Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the Harry Potter universe, everything belongs to J. K. Rowling, I just play with the characters.

Author's note: Someone told me I should put a disclaimer before the chapters so I'll update them with that. I apologise for the delay, I can only say that I hate the end of the month, I know you'll understand that, without further ado I'll leave you with the chapter, I hope you like it.

Pd. It's the shortest note I've ever written.

Chapter 4

My father won't know about this.

Harry was on the floor, he was sweating profusely, and his breathing was ragged, gasp after gasp he held his chest with his left hand while using his right arm for support so that he didn't end up lying completely flat on the floor of the room.

If someone told Harry that in the afterlife people don't get tired then, Harry would strongly refute it, he felt like he had been running a marathon for hours without rest, and although he couldn't technically die of exhaustion, as he was already dead, he felt more tired than ever before.

After he had calmed down a little and his breathing had steadied, he looked at the place where he was, if I had to simplify it I would say that Harry was inside what appeared to be a huge ballroom, albeit completely empty. It was an elegant and spacious place, it had columns that seemed to be support columns on the sides of the room, and the walls were painted a dull blue that almost passed for grey, there were chandeliers and torches to light the place, and although it had windows, just like in Tett's office, they didn't let you see anything outside of what seemed to be lights that showed the cycle of day and night.

Still, the room was not as elegant as one would expect, there was debris everywhere, some craters in the floor and cracks in the walls, and it looked like several minor explosives had been left to detonate around the place.

In the centre of it all stood Gellert Grindelwald, standing erect, holding a wand and showing no signs of exhaustion, though his clothes were soiled and torn in places, his brow furrowed before he let out a sigh and let his features relax into an expressionless mask again.

"I must admit you are more tenacious than I first thought Mr Potter," said Grindelwald as he looked at Harry.

He himself had calmed down and was slowly getting to his feet as he used a pillar nearby as a support and responded.

"And you certainly don't cut any slack." Harry complained as he shook some dirt off his clothes.

"It's not like we have a lot of time to waste." Gellert said calmly as he conjured up a chair and sat down in it.

"You yourself must admit that this light study time was enlightening"

Harry snorted "Study? Is that what they call it in your time, beating the shit out of someone until they can't move anymore?" Harry said with an irritated tone.

"Your reflexes Mr. Potter, are something to be admired, not even in my youth did I have such quick reactions, and your capacity for quick thinking and imagination can be astonishing in some cases," expressed the dark wizard, ignoring Harry's complaints.

"But as we assumed your knowledge and your power are simply limiting, especially your power," expressed Gellert with a serious face as he looked directly at Harry.

Harry felt annoyed with himself at this, but said nothing and let his new mentor continue.

"Although you did much better than the time before I transferred my knowledge to you, you are still unable to use almost any of that knowledge, apart from a few interesting spells your arsenal consists of basic spells since you have no power to use anything else. Gellert expressed calmly before falling silent for a moment, he let out a sigh and continued.

"Even though you're a little more powerful than other students your age, you're still a long way short of what's needed to take on the likes of Voldemort or Dumbledore, it's no use trying to use a stun spell if your opponent can throw a hail of fire at you that you simply can't block, even if you knew how." Despite everything he said, Gellert didn't sound annoyed or frustrated.

The dark wizard did not lie, he was impressed by what Harry Potter could do at this point with so little training, and he knew that with the knowledge he gave him and more training to increase his power he would go far, though he could not yet measure his exact potential, no, that would come later with what Gellert considered the most important part of his short teaching.

Harry on the other hand was frustrated, he knew he didn't have enough power for what he wanted to do, but getting his arse kicked so easily was a harsh reality check, it made him think back to his confrontation against Snape, although it might be because he used his own spells it didn't take away from the fact that there were people equally or more powerful than the greasebat, people who could defeat him as he currently was.

Gellert rose from his seat, snapping Harry out of his thoughts.

"Now then, despite everything I've already told you how to fix this when you get back, you can't grow your power here anyway." Gellert was right, Tett had told them that no matter how much training they did in this place they couldn't grow Harry's magic, that was something he could only do in life.

"Now then, let's leave this topic aside for now, I want us to tackle at once something that I consider a speciality" said Gellert as he turned to the corner of the room, there in the back sitting in an elegant leather armchair and with a tea set on a small wooden table, was Tett.

"Oh, they're done already? What's next? The classroom?" asked Tett as he took a sip from his cup.

"If you would be so kind." Expressed the adult wizard.

After this Tett set his mug down on the table, and before Harry could react, Tett snapped his fingers and the whole environment began to change, suddenly they were no longer in the semi-destroyed classroom, they were in a classroom, although Harry couldn't see the resemblance between it and one he remembered from Hogwarts, he certainly knew it was a classroom.

"Now then, I will show you how spell creation and manipulation works, at least the way I did it back in the day." Expressed the dark lord with what seemed to be a show of excitement and anticipation.

Harry was sitting at one of the student desks right in the middle of the room. Then Gellert began his explanation.

"I won't beat around the bush Mr Potter, we'll get straight to the heart of the matter, and then it's up to you." Gellert said before continuing.

Harry simply nodded, this was a subject that intrigued him greatly as, in her time, Hermione had told him that spell casting was dangerous, that anything could go wrong and someone could even lose their life in it.

"First of all you must understand several things." Said the Mentor holding up a finger and causing whatever he says to begin to be written on the board behind him.

"First, the reason for languages in spells is simple, words are said to have power almost equal to blood, magical contracts signed with blood feathers and unbreakable oaths are proof of this very thing." He waited a moment for Harry to take it in, he knew Harry had experience with these two examples.

"Secondly, and most importantly and above all, you must understand that magic is about Intention, what you want your magic to do," Gellert said before taking his wand and pointing it at a book on a desk, which flew out of the desk and into Gellert's hand in no time.

"The person who invented the Accio spell, did not think first of the words to say nor what those words would do, no, said creator had a clear intention, he was probably someone lazy, he wanted to bring distant objects to him, without the tedious need to pick them up on his own." Gellert again put the book down on the desk.

"It is after you are clear on your intention, that you begin to look for help in words to bring your intention to life." Gellert said as he looked at Harry, Harry had a serious look on his face and seemed to be instinctively understanding what the dark Mentor was saying.

"Why do you use different languages like Latin or Greek for spells?" asked Harry, the question made Gellert smile a little.

"Ancient languages are more direct, they are more rooted in the primitive human essence of will and power, it is because of that that it is easier to concentrate power through such languages." Gellert waited a moment before continuing and thought to ask, first.

"Mr. Potter, would you say what the magical world is lacking? Why are they so far behind the furniture?" Gellert asked with an expressionless face.

Harry thought back to his time at Hogwarts, and remembered a conversation he had had with Hermione at Hogwarts, it was something he had thought of quickly after seeing how people took word for word what the prophet said, how wizards acted, and he had an idea.

"Imagination," said Harry confidently, this made Gellert smile and nod to him to continue.

"It stands to reason, Muggles don't have magic so when they want something new they use their imagination to come up with how to achieve it, whereas wizards are simply so used to being able to do everything with their magic that when something comes along that they can't do, they write it off as impossible." Harry expressed before continuing, before the idea left his head.

"At one time going to the moon seemed impossible until someone had the imagination to go and then found a way to bring their imagination to life, but if you tell a wizard to go into space he'll write it off as impossible," Harry said and stopped as he saw the Dark Lord's eyes had a somewhat intriguing, yet familiar gleam in them. Harry uttered and paused as he saw that the Dark Lord's eyes had a somewhat intriguing, yet familiar gleam in them.

"You see Mr. Potter, wizards are so used to things happening by magic that they simply don't have much imagination to explore beyond that anymore." Gellert said before smiling with a look that made Harry remember he was talking to an ancient dark lord.

"That's partly why wizards are so easy to manipulate, they are like sheep, and though I myself tried to start the war against the Muggles, because I knew what they were capable of with their progress, luckily or unluckily I was stopped before I succeeded." Gellert sighed and regained his calm face.

"Back to the point, wizards have to rely on the words of spells to get an idea in their head of what they want their magic to do." Expressed the dark lord and looked at Harry.

Seeing that Harry still had some doubts about this, Gellert gave him an example that he could easily understand.

"Think back to your third year again, you were taught the Patronus Charm, and despite learning it the most outstanding thing you did afterwards was chase away the Malfoy boy's entourage, until the night you saved yourself and your godfather."

Harry's eyes widened as he understood where Grindelwald was going with this, and he smiled as he realised that he was right in his assumption, this young man seemed to have potential here.

"Aah, you seem to have solved it, but I'll still ask, Mr. Potter, at that moment when you saw them being attacked, when you saw how they couldn't even defend themselves, when you thought they were lost and you saw a glimpse of your godfather's soul come out, what did you think?" asked Gellert, but before Harry could answer, he continued his monologue.

"You didn't think what wand movement you should make, or what incantation you should use, no, you thought you wanted to keep the Dementors away from your godfather and yourself, you thought you wanted to save them, that was your intention and at that moment your whole being was in that intention, you happened to know a few words (the spell) and a wand movement that you thought might do what you wanted, and you succeeded." Gellert paused for a moment before continuing.

"The difference between your intent before the time-turner and after the time-turner is the same, your intent. Before the time-turner you used the spell, but due to haste and fear you could only think that you should protect them, but you didn't know how, you had the intent,

but due to fear, frustration and anger you couldn't put your all into it, unlike when you used the time-turner on your girlfriend." Harry wanted to correct that at that moment Hermione wasn't his girlfriend, but he didn't really see the point and simply let the former Dark Wizard continue.

"So, when you go to create spells using the knowledge I gave you, remember that above all else it is what you want your magic to do that is important," with this Gellert finished and took a sip from a cup of tea that Harry didn't know when it appeared. Suddenly a doubt came into Harry's head.

"You said creation and manipulation of spells, I got your idea of creation, but does that mean I can manipulate spells already created to do something else?" Harry asked seriously and this question only gave the former dark lord more satisfaction.

"Excellent Mr. Potter, you certainly surprise me once again." Gellert said before continuing. "Actually, manipulation is easier than creation, it's already a spell cast, so if you just want to change certain things then you can do that, but you can't change the very essence of the spell, you can't make for example fire create water instead of fire, instead you can make the fire bigger or smaller." Gellert saw Harry suddenly write something on a piece of paper in front of him, he seemed to have thought of something, but continued before asking.

"But everyone has their own way of imagining the spell manipulated in their head as well as the way one creates it, so that will depend on you rather than on what I can teach you. Gellert finished and went back to his cup.

Harry then smiled to himself in amusement, his imagination was exploding with ideas in his head, ideas he wanted to realise as soon as possible, and he looked up at the world of possibilities in front of him.

"I think I have an idea," said Harry smiling and the dark mentor could only look on expectantly.

In the present day, a few days after Hagrid's class came Saturday, it was the date and time for the meeting between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, Hermione wanted to accompany Harry but as he had said to go alone she held back wishing Harry luck she hugged him before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, to run off without looking him in the face.

Harry froze before this and after a few moments he arrived with a goofy grin at the meeting place, when he saw it was time, his countenance changed, what he would discuss here with Draco Malfoy could be important for both of their futures.

It was at the top of the clock tower, in the wooden corridors surrounded by railings to keep people from falling, surrounded by the clock mechanism, and if you looked further down you could see the bridge leading to the outskirts of Hogwarts.

Harry was leaning on a banister as he turned his back to the corridor and looked up at the sky that was visible through the huge clock.

This was the sight that met Draco's eyes when he arrived and before he could say anything, Harry spoke.

"I'm glad to see that you will arrive not only on time but as agreed, unaccompanied".

Yes, Draco was surprised to be noticed with all the noise of the clock and without turning to look at it he didn't show it on his face.

"How do you know they're not waiting further back?" asked Malfoy cautiously.

"They might as well be on the other side of the door, but just getting here alone already qualifies" then Harry turned around to look at Draco and Draco was surprised to see Harry Potter, it seemed like it was the first time he had seen him, he didn't look like a skinny teenager, somehow, he felt like he commanded presence.

"Do you mind if I place privacy spells? I wouldn't want what we're about to talk about to be overheard by prying ears." Harry asked.

"Can you do that kind of spell?" there was surprise in Malfoy's voice.

Harry just pulled out his wand and placed the incantations without speaking, he had already decided that he would show a level of magic above his age at school, but especially at this point if he wanted to convince Draco Malfoy.

Faced with the action of silent magic and spells above his school year now Draco Malfoy was nervous, he thought maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come alone after all.

"Now then Malfoy, I'll be straight with you, I'll ask you two questions and give you an affirmation, though maybe not in that order and depending on how you answer we'll know if we can put aside our differences." Explained Harry

Malfoy nodded, wondering if it would go unnoticed to bring his hand to his wand, but decided not to try, so he took a breath and calmed down to look Potter in the eyes, eyes that showed complete confidence, in himself as if he had the whole situation under control.

"First question Malfoy, how much do you treasure your family, your mother specifically?"

Malfoy's hair stood on end and he broke out in a cold sweat, at first he was afraid of this question, thinking of the possible implications, and then he began to feel terrified of the implications themselves.

"What do you mean Potter!" Spat Malfoy was nervous, but he would not be intimidated by Potter, if he wanted to bring his mother into this he would answer.

"Just what I asked, I'm not sure what purebloods are like nor do I know you that well, arguably I know your father more than I know you, so I ask, do you care about your mother Draco Malfoy?"

Raising his tone slightly but very subtly at the end of the question Harry looked at Draco more seriously giving him to understand that he would not accept anything other than a real answer to the question.

"Yes, of course I care about my mother, what bloody son wouldn't, what are you getting at Potter?" Draco was beginning to lose patience as he couldn't predict where this conversation was going.

"Perfect now that we have established that you are a good son who cares for your mother, I will give you affirmation, of an evil that will come to your door in the future that will endanger both you and your mother," said Harry.

"what do you want..."

"Voldemort is alive," Harry interrupted him before he could say anything.

"You see when Voldemort was banished he didn't really die, no, it was just a setback, he's currently wandering around somewhere as a spirit looking for a way to get his body back."

Harry then began to walk towards Malfoy as he began to circle him and continued to talk, Young Draco had no idea how to react and did not move, Harry Potter saying that Voldemort was alive somehow gave weight to his words at this instant.

"You see Voldemort was here in first year, looking for the philosopher's stone that Dumbledore was hiding in the school, we had a slight disagreement you know he wanted to kill me and I wanted to live, typical."

Harry finished circling Draco and walked back in front of him before turning his back to him and starting to walk towards the closest part of the giant clock, the handrail at the end of the corridor closest to the mechanisms.

"The problem is the fucker got away before anyone could do anything, but he promised me he'd be back, so we got to this point, why is this a danger to you and your dear mother you ask?"

Harry just kept walking slowly as Draco watched him, he was absorbed, something about the way Harry Potter expressed himself was not only enigmatic but intriguing, he took a step forward.

"You and I both know Draco Malfoy, that your father Lucius was a Death Eater, when the powerful dark lord manages to return how upset do you think he will be with his former followers who couldn't help him" The way Potter phrased it when, no yes, it made Draco quite uneasy.

"He'll come to your house, he'll take it over and then you won't be able to escape, he'll have you threatened with your mother and your mother with you, and your father the lamb that he is won't be able to do anything to protect them" then Potter reaching the edge of the clock turned to look at Malfoy, he couldn't see him properly, somehow everything had gotten darker and when Potter stood right in front of the big clock, the light coming from behind him, made his face hidden in shadow.

"Why do you hate me Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked quietly.

It was a simple question, the reason for all their conflicts lay in that question, the problem was that at that very moment Draco Malfoy couldn't come up with an answer, why he couldn't think of one.

"I have a suspicion that you don't like the way I turned you down in first year when you offered me your hand, but keep in mind that you had insulted someone first."

He gave Malfoy a moment to reflect before continuing.

"But I have to wonder, was that moment really enough for the hatred you express for me at every turn?" Harry asked and waited a moment to continue before Malfoy could answer. "I also responded when you attacked me so I'm not entirely innocent, but even you must know that I was always the one reacting never the one initiating the conflict."

Malfoy didn't like Harry Potter that was a fact, but the truth was that he could just as easily pass by being indifferent and it would be the same, there was nothing to be gained by bothering him, so why did he do it, he thought he knew the reason, but it wasn't something he would like to admit or even think about.

But Harry had also come to the same idea and he wasn't afraid to express it, not only that, but he wasn't afraid to show her that it was a waste of time, and so he did.

"You feel inferior Malfoy, you feel that you are inferior to me, but somehow you also feel that you are my rival and by taking me on, trying to make me lesser, you seek to feel superior to me, but the thing is Draco Malfoy, that rivals are almost equal people who if push each other to better themselves, all on the basis of what they are on equal levels." There was silence as Harry looked down at the ground.

Then Harry looked up at Malfoy again, at which point Harry let out a ripple of magic that travelled across the room to where Malfoy was standing.

"Theatricality and legerdemain, these are familiar concepts but well executed they can help anyone to achieve certain goals, you see boy anyone can claim to be powerful, anyone can demonstrate it, Voldemort demonstrated it by killing anyone with his favourite killing curse, and Dumbledore was more discreet, spells without a wand, silent, to manipulate his environment or people were his favourite," recalling an explanation from his mentor as to why several of his actions he worked out how he would handle Draco Malfoy.

"But people forgot that Dumbledore was such a powerful wizard because everything he did was subtle, show your power but you don't necessarily have to destroy things or kill anything, just show that you have the power to do it, the theatricality of your actions, of your magic, will help forge the image you want people to remember of you, and the sleight of hand of your magic will make it more entertaining, more exciting to watch what you do, so it's fine to be discreet, but as far as I'm concerned great words must be matched by great deeds, so when the time comes boy, you will cease to be a student or an ordinary magician and show the figure of a Sorcerer of whom only stories are told" his mentor's

words were inspiring even when he was just teaching him himself he felt he understood how so many people were on his side.

So, coming out of his thoughts, after sending out the short wave of magic why he couldn't really do more for now was all he had accomplished with his meditation on the method of increasing his magic, but that slight wave of magic was enough, it was just the beginning of his act.

Taking the idea of the spell that Hermione liked so much, he used the idea of the bluebell flames, but using the knowledge of Grindelwald in his head he tried to modify the spell, Harry had tried to manipulate this spell before, and thanks to his mentor he had come up with an idea to manipulate the spell already created.

He took the spell already created as if it were a Hexagon, each side of the figure represented the composition of the spell and the intention of each part of it, what he had to do, he didn't want the fire to burn just to look like the blue fire of the bells, but at the same time he needed it to be bigger, without the need to use too much power.

Harry then separated each side of the Hexagon in his head, it was actually simpler than it looked, let's say Harry had the five cm hexagon in front of him, but Harry didn't need a Hexagon right now, he needed another, simpler figure, so Harry separated the six five cm lines, and put them together into three ten cm lines, each forming a triangle of what was once the hexagon. This was the first time he had attempted to do this in life, with the knowledge of the dark lord, and although it would only be to give a false image, an illusion, it was still a modification of a spell, doing it with the knowledge of the dark lord made the job easier and in itself didn't require much power, it was just the idea that he was doing something completely new that excited him while terrifying him at the same time.

But without showing anything other than a stoic face he managed to summon in a non- verbal way a blue fire that began to travel behind where he was leaning, all the way down the railing to where Malfoy stood, and before it reached him, the entire room, the gears, the circumference of the clock, the floor around Harry all but a small diameter around Malfoy began to turn to blue flames, it took away the destructive power of the spell to make it bigger without instilling too much magic in it, and it took away the ability to generate heat to make it more manageable, at which point if he wanted to make a transformation with the fire to form a shape he could do it with the wave of a hand.

Harry was ecstatic, he had done it, it was a simple illusion of a minor spell but he had done it, the day would come when Harry would be able to create a real Firestorm like the one he saw in his Mentor's memories, or like the one Harry himself remembered Dumbledore casting in the Inferi's cave, but for now he would settle for this slight illusion.

From Draco's point of view, as soon as Harry Potter looked up and opened his eyes to see him directly, he felt as if something invisible was pushing and pressing on him for a moment, seconds before everything suddenly burst into flames, while Potter didn't seem to make any movements or recite any spells just standing there at the back of the room with his back to the clock that was now engulfed in flames that reached above his head.

It was a terrifying sight, Draco Malfoy found himself fearing for his life, but it was also a fascinating one, he was engrossed and couldn't take his eyes off the sight.

Draco Malfoy had known magic since he was a child, to the point that he thought nothing magic could surprise him, for him it was a normal thing, that as a child things would come on their own, move on their own, but he had never seen a demonstration of magic as great as this, while his parents cast simple spells to make his life easier, or his father sometimes punished him with spells that caused him pain, everything was simple, lightning a move a verbal spell and something would happen, something simple like bringing a cup of his mother's favourite tea.

Even arriving at Hogwarts Draco like any other student hadn't seen much, in first year they learned how to open locked doors, in second year how to trade cups for animals, he had seen a baby dragon in Hagrid's house but nothing else, and although his father always talked about greatness and so on he never showed anything but pain.

So suddenly the sight of an entire room consumed in huge blue flames fascinated him, this was magic, no, this was real power, not political, not economic, pure and simple power, and he had no idea how to even recreate such a feat, then Potter spoke, breaking Malfoy's thoughts.

"You are no match for me Draco Malfoy."

It was a simple statement but loaded with truth. Draco didn't feel on the same level at the time.

"The most dangerous dark wizard of all time promised to come back to kill me and I'll be ready by then, compared to that fighting you is utter nonsense."

Potter then began to walk slowly towards Malfoy.

"Then let's finish this, you don't have to be my friend, but stop trying to be my enemy young Draco" Harry said as if he was talking to someone younger than him. Malfoy felt like he wasn't talking to 3rd year Harry Potter, he thought he was listening to someone older and bigger.

"We'll put aside our differences, maybe even in the future we can help each other, but it would be best to put our enmity behind us," Harry had finally arrived in front of Malfoy and was now looking him straight in the eye.

"I advise you to think about the future and how you will protect yourself and your mother when that maniac comes knocking on your door."

Harry then reached out to Draco, just as he had done in the past.

"Let's turn the page shall we, Draco?" Harry phrased it as a simple statement followed by a question that left no room for any answer other than yes.

Draco hesitated for a second, but he certainly saw no point in further antagonising Potter, so if what he said was true it would certainly be a better use of his time to try and save his mother and himself.

Then he took his hand with a new resolve, as he did so Harry waved his wand behind him and the flames rose to their highest point for a second and then vanished as if they had never been there.

He walked past Draco as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"That was an enlightening talk Draco, I'll see you around," added Harry as he walked through the doors back into the castle and closed them behind him.

Draco stood for a moment in thought, no doubt he hadn't expected any of this when he agreed to come here, but now that all was said and done he had to move on from what had happened.

This was Draco Malfoy's decision, and no doubt his father would not know about it.