Chapter 10- Memories

"What do you want to do once you leave the orphanage?" Ava asked as Harry and her made their way to the clearing they used to practice using their power once more, a few weeks after she had begun to master using her mana instead of merely trying to sense it. The question surprised Harry slightly, mainly because it was a question he'd been asking himself more and more as he continued mastering the use of his mana.

"What do I want to do once I leave the orphanage huh? It's a fair question I suppose, but I don't really have an answer for her. Before I discovered mana, I used to think that I wanted to be a politician. I wanted to be someone with the influence to control my own life. I don't really need that kind of influence anymore. I have the power to defy the authority of others if need be. Now, I'm somewhat lost as to what to do when I'm older," Harry thought to himself, voicing the thought aloud a moment later.

"Honestly? I'm not quite sure what I plan to do in the long term. I plan to continue exploring all the possibilities mana has to offer, I suppose we'll have to see where that leads me," He told her sincerely.

"Whatever you decide to do, can I come with you?" Ava asked quietly after a moment of silence, turning slightly red as she spoke. Harry shot her a somewhat amused look before responding.

"Though where it is that I might lead remains a mystery, if that is what you wish to do, then of course you can come with me Ava," He replied, his answer earning him a bright smile from Ava right as they finally reached the clearing.

"In any case, I've been keeping an eye on your progress when it comes to using a mana tendril to control objects around you, and you've got the basics down. From where you are now, it's more important to constantly use your mana so that your available reserve grows than it is to refine your control further. That said, I have yet to explain to you how I manage to control multiple objects at the same time using mana," Harry continued, moving on from her question without waiting for a reply. If she was at all bothered by him changing the topic, it didn't show on her face, instead her eyes seemed to light up at his words.

"Does that mean you think I'm ready to learn more?" She asked excitedly, eager to learn more about mana as she always was. Harry nodded in response to her question.

"As you might remember when I first explained using mana tendrils to move objects to you, I use multiple tendrils at once to lift pretty much whatever I need to. I don't know if you've tried creating multiple at once outside of my supervision at all, but if you have then you'll know it's not quite as easy as it sounds. As you know, it's already difficult to maintain the mana when it's exiting your body with just one tendril, and splitting the stream into multiple tendrils makes the process exponentially harder because you're splitting your focus between each one. That said, I feel that your control over your mana is sufficient for at least two tendrils if not three. Go aheadand give it a try, I'll be continuing to organize my mind while you practice," He explained cheerfully, sinking to the ground as he finished speaking. Ava followed suit a moment later, quickly levitating over two nearby stones to use for practice. Nodding at her encouragingly, Harry closed his eyes, sensing inward as he entered his mind, glancing around at the neatly ordered shelves of memories he'd painstakingly created, before looking at the countless memories still floating around his mind.

"At this pace, it'll take another three months or so to finish organizing my memories. At this point it seems unlikely I'll find any memories from infancy given that I haven't found any yet. I'd been hoping… Well, I suppose I'll never know who my parents were. I've gone this long without knowing, I'll live without that particular bit of information I suppose. Still, it's rather curious, I have fragmented memories starting from around three but before that there's nothing at all. I haven't explored anyone else's mind thoroughly enough to know for certain, but it seems likely that memories before that age simply aren't stored long term, even using mana to retrieve them. It makes sense given the lack of any lasting memories most people have from that age," Harry mused to himself with a sigh as he glanced at the many memories still needing to be sorted. Reaching out toward the nearest memory, he began willing it to transform it into a book, flinching back as he realized exactly which memory it was.

"My seventh birthday," He thought with a grimace, eyeing the memory warily.. "Even if it's a bad memory, I can't avoid it forever. That day's probably the single most important moment in my life so far, and I can't run from it forever. I have to embrace it eventually," Harry thought to himself, steeling his resolve. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out toward the memory and allowed himself to relive its contents, not bothering to sort it quite yet. The memory played out almost exactly as he'd remembered it, that is, up until the moment he'd first used mana.

"That's odd. That doesn't feel like my mana," He realized, remembering the power coursing through him as the two bullies were blasted back into the wall. He'd come to learn from his time using mana and teaching Ava that people's mana had distinct flavors to it of sorts, with each person's feeling at least slightly different than anyone else's. Even the mana in the air didn't quite have the same feeling to it as the mana in the memory. If anything, the mana he felt in the memory felt more like that of another person, but that wasn't possible, he'd been the only one in the basement at the time.

"What could've caused my mana to feel different though? I've never felt anything similar to that before and I've been using my mana for almost a year and a half, I'll need to look into why that is," Harry thought to himself, making a mental note to explore why the mana in that particular memory could've felt different. For the time being though, there wasn't much he could do about it. He quickly turned the memory into a book, placing it on one of the nearby shelves before resuming his work; there were plenty more memories still in dire need of sorting. Still, at the back of his mind the question of why his mana felt different in that particular memory never left his mind.

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After spending a few days investigating his own mana network without any luck, Harry was forced to look elsewhere to find the reason why the mana he'd felt in that memory felt slightly off, namely, his mind. After ensuring Ava was set up for her mana practice of the day, he dove into his mind once more, this time determined to find out the cause of the strange mana in his memory.

"Lets see what mysteries you're hiding," He thought, momentarily glancing at the bookshelves he'd created in his mind before heading in the opposite direction, wading through the remaining unsorted memories as he headed into the fringes of his mindscape.

"The human mind really is fascinating," Harry mused to himself, watching as his neatly organized mind slowly turned into a darker, almost barren place as he left the section he'd managed to organize, the floating memories slowly disappearing as he neared the edge of his mind. He'd only explored so far out from the center of his mind once before, way back when he'd first been exploring what he could accomplish in his mind and he'd been curious.

However, he'd turned back before reaching the very edge of his mind. Today, he'd be seeing just how far his mind continued on, and if it held anything the answer to the oddity in his memory. However, as he approached the edge of his mind, he didn't find quite what he expected. Instead of what he was used to seeing on the very edge of people's minds, the barren void that signaled the end of their consciousness, he began to feel something else, a presence at the edge of senses.

"It almost feels like another mind, but the feeling isn't quite the same…" Harry thought, slightly confused as the feeling grew stronger. Heading toward where he could sense the feeling, he quickly found the source.

"What the hell is that?" He thought, his confusion only growing as he looked at the source of the feeling he'd been experiencing. At first glance, it could almost be mistaken for a mind aside from it's pitch black color, even from afar he could vaguely hear indistinct murmurs of thoughts coming from it, but it was also so much more than that, unlike any mind he'd ever seen before including his own, he could sense traces of mana lingering around whatever it was, meaning it definitely wasn't anything ordinary.

"That's the same mana I felt in my memory. Whatever the hell this thing is, it's why my mana felt off that day," Harry realized, evaluating the being before from a distance away, he could feel a distinct wrongness from it, it didn't belong in his mind, that much was obvious. Whatever it was though, it was also clearly broken. Around the edges of it, he could see jagged cracks and the entire thing seemed highly volatile. More importantly though, he could see what resembled roots of some sort extending out of it, burrowed into his mind.

"Alright, whatever you are, how about you get the hell out of my mind you little parasite," He thought to himself, mentally trying to push the entity from his mind. Unfortunately, his effort didn't seem to have much effect on the being, instead only serving to make it fight back. Before he knew what was happening he was engaged in his first ever mental battle, trying to push the creature out of his mind, whilst the crushed fought against his mental shove, pushing back.

"I said, get the fuck out of my mind!" Harry projected, redoubling his effort to force whatever the being was out. However, it remained unmoved, merely pushing back harder until it eventually reached the point where Harry was being slowly forced away, forcing him to stop his attempts to remove the being from his mind.

"This… might be a bigger issue than I'd suspected," Harry thought, noticing how rapidly the struggle had depleted his mana as he eyed the creature warily, retreating back into the core of his mindscape where he was in familiar ground once more.

"I'll need a plan to deal with that creature. It needs to go, but I'm clearly not strong enough to handle it on my own, not yet at least," Harry thought to himself, going over his options as he decided on what he wanted to do.

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The next few months passed by in a rush to Harry as he dedicated his time to organizing his mind and growing his mana reserves as much as he could. On the bright side, he'd managed to finish organizing his mind, and the benefits were drastic. While he'd already noticed an improved memory even before he finished organizing his mind, the level of clarity that having all his memories sorted brought still took him somewhat by surprise. His thoughts were clearer, and his ability to sense mana had continued to improve, though that may have also just been due to his rigorous practice as controlling it. Unfortunately, despite Harry going back twice more to investigate the strange being present in his mind, he still hadn't managed to get the better of it, much less force the being from his mind. Luckily, he wasn't the only one that had been improving, he'd also been making sure to continue pushing Ava along the same path he'd taken, teaching her more and more about mana, until, recently, she'd gained what Harry considered to be a passable proficiency in the use of mana mentally. Which meant she was finally at the point to be of at least some small amount of help when it came to dealing with his little problem.

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"Ava, several months ago, back when you were just starting on the path of using mana, I discovered something odd inside my mind. There's a being there, one that's not me, it seems to be extremely volatile and, while I haven't seen any real signs it's malicious, or even fully sentient for that matter, I'd like it out of my head. I've been doing my best to force it out, but whatever it is, it's incredibly strong, I haven't been able to manage it on my own. So today, instead of our normal practice, I was hoping you'd agree to enter my mind and help me deal with it," Harry said seriously, sitting across from Ava in the clearing once more. Ava's eyes went wide at the information.

"You haven't been able to take care of it on your own? It's that strong? Will I even be of any help in that case?" She asked anxiously.

"I've been tracking your progress when it comes to the mental aspect of our power incredibly closely, you're strong enough to make a difference. More importantly though, it'll have to split its focus to defend from both of us. I just need you to do anything you can to distract it, I'll handle the rest," Harry explained. Hesitantly, Ava nodded her head.

"If you need my help and think I can do something, of course I'll help," She replied. Harry smiled slightly in response to her answer before his expression turned serious.

"Alright then, we'll enter my mind just like we have a couple times before, once we're in I'll lead you to where the being is," He told her, diving into his mind. Mere seconds later, he felt her mental presence as she followed after him. Not bothering to say anything more, he merely gestured for her to follow after him, as he headed back to the very edges of his mind with Ava following closely behind. Soon enough, the strange creature was in sight of both of them.

"Is that it?" Ava asked mentally, eyeing the creature with a mix of curiosity and disgust. Harry narrowed his eyes at it, nodding his head in response.

"Yeah, that's it, I'll target it first, once I start just sneak join in and give it your all, don't underestimate this thing, I don't know what it's capable of," Harry warned her, slowly walking closer to the creature in question. He didn't bother waiting for her reply, instead drawing on his mana as he willed the creature out of his mind, sensing it immediately begin to struggle under his control, rapidly pushing back against his efforts to expel it from his mind. Luckily, this time he had help. Just as the force of the creature threatened to overwhelm him once more, he felt the burden lessen drastically as Ava began to attack the creature using her mana as well, distracting it enough that Harry was finally able to make ground against it.

"It's about time this damn thing got evicted," He thought in satisfaction, watching as, ever so slowly, it lifted out of the ground of his mindscape. He flinched slightly when, as the creature was slowly shoved from his mind, it began to struggle desperately, forcing him to redouble his efforts to force the creature away, making him use up his mana even faster. Still, he didn't let it deter him, continuing to steadily push the creature from his mind with Ava's help. After what seemed like forever, the creature was finally fully pushed outside of his mind, letting out a horrible, piercing scream that couldn't compare to anything else he'd ever heard, and with that, the creature disappeared, a rush of fragmented memories surging toward Harry that overwhelmed him completely, making the world around him fade to black.

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It wasn't until several hours later, during which Harry's mind caught up to the sudden rush of memories, that Harry shot awake, mentally reeling from the information he'd received.

"Harry! You're awake!" He heard Ava call out as he sat up, though her words barely registered to him, already deeply lost in thought.

"So our power, it's magic? That's what I've been using all this time? Setting that aside, there's a whole hidden world of magicals just like us? And there's a school we'll go to at eleven? There's more but that's the important takeaway from that mess of memories I suppose. I wish I'd gotten more details, those memories were so fragmented it's a miracle I even got that much. Either way though, I suppose I have a new goal. I need to prepare for the day I enter Hogwarts," Harry thought to himself, though he was forced to pull himself from his thoughts mere moments later as Ava began to grow worried at his silence.

"Harry? Are you alright?" She asked worriedly, waving a hand in front of his eyes in an effort to snap him out of it.

"Yeah, I'm okay, sorry Ava, I was lost in thought. Whatever that thing was, it left me a bit of its memories when it died," He explained.

"Oh? Learn anything interesting?" Ava asked, tilting her head curiously. He smiled slightly at her.

"We're not alone. There's thousands of people with mana just like us. And when we turn 11, we'll be invited to a school to learn how to use it. In the meantime, we have some work to do," He said cheerfully, enjoying the way her jaw dropped after a moment of silence as what he'd said soaked in. He had just over two years to prepare, and he didn't plan to waste a moment of it.

End Arc 1

AN: For those of you who aren't in my discord and don't read Alter Forte, surprise, I'm not dead. I went through a pretty rough breakup and couldn't bring myself to write for a while, but I'm back now. This chapter is on the shorter side, and I know I've been gone a while so I'll be posting one more chapter of Hunger before switching back to Alter Forte, expect that something a few days after this chapter drops. The next chapter marks the beginning of arc 2 of this story, as well as Harry's entrance to the wizarding world. Anyways, I also want to thank all of you for the amazing support this story has received so far. Whether or not you're enjoying the story, if you've read this far you've at least given the story a fair chance so please leave a review telling me your thoughts on what you like, what I could do better ect. Also a little parting question for you guys. Do you think I've handled mindscapes/occlumency/Legilimency in an acceptable way so far? It's something I've tried to explain enough for it to make sense but I'm still not sure I've handled it well, I'm curious to hear your thoughts, if you guys feel like it's extremely confusing I'm more than willing to go back and revise any mind scenes, just to help explain them better if nothing else.