The next day was officially the first day of summer vacation, which of course meant that the school was completely empty of students. Now that he wouldn't be magically rubbing up against everyone, Harry was really looking forward to some freedom from the Hospital Wing. When he woke up just before breakfast it was to find Madam Pomfrey standing over him and carefully scrutinizing his body.
"Harry, have you noticed that your scar is a little less red and angry? It looks like it's already beginning to fade." Madam Pomfrey's question was asked as she poked and prodded at him with her wand. This had become a daily ritual since three days earlier, so her charge didn't make a fuss about it.
The truth was that Harry hadn't been paying any attention to his physical body for the last couple of days. He'd been preoccupied with his emotional and spiritual well-being rather than his looks, so he hadn't noticed his scar at all. Now that it was being brought to his attention however, Harry was happy to hear that he'd stand out less in public places.
Smiling cheerfully, Harry rose out of bed and gave the elderly healer a good morning hug. For obvious reasons, Harry hadn't been able to hide how important Madam Pomfrey had become to him. His aura screamed 'family' to her, and although his feelings of attachment had surprised her at first, she'd soon started treating him as such in return. After pulling away from the hug, Harry slowly drew a hand along his scar. "No, I hadn't noticed Poppy. To be honest I've been focusing more on my interior than my exterior for the past few days. I've been building a Mindscape."
Poppy, as Harry had started calling her, looked startled at first, but then she arched an eyebrow in her curiosity. "Am I to believe, Harry, that in just four days' time you've advanced your Occlumency to the point that you're developing a Mindscape?"
Harry smiled mischievously even as he shook his head in the negative. "I'm not making just any old Mindscape, Poppy. It's a world... It's an entire damned planet."
"Language Harry," Poppy replied automatically, in a low voice. Truly she hadn't really even noticed his swearing. She was far too busy staring at him as if he had two heads. "Harry... That kind of scope in a Mindscape would take an ordinary wizard half a century to build. They'd have to build outward from a focal point and it'd be extremely demanding to accomplish."
While Harry was well aware of how things would work for a so-called "normal" wizard, he also knew that he just didn't fall under that category anymore. Neither his thoroughly ingrained low self-esteem nor his desire for modesty could deny the reality of his current situation. Case in point, what he was about to describe to Poppy was about as far from normal as it is possible to become.
"Well... I did build my Mindscape out from a focal point, just like you described Poppy. I just did it all at once and very, very quickly. My focal point right now is just an empty field, in the middle of nowhere, on a facsimile of a planet... Using the idea of a planet as my inspiration, I've created an ozone layer made of ten meter thick high grade stainless steel that I'm using as my Occlusion barriers. I figured that there's no such thing as overkill when my goal is to protect both my mind and my magic. I was even thinking of having an armada of star wars and star trek spaceships orbiting my planet. It sounds like fun..." Having completely forgotten about Poppy in his enthusiasm, Harry was happily monologging his plans all by himself.
For a little over a minute, Poppy just stood there, as Harry Potter described the most fantastically absurd Mindscape in the entire history of wizardkind. When he was finally finished rattling off his future plans for orbiting laser platforms and Ocean bottom Military bases, she shook her head and palmed her face with her hands.
An entire damned world indeed…
A very long time ago, Poppy had come to understand that it was best to just go with the flow when encountering situations beyond mortal understanding. With that idea in mind, Poppy decided to return to business as usual, which of course meant medicine. Walking over to a table, Poppy returned with a large bottle filled with a vile green looking liquid. "It's time Harry... Drink this." When she caught Harry's look of foreboding, Poppy's face became extremely stern in response. "Listen carefully Harry. I can't stress enough how much strain your body's going to be put under this summer. You are going to need way more than just the average nutrition to fuel it all."
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