AN: This chapter has been sitting around for a long time -- I wasn't motivated enough to finish it until just recently. Rest assured, this story will continue as planned and updates will come more frequently. Remember to REVIEW after you finish enjoying this chapter.

Chapter Ten: Mysterious Visitors

"Hello Harry Potter," said Hagrid on the front porch of Harry's home. "I'm here to give you your Hogwarts letter, and tell you about the magical world." Hagrid had to say he was extremely surprised by the luxurious home that Harry lived in. This was no muggle home. It was a marvelous looking wizard mansion. Albus would be surprised.

Harry frowned, masking his face into a look of confusion. "Hogwarts? Magic? What are you talking about?" Inside he knew that he had to make himself look like an innocent simple young child so he can fool Hagrid, and by buffer, also fool the great Albus Dumbledore. He would enter Hogwarts and kill the headmaster and then he would leave, like a shadow, like smoke, like a ghost.

Hagrid beamed, and told him all about the magical world, most of which Harry already knew. "Your parents James and Lily were famous wizards, you know, extremely powerful." Hagrid sipped a cup of his tea. He thought it was nice of Harry to invite him inside, where the house looked even better and richer than from the outside. He took a bite from the plate of cookies offered, and grinned. Delicious! Harry watched all this impassively, inside grinning at how easy it was to manipulate the half giant.

"Well… I think…" Harry said, as if he didn't know what to say or do.

"You visit me sometimes, okay? We can have a cup of tea and relax at my cottage on the Hogwarts grounds." Hagrid said pleasantly, "I would love to have you over. You'll love the magical creatures that Hogwarts has-"

Harry scanned the surface of Hagrid's mind using the little legilimency he knew – which he had learnt from a dark thin volume hidden in Mr. White's library. He decided to test his skills. "Do you have… well that is, my favorite creature's a dragon. Do they exist?"

Hagrid's face lit up. "Of course they do, lad! Dragons are the best creatures in the whole world. They're incredibly smart and talented and quite fierce too."

"Can we grow dragons there?" asked Harry, already knowing the answer.

Hagrid looked down in disappointment, "Unfortunately not. The ministry outlawed them. But if I did ever get the chance to grow a dragon…" His eyes clouded in tears of wonderment and awe.

"Well I'm sure Hogwarts will be wonderful. I'd love to go, Hagrid, and for sure, I'll come to your house and we'll have tea and all that jazz," Harry said. "Right now I'm a bit late for school."

"Ah I understand Harry," Hagrid said, nodding. He stood up and shook the young boy's hand.

"No need to say anything now," Hagrid said, "I'll come back later – maybe in a week. We can get your supplies then. And in a month or so you'll be on the train to Hogwarts and learning how to be a powerful wizard." Hagrid was pleased by Harry, who was such an eager and willing child. He liked the young boy right away and was sure that Albus Dumbledore would too.

With that Hagrid said his good byes and went away. Harry was left alone in the house. He laughed and laughed. This was just too easy, he thought. He spent the rest of the day sharpening his dueling skills and going through the legilimency book. He focused his mind on an imaginary black dot and tried to pierce through it, like how the book taught. It was extremely hard. Harry also learnt the basics of occlumency and formed an imaginary blue shield around his head. He strengthened the shield using his magic, making it more real and alive. Sometimes when he looked in the mirror he could almost see the blue shimmer. He felt safe knowing it was there, knowing his mind was protected. He had heard that Dumbledore was an expert at the mind techniques.

--

Harry sent an owl to the vampire clans in the evening time as he sat on a rocking chair in the balcony, looking at the orange sun set in the vast green fields and forests that surrounded White mansion. He needed many different things from the vampires, namely books. Lots and lots of dark books. Harry was a ravenclaw at heart (he had read about Hogwarts and its houses in the book: Hogwarts, A History) so he loved knowledge and he wanted more of it, because he knew that knowledge was power.

He relaxed on the rocking chair, drinking a bit of wine, which he had grown a fondness toward even though it affected him much more severely than a grown person considering he was only a child. A child physically, he reminded himself happily, but inside I'm much more powerful. If I were in a grown man's body I could accomplish so much. I am a prodigy. He thought. He was extremely skilled. He would grow even more skilled with time but for now he had to go to Hogwarts. He had to kill the only man who could ever give him competition. He read about the first war with Voldemort, how Dumbledore was always a pain, always the only thing Voldemort couldn't conquer.

Well Harry sought much power, he yearned for it because as a child he knew that those who had power were respected, feared, and got what they wanted. Harry wanted to be the most powerful wizard in the world but Dumbledore stood in his way. So Dumbledore had to go.

The next morning, when he was running out on the lawns and doing push ups, making himself physically stronger, he got his reply. A black hawk with fierce purple eyes swooped down on him with a letter in its sharp white claws. Harry untied the letter from the hawk's dangerous claws and quickly read it. The Vampires had a vast library of ancient books and were willing to sell it to him… for a price.

Luckily Harry had an enormous supply of gold. He wrote back on the back of the sheet of parchment that the original letter had been inscribed on with a muggle ball point pen. He didn't like quills and ink – they were too old fashioned for his tastes. The muggles had developed better writing utensils. He told the vampires to bring him any books related to the mind arts. He was willing to pay a good price for them.

The hawk didn't make a sound as Harry tied the letter to it's claws, and then it stared at Harry with it's purple eyes, and suddenly it changed into a human body. Harry stepped back, and brought his wand up threateningly. An animagus? It seemed so. "Show me your face or I'll kill you," Harry said.

"Peace my friend," the person said in a smooth voice. He wore a torn black cloak, and simple sandals. He was a very big fellow – extremely fat – and had a big black beard that made him look extremely scruffy. He looked like a bear, but it was his long nose that made him look hawkish. As well as those sharp purple eyes that seemed as if they were magnified under a microscope. Those purple eyes filled his entire face. Harry felt himself getting lost in those eyes.

Suddenly he snapped out of it, realizing that the strange suspicious man before him was using – or trying to use – legilimency on him. He strengthened his occlumency shields and tightened his grip on his wand. "What do you want with me?" Harry growled out.

"Gold," hissed the man. "I can get you what you want. But I need gold, badly."

"You're not a vampire, are you?" Harry asked, grounding his feet and pumping magical energy into his muscles as he readied himself for a fight.

The man noticed and tensed, and then the tightness dissolved from his figure. He started to chuckle. "You're just a boy, but you're a powerful young lad, I'll grant you. So you want some books on the mental arts, is that it?"

Harry didn't say anything. His face turned red at the man's patronizing tone. He was extremely angry at himself for not noticing the hawk animagus, for allowing his letter to fall into the hands of his enemies. That is… if this man was his enemy. Harry wasn't sure. The only thing that held him back from starting a fight was that this man was an unknown. What if the animagus was stronger than him? Then he would be in a bad situation. Harry definitely didn't want that. Although he was confident in his own abilities, the man was an animagus as well as skilled in legilimency. He could be a vicious dueler as well.

"I can get you the books that you want, young man. Whatever you want. What's your name?" asked the man, taking a friendlier tone. "I'm Renaud the Great. You?"

"Jason," Harry said, thinking of an alias. "Get me the books. I'll pay you. You go away. Is that agreeable?"

Renaud nodded, "I can teach you the mind arts too-"

"No, absolutely not," Harry said angrily. "Do you think I'm stupid? Get out of my house. Bring those books tonight, is that good?"

Renaud chuckled and changed into a hawk. He swooped upwards, and roamed the sky in circles over the house. Then he sped away into the blue sky. Harry cursed at himself. He didn't like the situation he was in at all. He felt too vulnerable. The rest of the day he spent wandering the White mansion, looking for any artifacts he could use or any secret rooms. He pulled down a lever in the dark, damp dungeons and a passageway opened. Harry grinned. He hadn't explored the dungeons fully. They were mostly empty, only rats used them now. The passageway was dark and filled with spider webs. "Inferio," Harry said and let loose a jet of flame to clear the passageway of any dangerous insects or rodents. He definitely did not want to get the black plague.

Using his wand to light the passageway, he moved through it slowly and cautiously, on the lookout for any traps that might get the better of him. He found two. One was a wire thin string that he might have tripped over. He conjured a snake to trip the trap and saw a wave of daggers descend from above at the spot where the wire was tied. He winced and levitated himself over the daggers. The second trap he would was a loose rock on the floor. If he had stepped on it, he would have fallen through in a gigantic pit. He levitated himself over that as well.

By now he was extremely curious of what lay inside at the end of the passageway. Hidden dark books or artifacts? Perhaps a mound of gold and treasure that he could use to procure the items he so desperately sought? The answer? Nothing.

Or just about nothing anyways. He entered a dim room. Looking around, he saw that the room was empty save for a discarded wand that had rolled up in a crevice at the corner of the room. He summoned the wand to him and examined it. The wand was unlike anything he had seen before. Instead of wood it was made out of a crystal material, like diamond. He could see through this material at the core where there was a thin string of hair that glowed all the colours of the rainbow in quick succession. Harry grabbed hold of this feminine looking wand and instantly felt a wave of power flutter upwards in his chest.

He conjured a bird, and he waved the wand letting out golden emerald sparks into the stale air. This wand was much stronger than his holly and phoenix one. This wand was an ancient wand, and Harry saw an inscription in Old Norse at the base of the wand. He used a translation spell to gather it's meaning: "Property of the wizard, Merlin." The inscription read. Harry felt his heart beat faster in his chest. Merlin's wand?

With this artifact he would be much stronger than ever before. He couldn't believe his luck. The White family was an old and obscure family, but to think that they had a treasure like this hiding just in their dungeons waiting to be discovered…? Harry licked his lips, and looked around suspiciously, but nothing happened. He went back out the passageway on the lookout for traps but nothing. Nothing whatsoever. The silence that greeted him as he made his way into the parlor was almost deafening. He was too excited to do much of anything.

He went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a celebratory drink. At this rate he would become an alcoholic, he thought, bemused. As he drank a few sips, he tried all the spells he knew. They came out so much easily with Merlin's wand. And they worked so well too. Harry decided he was probably the luckiest person alive right now.

Merlin's wand… he shook his head, because he still couldn't believe it. This just couldn't be happening. Perhaps he was dreaming? But he wasn't. Life was changing faster than ever. Would he be ready to meet it? That thought scared the hell out of him.

The rest of the day he spent testing the wand and using it to further his dueling practice. He could fire spells at a much faster rate than with his old wand. He could do so much, it was mind blowing.

His old wand had a special place in his heart of course, but he naturally liked Merlin's wand much better. Harry changed the inscription to make it read: "Property of the wizard, Harry Potter." That was better. This wand was still too conspicuous, too noticeable. He tried to put a wooden layering over the wand, but that just dampened the effects. He also tried using a disillusionment charm over it but the charm wouldn't hold. He decided to keep his old wand and use the better one only in case of emergencies. He would hide it on his persona at all times of course.

Thrilled with his new find, Harry was in a much calmer state of mood when he heard a knock at the front door. He opened it and met with the sight of the burly Renaud and his hawk nose. "My boy Jason!" cried Renaud. "Aren't you going to invite me in?" He gestured at a black bag he held at his side. It seemed really heavy and was filled with books.

Reluctantly, Harry allowed Renaud to come inside. He conjured a cup of tea for the wizard, who politely declined. Renaud brought out three books on the glass table: "The Basics of Legilimency by Alfred Garnfield; Secrets of the Wicked – A Look at the Mind Arts by Shifajuga Ramsfern; The Practice of Security by Albus Dumbledore."

"The last one's especially rare," said Renaud, "and in my opinion the best book on occlumency ever written."

"How much for all these three?" asked Harry. He was really interested and willing to buy them at any price Renaud was willing to quote.

"I won't sell them to you," Renaud said flatly. "But I will let you read them. Only that."

"But—why?" asked Harry. "Why won't you sell them to me?"

"They're too valuable. Here's what I'll do. I'm willing to come here maybe two or three hours a day. You feed me with as much food as you got, and maybe pay me fifty galleons an hour to read 'em. Take it or leave it."

Harry thought hard, whirling his mind around the strange deal Renaud was offering him. "Are you a homeless bum or something?" muttered Harry, too low for him to hear. Apparently not low enough because Renaud quipped, "Yes actually I am."

Harry knew he was a fast reader, and could probably get the essentials of each book really fast. He could superficially skim through them and get the basics of each of them in perhaps an hour. Twenty minutes each book. Then when Renaud was gone he could transcribe them into notes and use them as a guide for his own independent study into the mental arts. That way he would only have to pay fifty galleons. Still expensive, but Harry could make it work.

"Okay," Harry said. "I agree to your deal. I'll read them today for an hour. Only that much."

"Only an hour?" Renaud asked, disappointed. "You won't learn anything-"

"I will," Harry said, suddenly thinking of a wicked idea. "Help yourself to the food in the kitchen. I need to use the bathroom and get your money as well."

He got up and went upstairs to his potions lab where he picked up two vials of a green-blue liquid. These were super-learner potions, good for studying tests. He had invented them himself using a certain Severus Snape's Guide to Potion Making book. He gulped them down, got his personal saving pouch of galleons and brought them downstairs where Renaud was stuffing himself with all the food in the kitchen. Harry rolled his eyes at the mess Renaud was making.

"Okay I'm ready to start reading," Harry called out. Renaud waddled over to him, and said, "tempus," while jabbing his wand in the air. A holographic clock appeared above them, it's two hands golden, the surface of the clock was white, and the numbers were written in elaborate black ink.

"One hour," Harry said and handed him fifty galleons. He picked up The Basics of Legilimency and flipped through it at an intense speed, mentally filing away all the important bits to help him do legilimency. Renaud watched with surprise as Harry finished with the first book in twenty minutes and moved on to the second.

"There's no way you can actually read all that…" muttered Renaud, scratching his beard.

But Harry did. In another twenty minutes he was done the second book, and started on the third. The third one was the most fascinating, not just because it was written by Albus Dumbledore, but also because the information was solid and very applicable to Harry. He focused on his blue shield and made it ripple like it was water. He added a minature city onto the blue shield, so it was like a planet was surrounding Harry. The people on this minature city would protect Harry from attack by confusing the attacker. The next thing he learnt was how to make a second shield deep inside his mind to protect his most valuable secrets. He formed the image of a giant black box and he thrust all his secrets inside the box and locked it up nice and tight with a metal chain. Around the box he placed guards – chess pieces – and a giant python as well. Then Albus showed how to build traps in the mind to destroy the attacker. Harry built pits in his mind – little black holes, and hid them away under a blanket of mist. Now Harry had created his own world – his mind was his world – so when the attacker would want to pick out information from his mind they would have to go through a heck of a lot of trouble to get them.

Albus also showed how to increase the potency of the shield by repeating a spell mentally over and over. This was an Indian spell, called a mantra, that would strengthen and protect the mind against all attackers. "Shayum, shayum, shayum," Harry intoned mentally. He could already feel the shields became stronger. Albus said that you had to keep on repeating the mantra as much as you could at all times of the day to increase your concentration.

Now Harry had gotten enough information to start on increasing his legilimency skills as well. All this information was extremely interesting and useful to Harry and luckily he was done in his prescribed time of one hour. "Okay," he said, "Thanks, but I'm through with this."

"Fucking amazing," said Renaud, "If you actually could read these 1000 page tomes in that much time. Alright kid, do you need any other books?"

"Not for your prices. I won't be able to afford them," said Harry. "Thanks but no thanks. I think we are through here."

Renaud nodded and complacently left. Harry was suspicious, and checked for any traps or surveillances equipment Renaud might have left behind. He found a little gem stuck on the ceiling in a corner, where he wouldn't notice. Harry destroyed the gem by flushing it down the toilet.

When he slept that night in his room, he smiled to himself, repeating, "Shayum, shayum, shayum…" the mantra spell was working. His mind was already getting stronger and soon he would have shields on par with Dumbledore's. He expected that considering he was a prodigy. Surprisingly the mental arts weren't easy compared to all the other arts – like potions and transfiguration – that he had learnt and mastered.

Well, life wasn't easy. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered who exactly Renaud was, and what was his background. Would he come back? Harry thought, if he did, I'll kill him. He said to himself. Renaud was a threat. Harry couldn't bear to be around him.

The next morning when he awoke and went downstairs to the parlor he found Renaud waiting for him, stretched out against the sofa, pretending to be asleep. "Oh fuck," Harry cursed and pulled out his wand… only to find that it was a fake – only a stick. Renaud opened his eyes and fixed Harry with one single glare, "Awake now, boy?"

AN: Please review so I can update faster! This is a cliff hanger for sure. At first I wasn't sure if I should leave it in there, but then I thought, why not? It will keep you on your feet until I post the next chapter (probably tomorrow). This entire week I have exams, but I'll still keep writing because I really love this story. So review, I want to hear from my readers. Especially about pairings. Please vote!

1. H/Hr

2. Harry/Padma

3. Harry/Ginny

4. Harry/Susan Bones

If you have any other suggestions, feel free to include them. Who knows... Your vote might just count, unlike real life.