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Chapter 584: 15-16-17



Harry had no idea how long he remained paused coming up with one strategy after another. The first strategy would be to buy more time and reduce the enemy's number. Harry already had a means to achieve this but it would take three seconds to work. He should have it though. The illusion he left of himself at his original position should draw the attention of the other party for at least a second and a half and Harry didn't think they'd be able to find him within the following two seconds.

The next step would be to remove the noncombatants. Amelia Bones and the other three stunned aurors would have to be summoned over to where he was. That would take six to seven seconds but the distraction from the first step should provide enough time.

The plans diverged from there. Harry could unload all the toys from his inventory such as magic shields, magic shotguns, and magic bombs and wake the Aurors. If they took the stuff he gave them they'd have a good fighting chance. The problem though was that it was far too likely they would ask questions when they were woken which was a problem for someone under the effects of Veritaserum. Worst case scenario was that they wouldn't believe Harry when he told them the truth instead of something more believable. He could get around this by stabbing himself with a knife, waking them, then dramatically pulling it out in front of the awakened aurors and say, 'They're trying to kill me.' But was all that worth the effort?

Next plan was to send them back. The so called Knights didn't bother setting up any blocks against teleportation so Harry could attach some portkeys he made to the aurors and send them to a space he designated just outside the Hogwarts wards.

If Harry sent them back, Harry was cleared to leave as without hostages, there was nothing to keep him there. He could also fight back, go all out. Worst case he'd die but without hostages that'd be fine. Painful, but fine.

Fighting them would not be easy no matter what he tried. Since one of them had brought Veritaserum, Harry had to consider that they had other things as well.

Harry went through plan after plan, but none worked easily without relying on luck and cheap shots.

A while longer than Harry would ever admit, he found a solution to the group's teamwork that should weaken them. Splitting them up. These guys were a strike force, the ultimate weapon that could handle any situation. But what if that situation was the end of the world?

After finalizing the plan and thinking up a dozen more contingencies and going over each a few more times, Harry felt he was ready.

Once unpaused Harry took out three items from his inventory and Banished them into the sky. The sound of spell fire quickly died from where he had been and Harry had already taken a sphere from his inventory about the size of a large medicine ball. It was the reality bomb. Harry initiated a reaction that would cause the magic to build up and go critical soon and banished it lightly in the direction of the Knights.

The items he'd banished into the sky where unstable spell grenades. Or so he called them. The same way Harry could freeze magic to prevent exotic energy from getting into muggle tech, he could also use it to prevent exotic energy from getting out. Using some materials made with alchemy, he made an item that could store the magic from a spell. For a moment anyways. His sealing wasn't perfect. But if Harry cast the same spell on the item over and over, it would eventually accumulate enough exotic energy to reach critical mass and detonate with the power of the accumulated spells once the shell was overpowered. However from the point of critical mass to the explosion itself was only about five seconds. Luckily Harry's inventory stopped time, so Harry would make them and place them inside after two seconds.

The items Harry took out were Patronus Grenades.

Three back-to-back detonations occurred in the sky followed by three blinding flashes of silver light.

Harry used the summoning spell on the five Aurors to quickly drag their bodies to him while the sky distracted the others. The Knights who looked up saw three massive silver dragons, each even larger than a Ukrainian Ironbelly. The wingspan of the silver beasts covered more of the sky than the horde of the hundred Dementors.

Harry hadn't bothered looking up and removed six portkey galleons from his inventory and placed them on each Auror and the unconscious Ravenclaw he initially apparated next to faster than a normal human could move before saying aloud, "Activate," and sending them all away. Harry couldn't hear his own voice as he turned the Dialog Audio down to zero in his settings as if he heard a question he'd still have to answer it, but now he couldn't hear any dialog.

Luckily the sound of spells cast and the sound of a dragon roaring were both considered Battle Sounds which he didn't touch. Harry didn't have time to look up so he just paused and took a moment to admire his work. Harry's standard Patronus was a van sized dragon. The grenades could accumulate twenty Patronus charms before detonating and the spell was one of the few that could be amplified beyond the power than was put in to cast it once it reached critical mass. The Patroni dragons were exhaling silver flames at the groups of Dementors which seemed to burn them to dust.

Harry unpaused and took out four rune tokens and activated them all before banishing them north, south, east, and west. Harry made sure the knights hadn't left and at least for now they wouldn't be able to. With the ward he just enabled, no one could safely teleport in or out of the area within two kilometers of the location, not even elves. They could force it of course, but the barrier would sling shot them into space if they used enough power to break through. The tokens would burn themselves out in ten minutes which was three minutes longer than the reality bomb had.

Spells started flying at Harry from the Knights of Walpurgis but they were much further than they had been so Harry had more time to dodge. Harry couldn't hear what they were shouting at him besides spell names so Harry used Sonorus on himself and yelled out, "The trap is set, the bomb will blow in six minutes, you're all going to die and there is nothing you can do!" All true of course.

Harry saw a few yelling at him but Harry couldn't lip read so he said while still amplified, "I can't hear what you're saying so don't bother asking me anything!"

Harry really wanted to say he obliviated himself of english so they had to ask all their questions in French, that unfortunately was a lie.

The reality bomb was sparking with magic and impossible to ignore. Harry was pleased that none of the opponents was stupid enough to fire a spell at it. Harry continued to dodge spells and hide behind things. He used just enough speed to dodge but not his max speed.

Two of the Knights finally relented and moved to diagnose the bomb. There were a few ways to disable it before it went off but they wouldn't be easy.

*Ping*

[No Lies Debuff has been resisted.]

Harry paused and changed the setting to turn the voices back on and unpaused.

One of the men shouted while maintaining spell fire at Harry, "The port keys have failed, can you disable that thing Don?"

"Yes sir!"

Harry took out another magic grenade and banished it at the group. One of them spotted it and fired a spell at it, causing a small explosion. Harry pulled out two more and banished them together at the same person. Two spells fired from two of them at the grenades, but this time it caused a massive explosion. It threw three of the Knights back but didn't kill them.

That had been one of Snape's ideas, a variation on the Erumpent potion. The first he threw was an empty distraction but the second and third grenades were actually metal cans filled with a very special mixture of ingredients. It would do nothing if ignored but if mixed with magic, it created an absolutely massive explosion. There was a reason Snape didn't want wands in his potions classroom. Some ingredients just didn't respond well to excess magic.

The silver dragons had killed over half the Dementors and the rest were scattering. The dragons gave chase and intended to destroy every last one.

Though the explosions didn't kill any of the knights, it did have the effect Harry wanted. The one working on Harry's reality bomb loudly swore and said, "Kill him sir! That brat's toys are making this blasted contraption even more unstable! We're only got three minute now!"

The one who seemed in charge shouted, "Brenton, help Don. Initiate Thunderfall!"

Two were now working on the device and the boss maintained lookout while the remaining four ran towards Harry while casting nonverbal stunners over and over to prevent him from running far and seeking cover. Every third or forth spell cast was a Reducto ahead of Harry to blow apart the ground in front of him to slow him down.

Harry could sense the spells without looking and it wouldn't be difficult to outrun them, but he needed them on his heels for just a little longer.

Once Harry had enough distance he turned around and dashed forward. Harry cast a flying spell orb that looked like a ball of wiggling strings that untangled and spread larger and larger as it got further from Harry. By the time it reached them it was three meters in diameter and every string was in fact a cutting curse.

Though unfamiliar with the spell, the knights who saw it understood what it was and moved to dodge rather than block or counter. Countering such a spell would cause the condensed weave of cutting curses to explode out instantly.

Harry used the opening and shot a stream of condensed cutting curses as if it were a flamethrower from his hand. Anything the stream faced would end up looking as if it had been cut a hundred times with a sword. It was not the flashiest spell or the strongest, but it was the simplest and cleanest. It could overcome a shield in short order so staying in place to cast one was not a smart idea.

Harry felt the build up of magic in two of them and he said aloud, "Specular Argentum," at the same moment the two knights said, "Bombarda Maxima!"

A silver mirror-like disk appeared in front of Harry's left and right hands. The overpowered explosion spells did not detonate on contact but were reflected back at the casters. One of the knights cast a shield while the other cast a stunner at Harry. The shield protected one of the pair of knights from the reflected spell but the other pair had no protection and the spell blew apart the caster's chest.

*Ping*

[Stunner Resisted.]

The stunner had no effect on Harry as none of these men were stronger than him one on one so he would have to get hit by at least two near consecutive stunners to go down.

Before the other pair's shield dropped, Harry had cast his own stunner on the man who failed to shield his partner from the explosion and had been knocked aside himself.

Harry rushed to the downed man dodging the spell fire of the other pair and before either could revive their colleague Harry used his abundant strength to stab his knife into the man's chest and left it there before ducking further spell fire and retaliating.

Two more Bombarda Maximas converged at Harry's location forcing him to jump into the air to avoid the damage from the explosion at his feet. The knights took aim shouted "Crucio," but Harry suddenly dropped faster than possible by summoning an immovable headstone, dragging himself to it instead and dodging the torture curses. Harry threw another expanding cutter sphere at the pair forcing them to dodge once more while Harry ducked behind another headstone.

Harry quietly said, "Invers Gemini Evanesce," and got up to run to the pair's left. What they saw however was Harry getting up and running to their right. This spell made his image appear to do the reverse of what he was actually doing while hiding his original but didn't work on large groups. The pair fired at his reflection while Harry moved behind them and cast two more stunners. The reflection wouldn't show Harry casting spells so they didn't see a spell to dodge and the pair was dropped before they could understand what had happened.

Harry summoned his knife from the other man's chest and stabbed each in the chest as well.

The fight had only taken a minute so Harry ran back to the group attempting to disable his reality bomb. The boss was still on the lookout but Harry had taken ten seconds to quickly run around the group and cast another expanding cutter sphere from behind the reality bomb while lying on the ground. From their perspective the sphere would cover Harry's position so they wouldn't see him directly.

The lookout had the same talent as Dumbledore for sensing magic though not as good. This proved to be a disadvantage as Harry's magic was undetectable and he only saw the spell when it was about half way to his position.

The man grabbed his nearest partner and dragged him back just as the sphere passed through the reality bomb and the knight working on it out of arm's reach.

Two seconds before contact Harry had pulled out another unstable spell grenade and banished it at the group just as the reality bomb and the other knight got chopped into fine pieces.

Harry's cutting sphere's cutting spells were condensed enough to cut the parts of the reality bomb without further destabilizing it, thus was one of the ways to safely disarm it. Though that was specifically because Harry built it that way. It had to be chopped into multiple pieces near instantaneously to stop the reaction from going critical.

Harry's final grenade went off and sent forth a massive red wave, the result of thirty stunners reaching critical mass. Vinny, captain of the Knights of Walpurgis released the man he had just pulled back and apparated away with a loud pop as the red wave passed through his colleague. Harry didn't waste time and charged forth to stab the man in the heart, one last time.

The silver dragons above Harry roared victoriously and they each vanished one by one. Not a single Dementor could be found.

Harry paused and checked the immediate area. Pausing was great for scouting. Harry confirmed there was no eighth or ninth Knight of Walpurgis hiding around and Harry decided it was fine to collapse into the frozen landscape.

He couldn't recover while pausing but he could still mentally decompress and go over what had happened. Sirius told him that in a free for all, the most common spells used by professionals were stunners, cutting curses, and blasting curses or reductos. It wasn't due to preference. Stunners were some of the easiest spells to spam over and over and it was not difficult to cast nonverbally.

Someone at Sirius's level could cast three stunners in two seconds while a bombarda would take a second and a half. Stunners were also the second fastest travelling spell behind Expelliarmus while spells like Reducto and Bombarda traveled much slower.

Cutting curses were slower than a stunner but had a wider area of effect and were still faster than Bombarda and were easier to cast nonverbally.

Harry could cast his original cutting curse spells nonverbally but they traveled very slowly. Spells he was not as proficient like Magic Mirror and Reverse Run he could only cast through a proper incantation so he could only cast those with the right timing.

Harry unpaused and heard the sound he had been waiting for.

*Ping*

[Quest Complete: Survive Hogwarts

Reward: Philosopher's Stone, Right of Conquest Perk]

Next was the sensation Harry had been expecting since Voldemort got eaten. The exotic energy of every corpse converged onto Harry. However it was more than that. Energy Harry felt could only be Soul energy descended from the sky and Harry's body greedily devoured it all.

[You have gained a level.]

Harry figured the Soul Energy was from the slain Dementors. Harry didn't even know they had soul energy, but that may have been because it had been so tainted he couldn't feel it. After being purified through Patronus dragon fire however it was fine to absorb and very filling. Harry leveled up five times and was now at level 130!

Harry went to loot the bodies of the Knights of Walpurgis and the Death Eaters. The latter no longer looked like Harry even though they died under Polyjuice. The potion broke down in their corpse once Harry's blood vanished and they all returned to their normal appearances.

Once Harry moved to loot a corpse, a pop up appeared.

[Invoke Right of Conquest?

Yes | No]

Harry selected Yes and another pop up appeared of the man's items which Harry could select to take from. Harry could select Loot all, but that would take the man's robe too which would be a bit much.

Some of the corpses had something special in the Loot box. For example, when Harry looted from the elder Malfoy's corpse, he saw the Ring of the Head of the House of Malfoy.

When Harry selected it to take, he got another pop up.

[You have defeated the Head of the House of Malfoy in mortal combat initiated by the other party. You can take this ring to Gringotts to apply for Right of Conquest and take possession of the assets of the House of Malfoy.]

Now Harry understood the Right of Conquest Perk. In addition to the nice loot box, it also let Harry take the wealth of those he killed. If they tried to kill him first and were the head of a house anyways. Yup, Hell Mode had fabulous prizes.

While Harry was busy looting the riches of Britain from various corpses, the corpse of Vinny, the captain of the Knights of Walpurgis was floating in the vacuum of space. His body would eventually crash into the windshield of an alien ship on its way to earth, but that's a story for another time.

Harry took out another spell grenade and banished it into the air. He had no idea if this would actually work but it was worth a shot.

A blinding white light with the power of seventy Reparo Maxima spells filled the graveyard and the destroyed land moved as if time was reversing. After about ten seconds, the damaged ground, the destroyed headstones, and even the air itself returned back to how it was.

Although Voldemort had placed a muggle repelling charm in the graveyard and magic spells were mostly invisible to non-magicals, the sound of Harry's guns and the explosions of his grenades could still attract the wrong sort of attention so he wanted the place looking normal. Luckily the cold malevolence imposed on the air itself by the swarm of Dementors had been enough to convince the residents of Little Haggleton to stay in doors so though some noticed it, no one wanted to investigate and it would soon be forgotten by most.

Harry took a radio out his inventory and switched to a specific frequency before speaking, "Harry to Hermione, come in Hermione."

A moment later the radio almost shouted back, "Harry! What Happened! Madame Bones was ported here stunned and says no one has been able to get there!"

"Head over to Ms. Bones please, I don't want to have to repeat myself over and over. The anti-teleportation wards will be down in a minute or so."

A few moments later Hermione said, "She's here Harry." "Mr. Potter, what happened?"

"Some of your Aurors were swapped for Death Eaters who stunned you in the back and politely asked where did I misplace Voldemort. I don't know what happened to the men they swapped with."

"Are you alright?" asked Hermione this time.

"You know me Hermione, seven elite Death Eaters stronger than Professor Flitwick and a hundred Dementors is just another Friday for me. I am sorry to say however that Azkaban will need different guards in the future. Madame Bones, the Anti-teleportation wards are down now so you can come back to collect the bodies. The Muggle Repelling ward has another fifteen minutes or so before falling."

Ten seconds later Ms. Bones, her four Aurors, Hermione, Sirius Black, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick apparated in. Harry figured five of those seconds consisted of Hermione convincing the others to take her.

Harry had already vanished the scrapped parts of his reality bomb so other than a pile of bodies and a large cauldron, the signs of the battle were completely gone. Dumbledore did several spells which reacted to the air and made him smile. He did not sense that the air was thick with Harry's magic as it was undetectable, but he used a few spells Harry recognized had different effects in magic rich environments so he was able to indirectly determine the scale of magics Harry cast. Though he'd never be able to identify the caster if he didn't already know.

Amelia bones found the four corpses of the Knights of Walpurgis and confirmed though wearing auror robes they were not the aurors she intended to bring with her. Only a few moments of careful introspection and knowing what to look for allowed her to identify the confundus charm that had been subtly cast on her preventing her from noticing earlier. No one had to tell her how skilled that meant these Knights had been.

She asked, "Potter, where is the seventh?"

Harry smiled, "The Anti-teleportation ward would allow someone to force their way through it if they didn't care where they were going. This however is a trap and anyone forcing their way through would be catapulted into space. I think the one who called himself the Captain said his name was Vinny. He's not coming back."

She asked a few more questions about the ward but Harry evaded them. He couldn't exactly tell her they were activated and powered by blood. One benefit to such a design was that the activator was the only one who could pass through the wards after they were set.

Once the corpses were taken away and the location swept to confirm there was no dangerous residue, Amelia's patience finally ended and said, "Ok Mr. Potter, now tell me what happened here."

Harry shrugged and said, "I can answer that question only if you leave it out of your report and preferably make something up."

"That is not for you to decide Mr. Potter."

Harry returned her glare with a calm demeanor and said, "In that case I was stunned when I arrived, woke up, got stunned again, and woke again. I have no idea what happened. Have a nice day."

Sirius had to hold himself back from laughing and the other teachers rolled their eyes at the obvious lies.

Amelia wasn't going to take no for an answer so easily and said, "There are hundreds of witnesses through that muggle glass that told a different story Mr. Potter."

Harry smiled that she intended on using that approach of all things. Harry retorted, "So you're saying that because someone saw someone who looked like me, it was definitely me? I suppose I'm guilty then unless there is some way for someone other than me to look like me."

A bark of laughter made their way through Sirius's covered mouth which earned another glare for Amelia.

Professor McGonagall had filled in Amelia of the details of the show up to the footage being cut so it didn't take a moment for Amelia to realize Harry's defense was at least as tight if not tighter than those who once claimed to be under the imperius curse.

Only the wind passing through the headstones broke the silence that followed and eventually the head of the DMLE relented. "Fine Mr. Potter. What happened here won't get out. So what did happen?"

Harry turned to Sirius and Hermione for a moment and smiled. "Simple, I stopped holding back."

*

Harry told them a story he had come up with long ago. When he awoke the prior year after his missing year, he had knowledge he didn't have before. One piece of knowledge was a spell that connected to a pocket space like a mokeskin pouch with an undetectable extension charm placed on it. Revealing his Inventory this way made the rest of the story much easier to tell.

He told them he'd memorized the Potter, the Black, and the Hogwarts Library. He also admitted to killing the Basilisk and finding Salazar Slytherin's study and with his ability to crunch information at impossible speeds, he quickly learned most of the magics in the world.

Sirius picked up from there and explained how he had spent every day sparring with Harry and every weekend prior to Easter Break sparring with him. He fully admitted that Harry was stronger than he was now and gave details into his godson's terrifying growth rate.

Hermione explained Harry's fascination with muggle tech and firearms and how he had been incorporating them into his magic to make himself stronger.

McGonagall and Flitwick were both astounded that Harry had been the one teaching Hermione and Neville as they both thought it was the other way around. Harry also told them of how Snape helped him with the Aerosol Polyjuice and the gunpowder as Harry would not have been able to get a perfectly working version of either before the third task without his help.

Dumbledore was a little skeptical at this until Harry told him that Snape Obliviated himself afterwards and left Harry a letter to give him. That brought back the twinkle in the headmaster's eyes and brought a lot of respect for the teacher from McGonagall and Flitwick.

The letter itself couldn't be opened without revealing it was opened as it was sealed with Snape's magic. But when Harry put it into his inventory, he could tell the content without opening it. Thankfully there were no details, even coded ones about Harry's abilities. Harry had told Snape he would leave the magical world after this year so Snape didn't care that much. The letter itself basically told Snape that he had a large part in the taking down of that monstrous bastard and with his assistance to the Potter brat, a certain debt had been repaid in full with interest.

Harry was instructed not to give the letter to him unless the Dark Mark was gone. He'd already confirmed on the bodies of the Death Eaters that the mark had in fact vanished.

Harry gave the details of the battle though told them the reality bomb was a fake. The lack of a twinkle in Dumbledore's eye and the fear in Hermione's told him neither believed that. Everyone was shocked at the power of the spell grenades and Harry's Patronus. He demonstrated his normal sized one when they doubted him that it was a dragon. Harry had decades of happy memories from his time spent on the other side so his Patronus was of course sufficiently powerful even before cramming twenty of them inside a grenade.

At the end, Amelia had two questions. "Mr. Potter, why does it sound like you have been preparing for this for the last year as if you knew about it and why don't you want anyone to know it happened?"

"To answer the first, I think someone told me a prophecy or something. I don't remember hearing it but I knew before attending classes I would have to face Voldemort, a basilisk, and Dementors. Once I heard about the Triwizard Cup I knew I'd be entered into that too as if I knew it all along and forgot about it until then."

Not exactly the most believable but it was a better answer than the truth.

Harry continued, "As for the anonymity thing, that's an easy one. I'm famous enough as it is. I'd prefer to be known for something other than magic which was why I used as little as possible in the tasks. Voldemort and the Knights of Walpurgis could have killed me if they didn't look down on me so much and that was intentional. I don't want people to know how powerful I am or I'll end up like Dumbledore and everyone will look to me to solve their problems instead of solving their own."

A few heads turned to Dumbledore who was nodding sagely.

"As long as people think I can't use strong magic they won't bother me and if they target me they won't get what they're expecting. That's why I want you to make up something for what happened. Maybe they tried another ritual which failed and they all died. Throw the word classified around like it's no one's business and write something half believable."

McGonagall spoke up at this point, "But Harry, even if you don't show your strength people will think you are powerful regardless. Wouldn't it be better if they knew the truth?"

Harry shook his head. That might make sense to her but she was missing a few points. Harry answered, "Professor, I'm not returning to Hogwarts after the summer. I intend to tell everyone the magic world is too dangerous for me so I'm leaving it."

Flitwick looked shocked at this and said, "But Mr. Potter, they'll snap your wand!"

Sirius couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.

McGonagall's reproachful glare only made him laugh harder.

Dumbledore said, "It was revealed during the Weighing of Wands that Harry's wand is an ordinary stick. He has been using wandless magic since school started while pretending otherwise. Other than myself, Olivander, Mr. Bagman and the other champions, no one else knows this."

Sirius held his laughter for a moment so he could catch the expression on the Professors' and Amelia's face before breaking out into another cackling fit.

Harry added over his godfather's laughter, "Due to my placement in the Triwizard Tournament, I've been an adult since Oct 31st. And due to the tournament, I am not required to sit for my exams this year. This means I can leave without doing any exams and not come back. On paper, it will look like I gave up magic and left."

A few questions and another check through the graveyard later, the group left just as the muggle repelling charm fell. What no one knew and Harry wouldn't find out for many years was that his broadcast was not just received by Sirius Black's monitors. Another very discreet intelligence agency recorded all airwave transmissions and a certain man with an eyepatch would be watching the video a few weeks later and recognize a certain orange tabby cat. Harry hadn't thought to encrypt the transmission but that was a problem for another day.

The story they had come up with was thought up by Hermione and not too different from the truth. Hermione came up with the idea that Harry just used more tech toys to defeat the Knights of Walpurgis and didn't use any magic at all. Harry was fine with this as he didn't mind a reputation for magic tech.

Amelia gave a statement to the press that Voldemort had placed Harry in the tournament and that Harry defeated him with muggle tech and some clever potions. She then said that Harry will be withdrawing from the magical world to pursue his interest in muggle tech. She did however say that Harry's wand would not be snapped but taken into custody in case Harry ever wished to return to the magical world. The last part she added in humor as it would get a lot of politicians off her back.

The results of the scoring for the final round was almost funny to Harry. Most of the judges gave very few points to Cedric and the others and they hadn't done much before Harry ended the tournament. Igor Karkaroff, the former Death Eater and headmaster of Durmstrang Institute ended up giving Cedric 10 points which, with the other points given, was more than the 27 points Cedric needed to have the most points at the end, thus winning the Triwizard Cup.

Harry guessed Karkaroff just really didn't want a first year to beat his student.

In the end, Cedric only had two more points than Harry which caused a lot of controversy with Durmstrang as the Headmaster never awarded Harry a single point yet awarded his own student ten on each task and Cedric ten in the end which was the only reason Harry didn't win. This combined with many other large and small reasons including the manipulation of the betting polls to finally and once and for all retire the Goblet of Fire and the tournament for all time.

Using a few favors, Harry ended up being gifted the Goblet himself. He was going to enjoy playing with that. The Goblet was worth far more than the thousand Galleon prize money and with Cedric on paper as the tournament's winner, Harry would be able to fade from memory in time. Later many would even question his existence as Dumbledore would remove all records of Harry's schooling as a favor to him and without any test scores submitted to the Ministry, the legend of Harry Potter would eventually fade into myth.

Some would collect the evidence of his story in newspaper clippings but many of them made less sense than the rumors. They told a story of Harry dying, the world mourning, then Harry magically coming back to life and becoming the 4th champion of a tournament of three participants. Further clips told of Harry fighting a dragon without magic, defeating a village of merman in the bottom of a lake without magic, and defeating Voldemort who died a decade ago and all his death eaters without magic before Harry Potter himself vanished. Skeeter's articles and their later retractions and the firing of the woman herself made the story even more confusing and ridiculous. The end of the story had Harry winning the Tournament even though the records show Harry never attended Hogwarts and Cedric Diggory won the tournament.

Later someone would make a book out of it and it was the only one written about himself that Harry enjoyed reading.

After the tournament Harry confirmed with Snape that his Dark Mark was gone and gave the man his letter. Harry stayed there a few moments for the man to read it and after a short silence the Potions Professor gave a quiet, "Thank you," and left without another word.

Before the end of that day Harry secretly made his way to Gringotts with the Head of Family rings and requested to invoke Right of Conquest. The invocation would allow the family magic within the Vault to decide if the Conquest was approved. If not, the family magic would strike back and possibly kill Harry. If it worked, the vault would open without the key. The look on the Goblin's face when Harry opened vault after vault was priceless.

Harry then placed 40% of the gold of Greater Magical Britain in his inventory. Plenty of families also kept Grimoires and valuable relics in the vault and with a few exceptions, Harry took them all. To each family with an heir he left the family ring so it would not die out and a small amount of coin so they would not suffer that much but would have to work for a living.

When the Goblins learned Harry would not be transferring the gold into another vault but taking it and leaving Magical Britain, they started making their own arrangements. At first Harry thought they would be upset, but Harry wasn't taking gold that would ever really belong to them so it made little difference. What it would do was drastically increase the value of the remaining gold in Britain and the Goblins had quite a bit of that. A period of massive deflation would occur and many things that were not worth much would become more valuable soon while the price of purchasable items would decrease. Harry's taking of so much gold would actually benefit the economy over time. Even families like the Weaselys would soon find that their meager savings had far more spending power than it used to.

Not that he was parting from the Goblins forever, no, far from it. Harry intended to slowly convert much of the gold into non-magical currency and attach it to the non-magical identity he had the Goblins make for him some time ago. Eventually Harry would invest it and get a matching Path but he knew nothing of investing for now and would intended to slowly filter the money into his own non-magical accounts.

The final days of school passed quicker than many liked and when Harry didn't show up to take the final exams, they knew he was not changing his mind about his decision to leave. Some tried to convince him otherwise but luckily the Slytherin students were more than happy to demonstrate why Harry wanted to leave by constantly trying to hex him in the back or call him out for what he did to their fathers, ect. When Draco Malfoy eventually got a letter from his mother stating that they were no longer rich, he tried to curse Harry in the Great Hall before the entire student body.

Harry blocked the spell with a certain plate he conveniently kept out during dinners and Draco was suspended for the rest of the year. Harry would later learn from Hermione he did not return to school as his house was sent thousands of Magically Howling Hate mail over the summer so it was sold and they left Britain. Draco's admission to Durmstrang was denied so he was homeschooled, but since those not attending school couldn't use a wand until they were seventeen, he was greatly lacking in magical education and did very little in his life in the years that followed.

The red headed twins had actually bet most of their savings on Harry winning the Tournament which Harry actually felt quite bad about. Especially when he learned they intended on opening a joke shop. Harry decided that he needed practice with the business thing before he went big and invested two thousand galleons into the pair but told them to wait a year before buying the property as deflation would soon make the gold worth a lot more. This was the pair's sixth year and they barely scratched the surface of the RoR so they had no problem using a year and all the funding they wanted to create and test new products.

Harry also introduced them to his godfather and told Sirius he would be their manager. Sirius at first refused responsibility like it was a plague infested rat, citing that a marauder never seeks responsibility. His tune changed when the twins started bowing at his feet at the recognition of the word. Turns out that the pair had the Marauder's map which was why they knew when Harry was coming and going. They had no problem giving it to Harry since he told them he wanted to figure out how it worked.

To Ronald Weasley, the redhead Harry would play chess with a few times a week, Harry gave him a young owl like he had promised to replace his rat. The redhead made a number of friends including Neville and Hermione so the owl would see a lot of use over the summer. Harry also gifted Hermione an owl he found in the store. It actually looked very much like his animagus form but for an owl was colored wrong. Male Snowy Owls are pure white while females have many brown patches. The owl Harry found was pure white but female. Harry chose this specific owl to give to Hermione because Harry felt it would always be able to find him meaning they would always be able to stay in touch. Hermione cried at the gift and named her Hedwig after a Saintess named in the History of Magic text.

A week after school ended Harry got a business proposition from the Goblins. They wanted to start a muggle bank using electronics and Harry's gold, but needed the means to protect electronics from magic. Harry immediately bought over a thousand British Pounds worth of business and business law books and spent a mind numbingly boring amount of time paused going over them all to make sure he wouldn't get screwed, on purpose or inadvertently.

A week later and the final papers were signed. The back story would be that Harry was adopted by a wealthy old family who died and Harry used the old money to open a bank. It would gain traction very slowly to avoid suspicion but after a few years would have a lot of power. Harry was pretty much the owner with the Goblins as partners and employees. Both would have to agree on anything to make a change. The Goblins intended to use their own mastery in enchantments to advance Harry's magic shielding arrays. One of the deals written in the contract was that Harry would never disclose or sell his method to anyone else in the future. In exchange for this, they would lend Harry all their books on Goblin enchanting and would pass on any advancements they made in his technique. Harry had already told them about Hermione and had gotten her to promise not to teach others as well.

Once the last signature was written, Harry finally got what he had been looking for.

*Ping*

[Business Path has risen to Rank 1]

Harry returned to the Potter home on Highrock with Goose and spent the next several weeks perfecting his current magic theory while exchanging letters between himself, Hermione, and Dumbledore who was delighted to exchange theories with. When Harry was bored he would shift into his owl form and fly around or visit Sirius who was enjoying his bachelor life. Harry still hadn't figured out how to make the ultimate broomstick so he stuck with his avian form.

One day while flying through London, Harry saw something that made very little sense. He heard the sound of battle coming from an alleyway yet the sound was muffled by a ward of some kind. When he flew through the ward, he saw magic he didn't recognize being used to fight. Considering he was now one of, if not the foremost expert on magic in Britain, that was odd.

The fight consisted of three martial artists wearing monk-like robes fighting another man in an eccentric outfit. All parties were using magic, but according to his energy sense which worked just fine in owl form, it was not Exotic Energy magic. The three monk-like fighters used what was clearly dimensional energy to form constructs, shields, weapons, and energy bolts. The one they fought used what seemed to be a mix of tainted soul energy and tainted natural energy powered magic.

The monk like ones were clearly not wizards as their combat had as much physical skill as it did energy manipulation. The other party seemed to be a textbook evil magic user and was so stereotypical Harry thought the outfit was a joke.

The evil looking one launched chains of lightning at the monks who were forced to block the attack. The stereotypical villain shouted, "You think you've trapped me, but it is you who are trapped!"

Harry sensed three points of dense tainted soul energy on the walls behind the man expanding out and witnessed three black animal-like monsters emerge from the walls. The closest description Harry could think of was an armored tiger with the head of a wolf. They looked quite vicious and Harry's senses would place them all at about level 100.

The monks and the other guy Harry couldn't get a feel for when it came to level as a person's level was basically energy density according to his senses. When not using dimensional energy actively, the monks had some stored in their bodies which would place them at about level 50. But when they actively used magic, they seemed to absorb and channel external dimensional energy and their level would spike to 70, 80, or 90 depending on the power of the spell.

Harry combed over the tens of thousands of pages of texts in the various Grimoires, journals, and historical documents he had.

He found three results. One referenced a muggle who could use magic and called himself a Sorcerer. Another referenced that the only Magical in the history of magic to be capable of using Dimensional Energy was Merlin who at one point was called the Sorcerer Supreme. Another entry Harry found referred to another branch of inferior magic users the entry didn't bother to name. It stated that they were weaker than Wizards and would avoid them.

It wasn't much, but at least it was something. The monk like guys could be Sorcerers. What would that make the villain?

The skill of the Sorcerers was apparent as they used impeccable teamwork to defeat the monsters and knock out the villain. The attack that decided it was cast at what looked like level 150. That was even stronger than Dumbledore. Harry couldn't get a feel for the magic rank as he wasn't familiar with it yet but it wasn't weak.

Harry considered a number of options but decided to go with the direct approach.

He flew down to a corner and returned to human form and 'badly' peaked around the corner while making noise.

The warrior-like magic users returned to battle stance and charged the corner until they saw it was just a child. Harry said, "That was so Cool! Can I learn to do that?"

The one of African descent who cast the final attack gave a very quick, "No."

Harry's smile instantly changed into horror.

The other monk's cracked a smile at how fast the kid was rejected and his reaction.

Harry asked, "But why?"

"Sorcery is not for children," was his answer.

One of the others said, "If the ward didn't keep you out you may be able to learn one day. Go home, study hard, listen to your parents, and eat your vegetables until then."

The other two looked like they were trying to not laugh at how responsible that sounded.

Harry scowled and said, "I've already read everything, I'm strong for my age, my parents are dead, and if you don't want to teach me, I'll teach myself."

The one who hadn't spoken said, "If your parents are dead, who do you live with?"

Harry pulled out his wallet which contained over six hundred pounds and showed the group. He said, "I live on my own and I take care of myself."

The one who first rejected him said, "The answer is still no."

The others seemed to want to say something but gave up. This one seemed to be their boss.

Harry felt the energy around him converge into this man and focused his senses on the man completely. Harry felt the external dimensional energy converge on this man's spiritual heart where there was already a small amount of dimensional energy stored which matched the biorhythm of the life and soul energy the man possessed. It was only because Harry absorbed so much purified soul energy from the slain Dementors he could sense the latter.

Once the dimensional energy reached this converging heart energy, it seemed to become controllable and was passed through the man's arm and molded with intent as it reached the man's hand.

In that moment Harry realized why he could never control Dimensional energy. Every person had dimensional energy inside them but weren't conscious of it. These men were. This man in particular awakened the energy and concentrated it into his heart. Within this man's spirit was a small amount of dimensional energy which matched the energy signature of the soul and life energy the man possessed.

Harry had lots of dimensional energy inside him as he often absorbed it during battle meditation to level up. However it was in fact out of sync with his life force and soul energy. Harry realized he was subconsciously fighting it which in turn prevented him from allowing dimensional energy to flow through him. He always thought of it as an external energy, something that was not a part of him. Of course he couldn't control something that was not a part of him.

Harry stopped fighting it, he surrendered to it like a fish surrendering to the flow of the river and in doing so the energy changed the very signature of his life and soul while he in turn changed it. Now the dimensional energy that had always been a part of Harry's body matched the signature of his life and soul energy. It was still out of sync with his exotic energy but that was a challenge for another day.

All of this happened in the moment the man was casting a spell which would block Harry's memories of this event.

When the spell had completed in his hand and shot at his head, Harry grabbed a small piece of the flow of dimensional energy around him and crafted a weak shield from it.

The shield shattered and barely managed to block it but it worked. Not that the spell would have had any effect but they didn't need to know that.

Harry felt elated that he finally had his first grasp of non exotic energy based magic. This was a magic that could be used in the non-magical world without frying every electronic device in the area.

Harry looked up to see the shocked faces of the monks and gave a pleased grin before saying, "I guess it's not that hard after all. Thanks for the demonstration. If you're not going to teach me, I'll figure it out myself. Have a nice day."

Harry then turned and left.

Harry heard behind him one of the monks say, "Umm, Mordo? What just happened?"

One of the others said, "I felt it. In that moment you were casting his body imitated your own, learning on its own. He now has a heart palace like yours."

The leader apparently called Mordo said, "I felt it too Wong. I will speak with the Ancient One about this."

Harry gained much from his trip today, even more than those Sorcerers thought he did. Harry confirmed that they could sense the dimensional energy Harry absorbed and used, but they couldn't sense Harry's exotic energy or spells cast with it. Harry placed a tracking spell on each of them so he could figure out where they went.

Shortly after Harry left he felt them vanish from the area and appear in another part of London. What was interesting was that his tracking spell was purged the moment they arrived at their destination. Harry didn't think it was intentional, more like their destination automatically scrubbed those who arrived even if nothing was sensed.

Harry returned to his Animagus form and flew to the area and found a large, ancient, four story building along a quiet street. Harry had seen this building several times while flying about and always admired the architecture. The reason he initially noticed it was that it was, relatively speaking, built around the convergence of several sources of Dimensional Energy which Harry could feel flowing through the world. If Hogwarts was built on the location with the strongest concentration of Exotic energy, this place had the strongest concentration of Dimensional energy.

Harry wondered if he looked around the world for other sources of energy would he find other magic users. No, that would probably lead to things that would kill him.

Harry also noticed for the first time the location had some of the sturdiest wards he'd ever felt. Their structure was there before, he just hadn't noticed they formed a ward when he first felt them as he wasn't familiar with Dimensional energy then.

Harry felt that the wards also couldn't see his exotic energy which was pretty cool. They seemed to react to his new dimensional energy, but Harry felt they wouldn't trigger unless he actually cast magic with it or drew in energy from it. This meant the ward would likely go off if he used battle meditation here. Something to think about later.

Harry flew beyond the wards and apparated back home. His stats as an owl were the same as a human, which meant he could use wandless magic, apparate, and make use of his physical agility and strength when he wanted. Harry tested this by clocking his flight speed at 600 kilometers per hour which is about half the speed of sound, about eight times faster than a normal Snowy Owl's top speed. Not that he could keep that up for long. Eventually he'd run out of stamina and have to rest or eat to recover it.

Harry spent the rest of August practicing with Dimensional energy and even asked Dumbledore about it and about Sorcerers in general.

Dumbledore was most surprised Harry encountered Sorcerers but when he remembered the nature of Harry's undetectable magic, it seemed possible.

He explained in a letter what had been explained to him when he was the Chief Mugwump of the ICW. Sorcerers are kept unknown to Witches and Wizards and all contact with them is classified. Most common knowledge about them is spread through word of mouth alone. There are more witches and wizards than they are Sorcerers but reports on the strength of Sorcerers have always been highly varied. The strangest piece of information is that Sorcerers are all muggles though reports that Merlin was also a Sorcerer seem to counter this. Many records of battles between them and witches and wizards show the magic shields of Sorcerers were completely ineffective against wizard magic attacks. Yet other reports show the opposite, with wizard magic having no effect against a Sorcerer who was able to easily defeat very powerful wizards.

What many reports agreed on was that in one way or another Sorcerers seemed to be guardians or protectors of some kind. Their power is noted to be capable of far more than wizards in many cases allowing them to do what would be impossible for a wizard.

Dumbledore explained his own theory that Sorcerers can use many different forms of energy. Some can only use forms that are weak against Wizard magic while some can use energies which are strong against wizard magic.

Harry understood what this implied. Exotic energies could rewrite the laws of reality but only on a small, specific scale. Apparition itself was a simple means of using Exotic energy to literally pierce through dimensional energy and reach another location. Many wizard spells could easily pierce dimensional energy. But there were other energies that were not so easy to fight. That being said, Harry wanted to get the feel of Dimensional energy first before he branched off into other forms of energy.

By the end of August, Harry's Magic Path Rank had risen to 23 which was around the same rank as Dumbledore. That was also where he met a roadblock.

Harry was able to mold dimensional energy into a shield or short sword, but every time it would fizzle out after only a few moments. Harry did his best to imitate that Mordo guy and allowed energy to be absorbed into his body and channeled through the energy already in his body to shape it. Absorbing it wasn't difficult for someone with energy sense. Controlling it wasn't that bad once he figured out the trick to it. The problem was that once he had it shaped and it was outside his body, his control over it slipped and it fizzled out every time.

If ambient Dimensional energy was water, the Dimensional Energy inside him tuned to his life and soul was ice. Absorbing ambient energy into the ice would allow Harry to freeze it into a shape and use that shape. But a few moments after it left the body, the ice returned to water and Harry couldn't figure out how to stop it from melting! He was trying to figure out what to do when he got a new notification.

*Ping*

[New Quest: Back to School

Get accepted as a Student in the London Branch of the Sanctum Sanctorum.]

Harry immediately opened his map and confirmed the quest destination, the Sanctum Sanctorum, was in fact that building he saw earlier. Yep, that was the one. After making 100% sure he wouldn't get a Hell Mode Pop up again he made his decision.

Harry wrote a few letters to various individuals and packed his things.

"Goose, we're going to another magic school. This one has Sorcerers instead of Wizards."

Goose responded mentally, 'You're just looking for more trouble again aren't you?'

Harry smiled and said, "You know me so well." Hell mode or not, Harry doubted he would get bored.

Harry purchased a new wardrobe of plain clothes the monks would likely be fine with and filled a suitcase with them along with two towels and a new toothbrush. He got a P.O. Box and set all mail owls to forward to the goblins who would mail the actual letters to his P.O. Box in the future.

After making Potter Manor vanish again, Harry apparated with Goose and his suitcase a few blocks from the place and walked up from the street. It wasn't on a large property in a gated off area he'd have to sneak into. It was actually on a side street down a dead end alley across from a park.

Something he found funny was that his own crossing of the ward near the building didn't do much but the ward seemed very interested in Goose. It didn't directly reject the Flerken, but it did seem to go over Goose's intention with a fine tooth comb. Harry had to stop himself from cackling as what may have been the most powerful, the most advanced ward Harry had ever encountered was now determining that his cat intended to spend as much time as she could, sleeping, and lying down in sunbeams.

Once the ward confirmed Goose's intention to seek sunbeams to lay in was not dangerous, it stopped bothering the Flerken.

Harry directly knocked on the front door and waited about three minutes before someone answered. It was not someone he saw from the group earlier and was wearing a suit instead of a monk's robe, but Harry still felt the presence of a large amount of Dimensional energy in the man.

The doorman looked at Harry carrying a suitcase in one hand and a pet carrier in the other and said, "Can I help you?"

Harry smiled and said, "I came to learn magic."

The man said, "I'm sorry child but you have come to the wrong place."

Before he could close the door Harry said "Tell me this isn't a place where Magic can be learned and taught."

"I'm sorry but you are not expected."

Harry said, "Wait, so you only let people you expect in? How is that fair? I didn't know I was supposed to be expected!"

The man was far more confused than Harry was. He actually recognized the boy as Wong had told him of their encounter the prior month. The Ancient One was consulted and stated the boy would not return. Yet here he was. Never in the man's life had he known the Ancient One to be wrong.

Harry continued to stand there holding the heavy looking suitcase and pet. After considering the fact that the Sanctum let him through, he figured the child was not dangerous and said, "You may come in but you'll have to wait. There is someone I must speak with."

Harry took a step in and said, "Thank you. My name is Harry Potter. This is Goose."

"Greetings Harry Potter, My name is Sol Rama, Protector of the London Branch of the Sanctum Santorum."

Harry was escorted to a chair and proceeded to wait.

Sol quickly walked up to the third level which had portals to the other Sanctums and Kamar-Taj. He entered the latter and made his way to the room of the Ancient One before knocking.

"Come in."

The bald woman greeted Sol but was a bit confused as to why he was here. He said, "Ancient One. The boy Master Mordo spoke of. The one you said would not be seen again. He had come to the London Sanctum and asked to learn magic."

It was then that Sol saw something few in living memory had ever seen on the Ancient One's stoic face. She was surprised.

"Truly?" she asked. "And I did not see it. It seems there are still things I can not see." She got up and walked out of her room to the portals with Sol following behind.

Only a few minutes after Sol had left Harry on the bench he had returned with a young looking bald woman in tow. However Harry felt her presence was heavier than Dumbledore and the resurrected Voldemort combined. She was further above them than they had been above Harry on his first day at Hogwarts. Harry felt half a dozen different types of energy within her. The arrangement was off though. The strongest concentration of energy was some type of dark energy while the others seemed to be arranged around it to balance the dark energy out.

She noticed his attention and said, "Hello child. I am called the Ancient One."

Harry said, "Hello, I am called Harry, though I don't need to shave. I am the godson of one called Sirius, though he will deny being serious with every breath."

The woman smirked at the gentle glib that her title didn't match her appearance.

This encounter was a first for her since her ascension to Sorcerer Supreme. It was her first time meeting someone she didn't know she would meet. For centuries she had been using a tool to see into her own future so she pretty much knew everyone she was going to meet from then until the day she died. She never once saw Harry though. When Mordo and Wong spoke of a child who seemed to be a natural at the mystic arts, it confused her as she never saw someone like that using the Eye of Agamotto. She convinced herself it was a one time anomaly and since she never saw such a student train in Kamar-Taj, she believed the child would never cross paths with them again.

Yet she was wrong. Even her most recent viewings of her future lacked this person. Why? For the first time in centuries she found something she was unsure about. That wasn't a bad thing though. She picked up the amulet hanging around her neck and looked into the future with it. Doing so would let her see a conversation before it happened. She could then instead have a different conversation and see that. In this way she could have many first conversations with someone and learn much about them without giving much away about herself.

However for the child it didn't work. When she looked into the future, the child wasn't there. She couldn't tell what he said and the future she saw didn't have her asking any questions or hearing any answers. This child was somehow shielded, or invisible from the perspective of the future. Whatever gave this child such a gift was even more powerful than the Eye of Agamotto which was powered by an Infinity Stone. That was both fascinating and disturbing.

Harry simply saw her pick up her necklace, frown, then look back and Harry and ask, "So tell me not hairy Harry, godson of the not serious Sirius. Why do you wish to learn magic?"

Harry smiled that she got his bad joke and said, "Two reasons. First, I like to help people and learning here will definitely be good. The second is that there is a 100% chance I'll need it later in life since there is no chance I am going to have a boring life."

"What makes you say that?" She was honestly interested in his own opinion on the matter. It was certainly unusual for a child to be so certain their future required learning the mystic arts.

"Well for one, I have what I'm pretty sure is a familiar bond with this 'not a cat.'"

The ancient one looked at the small case carrying the orange cat and for the first time sensed that it was most certainly not a cat. It looked like a cat of course and seemed to behave like a cat, but this creature had a naturally occurring pocket dimension within that she would not have noticed if she didn't look for it. She'd never seen a living creature like this before, not on this plane anyways. On further examination she could determine it did in fact have a bond with the child. It was very strong too.

She considered it for a few moments and said, "There are other ways of protecting yourself you know. Becoming a Sorcerer means taking up to duties of defending the realm from those who seek to harm it."

Harry shrugged and honestly answered, "Chances are I'll have to do that in the future even if I didn't learn Sorcery."

The Ancient One was more than a little surprised at how sure of this the child was. She said, "I heard you used some Sorcery a month ago. Have you made any progress?" She remembered her amusement when Wong had told her the child's passing remark that he would figure it out himself. As he was asking to learn now, she wanted to see if the boy could be embarrassed at the fact he likely didn't make any progress.

Harry sighed and crafted a shortsword from dimensional energy for her to examine. It was made of rust colored interweaving arrays of light as most Dimensional Constructs were and it was cleanly outlined. A moment later it fizzled out and the Ancient One smiled. She said, "A construct needs a small but constant input of dimensional energy to retain its form or it will break down."

Harry thought about it for a moment and smacked his forehead. Oh, now it was obvious. He was trying to water a garden by turning the hose off after the water started coming out. Harry focused again but this time after the construct was made, he continued to refresh it over and over by adding more energy into it. This time the sword stayed solid and did not waiver.

Harry smiled and said, "Thank you. I feel really stupid now."

The Ancient One raised an eyebrow at the remark. For most initiates, surrendering to the energy, absorbing it, directing it, and shaping it were the hard parts. All that Harry had done easily. He just didn't know what to do next.

Now she was a bit torn. On one hand, Harry could become a powerful Sorcerer. So much skill at such a young age and his potential was higher than her predetermined successor who wouldn't show for another decade or so. On the other hand, if Harry went bad, she wouldn't know until it was too late. However, when was not being able to see a person's future a crime? It was known that Kamar-Taj would teach anyone willing to learn, but technically that was only for people who arrived at Kamar-Taj themselves and Harry was still in London.

After a moment more of contemplation she said, "You may learn the Mystic Arts from here Harry but only if you pass a test. If you do not, then you may not learn until you are taller than I am."

"Umm. Ok." It wasn't like he had a choice. Besides, his inner Gryffindor wouldn't let him just back away from a challenge.

She escorted Harry to the fourth floor where Harry saw numerous items behind glass cases. His senses informed him each contained a masterpiece of arranged energy for a purpose, true artifacts, though he would later learn they called them relics here. She walked him through a door and within was a small ritual room with a sphere that had a gentle white glow on a pedestal.

"This is the ancient Orb of Agamotto. Or should I say the original. There is a different one that shares the same name which monitors threats throughout the world in Kamar-Taj, but this one predates it and was created by the founder of our order, the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto himself. I want you to place your hand on it."

Harry felt the presence of so many types of powerful energy from the Orb that he had no means to differentiate what any of it was. Harry didn't mind though and placed his hands on the orb.

The Ancient One knew this was highly irregular. The Orb could sense the heart and many of the secrets of the person it scanned. It was a tool which allowed one to sense if specific entities were threats and using it on a potential student was never done.

The orb however glowed pure white, signifying a pure heart and pure intentions. The Ancient One saw several images appear within the light, but she only recognized one of them. It was a phoenix. The Phoenix to be precise. She also recognized what may have been the source of the child's talent. He was a mutant and seemed to have a pocket space within his soul. There were some other things but she couldn't make heads or tails of them. However the pocket space would have answered a few questions. The cat had a pocket space as well so their similarities could have forged the familiar connection. Having a natural pocket space could explain how using dimensional energy was so natural for him.

"Ok, you can remove your hands."

Harry did so and the orb stopped glowing. Even the Orb couldn't detect Harry's Exotic energy so the Ancient one only saw the Dimensional energy within Harry as well as small amounts of Natural Energy which he sometimes used Battle Meditation off.

The Ancient One said, "If you are serious about defending the realm, then I welcome you as a student."

Harry said, "Thank you, but I think you have me confused for my godfather. I'm Harry, he's Sirius."

She rolled her eyes and escorted him back to collect his things. She noticed he was surprised at the portals she led him through but not that surprised.

"So tell me about yourself Harry."

"Well, I can, but only if you promise not to tell others. I don't want others to know how much of a trouble magnet I am. At least until they figure it out themselves."

She smiled at this and said, "Very well. I will not tell others of your past."

Harry felt a field of energy he didn't recognize and figured it was monitoring the conversation. Best guess? Lie detector. He certainly knew how to have fun with those.

"Well, my full name is Harry James Potter. I turned twelve on July 31st. I was born to a witch and wizard who were members of a counter terrorism strike force. They got betrayed by a rat and both were killed by a terrorist leader, Halloween of 1994. I spent the next nine years living in a cupboard under the stairs of my aunt's house. I died in 2003 and came back to life in 2004, don't ask what happened. I spent last year going to magic school where I killed a Basilisk, challenged a nesting dragon, defeated a newly resurrected immortal Dark Lord, and killed twenty four of his evil fanatic followers along with one hundred Dementors. I've also just about memorized every text of wizard magic that exists and I'm looking to branch out."

The Ancient One stopped at the third sentence and grew more and more serious after each one. She had to double check that her spell to ensure it was indeed functioning properly because if it was, then he was telling the truth.

She looked back at him and said, "You're a wizard Harry?"

Harry nodded and said, "I guess. Not sure. Haven't been quite sure of what I am after the coming back to life thing."

She asked, "Are you aware you are a mutant?"

"Yeah, I was told no wizard ever awoke the X-Gene without dying first and I just happened to win the genetic lottery. Though I was told the hand of others were involved."

"I see now where your confidence in encountering trouble comes from. Now did you actually kill a hundred Dementors or did you drive them away?"

Harry wasn't surprised she knew what a Dementor was and said, "Find a spot where there is no one around for twenty miles and I'll show you."

She smirked at the challenge and waved her hand in a circle which caused sparks of dimensional energy to follow the path of her hand. From Harry's energy sense it was like she was twisting space into a tunnel, though there were other processes Harry didn't understand yet. A moment later the sparks formed a circle which turned into a portal.

Harry followed her through it into the Sahara Desert, the hottest place Harry had ever been.

He then took a Patronus Grenade from his inventory and lightly banished it a few dozen meters away.

The grenade went off and the massive silver dragon materialized. Harry was paying very close attention to the Ancient One and noticed that the dark energy within her recoiled in the presence of the overpowered dragon Patronus. However this didn't seem to harm her which meant that she hadn't synchronized with the dark energy and it hadn't synchronized with her, thus she lacked the taint of darkness.

It was an odd arrangement that seemed more trouble than it was worth.

The Ancient One was once more surprised. She could sense that space around the dragon was being actively purified through the sheer force of positive emotions, light, love, and happiness. However she could not feel the dragon itself. She realized with certainty that Harry's wizard magic was invisible, even the orb of Agamotto didn't show it. If Harry hadn't told her, she would not have known.

She understood the implications right away. Harry was trusting her with this. She said, "Thank you for showing me this Harry, I won't speak of it to others. I will however remind you that most of the Masters of Kamar-Taj would recognize Wizard Magic if they see it, even if they can't sense it."

Harry nodded and said, "I've already got a lot of practice in Wizard Magic, I'm not here to practice that."

"Indeed, though if you ever need a place to practice away from the eyes of others, come find me."

*Ping*

[Quest Complete: Back to School

Reward: 'Sling Ring' Perk]

Harry wondered why the quest hadn't pinged yet though the so called Ancient One already told him he passed the test. Unless, ah, another test. If he lied or hid too much she may not have trusted him and may have held back in his teachings or worse, sabotaged them. That being said every single thing Harry told her was things known by others. If she investigated it herself and put some effort into it, she could have learned it all so there was no point in holding back.

It was the same as training under Sirius, telling his godfather he was weaker than he actually was would not have helped in making him stronger.


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