It seemed almost everyone had gone home for the Christmas Holidays. In Ravenclaw the only students that Harry knew were Justin and Luna, Draco Malfoy and Crabbe had been the only Slytherins to stay and Gryffindor seemed to be made up entirely of Weasleys.
When Harry entered the great hall on Christmas morning he was surprised to see just a single table being used instead of the much wider double table they had used the year before.
"Ahh, Merry Christmas Harry! As there are so few of us I thought we could settle for just one table." Dumbledore said cheerfully, true to form he had dressed in festival robes, this time they were bright red with animated snowflakes.
Harry was relieved to note that almost all of the students near him were ones that didn't believe he was the heir of Slytherin, it was nice to be able to relax around the students without the whispers that seemed to be following him everywhere he went.
"How did you like your present?" Dumbledore asked once most of the students had left and wouldn't over hear them. He had given Harry a book called 'The condition of Conditional magick by Armando Dippet' there had also been a message from Dippet "Dear Albus, I hope you enjoy being Headmaster as much as I did, being Headmaster of Hogwarts is the best job in the world. This book is the collection of my findings of conditional magic, from the common conditional ward to the elusive fae deals. Best of luck, Armando."
Along with the book Dumbledore had sent him a large box of Chocolates and his mother's transfiguration NEWT thesis, the thesis was about how magic transfigures objects and living beings, having skimmed through it he saw she had reference both muggle physics and alchemy.
"They look really interesting, I can't wait to get to read them" Harry replied excitedly
Dumbledore smiled at his words "Wonderful, now I should say I have included my own notes within Armando's book but they are hidden behind conditional spells. You will need to read the book first before you can unlock the first note, you should then be able to use that first note to unlock the second and so forth. Think of it as a challenge and a test, in order to gain the next note you must be able to prove you can handle the previous material."
Harry nodded to show he understood, Dumbledore smiled widely and Harry thought he could see pride in Dumbledore's eyes.
"Good afternoon Mr. Filch, I brought you some Christmas dinner if you want it" Harry said softly. He knew the other students had decided to have a snowball fight outside but he had known Filch would be spending his Christmas next to Mrs Norris in his room.
"Aye, thank you. Merry Christmas lad." Filch said sadly
"I wanted to get you something for Christmas sir, but… well I didn't know what to get you… But well I wanted to ask, are you a squib sir?"
Filch sighed deeply and turned in his chair to face Harry properly.
"Aye lad I am."
"Would you mind if I used my power to Look at you? I have an idea but I need to see what the difference is between a wizard, squib and muggle. I know that a squib is different to a muggle as you can clearly see the ghosts and Peeves, which wouldn't be possible for a muggle."
"Sure, I guess. It'll give me something to focus on at least."
Harry Looked at Filch properly, as he expected Filch's signature seemed to be at the same level as an average wizard. This confirmed his theory that squibs did still have magic, they just couldn't use it.
"What happens when you try and do magic sir?"
"Well, I can feel the magic build but it's like it dies out before it can be released."
"Could you try and cast a spell?" Harry said as he handed over his wand, he Looked at Filch as the magic built.
When the magic tried to get lose it rushed towards the wand but seemed to die out before it could reach the it, Harry leaned in to where the magic had begun dying but couldn't see anything significant.
Harry spent several minutes looking up and down the man's arm and comparing it to his own, he had started Looking at the signatures when he realised he recognised two of them. In his own arm he had two sets of runes repeated over and over again, the symbol for 'magic' and then the symbol for 'life'.
These two runes ran along the entire length of his arm and when he used his magic they glowed subtly, the effect was similar to how Tonks' runes had glowed when she used her power.
When he looked at Filch's arm he saw he had those runes except the life rune was missing a single line, that line changed it into the symbol for 'death', meaning rather than support his magic his body actively fought it.
"Do potions work on you sir?"
"Nay they don't, whenever I've had a potion it just fails instantly, Professor Snape had a theory that was something about my magic pulling the magic out of the potion to make up for my own lack of power. Once when I took a particularly strong potion I could almost get a spell to work."
The fact the potions didn't work confirmed his own theory that the magic was being killed all over the body, this was good news as it meant the fault lay in the runes which would be easier to fix compared to something wrong with the core. Of course Harry wasn't capable of changing the runes within a person's signature so fully healing a squib was just a distant dream.
Instead Harry formed a block of mithril that he programmed to be absorbed into the man's body and build a network of magical pathways that would bypass the faulty runes and allow magical transfer.
"If you take this cube it should be absorbed into you and let you do magic… but I can't guarantee that it will work."
Filch looked at the cube carefully before looking straight into Harry's eyes
"Do you believe it is safe?"
Harry thought carefully before nodding
"Then that is a good enough guarantee for me lad."
He reached over and picked up the cube, it seemed to melt into him and Harry saw Filch's veins become a bright silver, Harry began panicking and was going to call for Dumbledore when Filch's veins regained their natural colour.
"Mr. Filch?" Harry asked tentatively "How do you feel?"
"How do I feel? I feel grand, lad! Better than I've felt in years." Filch gave Harry's wand a swish and the flowerpot next to Mrs Norris shattered, Filch began chuckling deeply. Filch flicked the wand at a nearby chest of drawers, each draw flew open throwing clothes all over the room.
Harry carefully reached over and plucked his wand out of the man's hands before anymore damage could be done
"I guess that means it works. Merry Christmas Mr. Filch."
"Thank you lad, thank you!"
Together they left Filch's room and went to the great hall in order to find Dumbledore and report his newest discovery. Their good mood vanished when they noticed how quiet the castle had gotten, slowly they turned a corner and saw a small group of students huddled around a body.
"There he is! He did it!" Harry stared at the Hufflepuff boy who was pointing at him, he vaguely remembered his name was Ernie Macmillan, he was good friends with Justin Finch-Fletchley.
The crowd parted and Harry saw the body was dressed in Ravenclaw robes, Harry rushed forward and yelled at the students to get out of the way. He felt his heart stop when he saw Justin lying there, the boy had always looked out for Harry and had been a firm supporter of him in the Ravenclaw common room.
He knelt next to Justin and Looked at his magic, as he expected he saw the same net of vivid green net magic that was wrapped around Mrs Norris.
"When did this happen?" Harry asked the crowd
"We just found him, he went inside to go to the toilet maybe an hour ago?" Harry turned and saw it was Ron who had spoken, beside him his sister Ginny stood fearfully, she was clutching a book tightly as if it would bring her some safety
"So anywhere between a minute and an hour." Harry muttered distractedly, he drew his wand and began passing it over Justin, using his wand as an extension of his mage sight.
At the sight of his wand the crowd stepped back fearfully, some of the braver students had even drawn their own wands and pointed them at Harry
"Oh grow up" Ron told the crowd hotly, stepping between them and Harry protectively.
Harry had to ignore what was happening behind him as he began a fierce battle with the green magic, it hadn't had time to settle into Justin's magic like it had with Mrs Norris so he was able to grab hold of it without endangering Justin. Despite being able to better fight the magic he still had the same problem of having a small 'range' of magic, the green magic would resist his attempts to remove it while at the same time latch on tighter elsewhere.
It felt like he was playing a game of Whack-a-mole as the moment he shifted his attention another piece of the green magic settled in elsewhere. He couldn't even form his mithril to do it for him as the time it would take for him to form the mithril would be enough for the green magic to take hold.
He could feel his magic wearing out as he worked, he had already gone through four of his mithril bands and only had one left, he was tiring quickly and he couldn't think of anything that could help him.
"Harry, listen to me, you need to stop."
"No, I can save him, I just need a bit more time." Harry said stubbornly, uncaring about who was talking to him.
"Harry! You need to let this go, you cannot win this battle." Harry turned and saw it was Dumbledore talking, with great reluctance Harry withdrew his magic from the battle.
He watched the foreign green magic settle under Justin's pale blue magic as his exhaustion set in, his last thought before he lost consciousness was bitter relief at finally understanding how the curse worked.
Harry awoke in the hospital wing, the first thing he noticed was that the mithril bands he kept on his legs at all time where missing. Only he was capable of seeing them which meant he must have burned through all five of them, it took an entire day's energy to make just one and he had been saving up to make a sixth.
The second thing Harry noticed was that his magic felt sluggish and unresponsive, he tried reaching out with his magic but found he was unable to move his magic any further than about a foot away from him, previously he had been able to reach at least five metres.
Finally Harry noticed Dumbledore sitting on the chair beside his bed, the headmaster was marking paper work but Harry felt a warmth run through him at the knowledge that Dumbledore had been keeping watch over him.
"Ah, good morning Harry." Dumbledore said warmly, Harry noted he looked relieved.
"Good morning? How long was I out for?" Harry asked groggily
"A week, we've been quite concerned about you."
"A week? But how I wasn't that tired surely." Harry said worriedly
"By the time I had reached you, you had almost completely burned through you magical reserve, it was only your gauntlet that was keeping you alive. Poppy feared you would be incapable of casting magic ever again." Dumbledore said gravely
"But I can still do magic right? Please tell me I can" Harry begged, for him magic was everything, he couldn't imagine life without being able to use his magic.
"Your body seems to have recovered better than Poppy expected, in no part due to the Stone and Nicolas' own skill in alchemical healing. Nicolas suspected your magic has done a 'soft reset' in order to keep you alive. When you were brought in your magical core was very weak, even weaker than an average child."
"But now?" Harry asked fearfully
"Now your magical core is just below the average for a second year. But your magical pathways are damaged, perhaps irreparably. Also… you channeled a lot of magic through your wand, I suggest you have your wand looked at before you try and use it again."
Harry nodded mutely, he cared for his wand greatly but he could replace his wand, he couldn't replace his magic.
"Finally I must ask you to refrain from forming any mithril until we are sure you magic has recovered. Very well then, I must be off then, should you need me I shall be within my office."
"I assume you are better, Potter?" Snape asked softly, it was the most gentle Harry had ever heard him.
"I'm well enough."
"I must admit I did not expect to be seeing you today. The headmaster has warned me of your current… predicament and I was under the impression that you are in no fit state to work on your occlumency."
"I'm not here about my occlumency… I wanted to know what you know about being able to split your focus in regards to magic."
"Ahh… and am I meant to believe this has nothing to do with your attempts to save Mr. Finch-Fletchley? You almost killed yourself trying to save him and now you want me to give you advice on how to kill yourself even faster?"
Harry shook his head frantically "The reason I needed to burn through so much magic was because I wasn't able to split my focus, to beat the magic I needed to be able to split my magic and attack it from multiple angles at once… If I was able to, then I wouldn't have been at any risk."
Snape leaned back in his chair and studied Harry intently, eventually after some time had passed he leaned towards Harry and said "Ultimately little is known about splitting focus, I assume you already found this out for yourself before you sought me out…" Snape sighed deeply before settling back in his chair
"I personally know little of the art in relation to magic, however the Dark Lord developed something similar to what you desire. One of the reasons he was so feared on the battlefield was because he was able to 'preload' a spell while casting another, combined with his natural speed meant that he could fire multiple spells almost instantly."
Harry leaned forward eagerly, he was sure he was just about to learn the answer to his problems.
"But the key word is almost, despite what it looked like he had not truly split his magic. He just kept practicing his curses, until eventually he was capable of casting them near instantly. It is similar to what the muggles call 'Muscle memory', the Headmaster uses the same technique with his transfiguration. I can tell you that no wand is capable of splitting magic, I do not pretend to know much about wandlore but the core of a wand can only handle one spell at a time. Theoretically if you were skilled enough at wandless magic you could cast magic with a wand while simultaneously casting a completely different spell wandlessly."
Harry nodded sadly, he had expected to be disappointed but he had hoped Snape would have known something he hadn't yet discovered.
"Potter… I'm sorry I was unable to help you, but Professor Flitwick might know more on the subject as the mark of a good dueler is the ability to cast quickly."
Harry had needed to wait until the weekend before Flitwick could take him to Mr. Ollivander's. He had spent the remainder of the week trying to regain his wandless abilities, it infuriated him that he needed to relearn skills he had mastered years ago.
It was the first time he had been at the same level of his fellow students, many students had noticed that Harry was much weaker than he had been before the break, one such student being Draco Malfoy.
The boy had waited until most of the students were nearby and had then struck "So I hear you were so upset to see Fletchley you almost died of grief Potter"
Having long since learned to ignore Malfoy, Harry chose to just keep walking rather than waste his breath arguing with the brat, this had been the wrong move as Malfoy had sent a jinx at Harry's turned back. Normally he would have easily detected the magic racing towards him but with his weaker magic he had been forced to limit his magical awareness, meaning he was currently blind to magic.
The jinx had sent Harry sprawling on the floor to the laughs of the students, Harry turned furious and glared at Malfoy, rather than back down or appear frightened Malfoy just grinned at Harry. Despite being severely weakened Harry was still an exceptional student who had personal training from some of the wisest wizards of the century.
Harry would have preferred to repay Malfoy using his wandless abilities but even Malfoy wouldn't be weak enough to succumb to his weakened ability, he knew several jinxes and charms that would make quick work of Malfoy but he had been told to not use his wand.
Faced with no other choice Harry resorted to thrusting his fist towards Malfoy and channel his magic through the Philosopher's Stone in its ring form, despite the Stone being a magical focus just like a wand it handled magic differently. As such rather than the relatively harmless flipping jinx Harry meant to send, the spell that hit Malfoy flipped his gravitational pull and sent him flying up into the ceiling.
He had needed to waste an afternoon in detention because of that but it had been worth it in Harry's mind.
"Ahh, Mr. Potter. I did not expect to see you for at least a year. What can I do for you?" Ollivander seemed to have been working on a new wand but he had covered it swiftly before Harry had a chance to see.
"Um, well you see I accidently channeled a lot of magic over Christmas which badly damaged my magic and Dumbledore feared it would have affected my wand too." Harry said sheepishly
"I had heard you had been injured over the holiday but the Prophet hadn't said what had caused it. Very well let me see your wand… oh… Oh, Mr. Potter it is a very good thing you came here, your wand is almost completely unusable. In fact I've rarely seen wands this worn out, only senior Aurors that fought in the war often got this close to wearing out their wands, I am honestly surprised you are able to even stand considering how much magic must have been passed through this wand."
"Is there anything you can do to fix it?" Harry asked sadly
"The only thing that can help this wand is time to recover, considering the amount of damage that has been done I fear this wand will take many years to fully recover. Unless you want to go wandlessly throughout your education you will need to get a new wand, as luck would have it just last week I was struck with inspiration for the creation of a new wand."
Ollivander hurried into the back room and quickly returned with a wand case in hand, when he opened the case Harry was stunned at the quality of the wand inside. It was slightly shorter than his old wand, it was also a dark orange compared to his wand's silver, the strangest part was that the hilt of the wand was covered in what seemed to be a strange quartz like material.
When Ollivander handed over the wand Harry expected some huge reaction to take place, instead the wand simply warmed under his hand. When Harry waved the wand in a whip like manner a trail of air seemed to follow the wands movement, with a final flick upwards the air rushed up and exploded into a burst of colour.
"Oh wonderful!" Ollivander cheered, Harry blushed as he realised Ollivander and Flitwick were both clapping enthusiastically at his display.
"Yes this is clearly a good fit. Blackthorn, 10 inches, unyielding… this wand is unique in that the handle of the wand is made from the petrified wood of an elder tree. You remember me saying you would be well suited with a wand of elder? Well I recently had the opportunity to purchase a large sum of petrified wood from an associate in the muggle world and that particular stone was originally an elder tree, it has kept some of the properties of elder wood but the main power of the wood has been lost. This allows me to use it on a wand as something similar to a focusing crystal on a staff."
Ollivander looked at the wand longingly for a moment, as if he regretted selling it.
"The core was from a particularly territorial white raven, you will find the wand will favour neither delicate or brunt magic, it will serve both equally. In my experience blackthorn wands will often only truly bond with their owner during what is seen as a 'life-threatening' situation, I just hope your wand will prove to be different."
I suspect the next chapter will be the last one before Harry takes on the heir, Luna will definitely become a more prominent character next chapter.
With Harry's injury I am treating magic like a muscle, you need to keep using it to build it up but overuse can damage or rip it, the basilisk is an incredibly old and thus powerful creature and Harry was trying to stop it head on, that would never have gone well.
Harry's new wand isn't meant to be an answer to his question of splitting magic, the petrified wood will allow him to focus his magic better through the blackthorn. The walnut wand will return much later in the story but for now it's in storage.
For those who have finished and want something else to read I have just uploaded a second story 'A Conquers guide' it is based in the book series Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix, this story will still be my priority and won't stop the weekly updates.