10 Dummy
He inspected the house carefully and also used a few low-level spells to double check the reinforcements. He also created an artificial smoke. He used almost twice the density as compared to what he expected would occur while potion making.
After he felt that everything was up to the required standards, he paid the contractor and moved in with his stuff. His aunt had specifically told him to have his meals at her house to which Harry relented, although with a few conditions of his own. He knew that his relationship with his aunt was pretty good and that she genuinely cared for him.
But he still needed to hire someone to take care of the house. So he contacted the agency for housemaids and applied for a maid.
In the meantime, he went back to Diagon Alley and bought a few ready-made charms that could help in reducing the noise and vibrations coming from his basement.
Even though he could use Silencio and a few other spells, but considering the amount of concentration it would take in spell practice and potion making, he was afraid that the spells might wear off without him even realizing it.
So he bought these special charms and also bought a few training dummies. They were used by the wizarding families in their homes to train their children in spell casting.
After completing his purchase, he went back and started pasting the charms on the basement walls.
He also put a few alarm spells around his house. They had only one function, to alert him of any intruder with magical fluctuations. Which means if any creature with magic in its body came close to the house, it will be detected by the alarm spells. Obviously, there were ways to circumvent the spell by using stealth but he doubted there would be anyone at that level coming to his house.
Then he went back to his spell casting. This time he didn't need to hold back. He could go all out in his practice. In almost two hours he could feel the difference with this kind of practice. His level had increased by a lot in these two hours as compared to an entire day's practice at his aunt's house.
He didn't have to constantly worry about uncle and aunt finding about his magic use. So he could concentrate on his training with undivided attention.
This also had another benefit. In order to properly control your strength, you had to know your limits.
This gives you a reference point and you can then start going backwards until you can satisfactorily use the same magic at any level of percentage of your full power.
As such he experienced a complete upgrade in his strength in just a few hours.
The training dummies also helped. It always felt better to be able to hit something with your spell and measure your performance as compared to just firing away spells randomly.
Next day morning, a maid arrived at his house. She looked to be around forty-five years of age and was dressed in a floral skirt and white blouse. She had some grey hair and wrinkles on her face.
Overall she looked like your typical middle-aged woman with a warm smile on her face. Her name was Naomi.
He liked her instantly. He asked her a few questions about her previous work and if she had any conditions. He informed her of her duties and that he expected her to work only two hours a day from 6 in the morning till 8 a.m. That was the time when he did his physical training and would be out in the backyard.
During that time she would have to do the cleaning and dusting.
Although the house was pretty big, since he would be using magic to clean it up every once in a while, Mrs. Naomi wouldn't be having much of a problem with her cleaning duties.
Actually, he could make do without any maid too, but it would be better to have one as she would be able to help him maintain the appearance of a 'normal' house. Besides, it would provide a woman's touch to his house and make it more welcoming in case he ever had guests.
He also asked her to make him breakfast every morning and prepare the lunch and keep it in the oven.
Even though his aunt had asked him to have his meals at her house but he only planned on having dinner there. This was the condition he had agreed upon with his aunt.
So from the next day, he fell into a routine.
He would wake up at 5:30 a.m. At six, Mrs. Naomi would arrive and start with her chores. At this time Harry would be in his backyard doing his martial arts training. Although he could do this inside his basement, he still preferred to do it outside. This was also his instructor's suggestion. Besides, the morning air was fresh and helped him rejuvenate his sleepy body.
As Mrs. Naomi left at around 8, he would have his breakfast and go down to the basement to start with his magic training.
He would always start with a few rounds of simple spells as a warm-up. Then he would move on to the new spells he planned on learning that or the ones he hadn't perfected yet.
After lunch, he would start with his potion making which would continue for the next three to four hours. He wasn't doing many concoctions for now. He would repeatedly go through the textbooks regarding herbology and learn about the various ingredients used in different potions.
He would test their properties and try to cross-reference it with the notes he had in the second-hand books he had bought earlier at Diagon Alley. He knew that the subject of potions was one of the most difficult but one of the most important subjects at Hogwarts.
It was a compulsory subject if you wanted to become an Auror. Although he hadn't decided what he wanted to become in the future, he knew that potions would be incredibly helpful to him.
The things he would need to do in the future would rely heavily on potions like Polyjuice potion and the luck potion. He understood the importance of knowing about different types of potions as you never know what kind of situation you would find yourself in and you might need to use materials around you to create something to help you out. This would only be possible if you had an intimate knowledge of every material available. Although it was practically impossible to do that, he still wanted to know as much as possible.
He would change the dynamics that original Harry had with his potions professor Severus Snape.
Snape was a treasure trove when it came to potion making and he planned on capitalizing this treasure to its very limits.
So for now, he only focused on learning about different materials and their interactions with each other.
He was creating a database of sorts about his experiments and maybe one day he could have a discussion with Snape about his findings.
In all this time when he has been practicing magic, never once did he try transfiguration magic.
He knew that it was the most difficult branch but also one of the most powerful branches in magic.
Every mage that has been able to leave his name in history books has been an expert in transfiguration.
The latest example being Voldemort and Dumbledore. They were both highly skilled in this field. Voldemort had even performed transfiguration on himself and became more powerful, albeit at a huge cost, but it still showed how powerful this branch of magic was.
He planned on tackling at one go. So wanted to create a base for himself in other magic and then he would start on transfiguration. His aim was to become an animagus as soon as possible.
Even though it would be very difficult but he had confidence in himself that he would be able to achieve his goals in due time.
