Harry found himself in a featureless classroom, a room he recognised for once holding the mirror of Erised. Except this time there was just a normal mirror, or so it seemed. Upon stepping up to it he was surprised to see three other people reflected, who seemed unable to see him.
The first was a young boy to his left, who was almost half his height and looked incredibly weedy and weak. It felt weird to look at a child so small and see his raven black hair and bright green eyes, but he was positive this was him when he had started Hogwarts.
The boy was decked in his new uniform and his plain silver Walnut wand was clutched loosely in his hand. His eyes looked so innocent and carefree, which stood in stark contrast to his own hard eyes he couldn't help feeling sorry for what lay ahead of the boy.
His own reflection looked far more impressive in his own, unbiased, opinion. With his bluey-grey trench coat with his invisibility cloak poking out underneath, which fell to his thighs and muggle combat trousers he felt looked cool. His right hand held his orange Blackthorn wand, with his gauntlet ring and Hermione's ring shining brightly on his ring finger.
It was a stark contrast to his left arm, where his pale skin and raised veins hinted at the damage that had befallen it. The decay had reached a point where the mithrilium under his arm had started to become visible, which was further exaggerated by how his flesh had started tightening along his arm.
Behind his ears he could make out his cuff earrings, which regrettably looked like silver hearing aids. Despite this the protection they provided had proved invaluable when his project had blown up in his face, so the best he could do was make them unnoticeable.
The mithrilium inside his head was completely unnoticeable already, aside from the slight silver tint over the whites of his eye. Having lost his baby fat and letting his hair grow out some, he was starting to look more rogue-like, especially with the slight shadow of stubble appearing on his chin.
However it was the man to his right which truly drew his eye, who must've been in his early 20s. Physically he was only an inch or two taller than his current height, but he still managed to give off a feeling of power that he hadn't yet been able to pull off. He still wore the same coat, except he had clearly combined his various coats into one.
Looking inside the opening of the trench-coat revealed it was lined by the invisibility cloak, while the slight glistening effect of the exterior hinted at the dragon skin coat. Finally the very subtle wisps of mist oozing out of the coat indicated the presence of the Dementor's Cloak.
This time the Gauntlet was on his left hand, where it stretched all the way up his arm, making it look like the entire arm was made of mithril. The Philosopher's Stone was glowing brightly, with the Soul Gem and a bright green mithraite crystal clustered around it. There was also a pitch black stone that seemed to suck in the light around it, which he didn't recognise.
In place of the mithril cuff earrings, he now wore tiny crystal studs, barely visible at the top of his ears. Underneath his trenchcoat he spotted a shiny decorated breastplate, with a glowing crystal disc. It felt like everything the man wore now had crystal embedded within it somewhere.
Alongside the completion of the breastplate, the man possessed the Mutatio watch over his mithril arm, with a fancy crystal display and a wide leather strap. He also had the meithralum sword from the goblins hanging from his belt, which now had a strange orange core.
Finally was the man on the far right, who could've passed for the previous man's twin. They were the exact same height and similar build, except the second man gave off a feeling of age.
Harry was getting good at seeing age within a person's eyes, from Moody's deceptively young eye of just 38 to Nicolas' deceptively old eyes of 700. The man in the mirror made them all look like children, despite the fact he appeared no older than 30.
What impressed him the most was the sense of power that radiated off the man, even if he was just an image in a window. The main source of this power seemed to be his ring, which sat alone on his ring finger. It was clearly the gauntlet ring, except it looked almost completely different.
For a start, the metal was a pure green with bands of pure black. The Philosopher's Stone remained front and centre, with the strange black stone to its left and the Dementor's Stone to its right. But the mithraite crystal was gone, possibly replaced by the ring itself.
The biggest change was the sliver of elder wood which ran around the entire ring, with a wrap of the silvery material of the Invisibility Cloak. Other than that the man had no other mithril, at least none that Harry could see. His coat was missing, leaving his arms bare and the tight fitting shirt didn't leave room to hide a breast plate.
In its stead, the man's skin seemed to shine and had a faint glow, while his eyes had gone from a silver tint to a pale green. The overall effect made him resemble a god.
He was broken from his inspection when the god suddenly turned and stared right into him, only to wink and send Harry flying out of his dream and awaking with a start.
With only a few days to go until he left for the match, Harry was trying to finish his project. In front of him was the breastplate which had originally exploded and sent him to the hospital, or more accurately a copy of the original. After returning home from St Mungo's he had hung the burnt breastplate on his wall, as a reminder to never underestimate the power of mithril.
When completed, the breastplate would emit a constant protective ward. A ward would be much harder to penetrate in battle and had the added benefit of being unexpected, however first he had to figure out how to provide it enough power.
Despite popular belief, a ward could be moved, so long as you gave it a constant source of magic. Before mithril, that source could only be provided by a leyline or a giant wardstone, neither of which could be moved without a lot of effort.
While the Caribbean ships before the statute of secrecy had figured this out when they installed giant wardstones in the hull of the navy ships, each one weighing around 6,000 pounds, or just under the weight of two cannons.
These wards protected the ship from magical attacks and scrying, but even then they were extremely limited. The wardstones were cut into one meter cubes, then completely covered in runes dedicated to maximising magical input.
Even then a strong enough spell would rip right through the ship wards; Fortunately for Harry, his mithril meant he didn't need to carry around over 10,000 pounds of rock just to give himself a shield. Instead he just needed to make a ball of mithril the size of a tennis ball.
Due to the power demands of the ward, he couldn't use the mithril core, which was about as safe as possible. Instead he had decided to use the basic runes to make the mithril constantly produce magic, even when he had used it to power a shield charm in place of a ward.
Rather than just power the shield and bleed the remaining magic elsewhere, it had filled the shield to capacity… then kept filling it until it exploded. The resulting explosion had been strong enough to permanently scorch the mithril, which was enough to remove the runes.
Upon returning he had created the new breastplate and fitted the mithril generator, but made it turn the magic into light when it made too much magic. The result was a pure silver breastplate with a glowing green circle on the chest, which was thin enough to fit under his shirt comfortably.
Now that he was out of St. Mungo's, it was easier to see how much Gilderoy had changed the past two years. The most obvious was his prosthetic arm, which appeared to be made out of gold. The man was also much thinner, no doubt due to being stuck in Hospital for a year, along with a clear loss in confidence.
Despite this, he clearly hadn't lost his spirit, as he arrived at Dumbledore's home early in the morning wearing bright orange robes with white and green trim.
Gilderoy looked around the house in clear interest, until Dumbledore ushered him into his office and threw up a silencing charm.
The two left the room almost an hour later with Gilderoy looking shaken, while Dumbledore had a gleam in his eye that Harry recognised as glee.
"Right… well the portkey leaves in 10 minutes, make sure you have everything you need for the three days. I'd also suggest taking at least 200 Galleons in case you want to buy anything while there."
Harry reached into his inside pocket and felt for his money pouches, unnecessarily confirming they hadn't bypassed the various enchantments and fallen out. The only issue with his coat was that expansion charms didn't play well with each other, so he was forced to use multiple normal sized bags.
Meanwhile Tonks had desperately searched through her bag before sprinting to her room and returning with her money bag in hand, a sheepish grin on her face. By then Lockhart had withdrawn a Yo-yo, which appeared unassuming to his normal sight but glowed with the characteristic Portus spell.
Before they left, Dumbledore patted him on the shoulder and wished him well. Then with a rush of magic they were gone, leaving Godric's hollow behind.
The first thing he noticed was the sheer scale of noise, from people talking excitedly to a live band playing somewhere in the giant mass of people. While he was taken back by the crowd, Gilderoy led them through the crowd with ease. Occasionally he would spot somebody he recognised and called out to them merrily, who would often call back a greeting in turn.
It wasn't hard to see the man was in his element, easily navigating them and directing them to a less crowded area where a mismatch of tents were arranged. Surprisingly the size of the crowd worked in their favour, as anyone who managed to recognise Lockhart or himself were lost before they could make a scene.
Soon enough they came to a stop in front of an empty plot of land, marked with 'Reserved for Gilderoy Lockhart and guests'. Barely noticeable was the protective enchantment around the plot that kept people from entering, which was tied into the sign.
Gilderoy reached into his pocket and pulled out his ticket, which was stuck to the sign with a tap of his wand, causing both the sign and ticket to disappear with a pop. With the sign gone the protection burst open and let the trio set up their tent, a surprisingly plain tent considering Lockhart's passion of standing out.
"It's custom made, but well worth the price. I used it alot in my travels whenever I was unable to find a suitable town, with inbuilt charms to repel weather and animals." Looking around to make sure they were alone, he leaned close to Harry and finished in a whisper "Took it from a bloke called Coriakin, who inspired my book 'Travels with Trolls'."
Harry ran his hand along the tent with interest, using both his vision and touch to determine the tent's makeup. It was made of a thick cobalt blue cloth that had extremely thin lines of silver woven in, which contained the enchantments.
As he expected, upon stepping inside revealed the expansion charms. The inside was made of the same material, albeit much bigger. They quickly decided on who would have what room and dropped their luggage, before setting out to enjoy the festivities.
"There are two things all witches and wizards can't resist, showing off and having fun! The World Cup is an excuse for everyone to indulge in at least one." Lockhart explained, he pointed out a man juggling at least 20 balls, wandless magic clearly being used.
"So, what I'm thinking is we go to the beer tent for lunch, then we've been invited to go on a tour of the stadium with the press. The tour will conclude with a chance to meet and talk to the players, including my good friend Evanna Moran. Then I thought we could look around before getting dinner and going to see the circus. Of course, if you two want to do something different I'll understand."
Harry shrugged and looked back at Tonks, who only shrugged back. "We're fine with that, although I'm not so sure about meeting the press."
Gilderoy beamed brightly at this, then threw his metal arm over Harry's shoulders. If it wasn't for the mithril breastplate protecting his shoulders he was sure he would now have a giant bruise, as Lockhart didn't know the arm's strength.
Having had a close look at the arm was made of Electrum, an alloy of silver and gold. It gave the appearance of true gold without the magical resistance, which would prevent the arm from functioning.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. You have nothing to fear from the press, so long as you play your cards right. Just make sure you always give the press something to write about, because otherwise they will either write about someone else or make something up about you."
This led the man to start lecturing the boy on his own experiences with the press, until they stepped into the beer tent where he became too focused on ordering his food.
So, January is a really terrible time of year for me because of how much work I have to get done, meaning the only days I had time to write was today and two weeks ago. Luckily I can get back to
Things I think need explaining in this chapter:
- The first scene is just what Harry foresees in his future, his actual future self may end up differently.
- The weight for the ship wardstones are based on a volume to weight conversion for construction, which said 1 cubic meter of granite was 2,691 kilograms or 5,932.64 pounds, while the cannon I used for my basis was 3,400 pounds or 1,500 kg. It may be that I am hilariously out, but as that part is from Harry's perspective and he doesn't have access to the internet he thinks it is correct either way.
- As for how Harry knows about the above, he learned about it while on holiday in the Caribbean from like last year, between year 2 and year 3. The whole scene is basically to just reinforce what a cheat his mithril is.
- Coriakin, named after the fallen sun in Narnia, with the Duffers being the 'trolls'