17 Chapter 17 Learning Magic. Again!

arry gained much from his trip today, even more than those Sorcerers thought he did. Harry confirmed that they could sense the dimensional energy Harry absorbed and used, but they couldn't sense Harry's exotic energy or spells cast with it. Harry placed a tracking spell on each of them so he could figure out where they went.

Shortly after Harry left he felt them vanish from the area and appear in another part of London. What was interesting was that his tracking spell was purged the moment they arrived at their destination. Harry didn't think it was intentional, more like their destination automatically scrubbed those who arrived even if nothing was sensed.

Harry returned to his Animagus form and flew to the area and found a large, ancient, four story building along a quiet street. Harry had seen this building several times while flying about and always admired the architecture. The reason he initially noticed it was that it was, relatively speaking, built around the convergence of several sources of Dimensional Energy which Harry could feel flowing through the world. If Hogwarts was built on the location with the strongest concentration of Exotic energy, this place had the strongest concentration of Dimensional energy.

Harry wondered if he looked around the world for other sources of energy would he find other magic users. No, that would probably lead to things that would kill him.

Harry also noticed for the first time the location had some of the sturdiest wards he'd ever felt. Their structure was there before, he just hadn't noticed they formed a ward when he first felt them as he wasn't familiar with Dimensional energy then.

Harry felt that the wards also couldn't see his exotic energy which was pretty cool. They seemed to react to his new dimensional energy, but Harry felt they wouldn't trigger unless he actually cast magic with it or drew in energy from it. This meant the ward would likely go off if he used battle mediation here. Something to think about later.

Harry flew beyond the wards and apparated back home. His stats as an owl were the same as a human, which meant he could use wandless magic, apparate, and make use of his physical agility and strength when he wanted. Harry tested this by clocking his flight speed at 600 kilometers per hour which is about half the speed of sound, about eight times faster than a normal Snowy Owl's top speed. Not that he could keep that up for long. Eventually he'd run out of stamina and have to rest or eat to recover it.

Harry spent the rest of August practicing with Dimensional energy and even asked Dumbledore about it and about Sorcerers in general.

Dumbledore was most surprised Harry encountered Sorcerers but when he remembered the nature of Harry's undetectable magic, it seemed possible.

He explained in a letter what had been explained to him when he was the Chief Mugwump of the ICW. Sorcerers are kept unknown to Witches and Wizards and all contact with them is classified. Most common knowledge about them is spread through word of mouth alone. There are more witches and wizards than they are Sorcerers but reports on the strength of Sorcerers have always been highly varied. The strangest piece of information is that Sorcerers are all muggles though reports that Merlin was also a Sorcerer seem to counter this. Many records of battles between them and witches and wizards show the magic shields of Sorcerers were completely ineffective against wizard magic attacks. Yet other reports show the opposite, with wizard magic having no effect against a Sorcerer who was able to easily defeat very powerful wizards.

What many reports agreed on was that in one way or another Sorcerers seemed to be guardians or protectors of some kind. Their power is noted to be capable of far more than wizards in many cases allowing them to do what would be impossible for a wizard.

Dumbledore explained his own theory that Sorcerers can use many different forms of energy. Some can only use forms that are weak against Wizard magic while some can use energies which are strong against wizard magic.

Harry understood what this implied. Exotic energies could rewrite the laws of reality but only on a small, specific scale. Apparition itself was a simple means of using Exotic energy to literally pierce through dimensional energy and reach another location. Many wizard spells could easily pierce dimensional energy. But there were other energies that were not so easy to fight. That being said, Harry wanted to get the feel of Dimensional energy first before he branched off into other forms of energy.

By the end of August, Harry's Magic Path Rank had risen to 23 which was around the same rank as Dumbledore. That was also where he met a roadblock.

Harry was able to mold dimensional energy into a shield or short sword, but every time it would fizzle out after only a few moments. Harry did his best to imitate that Mordo guy and allowed energy to be absorbed into his body and channeled through the energy already in his body to shape it. Absorbing it wasn't difficult for someone with energy sense. Controlling it wasn't that bad once he figured out the trick to it. The problem was that once he had it shaped and it was outside his body, his control over it slipped and it fizzled out every time.

If ambient Dimensional energy was water, the Dimensional Energy inside him tuned to his life and soul was ice. Absorbing ambient energy into the ice would allow Harry to freeze it into a shape and use that shape. But a few moments after it left the body, the ice returned to water and Harry couldn't figure out how to stop it from melting! He was trying to figure out what to do when he got a new notification.

*Ping*

[New Quest: Back to School

Get accepted as a Student in the London Branch of the Sanctum Sanctorum.]

Harry immediately opened his map and confirmed the quest destination, the Sanctum Sanctorum, was in fact that building he saw earlier. Yep, that was the one. After making 100% sure he wouldn't get a Hell Mode Pop up again he made his decision.

Harry wrote a few letters to various individuals and packed his things.

"Goose, we're going to another magic school. This one has Sorcerers instead of Wizards."

Goose responded mentally, 'You're just looking for more trouble again aren't you?'

Harry smiled and said, "You know me so well." Hell mode or not, Harry doubted he would get bored.

Harry purchased a new wardrobe of plain clothes the monks would likely be fine with and filled a suitcase with them along with two towels and a new toothbrush. He got a P.O. Box and set all mail owls to forward to the goblins who would mail the actual letters to his P.O. Box in the future.

After making Potter Manor vanish again, Harry apparated with Goose and his suitcase a few blocks from the place and walked up from the street. It wasn't on a large property in a gated off area he'd have to sneak into. It was actually on a side street down a dead end alley across from a park.

Something he found funny was that his own crossing of the ward near the building didn't do much but the ward seemed very interested in Goose. It didn't directly reject the Flerken, but it did seem to go over Goose's intention with a fine tooth comb. Harry had to stop himself from cackling as what may have been the most powerful, the most advanced ward Harry had ever encountered was now determining that his cat intended to spend as much time as she could, sleeping, and lying down in sunbeams.

Once the ward confirmed Goose's intention to seek sunbeams to lay in was not dangerous, it stopped bothering the Flerken.

Harry directly knocked on the front door and waited about three minutes before someone answered. It was not someone he saw from the group earlier and was wearing a suit instead of a monk's robe, but Harry still felt the presence of a large amount of Dimensional energy in the man.

The doorman looked at Harry carrying a suitcase in one hand and a pet carrier in the other and said, "Can I help you?"

Harry smiled and said, "I came to learn magic."

The man said, "I'm sorry child but you have come to the wrong place."

Before he could close the door Harry said "Tell me this isn't a place where Magic can be learned and taught."

"I'm sorry but you are not expected."

Harry said, "Wait, so you only let people you expect in? How is that fair? I didn't know I was supposed to be expected!"

The man was far more confused than Harry was. He actually recognized the boy as Wong had told him of their encounter the prior month. The Ancient One was consulted and stated the boy would not return. Yet here he was. Never in the man's life had he known the Ancient One to be wrong.

Harry continued to stand there holding the heavy looking suitcase and pet. After considering the fact that the Sanctum let him through, he figured the child was not dangerous and said, "You may come in but you'll have to wait. There is someone I must speak with."

Harry took a step in and said, "Thank you. My name is Harry Potter. This is Goose."

"Greetings Harry Potter, My name is Sol Rama, Protector of the London Branch of the Sanctum Santorum."

Harry was escorted to a chair and proceeded to wait.

Sol quickly walked up to the third level which had portals to the other Sanctums and Kamar-Taj. He entered the latter and made his way to the room of the Ancient One before knocking.

"Come in."

The bald woman greeted Sol but was a bit confused as to why he was here. He said, "Ancient One. The boy Master Mordo spoke of. The one you said would not be seen again. He had come to the London Sanctum and asked to learn magic."

It was then that Sol saw something few in living memory had ever seen on the Ancient One's stoic face. She was surprised.

"Truly?" she asked. "And I did not see it. It seems there are still things I can not see." She got up and walked out of her room to the portals with Sol following behind.

Only a few minutes after Sol had left Harry on the bench he had returned with a young looking bald woman in tow. However Harry felt her presence was heavier than Dumbledore and the resurrected Voldemort combined. She was further above them than they had been above Harry on his first day at Hogwarts. Harry felt half a dozen different types of energy within her. The arrangement was off though. The strongest concentration of energy was some type of dark energy while the others seemed to be arranged around it to balance the dark energy out.

She noticed his attention and said, "Hello child. I am called the Ancient One."

Harry said, "Hello, I am called Harry, though I don't need to shave. I am the godson of one called Sirius, though he will deny being serious with every breath."

The woman smirked at the gentle glib that her title didn't match her appearance.

This encounter was a first for her since her ascension to Sorcerer Supreme. It was her first time meeting someone she didn't know she would meet. For centuries she had been using a tool to see into her own future so she pretty much knew everyone she was going to meet from then until the day she died. She never once saw Harry though. When Mordo and Wong spoke of a child who seemed to be a natural at the mystic arts, it confused her as she never saw someone like that using the Eye of Agamotto. She convinced herself it was a one time anomaly and since she never saw such a student train in Kamar-Taj, she believed the child would never cross paths with them again.

Yet she was wrong. Even her most recent viewings of her future lacked this person. Why? For the first time in centuries she found something she was unsure about. That wasn't a bad thing though. She picked up the amulet hanging around her neck and looked into the future with it. Doing so would let her see a conversation before it happened. She could then instead have a different conversation and see that. In this way she could have many first conversations with someone and learn much about them without giving much away about herself.

However for the child it didn't work. When she looked into the future, the child wasn't there. She couldn't tell what he said and the future she saw didn't have her asking any questions or hearing any answers. This child was somehow shielded, or invisible from the perspective of the future. Whatever gave this child such a gift was even more powerful than the Eye of Agamotto which was powered by an Infinity Stone. That was both fascinating and disturbing.

Harry simply saw her pick up her necklace, frown, then look back and Harry and ask, "So tell me not hairy Harry, godson of the not serious Sirius. Why do you wish to learn magic?"

Harry smiled that she got his bad joke and said, "Two reasons. First, I like to help people and learning here will definitely be good. The second is that there is a 100% chance I'll need it later in life since there is no chance I am going to have a boring life."

"What makes you say that?" She was honestly interested in his own opinion on the matter. It was certainly unusual for a child to be so certain their future required learning the mystic arts.

"Well for one, I have what I'm pretty sure is a familiar bond with this 'not a cat.'"

The ancient one looked at the small case carrying the orange cat and for the first time sensed that it was most certainly not a cat. It looked like a cat of course and seemed to behave like a cat, but this creature had a naturally occurring pocket dimension within that she would not have noticed if she didn't look for it. She'd never seen a living creature like this before, not on this plane anyways. On further examination she could determine it did in fact have a bond with the child. It was very strong too.

She considered it for a few moments and said, "There are other ways of protecting yourself you know. Becoming a Sorcerer means taking up to duties of defending the realm from those who seek to harm it."

Harry shrugged and honestly answered, "Chances are I'll have to do that in the future even if I didn't learn Sorcery."

The Ancient One was more than a little surprised at how sure of this the child was. She said, "I heard you used some Sorcery a month ago. Have you made any progress?" She remembered her amusement when Wong had told her the child's passing remark that he would figure it out himself. As he was asking to learn now, she wanted to see if the boy could be embarrassed at the fact he likely didn't make any progress.

Harry sighed and crafted a shortsword from dimensional energy for her to examine. It was made of rust colored interweaving arrays of light as most Dimensional Constructs were and it was cleanly outlined. A moment later it fizzled out and the Ancient One smiled. She said, "A construct needs a small but constant input of dimensional energy to retain its form or it will break down."

Harry thought about it for a moment and smacked his forehead. Oh, now it was obvious. He was trying to water a garden by turning the hose off after the water started coming out. Harry focused again but this time after the construct was made, he continued to refresh it over and over by adding more energy into it. This time the sword stayed solid and did not waiver.

Harry smiled and said, "Thank you. I feel really stupid now."

The Ancient One raised an eyebrow at the remark. For most initiates, surrendering to the energy, absorbing it, directing it, and shaping it were the hard parts. All that Harry had done easily. He just didn't know what to do next.

Now she was a bit torn. On one hand, Harry could become a powerful Sorcerer. So much skill at such a young age and his potential was higher than her predetermined successor who wouldn't show for another decade or so. On the other hand, if Harry went bad, she wouldn't know until it was too late. However, when was not being able to see a person's future a crime? It was known that Kamar-Taj would teach anyone willing to learn, but technically that was only for people who arrived at Kamar-Taj themselves and Harry was still in London.

After a moment more of contemplation she said, "You may learn the Mystic Arts from here Harry but only if you pass a test. If you do not, then you may not learn until you are taller than I am."

"Umm. Ok." It wasn't like he had a choice. Besides, his inner Gryffindor wouldn't let him just back away from a challenge.

She escorted Harry to the fourth floor where Harry saw numerous items behind glass cases. His senses informed him each contained a masterpiece of arranged energy for a purpose, true artifacts, though he would later learn they called them relics here. She walked him through a door and within was a small ritual room with a sphere that had a gentle white glow on a pedestal.

"This is the ancient Orb of Agamotto. Or should I say the original. There is a different one that shares the same name which monitors threats throughout the world in Kamar-Taj, but this one predates it and was created by the founder of our order, the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto himself. I want you to place your hand on it."

Harry felt the presence of so many types of powerful energy from the Orb that he had no means to differentiate what any of it was. Harry didn't mind though and placed his hands on the orb.

The Ancient One knew this was highly irregular. The Orb could sense the heart and many of the secrets of the person it scanned. It was a tool which allowed one to sense if specific entities were threats and using it on a potential student was never done.

The orb however glowed pure white, signifying a pure heart and pure intentions. The Ancient One saw several images appear within the light, but she only recognized one of them. It was a phoenix. The Phoenix to be precise. She also recognized what may have been the source of the child's talent. He was a mutant and seemed to have a pocket space within his soul. There were some other things but she couldn't make heads or tails of them. However the pocket space would have answered a few questions. The cat had a pocket space as well so their similarities could have forged the familiar connection. Having a natural pocket space could explain how using dimensional energy was so natural for him.

"Ok, you can remove your hands."

Harry did so and the orb stopped glowing. Even the Orb couldn't detect Harry's Exotic energy so the Ancient one only saw the Dimensional energy within Harry as well as small amounts of Natural Energy which he sometimes used Battle Meditation off.

The Ancient One said, "If you are serious about defending the realm, then I welcome you as a student."

Harry said, "Thank you, but I think you have me confused for my godfather. I'm Harry, he's Sirius."

She rolled her eyes and escorted him back to collect his things. She noticed he was surprised at the portals she led him through but not that surprised.

"So tell me about yourself Harry."

"Well, I can, but only if you promise not to tell others. I don't want others to know how much of a trouble magnet I am. At least until they figure it out themselves."

She smiled at this and said, "Very well. I will not tell others of your past."

Harry felt a field of energy he didn't recognize and figured it was monitoring the conversation. Best guess? Lie detector. He certainly knew how to have fun with those.

"Well, my full name is Harry James Potter. I turned twelve on July 31st. I was born to a witch and wizard who were members of a counter terrorism strike force. They got betrayed by a rat and both were killed by a terrorist leader, Halloween of 1994. I spent the next nine years living in a cupboard under the stairs of my aunt's house. I died in 2003 and came back to life in 2004, don't ask what happened. I spent last year going to magic school where I killed a Basilisk, challenged a nesting dragon, defeated a newly resurrected immortal Dark Lord, and killed twenty four of his evil fanatic followers along with one hundred Dementors. I've also just about memorized every text of wizard magic that exists and I'm looking to branch out."

The Ancient One stopped at the third sentence and grew more and more serious after each one. She had to double check that her spell to ensure it was indeed functioning properly because if it was, then he was telling the truth.

She looked back at him and said, "You're a wizard Harry?"

Harry nodded and said, "I guess. Not sure. Haven't been quite sure of what I am after the coming back to life thing."

She asked, "Are you aware you are a mutant?"

"Yeah, I was told no wizard ever awoke the X-Gene without dying first and I just happened to win the genetic lottery. Though I was told the hand of others were involved."

"I see now where your confidence in encountering trouble comes from. Now did you actually kill a hundred Dementors or did you drive them away?"

Harry wasn't surprised she knew what a Dementor was and said, "Find a spot where there is no one around for twenty miles and I'll show you."

She smirked at the challenge and waved her hand in a circle which caused sparks of dimensional energy to follow the path of her hand. From Harry's energy sense it was like she was twisting space into a tunnel, though there were other processes Harry didn't understand yet. A moment later the sparks formed a circle which turned into a portal.

Harry followed her through it into the Sahara Desert, the hottest place Harry had ever been.

He then took a Patronus Grenade from his inventory and lightly banished it a few dozen meters away.

The grenade went off and the massive silver dragon materialized. Harry was paying very close attention to the Ancient One and noticed that the dark energy within her recoiled in the presence of the overpowered dragon Patronus. However this didn't seem to harm her which meant that she hadn't synchronized with the dark energy and it hadn't synchronized with her, thus she lacked the taint of darkness.

It was an odd arrangement that seemed more trouble than it was worth.

The Ancient One was once more surprised. She could sense that space around the dragon was being actively purified through the sheer force of positive emotions, light, love, and happiness. However she could not feel the dragon itself. She realized with certainty that Harry's wizard magic was invisible, even the orb of Agamotto didn't show it. If Harry hadn't told her, she would not have known.

She understood the implications right away. Harry was trusting her with this. She said, "Thank you for showing me this Harry, I won't speak of it to others. I will however remind you that most of the Masters of Kamar-Taj would recognize Wizard Magic if they see it, even if they can't sense it."

Harry nodded and said, "I've already got a lot of practice in Wizard Magic, I'm not here to practice that."

"Indeed, though if you ever need a place to practice away from the eyes of others, come find me."

*Ping*

[Quest Complete: Back to School

Reward: 'Sling Ring' Perk]

Harry wondered why the quest hadn't pinged yet though the so called Ancient One already told him he passed the test. Unless, ah, another test. If he lied or hid too much she may not have trusted him and may have held back in his teachings or worse, sabotaged them. That being said every single thing Harry told her was things known by others. If she investigated it herself and put some effort into it, she could have learned it all so there was no point in holding back.

It was the same as training under Sirius, telling his godfather he was weaker than he actually was would not have helped in making him stronger.