Blink
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Harry Potter story, JK Rowling does. I am merely expanding on her world.
Chasing a Shadow
Quest's End; Potter Mansion
200 miles northeast of Igarka, Central Russia...
The storm was getting stronger. Dark clouds hung low and threatened to burst forth. A lone dark figure on one of the mountains looked up at the sky. He seemed unworried about the coming blizzard.
Snow covered the Russian landscape as the figure seemed to get onto something that looked like a broom. The figure then sped into the air with such speed to match any fighter plane, yet the figure slowed and circled the mountain, as if searching for something.
The dark clouds obscured much of the upper half of the mountain, but the figure seemed more intent on the lower half. It sped around and around, constantly stopping to check something, until it finally sped down towards the mountain.
The figure hopped off the broom and it instantly shrunk. After putting it into a pocket, the figure then proceeded forward, stopping in front of the mouth of a very small crack in the side of the mountain. It was about six feet wide and a few dozen feet high. If not for the snow, it would have been impossible to find.
The figure raised a hand and made a sweep of the air. A field of energy appeared and it crackled before disappearing. Puzzled, the figure took something out of its pocket and it enlarged itself, becoming a rather thick and ancient-looking tome.
Opening of its own accord, the pages of the book flipped rapidly until it stopped abruptly. The wind was starting to pick up, but the figure seemed not to notice.
"Aha!" the figure exclaimed, shutting the tome and shrinking it before putting it back into a pocket. The figure raised its hand again, but this time muttered some incantation.
The field of energy over the crack came to life, glowing a bright green and then turning yellow, before collapsing visibly. The figure sweeped its hand again but nothing occured. Satisfied, the figure moved forth into the crack of the mountain.
A bright orb suddenly came into existence. It glowed red and lit the path inside the mountain. The figure peered into the darkness ahead, and then without doing anything the globe brightened significantly.
Smiling, the figure walked on, careful not to trip on any of the loose rocks that had fallen on the carefully carved path. Multiple runes lined the walls of the stone path, though the figure paid no attention after reading the first few lines. They spoke only of a riddle that the figure already knew about.
It seemed a long walk, but after a while two large stone doors came into view. They barred the passageway and were masterfully cut. Runes and symbols covered every space of the doors. However, the one's that were important were, of course, at the very middle.
To unlock the doors of knowledge
One must first have the key
To open the doors of knowledge
One must have the ring of stone
The figure smiled and reached into a pocket. Pulling out two things that automatically expanded into their full sizes, the red globe of light illuminated them and revealed them to be a key and a ring carved of a strange type of stone.
Waving a hand at the doors, numerous energy fields, lights, and wards shimmered slightly. Nodding, the figure raised a hand and any dust on the doors was blown away in a flurry of wind.
Robes untouched, the figure saw the keyhole and inserted the golden key and twisted it. A loud and large mechanism sprung to life and a few of the energy fields crackled. Then, the figure put on the ring and using the hand with the ring, pushed the doors open.
The stone doors swung inward and a blast of air greeted the figure, who was not at all affected by it. Without waiting, the figure then stepped through the doors, the red globe of light following in its wake. As soon as the figure stepped inside, the ring glowed and
The light from the torches revealed an enormous cavern. But, unlike any other cavern, this cavern was made with magic. The walls smooth and the floor as well. Only the ceiling seemed untouched by man as various sizes of stalactites hung from the ceiling.
The cavern was roughly the size of the quidditch pitch. The one thing that caught the figure's attention was the far end of the cavern, where the walls had been cut into bookshelves. Tomes and books of various sizes filled every inch of the shelves and the figure briskly approached them.
When the figure was about halfway, it stopped and the figure straightened. It turned swiftly.
"I can feel you. Reveal yourself!" the figure boomed in a deep voice, echoing throughout the cavern.
A mist started to appear as another figure shimmered into existance. The figure was a ghost of an old man who had a thick but short beard and many wrinkles. He wore strange wizard robes and Harry attributed it to the Russian wizarding dress of the time.
"Who are you?" the figure asked the ghost.
"I am the creator of this place and ultimately the guardian of its treasure," the ghost responded, bowing slightly.
"Then you are Lord Nicholaus Stratsnevski?"
"Indeed, young. Now, to the matter at hand," replied Nicholaus in his thick Russian accent. Surprisingly, he was pretty fluent in English and Harry understood what he said.
"Before you access my library, you must first prove yourself worthy enough. The ring and key alone will not suffice. You must fight. There will be three rounds, one harder than the last. If you stand victorious at the end, then you may pass into my library of great knowledge. If you do not, well," he chuckled, "you do not."
Harry gripped his wand tighter, "Very well then. Please begin. I am on a short timetable."
The ghost shook his head and said something in Russian before he disappeared. The mist lifted and the torches grew brighter. A large stone slab slid down to cover the entrance to the library, making the cavern shake violently.
Harry had no trouble keeping his balance, though did find it annoying. All those years and months of training had made him possibly the strongest wizard out there, or at least one of the strongest. He still had much room to improve.
Suddenly, a stone door opened on one side of the cavern. Harry had not seen it and so took a step back to see what would come out of it.
Hordes of skeletons wearing thick, dusty armor and wielding sharp blades flooded into the cavern. They hissed unnaturally and Harry took the time to raise more shields around him, since he always had some on.
Before he uttered a spell, he suddenly thought it would be a good time to practice his swordsmanship. Tucking his wand away, Harry quickly took out the sword of Gryffindor. Large gems dotted the golden hilt and sparkled in the light of the torches as the eternally sharp silver blade itself gleamed proudly.
Grinning, Harry swung it around him in quick, fluid motions. It had been too long since he last used the sword.
There were a lot of the skeleton soldiers now. Taking a quick count, Harry saw there were more than a hundred of them. He would definitely have to use some magic at least. He gripped the sword tighter and got into one of his stances.
The first group of thirty skeletons charged at him, howling eeriely. The first skeleton came into sword range and brought its sword up, ready to slash down. But it's head was no longer there as Harry swiped swiftly, cutting both arms off by the elbow and beheading the skeleton. The soldier then became dust as the next few skeletons came at him.
Swinging fast to parry two strokes aimed at his legs, he swung his sword up, kicked one of the skeletons in the chest, and hacked at the other one.
The skeleton he kicked erupted into a cloud of powder as the force of his kick broke its chest apart. The second skeleton was cut clean across it's chest as well.
More arrived and Harry expertly blocked and then backhanded a skeleton, sending it into the sword of the soldier behind it and making it explode into dust. Twirling the blade and slashing to and fro, Harry stayed light on his feet, as he had been taught. Less than three minutes later, all thirty of the skeleton soldiers that had first attacked were just dust in the wind. Literally.
Harry got into another stance, this one different and allowed him greater speed and dexterity on his first few attacks, and waited for the next group. The skeletons then attacked en masse, all one hundred plus of them. Thinking quickly, he held out his left hand, "Sectusempra!" he screamed.
However, instead of cutting just one target, he controlled and manipulated the magic and made it cut through a group of skeletons. Twenty of them blew up in a cloud of dust. He mentally thanked Dumbledore for allowing him to tap into this very rare ability. Dumbledore had it too, but was not as proficient. Harry had no time to think about that as the first five skeletons swiped at him.
He jumped back and then immediately lunged forward as their swords hit the ground. Parrying blows left and right, ducking and rolling, and kicking and punching, he made a hole through their ranks.
He felt pain along his right shoulder as a sword cut him from behind. Thankfully, it wasn't deep as his special armor robes took the blunt of the blow. He stabbed behind him with the sword and was rewarded with a cloud of dust. Jumping back, he lifted both hands and started casting multiple spells to cut down their numbers.
Soon enough, there were only about twenty left and they banded together for the final attack. Frowning, he remembered that he had forgotten to put on a shield against physical attacks. He did so, careful to make sure that the shield was only a few inches off his skin since he wanted to approach his targets and close in enough to use his sword.
He reached to his shoulder and winced slightly. Blood trickled from the wound and he hissed as he assessed the damage. It was nothing serious, really, but it hurt. He put his hand on the wound.
"Sano," he whispered, and a faint white glow emenated from his hand. Taking away his hand, he saw that the wound was fixed and smiled. He then fixed his robes with a quickly modified "Episkey" spell and then twirled the sword to test the shoulder. It was fine.
Smiling, he beckoned to the skeleton soldiers, who seemed to hesitate, but then charged.
Less than five minutes later, he defeated the final skeleton soldier and just as he did so, another stone door opened. This time, on the opposite side of the cavern.
Another large group of skeletons appeared, but this time they carried staves instead of swords.
"Oh, brother," whispered Harry as he knew they were all magicians.
There were fifty of them. There was only one of him. Then again, he was very powerful, but it still made him a bit nervous since he still did not know how strong they were - especially if all fifty battled him.
That was when they attacked. Without warning. They screamed their eerie battle cry and then flung curses at him. Curses he did not recognize, nor did he really want to.
He let what he could not dodge hit his shields but the rest he tried to avoid. He rolled, jumped, ducked, swayed, ran and bent. All the while he was flinging curses and spells back at them.
"Reducto!" he yelled at the ground close to about ten of them. The ground exploded up and outwards as sharp stones tore through the magi skeletons.
"Diffindo! Incendio! Reducto!" he was getting a little out of breath from all his exertion and his incantations.
Three maroon spells broke through his weakened shield and he flicked them away. He dodged a few other curses, but didn't see the one that had been cast to follow close to the floor.
It swung up a few feet away and he turned on extinct. It hit his side, flinging him back and making him spin as he did so. He sprawled onto the ground and curses under his breath.
He stood angrily, his light armor again saving him. It was a nasty wound and it hurt like hell, but his anger dulled the pain as his magic flowed through him. The skeletons paused and then resumed attacking.
He stepped aside to dodge a couple of curses and batted away two more that he could not avoid. He hastily set up another shield and began his counterattack. A few minutes later, he had already cleaned himself up and healed himself.
The cavern suddenly rumbled deeply and the floor shook.
"Wha-?" Harry said but he did not say anything, his gaze directed to the cavern ceiling.
He had not noticed it before. It was a large circle, about the size of half the cavern, and he was standing a little ways out from under it. He saw the carefully engraved figure of runes and that of a dragon, and he gulped.
"Please don't tell me-" but it had already started opening.
A savage roar erupted from the opening and the dragon flung itself onto the cavern floor with a large boom. It crashed onto the floor and seemed to shake the entire mountain. It wasn't that old, Harry commented to himself.
It was just about twice as big as the Hungarian Horntail he had in the Triwizard Tournament a while back. This dragon, however, truly looked formidable.
The dragon was a dark muddy brown in color and it's eyes were bright yellow.
It had numerous sharp teeth. Too many. It had very long claws that looked as if it could tear through the cavern walls if the dragon tried to. Four large horns curled out from near the top of the dragon's skull and spikes lines the spine of the dragon. Its tail seemed like a huge club covered with numerous smaller spikes. However, Harry knew they were just as sharp as everything else on the dragon.
He gulped. Facing Voldemort was one thing, but facing a dragon was totally and inexplicably different. First off, dragon's were highly immune to most magic. Second, they could breathe fire. Third, they were very, very, very dangerous. And fourth, Harry had never killed one before. Ever.
He gulped again, though he couldn't since his throat and mouth had long since gone dry from staring at the large beast.
Its head came down to his level, though still a few dozen feet away. It eyed him and then opened its mouth, letting loose a roar of challenge that shook the very foundations of the mountain.
Harry bet that the roar could have been heard all the way to England. He shook his head. He had to come up with a plan, fast.
'Okay, so dragon's claws, teeth, and tail are dangerous and would probably kill me in one go. So got to avoid that.'
He paused, he didn't know what to do. He vaguely remembered that Hermione had given him a book on dragons, but since he thought he didn't need it, he had left it at the mansion.
'Stupid.'
The dragon breathed in deeply and Harry suddenly knew what it was going to do. He threw a reducto down on the ground and used one of the rocks as a shield, transfiguring it into a large titanium steel shield that stood ten feet high.
The dragon let loose a torrent of molten hot fire and Harry thanked the gods he was a master at transfigurations. Transfiguring rock was one of the hardest things to do and most people couldn't achieve such a feat.
The dragon kept pouring fire onto the shield, which was already melting fast from the intense heat. However, before it completely melted, the dragon stopped and then just roared again.
It swiped at the shield, which was soft from the heat, and broke it apart, sending the pieces off to the side of the cavern. The dragon advanced on Harry, who was still wondering what he could do.
Well, he first had to set up his highest shields and barriers, which he did in a matter of seconds. His fear and adrenaline pumping in his blood helping him concentrate and also releasing some reserves of magic to help strengthen him.
The dragon quickly tried to swipe at him with the other claw, but only swiped air as Harry jumped into the air and assisted himself with magic. He had an idea of what to do. The dragon roared and then sent a torrent of fire at him, which he quickly avoided. Thinking fast, he teleported onto the back of the dragon, which looked around in confusion. Harry thanked Dumbledore mentally again for having taught him how to teleport - which was not affected by any anti-apparition wards or other wards for that matter.
That was how Dumbledore usually appeared quickly at many of the incidents in Hogwarts, though he did say he could not teleport into Hogwarts or out from it. He could only teleport within it. Harry had to look into that later.
He focused his magic and then pointed his hand at the dragon's back, "REDUCTO!" he cried.
The spell exploded onto the target back, but Harry sensed much of the magic in the spell disappated, leaving only barely enough to hurt the dragon. It roared in anger rather than pain and quickly turned its head, its long neck allowing for the 180 degree motion.
It opened its jaw and snapped at him, its jaw slamming hard on air as he teleported again, this time on the head of the dragon. He fired a modified blinding charm on the dragon, and it roared in confusion, rearing its head high and throwing Harry into the air. The dragon swiped at him and unluckily, the tip of one claw caught Harry's leg.
Pain seared through Harry as he fell hard onto the floor. He heard a sick crack and knew he had broken his arm somehow. He had not planned on getting hit. Still confused and angry, the dragon sent jets of fire into random areas, luckily Harry was too close for the dragon to think of blasting that area.
He looked at his arm first and scanned it with a spell. He apparently broke and dislocated his elbow and broke both his ulna and radius. He quickly fixed it with a spell he learned from an African master healer and then looked at his leg.
He paled. His leg was almost torn off. Blood was everywhere and he was slowly starting to see stars and losing some of his sight. He fired up a few of the healing spells that he had learned, which weren't many, and tried to make them stronger by infusing them with more magic. The dragon didn't hear him because it was still roaring and flailing about, shaking the cavern, but it was bound to find him soon.
He reached into his pocket and finished one of his blood-replenishing potions and then gave himself an adrenaline boost with a simple spell he learned from Moody. It helped ease the pain and put him back in action.
His leg was almost completely healed, there was still some damage he could not fully repair here and there and he could feel it wasn't entirely correct healing, but it would have to do until he could heal it under better conditions.
He stood, wincing slightly, and faced the dragon. That was when he remembered that the underside of a dragon was a weak point, next to the head of course. It had stopped roaring and flailing about, however, and stayed completely still.
Harry moved forward a little and then the dragon twitched its head in his direction.
'Great, it can still hear and smell me,' he thought.
He quickly teleported under the dragon and right before a jet of hot fire engulfed the area he had recently stood on. He sighed and then took out the sword of Gryffindor. He took it and with all his might, he plunged it into the underside of the dragon and then pushed it sideways to cut the softer underside.
The dragon roared in agony as Harry finally ripped the sword out. Dragon blood was pouring down and Harry thought he could harvest some dragon parts and blood from this one once he was done.
It then did something Harry never expected. It lay down while he was under it. Harry looked up as the underside fell onto him...
Flashback
He had felt a little guilty at leaving like abruptly and not telling his friends, but the book that he had received had spurred him to action. If he did not act fast, the world would plunge into chaos and war. Well, it would still do that anyway, according to the letter.
The letter had been sent along with the book, a thick tome to be exact. It was old and ancient, but within its pages lay instructions on what to do. It was as if the book knew everything, well, not everything, but enough. It had first sent him to Canada, where he traveled to the most remote northern areas of the country. He had literally lived on the ice. There, he had found something so unexpected it had shocked him to utter speechlesseness.
It was a castle. A castle on an iceberg so close to the north pole that the high temperature was well below freezing. Inside lay many wards, barriers, tricks, traps, and magical guards of the castle. However, they stood no match for Harry and in the end, he had retrieved what the book had said lay in one of its treasure holds.
It was a golden key. It had the rune of knowledge engraved upon its head and Harry did not know what its significance was, but knew that he could find out later.
After that, he had traveled south, to the United States, and deep into the heart of Texas. The place he went to was somewhere between San Antonio and Houston and a little more to the west of that area.
He was looking for an abandoned magical town and found it after a few weeks of searching the area thoroughly. It had been buried under more than a mile of sand, but Harry's magic coupled with the fact that wizards were the only ones that could see it had helped him to uncovered the lost town of Naratovee, according to the book. There, he had found a few very ancient books and tomes that were very useful and most likely the only copies ever made. He had no time to waste reading them yet, though, and so he took them back to his mansion, surprising everyone there.
Bruce had wanted to go with him, having had to do odd jobs for the last twenty years, but Harry refused. It was too dangerous and he would work faster alone. Also, he HAD to do it alone. He then told Bruce that he should join the Ministry and try to become a Hit Auror, since it might help him become much better. That was five and a half years ago.
After that, he had to go to the southernmost tip of Chile. It was also the southernmost tip of South America and he had to find a city that had gone underwater in a large earthquake long ago. Months of fruitless search ended when he finally found the city under so much rock and coral he would not have known if he had not glimpsed the paved streets and one of the tall buildings.
He found a thick and heavy chest inside one of the collapsed buildings and it was what he was searching for. He also dropped this off at the mansion and he smiled when Bruce said his auror training was going well. He was very good at it, apparently. The house elves were keeping the mansion clean and actually were sad that they had not much to do. Dobby tried to ask if Harry could stay a while, but Harry had told him that he would have to wait for some time.
That was about five years ago.
Then the next three years he had gone to Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia. He had created a seperate room for all the items he found on his journey and it was quickly being filled.
Two years ago, he had gone to Madagascar in search of some apparently very rare plants that were about to die since the wilderness was taking over them. He brought them back and planted them in his already extensive garden. The book had said that the plants' use would be made known later. He had flipped the page and moved on.
The next few months were spent in Zambia, Africa, where a very small local magical tribe was slowly dying off. He had helped them though and, according to the book, it was needed to receive some tutoring and some books as well. Sure enough, the village elder had thanked him and given him a small book in which was written much of their magic. The village healer had then taught him some very useful healing spells.
Then he went off to India and retreived a few more objects there. The final year had been spent from Australia, to Japan, and to China as well.
In Australia, he retreived some other objects and in Japan and China he was required to study every martial art. He showed great proficiency at it and all his masters were awed by him. He left prematurely, however, and was set on returning later since he just wanted to finish his quest. The last piece he retreived was the stone ring, hidden in some obscure dungeon near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which was at the northernmost part.
Then he arrived in Russia not too long ago, searching almost every mountain for some months, before finally finding the hall of knowledge.
'All that for nothing,' Harry thought as the belly of the beast crashed down on him and darkness surrounded him.
"Ugh..." he said.
The wound that he made had swallowed him up, preventing him from getting squashed. However, he was literally inside the belly of the beast and he wasn't liking it one bit. His shields were flickering from the constant contact, especially with the dragon's really acidic stomach, but his shields held.
He summoned a ball of light as before and looked around.
He was completely wet from a mixture of blood and other liquids. He was very well into the dragon and Harry shivered at that. His sword had cut the stomach of the dragon and acid was leaking out of it. Peering inside, Harry immediately recoiled from the stench that suddenly assailed his nostrils.
He wondered if Charlie had ever been in this situation and he highly doubted that. Shaking his head, he concentrated on getting out and killing the dragon, while leaving it intact enough to harvest some of it, of course.
"Well, here goes nothing," he said and reached for his magic, "Avada Kedavra!"
He had raised his hand to a pretty empty part of the stomach and let the spell off there. The entire body of the dragon convulsed, and the movement of the organs slowed somewhat, though there was still some energy left in them. That was when the dragon fell on its side and Harry came out into the world again.
He immediately cleansed himself with a quick "Tergeo". He banished any other excess liquids or stuff that had not come away from him. The dragon was dead, that was for sure, unless it could keep completely still and not breathe and at the same time stay alive while losing so much blood. There was literally a pool of blood that came up to Harry's ankles.
He levitated himself to avoid the blood and cleaned his shoes with another "Tergeo" spell. He approached the dragon and then proceeded to take some of its parts for further use. He frowned, it was not nice nor appealing work, but it had to be done lest the uses for it be wasted. He also collected as much untainted and uncontaminated dragon blood as he could, which filled quite a lot of bottles.
After the grisly business was done, he approached the stone gate that blocked the library. Intending to blast it open, he raised his hand, but stopped when he saw the mist appear again and the ghost became visible.
"Well done, Lord Gryffindor. You are, indeed, most worthy to access my library. A pity that the dragon died, though I see you've been busy with it," Nicholaus said, chuckling deeply as he eyed the body of the dragon.
"It was most difficult but I managed," said Harry, smiling.
The ghost nodded, "Very well then, Lord Gryffindor. You can take whatever books you wish. Actually, you should take ALL the books herein, for now that my duty is done and that I have seen the man to whom my priceless library will go to, I can rest in peace," Nicholaus said, a bit of sadness in his voice and yet he seemed cheerful.
"Thank you. I will use the knowledge contained here well."
"I know you will, Lord," said the ghost, bowing.
"Wait!" cried Harry, before Nicholaus disappeared forever.
"Yes?"
"If you see someone named Sirius Black and if you see my parents, James and Lily Potter, please tell them that I am alive and well and that I love them so much," said Harry, squirming slightly at the request and looking down at the floor.
The ghost smiled, "I shall tell them, though I have no doubt they alreay know what you told me. Farewell, young Lord Gryffindor," and with that, Nicholaus was no more.
The stone cavern rumbled and shook as the stone gate rose up, opening the library. Harry walked in and tranfigured one of the rocks into a large chest. He proceeded to retrieve all the books and shrink them, levitating them into the trunk.
It took him more than an hour, even with magic, but in the end he had finished. Two full chests of books left with him after he made them weightless and shrunk the chests themselves.
As soon as he stepped out, he shivered. He quickly put on heavy shields against the wind and snow and also a good warming charm. His Thunderbolt 8000, the fastest broom on the market, well, the fastest one on the market six years ago, appeared in his hand. He did not have the power to teleport to his mansion. He flew west, careful to put on his strongest concealment spells and disillusionment charm. He long ago scrambled his magical signature and aura so as to make him untraceable unless he wanted to be traced.
It was going to be a somewhat long flight, so he set the broom on auto and promptly fell asleep.
Eight hours later...
He was somewhere over France. He rubbed his eyes blearily and looked around him, however he could not see where he was since thick clouds smothered him, so he took of the auto on the broom and went below the clouds.
He looked around. All he saw was the French countryside. However, he did catch a glimpse of the Eiffel tower off in the horizon to his west, which meant he was going in the right direction.
He stopped his broom and teleported soundlessly. He was close enough to do so.
The mansion was still intact. The hundreds of layers of wards and barriers were intact, and the mansion itself didn't look as if anything bad happened. Harry relaxed and flew to the front entrance, flying over the grounds. He opened the door and instantly, three pops sounded. His wand in his one hand and his other hand raised up, he stopped himself from casting a spell when he sensed it was the house elves.
"Oh! We is very sorry, Master Harry! We didn't mean to alarm you!" apologized Mundy.
"Yes, we very sorry, Master. Greatest wizard of all time," added Lopa.
"Wills you forgive us?" asked Dobby as all three house elves looked down in shame.
Harry chuckled, his wand disappearing in a flash and his hand lowering, "Of course! And how many times have I told you to just call me Harry? I am no more your master than your friend," he replied, much to the enthusiasm of his house elves.
"Are you finished with your great journey, Ma- Harry?" Dobby asked, hope in his eyes, "We having not much to do anymore. We being very sad."
Harry looked down at the house elf, still smiling, "Yes, I believe I'm done for now. I'll be staying for a while as I train using the things I retreived," he told them.
The elves excitedly came to life and then told him that they had a feast waiting for him in the dining hall.
"Has any news come from Bruce?"
"Oh, sir Bruce came by not too long ago, Master," Lopa winced a little at saying the last word, "...but the differences in the time between Potter Mansion and the outside world is making it hard for me to say."
"Hold on, there's a time difference?"
"Yes, Mas..." she stopped, "Harry!"
Harry smiled and shook his head, "Would you mind telling me about this time difference?"
"Well, I is not sure about it but I will take you to one who knows!" and with that she grabbed his hand and snapped her fingers.
Harry felt pretty good about the elvish teleportation actually, which it was since they could go through any wards save the most powerful. It wasn't as bad as apparating since there was always the feeling of getting squeezed while doing it. It made Harry uncomfortable, which was why he thanked Dumbledore for teaching him about teleportation.
Lopa walked over to a set of oak doors that opened of their own accord and beckoned for Harry to enter.
Harry walked in and found many portraits in the room, most of which looked at him while the rest didn't see him enter. Gasps of surprise echoed throughout the hall as the paintings recognized him.
"My God, you must be Harry!" a rather large picture said aloud.
Harry turned around to see who it was and there, next to the door, stood what looked to be an older version of his father. His heart stopped and his eyes widened.
"F-Fa-Father?" he croaked feebly.
The old man frowned and shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Harry. You see, you're father didn't want a portrait of him made. I am your grandfather, Harry."
Harry nodded. He knew it was too good to be true. Though he was very happy and excited to see that he still had family, in a sense.
"Pleased to meet you, grandfather...?"
"Oh, excuse me. Where have my manners gone off to? Sir Henry Rowen Gryffindor Potter, at your service," he bowed with a flourish. Indeed, it seemed strange since he wore expensive and dazzling red robes with gold thread. He had a head of light brown hair intermixed with white and a beard that went down to his chest and was similar to his hair in colors.
He wore half-moon glasses just like Dumbledore and eyed him with a little twinkle from his steel gray eyes. He had som wrinkles to show his age, but other than that, he seemed fairly young for a grandfather.
As if sensing his thoughts, Henry spoke, "This portrait was made when I was about seventy. It was the first I had made. There are others, but I believe this is the only one that was saved during the first war. A pity, really," said Henry.
He looked good for seventy, but then again he was a wizard after all.
"So, what brought you here?" asked the old man.
"Well, I asked Lopa about the time difference that I was unaware of. Can you explain it to me, sir?"
The man looked affronted, "Harry! You are to call me either grandpa, grandfatherm, or Henry. None of this sir business. Besides, isn't that what you tell your house elves?" he said with a grin.
Harry smiled, a bit embarassed, and nodded, "Sure thing - er, grandpa."
"Now, let me see. From what I remember, my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, the first Potter I believe, made it so that we could spend more time doing the things we wanted inside here and not waste our time outside. This was to 'maximize productivity' and also to 'strengthen the Potter family'. I believe that this was his choice of words on the matter. He was a great wizard and specialized greatly in wards, barriers, charms, and complex spells such as the Time-Difference spell. The spell, incantation, and formula for his original spell has long since been lost, but there are other less effective ones that were made.
Anyway, as far as I know, the time difference isn't drastic unless you want it to be. However, the most you can change the time difference to is one week to here to one day out there. Right now, I believe it's on a two Potter days to one normal day ratio," he finished.
Harry nodded, surprised. He could spend months in here and only spend a week 'normally'. Excited, he asked how he could change the difference.
"Well, the switch is on the far end of this hallway. You're going to need the password though, which is: 'Rubber Duck.'"
"You're joking," Harry said, beginning to laugh.
"What! It was a great invention of the time! I'll have you know that I never took a bath without at least some of them swimming around and quacking. Very amusing, bec-" but he stopped and crossed his arms as Harry fell on the floor, laughing.
"My word, what's so funny? It's true!"
But that only made Harry laugh even more. Giving up, Henry just glared at his grandson until he stopped laughing.
"Sorry. Couldn't help it, really."
"Humph," replied the portrait, though he smiled.
"Well, would you like to join me in the dining hall? I would love some company, grandpa. I've... I've been away and alone for a long time," he asked, hesitantly.
"Why, of course! However, I should think you want to meet your other ancestors. Now, take me down and levitate me alongside you," said Henry.
Harry did as told and soon his grandfather's portrait was hovering in the air next to him.
"Now, let's go meet your other relatives."
Dining Hall, Potter Mansion
After having adjusted the time difference so that 7 Potter days would pass for one outside day, Harry collected his other relatives and brought them to the dining hall. All in all, there were a bunch of them.
There was Michael John Gryffindor Potter, Henry's father. Then there was Shean Applesauce Potter, Henry's uncle. After him there was Shean's wife, Melanie Ravenclaw Potter and then Johnathan Anthony Gryffindor Potter, Michael's father and thus Henry's grandfather.
Then there was Kevin Weathers Potter, who was Michael's father. After him there were the twins Alfred and Anton Potter. Then Susan Weasley Potter, who's name surprised Harry greatly. She was Alfred's wife. Anton's wife was Emilane Hollis Potter. Then the last was Jason Zabini Potter.
Harry had greeted them all and had answered their barrage of questions, most of which he answered fully. The others he kept some things secret or decided not to tell them the truth at all. He had some things to keep, after all, even from his own family.
"You have endured such hardship and turmoil, Harry, yet I am proud of you. We all are," said Henry, tears in his eyes.
They all agreed to that and that was when Lopa, Mundy, and Dobby appeared, carrying trays of food, a plate for Harry, and a set of utensils.
Then Harry ate hungrily, as if famished, and copied Ron much in the exact same way he ate the last time they were together.
The faces around him were full of happiness and amusement as they watched him or conversed with each other. After a rather long time, he finished eating, and pushed back his seat.
"Wow, that's the most I've eaten so far," he remarked with a smile as he rubbed his stomach.
Then Henry turned to them all and nodded. Everyone became silent and turned to Harry, who was looking back at them curiously.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Well, Harry. From what you've told us, this new group that's risen may just be worse than Voldemort. I believe they were under Grindelwald long ago. They had the same kind of organization, clothing, and procedure. It also sounds like they've gotten a lot better and a lot bigger over the years. I knew we never fully hunted down the pigs. Alas, they will prove a formidable enemy to the world. They were, after all, the ones that trained all the SS legions of Hitler's army. That is why they were such elite troops," explained Henry.
Harry raised his eyebrows, he had not thought that this might have been an old group already. He had originially thought them to be a new radical group that sprung to existence from the remaining Death Eaters and Voldemort supporters. Apparently he was wrong.
"So, while you were eating and were oblivious to us, we've come to a unanimous decision. Yes, you may be quite adept at magic and have good skills, however your training is extremely incomplete. Albus Dumbledore and the others who trained you only trained you for war, which is understandable. The path of training you took was short and was the fastlane on the long expressway to becoming an Archmage, which you have a potential to become. However, this is in the past and you will need all of your power to fight the Dark Order. Yes, that is their name Harry.
We will now train you since we are masters ourselves and since we have so much more experience and knowledge. Once we are finished, you may yet begin to rival even Merlin or Godric himself. Perhaps. Now, you have no choice in the matter, you will- no, you must accept. If you do not, then the world will fall hard and may not pick itself up again," he said sadly and yet strongly, his gaze unwavering on Harry who stared at him with a mixture of emotions.
Happiness for the love they are showing, excitement for the training he was about to get, love for his remaining family, sadness for more war and death, anger at being the saviour once again, and jealousy of normal wizards. Yet he knew they were right. He had no choice. He had to lead and help the world against the Dark Order.
He sighed in frustration and anger, "Why is it that when we knock down an evil dark lord, another one springs up again? Will there be no peace??" he asked them.
They looked at each other, sadness in their eyes. "I am afraid that peace is not possible. Human nature seems inherently corrupt, especially to those who want power," Michael said softly.
"Do not worry, Harry. We are here for you. Just know that for every moment you fight the dark, there is more time for people to enjoy the light," Melanie spoke from her portrait.
Harry nodded in understanding, "I just...I don't want to keep fighting wars all my life. It's not fair..." he said, trailing off and shaking his head. There were tears in his eyes, the first tears he'd cried since so many years ago.
"Harry, there will be peace after this, I am almost certain of it. Just know that if another war comes after this one, you must fight again. You are one of the leading figures of the light and if you shirk your duty to the rest of the world than the darkness will probably win. From what you've told us, Dumbledore is aging and there are not many strong light figures left," said Shean, looking at him seriously and yet with tenderness.
"Besides, beating the bad guys isn't a bad thing," said Kevin, who was grinning.
Harry nodded, wiping away some of the tears that had fallen, "I guess... I guess you can count on me," he answered them softly, smiling after the statement.
Everyone else smiled and nodded at him. Henry then cleared his throat, "Very well then. You're training shall begin tomorrow. In the morning go out front to the grounds, it shall begin there," and with that the portraits left after saying goodnight to Harry. All except Henry that is.
Harry had manipulated the locomotor spell into the wingardium leviosa spell and he modified it so that the paintings could direct where they wanted to go and would stay afloat until someone cancelled the spell. He also had put another spell to work so that if they wanted to return to the walls where they hung previously, the first two spells would become dormant until the painting tried to move again.
Henry had said that it was a brilliant work of magic, but that he could probably better the spell once they started training. After Harry was shown to his rather luxurious and large bedroom, Henry left.
Harry stepped into the bathroom and took a nice, long, and hot shower. Even though he cleaned himself regulary with the "Tergeo" spell, it still didn't beat a nice hot shower.
After about ten minutes, he got out of the shower, dried himself, brushed his teeth, and then went over to the closet in the bedroom. He opened it and lo and behold a numerous robes and clothes lay before his eyes.
Stunned, he looked at them all. He noticed they were all of high quality and that they were all spectacular. He noticed some battle robes, even some magic armor, and then there were dress robes, formal robes, and other kinds of robes. What surprised him even more were the drawers under the robes. They were filled with numerous socks, all of which had tags attached to them (that were charmed to be unnoticed, of course) and some of them were perpetually warm or cool, depending on what you preferred. There were some that had cushioning charms or others that were charmed to make you move faster or even jump higher.
Then there were boots of every kind. There was even some Gryffin boots, a very rare thing indeed. Though he felt pity for the great beast that fell for it. It was even better than dragon's hide boots, which he also had plenty of. A rainbow of colors assaulted his every look into the cabinet and he felt dizzy from all the amazing things to be found in the cabinet. There were even earmuffs that were magically tuned to the Wizarding World Wireless. Then there were gloves of every kind and again the best among the lot was the Gryffin gloves.
He felt sorrow once more at seeing them, however he searched for matching robes and found that there were no Gryffin robes.
'Strange. I'd have thought they'd make a set out of it,' he thought as he found some night robes.
They were made of the finest silk and were light blue in color. He didn't see himself wearing it around, but knew he could wear it while sleeping since it was charmed to keep the wearer at a certain temperature and to make the wearer comfortable on all surfaces. Even if he were lying on the ground, his back wouldn't go bad.
He looked up at the ceiling and smiled, closing his eyes and finally getting some rest.
Author's Notes: I would appreciate it very much if you reviewed. Much thanks!
godessa39: What do you mean by Trio Love exactly? If you explain it, I can tell you whether or not what you're thinking is true. I don't want to lead you on about it. Thanks for the review though and I hope you enjoy my story. :)