One Week Later, Longbottom Castle

Frank and Alice had been recovering fast. In the last week alone, they had started to move around their room without any assistance. They were still experiencing some weakness, but the healer was optimistic that, in time, they would make a full recovery. The catalyst for their rapid recovery was their desire to stand by their son who was progressing quickly. They felt apprehension that things were not well in the wizarding world and they wanted answers. They had been planning to put their foot down and ask Augusta to answer all their questions. They were tired of the one week routine and even Croaker agreed that they at least should be up and about. He had procured some obscure potions which were vitalising and had sped up the recovery process. The healer was confident that they would recover within a few weeks. Neville spent time with them whenever he could. Each time they saw him, he was exhausted or sporting some injury. When they asked him about it, he shrugged and said that he was learning their family magic. Frank felt morose that he was not teaching Neville himself, but Croaker reminded him that he would need to be in prime condition before he could help with the training.

This morning they had risked coming out to take a walk around the grounds of the castle while their elves were nearby, ready to catch them if they fell. As they were walking, taking in the smell of the woods and the scenic beauty of the lands around the castle, they heard spell fire being traded back and forth. Frank whipped his wand out and with it firmly in his grasp; he followed the sound of the spell fire. He found Neville engaged in a duel where Croaker was teaching him the art of fending off three at once. This was a difficult maneuver which Frank remembered was one of the family secrets of House Longbottom. To be able to do this, one had to be able to cast at a fast pace. It consisted of a spell chain of a few spells which could be classified as dark by the ministry. The first spell in the chain was called, "breath of death" which was fatal to those who inhaled it. Second was rotter's kiss and whoever was hit with it would die writhing in agony while his body would turn into a rotting mess. Third was an obscure curse could kill everyone within 20 metres of the area of impact. Frank knew about this spell chain because he had tried to learn it but had to give up when he realised that he was not powerful enough to use this curse. Using this once or twice in a duel was enough to exhaust him. There were a few other curses which were equally lethal but highly taxing on magic.

"Frankie " Croaker said who had notice them by now, "How are you, my boy? Are the potions helping you to recover?"

"Yes Uncle Algie, the potions are very useful", Frank replied with a smile.

"Uncle Algie, can you please tell me why my son is learning spells which are dark and dangerous?", asked Alice, gritting her teeth.

Croaker raised his hands as if in surrender, "I am not making your son a dark wizard. These are your family spells and I am teaching them to him so that he can make his escape in case he is out-numbered by enemies."

"Uncle Algie, I want some answers now" said Frank, his face determined. Croaker nodded.

"What is going on in the wizarding world? Why are you teaching battle magic to my son? Why are you taking interest in his school studies? What has happened in the last 13 years that children are training as if for war?", Frank asked, his voice authoritative and his magic enveloping him like a cloak.

"I don't think I am the right person to answer that Frankie", said Croaker, "Augusta has bound me with a vow by her position as Regent of House Longbottom and as such I cannot say anything which she has forbidden. It would be better if you ask these things of her."

Frank started in an authoritative tone to Croaker, "Uncle Algie, I, Frank Jeremy Longbottom, Lord of the House of Longbottom release you of the vows put upon you by Lady Regent Augusta Longbottom and command you to answer all the questions asked by me."

Croaker straightened and looked him in the eyes and was apparently satisfied with what he saw because he nodded and started narrating everything that had happened in the last 13 years from Harry Potter being placed with muggles, Neville's upbringing with Augusta, the events at Hogwarts that he had heard about, his speculations that Voldemort had not died the first time around, his resurrection and Dumbledore's attempts to raise a resistance against Voldemort while trying to fight with the ministry at the same time. By the time he ended, Frank was enraged but kept his control.

"Why did you think it was a good idea to keep us ignorant of these goings on in the wizarding world?", he tersely asked Croaker.

"We did it because you are not in any condition to fight yet, my son. The war may be here but there is still time and I wanted you to use that time to ready yourself for what lies ahead. Not to mention that Mr. Harsh Vardhana had forbidden that we should tell you anything before you were sufficiently recovered, for fear that the strain of such news may be too much for you in your weakened state", came Augusta's voice who had come up on them sometime during the conversation.

"But you at least should have told me that the wizarding world is in even worse shape than it was 13 years ago, mother", he said, "From what Uncle Algie told me, we will need to work on many fronts at once. We need to work on the Wizengamot and the ministry's forces so that they will be in position to respond when the war breaks out."

"It will be done Frankie. We are all readying ourselves for everything that is to come", said Croaker.

Adrishpuram

Harry Potter woke up instantly as he felt the tingle on his skin which was now all too familiar to him. Before Vari could drench him, he was out of bed and lunging for him. In a second he had tackled the mystic to the ground and kicked the wand out of his hand.

The mystic growled, "I am impressed Potter. Now get up and meet me at the racing track in 10 minutes. You will use magic for everything you do now."

Excited Harry rushed to the bathroom where he whipped out his wand to use the aguamenti charm and fill the tub. In the last week he had been so focused on learning Sanskrit that the incantation came into his mind in Sanskrit. When the spell left his lips, a jet of water he had not imagined left his wand and the tub was filled in seconds. He realised that using a magical language had put more power behind his spell than was ordinarily required. He was told that he would need to learn to control his power. Immediately he tried to imagine the water flow as it used to be before he had achieved some success with unifying himself with his magical core i. e. he was able to use most of his magic without faltering due to exhaustion and even if he used high powered spells, he would last a lot longer than ordinary wizards. A thinner jet of water flowed from his wand and he practiced a couple of times so he could get the hang of it. This was one of the exercises that he had been told to do by Harsh so that he could control the amount of power he put in his spells almost without thinking about it.

As he looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror he could see the differences that the ritual and nutrient potions had brought to him. The emaciated malnourished kid was gone and was replaced by a Harry who was heavily muscled. His physique told of him spending hours on physical training. He was tall, sturdy and heavily built now. The only feature which remained the same was his Avada Kedavara green eyes which twinkled brightly like Dumbledore and the mop of black hair on top of his head. He was sure that no one would be able to identify him at the first look because he was so different now. A perfect pureblood lord, as Rachael was fond of saying.

Rachael had taught him everything that she could about being a lord which even included table manners not that Harry needed lessons with those. She taught him about how he was to behave in certain conditions, the forms of address and other little things that he would not have known otherwise. She had taught him about a lot of things which were part of pureblood society and if he disliked something, she would talk with him about it, told him why the practice existed and encouraged him to get a practice put out of use it if he found it irrational when he had the power to bring those changes. She also inspired him to be confident in his approach and master the subtle ways of manipulation. While he was not willing to commit to manipulation, he paid attention to them all the same. He knew the importance of manipulation as he had been faced with it since he came to Hogwarts. When she was done with her part in his education, she had just asked one favour of him. She wanted him to seek out Terrence Higgs and bring him to the side of light before he took the stupid mark. While he did not promise anything, he was willing to try.

As he reached the track, Vari had his wand in his hand and a grin on his face which made him shudder. , "Potter, as I see you have achieved significant improvement with running I thought I should make it a bit interesting for you. From now, while you are running I will keep shooting random hexes at you. You can shield them or dodge them but you will not stop running." the mystic told him grinning evilly.

Harry started the course and pretty soon he was being hexed from all sides by more than one mystic. He kept a shield up to block what he could while he ran with all his strength. At times he was hit with a stinger or a bludgeoner would brush his skin or he would stumble to a tripping hex. As he finished his last lap, he was panting and had welts all over his body from being subjected to all the hexes which he had failed to avoid.

"I am impressed, Potter", Vari said, "You have made some good improvement but all the hexes that you missed could have been death of you. You would continue this practice run for the rest of your stay and with improvement that we see, we will take it up a level further."

As Harry finished the exercises for the day, Vari commanded him to accompany him out of the settlement where he produced two brooms and handed one to him, "Potter, you are to accompany me. I have been told you are a prodigious flier. Let's see your skill."

As they took off into the skies, Vari kept flying to a higher altitude forcing Harry to do the same. When they were flying high enough, Vari motioned for Harry to follow his actions and jumped down from his broom while holding the broom with one hand. After a second, the mystic disappeared into thin air. Harry tried to do the same, but; then hesitated and kept hovering in the sky. The mystic re-joined him after some time and asked, Did you not hear me Potter? Follow me. Concentrate upon the ground, jump and apparate.".

Harry tried to imagine the ground from where he had taken flight and concentrating on it, he jumped. As he was falling, he apparated clutching his broom hard and appeared on the ground falling down promptly. The mystic raised him from the ground and muttered, "Whenever you are travelling by Apparition or Port key, start walking as soon as your feet are about to touch the ground. You would never fall. Same goes for floo travel."

They practiced apparating from their broomsticks several more times before the mystic was satisfied that Harry could do it without difficulty. As the practice session ended, the mystic asked him to take him by side along apparition to the gates of Adrishpuram. As they parted company, the mystic asked Harry to join him in the evening for some defence lessons and sent him to Anal.

Anal's most recent lessons had been dagger fighting. The mystic enjoyed tormenting him in duels between them but doted on him equally. He often told Harry that he was his finest student in sword play. He had taught him to use the sword and now was teaching him to use daggers and even fashioned him a belt of Thestral hide which could hold a dozen daggers. For today's lesson, Anal handed him a sword and a dagger asking him to get ready.

"But Anal, I have not used both together", he complained, "How can I compete with you in this then?"

The mystic only smirked (Harry had started to hate that smirk because it meant he was about to be pummeled. The mystic took his stance against Harry and pointed for him to start attacking. As Harry relentlessly attacked the mystic, he kept fending off all the strikes with the dagger in his left hand while he held the right hand at his side. As Harry got careless, the mystic parried the blow with his dagger and kicked him away. As Harry was getting up to his feet, the mystic was upon him and his sword was at his throat.

He had taught him a lot of manoeuvres in the last few weeks. His favourite trick was that when Harry was attacking him relentlessly, he would step aside allowing Harry to be carried forward by his own momentum, kick him in the back on the way by and then make him yield. Harry had fallen victim to that trick a couple of times before he learnt his lesson. The mystic had confided in him that he was at the end of his tether to teach new things about sword fighting to Harry and perhaps in a couple of lessons more, he would not need training from the mystic anymore.

"Harry do you have a sword?", the mystic asked him.

Harry thought for a moment before replying, "No, I do not have a sword of my own though I suppose I can ask the sorting hat to bring the sword of Gryffindor to me."

The mystic laughed, "It is not your personal property Harry. It is of the magical world as a whole however based on what I know of your family, your family vaults would have assortment of finest goblin made swords and daggers. When you visit your vaults, pick up the best weapons from there."

Harry nodded. It made sense that his family would have some old swords and daggers from when they used those weapons.

"Harry, do you have an armour?", the mystic asked again.

"Um…. No. I do not have any. , Harry replied, "There may be some armour in my family vaults. I'll have a look while I'm there."

"Harry, did you not slay a thousand year old basilisk in Hogwarts?", the mystic asked and he nodded.

"You know the best armours are made from basilisk hide or dragon hide fused with goblin made armour?" the mystic asked him. After a moment or two, he started again, "after 1000 years, I imagine it would have shed lots of skin which can be used to make armour for a number of people or you can order dragon hide from overseas for yourself. Not to mention, you can sell the carcass of the basilisk while keeping a number of parts of the basilisk for yourself."

"The beast is worth money?", Harry asked with such confusion that the mystic had to stifle a laugh.

"Yes, Harry. Its parts are used for a number of potions and many other distinct uses. Since it is rare, it would fetch you substantial sum of money. I would advise you to talk to your account manager and draw a contract to this effect and get it harvested. The skin it had shed can be used to fashion armours for you and your friends but I would advise you to hold that thought before you stop growing from the spurt induced by the ritual and the potions."

With that to think about, he dismissed Harry for the day. Harry reached the kitchen for breakfast where Harsh had set a table for him like Rachael did. As he took a seat, a stinger greeted him and he turned to Harsh who had pointed his wand at him, "Are these the manners that you have been taught by Rachael?"

Glaring at him, Harry bowed to the mystic who returned the gesture with an equally gracious bow. As they sat to eat, Harry remembered the manners of the table which were typical for a lord and the breakfast was over without any further incident.

The next thing was Potions. It had become his favourite subject because the potions master was being kind and reasonable towards him and took extra pains to teach him everything that there was to know about the subject. He had also been sending Harry out of the settlement from time to time to fetch ingredients for his potions. As a result, Harry had seen some very exotic plants which were native to the Himalayas. The potions master had assured him that he could take a sample of them to Hogwarts where Professor Sprout would be happy to care for them.

During the last week, his mystic journal was getting filled up nicely. He had divided it into sections so that he would not miss or mix things. There were chapters on plants that he had discovered and he had written everything that he could find out about them.

There were at least 5 plants which he had found and recorded in his journal. One of them was the plant which was used in making the special poison used solely by the mystics. Second was the one he had encountered on his first day of trek to find Adrishpuram. The third was an innocuous looking plant which had golden bark and brownish leaves and it seemed to emit some musical notes which could put a person into charmed sleep and it was impossible not to fall under its charm. However after one fell into its trap, they could not be enervated except with a Wiggenweld potion. The fifth would remain inert in sunlight but would be active in shade and was capable of incapacitating anyone by emitting sap from its branches which was like acid. Just touching it with bare hands would activate its security mechanism. Harry had a lot of uses planned for it.

However the potions master was not overly fond of him when he made a mistake than asking about something he did not know, he was often sent to do stable duty with Pashupati.

As he reached the dungeons, Prathiman was waiting for him with a big smile on his face, "since you have proved that you are adept at potions, I thought I would teach you to brew the wolfsbane today."

This was one potion Harry had been looking forward to brewing since he wanted to change one of the components of the potion which would reduce its toxicity to the drinker. He had discussed a lot of it with Prathiman who had agreed that they could experiment a little with it and he had shown a special herb to him which they had been testing the past two days. It satisfied their requirements and they had decided to make a batch of the improved potion which they would test on a werewolf that they could capture from a pack living in a remote area which was constantly under surveillance of the mystics.

The potions master had taught him a lot of potions but whenever Harry asked him about the special potion which had been the reason he had to run away from the Takshila School of magic, the mystic refused to divulge anything. He only said that the potion was something that should not have been invented in the first place. It was a potion made of an extremely rare obscure herb which could bring a dying man back to life and the only person in the world who knew of its existence was Prathiman. Outside of the mystics, no one knew of his existence and the potions master was determined to keep it that way.

He had taught him all of the other potions which were taught at Hogwarts or were of any use to him. In fact the potions master had given him a handwritten book which contained altered recipes of potions. Harry was sure that if he brewed a potion in Snape's dungeons with the help of that book, he would blow a gasket over it however he was beyond caring now. Prathiman had helped him a great deal in learning new things than he ever learnt with Severus Snape.

Today was the last lesson that he would have with the potions master before his education for the subject was over but the potions master was keeping him for the rest of the month to help him perfect the potions he had altered. This was one of the subjects which Harry knew he would miss when he was back at Hogwarts because Snape's directions were almost non-existent for when one had to brew a potion in his class and the dungeon bat would not show any kind of leniency towards him or other students.

As Prathiman started to instruct, he started a fire under one Cauldron to brew Wolfsbane which was easily the most difficult potion that he had tried to brew. After two hours, the potion was at the stage where it was left to simmer for two hours before it was ready for consumption.

As he was about to leave, he asked the mystic, "Umm Sir. would you show me how to brew Polyjuice potion?".

The mystic smirked at him, "That is for you to learn at your own."

He left the dungeons and arrived at the Charms class. Or rather where the charms class should be, but; he could not find the room. Panicking, he started to search all around the corridor but could not find the class room that he was sure was there. It looked as if the room had disappeared all of a sudden. After sometime, Achala appeared alongside him grinning, "What happened, Harry? Did you forget something?"

"Um…. Where did you come from? Where did the class room disappear to?", he asked in confusion.

She raised her wand, incanted some words and the charms room appeared again where it used to be. As he raised an eye at her, she said, "The room was under a fidelius secret and I was the secret keeper. Unless I chose to give the secret, no one else could find this room no matter how hard they tried."

As he accompanied her into the class room, he told her, "I know the basics of the Fidelius charm as I have over-heard Professor Flitwick explaining it to someone. I know what it does but not how it works."

She nodded her head, "Filius Flitwick is one of the foremost experts in Charms and he would know about it. The Fidelius charm is cast with the objective of one being able to conceal a secret within a living soul. The secret can be about some existence of a place or even to conceal incorporeal things such as memories etc however concealing memories under a Fidelius charm is part of mind magics which is extremely delicate business. This spell distorts reality around the thing or place which is bound with the secret. In other words, it makes it disappear from the memory of everyone who ever knew of it. It is the top notch security measure which can be employed and surpasses all wards. However a wizard must be extremely powerful or capable to be able to cast this spell because the larger the property to be contained in the secret, the harder it is to cast it."

Harry sat absorbing everything that was told to him and it made sense that nobody could perform it save for very powerful wizards like Tom Riddle or Albus Dumbledore. He had a question in his mind about who cast the Fidelius charm over the cottage in Godric's hollow but chose to tackle the issue when he was faced with it.

"The most important thing is that you must have the intent. If you can visualise it in your mind and when you are performing the incantation, you are intending with all your will for your magic to bend reality and conceal the secret, then it will work", she finished.

She started to teach him the incantation which was long. She made Harry practice it, without a wand, until he got it right ten times in a row. Then and only then, did she conjure a small desk and directed him to put it under the Fidelius charm. They spent the rest of the lesson working on the spell, but; Harry was not successful. At the end of it, she only smiled and told him to practice it overnight again telling him that it would be easy once he had learnt to arrange his thoughts and organize his mind. During the last week, Harry read ahead on his theory of charms and had learnt about several charms which he felt would be useful and was looking forward to practicing them.

When Harry arrived for lunch at the kitchen, he found that he was the only one there. As he was about to take the first bite he felt something rush by. He ducked under the table and whipped out his wand and erected a shield. He cautiously looked around and found nothing amiss, so he stowed his wand inside his robes. Then a stunner hit him and he fell unconscious.

As he was revived, he found a grim looking Harsh standing over him, wand in hand and stern expression in his eyes, "How many times do I have to hammer it in you, Harry? You felt my presence but when you found nothing amiss you simply stowed your wand back in your pocket. Did it not occur to you that someone may be under an invisibility cloak? Those are not that rare and anyone with enough money can afford one."

Harry hung his head saying nothing. He knew the mystic was right and he had allowed himself to be lax. The mystics had warned him too many times that he would have to stay on his toes all the time. And he had failed yet again. He remembered learning the charm Homenum revelio which was used to detect the presence of humans in an area and should have cast it when he felt something was amiss but failed to act.

"You deserve to be punished for failing me again.", the mystic was saying, "tonight you will be banished from Adrishpuram for a day and you will have nothing except your wand with you. You have to survive everything that you will face out there and at evening tomorrow, you will be granted entry again."

Harry only nodded his head and the mystic disappeared.

Harry did not have much of an appetite left after the chastisement. His mind was pre-occupied with the supposed punishment. But he ate what he could anyway.

After lunch, he went to runes class where Pawan was waiting for him with a gleeful expression on his face, "Since you have been allowed to use wand, I thought we would learn to construct wards. We will start with the basic wards and proceed to the more complex ones."

Harry nodded his head listening attentively and the mystic continued, "To lay down a ward, we generally use a ward stone which are imbibed with runes and are charged through your powers and sometimes can be linked to ley lines thus not needing to be charged every times. Runes can be used for everything that we do with spells and often can be used in planning ambushes or in duels. You can use a combination of a few of runes and destroy a number of enemies at once. This is a strict discipline and one wrong drawing can cause devastating damage."

After that they set to drawing the simplest wards such as alert wards and containment wards for the rest of the lesson which Harry had to draw and power with his magic. After they were done with the lesson, the mystic was elated with his progress and was already planning lessons for more complex ward schemes and how to procure runes stones to draw a warding scheme on them or how to make a ward based on rune stones like he had seen on the Marichika and at the Black Town House.

While Ancient Runes was interesting as a subject, Harry did not feel inclined to study them more than was necessary. He knew that he would not have enough time to learn it in detail before the final confrontation came with Voldemort and had made up his mind to pursue it in more detail after his eventual demise. He had learnt the ward schemes during the last few days while he had not been allowed to use his wand and knew he would have no problem in using them if the need arose. While he thought of war, he also dreamt of school and the OWLs which were due to start in the next year and was confident that OWLs would be an easy ride for him now.

In the last week, he had thought about his friends more often, but; had not been able to talk to them. He had often talked to Sirius who had updated him that his friends were training themselves to be better fighters and had been making significant improvement and he kind of hoped for once that he could have trained with them but when he remembered all that he was being taught here, he knew that he was better served here in Adrishpuram.

It was the middle of July now and in the last two weeks, Harry had changed a lot. While he could not say that he had mastered everything, he had learned a lot of things that will be useful for him in the long run.

He had been concerned that his animagus transfiguration had been going slowly. He kept working at it, but; his skin had refused to change itself into anything leopard like and it frustrated him. All the week he had tried to achieve the desired transfiguration but that was not happening. His skin refused to change at all. He hoped today there will be some change.

After runes class, he went to Transfiguration where Ambar pounced on him as he entered the class, "Harry, did you have any success with changing your skin colour or texture or anything?"

Harry shook his head, "It refuses to change and remains the same. I have tried every night before I go to sleep but it's just not happening."

She was undeterred however and asked him what he was thinking while trying to change his skin to leopard like. Harry remained silent for a moment before he started, "I see my skin as like a leopard has. Like the one that I had seen in my dream but it never happens."

The mystic smile at him, "Harry, do not imagine that you have leopard like skin. Visualise yourself as if your skin is changing its colour and texture and becoming leopard like. Be at ease and allow your magic to flow freely through your body and let it react to your mind's demand. If it helps, I would suggest that you take up the meditation position which I find the most relaxing."

Harry sat in meditation, his legs crossed and hands propped up on his knees with palms facing upwards and his concentration went to the leonine form that was his but was evading him. Initially his body was all stiff and his mind was at alert but suddenly he felt a calming presence in his mind and Ambar's voice echoed in his thoughts, "Imagine the snow leopard that you have seen, Harry. Pay attention to its skin, its patterns and everything that is unique about it. Imagine your skin is changing itself to become like that and when your magic surges within you, let it flow. Enjoy the rush of your magic within you and revel in the feeling it gives when it is coursing in your veins."

Harry relaxed and started thinking about the creature that he had seen and followed Ambar's instructions as she had relayed to him, his magic flowing through him and the feeling of elation which ran through his body. At times he felt doubt creeping in his thoughts but he persisted with sheer will and set aside the nagging feeling at the back of his mind and concentrated on changing his skin tone. Soon enough he felt magic tingling all over his skin and as he opened his eyes, he found that his skin resembled at some places like the snow leopard.

Beaming at his success the mystic instructed him to practice it before she let him go for the day.

Harry was returning to his room when he was summoned by Vari to the practice range where a duelling arena had been set and several mystics were milling about. As he reached, Vari beckoned him to the middle of the duelling arena. The mystic turned to him, "While I can take a class room approach with you to teach you everything that I can but that would be easy and take too long for the lesson to set in." He spread his hands around towards the other mystics, "These are some of our new recruits who have been here for a few years now and are proficient enough in duelling to teach you a thing or two. You will duel them one by one till you are exhausted."

Harry could only nod before the first recruit rushed at him, casting a dark grey curse at him which he ducked. His opponent followed with a string of hexes and curses which he deftly avoided. As the mystic kept coming at him, he was forced to raise a lot of shields. While some were simple shields, a few of them were more complex and would be useful against the majority of major hexes and jinxes. While he had been defending himself against all the curses, he was yet to fire a single hex and waited for the perfect opportunity which he knew would come soon after. However, his opponent soon progressed to lethal spells and Harry was forced to dodge them because he knew that only a mage shield would be useful against them and he was not yet sure of his strength to use one. As the opponent faltered, Harry started his own rain of high powered bone breakers which forced the other to hide behind his shield but Harry kept breaking one shield after another while the mystic did not always raise a shield but rather dodged when he could do so, Harry was speedily exhausting his energy while the mystic was conserving it. Harry belatedly realised the error in his plans and ceased his casting to bait the mystic into attacking him and as the mystic raised his wand, a bone breaker took the wand arm of the opponent forcing him to yield.

The mystic politely clapped for his victory but disdain was evident in his voice, "What did you do wrong in the duel, Potter?"

Harry replayed the entire duel in his mind before answering, "I shielded most of the time when I should have been dodging. I fired high powered spells at my opponents when I should have used moderately powered ones as they work as well as high powered hexes."

The mystic frowned, "Not to mention that you only used bone breakers on him making it predictable that you are not intending to injure him seriously. He could have been an enemy using the killing curse and you could not shield against it. You should use wide variety of spells against them instead of just one. And you should know dark spells too because sometimes a dark spell can assure your victory. Never use same curse or hex more than once in a fight and try to mix transfiguration and charms in duel and you will win."

The mystic made him fight two more duels where he fared little better but he was not using any hexes more devastating than bone breakers which angered the mystic who quickly dismissed him while telling him to access some of the dark spell books and learn them.

Harry knew that he would have to learn a lot before the final confrontation came. There was much he did not know and Voldemort had decades on him. Not to mention the repertoire of spells that he had at his disposal and his experience. He had read some of the special books in his library on defensive and offensive magic and had been learning those spells but had hoped that Vari would teach him to cast those. But, it looked like he would have to learn those by himself in the practice range.

As he finished his dinner by himself, another mystic informed him that Harsh had summoned him to the entrance of the hidden settlement where all the mystics had gathered. He was dumb founded at their sheer numbers. They all had their facial expressions melded into a mask of impassivity and stood attentively. Harsh was standing at the gates, his eyes grim. He beckoned Harry closer and addressed him, "You, Harold James Potter, have been found to be unable to learn a lesson which has been imparted on you time and again in the last few days that you have stayed here. As a consequence, the mystics have decided to banish you from our midst for an entire day which you would spend in the wild without any assistance from any of us. During the period of banishment you cannot expect any assistance from us nor will we be held responsible for your conduct. Do you, Harold James Potter accept this punishment for yourself?"

Harry knew from his teachings with Rachael that this kind of banishment meant that he was being shown to others that he had committed an error which was unforgivable and was being asked to atone. This served the double purpose of inflicting the punishment and the embarrassment served as a deterrent for other recruits who had any doubts about following orders or failure to learn a lesson.

He raised his head high and said in his best drill sergeant voice, "I accept, Lord Harsh Vardhana. During this period of banishment I shall not expect any aid from my brethren who stand before me and I will learn a lesson from this."

"So mote it be", murmured Harsh and accompanied him out of the settlement where he slapped a portkey on him and Harry disappeared with the now familiar pull behind the navel.

Cottage on the hill

The teaching of the students had been coming along nicely. They were all moulding themselves into fearsome warriors. While neither Flitwick nor McGonagall were happy about teaching them to fight, they knew that the only other option was death due to lack of any training whatsoever and that was unacceptable to all of them. The only person who had been happy with the arrangement was Moody who never relented on any of the teens but worked them hard.

The students had started to learn advanced things which they would never be taught in class. Flitwick had started to teach them some advanced charms which could be used in combat while also quizzing them about using the simplest of charms in a duel. McGonagall was teaching them what she ordinarily taught to her seventh years and everyone had been lapping it up with so much eagerness that she was puzzled as to why they never showed such eagerness back at school. She was also teaching them using transfiguration they could defend themselves against more lethal curses. Moody had been running them ragged, showing them some dark curses which were not meant for everyone's eye. while he showed it to them, he expressly forbade them from using them citing that using those would not be prudent for a student except in very dire circumstances however he had taken an offense to them using only stunners and taught them the bone breakers, bone crushers and bone exploding hexes which he told them to use when in a duel with a death eater.

They had noticed that Neville Longbottom had been getting more confident and cast everything with an apparent ease which was otherwise inaccessible to them. He seemed to work hard and had no troubles in even casting some dark spells. While McGonagall had some suspicions regarding him, she kept her silence knowing that he came from good stock and as such, it was only time before his brilliance shone through. However, she had a suspicion that he was dabbling in his family magic because he had taken to wearing his heir ring in the last week. While the boy was not overtly powerful like Harry he was more powerful than most of the instructors and she suspected that by the time the war ended, he would have his own shining personality that people would flock to.

Susan Bones had improved immensely over the week and McGonagall suspected that Amelia herself had taken over training on the days when she was not occupied. Susan was also spotted wearing the heiress ring of House Bones and as such, McGonagall believed that she would have started to revel in her family magic. While Susan still had a long way to go, she was on her path of brilliance. She had often fought with Daphne Greengrass, Hermione Granger and Padma Patil for top spot in the class and McGonagall was kind of looking forward to see what the New Year would bring. She knew that some new players had entered the race this year with Ronald Weasley really coming into his own with the hard work that he was putting in. However he was still far behind some of the others.

Hermione Granger had been doing her best as ever. She still preferred the library to practice. She was often sent out of the library by Winkey who was under strict orders to limit Hermione's time there to no more than five hours per day. She had tried complaining to Sirius about how unfair it was that she could not take books out of the library. He barked his usual laugh and told her that Summer vacation was better suited for learning how to survive than hanging out with books. Even Hermione had to agree that he had a point.

Ginevra Weasley had been advancing at a rapid rate. Considering her performance at school, it was not very surprising. She learnt everything that was taught to them and was determined to not to let anything dent her determination to learn. She was often the second place in learning a new spell behind Susan and Hermione who were fighting for the top spot so often. Neville was not far behind but he seemed almost casual in learning new spells and whenever he was called upon, he would perform it with precision.

The twins were a menace to everyone. They were very casual in their outlook but learnt everything. They often worked together and were formidable if someone deigned to challenge them. They often worked well together and seeing them, sometimes McGonagall was often reminded of young James and Sirius or the Prewett Twins.

Today, the students were being subjected to Severus Snape who had acquiesced to test them on their defences. He had opted to duel them one by one where he faced Hermione first who was defeated very quickly when her shields could not absorb much abuse at his hands. He was liberally using dark curses which she had a problem defending against. As a result, she fell to one of his dark stunners.

The twins were up next. They harassed him for quite a long time before he got the upper hand on them by mixing some transfiguration in the duels which enabled him to face two enemies at once.

The rest had fallen to him likewise. Then it was Neville's turn. Neville was smirking, an expression which he had never worn in Snape's presence before. As Snape kept raining down on him, the boy used some spells which McGonagall was sure that none of the students knew about. At one point, he even forced Snape to raise a shield. After that Snape used some very lethal curses on him till he got the boy with an underhanded technique and caught him off guard. Snape had left the cottage with fear in his eyes at the boy's growing prowess and what he could do when he was really fighting a war. Snape hoped in his mind that he would not have to face Longbottom in a duel because the boy had too many grudges against him and he had no idea what he might do in such a situation.

Black Townhouse

Things had been quiet for the last few days in the townhouse for a change. There were no pranks going on and the in house pranksters seemed to have declared a truce among themselves. The twins were wary of Sirius who would grin at them evilly making them shiver. The twins had belatedly realised that he had been behind the pranks going on. They had made a tactical retreat to form a strategy before they launched their next assault on the marauders.

Molly was relieved when the children had told her that they were only being taught to protect themselves and not anything too dangerous. She was still a little worried but hoped that they all would come through this unharmed. She had taken to living in the townhouse and attending the order meetings, helping where she could and looking after the food and everything in general but was still feeling a bit put out that the house elves never allowed her in the kitchen. While the elves prepared excellent food, what they did not know is that cooking was a calming activity for her.

Bones Manor

Amelia Bones slumped into a chair in the parlour after having a tiring day. She had never been this busy in the last decade but the news of Tom Riddle's return had set her in a frenzy and she had to work on many issues. It didn't help that Cornelius made her job difficult. He opposed her every move and she was not sure if she could do anything by her own means until Harry Potter changed the equation in the Wizengamot. There were whispers on the side-lines of increased movement of Death Eaters, of prominent people receiving death threats or demands to pay extortion money but the minister had buried his head in the sand and refused to listen. She had threatened him with exposing his corruption and he had dismissed her threats. She was seething but decided to bide her time. Once Harry Potter returned to Wizarding Britain, Cornelius Fudge would find the ground slipping from beneath his feet.

On a happier note, the ministry was getting in shape with the loyalists of Tom Riddle being pushed to the fringes while those loyal to the ministry were being put in charge of things. She had started allying department heads with herself and they were closing all loop holes which could be exploited by Tom Riddle and his supporters.

The only thing that she had not been able to achieve was approval to increase funding for the DMLE and to recruit more Aurors. She knew that they were outnumbered and with every day, Tom Riddle's ranks were swelling. She wished everyday that Harry Potter would return sooner because it would mean an end to her troubles along with the gloom that had come over Susan since the boy had gone traipsing off half the world away.

Susan had been improving but Amelia could see that her heart was not in it. She was training hard but there was no enthusiasm in it. Susan had started reading the family Grimoire and with a stoic determination had set to work upon the family magic. While she had never been confident enough to claim it as her own, she was certainly showing immense promise and in fact had at times surprised Amelia in a duel when she trained her in family magic. If she continued at the speed that she was working at, Susan would learn her family magic by the end of the fifth year.

Amelia never wished for her to undergo training like an Auror in school but their family history and her relation with the boy-who-lived made it impossible for them to stay out of the upcoming conflict. The war would be nasty and people would die but Amelia did not plan to die or to go down without taking a bunch of them with her. She had fortified the already existing wards on her manor with some special wards with the help of Bill Weasley who was a curse breaker at Gringotts and had learnt of exotic wards at Egypt in ancient tombs. She had also readied some safe houses which she planned to use in the unlikely case that the manor fell.

In her role as regent of House Bones, she had started to find out the intentions of other houses and to see if they were interested in reviving the great alliance. They had to move swiftly if they were to emerge victorious. Croaker had confided in her that a prophecy actually existed and since the revival of Tom Riddle, a few attempts had been made at stealing it but none of them could get past the arcane magics which were protecting the prophecies in the department.

Another thing that was worrying her was Azkaban. The prison fortress was generally impregnable due to the dementors but if they decided to abandon their posts, there would be nothing to stop Tom Riddle from storming the fortress and releasing his followers. While she wanted to kill every single one of the death eaters in the prison she knew there was nothing that she could do without earning the ire of the wizarding world and may be even losing her position. No new protections could be placed at the fortress because of the nature of the building. If they used magic suppression runes, the guard Aurors would be helpless like the prisoners and the Dementors would kiss everyone. They could not increase guards over there because she did not have enough Aurors.

Headmaster's study, Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore was seated in his chair, his chin propped on his hands and lost in thought. The mystic sat on the other side of the table waiting patiently for the headmaster to start. Albus had been travelling for the last week on some errands to find more about the Horcruxes and had asked him to look after the school in his absence. He had been gone for a week and just returned this morning and had sent for him.

"Did you find anything about those abominations, Head Master?.", the mystic asked him.

Albus took a deep sigh before he started, "I was looking into the history of Tom Riddle from his younger days to find where he could have hidden those horcruxes. I listed a couple of places which I thought may contain them. The first place was the orphanage where he grew up but it was levelled around 30 years ago. Another was a sea side cave where he had tortured some children from the orphanage and he indeed had kept a horcrux there but that is out because Kreacher already gave us the horcrux which had been kept there. As I ran out of places which I thought may contain his horcruxes I looked into his history and found that his uncle Morphin Gaunt was still alive a few days ago and a resident of Azkaban. I visited him there and found that he was convicted of killing Tom Riddle Senior and his parents. As I peered into his mind, I found that his memory had been modified and when I undid it, I found that Tom had visited him sometime during his school years. One thing which caught my eye was an heirloom which bore the Peverell Crest and Morphin wore on his finger. If I am not mistaken it is one of the deathly hallows and I fear that Tom has it however I do not think that he knows of its value. Afterwards I did some digging through his years of employment at Borgin & Burkes and I realised that he had been a regular visitor of an old pureblood witch Hepzibah Smith who had been accidently poisoned by her elf. I tried to find the elf and she had just enough life in her to convey to me that Tom had killed her mistress while stealing two heirlooms belonging to the founders- Salazar Slytherin's locket and Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Since we know that he used the locket as one of his horcruxes, it is reasonable that he would have used the cup as well. So far, we have a list of certain horcruxes and some guesses.".

The mystic's curiosity was piqued, "what those objects may be?"

Albus smiled, "The cup of Hufflepuff, the locket of Slytherin, the Diary of Tom Riddle, the resurrection stone, Harry Potter, and something of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. He may have the gauntlet of Gryffindor or the Diadem of Ravenclaw. I suspect that his snake is also a horcrux considering how she acts around him and the amount of control that he has over her."

"And where do you think those objects are hidden?" the mystic asked him. , "I do not think he would have just left them lying around for others to find and destroy."

"No. We will have to find where he could have hidden them. Perhaps young Harry would be able to help us find it", Dumbledore mused.

Dumbledore was planning to take another week off to go searching for his old friend Horace Slughorn to confirm his speculation that Tom had created only seven horcruxes. He knew that Slughorn had something in those memories he had altered and decided to confront his friend about his cowardice.

"Mr. Aparichit, would you assist me in a little endeavour of mine?", he asked the mystic.

He tilted his head slightly to the side, "Would it be worth my time and energy?"

Dumbledore smirked, "From what Amelia told me you can be very persuasive when you want to be. A colleague of mine is very reluctant to part with some crucial information and I think he would need the same kind of persuasion as did Rita Skeeter."

The mystic grinned, "Of course."