Disclaimer: this work borrows from the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books; some plot elements, characters, and concepts are hers.

This work also borrows a few elements from the movie Boondock Saints, which is also not my property, no infringement is intended.

Chapter 6: The sword and the straw.

The next day Harry had Karen drop him and Jacob off at a diner down the street from the Leaky Cauldron, a wizarding inn that was not visible to non-magical people.

Harry led Jacob through the Leaky Cauldron, and showed him which bricks to tap to get in to Diagon alley, Jacob just smiled, and held his hand up, palm facing the wall, and it transformed into an archway for them to pass.

Harry snickered "Showoff"

Jacob grinned "You're jealous." Harry shrugged. "Not really. You have a great family, and you deserve it."

Jacob looked around, trying to hide the surprise on his face. "What's the first stop Harry?"

"Gringotts" Harry replied "Follow me."

Harry pulled out a thousand galleons, figuring it was better to have extra money, than to not have enough. Then they went to Flourish & Blott's, where they bought several books on defense, magical theory, potions, transfiguration and Harry even found an auror handbook that covered the basics of Occlumency.

Then they went to Ollivander's wand shop.

"Hello Mr. Potter" the ancient- looking wizard greeted Harry and Jacob warmly

"Holly wand, twenty nine and a quarter centimeters with a phoenix feather core, I trust it is serving you well?" He asked

"Yes sir, very well" Harry replied "Actually I am here to see about getting my friend Jacob a wand." Harry turned to Jacob "Mr. Ollivander is the best wand maker in England."

Ollivander frowned. "I'll see what I can do Harry, but unless I am mistaken, no wand I have will be compatible with your friend." He cast a few detection charms and nodded at the results "He appears to be a squib, and no wand can compensate for that."

"A squib?" Harry asked incredulously "I have seen Jacob levitate objects wandlessly!"

Ollivander sighed "I apologize, but according to ministry regulations he is considered to be a squib, and as such I cannot sell a wand to him."

Jacob sighed "Come on Harry, no sense in arguing, we know the truth, and if he wants to be a Git, let him!"

Harry followed Jacob out of the shop, both of them taking a few deep breaths to get rid of their anger.

"Jacob, I'm sorry he talked like that" Harry said, Jacob shrugged "Don't apologize for someone else's actions. He looked around to see what other interesting shops were in sight. "Hey, Let's check out the junk shop!" He exclaimed. Jacob shrugged and nodded. "Alright."

They walked in to the Junk Shop looking for something to distract them, and started looking through the odds and ends.

Harry found a small pensieve. Lying in the bottom was a small stone that looked like an opal. Harry picked it up, still looking at the pensieve and remembering the first time he saw one, when he was shocked to see the thin silver strand of a memory come out of the stone and fall into the pensieve. Harry quickly set the stone aside, and cautiously entered the memory, only to find it was his own memory of the first time he saw a pensieve.

Harry quickly exited the pensieve, and retrieved his memory, then set the stone in the pensieve again, and picked them both up.

Harry looked up as Jacob gave a low whistle.

Jacob was holding what appeared to be a foot long stick; He carefully grasped one end and pulled on the other.

What Jacob was actually holding was a beautiful silver katana with a six inch long scabbard that had been magically lengthened to hold the full-sized blade.

Harry and Jacob grinned at each other. Jacob sheathed the Katana, and held out another just like it, raising an eyebrow at Harry as he did so. Harry nodded, answering the unspoken question, and bought them both, as well as the pensieve and the mysterious memory stone.

As soon as they were outside of the junk shop, each of the boys fastened their new silver katana to his belt. Then they headed to the Cauldron shop to pick up some potions supplies.

Harry bought Jacob a cauldron, as well as a standard student's kit, and allowed him to pick out a few extra ingredients.

Then the exited Diagon alley and went to the Diner that Karen had dropped them off at, and met her for lunch.

After lunch the headed back to Surrey since Karen had finished her business while Harry and Jacob were in Diagon alley.

Harry spent the rest of the day doing his best to explain any questions that Jacob had.

The next afternoon Harry was practicing the meditation exercises found in the Occlumency section of the Auror's handbook, when he was nearly knocked over by a wave of magical energy.

Harry looked over at Jacob to see him holding a phial of fluid that had the same silver quality as a memory in a pensieve.

The difference being that this potion, while silver in color, was glowing with a nearly blinding light.

"What did you do!" Harry asked in shock. Jacob shrugged. "I figured that ground dragon claws and ground unicorn horn should make a powerful mixture, but by themselves there is no reaction, so I added some alcohol, and mint to stabilize it." He replied calmly.

"You aren't supposed to mix potion's ingredients to see what they do!" Harry exclaimed.

"What are you supposed to do with a potion then?" Jacob asked.

"Drink it!"

"Allright then bottoms up!" And so, before Harry could stop him, Jacob drank the brew.

The ensuing wave of magical power really did knock Harry over, after his head stopped spinning, Harry sat up, and rushed over to where Jacob lay on the ground, fearing the worse. Jacob groaned and sat up.

"Wow. That was quite a rush, did I swallow a roller coaster?"

Harry laughed, relieved that his friend was not dead.

"Are you allright?" He asked "You should be careful drinking potions, especially if you don't know what they do."

Jacob got up and nodded. "Actually, I feel great, you should try that!"

Harry laughed. "Well, seeing as how you're alive, and feel ok, it can't be too dangerous, right?"

Jacob nodded and quickly repeated the process. "Just be careful Jake, some potions can be addictive." Jacob nodded "I promise I won't do this again, I just thought it was fun, and think you should try it once."

As soon as the potion hit your stomach, it really did feel like a roller coaster, Harry felt incredible amounts of power surge through his body in a way that was almost intoxicating. He fought to stay on his feet, but fighting the potion was like fighting the tide, you simply can't win.

Harry shook his head, sat up and grinned "You were right Jake, I feel great!"

Harry did feel great. It was like his magic was buzzing inside him.

Never had he felt so much power.

That night for the first time Vernon Dursley did not try to give Harry a hard time when he got home, so Jacob did not need to use his Legilimency to calm him down.

Harry got up the next morning, and quickly went about his morning routine.

The buzzing feeling in his magic was still there from the night before, but it was slightly diminished.

He did not know why, but his relative seemed frightened, like going near him was dangerous.

As usual Jacob came to get Harry at about 10, but having largely finished the greenhouse, they only had to tend to the plants inside it, and then they went up to Jacob's room to practice, and that is when they noticed something different.

While the magic came far more easily to both of them than it had before they drank the potion, they had very little control over it.

It was easy to project the magic, but hard to get it to do a specific task,

Harry tried to levitate a tennis ball and it flew into the wall, bounced off of it, and his Jacob in the stomach, sending him flying 8 feet into the wall behind him.

Jacob tried to levitate a tennis ball and it exploded.

Jacob sighed "What's wrong with us today? Why can't we do this, we didn't have any trouble yesterday!"

"Uh, Jake?" Harry said nervously, having just remembered what they had drunk the night before. "I think it may be because of that potion we drank yesterday."

"Bugger" Was all Jacob could think to say.

"It may wear off, but we shouldn't try anything with magic until it does."

Jacob nodded. "Want to watch a movie instead?"

Harry nodded "Allright, what did you have in mind?"

That night Harry lay in bed, sleeping fitfully.

Oddly enough, his mind was not on the fact that his magic was still uncontrollable. His magical buzz was steadily declining, and he was confident that he would be able to start using his magic again in a day or two.

Nor was his mind on the physical practice that he and Jacob had done with their katanas.

No, his mind was on the movie that he had watched with Jacob.

Certain lines in the movie had struck a chord deep within him, and they kept playing themselves over and over in his head

It haunted his dreams.

Authors note: the following lines come from the movie Boondock Saints, which is not my property. Any quotes from the movie will be in bold italics.

There was a Catholic priest standing at the front of the church, dressed in his white robes.

"And I am reminded on this holy day of the sad story of Kitty Genovese.

As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help, time and time again.

But no person answered her calls.

Though many saw, no one so much as called the police.

They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight.

They watched as her assailants walked away.

Now, we all fear evil men, but there is another kind of evil which we must fear most.

And that is the indifference of good men!"

"Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

For in the image of god, made he man."

"Destroy all that which is evil."

"So that which is good may flourish"

"You know what I think is psycho, Roc?

Is decent men with loving families.

They go home every day after work, and turn on the news, and do you know what they see?

They see rapists, murderers, and child molesters.

They're all getting out of prison."

"Mafiosos, getting caught with 20 kilos, getting out on bail, the same day."

"And everywhere, everyone thinks the same thing- That someone should just go kill them, and kill them all."

"Admit it, even you've thought about it"

"Now you will receive us!"

"We do not ask for your poor or your hungry!"

"We do not want your tired, and sick!"

"It is your corrupt we claim-

It is your evil that will be sought by us!"

"With every breath, we shall hunt them down."

"Each day, we will spill their blood, until it rains down from the sky!"

"Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal.

These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace!"

"These are not polite suggestions! These are codes of behavior, and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost!"

"There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain."

"For if you do, one day you will look behind you, and you will see we three

And on that day, you will reap it!."

"And on that day, we will send you to whatever god you wish."

Harry woke suddenly, sitting up with a gasp.

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, and shook his head.

"Bloody sodding hell!" he exclaimed to himself "They are right."