Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

-Albert Einstein

Chapter Two: Reality Check

Harry looked out to the horizon. This was his favorite time in limbo: the sunrise.

It has been thirty years since he was told a parasitic anomaly named La Plagus had went after his friends and family with no particular reason other than to kill off humanity and that an organization named Vitae Councilium tracks Plagus's movements. It was also the time where he was told there are actually real Gods and Goddesses that fought a race called the Immortals. But that was about it, there wasn't much history planned in Harry's training. That and also build limbo since there wasn't much to do in one's mind. Lucifer had explained that the more Harry's limbo was built and created with the intent to have it seem realistic the better his occlumency would become.

The reason was that if a person used Legilimency or Legimens (the entering of the mind opposed to Legilimency where you probe the feelings and memories of a person) and tries to disturb his mind then that person would become stuck within his subconscious at his mercy unless Harry himself released him. A powerful defense even against Dumbledore Lucifer added. However it could backfire, if the person trying to invade Harry's mind managed to realise that he was in a dream then that person could exploit the surroundings of Harry's subconscious by talking to the pedestrians for example. Fortunately for Harry Lucifer had a back up plan if that was to occur.

"If ever that was to happen you must think about a very specific thing you wouldn't exactly want anyone to know. For example a leaf or iron wall. If it's Legilimency a leaf would be preferable because leaves are elastic and not everybody would guess what your thinking is actually a leaf. For better defense you can think about the leaf's color, and all that a Legiliment's user would see is green. Intense concentration and the understanding of abstraction and the intangible is needed for occlumency.

"If however the person is using Legimens then that said person would be deterred by a leaf instead all he has to do is rip it apart, entering your mind. Instead in this case erecting iron walls around him would isolate the threat and he'll have to fight against your will, your will being as solid as iron."

Afterward Harry had spent nearly half a decade on this part of the training, being assaulted by Lucifer's mind attacks where he would be using Legilimency and Legimens randomly in order to catch Harry off guard. It paid off Harry managed to get to the level where he didn't have to worry about anyone invading his mind without his permission.

Taking Lucifer's advise into consideration Harry erected simple strategies for knowing when someone tried to enter his mind. Tunnels that made a person walk in circles was one along with various checkpoints of Harry's projection of an Auror would alert Harry. He changed a bit though when Lucifer managed to trick the one Auror into believing he was the Minister. He spawned a cell maze where Auror projections were placed above the labyrinth by cliffs overlooking it. This made it so that the invader would take his or her time funneling in circles while the Aurors would signal to Harry that there was a person there. This gave Harry time to prepare for the mind attack.

Apparently Lucifer was happy with this set up after he was caught in less than a few seconds and then alarms were sounded.

As for Legilimency attacks, Harry had placed a series of nets that were attached to alarms that released werewolves from cages. This not only gave Harry proper delay time to erect protection but the werewolves themselves thwarted any such probe from entering past his limbo's city. Lucifer assured Harry that Snape wasn't going to be able to mind rape his mind in fifth his year this time!

As well Harry's training involved sharp pointy objects, notably daggers, swords, and gauntlets that had hidden blades attached to the palm side of the gloves. There was also heavy magic training as well. Lucifer had made sure to start at the basics. Harry had remembered the day.

"You've been taught how to fight with weapons and your hands but as a wizard you must be able to fight with a wand. Come show me the extent of your prowess."

Harry went into a defensive position Auror training had shown him to do. Lucifer simply stood meticulously cleaning his wand with a conjured handkerchief. Impatient Harry quickly switched to an attacking position and blasted an expulso spell at Lucifer's feet then slashing his wand in rapid succession, sent two stunners and an expelliarmus at him. The expulso vanished halfway towards its target while the stunners practically grew a brain of its own and steered out of its once straight path. The expelliarmus dissipated into a wisp of blue smoke passing through Lucifer as vapor.

Lucifer looked up as if the duel hadn't commenced. "Did you start?" He asked in near sincerity.

Harry looked at his wand, confusion clearly visible in his face. Looking to Lucifer for an answer Lucifer softy chuckled.

Grin present on his face Lucifer walked forward reach the point where the expulso had vanished.

"Do you feel it?" He asked Harry.

Immediately after Lucifer took one more step Harry felt a heavy pressure pressed on top of him. It made breathing hard. Harry knees then began to buckle under the pressure and didn't take long for him to fall to them.

"This is what I used for your expulso. And this...," Lucifer took another step. The pressure change reminiscent of a plow truck, "was used for your stunners." And then he took another step forward. The pressure lifted and became a whirlwind before disappearing.

"That was used for your expelliarmus." He said while he used wandless magic to help Harry up to his feet.

It was that day he "rediscovered" magical pressure.

He was told that all wizards and witches used magical pressure, particularly in duels. Sometimes though someone's projection of their pressure would be weaker than the attackers, or that the attack itself was stronger than theirs. Also whenever someone cringed by an attack the magical pressure they used would become a pillow of magic behind them because the fear for one's safety from an attack usually changes a person's pressure to that most wanted. Which meant that the intent of a person affected greatly the range, effect, power, strength, finesse, durability, absorbency, flexibility and reliability of your pressure. It was also this pressure that allowed others to perform wandless magic. It was the trick of making your pressure noticeable and felt that kept people from performing wandless magic.

The lack of wandless magic was also attributed to the fact that because the wizarding community knew so little about a magically sensitive person's core.

Fortunately for Harry Lucifer knows everything about it. The function of cores allows all beings to live. This meant muggles, animals, plants, microbes all had magically infused cores. Interestingly enough, though, wizards are more sensitive to their cores that allow themselves to "acknowledge" their powers, but even then they still needed wands to focus their magic much like a water hose provides shape for the water when it is being realeased. Muggles however, would need several decades of training to be able to even feel their cores because muggles hadn't needed magic to survive, their own ingenuity allowed them to live peaceful or at least sustainable lives. But just because they weren't in tuned to their own cores didn't mean they couldn't produce a child that was able.

Harry thought this effectively dismissed the claim that muggle-borns needed to have some sort of magical ancestral family bond of some sort.

After the theory lesson Lucifer told Harry they would move on to a practical session to practice the feel of magical pressure. However, knowing how he had to throw spells for an introduction to the new lesson Harry wouldn't be surprised if the practical session would include him standing waiting for spells to fly his way.

"Yay." Harry said in mock anticipation.

Lucifer smiled, Harry took note that if he was a bender he would've thought that was a beautiful smile.

It took a year for him to master magical pressure. He was now able to erect a physical shield of magic around him at all times, allaying his fear of any surprise attacks he's sure he'll get during any "fun" he'll get into, this led him to some questions about his future.

What was he going to do now that he had knowledge of the whereabouts of the horcruxes? Would it make sense if by chance he comes back in time during school only to come back with advanced magic? So many questions but so few answers. The only reasoning that made Harry content was his own: he'll deal with it when he got to it. Besides Lucifer had managed to teach Harry some more about "Mother Nature" a term he despised.

Effectively he was going back in time, but in reality it was more accurate to say that he was going to create a new alternate universe. A universe where he comes back with the strength and knowledge to save his friends and family from death. Though the problems and obstacles that can occur were numerous. The universe may not make him the boy-who-lived but rather just a regular students, upon thinking about it he decided he'd help that universe's boy-who-lived for not just his sake but for his friends'. It didn't matter that they wouldn't know him, all that mattered was that magical Britain would live happily and in peace. But after this spur of the moment questioning he decided to stop thinking about going back but rather on his wandless magic.

His mastery of magical pressure helped immensely with all of his magics tenfold, he was also unimaginatively proud in being able to do wandless magic. When he mastered changing his magical pressure in par with his intent Harry quickly mastered silent then wordless magic.

If was after this that theory spells were reviewed.

Harry and Lucifer were walking down limbo's beach shore that Harry created talking about the value of basic magic. Harry who insisted he should start learning more advanced magic started to get bugged by how much of a prat Lucifer was on this particular subject.

"Tell me do you know why I'm reviewing basic magic like levitation and growth spells?" Lucifer countered, peeved by how Harry was acting.

"No. There's no reason to, all my spells have gotten better, tenfold!" Harry exclaimed.

"Really..." Lucifer challenged. "Then I suppose that if I sent a Avada curse at you you'd be able to use your magical pressure to block it, deflect it, absorb or dissipate it?"

"Of course not, you told me that there's spells you can't block sometimes, killing curse being one."

"Exactly. How do you suppose your going to block it then?"

"Er..."

"Trust me Harry in less than a decade you'll be endowed with the wisdom and knowledge to block several killing curses using nothing but levitation."

This calmed Harry, as the lessons surely taught him many things.

Killing curses were able to be isolated. Even though there were variations of the curse they were all the same. Lucifer taught Harry how to bring up a shield of water to absorb the curse, the water acted as a type of jar for the curse. He then learnt that the curse was still effective so if he was to dump the water on to, say, Death Eaters they'd get a full dose of the killing curse. The only way for the curse to dissipate was for the water to become diluted. That happened if either someone touched the water, dying by taking the full dose of the curse for a period of time which was around ten seconds or the strength for the curse (typically five) was shared and the water would be diluted instantly, or if the water spread the curse enough in its volume to remove potency making it harmless.

Other tricks were taught as well. Harry could make trees grow from anywhere, and create slabs of earth appear. This was hard to do but instead he compensated by just using the earth itself, so he had torn a whole shack-sized piece of concrete to once block a hex in one of Lucifer's many mock battles.

It remained like this for many years, without the need of sleep or food Harry studied and practiced years at a time. The training would sometimes be followed with actual nonmagic lessons. He learnt many things during their lessons in the Age of Enlightenment and plenty of different eras like the Renaissance and Reformation. Pacifism was an ideal Lucifer had made as an agenda apparently, from Zen Buddhism to atheism, up to Einstein he made sure to supply an ounce of hopeful pacifistic criteria in their lessons.

History, math, science, healing techniques, more spells, curses, defensive and offensive techniques and positions, instantaneous parries, and even things Harry taught himself were learnt in what seemed like days, which soon made the years come and go really fast.

It was in the last three years though that Lucifer wanted Harry to practice something very seriously. It was called the Dash. It was a sort of apparition he didn't want to botch up. It was a molecular apparition that included having you rapidly apparate, except this didn't include the turning on the spot and thinking of the location bits of regular apparition. The first time Lucifer had done it he flew to a height of twenty feet being nearly surrounded by what seemed like black smoke.

"Whenever you dash you create echoes of you past self, which in turns creates a black residue resembling black smoke. It also provides some benefits, locomotion, and concealment if you so choose." He Dashed in place, the smoke having cocooned him, he then disappeared and appeared behind Harry. Dashing allowed you to fly, apparate, and concealed you but it was one of the hardest things to master. All Legion members were taught to be able to Dash which typically took three years.

Lucifer explained how to do then he left him to do it alone for a while, only checking to see his progress, Harry needed to feel how it was to Dash nothing more. It was this step that he needed down, afterward in Lucifer's words: "You can revel in the fact that you're now a flying wizard that's able to hide in the shadows while pondering why your clothes gets withered every time you Dash."

Unfortunately he wasn't kidding. The first time Harry Dashed all of his clothes were ripped bit by small bit, the echoes being his only source of decency. It quickly became a traumatized experienced but a good one. Not knowing the condition of his clothes he thought of flying up and so it happened, in break neck speeds. He was nearly as fast as his Firebolt Harry soon realised. The feeling of Dashing was better than a broom because it felt so natural. That and there were no pains between his legs afterward.

When he touched back down Harry went to find Lucifer immediately to tell him that his training was done.

Lucifer was hiding in one of the plenty useful hidey-holes spread across limbo. This one was presented as a cafe where numerous pedestrian projections were walking to get coffee.

"Lucifer I'm done! I've finished training!" He said gleefully.

Lucifer who was reading a book didn't look up when he said in a soft voice, "I know, your projections were yelling "look at that!" "Naked guy up in the sky!" The projections had looked at Harry and down to his package when Harry looked down to see he had lost his clothes. He quickly covered up. The pedestrians all smiled, and laughed at his predicament. Harry was lucky to have lost his clothes in his mind rather than in the real world he thought.

"Dashing keeps you in homeostasis, so your body temperature would remain somewhere near the ninety's even in sub temperatures. And don't worry about your clothes it happens to everybody their first time. Practice a couple times and you'll be alright." Lucifer continued without ever breaking eye contact with his book.

It was but a few days of practicing Dashes that he got it down. Lucifer was visibly happy Harry was able to master it and so he finally told him the process of using the time machine.

"In your mind you're officially fifty-five years old. So you've got to be careful to act your age wherever you happen to be in. It'd be pretty disconcerting if an eleven year old knew how to destroy buildings before he even gets a wand. Also if somehow you're not the boy-who-lived or end up without family I'll take care of it."

"How?" asked Harry.

"I'll take you in as my son." He smiled.

Harry was dumbstruck. "Wait, you'd adopt me? Are you sure?"

"It'd be my honor. Besides I felt during the past thirty years you've become a son to me. Naturally I'd do what I can for my son."

Harry beamed, true he was an old man mentally, but the absence of a father had truly affected him in ways unimaginable and he truly respected Lucifer for the way he had treated and taught him.

"You don't know how that makes me feel. Thank you." Harry saluted: bowing his head with his right hand in the centre of his chest in respect.

Lucifer smiled kindly and patted Harry on the shoulder. "Now, there's some things that I'm going to do to you, when you make it to the past that is, I will ask you to allow me to enter your mind. I will extract our memories here that way I understand your and my position and history in this universe."

Harry nodded, he was too nervous to disagree with him, and he already spent thirty years with him, too long a time to refuse him now.

"I'm ready, just tell me what to do." Harry said with determination.

"I've got keep you asleep, I think in the current position your in you'll be in extreme pain if I wake you. You'll be awaken when you're on the Otherside. This will unfortunately be a goodbye, but will undoubtedly be a hello later on." Shaking his adopted father's hand Harry along with limbo was encased in darkness.

A/N So the button has been pressed in anticipation of the next chapter. I kind of rushed this chapter's ending something I might fix later on but I've assumed that this is a good place to end it, since the Chapter's name pertains to his time in limbo. Unfortunately I haven't been able to expressively talk about the extents of all the things Harry has learnt but that a given, I mean come on: thirty freaking years of experience will take thirty freaking years to write. However, I will show you the things he learnt, other than the ones detailed in this Chapter because I kind of wanted to clear up confusion for later, in later Chapters. Again review, they're like cookies to me and it keeps my stomach happy :] also you might want to wait a bit for the next update, it'll take considerable amounts of time because I'm planning on making it at least 10,000 words. Also anyone willing to beta for me?

In the name of the Shadow, Reaper, and the messor Grim.

Jaa nee!