Morgana leads Marianne out of the mist into Jimmy's courtyard only to find it empty.
"Hmm, they're not here."
Marianne look at Morgana, "Where is here?"
"Oh, this is the courtyard to a wand maker called Jimmy Kiddell. I know what we can do, another lesson while we're waiting. If we're finished before they get back I'll take you to Harry."
"Um, what are we doing?"
"Take my hand, and I'll explain."
Marianne takes Morgana's hand, and then she's standing in the mist, the only thing telling her that Morgana is there being the feeling of her hand being held.
"What I want you to do is picture me standing next to you. This is more advanced than travelling through the Other, as you're trying to see something that you've not seen before, so I would suggest starting with being able to see your hand."
"Is this how you found me in the secret garden?"
"No, but not a bad guess. It's for keeping track of people that you're travelling with. It can also be used to locate someone that's in the Other if you already know them."
"So I could use it to see if Harry's in the Other?"
Morgana laughs, "Sure, once you can come and go under your own power. But it all starts with being able to see yourself, and then the person you're travelling with."
After around 20 minutes just trying to see the back of her hand stretched out in front of her, Marianne comments, "This is hard."
Morgana laughs, "It isn't, you're just a beginner. Do you remember how long it took to get your footwork right?"
Marianne grouses, "It's still not right if I listen to you."
"How long have you been practicing with the sword now?"
"As long as I can remember. Mum says that you met when I was at playschool, and you offered to look after me when she was trying to get extra hours so that she could work."
"Yep, fortunately she still needed help when I slugged your father that time."
"I remember now, that's when I decided I wanted to be like you when I grew up." She gasps as the mist seems to part and she catches a glimpse of Morgana, "I just saw you, and it's gone."
"Very good, now all you have to do is reproduce it."
Another hour passes during which time Marianne gets glimpses 2 or 3 more times, she's not sure. However, she makes the mistake of yawning, and Morgana calls an end to the lesson.
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Harry looks up from the cup of tea that Dottie gave him when Jimmy turned up here again. Morgana and Marianne both come out of the Other, and Marianne yawns loudly. "Is Mari ok?"
Morgana nods, "She is, just used a little too much magic so it's catching up with her."
Dottie looks up, "Oh the poor dear, let's get her sat down and a bit of chocolate in her. Jimmy, you know where I keep the chocolate."
Dottie draws her wand and taps Harry's chair twice, and it expands out into a loveseat, "Now what was she doing that left her so low on magic?"
Morgana leads Marianne to the seat next to Harry, where she leans her head on his shoulder and mumbles, "mmm, warm."
Once Marianne's sat down, Morgana answers, "Just some practice like Jimmy. It's just her magic reserves are the same size as a newborn's at the moment."
"Well, why did you let her push herself so hard!"
"I didn't, she's pushed herself just hard enough. Her body doesn't know how to produce magic yet, so if she doesn't use it, it will go away."
"What do you mean by that?"
Morgana pinches the bridge of her nose, "I mean that this time yesterday she didn't have magic. With Harry going to Hogwarts I didn't want either of them to lose the oldest and closest friend they have."
"No, no, I meant what do you mean by doesn't know how to produce magic yet?"
"I gave her an apple from my nephews garden, and it infused her body with a small amount of magic."
There's silence around the room as Dottie and Jimmy digest that fact. After a few minutes Jimmy says, "Wait, so you can give muggles magic?"
"Yes, though there's no guarantee that it will stick, as it's like an atrophied muscle, except it's brand new. If you don't use it, it will slowly disappear. If you over use it, you can damage it forever, and then it will disappear."
"But that's impossible, and even if you could, you need to make sure those blood bigots never find out. You already read about how muggleborn are stealing our magic. A load of old tosh that is."
"Just because you don't know how to do it, doesn't mean that someone else doesn't. Or that it's impossible. There's another apple that you're probably more familiar with. It tastes far sweeter, and it will grant the eater immense power, as long as they keep eating them. If you stop eating them, your body will shrivel and die over a few days."
Dottie shudders and, weirdly, crosses herself, "Now you don't want ta go inviting the sidhe into me house."
"Those apples were based on the one that I gave Marianne. Shortcuts to power always come with a cost, sometimes you'll know ahead of time. Other times you only find out after you've paid the price."
Marianne lifts her head for a moment and sleepily slurs, "I'm not taking any shortcuts me. I want to earn my power, and you're still my idol."
While she's a little awake, Jimmy breaks off a bit of chocolate and feeds it to her.
Changing the subject, Morgana looks over at Jimmy, "So how did you lesson go today?"
Jimmy groans, "Worse than yesterday."
Morgana nods understandingly, "It's often like that. It's still quicker than the safe way, as you now know you can do it. The only thing you're trying to do is work out how you do it. Harry, I think that at the end of the week you need to move him onto skimming the Other. As soon as Jimmy can do that, work on having him be able to enter the Other under his own power. As soon as he can do that reliably, even if it takes an hour, he'll be ready to pull the mist around him."
Jimmy looks over at Morgana, "Why not start with the pulling?"
"Do you know what the mist feels like yet?"
"Erm."
"Of course not, that's why you start with skimming, and then learn to enter on your own. Pulling the mist around you is like only entering part way, but not quite. And you start with navigating because skimming is holding yourself at the point where you're about to come out of the Other. Beside which, the last thing you want to happen is to start with pulling the mist around you and accidentally ending up in the Other with no clue how to navigate it."
Jimmy groans, "Does everything in Celtic magic revolve around the mist?"
Morgana laughs, "Not everything, but most of the basic things that everyone could do, is based around it. Before the Romans invaded our magic was much like the other peoples around us. Slow to learn, based on rituals and learned skills. Travelling the Other was more a skill used for what the Native Americans call vision quests."
Jimmy laughs, "I can certainly see that."
"Roman magic uses wands, and you both know how quickly wand magic can be taught. It's why Celts developed a reputation for appearing out of the mist. I still don't know how the Scots managed to hold the Romans at bay at Hadrian's wall. However, I suspect their magical tradition was destroyed by the Christians, and all evidence they could find wiped out."
Dottie shakes her head, "Morgana, even I can see these are bad memories. Why not just write a book about it, or an article for the paper. Though, if you go that route, I'd pick the Quibbler rather than the Prophet, as there's no ministry pandering in that one." Morgana smiles gratefully at Dottie, "Anyway Jimmy, you were telling us how your second try went. You certainly surprised me when you walked out of the wall over there."
"Ugh, it was horrible, I tried to concentrate on you and this room. However, I'd remember a detail and then I'd think about something related, like the fact that I need to buy more cedar as it's been in high demand, or the fact that I'm running out of flour at home."
Marianne opens her eyes briefly, "Ugh, it was like that for me too, I ended up closing my eyes and describing the memory out loud to myself."
Jimmy sighs, "I'll try that tomorrow."
Morgana nods, "What's important here isn't the memory, it's the desire to go somewhere. Over time this will develop into conscious intent. 'I want' is probably one of the most important phrases for any magic."
Jimmy nods thoughtfully.
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This set the tone for the rest of August. In the mornings Harry would mentor Jimmy giving him encouragement and advice as he first started to be able to control his destination, and then was pushed onto making the entire journey himself. Meanwhile Morgana took Marianne into Other and she practiced going to the 'secret garden' and trying to get back to the gate in the courtyard. They would then all end up in Dottie's living room for tea. In the afternoons Harry and Marianne would explore and play together, sometimes sparring, other times listening to stories in Imber or watching the blacksmith in his forge. Only rarely would Marianne go home for more than dinner and bedtime, choosing instead to spend as much time with the Danann's as she could before Harry left for school. Also, during this time, Harry and Marianne started reading the books bought from the magical district.
When Marianne asked if she could take one of the books home to read at night, Morgana bought her a discrete expanded bag (after making sure it didn't use too much magic to activate) that was perfectly normal until a bit of magic was pushed into the makers plate on the outside of the bag, at which point the expanded space became available. Marianne could only use it a couple of times a day before she becomes so tired she needs some chocolate and a nap, but it still served it's purpose of allowing her to keep things she didn't want her parents to see.
In order to own a post owl, Morgana applies for an Article 10 certificate so that she can legally own birds of prey. As she states on the application that it's for her work as an archaeologist doing demonstrations at fairs and lectures, the application is expediated and they buy a beautiful snowy owl that is pure white despite being female. In honour of her presumed ancestor, they name her Arianrhod.
When Harry starts to transfer his books into his new trunk, Marianne sulks at him until he takes her to get a second key made just for her. Not that it seems to stop his mother from popping in and out to borrow a book.
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An old man with a long white beard tiredly trudges into his rooms in the school. A phoenix trills softly as he closes the door.
"Hello Fawkes, it's good to see you again too." Out of habit he glances up at the instruments that once upon a time would tell him about the health and wellbeing of Harry Potter. The only one that still works being the one tied to the wards, and even that doesn't work properly. It's been his biggest regret in recent years, maybe if he'd been here rather than attending to his other duties he'd have noticed Harry's deteriorating condition before the worst happened. A tear tracks down his face and soaks into his beard as he picks up the framed obituary from the Irish Times.
At least he was able to save the Potter fortune from the money grubbers at the Ministry and use it to provide a decent education to the students here. Putting the clipping back he makes his way to the bedroom before reaching into his pocket for the shrunken trunk and pulling out a vault key.
"Blasted Keys!" Reaching behind his head he undoes a leather thong and slides the key back onto it, before holding both of them in his hand. Reaching into his pocket again, he pulls out the shrunken chest and places it on the floor. He then takes his wand from it's holster and unshrinks the chest.
Maybe now that he's back at the school he'll have time to research what's happened to the keys. Making his way back to his desk he sees a letter from his old mentor Nicolos Flamel. Scanning through it, he stops and re-reads it more carefully. Someone has made several nearly successful attempts on the stone, and Flamel is calling in on his apprenticeship oath to look after it to the best of his ability.
That's fine, he'll just stick a fidelius on it and put it in a drawer. Then he reaches the second page and groans as it lists all of the protections that have been tried in the past, and have failed. The Fidelius charm is listed with a note that it's so well known that it can't be warded directly, and it's so magically powerful that it wears down the charm inside a month, with the associated backlash on the caster when it fails.
Right, he'll need to send Hagrid to get the stone tomorrow and then think about how to protect it later.
Next there's a letter from Gringotts informing him that the Supplementary Teaching vault is below the minimum threshold and needs to be closed or he will face fines when the money runs out.
Reaching for the next stack of letters, they're all applications for the post of DADA professor. Unfortunately, due to the curse on the position, and the letter from Gringotts, he can no longer meet the signing bonus most of them require. Finally, he reaches the old Muggle Studies professor, who is just applying for the job with no stipulations.
Setting that letter to one side, he pulls over his date book and looks for a date where he'll be able to interview him, though it will be a mere formality as it's not like he's awash with choices. As he's browsing Minerva's neat handwriting catches his eye. She's booked him in for a meeting at the Ministry during the time he normally uses to review the upcoming topics for the Wizengamot meeting.