Chapter 120

Harry was grounded to his room for three days after the entire debacle.

To be fair, he had admitted to himself in those long hours of finishing up Potions and Charms homework, threatening the two most experienced and aged magicals he knew wasn't the best decision he'd ever made.

After those three days, when he finally became free again on July the first, the stone had been hidden away, this time beyond anywhere he could detect, and much to Harry's surprise, Perenelle seemed to be much happier with the entire situation. As it turned out, she wasn't entirely too big on lying twenty four seven to someone who was actually family.

Another interesting turn of events was the time he found out that he actually was related to the Flamels, although in an entirely too convoluted way to matter too much. Perenelle had drawn a full family tree for him, but Harry couldn't possibly muster up the courage to fully read it, so he thanked her and chucked the paper into one of his study table drawers.

That day at lunch, he'd explained how he had broken the ward with Hedwig's help. Poor Nicholas got reamed into by Perenelle for being careless enough to not even put the wardstone inside the drawer table.

"How was I to know he had mage sight?" Nicholas had feebly argued back. And then got another new hole teared in him.

After lunch, Perenelle had shown a lot of secret rooms around the apartment that Harry hadn't seen before. There was a library, which was accessed by a password, and a full-fledged dueling room, just for magic and experiments because Perenelle didn't want to clean up after Nicholas all the time. And then there was a potions lab as well.

And after sumptuous dinner, where the atmosphere, at least for Harry, had become a lot better without all the lies, he went up to his bedroom.

He was about to put some last touches on his Transfiguration homework, when suddenly the door opened, and Nicholas stepped inside.

"Can I help you Nicholas?" Harry asked, using the first name he'd gotten permission to use earlier.

"Yes, actually. When you pulled out the stone, did you perchance see…a few books…in the upper drawer? I seem to have misplaced them and can't find them now."

There was a moment's silence before Harry suddenly asked, "Nicholas, is there any way you could teach me some alchemy this summer?"

Thrown off by the entirely different topic, Nicholas nonetheless answered the question. "Harry, I couldn't possibly teach you when you're this young."

"You took in Albus Dumbledore when he was seventeen."

"Albus Dumbledore had and still has one of the highest recorded levels of magical talent and intellectual quotients ever recorded. I have no doubt that you are quite smart, but you are not that smart. Definitely not at twelve. I'll be glad to teach you when you're older, maybe in your twenties, after you finish your education. I won't teach you this summer."

"Oh no. You'll teach me alright. And you'll do it this summer," Harry said with a smile.

Nicholas raised a brow. "And why would I do that?"

"Did you know that I was a collector Nicholas?" Harry asked nonchalantly, "Back with the Dursleys, I used to collect little toy soldiers. Ones Dudley would throw away, ones I'd find at school, and even some in the trash…I collected them all. And one day, Uncle Vernon got ticked off because the toast was too burnt and just tossed them into the fireplace. And just like that, all my hard work collecting them over so many years just turned to ashes…"

Nicholas frowned. "What are you getting at, Harry?"

Harry didn't answer. Instead, he pulled open a drawer in his study table and pulled out a stack of magazines and his wand onto the table. He picked up the wand, lighting its tip on fire and looked pointedly towards Nicholas.

Recognizing the stack of magazines with wide eyes, Nicholas quickly pulled out his own wand and snapped a muffling spell at the door.

"Harry," he said warily, "Those are all vintage…exotic magazines from well over centuries ago. None of those are in print anymore. They're worth a fortune and entirely irreplaceable. I'd really appreciate it if you'd get that burning wand away from them."

Harry knew that. His observes on them had given him a pretty good idea of how much they were worth. "Oh I know. I knew that as soon as I found them protected in the drawer above the Stone. So here's my deal. Promise to teach me alchemy, and Auntie Perry out there never finds out about these pornographic magazinesand these don't turn into ashes. You get them back safe and sound."

"Harry, there is an entire step by step process for getting an apprenticeship with me. Blackmailing me is not one of those steps. Put the wand down and we'll talk. Maybe after your seventh year, I'll teach you."

Harry wasn't having any of that. "You can consider this as me optimizing the process. And besides, you're dead to the world, aren't you? It's not as if there's a bunch of wannabes lining up to be your apprentice."

Nicholas seemed to change tactics. "Harry. If you're using the magazines to blackmail your way to what you want, how are you any different from Voldemort?"

"Ouch" Harry replied flatly, inching the burning tip of his wand ever closer to the stack of magazines, singeing the edge of one, "Dick move granddad. Real dick move."

"I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this" Nicholas said with a sigh. Quick as a striking viper, his wand snapped out and he incanted, "Obliviate"

Memory spell attack averted

"Nice try oldie," Harry said with a smirk, "I didn't think you'd resort to that."

Nicholas stared at Harry in shock as he realized that the spell wasn't taking hold. It was a while before he spoke. "Desperate times, desperate measures, kid. Your shields…" Nicholas said looking intrigued "Albus mentioned them, but I didn't know they were…they're something else…"

"Yeah well, I need to have some surprises for anyone who comes knocking," Harry said, tapping the side of his head. "Now, do you agree to teach me alchemy?" he asked, bringing the burning wand closer to the stack.

He frowned at Harry before waving his hand at the magazines.

Harry quickly stuffed his wand into his pocket and grabbed onto the stack, preventing the summoning spell and grinned at Nicholas in victoriously.

Nicholas grinned back and waved his hand. Much to Harry's shock, his wand flew right out of his pocket and into the hand of the hexacentenarian. He had summoned Harry's wand!

"Just hand them over Harry," Nicholas said.

Harry hesitated for a second as he considered whether he could possibly reveal one of his abilities, at least to a small extent, to the Flamels. Was learning alchemy worth it? It looked like it was, but there could always be unforeseen repercussions.

'Fuck it,' he thought, and deciding to just do it, Harry lit his finger on fire and brought it threateningly close to the stack of magazines.

"WAIT!" Nicholas snapped, his eyes widening in shock, before rattling off half a dozen questions in wonder, "How are you doing that? Wandless magic at twelve?! Or is it just controlled accidental magic? Is that little flame all you can do? Or can you control fire to higher degrees?"

"Ah ah ah! You're asking too many wrong questions. You're not the only one with tricks Nick. I've got some as well. Now, try anything fishy again, and porno-central here goes up in flames," Harry threatened, his burning finger inching closer to the stack.

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