Harry Potter and the Legacy of Heaven

Chapter Five: The Learning Curve

Harry stared at the man incredulously. Merlin. This was Merlin. He looked at Proteus as if to see that this had all been some sort of joke at Harry's expense, but the smile on Proteus's face looked as if it had come more from his disbelief than from any other source. Harry looked back to Merlin and studied him quickly.

The old face was wizened, and he had pale blue eyes behind his spectacles. Although they were pale, Harry felt as though they held all the depths of wisdom in the universe in them. The old face was wizened by time and the elements, and Harry could tell that Merlin was very, very old. He wore simple wizard robes.

His musings at the man's physical features were cut short when he felt the raw power radiating off of him. Even in death, the man would command respect. It was amazing. It was like what Harry had felt when Dumbledore was especially angered or outraged. That was the only thing to compare it to.

Harry had a sudden idea, and he reached for the thread of energy that delineated the boundary of his domain. He had noticed that his was made of an excited energy, while Proteus's was more calm. Harry wondered what Merlin's would feel like, but he was having trouble finding it.

"Think bigger, lad," Merlin chuckled. Harry looked up at him, an embarrassed blush crossing his cheeks. Merlin had caught him trying to subtly find out how powerful he was. Harry took his advice, and looked for a larger thread. It took him a while, and he was surprised when he found it.

The reason that he hadn't sensed it there earlier was because of how large it was. He had seen it as part of the background, when it fact, it was Merlin's own energy domain. It was intimidating, to say the least. It easily dwarfed both Harry's small thread and Proteus's slightly larger one. If he had met this man outside of heaven, he would've been moving quickly in the other direction by now, Gryffindor bravery or no. As it was, he felt terribly unimportant, standing in front of this man who commanded superhuman power. Then he felt it. The huge mass of energy that was Merlin's constricted itself, growing smaller and smaller, and more dense at the same time. Harry was surprised. What had happened? His thread was now much smaller, although it was still larger than his or Proteus's.

Seeing the surprise written clearly on Harry's face, Merlin smiled again, and offered an explanation.

"I can unleash my power. Proteus can too. Normally, for anyone, it is all bunched up, and mostly useless. Once you learn to free it, it is much more useful. It also takes up more room to look at, and is more easily felt by others when they aren't specifically looking at it. Your own energy is confined in this way right now. One of the things that we'll teach you first is how to bring it from its confinement. It'll be second nature to you after a while, much like moving around in this place. For wizards, your magic influences the energy strand greatly. The strand won't be nearly as obvious when you return to earth, but your magic will still act in much the same way.

"Come now, I must introduce you to the others, they've been waiting a long time to meet you, Harry."

Harry followed Merlin into the room, and was surprised to see that there were several people in it that he felt like he recognized. There were several men and women, all in their late twenties or early thirties, chatting with one another around the room. The room itself was sparsely adorned, with nothing but the simplest furniture and a few bookcases here and there. It was obviously a room that held functionality above aesthetics, but it had a lived-in sort of feeling to it as well.

"Harry, I'll be taking care of most of your training, along with Proteus, but these are some people that you should meet as well. They will be here as resources for you, but they are busy with... other things at the moment, and as such, I was the one elected to teach you," Merlin said. He then began to point people out, and Harry nodded at each person as he met their eyes.

"Here we have the founders, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Godric Gryffindor. Great team they are, when they need to work together. This is Persephone, powerfully intelligent, she is. Cassius here is quite the sneak. Invaluable for collecting information..." Merlin went on for a while, introducing different people, and Harry got the feeling that they were all quite powerful.

"Well, that's enough introductions for you for now. I think we'll jump straight into the training. As they say, there's no time like the present!" Merlin exclaimed. "Close your eyes, Harry, and feel what I do, and remember..."

Harry closed his eyes, and felt. He could feel the energy strand from his domain, and he could now feel its connection with his magic, how they influenced each other, but were also separate entities. He could see the other two strands, and he watched as Merlin's wrapped itself around his and Proteus's. He felt a rushing sensation, and then...

"Open your eyes, Harry."

Harry opened his eyes, and was immediately greeted with a broad cityscape before him. He was on top of a skyscraper, and there were more of them all around. Some were smaller, some were the same height, and some were much, much taller. Harry felt again that he was completely insignificant, and he resigned himself to getting used to it.

"Harry, we're back on earth now. Your magic is back in full force, but you cannot just use your imagination to influence your domain like you did in heaven. This won't be a problem for you though, because once you learn to unleash your power, you will be quite the sight to behold, to be sure. The first thing that I want to teach you is something about the nature of magic. Has anyone ever told you something that's impossible, or that no-one's ever done before?" Merlin asked. Proteus regarded Harry questioningly as Harry thought of an answer.

"Yeah... Hermione is always telling me and Ron about how it is impossible to apparate on the Hogwarts grounds..."

"Perfect example, Harry. Now watch." Merlin disapparated, making absolutely no noise. Harry figured that this had something to do with his power, and filed it away for reference later. The he felt his strand come back into being, and he was shifted to a new place. The new place happened to one of the taller towers at Hogwarts, and as soon as he reappeared, he saw Merlin pop into being.

"The first thing that you need to learn about magic is that it is basically the essence of the universe. Anything that you can think of can be done with magic. If anyone tells you that something is impossible, they are misinformed. When someone says that something is impossible, the truth is that it is really just improbable. Take apparating through the Hogwarts anti-apparition wards. I did it, so it must be possible. It just takes a wizard being able to know how to concentrate their magic in such a way that they can either pierce through the wards or shift them out of place. Improbable, not impossible. Do you understand?"

Harry looked at Merlin dumbstruck. "Yeah... I think... I've got one question, though. How did we get here?"

Merlin looked at Harry with an almost prideful gleam in his eyes. "Good question, my boy. I told you that you can't use your imagination to influence your world. That is a half-truth. While you exist here, you exist in your domain in heaven as well, but because this is not heaven, you can't influence this place with heaven's power. Movement is a different thing, though. I'm not really sure how to explain it myself, actually. I just know that you can move your domain while you are on the earth, but you can't use any of its power. Make sense?"

"Yeah," Harry said, finally starting to understand what was going on.

"Good," Merlin replied, and without warning, they were back atop the skyscraper in the nameless city.

"So, we are working on using magic in ways that shouldn't be possible. First up is wandless magic. Right now you don't have your wand. It is stuck back with your body, pinned to the Wall of the Saints. So, you'll be able to do magic, but it will take more concentration, will, and power to do than normal. Did you know that was what wands were originally for? They were meant to make life easier for wizards. But wizards got lazy, and now almost none of them can do anything more than accidental magic, which isn't true wandless magic.

"There are still purposes for a wand, don't get me wrong. Wands make spells more powerful, easier to cast, and less draining on the caster. When you get back to the earth for real, you will still want to use your wand, I'm sure. Just save wandless magic as a nice little surprise for Voldemort.

"But I digress. We are here to show you how to use your magic to its fullest extent, and I think that can be well accomplished by a little exercise that we have here. Proteus, can you demonstrate? My old bones won't permit this sort of thing, I'm afraid." He gazed at Proteus with a smile, and Proteus nodded at him.

Harry watched in awe as Proteus ran for the side of the building that was across from another skyscraper of the same height. Surely he wasn't going to keep going... That'd be suicide, for sure. Harry was nervous. In the few seconds he'd been running, Proteus had picked up speed, and now he was about to jump...

"NO!" Harry yelled out, but it was too late. Proteus had already made the jump. There was no way a human could jump the gap between the two buildings, and yet it looked like Proteus might be close. Really close. Harry stiffened up. He might actually make it.

Proteus landed on the roof of the next skyscraper over, doing a quick roll and then getting to his feet, looking for all the world like he had done nothing more strenuous than going down to the mailbox in the morning. Then he disappeared, and reappeared at Harry's side with a slight pop, causing him to jump.

Merlin looked at Harry. "Your turn," was all he said, but the twinkle in his eyes, so reminiscent of Dumbledore's, was on in full force now.

Harry gulped. He was supposed to cross that? Ludicrous. And yet Proteus had done it, so he should be able to as well. Harry stiffened up. First thing's first, he thought. He tried to unclench some of his magical energy, and was surprised when it spread out, although just a little. Feeling a little braver, Harry took off at a full sprint toward the edge of the building. As he reached the edge, he pushed down at the floor with his magic, and was startled when it propelled him much higher into the air than his jump alone could have. Yet it still wasn't enough. There was obviously no way that he could make it to the other side now, and he fell at a great rate of speed, screaming all the while. As he was about to hit the ground, he scrunched up his eyes, and willed the ground to be soft, and felt his magic respond...

But he didn't hit the ground. Harry waited a few seconds, then opened his eyes. He was back on top of the skyscraper, Merlin twinkling at him for all he was worth, and Proteus trying as hard as he could not to laugh.

"What did you think was going to happen? You were going to die? Again? I'll let you in on a little secret. Until you return to your body, you can't die, because you are already dead," Merlin said. Proteus let out a snort, and it was like a dam had been broken. It took him a while to calm down, and by this point, Harry was feeling slightly patronized.

"Harry, I know you can get over that gap, and I know that you know that you can get over that gap, so why don't you go ahead and try again?"

Harry shook himself. He was here, on top of a Muggle skyscraper, with the most powerful wizard ever telling him that he could cross that gap to the next one over. He glanced at Proteus, who gave him a quick nod, and Harry felt encouraged. He took another running jump, and willed himself to move more quickly. As he jumped off the building, he felt his magic reach out, and propel him forward.

Still, he was going to come up short. He wasn't going to make it to the other side, and he was going to fall again, when he heard Merlin's voice speak into his mind.

"Will yourself over the gap, Harry."

Time slowed down, and Harry concentrated every particle of his being on crossing the gap. He was already lower than the building now; he'd have to fly to get up to it...

You can do this.

As Harry reached out again with his magic, he felt the wings grow from his back. They were the same wings that he had used to catch Proteus, and now he gave them a mighty wave. The force propelled him forward, and up just enough that he could land in a quick roll on the top of the skyscraper.

His elation at having accomplished his task was heightened when he heard Merlin's voice speak into his mind again.

"Well done! Now come back!" he said. Harry flapped his wings, and crossed back to where Merlin and Proteus were standing with smiles on their faces. As he landed, he willed his wings away, and felt them recede into his back.

"Good job, Harry. Slightly unorthodox, but you accomplished your goal, which is exactly what you must learn to do. Now that you've accomplished that, you would have no trouble doing it without the wings. And I must say, that was a nice bit of wandless transfiguration," Merlin said, smiling at him.

"Now Harry, I have to tell you a little bit about the nature of magic, and this will be the most important lesson that you learn from me. There are four things that affect the outcome of any spell, and there is a limit point that they have to sort of add up to in order for the spell to work. The first factor is the wand. As I said earlier, a wand will boost your magical potential quite significantly.

"The second thing that you need is the words to the spell. Latin words, for some reason, are the best. However, you could technically use any words you wanted to do a spell, but the closer they are to the effect you're looking for, the better they'll work. The third thing you need is a wand motion. Again, this helps you execute the spell with more ease.

"Lastly, you need a thought. You have to know what you want the spell to do in order for it to work. The stronger the thought, the more magic that goes into the spell, and the easier it is to execute.

"Now, every spell has a limit point, and once you put enough magic into the spell that it reaches the limit point, the spell is executed. You can do this with any combination of the four factors I just told you, and once you leave here, you'll know how to do it by using just one of the factors. This can be very useful, as there are cases where you will not be able to use one or more of the actions that most people need to do a spell.

"The last thing that I have to tell you about the nature of magic is that spells can have different strengths. Once a spell reaches the limit point, you can still pour more energy into it. You could think harder, make a larger wand movement, use stronger words, or use a larger wand, or even a staff. If you did all of these things in tandem, you could end up with a very powerful spell indeed.

"I feel like I've talked myself out now. Did you understand what I just told you, Harry?" Merlin asked. Harry nodded dumbly. "Good then. I'll leave you here with Proteus to keep practicing these things. I've worn myself out. I will see you again soon, Harry." And with that, Merlin was gone.

Harry turned to look at Proteus, who looked back at him.

"He's quite brilliant, isn't he?"

~.~

"Hurry up, Ron!" came Molly Weasley's voice. Today was to be the day that they'd go into Diagon Alley, but Ron was running a little behind. Hermione, who had been visiting periodically over the summer, was waiting in the entryway with Mrs. Weasley, while Ron finished getting ready.

Hermione had started tapping her foot when Ron finally came down the stairs, his hair sticking up in the back. It was obvious that he had only gotten out of bed a few minutes earlier.

"What took you so long? Brushing your hair to a fine sheen?" Hermione asked cheekily. Ron grimaced.

"Well, not everyone can be expected to have as pretty hair as you do, so why even try?" Ron asked. Hermione just grinned at him, and when he realized the meaning of what he had said, he turned red. To cover up his embarrassment, he moved for the door, leading the two of them out.

They walked through Muggle London to get to the Leaky Cauldron; it was agreed within the Order that although slow, Muggle transportation was safer for wizards and witches than magical travel. The floo network had all but been shut down as the minister, Cornelius Fudge, finally let the public know that Voldemort was back. No-one was very keen on others being able to just appear in their fireplaces. Of the fireplaces still on the network, most were either for communication only, or had strong anti-dark wards on them. Diagon Alley had been taken off altogether.

So today they were walking, and as Number 12 Grimmauld Place was not all that far from the Leaky Cauldron, it wasn't long before they were standing in front of the brick wall that led into Diagon Alley. What they saw when they opened the wall, however, stopped their hearts.

People lay in the street, their bodies inert. Some of them were being cradled by their loved ones, while yet others were darting around, administering medical attention. Everything was cast in a sickly green hue, which emanated from the green skull with a snake for a tongue that was floating silently in the air.

Some of the nearest people were clearly still breathing. They were breathing quite heavily, in fact, with looks of unadulterated fear on their faces. That could mean only one thing. There had been Dementors in Diagon Alley.

"Mum... Fred and George-they..." Ron said. Mrs. Weasley immediately understood his meaning, and she raced off down the lane to where the twins' joke shop was.