Chapter 45: Reflections and Mirrors II

He also liked the idea of getting some much needed payback on Aunt Marge and her dog for all her hateful comments about his mother. Perhaps he could transfigure her into a dog and show her who the real bitch was.

...

He couldn't help but smile at the thought of then dumping his Aunt into an animal shelter; the many handlers making comments about her being an ugly, fat example of the breed that no one would adopt and would eventually need to be put down.

Such ideas sounded quite good to him. He might even get some money from their life insurance if he was the only remaining family after they disappeared mysteriously and were then declared dead.

But the problem he faced was that while all these plots were amusing to him and appealing on several levels, they weren't really fair or balanced. He wanted them to at least have a chance at survival, just like he had. If they were tough enough and wanted to live badly enough, they would.

So maybe he should just drop them off somewhere, like in the middle of a desert, and leave it to fate to decide? He dismissed the desert idea moments later, since it was too harsh of an environment to survive in without advanced training and knowledge. They would die in less than a day from heat stroke alone.

So maybe a jungle then? Jungles had plenty of food and water; you just had to know how to get it. And there was an equal chance of them dying from their own stupidity or laziness.

He liked that idea more and more, it seemed more fair, more up to fate to decide, rather than his own doing... he would just have to arrange the transport... maybe he could get an untraceable goblin-made portkey to drop them off in the middle of the Amazon rainforest? It wouldn't even be all that expensive.

And if they died there no one would likely find their remains; they would just be another set of missing persons. No one would look on the other side of the world, and magicals wouldn't get involved in a non-magical investigation. All in all it sounded more and more like a great idea. Their fate would be up to them to decide.

If they gave up, they would die; if they chose to fight for their lives with every fibre of their beings, they may yet live to see England again. It seemed balanced in his eyes, and after hearing about magic always seeking a balance, it seemed fair for the most part. They would have the same chance to survive as he once did, except they would have the benefit of being adults capable of defending themselves.

It would just take time, a little money, and a bit of help from Bloodmoon, and he could finally cut all ties with his previous family. He supposed he could always just take the more straightforward option and hire an assassin to do the deed, but as far as he was concerned it was a personal matter. It was only fair that he was intimately involved in this. They had stolen his childhood and nearly his life on many different occasions; it was only fair that he paid back the gesture with interest.

...

( Christmas Day )

He woke up late on Christmas day having enjoyed a simply but wonderful lie in, after having pushed himself the night before to the max. It felt good to have had such a normal night of sleep, and not have felt restless.

The nest looked amazing covered in elaborate decorations, with a small tree in the corner of the room with several presents underneath it. It was only a handful of gifts all told, but that was all he really needed since frankly he had never been given one before anyways. It was a shame that his new friends weren't here; maybe next year he could spend the holidays with them at one of their homes. That was a novel idea.

He got the standard amount of mixed candies, with quite a few chocolate frogs present. It seemed his friends knew of his newly found addiction to them.

He got mainly books after that. He received one from Daphne called 'Magical Plants and Herbs and their Cultivation.' Tracy gave him something similar, but that one was specifically about native British magical plant life. If he had to guess they had likely both bought them at the same time.

Padma ended up giving him his own magical chess set in a classical medieval theme, along with more sweets. Penny had gotten him a series of enchanted magical notepads that he could use for subject notes, rather than using a single pad for his extra notes.

Rather surprisingly he received a charms textbook from his head of house. From what he could make of it at first glance it was actually an older edition of the standard charms textbook used today, but an edition first published back at the turn of century before the introduction of the modern education policy. Taking a quick look through it, it seemed to contain some of the more powerful lower-year charms that were more difficult to cast or had simply been forgotten by newer publishers.

But forgotten charms had their uses in his mind, after all if people didn't recognise the spell, how could they properly defend against it? They would have to assume the worst and put more energy than necessary into a general purpose shield, rather than use a specialized shield designed to counter that type of spell.

Tonks hadn't gotten him anything for Christmas, but that wasn't much of a surprise. He still sent her a wand holster he had managed to order at the last minute, since he noticed she didn't have one from their training sessions. He expected she would send him something in the end, after feeling guilty, 'claiming' it got misplaced or the owl wasn't capable of carrying it.

Not that he would care much if she didn't send him anything; he had done it on the off-chance that she had gotten him something. Plus he wanted to keep her pleased with their arrangement and relationship, so that their practical defense training would continue. It was far better for the girl to like him and therefore put more effort into their training, rather than just doing it for the money.

Making his way down for the Christmas lunch, there were only eight students and one teacher present, just proving how many went home during Christmas break. Most were older years and he was the only raven and the only first year left in the school.

Professor Sprout was leading the meal; it was actually enjoyable having a friendly chat with everyone, although nothing terribly special, just polite conversation really. Regardless it was a ridiculous improvement to being with his relatives, where he spent most of the day being their cook, then their dinner waiter, then the cleaner, all the while being threatened and maybe being allowed to eat the tiny bit of leftovers, if there were any left that is.

Professor Sprout took a keen interest in talking to him trying to make him feel welcome and letting him know that he could spend time with some of her Puffs that had stayed over break. He politely declined, saying that he was fine, and that he making a lot of progress in his independent studies without any of the distractions of his house mates.

This of course lead to her questioning him and him in turn explaining how he wanted to complete most of the second year material in charms and transfiguration. This then lead to a round of questions from the upper years about his ambitious goal, and Harry having to explain to them than the power levels required to successfully cast first and second year spells was actually about the same, the second year spells just requiring additional focus and control, not power to cast.

He further explained that it was only 3rd year and above spells that required higher power levels to cast, since the first two years of the Hogwarts curriculum were aimed at encouraging the growth and control of one's magic.

Like a baby first learning to walk, you had to start slow before you could run. Simply put, magic was like a muscle. If you overdid it, through constant use, and not allowing it to mature and expand naturally, you could damage it permanently, just like how not letting a muscle heal properly after an injury or intense exercise could lead to it being deformed or damaged, he lectured.

Professor Sprout just nodded in agreement at his explanation and gave him 20 points for his excellent knowledge.

So that was his first Christmas Day at Hogwarts. It was far better than any other he had had in his life.

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