Learning to use the Golden Mist

"We've not seen him in three days." Hermione said in a distraught voice as she sat beside Penelope who was working on deciphering some of the runic arrays created by Harry over the past few months.

Harry was a genius and his runic arrays were a work of art in and of itself. But they were based on will and intent magic. Something that normal witches and wizards couldn't use. So Penelope had taken over the job to decipher his runes so that even common people like her would have access to those runes.

The exercise also went a long way in teaching her about runes and she was learning something new every single day as she tried to decipher his runic arrays.

She put her rune carving tools down on the table and looked at Hermione with some sympathy.

The girl had large bags under her eyes and her hair were all over the place.

It was clear that she had not slept well over the past three days.

And she did want to help her as she saw the girl as a little sister but when it came to Harry, she was just as helpless as any other person out there.

"I know." She replied "Perhaps he just need some more time alone."

The look on Hermione's face said that she clearly didn't believe in her lie. Good. Because she didn't believe in her own lie either.

Harry was a proud person.

A bit too proud in her opinion but then again, he was a boy and a boy having a big ego was hardly something new.

Her littler brother himself had a bit of an ego problem so she understood Harry more than he thought she did.

But Hermione didn't.

And because of that, the girl had unintentionally made a mistake and humiliated him in front of other people.

No one would take such a humiliation very well and Harry had taken it worse than most people would have.

And if nothing else, then the teachers had only made it even worse by interfering and accusing him of burning Hagrid's hut.

That had a been a very stupid decision on the teacher's part.

And now they have not seen Harry in the last three days and Penelope wondered if he was even eating his meals properly.

The boy had the tendency of ignoring his meals whenever he went too deep into his projects.

And he always went deep into his projects when he was feeling some form of emotional turmoil.

That was his way of escaping the pain.

"Perhaps I should go to him. Perhaps if I tell him how sorry I am…" Hermione breath hitched as tears started forming in her eyes once again and Penelope went forward to console the poor girl once again.

Hermione had turned into a mess ever since Harry left them three days ago and Penelope didn't knew what she could do to change the situation.

If only she could use a time turner to go back in the past and change what had happened but apparently time turners didn't work that way.

"Do you have any suggestion to give Daphne?" she asked the girl who had quietly been listening on to their conversation up until this point.

Daphne had been the newest addition to their team and Penelope frankly didn't know what to think of the girl.

Daphne had always been polite toward her but there was something about the girl that stopped Penelope from trusting her completely.

But there was no harm in asking her for a bit of advice, was there?

The Blond Slytherin turned to gaze at them and then shrugged nonchalantly "We Slytherins are known for our manipulations and lies. We make allies and opponents. Not friends and enemies. So asking me for friendship advice is really not a good idea." Then the girl went back to studying a book that was probably given to her by Harry.

"Perhaps I should go and talk to him." Hermione said while looking at him hopefully "Maybe he is not as angry at me as he was before?" the girl asked but Penelope could clearly see that she didn't believe in those words herself.

"I don't think that would be such a good idea Hermione. But it's not like we'll achieve anything by sitting here on our asses so you might as well try reaching out to him." She said and watched with some sadness as hope blossomed in the girl's face.

She knew that Hermione would most likely meet a dead end in her endeavor but she didn't knew what else she could do to help.

Her occlumency shields were still rather weak so Harry had not told her about his other 'hidden bases' inside Hogwarts so she had no idea where he and Hermione usually went and she didn't try to ask them either.

But because of that, she now had no idea where Harry could be and even though Hermione knew where he was, it was unlikely that he would talk with her.

She could only hope that Harry would have forgiven Hermione by now and would listen to her for a bit even though she knew in her heart that such a thing was unlikely to happen.

"Okay. I'll do that." Hermione replied and packed her books back in her bag before leaving.

"Good luck." Penelope said as Hermione quietly left the room and now there were only her and Daphne Greengrass left in the room.

Daphne was too engrossed on her book so it was unlikely that she would be able to make any conversation with the Slytherin.

A pity, as she had wanted to get to know the new girl a little bit more.

Oh well, it is what it is.

With such thoughts, she went back to her studying and deciphering the runic arrays written by the genius boy.

—————

Harry cried out in pain as another cutting curse lanced through his shoulder, creating a shallow cut that still hurt like a bitch.

He jumped to the side and took shelter behind a fallen desk.

The environment this time changed into that of classroom so there were quite a few obstacles he could use to hide behind.

His pride stung at the fact that he had to hide from training dummies like this but it was necessary for his growth.

He focused on his magic and after a few words in Parseltongue, the golden mist came out of his wand and healed the cut in his shoulder in no time.

This training was turning out to be a bit more painful, what with the training dummies now using weak cutting curses and blasting hexes that took a chunk out of his body every time they hit.

That didn't mean that he would stop these training exercises because it was unlikely that he would master the use of the golden mist without experiencing at least some amount of pain in the battlefield.

When he had first found the existence of the golden mist and how it could only be used by him because of it being a Parselmagic, he realized that he had just found another huge advantage over other witches and wizards.

At that same time, he realized that he was able to master the use of the Golden Mist and use it his the Shroud of Concealment then he would most likely be able to continue a duel no matter how many injuries he suffered because the Golden Mist would heal most of his injuries instantly.

But to do that, he had to step into a battlefield and suffer actual injuries.

Well, he didn't have access to a real battlefield but he knew where to find training dummies who could totally kick his ass if they wanted to.

And that was why he was no suffering from so much pain in this training session.

Well, this might be a painful experience but this would at least give him a taste of what an actual wizarding duel looks like, though he of course knew that an actual duel would be far more deadly than this one where the most fatal injuries he suffered was deep cut on the calf which had healed within a moment under the influence of the Golden Mist.

So after the cut on his shoulder was healed, he waited a few seconds before he jumped out from behind the table and the battle started earnestly once again.