A/N- Thank you Anarion & ObsessedwithHPFanFic for your encouraging words.

Hypergym I loved your review. This was extremely detailed you made some good observations. Vari will have the tables turned on him soon. Don't worry.

I want you all to give suggestions as to a name for Harry- the snow leopard Potter. I would choose the one best suited to him. In this chapter I am dropping little hints for a character we love. I would like to see if anyone can make an intelligent guess.

I hope you all like this chapter and do not roast me over something that you do not like in it.

Let's move onwards.

India

Harry woke up in his bed, his body stiff and Harsh sitting at his bedside, looking amused for some reason. Harry tried to remember what had happened and winced remembering the bone breaker that had broken his leg.

Harsh grinned at him, "It is good to see you up again, Harry."

"How long was I out?", he asked.

"Only two hours", Harsh replied, "I thought you would use this as excuse to have the whole day off."

Harry smiled sheepishly, "Believe me. If I had thought I could get away with it, I would still be sleeping." He remembered he had some complaints to make, "Guruji, why do I have to wake up before dawn?"

Harsh laughed, "It did not take you long to make that complaint, eh? I suppose it is understandable because you do not exert your body so much ordinarily."

Harry smiled shyly but said nothing.

"Harry, you are being trained in things that will take years for others to learn and most of them would never get to learn as much as you do. As it is, we have little time on our hands, therefore we have to make the most of it. Besides I have to train you like you are a muggle-born for all purposes."

"But what does being raised by muggles have to do with this?", he whined.

"You realise that you are important to the wizarding world, Harry?", he asked, "you are expected to act in a certain way that would befit your station. Also, there is a megalomaniac dark lord after you braying for your blood. To win a war you need to have to be better than that to cut off his support base. Besides your social standing is such that you have to learn these things in order to not let anyone make fun of you or your family's reputation. If you were raised by your parents, you would have learned these things ever since you could walk."

"But still why does Vari wake me up before the crack of dawn, making me run and do all the exercises?", he said, "I have not had proper sleep for the last few days."

"That is to stop you from having any nightmares", he said simply, "if you are too tired to even stand on your legs, you can't get lost in the realm of Morpheus where he would make you have nightmares constantly. That always happens to those who are sensitive to blood and gore or have been through too much trauma. I have seen my mystics being troubled with such problems till they learn to obtain tranquillity."

"Tranquillity?", he asked, "What does that mean?"

"Have you seen any of us in meditation?", Harsh asked.

Harry nodded, "I did. When you treated Neville's mum and dad, you were sitting in such a position."

"Right", Harsh replied, "In that position, we often can detach our conscious from our body. When you are able to do it, you will be able to have complete control over your mind. This is a useful skill to have but it takes time, therefore, I asked your instructors to make you as tired as they can. This has the added benefit that the additional exercise help your body to get stronger and your magical core gets stronger the more you put stress on it. However I will ask Shilpagya to teach you the tricks to relax your body even with little sleep as possible."

Harry nodded but he was feeling frustrated. This was not something he had thought he would be doing. He had thought that the mystics would teach him something which would take care of Voldemort once and for all without being subjected to such discomforts.

Harsh sensed his discomfort and smiled serenely, "Harry, while we know of arcane magics, we cannot teach it all to you at once. You have to learn it slowly, taking in account everything that we have to teach to you. Whatever we are teaching you will be useful to you when it is time for your final confrontation. Please be patient with everything."

Harry nodded his head albeit reluctantly. The mystic always seemed to know what was going on.

"Now I believe that Prathiman is waiting for you", Harsh replied, "He has been very enthusiastic to teach a student again."

Harry groaned. He had read the book the potions master had given him. Although he now understood many things which he didn't know before, he still had not come to love the subject. But he supposed there was no harm in learning a thing or two.

When he arrived at the dungeons, the potions master gave him a recipe for a simple pepper up potion but there was something different from the instructions that he remembered. As he looked, he found that the potions master had changed one or two of the components. He looked to the potions master, with a puzzled expression on his face.

The potions master smirked, "I take it you are wondering about the changed ingredients. While you prepare the ingredients, tell me the properties of each and how they are expected to react with each other and which of them can be replaced with another ingredient to give me a better result."

As he left Harry to work on his own, Harry delved into his work and found it easy to work when Snape was not breathing down his neck or sneering at him that he was like his father. He was nothing like his father. For the sake of Merlin, his father had been an animagus and he was nowhere close. As he progressed with his potion, Prathiman kept asking him questions and he answered. Whenever he failed to do so, Prathiman did not berate him but patiently explained. He found that he was coming to like the subject. May be when he returned to Hogwarts this year, he would be able to astonish Snape.

When the Potion was done, the potion master happily clapped his hands, "Well done, Harry. You have the talent to be a prodigious potioneer. By the time I am done with you I hope you will be able to alter ingredients in potions by your own and still obtain the same results. Not that I am surprised considering that Potion is a part of your family magic."

"Family Magic?", Harry asked, astonished.

"My dear boy, do not tell me that you do not know that your family had some extraordinary potioneers. Your grandfather had invented the Sleekeazy's Potion which is easily the most selling potion for hairs. It is heavily used by witches and wizards alike for getting shiny hairs", the mystic told him, "and one of your ancestors had invented the Skele Gro which still brings in hefty royalty to your house since the patent over it has never been sold. There have been few more dangerous potions which they invented."

Harry was surprised to say the least, "But I thought my family was all warriors. That my family magic was related to battle magic."

Prathiman chortled, "The Peverells were mages, Harry and they had battle magic as family magic which became a part of Potter family magic but Potters were more than warriors. They have been Potioneers, Aurors and one or two of them have been minister of magic in their day."

"Can you tell me more about my family magic?", Harry asked eagerly.

The mystic shook his head, "I do not know all about it Harry. I know about the potion thing because your ancestors have portraits in the halls of the Potions guild of the ICW which is the highest authority for Potioneers in the world. Guruji informed us to teach you these subjects which would help you when you delve into your Family Grimoires. I sincerely hope that one day you will invent a potion of your own."

As Harry left, his mind was buzzing with the information the mystic had given him but he was determined to do well. He finally had found something to strive for other than to fight for survival against Voldemort and he was going to do his best. Next up was sword instruction.

Anal had him repeat the exercises of the previous day until he could treat his sword as an extension of his arm. He practised swinging for about 30 minutes when Anal declared him to be satisfactory and started teaching him the principles of sparring.

"Whenever you are in a sword fight, remember to keep the blade away from your body and keep moving so that your enemy is not able to guess what you would do. If you have to clash sword with him, do not clash the edge of your sword with his but the flat of the blade for this will prevent your sword edge from denting. Goblin made sword is hard to dent but there is no harm being cautious. Never grip your sword too rigid but do not hold it so loosely that it would slip from your hands. If your opponent is ready to strike, parry his strikes till you can see your opening. Never drop your guard and don't be oblivious to your surroundings", the mystic said patiently while Harry decided that he would never again call Professor McGonagall long winded after hearing the mystic go on and on.

After sword practice, Harry made his way to the kitchen. When he arrived, he sat down next to Harsh. Remembering the incident from yesterday, he sat cautiously and cast the detection spell before he picked up his goblet to drink. As he put it to his lips, he felt the air rush around him but paid no heed to it. As he took his first sip of water, his skin had adopted a greenish tinge and his hair was growing at an alarming rate.

He looked at Harsh who was laughing and sighed, "Guruji, what was this?"

In between his laughter, Harsh said, "Sorry Harry. I could not avoid pranking you. I distinctly remember that I had promised to make a prankster out of you. I was elated that you checked the food and drink but as you drank, I simply enchanted the goblet."

Harry grimaced as he remembered how Harsh has accepted Sirius's challenge. This was going to be a very long summer indeed. As Harsh dispelled the jinx, Harry dug into his lunch with gusto.

After lunch, he was due for Rachael who said that she was not pleased with his choice of clothes. While muggle clothes were good and comfortable, to be a Lord and to maintain that persona, he should wear his robes and a cloak. She even directed him to dress up whenever he came up to visit her.

She also took an issue with his chicken scratch handwriting. She gave him some quills and calligraphy book and told him to practice his writing.

"A Lord should not write as if he is barely literate", she admonished him.

She told him about the duties of a Lord and how he should behave in certain circumstances. Worse still, she ordered him to practice his manners whenever he came to visit her.

When he entered the runes classroom, he found that he was the only student there. When he asked the mystic, he was informed that Harsh had told him to keep his classes separate from others. The mystic followed orders without questioning.

As he sat, the mystic started asking him questions about the Elder Futhark, showing him runes and asking its uses. Harry had read ahead and with little difficulty was able to recall everything that he had read. But he still had to work to remember everything. His respect for Hermione grew who was able to store so much information into her head with apparent ease.

As the class progressed, the mystic showed him the seven languages which were ordinarily taught at Hogwarts and asked him to study them in his own time. Harry was fine with that except that the mystic wanted him to learn the Brahmi symbols which Harry remembered was the language in which Harsh had drawn the runes in Longbottom Castle. While he found those symbols to be strange and hard to learn, he delved into it wholeheartedly while deciding to study the other six languages as soon as he could.

He felt that he should have taken Runes as his elective with Care of Magical Creatures. Runes would have been a better use of his time and he would not have to put up with Sybill Trelawey predicting his death every time he stepped into her class.

"Harry, do you know how much difference a language can make?", the mystic Pawan asked him

Harry said, "I think it makes a lot of difference because even if we speak English, we use Latin to cast our spells."

The mystic beamed at him, "Your basic understanding is good Harry. The magical the language, the powerful the spell is. When you cast spell in some different language altogether, it becomes extra ordinarily powerful. Even a simple incendio in parsel-tongue would be like fiendfyre. Similarly, Sanskrit is a language where a different word can cast something more sinister. For example, you can cast incendio with pavasm, fiendfyre with davanalam and hellfire with narkagni."

"Um what is hellfire?", he asked hesitantly.

"It is a fire which is equal to molten lava in hotness, cannot be fought with and devours anything whether mundane or magical. There is no protection available against it and only those with extreme control over their magic should ever try to cast it because it will bring ultimate destruction if it ever gets out of control.", the mystic explained grimly, "it usually devours the caster first because only he can have some degree of control over it. With the caster removed, think of it as a beast left to run amok to maim or injure people and there is no one who can subdue the beast. However, I must caution you that no one except you or anyone nearly as powerful as you can cast this spell, therefore keep this to yourself."

Harry visibly shuddered and nodded in agreement knowing the mystic made sense since he himself was uncomfortable to know of the spell. This was the first time that he heard of something which was fascinating yet deadly. In that moment he appreciated that the mystics had erased such knowledge from the general world or people such as Malfoy would have burned it down twice over.

"Here", the mystic tossed a book to him, "this is a book of some deadly spells which only we know of and now you do. These spells are in Sanskrit so you would have to learn the language to be able to perform them but after you become proficient in wandless magic, I believe language would not be bar to you. But for the sake of Merlin, do not share that book with anyone. There was a mystic once who sought to run with it and rule the world as a dark lord."

"What happened to him?", Harry asked curiously.

"You do not want to know", the mystic said cryptically, "just be assured that things did not turn out well for him when 100 mystics were hunting him down. After we were done with him, no part of his body was left whole."

So it was that Harry asked the mystic to teach him the runes of Brahmi and the basics of the Sanskrit language. While this was not mandatory, Harry thought he could do with learning the said language which would benefit him in the long run.

When he was dismissed from the Runes class, he went into the Transfiguration class. He found Ambar in a jovial mood which immediately put him on his guard. In all his experience, a jovial teacher usually meant trouble for him. She taught him vanishing objects which was hard at first but with a little appreciation from her and some concentration, he was able to do it on his fifth try. A little of the chair remained which he was supposed to be vanishing. Pronouncing herself satisfied, she asked him to practice it on his own.

She started to teach him conjuration which was hard for him. Even after 30 minutes, he was not able to finish it and she ordered him to practice it when he had time so that he could perform it when he next saw her.

As he was leaving, she gave him a potion and told him to drink it just before he went to bed for the night. She said that this potion will help him quite a bit in the coming war. She told him with a wink that it would be fun too.

As part of the class, Ambar set him the task of learning some charms, obscure charms which he was sure that Professor Flitwick did not teach as part of the education curriculum at Hogwarts. She made him practice the flame freezing charm, the weather charm which could be used to alter weather over a fixed area and as they were done, she promised to teach him the Fidelius Charm in the next class.

When Harry returned to his room a mystic informed him that Harsh had bid him to stay in his room for the rest of the day and take enough rest to soothe his frayed nerves and overcome his exhaustion. After a quick dinner which was served in his quarters, he drank the vial of potion and went to sleep.

Longbottom Castle

Neville was regretting that he had agreed to this insane plan of Croaker 's. The unspeakable had him apparate to different parts of the country to give him the feeling of it and it left him dizzy. When Croaker asked Neville to do it on his own, he had been unable to do it.

Frank who had been watching Neville struggle with apparition from his window, beckoned him over, "Son, there is nothing special about apparition", he said, "all there is to it is the need to be someplace. When you are apparating, visualise the place that you want to be clearly in your mind. Keeping in mind the image you have so created, will your magic out of you to move you to that place. Keep doing it until your magic responds to the situation."

Neville did as his father had suggested. After a few more attempts, he succeeded, at apparating, his arm about a foot away from the rest of his body. Laughing, Croaker reattached the arm to his torso. Croaker told Neville that he thought that would be quite enough apparition practice for today.

They went on to duelling practice. As soon as they took their stances, Croaker started pelting Neville with a variety of hexes. Neville responded by shielding. they both kept it up for the first 15 minutes. Then Croaker told his nephew to try and hit him. Neville started firing back with every hex and curse he knew while Croaker either dodged or shielded and a few times, sent Neville's own spells sizzling back at him. This last maneuver nearly catching Neville by surprise, he narrowly managed to dodge them. They kept this up for another 15 minutes.

Finally, Croaker called a halt to their duelling practice. He told Neville to practice his shielding with the practice dummies he provided. Croaker's practice dummies were not just roughly man-shaped blocks of wood. They were animated and fired off spells at a fairly impressive rate. Neville had to dodge or shield just as he would against a live opponent.

Later, he was making his way back to Frank and Alice, battered and bruised, when he saw a regal looking owl winging its way toward him. When the owl landed on his out-stretched left arm, Neville found that it was carrying a scented parchment. While he was mystified as to why anyone would send a letter on scented parchment, Alice giggled and Frank smiled knowingly.

The contents of the letter were nothing more than a friendly letter from Hannah Abbott asking about his holidays, what he was up to and other related things. While he saw nothing overt in the letter, his parents' reaction said otherwise. Neville tried to understand what he was missing. He would have to ask Susan what her best friend was up to.

The Burrow

Ronald Weasley was having the most tiring summer of his life. He was studying without Hermione being there to pester him or to help him for that matter. So far, he had learnt a little of potions, practiced most of his transfiguration work, was about to finish his charms and had been learning some spells from Bill which he knew not everyone would know. Bill was also teaching him runes and he was sure that he would be able to learn enough to obtain an OWL at the end of fifth year. It was likely that he would have to ask Hermione for help but didn't he always end up doing that? Bill had laid into him that he needed to take his studies seriously and not look for easy grades which made him change his mind and he was now trying for Runes.

When he was not studying, he worried about Harry. Harry had not written him a word and he did not know where his best mate was. He only hoped that Harry Potter was safe wherever he was. He had abandoned Harry once; he would not do so again.

Bones Manor

Susan Bones was in agony from all the hexes she had to endure at the hands of Amelia. Her Auntie was being worse to her than the most brutal drill sergeant, and had been subjecting her to brutal exercises which she was sure was part of the standard Auror training. She had yet to touch the Bones family Grimoire. Auntie had made it clear that the family magic would have to wait until after Amelia was sure that Susan was ready.

When she was not training with her aunt, she was camping in her family library from the time that she had taken heirship and was learning a lot more than was usually taught at Hogwarts. Hogwarts did not teach them the more lethal spells and the books in her library were full of defensive magic. Susan's mind was reeling from everything that she had been learning. Her Auntie had pointed out a few books to her. She was to read and learn the spells in those books and have them committed to memory in the next 4 days.

When she was teaching her, Amelia did not appear as her jovial auntie when she taught her but as the head of the DMLE who had been a decorated Auror in the first war, one who had lost everything in the line of duty. Amelia had also asked her to read some dark magic spell books. when Susan enquired why, her aunt responded by saying that it is easier to defend when one knows what they are defending against. It was sound advice and Susan agreed with her. If she knew what was being cast at her, the chances of her survival increased that much. She will be ready when the war comes.

Black town house

Hermione Granger was furious. The pranks had been escalating everyday and no one was spared from them. This morning as she had entered the library and opened a book for reading, she found that the book was empty. She picked up another and found that the words from that book were running away.

As she followed the trail, she found that the words littered the ceiling and were dancing in patterns. Cursing the prankster she left the library to find Moony. He was able to undo the prank after some serious spell casting.

With the words back in the books where they belonged, she happily grabbed a book on transfiguration which she had never read and got to work, learning the spells. Ginny joined her, eager to learn and asking Hermione to teach her. Hermione invited Ginny to pull up a chair and the two of them worked on learning everything the books contained.

Voldemort was always on about mudbloods and blood traitors. When the war comes, Ginny and her family would be just as much at risk as Hermione. There would be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. So, when the war does come, they would be ready so that running and hiding would not be necessary.

Adrishpuram

Harry was dreaming a vivid dream where he was standing on the edge of a mountain and looking into the valley below. The view was simply amazing but the ground beneath his feet seemed closer to him than usual. Had he become a dwarf sometime during the night? As he was pondering over the thought, he nudged his right paw with his head.

wait! Paw? he did not have paws and certainly he had no fur on his body. As he looked, he found that instead of his hands, he had two limbs which belonged to a cat.

Freaking out, he started running around and all the other animals ran away from him. He was some kind of predator that was for sure. As he reached a pool of water, he looked at his reflection and instead of his face he found two emerald eyes looking at him from the head of a beast, perhaps a leopard.

There were even black whiskers like his hair. He suddenly felt the urge to roar and what a mighty roar he had. His voice seemed to reverberate and echo back from his surroundings and was magnified tenfold making animals run and birds fly away in confusion. He again saw the distinct owl which locked eyes with him and showed him the visions, which he had seen before.

Panicked, Harry started running away and suddenly he felt someone shaking him.

Harry woke up and saw the sun shining through the windows on his face. As he sat up, he found that it was quite late in the morning and Vari had not come to wake him up today. Taking this as a blessing he tucked in to sleep again but the pain from his body made it hard for him to sleep. His muscles were aching and his head was throbbing and he remembered the dream vividly.

As he became aware of his surroundings, he found the grey eyed Ambar looking at him with excitement and amusement etched on her face.

"Good morning, Harry", she said happily, "I take it you had some interesting dreams."

"How did you know?", he asked suspiciously.

"Of course I know. It happens with everyone who has the capability to become an animagus. It was the mystic version of the Animagus Potion. Your routine will be different for the next week from the usual. You are not to practice magic but to read whatever is assigned to you and follow some exercises which will help you transform at will", she said excitedly, "now get your lazy self up and freshen up before we start on today's routine."

As he reached the bathroom, he found that the bath was already drawn for him. This saved him the necessity of doing it by magic and he liked the feeling of it before reminding himself that this would not mean that the mystics would go easy on him. The kind of taskmasters that they were, it was not possible that they could go a day without tormenting him.

Half an hour later, he was entering the dining hall.

He found Harsh already sitting at the table with a stack of books at his side. He cringed inwardly thinking of all the reading that he would be made to do.

"Harry!", the mystic said enthusiastically, "A snow leopard! That is quite an achievement. Such unusual forms are very rare."

Harry smiled in reply. Harsh tossed a book to him which was about the snow leopard.

"I want you to study this book and understand everything about its anatomy so that the transformation may be easier. While the traditional method of animagus transformation is long but easy, ours will be very hard. For this transformation, you will need to learn legilimency and occlumency. This will help you to keep your emotions in control and to connect with your magical core", the mystic said.

Harry said nothing but was thinking furiously. He thought of everything he had ever heard or learnt but came up with nothing.

"Umm… guruji, what is legilimency and occlumency ?", he asked.

"Occlumency is the art of protecting one's mind from external intrusions that is to prevent others from reading your mind. Legilimency is the ability to read other's minds. Mind magics are very powerful branch of magic but are prohibited in Wizarding Britain", the mystic explained.

"But why? It sounds like a useful skill. Why would it be banned?", Harry asked flabbergasted.

"You see Harry, if someone was accomplished Occlumens they could protect any secret within their mind and no one could know it while a legilimens could find information by simply reading other's mind", the mystic explained, "Fearing for security of the ministry and confidential information, the British Wizengamot outlawed it about 270 years ago. However, I know of at least three wizards in wizarding Britain who are master legilimens…", the mystic explained while leaving the sentence unfinished to see if Harry would rise to the bait and Harry did not disappoint him.

"Who?", he asked curiously.

"Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and Voldemort", the mystic said while watching Harry's face intently which seemed to be changing expressions at a fast pace.

Harry was thinking of those instances where Snape would accost him whenever they were up to something and he had even thought once that perhaps Snape had the ability to read minds. How right he had been.

"The heirs of pureblood families were taught occlumency,", Harsh continued, "so that the family magics could not be stolen from their minds and are still taught to that effect by their head of houses but it has been outlawed for the general public. You would not find a single book on mind magic anywhere save for libraries of old families. I believe you have one such tome in your library and I want you to study through the first three chapters before we meet in evening to start your instruction in it."

"What about other classes?", he asked.

"You will continue attending Runes as usual because Pawan does not require you to use magic yet however, practical classes for transfiguration, charms and defense will be suspended for a week. You will still continue your physical exercises and your sword play and attend Rachael's instructions in evenings and do all she ask of you", the mystic said in a voice which brooked no argument.

"Guruji, when I was coming to find Adrishpuram from the plains, I met a peculiar owl which showed me some rather disconcerting visions. I experienced a repeat of that encounter during my dream last night." Harry recounted the experiences with the owl to the mystic who looked deep in thought.

"That was a Pravira karna owl, Harry and I believe it showed you glimpses of future.", the mystic said, "perhaps it is time for you to visit Varah Mihir who is rather anxious to meet you."

"Varah Mihir?", Harry asked, "you mean your seer?"

"Yes.", Harsh raised his eyes, "Is there a problem?"

Harry shook his head but he was apprehensive. He was wary of Divination after putting up with two years of Trelawney predicting his death every time she saw him and he had been freaked out when she went into one of her trances and gave the prophecy about the Dark Lord's servant returning to him, which could have been Sirius, but turned out to be Wormtail. He apprehended that since she was half seer as Harsh had told him and was mad, Varah Mihir who was a seer would be more so.

Harsh led him out of the settlement and directed their steps toward the peak of a nearby mountain. As they kept walking, Harry could not help but ask, "Guruji, where are we going?"

"Varah Mihir is a recluse, Harry. Seers often stay away from the general population because it overwhelms their inner eye. They often feel disoriented if they live in populated areas. I believe Sybill Trelawney lives in that class of hers all the year around so that nothing would cloud her inner eye", Harsh explained, "Seers prefer as little company as they can manage. Varah Mihir would go insane if he were to live in Adirshpuram, so he lives in the mountains away from us. Very rarely he comes down but when he does, it is matter of utter importance like when he told me to offer our assistance to you."

Harry nodded his head and kept walking in silence trying to picture the seer in his mind.

After around an hour they reached a cottage that looked like it was on the verge of falling down, situated in a copse of dense trees.

At Harsh's insistence, he entered first and almost fainted as he crossed the threshold. This place was overwhelming on his magical senses. Perhaps this was like drinking in power for a house elf, he mused. The seer was seated on a blanket spread on the ground, his legs crossed and wearing just a piece of cloth around his lower body as he had seen many of the mystics do. He was impossibly ancient with wrinkles crisscrossing his face to such a degree that it was hard to make out his individual features. His honey brown eyes were twinkling with such intensity that he would have made Dumbledore jealous and he had a dense beard white as the snow but not as long as Dumbledore's.

"Harry Potter.", the seer said in a firm voice which surprised him, "we meet at last. I had seen a long time ago that you would come to see me."

"Umm.", Harry was not sure what to say until Harsh prostrated himself before the seer touching his feet in reverence and the seer touched his head fondly and muttered, "Ayushman Bhav (may you live long.")

Not knowing the protocol, Harry followed suit and when the seer touched his head, he felt like a warm surge of magic had passed through him. This was not uncomfortable in any way but it was a curious sensation. He shelved the question to ask later. The seer directed them to sit on the mats kept around him on the floor and Harry sat like the mystics did.

Harsh turned to the seer, "Guruji, Harry here had a peculiar dream today and he already had a brush in with a Pravirakarna Owl. The owl showed him some visions which have him worried and he wanted to ask their meaning."

The seer smiled serenely, "That is understandable. Our thirst to know our future and to do things that would benefit us is human nature. What do you remember Mr. Potter?"

Harry kept silent for a minute recalling all the details of the flash he had where he was flying on his hippogriff to battle, the Quidditch pitch on fire, him holding a girl in his arms and crying, him hugging Susan, he and Susan standing in a clearing with their wrists joined by tendrils of magic, him holding two wands in his hands, Harry standing over the dead body of Voldemort, Harry hugging Sirius who looked beaten with cuts and gashes on his arms but smiling, Neville smiling and embracing him like a brother.

The seer sat in contemplation for a minute, "The owl showed you the future, Mr. Potter. The flashes were of some incidents that would come to pass in your life in near future or may be distant future. The people that you saw in those flashes will be instrumental to your life soon."

"But what do they mean?", Harry asked eagerly.

"I cannot tell you that Mr. Potter", the seer smiled ruefully, "these events are the future and anything you do cannot change them. The future has myriad of ways of coming to pass."

"But…", Harry tried to protest when Harsh nudged him to keep quiet.

"I can understand your desperation, Mr. Potter but despite doing everything we cannot change the future, can we?", the seer asked him, "When Sybill Trelawney gave you the prophecy, did she not prophesise that Voldemort's servant would escape that night and he did despite your best efforts."

"How do you know about that?", Harry asked surprised.

The seer chuckled, "Mr. Potter, I have been keeping a watch over your life ever since Voldemort marked you as his equal. I had to because I knew of the prophecy about you and him."

Harry sat quietly while he digested the information being given to him. As he did he remembered something Harsh had told him when they were visiting Longbottom Castle. He turned to the mystic, "You said there are seers at Hogwarts with the Patil twins being two of them and there is a third one. You did not tell me who the third one is."

Harsh smirked, "No one is privileged to information just because it exists. You will have to work for it."

Harry pouted but the mystic did not budge.

As they took their leave and were some distance away, he asked the question he had shelved for later, "Guruji, when he touched me with his hand, I felt a warm rush of magic in me. What was that?"

Harsh smiled, "when he touched you, he showered his blessing on you which are positive energies so your magic reacted in the same way giving you a warm rush. However if it was a hostile touch, you would have felt pain which would tenfold in intensity than the pain from Cruciatus", Harry shuddered, having firsthand experience of Voldemort using that very curse on him on the night of his return, "there is energy flowing in body every time and when we touch someone's feet, we transfer some of that energy into us by willingly doing so", Harsh ended his explanation.

As they entered the settlement, Harsh just disappeared leaving Harry wary. Cautiously he strode towards his room when he had to suddenly jump aside as a stunner flew past him. He looked around and 4 mystics were starting to surround him. He flexed his wrist to take out his wand and to his horror he found that his wand was not in his sleeve. He remembered that he was not allowed to use magic for a week.

As he tried to dodge their curses, they just kept coming. They fired all kinds of curses at him stunners, petrification hexes, stingers, disarming hexes and some he did not know. He was too busy trying to get away to safety when he failed to notice a bludgeoning hex which hit him in his ribs, making him growl. As he was reeling from the effects of the hex, several more connected with him. Harry was angry now, his magic oozing out of him and forming a dark aura around him. He tried to do some accidental magic but failed.

As some more hexes hit him, he let out a huge leonine roar and started writhing on the ground. He felt his hands elongating and thickening into paws, fur growing on his body, his body morphing into an animal he vividly remembered from his dream. As his transformation finished and Harry Potter was replaced by a snow leopard, each mystic cast a different spell and immediately petrified him binding him in chains before he was hit with a spell which started to calm him down and a stunner knocked him out cold.

Greengrass Manor

Cyrus Greengrass was in his study going over some of his plans for his business when his house elf popped in, "Head Master Dumbledore is here, master'.

"Take him to the parlor, Moppy. Tell him I will be along shortly", he said and collecting Roxanne and Daphne he went to the parlor where Dumbledore was sitting with a sombre expression on his face.

As Cyrus entered, Dumbledore stood and shook hands with him, "Lord Greengrass", Next he pretended to kiss Roxanne's knuckles and gave a respectful nod to Daphne.

"Chief Warlock, how may the Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass serve you?", he asked in his formal manner.

"I am not here as Chief Warlock today, Lord Greengrass,", Dumbledore said, "but as the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.".

"And how can we help the order, Head Master?", asked Roxanne.

"This year things will be tough at Hogwarts with Voldemort (everyone save him shuddered) back and the children of death eaters in Slytherin house will try to divide the school. I wished to enlist Miss Greengrass's (he pointed to Daphne) help to ensure that no such division happens", he informed them.

"No, Head Master. I will not risk my daughter's life", Cyrus retorted, "We are supporting you in the war but I am not involving my children in the war."

Roxanne put a hand on his shoulder, calming him down.

"I do not want you to do that, Lord Greengrass. I just want her to spread the word to like-minded House mates that the light side will protect those who are willing to come to this side", Dumbledore explained.

Daphne was thinking about everything that was being said. It was true that bigotry ran rampant in the house and it could do with a change of leadership but no one would listen to her. Perhaps, if Harry Potter was willing to endorse her words, they may find some support. This was a plan that would require a lot of time and planning.

Cyrus who had been thinking turned to Dumbledore, "I believe that is possible but I will not speak for her."

Adrishpuram

The snow leopard came back to consciousness and saw that Ambar was looking at him excitedly, examining all his features and making notes on a pad she carried.

"Harry.", Harsh addressed him, "I want you to remain calm and I will change you back."

Harry was still petrified and could do nothing but roll his eyes. After a minute, the snow leopard had morphed back into Harry Potter who immediately went ballistic on Harsh, "why did they attack me when they knew that I am not allowed to use magic?"

"Relax Harry", Harsh chided him, "They were only trying to force your animagus out. The next week is going to teach you to control your animagus and to make you able to turn at will. We had to see if the animagus is active or dormant in you. While you still have not become a full animagus, we have shown you what it will be like. You will have to force your magic to help you to transform again. By no means have you become a full fledged animagus yet but you will become one eventually."

"Huh?", Harry said, confusion written on his face.

"I mean we had to see if your accidental magic would force out your animagus form to defend you as you are not allowed to carry a wand", Harsh explained, "Since we found that it is active, we will teach your exercises so that you can get used to it and can learn to will your magic to help you transform. However with all the help that we can give and despite all the exercises that we can teach you, you will need better part of a year before you can transform at will."

As Harsh dismissed him, he was accosted by Rachael who bid him to get ready and come to her house within 10 minutes or face her ire which made him run. Before his ten minutes had expired he was sitting in her house and she was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips, eyeing him critically. As she did not say anything, Harry assumed that he had done okay by her.

She was quiet for several minutes before she asked him, "what do you know of Betrothal Contracts, Harry?"

"Betro... what?", he asked making her giggle.

"They are also called marriage contracts and almost every pureblood family makes a contract for marriage of their children. There are generally two types of betrothal contracts one which is made for joining of two houses and some conditions are set in that contract. When the conditions are met, the contract activates and the parties are bound by magic to perform it. The other is where a betrothal is agreed for two persons who are named in the contract and they are bound to be married to each other."

"But that is barbaric!", Harry protested, "What about their choice of love? If they do not want to marry the other person, what can they do?", he spluttered.

"That is why such contracts are not entered into anymore except in emergencies, Harry. Like in the last war, several families made such contracts so that the children named in the contract would not be without a family in case something happens", she explained kindly, "Besides, every pureblood house enters into such a contract when a marriage is fixed and all the terms and conditions of the marriage are fixed. Your mother Lily too had a contract made when she was married to James Potter."

"Blimey!", he exclaimed, "I knew nothing about that. Why would mum agree to it?"

"Harry, she thought she was a muggle born and as such when she married into a pureblood family, she had to bring something to the marriage from her side. James had a long history of family magic behind him and she had nothing. The magic of the contract made her a part of the House of Potter and she could have some claim to the Potter family magic however she could never become the head of the house", she said.

It all made sense to him considering all that he had learned in the last few days and he was interested to know more. However, he secretly hoped that there was no contract waiting for him somewhere. Little did he know.

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