Hello. = Normal Writing, Writers Perspective
"Hello." = Normal Speaking
'Hello' = Quotes from Story
"Hello." = Different Languages
'Hello.' = Actual Thinking
Hello = Special Words
Chapter Six
Houses and Gems
"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.'
I do not agree. The wounds remain.
In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.
But it is never gone."
- Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy -
The weeks following Harry's awakening were not really eventful.
Sure, there were a few tried break-ins by the Order of the Phoenix, but there was a reason it had stopped after a while. Apparently now the rest of the Order was in St. Mungos because of severe magical burns on the skin and burnout's of their own magic.
Harry thanked Kreacher tremendously after receiving those news.
Well, other than that the human, the entity and the elf had had a normal life. Every day Harry tried so build his mind scape up to a good protection, while Kreacher cooked their meals and looked after the house. Sirius on the other hand buried himself in books about Occlumency he had found in the section only available to the Head of House Black. While in there he had found another thing that had him currently ruminating through the whole house, searching every spot and every corner for a clue.
Apparently Gimmauld Place Number 12 was semi-sentient.
Yep. Semi-sentient. Like Hogwarts.
This was apparently not so rare, as one would think. The book Sirius had found - 'Families, Magic and Houses' - had described that every ancient house had at least one semi-sentient residence and for the Black family it was this very building. *
What made these houses semi-sentient was a severely magical flooded gemstone residing in a hidden chamber that could be anywhere inside the house. And now the entity was searching everywhere since two weeks, without getting results.
Meanwhile Harry had set the cornerstone on the anchored land that represented his subconscious mind. While said anchor-land and stone remained calm, all his other thoughts rushed by so fast it made him dizzy watching them.
So he concentrated on his foundation stone, which consisted of the happiest memories he had ever had, to center his mind. Sadly there were not too many that made him happy anymore. First memory was a simple one, the one where he had seen his parents ghosts and them telling him how proud they were of him.
Surrounding that memory he had planted other ones.
Next one, for example, was of Sirius telling Harry that he was with him. Always. After these few weeks Harry had actually build up a small area consistent of his own happiest memories. But he needed help to go any further than that and with Sirius up in arms because of that stupid gemstone, there was not much help he could get.
Sighing, Harry nipped at his cup of coffee he had begun to get fond of and stood up with it in in one hand and a book on Occlumency in another.
Ever since he had somewhat of a foundation on his mind base Sirius had tasked him with reading this one book that described how one could sort the multiple memories in order. Not that he was getting anywhere, mind you.
Making his way through the kitchen towards the door to get into the garden in the back - or at least he had planned to do so, if there had not been a bustling Sirius bursting into the kitchen, excitedly looking around and blubbering away.
"I found it! I know where it is!"
Blinking as his godfather rushed past him, black mist and all that, Harry tilted his head after him before putting down his cup and the book, then following him into a dark alcove where there was the cooking corner Kreacher had taken an interest in ever since Harry had hidden here almost a Year ago.
Uther Prewett had been over a few times to check up on Harry, telling them news about what was going on in the wizarding world at the moment.
Apparently after his impromptu vanishing Aurors had shown up on the Hogwarts battleground and had taken the credit of taking out every dead Death Eater, then continued to arrest those still alive while his so called 'friends' had taken the credit in taking out Bellatrix Lestrange - which had originally been a combined feat of Minerva McGonagall, Molly Weasley and Hermione Granger, with the first dying in said battle - as well as taking out Voldemort himself.
They had acted under 'Professor Dumbledore, Sirs' order and were participating in a one year long, hidden training regime with Harry Potter, to finally defeat the snake face. Apparently Harry himself had 'fled the scene' after the 'courageous Ronald Billius' had 'taken out Lord Voldemort with a simple Bombarda' and 'old snake face never knew what even hit him'.
Of course there was mentioning of the 'wise Hermione Jane' who had now 'established a deep foundation' for 'the most wise and courageous House of Granger'. Or what about the 'beautiful Ginevra Molly' who 'was not only named after the wife of King Arthur, but was also as cunning and strong'?
Harry called bullshit, as did Uther, Kreacher and Sirius.
It had been funny watching the ancient elf cursing like a sailor.
Sadly a lot of other people were buying that written shite, aside from those that were there and not bribed or jinxed. So now his name was, once again, slandered and ridiculed all over magical England.
Nothing new for him, aside from the fact that his 'friends' were about to receive the Order of Merlin, First Class, for 'Special Public Engagement' and 'Saving Magical England'.
Not that he suddenly wanted the spotlight, but they should have given credit where credit was due.
Especially to those who had fallen in the grand, newly branded 'Battle of Hogwarts'. The list of those who had fallen was still in the making, but word had it that at least half of the former DA was dead. Including Neville Longbottom, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lavender Brown, Padma Patil and both Creevey Brothers.
Slowly Harry, still in thoughts, followed his godfather into the alcove, where the entity was now seen rummaging through a low cupboard. Avoiding flying pans and such on reflex he came up to Sirius' side.
"Here, look!"
Exclaimed the older man excitedly, so Harry cowered next to him and took a look into the cupboard. Blinking amazed he drew nearer towards what appeared to be a rune inside the cupboards wall.
Yes. Inside, as if scratched in and then filled up with the same substance used for the object.
It was hard to see, almost invisible to the untrained eye.
Luckily he had a Seeker's eyes.
Astonished he reached out his hand toward the rune and caressed it softly. That was until a sting in his index-finger made him draw back. A startled yelp escaped his lips, eyes meeting with Sirius red ones and promptly these grew wide.
"The rune has taken your blood. It is a bloodrune ("No shit!"), keyed to those of Black blood, it will only react if you had at least one Black in about four to five generations. And I know for a fact that neither your grandparents, nor your great-grandparents were Blacks." Said the old dog, still staring into the emerald eyes of his son in seemingly all but blood.
Harry did not know either where he could have gotten the dark family's lineage from, but that did currently not concern him.
What did concern him, however, was the fact that the now red rune shrunk back into the cupboard wall, before two vertical red lines shot from it's middle towards the upper and lower end of the cupboard. A moment long nothing happened, but then the lines divided with a low rumble, making a tiny path behind it appear.
For a short moment both godparent and child looked at each other before nodding in agreement. No words were needed.
Sirius crept into the leeway first, shortly followed by Harry, making their way towards a tiny, dark wooden door. Creeping through it, they found themselves inside another room, this one high enough to stand in. A Lumos later they could see lots of barrels stationed at both ends. A short look inside each one showed food.
Perfectly fine food.
"Probably a stasis spell on the barrels." Murmured the entity, before taking a look at the right end wall, behind some of those barrels.
Finding only a dark wooden door, finely made and behind that a magically lightened room with only a few empty shelves, two black satin couches and a blackthorn wooden table; Sirius concluded this was one of the hideouts if there happened to be a siege on the ancestral home.
Harry concluded it could also be a perfect meeting spot for not so favorable people.
Turning around they made their way to the other side of the long room, where there too stood barrels along a wall. Had it not been for the magical light flooding in from the other room and the wand - this one was dark as hell and he wondered how Sirius had seen anything without his own - he would have not seen it, but there, on the other wall, was another bloodrune.
Reacting on instinct the teen stretched out his arm and barely touched the rune with his fingers when another slight sting made him draw back. In the semi-dark the rune and the lines glowed even more than they had before. Again a pathway opened up, this time the whole wall vanished into the equally glowing ceiling.
This one was even longer than the one before, but it ended in a huge cabinet. Harry had no clue what to do, but luckily Sirius, who could apparently see in the dark, knew what to do, ruminating through this object too, he again found a bloodrune, this one on the left side. Sighting Harry activated it, feeling slowly drained by the continued use of his blood.
Contrary to what one might think the runes drew a lot of blood out of that little sting they made.
Again a long passage opened, but this one had light at the end.
Creeping forward, just in case there were any traps down here, the two made their way to another magically lit room. This one had three bookshelves - this time actually filled - a single black satin corner-couch, a single fine armchair from the same material and no bloodrune to be seen.
A few hours later found the two eating in the same room they had found last, exhausted from the continuous search of the day they slept on the couch. Harry still had a few nightmares, but when he was near Sirius, who stayed with him practically every night, he could get almost a hand full of hours of sleep. Still not as recovering as his should be, but it was something none the less.
He awoke in the middle of the night, after seeing Voldemort's head explode again and decided he needed to do something to banish that scene from the forefront of his mind.
So the ravenette began first to calm his mind, centering himself on the anchored foundation stone in his mind for about an hour, before searching the whole room for a bloodrune. Sirius kept sleeping, even when he, in a bout of frustration, leashed out and gave a free-fly to the books in one shelf. A few hours later he had finally found one bloody rune. It was barely there, so tiny he had nearly missed it next to a thick encyclopedia of dark creatures in the hindermost nook of a shelf.
Loosing his blood to this rune too, a slim passage way was shown as the bookshelf tilted inwards to the left. To his right was nothing but darkness, but as he crept forward few lights were lit automatically.
At the end he could make out nothing at first, then he saw a single dark wooden trapdoor. Walking down the corridor he crouched down and opened said trapdoor without a second thought, luckily there was no spring trap here. Gingerly climbing down the ladder he made his way through the self-lighting corridors that came up every time he activated a bloodrune. And, to be quiet frankly, there were frigging many with shit tons of corridors attached.
The tight halls were old, even older than the House above. Once or twice he even came out at the same spot he was before. It was ridiculous.
"The Black's sure knew how to be paranoid." Murmured the-boy-who-lived, feeling himself growing weaker with every passage.
Just when he thought this maze had no end, being even worse than the maze of the Triwizard Tournament, he finally reached a huge, dark room only lit by two candles that surrounded a humongous black stone. He was no expert on gems, but this was one hell of a huge gemstone if he ever saw one. All in all he'd say the shiny black object was as big as a Quaffle, thought not as round. Staring at the beautiful object Harry stepped towards it, ignoring the alarmed voice shouting for him somewhere behind. It had a large, spread hand imprinted on it's cool surface. Before Harry realized that he had actually touched the smooth stone something impaled his hand. Not physically, mind you. It just felt as if he had grabbed onto a bullhorn, but there was no physical evidence that it actually happened.
Blood was drained from his hand, lighting the stone up in an eery red light.
Before long he felt himself grow weaker before the draining stopped. A feeling of peace washed over him and for a short moment he thought he saw a white outline of somebody, then everything went black.
Seriously, he needed to stop waking up like this.
His head was buried in a soft pillow as his groggy eyes opened just a slit. Again in his bedroom. This time he was alone and for a short moment he relished in the fact that there was no pain. Not even a headache. His eyes opened wide in realization, then closed shut as he delved into his mind. 'Is it possible...'
Sadly it was not, there still was the anchor-land and foundation stone surrounded by a few orderly memories. So his mind had not magically began to heal itself, or raised it's own protection. There just was no headache anymore. Huffing indignantly he opened his eyes again, this time to find Kreacher next to his bed with a bowl of pumpkin soup, a plate full of mashed potatoes and a few potions. He nodded, as good as he could from his lying position, towards the elf and sat up. Sure he was a bit dizzy, but other than that there was nothing else.
Days later and there had been just a subtle change in the house. It was... friendly. He did not know how to describe it, there were not even real hints that anything changed at all. Everything looked the same, it was just the atmosphere that held peace.
It almost felt like Howarts.
Almost as if he returned home.
Training was going better now, almost as if a boulder had been taken off his head. He could access his own memories a bit easier now - not that it was much, but it was there. He finally had begun to build his natural mind defenses - now that Sirius could help him again it was a lot easier to do, as the older one knew what to do. After the founding of his base he just had needed to remain calm and picture said base inside a large dome. Like a gigantic bubble engulfing all his memories and thoughts. The difficult part was holding that dome constantly, he could only hold it for two hours straight before he was exhausted, but his godfather said that he needed to train that into his subconsciousness before they could take the next step.
So he trained day by day to hold said dome.
Every day he could hold it a bit longer than the day before and before long he could hold it six hours a day. Proud of his accomplishment he decided it would be good to take a look into the Daily Prophet, Uther kept bringing them weekly, with every new dosage of potions for Harry.
That turned out to be a blessing too, as his body began to grow with every nutritious potion he took and every fine meal he ate. Uther had given him the okay to eat a bit more substance than just soup a few weeks ago. Now he stood at five foot nine inch and his muscles had begun growing too. His shoulders had widened a little and all in all he looked damn good. Of course that all came with drawbacks, his body hurt so he had to take pain potions, plus he had the need to go jogging to actually use the new muscles that should have been there all along. Not that it was bad, but he just was not used to this, most of all not in a hidden basement of an ancient family.
So the Daily Prophet, right?
No. Just... no.
Harry wanted to bang his head against a wall.
Preferably one made out of feet thick steel.
His 'friends' had been given the Order of Merlin, had taken up jobs in the Ministry that were offered to them on a silver-platter and now were spouting nonsense about him. He actually liked the one where 'Ronald Billus' accused him of 'being gay' - as if it was a crime - 'with a man called Tom Riddle'. That was just the tip of the iceberg. As if he would actually get in with Voldemort, the murderer of his parents and other countless innocent people. It was laughable, really. Beside him Sirius snorted.
"Yeah", he said, "sure. You and Tom. That's almost as impossible as me and Snivellous." Harry just shrugged to that, a resigned expression on his scarred face. Yes, he had gotten a few scars from the Battle of Hogwarts, one going from his left cheek down his neck, others were located on his chest or back.
"If they need to do this to boost their ego: Let them be." Was all he said, looking at the next article, far too accustomed to this. The next one was made by Rita Skeeter who was posting latest news on his whereabouts.
"So, apparently I have been seen in the Caribbean, riding along on a pirate ship. Then in New York City, then on Hawaii and last but not least in Japan. Lets not forget the fact that I was seen together with a 'handsome young man with dark brown hair, appearing to be his lover'." The last sentence he huffed out in annoyance with a fake high-pitched voice, leading to Sirius barking with laughter.
"They wish to slander you even further after all that has happened. But let them do what they want, they will see how far this will get them." Said the old dog after calming down. "Don't let them get to you", he warned the godson, "besides, sometime in the future we will be leaving!" It was high hope that spooked in these words, but Harry had to agree. It was hard imagining something like that happening to him, so it had to be true.
He only hoped he was ready when the Harbinger would finally send them back.
Sighting he nodded, threw away the Prophet and headed off to the lounge he had taken up as his meditating room. Sitting down in lotus position, as Sirius had shown him, he closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing alone. A few minutes later he felt his dome edify around his anchor-land and stone.
Breath in.
He looked around for more memories to sort.
Breath out.
He found the ones from his first school year tangled with those of Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle from the same Year.
Breath in.
He grabbed his memories and softly, slowly dragged them out from the others. At least he had gotten so good that the multiple memories overlapped in strings and thus were easier to find.
Breath out.
Said memory 'string' was slowly embedded next to the cornerstone in his mind.
Breath in.
He already had worked out his own childhood and ordered the memories around so they were in a constant line of thoughts and pictures.
Breath out.
On he continued.
A few hours later he had finally been through his first three years of Hogwarts and only had a mild headache for holding the dome simultaneously with the sorting. Originally Sirius had said to do them on their own, but he found it worked better and faster for him to do both at the same time. He still healed from his battle, both mental and emotional wounds, but it was going better than they had thought. Now tired the boy who lived stood and vanished up to his room to get at least a few hours of shut eye.
* The Book is made up, but I actually like the idea of Hogwarts and other Houses being semi-sentient to protect their families.
~ HP ~ OZ ~
Óla me dear Chikorita's,
So this chapter we get to see how life works out after the war and how well Sirius' and Harry's training goes.
The maze in the Black basement is pictured similar to the Forest Temple from The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, where you have multiple pathways connecting the rooms. I love that Temple :3 Also, the entrances were inspired by multiple others of the same franchise.
Just to be clear, the potions give Harry a grow spurt in height, wide and muscle mass, as he had been malnourished before. So he just gets up to his sub-standards he should have all along, no Hulk out of no where!
Yep, no Severus/Sirius or Harry/Voldemort or Harry/Tom in the foreseeable future, either.
Actual Occlumency will be a tad bit different from what I am currently describing, here Harry just tries to get his natural shield back up that got destroyed by the double soul fusing.
So~
Netherlands was awesome, got a tan, shitload of muscle cramps, made a couple of friends and a sunburn on a place where the sun actually did not shine... my armpit, people!
I have been working on other projects like the upcoming Fem!Reader x Saitama Fanfiction for One Punch Man, this little piece of art you are currently reading, some Dragonball stuff and some Elder Scrolls shite I am not sure about uploading...
Oh! And I have an idea about the (in my opinion, lack of) magical beings, so~ I might start incorporating some of me dear Chikorita's into the fic, if you don't wanna be part of the mass of the HP universe, just say it. I'm starting with those who favored this fanfiction at the beginning and work my way up... again just maybe and only with those who want.
You would be placed as I see fit. I don't need anything from you, no data what so ever, all will be made up by me!
But: If you have a favorite species you wish to be, or a special Hogwarts House, School you wish to be in, or whatever, then you can give me an idea :) Some will be quiet onlookers, others just passers by. All just a little, specially mentioned OC on the side lines.
Thanks to the Reviewers, Favorites and Followers for your support.
I will answer Reviwers as I see fit, but mostly per chapters author notes. If those become longer than the chapter then I will answer per PM.
I will try not to make any other chapter seem so rushed, me dear Phoenixs. I agree it is a bit rushed, especially when it comes to between Harry waking up to Voldemort and his marry band of misfits and the 'Final Battle'. Or when Harry drew a Bombarda from his sleves and killed Voldemort first and Nagini afterwards, the suddenly appearing Fawks and Sword of Gryffindor. Or when-
Yes, I agree, but a rewrite of the Chapter(s) is not planned in the forseeable future and bits of those were actually planned like that (*cough* Fawks *cough*). None the less: thanks for pointing that out :)
Misbehaving labtops are a plague, me dear Raicheda. Luckily, my Ace currently doesn't. ;) Nice to see that some readers actuall do read the notes of a writer.
Thanks for the encouragement, me dear Alannah, I hope it progresses to me dear Chikorita's liking.
~Berry
Fun Fact: Yes, Chikorita as in the Pokemon. I own a rather badass one by the name of Chika, she does kick some candy ass :3