It had already been Harry's first month of his new life; during this time, he focused on his magical education, observing his fields, and making smaller things from wood and stone.
He improved leaps and bounds when it came to transfiguration and charms. His transfiguration became quicker and more precise, and his charms were now more potent and effective. Harry found comfort in the routine of his daily magical exercises, feeling a sense of accomplishment with each successful spell.
As he delved deeper into his magical studies, he discovered new spells and incantations that intrigued him, sparking his curiosity and driving his determination to master them. With each passing day, Harry felt more confident in his abilities and excited to see what other wonders the world of magic held for him.
Harry also started to improve in the art of runes, creating smaller enchanted objects like a small light that he installed in his storehouse that would turn up when detecting movement.
Thanks to his experimentation, he also found out that the wood from the trees in the forest is highly resistant to direct magic. He cannot simply transfigure with his wandless magic, and even while using the AFT spear form, it takes a considerable amount of power to do it.
On the other hand, the wood was an excellent material for magical creations, and the runes engraved on it seemed to create powerful synergy that enhanced the durability and strength of the item.
It will take some time before he becomes master of Runecraft, and at this moment, Harry barely began his journey into it, but he found the entire creation and enchanting items fascinating. He truly regretted not taking it as his elective in his third year; it would have been better spent time than Trawnley predicting his death in Divination class.
Harry also picked up books about occlumency and started to practice it for an hour each evening, meditating before sleep. The practice was challenging at first, as Harry found it difficult to clear his mind of all emotions and thoughts.
Nevertheless, he persisted, determined to not only master the art of occlumency in order to protect his mind from external invasion but also speed up his thought process. With each session, he felt a growing sense of control and inner strength, gradually building a mental shield that would shield him from unwanted intrusions.
As he dove deeper into the exercises, Harry began to notice subtle changes in his ability to block out distractions and focus his thoughts with clarity. The quiet moments before sleep became a sanctuary where he could hone his skills and strengthen his mental defenses, preparing himself for whatever challenges lay ahead.
When it came to the farm work, Harry experimented with adding fertilizer created by AFT and water through AFT's water can. It seemed that he wouldn't need any additional growth potions.
He closely tracked plant growth, noting how quickly they responded to fertilizer and water. The fields on which he used both of them had their growth rate increase significantly. But even the fields that he only watered showed growth quicker than expected.
For instance, the books state that tomatoes typically take around a hundred days to grow. However, just one month after being planted, they had already started producing fruit that was ready to be harvested.
Having to harvest all the fields by himself created a challenge for Harry; even though the wolves aided him in protection and finding pests, they were unable to assist with the harvest.
Harry found himself working tirelessly from sunrise to sunset to harvest all his fields due to the abundance of produce. It took him approximately 10 days to complete the task, which prompted him to construct a second storehouse. Although this affected his magical training, it was a necessary task that had to be completed promptly.
But thanks to his magic, he didn't have to worry about his harvest going rotten; Harry simply learned and cast a stasis charm on them, keeping them fresh until needed.
Harry also planted a few fruit trees in his residential area, as for now it was quite empty, such as apples, pears, tangerines, oranges, persimmons, lemons, and peaches. He also made a few small wooden herb pots in which he planted mint, basil, and oregano, to name a few.
Thanks to the mundane books he retrieved from the vault, he also discovered how to obtain the essential salt. Below ground, there lies a layer of mineral salt in the soil, which, once boiled in water, can be turned into usable salt by drying the residue that accumulates.
From the gathered plants, his wolves seemed to like the most tomatoes. Their tails would wag eagerly as they munched on ripe, juicy tomatoes plucked fresh from the garden. The adult wolves would always be the first to grab a tomato, with the others following closely behind in a rowdy, playful group. It was a sight that never failed to bring a smile to his face.
The other fruit that seemed to be liked by both Alice and Arwen were strawberries, something that the male wolves didn't share with them.
The pups through the month had already almost grown to their parents size, the only difference being that on their heads they had horns. After closer inspection of Padfoot and Alice, he could see that they also once had it, but it seemed they broke. The horns were sharp and sturdy, as if made out of metal.
Harry always wondered why they didn't like being petted on their heads as much as the rest of their bodies; it seemed to be because of the said horns. The question now was if they would grow back up after some time.
He tried to look up their species in books from the vault but couldn't find anything of value. They were similar in appearance to the barghests, but the horns were a unique characteristic that did not fit. It was quite possible that they did not exist in his old world.
Deciding not to think about it for now, Harry started to plan what he would plant next. Tomatoes and strawberries were a given, seeing how wolves liked them. He wanted to create oil, so sunflowers were next on his list. Sugarcane would be good to replenish his sugar supplies. The other things that he would like to plant are soybeans and wheat.
After harvesting his fields, Harry returned to his normal schedule of morning exercises, training magic, managing his farm, and training occult in the evenings.
During this time, while waiting for his plants to grow, he began to explore the area near his home. He wasn't scared of getting lost, as he could find his way back quickly thanks to either the point-me spell or one of the wolves that always went out with him.
It seemed that they chose to take his protection seriously, and now that the pups had grown, there was always at least one of them by his side. Harry was glad for the loyal companionship that they provided; because of them, the feeling of loneliness wasn't as bad as it could be.
Harry checked the closest surrounding area but found nothing. He encountered a few rabbits and boars, but they always ran away at the sight of the wolves. He decided to check from the air if he could see something close by, so he picked one of the many brooms that were gathering dust in the vault.
Wolves were clearly startled when seeing him levitating above the ground, but Harry ignored it for the moment and soared upwards. After reaching a good height, he looked around himself; all he could see was a forest in all directions. The forest stretched through many kilometers, and where it ended, the high mountains began.
Harry observed the land below, marveling at the dense forest and towering mountains in the distance. The sense of vastness and solitude was both intimidating and exhilarating. As he began descending back, he saw a river west of his location.
When he landed, the wolves gathered around him, happily wagging their tails at his return. He quickly patted them and played with them by throwing their discs to catch them.
The next day, Harry and Gandalf went in the direction of the river. From what he could tell, it was 5 kilometers away from his house. As they walked through the forest and started to get closer, the sound of the river grew louder with each step.
The gurgling water was a soothing presence, contrasting with the rustling leaves. Gandalf trod ahead confidently, drinking from the river, clearly showing that it was safe for usage.
The river itself was 5 meters wide, and in it, he could see fish swimming around. Harry marveled at the pristine clarity of the water, shimmering as sunlight danced on its surface.
The gentle current brushed against his skin, refreshing and cool. Faint ripples trailed behind the fish as they darted playfully in the shallows.
As he and Gandalf walked upstream, they found a small waterfall. High on about 7 or 8 meters with the slope at 60 degrees. Thinking that he had found a nice place for fishing, he wondered if he would like to build a small path leading from his house to this place.
Harry returned to his broom with Gandalf running next to him, skilfully dodging trees on his way; they quickly returned home. And time passed with Harry's normal schedule of learning magic by himself until the next harvest came, and with it, he noticed that the temperature started to get lower.
—-xXx—-
Harry once again needed to harvest all the fields by himself, and as his magical education was pushed to the side, he started to think that he needed to find someone to help. From the newly gathered crops, nothing was as well liked by the wolves as the tomatoes.
Only after Harry picked up a sugarcane and started to eat it did the wolves look at it and be interested, but it seemed that only Alice and Arwen liked it, just like strawberries. It seems that female wolves have a sweet tooth.
As the temperatures dropped, Harry started making preparations for winter, realizing the season was advancing quicker than he anticipated. Reflecting on his time in this new world, he started to calculate how long he had spent here.
From planting to harvesting, it took around 50 days, and he harvested his fields two times already, making it around 100 days since his arrival in this new world. Three and a half months free from Britain.
For his preparation, he started to gather firewood just in case. Harry didn't have to worry about food, but he still planned to go to the river and catch a few fish and maybe hunt down a few boars and rabbits. His hunts would be easy thanks to tracking spells.
Harry looked through the vault for some clothes that would be more appreciated in this weather, but sadly, most of them weren't to his liking. Most of them were styled from the Victorian era and were mostly cut for purebloods and not a simple life as a farmer.
He could use a warming charm on himself just in case he did not freeze to death, and his tent was also enchanted to always have an adequate temperature. He also created a few small enchanted items himself just for winter, like a small wooden plate that had engraved runes on it that worked as a heat pack for a short amount of time.
After using it, it would quickly heat up to a certain degree and slowly start to lose its temperature, the only minus of this being that it was a one-time-use item. He created around 50 of them just in case.
Wolves helped where they could, steadily bringing more hunted rabbits in his direction. Harry quickly became more proficient in skinning them. The meat and fur would be stored for winter, and the rabbit's entrails were immediately given to the wolves to be eaten.
He also found out that the rabbits and boars' hearts were made out of small crystals; he hadn't paid attention to this before, but looking more closely at it, he could feel some magic in it. He gave a few to the wolves that happily munched on them, but still took a few for himself to study in the winter.
He wondered briefly about making a coat out of all the fur that he collected, but he doubted that he could manage to do it successfully. Harry planned to spend most of the winter at home, reading books and learning more magic.
One day he heard that one of the wolves was calling for him. Intrigued, he quickly came to the barking wolf. Upon arriving, Harry found Pippin standing next to the large spider.
It wasn't as large as some acromantulas that he met in his second year; Aragog was the size of a small elephant. The one that was next to the pippin was resembling a jumping spider. It was all black, with white coloring on its joints and red eyes.
It raised one of its legs as if to greet him, and Pippin stood proudly next to it, probably thinking about the job well done. Harry looked at the wolf and wanted to question him about the spider.
"Woof," Pippin barked at his new friend.
Just as if it were waiting for a signal, in mere moments it spit threads out of its abdomen and, in a skillful manner, quickly made a handkerchief. It took around five minutes to make it, and Harry was watching the entire process with interest.
When the spider finished its product, it placed the cloth before the pippin, and the wolf brought it straight to Harry for examination.
The handkerchief was 50 centimeters square; the material was considerable, and some of the clothes that he checked in the vault were probably even better. On one of its corners, there was a small embroidery in the shape of a spider.
Seeing that his master was taking too long on examination, Pippin bit the hem of Harry's trousers lightly and pulled.
Harry looked at the spider. "So you can make clothes and want to live here?"
Pippin barked happily as if Harry had said the correct thing, and the spider raised one of its legs as a confirmation.
"That's fine with me," said Harry, and he started leading the new companion to the big tree.
Harry may have bad memories of acromantulas after they tried to eat him, but he didn't exactly mind spiders as a whole. He will forever distrust Aragog and his children, but that doesn't mean he will hate the entire species until proven otherwise.
Harry and the spider quickly became friends, with his new companion taking a living space on the big tree. One thing that surprised Harry was Spider's love for raw potatoes, but he truly preferred it over acromantulas' love for human meat.
Harry named it "Shelob" after the giant spider from "The Lord of the Rings" series by J.R.R. Tolkien because he found similarities between the two creatures.
Shelob took a liking to its new name and responded by scuttling out of its hiding place every time Harry called for it. The spider also took possession of all the gathered skin, and after taking Harry's measurements, he made him winter clothes. The boy also asked for a set of bedding for his bed.
It took a job of skinning animals by itself and was done so much quicker and more effectively than Harry ever did it. The other job that Shelob performed was guard duty; thanks to its position on the big tree, it saw its entire surroundings.
By beating the wood, it would signal the direction from which there is a problem; one beat was north, twice was east, three was south, and four times was west. In a direction like south-west, it would first beat three times and then follow up with four more beats after a small pause.
Thanks to this alarm system, he already hunted a small racoon-like creature that wolves drove in his direction. With one good swipe of his hoe, he beheaded the creature and took its corpse to the big tree for Shelob to process with skinning.
And before Harry knew it, the first snow started to fall.
—-xXx—-
Winter was spent by Harry and his companions in peace. Shelob started her hibernation on the big tree and didn't even poke out of its hiding place, and the wolves didn't go out into the forest as often as they did before.
The wolves preferred the warm temperature of the tent, laying together as a group and often observing what Harry was doing at the moment.
His proficiency in occult training soared, and he was confident that by the end of winter, he would be skilled enough to build his own mind palace as described in the books. Though it would still be some time before Harry could consider himself a master in this art, he found it relatively easy to grasp.
Harry himself chose this time to read as many books as he could and, from time to time, train his magic outside. But he didn't limit himself to only magical books; he also read a few mundane books, such as cookbooks.
He also read novels that he found in the vault as entertainment. His enchanting and runecrafting also started to progress during this time, with him slowly creating more complicated items and rune schemes.
The other thing that he did was a little research into the crystals that animals had for their hearts; from what he could gather, it was a small magic crystal that he could use as a battery in his creations. Different crystals have different amounts of magic in them; rabbits, for example, had smaller amounts than boars.
And that was how two months went by with Harry shutting himself in his tent, thankful for having a working toilet. He needed to come outside to remove the snow that started to gather up a few times. It was a great time to test his fire magic, which he used wandless to not overpower it.
Around this time, there was a small blizzard that suddenly appeared, blocking the entrance to his home. Thankfully, he was safe in his tent, and all the wolves were inside as well.
Five days after the blizzard, the temperature started to go up once more and wolves started to go out into the forest. The snow was slowly melting, but wolves didn't bring any prey at this time. The rabbits were probably still hiding from the winter.
Three days later, Shelob came down from the tree for the first time in two and a half months, and with her were a large number of spiderlings. They were the size of Harry's hand; now he at least knew that Shelob was a female. The only thing that he still wondered about was how she managed to give birth to them without a male spider.
Her children shared their mother's love for raw potatoes, and with their arrival, spring has come as well.
The children's wolves' horns have fallen from their heads, and Harry gathered them and stored them for now. Maybe he could use them for something other than decoration. The Padfoot and Alice horns, on the other hand, grew back in this time.
Going back to farming, Harry planted two fields, each for tomatoes and potatoes, for his animal companions. He also planted onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, and spinach on the remaining fields.
Tea was planted as well; Harry was, after all, an Englishman and would like to drink a cup of tea from time to time.
After planting new crops, he checked his fences and how they managed the winter; fortunately, he didn't have to worry about it as the logs easily survived the harsh winter, and even blizzards weren't enough to damage them.
In the moat, he found a few rabbits that must have died through the winter. Harry chose to make them into fertilizer, not taking the risk of eating them.
As the cold disappeared completely one day, the younger wolves came to him, and after a bark from Pippin, they started to run in different directions in the forest.
At first, Harry was startled and looked at their parents in clear question about what's going on.
Padfoot and Alice rubbed their bodies together to signal where their children went.
"Ah, looking for partners?" asked Harry.
"Woof," confirmed Alice.
Harry smiled at the thought of them finding their second halves, but he still started to feel lonely with them gone.
Seeing this, both Padfoot and Alice tried to cheer him up by rubbing their bodies against him and demanding petting.
Thanks to the lack of younger wolves, Harry no longer had a constant companion by his side. Alice and Padfoot clearly tried when they could to be near him, but both of them needed to go hunting from time to time.
Luckily, young spiderlings were quick to pick up the slack in protecting the fields by easily catching smaller birds and pests that attempted to infest the crops. The only problem was that Harry needed to watch his steps to not crush them under his foot.
This problem was quickly resolved by spiders creating small bridges made from their web above the ground, on which they moved and jumped like bungees to catch their prey.
Harry quickly gave up on naming the spiders when he caught sight of how many of them there were. Their amount easily exceeded one hundred already.
His schedule quickly became like the one from before the winter, taking care of the fields and studying magic from his books.
Shelob is on main guard duty, skinning animals and making items from fur and silk. Alice and Padfoot take care of hunting and protecting either Harry or the fields.
Spiderlings helped with the protection of the fields and with harvesting crops when the time came for it.
In this time, Harry started to build up a reservoir in which he could hold the water. He dug a large hole in the shape of an inverted pyramid with a size of 100 meters square. He planned to connect it with the river by making an aqueduct, but for now, he simply supplied the water with his magic.
The reservoir was made so the animals in the area would have an easy water source without asking Harry to conjure more. He could also think of using it later for watering his fields.
The younger wolves started to come back after two months; each came back with a new partner.
The first one to come back was Merry. His partner tried to intimidate Harry at first but quickly backed away when both Padfoot and Alice came on each of his sides. It may also have seen Shelob making its way towards it.
Harry quickly looked over Merry for injuries but, thankfully, didn't find any. For Merry's partner's name, Harry chose "Willow".
After a few days, Arwen came back from the west. Her partner was injured, and after Harry looked and asked what happened, she just turned her head to not look at him. Harry wondered if she did it, or perhaps she had many suitors, and they did it to him when they fought over her. When he said his thoughts aloud, Arwen nodded her head as if to agree with him on it.
He named her partner "Aragorn".
In the next few days, Pippin and Gandalf came back with their partners. Gandalf was injured, and when asked if his partner did it to him, he seemed to shake his head in negative. From what Harry could gather, Gandalf fought another wolf for the rights to his new partner and won.
Pippin's partner was named "Ember" and Gandalf's "Terra".
From what Harry could see, all the female wolves, even Alice, were pregnant, so he started to make plans to expand his farm with an area for the wolves. On the east side, he cleared a large plot of land of any trees and surrounded it with the fence and the moat. He left the logs between their new space and residential area but filled the moat with dirt so they wouldn't be isolated as much.
The area was the size of his 16 fields. Harry built them a small doghouse, and inside were a few dog beds made by Shelob. Before they moved home, he also dug a well so the wolves could drink water near the place they slept.
Alice and Padfoot chose to stay with him, living in the big tree; the rest of the wolves moved to the new shed. The newcomers seemed to like tomatoes, and Terra seemed to take a liking to the onions as well.
Soon more wolves will be born, so he expanded his fields as well. South of the residential area, he plowed 16 new fields that he also surrounded with fences and moats.
When it came to the spiders, it seemed that they were getting along well with the wolves. Harry could spot a few spiderlings, even riding on Ember. With spiders help, Harry was also quicker when it came to harvesting the fields.
They couldn't help with rooted crops but helped pick up tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers, even placing them in boxes that Harry prepared for them. He occasionally saw them eating some of the crops but didn't mind it too much as they clearly worked hard.
The wolves, seeing spiders helping with the harvest, tried to help to do it as well, but with their mouths, they ate more than they harvested. After overeating too much, they gave up on helping with it, sticking to hunting and protecting the fields.
With their females pregnant, male wolves rushed to the forest to hunt as many rabbits as they could. Harry had to help Shelob with the dismantling process, as wolves seemed to like eating rabbits without fur on them. They also preferred it cooked over raw.
The amount of fur that they gathered was enormous, and Harry chose to keep one fourth of all the magical crystals from the animals that they gathered, giving the rest to the wolves as they clearly liked it.
With the wolves' mating season ending, they gave birth to the small pups. Soon, the wolf area was filled with young pups. There were so many of them that Harry simply gave up on naming all of them.
The only ones that got the name were a unique female pup of Terra and Gandalf that had white fur that he named "Snow".
Four new puppies were born to Alice and Padfoot. They were named "Brutus," "Hunter," "Ebony," and "Midnight." Brutus and Hunter were male, while Ebony and Midnight were female.
With the new pups and spiderlings trotting around, the farm became livelier than ever.
—-xXx—-
In a small distance from the farm, there was a girl slowly watching from behind the tree.
Response to reviews:
Darkshot99, Firestar Prime: Thanks for the positive review, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!
Sandwich-kun the 3rd: Thanks for the positive review once more! When it came to the names, I knew that I simply couldn't name them the same way as in the canon with Harry not being from Japan and not being as lazy as Hiraku (Blackone, Blacktwo, etc. would be awkward, to be honest). When it came to Hedwig, the problem was that the phoenix would give him too much of an advantage at the start of the story, and even in this world, phoenixes are rare; thunderbirds, on the other hand, are quite large, and I cannot imagine Hedwig not being able to sit on Harry's shoulder. She may come to the new world to live with Harry in the future, depending on how I write the Britain plot, but it won't be soon, and then she may evolve into some new species (either a unique kind of phoenix or another mythical bird of small size). One thing for sure is that some characters from the HPverse may come to the village as well; I just need to plan it a bit more and make the village more developed (Dobby and Hedwig are the ones of the most certain ones).
firelordeg: Thanks for another positive review, and yes, Harry, as an Englishman, had to name them differently; the same came for Zabuton. I thought that the names from LOTR would be more interesting than simple Black, Snow, Blackone, Blacktwo, Blackthree, and Blackfour (it may work in Japanese but not so much in English).
