30 Chapter 30: The island of Skane P2

Harry picked up a strange but familiar aroma as he traversed through the thick forests of Skane. The pair of Redcrowns followed his group with their glowing crowns atop their heads. For some reason, the two Redcrowns took a shine to Jon and were intent on following him everywhere. Jon even fed the pair of native birds and they seem to have no fear of getting close to Jon. Many among their hunting party wanted the two birds caged but Harry vehemently opposed such a move.

So far, the two birds have shown remarkable attachment to Jon. He didn't want to spoil that, especially considering the Redcrowns seems to have a magical presence. Perhaps, a magical bond was being formed between Jon and one of the Redcrowns. If that was the case, Harry didn't want anyone to interfere. Most magical bonds are powered by Old Magic. Acting against Old Magic is like declaring war on the natural order. The consequences of interfering while Old Magic was at work are far too severe and most importantly lead to totally unpredictable disasters.

With the island teeming with raw magic Harry was unwilling to test the sensibilities of the ancient magic thriving in this unclaimed land. In some sense, magic is the conscience of nature. The fact that this island has not allowed human inhabitants to flourish also influenced his decision. Obviously, the natural magic in this land favours the magical creatures that call this island their home. He didn't want to mess with Old Magic of the island this early especially when it welcomed him by empowering his magic.

Once again the familiar aroma flooded his senses making Harry forget about the happenings of the past and focus on the present. The smell was familiar to his mind but not to his nose. He had experienced this smell in his old life but for the life of him, he could not identify the exact source.

"Why are you sniffing like that?" asked Jon.

"Don't tell me you are taking after your wolf, nephew." Benjen japed, as he led their group from the front.

Fenris let out a growl, not at all amused by the comparison. There were a few surprised and wary looks thrown at his wolfish companion from the group.

Harry, however, was not surprised by the intelligence shown by Fenris but for others, it can be off-putting. As a consequence of continuously practising his warging powers on Fenris, he was getting his senses sharpened. Harry theorized his mind was adopting the razor-sharp focus of Fenris and replicating it on his sensory organs. It was no radical theory as this has been very common trait in wizards engaging Animagus transformations. Certain characteristics of the animal species get imprinted on a wizard after repeated transformations. The brain is the main culprit behind this adoption of characteristics of the foreign species. This has been made clear during his time working in the Department of Mysteries.

However, warging was not like animagus transformation. It was more akin to using the mind arts and the Confundus charm in tandem. While Harry was the recipient of some characteristics of his wolfish friend, Fenris also adopted some human traits. The black wolf he found in the Northern Mountains had been extremely hostile to humans.

But now, things have changed.

Fenris walked amongst them and yet the wolf never harm anyone even when provoked. Well, there were some occasional grunts and growls from Fenris. But, except in those instances, the wolf hardly took a hostile posture after Harry warged into Fenris. Harry believed this was a natural consequence of his imprint on Fenris' mind.

Similarly, he was also influenced by Fenris. It is just that the imprint manifested in the form of making his brain tune in to his sensory organs.

The leaves moved as a gentle breeze danced through the forest floor. Harry took a deep breath enjoying the aroma in the air. Suddenly his eyes widened as he connected the dots.

"Follow me." Harry cried to the group as he rushed towards the source of the scent.

Harry ignored the calls from his uncle as his mind was singularly focused on finding the source of the very familiar scent. He went straight for the source tracing the scent with his nose. The obstacles in the form of shrubs and other greeneries stood no match for Harry's magic. He waded through the forest and when it was necessary he cut through wood and stone with his magic. 

It took him a while but finally, he arrived at the source of the mysterious aroma which was no longer that mysterious at all. The round red and green fruit sitting on the branches of the tree was a dead giveaway of its identity. 

"What's this?" Benjen asked, as he finally caught up with Harry.

"This my dear uncle is Coffee. It's not tea but this will do." Harry said.

He could really cry right now. This world was truly a dark place without the morning tea to give him a strong dose of energy. Of course, it has been years since he had a taste of tea. The war had depleted the world's tea sources due to the rise in toxicity all over the world. Besides, due to his involvement in the Eastern theatre of war, he was rather forced to familiarize himself with coffee rather than tea.

"Coffee? I've never heard of it." said Benjen, looking curiously at the tree and wondering why his nephew took a shine to this particular tree.

"Well, now you have and I can finally have a beverage worthy of the name..." 

"What name?" asked Benjen.

"Beverage." Harry deadpanned, making Benjen blink owlishly.

Harry didn't waste a moment before he began collecting the fruits from the tree. He could plant the seeds in magically conducive soil in a separate magical dimension and even grow a plantation if he so wished. 

'Or maybe, I can just grow them in Winterfell and cultivate the beans at my leisure. So many choices.' Harry thought.

Fenris let out a happy yip sharing in Harry's joy at finding an old delicacy of his long-lost home.

"Oh, yes. This trip is turning out to be quite the boon." he whispered, salivating over the find of coffee.

XXXXXXX

The hike was difficult but Harry was determined to pull through towards their destination. Last evening, he had scouted the hills atop the airship and found a spot where they could camp. There was a small heart-shaped pond a few miles out from his current position. Owing to the hilly terrain and forestry in the region, Harry hoped the pond was one of the water sources of the Unicorn herds.

But, their journey was repeatedly stalled because of the discoveries that keep falling into his lap. After finding coffee, Harry found a plethora of magical plants along the way. Some of them were similar to those from his world while others were unfamiliar. Harry secured whatever plant life that ticked his magical senses. He safely locked them away under preservation charms. Of course, he had no idea whether the magical plants he collected were of any use. He just picked them up because they resonated well with his magic.

"I don't know why you shaved off those sticks. The plants, I sort of understand, but dry sticks. What could you possibly want with dry sticks?" Benjen asked, while climbing their way towards the pond.

"For campfire!" Jon answered.

Harry shook his head and refused to elaborate while his mind was otherwise engaged with making plans. Those 'sticks' were pieces of branches he shaved off from some of the magically saturated trees he found along the way. He was collecting them for experimenting with wandcrafting. He was not at all skilled in wandcrafting as the intricate spells involved in the process remained out of his reach. Hereditary wandmakers closely guarded their knowledge of the craft and as a result, the craft was essentially dead.

Truth be told he holds no notions of producing quality wands on par with Ollivander or other wandmakers of his world. But, he could try and start the ball rolling. After all, wandcrafting played a vital role in wizards gaining the upper hand in his world. The introduction of wands as magical foci helped wizards perform magic that was usually complex with staff, power rings, runes or rituals. It was his hope that sometime in the future someone will come to build upon and improve upon the disciplines of magic he was introducing to Westeros. When that time comes he wanted those gifted with magical power to have the best tools to take the magical community forward.

If future wizards and witches were to thrive in this world, it fell to Harry to pioneer a conducive environment. To that end, he has got plans to not just revive wandcrafting but also potions, arithmancy, astronomy, herbology, runes and other disciplines of magic. It'll be a herculean effort but Harry was determined to see it through. He was not burdened with other responsibilities thankfully and that would leave him with quite a nice sum of time in the future.

Harry was brought out of his musings when Fenris let out a howl before running ahead of their group in a hurry. 

"Fenris!" Harry called but to no avail.

His wolfish companion was not perturbed in the least and disappeared into the woods ahead of the group.

"We have to hurry. He must have sensed something ahead on our path." said Harry, picking up as much speed as was physically possible with his small legs.

He was not the first to catch up with Fenris. When Harry finally caught up he was startled to note everyone was rather frozen in fear. The reason became quite apparent when he found a familiar icy feeling gripping his mind and body. Some of his worst memories began to get pulled up to the forefront of his mind weakening him for a moment.

Harry shook himself out of the stupor and reinforced his mind with Occlumency.

'This feeling... It can't be.' Harry thought, coming to realize the threat they were facing.

Fenris let out a loud growl attracting everyone's attention.

 Harry looked in the direction Fenris was focusing on only to find several dark figures floating towards their position from the other side of the heart-shaped pond.

 "Wha...? What is that?" Jon asked, latching onto Harry's side scared out of his mind.

 Harry didn't give a verbal reply. There was no point with words in this situation. The only focus should be on keeping themselves alive. 

"Anya! Use those arrows." Harry ordered sharply.

Maybe it was the sharpness of his tone or even the residual magic in the air resonating with his innate magic. Whatever it was, he managed to snap Anya out of the induced fear facilitated by the flying creatures. Anya quickly nocked an arrow on her bow and let it fly toward the creatures.

Harry watched the arrow sail through the air with the metal tip flaring up as the rune of fire activated. He had primed the rune in such a way that the rune begins absorbing ambient magic after it gets released from the bow string. However, the rune only gets activated on impact and that's exactly what happened.

However, what he didn't expect was the true explosive power of the rune.

Once the arrow struck one of the floating dark figures hiding in the mist, the entire area was consumed by a large pillar of fire. The fire exceeded Harry's expectations and he thought he'd need to intervene. Thankfully, that was not necessary as the fire slowly started to ebb away as minutes passed by.

"This much fire was not there when we practised." said Anya, looking shocked.

"It's the ambient magic. The island is teeming with magic while in Skagos there was not much to go around." said Harry, never taking his eyes off the fire collapsing in on itself.

The magical fire died down and one floating figure emerged from the smoke. It was shrouded in a veil of darkness that was rippling against the wind. Harry would have thought of it as a dementor but despite the eerily similar powers, this creature was not a dementor.

He could not see dark skin beneath the veil essentially ruling out the creature as a dementor. The skin was pale blue with dark scorch marks courtesy of the fire arrow. To his surprise, those scorch marks were healing quite quickly as well.

'Instant regeneration.' Harry noted with some trepidation. 

After all, that ability was the tell-tale sign of an immortal. He'd know cause he was one in his previous life.

"Interesting." the floating creature rasped as it threw back its dark hood.

A pair of white eyes stared down at them making everyone take a step back.

"To arms." Benjen shouted, brandishing Frost while other guards took spears, axes and shields.

"You have magical fire capable of releasing the cursed souls. That's good. I hope you have more of those for your sakes." the blue-skinned being rasped out as more and more dark creatures gathered beyond the lake.