Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
It took a whole day for me to remember that my ICW AWLS results had been scheduled for release the day after the Third Task. I knew I won the third Task; I had the cup and the bag of gold sitting on my desk to drive that point home. Since there was only so much I could do while essentially strapped to a hospital bed, I had space for my mind to stray.
"So how'd the results turn out?" I asked Sirius. My godfather had his face buried in the Daily Prophet, but he clearly heard me and put it down with a smile on his face.
"I've been waiting for you to ask," he said, a mischievous smile still on his face.
"Are you going to give them over, or are you just going to stare at me with that creepy smile?" I asked after a few seconds when his smile still hadn't twitched and he'd done nothing else. The smile froze on his face, becoming slightly small as his eyes narrowed. I knew I'd get a good pranking as payback for that one, but it was worth it. Anything was worth it to get one up on the smug Black these days.
"Fine, fine. Here you go," he said, producing the scroll that contained my results from between his fingers.
"I see all the time spent pranking Muggle magicians has really done something for you," I commented as I took the scroll. His face widened into a full smile.
"Yeah, they taught me a thing or two. I can't really explain how I do what I do without breaching the statute, you know? But it turns out they kind of like that. They've turned it into a mystery among themselves. Of course, even if I told them it was actual magic, they wouldn't believe me." The way he smiled told me he was definitely having a great time pranking them with the truth.
I unrolled the scroll after breaking the seal. "So how'd you do?" Sirius was already asking before I'd even finished looking through the results. One, two. That had to be some sort of record, wasn't it? I passed the scroll to him while I reflected on the results.
Dark Arts - Mastery
Charms - Outstanding
Transfiguration - Outstanding
Potions - Exceeds Expectations
Duelling - Outstanding
Ancient Runes - Mastery
Arithmancy - Exceeds Expectations
Well, those were the ones that mattered at least. With results like this, I could practically walk into any job in the country and get considered. Everything from being a curse breaker, to being an Enchanter was open to me. Of course, a 9-5 was never going to be it for me. Not in this life. There was magic. Real magic in the air. What would I need to get something as mundane as a job for when I could spend my time getting better and better?
"I can't even tell you just how proud I am," Sirius said with a gasp. I looked over at him; his eyes had softened, his normally arched brows had come down and the smile on his face reached the top of his cheeks in what could be described as an ear-to-ear grin that split his face in two.
"Not worried about the Mastery in Dark Arts?"
"Always knew you were the creepy sort. Just don't go around sacrificing any infants on full moons and we'll find a way to be okay," he said, furrowing his brow and somehow widening his smile even further.
"No promises. Whatever it takes to stop Voldemort, isn't it?" I said, my face completely straight. His smile stilled, and his lips straightened until they were pressed into a thin line while his eyes narrowed at me.
"You're joking, aren't you?" he asked, and I could hear the worry leaking into his tone. His hands were rubbing against each other now.
I didn't answer, keeping my face straight.
"It's not funny, Harry. Please don't sacrifice any infants for any reason," he said, and at that I could scarcely control my laughter anymore and I nearly folded over on the bed from how hard I was laughing.
Fleur ended up leaving two days after I woke up. She'd managed to delay her return by as much as possible, but her family needed her out of England as quickly as possible and she could not resist anymore. Especially now that I was awake.
"You'll come visit me, yes?" she'd asked, brows arched imperiously like there was only one possible option for me to pick. Only one possible reply I could give. And I gave it to her. I nodded and said yes I would. It wasn't even a hard promise to make. Fleur was a beautiful woman with actual skill in magic, and it wasn't like it was going to be all that hard to get into France. Apparating over from Britain was just a matter of crossing the channel. Going from Greece wasn't all that bad either. I just needed to visit a few places in this world so I had more than a few apparition points to pick from. Beyond that, there was nothing that would present much of a barrier to my coming and going.
"Superb," she said, leaning down to plant a kiss on my cheek before she practically skipped from the room. And then it was just Sirius and I for the last days of my custody. Dumbledore was still with my newly acquired wand, so there was little I could do with the time beyond reading books and talking with my godfather. No offense to Sirius, but the latter proved to be the more entertaining of the two options. And Sirius was more than willing to get me whatever I needed from the Black library. Well, whatever I needed within reason.
While he was nowhere near as prejudiced against the dark arts as most— he knew that with the right amount of skill in the mind arts then someone could master the dark arts without having them master them in turn. He was still far from comfortable furnishing me with the truly abhorrent things in his family's library. And to be honest, I was pretty certain I could do without them. My mastery grade in the dark arts meant something. It wasn't a true mastery like what one would get after years of study under an apprenticeship. In fact, most of the truly competitive apprenticeships required Master grades from the AWLs as a minimum entry point. Still the fact that I could get one told me that I was probably all good when it came to dark arts for the time being, and the truth was that I now had my enemy on my mind. Advancing further in the Dark Arts would matter little. Voldemort had half a century of study when it came to the dark arts over me. I needed to do what Dumbledore did, find my own niche and focus on it so thoroughly that I would be able to match Voldemort's dark arts skill with my own focus.
My first thought had been transfiguration. The only issue was that I was on my third transfiguration book so far and I was yet to find anything that truly excited me. 'Turn this into that and whatnot.' I could probably accomplish most transfigurations I wanted if I put in the time, magic, and brainpower, but that was the issue. I didn't think it would ever be truly instinctive for me. If someone sent a spell at me, my reflexes were dodge, deflect, or shield. Conjuring a block in my way was the kind of thing that only came to mind after the spell had passed.
I didn't have the time to fight my nature to learn new skills and dependencies. If I wanted this to work, I had to play to my strengths. The question then became, what were they?
Of course, finding the answer to that one was not merely a question that could be answered by just reading books and seeing what stuck, but seeing as I was basically stuck in magical probation until Pomfrey declared me fit to cast, it was the best option I had available. And so I moved from the advanced transfiguration texts to a charm treatise where I struggled to understand every other concept. I could understand the words, and what they meant, but they were just put together in a manner that made it difficult for me to genuinely believe that they were not consciously chosen to obfuscate, mislead, and confuse.
One paragraph would disagree with the next and then the one after would somehow manage to agree with both, and it was treated like it was normal. And it was not even a failing of the author. All the advanced charm books were basically like that. Maybe if our relationship was in a better state, I could go ask Flitwick for help, but the thought of apologizing to the man for something so trivial galled me. I would not be doing it, and that was that.
So charms was a no-go, I thought as I slammed the book down on to the desk.
"No luck with these ones either?" Sirius asked.
"None."
"Well, I did tell you. The only one in my family who'd had any chance of understanding the books on the top shelf was my late Greataunt Cassioupia and she was insane."
"More insane than the regular Black?" I asked, and he chortled, lips falling into an easy smile as he prepared his retort.
"No such thing as a regular Black, Harry. You should know this. Each and every one of us was broken in more than a few ways, uniquely so," he said. I was happy that at least he didn't clam up when someone brought up his family anymore, or that he didn't start spitting with rage. At least now he was able to approach things with nuance. If only mental health was a field of magic I could specialize in.
"What are you even trying to achieve?" he asked, next. "Maybe if I know the broad goal, I can help you find the tools for achieving it." His offer made sense, I couldn't lie. Besides, trying on my own had led to nothing useful, so I might as well just ask for help.
"I'm trying to find an equalizer. Voldemort has decades on me when it comes to the Dark Arts or even most conventional forms of magic. I need to find something that he isn't a true Master at that I could gain outsized results from within a year or more so much so that I would be able to stand up to him using that thing. I don't need to be able to beat him, not yet. But I do need to be able to at least force him to retreat more often than not."
"Well, I can tell you both for free that that particular search won't yield any fruits," Dumbledore said, practically hopping into the room.
"What do you mean?" I asked, pouncing on the statement. Was this just him trying to discourage me so I didn't get much better to make it easier for him to use me as a sacrifice?
"Tom Riddle was a prodigy among prodigies. When it comes to magic, he had more talent than even myself. More talent than I have seen in any other. He could learn spells by intuition alone. He could feel the magic around him and bend it to his will in ways that most wizards would not dare. And he could do it from his first year. If you want to start practicing any field of magic in the hopes of learning enough in a year to overcome him, then you will be sorely disappointed. You have no shortage of talent yourself Harry. And this year has shown us what you can create when you put your mind to it, but trust me when I say that Tom has no equal when Magical talent is concerned."
"So what do I do then? I saw the way you dueled him. His knowledge of the dark arts did not matter with what you could create and bring to bear," I said. I'd assume he was helping for the time being— give him the chance to prove himself not to be an ally. Let him hang himself with his own rope.
"Yes, Tom is more talented than I, but I have always been a shade more skillful. And it is skill you need to cultivate. Every transfiguration I could attempt would be doable for Tom. Nothing I could create that he could not copy, but he would never match my affinity, my skill, my experience. That is what you need to focus on... A level of skill that will allow you to face him even at his best."
"But how? We still get back to the not having enough time problem," I dropped in.
"Then you will have to learn magic he does not know. Taking him by surprise might give you enough leeway to close the gap that inevitably exists between the two of you."
"You just said he's the most talented wizard you've ever seen. Where exactly am I going to find magic that Voldemort doesn't know about?" Instead of replying, his eyes just twinkled almost insanely.
"There is a thing you managed last year which the rest of the world thought impossible. I can tell you that I have put my own effort and skill towards recreating even a facsimile of what you did and still failed. To be completely honest, it might be something entirely unique to you." he said. What was he talking about now? Did he just enjoy being confusing for its own sake?
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
"Why, the runic magic you used in the first task, of course. Being able to cast rune-based magic without extensive preparation is something that is near impossible, especially considering you did it by combining Elder Futhark runes with a West African language. Every attempt to replicate what you did has failed, and so it is something that remains uniquely yours and allows you to develop a set of skills that even Tom will not be able to entirely predict or counteract," he said, eyes still twinkling.
"Of course, how useful that ends up being in a duel is a completely different matter entirely. Tom will never give you the time or space to draw so many ones, but a resourceful young man like yourself will surely figure something out."
"So you're just going to leave it at that?" I asked.
"I'd struggle to imagine how I could help you with this, Harry. This is your path. Entirely your path. You came up with this on your own, and I suspect that if I try to help all we will achieve is that I will push my prejudices and expectations on to you regarding what is possible and what is not possible. Follow your curiousity and see where it leads." he said in reply.
I nodded, what could I do other than nod. The script I'd used to restrain the hellhound was something that I'd come up with by adding bits and pieces from a lot of places. While I'd tried to have some other scripts to use, anything I could think of ended up being both too long, too hard to draw with just a wand in the air, or too magically costly to try. Of course, I'd given up relatively easily. Now that Dumbledore was strongly hinting that there was something I should be following up with there, I was sure to focus even more on it.
"Good then. Now I am sure you have missed having this," he said, taking the wand I'd stolen from Voldemort and handing it over to me. I took a hold of it and felt a rush of both adrenaline and pleasure course through my body. The wand produced a shower of silver sparks.
"It's no surprise that you are compatible with the wand, considering you wielded its brother. I doubt Tom would have any trouble using your own wand in turn. Of course, there's a chance you end up with a stronger bond with his than he manages with yours simply because you snatched it from his own hand. I suspect that the wand has switched allegiance, but doubt your own wand has." he said, pushing up his glasses.
"Are you certain?" I pressed. If that was the case, and Voldemort was going to be using a wand that was working less than 100%, then that would be a massive boon.
"Certain? Far from it. This is not a well-studied subject. Most wand cores are shared. A single dragon's heartstring can fit in two wands after being cut. A healthy unicorn can produce near a dozen tailfeathers. It just so happens that it is exceedingly rare for two people to wield the wands made in this way at the same time. The last time a public case of brother wands being wielded contemporaneously was around a century ago with a pair of twins who wielded two halves of the same dragon's heartstring in their wands. Even with different wand woods, they were able to use the wands almost interchangeably. Of course, you have to remember that they were not in conflict with each other like you and Tom are, and they obviously share a closer bond. We can draw inferences, but not clear conclusions," he said. I nodded as that made some amount of sense.
"Well, if that will be all, then just one more thing, Harry."
"Yes, Professor?"
"Come back to Hogwarts next year."
"I'd rather be struck by lightning" I retorted almost instantly. The old man just laughed
A/N: And that's a chapter done and dusted, and the end of an Arc Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.