Harry Potter and Merlin's Castle

Story: Harry Potter and Merlin's Castle Storylink: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8054513/1/ Category: Harry Potter Author: Cat97Hermione Last updated: Words: 35499 Status: In Progress Content: Chapter 1 to 5 of 5 chapters Source: FanFiction.net Summary: Harry is left at the Dursleys after Sirius's death. When He finally decides to take his destiny and training into his own hands, he gets help from a very unexpected source. Powerful!Super!Light!Harry. Dumbledore,Weasley & Granger bashing. *Chapter 1*: Chapter 1It was a cool, clear day and everyone in Surrey was making the most of the weather. All except for one boy who was lying face down on his bed in number 4, Privet Drive. The boy's name was Harry Potter. Harry was not a 'normal' boy by any standards. You see, Harry Potter was a wizard- fresh from his 5th year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even amongst other magical folk, though, Harry Potter was an unusual teenage boy. He was famous, famous for defeating the Darkest Wizard of the time at the age of one. However, the Dark Lord, who as known as Lord Voldemort (or You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as his name was too frightening to speak, apparently) had come back just over a year ago, and it was his latest murder that Harry was currently brooding over. The bedroom was not the nicest place to in under normal circumstances, as his relatives were less than kind to Harry Potter. Now, it was ten times worse. The smallest bedroom was filthydirty clothing was scattered all over the floor, there was nicks in the furniture created in his frustration and bowls of old soup cluttered on the floor around the cat flap in his door, which had been put in place by his relatives to allow them to pass food in when he was locked in the room for extended periods of time. Harry's school trunk was lying open in the middle of the room, with belongings spilling out of it and his owl, Hedwig, was currently perched in her filthy cage looking disgusted. Lying on the unmade bed, face-down, was the boy in question, 15 year old Harry Potter who was currently muttering to himself. "It's all my fault all my ruddy fault I should have checked I should have learnt

occlumency I should have realised Why didn't I stop him? All my fault He's gone" and he stopped there, quiet tears rolling down his cheeks. 'It's NOT your fault,' said a stubborn voice in his head. 'You checked, and Kreacher lied to you. You should have learnt occlumency, but you didn't realise its importance at the time. Snape was a terrible teacher, anyway. There was absolutely no way you could have realised you were going into a trap. You could not have stopped Sirius from coming to help you. He loved you, and could not have lived with himself if he stayed home whilst you were in danger and he was an adult. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! Bellatrix killed him, it's her fault. Voldemort sent you the vision, blame him. Snape was a horrible occlumency teacher. Dumbledore didn't give you the information you needed. Sirius didn't take the duel seriously enough. Blame any one of them. Blame all of them! But don't blame yourself. You did the honourable thing, and went to the rescue of a man you believed to be in danger. This is war. There are deaths. People will die, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you blame yourself for every fatality in a war, you are beyond stupid.' Harry wasn't buying it. "But I killed him," he chocked. 'Oh? You held the wand? You co-ordinated the attacks? No. You didn't. I fail to see how you killed him. Blame anyone! Blame Dumbledore! It's not your fault,' said the voice. "Dumbledore," Harry growled, thinking of all the information the old man had withheld from him, and the prophecy. "No one else is going to die for me. I am the only one that can end this. Dumbledore isn't going to help me, he's proven that much. So, I do this on my own. As of now, I'm in training to defeat the darkest wizard of our time," said Harry, with conviction. He then got up, and began to clean the pigsty he called a room. 'Good man,' growled the voice in his head. (That sounded suspiciously like Moody, now he thought about it) Two hours later, the room was unrecognisable, so Harry sat down to devise a schedule. The parchment soon read; 6.00- run 7.00- breakfast 7.15- Defence against the Dark Arts 10.00- Potions/Herbology 12.00- Transfiguration 2.00- lunch 2.30- Charms/ Occlumency 5.00- Gymnasium 7.00- dinner 7.30- Holiday work/ other subjects Harry decided that he would begin by reading and summarising all of his textbooks and any other books that he owned while he devised a plan to get himself to Diagon Alley for some proper supplies. Once that was decided, Harry made his way to the local gymnasium. There, he enrolled in a fitness course from 5-6, and for good measure, a gymnastics class from 6-7, thinking it would held him dodge curses- he wasn't sure that his shields were strong enough against Voldemort- and he wasn't planning on testing that theory. Being able to dodge a few more killing curses was definitely an added benefit! Harry arrived home, and pulled out his first year Defence book. At quarter to 5 in the afternoon, as Harry was jogging to his first fitness class, he thought over all he had read today. He had never bothered to read any of his books cover to cover once he started school, and hadn't realised how much he had missed! Suddenly, Hermione's 'knowledge'

didn't seem so impressive. Two days later, it was Sunday, and Harry was ready to put his Diagon Alley plan into action. His repaired alarm clock rang at 4 in the morning, and he quickly silenced it so that it didn't wake the Dursleys. He dressed quickly and grabbed his muggle wallet, (last year he had taken a large chunk of his money out secretly, and converted half of it into muggle money so he would never have a problem in either world) wand and invisibility cloak which he had set aside the night before. At 4.15, he crept out the back door, threw his invisibility cloak on and vaulted over the back fence into the neighbour's yard. Harry continued to 'yard hop,' until he felt he was far enough away from number 4. Then, he crept out onto the street and called the Knight Bus. He pulled off his cloak and handed Stan his 11 sickles and took a seat at the back of the bus, where Stan obviously decided he wasn't interesting enough to have a discussion with, and 10 minutes later, Harry was entering the Leaky Cauldron, his fake name of Dudley Evans still unused. He crept through to the back room and let himself into the alley. He knew that he would need to get more money before he did the bulk of his shopping, but a disguise was more important. When the majority of the shops were open and he Alley was full of people, it would be wishful thinking to hope he would go unrecognised. He found a section of 'all night' shops, and to his delight, spotted an oculist amongst them. The sign outside the dusty shop said; Emerald Eyes- Everything and Anything you need! So Harry went inside, knowing that his glasses and eyes were very recognisable. The sign wasn't joking- the oculist had everything! Glasses, contacts, potions, magical eyes Harry was so busy looking at everything; he didn't notice the owner coming up to him until a voice in his ear said; "Do you need anything, boy?" the owner sounded exhausted. "Um yeah I need to replace my glasses but I don't know what do I replace them with?" mumbled Harry. "Hmmm They are a little too recognisable, Mr. Potter," remarked the oculist. "You're telling me," complained Harry, "and call me Harry, please. You make it sound like I'm in trouble!" "Alright, Harry, but call me Jim. Now, your eyes are, as I said earlier, very recognisable. If you just want to correct your vision, we have potions you can use, or clear contacts if you prefer that. If, and I suggest this, you want to make yourself a little less recognisable so you can make your way around the alley more comfortably, we can put a colour-change charm on the clear contacts. It's not vision repairing, but you will be able to change your eye colour." Said Jim the oculist. "Sounds great, can I get the contacts with a colour change charm? How much are they?" asked Harry excitedly. These would go a long way in his plans for getting supplies. "Not a problem, Harry. Now, unlike muggle contacts, you never need to take these out, unless you decide to fix your vision completely. To change the colour, you have to picture it in your head in a similar way to meditation. It requires a small amount of energy to hold the colour change, so when you go to sleep the charm will drop and you will need to reset the colour in the morning. They're 8 galleons, unless you want anything else?" "Not at the moment, I'll come back later if I think of something," said Harry cheerfully, handing over the money. "On second thoughts, can you think of any place that will charm my hair another colour?" "Ah, I can do that for you!" A few minutes later, a boy with pale blue eyes and dull blonde hair walked out of Emerald Eyes with a huge smirk on his face. Harry strode towards Gringotts, completely unrecognisable. He walked up to a goblin, the bank almost completely empty due to the

fact it was still only 5am. "Good morning," said Harry nervously. "I need to visit my vault, but I don't have a key. Could you possibly help me?" "Name?" sneered the goblin. "Harry Potter," said Harry promptly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, please follow me." Harry followed the goblin through the halls of Gringotts until they reached an office with small plaque reading 'Goldtooth' above the door. They walked inside and the goblin that Harry took to be Goldtooth and Harry's guide conversed furiously in Gobbledegook until finally, Goldtooth took out a small bowl and a ceremonial dagger and presented them to Harry. "Drop some of your blood into the bowl, and it will confirm your identity. It will also provide a list of any inheritances you have and supply the name of any outstanding wills," smirked Goldtooth. Harry was suddenly nervous. There was a look in the goblin's eye telling him that he was not about to enjoy this. He drew the dagger across his palm and held it over the bowl. After a few seconds, the cut he had made healed over, leaving only a faint scar that was gone not too long afterwards. Then he looked at the bowl and saw that his blood had mixed with the liquid in it and was churning horribly. After a few minutes, a piece of parchment had formed in the bottom of the bowl and all of the liquid was absorbed into it and forming words on its surface. Goldtooth picked it up, his sharp eyes scanning it and looked shocked- until her reached the bottom, where he began to look angry. He silently passed it to Harry, who looked down at it and almost dropped it in shock. Breathing deeply, he scanned it a second time. Harry James Potter-Black Heir to: Potter (by name and blood) Black (by choice) Evans (by blood) Pendragon (by blood) Emrys (by blood) Gryffindor (by blood) Ravenclaw (by blood) Hufflepuff (by blood) Slytherin (by blood) Gaunt (by conquest) Properties owned:

Potter Manor- POTTER (Fidelius) Godric's Hollow 75- POTTER (destroyed) Sandy Cottage- EVANS Privet Drive 4- EVANS Merlin's Castle- EMRYS Hogwarts Castle- GRYFFINDOR, HUFFLEPUFF, RAVENCLAW, SLYTHERIN Wills Outstanding; James Charlus Potter- 14 years, 10 months Lily Potter nee Evans- 14 years, 10 months Sirius Orion Black- 1 month Harry blinked at Sirius' name, but nevertheless took the offered parchments. A while later, Harry finished reading the last will- Sirius'- and looked up at Goldtooth. "Sirius wanted me to become emancipated" he trailed off. "Ah, yes that will give you all of the roles and responsibilities of an adult. You would claim your 10 seats on the Wizengamot- which, by the way, might be a record number of seats, and you would be allowed to perform underage magic. If you break the law, you will be tried as an adult. You receive your Head of House rings, and one Albus Dumbledore will lose control of your vaults. Do you wish to proceed?" "What yes Dumbledore has control of my vaults?" spluttered Harry. Goldtooth handed over a large stack of papers for Harry to sign while saying just loud enough for Harry to hear; "I didn't think you authorised those rather large monthly withdrawals" Harry frowned. Dumbledore had been stealing from him? Once the papers were signed, Harry swapped them for a pile of boxes. He took the first box and opened it- it contained a beautiful solid old ring with rubies around the edge at regular intervals and the Potter family crest imprinted in it, along with the family's motto. When he put the ring on, it heated up and shrunk to fit his finger before cooling so quickly it felt as though it had just been dumped in a bucket of ice after sitting in a fire for hours. One by one, the head of house rings made their way onto Harry's finger and he began to get used to the sensation. Soon, he was head of the houses of Potter, Black, Evans, Pendragon, Emrys, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Apparently, the Gaunt ring had gone missing along with its previous owner. "Can I go down to my vault now, please? Just my trust vault," said Harry, deciding that he would come back when he had more time and fewer things to buy. One long cart ride later, Harry was standing in front of his vault handing over the key Goldtooth had given him. He went inside and realised that although it had a huge amount of gold in it, it was quite obviously lower than it had been the last time he had visited. He knew that Dumbledore ad lost control of his vault when

he signed the emancipation papers, but to be on the safe side, he emptied the entire vault into his moneybag. It was a lot more than he had planned on taking but he didn't want to risk any more disappearances. Another cart ride later, Harry was outside and blinking in the sudden increase of light. He had been in the bank for just over 2 hours, so at just after 7am, the shops were beginning to open. Harry didn't know where to go first, so he decided to work his way around the alley beginning with the shop right next to Gringotts- a luggage shop. Harry knew that the bottom of the range trunk he had bought with Hagrid over 5 years ago was getting a little too knocked around and was on the small side already without the things Harry was about to buy, so he entered the shop. It was exactly how he remembered it- full to the brim of trunks of every size, shape and colour. It looked like an explosion site with trunks piled haphazardly all over the place, with only a small clear area with a counter and a separate 'charms desk.' Harry finally decided on a beautiful mahogany trunk with gold clasps and edging. The thing Harry liked best about it was the fact it had four compartments, all magically enlarged. The first was a wardrobe, and was guaranteed to fit any item of clothing he tried to place in there, also keeping them 'fresh, and wrinkle-free!' The second compartment was a basic storage compartment- completely unremarkable, but quite obviously necessary. The third compartment was a library. It was guaranteed to hold over 2 000 books. Each shelf was numbered and when you entered the shelf number you wanted into the compartment, all the books stored on it would appear in it. It was brilliant! The fourth compartment was built for potions ingredients and the temperature was magically controlled to ensure maximum life for every ingredient placed init. Harry took the trunk to the counter and paid the 25 Galleons for it, before dragging it over to the charms desk. There, he paid 10 galleons for a feather-light charm, (which had to be placed on each compartment) a shrinking charm, password activation, a charm to key people into it, (so only certain people could even attempt to offer the password) notice-me-not charms and protection spells. He thanked the man, set the password to Slytherin- (well, he WAS the Gryffindor Golden Boy- so no one would guess the password!) before putting his hand on the clasp and commanding it to "shrink" and put the matchbox-sized trunk in his back pocket before walking out the door. The next store in line was Madam Malkin's. Harry walked in nervously, knowing that he would have to tell them his identity to get clothing that suited him. He looked around the shop, utterly lost in the masses of fabric before he heard giggling behind him. He whirled around, before he saw the shop assistant looking at him. He put his wand away sheepishly. "Do you need any help?" she asked, still giggling but also eying the place where his wand had disappeared into nervously. "Uh yeah I need some robes," said Harry, causing the shop assistant to burst out laughing. "What type?" she asked once she regained control of her breathing. Harry couldn't see what was so amusing about the situation. "Uh type?" asked Harry, bewildered. The assistant giggled again, causing Harry to fully agree with his 14 year old selves' thoughts; giggling should be made illegal. "Well, we have dress robes, dinner robes, everyday robes, duelling robes, potions robes, school robes, spell-resistant robes, Wizengamot robes, casual party robes, family robes, formal robes, teaching robes Then there are different materials, ranging from silk, to dragonhide and everything in between. There are different qualities and pre-made robes or you can go for tailored robes- those look better, but it depends on your budget" she continued to talk, and stopped only when she saw Harry staring at her.

"What?" she asked. "Uh never mind. It's just I didn't get any of that but I'll try. Errr money is really not an issue, so I'll get top quality of everything, I guess 2 each of the dress and dinner robes, 5 each of the school, spell-resistant and potions robes, 10 each of the everyday and casual party robes, 1 each of the Wizengamot, family and formal robes, and, err maybe 8 duelling robes? And what are teaching robes?" "Sure! Tailored or pre-made? What colours? And teaching robes are really cool. They look like formal robes but a little more casual, but they have the characteristics of duelling and spellproof robes in case a student's spell goes wrong and the teacher gets hit!" she said cheerfully. "Can I add 10 teaching robes to the list? 'Cause I teach a student organised Defence class and I've been hit in the back way too many times," Harry began grumbling. "Anyway, umm tailored sounds good! Errr for colours uh, black school robes?" the assistant began giggling again, and Harry said; "Can you just choose, please? I'm bad at this!" "Sure, but are you in disguise? 'Cause the robes need to suit you." "Yeah, I am disguised. How'd you guess? No, never mind, I don't want to know. Can I have one of the casual robes suit this disguise and the rest well I'm Harry Potter." The assistant gasped, before quickly recovering herself. "Hi, Harry, I'm Ashley and sure, I can do that!" "Thanks and if you don't mention that you saw me here, you can 'accidentally' slip some extra robes in and I will forget that I didn't ask for them and pay for them," said Harry quickly. Ashley blushed and began taking his measurements and making the robes. Harry was surprised at how quickly robes could be made with magic- it helped that all the robes could be made at once. While she was making the, Harry continued his browsing of the shop and picked up several pairs of dragonhide gloves and boots. Half an hour later, Harry left Madam Malkin's with 54 new robes in his trunk and wearing the robe he had made for his disguise. (Ashley had 'accidentally' dropped another 4 in with Harry's permission) The gloves and boots he had seen were also in his trunk. The next store was a muggle clothing store, and Harry went through a similar processalthough they didn't do tailor-made clothing which was fortunate for Harry. Harry left the store with a complete new wardrobe- 10 pairs of shorts, t shirts, long sleeved shirts, jeans, track pants and jackets, 20 pairs of socks and underwear, 5 vests, singlets and skivvies, several scarves, hats and gloves, 3 pairs of runners, thongs, slippers and boots and an interesting pair of shoes the owner called Ugg Boots. Thankfully the assistant, as a muggleborn, didn't make much of a fuss over his identity. As Harry was leaving, he mentally thanked the luggage store- he was sure a normal wardrobe would explode if he tried to put the amount of clothing he had bought so far into it. Flourish and Blotts was next in line, and Harry walked in excitedly. For some reason, he wanted to learn everything he could, and not because he had a mentally deranged mass murderer after him, but because he could. It was later that he learned Dumbledore had long ago magically repressed his learning abilities and when he was in Gringotts, the goblins had noticed several charms on him and began to take them off. The store was split into several sections; Fiction, Non Fiction, Transfiguration, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts, Mind Magics, Herbology, History, Charms, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Household Magic, Pureblood Customs and Traditions, law, Obscure Magics, Astronomy, Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Curse Breaking, Warding and the list went on. Although the charms Dumbledore had placed on him hadn't been fully lifted, it was enough to make him almost skip in excitement when he saw all of the knowledge that was stored in the one shop. Harry skipped over the fiction section,

and headed to the closest section after that: Transfiguration. There, he pored over all of the titles, before finally deciding on several advanced books, including NEWT Transfiguration, Advanced and Permanent Conjurations, Finding Your Inner Animal, Animagus for Everyone, Transforming yourself and others, Human transfigurations; the cheats, shortcuts and dangers, Mastering transfiguration, Transfiguring your way out of trouble, Transfiguration in Duelling and a few others. Potions was next, and he found several books, including; Advanced Potion-Making, Brewing for Dummies, Quick Potions That Will Save Your Life, Basic Healing Potions, Poisons and Antidotes for the Hunted Wizard, (Harry chuckled at that one- it really did describe him!) How to Prove You Really Can Brew, Advanced Potions Simplified, Understanding What You're Using and Why and Why Your Potion Does What It Says It Does. In Defence, He picked up the largest stack of books out of all of the sections. Defence for the Average Wizard, Defending Yourself, Defence Against the Dark Arts Revisited, Duelling; Etiquette, Rules and Regulations, Advanced Defence, NEWT DADA, Mastering Defence, Defensive Strategies, 101 shield spells and their counters, Surviving in the Real World, Common Spells to Save Your Life, Basic Defensive Spells You Never Learnt, Winning Outnumbered, Great Duels and the Spells Used, Defeating the Average Dark Lord and Muggle Duelling- The Only Defence Against The Unforgivables, and How They Do It were among the books he found. The Herbology and History sections were passed over, with Harry picking up one or two books in each. The Mind Magics section was the smallest, but there, he picked up; Occlumency; The Basics, Defending Your Mind Against Master Legilimens, Conversing Silently- Telepathy For Beginners!, Legilimency for Beginners, Advanced Legilimency, Advanced Occlumency, Advanced Telepathy, Mastering Mind Arts, Why Only Some People Know The Mind Arts and How To Tell If Someone's A Legilimens Without Looking Them In The Eye- The Things Every Wizard Should Know. Harry wondered why Mind Arts were so rare when there was so much information on them in Flourish and Blotts when he saw a sign above the section saying that the Mind Arts section was warded so that only people with enough power and the ability to learn the arts could access it- 1 in 10000. Harry whistled. Now that he thought of it, Hermione had never seen the section, or she would have been all over it. Muggle studies was ignored, and in Care of Magical Creatures he only took one book; Every Known Magical Creature and What to Do If You Meet Them- Self-Updating. In the Charms section, he picked up several books on advanced Charms and Charming in battle. Household magic, Pureblood customs and traditions and Law were all severely depleted once Harry had looked through them. Obscure Magics was the section that Harry had looked forward to the most, and it had a similar warding system to the Mind Magics section, it scanned your power levels and intentions. Even Dumbledore had failed to enter it, but to Harry's delight, he managed it. Here, he picked up a huge pile of books, including; Wandless Magic- Basic, Wandless Magic- Intermediate, Wandless MagicAdvanced, Elemental Magic and Why It Is Classified 'Extinct', Controlling the Elements, Broomstick Crafting, (Harry had no idea why he picked that one up, but left it in the basket anyway) Wandless Magic Explained, Silent Casting and It's Benefits, Why People Use Staffs and How To Craft One For Yourself, Wandless Magic In Battle, Using The Elements In A Duel, Highly Amusing Ways To Defeat Your Opponent, Learning Silent Casting to Surprise Your Enemies, Pranking A Dark Lord, Finding The Power You Never Knew You Had, Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, Discovering Blocks On Your Magic, Ancient Magic and How To Use It, Sentient Castles- They're Fun To Talk To! (Harry was sure Hogwarts was sentient and was going to enjoy working with the castle to prank someone like Dumbledore) and The Complete Encyclopaedia of Obscure Magics and How To Use Them. The astronomy and divination sections were both completely ignored, but the Arithmancy, Ancient

Runes, Curse breaking and Warding sections were all missing quite a few books after Harry went through them. After over an hour in the admittedly large bookshop, Harry took his basket of over 500 books to the counter and paid for them. The shop owner had taken one look at the number of books in the basket and told Harry that he could just pay 200 Galleons as he didn't have the patience or the time to try and work out the correct price. Harry grinned, knowing he was getting a huge discount and handed over the money before dumping the books into the library section of his trunk, knowing that they would automatically sort themselves by subject as he had set it to do when he bought it and left the shop. The next store was interesting for Harry- he managed to pick up several swords and daggers of different lengths and thicknesses, all magically tied to him. He found duelling dummies which could be programmed to duel at different skill levels and bought 6 of them, knowing that he would very rarely enter a fair, one-one-one fight. He found a wand holster- invisible to everyone apart from himself and charmed to keep hold of the want even if hit with an advanced summoning charm, as well as several holsters for his new weapons, with similar charms to the wand holster. The apothecary's smell prevented him from being in there too long, but he managed to get several spare cauldrons and kits with 6th and 7th year ingredients as well as several rarer, more expensive ingredients that Harry was sure could not be found in the student's supply cupboardsuch as basilisk venom, phoenix tears, boomslang skin, Gillyweed and lacewing flies. He bought a supply of bezoars, knowing he was in huge danger of being poisoned. Several top-of-the-range potions knives found their way into his trunk along with new scales and other potions equipment. Quality Quidditch Supplies was almost passed over- until he spotted another book on broom crafting and picked it up, now knowing that he was going to try and craft his own broom. Realising that he never got his Firebolt back from Umbridge, he also picked up a new broom which had just come out the day before and he had managed to not notice in his haste to pick up the book. That's a first I went for a book without even noticing a new, top of the line broom that had only been released the day before! Hermione would be so proud Ron would be disgusted! It was called the Firebolt II, and promised to be lighter, quicker and have sharper steering than the model before. Harry was sceptical about the claims, but bought it anyway. Next in line was the Diagon Alley outlet of Scrivenshafts- Hermione's second favourite store. Harry entered, knowing this was going to be a big purchase. He went first to the parchment, where he bought 1000 rolls of parchment- he had done a mental calculation- Every year at Hogwarts, he used 300 rolls of parchment, but Hermione went through 100 rolls more than him. That meant that he would probably use 350 rolls this year if they did a similar amount of writing. However, they had been promised that they would be using a LOT more parchment in 6th year, so he bumped his amount up to 450 rolls, as he wasn't sure if he would be dropping any subjects yetit all depended on his OWL results, although he felt sure he would not make it into Advanced Potions. Then there was the fact that he was going to study many more subjects independently this year, such as Arithmancy and ancient runes, as well as the work he was doing at Privet Drive. He estimated that the extra studying would use quite a few more rolls of parchment and rounded it up to 500 rolls a year. However, there was a discount if you bought over 800 rolls, so Harry bought enough parchment to last him until the end of his schooling at Hogwarts. Once that was decided, he went over to the quills and bought lots- eagle, owl, standard, formal quills were all on offerthere was also an extremely expensive phoenix feather quill. Harry decided that the eagle quills were handsome but not overly expensive. He found self-inking, dictation, spell-checking and spillresistant quills in the eagle feather range and bough t several of each, deciding that if he could use a dictation quill in Binn's class he wouldn't have to use Hermione's notes- he was going to give her

a run for her money in the grades department this year! No more holding back like he had done his whole schooling life. He bought enough ink to last him for years- black, blue, red, green and colour-changing inks all made their way into his purchases. Finally he made his way up to the counter before he realised that they sold book bags- he had always been slightly envious of Hermione's magical one, but most students didn't own them. He looked through them, and finally found one that he liked- a handsome bottle green bag- spill, tear and curse resistant, as well as magically enlarged with several different sections for books, parchment, ink, quills, a general section for placing anything he wanted into it and even a section for his wand! It had been charmed feather light and had a system similar to his trunk- only people keyed into the bag could open it. Harry loved it, and added it to his already extensive purchase. The next store was a furniture store, and Harry almost passed it over before he decided it would be fun to look around in it, and he could improve his room now that he could use magic. He then decided to replace all of the furniture in his room- he could always use magic to make the room bogger if his things didn't fit. Almost immediately after entering the shop, Harry's eyes were drawn to a small oak cabinet. Harry went over to it, and stared at it in shock- it was a self-refilling pantry! Once you put a certain food into it, every time you took it out the cabinet would automatically replace it. Harry knew he needed it. He could completely avoid the Dursleys for the whole holidays if he had it! He paid the 500 galleons for it and placed it in his trunk before continuing around the shop and getting other bits of furniture for his room. To Harry's amusement, the wizarding supermarket was next in line, and he went in, intent on filling the cabinet he had bought. He found huge amounts of pre-made meals ('All it takes is one simple heating charm!') and bought one of each. He bought several different types of fruit and a container of pumpkin juice. Harry was beginning to get tired, so he made his way to the Leaky Cauldron, intent upon getting a rest, lunch and a butterbeer- Hmmm maybe I can place a butterbeer in the cabinet before taking it out- then I can have the stuff at the Dursleys and Hogwarts! Brilliant! He ate his meal quietly, remembering to add butterbeer to his cabinet. Just as Harry was leaving, he passed a table of mismatched people having an intense conversation. Interested, he slid into the table behind them and pulled a glass of butterbeer out of his cabinet. He was glad he decided to eavesdrop, as almost immediately, he heard; "Kingsley, Alastor, the two of you are responsible for training Weasley and Granger. I want them auror level in Defence before school resumes, they are responsible for the protection of Potter, and they disgraced me in their OWLs." Harry seethed. He could protect himself! Apparently Moody agreed with him, as he asked the question Harry wanted answered. "Albus, why don't we train Harry himself? He is a natural at Defence; the boy could get a mastery in the subject over the summer if he wanted to!" "Because, Alastor, Potter is dangerous. He could go Dark if he has too much power. That's why I put all those blocks on his mind and magic. He cannot be trained!" Harry felt as though he would blow up the pub if he stayed much longer. Blocks on his magic? He knew about the blocks on his mind, but his magic was bad. They could have killed him! He was putting the butterbeer away when he heard Snape, of all people, saying; "Albus, that's ridiculous. The boy will never go Dark; he is too much like his father. Arrogant, stupid Gryffindor fool, no thanks to your blocks, by the way, but he is light to the core." "We will train his so called friends, Albus, and I don't like what you're making them do. Really? Spies? But we will train them to the best of our abilities and you'd best hope that leaving Potter untrained leaves your foolish mind very soon, or I will take him out of school and give the

boy an apprenticeship myself or talk to your friend Flamel," growled Moody. Harry pondered over the new information as he rushed back to Flourish and Blotts. He had ignored the auror level books in the defence section, believing that he would come back to them in a year or two when he could handle the magic. Now, however as he picked up every book he could find on auror level spells and curses as well as the handbooks for every year of auror training, he thought over the discussion he had heard. Ron and Hermione were being trained? Dumbledore thought he would go Dark? No that has to be a cover for something else. Wait Ron and Hermione are spies? On me, I bet now that I think about it, they never did anything above what was expected of 'friends' around me. Snape stood up for me hmmm and Moody also. BLOCKS ON MY MAGIC! How do I get rid of them? Not going to the goblins unless I have to. Their price would be very steep time for a change of plans. Where did I put those Gringotts keys? Once Harry had paid for his new books, (all 50 of them) he almost ran back to Gringotts, stopping only to pick up a few owl treats. He wouldn't be doing any more shopping today. Harry made his way to the nearest free goblin, who just so happened to be Griphook and was taken down to his other vaults. First was the Potter family vault. Completely ignoring the piles of gold, Harry picked up every book he did not already own and placed it in his trunk. His father had been an auror, so he also had restricted books that were not sold to the public- auror handbooks and spells that were not taught to the general public. The same thing happened in the Evans, Gaunt, Pendragon, Hufflepuff and Slytherin vaults, although he ignored the Dark books. In the Gryffindor vault, he added the expensive weaponry and Dark Detectors into his trunk along with the books. (For some reason, the Gryffindor vault had the smallest collection of books- but he didn't already own any of them) The Ravenclaw vault offered him a pendant that would help him absorb everything that he read along with helping him read at twice the pace. He picked it up and put it on before collecting all of the books. The last vault was the Emrys vault- Merlin's. He approached it nervously. There was barely anything in there! He picked up the books and the weaponry. The books were impressive; most of them unpublished and the author had been Merlin himself. When he returned to the surface, he made his way to the portkey store and bought one that would take him to St. Mungos. Ten minutes later, Harry was standing in the foyer. Deciding that blocks were 'spell damage,' he made his way up to the fourth floor as quickly as he could without running. He soon found a healer and explained to her that he had recently discovered blocks on his powers. "Not a problem, we'll have them off you in less than an hour!" she said cheerfully and started telling him that blocks used to be popular and were placed on overly powerful children to contain their accidental magic before being removed on their 11th birthday, but people stopped doing it after they realised that blocks, although increasing power in the long run, were incredibly dangerous as the children need accidental magic to get themselves out of dangerous situations. It was also illegal to leave blocks on after a child's 11th birthday. The healer soon lost her cheerful demeanour after she realised the extent of the blocks. "Goodness, it's a miracle you can cast at all!" she exclaimed. "Who placed them?" "Dumbledore," Harry ground out. She looked shocked, but didn't ask any questions and began to work on removing them. Once all the blocks were gone, she handed him a sheet of parchment. "I would tell you about all the blocks that were placed, but it would take too long," she said seriously. "When you get home, prick your finger and place it on the parchment. It will give you a list of all of your rarer powers and abilities, most of which were completely blocked." She then tried to give him a copy of Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, but Harry told her that he had bought his own copy just this morning. Harry

thanked her for removing all the blocks before using his new portkey to return to Diagon Alley. Thankfully, the Order had left, and he was able to sneak back into muggle London and called the Knight Bus. It was 6 in the evening by the time Harry got back to Privet Drive. He decided to fix his room the next day, and set to work on discovering the abilities that had been blocked. He pricked his finger and placed it on the parchment. Soon, it read; Harry James Potter-Black Discovery of unblocked magic Powers and Abilities; Metamorphmagus (unlocked; 15yrs) Multi-animagus (unlocked; 15yrs) Beast speaker (unlocked; 15yrs) Elemental magic (unlocked; 15yrs) Parseltounge (never blocked) Parsel magic (never blocked) Eidetic memory (unlocked; 15yrs) Advanced speed (unlocked; 15yrs) Advanced hearing (unlocked; 15yrs) Shadow walking (unlocked; 15yrs) Natural Mind Magics affinity (unlocked; 15yrs) "WOW," breathed Harry. For a test, he took off the pendant he had found in Ravenclaw's vault and read the first 3 chapters of one of his books. He closed it and was shocked when he could recall it perfectly, word for word. Her then realised it had only taken him 5 minutes, and now that his mind was fully unlocked, he was able to understand it as well. "It really works the paper's not lying I can read and remember and UNDERSTAND! Even better than Hermione she doesn't have eidetic memory, she just studies too much this is brilliant! I might actually finish the books I bought! And I can use magic!" Harry continued to talk to himself in a similar fashion for over 10 minutes until a loud bang from Dudley's bedroom brought him back to his senses. He looked at the parchment once more and decided that occlumency was his priority and with natural mind magics affinity on the list, he should be able to do it quite quickly. He pulled out all of his Occlumency books and began to read. By 8pm, Harry had finished reading about the art and was ready to put his defences in

place. He slipped into a mediative trance like the book instructed him to, and found his mind. He was disgusted by the mess. Slowly, Harry organised his mind. He began by building walls around his mind and soon, he had a castle built. He furnished all of the rooms and it was quickly becoming his dream space. He even had an indoor Quidditch pitch! Then he made his way to the library, where all of his thoughts, emotions and memories would be stored. It took him a long time, but finally his memories were sorted by his age and the people involved, and his thoughts and emotions were organised into categories depending on the people involved and whether it was positive or negative. He put some basic shields around his mind and then withdrew. He knew that once he learnt some stronger wards he could place them around his library and castle, but for now he was happy with the fact that it was organised and he had basic shields in place. It was enough that he managed to sleep without any nightmares about Voldemort. Or Cedric. Or Sirius.

*Chapter 2*: OWLs and BirthdaysOWLs and Birthdays A week had passed, and Harry was passed NEWT level for all of his school subjects and the subjects that he hadn't taken, like Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. He was at Auror level for Defence- consistently beating 2 duelling dummies set at auror level, although 3 still stumped him. He was also becoming proficient with blades and was doing well in his fitness course and gymnastic class. His room was unrecognisable! The 'room' was now closer to the size of a house. There was a duelling platform with basic wards around it to stop stray spells from hitting anything else and his 6 duelling dummies were set up neatly at one end of the platform. He had a racking system behind the platform, housing all of his weapons. The ceiling was charmed in the same way as the Great Hall at Hogwarts, letting sunlight into the room during the day. There was a large jogging track and a lap pool. On the other side of the room, he had his food cabinet, desk and his new four poster bed. His trunk was pushed up against the wall, next to the door which had muggle-repelling and notice-me-not wards on it. His old trunk had been emptied, shrunk and placed in the second compartment of his new trunk. At the Burrow, Kingsley, Tonks and Moody were yelling at Ron and Hermione who were struggling to raise a basic shield. "We're BORED! If we were doing proper magic, we'd be able to do it! We're s'possed to be doing auror level stuff! You're teaching us the stuff Potter taught his little class of wannabes," complained Ron. "Exactly! Potter taught us shields last year. We can already do them. I want to learn something better, which he doesn't already know!" agreed Hermione. Before the three aurors could decide whether they wanted to explode the room or ask about Harry's teaching abilities, Dumbledore walked into the room with a calm expression on his face. "Ron, Hermione, I have our OWL results. I also have Potters and I am going to give them to Alastor to read them out to you so that you can compare results with him," said Dumbledore. Hermione began shaking out of nerves and Ron looked slightly queasy. "Albus, these are Potter's to share. I don't like this." "Alastor, it's fine, he'd share them anyway," said Dumbledore cheerfully. Moody relented; he knew he couldn't beat Dumbledore in a verbal battle. Just then, Hermione read her results out loud; "Arithmancy: E, Ancient Runes: A, Astronomy: A, Care of Magical Creatures: E, Transfiguration: O, Potions: A, Charms: E, Defence Against the Dark Arts: P, Herbology: A,

History: E" Hermione sighed. "I should have done better than that! At least I will beat Potter," she grumbled. Moody, who had already looked at Harry's results, smirked when he heard Hermione's grumbling. "I got; Astronomy: P, Care of Magical Creatures: A, Divination: P, Transfiguration: A, Potions: P, Charms: A, Defence Against the Dark Arts: D, Herbology: P, History: P. 3 OWLs? Mum's gonna be bloody mad! What'd Potter get?" groaned Ron. Moody smirked. "Harry James Potter," read Moody. "Astronomy: E, Care of Magical Creatures: O, Divination: A, Transfiguration: O, Potions: O, Charms: O, Defence Against the Dark Arts: O, Herbology: E, History: A. Congratulations, Mr. Potter, you have achieved 13 OWLs and a record score in Defence Against the Dark Arts." Ron and Hermione stared in shock. Then they began yelling, demanding him to read them properly. Moody had had enough. He pocketed Harry's results and strode out the door and passed the wards, before apparating straight to Privet Drive. He strode up to number 4 and knocked on the door. No one answered. "Alohomora," he growled, and the door swung open. Moody, having visited Privet Drive once before, crept up the stairs to Harry's room to see if he was in there. What he saw amazed him. Harry had decided it was time for 3 dummies at auror level and was so focused on his duel he didn't notice his door creak open. He took down the first dummy. "One down, two to go," he growled. After 2 minutes, the second dummy was down and Harry re holstered his wand and unsheathed his sword in one fluid movement. He began dodging the spells the final dummy was firing at him, slowly edging his way towards it. After a few minutes of non-stop dodging, he finally felled the last dummy. Breathing heavily, Harry sheathed his sword and placed it back in his belt before he heard a noise behind him. Harry whirled, pulling out his wand. "Moody?" he said under his breath, before raising his voice. "Show yourself!" "CONSTANT VIGILANCE, Good, boy. I am Alastor Moody, member of the Order of the Phoenix and last year I gave you a photograph of the original Order," he growled. "Hi, Mad-Eye, What are you doing here?" "Bringing you your OWL results, getting pretty boring at Headquarters," said Moody. "That's your code for; I'm not enjoying training Ron and Hermione and am trying to escape," said Harry slyly. Moody opened his mouth, looking incredibly shocked, but Harry said; "Really? You're shocked after having a conversation like that in the Leaky Cauldron, of all places? I was there that day and heard your conversation. Found it interesting that Snape would stand up for me!" "What How? I was on guard duty that morning! And why were you there, anyway?" Moody looked suitably impressed. "Not telling how, what if I need to escape again? Anyway, I went to Diagon Alley to get some supplies to help me train, 'cause I need to know how to defend myself with a mad mass murderer trying to kill me," grumbled Harry, "I was glad I heard your conversation, I got a few more books than I would have if I had not heard it, and I got those blocks removed. I know you're going to ask- I became emancipated that morning so the underage magic law doesn't apply!" They talked for a while longer, Moody complemented the duelling he had seen Harry doing earlier and Harry discovered that Tonks, Kingsley and Lupin were all trustworthy. After a while, Harry finally gathered up the courage to check his OWL results and was impressed by them. After inquiring about Ron and Hermione's results, he burst out laughing. Then the talk turned to Ron and Hermione's training. "I did teach shields last year, but Ron and Hermione's were always so weak I could shatter

them with a weak stunner," said Harry. "I'm not surprised they can't do them now. Neville would be better to train, but he's too loyal to spy on me. He was actually one of the first to manage the Patronus!" "You taught them the patronus?" "Yep! Actually, now that I think about it, Ron and Hermione were the only ones that failed to get at least a dense mist." They spent the next hour discussing Harry's training before Mad-Eye left, promising to tell Dumbledore that Harry was moody, depressed, not eating properly and wishing he could see his friends again. He would then tell Lupin the truth. Harry spent the next few days training harder than ever on his new schedule, as the old one was inefficient. The parchment beside his bed now read; 4.00- run and swim 7.00-breakfast 7.15- potions (mon) transfiguration (tue) charms (wed) occ/leg (thur) obscure magics (fri) animagi (sat) DADA (sun) 12.00- lunch 12.30- GYM- gymnastics (mon) tai kwon do (tue) karate (wed)kung fu (thur) dance (fri) acrobatics (sat) general martial arts (sun) 3.00- run and swim 5.00-duelling 7.00-dinner 7.30- metamorphmagi 8.30- other subjects, crafting Harry found this schedule to be highly efficient. His duelling had improved dramatically thanks to his new classes at the gym along with the running and swimming. Harry was a quick learner at the gym and although he was yet to attempt the transformation, he had discovered his animagus forms to be a black panther, lion, snow leopard, phoenix and griffin. Harry was surprised at the phoenix and griffin- as magical creatures; they were extremely rare animagus forms. After two weeks, Harry was really getting into his new schedule. That night, the night before his 16th birthday, Harry had a weird dream. A man had come to him and told him to pack his trunk when he woke. "You're good," the man had said, "but not good enough! I can help you train to defeat Voldemort. When you wake, pack your trunk. Tomorrow night, I will come and collect you, and you will train with me for a year. When you come back, you will be good enough to beat Dumbledore in a duel with a blindfold on. I will train you, little one, until the training you have done seems like child's play and the books you have read seem like bedtime stories. Write a letter to the people in the Order you trust. Create a communication paper for Remus Lupin, if you like. However, you must ensure that Dumbledore knows nothing of this. Make sure your trunk is in your pocket tomorrow night, and I will collect you, young heir" and with that, the man faded away. Harry didn't know why, but he felt inclined to trust the man. When he got back from the gym, instead of going for a run, he packed his trunk. It was 4pm by the time he remembered his birthday. He went to the window and saw a small group of owls asleep on the windowsill. He opened the window and they all woke and flew inside and landed on the bed. He went to the first owl and detached the package and accompanying letter. It was from the Burrow. Hey Mate, Happy Birthday! Bored at HQ, there's nothing to do! Can't join the Order, so no one ever talks to us and we

never see anyone. Have you heard from Hermione? Her present's in the package. Hope we see you soon! Ron "HA! Bored can't join the Order never seen anyone liar. Dumbledore told him to write that why? No I don't need that answered," Harry grumbled. He opened the package and felt the waves of magic coming off it. The first present was a Chudley Cannons poster and chocolate frogs. Hey Mate, Don't feel bad about Sirius, and Happy Birthday! The next present was from Ginny, and was a box of Chocolate Cauldrons. Harry froze. He remembered Moody telling him that the Weasleys were trying to slip him a love potion. He threw detection spells at their gifts, and sure enough, both the frogs and the cauldrons were spiked with Ammortentia. He remembered a passage from Advanced Potion-Making. "Ammortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world, and is rumoured to smell differently to each person, depending on what they are attracted to The use of Ammortentia on a person is highly illegal only taught to some people so they can recognise it" and then he remembered one night in the Leaky Cauldron one night before third year Ginny, Hermione and Molly were sitting together discussing a love potion Molly had once brewed. All three of them were rather giggly, and Hermione kept shooting Arthur strange looks Harry immediately incendio'ed the frogs and cauldrons and feeling rather like Moody, threw a detection spell at the Cannons poster. Apparently his suspicions were not unfounded- a compulsion charm had been placed on it, and it too-was hit with an incendio. Sighing, Harry turned back to the package. Harry, Happy Birthday! I have spoken to Mad-Eye. Good luck with your project! It sounds as though you are doing really well. My gift to you is this; You know the password. Remus Interested, Harry got out his wand and tapped the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" he intoned. Harry, Fred and George have invented the magical equivalent to 'surveillance cameras.' I have tied one each to Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Dumbledore and myself, as well as placed one in HQ meeting room. Tap the parchment with your wand and announce the place or person that you want to watch. You can have four 'screens' open at once, but you can only have one open if you want to listen to the conversations going on. Order meetings are at 7pm on Monday and Thursday nights. Have fun, Mooney Harry stared at the parchment in shock. Then smiled. "Thanks, Remus!" he said under his breath, before tapping the parchment and saying "Dumbledore, Lupin, Hermione!" He noticed that Ron and Hermione were in the training room, so he cancelled Dumbledore and Remus' screens and watched in amusement as Ron and Hermione continued to struggle with a basic protego. After watching Ron collapse under a full-body bind for the 5th time in a row, he turned back to his gifts. Moody had sent him a 'senior auror handbook'-his dad had never reached that stage so he didn't yet have it. Fred and George had sent him a large crate of their latest inventions and a note to be careful around their family. At 5 o'clock, Harry's trunk was packed and his room was back to normal- he knew that undoing all the charms would keep Dumbledore from being suspicious at the same time as alerting

Moody that he had planned the escape. He shrank his trunk, leaving the old one lying open on the ground and the new one in his pocket, before staging some letters. Dear Ron and Hermione, Thanks for your gifts, they are wonderful(Hermione had sent him a 'self-help' book layered in compulsion charms) Any chance I can come to HQ- no, don't answer that. I'm guessing you're there, Hermy. Missing Sirius heaps, it's my fault he died. I'm deeply sorry that I dragged you all off to the Ministry that night. See you both on the train, and thanks for being such good friends. Harry Harry smirked. He knew he was pushing his luck, but he couldn't help it. Then he penned his final letter; Lupin, Thanks for the present, it was brilliant! Yes, my project is going well, although I am still struggling with the more marauder-style part of it. I know the forms, I am just too nervous to go through with it! The password to close your gift is in use here, if you get my meaning. Also, the next stage of my project is this parchment. You know the password! Harry After adding the necessary charms, Harry re-wrote the note; Remus, Hey! This is a communication parchment that only you can read. I have the other one so we can communicate without Dumbledore's interference! I am leaving Privet Drive for a year to continue my training, so yes, these letters are staged. I was never planning on sending them. Hopefully you will be in the team to search the house once they discover I am missing. I left a clue for Mad-Eye as well- ask him about the charms on my room! Anyway, no one will be able to find me once I'm gone- even owls will fail to reach me! The only way to communicate is this parchment. Please don't tell anyone what I'm doing, or why. (Mad-Eye, Kingsley and Tonks can know) Thanks. Onto other news, I'm a multi-animagus! One of my forms is a snow leopard, and that's all I'm saying! How are you? Oh, and thank Mad-Eye for the book, its great! To key him into the parchment, tap it and say his name. The same will work for Kingsley and Tonks, but no one else. I'm sorry I have to leave, but I will never get the skills I need with Dumbledore around. See you in a year! Firepaw (Harry) Harry then sealed both of the letters so that it looked like he was going to send them. He then put his quill and ink into his bookbag, shrunk it and placed it in his other pocket. He gave his room one last check and decided that there was nothing left in it that was worth keeping (he had already sent Hedwig to go and live with Lupin for the year as he couldn't put an owl in his pocket) and left the room. He went downstairs and began running around Privet Drive, hoping the familiar movement would calm him down. He cancelled his classes at the gym and wondered vaguely who the man was, and how he was being picked up. At 8, he crept back into Privet Drive and up into his bedroom. As soon as he made it to the bed, he collapsed into an enchanted sleep. "Hello, young heir," said the man, "you have been wondering who I am, I'm sure! My name is Merlin. You have a difficult destiny ahead of you, and I have decided that I, along with some of your other ancestors will train you to fulfil this destiny. You will meet the others when we arrive." "How- how are we getting wherever we are going?" said Harry faintly. I get to be trained by Merlin! "Like this," said Merlin mysteriously. There was a flash of blinding white light and a

suspicious rumbling sound before Harry felt himself being dragged out of the room with a sensation similar to both apparition and portkeying- as though Merlin couldn't decide which one to use, so he had done both. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable. As quickly as it had come, the feeling left, and Harry was standing in a room with 5 other people. Merlin was standing next to him, and there were 2 men and 2 women on the other side of the room looking at them. All 5 of them had power rolling off them in amounts far greater than Dumbledore had ever shown. Harry knew it was useless drawing his wand. Even if they were a threat, there was nothing he could do to them. It made him distinctly uncomfortable. "Um hi! I'm Harry Potter who- who're you?" he said nervously. Merlin chuckled. "Sorry, Harry introductions This is Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin." "I'm always introduced last," grumbled Slytherin. Harry gaped at him. "Hi Harry!" said Gryffindor cheerfully. "Shut up, Godric, I'm doing the introductions," said Merlin playfully. Harry stared. "Harry," continued Merlin, "You are currently standing in Merlin's Castle. Time passes differently here, so although you will be gone for a year, you will be training here with us for 20 years. While you're here, you will study every subject taught at Hogwarts" Godric cheered, and Merlin rolled his eyes. "and some that aren't. By the time we are finished with you, hopefully you will be capable of defeating me in a duel. Don't look like that; you will be capable of it if you train hard enough! Just to annoy Dumbledore, you will be capable of apparating through the Hogwarts wards and be more knowledgeable than the Professors in their own subjects. Think of it! The 17 year old, smarter that his professors Anyway, your training will be extremely tough, no denying it. Godric will train you in all types on muggle and magical duelling, martial arts and transfiguration. Helga will take you for healing, elf and goblin magic, Arithmancy and charms. Rowena has you for ancient runes, divination, history, astronomy, and disguise, including metamorph. Salazar has Defence Against the Dark Arts, potions, Care of Magical Creatures, occlumency and Legilimency, elemental magic and parsel magic. I get to teach you warding, curse breaking, spell and weapon crafting, stealth and tracking and advanced apparition, and I get to watch the rest of your training! You get to start tomorrow, how exciting! I put your timetable in your room, but go get some sleep now, you need it." Merlin left the room along with Godric, Rowena and Salazar, leaving Helga to show Harry to his room. An hour later, after Harry had unpacked his things and explored his very basic room, he lay on the bed and thought over his very full timetable. Monday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Merlin 7.00- warding Merlin 10.00- curse breaking Merlin 1.00- spell/weapon crafting Merlin 4.00- advanced apparition Merlin 7.00- stealth and tracking Merlin

10.00- study/personal projects Tuesday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Helga 7.00- Arithmancy Helga 10.00- charms Helga 1.00- elvin magic Helga 4.00- goblin magic Helga 7.00- healing Helga 10.00- study/personal projects Wednesday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Rowena 7.00- ancient runes Rowena 10.00- divination Rowena 1.00- history Rowena 4.00- disguise Rowena 7.00- astronomy Rowena 10.00 study/ personal projects Thursday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Merlin 7.00- muggle studies Godric 10.00- transfiguration Godric 1.00- duelling Godric 4.00- martial arts Godric

7.00- languages Merlin and Rowena 10.00- study/ personal projects Friday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Salazar 7.00- Defence Against the Dark Arts Salazar 10.00- potions Salazar 1.00- Care of Magical Creatures Salazar 4.00- Occlumency and Legilimency Salazar 7.00- Elemental and Parsel magic Salazar 10.00- study/ personal projects Saturday 4.00- physical activities Godric and Merlin 7.00- wandless/wordless casting Merlin 10.00- misc. Helga 1.00- misc. Rowena 4.00- misc. Godric 7.00- misc. Salazar 10.00- study/ personal projects Sunday 4.00- physical activities Merlin and Salazar 7.00- practical applications and challenges Merlin, Godric, Helga, Rowena and Salazar 10.00- study/ personal projects Harry groaned. They had not been exaggerating when they had told him the training was

going to be tough he rolled over and was asleep almost instantly, conveniently forgetting to set the alarm for 4 the next day. He was about to learn that Merlin didn't like it when his students slept in. Meanwhile, the Burrow was in uproar. The wards around Privet Drive had fallen, and Mundungus had reported hearing an explosion coming from Harry's room. "QUIET!" yelled Dumbledore, "we will just have to send a group to check on him. While they go to his room, I will redo the wards. Alastor, you can come. Alright, Remus, you may join us if you must. Shacklebolt, you as well and" "I'd like to join you as well, if that's alright, Albus?" "Alright then, Tonks, you're coming as well. For the rest of you, this meeting is concluded." Dumbledore then strode out the door, followed by Remus, Moody, Kingsley and Tonks, who was snickering because Dumbledore had unknowingly sent the four people who were loyal to Harry rather than him to go and check up on him. The 5 of them apparated to Privet Drive as soon as they got past the Burrow's wards, and nothing looked out of place. Nevertheless, Moody stunned Mrs. Dursley when she came to answer the door, and four of them strode upstairs while Dumbledore remained outside to work on the wards. "Harry?" Remus opened the door, and Harry was nowhere to be seen. "He's planned something," growled Moody, "He's taken down all the modifications to his room." "He wrote letters!" announced Remus, "one for Ron and Hermione He left one for me!" Remus read through the parchment and quickly said the password. Once he was done, he sighed in relief and keyed Moody into the parchment. After Moody read it, he said; "The boy's good We'll tell Dumbledore that he's gone and there's no way of tracing him." "I think Kinsley and I are missing something here," said Tonks, huffing in annoyance. "Harry has left to continue his 'project'" they snickered, and Moody keyed them into the communication parchment and handed it to them to read. Twenty minutes later, they were back at the Burrow and Dumbledore was in a bad mood. "no sign of a struggle no sign of anything else, though trunk was still there letter for Ron and Hermione can't be tracked broom gone yes, cloak's gone too no, he didn't apparate no, there's no portkey residue window was locked from the inside Dursley's don't know anything yes, I checked I'm sure seemed quite pleased yes yes, that's all" Remus, Kingsley, Moody and Tonks finished their report after many interruptions. "We must find him. He is too important to the war effort to lose. Remus! Arthur! You're in charge of Diagon Alley. Kingsley! Tonks! You two get Hogsmeade. Jones! Diggle! Knight Bus! Snape! Check with Voldemort. I trust I don't need to tell you to be discreet. Moody! Patrol Little Whinging. Weasley! Granger! Send letters- track them. Fletcher! Check all the places a 16 year old boy might stay at around London and Hogsmeade. Anywhere else he might go? Fred, George, question people. Once again, be careful. We don't need to alert the Death Eaters that he is missing. McGonagall- visit all of his friends and dorm mates- I have the list of people in his little army you can have. Arthur! Kingsley! Ask around at the Ministry- records of underage magic, department of transport, anything you can think of. That concludes the emergency meeting, except Lupin! Stay behind." "Yes, Professor?" "You mentioned a letter to Weasley and Granger. I need it." Remus tried to protest, but finally gave in, hoping that Harry had predicted this. Dumbledore read through the letter. "They are supposed to be his friends! There are no clues in here. Nothing! He actually

planned this!" Remus rolled his eyes. "He is smart, you know!" Dumbledore huffed and left, missing Remus' satisfied smirk. Harry turned the spy paper off and sighed. He had just finished watching that scene for the 6th time, and it was starting to get a little boring. He lay in bed, thinking over his first week of training. It had been intense. His first 'physical activities' had been 3 hours of a non-stop obstacle course not that he lasted that long. He was instructed to run, and had to dodge trees, buildings, animals, curses and the like, some of which materialised seconds before he ran into them. His wand had been locked away in his room, along with his weaponry and any form of defence. He had been stunned more times than he could count and was sporting multiple cuts and bruises, which Helga had been forbidden from healing. He had been given 10 minutes to prepare his meals for the day before he was expected at Merlin's first class. He was extremely thankful for the food cabinet. The first half of the lesson, he had been instructed to read Basic Wards for Beginners and in the second half of the lesson; he had to place the wards around the classroom. The wards were extremely draining and by the end of the lesson, Harry was feeling incredibly weak. His second lesson was curse breaking, where he was being taught to recognise the different 'feel' of curses, wards and the like. By the end of the lesson, he could feel the difference between all of the wards he had placed that morning by extending his magic out to them. Harry had stuffed down lunch, before heading to his next class. That one was different; Merlin would give him a project to complete, and a certain number of weeks to complete it. His first project was to create his own staff, so he spent the rest of the lesson reading up on wandlore and staff creation. Advanced Apparition was again different. First, he would be learning basic apparition, which was taught to most competent wizards. He wold then move to silent and advanced apparition, then elvin teleportation and goblin apparition and lastly, shadow walking. He would also be learning the benefits and drawbacks of each type of transport, before moving to other forms of transportation, such as portkeys and floo (connecting fireplaces, making power, pros and cons, etc. etc.) Once he was done, the class would be renamed 'communication' where he would learn all the different ways of communication; telepathy, communication parchments, floo, memos, etc. By the end of the lesson, Harry had managed to splinch himself twice. Harry stuffed down his dinner before heading to stealth and tracking. Here, he would be learning to check for magical 'residue' as well as how to notice where people had been in both muggle and magical ways. Stealth could not be learnt, but he was taught different ways to hide his tracks and remain unnoticed. Once he had mastered this, his tutors would take it in turns to conceal themselves, and Harry would have to track them without being spotted by the others. By 10 o'clock, Harry was exhausted. He spent an hour researching staffs before falling asleep, still in his duelling robes. Tuesday had been just as demanding with Helga. The obstacle course was just as difficult, and he added to the cuts and bruises that now littered his body. "A warrior learns to wear his scars with pride," Godric had told him. "also, if you can build up a tolerance to pain and learn to ignore your injuries, you will last longer in a duel where you can't stop to heal every minor cut you receive. Hey! Some more scars might help you disguise that hideous one on your forehead! I know you can't hide it even with your morphing. No scar can be hidden by metamorph abilities." Helga's other classes were fun, but just as magically draining as Merlin's. Arithmancy was interesting, and Harry found that the work he had done by himself was no real help as Helga wanted him working at a whole new level. Charms was taught in a similar way to Harry's classes at Hogwarts but much faster, and with more focus on charms to help him out in a duel. "You need as much help as you can get before you face Godric in a duel on Thursday!"

was Helga's exact words. Helga had combined his elvin and goblin magic classes and the first half of the lesson, Harry was given a grounding in the languages, and the second half was spent learning the basics of their magic. Both races were not permitted to handle wands, so the magic was much more draining on his core and would stay that way until he got used to using his hands as channels for large amounts of magic. Healing was Harry's favourite subject so far- and not because it was easy. The potions would be covered in lessons with Salazar, but Harry began learning different ways to heal every injury that could be inflicted on their 'patients'- Godric's duelling dummies one he was through with them, as well as some rats which Harry preferred to use simply because it allowed him to imagine inflicting injuries on Wormtail. By the end of the lesson, Harry was sufficiently exhausted and fell asleep just as quickly as he had the night before- but not without spending an hour continuing his research into staff making. Rowena's lessons were fast and furious. She had nodded approvingly at the sped reading pendant before throwing him a huge pile of books to read and told him to finish reading them before the end of the day, preferring to teach at her own pace rather than follow the schedule. He was then quizzed at the end of the day and Harry had to give all the credit to his new eidetic memory- he wouldn't have lasted one question without it. Thursday with Godric had been the most draining day yet. His physical activities class had been modified to Merlin and Godric chasing Harry, showering curses and jinxes at his back, the curses ranging from the minor tripping-jinx, to legal versions of a pain curse- legal only because no one knew how to use it anymore, as it was just as painful as a crucio. He had lasted 2 hours before he finally collapsed, and the two men had not wasted any time in grabbing him and throwing him into the lake, instructing him to swim for the remainder of the hour. Just under an hour later, an exhausted Harry had crawled out of the lake. He was given a small break in his first 2 classes, muggle studies and transfiguration, where Godric had instructed him to talk about and display everything he knew. Duelling and Martial Arts had been a disaster- Harry had been thrown around the room for all 6 hours without getting anywhere near Godric even once. After he shoved down his dinner, Harry dragged himself to languages, where Merlin and Rowena had begun his introduction to Latin, which would help him with his spell casting, apparently. By 10 o'clock, Harry didn't have any energy left, so he collapsed on his bed without even thinking about opening one of his books. Friday was the day that Harry had been dreading, but his fears were unfounded. Salazar Slytherin was quick and witty, and fun to talk to. He also had an advanced vocabulary when he occasionally slipped into paresltongue to swear. (he was apparently so used to no one being able to understand his paresltongue; he had slipped into a habit of swearing in that particular language.) Harry was relieved that all he had been taught about Salazar Slytherin was a lie, at any rate. Salazar had begun all of his lessons by lecturing Harry on the theory of the subject, telling him that it would help him advance more quickly. He had also given him the task of creating a belt to store potions in, keeping them safe even whilst he was in the middle of a violent duel. Saturday had come, and his physical activities class, while brutal, gave him less scars than ever before as he was beginning to 'feel' each curse coming towards him and was able to dodge the more painful ones. Harry was surprised to find he was a natural at wandless and wordless casting and found it gave him more flexibility in what he could and couldn't cast. His 'misc.' lessons were all different- revision with Helga and Rowena, but Salazar and Godric had other ideas. Godric had worked with Harry on the animagus transformation, and Harry completed his first two forms- the snow leopard and the lion and spent the lesson getting used to his new animal forms. Salazar had told him to

"Get working on your belt, I want it finished before we begin brewing any noteworthy potions." So Harry spent the lesson working on his design. His tutors had decided to give him his first Sunday off so that he would have some time to rest as it was a demanding schedule. Harry had spent the day working on his belt and staff, and by 7pm, the belt was done, he just needed to add the final charms. That was when he had lain down and begun to watch the scene that had unfolded at the Burrow when they had found he was missing. Harry smirked. Remus was good, and he grabbed the communication paper. Mooney, and anyone else that's thereThanks for covering for me, you were brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed watching Dumbledore's reaction- priceless! Enjoying my 'project,' my tutors are definitely good. Horrible to learn from, they prefer a more physical approach, but good fun to chat with and be around! Exhausting, though. I managed the animagus transformation! Can't wait to see you in a year, Firepaw. Back at the Burrow, Remus and Moody were staring at the communication paper. "He's managed the animagus transformation! He's been gone a day! A day! Less!" exclaimed Remus. "The boys powerful wonder who agreed to train him. They sound good enough," growled Moody. FirepawGreat name, by the way! No problem- I'm- We're glad you enjoyed the show. You've already managed the transformation? That's incredible! Can you tell us who your tutors are? Moody here is jealous of them. By the way- Congratulations! You successfully impressed MadEye! Mooney (and Moody) Remus sighed as he sent the message through. He had just lost Sirius, the last remaining Marauder, and now his only cub, Harry, had disappeared off to no one knows where. He still had the communication paper, but it wasn't the same as having him around. Still, her reminded himself, he was being trained properly which he wouldn't get around here with Dumbledore hanging around, and it wasn't as if they couldn't communicate. He had to hand it to Harry- the parchment was excellent. Meanwhile, Moody was examining the parchment. They boy had always impressed him, but this- this was something else. It was above NEWT level charms at least! He wondered if he could replicate it for the Order but that wasn't fair on Harry. He couldn't claim it as his own idea even if he wanted to- he wasn't creative enough. There was no one he could take it to that wouldn't ask questions and had both the creativity and skill to pass it off as their own idea. And he could approach Dumbledore and say; "Albus, by the way, we never told you before, but Harry left a form of communication for us. He called it a communication parchment. No, you can't see it, he told us to keep silent. Anyway, I was wondering if we could replicate the idea for the Order" no, that would not go down well. He growled to himself. Potter was 16. 16! When he created the parchment.

*Chapter 3*: Harold EmmerisIt was the middle of the school year, and Ron and Hermione were failing almost every subject. When Harry had been there, they had always tried to be better than him because he was

famous. They had wanted to prove that they were better than the precious 'boy-who-lived.' Now, though "Weasley! Granger! Stop snogging, and start paying attention!" came Professor Tonks' voice. The rest of the class sniggered. "Tonks, your class is boring! If you taught us something interesting, we might pay attention," said Ron snobbishly. "If a duelling tournament doesn't interest you, that's fine. Weasley, you're excused," snapped Tonks. Ron gaped at her. "But Tonks!" "Leave- or we shall have Weasley versus all of the Slytherin 6th years for the first round." "I choose to duel Slytherin," said Ron smugly, "I've been learning Auror level curses, so Slytherin will be a pushover." "We shall see," said Tonks. Ten minutes later, a heavily bleeding Ron was stunned and lying in the corner of the room. The Slytherins had taken advantage of having permission to jinx the Gryffindor, and had toyed with him before Zabini took pity on him and sent a stunner at him. "He will stay there for the rest of the lesson, and hope that he learns to respect his teachers," said Tonks who had long ago had her patience worn out by the youngest Weasley male. The Slytherins cheered. "But Professor!" "Detention, Granger, or round two will be the Slytherins against you." It was a long time later that Hermione was finally added to the corner- Zabini had not taken pity on her and due to the fact she was a muggleborn and had been a know-it-all for the first 5 years of school, the Slytherins had even more fun jinxing her than they had Ron. A week later, Ron and Hermione had been called up to see Dumbledore. They had been stripped of their prefect badges and told that if their grades didn't improve, they would be asked to repeat 5th year. "But Dumbledore, I wasted the first 5 years of my education spying on Potter on your orders! It's not my fault I'm failing! And with him gone, I can't even steal his notes for exams!" whined Ron. Hermione sniffed. "I was too busy spying last year to do any proper studying and now I'm trying my hardest to catch up to the rest of the class." "FINE! IF you two manage to keep spying on any future Death Eaters, like Malfoy effectively, I will allow you to pass to 7th year. I have no control over NEWT marking, though, and if you fail them I will have no choice but to make you stay at Hogwarts for another year. Be warned; I will have to convince all of your Professors to let you into their classes next year, so DON'T act up in class! Now go and get comfortable spying before I change my mind letting you move to 7th year next year." In a secluded area of the Burrow "You mean, Potter is destined to kill Voldemort, and Albus refused to give him any training? He just trained his friends to protect him?" said McGonagall, shocked. "You mean his spies," spat Remus. "But Why? Why would he do that to him? Potter is a boy! Not a sacrificial lamb!" said McGonagall. "Albus thought that it would be too dangerous to train the boy. He might have gone Dark with all that knowledge, and he was too important to the Light side," growled Moody.

"That's ridiculous! How can anyone kill a Dark Lord with only their OWLs?" "Quite. Luckily for us, Potter had managed to sneak out of his home and heard that particular conversation. So, he took matters into his own hands and went off training for a year. He also invented a communication parchment which allows us to communicate with him. We'll get permission for you to read it now- he managed to charm it so only people he gave permission to read it could see it," said Kingsley. FirepawPermission for Minerva McGonagall to join communication parchment? Trustworthy. How's training going? Mooney. A reply came through almost immediately. Mooney (and Moody, Kingsley and Tonks) Request Granted. Hi Professor! To answer your question, Training's going great! The other day, I beat Godric in a duel with a blindfold on! Only one problem- he passed my duelling training on to Merlin. Hey, guess what? I got my 'Halfway Presents' yesterday! Salazar gave me a potion to fix my eyesight. Everything is so clear now! Rowena gave me a book no surprises there! Merlin gave me a duel weapon of my choice. I chose the sword. That was a mistake. Helga gave me the day off. And Godric officially entitled me a Mage. We also decided that when I come back, I'll be in disguise for a while, but I'll reveal myself to you guys. Spying on the Order meetings isn't the same as being there with you. Talk to you all soon! Firepaw. "Did he what Godric Merlin? duel please don't?" McGonagall fainted. "Ennervate," Remus sighed, and McGonagall sat up. "That was our reaction as well. Yes, he is being trained by the founders of Hogwarts and Merlin. And yes, he just beat Godric Gryffindor in a duel, blindfolded!" said Moody proudly. At Merlin's Castle, Harry was chuckling to himself. He had pinned the spy paper up on the wall of his hut and was watching McGonagall faint again while he put the finishing touches on his new trunk. The other day, Merlin had decided that if he was actively hunting down Voldemort, he wouldn't have the luxury of living in a castle. Harry had been given a rucksack and 5 minutes to pack 'the essentials.' Harry had thrown in all of the weapons he had crafted, his wand, staff, duelling and potions robes, a cauldron and his travel kit of potions ingredients along with his potions belt. The communication and spy parchments went in on top. He had then been told that his next year of training he would be living rough, with no one to help him, and he would need to move locations at least once a week, as Rowena was giving him a weeks' head start before attempting to track him. If he returned to Merlin's Castle before the year was up, he would 'fail.' Merlin then apparated him to a thick woodland area and left. Harry had moved around for a few hours, making sure he left no tracks before finally stopping and warding the area heavily. He quickly constructed a small hut, dumped his rucksack, grabbed his weapons and went hunting. Harry soon fell into a good routine of hunting, cooking, brewing, crafting and moving locations regularly. Harry had planned on making a tent that would make it easier to live in and move around. However when that failed, he decided on a trunk different to any he had ever seen before. The trunk was a handsome reddish brown colour, with his initials stamped in gold on the sides. The trunk appeared to have two compartments, and the first was completely unremarkable, but did allow his rucksack to retire. The second compartment was what made the trunk special. It was so heavily warded that no one apart from Harry would ever be able to get in. When he entered the trunks, he ended up in a room not unlike the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. However, the

door that led to the dorms at Hogwarts was actually a portal to the other 8 hidden compartments. The first was a kitchen/dining room with dimensions similar to those of the Burrow, but with nicer furnishings. The second was a huge library, dwarfing the one at Hogwarts, although he was yet to fill it, as books were scarce when he was 'on the run.' The third was a bedroom- the most interesting bedroom Harry had ever seen, although he liked it. The ceiling was charmed in a similar was to the ceiling in the Great Hall at Hogwarts- to reflect the sky. The walls had been charmed to show a forest surrounding him. The bed had been carved by hand out of an oak tree Harry had felled and the sheets were actually enlarged blades of grass with warming and cushioning charms. He had no mattress- An overly powerful cushioning charm looked better and was just as comfortable. The wardrobe was carved out of another large tree. The floor had been charmed to look and feel as though it was grass. The fourth compartment was a bathroom that had been modelled on the Prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts, but larger. Harry had been experimenting with his potions one day, and had managed to create a modified version of the Philosopher's stone, but it didn't produce the elixir of life. Harry hadtested the stone by letting it run wild in his new bathroom and it had worked, making his already impressive bathroom even more so- it was solid gold. He destroyed the stone soon after and obliviated the knowledge of how to create it out of him. He knew those stones were more trouble than they were worth- the Flamel's had proven that. Compartments five, six and seven were a duelling room, potions lab and study respectively. The final compartment was Harry's favourite, and by far the largest. It held a huge Quidditch pitch, modelled on the one at the World Cup in his fourth year. The walls were charmed to replicate the stands and the ceiling was charmed in the same way as his bedroom. He could fly as high as he wanted to- the compartment would automatically expand. There was even a light breeze, courtesy of his new elemental powers. The portal was placed where the players changing rooms would have been. Over the year, Harry discovered that he really enjoyed crafting, and spent hours making bits and pieces for himself and his trunk, knowing that handmade and crafted things were generally stronger and would last a lot longer than things that had been conjured. When the year was up, Harry packed his things and apparated silently as he had fallen into a habit of doing, to discover that Godric had devised an ambush for him. Over his last 10 years at Merlin's Castle, Harry improved rapidly. By the end of his stay, he had mastered all of the subjects he had been taught. He could wield his staff as competently as any other weapon he had got his hands on, including his wand. His fitness levels had skyrocketed and in one of his practical sessions he had discovered that he could run non-stop for over 12 hours. Harry had read the entire library at Merlin's Castle and had, just yesterday, finally managed to defeat Merlin in a duel. His tutors had agreed that they had nothing left to teach him and they had already taught him a lot more than they had planned on. Now, it was Harry's final night at Merlin's Castle and the 6 of them were discussing Harry's return to normal time. "We've already decided that you will go back in disguiseyou need a name and a story" "Bob" "James" "Salgoric" "Godrsalazar" "Shut up, both of you! You're being ridiculous! Hi, my name's Godrsalazar, what's yours?

Harry would be teased to the end of the Earth and back again! Get real!" said Rowena, annoyed. "Harold Emmeris," said Merlin, "It's close enough to Harry and Emrys that Harry will be able to remember it, but no one will make the connection between Harry Potter and Harold Emmeris." "Sure, sounds good. My name is now Harold Emmeris Wow, that'll take some getting used to!" "Good. Now, remember, you need to be at Hogwarts, 'cause that's where Tommy Boy will try to be." "I don't feel like being a student, though, I'm already better than all of the Professors in their own subjects! And I'd have to be in a class with Weasley and Granger urgh!" "Get a teaching position. 'Professor Emmeris' it even sounds good!" "At 17? I'll need an impressive resume!" "DADA position. It is your best subject, and the previous Professor just resigned." "I haven't even taken my NEWTs, though D'you really think Dumbledore would let an unqualified 17 year old teach his classes even if I beat him in a duel?" "Ah hadn't thought about that go to the Ministry tomorrow and take your NEWTs." "Might as well get your Mastery in a few subjects while you're at it. Once you get your NEWTs, we'll give you a note to give to them and you take it along with your NEWTs to the Mastery department. The tests are similar to the NEWTs, harder, obviously you get your results the same day, though and it's just pass or fail no proper grading." "Wear your formal robes for that!" "He doesn't have to" "Yes, he does!" "Fine!" While they were arguing, Harry looked down at the note; To Whom It May Concern, I present my Apprentice, Harold James Emmeris to you. He has worked hard to gain the skills of a Master, and it is my belief that he has obtained all of the skills necessary to obtain his Mastery in all fields. He has met my standards, and I am no longer his master. Regards, Master Emrys Master of All Subjects "Wow," whispered Harry, bringing his 'masters' back to earth. "Okay, Harry, we'll leave the particulars of your disguise up to you. There's just one thing left" said Merlin mysteriously. "What's that?" asked Harry, confused. "Tomorrow's your Birthday!" Godric was bouncing in excitement. "You're not going to be here tomorrow, so we have to give you your presents early!" "Happy 17th Birthday, Harry!" said Rowena happily. "I'm giving you a copy of every book in the library. It's self-updating, and some of the books haven't ever been published!" "Wow, Thanks Rowena!" Rowena had tears in her eyes. "Harry, you're