Chapter 34 : Beyond the Horizon

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"I believe I should make good on that promise, don't you think?" He asked and started riding back towards the castle. "Come on Harry! There's lot to do and I'll need your help!" Severus called turning his horse slightly to face the still frozen boy, completely disregarding the heavy rain. Harry commanded his own horse to follow chuckling. This had blackmail material written all over it!

Severus was sitting in his study, looking over the final touches of their upcoming journey; and by their, of course, he meant his and Harry's. He smiled at the thought of the boy. He couldn't believe it was almost a year since Harry had practically moved in with him and together they had started living in his mother's family castle. It had easily been the best year of his life and a year of a lot of firsts. He had celebrated his birthday for the first time in his adult life; he had celebrated Christmas for the first time in his adult life too. He remembered the day fondly.

Harry had spent Christmas day at his house of course but he had come over on Boxing day and they had exchanged gifts amongst laughter and jokes. The castle was completely decorated for the occasion, fully equipped with a huge Christmas tree that Harry had cajoled the potions master into buying. It did look great, Severus gave him that. Harry had given Severus a camera, stating it was high time they took some family pictures and Severus had given the boy his first broomstick, a Nimbus 1500, the fastest model to date. He had bought one for himself too and, once spring came around, Harry had the opportunity to show yet another natural talent, in flying this time. Severus, who had slowly started rediscovering his affinity for the game, had easily declared the boy would be a gifted seeker.

And that wasn't the only area where Harry had proven being gifted; they had made great progress with his magical training too and now, barely eight years old, Harry had received his third apprenticing mark in Charms. Not that it surprised Severus; Lily had always been gifted in that area. He smiled softly at the progress he had made himself; he had finally reached a point in his life where he could think of his time with Lily fondly, the burning pain that used to be there having dissolved. He was healing.

With another smile, he rose from his chair and let his mind wander back to the journey at hand and his travelling companion; Harry had turned eight yesterday and thus had stayed at Potter manor where his family had returned for the customary celebration. The boy was loath to admit it but he had missed his brother; Severus merely smiled at the thought. Adrian wasn't half bad, he had to admit, but he couldn't understand how nobody had noticed just how much different from the supposed boy who lived Harry was. If his family had taken the time, they would have noticed his extremely fast development on any topic of magic that fell into his hands. Truth be old, the potions master conceded, they had both gone out of their way concealing the truth. Case and point, Severus thought with a smile as he caught his reflection in the mirror.

Last March they had hit a brick wall in Harry's training; the boy had started practicing magic that was taught in second year at Hogwarts and the more advanced spells seemed to take a lot out of him. The solution turned out to be much simpler than Severus had originally thought and was given, surprisingly, by Minnie when commending for what seemed to be the hundredth time how skinny the boy was. Harry's body simply wasn't strong enough to support the magic coming from his core. Severus had at first thought to increase the boy's rations and disallow him to leave the table until every last bite was gone, but that would do nothing for his strength; in the long term, he didn't want Harry to just gain weight. His body needed to get stronger.

That part of the problem was solved by one of his ancestors, Sir Edwin, when he was passing in front of his portrait in the north gallery. The old knight was quite certain the system they used to train children for fight was still usable; upon being asked what that system did, Sir Edwin had graced him with a "For sword fighting lessons of course! Young men these days!"

After a week's worth of research, Severus had discovered a statue in the dungeon, in the very same room they used for practicing magic. Apparently there was a spell that caused the statue of the knight to start moving and teach what it called "the fine art of swordsmanship". Said fine art included swinging a broadsword around the room and Severus had swiftly decided to participate actively in that part of Harry's training. Somewhere along the way he had discovered that, after spending his day teaching students bent on exploding his classroom, hitting things with a sword was an immensely satisfying outlet of his frustration.

Of course, all that sword training, horse riding and Quidditch practice had woken his appetite and soon, he found his body transforming; he had, for the first time in his life, gained muscle and admittedly looked healthier than ever. Problem was, he knew he was bound to capture the attention of one madam Pomfrey in the end and then would be forced to answer questions he'd rather leave unasked. It turned out that concealing and image shifting spells were a great investment; when at school or outside the castle he changed his appearance to what it had been at the beginning of the school year. He was half certain his students would have trouble recognizing him without his black cape and haggard appearance.

Harry completely disapproved of course and only gave in when Severus agreed in disguising the height the boy recently gained too. That, in combination with showing no sign of his knowledge to his family had seemed to fool even Dumbledore who never thought of looking past what he expected to see. The potions master had of course taken extreme caution with his spells, making them blend into his natural magical signature; but the fact remained that Albus simply never looked.

And now there he was, completely free of disguises, waiting for Harry to arrive so they could depart. The potions master smirked at the thought; he had always wanted to visit Morocco. It was a stroke of luck that had the very flower he was seeking to be in that very country. He had been searching all year and even had to take a couple of weekend trips to France -that Harry had enjoyed more than he had, if that was possible- in search for a map with the exact location he was seeking. He had the time pinned down to the second and all that was missing now was getting there.

He exited his study, after a quick glance at the clock, and started making his way towards the hall where Harry was due to floo at in fifteen minutes. He had made reservations at a wizards retreat near the location and had opted on getting there ten days early; for one, it would be better to find the location beforehand and not search at the last moment and secondly, he wanted Harry to see a bit of Morocco too. The boy had been extremely helpful with his research, staying with him during the long nights at the library, even if that meant sleeping on the couch while Severus worked. They both deserved the vacation, Severus concluded.

He reached the hall were the fireplace was lit, ready for Harry's arrival. Severus sat on the corner of the couch and mentally checked the items he needed to take with him. Satisfied he had everything he needed, he turned his attention to the flames. He didn't have to wait for long; the flames soon shone green and through the fireplace came an extremely excited Harry Potter.

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