Harry, have you ever had a dream? Pt. 2

The 7th of August 1993. Peverell Manor.

Harry woke up early and was confused when he saw that he wasn't in his cupboard but in a king-sized four-poster bed.

Not used to being able to sleep in, he rolled out of bed and made his way downstairs,

When Dobby appeared, he walked into the kitchen, about to prepare some breakfast.

"Master Harry Potter, sir! what are you doing here? you are in the wrong room!" Dobby scolded Harry.

Dobby grabbed him by his arm and transported him to an ornate Dining room, where he pulled out a chair and motioned for Harry to sit in it before leaving.

Soon after, plates and plates of food appeared at the table, pancakes and waffles, crepes and croissants. Every kind of pastry you could think of and more.

Harry piled his plate and several others before sitting down to eat.

As he made to start on his third plate, he heard footsteps and looked up to see Ares walk in with a boy around his age.

"Harry, I am glad to see you are enjoying yourself! Allow me to introduce my son Ares Peverell II. I hope you two will learn to get on well." Ares greeted Harry jovially, introducing his younger self to his even more youthful self.

"You must excuse me as I have some business to attend to. But, Ares, you mustn't forget that Daphne is coming over later today with her friends."

With that, Ares Sr left.

Harry stared at his newest cousin with fascination. The way he ate was polite, the way he held himself was graceful, and he exuded power.

"Who is Daphne?" Harry asked.

The other boy smiled and replied,

"Daphne is my fiancé of just over a month, and I am surprised you don't know her as she is in your year," Ares explained.

Harry looked confused,

"You are engaged at fourteen! Weird. I don't know her, so I assume she is in Slytherin; Us Gryffindors and Slytherins tend to not mix." Harry explained.

Ares shook his head in disappointment but said nothing other than not to be rude when she arrived.

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An hour later...

Daphne, Tracey and Pansy appeared through the floo in an explosion of green flame. They turned to look at Harry in shock before their attention was diverted to the taller of the two boys.

Ares greeted them with a kiss on their hand and a bow, which Harry decided to skip for fear of embarrassing himself.

The girls all curtsied to Ares and Harry before they all followed Ares to the duelling room.

"Now, girls, I thought that Harry and I would provide some entertainment for you if that is ok with you all?" Ares explained,

Before Harry knew what was happening, he was standing opposite Ares with the girls watching from the sidelines as they began their duel.

"Bow, Harry," Ares told the boy as he bowed.

Harry nodded and copied him.

"Now, when Daphne says 'En Garde', we begin any spell you know is ok to use, and I will not use any spells that cause permanent damage." Finished explaining the rules, Ares took up his position, which Harry promptly copied, and they waited for a second before Daphne shouted, "En Garde."

The duel began with a simple Augamenti charm from Ares, which Harry dodged and replied with a 'Rictumsempra' or tickling curse.

Ares batted it away with the tip of his wand and aimed a 'glacius' at the water left by his previous charm.

The water turned to ice, and Harry slipped on it, barely managing to cushion his head; realising he was losing badly, he tried an urgent last-ditch effort to beat Ares.

Channelling all his willpower, Harry cast 'Vi gravitates' at the other boy, still on the ground.

Ares smiled when he saw the spell coming towards him; he let it hit him and was surprised by how strong it was.

'Finite'

No longer affected by Harry's spell, he cast 'Expelliarmus' and then.

'Incarcerous.'

Harry was incredibly annoyed. He had been trounced.

If a fourteen-year-old boy had been able to beat him, what chance did he have against Voldemort and his followers?

Ares nodded respectfully at his younger self before taking a bow before the ladies.

Daphne was not very surprised, having seen her betrothed take down her father relatively quickly.

On the other hand, Tracey and Pansy stared in amazement at Ares, never having seen such a display of power.

Daphne wasn't worried because they weren't interested in boys yet, but she knew she had to get ready when other girls started noticing him.

Ares had cancelled all his spells and helped Harry back up, congratulating him on the successful use of such an unfamiliar spell like 'Vi gravitates'.

Ares then showed him the correct posture for duelling, helped Harry correct his, and recommended several books in the Peverell Library that would help.

"We will come back here when the girls are gone and work on your reactions and speed," Ares told Harry before he moved over to the girls, and as he was about to suggest lunch, Daphne gave a suggestion.

"Would you be willing to face all three of us girls in a duel vs you? May we do it before lunch?"

Ares was a little shocked. Did he really want to duel all three of them at the same time? Well, he could view it as practice in his younger body.

"Very well, girls, it will allow Harry to gain some pointers and Daphne to realise why I deserve her respect, at the very least."

They gathered in the centre of the duelling room, except Harry, who made his way over to the side.

When Pansy and Tracey had spread out, and Daphne stood opposite Ares, they all bowed to each other and began.

Ares immediately ducked and rolled as several spells hit where he had been seconds earlier; Daphne wasn't going easy; she had sent a blasting curse at where his head had been.

'Immobulus!' Ares roared, aiming the spell at Pansy. Unfortunately for her, she was the weakest link.

This was followed by a silent 'Stupefy', which caught the unsuspecting girl by surprise; she fell down with a thud.

Tracey and Daphne used this chance to fire another barrage of spells at him.

Ares smirked at them as he swatted their spells away like fly's using the point of his elderberry wand.

'Confundus'

He felt the spell hit him in the back.

Daphne had woken Pansy up while he was distracted, and the girl had managed to get a spell on him,

As the Master of Death, he had a slight resistance to spells, so he was only confused for a few seconds, but in that time, the three girls managed to hit him with three 'Incarcerous' attacks.

They all seemed very happy with themselves and let their wand arms relax,

In that instance, Ares jumped up, kicked Daphne's wand out of her hand, and cast a single wandless spell.

'Integrum Inrita' - the most potent version of the finite incantem spell he knew.

The binding spells became null, and his wand lit up with several 'stupefy' spells and binding curses.

When he was finished, he was surrounded by three unconscious and bound girls. Admiring his handiwork, he woke them up.

He received several death stares when the three girls noticed their predicament.

Releasing them with a smile, he offered his apologies and suggested lunch.

Harry was amazed, Ares had been performing admirably, but when he was bound, Harry had thought it was over. So what had Ares done to free himself?

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After lunch, Ares gave his guests a comprehensive tour around the manor.

Daphne, ever the curious person, excused herself to go the loo. Once she was out of sight, Daphne started looking for closed doors, preferably

locked.

She walked past the library and continued down the hallway; the house seemed to be of Victorian design but in surprisingly good shape.

After a few twists and turns, she entered a hallway she had yet to see.

She quickly applied a silencing spell to her feet and made her way down it, looking into the rooms as she went.

She was on the ground floor and making steady progress towards a stairway. There was a doorway seemingly built into the stairway. Daphne was confident it would contain something interesting.

Daphne had little luck when she tried to open it, so getting out her wand again, she cast the unlocking charm 'Alohomora.'

A little click and the next time she tried, the door opened, and there was, as she suspected a stairway.

Being the little spy that she was, Daphne snuck down the stairs and opened the door at the bottom, which opened up into a beautiful library much like the one upstairs, except this one was considerably smaller, and just by looking at the book titles, held a much darker spell repertoire.

Suddenly she spotted some movement in the bookcases; Lord Peverell was drawing a chalk pentagram on the floor and smearing blood in the corners of the star.

It was obviously a ritual, but they were illegal.

He stripped, and Daphne thought she was about to faint; she wasn't aware it was possible to be that attractive, even though he was at least twenty years older.

Realising it was dangerous to hide there, she returned upstairs and rejoined Ares and the rest of the group.

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The 15th of August 1993

The girls had left; since then, Harry had been back in the Duelling room practising with Ares.

He didn't have a wand and was attempting to dodge stinging hexes as they came flying at him,

Harry had been working out for the last eight days taking runs around the Peverell estate to build up stamina and endurance.

He was working on rolling, diving and weaving.

It was best to dodge in a duel instead of shielding against spells to conserve energy and magical power.

He was also working on whispering his spells to not alert his targets and researching new valuable spells in the main Peverell library.

Ares was not ready to start sewing doubt about Dumbledore in Harry's mind yet, so he was just avoiding talking about them.

The day was soon over, and Harry was depressed to learn that he had to return to Diagon Alley,

He consoled himself with the fact that the Weasleys would be returning from Egypt soon.

He had promised Ares to continue working out every day til the end of summer.

They exchanged goodbyes, with Lord Peverell shaking his hand and inviting him to come back anytime.

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Wednesday The 25th August 1993

The Weasleys had returned and, upon learning that Harry was staying in the Leaky Cauldron, had spent the evening eating with him and invited him back to the burrow every day.

Harry had a great time catching up with his friends. However, he didn't like how Ron bragged about his trip, so he kept his meeting with Ares and Lord Peverell a secret.

Tuesday The 31st August 1993

Harry was exploring Diagon alley with Ron and Hermione and enjoying his freedom.

Both boys were captivated by the new Firebolt racing broom.

Hermione disappeared briefly before returning to the boys and hitting them both over the head.

"Focus! Don't get distracted by a broom. I want to visit the Magical Menagerie, my parents gave me ten Galleons as an early birthday present, and I want a pet!" Hermione told the boys.

Ron and Harry nodded meekly and followed her to the pet shop.

Unfortunately, as soon as they walked into the shop, a ginger furball attacked Ron aiming for Scabbers.

Ron and Harry attempted to bat the now recognisable cat off of Ron, and as soon as they did, they left the shop in a hurry without Hermione.

Hermione came out five minutes later with the orange cat she named Crookshanks.

"Your bloody crazy, Hermione! That stupid thing tried to kill Scabbers! Why did you buy it?" Ron shouted, going ballistic.

Hermione just shook her head, saying that Crookshanks was just misunderstood.

Harry spent the rest of the day listening to his friends bicker, wondering what Ares was doing.