Slowly sipping from her glass of pumpkin juice, Lily Potter subtly spied her three children sitting in the Great Hall for Breakfast. Dorea's prime posture; like a queen amongst Ravenclaws, Rose's sweet little pranks that induced giggles across the Gryffindor table, and finally Harry; sitting calmly with a single friend, completely ignoring the uncertain and awed looks from not only his housemates, but the entire school. For a moment, she could almost believe everything was fine.
…And then her picture-perfect world would show its imperfection, the cracks slowly widening. It was almost depressing how much had changed in the last two months. She'd dreamt of this day often—when she'd first gained Harry's affection so suddenly—imagining how exciting it would be, to be in the castle with her four children finally acting like a family. Things had been looking so good for a brief moment…she should've known it was a lie. For the son she'd gained, she'd lost two others. Now here she was, knowing her husband was dead, while her other son was doing Merlin knows what.
The image of Jacob murdering muggles and terrorizing the neighborhood almost gave her a minor heart attack, a sharp pang of pain rising up in her heart briefly, wondering there she'd gone wrong. Yet, that brief moment of weakness was enough for the darkness to resurface, the touch of the Void reigniting within her, trying to corrupt her mind. Before she could fall deeper in the pit hole, she brought the full force of her level 4 Occlumency to bear—and like always—shoved the memories of her dead husband and son into another compartment of her mind…right beside the ones where those memories and fake mind print were locked in.
She paused.
'Can it even be called fake anymore when it was capable of taking over my body at the slightest hint of weakness?'
Lily shuddered to think what would've happened had she not been a level 4 Occlumens. Without the ability to create a second mind print for Void to occupy, would it have taken over her body completely? She couldn't even begin to guess.
And nor did she want to. She did not even try accessing her Void element anymore. The last time she'd voluntarily tapped into it was when she'd created the magic-resistant watch for Harry. She'd been so proud of her slowly growing abilities then, never even wondering if the Void might be trying to trick her somehow.
…Not until it was too late to act.
There was something very wrong about her now, she knew. Something she couldn't quite identify without accessing those memories she'd locked away alongside the Void print.
She didn't know what memories she'd hidden away from herself, but she knew it would tear apart her relationship with Harry...and the last thing she needed was for that to happen. Harry had become her sole, firm pole of support in the last few weeks. Even as busy as he kept himself, the comfort his sheer presence brought was the only thing that stopped her from unraveling completely.
He was the light of her life…they all were. And as long as her children, and Harry, were beside her, she knew she could get through any darkness in the world.
Even the type of darkness that left her so full of shame and guilt each morning that her entire existence felt a torture chamber. Those dreams and flashes…the sinful images…each night they assaulted her mind, and no matter how strong of a sleeping draught she took, she could never hope to forget them.
While a part of her believed this to be a unique way of torture that Void registered, another couldn't help but wonder if it had any grains of…reality.
The images of Harry and her wrapped as one—naked as the day they were born—flashed inside her mind once again, flushing her entire self with guilt, nervousness, and shame so strong they left her reeling back.
"Are you alright, dear?" Pomona asked from beside her, and she belatedly realized she'd stopped eating, her eyes fixed on Harry's smiling figure.
Crossing her legs, she shook the image away.
"Y-yes." Her voice hitched on the lie, heart beating like a drum, loud enough she feared others might hear it.
Pomona looked doubtful.
Lily took a deep breath and calmed her mind, smiling at her colleague tightly. "I'm fine, Pomona. Just thinking how different everything is now."
A look of understanding and pity flashed on her kind face, forcing Lily to suppress a grimace.
'Better pity than suspicions.' She tried to comfort herself but failed horribly. Pity was one thing she did not want from anyone. The way her colleagues had been treating her—even Minerva—you'd think she was a vase of glass about to crack apart anytime now.
It was like they'd completely forgotten the fact that she was the same woman who'd survived getting her mind ripped by the Cruciatus and came back stronger than ever.
Still, it was better than them growing suspicious. Vastly better than others finding out about her sinful dreams each night.
'It was just a dream.' She forcibly tried to convince herself. 'A shameful dream caused by the trauma of James' death and Jacob's actions.'
Yet, the doubts remained.
Why was she so afraid of touching the void then? What memories could she be hiding from herself? Why did she feel such a stark dread...and need every time she thought of those dreams...
Lily didn't know. She didn't know a lot of things about herself anymore. She only knew that she loved her children, she loved her Harry, so, so much...
And the only thing she wanted was for this war to be over and her family to be safe.
Everything else can be sorted out later.
Even the memories buried within her mind that she was starting to suspect were linked closely to her dreams.
Once the war was over…once she was sure her family wouldn't be ripped apart even further, then she would confront the truth…no matter how shocking it may be.
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"Defense against the Dark Arts." Blaise muttered under his breath, the slip he'd gotten from Snape still clutched in his hands. "You must be happy. Snape's your favorite teacher, isn't he?"
Harry snorted. "Not anymore."
He cast his gaze across the Great Hall, keeping an absent eye on Lily and his sisters. For some reason, the woman looked a touch more delicate from a distance, inciting an urge to go and wrap his arms around her right this moment. Though her hunched shoulders and diminutive figure might also have to do something with it.
"Ah, so uhh...Professor Potter's the new one, huh?..." Blaise fumbled, clearing his throat. "You've patched up with your family then? Everything's cool now?"
Harry chuckled, glancing at him. "Yeah, everything's cool now. You don't have to tiptoe around the subject anymore."
"Oh, thank Merlin." Blaise sighed, dramatically wiping sweat off his forehead. "I swear to god, if I had to hear one more time how bitchy the 'red-headed manipulative witch' is, I'd definitely pop a vein."
"Okay, I do not sound like that." Snorting, Harry stood up. "Though yeah, I'd completely understand if your ears started bleeding after hearing me go off on her again. I was kind of a dick to her, wasn't I?" He glanced at the subject of their conversation, realizing he already had her attention.
Harry's growing smile quickly disappeared under a frown however, when the woman whipped her face away, unwilling to meet his eyes.
'What's that about now?'
"Dick?" Blaise snorted. "Try 'Massive, unrepentant dick, who threw a tantrum every time she tried talking to you'."
"Right." Shaking his head, Harry wiped his hands with a tablecloth. "I'll see you in the evening then."
"Whoa, what?" His lone friend stood up suddenly. "You aren't coming to the class?"
"Nah, no classes for the Head of Aurors." Harry smirked, before glancing at Lily again. "Though I'll probably be present for Potions tomorrow."
"Oh." Blaise sounded disappointed. "So...listen, Harry."
The change in tone captured his attention and he turned to the boy with raised eyebrows.
"It's just...you saved my life the last time...and I didn't even give a thanks on time." He opened his mouth to dismiss the issue but Blaise waved him down. "No, listen! It doesn't matter what you think about it, I owe you. Like, a lot. When you returned me back to the tent, my mother was ready to march off to the Malfoys and eradicate them from existence. It was only when I let her see my memories of what you did to him and his friends that she calmed down. But she also saw me before you did your healing and it made her go off again. Now, well...she doesn't want to start a full blown war, but she really, really wants to meet you."
Harry nodded slowly, wrapping his head around the situation. "...You're welcome?"
The boy huffed. "C'mon, this is serious. I owe you a life debt, and mother would never let this go. So can you please just, I don't know...drop by, say hello, and come back?"
Harry blinked. "That's all? Well, sure then."
"...Okay, maybe that's not all." He reluctantly admitted. "Life debt is a really serious business, something even I don't know everything about. She wants you to attend a full dinner, probably ask a whole lot of questions. Are you free this weekend?"
"Not this weekend, no." Harry rubbed his chin, feeling the light, well trimmed beard starting to grow. "It's gonna be a really busy time for me. She'll probably have to wait till the Christmas holidays, I'm afraid."
"That's fine." Blaise waved it off. "Whenever you have time. Just don't forget please, or she'll haunt you throughout your life."
"Sure." Harry snorted, spying Dumbledore getting up from his seat. "I'll meet you later then."
He waved the boy goodbye, and started making his way to the Headmaster's tower. 'It was time for some real training.'
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The Headmaster's office was going through some renovations when he arrived, the usually crowded room looking almost completely empty. Though that was only compared to a normal room, for even 'almost completely empty', the office was cluttered with numerous useless but interesting objects that simply shouldn't belong in any respected Headmaster's office.
"Ah, Harry." Dumbledore perked up, in the midst of waving his wand at an especially tall stack of books. "You're earlier than I anticipated. I'm afraid I've only just begun readying the room for our use."
It took a moment for that to settle in.
"...What?" Harry blinked. "You want to teach me Elemental magic here?"
Dumbledore straightened up, pushing back his glasses with a finger. "Unless you know a convenient place for us to practice magic powerful enough to destroy the castle, I will have to say 'yes'."
Harry smiled slowly. "I do know such a place though. I'm just surprised you don't."
The quizzically thinking frown on Dumbledore's face was a picture-worthy scene.
"No…" Harry gasped mockingly. "Don't tell you…you really do not know about the legendary Room of Requirement!?"
Dumbledore looked mightily miffed. "I…well, I did once stumble upon a rather beautifully proportioned room I had never seen before, containing a magnificent collection of chamber pots, just in time to take care of my urgent…requirements. Sadly I never found it again, though I always keep my eyes open for it."
"Well, guess what?" Harry spread his arms grandly. "You can rest easy, for your search is now at an end! I, Harry Potter, will now introduce you to the wonders of Hogwarts' most magical room! Something I found in five years against your…what, thousand years now?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "Hundred and fourth year, but I shall swallow my pride and graciously accept. I must say though, it would've been better to receive the news a little earlier when my office was still nice and whole."
"Your fault." Harry shrugged. "Now come on, we're wasting time."
In short order, the duo were out of the office and prowling the Hogwarts' corridors, making their way to the seventh floor, ignoring the looks sent their way by curious children.
"If I may ask, how did your 'Slytherin-searching' go?" Dumbledore asked as they waited for the correct stairs to arrive.
"Quite smoothly, actually." Harry admitted, glancing at the old man. "After a…friendly late night talk, their Prince Leader seemed to have a change of heart. I woke up today to find him and his group blocking the Common room entrance, checking everyone's arms for the Dark Mark. They even bowed to me and shit. It's so refreshing to deal with mature people who don't let their pride hold a grudge."
"Damien Picquery, if I'm not wrong." Dumbledore stroked his beard. "The High Prince of Slytherin. A sharp and ambitious young man, though a little vain at times. I'm glad to see it all come to a satisfying end."
Harry snorted. "I don't actually trust his judgment, so I'm gonna go with my plan anyway. I've just decided to delay it till Monday, after I hold my first Auror training session this Weekend…which is tomorrow. Damn, does time fly by."
As if sensing the subject, the Telecard in his pocket shook like a ring bell.
"Say the name, and they appear." Harry muttered, holding out the card. "Well, it seems my Aurors have arrived at the Castle. I'm only allowing one of them to enter, the rest will keep guard from the outside. Hogsmeade will be especially secured tightly. Don't want our Serpentine friends to infiltrate it."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I'm sure the dear citizens of Hogsmeade would be most thankful for their Savior's thoughtfulness."
"As they should be." Harry nodded seriously, his eyes taking in the familiar corridor on the seventh floor, a tapestry on the wall depicting Barnabas the Barmy teaching ballet to a bunch of trolls. "We're here."
Dumbledore hummed, stroking his beard again. "A hidden entrance on one of the less traveled corridors of the Seventh floor. I can see why so few would accidentally walk upon it, only to never find it again."
"Well, I did." Harry paused. "With a little bit of Elvish help."
The old man raised a brow. "A curious thing, that."
Ignoring him, three times Harry walked across the spot opposite the tapestry, thinking hard on exactly what he wanted. A secret place to learn Elemental magic without prying eyes.
The Door appeared.
He waved Dumbledore in, smirking. "Shall we?"
"We shall."
They entered the Come-and-Go room.
It was shaped as a domed chamber this time. A domed chamber humongous enough to make the European Championship stadium look tiny in comparison. Harry could only see the ceiling and the other end due to his vastly improved eyesight.
"I must say," Dumbledore breathed out, removing his glasses to give it a quick polish before pushing them up his nose again. "This vastly surpasses my expectations."
Harry chuckled, moving to one of the three book shelves to the side. "Yeah, it tends to do that." He picked up a handful of books, reading through their titles. "And it goes above and beyond your imagination. It is said that the Room is directly connected to the Hogwarts library. Now we know."
They were all on Elemental magic.
"Well then," Dumbledore bustled over. "I believe it would be quite a disservice to it if we were to waste more time. Let us begin your foray into the world of Elemental magic."
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Harry was glad to know his previous knowledge was not put to waste. The last two weeks that he'd spent brushing up on the theory of Elemental magic made sure that he was walking into this with a solid enough basics to not waste time on needless lectures and explanations.
Theoretically, to channel an Element, the first thing one needed was a strong enough ability to sense magic, being able to feel it in the real world's elements. Fire, water, Earth, wood, metals... everything essentially contained traces of magic that a practitioner of the arcane must first know to identify, before even thinking of controlling it.
Ever since coming to this world, one of the first things Harry had focused his attention on was sharpening his magical senses. And while he may not have been skilled enough to be an Elementalist back then, the last few weeks seemed to have given him enough of a push to get started.
"Fire is one of the easiest Elements to sense." Dumbledore's voice droned on in the background, splashing over Harry's occluded mind uselessly as he focused on the wisp of fire, trying to feel the magic. "If you fail to feel the magic within, I'm afraid we will need to work on your magic sensing first."
He was sitting on the ground with legs crossed upon a red rug in the middle of the vast chamber, with a small warm flame hanging in midair in front of him.
"No need." Harry replied, feeling a satisfied smirk twisting his lips up. "I can feel it now."
Admittedly, the magic wasn't exactly trying to hide away. And he'd come too far to fail now. If previously, sensing magic was like trying to feel the air in an enclosed room, now it was like walking in the middle of the road and feeling a light gust touching his face. Infinitely easier if one went out of the way to observe the phenomenon, but easily ignored on an average day.
Furthermore, he could even sense a vague power level for the magic within the fire. It felt weak to his senses; incredibly so, perhaps even weaker than a Lumos cast by some below average first year.
Though considering he didn't have any experience in this, that wasn't saying much.
"Good. Now close your eyes and follow my voice."
Harry obliged.
"Visualize the fire in your mind, imagining it exactly as it is in this room. And I do not mean a pale image, but a clear moving picture coming alive inside your Mind castle."
Level 4 Occlumency was everyone's best friend for a task like this. With the vision of his surroundings fixed in his mind, Harry followed the advice and willed it to be real within his Mental castle. Before long, he was watching a tiny flame dancing in mid-air, an exact copy of the real world.
"Done."
"Very well. Now answer me this Harry, do you see the magic within this fire?"
Harry frowned, focusing on the live mind image closely. There was no difference. For all intents and purposes, it was the same mundane fire he'd seen Dumbledore conjure at the start of their lesson.
A bulb went off in his head.
"You want me to sense the magic inside this mental fire, don't you?" He didn't wait for Dumbledore's answer, restarting his earlier attempt to sense magic. Except this time, instead of the fire in the real world, he focused on the fire in his mental space.
Almost instantly, the image in his magic changed slightly, a wispy white light coming to surround the inverted teardrop shape of the flame.
"I see it. Magic is...smoky white in color? It looks to be surrounding the fire's outermost layer."
"Very good, Harry." Dumbledore sounded proud. "The first step into Elemental magic is to visualize the magic within it. In time, and with some practice, you may come to do this with the real flame, and without having to close your eyes. This shall be your homework for the rest of th—"
Harry opened his eyes. The image in his mind disappeared but he instinctively visualized the real fire having an outline of white smoke that he now knew to be magic.
"Yeah, done." Harry glanced at the old man. "Do I try to control this now? Is this it? Can I control the Fire Element now?"
Dumbledore fell silent.
When he spoke again, his voice sounded strained. "...Not yet. We do not know your affinity, and controlling a random Element always ends in failure. Perhaps a little test would serve us well first. Keep your eyes open."
Harry felt a flare in magic before it became reality, and suddenly eleven new different flames were hanging in mid-air besides the original one.
"Now tell me, which of these were conjured through Incendio, and which ones through my Element."
"I didn't know your Element was Fire." Harry frowned. "Also, what's the difference?"
Sadly, it seemed his quick grasp over the subject wasn't enough to put Dumbledore off his game for long, with his infuriating mysteriousness coming back to his twinkling eyes. "Fire is one of many, yes. As for your question…you tell me."
Huffing, Harry acquiesced, putting his entire focus on visualizing magic as it clung to the fire, quickly coming to some conclusions. "Some of them are...more magical, I guess? If the original flame has a cup of magic, a few of them's got a bucketful. I'm guessing the more magical ones are the Incendios?"
Dumbledore sighed. "I thought this would take at least a week. I should be the last one to complain but this is terribly unfair to all the others who put so much of their time and effort into the subject."
"So I'm correct." Harry nodded. "Question; everyone takes Elemental magic to be a level above the mundane magic, yes? But why? Elemental magic seems to have less magic than a spell. Why is the less magical fire taken to be more powerful? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
Dumbledore hummed. "A question that has plagued many over the years, my young friend. Would you like a simple answer? It just is. For a longer one, we must visit the past when our ancestors first wielded mag—"
"Alright, never mind." Harry waved him down. "Forget that I asked."
"Kids these days." The old man sighed. "To answer your question, it's because magic is simply replicating fire to create a copy. And unfortunately, like all copies, it is not quite as powerful as the original."
"Well, there you go." Harry cheered. "Not so hard giving a straight answer, is it?"
"...I think I may soon come to dislike you a little, Harry." Dumbledore suddenly announced very somberly. "While I've begun taking much less stress since your arrival, I've faced just as many problems. My wand has suddenly begun finding me unworthy, my students want nothing more than to surround you, my staff keeps talking about you, my school is filled with Aurors, I'm no longer the Chief Warlock—"
"I'm sorry." Harry interrupted, pausing to blink up at the solemn old man. "...What were you saying about the longer answer again?"
Dumbledore gave a grateful nod, standing straighter. "As I was saying, when our ancestors first wielded magic, they must've tried replicating the natural phenomenon of this world. Things one could see and experience. Fire, water, earth, air…. Magic is incredibly adaptable, capable of replicating the same effects as these elements. And this is how, I believe, wizards first came to be. And as the generations passed, the wizards tried coming up with easier and easier methods to do the same thing, soon using only words to incite their Will, and wands to channel their magic. And thus, the spells were born. Incendio, a copy of fire. Leviosa, just a manipulation of magical Air, Lumos; light, and so on and so forth. To reiterate my earlier answer, magic itself is not weak, for it can be anything we want. But in the end, our spells are simply copies. Of course, our magic's ability to replicate an element's strength and effects differ from wizard to wizard, thus creating the difference in raw power."
For some reason, the entire explanation did not leave Harry bored and confused, his mind processing the info and running through theories at a pace he'd never have experienced before.
"But…" Harry glanced up at his mentor. "Wouldn't that mean, theoretically, it is possible for someone to replicate fire even better than the original?"
Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up. "Excellent question, and the answer is no. Magic in itself does not have any additional properties, so it cannot upgrade Fire to a more powerful version. But what magic does have, is the ability to combine more elements to make the original Fire different. More powerful? Yes. More destructive? Assuredly. But magical Fire on its lonesome cannot be inherently better than the original. Fire is an incredibly essential part of reality, and you cannot improve upon it, only change it."
Harry nodded slowly. "So... Fiendfyre must be a combination of Death and Fire element...well, the combo of their spell-versions, at least."
"Indeed. And Grindelwald is very much capable of casting the same using Elemental magic."
"Merlin...a more powerful version of Fiendfyre would be like...wow. And this is who I need to surpass before the end of this year? On top of handling a country, training Aurors, fighting in a bullshit tournament, and somehow thinking of a way to get this Horcrux out of my brain." Harry paused, another thought hitting him like a freight train. "No wait, this plus Voldemort!? How the fuck am I supposed to surpass both!?"
He may still have his rituals to look forward to, but the task seemed incredibly daunting from where he stood.
"Well," Dumbledore simply smiled. "We better get started to find out, don't we?"
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AN: Ah, the good old feeling of posting a chapter again…please let me know if you've enjoyed this one.
The next chap (yes, tomorrow, I swear…hopefully) will involve Tonks, his Slytherin friends, Bella and Lily, and a peak into how the Ministry's doing.
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P.P.S: Holy shit, webnovel now allows for bold and italics formatting to stay! Let me know how it feels, I'll change the rest of the chapters as well.