Chapter 170: Of Precious Findings
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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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27 November 1993, Hogwarts
Harry had woken up late once more, something that was becoming a trend in the last few weeks. He had been up all night in the Forbidden Section of the library, trying to find any magic that manipulated different dimensions, in a way that would help Harry actually defeat the madman hunting him down in a permanent manner. However, things weren't going well on that front. Sure, the Colt was a guarantee that things would go well on that front, but Harry didn't want to risk wasting a bullet on Sirius Black of all people, a normal wizard with above-average talent at best, who suffered an accident to turn him into the serial killer that he was now.
From what Black said, whatever in Godric's Hollow caused Black him to somehow be trapped in another dimension, at least partially, and able to project himself into the material world through the nature of souls. From the sound of it, Harry needed to hit him in both dimensions at once for a wound to be vital. However, this was a half-baked theory at best, from the mouth of a monster, so he had to take it with a grain of salt. Alas, he had no other theory for the man's phasing. Wards only affect people in physical planes, and Sirius could just ignore them, something that should be impossible.
The only thing similar was how Harry was undetected by magic using his invisibility cloak and could phase through spells at a great magical cost. He didn't feel like phasing really, more like stepping outside of reality and inside for a fraction of a second. Unfortunately, the cloak was still a blind spot to his Arcane Hearing and not a single detection spell helped in any way. The clue lay in his magical crest, who stayed stubbornly silent on the matter.
The plan was simple, to understand enough about multidimensional magic to confirm his hypothesis, and if it is true, create a spell that would somehow kill Sirius Black in both dimensions, like his Colt but more concentrated. The Colt was powerful in a way that it hit every dimension at once by using the inherent properties of souls to target them, and it was just overkill and needlessly wasteful to use on something like Black.
Alas, things weren't going well on that front. It wasn't because of the lack of books on the subject, but the fact that his search method was very inefficient. Harry used a spell of his own design to search books for certain words. It was very useful, especially in the Restricted Section where the books were far more disorganized than in the rest of the library. Unfortunately, the words dimension, universe and plane, were very commonly used in a multitude of subjects and had different meanings. There were too many results and the last Potter had to look up the subject the hard way, and it was exhausting. How did people do this all the time?
Still, he woke up in a foul mood, which was very common recently, and it was only his daily meditation Occlumency exercises that helped him centre himself and get through the day without hexing someone by frustration.
He sat in the common room, reading the only book on the subject of dimensions, which was superficial at best. It was a recent publication, so Harry didn't expect much, especially with what Dumbledore had done to the European research facilities. The Unspeakable poached anyone who showed any sign of curiosity but did not publish the results of their experiments. So, the only people remaining were either curious with mediocre talent, or very talented but actively hindered by the efforts of the Department of Mysteries if they refused to join them.
And from the quality of the work, it was probably the former. Whoever Arthur Fawley was had basically summarized what was available publicly to the general public. Well, Harry wasn't really fair to the man, but still, it didn't have any details of the magic, just theories and general ideas, which weren't worth much without decades of experimentation.
The book did confirm that alternate planes of existence existed and that they could be accessed and even used as sources of power. Fiendfyre was such a spell that relied solely on the power coming from that dimension to cause damage. Fawley postulated that Apparition was essentially just a microscopic portal that goes through different dimensions to return, but that was proven incorrect because he found out how apparition worked, and it made a lot more sense to Harry than his previous theory did.
Portkeys and Apparition did not open portals to different locations. It didn't make sense that honestly mediocre wizards and witches could open portals in a fraction of a second with only Destination, Determination, and Deliberation. No, instantaneous travel was more like a giant system that the ministry operated. Whenever a person wanted to apparate, they would be using their wands as a beacon, which would also have the destination in mind, the system would open a portal there, as small as possible to not waste any energy, and the person would temporarily be transfigured into a slim form to go through before they're transfigured back. Everything is calculated by the system, the wizard or witch only had to call the beacon, similar to how the Knight Bus worked. Fawley didn't say who maintained the system or how it was powered, but Harry postulated that it was something the ministry would have to involve themselves in, and it was also probably powered by ley lines. The magic involved wouldn't work with anything else.
The beacon was taught to everyone at Hogwarts in their sixth year, to be exact, which taught students to hypnotize themselves to trigger the apparition beacon. It was quite ingenious, and Portkeys were the same, but with an international system instead of a local one, hence the restriction in spells. That did comfort Harry in a way that meant that making portals was actually possible and that they wouldn't be stopped by most wards.
Anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards were designed in a way to stop a place from being used as a starting point or as an endpoint to an apparition. It was the system that was stopped, not the actual space warping. Which also explained how Death Eaters had such an easier time attacking people. A couple of bribes to whoever was maintaining the system would create the illusion that Lord Voldemort could just ignore apparition wards. It certainly explained the lack of space manipulation that Harry sensed when he set up the ward scheme for the Hogsmeade attack. Then again, creating a ward that stopped Space from warping was very unrealistic. After all, he knew that matter warped the very fabric of space and time.
Harry sighed as he looked at a list of spells that were postulated to use outside dimensions. They were too dangerous to use with people around. They always presented a danger to the caster, and they were extremely hard to control. Fiendfyre was just a spell. Other researchers modified it to other dimensions. One of which caused a perpetual land of winter in Canada which was contained and warded, another resulted in the creation of a shadow realm in the depths of the Amazon, a place where light struggled to penetrate and where shadows moved with minds of their own. Apparently, Lethifolds originated from this area, which was also closed down for everyone's safety.
The last Potter never expected that Fiendfyre would have been one of the more stable spells of that nature. Of course, there weren't any instructions for the spells in the book, just examples of spells and their danger. And ever since the Statute of Secrecy, perhaps even before, people who publicly dabbled in this kind of magic just disappeared one day without a trace. They were hunted down, and Harry could see why. They presented not just a danger to themselves but the countless others with a single mistake.
Harry huffed and closed the book. He had gotten the most out of that particular book, and he was going to put it in his own collection. After all, it was just a copy he made in the library the previous night.
He stiffened when he heard a voice ask him, "Didn't find what you were looking for, huh?"
He turned and saw Daphne, "Yes, it's pretty frustrating."
She let out a grin that was obviously very forced and asked, "Can we talk privately?"
Harry nodded, having an idea of what it was she wanted to talk about. He nodded and followed her out of the common room. He didn't want the Court of Slytherin to snoop, after all.
They walked side by side to an empty classroom and he set up a few privacy wards for the conversation. He looked at his friend and saw her hesitating, "What did you want to talk about, Daph."
"Please don't abandon us, Harry," she exclaimed with watery eyes.
Well, that was surprising, "Why would I ever abandon you? You're my friends."
"I know you better than you think. You said pretty words to Blaise and Tracy, and they might not have understood what you were saying, but you're cutting us off from what you deem to be dangerous, which is pretty much everything. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to agree with them. I just wanted things to go back the way they were and for them to stop being so bitter."
She kept on babbling until Harry raised his hands, "Daph, I didn't stop involving you in my affairs because of what you said. I did it because whether they wanted to say it or not, Blaise and Tracy weren't happy with it. They didn't trust me and wanted to just enjoy their childhood and there's nothing wrong with that. The Court selection is near, and they deserve to have some time to make connections with the upper years, in the hope of being chosen. As for you, I'm not mad at all. I know that you just wanted all of us to get along, but the truth is that you've been distracted ever since your sister came here."
The blonde's eyes widened, "It's just… I always knew that she was sick, but having her with me, without my parents around. It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I guess I've been feeling a little responsible for her."
"How has she been doing?"
The Greengrass scion smiled slightly, "She's been doing very well. She made a few friends. Top of her class too. Although she almost collapsed right after Samhain, Madam Pomfrey was able to stop it from being serious. Having her almost get hurt with me being so close. I guess I just felt useless."
Ah, so it was a mixture of guilt. One at not being able to help of sister and the prospect of not helping him as she did before to focus on her healing. Harry gave her a slight smile, "You know, there's no shame in starting to prepare yourself for your sister now…"
"What about Black?"
"Let me worry about Black. And you don't have to start with proper healing, although asking Madam Pomfrey for recommendations or even tutoring might help you. But I haven't really focused on curses, and I know you haven't. It would be a good idea for us to start out together. What do you think?"
She looked vulnerable for a fraction of a second, "What about your Runes project? Wouldn't that take up a lot of your time?"
"Not really… I taught myself a lot about Ancient Egyptian Runes, enough to do the project in a couple of days by myself. I just go there to make sure that Bones and Longbottom actually learn how to use Runes. Although, our resident celebrity is strangely good at them."
Daphne looked ponderous for a second, "He's been good in almost all of our classes. It's strange seeing him get grades like that after two years of pure mediocrity. Maybe what happened in the chamber made him take his schoolwork seriously?"
"Yes, maybe… Ah, so long story short, I don't mind really skimping out on a few Runes meetings. You're a lot more important to me…"
The blonde threw herself in Harry's arms, "Thank you so much…"
"Alright, give me a few days to make a rough curriculum for us to follow. Common curses and counter curses and the like."
They walked together to the Great Hall, speaking animatedly like they used to before Samhain. The only remarkable thing was McGonagall announcing that there would be a feast for dinner which would be mandatory to attend. Apparently, they had a few announcements to make as well as celebrating the capture of the threats that were the Azkaban escapees.
It was a shallow thing, but the student body seemed more excited than anything. Did that have to do with the fact that the staff has been looking more exhausted than they used to be before Samhain? Harry didn't particularly care. They would find out anyway in a few hours.
The staff was probably setting up a Yule Ball or something ridiculous, anyway. But it did keep Lupin busy enough to not try to speak to Harry again. Damn, that guy was very persistent.
After breakfast, Harry decided to try something he rarely did out of desperation and that was asking the room of requirements for help. Upon reaching the Room, he walked past its entrance three times, clearly focusing on his need for knowledge about multidimensional magic.
The door appeared, and Harry stepped into a room that was entirely bare, outside of a single, small pedestal in a clear space, illuminated by a shaft of light that seemed to come from nowhere. On it lay a single, dusty tome.
The book looked ancient, its cover worn and its pages yellowed with age and obviously fragile pages, even with obvious magic holding it together. The title was obviously in Greek, probably an ancient variant since Harry's translation spell wouldn't work. It didn't have an author and Harry genuinely had no idea what it said. Of course, he didn't dare touch the book, in fear of it being cursed, but it's not like he could use the book anyway.
But at last, Harry had found a lead.
He only needed to learn and translate a book in a dead language…
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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.