's office was wearing off and he was beginning to rasp once more.

"The problem is that half of the bond did happen. The part of the bond that attaches the Dryad to me. If I left and did not return, she would have died. Part of the Dryad bond makes the Dryad depend on her servant and makes them more powerful in the servant's presence. If I had left that would have reversed, slowly sucking the life out of her. Because this Dryad was quite important to the Forbidden forest, the forest acted on her behalf and sort of...forced me to bond myself to the forest. I went into a cocoon of sorts while the magic of the forest spent time changing me. I just emerged from that cocoon today."

"Thank you Mr. Potter." McGonnagall said tersely. "You may take the floo back to Hogwarts and see Madame Pomfrey. The questions can wait for another time."

Amidst cries of protest and questions about his story, Harry left the room without saying a word.

Madame Pomfrey was waiting in McGonnagall's office for him. She led him up to the Hospital wing and gave him a dose of dreamless sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Hospital Wing

Hogwarts

6:30 AM, July 25th, 1996

Every movement was pure agony as Harry fought his way through the fog the sleep potion had left in his mind. He was sweating so much that his sheet was soaked. He opened his eyes and sat up. His body screamed in protest.

"What did she do to me?" Harry asked himself.

Regardless, it seemed that his new body reacted negatively to the matron's care and until he could figure out why, he would have to be extremely careful. The way he felt right now, he assumed that an extended stay under Madame Pomfrey's care would kill him.

Wincing, Harry got to his feet and hobbled towards the restroom. His body was craving a few things and he couldn't figure out what either of them were. It was more of a general feeling that he required something that he hadn't needed like this before.

Harry washed his hands after flushing the toilet. He had to suppress a shiver as a rush of energy passed through him. Water... he needed water. Harry shut off the sink and stripped. There was a small shower in the Hospital wing bathroom. He climbed in and made use of it. The icy water cleansed and healed him. He removed the silt that had somehow gotten in his hair and shut off the water. He made use of a conveniently placed towel and got back into his dirty clothes. Harry hadn't felt this refreshed since he left Catriona's pond. He'd thought at the time that the pool at the base of Catriona's tree had magical healing properties. Now he understood that it was something about this new body and its strong dependence on water that gave him this feeling.

When Harry returned from the shower Madame Pomfrey was up and waiting for him.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter." she greeted tersely. "I trust you slept well?"

"Well enough." Harry agreed. He didn't want to small talk. He wanted to know what she'd found.

"The diagnostics I performed yesterday revealed some... interesting information." she informed him. "Namely because more than half of them did not work. The ones that did work gave me impossible data. The amount of water in your body was well above the level that would be fatal to a human and yet you were showing signs of dehydration. Your blood sugar was fully twenty percent higher than the fatal level and your blood alcohol level was somewhere around four percent and yet you passed every sobriety charm that didn't involve testing your blood. You were a conglomeration of medical impossibilities. I kept expecting you to start going into diabetic seizures and yet you seem to be in perfect health." She looked at him, hoping for some sort of explanation.

Harry sighed. "Madame Pomfrey, the only explanation I can give is that I am no longer human. I'm still trying to figure out just how much has changed about me. I would appreciate if you could find out why those certain charms failed. I imagine that's something I'll need to know in the future. Thank you for your care." Harry said with a smile, and taking his leave of the hospital wing. He was already out the door when he heard her shouts of "but I haven't released you yet!"

Harry left the Hospital wing behind and made his way out onto the grounds. He was vaguely aware that he was still wearing the over-sized brown robe from yesterday but such concerns would have to wait. His curiosity was overwhelming his common sense. Everyone was asking him questions about how his magic had changed and what he could do and he didn't have the answer. What had all these physical changes done for his magic?

Harry found himself standing at the edge of the lake. It was uncharacteristically overcast for summer. Harry could feel the incoming rain.

'I guess I'll start with something simple.' he thought. Harry felt vaguely silly trying to do magic without a wand. With a shrug, he muttered "Here goes nothing."

"Stupefy!" he cast, his arm pointed at the water. WHAM! Suddenly, Harry was on his back looking up at the sky. He felt like he'd just been kicked by a giant and considering how far he was from the lake, he hadn't ruled it out as impossible. His attempt to "control" the natural magic inside him had been met with painful consequences. This type of magic wasn't meant to be used with an incantation and reacted badly when he attempted to force it. He would need to try something else.

Harry pulled himself to his feet and staggered over to the lake. This time he would try something simpler and without an incantation. He noticed a tall, slightly wilted yellow flower. Yellow iris he knew. He blinked. The name popped into his head from nowhere. Looking about, he found he could identify every single plant present, as well as useful tidbits of information about them. Harry raised his hand and pointed it at the wilting iris. He willed the plant to revive itself He focused and clenched his eyes shut, trying to imagine the plant in its prime. No longer droopy, no dried up brown spots... Cautiously, Harry opened one eye and looked at the iris.

It was completely unchanged. He didn't need to know the language of the forest to know the flower was laughing at him. Annoyed at his failure, Harry headed back up to the castle, imagining the look on McGonnagall's face when he explained that he needed to relearn magic from scratch.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Transfiguration Classroom

Hogwarts

11:15 AM, July 25th, 1996

As he'd expected, McGonnagall had been furious and yet, strangely understanding. She had sent him off to her classroom and said she would be there shortly and that he should move the desks except one to the side of the room.

Harry had done this and was now seated at the remaining desk, waiting for the Headmistress to arrive.

She was already talking as she opened the door. "...is my spare wand which you will be using today. Eleven inches, redwood and Treant sap core (willingly given of course.) It sounds quite suitable given your current state."

"They told me that no wand would work for me-" Harry started.

"I'm aware of that, Mr. Potter. However as of right now, we know next to nothing about your condition save that you have an extremely large reserve of power that you don't know how to access. For lack of a better idea, you will try that wand and if that fails, I will give you access to some of Albus's tomes on wandless magic. This is simply a place to start."

Harry nodded his understanding and picked up the offered wand. The Headmistress set a small blue button on the desk in front of him. "Try and turn this into a beetle, Mr. Potter. I trust you remember the incantation?"

"Yes ma'am." Harry replied. He raised the wand "Snottubotselteeb!" This time instead of flying back, a sickly green stream of magic poured out of the wand, and condensing into a sphere around the button on the desk. Harry tried frantically to stop the continuous stream of magic pouring out of the wand but was unable. He even tried dropping the wand but it stayed in his hand as if held by a powerful magnet.

"Put up a shield!" Harry commanded Minerva who did so. The sphere had enveloped the entire desk and was vibrating as if it was extremely unstable. The stream finally stopped pouring from Harry's wand but the sphere was vibrating even faster than before and the wand remained stuck to Harry's hand. The floating orb of magic shrank down to about half its size and exploded, leveling the classroom. Minerva's shield collapsed under the force of the blast and she hit the wall hard. The desks surrounding the room were reduced to splinters Harry felt something snap inside of him that didn't feel like a bone. His magic came rushing out to meet the explosion and manifested as a shield.

The explosion cleared and Harry was still standing. His magic had been jarred awake by the explosion. Harry dropped the shield he'd been holding up and waved his hand across the ruined desks. The splinters began to crawl on top of each other and reassemble like some impossibly difficult jigsaw puzzle.

Harry approached McGonnagall's fallen body near the blackboard. Acting purely on instinct, he placed a hand on each of her shoulders and she glowed slightly. Her bones knit themselves back together and her eyes fluttered open.

"I... Mr. Potter... What happened?" She asked.

"There was an accident when I cast the spell with your spare wand. I'm afraid it was destroyed." Harry said simply. "Here, let me help you up."

"Regrettable but understandable, Mr. Potter. Thank you." Harry helped her up.

"I believe I have learned enough about my magic to practice on my own, Headmistress.. Thank you."

She flashed him the briefest of smiles. "Anytime, Mr. Potter." She made her way towards the door. "You are free to use this classroom for your studies until I tell you otherwise."

"Thank you, Headmistress."

She nodded and took a few more steps towards the door. "Oh, and Mr. Potter?"

"Yes, Headmistress?"

"Contact your friends when you find the time. I have received entirely too many letters in the last few days to bother with theirs on top of it all. Good day." She left the room without another word.

"Good day." Harry echoed, long after she'd gone. Harry looked down at his feet. "How in the world am I going to explain this to them?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/n: Wow! So very sorry it took this long. It seems I'm never going to be able to update regularly, the way everything's been going.

So, about the fic. For magic purposes only, I'm going to treat Harry as if he was a Druid from D&D with some of the "wild magic" feats. I'm going to slowly advance his variety of spells up the druid spell list, relying heavily on the player's handbook and the complete divine for sources. I'm going to have him able to cast second level spells at this point (so he cast Cure light wounds on McGonnagall to heal her up. She's a spellcaster, and won't have much in the name of HP, right? Besides, a CLW is really all you need to stabilize someone...)

The shield was "resist energy" and the repairs on the desks were done by the "wood shape" spell. You get the picture. I like the raging bouts of uncontrolled magic that Harry will go through, but they won't

happen very frequently. In fact I suspect that every time he loses control like that is when I'll knock him up another spell level.

Other than that, sorry for the long wait. Thanks for reading!

Ghostwheel