A/N: and here is another chapter. an important information, i got a betareader. His (or her) name on this website is HowInMadHowie and he/she offered to read and correct all the previous chapters too, i would tell you when they would be updated, so you can go and read it again with a better quality. ^^ This Chapter is thankfully already edited by HowInMadHowie, so i hope you all like this chapter :) until next time and stay safe
The next day, Harry woke up with a heavy feeling, as after he gave his blessing to the ritual and later the augmentations, he was thinking about how it would affect his daily life in school. Even with all the assurance from Yennefer and Catherine that he could just live his life like he always did, as he should not gather any suspicion as to why he was any different as he was before the break. A stronger physique he could explain with his training at home, but his heightened senses would be complicated to find an excuse for. He looked around his room as it would be the last time, he would see it like that. After the mutations, he would see more details in it, according to Geralt at least who had joined them after he had led Arthur out the castle via the Floo. But before they would begin, Catherine would accompany him to the outpost of the UNSC down in the alley, as they decided it would be wiser that he would get a neural interface so they could monitor his vitals during the ritual. Harry was now getting nervous, as this would mean that something would be hooked up to his brain. On the other side it meant that he could place the matrix chip from Callie directly in it, communicating better this way.
Callie tried to ease his nervousness with her voice through the glasses that Harry had placed out of habit on his face. It worked, as his mind relaxed a bit before he left his room. While he walked down the stairs, Cindy joined him like she did the evening before and climbed up to his shoulder. She was getting used to it, as this time she did not sway as much as yesterday. Harry was thinking if he should let her keep her kitten disguise, as this would allow her to be placed like this in his free time in school. He would like to take her with him to the classes, but in the beginning one of his classmates took her cat to a lesson and was almost yelled at from Professor McGonagall, as it was against school rules to take the pets into the classroom. But she could wait just outside, he was sure of it as some older students did hold their pets between classes while walking through the corridors.
With his mind back in the present, he was told to go down to the laboratory as soon he would wake up, as it would be better for the procedure if his stomach was empty, in case it would come to some complications during the operation.
He soon knocked on the door to the laboratory, wondering why John and Jerome stood by the door in full gear, which meant that they were in their armor with battle-rifles placed on their back. Harry noticed John nodding to him, as miniscule as it was. Harry took it as a sign that he should just enter and walk over to Catherine, who was standing beside a white bed and prepared some machines that she would need of, he guessed at least.
"Ah Harry, perfect timing. I was just getting finished with the materials for your neural interface. Please lie down on the bed and relax, I will then administer the anesthetic so you would be asleep until we are finished. As for how we would commence the operation as soon you are asleep, we will cut a small bit on your neck for the interface to be placed in. This interface will then be connected to your spine and the nerves in it, so Callie can measure everything about your body and can talk with you directly without using your glasses. She would still need her matrix though, as otherwise she will not be able to contact us in an emergency. And in case you were asking why John and Jerome are standing outside, everything in here is classified even beyond the clearance Captain Lasky allowed our friends upstairs, but they are not angry with us as they understand why we need to do this. Also, you are sadly not allowed to tell your friends about it, until the captain gives his permission with the name of the admiral attached to it. Do you understand?" Catherine was now looking sternly at Harry so he could get that they would not proceed until he promised that he would keep it a secret.
Harry nodded, understanding that so far that the girls did know everything they were allowed to know. Catherine then pointed to the bed and was walking over to a computer to call Kalmiya to oversee the operation while Callie was transferred to a chip like Cortana. She then told her AI to administer the narcotics for Harry to sleep during the operation. As his eyes begun to close and his breathing was getting even, Catherine watched the monitors to control his vitals during the procedure. As she was satisfied with the numbers, she activated the robotic arm that would come from beneath the bed to make the cut on Harry's neck. After it had done its job, it moved out of the way for another arm with a small device in its claws, in which was another probe to connect it with the nerves in Harry's spine while it would place the interface in its correct position. Catherine was still controlling the numbers that Kalmiya could get from scanning Harry, and it was still in the green zone.
Yen and Triss, who were both upstairs, knowing that all they could do was wait for the operation on Harry to finish. "Be honest with me Yen, can you really bear it for Harry to be augmented like John is? I think you saw his scars, and even if Catherine says that they could do this now without any visible sings left afterwards, it still scares me to imagine Harry looking like that." Triss stood by the door that would lead down to the laboratory that Catherine had occupied since she arrived in this castle all those years ago. Yennefer meanwhile was pacing up and down the room they were in, her mind on the ritual and if they had done everything correctly. After Triss called her out once more and asked the same question, Yen breathed in heavy and answered truthfully.
"It is nerve racking Triss, but we must trust Halsey for her words, as she would be the only one who knows how to do this. Also, take into account that the scars on John's body are not so revolting as you make it out to be. Maybe you should remember to put some silencing magic on the room next time you two think you are alone, especially when you both go to Hogwarts together with all those children." Yen smiled at the redhead's blush that rivaled her hair, but she got her point across. If Harry stayed the way he was, no scars could ever make him less attractive to the girls, and both females knew that. There will be a time where Harry would have to beat them off with a stick to get some breathing room, when the little growth spurt he had was any indication. They could also see that he was losing his baby fat and some muscles were now more defined, which was looking good with his good-looking face. It was also helping that they knew how his father looked to see how Harry would look like when he was in his teenage years.
In the laboratory, Catherine was finishing the operation while she controlled the arms directly which would connect the interface with the nerves, to make sure that everything would work in the end. It seemed to be a success, but they would need to ask Harry if he noticed something without his glasses. It was an advanced model, so Callie can use it to project the HUD directly on his retina and directly translate every known language and direct his lips to a proper response. Catherine took notice that she would have to tell Harry about this detail later, as the robotic arm was now closing the small wound around the neural interface, but it would need some time until the irritation on the skin would fade away. That is, if the mutation ritual would not heal it immediately as it concluded. She still had to witness it firsthand to see if it had some advantages for her Spartans. She hated herself that Harry would be her guinea pig in this case, but she was sure she could make amends later. Deciding that it would be better for Harry to wake up naturally, she walked over to the door to tell John and Jerome that they could go up and call Yen and Triss down, and when Ciri was around, she should come down too.
John nodded, knowing the women longer than Jerome did and walked up the stairs. Jerome stood on his place, having taken the indirect order to protect Halsey and Harry, just in case it would happen. They all knew that it not necessary, but rules are rules. As John arrived in the great hall, he was surprised to see Borch too and according to the faces of Yen and Triss, they were surprised too. Borch just grinned, showing them that he knew what they were going to do.
"Please don't tell me that I offered you my blood to raise the success rate for the boy when you wanted to do the ritual to mutate him into a Witcher? Please relax you all, I am sure that the good Doctor downstairs does remember it." Borch explained and John did recall this information to be correct. He just nodded and told them to follow him as he turned around to walk down the stairs once more in front of the others. After just a short time they arrived at the door where Jerome was still standing as he was getting ready to attack Borch as he did not know if he was allowed into the laboratory.
Borch noticed that and stopped where he stood, well knowing that it was disadvantageous to start a fight in this tight corridor. John nodded to Jerome and opened the door, calling the doctor outside so she could tell them what to do. Almost as soon he entered the room, he came out again and waved Borch into the laboratory. Catherine saw them coming down the stairs on her monitors that were connected to multiple cameras down the corridors and was prepared, as she could guess why the dragon in form of a man was here. She did hold a syringe in one hand, pointing to a chair next to Harry's sleeping form. On the monitor where now different numbers to be seen, as Kalmiya was now calculating how much they had to change the recipe for the different potions needed for the ritual, as the dragon blood will influence the effectiveness of those.
Yen and Triss were now preparing the potions they needed for the mutation of Harry with the added changes that Kalmyia prepared, while Borch sat there with a tube in his arm that was connected to the boy. The changes in Harry where so subtle, that only Callie and the Spartans present noted them. Harry's muscles became a touch bigger and stronger, also he grew a few centimeters in height, something that would only be noticed when he would stand up. John asked Cortana if his clothes would still fit him, or do they have to buy some new ones.
Cortana, while answering that they should still fit well enough, was analyzing the procedure just in case her older sister did overlook something. It was a redundancy system they established while they were working on those AI for the girls to optimize the results. She did not find anything wrong in the calculations, so she asked Kalmyia from where she got the necessary information on Dragon blood and their properties when administered into a mortal human body while sharing their digital plane of existence with Callie, who was almost sick from worry about her partner.
"There are enough legends about people who could kill a dragon and then bathing in their blood to gain an indestructible body. But the main information came from Borch himself, having shared his blood once with both females' warriors that were accompanying him back in the day. The results according to him were except for a slightly longer lifespan an almost complete immunity for any kind of illness or poisons. Now as the potions needed for the ritual are a kind of poison, we needed to alter those so the blood would not counteract them. According to my simulations with all the data we have at our disposal, Doctor Halsey and I could make sure that it will all work out." Kalmyia tried to lessen the burden to her sisters, seeing how they were worried about the boy. She still could not feel anything like these two could, as she knew what such feelings could cause some serious problems if you could not control them well enough in a dangerous situation. As they were AI she knew that sometimes it was only their help that would keep everyone functioning at their peak performance, and in the war, it was all she could do before the Covenant had attacked Reach and forced Doctor Halsey to delete her. She saw of course that it had some benefits, but in her case, she had no one to protect with everything she could muster, in contrast to Callie and Cortana.
Soon, Doctor Halsey pulled the small pipe with the needle from Harry's arm, as according to the computers Harry had now enough blood replenished thanks to Borch that he lost during the operations. While he was still asleep, she turned around to Yen and Triss and asked them if they should begin now with the other procedure. They nodded, binding Harry to the table in case he would begin to wail around because of the pain they were preparing to put him through. It was not like they had personal experience with the mutation ritual, but they had found all the necessary books in the library that was found as they cleared the space for the same laboratory, they were now standing in. it was kind of ironic, making a Witcher in the same room they had found the books with the notes after they were lost for almost a whole century. Yen placed the antique contraption with the different gene altering potions next to Harry's bed, the same place Borch where just a few moments before. Triss was now getting worried once more as she looked down at the boy that Yen saw as her son and she saw him like a little brother, the same way as she saw Ciri as her little sister.
Yen could understand her worries, but they did everything they could to ensure his safety, also thanks to Doctor Halsey's help with the analysis from the ancient texts that Cortana had copied when she and John arrived all those years ago. She really hoped that she would not destroy the boy that they had raised to the find child he was. She vowed that whatever would happen, she would do everything in her power to make sure that he would survive. Also, the possibility that the horcrux that was inside his scar would be destroyed and whatever was inside there could try to attack them to prevent them doing what they were going to do. That was the reason why Triss had prepared a small magical vessel to catch whatever the soul fragment had become.
Yen opened the first flask with the potion and almost at the same Harry breathed harder before he begun to scream in pain for everyone in the room to hear. John almost reacted as he was trained to do and pushed the women away, but Cortana called out to him and explained once more that this was to be expected. John was not letting up his attention, but he stood still as Yen and Triss were watching over Harry while the doctor was controlling Harry's vitals thanks to the newly implanted neural interface and Callie sending her the numbers. Luckely, the changes in Harry's body did not reject the foreign device and the blood he received from Borch was also helping it keeping his temperature down enough so it would not cause any damage to the body. It even seemed to calm him down enough so they could open the second flask a bit sooner than anticipated. So, Yen did just that, when the fluid flowed down the tube that was connected to Harry's arm.
Catherine saw the Harry's vital sign becoming more irregular, but nothing that was out of any parameter they established would be too dangerous to continue until they calmed down once again. Yen also began to use her magic to stabilize Harry hoping that it would lessen the pain enough so Harry would not tear through the bindings because his adrenaline would give him more strength. In that moment, she felt something fighting against her intervention, pushing her back and even trying to prevent Harry's mutation to finish. "Borch, does your blood work like that? Something is pushing against me. Or could it be?" Borch stood by her side faster than she was expecting it, using his own kind of magic to help her in her endeavor to seek out the dark presence which fought back. Soon, a black smoke poured out of a newly opened scar on Harry's forehead and took a shape of a face glaring at them. Triss was fast enough to begin her enchantment to capture it, but not before it talked to them.
"Try as much you want, I will become victorious. I will return once more and then I will destroy every one of you. Even when you hide, I will find you." The ghostly being tried to intimidate them, but his sneer was soon replaced with anger, when it saw Yen and Borch smiling at him and it felt the pull towards the object that Triss held up. As the shard of the soul was being sucked in, Yen said to him that he could try if he wants, but they would prevail every time he would come for them. And as quick it appeared, the being was sealed inside the small chest in Triss's hands before she placed it in a safe, that would be carried up to the ship of Captain Lasky and then secured in a separate vault outside the "In Amber Clad II" so it could not reach the Philosopher's stone.
As Voldemort was sealed off, Harry's breathing became calmer, but he was still in some pain according to the sweat he produced while he laid still on the bed. Also, according to his brain activity that Callie showed them, he had some kind of a nightmare, but she could not tell what he was seeing. But whatever it was, it was cause of his pain, so Yen opened the third flask to finish the ritual as fast as possible, while Triss prepared the mutagen that they would need soon.
While the last potion did its work, Harry fought his own battle against the pain and his nightmare. The narcotic had wear off a long time ago and Harry did everything he could to lay still while he saw blurred pictures with green light effects and a faraway sounding voice laughing, sending shudders down his spine. He knew that Callie did everything she could to help him ease the pain with her possibility to regulate the signals from his nervous system and transmitting everything to Doctor Halsey. He felt the contents of the third flask enter his body and his muscles contracted once more painfully, making it hard to breathe for him as his lungs also contracted and did not want to take the air in again in their own accord. But Harry's sheer willpower forced them to work again and soon, the pain lessened a great amount, so Harry could breathe once more normally until he felt another liquid enter his body. The pain it caused was not as great as with the other three, but something begun to feel different. He could smell more, and he heard better. He surmised that the ritual could soon be finished, and he could not wait to test these new abilities in his training. He just hoped that he could now use the same magic as Geralt and the other Witcher's used as well the other he learned in Hogwarts.
When Callie noticed that the changes where soon finished, she decided to make him sleepy again so his body could rest enough without breaking him too soon. It would do him no good if he would go fully at his training while he was still getting used to his new body and it would also prepare him for the augmentations that they were planning as it would also was getting a time to get used to it. But for now, he should just rest.
Catherine noticed on the monitors what Callie was doing, thanking her for her ingenuity and letting him sleep. Yen and Triss seemed to notice that the mutation was successful when Borch stepped away from Harry and sat back down on his chair. Yen checked it to make sure with her magic, not sensing anything dark in him anymore that was not to be expected. But to her surprise, his magical power seemed to have grown too, like the Horcrux was sealing some of it off. She would have to change his regime in both magical and body training for the future, and for that she would need both Geralt and John with her, that was why she looked over to Triss and John who was now standing next to the bed, surely to let Cortana scan Harry for anything that Yen might have overlooked.
When John noticed that Harry was resting and in good condition, he turned to see that Yennefer was looking at him and moved further to Jerome, who was walking out of the door as the mission was a success and his duty was once again by the outpost down the ravine. John thanked him through their team communication and then removed his helmet once again, so Yen could read his expressions better. "I take it you want to talk about the future education of Harry. Just so you know, I will not stay in your way if you do the same with me. The training regime we had since he was a small child did prove fruitful, so there is no need to change any of it. As for his magical side, you would know better than anyone how far he had come in your kind of magic Yen. Hogwarts cannot teach what you are teaching, and you know that. Maybe next year you can also come to Hogwarts, as when Harry will be 13 years old by then and would be expected to act more mature. And if you want, I could ask my supervisor to attach some people to the castle directly to keep it in working order." His face stern and looking at Yen, she knew that he had his mind made up. But to her luck, she could just ask Triss if she could teach Harry in school until he would return by the next winter vacation.
Yen thanked him and then asked Triss if she could come with her up to the kitchen so they could prepare dinner, as the whole procedure took almost the complete day so they were all becoming hungry. When they arrived in the kitchen, a man with white hair was already standing there and did feed the fire. Geralt was back.