Training
It had been two months since Harry and Sirius moved into castle
Black. They had both been training hard in all areas and it was
beginning to show. Harry found Sirius' training schedule rather
intense at first but after two weeks he had adjusted.
The day began at six thirty with a run around the gym and some
muscle building exercises until seven thirty where they had
breakfast. Eight thirty began with studying either languages Monday,
Wednesday and Friday. Finances Tuesday, wizarding history
Thursday and etiquette on Saturdays, each session took Harry to
eleven a.m.
Eleven to twelve thirty Harry was in the training room with Sirius
doing mock duels and Sirius teaching Harry a spell or two. In the
beginning it was mostly learning spells and a duel at the end but now
they spent a little more time practicing to use the until one thirty was
lunch where they discussed the duels and where to improve. From
then to six Harry studied for his school subjects and the theory of the
practical subjects he couldn't like Care for Magical Creatures or
Herbology. The castle was fairly well stocked with potion ingredients
and they were easy to buy.
Six to seven was dinner and Sirius would share stories about Harry's
parents and the marauders. It was one of the most enjoyable parts of
the day for Harry except for some of the borderline pranks that his
father and Sirius pulled on the Slytherins.
"I remember one time where we switched out Snape's hair gel to
make his hair fall out and smell horrible along with itching powder in
his robes." Sirius was explaining. "Then to top it off we charmed his
ink to expand after twenty four hours. It ended up covering half his
stuff in ink the next day."
"Isn't that a bit far, To ruin all his school work and probably other
notes and expensive things." Harry asked.
"I do admit that we likely went to far on many occasions but I have
forgotten the reasons for most of our pranks. This was in fifth year
and we had heard from some third years that a group of Slytherins
including Snape had hexed them bad and burnt all there stuff. A lot
of our pranks were in retaliation to bad deeds and only the bad ones
affected those that we knew did them. Our other pranks against the
entire school or just the slytherins were less harmful. Like when we
spiked all the juice to make everyone's voices sound funny. Classes
were rather interesting that day."
"It's just that I don't really like bullies and it sounds like you weren't
much better. Snape still has an absolute hatred for my dad because
of it." Harry said.
"I understand what you are saying and a lot of what we did was
wrong, I like to think I have changed from the imagire sixteen year
old I was back then. We were kids and didn't know better, we thought
there was no one worse than those Slytherins. It is still no excuse for
some of the things I did and I am not overly proud of a lot of it. You
should know though that Snape hates your father because of your
mum. He grew up with Lily and I wouldn't be lying if I said I think he
loved her. He hates James because he pranked him six ways from
sunday, saved his life so he owes him and got the girl he had been
crushing on since he was a kid. Snape is an imagire child still stuck
up in his childhood. It is pretty rich coming from me but nothing
Snape does to you can be justified by the behaviour of James and
myself all those years ago."
"I guess I needed to hear that, it is hard to think that my dad might
have been no better than Vernon and Dudley."
"Your Uncle is a grown adult and tried to beat a child to death. Your
cousin and his gang directly attacked you and you alone trying to
hurt you physically and emotionally at five to one odds. What we did
was wrong but I assure you we were nothing like them."
"Thanks. So will you be joining me for Occlumency training." Harry
asked.
"Sure thing, where do you want to do it."
"I found a very peaceful spot to meditate that you might like."
"Really, I couldn't find anywhere better than the library."
"Well it is a bit of a hidden spot that I found when I was exploring last
week."
"Well lead the way." Sirius gestured out the door. Harry grinned and
grabbed his godfathers hand. A thought and a push of magic later
they disappeared with a loud crack.
"The duo appeared in a snowy paradise. They were next to a large
pond that was fed by the trickling water from the towering glaciers
behind it. The pond was almost twenty meters in diameter and the
water was crystal clear. It stopped on a clift where the overflow
cascaded down the mountain and looked over the valley of
mountains around them.
"This is amazing Harry, how did you find it." Sirius asked.
"It's tucked away and can only be accessed by flying or magic of
course. I was on my broom you brought me when I found it." Harry
flicked his wand and gave an incantation to conjure two cylinders of
ice about five metres long and one and a half across. He placed both
in the middle of the pond and stuck them in the bottom so they stood
straight. He cut the tops off to make the top a few centimetres above
the surface. Harry then apparated into one of the platforms he
created and sat down.
"Doesn't the cold bother you, and nice job on the ice columns by the
way." Sirius said.
"I find the cold to be peaceful, the breeze feels just like flying. The
rain though I cannot stand, rain is just miserable and wet." Harry
responded.
The two sat on the platforms and feel into a meditative trance.
Falling into their inner mind and conscience with relative ease. Sirius
found the atmosphere not quite to his preference but it was still
relaxing. Sirius prefered a forest setting in the dark of night. Harry
however seemed to be entirely peaceful in this setting. It was very
different from where they had meditated before inside the small
castle.
After an hour both pulled out of the trance and apparated back to the
castle. Harry read a book for his own amusement and curiosity, he
was currently reading about seeker strategies. The two played a few
games of chess before heading off to bed at nine thirty. Just to start
it all over again.
~•~
Harry thoroughly enjoyed the time he had spent at castle Black so
far and couldn't wait for his first christmas with a family of sorts. He
had snuck out a few weeks ago to buy some christmas presents for
his friends in england and Sirius and was happy with what he had
sent them.
He woke up at six instead of six thirty according to his new schedule.
He had changed it after finding his new special place. He had
thought about warding it to ensure people stayed away and it wasn't
stumbled upon but the magic in the air made it ever so less peaceful.
He altered his schedule to finish fitness training half an hour early
and allow him to meditate with the rising sun before breakfast.
Sirius slept in for christmas morning and skipped the usual fitness.
Only getting up in time for breakfast as Harry landed in the entrance
hall.
"Good morning Sirius, Merry Christmas."
"Merry christmas Harry and happy yuletide." Sirius replied.
"Right, happy yuletide. Best to cover both bases, what is the
difference between them by the way. I get that the wizards
traditionally celebrate yule but how is it different from christmas."
Harry asked.
"Christmas is to do with the birth of the christian lord Jesus Christ.
Yuletide celebrates the middle of winter and for summer to begin to
arrive. It has nothing to do with religion and many yule celebrations
were embraced by the christians for their christmas such as the
decorating of a tree." Sirius explained.
"I guess that makes sense, I was about to start pancakes for
breakfast." Harry replied.
"Sounds delicious, yes please."
The two got to work in the kitchen cooking a stack of pancakes to
eat. Sirius drowned his in maple syrup and topped it with bacon.
Harry chose Yoghurt, chocolate chips, banana and blueberries.
After breakfast they journeyed through the halls to the sun room
where they had set up a tree. The tree had a fair amount of presents
underneath it but not a huge pile.
"I changed the owl redirection ward to send them to a hotel room in
Germany where I hired an elf to send them all here after stripping all
enchantments from them. So your friends have sent you presents."
Sirius explained.
"Thanks, I guess you can open your present from me first then."
Harry handed Sirius a flat rectangular package from beneath the
tree. Sirius delicately unwrapped it and pulled out a large frame.
The frame showed a wizarding portrait of three deer, a stag, doe and
calf playing with a large shaggy black dog and a wolf in a field of
Lilies. The frame was a simple oak frame with varies carvings of the
marauders. At the top was a plaque reading 'The Marauders Live On'
carved into it.
"Thank you Harry, it's beautiful." Sirius said and Harry thought he
almost saw a tear in his godfathers eye.
"It gets better, I was reading the marauders journal and charmed it to
be a true marauders portrait." Harry said.
Sirius smiled and drew his wand from its holster with ease. He
touched it to the portrait and called "I solemnly swear that I am up to
no good." The picture faded to reveal a piece of old parchment.
"Mr Prongs wishes Mr Padfoot a very merry christmas and a happy
yuletide. Keep running old friend."
"Mr Moony would also like to wish Mr Padfoot a merry christmas,
happy yuletide and a happy new year too. Stay safe and live life as it
is meant to be lived, with pranks and laughs."
"Mrs Flower also gives her christmas, yule and new year wishes to
Mr Padfoot and gives this warning, if you corrupt my son you better
live forever or when you meet me in the afterlife you will have many
regrets. Stay safe Padfoot."
The words appeared on the parchment and now tears feel freely
from his eyes. The words faded out to reveal a map of Castle Black
with two dots reading Sirius Black and Harry Potter in the sun room.
"Thank you Harry, this is the best present I could have ever asked
for. I am impressed with your charms work though."
"It is easier to make the map when it is only three floors and a tenth
the size with no secret passages and passworded doors. I am rather
proud of the passworded invisibility charm to make the portrait fade
away and activate the map." Harry said.
"Well Merry christmas and happy yuletide anyway. I will hang it over
the fire." Sirius said as he handed Harry two packages.
The first was a small box that contained a silver ring and a golden
key. The key looked just like Harry's key but had the number 714 on
the handle. The ring was plain silver with a crest engraved on the
top.
"I have appointed you as the heir to the ancient and noble house of
Black. There is no one I would rather have to represent my heir and
my wills have changed to make you sole beneficiary after a few
small things to be given to some others. It is as close to my son as I
can make you and it will help you to do anything you could want. The
ring is the official heir ring to the house of Black and the key is to a
Black trust vault." Sirius explained.
"Thank you Sirius, I am honoured." Harry said.
He opened the second package which was shaped like a book.
When he opened it he found a photo album twice the size of the one
he recieved in first year from Hagrid and full with photos of his
parents, grandparents, great grandparents and the marauders.
Towards the end were photos of his first year of life.
"Thank you Padfoot, I thought I would never get some of these
photos back." Harry said, leaping out of his chair to give his
godfather a hug. It was the first hug that Harry could ever remember
in his life.
Harry unwrapped the other presents from his friends and found
various books and sweets, some new quidditch gloves and a
Weasley jumper. Harry could easily say that this was the best
christmas he had ever had even so early into the day.
The two spent the day in the mountains snowboarding and skiing.
They could go endlessly by going from the top to the bottom and
apparating back to the top. If either was about to crash the same
technique worked well.
~•~
Back at Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore was rather disappointed but
happy all the same. His tracking charm on the owl and book he had
sent to Harry had led him to a hotel in Germany before being
disabled and was a dead end. He was happy however as he had just
recieved some thick, woolly socks with warming, anti slip and
waterproof charms from Harry along with a note saying he was safe
and happy and would still return next year.
~•~
Harry had been progressing quickly through the spells and school
work Sirius had set for him and was almost finished with all his third
year texts. He had began looking at the most useful spells from
fourth to seventh year as well and found some of them easy enough.
He found that he had the strength to do any spell but the more
difficult ones he couldn't get to work every time. As the two ate
dinner Harry brought up something that had been bugging him for a
while.
"Sirius." Harry asked.
"Whats up pup."
"When can I start trying the animagus transformation."
"Well it will be difficult for you because of certain circumstances.
Usually the process starts be placing a mandrake leaf in your mouth
and meditating every day, switching the leaf each week. It releases a
toxin that helps the mind embrace your inner nature and expose your
form in your meditation. Once you get there it is a matter of
concentration and forcing your body to change slowly into your form.
Most people use the meditation to find their form and only if it is
useful do they follow through. Unfortunately you are immune to all
potions and poisons because the venom in your blood destroys them
before they do anything. The leaf would have no effect. The only way
to find your form is to meditate constantly and actively search for
your form within yourself." Sirius explained.
"So just keep doing what I am doing already."
"Sadly that is the only way. When you find your form I would be more
than happy to help with the transformation."
"Thanks Sirius."
That night as the sun set Harry tried to search through his
subconscious while he meditated in his spot on the mountain. He
thought he made some progress. He found himself in his mind when
it started to snow heavily. He didn't think weather was a thing within
his mind. Maybe his form likes the snow.
~•~
Two months later and Harry was spending more and more time
meditating in his spot on the mountain. He meditated an hour in the
morning and two hours every evening after dinner. However no
matter how much he tried he could get no further than a snowy
blizzard.
"So pup, how is finding your form coming along." Sirius asked over
lunch one day.
"Not so good, I can only find a snowy blizzard and what I think is a
cave in the distance." Harry replied.
"Well that is pretty good. That is generally the first part of the
meditation, finding your environment. For me it was a forest in the
dead of night. I spent more and more time in the forest and
eventually found the grim sitting tall on a rock. I had seen it for
almost a week before I was finally able to approach it. When I patted
it I sort of fused into it. From then on I could fall into the body of the
grim within my mind and just had to work on furthering that to my
physical body. That is easier said than done however and took me
thirteen months. James took eleven and Peter sixteen."
"I was reading a book the other day about the old vikings and their
transformations. They called it the spirit form but I think it is the
same. They used the technique of traveling to the place they thought
their form might live. They would not eat to bring forward their
animalistic instincts and meditate in this place. Eventually they would
meet their spirit form through this method."
"And you want to go camp in the mountains during a blizzard.
Sounds like a bad idea, so many things could go wrong. Especially
when you are so deep in your meditation." Sirius pointed out.
"I just can't see me doing it any other way."
"Fine, I want you to keep trying like you have and if you make no
progress by the end of May we can discuss this some more." Sirius
reasoned, so Harry did just that.
He meditated even more and still trained his spell work. He began to
practice his wandless magic and could force it to do certain things.
Wandless magic was rather tricky because it had no limits. There
were no spells and the only drawback was what you could imagine.
As it was explained in 'The Theory of Wandless Magic.' Harry learnt
that wandless magic was completely different from casting spells
without a wand.
The purpose of a wand is to focus your magic and give it form.
Spells and wand movements shape your magic to give the desired
result and are powered by the wand core. Without the core the
magic would not form as it does.
Wandless magic is the channeling of your magic through you without
the assistance of a wand. Because the magic is not shaped by the
wand core it has no colour, no streak of light.
Wandless magic is the bending of your magic to do as you ask it. To
help understand it, think of it as water. Your magic is forever flowing
inside you, by using wandless magic you pull it from inside you and
using your mind, control it.
It is a physical substance but invisible to the naked eye. You can
grab something and lift it, pull it to you, push it away. Encase an
object or yourself and create a sound barrier. Warm or cool the water
to warm or cool an object.
Wandless magic cannot be divided into categories such as charms
and transfiguration. It is simply the manipulation of your surroundings
with magic. It is a category of its own. It is pure magic, magic with no
interference, magic without a wand.
The animagus transformation, Harry learnt. Was using this pure
magic to change your body to match your mind. To fit the animal that
your mind has fused with. Eventually with such control and practice,
your magic will obey as soon as you switch to your forms mind.
Harry could levitate a stone by using this pure magic and could do it
without meditation before hand. He was no working to summon his
wand to him using wandless magic. It seemed like the best use for
wandless magic but was painstakingly difficult.
He still worked on finding his form and could hear a roar in the
distance. What he couldn't find was why a lion or other big cat might
be in the snow.
~•~
May came quickly and Harry had pinpointed the roar to the cave
ahead in the distance. He was starting to have second doubts about
his little excursion into the mountains. The roar sounded big and he
didn't actually know what he might find in the snowy peaks of the
mountains.
It was a week before he was set to leave on his trip into the
mountains when it happened. He was meditating as usual in his spot
in the mountain when it started snowing. Still in his mind's eye Harry
didn't notice. The snow picked up and the water in the pond was
swirling with the wind, lapping at his legs on the platform.
Within his mind Harry was focused only on the cave entrance he had
found himself at. The roar was deafening as it echoed within the
cave. Harry hesitated, should he enter the cave or wait here. His
worry was for naught when a white head popped out of the cave.
Soon followed by a white body with black stripes.
Standing before him 140 cm tall and 250 cm long was the largest
tiger Harry had ever seen. It had large, strong front legs with vicious
retractable claws. Its cost was snow white with black stripes like one
would expect on a tiger. What was truly strange was its head. On its
forehead was a clear marking of a lightning bolt in its fur pattern.
Strangely it had two very large fang like teeth that curved under its
chin. Each would be over a foot in length.
The tiger looked straight at Harry and roared loudly at him. Harry
stood his ground and did not move. The tiger looked at him curiously
and slowly approached. It stopped just before him and looked him in
the eyes. Its head was only fifteen centimetres below his. It bowed
its head and nudged his hand. Cautiously Harry raised his hand and
petted the silky smooth fur coat of the tiger.
His mind shifted and he was looking through the eyes of the tiger. He
looked around before turning back to his cave. He walked deep into
the cave before stopping at its end. He curled up next to a second
tiger slightly smaller than himself and closed his eyes.
Harry woke from his trance and quickly felt the cold chill him to his
very core. He stood up and apparated back to the castle. He cast a
few warming charms and a drying charm to reverse the effects of
sitting in a snowstorm for two hours.
"Sirius I did it." Harry yelled as he ran through the house to find his
godfather. He tried the library, then his bedroom and the dining room
but couldn't find him anywhere. He went to check the map in the sun
room but instead found a note.
Harry
Gone to catch a traitorous rat at Hogwarts, be back by dinner.
Padfoot.
"Padfoot you bloody impulsive Idiot." Harry yelled. He summoned a
robe before apparating to the Nepal border. He walked across and
apparated to the next borderline all the way to Scotland.