Harry Potter sat in meditation, trying to find the void that he knew was there, however; the recurrent flashes of the graveyard kept haunting him. He could see Cedric falling, his lifeless eyes, the demon baby thing turning being dumped into the potion, Voldemort emerging, the pain that he experienced when Voldemort touched his scar and the taunting that Voldemort gave him when he was tied to the gravestone. Since Harry had come to Adrishpuram, he felt pretty good and there were no nightmares and he felt safe in a way he had never felt before, but; now he was feeling morose and his broodiness had returned after the events of the day. He did not know why the memory had come suddenly to the forefront. There had been no nightmares for the previous few days, but; this memory was a reminder of what he had to face out there. He was given a reminder about what he was fighting for and what waited for him.
"Harry.", Harsh'svoice brought him out of his musings. He opened his eyes to see the mystic standing before him, concern in his eyes, "Prathimaan said there were some problems today and you need to see Charak. What happened?".
Harry recounted the entire experience to him and Harsh winced, "I should have remembered that sooner. We will go see Charak now."
Harsh led him to the northern part of the settlement where there was a big building not unlike the castle. Harry asked him, "What exactly is this place, Guruji?"
"Adrishpuram was once seat of a powerful kingdom in the ancient time which had this castle built like Arthur had Camelot. This castle was taken over by the mystics after the king fell and with time, this castle is nothing but ancient history. The main castle is where the king used to live while he had a hospital of sorts built for his subjects and it was funded by the treasury. There was also an armory which exists to this day, and barracks for army to live in", he explained.
"Army?", Harry said in astonishment.
"Yes Harry, we are perhaps the only magical tribe left in the world which has its own army. You see when the International Statute of Secrecy was adopted and wizards and witches went into hiding, it was chosen that no nation would have its standing magical army. While they have Aurors but they are not soldiers. Hit wizards are more like special operation soldiers but there is no nation which has a magical army. That is why it is easy for a dark lord to have a free hand in European Nations" Harsh explained "we often intervene but never in our full force. The last time that we aided against a dark lord was the war against Grindelwald but not at the forefront because we knew we could be recognized. We also had another objective to fulfil there- recovering a Peverell Heirloom."
"What heirloom?", Harry asked.
"It is part of three most famous heirlooms of the three brothers.", Harsh said,"you have a children story book in your library titled Tales of Beedle the Bard. Pursue the story of three brothers and you would understand."
Harry nodded but thought hard about these heirlooms. Ever since he had known about his heritage, his thirst to know had grown. Any snippets of information about his heritage excited him. He vowed to pursue the said chapter before he went to bed that day.
While they were talking, they had reached the building he had called a hospital. The building was grand and pristine, the surfaces shone, there were wards like St. Mungo's and private rooms for cases which required confidentiality and healers were milling about. Harsh led him to the second floor where they stopped before an ornate door which had a wand drawn on it hovering above a mortar and pestle with a name outside the door "Charak". The room was spacious with two large windows on opposite sides of the room showing the forests on one side and the snow-capped mountains on the other. The rest of the walls were lined with bookcases which were full of books some of which looked fairly new while others looked very ancient as if they would disintegrate froma mere touch. There was a big table like the Headmaster's in Hogwarts in the middle of the room which was laden with reams of parchment, vials of potions, and a large comfortable looking chair was behind the desk on which sat a wizard in plain black robes with his face buried in a book.
"Charak.", Harsh called him and he raised his head and Harry saw that he looked younger than Harsh and had a round face with big black eyes. He was of Harry's height but muscled, his hair brown with a sharp nose. He rose from his table and bowed "Guruji, how can I serve you?"
Harsh explained everything to him about how Harry had been entered into the Triwizard tournament and had to suffer the exposure to the Cruciatus curse, had gone into a magical coma and was suffering from the trauma he endured from the event. The healer kept listening intently to everything that was said and when Harsh was done narrating, he frowned,"he should have been seen by a healer directly after he gained consciousness. It being untreated for so long could have resulted in scarring of his mind."
"This is why we are here", Harsh said and turned to go. "I leave him in your care however I beseech you to be patient with him. He has seen his fair share of hospital bed in 4 years at Hogwarts.", the mystic said winking at Harry.
"A stubborn patient, hmm…" the healer mused, "well it looks like I have quite the task before me. Remain assured I know how to make them agree to my demands."
He turned to give an evil smirk to Harry, "You do not plan to give me hard time, do you Mr. Potter?" Harry said nothing but shuddered.
The healer whipped his wand in an intricate motion and hit him with a number of detection spells and a quill kept recording everything that was revealed. After he was done, he conjured a Unicorn patronus, murmured something to it then it flew out of the door.
Minutes later, Harsh entered the room "what did you find that was so important?"
The healer showed the results to him and his eyebrows arched high as his body grew tense. As he finished reading, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, taking deep breaths then visibly relaxed,"we will have to conduct Kayakalp ritual."
The healer nodded and handed a potion to Harry which he immediately recognized, "why are you giving me the draught of living death?"
It was Harsh who replied, "Harry you have had a long history of injuries and several of your bones are broken, many of your organs were damaged by various injuries in the past and while your magic healed most of them, they were not properly done. We will have to undo everything and to remake it. This will be quite painful for you therefore we are giving you draught of living death. You will not feel a thing and after we are done, you will notice the changes in your body."
Harry drank the potion and dozed healers went to work on the ritual immediately. It was a long ritual which involved 5 healers, two rune masters and lasted the whole night. The first issue was that there were a number of bones that they had to make anew and while they could use skele-gro but that would take longer and would have to be done in stages. This method of treatment would also fail to purge the traces of the soul piece which were left behind. The Kayakalp ritual remade the entire body a person as good as new. The basement of the hospital contained a ritual room, which was as big as the Slytherin Common Room he had seen once, was made of the same stones as the rest of the hospital and there were ever-burning fires present in the scones on the walls keeping the room lit all the hours of the day and night. There were windows on the walls which would allow sunlight to come into the basement during the day. There were several tapestries hung on the walls detailing all the healers who had been mystics or scenes of famous battles. The mystics were drawing a ward scheme in the shape of a star whose purpose was to keep the process from being disturbed. In the middle of the star was a shallow basin of stone which was more like a tub and was already full of a potion. Several potions were lined alongside the stone basin already. As they vanished each of his clothes down to the last one, they laid him into the basin thus effectively submerging is body in it. The healers took their positions at the points of the star while Harsh sat on a stool beside Harry. A number of mystics were standing near the master runes to make sure that the ward scheme was working the entire time and anytime the rune's color faded from Blood red, they would recharge it.
As one, the mystics led by Harsh started chanting the incantations that were required while Harsh kept bathing Harry with the potions that had been lined along the basin. With each vial being emptied, Harry's body would glow silver and then return to its original color. It happened five times while the mystics kept chanting for 5 hours without a break. In these 5 hours, Harry's body eventually reconstructed itself, his bones reformed with none of them out of alignment or haphazardly cured and the residual magic of his scar was gone leaving behind only a faint line as it had been ever since he returned from the graveyard. Healers remarked to Harsh that the years of malnutrition had affected him and so he would have to be subjected to nutrient potions for a week which coupled with the effects of the ritual would work wonders on his anatomy. When they were done, he was carried into a bed and administered the Wiggenweld potion and he eventually came to when the potion took effect.
As he opened his eyes, he found himself in a hospital bed, yet again and groaned. He felt stiff and numb all over, not being able to move, but; he also felt renewed in every muscle, limb and joint.
Harsh was sitting in front of him with a cheerful expression on his face "Harry, I am glad to tell you that you are recovering at an advanced pace and by morning tomorrow, you will be good as new. I am also happy to inform you that we cleaned off any traces of foul magic lingering on your person due to that abomination."
"What will be the effects, Guruji?", he asked,"Will I notice some distinct changes?"
"Your magic will not be tainted anymore, you will find it little easy to cast and you would feel changes physically soon", Harsh said, handing him another potion,"this is a sleep potion. Take it and sleep. I will see you when you wake up tomorrow morning."
Harry quietly drank the potion and went back to sleep.
HogwartsDumbledore was sitting in his office in his preferred chair with a bowl full of lemon drops before him on one side of the table and the mystic sat on the other side.
"Have you found where those abominations can be, head master?", the mystic asked.
Dumbledore shook his head,"I have no idea, but; I am looking for leads in that direction. The frustrating thing is that he has covered his tracks so well that there are not many people alive who can claim to have known Tom Riddle. Most of the people from that generation are either dead or missing and presumed dead. The few who are still alive never had any kind of interaction with him. I have tried to scour the DMLE archives but there is nothing there except an old arrest record and a trial transcript when Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt were sent to Azkaban for various and sundry charges but that is the one and only record available for his family. I have no idea what they can be either."
The mystic sighed, "You would do well to hurry on and find where those abominations are, Albus. The longer it takes us to track down them, the longer the war will extend."
"Have you had any news from Harry? I have been very worried about him these last few days." Dumbledore asked curiously.
"Yes, Guruji had sent me a message that young Potter has taken to his training like fish takes to water. While he has some difficulty in performing his best, he is trying very hard and has shown his prowess with a wand, his resourcefulness and his bravery" the mystic said "He is one very remarkable wizard who would go down as one of the greatest."
"What have you planned for my students in your classes?", Albus asked him.
"Nothing special, Albus.", the mystic said,"First I have to take a stock of their position as to how much they already know or how much they were taught in previous years. After I have a grasp on it, I will teach them things which would help them survive and mostly things which are in the books apart from dueling. You have to remember that for your students I am nothing more than a random wizard and mystic or not, I am not one of opinion to let children fight in battles."
Albus nodded his head in agreement, "And why have you really been placed here? Apart from teaching defense I mean?"
The mystic smirked, "I have to guide young Potter on the way to leadership. Whenever the war comes, he needs to have some trusted people around him who would defend him in any condition or who would be ready to take a curse for him as he would do for them."
Albus sighed,"This war will be costly for all of us."
The mystic nodded gravely, "This war will make a man out of these children no matter they are on this side or other. But that is war for you. It does not benefit anyone but we have to fight to bring peace."
Albus was content with the mystic as the new professor for Defense against the Dark Arts and he believed that this year the students would be taught things that would help them to survive through the coming war. He personally was not in favor of students fighting in the war and he had decided to forbid those not of age from participating in the war. He had started to look into the archives to find the secrets to the castle which even he himself did not know about. He wanted to look for exits which could be used for escape of students en masse. Something in his old bones told him that the coming days would be changing the future of the magical world and when it did, Albus wanted no nasty surprises from anyone.
On the side he had started working on securing muggleborn students and their families. He had contacted several prominent muggleborn and their families and intimated them about the dangers that they would face and gave portkeys to them for safe houses spread across the country which would help them get away from danger in case they were threatened. Some of the prominent ones such as the Grangers had been given more protection and their home had been warded against all threats with wards to restrict people from coming in through apparition or by portkeys. The redirection wards were set in a way that the incoming person would be bounced to a pond situated far from their home. Some others had made their own arrangements if things turned for the worse. He had also started to send messages to wizards in other countries to find some allies of his own, however; such attempts were being rebuked due to the fear that they might earn Voldemort's ire. He had not been very successful in his endeavor and knew that it was futile to approach ICW before Voldemort came out in public, but;by then, it would be too late.
Severus had reported that the dark lord already had around 60 death eaters with him and the numbers would only increase as time passed. He also had sent emissaries to the Giants and word had it that Greyback was seen recruiting on the continent and in other countries. Amaelia was trying to rein in Greyback by asking help from other ministries to hunt him down but he kept eluding the Aurors or Hitwizards. If things kept going at this rate, they would need an army by the time Voldemort moved into the open. While he was in hiding he could not openly recruit, but; when he comes out, he will be a big surprise to the magical government which had buried its head in the sand.
Amelia had been working hard to purge death eaters and their sympathizers from the ministry. While she could not ask people to show their arms, she had put people to spy on suspected ministry workers. She was trying to get Cornelius to agree to increase the funding for DMLE and allow recruitment of Aurors but she was not very successful despite all the leverage she had on Fudge. Therefore Albus and by extension The Order of the Phoenix had decided that they would wait him out rather than play their hand early and would use the time to make their preparations. They would use the minister for all that he was worth about and then they would pull the rug from beneath his feet.
He had also met Croaker and they had decided to take the prophecy as soon as Harry Potter returned from India. The death eaters had been keeping an eye on the entrance of the Department of Mysteries and they would know if Harry went in there to claim the prophecy but they could enter unseen. Removing the prophecy was important because Albus did not wish for anyone to die over it. They would remove the real prophecy and keep a fake likeness there which they would use to lure Voldemort into a trap. It was also discussed that if Harry Potter did not concern himself with the prophecy, then Croaker would find a way to destroy it on its shelf.
The training of students at the Cottage on the Hill was going well and they all had mastered the most common spells which could be used effectively for self defense or attack and the teachers were going to teach them the more exotic applications of their subjects. It seemed that every student was trying their best to learn as much as they could. They all were very loyal to Harry and Dumbledore could see a new order forming before his eyes. He also knew that the students of Hogwarts in general admired Harry Potter especially after he outflew a dragon. When Tom comes out in the open, they would obviously flock to the one who could offer them the most.
Cottage on the hillMinerva McGonagall had her turn today for training the students. As she had arrived she set them to learn Vanishment which was harder than vanishing which they had mastered save for Ronald who was having a bit of a tough time, but; the boy had been showing more determination and hard work since the end of the school term. She had full faith in him that he would be able to master it in the next few days. The way he was applying himself, it was sure that he will come into his own for the next school year. Minerva herself did not wish for children to fight in the war but she knew of the loyalty that Harry inspired in them and there was no way that they would stay behind and let Harry fight alone in the war.
"Today, we are going to study conjuration which means producing objects out of thin air. This is a branch of transfiguration which is very hard and it requires extreme concentration and hard work. It is supposed to be hard because it causes drain on your magic. The more complex the object, the harder it is to conjure it and the more complex the conjuration the more draining it is on your magic.", she explained."for instance it is easy and practically no drain for one to conjure a stick out of thin air but if you were to conjure something more complex, it would require more energy from you. It is useful in dealing with dark creatures and creating obstacles in the path of incoming curses which cannot be dodged or shielded.", she explained. "There are a few limitations to its application with the first one being, being- YOU CANNOT PRODUCE FOOD FROM THIN AIR.".
After an hour, only Hermione, Susan and Neville had been able to conjure a marble slab out of nothing. While Miss Granger had been the first to conjure it, Neville was a close second and his conjured slab was substantially bigger than the one conjured by Hermione and Susan was third to conjure it. Ron and Ginny had some trouble and she decided to attend to them separately. The twins had not even bothered to try conjuring and when she called them on it, one of them lazily conjured a perfect specimen of a chair that she preferred which the other changed into a sofa followed by a cow followed by a marble block which was vanished by McGonagall.
She left them to keep practicing conjuring inanimate objects for the rest of the lesson. The students were learning at a great speed and McGonagall was wishing to give the animagus practical training to those who showed promise but there was a problem with it. It had some esoteric requirements which needed to be met with like the one who wanted to become an animagus actually had to have the capability, could go through having to keep the mandrake leaf in their mouth for a month without swallowing it or spitting it out, capable of casting a spell inaudibly for this duration, not opening their mouth too much or risk spitting the leaf out which means that they would have to start again, preparing the potion among other complex requirements and then had patience to wait for the form to develop. Perhaps she should offer it in private to those who met her requirements. She was interested to know what procedure the marauders had employed. She still chuckled at the thought that James Potter had simply strode in the practical for transfiguration NEWTs, brandished his wand and transformed making them believe that he had achieved the delicate arte of self human transfigurations for the extra credit which was awarded to only James Potter that year.
She had been skeptical when Albus wished for her to teach Transfiguration to the students before her for the summer but when he had given his reasons, she had assented with the condition that she could discipline the slackers however she had been pleased with the progress of the students before her. They all worked hard and were able to finish the five years course by now and reaching towards sixth year and doing very well. She knew that sometime she would have to teach them advanced transfiguration but not all of them would be interested in advanced knowledge. She still winced when she heard that Neville had been using his father's wand for the last 4 years. This was a heavy burden for her as she felt that she had let her lion down. She did not try to find the problem but berated him for every time he failed to do better. She had decided to be more attentive to her students in the future.
Instructing the students to keep practicing and to try and conjure a wall like the slab they had conjured, she dismissed the classes while asking Ron and Ginny to stay back.
"What is the problem, Mr. Weasley and Miss Weasley?", she asked.
"Professor, I did not understand the theory behind the concept properly.", Ron said and Ginny nodded in agreement.
So it was McGonagall explained the intent behind the spell, the working and the amount of power required and other little details that she generally overlooked and asked them to try again. This time they both were able to do it after 4 times and she dismissed them too after asking them to keep practicing.
AdrishpuramHarry woke up early, before dawn broke and found a healer sitting at his bedside. As he opened his eyes, Charak was summoned who ran some diagnostic charms over him and was apparently satisfied with what he found. As they sat talking, it eventually turned to the real reason for which he had come to see the healer- nightmares.
"Mr. Potter" he said "can you describe your nightmare for me?".
Harry recounted the entire nightmare to him and when he was done, his eyes were glistening with tears and he was hardly able to choke down the sob in his throat. The guilt was still too much for him and he was not sure he would be over it anytime soon but as he talked, he felt like a knot was being unraveled in his chest, taking a load off him which he didn't know existed.
Talking about it soothed him to a great degree and when he looked at the healer, he was smiling at him. "I could suggest a number of potions for you, Harry but in the end your nightmares will stop haunting you when you would talk about them, when you would let go of the past which is hindering you. Guilt is something which we can take easily and it is not easy to shed it off but by talking about it, letting go of what you cannot change are some of the ways that guilt can be lessened. Cedric was participating in the tournament on his own volition and was ready for whatever may come. He did not die at your hands but by Peter Pettigrew at the orders of Tom Riddle. You are not to be blamed for this. Instead Cedric would be happy that you brought his body back from the graveyard so that his parents could say good-bye properly." Harry nodded in agreement.
The healer continued,"Now is there anything more that is further troubling you or giving you nightmares?".
Harry talked at length about his life till now. Everything that he had gone through, the treatment of the Dursleys, 10 years at Privet Drive, his four years at Hogwarts. He had a lot of secrets and not many people that he could share them with. The healer just sat and listened to everything patiently and after 3 hours when he was done with everything that had ever troubled him, the healer ushered him out of the bed telling him to return once every week to him. As Harry was leaving, the healer told him that Rachael wanted him at her place for breakfast which made Harry get going.
After an hour, Harry was at Rachael's place where she was setting the table for him. As he looked on her in confusion, she shrugged "sometimes I miss all the food that I used to eat there and since I have no one to keep company with here, I generally do it alone. However, I realized this morning that you would need to learn the table manners of a Lord so I sent a missive to Guruji and here we are.".
Harry's mouth was watering seeing the dishes on the table. While he had no trouble with the food being served to him by the mystics, he kind of missed what he was used to. As they sat, Rachael started making idle chat with him,"Do you celebrate our festivals, Harry?".
"Our festivals?", he asked in confusion,"do you mean Halloween, Christmas?".
"No", she rolled her eyes,"These are muggle festivals Harry. Wizard festivals fall around the same dates but have different names and different celebrations. All the old families practice these traditions."
"You mean dark families?". he asked.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "If you think that the Potters were a dark family then yes. Do you know anything about the festivals celebrated by dark families?"
Harry raised his hands in surrender, "I do not know anything about these traditions. Are they the same as they celebrate at Hogwarts?"
"No Harry, Hogwarts celebrate these festivals now so that the muggle borns will not feel left out, but; these are not wizarding festivals."
"But that does not make sense", Harry complained.
Rachael looked grim and started in a monotonous voice "in the middle ages when the muggles started hunting wizards and witches, killing them, hanging them, beheading them or burning them alive, we had to go underground and the statute of secrecy was enacted. Their religion called us evil and called for our extermination because we had magic, we were different, we celebrated our own festivals but they could not see beyond their noses. We kept our traditions alive and still most of the families follow the old ways. Your family also did the same and I remember going to several of those celebrations at Potter Manor on Charlus and Dorea's invitation. You should have been told about this since your childhood. I personally have no problem with you celebrating any festival but I am only trying to tell you about your roots, your traditions. Our festivals are very much connected with magic as you can think."
Harry sat thinking and realized that she had a point. He had never been to visit a Wizarding family home other than the Weasley's and therefore he did not know the traditions or customs of them. Pureblooded they may be but they were not so insistent on traditions and customs so he knew nothing about wizarding celebrations. While he had nothing against anyone, maybe he should try to know the traditions which his family had followed. He turned to Rachael, "What are the old ways?"
She smiled and delved into narrating the Wizarding traditions and the wizarding festivals which they considered sacred for themselves. She told him about Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Beltane, the day of solstices, their significances for wizards and the celebrations associated with them. Harry found the conversation to be intriguing and kept asking her more questions upon the answers received till Rachael had to strictly remind him that Prathiman was waiting for him. Sighing Harry ran to the dungeons where Prathiman had ingredients assembled on a work station. As Harry entered, he muttered, "You are late.".
Harry sighed. This was his second mistake and deliberate. Harsh had warned him to keep track of his time and he had failed. Prathimaan was looking at him sharply and noticed the change in his countenance, "you do not need to be so morose. You will need to report to Pashupati in the evening for your punishment but there is no need for you to worry. He does not usually give stern punishment."
Harry nodded. The mystic started again, "Harry, I received a letter from the healers who wanted me to brew some nutrient potions for you but seeing your growing interest in the subject, I have decided to hand the assignment to you. There instructions are before you and you have required ingredients. If you fail, the potion would be useless and result in punishments. If you cannot understand something feel free to ask me."
Harry nodded and set to work and the mystic immediately stopped him from going further, "Harry, do you just prepare potion on the fly? Do you not make necessary preparations before you start working? Like readying the ingredients, making sure that they are in required amount, that all your equipment is clean and safe to brew? That none of your ingredient is defective?"
Harry shook his head looking embarrassed of himself. He began to make the preparations necessary for brewing as was instructed in the Introduction to the delicate art of potion making. The book had been extremely useful for him to fill in the gaps in his potions making instruction. While he did not hate the greasy dungeon bat, he did resent him for making people dislike this subject which was necessary for so many important careers. He had no malice towards the potions professor but he did not feel any kind of love towards him either.
After an hour and a lot of admonishment, chastisement and rebukes from Prathimaan, Harry was able to finish the first dose of the nutrient potion. Prathimaan smiled at him, "well done Harry. You can come down here anytime of the day and brew this for yourself or for others. You can try other potions too but not those which are too complicated. Anything you cannot understand or you require my help in brewing; you are free to come in."
As he left Potion and reached Ambar, she told him to sit and practice transfiguring his body parts. He kept trying the leopard in its entirety and as such, he could not make any headway into it. Ambar sat silently watching him. After he tried a lot of times and he was not successful Ambar beckoned him towards her, "Harry, what are your thoughts exactly when you are trying to transform?"
Harry explained how he was visualizing him morphing into a leopard as his magic did his bidding and she shook her head. "You are going the wrong way about it. You cannot transform suddenly at this stage without some external threats to you like mortal peril. You have to imagine that your body is changing into a leopard. Like first you imagine that you have a skin like it. Keep imagining that your skin is changing color and become leopard like. This may take a long time but when you have been able to do it, turn your focus on other parts like your limbs changing into paws, your eyes changing to a leopard's taking its qualities, growing claws like a leopard in place of your fingers and so on. You will be able to achieve the skin change in the next week and after that you will need to work for your parts which will take atleast 6 months before you can do it without any difficulty. While normal animagus transformation process is painless but it requires lot of time and patience and our process would be easy and time-saving however it goes without saying that you cannot impart this knowledge to anyone."
Harry nodded his head. The mystics had been teaching him a lot of things which they did not want the world to know and he perfectly understood the reasons. Their process of Animagus transformation was significantly different than the ordinary process but all the same it was useful.
He focused on changing his skin colour, but; other thoughts kept interrupting his concentration process. At the end Ambar dismissed him telling him to keep trying and to keep reading the theory work in transfiguration.
Harsh joined him for lunch in the kitchens. Harsh was looking cheerful as always which immediately put him on guard, "Umm… Guruji, you are not going to prank me, are you?"
"I am not supposed to answer that, Harry.", the mystic said in his same cheery tone. As Harry was served the lunch, Harsh asked him if he was missing something to which he raised an eye brow and received a powerful stinger to his hindquarter making him yelp.
"What was that for?", he questioned angrily.
"That was to refresh your memory, Harry.", the mystic smiled,"you are going to eat lunch. Did not your healer tell you something?".
Shrugging Harry pulled out the vial of nutrient potion out of his pocket and downed one of them. it tasted foul and he made a face, "Why do they have to make it so disgusting?"
Harsh guffawed, "You have brewed this one, Harry. Nutrient Potions as a rule are not made tasty so that others would not get addicted to them as you can see one of the ingredients can cause addiction to the user. Over usage of nutrient potions can sometimes be fatal."
As they talked, Harsh asked if he had contacted Sirius or Remus or his friends since he had arrived. Harry sheepishly explained that he had talked once to Sirius and Remus but not with his friends and he was not sure where they were. Harsh admonished him for his callous attitude towards everyone with strict instructions to keep track of everyone and goings-on in their life.
After he had suitably admonished him, Harsh asked him, "What is the quality of a leader Harry?"
Harry has had the time to study the guidebook of a mystic and it had a long chapter on this. There were a few things which were elaborately mentioned in the book. He collected his thoughts before speaking "A leader is one who leads his team or people, who ensures their safety, who places the interests of others before his own and who is capable of overcoming any form of adversity that they may face. He has to appear unfazed no matter what happens. He should be able to keep his calm even in the heat of battle and not break under pressure."
The mystic beamed at him, "Very good Harry. You have learned the lessons. Now, tell me about the personal qualities of a leader."
Harry sat thinking for a moment. He had seen a lot of leaders like Dumbledore, Fudge etcetera, but; while they both had some good qualities, they were equally flawed. As he thought hard, an answer began to form "A leader can never be seen as an ordinary person. Even if the entire world is crumbling around him, he has to stand tall and present an example to his peers. He should never go around giving secrets that would cause destruction in other hands. He should not blindly trust anyone. He should be seen among his peers, mixing with them, treating them with respect, let them know how important they are, appreciate all that they do for him and try to keep everyone content with their lot."
Harsh sighed, "A rather large list of qualities, Harry. Personally I would say that he should keep his secrets, never treat his friends or followers with scorn or disrespect and honour their wishes. A leader should never break down especially in front of his peers. If he want something done, he should lead by example."
Harry nodded his head and Harsh frowned at him,"Will you be able to remember all I am telling you, Harry?"
Harry thought for a moment and shook his head. Harsh kindly said to him,"Don't worry. I will give you a pensieve and teach you to use it. You can always pull the memories and see them. You know how to use a pensieve?"
"I have seen a Pensieve and have seen memories in it in Headmaster's office at Hogwarts but I do not know how to pull out a memory or how to operate the pensieve", Harry said.
As they were done with lunch, Harry arrived at the sword practice ring where Anal was waiting for him. As Harry stood before him he eyed him critically, "Mr. Potter, the Kayakalp has done wonders to you."
"It did?", Harry asked in disbelief. He had been feeling rejuvenated and energized but he had not paid mind to it before this moment.
As they practiced, he noticed that the sword did not feel awkward in his hand anymore, nor did its weight bothered him anymore as it did before. He could easily swing his sword and the speed with which he could do so was astonishing. Each time he swung the sword, he swore he could feel its faint humming in the air.
"Harry, we are going to duel today", Anal told him "Take your stance."
Harry got in the stance as he was taught with his sword in front of him, poised to move into action at a moment's notice. He waited for Anal to make a move who stood almost lazily, his sword at his side like he was inviting Harry to make the first strike but Harry had realized in the last few days that a mystic was never off guard. Anal started to circle around him and Harry followed his movement. Suddenly Anal lunged at him bringing his sword down with all his might and at the last second, Harry thrust his sword between them and a loud CLANGG resonated telling him that he had parried the blow. The mystic retreated almost immediately going into his defensive position. Without hesitation, Harry started raining down blows on him and all his strokes were getting parried by the mystic easily. The mystic did not even use his sword to stop his blows but merely dodged. His body was flexible like a dancer and he weaved in and out of the way of his blows so gracefully that Harry was impressed. Suddenly the mystic stooped low and took a swipe at Harry's legs and Harry jumped in order to dodge the strike. As he landed again, the mystic caught his sword and with a jerk, he had thrown Harry on the ground with a sword at his throat, a smirk on his face, "Yield Potter."
As he helped Harry back to his feet he asked, "Where did you go wrong?"
"I think I lost when I jumped, but; if I had not you could have injured me", Harry said.
The mystic smiled, "Harry, we are magical. You can use your magic to get leverage when you jump or run. When I was taking a swipe, you could have stepped past me and got out of the way."
Harry nodded, "I will keep this in mind."
"Good, now we will see if the message has sunk in" the mystic said "Ready yourself for round two."
After an hour and three rounds later, Harry was tired and had lost 4 times to the mystic, but; with each round he was becoming more adept at sword play. While he was not as agile and light footed as Anal, he was still making progress. A couple of times he had been close to defeating the mystic, but; the mystic would pull some trick and pin him down forcing him to yield. By the time they were done, his body was sore and he was cursing Anal inwardly for all the beatings.
After that he sat in his room reading the runes book. He had finished reading the seven languages and was sure that he could identify them if presented with the challenge however he knew he would require time to memorise them. Sanskrit was a bit hard because he had never studied the language or had any idea about the origins of it however he had come up with an easy solution. He had found a mystic who was ready to teach him the language and this was the only class where he was not forced to do his best but the mystic taught him patiently and reminded him sometimes how important it was to know the correct pronunciation, the meaning of the word he was using since any magical word, if uttered wrongly could cause destruction.
He had started to enjoy everything that he was being taught but frustrated because he did not think that he was making much progress however Sirius and Remus seemed to think that he had learnt a lot already. Thinking of the marauders, he remembered the chastisement he had got at hands of Harsh about not contacting them more.
He picked up the mirror and spoke into it "Padfoot" and sometime later, Sirius Black appeared in the mirror in a location that he could not recognize. In the background, he could see spell fire being traded.
"Hey pup.", said Sirius,"missing me too soon?"
"In your dreams, Sirius.", Harry said cheekily "I am rather enjoying being pummeled every day, getting pranked, riding hippogriff, learning sword play, languages and to brew potions much better than Snape ever taught me. Not to mention Rachael forces me to act lordly everyday and do not address me as anything except HaroldJames."
"Rachael? Did you get a bird, Prongslet?", Sirius said "Miss Bones would be quite upset to know that she has not enticed you with her charms. May be, I will tell Amelia and she can convey this to her."
Harry immediately retorted,"No, Rachael is not a girl but a lady and don't you dare say anything to Susan or I'll…".
"Or you'll what, pup?" Sirius guffawed, "Stutter at me?"
"No, I will prank the hell out of you," he said "I will not let you have a moment of peace again."
"Promises, promises, son.", Sirius said,"We will see how much of a marauder you are."
As Harry started to say something, the mirror shook and he could see that Sirius fell down. Remus came into the mirror a minute later,"Padfoot has taken a leave of absence Harry. In the meanwhile I will try to act in his stead."
"But what has happened to him?", Harry asked,"Is he OK?"
Remus grinned,"I got the jump on him and nothing more. We were practicing dueling and he hid here to talk to you. I have only knocked him out."
"I see you have the situation under control, Moony. I will leave you to tend to him then.", saying this, Harry slashed his hand in front of the mirror breaking the connection.
After dinner he went to Pashupati who was waiting for him impatiently, "Twice in a row Harry? This is some form of record."
Harry smiled sheepishly,"Everything happens for the first time, Pashupati. What do you need me to do today?"
"Right, your punishment today is to tend to your Hippogriff and the other horses", the mystic told him, "make sure they are cared for before you retire for the night."
An hour later, sweat drenched, foul smelling and thoroughly licked Harry Potter returned to his room where he gathered enough courage to take a bath before crashing for the night. After the bath, he remembered the meditation and groaned.
As he sat and began meditation again he found the void easily. He concentrated hard and soon he found himself staggering and gritting his teeth, he started thinking of his parents and all the people who cared for him. Sirius and all he had done for him, Remus and his love towards the teen, Hermione who had been with him through some tough spots, Neville who was loyal to him, Susan who had been a great friend to him through everything. Soon, he again found himself staring into the void and began to imagine that a large forest was starting to bloom out of the void. The forest was more like the forbidden forest but there was no sinister feeling to it, a large river was flowing through it with a group of mermen merrily playing just under the surface but if anyone approached them, they brandished pointed weapons as he remembered them from the second task, the trees in the forest were not as he had found in the forbidden forest but there were varieties of plants, many of them that he had seen on his travels recently. There were clusters of the plant which had numbed his arm, while there were rows of those which he had seen on the first day of beginning of his trek. There were snakes slithering through the forest which would take command from no one but him and some of them could fly like he had seen them. A few of the trees had bow truckles in them which attacked anyone who came near them. Just for the heck of it, he placed a Hungarian Horntail in the forest which would burn down anyone without asking questions. The forest was situated between two very tall mountains which were capped with snow and a Ganda Berunda was flying in the sky with a Hippogriff not far behind. In the middle of the forest stood a castle which was quite tall but not as much as the Hogwarts castle. At the gates of the castle was a large stable where a number of flying horses were milling about and attacked who would try to tame them.
The gates to the castle were flanked by statues of two big thestrals who had their wings spread as if ready for a flight. There was a lot of empty space between the castle and the gates and there were a variety of creatures roaming about. There was a Yeti sitting on the grounds with an axe at his side, ready to cut down anyone who tried to come through. There was a quidditch pitch like Hogwarts where some brooms could be seen flying, bludgers chasing each other and a snitch darting all around. The great doors into the castle were guarded by a pair of sphinx who would give a riddle and if someone gave the wrong answer, they would claw their eyes out. On the right side of the door, a set of stairs went into well lit dungeons, with shining shelves which gleamed, rows of potion making ingredients, cupboards full of cauldrons and whatnot, some cauldrons sat on fires, simmering and working by themselves. One of those cauldrons was simmering the draught of living death, another had some other potions, a third was stirring a mud like substance that was in the cauldron which was Polyjuice, another cauldron contained what he identified as Veritaserum from when Snape had threatened him with it.
As Harry sat meditating and putting details into his mindscape, he felt a presence in his mind and Harsh spoke, "Quite an accomplishment, Harry. You have already done a lot. But now it's time to come back."
Harry opened his eyes and Harsh was standing before him, beaming at him "You have accomplished major feat today, Harry. You can finish putting fine tuning the details tomorrow and we will then start to sort your memories."
Harry said nothing but promptly his bed and oblivious to the world.
Greengrass ManorDaphne had been planning for the year ahead. She knew that the coming year would be a defining one for the wizarding world and since her family had decided to let go of their neutrality for the light, she was making preparations. Then there was Harry Potter, the enigma of her life. When she was a child, her father had told her stories of the boy-who-lived as every other child of their age was told. She had read those idiotic fiction books which filled everyone's head with ideas about the boy-who-lived. She had initially believed them until her father had set her straight telling her that since he was a boy of her age, how could he be doing all that was written in those books?
She had been interested in meeting Harry Potter in the first year but when he had arrived looking malnourished, so small for his age, dressed in rags and apparently not knowing anything about their world, she had quickly lost interest in him. Not to mention, Malfoy kept badmouthing him all year, calling him talentless, blood traitor and what not and it started to grate on everyone's nerves. Then there were rumours at the end of the year that he had killed Professor Quirell with his bare hands. This news coupled with the fact that Quirell had disappeared had attracted her attention.
The next year, he appeared again as a malnourished kid and had arrived at the castle in a flying car. Professor Snape and Malfoy could not stop moaning about it for days. Then the attacks started and people started to call him the heir of Slytherin and he did nothing to stop the rumours. At the end of that year, she again heard rumours that he had found the chamber of secrets and some even went to say that he had slain a Basilisk, as if someone could do that. Some even claimed that he killed it with his bare hands. This definitely got her attention seeing how Dumbledore had given 200 points apiece to him and Weasley and awards for Services to the School.
She had decided to become his friend the next year but the next year, it seemed that the enmity between their houses worsened and with the dementors, an escaped criminal breaking into the school threatening to kill students made her keep her distance from him. At the end of the year, she heard that he had fought a werewolf, killed a dementor and single handedly captured Sirius Black after Black had injured one of his friends.
The fourth year was when she had decided to befriend him but again her courage failed her when the entire school lined up against him. She refused to wear the badges which Malfoy was distributing around but could not talk to him for the fear of persecution by her house. However, when he had arrived comatose at the end of the third task, she could not control herself anymore and sneaked in one day when no one was in the hospital wing but had to make her escape when she heard someone approaching.
Now, she was tasked by her father to make his acquaintance. She had a long task ahead of her since she did not even know if he hated Slytherins on sight considering her house mates had only given him grief over the years. She also did not know anything about the boy HaroldJames Potter who was not the boy who lived but the boy who studied alongside her for the last four years. She knew that he was powerful and strong at defense but that was all she knew about him.
She had thought hard about this and when she could not find a way to approach him, she had flooed her best friend Tracy Davis for her help. Right now, she was sitting in her parlor and waiting for her friend to arrive.
She heard the floo roaring and someone stumbled out, cursing all the time. Grinning she stood to greet her best friend who perked up seeing her, "Hey Daph."
"Tracy, where have you been? You did not reply to my owl.", Daphne complained.
"Hold on, girl. I told you that I was going for a vacation to Italy and I just returned this morning.", Tracy said. "Perhaps you didn't hear me when I was telling you this because you were lost in dreams of a certain raven haired lion", she wiggled her eye brows at Daphne.
"I do not think about idiotic fool hardy Lions", Daphne huffed.
"So, what have you been upto?", Tracy asked. "Don't tell me that you decided to do a Granger and were studying ahead", she glared at her friend."
Daphne snorted, "I don't need to do that, Tracy. I read a little but not more than necessary in vacations and I'm pretty good with a wand so I don't need to worry about it too much. I have been watching the shift in Wizarding Britain while you were off traipsing in Italy."
"Meaning?", Tracy arched an eye brow at her,"Did you-know-who come calling or did Malfoy succeed in pestering your father to a betrothal contract?"
Daphne shuddered, "No, he did not. Thank Merlin father did not agree to his demands."
"Then what has got your pants in a twist?", Tracy asked.
"Harold James Potter.", Daphne breathed the name with fondness.
"Huh?", Tracy said "Since when is his name Harold James?".
"Since he claimed his lordships", Daphne smirked knowing Tracy was about to go berserk.
"Just what's so special about Lordships. Hang on… lordships? You mean, he is lord of more than one house? How? Which houses?", Tracy did not disappoint her friend.
So, Daphne told her what she had been permitted by her mother, "His real name is Harold James Potter, Lord of Peverell, Potter, Black, Rosier and Weber."
"How is he related to Black and Rosier? Also what is Weber?", she asked, confusion writtenhugely on her face.
Daphne was openly smirking now at her friend's inquisitiveness, "His mother was not a muggle-born but she was a pureblood. Her mother's father was Vincent Rosier and mother from the House of Weber, a pureblood family from Germany. Since there are no members to these houses alive, being the last scion, he has ascended to lordship of these houses. Also, he is the magically adopted son of Sirius Black who was the blood heir of Black and therefore, he is Lord Black.
Tracy's mouth was open in shock. After the shock wore off she began laughing, "This is rich. I cannot wait to see Malfoy's face when the ferret realizes that he is not the heir of Black anymore. He has bragged so much about it that he cannot hide his face anywhere now."
Daphne told her about the task that her parents had set before her, her family's changed stance in the war and the head master's task for them, Tracy was astonished, to say the least.
"So in the last few days, Harry Potter has turned out to be a pure blood, lord of four houses and you have to befriend him", said Tracy, "I do not envy you, Daph. It will be hard.".
"I know. That is why I told you all this. Do you have any suggestions How I can go about befriending him?", Daphne asked.
"May be you can drag him to some empty class room and snog him senseless? I am sure he will be eating out of your hand after that", Tracy said cheekily.
"Oh Merlin, you are incorrigible", Daphne said rolling her eyes.