Chapter 256: Mother and Son

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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1 November 1994, Beauxbatons, France

Seeing no point in hiding, he stopped the cloak from making him invisible. The woman whistled, "A very impressive piece of magic…"

However, Harry wasn't having it. He decided to be as direct as possible, "Who are you?"

The woman paused, frozen for a fraction of a second, and then continued, "Now, that's not a very interesting question, especially considering how much we, Unspeakables, take out secret identities seriously…"

Secret Identities? Were they in some kind of comic or something? At least, the way she said it was a clue. It was an expression often found in Muggle fiction stories. Most Unspeakables either don't care about being known or were part of some kind of covert task force in the Department of Mysteries. Considering how protecting the Hogwarts delegation didn't require any secrecy, the woman hid her face voluntarily.

He tilted his head, "I don't believe that… I think it's a very important question. After all, I would like to know who is going to teach a very dangerous and risky form of magic to my friend."

"Just a friend? How curious. I would have thought you would have been a couple considering how close the two of you are."

"Again, you're evading the question."

The redhead snorted, "You're not one to leave anything be, are you? Considering what I know of you, you would have been more curious about my magic than my identity."

Harry would be lying if he said that he wasn't interested in the woman's blood magic. However, he had learned a very long time ago that if things looked like they were too good to be true, then they probably were. No one just offered to teach a very dangerous, illegal, not to mention very rare field of magic, for no reason. Not even the kindest mage in the world would do this.

Magic was an intimate thing and lost knowledge was something wars would be fought over. Blood magic was something that hadn't been seen publicly for centuries at the very least. Its value was immeasurable. No one would just teach it on a whim, and that meant that there was something else behind the scenes, and Harry had a feeling that Daphne was going to pay a heavy price for it.

However, he didn't want to seem too confrontational, "Perhaps I'm just doubting your capabilities and competence… Knowing who you are would make you liable in case you mess up, meaning that you would have to do your best."

The woman sounded insulted, "Do you seriously doubt my skills."

"That's exactly the point," Harry argued, "I don't know you. You don't have any reputable skills, and you're proclaiming to know a field of magic that is lost to time in everything but name."

"The best mage isn't the one the general public knows about. It's the ones that are hidden, that are just a face in the crowds but are exceptional in everything else. It's what the Department of Mysteries was created for, a place to use your magic freely, and research whatever you want, without being hounded by anyone. You would have been an ideal recruit, I'll admit that, but you're too well-known, too public for that to be an option anymore."

Harry suppressed the urge to snort, "Do you seriously expect me to believe that any department would last more than a few months if people experimented with magic however they wanted? No, the Unspeakables follow rules just like everyone else, like every single employee in the world. Look at you. You're acting like a politician and not answering any of my questions… That's not something a researcher would do, but a bureaucrat on the other hand…"

That seemed to anger her, "You want me to prove how competent I am… Alright then. What do you think about the fact that I created a small spell that would show me oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in any room? I didn't overpower your invisibility cloak; I just used another way to detect living beings that would work on every living being."

Harry noted her knowledge of the cloak… It would be concerning if the Department of Mysteries knew about the fact that he had one of the Deathly Hallows. He'd need to talk to Arcturus about that.

Still, the way that she used her detection spell wasn't something that Harry expected. He never expected mages to analyse chemicals of all people for a detection charm. It was honestly very surprising, to say the least, and something that pushed the fact that the woman was involved in the muggle world in some way, probably even a muggleborn witch. It was an ingenious method that Harry berated himself for not coming up with…

However, for all her impressive knowledge, the last Potter wasn't going to let her off easily, "Sure, that means that you know how to craft spells, and are probably very good at charms, but what does that have to do with Blood Magic?"

"Blood Magic is not something that could be used on a whim…"

"Then we appear to be at an impasse. Until you prove your actual intentions, I'll ask Daphne not to take any lessons from you."

"Who are you to dictate her actions?"

Harry simply snorted, "I'm her friend and I'm not dictating anything. I'll just give her a piece of advice which I hope she will follow."

"Even at the cost of her sister?"

"Yes…" Harry simply replied, trying to sound confident with his answer. Daphne was a reasonable person, and she would see the dangers after looking at the situation from the outside. At least he hoped she would, "The fact that you're refusing to show your face and actually care about having her as a disciple means that you're planning something to do with her and don't want it to be traced back to you… Doesn't sound like a trustworthy person, does it?"

The Unspeakable stiffened before chuckling. It wasn't a happy sound, more like a mixture of bitterness and regret. Her song, even hidden by chaos, mirrored her emotion, "Who would have thought that you of all people… I should be proud. I really should. If only it wasn't so inconvenient."

Harry gave her a confused look, which was immediately rebuffed as he felt a sharp intrusion try to enter his mind. To be perfectly fair, while Harry had been practising his Occlumency every morning for years, he had very rarely experienced a mental attack. But even with the meagre experience he had in mental combat, he had never experienced anything like it.

It was hard to describe the feeling, like a small needle trying to pry into his mind and disconnect the webs between his memories. He lashed back out of instincts more than anything, destroying the needle. However, he did not have any time to analyse the situation further; he felt his movement being constrained and noticed that the Unspeakable was holding her bleeding hand over some kind of ritual.

In a fraction of a second, Harry used his Arcane Hearing to get a general idea of what was happening and used a pulse of magic with a frequency that would destabilize the magic. Harry followed with a telekinetic spell, now that he could move.

Unfortunately, the woman was able to counter the spell, landing just a couple of years away on her feet. Both of them finally took out their wands, and two blasts of magic met each other in the middle, turning the fight into a battle of wills and magic.

He expected to win immediately; it was a tactic that Harry had devised against older opponents. Due to his condition in the Garden of Avalon, Harry's magic channels were far vaster than they should have been possible. A battle of wills, where raw power is useful, will often be seen as a foolish move by anyone under the age of seventeen, and Harry planned on using that to surprise his opponents.

However, the two beams of magic kept going, almost evenly matched. To say he was surprised would be an understatement, something that was also mirrored by what little he could sense from the Unspeakable.

The woman was the first to act after the stalemate, conjuring hundreds of flower petals that Harry could tell were charmed to be deceptively sharp. He countered with a variation of the ice age spell that would halt physical movement and followed up by conjuring and banishing small shards of ice.

The woman created some kind of shield that turned them into dust. Harry traced a fire rune in the air and conjured a gust of wind, creating a horizontal fire tornado against his opponent. He further warped space in front of it to get his opponent to underestimate its speed and mistime her response.

Harry thought that it had worked for a fraction of a second; she seemed to have been taken off-guard and was swallowed up by the fire, but then, the fire vanished, as if it hadn't existed.

He almost tilted his head in confusion, but noticed once with his Arcane Hearing, the woman's dripping blood filled with some kind of magic. At least that was proof that the woman actually knew Blood Magic properly. He had never read about anything like this before…

Once more, Harry generated a pulse of magic to destabilize the Blood Magic and suppressed a smirk as he heard the woman growl slightly. He followed with a small ball of warped space, which should have finished it off.

However, what he did not expect was for the woman to somehow cast a variation of the space expansion charm and counter his attack entirely.

Neither retaliated, just staring at each other, with their wands raised. The woman tilted her head, looking impressed, "Quite the arsenal for a student in his fourth year…"

"Quite the display of Blood Magic…" Harry returned.

"This is far more complicated than you could possibly imagine."

The last Potter snorted, "You have no idea how condescending you sound right now. I didn't ask for anything difficult, just that you would prove your trustworthiness before teaching my best friend a very dangerous form of magic. You're the one who jumped with Legilimency immediately."

The woman did not answer the question, "Still, quite remarkable. I never expected anyone your age to keep up with me, even if I'm holding back a lot. After all, killing you would be… regretful."

"What makes you think I wasn't holding back as well?"

The woman did not answer, but Harry could tell that she was smirking. Immediately, he felt a pulse of magic, "Because if you were more experienced, you would have known not to talk in a fight."

Harry felt the very walls move like clay and grab him. His feet sunk into the middle of the floor, and he found himself bound. The woman walked slowly and stopped barely a couple of yards in front of him, "Honey, you truly are remarkable. But you still need some experience… It's a shame that you won't remember this."

The woman raised her wand, probably ready to obliviate him, and that was when Harry made his move. He activated his cloak and phased through the stone binding him. He leapt forward and used his new spell without his opponent even realizing that she was tricked.

The moment he touched her, he activated his time magic. It was something he had been practising for a while. The woman froze and stopped in a field of very slow time, while Harry was ready to follow up with another spell to bind her properly.

The woman wouldn't have even realized what had happened to her yet. It was one of the perks of freezing someone in time, and not using a petrification charm.

However, this Unspeakable was different. Somehow, she had expected this. Did she use some kind of divination, realise what would happen and prepare another spell to counter it before? Harry's time spell was cancelled, but the impact sent both combatants flying back. The entire situation was just bizarre.

The issue was that this was different. This was no ordinary spell. It was powered by something other than her magic, something far more powerful, something that was very familiar.

Black. Sirius Black, he used something similar to use his phasing trick. Was this woman using the same dimension somehow? The only person connected to it other than Black was… "Lily Potter…"

He hadn't realized that he had said that out loud, but the woman froze, her wand in her palm, before slumping slightly, "Hello, Harry."

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.