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Suffice to say, of all the things I had expected to happen during my appointment that was certainly not one of them.

Despite my best efforts, by the time I got home I was exhausted and my plan of sending Canton a letter was tossed aside when I saw my bed. The whole experience with the Healer had been remarkably draining for me and all I wanted to do was sleep.

The next morning I woke up at seven like usual and staggered my way to the bathroom, with a nice hot shower in mind. I had set up all of my various potions in the medicine cabinet above the sink, and set about downing the first red one that had been prescribed for my eyes once I got out the shower. It tasted kinda like strawberries, but didn't seem to make any noticeable change to my vision. Only time would tell on that one. But, as I was putting them away I saw my reflection on the front of the medicine cabinet because it also doubled as a mirror, and noticed that my scar had vanished. Well, to be accurate, it hadn't vanished. It had just faded to a pale white line but considering just yesterday it had looked as angry as the day I'd got it this was remarkable. Upon closer examination, I felt confident in saying that unless one was looking for it no one would notice the scar. Hell, even if you were looking for it you would be hard pressed to find it.

Sadly however, this raised a few more questions about what it was that occurred during the incident yesterday. I quickly got dressed, and as I was having breakfast I took out my leather journal and started listing everything I knew about my scar. I knew that it occurred during the attack from Voldemort so was probably related to him. I also knew that whatever was in the scar had to have been responsible for its continued existence, as any normal scar on someone's forehead would have certainly healed up to a greater extent after seven years. This belieif was supported by the fact that once the substance residing in the scar had been removed it healed up, suggesting that the substance was the cause for the damage.

I finished breakfast and wrote a letter to Canton, after I had drunk my other potions (the green one tasted like mint, the orange one like oranges), detailing what had happened the day before and asking if he might have any ideas on what had happened. Just as I sent Hedwig off I received another note from Matilda, saying that due to the excitement yesterday she had forgotten to give me the necessary vaccinations and would need to reschedule a later appointment. Since Hedwig was gone I put this issue on the back burner, and instead returned to practicing magic. I had set up my own little potions lab in the corner of the training room, complete with cauldron and preparation table, as well as a handy collection of cabinets and shelves for ingredients. I had taken to potions well, finding it very relaxing. It was the sort of task that I could simply set my hands to automatic doing, just reading the instructions and following them through, leaving my mind free to ponder whatever I chose. It was very soothing for me, I'm not really sure why, but I guessed that it probably had something to do with how it kept my hands busy. I had never liked staying still.

I had finished making a blood replenishing potion, because I figured that I would need it when my sword fighting lessons started, when Hedwig flew in. Eagerly I tore open the letter, but was disappointed to find that Canton had no better an idea than I did about what had happened. He did promise to look into it though, and said he would get back to me as soon as he had any news. I groaned but knew there was very little that I could do about it. I could start looking through my books, but since all I had to go on was "icky black stuff residing in scar tissue" it would be very difficult to find any concrete information. Plus, since I already knew so little about the basics of the magical world I had no chance in finding out what that was when even Canton didn't know. For now, all I could do was continue to broaden my knowledge of the magical world. Besides, I had three years before Hogwarts would be an issue, and even then I wasn't entirely sure that Hogwarts was the school I wanted to go to. The current Headmaster was Dumbledore, and from I knew of him he was far too interested in me. The idea of spending seven years under his thumb was not exactly appealing. I resolved to look into schools outside of Britain as there had to be some, adding it to the depressingly long list of things to do that I was keeping in my journal.

I spent the next two days just practicing magic, even though I was still having trouble with the practical part, leaving the apartment only once to get a hair cut. The third day was the day my new tutor was due to visit. Canton hadn't told me his name or anything about his physical appearance except that he was old, in his sixties or something. Canton had told me that the tutor would be flooing in, and that I should expect him at some time in the morning. At a little bit past ten I was distracted form my reading by a loud chiming noise, a sort of doorbell Marcelo had installed on the floo to let me know when someone was coming. I waited next to the floo, smoothing down my hair and clothes. I wanted to make a good impression. The games flared green and out stepped a tall man with close cropped grey hair. His expression was one of severity, but the laugh lines around his eyes ruined the image somewhat. He nodded when he saw me and stepped forward, extending his hand. "Oliver Twist I assume?" I shook his hand.

"Yes Sir." He shook his head.

"No, there is no need to call me Sir. The name is Ted Norton." "

Umm, if that's okay…Mr Norton." Mr Norton smiled and then took an appraising look around the apartment. His eyebrows rose when he saw the study.

"I see you have already started a book collection. Impressive."

"Umm, yes." I wasn't sure why I was so nervous, but looking back I have a suspicion that it was attributed to my determination to make a good impression.

"That's good. I shall leave a book list with you when we are done today."

"Thanks."

"It's fine. Now, Canton told me that you want lessons in numerous aspects of magic. Since you have no practical experience with magic we shall be starting with basic lessons that can cover all branches of practical spell casting, and once you have mastered that we shall move onto more specialist branches. As well as that, I shall be teaching you magical history, finance, law and politics and one language of your choosing. Does that cover everything you want to be taught?"

"Yeah, that, that sounds like everything. Umm, Canton mentioned that you were a swordfighter a few years back?"

"Yeah, I was. Is that something you would be interested in learning as well?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. I have a training area that we can work in."

Mr Norton nodded. "That shouldn't be a problem then."

"Great, that would be fantastic. Um, when you said that you could teach me a language of my choosing what sort of languages are available?"

"I speak French, German and Russian fluently. I would recommend French to learn, as that is the easiest but I'm more than willing to teach the either two instead." I thought for a moment. Russian would be really cool to learn, but really hard and French would be a lot easier.

"Could you teach me French? I think that would be most useful."

"Of course. Since we have none of the material here with us, it would be rather pointless to start any of the subject lessons now. However, what we can do is assess where you are physically so I know what sort of level I should start you off at. Do you have any training clothes you can change into?"

"Umm, yeah I should have something. The training room is just next door, if you would wait a few minutes I'll get changed and join you?"

"Good." Mr Norton turned and walked to the training room, while I quickly started going through my draws in an attempt to find something suitable. I didn't own any running clothes or anything, but I found a pair shorts and a t-shirt that would be suitable. I walked to the training room and found Mr Norton with his sleeves rolled up. His eyebrows rose when he saw what I was wearing but made no comment.

"Okay then. We're going to start with a short warm up, and then progress to a series of exercises so I can get an idea of your current physical fitness. Then we'll work out a plan to remedy any issues that we may have."

"Yeah, okay. But why all the prep? Why can't we just move straight onto the sword stuff?" Ted smiled.

"I like your enthusiasm. However, in order really get good at the art of sword fighting you will need physical fitness as well. You have to be very light on your feet, and strong enough to hold the sword up for extended period of time."

That made sense. "Okay then." Mr Norton then took me through a series of warm ups to test my flexibility, and once he was satisfied that I wouldn't pull anything he moved onto the more physical ones, like seeing how many press ups I could do. By the end I was red faced and panting, and feeling more than a little embarrassed that I couldn't do more than ten press ups at a time. I rolled over onto my back and looked up at Mr Norton. "So, I take it my fitness level isn't quite as good as it could be?"

"It could be a lot worse but in essence yes, it is not as good as it could be. You should start getting into regular running as your stamina is poor. Your strength is also low, but you are far too young to start weight training. Instead I would recommend you start doing press ups and pull ups. You will need to purchase some decent training gear, running shoes and the like, as well as a pull up bar for the pull ups and a skipping rope so you can get better at moving quickly."

I nodded. "Okay, I can do all that."

"Good. I shall return next week, where we will start our lessons in earnest. I expect to see some improvement in your fitness level, and for you to have finished all of the books on the book list. There will be a test" He passed me a long piece of parchment with eleven different books on it.

"Seriously? But that's like, loads." I know I sounded like a little whiny boy right then, but that was a lot of books to read in seven days.

"Yes, seriously. They will provide a good amount of background on the subjects we will be studying. I want to make something clear Oliver. I will push you hard, very hard, but the results will be that much better. However, this will only work if you're willing to put in the extra effort. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes."

"Good." Mr Norton leant down and grasped my hand, pulling me to my feet. "I look forward to our next meeting."

"Thanks" Ted nodded and left, and a moment later I heard the tell-tail sound of the floo. I groaned and put the list on the dining room table before taking a long shower. Once I'd gotten changed into clean clothes I used my laptop to order some running shoes, training clothes and a pull up bar. On the spur of the moment I also ordered a punching bag because it came with a free skipping rope and gloves. I then read through Ted's book list and grabbed my wallet before I flooed into the Leaky Cauldron so I could get into Diagon Alley. Buying the books didn't take long but they were pretty expensive. I then went home and after cooking myself a rather lovely gourmet meal I stayed up getting started on reading the first book. It was long and quite confusing, and by the end I was hitting my head on the table. I had no idea how I was going to learn any of this.