The next morning found Harry standing in front of the archway, a look of deep concentration on his face. Slowly over the next hour, mist forms in the archway and the street outside Jimmy's can be seen coming in and out of the mist. Behind him stand Morgana, watching and monitoring his progress. Finally, his eyes snap open and the scene snaps into focus as the last of the mist clears. Exhausted, he sags only to be caught by his mother.
"You did well my son, you did well. It is no mean feat to create a gate between places in the mortal world."
Harry replies weakly, "It took me a lot longer than it does to travel to the courts or our home in the other."
"That's because the other is malleable, it is a place of dreams and desires, and navigating it only requires a strong enough will and a clear vision of your destination. You have been training your will and intent since you were 5, by the time you reach adulthood, you may be able to do this without a gate, either as the destination or, like today, as the source. It may also be worth practicing from your domain, as it should be almost as easy to reach your domain as it is to reach this gate. I remember we used to have gates all across the land, and those skilled in magic used them to allow people to trade. Then the Christians came and declared them demonic abominations that needed to be destroyed."
Harry raises his hand and touches his mother's cheek, "Hey mum, we need to see Jimmy. And it's ok to grieve, just try to remember the better times without the Christians. I love hearing about things like the gates."
"Thank you Harry, and I like talking about them too. I just feel like I failed them."
"Mum, listen to me. You did fail them, but not the way that you feel you did. You failed them when you gave up, when instead of moving forward you got stuck on the people that killed them by killing their history and society. They did amazing things, and you did amazing things. Now that enemy is long dead, and their bones scattered throughout history. Rather than looking back, you should look at the fate yet to come."
"How much of that was you, and how much was my sister?"
Harry shrugs as he struggles out of her arms, "I don't know, I found that place when I was 7, we still need to get to Jimmy's though."
Morgana smiles as she ruffles Harry's hair, "After you."
As they emerge from the portal in Diagon Alley, they get a few glances from the very few pedestrians around at this time of the morning. Walking across the street, the door to the wand shop has a closed sign in the window, so Harry knocks instead. After a few minutes Jimmy unbolts the door and lets them in. After bolting the door, Jimmy leads them to the small courtyard behind the shop.
"Will this be a suitable place to learn what I need to know?"
Harry smiles, "If you're comfortable here, I'm comfortable here. Now, the first thing I want to know is, do you want to learn the safe way or the fast way?"
"Uh, they way you learnt it."
"The fast way then."
"Take my hand."
Jimmy hesitates for a moment before taking Harry's hand. Once he does mist seems to boil out of everywhere and quickly becomes so thick that he can't even see his hand let alone Harry.
Almost inaudible through the fog, Harry's voice reaches his ears, "The first lesson is desire, when you're practiced with it, it will become intent. This is the Other, it's everywhere and nowhere. Solid and ephemeral. Everything and nothing. If you know how, you can visit the courts of the fae, travel the world, or even visit the domains of the gods.
"If you don't have sufficient desire to go where you want, you will be doomed to wander until you die. Sometimes you will hear whispers from the places that others have carved out of this place. They are a distraction to your desire. I am going to let go of your hand now, your first task is to find me or your home."
Jimmy tries to hold on, he really does, but Harry twists his wrist in just the right way to slip out of his grasp. Suddenly he's alone, instinctively he starts to panic and reach out blindly, but there's nothing to feel around him. It's like he's standing on an island in nothing.
Taking a few deep breaths, he deliberately brings his breathing under control. 'This is like learning to see when I started wand making.'
Closing his eyes he sinks into the frame of mind needed to use that magical sense, however even with that all there is around him is mist. After 20 minutes he starts to hear and see things in the mist. Vague shapes of people dancing, or the sound of a whispered conversation. After 40 minutes he wishes that someone would hold him like his mother used to do. As the desire crosses his mind, he catches a glimpse of her living room.
Like a drowning man catching hold of a piece of driftwood, he tries to hold onto that desire, that memory. Slowly the scene gets clearer, though his joy at this fact means it slips away again. Eventually, he stumbles out of the mist into the small flat that he grew up in. As he lets out a wracking sob of relief, his mother turns around from the cleaning that she's doing and starts when she sees him.
"Jimmy, when did you get here?"
Crying in relief, he walks forward and pulls her into a hug, "I found you, I found you."
Nonplussed, his mother pats him on the back as she holds him, "There there, you're ok. Who are your friends?"
Sniffling Jimmy turns around and sees Harry and Morgana standing by the wall, "Um, this is Harry Danann and his mother Morgana Danann. They're teaching me something to help with my wand making."
"Oh, come in, come in. Jimmy always wanted to be a wand maker. Course it's such an exclusive profession that nobody would give him an apprenticeship until he'd already proven he could make a wand. I've no doubt it's because his father was a half blood."
"Mum! They don't need to know that."
"Oh tosh, of course they do. They have the look of muggles about them, I have no doubt they come from China or India if they're teaching you something new."
Morgana smiles, "Ireland actually, we practice Celtic magic."
"My, I didn't know any Celts still existed. Look at me, I haven't even offered you a drink yet. Take a seat, take a seat. Tea? Biscuits?"
Harry gestures to Jimmy, "I don't mind waiting, but it's down to Jimmy, as the lesson was only supposed to take an hour, and it's been 2."
Jimmy collapses at that news, and Morgana steps over to help his mother get him into a chair, "How did it take so long?"
Harry smiles, "I learnt to teach from my mother, and one of her lessons was, never interrupt a student when they're succeeding. That was especially true for this first lesson where you either learnt you can do it, or we have to start developing your confidence and skills at actualising your desire. I can't remember how old I was when I accidentally wandered into the Other away from my mother. But I still remember it, and growing tired, hungry, and just wanted my mummy."
Morgana smiles, "You were 3, and I was so proud of you even though you worried me so much by running off."
"Yeah, that's when Ephi became my shadow, and my best friend. Though she normally stays hidden from mortal eyes."
Ephis appears, forestalling the obvious question, "Hi, Harry calls me Ephi, pleased to meet you."
Jimmy's mother looks at the sylph, "I see, do you have a proper name?"
A look of anger crosses Ephis' face before she pulls it back, "As Harry is teaching you, I'll give you this lesson for free. Never ask a fae, or other denizen of the Other for their name. Names have power over us, and we will kill to protect them. Instead, you should ask something like, how should I address you, or is there a name you like to be known by. The same should also be true for you too, never give out your actual name to anyone really."
Morgana interrupts, "In Celtic culture, all magic users had a private name and a public name. The private name is the one they were given during their naming, or when they were blood adopted. Only their family would ever know their private name, and to be given it was considered to be family to that person."
Jimmy's mother places a tray with a teapot, cups, milk, and a plate of biscuits on a table and then ruffles Jimmy's hair, "It's a good thing you go by Jimmy now isn't it."
"Mum!"
"Hush, you're being given valuable advice here." She turns to the guests, "You may call me Dottie."
Harry and Morgana smile at Dottie as she start to pour tea for everyone. After a few minutes, Jimmy asks, "So what's the next step?"
Harry smiles, "Now that you've succeeded once, it will be the same thing every day until you can do it within 10 minutes. Then I'll teach you how to enter the Other. That will again be a matter of repetition until you can do it within 10 minutes. You should then have a feel for the Other, and have started to form your intent. The next step is to pull the Other around you, which will start to develop your will and magic."
"What, no spells?"
Harry shakes his head, "No, spells is a Roman magic thing."
Morgana nods her head, "Saxon druids used to use rituals, and would often carve short rituals into their staves. The Norse used Runes and aspects of the Other. I don't know what other peoples used, as I never met any on friendly terms. Our magic revolves around understanding the Other and how to get it to do what we want. You will find that while simple, it is a hard thing to learn. Harder still to gain mastery."
Dottie smiles at the two of them while Jimmy tries to get his head around what they're asking of him, "When you're ready, you can use my floo to get to the Leaky Cauldron. Jimmy pays for it so that I can visit easily. Though Floo powder is quite expensive though."
Morgana looks interested, "How much is expensive, as we live outside the magical community, so the only reference we have to prices is Harry's school things."
"Hogwarts?" When they nod she continues, "It's a good school, course my grandpa told me it used to be a great school with students coming from all over the world. Course, that was before Grindelwald. It's still more expensive than the other schools, and you get a better education out of it too. Not so much better that I think it's worth the extra money, but you can't get a Ministry job without going there. So there is that. It's one of the reasons my Jimmy had trouble getting an apprenticeship, we couldn't afford to send him there so they didn't want to know."
"Mum!"
"What? It's true, you had to be better than everyone else for them to even give you the time of day. Most people'll earn maybe 30 Galleons a week, and 10 of those will go on rent. Another 10 on food and taxes. The rest'll be spent on the day to day living expenses and entertainment. Course, magic makes the housework easy, but it don't help with cooking."
Dottie pulls her wand out of wrist holster and summons a pile of clothes, "Me, I make my money embroidering clothes for Gladrags or commission." She holds up a skirt with a half finished flower pattern around the hem, "The hard part of this is the runes they use to anchor the comfort enchantments, as they need to be distinct but people don't want to see them so I have to work them into the design."
Morgana nods, "So you use Norse magic?"
Dottie shakes her head, "I don't rightly know, it was just called Ancient Runes when I was at school, and it was a NEWT only course at my school."
"Hmm, I might know of some practitioners of Norse magic. I'll see if I can look them up once Harry is at school. It would be interesting to know if it is Norse magic."
Jimmy drains the last of his tea, his nerves now settled, "Thanks for the tea mum. I need to open the shop." His voice takes on a nervous tone, "I'll see you tomorrow at the same time?"
Dottie thinks for a moment, "By Jimmy. As a thought, would you two like me to show you to the other two shopping districts? They're far cheaper than Diagon Alley, though you'll still need to go there for your books and uniform."
Morgan nods, "I think we'd like that."
"First of all, a quick lesson about using the Floo and enunciation."
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Half an hour later Harry, followed by Morgana, runs out of the Floo in Imber on the Salisbury Plain, only avoiding falling over from their training. As they look back to the shed they just ran out of, it becomes clear that it was once a stables attached to The Bell Inn. Off in the distance is the faint sound of explosive fire every few minutes.
Dottie saunters from the floo as though she had just ducked under a low hanging branch. Once she joins them Dottie indicates around them, "This is the newest magical enclave in Britain. The village was evacuated during the second muggle war so that American troops could train here. After the war they just didn't give it back, so we took it. It's not very popular with the aristocracy, not just because it's new, but because there's a few mundane families living here. Their names are in the doomsday book, and they still have the writ from the king to say they own the land. Anyway, this is the Bell Inn, the Imber family live in the manor house over there, it's also one of the few working farms in Magical Britain. If you head down this way, the old church has been repurposed to be the market place, and holds the permanent stalls. Every Tuesday the market proper opens at 6am. There you'll find all the traders that supply Diagon Alley. There's a second Market in Dylife, Powys, the other community I was talking about in Wales. Jimmy usually puts up a stall from 6 till 8:30 servicing peoples wands, and providing replacements where necessary.
As they pass through the village, it's clear that there's only 20-30 houses here, a far cry from the size they expect from modern villages. As they approach the church Harry takes hold of Morgana's hand to prevent her from doing something the villagers would regret.
"Dottie, this may seem like a silly question, but why use the church as a market?"
Dottie laughs, "There ain't a witch or wizard alive in Britain that follows their god. It's something to do with the witch burnings in ancient times, but if you want to know more I'd visit the pub here in the evening and pay some of the old folk their drinks. I was never one for history, but their stories are always entertaining. Most folk call to the old gods, Merlin, or Morgana, Le Fay not you lass. On the rare occasions I ever pay heed to the gods, I tend to pray to The Morrigan to look after my dead relatives, even though only me husband was killed in the last war."
Morgana mutters, "But that's Donn's domain."
"Sorry I didn't catch that. O'course when I was a lass I paid tribute to Brigid in the hope of finding a favourable man to marry. Must've done some good as I met me man."
Morgana stops for a moment and wipes a tear from her eye. Harry pulls her into a hug while she regains her composure.
"Are you alright lass?"
"Yes, I was just remembering a dead family member."
Dottie lays a kind hand on her arm, "I know what that can be like, sometimes the oddest things will remind me of Frank. O'course, the Potters did the bastard in. Poor lad, orphaned like that, then there's the stories going around that he killed the Dark Lord. Poppy cock if you ask me, but the people needed a hero so they mounted a babe on a pedestal. Course, there are rumours that he's dead. Other people just say he was forced to change his name. Didn't stop 'em from printing those books though. Every single one of 'em shows him wearing glasses, with a great big lightning bolt scar on his forehead, just like yours…" Dottie trails off as she stares at Harry's forehead, "I'm so sorry, here's me prattling away, and yer standing right there."
Harry shakes his head, "No, carry on, carry on. You've told me more about my birth parents than Mum could find out before. She couldn't even find the village they were supposed to have lived in. All I have is a birth certificate and a babies blanket with my name on it."
"Right, well, um," Dottie fans her face with her hand, "my I'm all flustered now… I think they went to Hogwarts together, at least I'd expect a family like the Potters to go to Hogwarts anyway. I do know that the home in Godric's Hollow was turned into national monument, and the two of them are buried in the graveyard there. How comes I didn't notice your scar before?"
"Um, Celtic magic that makes something a blind spot. It only works on small things, and their brains fill in what it thinks should be there. Same as it does for your actual blind spot."
Dottie looks a little panicked, "I have a blind spot?"
Morgana shakes her head, "Yes, everyone does. It's the way your eyes work. Here," she pulls a 2 of clubs out of nowhere, "hold this at arms length. Then close your left eye and stare at the left hand spot. Keep staring at it while you pull the card towards your nose slowly."
"Merlin, Morgana, and Maeve, the spot just disappeared. Here Cooper, you try it." Dottie holds the card out to a stall holder that has bolts of cloth on racks behind him.
While Dottie's explaining how to do the thing with the card, Harry looks around the market area curiously. He'd been so engrossed in hearing anything about his birth parents he didn't notice them enter. There's a Cooper, probably not called Cooper given the man that Dottie is talking to, a Grocer that's selling beetroot, beans, broccoli, cabbage, and other seasonal vegetables, along with several fruits he's not familiar with. A dress maker has set up next to the fabric merchant, and she has a small fabric room with 3 mirrors and a fitting stool. On the other side of the church is an optician with an array of glasses on a wall beside him, next door is an iron monger, probably local given that the stall is currently unmanned. Finally there is a brewer with 10 small kegs piled in a pyramid shape.
Harry finds himself drifting over to the dress maker and takes a look at some of the premade dresses on display. As he fingers the fabric of one, he thinks back to the last time he was allowed to play around Marianne's house.
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Harry twirls in one of Marianne's summer dresses, one of her mothers shawls tied around his head as a crude bonnet, "What do you think?"
Marianne smiles, "I think it looks good. It just needs a little something else, I know makeup. I know where my mum keeps hers."
Together the two of them creep into her parents room and Marianne pulls out a makeup bag. Giggling they first do each others fingernails in bright red nail polish and leave the pot open on the vanity. Next Marianne sits Harry facing the mirror as she applies makeup to the best of her ability, her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth in concentration.
When she finishes, Harry laughs as he looks in the mirror, the eyeshadow is all over his eyes and the lipstick is crooked.
"Your turn now."
Marianne smiles as they switch seats and Harry does his best to get her makeup right. But as parents everywhere will tell you, 5 year olds aren't that good at anything to do with hand eye coordination, let alone something as delicate as makeup.
As he finishes, they both laugh loudly in the mirror. Suddenly the bedroom door bursts in and Shaun, Marianne's father, storms in, expecting to tell off a couple of children. Instead he stops and looks at them with a complicated expression on his face, one that turns to anger and disgust.
"Kate! Call Mrs Danann to get her son, I won't have a faggot or a pansy in my house."
He then proceeded to roughly strip the dress off Harry, and harshly scrubbed his face clean with a flannel, leaving it red and slight abrasions where it was done too hard. Ignoring his crying, Harry was dragged downstairs by his arm, where Shaun kept hold of him until his mum came.
When she arrived, it was the only time he'd ever seen her punch someone outside a sparring match. After that he doesn't remember much more except relief as she picked him up in one hand, though there were mentions of police if this happened again.