July 13th, 1992

"Miran," Harry called out. Immediately, the doorway he cast spell on disappeared and simply became more wall, completely hiding its presence. With it done, Harry looked back to his three friends.

"There you have it. It's not overly complicated, in fact, this should be even easier than transfiguration as the change lacks actual substance. You are simply altering the perception of looking at the door way." Harry explained gesturing towards the door.

"There are no wand movements?"

"I created it without them but… Hmm, I suppose, I could create some."

"Is that how it works? You simply make up wand movements to go with whatever spell you want?"

"Of course not, when you cast any magic, it moves on its own to perform the function, but magic is in your body. Therefore, you can move it naturally with your own physical movements. You are basically preempting the magical movements necessary for the spell with either a wand or your body to ease the process of casting it. Since I have a high sensitivity to magic, there's no guesswork as to what movements are taking place, especially since I have already mastered this spell. Instead, I simply have to figure out what wand or body movements best channel the magic correctly. Give me a moment." Harry told his gathered friends as he lost himself in thought.

This was their second practice session when it came to illusions. In the first one, he simply had them properly learn how to meditate so they could at some point learn to find their magical core as he did which would aid them in their performance of magic. They may not gain the same high level of sensitivity to magic all around them but they should gain a strong awareness of the magic within them.

Luckily, they didn't need to actually find it to start mimicking the magic he already created. They simply needed to copy it properly. Harry pulled out his wand and made a slow, horizontal slashing motion. Miran was extremely easy and his simplest illusion. It shouldn't be too hard for them to perform.

"That is the only motion required. You can do it with your hand or your wand. I would start with the wand and when you have a high enough proficiency, move to the hand. That may be a while though." Harry informed. This was his first-time teaching after all, and he didn't know what pace they would be moving at.

"You make it look really easy." Neville commented as he looked at the innocent wall where he knew a door was hidden.

"Lot's of practice… Now, this room has three doorways which is the perfect amount. Why don't you each go to one and get started." Harry ordered. Immediately, his friends moved to do what he said and went to a doorway. Harry watched as they began their casting. He watched his friends slowly try the motions and, more importantly, watched their magic.

It was strange, watching how their magic reacted to one of his spells. It almost seemed like it was confused by the action at first before seemingly settling and beginning to mimic what was supposed to happen when he did it. That being said, almost an hour passed and their seemed to be no progress made.

"Anyone else starting to feel this is hopeless?" Ron asked to the room taking a pause from his activity and looking at the rest of them. Neville just grunted in annoyance and Hermione simply said nothing as she was too involved in her own attempts.

"You should keep going. Your magic has already seemingly familiarized itself with the movements, and your power input is not bad either which means that the only thing left is your image. Remember it's like Transfiguration, you need to…"

"I think I got something!" Hermione yelled in excitement, interrupting him. Harry quickly snapped his head over to her before walking over. Neville and Ron stopped their own activities before quickly jogging over as well. Harry watched on as she cast the spell again and paid close attention to the door.

It didn't disappear as his did but if he looked closely, he did see something of a shimmer in the air. He felt as the magic concentrated around the spot for a moment before disbanding.

"Yes, you're doing it. You need to concentrate more though. Think of the details you wish to add to the wall. What lines and cracks is it going to have? Any random miscolorings on it perhaps? The more detail, the easier it should be to cast.

"Alright." Hermione said back before continuing on. Ron and Neville quickly went back to their own doorways with renewed spirit as they too began to try and start casting once again. Harry went back to observing them. Neville was the next one to produce something of a shimmer in the air. By the time Ron had managed to do it, Hermione had already started to produce an opaque looking wall where the door was. It wouldn't last long but she was improving.

Several hours went by, and they regularly took breaks and talked of other things to distract themselves, especially when frustration mounted. Ron talked animatedly about his Alchemy and what his next experiment was going to be. Neville spoke on the many defense books he had been reading, and Hermione did the same except on spell creation books.

Harry mentioned some work he had been doing on his Runic Rituals though was having slow progress with. He also told them of his work on transfiguration he had been doing for defense.

"Transfiguration as a combat style is rather rare."

"It is?"

"Actually, using it is, yes. It is well known though because many high-level wizards have used it successfully, the most recent being Dumbledore himself, but it's not for everyone. Transfiguration can be magically taxing, and high-level Transfiguration even more so. Its attack power is solid but what truly sets it apart is its defensive capabilities. It was why even though Voldemort was so powerful, he couldn't get past Dumbledore's defenses to beat him. His focus was more on curses, and hexes. They're useful for variety but…"

"Wait, so Voldemort is more powerful than Dumbledore?" Ron asked suddenly.

"No one really knows. When a wizard gets as powerful as those two and there's no clear winner between them, finding out whose more powerful gets harder. In terms of pure power, Dumbledore might be ahead simply because his style requires it. But Voldemort had a lot of forbidden dark magic that made him dangerous."

"And yet, he seemed to favor the Killing Curse above all."

"Well, it's a pretty easy spell to use comparatively. It can't be blocked conventionally and it instantly kills anyone it hits. In that way, it's a good spell for ending fights quicker but also aiding in conserving energy." Harry added to the conversation. As someone who had apparently been hit by the spell and lived, he had made sure to do a little research into it.

"Right. So, anyway, it's quite a surprise to see you then getting into it Harry." Neville said back. Harry shrugged.

"I have a lot of magical power and Transfiguration has a simpleness to it that allows me to pick it up more easily than charms, curses, and hexes. It goes well with my mindset, I guess you could say." Harry answered back. It was true. Transfiguration and Conjuration was like making a dense illusion. Just put more power in it, and you were usually fine. Conjuration was actually supposed to be a high-level form of Transfiguration as well but because of his high sensitivity he could feel the way his magic moved which pretty much allowed him to shape it rather easily. At least into physical things, since they were considered 'simple'.

"Does that mean I shall be limited in Transfiguration since I have less magical power?" Hermione asked worriedly. Out of all of them, Hermione had the least magic in her reserves. Which was ironic all things considered since she would likely one day have the greatest ability with magic.

"Limited may not be the right word. Especially since Transfiguration is both mental and magical in efforts but you may find it harder than someone like Harry who naturally excels in both those aspects and even further when combining them."

"Alright, enough chit-chat, back to work." Harry called out before hopping up and making them go back to their respective corners.

They spent several more hours back at the grind and trying to get their illusions in order. When the time for them to finally pack it up came, Hermione had almost managed to pully perform the illusion perfectly with only a few minor issues like some discoloring and small missed details. Neville wasn't too far behind, having fully made a wall and just needing to work on filling it in with more detail be lifelike, and Ron had the least with simply making his illusion look opaque but still there.

"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be." Ron commented. Harry nodded in thought at that.

"I would recommend you all start on Occlumency as soon as possible. It shall help you in this especially when it comes to recalling and creating details. I believe it is why Hermione succeeded the most today since even without, her recall ability and organized mind is ahead of yours. The Mind Arts should help with that. You all should have books on the subject, correct?" Harry asked though he didn't need too. Harry didn't need one, Neville also had some at his own home, and Ron and Hermione had each gotten one from him in which he had done some minor editing in the pages to help them.

"Of course. I read the first few chapters already. I have started the clearing mind exercise before I go to bed." Hermione beamed proudly. Harry nodded and then looked at Ron who suddenly looked a little red.

"I-... Um… I haven't started it yet… In my defense, I have been studying up on other stuff, not goofing off!" Ron tried to defend, clearly seeing the looks the rest of them were giving him.

"You're going to have to make time for it then. You're not going to feel good if you fall behind the rest of us." Hermione pointed out. Ron scowled but nodded.

"Yeah, yeah… You're right. I'll get started tonight." Ron mumbled. With that, His friends finished for the day and made their way back to the sitting room where Harry's fireplace was. Neville left first with a quick goodbye. Ron was up next but called out to Harry before he left.

"Ah damn…"

"Language."

"…Darn. Anyway, my mom wanted me to invite you all over to dinner next week if you can make it after our practice session." Ron finished. Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before looking back to their friend.

"I believe I shall be available. Though I probably can't stay over too late." Harry offered. By now they both knew what he did with his night hours and he wouldn't want blow off his time with Ciri even if he saw her pretty much every day.

"Yeah, it should be fine." Ron told him, hopefully understanding his worries.

"I shall ask my parents but It's likely that they will say yes. I'll send you a letter to let you know for sure sometime this week." Hermione said to him causing Ron to nod before grabbing a handful of powder and throwing it into the fireplace. He called out the name of his home and jumped in. With that, it was just Hermione and Harry left.

"I wanted to ask, how is Ciri?" Hermione questioned curiously. Harry rose an eyebrow at the unexpectedness of her asking but decided to not look to deeply into it.

"She is well. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I just hadn't in a while and I wished to make sure. No more episodes of possession?"

"Not that I have noticed unless they have gotten better at it."

"Hmm. So, I was reading through the Occlumency book and it was speaking how Legilimencers can enter someone's mindscape in which they can peruse through ones experiences. Is that correct?" She suddenly asked. He frowned at the quick change of subject not sure where his friend was going with this. He thought on it for a moment before nodding in confirmation.

"Yes, why?"

"Well, I was thinking, if you and Ciri shared a mindscape, could we not simply use Legilimency on you and enter your mindscape to meet there?"

"…"

Harry blinked at Hermione in silence as he was too shocked by the suggestion to actually respond. Could it have been so simple? Dumbledore had helped him practice his mental defenses but he had never truly immersed himself in Harry's mindscape as Hermione was describing.

"It… might be possible. Normally Legilimency isn't really a long process. You go in, scramble through memories for the ones you want and then get out. To actually stay in the mind and simply hang around… You'd likely couldn't do it the normal way. Standing and simply casting a spell with your wand, you'd leave your body like that for the entirety of the time. Perhaps with a ritual…" Harry was now mumbling to himself as he thought further on the possibility.

"It was just a thought I had. Do you think it would work?" Hermione pressed bringing him out of his quiet ramblings.

"Well, theoretically, yes. Putting it into practice will need some work though. Give me some time, I likely can make something to do it pretty easily. A ritual that mimics legilimency wouldn't even take much words since there's already rune chains that exist that deal with the mind. Just some modifications and such… Yes, just give me some time." Harry told her resolutely. In his mind, he was already building the ritual in his.

This one would actually be closer to a large runic array than a ritual since he wouldn't really be using much of outside ingredients and such, but he would still be using certain Ritual principles to further aid the array so it would still be considered a Runic Ritual. That thought made him consider the fact that his Runic Rituals would likely exist on a spectrum leaning more heavily as ritual or as runic array.

"Great! Well, hopefully we can talk more about it when we next see each other. Alright, I have to go. Goodbye Harry. Thank you for inviting us over and giving us this lesson." Hermione said sincerely. Harry nodded with a small smile in return at that. Hermione had made the most progress today which was strange since he was sure Neville would be with his talent in transfiguration these days. He supposed being a genius had its perks after all.

"Of course. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I am happy with the amount of progress you made." He replied. She smiled looking quite pleased with herself before taking some powder and using it to also disappear within the green flames of the Floo. He didn't even have any time to turn around before the floo roared to life an someone stepped out. It was two people actually, Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall came walking out of the fire causing him to look at them with surprise.

"Albus, Minerva? I wasn't expecting you?"

"Did you forget about the dinner I spoke of last week?" Dumbledore asked. Harry scrunched his brow.

"No, that was supposed to be tomorrow I thought?" Harry said back.

"Hmm…"

"Albus, I swear to Merlin…" Minerva growled as she looked at the aging professor who suddenly chuckled nervously.

"Now Minerva…"

"It's fine, we can have the dinner today, I just need to put it in the oven anyways. In the meantime, we will just have to find something to entertain ourselves." Harry interrupted. Minerva looked at him look still a bit upset but nodded nonetheless. Dumbledore simply looked relieved to not have suffered for his senior moment.

"Thank you, Harry. Well, where shall we wait for you?"

"Training room or Library based on what activity you wish to do with our time. We have about thirty minutes until the food will be ready." Harry said as he went into the kitchen and took some food out of the fridge and placed it into a tray and then into the oven. Once turned on, he left it to cook and made his way back into the maze of rooms he had on the first floor of his house. After looking for a moment, he finally found his two teachers in his training room.

"A spar then?"

"Yes well, Professor McGonagall wished to see your combat abilities again where I was more interested in your projects. We settled on a compromise. We will do a quick spar and then move to the library, if that is agreeable with you?"

"Yes, that's fine. Alright, let's do this." Harry said as he moved over to the middle of the room as both he and Minerva withdrew their wands. They looked at each other from across the room seriously as they waited.

"Begin." Dumbledore called out.

"Ignitus!" Harry called out. Immediately, a sizeable fireball sprang forth from his wand and streaked towards his professor. Minerva conjured a basic shield which shook under the weight of the fire and visibly weakened. While not upset, Minerva did look at the clear damage with interest.

"You managed to improve your flames and imbue them with some sort of magical quality." She commented. Harry nodded but didn't wait for her to continue. He immediately began conjuring since this room was mostly empty. He held out his left hand towards the floor and, immediately, small rocks began to form all over the ground around him extremely quickly.

He was interrupted from his works though when a green color sailed right past his head, only missing him due to him dodging left at the last second. He noticed two more spells coming at him and he prepared to move.

Harry didn't think about it often but he was in pretty good shape, which was weird because he didn't work out that much at all. He did some light exercises to make sure he could somewhat keep up with Ciri in their mindscape and that was it. He supposed he also didn't eat much either though. The point being was, he found it easy enough to simply dodge spells and move out of their way instead of out right blocking them. That being said… it may just be him but spells seemed to move rather slowly all things considered. Like they had speed but it didn't seem like it should be hard to just take a quick step out of their path. To be fair though, he was more used to moving out of Ciri's striking range and her blade was a lot closer and moved a lot quicker.

Harry continued to dodge as he formed the stones on the floor from little individual ones into long stone poles. He left them without any sharp edges since he wasn't trying to kill his teacher. Eventually, Minerva seemed to realize she wasn't going to be able to hit him so instead, she switched to hitting things around him. What's more, she started conjuring things herself. Harry suddenly found himself looking at two angry black dogs as they charged him.

He frowned before hovering the several stone poles he now had into the air with the simple levitation charm and then began to banish them at the dogs.

The poles weren't too thick but they were made entirely of stone so when they connected, it made a an uncomfortable thud and cracking noise with the dog. The dog was then knocked to the ground and whimpered clearly in pain before dissolving showing its death. The second dog now seemed more wary since Harry still had several more poles ready to launch hovering in front of him.

Suddenly, Harry ducked as he heard a screech come from above him. He felt something go right above his head as he did so and looked back to see a medium sized bird recover from a dive and go back to flying near the roof of the room.

"Are you serious…" He mumbled to himself. If that wasn't bad enough, Minerva was back to shooting spells at him which were now much harder to dodge considering the other thing he had to look out for.

At this point, Harry was getting frustrated. He knew Minerva wasn't going all out on him but he realized that he himself was rather limited as well. He had more abilities but either he couldn't use them right now for the danger or they took too long. He frowned as he thought about it.

With that thought, he suddenly had an idea. He immediately cast a quick Miran spell in front of him and suddenly, instead of the six stone poles in front of him, there were almost thirty, all floating and slowly moving around each other to mix the real ones in. That wasn't easy to do really, Wingardium Leviosa wasn't really meant to control something in the air, especially not multiple things. That's why it was a basic levitation spell. You could still move things; it was just harder than it should be.

Minerva did look rather shocked for a moment to see all the poles and clearly could see where he was going with this. The bird dived down once more to distract him while the dog looked both confused and scared at the sudden increase in poles. He watched the bird get in close and held up his off hand at it. As soon as it got close enough, he let out a stream of fire, not even as a spell and watched it sqwack in confusion then fall from the sky in a ball of fire. It slid across the floor and then came to a stop where it no longer moved.

He then looked back at his teacher and raised his wand before casting the banishing charm launching them all forward in the direction of the remaining dog and his teacher. One of the real poles nailed the dog causing it to dispel a moment later while the rest raced at his teacher. Minerva immediately conjured a magical shield.

As the poles came closer, Harry immediately cast another illusion, this one produced several replicas of himself. To make it more confusing they all stood close near him and began moving around in a random order to hopefully confuse Minerva who was now recovering from the broken poles that had smashed harmlessly against the shield she conjured. He then had his illusions spread around the room and each prepared a different looking spell and getting ready to attack.

With that in place, Harry cast another illusion, this one was a deep fog that suddenly enveloped the entire room. With that he moved quickly. Minerva knew how his illusions work and knew how to dispel his simple ones which she would likely know this was based on how quickly he had cast them.

He quickly began his hand to spark as he began summoning lightening. In this case though, he focused on keeping the strength down as much as possible. Lightning packed a punch and hit its targets very hard with its speeds. He was really not trying to go overboard but he also didn't want to lose.

The moment the fog disappeared as Minerva dispelled it, him and all his clones raised their hands with their various attacks ready and cast them.

Minerva didn't look pleased as she hastily brought up a shield and watch it get pounded by he illusion spells. The problem was that the shield dispelled normal spells too so when it dispelled the illusions that came into contact with it, it just seemed normal and didn't actually reveal which was the real spell, to Harry's pleasant surprise. Minerva's brow scrunched in concentration and possibly annoyance as Harry began pumping out more and more illusions until the entire room was almost full of them.

With that, Harry began to move around and slowly move closer and closer to Minerva as she looked around confused and shot randomly into the crowd dispelling clones one by one. He had been smart enough to make each clone an individual illusion so they wouldn't all dispel from one spell. Unfortunately, the spell wouldn't break on contact with a clone like it did with a person so one spell could take out multiple clones on its trip through the room if they were unfortunate enough to run into it. Even worse, the clone's movement was scripted so they couldn't avoid them.

Harry just kept silently making more of them. Thank Merlin, Miran was such a low-level illusion that cost almost nothing to cast for him. It was rather overpowered for its level actually. He stopped that thought though as he continued to move subtly closer and closer to Minerva who suddenly seemed to be paying close attention to his clones. He watched her look around and at this point, he was only ten feet from her. He could almost get to her at this point.

Suddenly, she changed tactics and spun while continuing to shoot a spell after spell rapidly, seemingly unconcerned with her aim. His eyes widened as he saw one such spell come racing to him as he was forced to suddenly move out of the way. He realized what was happening almost immediately as her eyes suddenly locked on his form and several spells came at him in response. With how close he was as well as how many were coming, this time, he could no longer dodge.

A spell collided with his chest, knocking him over and leaving a somewhat painful stinging sensation on his chest. He fell on his butt and suddenly rubbed his chest to assuage his pain. He looked up and Minerva was now standing over him with her wand away.

"That was rather clever with your clones." She told him as she reached a hand down to help him up. He took it and got back to his feet.

"Not clever enough. You still eventually saw through it."

"Yes, but you did get close."

"I suppose… I take it you noticed that my clones had limited movement and wouldn't get out of the way of your spells like I would?"

"Indeed, I did. It's a good idea to make each of them independent though. You spoke to me about that already. Still, I tried not to go too hard."

"I did the same, my opening fire ball was the strongest thing I used, followed closely by conjuring all those rocks. A shame this room was relatively empty though I suppose that benefitted me more than you since you could do more if there were more things in here for you to Transfigure. I'm still somewhat limited especially in terms of speed."

"You used lightning."

"Yes, but I weakened it as much as I could since I didn't actually wish to hit you with a full power lightning strike on the off chance that you didn't throw up a shield, you know? Either way, I have some more ideas what I need to work on but a lot of it is just taking time to get better at my casting times for certain spells. And perhaps I should put into practice some of the charms and hexes I have read about. I can't just rely on my current repertoire."

"Perhaps, but you are still the most capable first year I have ever had the pleasure of fighting. Or perhaps I should say second year now?"

"Not until I start… Still, I suppose you're right. Well, thank you for the spar. Shall we head to the library next; we still have ten more minutes."

"Yes, I think that'd be best." She told him as they walked over to Albus who congratulated Harry on his impressive sparring capabilities given his limited ability. Harry nodded in thanks before ushering them both to his nearby library. They walked over to Harry's desk and began looking at his various works.

"Hmm, have you suspended you're work on the Purifying Ritual and switched to simple healing?" Albus asked as he looked over his latest notes.

"I wouldn't say suspended per se. I am still looking into both right now, it's just that healing comes easier at the moment. Though if you can't get rid of the magic in the wound then there's no point."

"Yes, well, hopefully you have some time until you have to deal with cursed wounds."

"Hopefully. I am also starting on Legilimency ritual but I just decided on that today. Though it shouldn't be too hard or take too long. And, of course, I am always trying to figure out ways to world hop. I haven't made much progress on that front though I do believe I have a lead."

"Really? Care to share?"

"While I can't figure out the how's, I do believe I have the theoretical down on what it should look and feel like when it happens. I am therefore trying to create a ritual to see if I can find places where these former tears exist and possibly see if they can help me. Of course, this relies on the fact that they are indeed as I believe them to be and that there have been people in the past who have accomplished this. Either way, it's something." Harry explained.

"Fascinating. Please keep me informed on what you find, if anything. I would be very interested if this pans out."

"Honestly, trying to go to different worlds… There's such a thing as too much work you know Harry." Minerva muttered though it was clearly meant to be loud enough for him to hear. Harry simply shrugged.

"I don't have the time to wait all my life. I have no idea the next time my friend will be in a crisis and need help. Wouldn't you do the same in my shoes? Wouldn't you give it your all?" Harry asked. Minerva simply sighed at that but said nothing as she continued to look over his notes.

"Admirable. Don't let your other studies slip though. You were in the top ten student performers of your year. That being said, I know if you really wished, you could have been within the top three. Your friend Ms. Granger took the top spot."

"You know I don't care about such things. I just make sure I at the very least, stay competent in all areas, but I only truly wish to become proficient in things I care about." Harry told his Guardian.

"*sigh* I suppose I can't force you to do more than that. Do remember though that after you eventually leave this institution, you'll likely need to find a job and your academics are used for such."

"NEED is a strong word given my financial situation but I see your point." Harry mumbled back. With them finishing look over his current projects they finally went to the dining room while Harry went into the kitchen to finish prepping the now cooked food.

"Alright, here we are. You're lucky the food had been prepped in advance and just needed to be cooked." Harry shot at Albus who looked suddenly bashful once more.

"Forgive an old man his mistakes." Albus said politely only for Harry to roll his eyes.

"I'll consider it."

With that, they settled in and descended into silence as they began eating the food. It took a while but after a while, they had eaten enough to the point they could once more hold a conversation.

"So, Harry…"

"Yes?"

"I have been discussing with both Professor McGonagall as well as Professor Snape on a certain issue and both agree that you should be informed of certain truths of this world." Albus said. As soon as he spoke, the room seemed to get colder and Harry could feel a seriousness settle around him.

"What do you mean?"

"… It is time to speak of Lord Voldemort, and why you need to be especially cautious now that he has once more began making moves in our world."