Key:

"Words."

Thoughts / "emphasis" / Title of Books or spells used

~~Parseltongue~~

¬¬Foreign Language¬¬

"Magical language."

Blood Magic

30th June (195 days dilated) – the Room

The first two weeks of Harry's summer holiday were hellish by his own design. Salazar had offered him a choice to naturally build up his body's physical fitness, or use potions to sustain himself for his entire first 'session' of the outside day. Harry had gone for the short-term pain.

With a steady supply of Invigorating Draughts and Cramp Remover potions, Harry significantly boosted how much physical exercise he could do in the first time-diluted 65-hour session of each day. It was only the Healer's knowledge Salazar had absorbed from Helga and had continued to develop that allowed the Founder to balance Harry's physical health with pushing him as hard as possible. The only reason Salazar had even offered the routine was the lack of magic use in Harry's two other time-diluted sessions, and that they both agreed to dial down the intensity as Harry's body adjusted to what was being asked of it.

In simple terms, it was a highly insane pre-season training camp Harry had heard non-magical sports teams put their players through.

To keep things fresh, Harry's runs would be random courses through copies of not only Hogwarts but also many of the most famous and infamous schools across Europe. Beauxbatons Academy of Magic was a gorgeous complex that was founded by the Norman wizard Armand Malfoy after the aide to William the Conqueror saw Hogwarts and attempted to do it better. The school was famous for accepting non-humans, especially the siren-like Veela, a start contrast to the Eastern European Durmstrang Institute that had never accepted a single first-generation mage since its founding. Harry felt its dark, depressing Gothic architecture fitted the fact that the school had thrown the Dark Lord Grindelwald out for conducting horrific magical experiments.

The more contemporary Russian Koldvstoretz accepted everyone that Durmstrang didn't, and Sal claimed they produced more skilled wizards than its more elitist, renowned sibling.

And then there was the insane Black Gate. A school founded by a distant Naga cousin of Salazar's who graduated from the creature-only Romanian Scholomance and was the reason Malta had gone from about the size of Sicily to being the world's tenth-smallest country by area. Black Gate was the only place in Europe that still taught magic the way Harry was learning it, but the school's founder had fallen in love with the Scholomance attitude of survival of the fittest. You either graduated from Black Gate or were never seen again.

Harry was pretty sure that the end of the summer would have him know more about the other schools than many of their students. Mostly because Salazar ran behind Harry with a constant running commentary of various topics, including everything the man knew of the schools through his link to their wards.

Such talks were not the main focus of his master's history lessons. That was the history of the magical world and his many bloodlines. Harry learnt of the Peverells' birth within ancient Wales, marking them as one of the few bloodlines born outside the so-called 'Cradles of Civilisation' to survive into the Middle Ages and beyond, and how they always had a link to death and necromancy. The Peverells never saw dying as something to fear, and the family's lore spoke of them being charged with hunting down those who upset the balance of life and death. Riddle's ability to survive Lily's ritual would have caught a Peverell's attention even without the monster's target being Harry. And while Salazar promised he both knew the cause of Riddle's survival and how to defeat it, the Founder also declared the time wasn't right for him to know. The Founder also introduced Harry to the family's artefacts known as the Deathly Hallows, each one being an object of power even when not bonded to or us to used by a Peverell. It had shocked Harry to learn his own invisibility cloak was one of these Hallows, and he could blood bond it once he claimed the Peverell ring.

Harry would also learn of the cadet branches of Peverells who constantly slipped in and out of society under different names in order to be House Peverell's eyes and ears in places the main family couldn't reach. To say Salazar was unamused with the modern descendents of the last known surviving branch of their family would be an understatement, and House Bones' lack of approach and support of Harry disgusted the born Peverell. Especially since his heir's reintroduction to the magical world and the boy's obvious lack of knowledge. The only thing keeping Salazar from requesting Harry call Judgement upon the remaining Bones members was the possibility that the combination of Grindelwald's War and Riddle's Blood War had decimated the family until those remaining were unaware of their obligations.

House Potter was only a little less brain-freezingly old, having come about through a freed magical slave in Ancient Rome. Harry would learn his father's family had no interest in the bigoted views of the extreme Light and Dark, nor any love of rules or regulations. Rather, the family focused on their own views on right or wrong. The Potters had a history of both heading governments and lead rebellions against them, depending on how the House saw it treating its people. While Harry still carried a negative view of James from his mother's journal, he could admit he was proud of being connected to such a legacy.

Salazar also taught him how the House of Black that his paternal grandmother and Sirius were from had come from the magical relation of one of the pre-Norman Kings of England who had married Rowena's sister Morgan. The family's motto of Toujours Pur was less about Purity of Blood, and far more about Purity of Self. To always remain true to oneself and the House.

Harry had the mistaken thought his mother's side would be easy. After all, he was being tutored by her House's Founder. Apparently, it wasn't that simple, and Lily's frantic writings of being Salazar's heir meant she had missed out on her father being from a squib line descended from House Ebonstone. If there was ever a 'You-Know-Who' of families, it was the Ebonstones. Salazar had promised his apprentice that not every member of the family was Evil, but more that the family had no care about the morality of their research into magic. They were the scientists who never thought to ask if they should do something, which meant when an Ebonstone went bad, they went really bad. It was an Ebonstone named Herpo who had created the first basilisk. Harry swore to be diligent should he ever gain access to that family's archives or Family Magic. And to whom he ever admitted such a connection to as the name Ebonstone would cause most people to either raise their wands to kill him, or go running as far away from him as possible.

It wasn't just about his own history that Salazar forced him to learn throughout his insane exercises, but the rest of the major names of British society. From the Prewetts who specialised in fertility magic, House Greengrass, and its link to the Green Man and his human sacrifice rites, and many other secrets of Harry's fellow Hogwarts students. The Apprentice was sure he knew things that were actual Family Secrets that his classmates would want to kill him for knowing, but knowledge was power.

While Harry's body recovered from the brutality he was putting it through, the rest of Salazar's daily sessions were filling his head to bursting point with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. They avoided the former's divination angle as it would be something Harry would need to explore with a mentor who could See the future, an ability that couldn't have carried over to Salazar's imprint even if he had the talent in life. Instead, Harry learnt the magical version of mathematics and physics to learn the underlying reality of what made a spell a spell. And when Harry wasn't drowning in numbers, he was learning both how runes magically worked together, but also how to speak their language.

And Salazar was doing all of this while constantly switching between speaking England and Latin. It was only because of Sebastian's lessons in how to link information together in his mind that was allowing him to keep up with everything. Both mentors celebrated when Harry asked why the Mind Arts were only still taught at Black Gate when it allowed greater understanding and ability to learn. It horrified him to hear Sal's suspicion of an ongoing plot to weaken the magical population, but the systematic outlawing of important branches of magic over the centuries made it hard for the apprentice to argue against the theory.

Salazar had declared Harry far enough in his studies to create his first set of blood runes for improving his physical health, and the Founder was now looking over his Apprentice's work. Harry kept himself still as he sat next to the Founder's desk. The man himself was standing at the other end, looking down at his first piece of homework. Sebastian sat off to one side, and Harry could see the Hat's crease turned upward as though he were smirking.

"You turned the improving of your bones section 60 degrees and then added additional runes that wouldn't be part of this set. You did the same for the muscles, the blood circulation, and your magical channels."

Master Sal had given Harry examples of runic arrays that aided a person's health and magic flow, ranging from the simple to the very complex, and had instructed him to write out an array that felt right to him. He could have copied any of the examples if they resonated with him, but they hadn't, and he had put together something new that did. Harry gulped as Salazar's head lifted and his ancestor's intense gaze speared him in place.

"If I'm reading this right, and I am, then you've only been able to get this down by having other ritual sets pre-written to fit into those extra areas. Show me, Apprentice, and explain yourself."

It didn't surprise Harry that Salazar had worked out this wasn't his only creation, even if he wasn't sure which part of the system had given him away. He pulled out the other parchments from one of his work folders and started explaining.

"I remembered what you said about how every part of the body must work in tandem, and the examples you told me of people not thinking things through." Harry spread the parchment sheets out in a rough shape of how they would work together. The examples hadn't been pretty, but they got the point across. Having bones like a giant meant nothing if they were too heavy for the human body to lift, nor was the speed of a vampire if just taking a step could tear all the muscles and ligaments off a person's skeleton. Harry didn't worry that Sal would throw his idea out, at least without an extensive explanation of everything he had done wrong. Mistakes were for him to grow from and not some terrible event to be avoided. "I tried following the smaller arrays, but they didn't feel right. I know we can lay arrays over the top so they work in tandem, but there's still a small disconnect in that they're arrays working at the same time, not together."

"Is that why you used this instead of a rune for partnership?" Salazar pointed out the standout part of the entire system. Harry nodded.

"Yes, Sir. I know it's usually one for 'union' or 'partnership,' but what I'm really asking the arrays for is an 'alliance.' That is, a mutually beneficial connection."

Harry gazed up into the face of his Master, only to get a blank stare in return. The man took a slow blink and then spoke in slow, carefully chosen words.

"As I've explained in the past, we created Sebastian to aid us in helping the students. The important key being that we refused to expose the students to those who would seek to take advantage of them. That is why Sebastian is incapable of sharing what he sees within the mind of those he Sorts. Vague discussions, yes, but the truly personal stuff, no. There is only one time when this is not the case. Sebastian, your Master and Maker calls to you. Aid me in leading the student known as Harry James Potter!"

Salazar's voice had taken on a power of its own, causing a rumble through Harry's bones. He turned a wide-eyed look towards Sebastian just as the Sorting Hat shuddered, glowed, and then replied in an emotionless tone.

"Yes, Master. His mental abilities are progressing at a wonderful rate, and I would declare him on the verge of being immune to mental manipulations. He could easily throw off any attempts to control him within seconds, and I predict not even a Lord of the Mind Arts could control him once he masters Occlumency."

Harry had been concerned over any type of exception of Sebastian's privacy magic, but the more the Hat spoke, the more that fear turned to curiosity.

"Freeing him of his residence of stay, along with the memory walking and therapy sessions with myself, has transformed his mindscape. The young man's connection to yourself as 'living' family, along with his mother's journal and memories of time prior to his parents' death, has placed him fully on the road to recovery. It is my firm belief that by the end of summer, and after having his Family Magics settle, he will be as healed and free of his past as is humanly possible."

"Good," Salazar said softly, fingertips tapping a random pattern on his desk as they listened. Harry felt a weight lift off his shoulders at the words.

"Harry James Potter has an instinctive understanding of emotions and emotional magic. Any piece of magic powered by emotions will come naturally to him. While he may appear erratic from the outside, he retains the ability to find a perfect balance within an emotional storm and -"

"Pause," Salazar commanded, cutting off the Hat's words. "Do you understand that part, Harry?"

"I understand the bit about emotional magic, Sir," Harry replied in Latin, choosing to keep up with his practice even during the interesting sequence. It appeared to be the right thing for him to do, given the look of approval he received. "But not the second part."

"It means that even if you were suffering an emotional breakdown, a part of your mind will retain logical decision making. That no matter how furious you become, any actions you take in your rage is those you have chosen to take. Do you understand me, Apprentice?"

Harry gulped and nodded, speaking the words before Salazar demanded them. There would be no lashing out at someone and then using his emotional state as an excuse, especially not with his Master. Salazar stared at Harry until he saw the understanding in the boy's eyes and then nodded, turning back to Sebastian.

"Continue."

"-as such, he will find it easier than most to bond with his Animagus forms. It will also mean that should Harry James Potter give himself over to them, then they shall have no subconscious restraints holding them back."

Harry didn't need Sal's side glance as he shivered at the thought. While he hadn't yet been told what Salazar thought his non-Parsel form was, the man had confirmed he believed his Parsel one to be that of a basilisk. Having had to kill an insane one not too long ago, Harry had no desire to become one.

"The young man is an instinctive natural at combat magics, both Light and Dark, and will be cable of casting near enough any spell devoted to the subject. This natural aptitude combines seamlessly with his body and mind's near-perfect spacial understanding of the world to make him equally adept at handling, managing, or defeating magical creatures. Should Harry James Potter fall to such a beast, it would be because of outside forces, losing a war of attrition, or a lack of spell knowledge to counteract the creature's abilities."

This time Harry side-eyed the smirking Snake Lord. If he understood the man's way of thinking, they had just discovered two subjects he would be training to become a Lord of Magic in. At least two, Harry corrected himself, given Sebastian had said combat magics, not Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"While Harry James Potter would not overly struggle with any theoretical side of magic, his best learning is in the subjects that interest him. Those that do not hold such interest will drag his theoretical learning and understanding down to an average/slightly above-average student, although he would then balance this out by his skills in using the magic he now understood. It is this that currently holds him back in both Charms and Transfiguration."

Harry sighed and nodded, admitting that the assessment was true. He had held himself back in Charms out of habit from being raised by the Dursleys, and Transfiguration held no real draw beyond the Animagus transformation. He didn't need to look at Salazar to know this was something that he would have to change.

"While the young man is not the instinctive genius at Potions you are, his years of cooking have given him an insight into how ingredients work together and the subtle nuances that changes can make to the end result. The theoretical side of the subject will forever keep him from easily creating or adapting recipes beyond any specific potion or result that catches his attention, but his skill level shall honour those of his Potter and Slytherin bloodlines."

He made a mental note to look into the Potter's history with potions. Despite Salazar's knowledge of the modern world, what Harry had told Snape was the truth. There was a lot he needed to learn that his ancestor didn't know.

"He requires great care in the progression of his Parsel Magic," Sebastian's words caught Harry's attention, and he bit his lip in worry. A feeling that grew when Salazar frowned. "The external magic placed upon him alongside the power from his Animagus form has drowned out his natural Slytherin Magic. As of this moment, only the Parselmouth ability and the healing side of his Parsel Magic have developed. In counter-balance, his physically traumatic history has granted Harry James Potter an instinctive mastery of another's physical condition, and he has the foundation of becoming an exceptional Healer."

"Pause," Salazar turned to Harry, giving his Apprentice a soft smile to ease the boy's nerves. "Do not fear, Harry. While my own childhood trauma did not damage my Parsel Magic, I am well experienced in aiding Parselmouths who did have their ability affected. All this means is more work prior to doing any Blood Magic that involves the Parsel side of your talents. It is nothing to worry over."

"Yes, Sir. Sir, the healing thing?"

"Those of us who have experienced pain either take that experience and use it to bring pain to others, or we use it to protect them. While Parsel Magic has other facets, healing is one thing it excels in the most. You will have an easier time with healing spells, especially in healing others, than anyone else. You might even be successful in casting healing spells on your first attempt."

Salazar waited until Harry showed he understood, and even then only had Sebastian continue when he was sure his Apprentice was ready.

"His deep connection to his magic will allow for a mastery of non-verbal and wandless magic, as well as little difficulty in using the wands of others. These abilities are currently tied to the young man's emotional state, and will require extensive teaching to unwind before gaining proper control over them. Harry James Potters' ability with Arithmancy is at a lesser level than that of Potions. While he may have the capacity of gaining a Mastery in the subject, it would take an exceptionally important and/or personal topic for him to create a new spell outside of an assignment. The divination side of the craft and Divination in general should be encouraged. Although I am unable to properly assess his gift, I am aware he taps into it to increase his spatial awareness and instinctual movements during high-stress situations."

Translation. I've been partially Seeing the future when playing Quidditch or ducking Vernon's fists, Harry thought. It didn't surprise him to learn he had some talent in the branch of magic given his mother had in the Sight. He noticed Salazar shift and realised that whatever the Hat was about to say next was the reason behind having Sebastian reveal his knowledge.

"In modern vernacular, Harry James Potter is an ignorant savant at Runic Magic. You must encourage and push him to his absolute limits with the subject. The young man's theoretical abilities are neither exceptional nor terrible. However, it is his intuitive understanding of how the pieces go together which elevates him beyond any measurable understanding of skills in the subject."

"Thank you, Sebastian," Salazar bowing his head slightly towards the Hat, who glowed again in a way that Harry guessed signified the end of the spell.

"You are welcome, Master," it replied in his normal voice, the split for his mouth wide in an obvious grin. "I had been hoping you would ask that of me."

"Huh?"

"What that means, Harry," Sebastian said, far too gleefully for the boy's liking. "Is that in Potions terms, my Master could not ask you to make something from scratch. But if he gave you a list of ingredients and you knew everything about them, you'd be able to make a potion from them that was either better than anything already known, or something brand new."

"So, no one's done this before?" Harry stared wide-eyed at his parchments sheets, putting together why Salazar had reacted as he had when he explained the array he'd come up with.

"Many have attempted it," the man corrected with a shake of the head. "More people than we could ever know have done these types of improvements, and then wondered if there was a way of combining them in the way you have, Harry. You immediately saw the problem with having the different arrays linked as they all are. The problem everyone has faced in finding a solution is that every attempt created an array that only a person experienced in many inner Blood Magic rituals would survive. Which defeats the point when they're the very first arrays that are typically used."

"But-"

"I have seen the adjustments you used in many theoretical ideas that tried to make this array possible," the Founder continued, interrupting Harry with a raised hand. "Including in many of my own. But never all of them at once. And no one has ever used the Alliance rune! Why would we? This is all about working with our own magic to improve ourselves. We don't need an alliance with ourselves. Except you realised it balanced out the problem of the arrays fighting over the flow of magic, didn't you?"

"Well, yes, Master," Harry shrugged, only to freeze. His mind had come up with the example of what they were talking about. Sherlock Holmes. He was looking at the same things everyone else had, but had put the pieces together in meaningful ways that others couldn't.

"And he gets it!" Sebastian chuckled when Harry paled.

"Warding? Enchanting? Rituals?" Salazar raised an eyebrow at the Hat that was gleefully nodding at each new subject raised. Harry didn't need to be a genius to see what his near future was going to focus on.

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OoOoO

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The pair were walking down the Room's copy of Hogwarts' corridors as they headed to the blocked off and forgotten ritual chambers. Salazar always urged Harry to treat the Room's world as if it were real, despite the Room's ability to create whatever they needed. And that included walking to places.

While the ritual rooms at Black Gate were modern and operational, Salazar had determined that Harry's rituals would occur within the depths of Durmstrang, the Snake Lord finding it far too amusing that the first Lord of Magic in centuries would learn part of his craft inside a replica of a school that wouldn't even glance at him because of his blood status. And yet, despite this decision, the Founder wanted his descendent's first ritual and foray into Blood Magic to be done within his own school.

Harry secretly felt that it was too much consideration on the entire subject, but he was willing to handle his ancestor's foibles. And he was at least learning where the rooms were in Hogwarts, even if it would gain a lot of attention to access and use them.

"To repeat my introductory lesson," Salazar began, breaking the young man from his drifting thoughts. "Runes began as a language, much like Latin. It is because runes went on to also mirror hieroglyphs in representing concepts as much as words that allow them to be used in rituals and enchanting. Therefore, even though it is not common in today's "modern magical world," you can include any language that comprises or includes pictographic, ideographic, or logographic glyphs in an array. What is the problem with doing so?"

Harry's answer was immediate. "Like any language has rules, and not all languages share the same rules, these different glyph sets have their own ways of interacting with each other. It is not safe to swap out one glyph for another, even if they have the same core meaning, if the way the two glyphs are used is vastly different."

"And the solution?"

"Arrays. Arranging the glyphs in, within, or around specific geometric patterns helps manage the rules, as well as allowing magic to understand the different systems together to produce the result the mage is after. There is a caveat, though. If two glyph systems have similar enough rule sets, we can swap in and out between them within the same array without damaging the desired result."

"Good," Salazar nodded, turning to look at his Apprentice to make sure everything was being understood. "There are two key differences with using runes – the term I'll be using from now on regardless of the actual language we are speaking of – directly on living beings compared with non-living objects. Carving them demands a specialised tool, and the mage must be continuously charging them with magic during the carving process. You cannot write an array into the body of a living being and then activate it all at once. They. Will. Die. No matter what the array was supposed to do."

"Yes, Sir. And the item?"

"One of these," Salazar's wave of the hand caused a dagger to float in front of them. Harry's fledgling magical senses exploded before he even turned his head to see the object, and he jumped back to keep from getting near it.

"What the absolute bloody fuck?"

The slender, double-edged blade was white, around six-to-eight inches long, and had a swirling pattern sometimes seen in metal. Only in this case, the pattern was a pulsing dark red. The handle looked to be made of hundreds of individual strands of black silk, and Harry wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

Salazar stopped to observe Harry, who was struggling to keep himself from moving further away from the floating dagger. The Founder sent it back to wherever it had come from without a twitch and then began to roll up one sleeve. "That was a dagger made from my living bone that was soaked in and absorbed my blood to create the markings, with a hilt wrap made of my hair. Every Blood Mage must make one of those knives at some point."

"What about Sympathetic Magic?"

"Excellent question," Salazar nodded, holding out his arm for Harry to watch morbidly as the skin rippled. In the blink of an eye, an identical blade had slid out of the man's body and into the waiting palm, although the apprentice immediately knew it wasn't the same as before. "Blood Mages keep their blood daggers within their body until needed. The knives will usually become reabsorbed into the body upon the death of the Blood Mage."

"That other one was your real one," Harry said, working out the difference between the two. Salazar wasn't alive, and so the knife that came out of him was like the rest of his body – a magical construct formed by the Room to house his echo.

"I used it as an anchor point for my wards. It is that knife that holds the key to how I am more than a portrait. Its defences are such that not even the other Founders would have been able to bring themselves to get within touching distance of it. And should anyone actually succeed, Hogwarts herself will make them suffer for it. The only way to end my existence is to destroy my blood knife, and I am the only one it and Hogwarts will allow to do so."

"So other blood knives won't..."

"No," Sal promised, absorbing the dagger back into himself and rolling the sleeve back down. The man continued his walk with Harry falling into step beside the Founder. "No one outside of the Blood Mage who makes the blood knife will truly be comfortable around it, but that is the extent of most reactions to them. There are, of course, exceptions."

"Of course," Harry responded without an ounce of sarcasm. Magic seemed to live on exceptions.

"The original way to do inner Blood Magic was to kneel within the ritual design and wandlessly levitate the blade as it cut everything into the skin, never taking the blade off the body until each part was complete, nor stopping your magic from being channelled into every cut. While you will make one of these knives, should you progress deep enough into this art, it is not the method I used, nor what I taught the others. My father aided me in creating an alternative and unorthodox method.

"This new method doesn't eliminate the use of the blood knives, Harry, not with the more advanced Blood Magic. What it did was allow the use of a different type of object to carve the runes for the lesser magics."

"What object, Sir?" Harry asked when the silence continued on. Sometimes Salazar would lecture for minutes on end, other times he would stop to force Harry into asking for more information. The Founder declared it was to prevent him from becoming complacent in only learning one way.

"The prospective Blood Mage drenches a feather in their blood for an entire lunar cycle. A Parsel spell is cast above the bowl every seven days: at the moment the blood hits the feather, the moment the feather absorbs the last of the blood, and two periods equally between them. Any Parselmouth can speak the spell, but it obviously requires trust between the Speaker and the Blood Mage."

"Specific timing," Harry mused, getting a nod back.

"They are called blood quills, and poorly crafted ones are as equally dangerous to others as those that survive their creators. Were someone beside the Blood Mage to write with one of these quills, it would not only carve the words into their skin but also infect their bodies and magic. In the hands of its owner, it allows the carving of your arrays without needing the blood knife."

"But..." Harry frowned, thinking through what he was hearing. "It doesn't really make the process easier, does it? The quill still has to be levitated."

"Indeed, Apprentice," Salazar agreed. Harry knew they were at their destination when they turned a corner and a plain table stood outside a large stone arch in the wall. Some small objects were on the table beneath a small cotton sheet that Harry guessed was as magically null as possible. "Again, you'll make your own at some point. This time, when you can control the basilisk venom in your blood so it does not destabilise the quill's integrity. Young Lily created a quill for the both of you. It is how she marked your skins for her ritual. She then placed both in a lead box that Portkeyed into the Room where I immediately destroyed hers. I only left yours in case you ever became my apprentice."

Salazar waved his hand at the sheet for Harry to remove it. He did, revealing the feather in question and what looked like a random branch that had fallen off a tree. Harry raised his eyebrows at the still serious Founder.

"But she had the same issue you raised. How could she use the quills? The answer lies in what you brought up already. Sympathetic Magic. It is possible to create golems of a person using their own blood. These are simple things, and useful for nothing more than to fake someone's death when deep magical scans of a body are not expected. While making a functional golem of various forms is a known and well documented skill, there is nowhere that will explain how to create one that perfectly mimics the owner's body. And especially not a method that has any wound the golem takes being passed to the target."

Salazar paused, and his eyes suddenly began to glow. This was Harry's Master in his full glory. The Dark Founder. The Snake Lord who killed his own flesh and blood to keep the peace of the realm.

"I made every single one of my Apprentices give a magical Vow to never share such a spell with anyone except their own Apprentice. And only then, after they got the exact Vow in return. This spell is of my father's creation, and I will not have it used to harm others. As I am not technically alive, I cannot gain such a Vow from you, but as you are my descendant, you can take it as part of the Slytherin Family Magic. I ask this of you, Harry. Along with doing the same with the spell that allows anyone to use another's blood quill."

One of the things that Salazar had driven into Harry head since his training began was the idea of Vows, Oaths, and anything else that would magically tie Harry's actions. The original Slytherin would therefore never look to force his heir onto a path without reasons. Yet, he was Salazar Slytherin's heir, and tying himself down even into a decision he would naturally agree to was not something to do lightly.

"Will taking the knowledge into my Family Magic affect the ritual in any way?"

"It won't," the Founder answered, pride sliding into the intense gaze.

"Then, as Heir Slytherin, I take into the Family Magic the magic used to create the unparalleled blood golem, and how to use a blood quill safely that I have not created myself. I take them as my own, to be kept safe within my blood and magic so that only true Slytherins may gain this knowledge."

Harry frowned almost before he glowed from the Vow as an idea popped into his head. "Surely you had mum do this?"

"I did, and she did," Salazar smirked, the seriousness instantly getting swapped for a mischievous smirk. "You have merely confirmed what young Lily agreed."

"Of course," Harry sighed, realising it had been a test on multiple levels.

The Founder's only reaction was for his smirk to grow. The Snake Lord turned to the branch, and the lesson continued. "You'll learn the runes that can create a constant golem at a later date. I am uneasy at such magic being known, but needs must, as the saying goes. These types of golems could allow you to walk into an enemy territory and learn their secrets with minimal risk to yourself."

"Minimal?"

"Father and I discovered there is a soul component to our method. It is what makes the golem such high quality, but that brings its own problems."

"I bet," Harry winced. His training had only just touched on the rudiments of Soul Magic, but he knew enough to guess. "Severe injuries passing through to the person, and potential mental damage if the mind is in the golem during its destruction."

"Vague enough to be correct," Salazar agreed with a nod. It was an oft-used phrase that Harry translated his Master meant he had a rudimentary understanding while lacking knowledge that would make his answer pale in significance to reality. "The permanent golem is useless for Blood Magic. It is to be used as a surrogate for your body when carving your runes. To have one lying around after the ritual is inviting an enemy to put their own markings on you."

"Do Blood Runes not show up on golems?"

"No. Now, as you know, if you carve enough Blood Runes on your body, the runes will eventually replace your skin. But, I have yet to explain why. Can you tell me?"

The silence dragged on as Harry considered the question. He mulled over every piece of knowledge he had, and he could only come up with one answer.. "Soul Magic?"

"Are you asking or telling me?"

"Asking, sir," he admitted. While Salazar was all for Harry bullshitting his way through situations without having full knowledge, he had drilled it into Harry's head that faking understanding of magic was a deadly road to go down. Harry had understood the lesson from the start, given his experiences with Lockhart.

"Correct. It would be closer to say the Blood Runes use our blood to mark themselves upon our magic, but as there is no such branch of learning known as Magic Magic, it is quasi-classified as Soul Magic instead. I had many injuries that stripped my back to its muscular layer and even lower, yet my Blood Runes would work perfectly once my physical body had healed."

"That's why the cost of a botched ritual usually ends up being deadly," Harry added, seeing a clearer picture of the dangerous branch of magic. "It's what you said about 'Charming' ourselves to be different and 'Transfiguring' ourselves into being different."

"Yes Apprentice, you see it now. The golem parsel spell we created will tie you to the blood used for the golem through a limited soul connection. The blood quill has a similar link, and it is these two working together that allows the entire process to work."

"You said it won't last past the ritual?"

"It won't. The unique thing about this process is the golems will last through the most taxing of these rituals with no issues, but will always disintegrate the moment the rituals are completed. Godric once suggested the nature of how the golem and quill work together makes the connection sentient, so that it always has only the staying power of the ritual and no more. A viable theory, but not one I was ever interested in proving."

Harry had heard enough stories of the Founders to know that each was interested in their own areas. The quartet had often, in some combination or another, explored areas of magic together, and there had been just as many situations where they had gone their own way with the others learning of their discoveries only at the end. Unlike how history painted them, not even Rowena Ravenclaw had an interest in every branch of magic she came across.

It didn't take long for Salazar to teach Harry the magic to create the base golem, leaving him staring down at a naked copy of himself. He once again thanked Magic that his time in the Room had destroyed any semblance of modesty, given how little he wore during his physical training.

"It is at this point that the student takes up the quill to use on the golem without raising up their magic," Salazar informed him. "This is for them to get used to the feel of the tip cutting their skin. All the wounds are easily healed, of course. As a final test, the student is tasked with drawing a symbol that is meaningful to them while charging it with their magic. As it is not part of any type of array, it can even be a rune. The point of the exercises is to get the mind prepared for what is to come in a safe environment."

"Doesn't that make it easier to spot Blood Mages?"

"It very well could," Sal agreed, lips twitching at the question. "And why many would do their marks under the feet or even on the scalp after shaving the golem's head. I've known students to do their mark inside the ear or even under the eyelid. The choice was always theirs. I will not require this step from you, just as I did not from young Lily. There was little point given her True Vision, while such a mark has chained your life ever since that night. But, like her, you do need to test yourself with the quill."

"Thank you, Master," Harry said with relief filling his words. He would have done it if the Founder had demanded, but his ancestor was right in the unspoken understanding that he would see such a mark as being connected to his famous scar. Perhaps later, he considered, picking up the strange quill. It glistened in the light, appearing to shift up and down the red spectrum to where Harry couldn't identify its actual tone, and he felt a strange sense of familiarity in holding the blood quill.

"If you ever see such a quill in black, then you must destroy it, Apprentice. Those are corrupted quills, or quills outlasting their creators, and are terrible things that are only fit for torture."

Harry swore to do so. The two fell into a comfortable silence once again. This was it. The end of the lesson. Harry knew the rest was all on him. It would be down to him to test whether he could carve the body double and take the feeling of the marks appearing on his skin, and then up to him to step into the next room to begin the actual ritual.

The echo of Salazar Slytherin was patient, unmoving as only something not truly alive could. This was the moment his Apprentice had to take on his own. The first proper step in becoming both a Blood Mage and Lord of Magic. He watched as the almost-man took a steadying breath and brought touched the blood quill to golem. He expected his descendant's hiss of pain, as well as the determined clench of the jaw. Salazar remembered his own steps with such magic, and how he used the horror of his childhood to give him the strength to push through the sensations. He didn't doubt his descendant as doing the same.

He waited until Harry gave him a nod before using the Room's magic to heal the golem's body. A second, deeper breath had his Apprentice steady himself, and then strip down to nothing before stepping into the ritual room. Sal was pleased to see the mage notice the table next to the door with its small blade and Blood Replenishing potions. He had drilled Harry in drawing runes on the ground using his own blood, and was pleased to see no mistakes as they spread across the floor.

The arrays were specific to Blood Magic, having everything and nothing to do with the rituals. They collected every stray release of magic from the Blood Mage, using it to create a powerful and deadly bubble of intent that would surround the Blood Mage while they carved the ritual runes on themselves or their golem. In a similar way to the link between the quill and golem, the arrays on the floor always knew the moment the ritual had completed, and shoved their excess magic back into the Blood Mage the moment they finished. The reabsorbing of their own magic sealed the changes into the person's soul.

Salazar was very pleased at his student's planning. Harry had left the runes in front of the room's entrance to last, allowing him to exit the ritual room and use his wand to send the golem floating to the room's centre and the waiting open circle of blood. The Founder nodded his approval at the act. Many Blood Mages forgot that using magic inside a prepared ritual room that had nothing to do with the ritual itself was a danger, and Salazar had been prepared to cancel the entire thing if Harry had forgotten the fact. The boy hadn't.

When the floor's arrays were finally complete, Harry wasted no time in starting the carving of his created system into the golem's body. As Salazar didn't need to breathe, the only sound was the scuffing of naked feet along the stone floor and the very occasional hiss as the quill cut into a sensitive part of Harry's skin. Hours passed, and still the ritual continued. Many students died or were seriously injured in attempting to rush the rituals, and Salazar had repeatedly told his descendant such horror stories. They had stuck given the slow, meticulous work his Apprentice was doing.

Harry's body had become blurred with the glow of his magic infusing into every cut. Salazar had raised an eyebrow at the familiar electric green hue that mirrored their eyes. While young Lily's magic would have taken on the Slytherin colour when using their Family Magic, her natural magic had its own distinct colouring. A quick check on the Room's magic revealed the truth to the Founder. The 'failed' Killing Curse had infused into Harry's magic, changing it until the spell's residuals had no ability to hurt the babe. Avada Kedavra was a spell of Sal's own making. It's proper use not only used his Family Magic, but made it so that no one could use it against the Slytherin Lord. Harry's magic had reached deep into his Slytherin bloodline to make his natural magic as much as Salazar's as possible to negate the Killing Curse.

The Snake Lord knew investigation would be necessary at a later date.

It took five hours working on the golem for the last rune to be carved. The boy cried out as his bleed off magic was driven back into him, and didn't notice the golem crumbling into ash. His Apprentice impressed Salazar again in keeping himself from breaking the blood circle despite the pain of the ritual. Salazar knew the very moment Harry had taken in the last drop of magic and reached out to the Room to destroy every drop of blood in the room. It did, and the Founder summoned Dobby.

"Your Master has finished his first ritual," he told the elf. The Room rippled around them to become a plan cube with a single door standing open. Harry had collapsed on the floor with painful joints and muscles keeping him from being able to stand. "Take him through there to exit Cassie's wards, and then to the inn. He will need to spend his spun back hours resting as his body recovers."

"Yes, Lord Slytherin," Dobby bowed. The hyperactive being he had been was long gone, and the house-elf had never been happier. "Is Master to always be this way after his rituals?"

"He will always be weak and not fit to engage in combat, but the rest will get better as his body grows used to doing them."

The elf thanked him, and Salazar didn't wait to see his descendant leave. Instead, the Founder faded to reappear in his portrait, and went to his desk. Salazar had work to do and plans to change.

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OoOoO

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The nature of child abuse was a curious and saddening subject in the Wizarding World. More so in Wizarding Britain. There was the nightmare-fuel concept of an Obscurial, and the representation of their negative feelings, the Obscurus. Harry Potter was saved from such a fate due to one very specific reason: He didn't know what the "freakishness" that the Dursleys constantly berated him over was. It was a quirk of fate that he didn't repress his magic because he didn't know he had it to repress. The Dursleys' habit of blaming Harry for even the most mundane of events enabled his young mind to recognise the abuse for what it was. While Albus Dumbledore might claim the extra child bondings he placed on Harry helped keep the Boy Who Lived from this horrifying existence, it should not distract from the fact the man knew enough of the Dursleys' attitudes to know such actions were a necessity.

Despite being cherished around the globe, some adults still abused magical children. Yet it was Muggle parents who were almost the sole reason for the creation of Obscurials with their hated their child's "freaky" or "devil" nature. Not even the most brutal and disgusting magical parent attempted to have their victims bury their magic. Those abusers had to tread carefully when it came to the unspoken sister-state of Obscurials.

Magical maturities are powerful things. In a healthy child, they act like multi-stage puberty spurts that increased both the body and magic of the growing witch or wizard to enable them to use more powerful magic and for longer periods. In abused children, the maturities would also slowly force the body into healing the damage caused. Such healing was long term - especially if the abuse continues - with the healthy body only becoming obvious once they reached a point between 17 and 22. Only on the very rare occasions was the damage greater than the maturities could heal. As the healing is a natural process of a human magical's body, the maturities would burn themselves out in trying to fix the damage, if not for their magic activating an advanced puberty.

The abused child's magic would realise its host was not strong enough to reach adulthood. In a natural version of how the Founders used the Room to cure their students, a child's magic would force them to go through rapid puberty, pushing the body and mind to be strong enough to handle the extra strain of healing. Magical abusers the world over feared the moment their victims went through such growth spurts, for it was only because of extensive abuse that a child would do so.

Every member country of the ICW agreed to stamp out magical child abuse, but the worldwide body also allowed their members to achieve this noble goal in however they see fit. Often leading to subpar results. Never was this seen more clearly than in Wizarding Britain.

Albus Dumbledore was a man who had experienced the devastation of growing up with an Obscurial in the family. Unfortunately, for many, many children, the famous wizard would come to have a twisted view on family life and childhoods. A Dumbledore led Wizengamot had declared that it required both Hogwarts' Healer and the Headmaster in order to begin a DMLE investigation into a magical child's home-life. The Headmaster, one Albus Dumbledore, who adamantly refused to accept the conclusions of the medical reports he was shown.

Healer Poppy Pomfrey wasn't lax in her treatment of Harry Potter, nor the many other children she saw with signs of abuse. She was just tied by red tape into giving them the barest medical aid she could. It was commonly joked that Hogwarts' food and drinks were spiked. They were. With healing potions designed to aid magical maturities in healing without burning themselves out. It could jokingly be considered the absolute minimum the renowned Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry should have done for its students.

Harry's runic array was a three-ritual system. The first would take over the job of his magical maturity in healing everything damaged from his time at the Dursleys. His body, mind, and even magic would become what they should have been if the Potters had survived the Halloween attack. He would be taller, fitter, have clearer thoughts on top of what his Mind Arts training had given him, and have a greater feel for his magic, yet would not lose his greater resistance to pain, nor any other small benefit of his suffering.

The second would take him to his natural peak, healing genetic weaknesses such as his weak eyesight. To the outside world, it would be as though his body was being forced through a rapid puberty from the Dursley's abuse. Salazar had made a comment about being glad he wasn't born female with the changes it would bring about. His mind would become as quick as it would be if he had been raised focusing only on his intelligence, his magic would flow as smoothly as it would have if his entire life had been nothing but him doing exercises aiding it, and he would be as physically fit as he would have been if he had been trying to become an Olympic athlete since the moment he could walk.

The third ritual would allow him to allow him to incorporate any boosting rituals into those two sets. Should he decide to merge his Animagus forms into his human one, the third ritual would make it so his body knew how to use the abilities to their fullest. It was a ritual based on one Salazar had created to enable werewolves to use all of their other form's abilities throughout the month.

The Wizarding World's attitude towards child abuse might have led to a broken Harry Potter, but the Slytherin in Gryffindor colours had taken its forbidden knowledge to rebuild himself. He would fully agree with his Master. It felt much better than simply chugging potions and having spells cast on him by someone else. And if it highlighted his life with the Dursleys and painted a target on Dumbledore's back, all the better.

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OoOoO

AN:

Two things:

1 – The "ignorant savant" thing aside, Harry's abilities are extrapolated from everything he did in canon. His insta-casting of Snape's spell, the perfect casting of the Crucio on a Lestrange at a second time of asking (book 7), the first-time healing spell used on McGonagall in the same scene, etc.

2 – Harry was badly abused by the Dursleys. There is no getting away from this. He was not given anywhere near enough food to grow into the healthy height and body he had in the epilogue. The maturities and how they use a person's magic to force healing is my head-canon for him turning into a tall (6'+), healthy male after ten years of abuse, several following summers where he was starved/restricted in his food, and the physical trauma of being on the run during a war for the final book.

SN:

Last Edited - 27th June 2023

Word Count – 9,115

Previous Word Count - 9,256