"But you weren't and I made it through all of that stuff, you did what you did because it was the right thing to do, I have never held that against you" Harry explained sincerely. "I have always been proud that you died defending us and you should be too, that's the kind of man you are growing into".
"He's right James" Charlus cut in. "Harry is here now and that is all that matters, we shouldn't dwell too much on his past, no matter how bad it was, we should be looking forward and making sure that none of those things happen again" he finished firmly.
James nodded his understanding.
"It's just hard sometimes" he sighed.
"I understand" Dorea responded knowingly.
"How about we get your ritual done and then we can get to work" Charlus suggested. James nodded excitedly.
"There's a good lad" Charlus praised. "Have you tried it out yet?" he added to Harry.
Harry shook his head. He felt as though he could do it on command. He knew that all he had to do was allow his magic to flow freely from where he could feel it itching to escape from his chest.
"Give it a try" Charlus commanded.
Harry focused and immediately felt his magic start spreading throughout his body, his senses sharpening as he did so and his mind becoming more and more focused.
"Holy shit" Charlus whispered.
The boy's eyes were glowing eerily bright and the magic coursing its way through his veins was making his hair ripple gently as though caught in a gentle breeze.
"Wow" Dorea agreed. Harry contained his magic once more and allowed everything to return to normal, well what was now normal for the teen.
"Impressive" Charlus concluded. "The ritual wouldn't have made you anymore powerful but the power you do have is obvious and your body has completely accepted the changes and I assume that is why it has changed as much as it has, it simply needed to grow to allow everything to work as it should" he surmised.
"Can we do mine now?" James cut in impatiently.
Charlus chuckled.
"You won't be so keen when you're feeling the pain of it" he warned.
"I suppose I will have to go and buy more clothes" Harry sighed. "when you're better we will work on the patronus some more with Sirius when he is back" he added, talking to James. The boy just nodded and appeared to now be a little nervous as Charlus led him from the room to take complete the ritual himself.
Harry took a deep breath and braced himself. He knew the day was going to be long as he needed to purchase a whole new wardrobe once more.
He showered and managed to adjust some clothes to fit him before heading out to Diagon Alley first, planning to take a trip into muggle London to get his exercise clothes this time around.
(BREAK)
It was after a very busy and tiring final week of the holidays that found Harry, James and Sirius settling into their compartment aboard the Hogwarts Express once more to head back to school.
Simply put, Charlus had been pushing all three of the boy's to their limits over the past several days and although Harry was used to such treatment, the other two were not, meaning they were exhausted.
Try as he may, the man had not been able to tire Harry at all, much to his frustration and relief. It was clear to the man that the teen was simply on a whole new level of anyone he had ever worked with, even the best auror's he had helped over the years.
James's ritual had gone well and he had woken up a day after it had been completed, looking very much as he always had though he was around an inch taller and his eyes had lightened from a chocolate brown to a hazel colour.
The differences between the two Potter teens were now quite considerable. Harry was taller, more thickly built with much more delicate features and eyes like no other. They seemed to now dance with a gently burning fire continuously and would glow even brighter so when he was using his magic. James had, as expected, emerged from his ritual with a few tattoos of his own. His chest now adorned a Sphinx on one side and a stag on the other. The surprising addition to this pair was the small Thestral that had appeared on the top of his thigh, a Thestral with glowing green eyes just like Harry's.
Sirius had been rather chipper when he had returned from visiting Arcturus and the man had actually been pleased to see the boy, much to the younger Blacks surprise. His Grandfather had gladly handed over the books on the family magic and had had a long discussion with his Grandson about the nature of magic so that he did not immediately dismiss the family practices as dark or evil, which would certainly be an easy thing to do.
The Blacks were specialists in offensive curses and it had taken a further conversation with Sirius by Charlus to convince him to learn it. He had pointed out that it was an advantage that others would not have and could save his own or his friends lives one day.
After the talk with Charlus, Sirius had been working on the magic though he was finding it difficult to perform the intent based spells. The sixteen year old boy had no reason to want to curse someone in that nature as things were. He was a far cry from the man who had lost his best friend and wound up in prison for twelve years, that was for sure.
"Do you think Dad has a thing for pain?" James grumbled as the trio took their seats and waited for Remus and Peter to join them.
"He must do" Sirius surmised. "He did marry a Black after all".
James cringed.
"I really did not need those images in my head" he whined. Sirius snickered at the discomfort of the other boy before turning his attention to Harry.
"Are you going to explain your tattoo's to me?" he asked eagerly. "His, I understand" he added, gesturing to James.
Harry looked between the two boy's and sighed.
He knew they had both come along way in their views to magic but he wasn't sure if they were quite ready, then again he never would be entirely.
"Well the Thestral is my form and part of my wand" he began. "The Ironbelly is also in my wand, as you know and I got injured by a Horntail on my travels" he added cryptically, knowing that James already knew that.
He sighed again before continuing.
"You know I'm not some kind of evil Dark Lord wannabe don't you?" he asked seriously. "I know you're not a light wizard, but you are a good guy" Sirius returned sincerely.
Harry nodded gratefully and gave him a weak smile. He could not admit that he had fought and killed a basilisk, that would raise far too many questions that he could not answer right now.
"My old wand core was a Phoenix feather" he began again. "The one I outgrew" he clarified.
"And the snake?" Sirius questioned.
"I'm a parselmouth" Harry revealed quietly.
Both James and Sirius looked very surprised by the piece of information but did not flinch or back away as Harry had expected.
"Must be from the Black line" James whispered.
"Yeah" Sirius piped up, swallowing nervously. "Grandfather told me we used to have them and metamorph's too" he explained thoughtfully. "You might want to keep it to yourself though, we both know you but other people won't take it so well" Sirius advised.
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