"Absolutely not! I don't care if even the gods Old and New are standing by your side. You'll not be going to Dragonstone and throwing away your life trying to cure Greyscale of all things."
Harry cringed as he took the full wroth of his lady mother after he pitched his plan of going to Dragonstone and curing Lord Stannis' daughter.
"But I..."
"No means no Harrion. And that's the end of it." Catelyn growled at him before kicking him out of her chambers.
Harry came face to face with an amused Luwin standing dutifully outside his mother's chamber.
"I warned you didn't I?"
"Hmm. Yes, you did Maester Luwin. Come, walk with me." Harry said, leading the maester out of his mother's earshot.
"Has father changed his mind?"
"I think not young Harry and it's more than likely it never will." said Maester Luwin.
"Hmm. I can't have that." said Harry, his eyes suddenly gaining a shine. "That's why you'll be convincing him otherwise. You'll be speaking in my favour to my father and extolling all the good that comes out of curing Greyscale."
Maester Luwin was now looking at Harry with complete bewilderment.
"Why would you even think I'll endorse such a thing to Lord Stark?" Maester Luwin asked incredulously.
"Are you not a man of higher learning and an accomplished healer, Maester Luwin? Do you not want to see a proper and safe cure eradicate this scourge of flesh from our world?" Harry asked.
He could see the old maester waver slightly.
"Yes but..."
"If you had dismissed my claims of finding a cure to the Spring sickness what would have happened? So many lives could have been lost. Isn't it so?"
"Yes but..."
Once again Harry interrupted the Maester.
"Think how many lives I could save by finding a cure for Greyscale. Think of Lord Stannis' daughter and what I can do for her if I can visit Dragonstone."
If Maester Luwin was moved by his appeal the old maester was trying hard to conceal it.
"Greyscale is a dangerous affliction. Even dragonlords of Valyria have fallen to the infectious disease."
"I will not fall victim to the disease." Harry interjected, looking confidently into Maester Luwin's eyes. "I will take precautions...magical precautions. Besides, I'll not be alone. Archmaester Marwyn will be joining me at Dragonstone."
"Archmaester Marwyn?" Maester Luwin asked, looking perplexed. "How did...?"
"The Archmaester's raven will arrive at Winterfell in a few moons explaining everything. So, are you going to help me out or not?" said Harry, looking expectantly at Maester Luwin who finally sighed and nodded his head in agreement.
'Luwin is in my pocket. Now, the uphill battle to convince the lord of Winterfell begins.' he thought.
With that happy thought, Harry skipped down the hallway looking for his siblings. The better part of the day had been spent arguing unsuccessfully with his father and then his mother about the merits of his visit to Dragonstone. Both of his parents shot him down rather firmly denying him permission. No matter what arguments he presented all of them were outright rejected and he was told an emphatic no. He was now more than sure he'd have to use some healthy doses of Confundus charm. Using Maester Luwin was his last attempt to get what he wanted the normal way. If that also fails, there was no other option left before him other than magical compulsion.
He turned a corner on a corridor leading to his siblings' rooms when a bucket full of flour got dumped on his head out of nowhere. From head to toe, he was covered in powder by the looks of it. He coughed and wheezed his way out of the offending powder while his ears picked up laughter and giggling from nearby. With some difficulty, he removed the offending powder near his eyes and found the source of the laughter.
He saw Sansa and Jon laughing at his peril holding their ribs. Robb, Theon and Garlan were smirking at the success of their prank and enjoying his struggle to dust off the flour from his body and clothes.
"Y'all gonna pay for that." Harry ran towards his siblings intent on smearing them with the powder that was sticking to his body and clothes.
It led to a wild chase all around the castle turning it upside down in the process. The chaos they unleashed and the mess they left for the servants earned them a thorough dressing down from the Lord and Lady of Winterfell. The aftermath of the prank diminished any further hope of Harry gaining permission for the trip to Dragonstone. Bereft of choices he decided to lead with the Confundus charm to speed things along to his satisfaction.
But Harry chose to wait instead of acting quickly. Mostly because he wanted to spend a few days with his siblings and Marwyn's raven was yet to arrive.
On the fourth day of his stay at Winterfell, Maester Luwin finally gave him the good news. The raven from Marwyn finally arrived and it didn't take Harry much effort to charm the piece of paper with a powerful Confundus charm before it was handed over to the Lord of Winterfell.
"This Archmaester Marwyn. Do you know him well Maester?" Eddard asked, after glossing through the contents in the piece of parchment.
"He is a knowledgeable man with a link for healing arts forged in his youth. He is also an enthusiastic traveller who has mapped out distant lands and tackled foreign ailments. Harrion should be safe under the Archmaester's care."
Harry watched in fascination as his father exchange a long look with Maester Luwin. For a moment, Harry could feel his compulsion waver before the charm managed to consume his father smoothing out his features.
"Archmaester Marwyn is also the foremost authority when it comes to magic in the Citadel. I've also communicated with the Citadel about the exact condition of Lord Stannis's daughter. My colleagues are confident the castle is safe to travel." Maester Luwin added.
"All right." Eddard sighed, his eyes trained on Harry. "You can go to Dragonstone. But I'll be sending a guard detail under Jory."
Harry readily agreed.
'That's one down.' Harry thought. 'Now, to repeat the same feat with mother.'
In the end, Harry easily secured permission from his mother. He took custody of the parchment from Maester Luwin and had it delivered straight to his mother. The Confundus took effect easily and that was the end of the story. He stayed a few more days in Winterfell to ensure the charm took proper hold and to transport some more migrant smallfolk from the nearby area.
XXXXXXXXX
Nearly a month and a half passed in the blink of an eye. The plan was for Harry to travel to Dragonstone after Marwyn arrives at the old Targaryen stronghold. This left Harry with a lot of time on his hands before journeying south. So, he thought this time was better spent on designing a new airship that was a precursor to the more versatile model that he was planning with a dangerous trip in mind.
With the arrival of more builders and smallfolk, he got access to a suitably large workforce. There was ample work to be done inside the castle but Harry was content to let that work lag in favour of another project. He could afford that delay because Avalon was a giant castle comparable in size to Winterfell. He didn't need all the towers and buildings in the castle to be functional for the castle's smooth running. Therefore, he diverted some of the workforces to constructing a larger airship. Not that there was anything wrong with the current airship. It was just that the current one could be hardly classified as a ship. It was more of a boat and Harry wanted a bigger one.
This time he decided to scrap the designs based on boats or longships. Instead, he went straight for an enclosed structure modelled after a Zeppelin. The enclosed structure would offer more protection and he was hoping he could design the airship to facilitate the easy loading and unloading of heavier goods. With the current airship, he had to step in and shrink any of the heavier and larger size goods to fit inside the airship. Most importantly with access to ice dragon crystals, he'd also be able to cut down the time for replenishing magic used in the airship.
When he constructed the first airship, he had to depend extensively on runes to keep the flight capability of the airship consistent and work as intended. But that was no longer the case all thanks to the ice dragon crystals. They were saturated with immense magic which he was easily able to incorporate into the new design which helps in reducing the dependency on runes. The first airship required a lot of runes but the new one only needed minimal runes and that was to function only as a backup security feature. The entirety of the new airship was instead directly powered by charms and spells that were bonded into the frame. And these spells were further directly powered by the ice dragon crystals placed under heavy wards connected by monitoring charms on his power ring.
The most difficult part however was working on the interior of the airship. His magic could only help so far in speeding up the processing of wood and other resources. The real work has to be done by the workers themselves.
When the work was finally finished, Harry was not satisfied with the quality of the interior. It was to be expected though. The builders were working on an entirely new field of design as far as a ship was concerned. And there were severe time constraints involved. Perhaps, if he had not rushed the workers to complete within the timeframe, they could have put more quality into their work.
'Maybe, the interior could be redesigned at a later date.' Harry thought, letting out an appreciative hum as he took in the exterior of the airship.
The airship now looked like a smaller Zeppelin made of wood. The striking feature was the addition of a long strip of glass window that adorned the two sides of the airship. That particular feature required some magical involvement. Glass was not exactly a locally available material in Westeros. But in the process of making glass window panes for the airship, Harry established several small glass-making facilities. For now, he alone could work those facilities but once he returned from Dragonstone, he planned to add some features to the facilities allowing the smallfolk to produce glass. The shores of Avalon and much of the Sea Dragon Point were rich in sand suitable for making glass. Surely, he'd make a killing out of establishing a budding glass-making industry.
"Well, this one certainly looks imposing." said Oberyn, standing beside Harry taking in the newly built airship.
"It'll certainly give the people of Dragonstone a fright. Tell me, we are going to land the airship far away from the eyes of the smallfolk. Right?" Jory inquired, looking at Harry.
"Where is the fun in that?" Harry smirked.
XXXXXXX
Stannis watched Archmaester Marwyn fussing over his daughter and occasionally jabbing a metal stick against his daughter's cheek. At first, his daughter cried loudly in protest but now the child was looking curiously around in her crib.
"The infection seems to have gone dormant." the Archmaester commented.
"Is she safe?" Stannis asked, his eyes finding the curious blue eyes of his daughter.
"I honestly can't say for certain. Greyscale is a dangerous affliction and I'm sad to say we at the Citadel have always considered Greyscale victims as a lost cause. The infection spreads rapidly and turns the soft skin into stone. But it doesn't end there. The victim is also robbed of their mental faculties turning them violent as the infection grows." said Marwyn.
Stannis already knew all that. He was already well informed about the disease by Maester Cressan and the many other maesters that treated his daughter.
"Tell me, Archmaester. Do you seriously believe Harrion Stark can cure my daughter?" asked Stannis.
"Frankly speaking, I do not know. But I do know that Harrion Stark possesses powerful magic beyond the scope and understanding of most learned men I know in the Citadel. The reason we maesters have not found a cure for Greyscale all these years is that it is no normal disease. It's a blood curse fuelled by sacrificial magic and spite."
Stannis gritted his teeth at the long and windy explanation that made less sense to him. He was starting to see why Maester Cressen expressed his doubts about hosting Archmaester Marwyn.
He was about to ask the Archmaester more about what the man was planning to do with helping his daughter when his ears picked up the sound of rushed footsteps.
"My lord." A guard gasped out of breath near the door.
"What is it?" he asked with a frown, taking in the wide-eyed look on the guard's face.
"There is something in the sky my lord." said the guard, sweating profusely.
"There is something in the sky?" Stannis drawled slowly, wondering whether this particular guard was a simpleton.
"I believe Harrion Stark has arrived. Come, we must greet the young lad." said Archmaester Marwyn, who proceeded to take his leave from the side of his daughter.
Stannis eyed the man in bewilderment and felt himself grit his teeth more firmly for not making any sense. Nonetheless, he followed the Archmaester after making sure his daughter was looked after by the servants. On his way, he managed to see a giant wooden construct of some sort floating amongst the clouds. He paused by the window side and stared at the sight before him in utter disbelief. His mouth fell open as the wooden ship-like object began to lower down and set itself on the shore.
"I told you, my lord. Harrion Stark possesses magic beyond our comprehension."
Stannis distantly heard the Archmaester comment from nearby. He nodded absently before following the Archmaester to greet his new guest.
A few minutes later, Stannis was once again starting to think he should not have listened to Davos and sought out the Starks. The Stark boy was not alone which was to be expected. But what he didn't expect was for Oberyn Martell, his paramour and bastard daughter to accompany the Stark boy. The said Stark boy was currently poking and prodding at his daughter's Greyscale afflicted cheek with a piece of wood.
He exchanged a look with Maester Cressen who looked none too happier to be a witness to the current happenings. But he had ordered the Maester Cressen to be present and that was the end of it.
Suddenly, his eyes caught the eerie yellow glow that lighted up the chamber of his daughter. To his surprise, the light was coming from the tip of the stick the Stark boy was using.
"Wha...? What's happening?" Maester Cressen asked in surprise.
"Shush now. The boy is working a spell. Learn to recognize them Maester." Archmaester Marwyn said, waving his hand dismissively at Cressen who looked immensely offended but remained silent nonetheless.
The light slowly died down and Stannis looked at his daughter's face hoping that this 'magic spell' somehow cured her Greyscale. But the disfigured part of her cheek remained afflicted with Greyscale despite his hopes and prayers.
"There is definitely dark magic involved. I need to draw it out but first I need to make a salve to weaken the cursed parts of the skin." said Harrion, without taking his eyes away from Stannis's daughter.
"Does that mean you can cure my daughter?" Stannis asked hopefully.
"Give me three moons, Lord Stannis. Your daughter will not even have a scar left on her face. I can promise you that." said Harrion.
"Well, isn't that some good news? Come now, Lord Stannis. You can afford a smile, can't you?" said Oberyn Martell in a jolly manner.
Any sort of relief and happiness he felt was immediately drained away as he was mocked by the Dornish prince. He gritted his teeth but otherwise ignored the Red Viper. His eyes remained trained on his poor daughter. He hoped his daughter would be saved as the Stark boy promised.