Chapter 29 – The Flamel's
Harry managed to stay on his feet when they reached their destination. After going through inter dimensional portals, portkey's didn't feel all that bad. Lillian still managed to fall flat on her face though. It would probably take her a little more time to manage to remain standing.
They were in a small room which had a table, three chairs and a single bulb flickering dimly. The paint was dilapidated and the walls were cracked in so many places, it was a wonder the roof hadn't fallen in yet.
"Where are we?" asked Lillian.
"A place where we can talk," replied Flamel.
"Looks more like a place to die," muttered Harry.
"Take a seat," said Nicolas.
He walked over towards the wall to their right and to Harry and Lillian's surprise he pulled out three bottles of butter beer through the wall.
"Looks like there more to this room than meets the eye," commented Harry.
"Its purpose varies from time to time. And right now its purpose is for us to talk."
"Couldn't talking be done in a safer location?"
"It's safe," said Flamel.
"Why can't we go back to Hogwarts?" asked Lillian.
"How long did you spend in the other world Ms. Austin?" asked Flamel instead of answering her question.
"Five weeks," she said.
"Five long weeks," he said slowly. "Tell me how different was that world?"
"Potter was a Gryffindor I apparently did not exist, so yeah, it was quite different."
"Hmmm, how very interesting," he muttered. "Well, now let me explain a few things about the portal. I'm sure you know by now that there are an infinite number of parallel universes or alternate realities."
Harry and Lillian nodded simultaneously.
"The portal serves as a door for each one of them but you cannot select the door you want. The portal will select a door at random. Usually when two people enter the portal they will never end up in the same world. But in your case, I suppose you were extremely close to each other, so when you went through the portal you were considered as a single entity."
Flamel paused.
"You weren't doing anything you weren't supposed to be doing were you?"
"NO!" shouted the pair.
Flamel smiled. "So how did the portal activate? 20 milliseconds is not enough time to gather information."
"It was because of the sand from a time turner and a random spell," said Harry.
"Ah," muttered Flamel, "That could certainly act as a trigger to activate the runes."
"You can read them?" asked Lillian.
"Of course. I wouldn't be able to use it otherwise," he said.
"What can it be used for?" asked Harry interestedly.
"Not a lot of things," said Flamel with a smile. "But we're straying of the topic. The reason you are here is because you cannot go back to Hogwarts until the time you spent in the other world is elapsed in this world."
"So you weren't lying when you said not even a second had passed since we left?"
"I haven't lied to you since we met," said Flamel. "That's the way the portal works. You can go to a number of worlds, spend some time there but when you come back to your own, you'll find no time has passed at all."
"So why can't we go back to Hogwarts?"
"You have spent five week there have you not?"
"Yes," said Lillian.
"Was it the past or the present or the future?"
"Future."
"All the more reason I cannot allow you to go to your school. You have knowledge of future events even if they might differ to an extent and added to that your absence has changed the fate of many things, for good or bad we do not know. If you were to go back and try to change things based on what you have learnt you would simply make things even more worse than they could be."
"Why would things change because we left?"
"You left. That's the bottom line. That is why traveling through the portal is so dangerous. Even if you left for a micro milli second, you have changed the future of this world and of the world you visited. That's the way the universe works."
"I don't understand," said Lillian.
"Think of it has a balloon filled with air," said Flamel. "The portal creates a hole in the balloon and the air escapes and could be used to fill another balloon. You are the air and the balloon is the world.
Now what happens when the air leaves a balloon?"
"It becomes a thin rubber piece?"
"Or you can say it collapsed," said Flamel grimly as his point hit home.
"You're saying our world could collapse!" said Harry aghast. Lillian looked equally horrified.
"But you came back," continued Flamel. "The balloon has its air back but the damage is done."
"What kind of damage are we talking about?" asked Lillian fearfully.
"I told you. Lot's of things could have their fates changed. Lots of events are going to happen differently than they would have if you hadn't left. Same goes for the world you went too. That balloon had an excess of air and could have burst, but you left so it returned to its original shape but there was damage there too," he said.
"And all this wouldn't have happened if that idiot Granger hadn't dropped her time turner," muttered Harry.
"All this wouldn't have happened if Malfoy didn't trip her," shot back Lillian.
"I agree," said Harry, surprising Lillian. "It's both their faults. Granger's for running with the time turner in her hand and Malfoy's for tripping her."
Lillian simply nodded. His agreeing with her had left a little stunned.
"Is the change good or bad?" asked Harry.
"It depends on what you consider yourself to be," he replied.
The message was clear. The change was bad and most probably good in the other world.
"So what now?" asked Lillian.
"Now you stay with me and my wife for 5 weeks and we shall help you with develop your elemental powers," he said with a smile.
A shiver of excitement ran down both elementals back. Training with a man and his wife who were both over six centuries old would be exciting.
"Wait," said Harry suddenly.
"What is it?" asked Flamel.
"I still want to see proof about you being who you say you are."
"Will the Philosophers stone be enough?"
"The stone was destroyed," said Lillian at once.
"And I can't make another?" he questioned.
Lillian shut her mouth with a snap.
"But no, I haven't made another," he added.
"So the one in Hogwarts was fake!"
"Of course not," he said. "Albus wouldn't be fooled by a fake stone. After all he has seen the stone before."
"I'm confused now," said Harry.
Nicolas laughed. "Well looks like a have a long story to tell you. And it's a story I have to tell you after seeing your wand Harry."
"What's my wand got anything to do with you?" asked Harry cautiously.
"Everything," replied Flamel solemnly.
Lillian raised her eyebrows.
"Has the wand spoken with you Harry?"
Harry glanced towards Lillian.
"You both are going to share everything from now on. You both are elementals and elementals should stick close to each other. Plus you both are going to stay at my home for more than a month so you better learn to trust and get along with each other," he said firmly.
"I was going to say yes anyway," muttered Harry.
"That means it has really accepted you as its master and you really have the potential to be stronger than the eldest brother."
Harry nodded.
"I'm lost," announced Lillian.
"The wand Harry holds is very special Lillian," said Flamel.
"I know its special," she said. "I was there when he got it for the first time and I was there when Ollivander told him the story of the deathly hallows. But I certainly don't remember him saying anything about the wand accepting someone who was stronger than the eldest brother and things like that."
"Then I'm sure you'd like to hear what I have to say," he said. "The Deathly Hallows is merely a story. A fairy tale made by the youngest brother to keep the real story hidden."
Lillian was listening with rapt attention and so was Harry even though he already knew it.
"An extremely long story cut short. Death in the deathly hallows story was a living evil creature. It could take any physical form it wanted and was extremely powerful and dangerous and I do not need to say more to emphasis its power. Let's just say it makes Voldemort look like a cute puppy."
Both Harry and Lillian gulped.
"Now at that time there were three brothers. The brothers you have heard about in the story. These brothers were also extremely powerful and were almost an equal match for the evil being. After a long battle which nobody knows the details about. Evil was defeated and he gave the three brothers a gift each in exchange for its life.
"They let such a thing live!" exclaimed Lillian.
"Yes," he said shortly. "The eldest brother was given an unbeatable wand, the second the resurrection stone which can revive the dead but not in physical form and the youngest got the cloak of invisibility."
Lillian looked at Harry in shock. She realized he had two of the gifts. The invisibility cloak and the wand!
"The first two brothers died a few years later but the youngest lived on. Now the youngest brother was the smartest and it was because of his brilliant thinking that the evil being was defeated. He initially was against letting the being live on but he too succumbed to greed and accepted the gift evil gave them.
Later he was consumed by guilt after his brothers died and he vowed to hunt down the being and destroy it forever. But he was unsuccessful. Evil was cunning and smart too. It did something the youngest brother never even dreamed was possible."
"What did it do?" whispered Lillian.
"It created a different plane of existence where it stored its consciousness and essence. It created books with spells which when used by wizards would give them strength and power. But in reality the strength gained by the wizard is connected to the creature and with each spell used, it's power would too increase."
"We call these books and the spells in it the dark arts today," he said.
"Over time it will gain enough strength and it has been waiting for the perfect vessel for it to take over and regain its former strength."
"It has been more than a thousand years and it hadn't found a worthy vessel until Tom Marvolo Riddle was born. This man who has become the most powerful dark lord known to wizards can be the perfect vessel for the being to regain its consciousness and power in this world because lord Voldemort has immersed himself so deeply into the dark arts and is still doing so."
"What happened to the youngest brother?" asked Harry.
"He died eventually," said Flamel. "But not before finding someone to carry on what he had been trying to do."
"It was you I suppose," said Lillian.
"Initially no," said Flamel. "You might not believe me but it was Merlin whom he chose at first."
"No way!" gasped Harry.
"Yes way. But unfortunately Merlin was too enamored by wealth and fame and he did not do what was required of him by the brother."
"Merlin enamored by wealth and fame? That's absurd! He was known as Merlin the wise for crying out aloud!"
"Oh don't get me wrong," said Flamel. "He certainly was wise, powerful and a good man. But he wanted to be in the spot light. And the youngest brother didn't want that. So his plan failed."
"How old was he anyway?" asked Harry. "I remember the wand telling me that the brothers and evil had their great battle during the start of man kind, when everything was magic and there were no such things as wizards and muggles."
Flamel smiled. "He was old, really, really old and he was the one who had created the Philosophers stone. I merely cracked his formulae over a period of time and created my own which was known to the wizarding world and Dumbledore."
"Then how old are you?" asked Lillian.
"Much more than what the world believes me to be," he said with a smirk. "You two must understand that this is not about Voldemort overthrowing the ministry of magic or Dumbledore having his way in the ministry and things like that. This is about the survival of everything as we know it and I have been doing everything in my power to keep postponing the day it happens."
"How did he choose you?" asked Harry. "The youngest brother I mean."
"I tried to steal his money pouch. I was thirteen, a street rat and very hungry," he said with a laugh. "I can never forget that day. I sneaked up to him, managed to cut the bottom of his pouch and take all his gold and escape. And then suddenly I find myself hanging upside down with him peering into my face looking like Father Christmas himself."
"He chose you because you stole his money!"
"He chose me because he sensed the power within me. The same power he felt within Merlin. He decided to take me in and train me in the arts of magic and science."
"Science!"
"He was a man who believed in utilizing knowledge from both the muggle and magical world. But because of what happened with Merlin, he made me swear an oath."
"What oath?" asked Lillian at once.
"I cannot interfere in the daily activities of witches and wizards. I cannot share my knowledge except when it was found in collaboration with other wizards or witches. I am supposed to hide my existence from the world and remain hidden, dead to all, the only exception being when I have no choice and have to show myself for a period of time and then go into hiding again.
Like now, the world believes the philosophers stone to be destroyed and I'll be going into hiding again, dead to the world."
"Must be hard," said Lillian.
"Quite the opposite, I have Penny and that's all I need," he said.
"Your wife," stated Harry.
"Right."
"Where is she anyway?" asked Lillian.
"You'll be meeting her soon enough. She's currently preparing our temporary home."
"There's one thing I don't understand though," said Lillian.
"And what is that?"
"You told us this big story about three brothers, an evil being, a powerful wand and all that but why? You said it was because the wand accepted Harry as the master of the wand and he could become more powerful than the oldest brother, who I'm guessing was the strongest. Does this mean Harry will be the one to destroy Voldemort or the evil being?"
Flamel glanced at Harry and nodded.
"Well," she said cheerfully. "I guess there's no need to worry then."
Flamel frowned, looking slightly confused for the first time since they met him. "Now I don't understand."
"If there's anyone who could defeat Voldemort and this super dangerous evil thing, Its Harry."
Harry looked at Lillian in surprise.
"Why do you think that?"
"You said it yourself Mr. Flamel. Harry has the cool wand, he's an ice or water elemental and he has his cool moving things power," she said.
"Moving things power?" he asked.
"I'll show you later," said Harry, feeling a little pleased with Lillian's evaluation of his chances. He realized she believed in him and that made him feel a lot of things he didn't have the answer too.
Suddenly a red glass ball fell from the ceiling on the table with a slight bump.
"Looks like our home for 5 weeks is ready," he said cheerfully. "Now remember this," he added his expression hardening. "You are not here to waste time. You are here because you are going to be trained to control your element. Your five weeks here are going to be the most intense ever. You are going to be trained in the art of physical combat, elemental combat and various other things. This is not a vacation, do you understand?"
"Yes," said the two of them solemnly.
He tapped the glass ball and it divided into three pieces.
"One for each of us," he said.
"Why?" asked Harry suspiciously.
"To your rooms of course," he said with a laugh. "I want you to be fresh when you meet my dear wife. Now touch the portkey."
All three touched their respective portkey's.
"Oh by the way," he said suddenly.
"What?"
"Be sure to find the red rose," he said and everything became a blur for both Harry and Lillian.
The first thing Harry realized when he stopped was that he was falling.
He didn't even have time to think as he began to hurtle to the ground. His body was twisting and turning in the turbulent air and panic had enveloped his mind and body. The brief sights of a burning inferno instead of Earth did nothing to help him.
"Calm down!" he screamed in his mind but it was useless. Coupled with the speed at which he was falling and the fear that he was feeling it was just impossible to think.
The fire was fast getting closer to him and one thought began to dominate his mind. "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!"
"No you're not, use your element!" suddenly screamed another part of his mind and then he remembered a sky diving show when he was at the Dursley's and he tried parting his arms and legs to gain some stability. He could hear the wind blowing past him at incredible speed and he could also hear his heart and was sure that it was beating at ten times its normal pace.
He couldn't breathe properly and he had to keep his eyes half shut or else he was sure that his eyelids would get ripped away because of the wind. He tired to send a blast of water and try to douse the fire but the water simply blew away because of the speed at which he was falling.
He closed in eyes in another massive effort to calm himself and began to form a large ball of water in his palm and began to cover himself completely with it when he was barely 100 feet away. He could feel the powerful heat begin to engulf his body and he began to freeze the water into ice to save him from being fried.
He plunged into the fire and the ice began to melt. He couldn't breathe as his entire body was covered in ice and it took Harry every ounce of strength and concentration to hold the ice firm and match the power of the fire.
He realized he was still falling and there didn't seem to be an end to his free fall.
It was unfortunate that he had to think of an end to the fall because suddenly the fire vanished and the ground began to come closer as he fell.
Harry's eyes widened. There was no way to break his fall at the pace he was going at and he did the only thing that came to his mind. He faced his palm downwards as he fell and blasted another jet of water in an effort to create some sort of lake to break his fall.
His effort was met with partial success. He slammed into the water and then felt his body slam into the ground too... hard.
Slowly the water spread and seeped into the ground leaving a motionless Harry on the hard surface. Moaning he tried to move but it was too painful. He tried to say something and then realized his mouth was full of blood. He spat it out pushed himself to his knees, the blood dripping down his chin.
It was over, thought Harry breathing hard. He looked at his hand and saw they were shaking badly. His looked at his clothes and saw they were burnt away in places and his skin had slight burns too.
"Flamel," thought Harry angrily. "That man had just tried to kill him! Was he even who he said he was?"
"Look for the red rose." That's what that man had said to them before the portkey dropped him in hell.
Harry looked around and saw nothing but flat dry land with a blazing sun directly above him. He was in a place which would be the worst possible place for an ice elemental.
There were no trees, no shrubs, nothing. It was a hard ground with no sand and a hot sun above him.
"Where the hell am I?" he shouted, "Is anybody there!"
.
.
.
"FLAMEL!" he screamed and fell back on the ground, exhausted after the use of his element so extensively.
He could feel the heat beating down on his back and sweat began to drip from his body.
"Okay, Harry, think rationally," he said to himself taking deep breaths. "You're in a place with nothing around... a few minutes ago this place was nothing but fire and now its nothing but a barren land with the goddamn sun right above me."
Suddenly realization struck him. "This is a bloody test! That bastard left me here to test me!" he said feeling the rage build up within him.
"That no good, bloody senile old man!"
He would have continued his furious rant if it hadn't felt like the temperature had gotten higher.
Sighing he began to walk. He didn't know in which direction but he just began to walk wondering if Lillian was in a similar situation as he was.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Lillian was suffering the same fate as Harry. She hadn't fallen from the sky but was in a deep pit with a blizzard blowing around her. She had practically frozen to death before she had the sense to start a fire around her to protect her from this freezing cold.
When the portkey dumped her in the pit there was no blizzard. It was merely a really deep hole with snow everywhere and there was a cold wind blowing around her.
She was extremely frightened when she saw nobody was with her and she certainly wasn't in any bedroom or a house for that matter. She draped her hands around her shoulders shivering in the cold. Then somehow with her teeth chattering she yelled out, "Hello?"
The instant the word left her mouth the wind began to pick up pace and she fell to her knees feeling the chill right down to her bone and then she noticed her hands began to turn blue. It had all taken about 10 seconds for the sudden temperature shift.
The wind began to blow faster and faster before ice pieces started pelting her drawing blood.
"H-help me," she whispered as another ice piece hit her face. She couldn't move and half her body had turned numb. She couldn't think or process anything that was happening because of the intense cold.
She was lying on the ground curled into a ball shivering. She couldn't do anything because it was so cold. Her mind absolutely refused to do anything. She hadn't even got the time to panic or try to escape before the cold wind had captured her. She soon didn't even feel the ice shards hitting her and she didn't notice her blood freezing on the surface of her skin.
.
.
.
And then she felt it. It was like a heart beat in her stomach. Sudden warmth began to spread through her body giving her strength. And then fire erupted from every inch of her body. It roared with all the fury and rage that had been suppressed by the cold and didn't allow even a single crystal of snow or the cold wind to reach her.
If she had looked in a mirror, she would have seen a golden ring around the pupil of her eyes.
She began to walk in an attempt to find shelter, but she always hit a wall of ice where ever she went. She screamed in anger and her fire grew even more powerful and began to melt the ice in every direction. But the blizzard which had formed around her was strong too.
Everything she melted simply hardened again.
She had the fire running for 20 minutes continuously while trying to find a way out of this hell hole even the exhaustion started setting in.
She looked at herself and realized all the clothes she had on and been long burnt to ash and she couldn't care less. Survival was the only thing on her mind and if the clothes had to go, then the clothes had to go.
"Bloody Flamel," she muttered, coming to the same conclusion as Harry. She surveyed her surroundings again but couldn't even see what was there a feet ahead of her.
Sighing and shivering in spite of the fire around her body. She began walking until hitting the wall of ice again.
An idea stuck her. Smiling to herself she placed her palms on the ice wall and began to melt the ice only to have it get frozen and filled with snow again.
She growled. It was like she was in a tornado of snow and ice. Closing her eyes she began again. It was really hard maintaining the fire around her and melting the ice at the same time but she concentrated hard, mentally thanking Harry for the book he had gifted to her last Christmas.
As the ice melted she quickly climbed in and began to melt the ice at her hip level again.
She was creating a make shift stair case all the way to the top. She looked behind her for and instant and realized that she wasn't in the blizzard anymore. She stopped the fire around her and realized the ice had formed again behind her and had stopped the cold from entering.
"Like an igloo," she whispered. She was trapped within the ice and the only way out was to keep melting the ice and heading upwards until she reached the surface. She looked at the ice again and saw her reflection. The fire around her had burnt her clothes to ash but hadn't harmed her body.
"It would be pointless to be a fire elemental if the fire burnt you," she mused, examining her reflection. Her body and curves were developing in all the right places she thought with a smile before smacking herself on the forehead.
"This is not the time to be admiring your self Mary!"
Now that she was out of the blizzard she felt a little exposed without her clothes but forced herself to forget about it for the time being.
Ignoring her lack of clothing she began task of tunneling to the surface again. She kept melting the ice and kept moving one step closer to the surface at a time but after what she felt was ages there was still no sight of the surface.
She was exhausted and hungry.
Her anger grew. "DAMN IT!" she screamed in frustration banging the wall of ice. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! What gives that bastard the right to do this to me! Oh god, I'm sure even Potter is in a similar situation as I am," she thought in horror.
A lone tear rolled down her cheek but her resolve to get out of her and make Flamel suffer strengthened. She began to feel the cold from the ice because of staying stationary.
It stuck her mind that she could conjure some clothes for her instead of feeling uncomfortable every time she looked into the ice and saw herself. She tried putting her hand in her pocket but simply touched her thigh.
"Oh my god, my wand!" she said in panic. "Where is my wand!"
She began looking around everywhere but there was hardly anywhere to look. Either it had fallen in the blizzard or it was burnt.
Now she really felt like crying. Harry was lucky he didn't have to face the problem of getting clothes and wands burnt and as her sadness grew there was a flash of fire beside her and Lo Behold, her wand dropped next to her.
"MY WAND!" she yelled in delight and hugged it joyfully, feeling the warmth within her increase.
Giving a sigh of relief she pointed the wand in front of her and concentrated on conjuring a woolen pant and a thick woolen parka.
Even though it was complex transfiguration she had taken a leaf out of Harry's book and studied ahead. And it was much easier after Harry had explained the basic concept of transfiguration to her.
She was extremely pleased when she succeeded on her first try.
She put them on welcoming the warmth they provided. There was no need to have a fire burning around her body now so there was no risk of them getting burnt. But she put a fire resistant charm on them just in case.
With renewed energy she began melting the ice and making her way to the top again. It was a tedious task and she didn't know how much time had elapsed and she didn't care. She ignored the pangs of hunger and the want of her body to just lie down and give up.
She kept going and going and going until she finally saw a glimpse of something above her.
Excitement bubbled within her as she melted the ice again and moved one step closer to the surface. Even her fire had become weak and was taking more time to melt the ice. Her hands were aching and bleeding and her head was spinning.
It didn't occur to her that her head was spinning because of the lack of oxygen in this prison of ice but finally she broke to the surface and fell on the snow with a cry of relief and joy.
Her joy vanished when she saw nothing but snow all around her and a light cold breeze blowing against her.
"No," she whispered, dropping to her knees. "This cannot be happening."
Tears began to roll down freely now as she was at her limit after tunneling through god knows what distance and god knows for how long. She began weeping and curled into a ball to escape the cold not having the strength to summon her element.
"I'm going to die here," she thought miserably. "I'm going to die," she whispered.
She could feel the cold seeping in through her unprotected hands and realized they had become blue again. Closing her eyes she tried to conjure fire but it was of no use. She could barely feel the warmth in her hand.
She didn't have the strength to move nor to use magic and just wanted to crawl back into her hole and stay there.
She was going to die with nothing but white snow around her without a soul in sight.
She was lying flat on her back, her hair spread beneath her and her eyes staring upwards without any sign of life. She could feel the cold wind beat upon her face. She turned her face to the left to avoid the wind when saw something that made her eyes go wide.
It was a red rose.
She pushed herself to her knees and began to crawl towards it one step at a time.
Each step was agony to her aching mind and body and when she reached it there was no sense of joy or victory. Only curiosity as to why she had suffered so much just to get to a rose. She started to hate that rose with a passion.
She lifted it by the stem examining it closely. She tried to stand and crush the rose beneath her bare feet when black spots began to form in front of her eyes.
"What the?" she murmured and lost consciousness barely feeling the tug below her navel.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Harry kept walking. He had discarded his shirt a long time ago, conjured an umbrella and was feeling extremely dehydrated.
Every now and then he would drink water from his hand and keep pouring water over himself to keep himself cool only to have the water evaporate within seconds.
"This is ridiculous," thought Harry. He had no clue where to go and was sure more than an hour had passed since he fell from the sky and nearly broke every bone in his body.
"What the hell am I supposed to do?" he muttered. "There's nothing in sight!"
He continued walking desperately hoping that he would find that red rose he was supposed to and find a way out of this place.
He kept walking and walking and walking till he could walk no more.
He was physically and mentally spent. His head felt like a hammer was being whacked on it every second because of walking in the sun for so long. And he had always had bad reactions to being in the sun for a long period of time.
Even the ground felt hot through his shoes.
"This is pointless," he said with a sigh. He summoned his wand and conjured a dark tent and a bath tub too. He filled the tub with cold water and slowly slipped into it with his pants on.
"Oh god, this feels so great," he said with a moan as the water seeped thorough his shoes and pants. He slowly went a little lower covering himself completely with water except for his head.
The water became colder at his command.
It was funny though. Water around his seemed to obey his commands. Even if he were at a distance and he wanted the water to rise or change temperatures it would happen. The only thing he could not do was make the water hotter or change it to steam or change vapors to water.
He could not control very hot water that efficiently. But as long it was in liquid or solid state. It was under his control.
"Screw the red rose," he muttered. "I'm content to be waiting here until that son of a bitch decides to get me out of here."
10 seconds passed after his statement when the ground began to shake.
Harry looked around frowning and then his eyes widened.
"Oh damn," he said.
He could hear the roar of the flames as they grew closer. Harry was having difficulty standing. As it is, his feet were aching and now he was surrounded by fire which was moving towards him at quite a speed. There was no way of escaping.
His slight rest seemed to have disabled his ability to think because he did nothing as the flames steadily grew closer and he did nothing even he began to feel intense heat around his body.
He simply didn't do anything because he simply thought Flamel wouldn't dare do anything that could hurt him permanently. Or even kill him.
He ignored the voice at the back of his mind screaming at him to do something. All his pain seemed to vanish as the fire grew closer and he knew that all he had to do was step into the fire for all the pain to go away.
Pain? He thought with a frown. What happened to all the pain? Why couldn't he feel the heat anymore?
Let's just step into the fire, he thought with a silly grin on his face.
"Protect your self!" the voice at the back of his mind roared and whatever enchantment was messing with his mind was broken.
The pain came back in waves and the fire was barely a hundred feet away.
With a yell of panic he covered himself with water and lowered its temperature drastically while continuously blasting water into the inferno that was all around him.
He could barely keep the fire at bay and could feel the heat even with his temporary water cover.
He fell to his knees with both his arms on either side poring water into the fire. He closed his eyes and brought its temperature down to bare minimum without freezing it but it was useless.
Whatever enchantment that had been messing with his mind has weakened him severely and his body could not take the stress of holding of the fire forever. He was exhausted in every possible way.
Black spots began to gather in front of his eyes as the fire inched closer to him.
He began to hear whispers all around him and time seemed to slow down.
"Pull it out," said the whispers and Harry frowned.
The flames were moving slowly and he could see the water coming out from his hand drop by drop.
"Pull it out," said the whispers again.
Pull it out? Pull what out? What's going on? thought Harry. It just wasn't making any sense. None of this was making any sense.
"Reach out within," said the whispers.
Harry frowned again. He thought he was going crazy. But he decided to oblige the whispers and reached out within himself.
In other words he reached out to his core.
And he felt just like he had felt all those years ago when he first reached his magical core.
Absolute peace and serenity, he felt like he was floating in space and he gradually moving towards his core.
Slowly he stretched his arms and touched his core.
It was like an explosion of power. He was brought back to reality feeling more powerful than he had ever felt before.
If he had looked in the mirror he would have seen a silver ring forming around the pupil of his eyes and the instant they formed a full circle Harry exploded.
The flames never stood a chance. If the fire was a blazing inferno trying to consume Harry. Harry was simply the thing that could stamp it out with a flick of his finger.
Waves of snow, ice, water all mixed were blowing in every direction at incredible speed with Harry as the epicenter. The fire was extinguished in mere seconds but the blizzard that was Harry didn't stop.
He felt like he had never felt before. He wanted everything to be cold. The ground began to turn to ice and it began to snow everywhere.
If Harry had been listening closely he would have heard some yelling about the wards starting to crack, but he didn't.
His arms were spread wide as if embracing the cold and a smile on his face, his eyes closed.
He never heard the explosion signaling the fall of the wards. He never realized that Nicolas Flamel and his wife were barely managing to hold his element back and prevent it from destroying everything in range.
After 5 long minutes of fury, the winds began to die down and the snow stopped falling.
Harry opened his eyes and found everything to be blurry. He blinked twice and everything started spinning.
He noticed two figures approaching him slowly and he thought he recognized one of them.
"Who?" he slurred out and fell over in a dead faint.
Above him Nicolas looked at his wife and said. "I told you we should have at least warned them before deciding to test their endurance."
"It wouldn't be an endurance test if they knew it was an endurance test. You know as well as I do that this test was also to see how they react to a hostile environment."
"And they both performed admirably didn't they?"
"The girl certainly used her head. For someone who has never been any potentially dangerous or scary situations in her entire life, she certainly did extremely well."
Nicolas nodded. "And what do you think about him," he said, poking Harry with his foot.
"I don't know what to think of him. But I certainly want to know what is he? I've never seen anything like it before!"
"I agree," said Nicolas. "He broke through wards which for centuries have been unbreakable."
Penny shook her head. "He didn't break them. He ripped through them."
Nicolas sighed. "So what now?"
"Let him rest and recover of course," she said. "Both kids are going to be furious when they wake up."
"I'm going to blame you if they try to burn and ice me," he muttered.
Penny laughed, pushing her grey hair behind her ear. "Take him to our infirmary Nick."