Visitor from the Future

Chapter 8: Training Begins

About a week later, Harry was lounging in a rather comfy chair in the suite of rooms he and Remus were sharing at Hogwarts, reading yet another book on advanced magics, when the portrait hole burst open. Harry barely had time to look up before he found himself with a face full of bushy, brown hair.

"Oh Harry! How are you doing? Are you alright? No one would tell us anything, except that you had been hurt. Are you okay? Are you-"

"Hermione, I think he might be better if you let him breathe?"

"Oh, goodness! Of course! I'm so sorry Harry! I-" Hermione let him go, and stepped back slightly, looking sheepish.

"It's okay, Mione. I'm doing okay, I guess. Specially now that I can breathe again." Harry looked up as his friend, and smiled at her, taking any possible sting out of his words.

"Are you really OK? Mum's been going spare these last few days, and wouldn't tell us anything!" At Ginny's soft voice, Harry turned to look at the redhead, and he saw a small smile on her lips, and her voice was seemingly casual and light, but the concern in her brown eyes betrayed her emotions.

"Yea, Ginny. I'm... I guess I could say I'm doing better. Better than I was a couple of days ago, anyways..." Harry's voice was quiet, and his three friends had to listen closely to catch the last part of his statement.

"Mate, what happened? What are you doing here at Hogwarts? It's summer break." Ron looked at his best friend, fearing that something horrible had happened, and his fears were proven when Harry ducked his friends, and wouldn't look any of them in the eye.

"Harry? What is it? Was it... was it Voldemort?" Hermione was also concerned at the sudden turn in her friend's attitude, and knelt down next to his chair. When Harry shook his head in the negative, Hermione felt her stomach drop to somewhere around her feet. "Was... was it... your relatives?" For a moment, it looked as though Harry hadn't heard her, but then he nodded almost imperceptivity, then continued to study his hands, which were gripping the book he had been reading tightly.

"Oh, Harry..." Hermione seemed incapable of speech, and lightly placed her hand on Harry's shoulder, but pulled away when she saw him tense up for just a second. "Oh, Harry..." She gently pulled her friend into a hug.

Harry heard soft footsteps, and soon Ginny was hugging him as well, and Ron had his hand on Harry's shoulder, in a sign of support for his friend. Harry pulled back, and finally looked each of his friends in the eye. He saw concern for him, but none of the pity, or even disgust, he had been fearing. That alone made him feel like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. His friends did not pity him. They did not think he was weak for not being able to defend himself. Unable to come up with the words to express just how grateful he was, he muttered a quiet thanks to them.

After a moment of silence between the friends, Ginny asked, "So... who wants to go flying for a bit?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and was about to disagree when Harry all but jumped out of his seat, his eyes bright again, and said, "Yeah! Just let me go get my broom." He hurried through one of the doors off of the main room in the suite into his room, and grabbed his Firebolt, which had been a gift from Sirius, and came back out to the main room. She smiled at her friend's enthusiasm, and said in a long-suffering tone that no one else bought as genuine, "Oh, if you lot really want to, I suppose so..."

Laughing, the four friends left the suite to go out and relax for an afternoon of just goofing off on the Quidditch pitch, like regular teenagers.

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When the four breathless and beaming teens trooped into the Great Hall a few hours later, their laughter attracted the attention of all the adults seated in the Hall. Remus saw Harry talking and laughing with his friends, and smiled. Having his friends around would really help Harry right now, Remus knew, and was very thankful that Harry had such good friends.

The four teens sat down at Gryffindor table, still snickering over some joke or another that they had shared. When the food appeared around them, Ron immediately said "Food!" and all but lunged at the platters before him, garnering another bout of laughter from Harry and Ginny, and an eye roll from Hermione before she said rather tartly, "For goodness sakes, Ronald! The food isn't going to run away if you slow down and act somewhat civilized." Ron had the good grace to look somewhat embarrassed, then smiled at her and shrugged, continuing to load his plate up with mounds of food, which he then began to inhale at a rather amazing rate.

The four teens didn't even realize there were others in the Hall until Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat, and smiled kindly down at the students from his place at the High Table. "I hope you four enjoyed yourselves this afternoon?" Receiving answers in the affirmative from all of them, he chuckled slightly, then looked at Harry, the ever-present twinkle in his blue eyes dimming. "Harry, if you could come to my office when you have finished eating? There are some things that I believe we need to talk about."

Harry nodded, and answered quietly, "Yes, sir," then turned back to his meal, eating quietly, no longer talking and joking around. Just when everyone else in the Hall was thinking about somehow distracting the young man from the obviously sour turn his thoughts had taken, Ginny leaned over and whispered something in his ear. He stilled, then looked at her, then looked at Ron before whispering back, causing both of them to start snickering quietly. With that, the four teens resumed their loud and rather boisterous conversation from before, which caused all the adults to breathe a quiet sigh of relief.

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Draining his goblet, Harry put it back down then sighed and stood up from the table. "I suppose I better go to see Dumbledore now... I'll see you guys tomorrow?" His voice, which betrayed his emotions more than he would have liked, did stop his friends from asking any questions, and they instead bid him quiet goodnights, which he returned before he turned and walked out of the Great Hall, and towards the Headmaster's office.

His thoughts were running a mile a minute, and he couldn't stop the fear from clenching his heart at the thought of what Dumbledore wanted to talk to him about. There were any number of things that could be the topic of this conversation, and none of them were ones Harry really wanted to approach.

Sooner than he would have liked, Harry reached the stone gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office, and gave the password ("Canary Creams"). Taking a deep breath, Harry stepped onto the rotating staircase and headed up towards Dumbledore's office. Reaching the door, he had just raised his hand to knock when he heard Dumbledore inviting him in.

Pushing open the door, Harry saw Professor Dumbledore, seated behind his desk, Professor McGonagall was seated in one of the chairs in front of the large desk, Mad-Eye and Kingsley Shakelbot were standing near the fireplace, Garrett Williams, the social services wizard, was also seated in front of Dumbledore's desk, and Tonks was standing next to the couch which Remus was currently sitting on. Harry headed over to Remus, and sat down on the couch next to him, giving the man a ghost of a smile that was then returned.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and looking at Harry, said, "Thank you for coming up here this evening, Harry. If you remember, I promised you at the end of term that I would not keep things from you anymore, no matter how much I wish to spare you any more burdens and responsibilities than those you already have. Kingsley and Mr. Williams both have some information that I believe you need to hear."

Harry had looked up at Dumbledore when he had mentioned not hiding things anymore, and saw genuine contrition in the older wizard's blue eyes, and nodded to him, which was Kingsley's cue to begin with his information.

"As you are aware, Mr. Potter, the trial for the Dursleys began five days ago. Earlier this afternoon, the Wizenmagot delivered its verdict. Mr. Dursley has been sentenced to twenty-five years in a Muggle prison, and Mrs. Dursley and Dudley Dursley will be required to meet with a counselor once a month until Dudley reaches the age of eighteen, then once every six months until the counselor decides the sessions can end." The Auror's deep voice was compassionate, and he looked right at Harry as he spoke, his eyes projecting sympathy and support to the young man.

Harry nodded slightly, and then turned to Mr. Williams. It was obvious to everyone in the room that Harry was working completely on auto-pilot right now. Mr. Williams also looked right at Harry as he spoke, his calm voice evidence of his experience in dealing with such situations as these.

"Mr. Potter, with your relative's sentences, you are now in need of an adult to act as a guardian for you until you come of age. We have taken the requests from various parties close to you, and your own words and actions, and have decided on a guardian we hope will be acceptable to you. Now, even though our decision is a rare one, we have decided that it is the best course of action, and have pushed it though all the legal channels while avoiding alerting, shall we say, certain people, of our actions. We have granted your guardianship to Remus Lupin, Mr. Potter. I hope that is acceptable to you?"

Harry's eyes widened at hearing those words, and turned and looked at Remus. Remus looked slightly shocked as well, but recovered enough to offer a small smile to Harry. Harry turned around, his eyes bright and a genuine smile on his face for the first time in a long time, and nodded. "That's- of course it's alright! I-I really get to live with Remus now?"

Mr. Williams smiled, "Yes, Mr. Potter. Mr. Lupin is now your legal guardian. However," Harry's eyes dimmed a fraction at that, "Because of Mr. Lupin's, condition, we would feel more comfortable if you would agree to, shall we say, three or four meetings a year with Headmaster Dumbledore concerning your guardianship. Is that alright with you?"

Harry's face brightened again, and his grin was almost contagious. "Of course! I have no problem with that."

"Very well then, Mr. Potter. You, Mr. Lupin, and Headmaster Dumbledore just need to sign a few papers, and then it'll be done."

Standing up, Harry walked over to the desk, and quickly read over the documents Mr. Williams handed to him, and signed where indicated, along with Remus and Dumbledore. With Dumbledore's final signature, which he signed with a flourish, Mr. Williams collected all of the paperwork, and separated them into three piles. Handing one pile each to Remus and Dumbledore, he stood up, and put the rest of the papers into his briefcase.

"That's that, then. Congratulations, Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin. If you have any questions, feel free to owl me at anytime." Nodding to the others in the room, he walked to the door and out of the office.

For a moment, everything was completely silent in the office, then Harry looked again at the paperwork in Remus's hands, then looked up at him, and asked, "That's it then? I really get to stay with you now?"

Remus nodded, and pulled Harry into a hug. "Yeah, Pronglet. You get to stay with me now."

Harry nodded into his new guardian's robes, and couldn't stop the tears of bittersweet joy from trailing down his face.

Remus, feeling Harry's quiet sobs, hugged the boy harder, and whispered quietly into Harry's ear. He too was unable to stop a few tears from trailing down his cheeks.

After a few moments, Harry pulled back, and muttered a quiet thanks to Remus, dashing the remaining tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his long t-shirt.

Remus kept one arm over Harry's shoulder, and guided him back to the couch. Tonks, who had sat down on the arm of the couch, smiled at Harry, her periwinkle blue eyes bright with unshed tears.

Dumbledore watched Harry, and when the young man had looked up, he too smiled at Harry, then cleared his throat, and said, "Well, I think that that is enough for one night. I appreciate all of you coming here, as I am sure Harry and Remus do as well. I will not keep any of you any longer however, as I am sure that you all have somewhere else you need to be?"

With that dismissal, Kingsley bid everyone goodnight, then flooed back to the Ministry. Mad-Eye walked towards the door, then turned back to Harry, looking at him with both his regular and his magical eye. He nodded to Harry, and then he too left. Professor McGonagall rose, walked over to the couch where Remus and Harry were sitting, and put her hand on each of their shoulders. With a small smile, she too nodded at Harry and left.

Remus turned to Harry, and seeing the exhaustion in his new charge's eyes, squeezed his shoulder, and asked, "Ready to go, Harry?"

Harry looked up at him, smiled, and nodded. Standing up, Tonks' voice stopped them.

"Do you mind if I walk out with ya?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

The three of them walked out of the office, down the spiral staircase, and down the corridor that would take them back to the Entrance Hall.

Tonks glanced sideways at Harry, then inquired softly, "How you been holdin' up, Harry? I... I was right worried bout ya... with what happened and all..."

Harry smiled at her, and said, "I've... been getting better, I guess. It was nice having my friends come today, and now, it's only going to get better." He turned and looked up at Remus and smiled at that last part.

Remus chuckled softly, and ruffled Harry's hair, which got an indigent "Hey!" from the teen, who swatted his hand away and tried to flatten his hair back down, but having no success. Remus laughed out loud at that, and said, "Forget about it, Harry. It's a lost cause. James was never able to get his hair to lie flat, no matter what he tried. And he tried some crazy stuff, too. It never worked, but it would always make it worse. Except for that one time when he made all his hair fall out. Had to grow it all back, and he looked ridiculous until it did."

Harry laughed at that, imagining himself with no hair and trying to grow it back. "Well, something like that happened to me once." At Remus's raised eyebrow, Harry rolled his eyes and said, "No, I didn't try to charm it or anything... Aunt Petunia had made me get a hair cut and she shaved it all off, except for the bangs that she said was to cover up the scar, and I looked really strange, let me tell you. Then, the strangest thing had happened. I remember going to bed desperately wanting my hair to grow back, since I looked so strange, and the next morning, it was back to the way it was before."

Tonks stopped suddenly, and almost tripped, even though there was nothing in front of her to trip her. She looked right at Harry, her eyes wide, and said, "It... it grew back overnight? Crikey, Harry!"

"What do you mean, Tonks? Wasn't it just like accidental magic or something?" Harry was concerned with the metamorphagus' reaction, and wanted to know what was up.

"Accidental magic wouldn't grow back hair overnight, Harry. Only if ya were..."

Tonks trailed off, at a loss for words.

"...if I was... like you, you mean?" Harry finished her sentence, connecting all the dots, and staring at her with wide eyes.

"Well, I mean, have ya... have ya ever done somethin' like that since? It could just be a fluke, but that'd mean you're a right powerful wizard, Harry..." Tonks frowned slightly, trying to think up another explanation. Her face cleared suddenly, and she looked straight at Harry, her eyes searching his. "There... there is a spell that would show if ya were one or not. It doesn't hurt or nothin' like that. Do ya want me ta do it?"

Harry was silent for a moment, and then looked at Remus, the question evident in his eyes.

Remus looked at Harry, then said quietly, "It's your choice, Pronglet." Harry turned back to Tonks, took a deep breath, then nodded at her.

Tonks took out her wand, took a deep breath herself, and preformed the incantation. She held it for a moment, her face furrowed in concentration, then relaxed it, and ended the spell. The whole thing had taken no more than a minute, and Harry had felt only a slight warm sensation over his body, as though someone had shone a spotlight on him.

Tonks shook her head slightly, then looked back up at Harry. "Well, you're not a Metamorphmagus, but ya are one powerful wizard, Harry. You've got a lot of power. It'd be kinda scary if it were anyone else, but since it's you..."

Harry's face had dropped slightly at hearing he wasn't a Metamorphmagus, It probably would have been really cool being one, he thought to himself, but then he ran through the rest of what Tonks had said, and comprehension dawned on his face. He turned to Remus, who was looking at him, and mouthed my new powers? at the werewolf.

Remus glanced at Harry, then Tonks, then back at Harry, and said out loud, "Well, I guess you are just magically very powerful, Harry." A grin flashed across his face as he continued, "Although I'm sure you would have found numerous uses for the ability had you had it, right?"

Harry grinned back at the Marauder, catching the underlying reference to pranking, then looked back at Tonks and shrugged slightly, a small smile gracing his lips. "Oh, well, I'm sure I will find other ways to continue in the 'family business,' right Mr. Moony?"

Tonks rolled her eyes, and laughing slightly, ruffled Harry's hair, smiled at him, and walked towards the front doors, since they had reached the Entrance Hall by that point, and called back, "I'm sure ya will, kiddo. See ya two later!"

Harry and Remus both said goodnight to her, then turned and started walking towards their rooms, when Harry stopped and looked around quickly before turning to Remus, "I was wondering if, since I'm at school and all, and you are my guardian now, whether or not I would be able to practice magic?"

Comprehension dawned on Remus's face, and he remarked, "Well, I'm sure no one will have a problem with that, as long as we're relatively quiet about it. Have any ideas as to where?"

Harry grinned, and motioned to Remus to follow him. "I know just the place..."

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Harry collapsed onto his bed three hours later, completely stiff and sore, as well as tired, but gratified as well. He and Remus had spent the time in the Room of Requirement practicing on Harry's magic, and had discovered some interesting things. Harry was now incredibly fast, and his spells were more powerful than before. He also had greater recall of spells he had already learned, and seemed to pick up the new ones very quickly. A very interesting development, however, had been when Harry had asked Remus if he knew Occlumency and Legilimency. Agreeing to test Legilimency out on Harry, Remus preformed the spell (much less forcefully than Snape had), but had almost immediately pulled out, his face white and covered in sweat. Harry had rushed forward and led his guardian to a chair, and demanded to know what had happened. Remus's explanation had shaken Harry to his core.

"Your mind is... it's like it's not there. It's just like... I don't know, um... swirling gray mist, if you will, and it was all around. There were no memories, no nothing... Just that weird mist everywhere... What scared me was this, like, winged... I guess 'creature' would be the best name for it. I tried to move forward, and... and find some memories, and it... it swooped down at me. Like some bird or something. I don't know what it was, but it was very large and not a bird that I've ever heard of before..."

Although Harry had at first thought of Nyx from Remus's description of the strange winged creature, Harry quickly dismissed it. Why would Nyx be hanging around in his mind? Harry had then remembered what the woman had told him the night he met her.

"...in only a matter of days, your powers will begin to awaken... you have great power, Harry, and it can be used to do so much good..."

Harry wondered if this new ability of his mind to "trap" invaders in the way Remus had described it was part of those new powers. That thought both scared and thrilled Harry. If I can go from having practically no skill in Occlumency to having that much skill in only a week or two, Harry mused as he fell asleep, what else will I discover about myself and my new powers? And most importantly, will it be enough to stop what is to come?