Learning the secret to Mithraite was sadly quite simple, the goblins simply put a chunk of mithril inside a bismuth sphere and flooded it with magic, they then sealed the mithril for a year where it could completely absorb the magic.
In return Harry had told them about using runes to make a mithril reactor, as well as a mithril chisel to make said runes. He had the sneaking suspicion he might regret his generosity the next time the goblins revolted, but his sense of justice wouldn't let him leave without repaying them somehow.
As it was, he could hardly get out of the bank quick enough, due to his desire to go home. That was until he got home and realising in his haste he had forgotten one thing, he didn't own any bismuth.
He sent a message to Bathsheda, telling her of his discovery and asked her to look into getting bismuth. But upon seeing Corvus fly away he was struck by a wave of lethargy. He had finally gotten the answer to something he had been wondering about for a year, only to have to wait even longer.
Absently he started to finish the galleon, but by the time he placed the galleon on his desk he was already bored. With a sigh, he set about completing the kit, but by the time Tonks came to collect him for dinner later he hadn't made any progress.
Albus looked at Harry over his glasses calculatively, silently reviewing the boy. The lad had been pushing his food around for a while now and had only taken a few bites, the fact Harry's eyes had lost their bright sheen was his biggest worry.
He knew it could've been a sign of sickness, except even a cursory glance at Harry's magic revealed it was as strong as ever. When a witch or wizard got sick, their magic turned inwards to try and fight the infection. If the disease was stronger than the magic, then regrettably the person would die.
'Of course, if the boy does have some disease, his overly large core might hide the signs.' he thought with some alarm, ignoring the fact his youthful magic would be more than enough to deal with any known disease.
"Do you feel alright, Harry?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Fine." Harry's voice was incredibly soft, almost fragile. While he didn't let it show, Albus hated seeing the boy like this.
"How did your trip to Gringotts go?" He pressed, trying to get to the bottom of the issue.
"Great, I returned the sword and learned how to make mithraite." Harry said emotionlessly.
"And is that not good news?"
"Yeah… except it takes a year to make a single mithraite crystal. Oh and it needs a large amount of a metal called bismuth, which I don't have." Finally a touch of anger was starting to leak through, which told Albus he was close to the source.
"I'm sure we can get this… bismuth." He said easily, unconcerned with the cost. "As for the time, well a year isn't so long in the grand scheme of things. Particularly since this school year should prove enough of a distraction."
"But there's nothing for me to do until I get the mithraite!" Harry whined, clearly feeling better already.
"I'm sure that's not true, however I would suggest you use this year to work on your non-mithril studies. For instance, did you know your marks drop every time you have a breakthrough with your mithril?"
Harry didn't reply, only shifting in his chair guiltily, beside him Nymphadora looked equally uncomfortable.
"Now, the reason I haven't called you up on this is for two reasons; Firstly, despite the drop you are still one of the best in classes, and secondly because I understand how important your mithril is and will be. However, nobody will take you seriously unless you have the marks to back it up, marks I know you can get."
After getting a nod from Harry, he carried on. "As for what you can do over the summer, perhaps Nymphadora wouldn't mind teaching you some defensive spells?"
This provoked a smile from Harry, who turned to Tonks eagerly.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind teaching you. It'll do you good to be able to defend yourself properly, without your magic metal."
Chuckling to himself, he watched the two make their way outside and begin practicing.
"Right, I think it would be best if we find out just how strong you actually are." Tonks said after making a large chalk circle in the garden, then setting her rune stone down. It was standard issue auror gear, as it would deflect both spells and objects, as well as being quick to erect.
"This means none of your mithril, anything inside your coat and especially not your gauntlet. You will need to assume this is an ambush scenario, where the only thing you have on hand is your wand."
Dutifully Harry took off his trench coat and rings, loading them into an inside pocket. He then rolled up his trousers and unbuckled his mithril greaves, then rolled back his left sleeve and removed his shield.
Finally he reached behind his ears and withdrew two curved pieces of mithril, which joined the pile inside his coat before being thrown out the circle.
"They're experimental pieces." He explained "Currently they only keep a modified shield charm around my head, which keeps basically anything dangerous away. I wanted to make them turn into a full helmet, but without any mithraite it would be too dangerous."
Nodding, Tonks sent the activation spell at the rune stone, erecting a light violet dome barrier to rise from the chalk. "Ready?"
Without waiting for a reply she quickly sent a stunner towards Harry, expecting him to be caught by surprise. She would then use the 'constant vigilance' speech Moody had used on her, to her dismay Harry easily dodged it and let it hit her barrier.
She then followed it up with a flurry of binding and disarming spells, the majority of which Harry gracefully dodged. As he dodged he started weaving his wand through the air, leaving glowing symbols behind. She cautiously sent a banishing hex at one of the symbols, which fluttered slightly as the spell passed through but remained unchanged.
Finally, Harry finished weaving the last symbol and thrust his wand into the ground. This gave the alchemical runes something to work with and started summoning small balls of dirt towards them, which Harry then banished towards Tonks.
Now it was her time to shield and dodge, unwilling to be hit by the clumps of dirt rocketing towards her. Unfortunately, the ground they were on started to become unstable as more of it got thrown at her.
However, it also meant Harry had less room to move, prompting her to send a blasting curse at him. As expected he easily dodged it, only to lose his balance and end up in the ditch. Without his banishing spells, the clumps of dirt stopped flying towards her which allowed her to start fighting back.
She tried to keep the high ground as she fired spells down towards him, but Harry's vanishing charm removed her advantage. Once in the ditch she started transfiguring Harry's clumps of dirt into mice, which instantly ran over to attack Harry.
He dealt with them quickly by imbuing his magic into the air around him and using it to pick up loose stones, which he then spun around him in a deadly tornado which kept the mice at bay. He hadn't properly tried to imbue his magic into the air for over a year, because of this he found it surprisingly hard to control.
But, in the time it took for him to deal with the rodents, Tonks had started spreading smoke throughout the arena. What she hadn't counted on was that the smoke would also stop her seeing her surroundings, particularly the uneven ground beneath her.
It came as no surprise when she tripped over and crashed into the ground, barely missing a spell that flew overhead. She quickly fired a stunning curse in retaliation, which was soon followed by a soft grunt and a thud. Cautiously she stayed completely still, just in case he was faking it.
She even went as far as to soften her heart beat using her powers, while improving her own hearing. After a while the smoke cleared and she got a good look at Harry's unconscious form, allowing her to fire a second stunner just to make sure. Knowing for sure that she had won, she stood up and walked over to the boy and enervated him.
"You lost." She said smugly, transfiguring the debris into a chair and sitting down. Normally she would've taken her victory with grace, as an auror beating a 14 year old should've been a forgone conclusion. Most 14 year olds weren't Harry Potter.
"How did I do?" He asked groggily.
"You did better than I did in your position." Tonks admitted begrudgingly. "Your biggest issue was your tendency to stay in the same spot, you should use the space around you better. Of course, in a real scenario you should've ran away at the first sign of trouble."
After waiting for a moment to see if he would refute her statement, she asked a question that had been bugging her. "So what were the runes you drew in the air… and how did you make that tornado, I didn't see you use your wand?"
"Ah, that. Well the runes were Arcane runes, which were just targeting balls of dirt exactly 13 pounds and summoning them. I just sort of made them up on the spot and as it was made with my intent, I didn't need to use my wand because it isn't actually a spell. As for the tornado, that was basically the same thing. I just imbued my magic and intent into the air, then it was simple enough to make a tornado."
"Well, it worked. In a battle your biggest weapon will always be surprise, so I'd suggest you learn some more offensive spells, I can help with that. The final thing I noticed was you overpower your spells, which will make you tired. What I was told to remember was; Stunning, Disarming and Blasting, those three can be cast as weak as you like and will still take an opponent out of the fight."
Harry's birthday was a small affair, with Luna, her father and Bathsheda coming over for dinner. Tonks and Dumbledore were also there, but as they were living in the house anyway.
He had received cards from Neville, Ron, Colin and even Justin, which pleasantly surprised him. Ron's card had also included a box with homemade cake and snacks from his mother, bringing him a warm feeling.
Finally Corvus dived in and retrieved its letter, before hunching over into a ball and going still. Running his hand down the bird's back, he was relieved to feel the bird was just low on magic, which would solve itself. He also learned the bird had picked up the letter from Sirius, deep in the Caribbean.
'Dear Harry,
Happy Birthday!
I can't believe it's been 14 years already, my only regret is that I can't be there to celebrate it with you.
Unfortunately I am unable to get you anything currently, so you will have to make do with the Firebolt. I'm glad to hear you've started riding it, maybe once I return I could teach you some of your father's tricks?
Love, Sirius'
Harry carefully put the card on the shelf above his bed, where it joined the few other letters from his godfather.
Along with the galleon he had already received from Nicolas, he got a book on obscure combat magic from Tonks and another book on exotic magical creatures from Xeno and Luna. Finally Dumbledore presented his gifts, the first of which was a long dragon-skin coat, from a Chinese Tàiyáng dragon.
As Harry tried on the coat, Dumbledore explained its history "As you may or may not be aware, Tàiyáng dragons are the only dragon species to possess the power of invisibility. Skilled tailors can take the skin and keep invisible properties, while keeping the natural invulnerability of dragon-skin.
"Unfortunately, the clothes lack the power to make the wearer invisible, but when active the coat will become completely invisible. You could wear your normal coat under the dragon-skin coat and appear like normal, except you would have significant protection."
Hesitantly, Harry threw the coat on, where-upon it quickly faded from sight. He noticed the coat was strangely weightless, as if it was made of paper. Poking his arm confirmed the coat was still as thick, and rolling his shoulders confirmed he still had full movement.
"Now, for my second gift we will need to exit into the garden." Dumbledore said slyly, leading the small party out into the garden and revealing a large crate. With a flourish, he tapped the crate with his wand, banishing the wood and revealing a pallet filled with silver bars.
"You bought him a crate of silver?" Tonks asked
"Not silver." Dumbledore replied, eyes twinkling madly
"Is it… bismuth?" Harry asked tentatively, recognising the rainbow glittering off the metal.
Dumbledore nodded solemnly, a smile adorning his face. He was shocked when he suddenly found Harry's arms wrapped around him, as he received a brief but firm hug from the boy.
Didn't realise Friday was Christmas day until it was basically the day itself, then I got sick and basically stayed in bed reading 'The Ballard of songbirds and snakes' until today.
Things I think need explaining in this chapter:
- As far as I am aware, Chinese Tàiyáng dragon are completely made up by me, which I got by getting the Chinese for 'sun' from Google translate. I based it off the myth of an invisible dragon eating the sun during solar eclipses.
- Harry has been learning a fair bit about Arcane Magick, which I will be expanding on during the 4th year.
- His various Coats / Cloaks, I have started organising things better recently, with a document dedicated to keeping track of Harry's possessions, so rest assured I do have a plan for everything and aren't just adding stuff for the hell of it.
- Tonks' duel, as Tonks said/thought, against a normal 14 year old she would win basically every time. However by now Harry has gone toe-to-toe with 16 year old Voldemort and is learning from both Nicolas and Dumbledore. Meaning even without his mithril he has the power and basic knowledge, the only thing he lacked is experience, which is exactly why he is learning how to fight from Tonks.