Chapter XII - Potter Manor

As the three of them landed in Diagon Alley, Ron turned to Harry, excitement radiating from his body. "Harry, are we really going to see your house now? The one with the Quidditch pitch?"

Harry grinned and glanced over at his two friends. "Yes, we are. I figure we'll hang out there for the last week of summer, and after I show you around we can start researching in the library. Potter Manor has an amazing library. I'm sure it will have tons of helpful information."

Hermione looked worried. "Harry, are you sure that there's nothing else at the Riddle House? I mean, that house was where Voldemort's father lived, are you positive that he didn't hide a —" She glanced around the busy street and then leaned in closer to Ron and Harry before continuing. "A horcrux there?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm not positive, but there's nothing else I can do. At this moment in time, I'm sure that there's not anything there or in the graveyard for that matter, but something might be there in the future. Hermione we're still learning, and trying to figure things out. This search thing could take us a long time to complete. We need to research, and to take the proper steps because the most important thing is to make sure that Tom Riddle doesn't find out what we're doing. Besides, you just said that you thought there was nothing there."

Hermione nodded. "I know what I said; I was just double checking the facts. Let's go to Potter Manor."

Harry grinned. "Great! Alright, let's go." He took some floo powder and walked over to the nearest fire place. Within minutes, the three of them were standing in the exquisite entrance way of Potter Manor.

"Wow," Ron mumbled as he glanced around.

Maddy appeared in the hall, grinning broadly at them. "Hello Harry Potter, sir! I is glad you are back!"

Harry grinned down at the little house elf. "Hey Maddy, is something wrong?"

"Oh no, sir, I is just glad to see you, now I is having someone to take care of."

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "How can you own a house elf? After everything that I —"

"Hermione!" Harry interrupted. "Maddy has been in my family for … er, how long exactly?"

Maddy smiled. "I is working here since Master Andrew was a boy. So … for over sixty years, sir."

Harry nodded. "Okay, for sixty years. She is a good friend and she told me that she used to sing to me when I was a baby. I am honoured to have her work for me and as you can see; my family didn't treat her badly. My grandparents wanted her to wear this maid's outfit, not a tea towel. Lupin told me that she's not free, but she is happy. Leave it be."

"But Maddy, don't you want to be a free elf? Don't you want wages and vacation and clothes?" Hermione asked.

Maddy looked horrified. "Oh no miss, oh no oh no oh no!"

Harry glared at Hermione. "Maddy, don't listen to her. Listen though, since you do have some help now you're going to get one day off a month, no exceptions. If I can get you to take more of a break I will, understand?"

Maddy smiled. "Yes, sir, I is okay with that."

Harry grinned. "Good. Now, are Dobby and Winky helping you out a lot? Do you like having them work here with you?"

Maddy grinned. "Oh yes, sir! I is loving having help and such good friends again! I is not lonely anymore. When Master James and Lady Lily went into hiding with you sir, it was just me and my Mickey. He was my husband, he was. Master Andrew and Lady Gwen gave us permission to marry. We was so happy. Mickey died a few years after Master James and Lady Lily did, sir. Since then, I is taking care of Potter Manor all on my own, but I is very glad to have more company again!"

Harry smiled. "I'm glad, Maddy, and I'm sorry that I never got to meet Mickey, as I don't remember him. But, I'd like for you to meet my two best friends, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Just ignore Hermione; she thinks that all house elves should be free." He turned to glare at Hermione. "And she obviously doesn't trust me enough to know that I would treat house elves very well, and give them all sorts of privileges that other people wouldn't."

Maddy looked over at Ron and Hermione. "Nice to meet you, sir, and, miss." She curtsied and gave Hermione an odd look.

"It's nice to meet you too." Ron said.

Hermione sighed. "Yes, it is nice to meet you, Maddy. And I'm sorry Harry, I do trust you, it's just that … it caught me all by surprise. So Dobby and Winky are working here too?"

Harry nodded. "Yes." He turned back to Maddy. "Listen, the three of us are going to be staying here until the first of September when we go back to school. Is that alright with you?"

Maddy's grin widened. "Oh yes, sir! I is glad to have a Potter back in the house, sir. I is setting up the guest rooms just for your friends, sir!"

"Thanks Maddy. Listen I need to do a couple of things and to talk to Dobby and Winky, do you think that you could give Ron and Hermione a full tour of the house and the grounds, starting with the top floor?"

"Of course, sir! Come with me, sir and miss, I is showing you the house."

Harry grinned. "Thanks Maddy, oh and keep them out of the dining corridor until the entire house and grounds has been toured, I'd like some time … alone there."

Maddy nodded in understanding. "Of course, sir, I is not telling them either. Come on, sir and miss, there is many stairs."

Ron and Hermione gave Harry a quizzical look. "What's up, mate?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain after. Enjoy the tour."

He watched Ron and Hermione follow Maddy up the stairs, as she began to explain the history of the house. He grinned and headed down the dining corridor and into the kitchen. Dobby was sitting in front of the fire and Winky was washing dishes. "Hey Dobby, hey Winky. How are you?"

Dobby grinned, jumping up to run at Harry and to give him a big hug, his head just reaching above Harry's knees, since Harry had grown up to six feet that summer. "Harry Potter, sir, you is here!"

Harry laughed. "Yeah, I'm here, this is my house after all. Ron and Hermione are here too, Maddy is just giving them a tour of the house. I just wanted to come in and see how you two are enjoying you're new job here?"

Dobby's face brightened. "I is loving it, sir! I is so honoured to work for the great Harry Potter, sir. But Winky, she is sad."

Harry walked over to Winky and knelt down in front of her so that he was not quite so tall and gave her a small smile. "Winky, why aren't you happy? Don't you like working here with Dobby and Maddy?"

Winky shook her head, no, tears filling her large eyes. "I isn't liking it, sir, I isn't liking it at all. Winky doesn't want to be free, I is a disgraced elf, sir. I is so ashamed, sir."

Harry sighed, then an idea came to him, wincing slightly at what Hermione would say as to what he was about to do. "Listen Winky, you don't have to be free, if you don't want to be. How would you like it if I made you my second official house elf, with me as your master?"

Winky's face brightened in delight. "I is not free?"

Harry shook his head. "No, you are no longer free."

"I is a slave again?" Winky asked.

Harry hesitated, not liking the term slave, but her smiling face made him change his mind. "Yes, you are my slave, and I am your master."

Winky grinned. "I accept, sir! I is honoured to work for Harry Potter, sir. You are my master now!"

Harry grinned back. "Good, but there are some ground rules though and as your master I insist that you follow every single one. Do you understand?"

Winky nodded. "Yes master, Winky understands."

"Good. First of all, I'm told that it has been a tradition in the Potter family for many decades for the house elves to wear a uniform, not a tea cozy. I will get you a couple of dresses, like Maddy wears, I expect you to wear the uniform at all times. So it's clothes but not the kind of clothes for free elves."

"Okay, master." Winky said. "I is respecting tradition, master."

"Okay, and the second rule is that I don't want to be called master. You can say master when you're referring to me but don't call me master when you're talking to me. You can call me Harry or sir, but no master. Alright?" Harry asked.

Winky grinned. "Oh yes, sir, I is proud to work for you."

Harry smiled. "Okay and there's just a couple more things. Now since Dobby is free and Maddy is pretty old, I insist that you get the last day of every month off. No working or doing any type of house elf duty of any kind. That is what Dobby wanted as a free elf was one night off a month." He turned to Dobby. "Dobby, if you ever want another day off you come talk to me, I'll be more than happy to help you out. Same thing with your wages, if you want more money, you just tell me and I will arrange it, alright Dobby?" When Dobby nodded he turned back to Winky. "Winky, I also would like for you and Dobby to take on as much of the work as you can because Maddy really is quite old, and I don't want her to hurt herself, but don't tell her I said so, you just insist on it. Understood?"

Winky nodded. "Yes Harry Potter, sir. Dobby and I is making sure to take good care of Maddy, sir."

Harry grinned. "Good. If I think of any other rules, I'll let you know. Now you can stay in the clothes you have on now, I'll work the uniform thing out with Maddy later. Dobby, I'd like for you to wear the uniform too, it's similar to the clothes you have on. But you can of course wear all of the socks and hats you want. Is that okay with you?"

"Oh yes, Harry Potter, sir, Dobby loves to wear clothes. Dobby doesn't care what kind; Dobby just loves to wear them."

"Yeah, well, Lupin said it was a family tradition and I'd, er … well I'd like to keep any Potter family traditions that I can. Are you and Winky comfortable in your rooms? Do you two need anything?" Harry asked, thinking of the five bedrooms off the kitchen made specifically for the house elves with everything perfectly sized to suit them.

"Oh no, sir, they is beautiful. The Potters were too kind to house elves, sir, they is so noble and kind and caring." Dobby gushed as Winky nodded vigorously beside him.

Harry laughed. "No, they just knew how to properly treat house elves. Well, I'll see you two later; I need to go talk to my parents." He said goodbye and headed back down the dining corridor, this time stopping at the two frames. "Hey Mum, hey Dad."

Lily Potter smiled at him from her portrait. "Hello sweetheart. James and I were just talking about when you would come back to visit us."

James nodded. "Yes, we were. So, are you going to tell us where you've been? Did you find what you were looking for?"

Harry quickly filled his parents in on his time at the Burrow and how he, Ron, and Hermione had gone to see Lily and James' graves, to Godric's Hollow, and Little Hangleton. "When I was at Godric's Hollow, I kept having all these flashbacks of memories though, which now that I think about it, is really odd. I remember hearing that most people never remember anything before their fourth birthday."

"Well, what kind of memories?" James asked.

Harry smiled. "Some good, some bad. The first one happened when I stepped into what used to be a kitchen. I saw Dad throwing me up in the air and I was laughing and having a good time. Then Mum came into the kitchen and she was so angry and so afraid that Dad was going to hurt me. Mum said something about me just eating and how Dad was going to make me sick. Then you, Dad, you said something about Sirius doing something to me that would have made Mum absolutely horrified, but you wouldn't say what it was." Harry explained.

James laughed; the sound very familiar to Harry and surprisingly similar to his own. "I remember that! Lily was always upset when I tossed you around. She said that you weren't a quaffle, and that you weren't made to be airborne."

"Rightly so!" Lily replied. "That's not how you treat a baby."

Harry grinned, glad that the memory had actually been real. "So Dad, what did Sirius do to me?"

James grinned, the same wicked grin that Harry had inherited. "Oh, well, we had a grand time that day. You see, there was a huge thunderstorm outside and the lightning was really bad. Sirius and I were babysitting you because Lily had gone out shopping, so we didn't want to bring you outside in that weather in case you got sick. But we really wanted to play Quidditch. So Sirius and I thought that since Lily wasn't home we could get away with playing a bit of Quidditch in the living room and —"

"James Andrew Potter!" Lily exclaimed. "Just because I wasn't home doesn't mean that you can get away with breaking the rules! Quidditch in the living room, what were you thinking?"

James grinned at Harry. "What? It was fun. Anyway, so Sirius and I took our brooms and we went into the living room to play a bit of Quidditch. But we couldn't find a quaffle. So anyway, you Harry, you were crawling around and were everywhere by that time, hardly still for very long. You loved to move. Heck, you were almost a year old and almost walking. So Sirius picked you up and tossed you over to me, saying that he had found a quaffle. It was fun, and you were laughing and giggling like crazy. You enjoyed it."

"JAMES! YOU USED OUR TEN MONTH OLD SON AS A QUAFFLE!" Lily exclaimed in shock.

James shrugged and scratched his nose. "What? Harry was fine, and besides it was Sirius' idea."

Lily glared at her husband. "Oh, and if Sirius had decided to jump off a bridge I suppose you would too?"

"What? No! I would throw him down his broom and call him a prat!" James replied, looking slightly confused.

Harry laughed. "No, Dad, it's a muggle saying."

Lily smiled at Harry. "Thanks sweetie, I forget a lot that your father wasn't a muggle." She turned back to her husband. "And you, Harry could have been seriously injured!"

James laughed. "We were careful with him, after all he was just baby." When his wife failed to smile, he sighed. "Come on, Lily, honestly we were really close together and it was a long time ago, and I don't see any damage."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, Mum, look I'm fine." Lily laughed as well. "You are too much like your father, but I suppose that's a good thing. So what other memories did you see in the house?"

"Well, I was upstairs in the master bedroom and my friend Ron found this box with some journals in it. As he called me over I remembered Dad carrying me over to the bed and placing me between the two of you. Then Mum said something about Dad being too attached to me. You guys were just talking about how amazed you were to have a child with Mum's eyes and Dad's messy hair. Then Mum said that she hoped that I didn't get Dad's ego and Dad pretended to be all offended. Then Dad started writing in this journal, saying something about me being able to read all about your adventures when I got older." Harry explained.

James grinned. "Yeah … I actually kept a journal for most of my life. There's a box of them in the attic … I had a great amount of adventures."

Lily nodded. "We did. I kept journals too honey. Mine start when I was nine years old, you should read them; I think you would enjoy them."

"Yeah, so Harry what was the other memory? How many more did you have anyway?" James asked.

"Oh," Harry said. "Well, the last one wasn't pleasant and it wasn't the first time I had it. I used to dream about green light but I never knew what it was. Anyway, the first time I had this memory to any extent besides green light was in my third year at Hogwarts when I was near the Dementors. But it was … it was the night Voldemort murdered you. I begged Lupin, who was professor at the time, to teach me how to repel the Dementors because I didn't want to continually see you two die, but at the same time I wanted to because it was the only memory of you that I had."

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry that you have to remember something like that. James and I of course don't know that, as these portraits were modified one week before we died." Lily explained. "We have only heard about what happened from Remus."

Harry nodded. "It's okay. Oh, I brought my friends Ron and Hermione here. We need to do some research, and we were hoping to use the library."

James nodded. "That's fine, Harry. There are tons of books on every subject in there."

"Good."

"Harry Potter, sir," Maddy said from behind him. Harry turned to look down at her and she smiled. "I am done the tour now, sir, they is waiting in the entrance hall."

Harry smiled. "Yeah, bring them in." She nodded and left. "I'd like you to meet my two best friends. I'll bring Ginny to meet you later, I promise. But shh, I need to talk to them first." His parents nodded and he grinned at his two friends as they came into the corridor.

"Blimey Harry, this place is amazing! And talk about cool! You got your own bloody Quidditch pitch! Do you fancy a game later?" Ron asked.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "We have more important things to do then play Quidditch. But Harry, the house is amazing really."

Harry smiled. "Thanks. I have some people I'd like you guys to meet though. Hermione, Ron, I'd like for you to meet my parents. Mum, Dad, this is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger."

"It's lovely to meet you, dears." Lily replied, smiling.

James nodded. "Wonderful! I wish I could play a game Quidditch. I really do miss it, you know."

Hermione's mouth hung open in shock and Ron simply grinned. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter, Mrs. Potter; bloody brilliant of you to make portraits. I wish you could play Quidditch with us too, Mr. Potter, I hear you were an amazing player when you were at Hogwarts."

James grinned. "I was; though Remus tells me that Harry may have me beat."

Ron grinned. "Well, Harry made the Quidditch team as seeker in his first year, becoming the youngest Quidditch player in a century!"

Harry laughed. "It's true, I was."

Lily smiled at him. "I used to love to play Quidditch too, not as much as your father however. I never played on the team or anything, I just enjoyed it as a past time." She glared at James. "And I never substituted a baby as a quaffle either."

James sighed. "I'm never going to live that one down, Harry."

Hermione finally spoke up; she seemed to have recovered from her shock. "You're Lily and James Potter? Harry's parents?" Both portraits nodded. "Then why hasn't Harry known about it?"

"Hermione," Harry said. "When I first met them they told me that they didn't want me to know until I was older, because they thought that I wouldn't want to live with the Dursleys anymore if I knew I could come talk to them any time I wanted to."

"Humph!" Hermione replied. "Like you ever wanted to live there, anyway! I've never seen such unpleasant people in my entire life!"

Lily looked worried. "Harry, dear, was my sister really that bad?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Mum, it's over now. I never have to go back to that house as long as I live."

Ron grinned. "Amazing, Harry! Mum's going to want you to live at the Burrow as much as you can, you know that right? She's not going to care that you have your own house. Mum's going to be all, but he's still a child he can't live alone yet, what if he's lonely? You know Mum, bloody mental she is."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I know. Besides, I love staying with your family. So I'm sure I will a lot to please your mum."

Ron looked at Harry for a moment. "Our family, Harry, Mum says so all the time. She says you're the seventh son she never had."

Harry laughed. "I know, I don't know what I would do without your mum sometimes, Ron."

Hermione walked over to Harry to give him a hug. "Harry, Mrs. Weasley is your mother in every way that counts."

"I know, which is why I'm more determined to keep you two safe. I couldn't bear it to see her sad. But let's not worry about this right now." He turned to look up at his parents. "So, what do you think of my two best friends?"

James grinned. "Great! And I do admire your guts, Harry, befriending and dating a Weasley, isn't your family still considered to be blood traitors?"

Ron nodded. "Sure are. All the purebloods hate us."

James laughed. "Well, they really are much too picky for their own good. Honestly, the Potters have been pureblood for centuries but when I fell in love with Lily and she was muggle born, my parents didn't even care, they barley blinked an eye. That's the way it should be."

Harry smiled. "Hermione here is muggle born, and she sometimes has a terrible time of it."

Lily nodded. "I understand how that feels, dear. I used to be made fun of quite often, though James always came to my rescue, of course, unfortunately his ego came too." She laughed. "But eventually, the severe swelling went down and I managed to see him for who he really was, and I fell in love with him too."

Harry nodded, thinking back to the memory he viewed in Snape's pensive so long ago. "Yeah, I remember that." When his parents looked up at him a little confused, he began to explain. "Snape was teaching me Occlumency and I accidentally used a shield charm on him, which allowed for me to view his memories. Anyway one day there was a commotion downstairs and I was curious about what I had seen before so I decided to sneak a look into the pensive, after all some of the memories were … interesting."

"Oh Harry, you didn't! You know how much Professor Snape hates you!" Hermione replied, looking worried.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" James said. "Did you just say Professor Snape?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, Severus Snape, he teaches potions, or taught … anyway, the memory I saw was directly after O.W.L.s and Dad and Sirius were making fun of Snape, picking on him. There wasn't even a reason, except that Sirius had said he was bored. Mum was trying to get Dad and Sirius to stop, which she eventually did, but then Snape called Mum a mudblood and Dad went nuts. Anyway, I was horrified at what I saw because for five years Snape had been treating me like crap! Telling me how much I was like my father, who he hated and called terrible things, and I was proud. But then I saw this and I realized that everything Snape had been saying was true. So once I escaped Snape, which was lucky because he was too angry to move, I went to Grimmauld Place to talk to Sirius and Remus who reassured me that Dad was just a prat, but the next year he smartened up. I was really worried, I mean, Mum, you seemed to really hate Dad, and I just kept wondering why on earth you two would get married. Sirius said that Mum started to like Dad once his ego deflated a bit, or maybe it was Remus, well, one of them said it."

Lily nodded. "Yes, your father was a prat! I can understand why you would be worried, besides I can only imagine the things that Snape says about James."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, surprised that Harry had never told them this.

Harry turned to look over at his friends. "Sorry I never told you two, I was just … shocked."

Ron shrugged. "Don't worry about it, mate." He yawned loudly. "Man, I'm beat! Do you mind if I steal some food and head up to bed?"

"No go ahead. Did Maddy show you two your rooms?" When Ron nodded he said goodnight to both of them and watched them say goodnight to his parents' portraits. Once they were both out of sight, Harry turned back to his parents. "Well, I just want to talk to you guys a bit longer. Before Ron and Hermione came in, I was saying how we needed to do some research."

James nodded. "Yes, the library is amazing for information, and I do believe that Remus has been keeping it up to speed. See it's a magical library, so when you add another book to it, it automatically catalogues itself in the book. There should be a list of spells on the back of the library door as well, to help you translate the really old books into English. Also, if you're looking for a particular subject, just open the catalogue and say, oh I don't know, Defence against the Dark Arts, and all the books on that subject will glow until you say the spell's done with."

"Thanks, that will be pretty helpful."

"Oh!" James exclaimed. "I almost forgot! I have three more things to tell you. First of all, there's a room near the kitchen, hidden of course. You walk past the wall with the picture of the Gryffindor lion four times asking for information, and then a door will appear. It's a really neat room filled with all sorts of history books and historical artifacts and things. Lily and I were also doing some research on defence and stuff like that, so all of our work is in there. No one knows about it except the Potter family, and of course Sirius and Remus knew, but only a Potter can get inside the room. If you show your friends, they can go in, but if they try to go in without you anywhere near it, the door will never appear. For security issues of course."

"Cool," Harry replied, thinking that it sounded very similar to the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts.

James grinned. "Very cool. I'm sure you'll find some helpful things in that room. Second, is that I heard from Remus that you've discovered the Marauder's Map. Since I'm sure there are things that you've discovered at Hogwarts that isn't on the map, I'd thought I'd tell you how to make them appear there. Why don't you get your map?"

Harry grinned and muttered 'accio map' and within a couple of minutes it was in his hand. He pointed his wand at the old parchment and repeated the sentence that Fred and George had told him so many years ago. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Once the map was formed in his hand, James spoke again.

"Okay, it was Sirius and I who had come up with the map idea, so I don't actually know if Remus knows how to add things to it. Alright, so to add to the map, you think of the room or place on the map hard, concentration is important. Then you say this incantation: Appearo."

Harry laughed. "Seems pretty basic." He thought hard about the Room of Requirement since he had just been thinking about it and repeated the incantation. The room appeared on the map and at the moment said it was currently not in use. "Wow, this will be really helpful. This is a tricky room."

"What room?" James asked. "The Room of Requirement. You walk in the corridor thinking of something you need and a door appears there with everything that you need. It's amazing! I used it in fifth year as the secret meeting place for the D.A. Okay; I just have one other thing to add; the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets." He concentrated hard on the girl's bathroom and repeated the incantation and soon the chamber of secrets was on the map was well. "Wow, this is cool, thanks Dad."

James grinned. "No problem, keep adding to the map and you can pass it down to more Potters one day. Okay, so last but not least, there's one other secret room in Potter Manor. Now all those lessons you're taking or will be taking again when school starts, I know just the place for you to do it all. This room is incredible and I think it would be perfect. I can't explain to you what's in it, you have to see for yourself. So go into the study, on the left side of the room there's a book on the shelf that says Mischief and Trouble: The Top 10 Lessons of How to Cause Chaos pull it out. You should still see the shelf behind the book, but if you reach back, it's not solid, it's an illusion. Reach your hand into the shelf and you'll feel a button, push it. Then go into the room. I'll talk to you later, Harry, right now go explore. Goodnight."

Lily nodded. "Goodnight, Harry."

"Yeah, goodnight."

He hurried into the study and began to search for the book his dad had mentioned. He pulled it out and put it on the table before reaching his hand back into the shelf, he found the button and he pushed it, before removing his hand. He stood back as the shelf sunk down into the ground and a doorway stood there. Harry stepped through the doorway as the shelf closed up behind him. He lit his wand and continued down the dark corridor until he found himself in a small lit room with a huge slide on one side of the room, and a set of stairs on the other. He decided on the slide and quickly slid down, landing on a pile of comfy cushions. Harry stood up and glanced around the room, grinning. The room was huge, more like another house below his own. It was well lit, and he saw the stairs and slide behind him. He tucked his wand into his pocket and walked into the middle of the room. It was like a training room. The room was filled with fighting rings, muggle work-out equipment, muggle weapons of every kind, a large punching bag, and a large portrait of a man that Harry had never seen before.

As he walked closer to take a better look, the portrait spoke to him. "Ah, you must be the newest edition to the Potter clan, young Harry, I presume." When Harry only nodded, the portrait grinned. "I am Joseph Potter and I am the best trainer in the world . You, of course, can call me Joe. I created this room, you know. It was built in 1450; of course, I do insist that every Potter keep it updated as you can tell. Are you ready to begin your training?"

"My training?" Harry asked. "What kind of training?"

Joe grinned at him, "Ah, yes, I will teach you how to be the best fighter in the world. I know every kind of fighting available, as I put a charm on myself so my portrait could continue to learn the new things, as well as remember the old. And I must say, fighting techniques have hardly improved much in the last few centuries. Now, are you ready to learn?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready. Where do I begin?"

Joe grinned. "First, you point your wand at my portrait and say: OUT!" Harry did this and was surprised when the man stepped right out of the portrait. "How did you …?"

Joe laughed. "I told you I was the best. Now, let's begin. First of all, we need to teach you how to focus and to concentrate. Have you ever meditated before? It is very helpful. Of course, I can also teach you how to become a Legilimens and of course to learn how to use Occlumency, I am very talented at those skills too."

Harry grinned. "Brilliant! I'm supposed to learn both of those things. I tried to learn Occlumency before, but it didn't go so well."

Joe shrugged. "Never fear, my dear, I am the best. Now sit down in the centre of the circle with your legs crossed. Now close your eyes and think of something peaceful, something calming, a place where you would like to be forever, a place that makes you happy."

Harry did what was asked and began to think of something peaceful. Ginny came to his mind. He saw himself sitting on a beach somewhere with Ginny in his arms. There was no talking, no worries, no nothing, he was just holding her.

"Excellent." Joe said from what sounded like somewhere far away. "Now I want you to concentrate that peace and think of a focus, I want you to feel a mist come over you, a peaceful mist that will drain you of your tensions."

Harry remembered the feel of the mist from his lessons with Kingsley, and he quickly managed to bring the mist back. He felt calm, at peace, and he felt like he could do anything as long as that mist surrounded him. In this focused state, Joe began to teach Harry the basics of every fighting technique in the world, just the basics. Harry learned every one in minutes. As the hours passed, the new methods only became easier. Finally, Joe asked Harry to leave the mist. As Harry came back into reality, he was surprised to find Joe grinning at him.

"Excellent job, young man! Now let's see how much you remember. I'm going to come at you and I want you to fight me off without your focus, I want to see how much you remember learning while under the mist." When Harry nodded, Joe disappeared and came at Harry from behind. Harry quickly fought him off, using a mixture of techniques from Kung Fu, karate, and war strategies.

After another hour, Joe was grinning broadly. "Amazing, young man, amazing. You have the focus; I'm assuming you have learned this before?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, well I started too. But how did I manage to learn so much so fast?"

Joe smiled. "Because under that mist, your learning techniques multiply ten times faster, and you manage to remember every single thing learned. One man that I taught called it a photographic memory. You'll do fine. Now I do believe that is enough training for today, we've been at this for almost five hours. However, I insist that at the end of every lesson, you run ten laps around this room, just at a light jog, to get the blood pumping before you leave. Understood?"

"Yeah. Oh, I'm currently training with some other people as well and I am instructed to do fifty push-ups and sit-ups every morning and every night. Do you want me to continue that?" Harry asked.

Joe grinned. "Of course! I also think that it would be good for you to use some of these weights as well. Once you master the fighting techniques themselves, which won't take long at all considering how well you learn in the mist, we will progress along to weapons."

Harry nodded. "Awesome, oh, and I'm only going to be here for a week because then I have to return back to school."

Joe nodded. "Every night you come back for practice. I know you'll find a way. See you tomorrow night, Harry, and remember; practice makes perfect." He disappeared back into the portrait and Harry nodded.

He quickly did his ten laps before heading up the stairs and back into the study. He looked down at his watch and realized that it was four in the morning. Harry headed up the stairs and into the master bedroom, which belonged to him now. He did his push-ups and sit-ups before stretching a bit. He showered, barely managing to fully dry off before he fell exhausted into the bed, asleep before his head even hit the pillow.