The month of august passed uneventfully for Harry, he read his school books over and over again, practised some of the spells mentioned within the books and conducted his own magical experiments. He noticed that there seemed to be two different types of spells, some needed great control throughout such as charms while others only needed a "burst" and were done, such as transfiguration, although strangely his books didn't mention this, he assumed it would be something the teachers would tell them or possible later even in later years as he remembered people like Hermione wouldn't have any experience with magic like he and magical raised children did.
Incidentally, Harry found out about the two types of spells when he attempted to transfigure one of his aunts old chipped china cups into a china teapot, he did manage it however the tea pot wasn't thick enough and the chip from the cup was present on the pot, making it useless. When he tried Diffindo with his wand it split not just the cup but the desk underneath too, he had fixed the desk before Petunia had come up to tell him off for making a racket in her house, after that he decided against practicing destructive magic until he got to Hogwarts.
He made sure he knew what each subject was about and some useful facts for each just in case he got quizzed on them once he got there, he focused mainly on magic theory as he had known little about it himself since he had focused more on what he could do and how to do it better than try to understand the exact reason why it did work. He had quickly discovered that some of the magical theory within the books was wrong or at least not entirely correct as Harry had done magic classed as "impossible" in the past, as such he decided to regard the laws of magic hesitantly, one such example of the laws being incorrect was the metal orb he had summoned and formed just a few nights ago, it was this very orb which was taking up Harry's thoughts at the moment…
His books stated that to make something permanently with magic requires a sample beforehand, the old "energy cannot be made or destroyed only changed" the book said that to make something with just magic would cause it to fade unless it was regularly sustained by a witch or wizard, the book clearly said that magically made objects would show signs of decay or reversion after a few hours of being formed, almost three days later and his orb remained exactly as he left it after he had first made it. He looked at it now and focused in order to switch to his magical sight, he saw his magic pooling around inside the sphere like it was caught on a current, it even looked to be feeding his wand which was still lying in its groove on top.
'I suppose the orb could be making its own energy like some sort of reactor which would explain the swirling effect but that violates the rules of energy…' Harry put a small question mark next to that particular law within his book as he could neither confirm nor deny the law as his orb seemed to exist within a grey area, it was made without a physical sample so by rights the law as the book described it was wrong but Harry had used his own magic as the sample, he was pulled from his thoughts by his aunt calling for him.
As Harry was dissecting laws which had governed witches and wizards since they were first discovered and written another child on the other side of London was trying to make her coins float, yet no matter how hard Hermione wished it the coin refused to move, this annoyed her no end as Harry Potter had been able to do it subconsciously without even thinking about it, it did not help her mood that she knew if she just held her wand while focusing the coin would obey her every wish.
Hermione's mother found her daughter sat on her floor, a pile of gold coins beside her and her eyes watering in frustration
"Hermione dear, maybe you should wait until you can ask for help before trying? Harry did say he has been practicing for a long time"
"Which means I have to work at it! I've been able to do everything else in the book" Hermione cried out, she hated not being good at something which is one of the reasons she always worked so hard to be the best in school.
"Dear, there is no shame in admitting defeat and asking for help once you get to Hogwarts, they may even have a tip to make learning quicker after all"
Hermione listened to her mother at first and spent an entire day without trying to make a coin float, the next morning however she was found sitting down, on her floor, surrounded by coins and wishing she was already at Hogwarts.
Albus Dumbledore was used to doing many jobs at once by now but every year the start of term was always a challenge, he thanked Merlin that Minerva helped him with the preparations since otherwise he would never be finished, as he worked his thoughts wandered to little Harry Potter. He had often wondered if he should go visit the child, aside from feeling responsible for being the one to give him to his muggle family he was also very fond of Lily and James, but in the end he always decided against going, one such excuse he often gave himself was that Petunia knew how to contact him in an emergency and he didn't want to intrude, however with Hogwarts just around the corner he thought it best he ensure Harry and his family knew everything they needed to know about Hogwarts.
He flooed McGonagall to tell her she was in charge of Hogwarts for the next two hours, transfigured his robes into a modern suit and walked down to the gates of Hogwarts and apperated to Privet Drive, incidentally he apperated to the exact same spot he had appeared to when he had delivered Harry eleven years ago. He walked up to their door and knocked, the door was quickly opened by a woman he quickly recognised as an older Petunia Evans "Ahh Mrs Dursley, I am Albus Dumbledore, we have spoken before in the past, as you may well know I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts."
"Hmm, I assume you are here to talk to Harry?" At his nod she pursed her lips together, "I guess you had better come inside then"
He followed her inside and looked around the hall, he smiled when he saw a family portrait but frowned when he realised there was only one child in the photo and he didn't match what Mrs Figg had said about Harry, in fact there was not a single photo of a boy with green eyes anywhere within the hall. Albus walked into the living room and still there was no sign that another child lived within the walls, he was starting to worry that something had happened and he hadn't been informed when Petunia shouted up the stairs "Harry, your new headmaster is here to talk to you."
A young boy walked down the stairs and Albus breathed a sigh of relief, he had black messy hair just like his father, even his glasses reminded Albus of James and behind the glasses Lily's brilliant green eyes looked at him and it felt like they were looking at his soul, if Albus wasn't a master Occlumens he would suspect the child of trying to use legilimens on him. That was something which seemed to belong solely to Harry, Albus thought, the child seemed more guarded than either of his parents were and moved like he was ready to bolt at any moment. He knelt so he was eye level with the child and said "Hello Harry, I am Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, I felt the need to check up on you and to answer any questions you may have"
The boy looked at him and seemed to be deciding which question to ask first, Albus couldn't help smiling, he loved a child's curiosity, it often knew no bounds and could come to the strangest of ideas, it was one of the reasons he insisted on staying at Hogwarts rather than take on another job elsewhere.
"Who wrote the laws of magic sir?" Ahh, it seemed Harry had decided on what he wanted to know first and what a question it was, Albus had to wrack his memory and found he could not remember "I am afraid I do not know my boy, why did you want to know?"
"Because they are wrong sir"
This made Albus pause, it was a well known fact in the higher wizarding circles that the rules of magic were guidelines more than a rigid set of instructions like many liked to believe but how would an eleven year old child know this?
"How do you know they are wrong? Perhaps you have just misunderstood them?"
"Well I've broken most of them already, before I even knew there were rules to magic and I never felt anything was impossible for me, it's only because I live here that stopped me attempting the majority of what I want to do" He said this in a rush as if he had been waiting a long time to get it out.
'Ahh, so accidental magic then, or not so accidental perhaps'
"May I see a demonstration?" Harry nodded and led Albus into his room, the child pointed at a metal ball sitting upon his desk, Albus looked at it but there was nothing unusual with it, the child's wand rested in a groove at the top of the sphere which was fairly normal as people tended towards wanting to show off their wand when it was not on their person, indeed the only unusual thing was that the metal was very highly polished, so well polished that it looked almost identical to mithril… by merlin it didn't just look like, it was mithril.
Albus was stunned, he had seen the mythical metal before of course, his delumintor was made by mithril and had been a gift from Lord Ranok after he had helped pass a pro-goblin law before the war with Riddle had gained traction, but he had never seen so much Mithril in his life, so to see such a large quantity of the metal in one place was astonishing and for the child to just use it as a wand holder was unbelievable!
"My boy, wherever did you get it?"
"I made it" the child seemed pleased with himself but Albus, so entranced by the sphere failed to note it.
"Yes but where did you get the metal from and who gave it to you?"
"I told you, I made it all myself, I was experimenting with magic and I ended up with the metal, it's how I know the laws of magic are wrong, I made it without a sample and yet it hasn't faded like the book said it would so the laws must be wrong"
Albus prided himself on staying in control no matter what was thrown at him but now he was truly speechless, for generations wizards had been trying to learn how to craft mithril. For as long as wizards could remember only the goblins held the secret to make anything out of mithril, even Albus himself had dabbled with the metal after he had discovered the uses of dragon blood, thinking the power he had found within the blood would be enough to do something with the metal be he too had failed and yet, a boy barely eleven had managed it!
"This my child… is called mithril, it is the most precious metal on earth for only the goblins can use it… it is impossible to change, damage or melt for it repels all magic meant to damage it and takes in that which can strengthen it.
"The four founders of Hogwarts were said to have four objects made of mithril which were enchanted, gifts from the goblins it is said although the goblins have since claimed otherwise." Harry looked stunned and rightly so Albus thought, he needed to press how important this power is, with shock Albus remember a line of the prophecy 'he will have power the Dark Lord knows not' was this the power Riddle knew not? Giving himself a mental shake he spoke once more to the child "There is nothing that can affect objects made with mithril, this is why goblin made armour and weapons are in such high demand, each have to be hand crafted by a goblin and make the wearer effectively invulnerable, they have weaknesses of course, the armour is often limited in that only physical or magical attacks get stopped and even then some spells can bypass the armour entirely but a witch or wizard facing someone dressed in goblin armour will have to get extra creative in order to defeat them."
"But I just wanted to make my magic visible! When it fell to the floor it cooled into the metal and when I fed it magic it changed back so I was able to change its shape by imagining what I wanted it to do"
"Amazing, I assume only your magic can change it… if I were to try it would repel me I'm sure" he stroked his beard deep in thought, he had completely forgotten why he had wanted to see the boy in the first place, he wanted to believe the boy but history was against him so just to prove the boy was not lying he asked "Harry, could I ask you to make a new object for me?"
The child nodded and screwed his eyes shut, causing Albus to chuckle, the laughter faded when the child's magic leaked out of the pores on his hand like a liquid and condensed, floating above the palm of his hand, it then reshaped and Albus recognised his own face, hand holding a beard. It looked crude and one would have to know what it was to see but Albus did not care, he watched as the boy lower his hand but the model stayed, floating in mid air, Albus looked and saw the child was using magic to keep it there, the connection between child and magic broke and the model fell into Harry's hand but not as "liquid" magic, but as pure, solid mithril.
Wordlessly Harry gave it to Albus who examined it and prodded it with his own magic, as expected where his magic touched the metal it was pushed back but he noted the metal heated when he forced his magic onto it and suspected if he truly willed it he could break into the metal, unwilling to do so however he retreated his magic and made to hand it back to Harry.
"Keep it, I made it for you" the boy had said with a smile and Albus had happily pocketed it, he would spend many a night after that day looking at and experimenting with the model in the hope to recreate it himself.
He and Harry had discussed the finer points of magic for well over an hour before Petunia had come up stairs to ask the professor if he was planning on staying for dinner "If it is no bother to you I think there are some things I need to tell you and your family so dinner would be lovely"
Albus was shocked at how mature Harry seemed, it was only in his lack of knowledge that revealed his true age, aside from physical appearance of course, Albus was looking forward to having the child at Hogwarts.
Albus had even dismissed Garric's warning as the child was the mirror opposite of Tom, he was curious like Tom but was more open and friendly than Tom had been when Albus had given him his letter but both had the same control over their magic and both had been using it deliberately, but while Tom had used his magic to torment and manipulate others Harry had only researched and experimented, where one had fallen the other would rise Albus was certain.
When Petunia had first opened the door and saw Albus Dumbledore she had mentally freaked out thinking he was here to punish them but when he only introduced himself calmly she had relaxed, albeit slightly, she thought frantically as she had led him into her home and noticed that Dumbledore had seen the lack of Harry in the photos, she called for Harry and while she waited for him she was planning an excuse, it seemed one was not needed however as the boy had quickly taken Dumbledore up to his room and left her alone.
At first she was glad he did not want to talk to her, but after two hours she got impatient and had hinted it was time for Dumbledore to leave, he had instead invited himself to eat dinner with them so she had been forced to cook dinner for the first time in years, when Dumbledore had come downstairs with Harry her hatred of the man had come back full force, she wasn't worthy to attend his school but little Harry Potter was enough cause to visit in person?
She had told Vernon and Dudley about Dumbledore when they had come home and so dinner had passed without a single word said, the Dursleys stealing glances at the old man throughout, finally Dumbledore had pushed his plate away and said
"I thank you for that most excellent dinner Mrs Dursley, now the reason I came here was to firstly ensure you knew how Harry would be getting to Hogwarts and secondly to warn you of how he may be treated. Harry is seen as a celebrity within our world which is why I sent him here rather than to a magical family as I mentioned in the letter when he was a baby, I have tried to suppress how Harry is seen by our society but he is still seen as a national hero, I would suggest he wears some form of hat when he gets on the train as his scar is what people will be looking for as his image has remained unknown.
"Harry will be expected to be on the Hogwarts express by eleven a.m. as that is the time the train will leave, I trust you still have your ticket as without it your belongings may be lost, he will be allowed to return home during the Christmas break, should you wish to communicate with him an owl will always be able to find him or a muggle letter will also make its way to Hogwarts although that method is far slower."
He told the Dursleys and Harry more about what to expect at Hogwarts and in between before standing up and turning to Harry one last time "I understand you have been told this already by Garric… Master Ollivander, but you should try and keep your discoveries to yourself and trusted friends as they will see it as further proof of your celebrity status, well I do believe that concludes everything, I will see you September first Harry, I wish you all the best." With that the man seemed to spin on the spot and vanish into thin air with only a small pop to indicate he had left.
Summer holidays are now officially started for me now that my work for the show is over and now that I have this chapter out the way I can finally get on with the story, I hope to be able to get a lot of chapters written before I return to my final year of education in 5 weeks time, thank you everyone for being so patient with this story!
Also biggest chapter by twice as much as the second biggest so hurray to that, little reward for the wait.