Author's Note: Hello again!
I've had a few comments regarding how dark this story is beginning to get, and I fully understand that. This story has gotten dark, and while currently, that's the point, I don't intend for this to be a super gritty story, as that's no fun.
While the overall plot will continue as dark for some time to come, I will try to keep the intrapersonal stuff between characters as lighthearted as I can. I want to expand on Hogwarts and the life there as well, not just on the super serious 'mature' stuff as I have been.
Essentially, I'll try to keep a balance between the lighter and darker stuff, so as not to bog down my readers.
Also, some people made some very good guesses on what was happening with Dumbledore, and while I won't say if they were correct or not, I will say that the effects of Albus Dumbledore's actions will follow him to the grave.
And of the thing I mentioned with Hermione, it has to do with her Knowledge. Also remember last chapter's AN where I mentioned who was capable of reading Harry's tome? If you can figure it out with that hint, props to you, but please refrain from spoiling it lol, I have things planned for it.
Anyway, I think that's everything for now. Enjoy the chapter!
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"-Just saying, your magic looks so much brighter now!" Luna exclaimed happily as she walked with Harry to their lesson with Thanatos.
Harry found himself smiling at her enthusiasm. "Thanks. So… you can really see magic?"
Luna nodded. "Yep! Magic looks really different depending on the person, that's how I identify people since I'm not good with faces."
"Wait, really?" Harry asked, genuinely curious. He'd never thought Luna of all people could forget a face, given she had such an uncanny memory.
"I can barely remember a face at all," Luna admitted somewhat sheepishly. "My Mage Sight changes the way I see things a lot, so any time I try to remember a face, I just remember their magic. If you showed me a normal photo of someone, I'd struggle to identify it unless I knew them well."
Harry blinked. "So all those times you just… knew people's names…"
"I was reading their magic, yes," Luna replied with a nod. "I'm reading yours right now! It has a lot of colors to it; it's rather beautiful."
Harry flushed a bit, not really knowing how to respond to that.
"Err– thanks?"
"You're welcome!" Luna replied with her usual light tone.
"You're late," Thanatos told Harry and Luna entered an abandoned classroom.
Harry's brows furrowed. "But we're here on time?"
Thanatos looked up from the parchment he was reading, eyebrow raised. A potion bottle with silver liquid sat beside him, glowing slightly.
"You sure about that? The lesson starts at 9, you're supposed to be here earlier," He grinned at them, and the pair suddenly felt dread enter their minds.
He stood from his desk and it vanished with a wave, with the letter folding itself and putting itself in his pocket along with the potion.
"Ok, first thing, we'll be covering some theory, checking your magical refinement, and so on," Thanatos told them. "Along with your magical reserves, and how that can affect the way you cast magic."
Both Harry and Luna perked up at that, being genuinely curious how they'd test something like that, Luna especially.
"Wait, but where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked suddenly, looking around and not seeing Remus.
"Ugh, right here, Harry," Remus said as he entered the classroom holding his head and greeted the both of them.
Harry did a double-take as he saw the Professor. Lupin looked absolutely horrid, with deeply sagging eyebags, huge dark circles under his eyes, thinner and messier hair, and a stooped stature as if a giant hand pressed down on his spine.
"Woah, Professor, you look dreadful!" Luna exclaimed, staring at the air around him in shock.
Remus smiled tiredly at her. "I know, Miss Lovegood. I always get quite sick around this time, it's routine at this point."
"Won't be for long," Thanatos said, pulling the potion from his pocket.
Remus turned to him and blinked, staring at the potion.
"Is this why you called me here? I'm not supposed to take my potion until later, Thanatos."
Thanatos shook his head. "This isn't your normal treatment. Try it."
Remus gave him an odd look but took the potion nonetheless.
"Ah, well, thank you, Thanatos. I'll go back to my class and ta–"
"No," Thanatos stated.
"Pardon?"
"No," Thanatos repeated. "Take it here. Trust me on this."
Thanatos flicked his wrist, and the door to the class closed, locking with a click.
Remus cleared his throat and shot a look at Luna before looking back at Thanatos.
Thanatos sighed. "Just drink it. I swear on my honor as your friend, you'll want to take it here."
Remus stared at the silver potion for a long while, deeply considering it.
"Tha–Thanatos, are you sure?" Remus asked softly.
Aahna flew in through the window, stopping beside Thanatos and transforming mid-air.
"Oh, come on, drink the damn potion," She urged. "Trust me, I made it."
Remus sighed and uncorked the bottle, taking a deep breath in preparation for the taste.
He knocked it back in a single gulp, pleasantly surprised at the fact the potion tasted like a strawberry smoothie.
Remus gasped as he finished the potion, a burning heat beginning to go through his body.
Before Harry's eyes, Remus seemed to grow taller and broader at the shoulder, his eyebags and circles disappearing as bones cracked.
The scars on Remus' face and neck began to vanish, and Luna gasped loudly, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the air around him.
"Oh my…" She whispered as if she'd seen the most beautiful thing.
"I– wha– how?" Remus asked weakly, staring at himself. He looked 15 years younger and felt better than he ever had in his life.
Aahna laughed loudly, throwing her arms up in a cheer.
"It worked! It really worked!" She exclaimed happily. "Oh– well, of course it worked, I made it, but like– It really worked!"
"Wait, what? What worked?" Harry asked in confusion, looking between them all.
Aahna grinned at him. "I~ just cured lycanthropy, and Remus here is our first patient!"
Remus gaped at her, utterly stunned. His hands shook, and tears sprung in his eyes.
"You…" He choked, unable to form words.
Aahna gave him a gentle smile. "That's right. From now on, you're lycanthropy-free."
Remus tackled her into a hug, nearly knocking her off her feet, and making her laugh loudly.
"I can't believe it! You– You really mean it?!" Remus exclaimed, pulling back and squeezing her shoulders.
"Yep, she means it," Thanatos told him with a smile. "We were going to save it for Yule, but we just so happened to have a breakthrough in something that allowed us to finish it faster."
Remus chuckled a bit, his eyes wide, before he suddenly erupted into laughter, whooping with joy like a little kid.
"YES! I'M FREE! I'M FINALLY FUCKING FREE!" He shouted, running around the classroom laughing.
He jumped a solid ten feet into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling, and landed with a thud, his eyes wide.
"Woah…" He said, staring at Aahna.
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention, you keep the strength, speed, and senses, but you don't undergo a transformation every month anymore," She said.
Remus laughed loudly again, jumping back and doing a surprisingly clean back tuck with ease.
"Oh my god… I feel amazing," He breathed, lightly punching the stone wall beside him and breaking a piece off.
Thanatos grinned at him. "You also have an Animagus form. Try to turn into a wolf."
Remus' brows furrowed, and a moment later, a huge gray wolf stood in the middle of the classroom.
The wolf was a solid five-and-a-half feet tall, around 13 feet long, including the tail, and had a head almost the size of Harry's torso, with huge sharp teeth.
Remus moved around a bit, hesitantly figuring out how to walk on four legs instead of two.
Eventually, Remus stopped and made an odd growling noise that rumbled in Harry's chest, and Aahna turned him back into a human with a wave.
"Ugh, I really have to figure out how to transform," Remus groaned, sprawled spread-eagle on the ground.
He stood and brushed himself off, still grinning a bit.
"Thank you…" He told Aahna and Thanatos. "I– I don't think–"
"You do seem to struggle with that," Thanatos quipped immediately.
Remus gave him a flat look and rolled his eyes. "Ha ha. I see you've been hanging around Sirius more lately."
He shook his head. "But seriously, I'm not sure how I could repay you guys for this. I– How did you even do this?"
"We'll explain later," Thanatos said, stepping forward. "First, we have to get the training for these two out of the way."
He clapped his hands. "Ok, as I said earlier, we're going to be testing your refinement today, along with learning about something called Magical Natures. These will dictate the specificities of your training moving forward."
"What's a Magical Nature?" Harry asked as a giant plush bean bag appeared beside them.
He and Luna fell into it as a whiteboard appeared midair.
"A Magical Nature is essentially what kind of magic a witch or wizard is more inclined to," Thanatos explained. "There are seven Magical Natures, each one representing a core part of magic."
The words 'Projection, Transformation, Corporeal, Protective, Phantasm, and Naturalistic' appeared on the board, with Projection at 12 o'clock and everything else clockwise to it.
Luna's brows furrowed as she stared at it. "Professor, I thought you said there were seven? There's only six there."
"These are the six main ones," Thanatos answered. "Almost every magic user in history has one of these Natures, but there are a very select few who have them all."
The word 'Primordial' appeared in the center, surrounded by the other Natures.
"Now, I'll go over all of these very quickly, as it's better to demonstrate than to explain," He continued. "The first and most common is the Projection Nature."
A metal cube appeared mid-air between the three, and Thanatos took out his wand.
"Projection refers to magic that changes a property or variable of its target without changing the subject. Charms, for example, are almost entirely Projection-based."
He flicked his wand, and the metal cube hurtled towards Harry's head, but surprisingly, bounced off like a pillow once it hit him.
"As you can see, I changed one of the cube's properties, specifically its hardness. However, it still operates like a metal in anything else," Thanatos explained to the slightly startled Harry and Luna.
The metal zoomed back to its original position, and Thanatos flicked his wand, sending out a small concentrated stream of fire at it.
The metal quickly became red-hot, and Thanatos grabbed it, his hand sizzling from the heat.
"As you can see, the cube is still conductive of heat," Thanatos explained calmly, showing them his burned palm, which was quickly healing. "In this property, it still operates like a metal, however, its hardness remains changed."
He easily tore the cube apart with the screech of metal, yet the cube ripped like a feather pillow, unlike any other metal Harry had seen.
"Those with the Projection Nature, called Projectionists, have an incredible aptitude for manipulating a specific part of something, changing it to whatever they want," Thanatos continued as the cube vanished.
"That's actually one of my Natures," Aahna piped up.
Thanatos nodded. "She's right. Flitwick also has a Projection Nature, which I'm sure you could tell?"
Both Harry and Luna nodded, but Harry turned back to Aahna.
"Wait, one of your Natures? You can have more than one Nature?"
"Short answer, yes," Thanatos replied. "We'll get into that in a moment. For now, let's move on to Transformation."
Thanatos' wand turned into a small dagger, and he spun it calmly in his hand.
"Transformation is commonly reduced to simply Transfiguration, and while Transfiguration is a part of Transformation, it's only a piece. Transformation magic refers to changing the subject without changing its properties, or permanently changing a property without changing the subject."
Luna tilted her head. "But isn't changing a property Projection?"
"There's a fine difference," Thanatos replied. "Projection is ultimately temporary, no matter how strong it is, it will always be undone, and I'll get to the why in another lesson. But Transformation is permanent, and its application is different."
Thanatos flicked the dagger, and the blade began glowing with a Lumos.
"With this Transformation, I changed the subject, my wand, into another subject, a dagger, yet kept the properties the same, letting me still cast spells with it. Yet, if I were to change a property of my wand, let's say… the core of it, then I would still have a wand, but it wouldn't ever be mine again."
He flicked his wrist, and the dagger extinguished, turning back into a wand.
"The reason why is because I turned something fundamental to it into something else, which causes a chain reaction into everything else. The wood would react differently to the new core, possibly warping into another wood, becoming more brittle or springy, and possibly becoming longer or shorter depending on what I change."
"So… you're saying Transformation has a domino effect?" Harry asked, getting a nod.
"Correct. Think of it this way," Thanatos stated. "A property changed by Projection is self-contained, meaning it doesn't spread; in exchange, you can do basically anything with Projection. But Transformation spreads, meaning there's a limit to how much you can change with it before something goes wrong."
"What happens if you change something too much with Transformation?" Luna asked.
"You blow it up," Aahna answered. "And you blow it up bad. Possibly take your arm with it."
"Funnily enough, the rules are reversed when changing a subject. You can only change a subject so much with Projection, but you're almost unlimited with Transformation, as long as you can visualize it well enough."
Thanatos cleared his throat. "Anyway, moving on is Corporeal. A Corporeal Nature deals with physical magics like Potions and Alchemy, and moves into more complex territory through magical reinforcement, healing, and control."
"Corporeal is an incredibly complex Nature, and one very few have, as it requires a strong will, fine magical control, and a lot of magical knowledge. Potions is by far the easiest subset of the Corporeal Nature, and even then, it's considered difficult by many."
Thanatos flicked his wand, and a silvery blue shield appeared between them.
"Protective is mostly what it sounds like, this," He said, gesturing to the shield. "Magic that can protect you, stuff like runes, wards, shield spells, and so on. However, it's the most varied branch by far, and I think you'll be surprised by what's included in it."
'After that is Phantasm,' Thanatos' voice sounded in Harry and Luna's heads, making them jump in surprise.
"Phantasm deals with the mind and soul. Occlumency, Legilimency, Horcruxes, and even Animagi fall into this category. It's the most difficult of the main branches, and those with this Nature are possibly the scariest people you can meet due to the magical skill needed to use this Nature.
Also, they don't operate by subject and property like the others, but rather target and user, which makes using it a bit harder."
Thanatos did an elaborate movement with his wand, and a giant beanstalk suddenly began growing from the ground.
"The last one is Naturalistic. Simply put, it deals with anything found in nature, living or not. It also surprisingly gives the person with Naturalistic the highest capability of understanding Warzite Lattice Magical Structures, due to understanding their own nature better."
"Shouldn't Anamagi be in Naturalistic?" Luna asked. "It is turning into an animal after all."
Thanatos laughed a bit ."You'd be right; it's actually on the border between Phantasm and Naturalistic, but I put it in the first because it deals with soul stuff a lot more than nature stuff."
"You said we'd be surprised at what's in Protective," Harry pointed out. "What's in the Protective Nature?"
Thanatos grinned. "Would you be surprised if I told you the Killing Curse is part of the Protective Nature?"
"What?!" Harry, Luna, and even Remus exclaimed, with the last turning sharply from where he sitting in a corner of the room, writing a letter.
"Yep, the Killing Curse is in the Protective Nature," Thanatos answered. "Technically it's a mix between Phantasm and Protective, but since Avada Kedavra is essentially a heavily modified Banishing Charm crossed with a Piercing Spell, it's Protective."
"Most Curses are actually in Protective," Aahna added. "Some are mixed with Projection, like the Imperious, but most are solidly Protective. As are certain runes and rituals. It's essentially the 'everything else' category."
Harry and Luna blinked, slowly coming to process that information.
Thanatos clapped his hands, snapping them out of it.
"Well, now we're going to test out which one you guys are," Thanatos told them. "You can have multiple Natures, and that Primordial in the center basically means you have them all, but you won't get that, so don't worry about it."
"Wouldn't we get it because of our connection to you two?" Luna questioned. "Life and Death are the source of all magic, and the Primordial Nature is the mix of all magic, so we should have it, right?"
"You would be right," Aahna grinned. "If you two were Awakened. Since you two are simply Marked, then you still have your original Natures, albeit slightly stronger."
"And we're going to find out what those Natures are right now," Thanatos said, creating a target with a wave.
He flicked his wand at them, and the whiteboard flipped to the other side, showing two complex mathematical equations that neither Harry nor Luna could make heads or tails of.
"Don't worry about those," Thanatos told them, pointing at the targets. "You're going to use the spell Luxocontrolla to hit those targets; don't put too much power into it, it's easy to cast and you'll be holding the spell for a minute. Luna, you're up first."
Luna got into position and took a deep breath as she pointed her wand at the target.
"Luxocontrolla!" She chanted.
A thin beam of green and white stream of light shot from her wand, hitting the target square.
Thanatos muttered something in Greek and stared at the air around Luna, writing something on the board.
He called time after a minute, and Luna stopped the spell, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow.
"That… was surprisingly harder than I thought it'd be," She said.
"That's normal," Aahna reassured her. "The spell is meant to take little energy to cast but a lot to maintain."
Thanatos cast a spell on her and nodded, writing another small equation on the board.
"Luna, that was excellent. Harry, you're up."
Harry got into place and raised his wand, his breath inexplicably shallow.
"Ready whenever you are," Thanatos told him after casting the same spell on him as Luna.
"Luxocontrolla!" Harry declared firmly.
Instead of pressure in his chest, it felt like an ocean, and the spell roared out of his wand with a BANG!
A stream of blue and purple light shot from his wand, actually forcing him back a few steps.
The target was simply vaporized as Harry's spell hit it, and the light began tunneling through the stone wall at an alarming pace.
"Harry, enough!" Thanatos ordered, his voice booming in the room.
Immediately, Harry's magic stopped, blocked as if by a giant dam, and Harry staggered forward at the sudden change.
His breath was shallower now, and Harry rested his hands on his knees as he recovered.
"Harry, are you alright?" Remus asked, running up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Harry nodded a bit. "Y-Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine. What- was that?"
"Remember how I said your magic would get way stronger?" Thanatos asked, arms crossed.
"Oh…" Harry replied smartly.
"Yep, try to restrict it as much as you can, will you? We don't want to have McGonagall on us for this," Thanatos told him, repairing the target.
Harry nodded and took a deep breath as he raised his wand again.
'Ok, restrict the magic. Only let a little out,' He told himself.
He cast the spell again, imagining only letting a trickle out instead of all of it.
This time, a smaller stream of light came out, about twice as thick as Luna's, but still much smaller than the first one.
Harry gritted his teeth as he held the spell, fighting the urge to put more power into it, to see just how much he do if pushed. He'd always wanted that, right?
He physically shook his head to snap himself out of the weird trance, dropping the power of the spell back down, as it was getting dangerously close to being the size of the target.
Harry dropped it as Thanatos called time, feeling rather pumped up like he could keep going for hours.
Thanatos was rubbing his temples, muttering something under his breath.
"Ok… so, uhh, some news," he said, looking up at them. "Luna, your Natures are Projection and Phantasm; Harry, yours are Protective and Corporeal. Those are some pretty powerful Nature combinations."
"Wait, what? I suck at potions?" Harry half-asked. "Corporeal is Potions, right?"
"It's not just potions," Aahna corrected gently. "It also includes Alchemy, runes, wards, ley lines, and so forth."
"I thought runes were Protective?" Luna questioned.
"Defensive runes and runic tattoos are Protective," Thanatos answered. "Runes can do a bunch of different things, think of them as the original spells, so to speak. Only some of them are Protective, most fall under Corporeal."
"So… all of them can overlap each other?" Harry asked, getting a nod. "So what happens if more than two mix together? Like three Natures combine, what happens?"
"Depends," Thanatos replied. "There are a few examples of what you're saying. Divination, and in particular, prophecies, are a mix of Phantasm, Naturalistic, and Corporeal, due to the way prophecies are received by the Seer, given out to someone, and stored, respectively."
"Usually, a mix of three causes a brand new magical branch to emerge, though, some Natures are locked to two when mixed with another," Aahna told them. "Projection and Transformation can mix, but you can't add any other Nature to it, due to how the two Natures interact with something."
Harry and Luna slowly nodded, beginning to grasp everything. However, both of them were quickly realizing that they knew very little about how magic worked.
"Oh, and before I forget," Thanatos said suddenly. "Luna, your refinement is 56%, nearly 20% more than average, which is prodigious no matter how you cut it."
Luna beamed at the praise, her chest swelling up in pride.
"Harry, your refinement is 47%, so still much better than average and above most top Aurors."
Harry grinned at that, though he wondered why Luna's refinement was so much higher. He chalked it up to her Mage Sight doing something to help.
"Another thing," Thanatos continued. "I will be showing your magical power levels, but please remember these will grow depending on your training and as you age, so don't take it too harshly. This is just to give you a viewpoint to where you are now."
Thanatos waved his wand over everyone in the room, and a white ribbon shot out from their chests, twisting mid-air into a number.
For Harry, it was 117.35; for Luna, 106.8; for Remus, 411.6; for Aahna, 1461.12; and for Thanatos, 2567.2.
Harry and Luna's eyes bugged out as they saw the numbers, more than slightly intimidated at the sheer difference.
"As you can see, your scores are quite low compared to ours," Thanatos began calmly. "But all of us are gifted magic users and also adults, so our magic has had time to grow. Both of you haven't even reached majority yet."
"But that difference is huge!" Harry exclaimed, eyes wide. "We're like… Remus is stronger than us combined!"
"Ah ah, I have more magic than you two combined," Remus corrected. "My refinement and output, though, aren't really things to write home about."
"Output?" Harry and Luna asked together.
Thanatos waved it off. "Unimportant, you aren't of age yet, so output isn't something you can change as of now."
"But if you're curious, it refers to the amount of uncontrolled magic you can release at once," Aahna added. "But as Thanatos said, you can't change that until you're 17 due to the way it messes with your Gateways and Helixes."
The rest of the class was spent practicing the spells they'd learned last time, along with a few healing spells that could keep them going in a pinch.
"The strongest of these, Reparorum Vitae, can reattach lost limbs and even heal organs as long as you do it while the wound's fresh," Thanatos told them. "I'll tell you now, you'll probably only be able to cast it once, maybe twice if you're good, due to its drain, so you'll still need to be careful."
"But I thought you said we can heal naturally with our magic?" Harry asked.
Thanatos nodded. "Yes, you can. But you aren't at that level yet. You need control of at least 65% to begin doing major healing since it's the most complex part of using internal magic."
The rest of the lesson passed quickly, and thankfully, with fewer Stinging Hexes than the last lesson.
Eventually, Harry and Luna left the classroom, feeling exhausted as they did.
"You know…" Harry yawned. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say they liked exhausting us."
Luna giggled. "I wouldn't say that, but maybe they do enjoy it more than they let on."
"Wouldn't be surprised," Harry grumbled, rubbing his sore arm.
The two began to walk down the hallway, with Luna's eyes not leaving him, an odd expression on her face.
"You interest me, Harry," She said abruptly as they turned a corner.
"Huh? Whadda ya mean?" Harry asked, putting on the fake glasses Thanatos had given him.
Luna tilted her head, looking for the word.
"You're different," She said eventually, her voice airy. "Your magic… it's not like others I've seen."
Harry's brows furrowed. "Err– thanks? I'm not sure if that's good or not."
"Oh, definitely good," Luna smiled at him, her eyes far away. "It reminds me of the wind and sun… I suppose you're quite the fan of Quidditch."
Harry snorted at that, talk about an understatement.
"But there's something else…" Luna mused quietly.
Harry stopped as Luna stood in front of him, looking up with her head tilted, blonde hair framing her face.
"Hmm… sure, that dark spot being gone helped, but that's not it…" She muttered, leaning in a bit, making him lean back as she got close.
"It moves…" Luna said eventually. "Your magic isn't static like the rest."
Harry blinked. "I– thanks? I didn't know my magic moved."
Luna nodded and leaned back, much to his relief; it'd been getting a bit embarrassing for him to have her be so close.
"It's like a kaleidoscope," She told him. "It's quite fun to look at, actually."
Luna reached out gingerly, her hand stopping at the air around him, and Harry stopped as he felt as if her hand brushed against him.
"Woah! What are you doing?" He asked, stepping back a bit and rubbing his chest. "That– That felt weird."
Luna shrugged. "I didn't know what would happen if I tried to touch your magic, apparently I can. It's quite lovely."
With that, Luna turned, walking away without another word, much to Harry's great confusion.
"What the–" Harry muttered, shaking his head.
He continued walking, heading towards the Owlery to spend time with Hedwig; he'd been neglecting her a little since everything had begun, and he felt bad for it.
.
Author's Note: And that's the chapter! Decently long, happy with it.
A lot of this theory stuff I'm writing will be important later on, but right now I'm kind of just laying the groundwork.
Next chapter will skip forward to Christmas, just because I want to speed the story along a bit. I'll also begin focusing on the rest, particularly Hermione.
If anyone's confused about the magical power/refinement/output stuff, I should clarify that Remus is NOT four times stronger than Harry or Luna, rather he just has more magic, meaning it he can cast for longer and use bigger spells.
If he and Harry were to fight, it'd be close, given Harry has a huge core for his age and really good refinement.
Current plan is to have Luna be better with refinement and prediction and have her be essentially DPS– fast, deadly, quick shots. The plan for Harry is to have him be more of a tank magically, where he can dish out a lot and take a lot, and is hard to put down.
Also, for anyone wondering why they aren't like, ten times stronger, they're also teenagers, with Luna not even being 13 yet. They'll grow quickly, especially with their Marks.
As for the Natures, it basically just means what they're more inclined to and are likely to focus their kit around. In canon, Harry's entire arsenal was DADA-based, so giving him the Protective Nature felt right.
Anyway, that's the chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! I'll see you in the next one!