Chapter 4 : The beginning of tutelage by Arcturus Black III

Harry was now in the ancestral manor that belonged to the most ancient and noble house of Black. Arcturus Black was waiting for him in his office to begin explaining the way the days would be organized so that Harry would get out of here with the greatest amount of knowledge and skills possible.

While the look in the eyes of the man was soft, Harry knew that tough love is the greatest love as when he asked why his adoptive father was so hard on him, his father answered

"Well, my father was also quite hard on me too and I am thankful to him for that. It allowed me to have a good moral compass and made me adopt a good work ethic. I personally believe that tough love from your parents is what has the best chance to make one the best he can be."

So Harry knew that, if the muggle family of his adoptive father was severe, then obviously a family as ancient and noble as the house of Black would be the same. So he listened without interrupting the man that would be his tutor for the two years to come.

"The day will start at eight, you'll be asked to go to the dining room for breakfast where you'll learn table etiquette from me if you don't yet know it. Then half an hour later at the latest you'll have to go to the ballroom to learn how to dance, the lesson will last for an hour and a half. Then you'll have a free hour in the library and after that an hour where you'll be tested on the book you read.

At noon for half an hour will be lunch, the same as breakfast. You'll learn table etiquette if you have yet to learn it. In the afternoon there will be lessons on economy and management, and believe me when I say it, but you'll have a lot to do as a Potter. The lessons end at five in the afternoon, you'll be free to do whatever you want until eight where we'll dine and you'll go to your room to sleep.

The day is packed so don't waste time during the night by doing unnecessary things, you'll only needlessly tire yourself, which we don't want. Today will be entirely free so that you can visit the manor and learn where every room is."

Harry nodded his head at the end of the lengthy presentation, he was glad that the after effect of Occlumency was an improved mnemonic ability. So he committed to memory the entire explanation. When he was about to leave Arcturus finally said :

"Oh and Harry. Welcome to the manor and I hope you'll have a good time. If you ever need help or anything, don't hesitate to come see me."

"Thanks Uncle !"

A subtle smile graced the stern but still a little soft face of the patriarch of house Black. Harry felt the pure desire to teach in that man, which was quite reassuring. Sure the man would only teach him table manners and most probably economy, management and politics… scratch that, he would be his main teacher now that he thought about it.

Harry began walking through the corridor that led to the office, there was five rooms on this aisle of the manor, the office that was at the end of the corridor and four bedrooms, each bedroom had a nameplate that could be changed as necessity arose, starting from the office the first bedroom was Arcturus' room, next was surprisingly his godfather's and Amelia's room, the third was Apodis' room and the last was Susan's.

The house elf, clothed like a butler, told him that his room would be on the same aisle except on the first floor instead of the second as he was a guest. So Harry left the corridor which led him back to the main entrance of the manor, the main entrance was typical from the Victorian era, meaning he could go from one aisle to the other without going down a floor, he went down a floor nonetheless as he had to go to his room to set it the way he want.

When looking at the stairs from the main door, they went up half a floor before dividing and going up the rest at the left and right, both ends of the stairs led to an open corridor up that led to the east or west aisle depending on where you wanted to go. Harry only looked at everything for a moment before going to the first floor of the west aisle which had the guest's rooms, the first of which had his name on the nameplate.

When he got in, he was surprised to find that it was organized the exact same way as his bedroom home was. Then he was thankful as it would allow him to find peace here without too many issues. He made sure that the tools for thaumic tinkering, as his father was calling it, were the right ones. When Harry had asked why it was important, his father had sighed before answering.

"Harry, magic is something that is quite sensitive. The minute details can and often will make everything go awry, especially with Thaumaturgy. Being precise in everything is important, so as to make that easier it is best to find the most adequate tool for you. Especially since you'll channel magic through your engraving tools."

He loved learning Thaumaturgy, but it was a really difficult endeavor. If it wasn't for his adoptive mother, his father would end up in St Mungo more than twice a month because of the way he tinkers with magic and even then he ends up there at least once a year. That was the greatest warning if he ever needed one.

After making sure his bedroom was as perfect as it appeared, Harry went to the east aisle to memorize it. On the first floor were the dance room, then the dining room, the two rooms were way bigger than they should be, then at the end of the corridor was the kitchen. On the second floor was the library and the room alone took the second floor of the aisle and even then it was four times bigger than what the size of the manor suggested.

Harry was stunned by the size of the library, so he decided to explore it to know the way it was organized so that he could find his way through it later this week. While he was doing that he met a girl his age, with light auburn hair braided in a long plait down her back, she turned to Harry when she heard him and beamed.

"Harry !!! It's great that you are here ! Did your father finally allow you to play here ?"

"No Susan, I'm only here to learn how to be an heir to my family…"

"Oh… wait, wasn't Henry the Preacher's heir ?"

"Oh, no, I'm not a Preacher by blood ! Dad adopted me after… well…"

"Oh right, sorry… I forgot…"

"No, no, it's alright…"

The awkward silence lasted for a few minutes, the main reason why the both of them were able to speak freely with one another was because they had this point in common, their parents were killed personally by the Dark Lord. He felt she was like a sister he never had, but sadly couldn't see her too often as his father was prudent almost to the point of paranoia.

Sure Apodis, the son of Sirius, was so often at his home that they may very well be brothers but he had three of those that he was seeing all day every day… well until they went to school. Still they were his brothers.

"So, what were you reading until now ?"

"Oh, it was Dueling for newbies by Harold Vane. While he never was champion, his bases are used by most duelists today !"

"Still wanting to be a duelist ? I thought you told that to your aunt so that she would begin teaching you how to be a great Auror.

"No ! I truly want to be a duelist. Auror is too dangerous of a job and I don't want to be killed…"

"Oh…"

Harry understood that while she wanted to be an Auror, she didn't want to end up like her parents and leave her eventual son or daughter like her. He knew she had a lot of dreams and aspirations, but was still a kind hearted girl in the end. So he began studying duels with her until it was time for lunch.

They had a great time discussing ways to apply the techniques described in the book, what they could and couldn't do and trying to understand why each spell was chosen in each chain. Thanks to the house elves they had teaching wands, which were basically sticks in the shape of a wand, so that they could learn the wand movement to try and apply the chains.

At some point in time Arcturus was there with them, pointing out which movements were good and which weren't. By the end of the morning, their wrist were sore with all the training done, and while they didn't do any magic, they still were quite satisfied with themselves as they managed to correctly do the movement for the stupefy, protego, expelliarmus, impedimenta and incarcerous spells.

They then went to the dining room where Sirius, Amelia and Apodis were already waiting for them. While the six years old Apodis was excited to see Harry, Sirius and Amelia were both surprised about his presence here.

"Gramps, how long did it take you to convince Thomas to let you teach Harry ?" Asked Sirius.

"A single letter was enough. Not all younglings are as smitten as you were with Dumbledore, young Sirius."

"Grandfather, grandfather, grandfather, will Harry stay with us forever ?" asked an excited Apodis.

"Of course not, he must be here only for the week to learn from your great-grandfather. Right ?" Answered Amelia.

"You are right, young Amelia. Now let us stop wasting time and let's enjoy lunch."

Arcturus took place on his chair at the head of the table, while Sirius was directly at his right, next to Sirius was Amelia and then Apodis. To the left of Arcturus is placed Susan and then Harry. They began eating and Harry was glad that his mother had taught him the basic table manners, as the proud look of Arcturus and Sirius were the best reward he had that day.

Arcturus first spoke about how Harry would be among them for the two next years, outside of the weekends, then he spoke about the training Susan and Harry did earlier which made Sirius and Amelia very proud of them both. Susan blushed a little at the sudden praise and Harry sheepishly scratched his cheek.

Then Amelia spoke about the pain that Fudge had forced her department to go through which made her waste time on an investigation on Thomas. Which made Arcturus and Sirius dumbfounded. They could not fathom how someone like Fudge could think for even a second that Thomas would not protect his secrets even from the Ministry.

While the adults were having quite the difficult conversation, Susan and Harry were still debating about spell chains as they now were beginning to understand what would be good and what wouldn't. They already knew they would go back to drill how to do the spells with their training wands after lunch. They knew that while this day was free for them both, tomorrow wouldn't be and as such they wouldn't have as much time together.

Harry already knew he would greatly enjoy the next two years of his life.