The Dragonmaster

replied Harry, grimacing. He wasn't any better at knife throwing than at archery.

Once he was finished with his morning training, he went to his classes.

The day passed slowly, and finally he headed for the place where he trained at night. It was a small cabin one kilometer away from the Headquarters. Harry had stumbled upon it during one of his morning runs and had been using it for storage since then. Before placing anything in it, he had cast numerous wards, protections and disillusionment charms on it to prevent any members of the Headquarters entering it. Once there, he sat on the ground and waited.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Shifting a bit, he started to list the potions ingredients needed for an invisibility draught.

Time passed and still nothing. Getting a bit restless and annoyed at the wait, he decided to go to the other plane and ask his guardian.

There was no answer.

Still no answer.

~ Yes?! What is this yelling about? Can't you speak like a normal person? ~

~ Well... it doesn't matter! You didn't have to yell! I'm not deaf. ~

~ Am not. ~

~ Am not. ~

~ Am not. ~

~ Am not. ~

~Am too.~

~ I hate it when you trick me, ~ said Arxeren dejectedly.

~Arrogant twit...~

~ Back to the subject at hand, you should go back to your plane. Someone should be there to explain everything to you. ~

~He was a bit delayed, but he should have arrived by now."

Harry came back to his plane quickly.

Indeed, somebody else was now present in the cabin. To say Harry was surprised was an understatement: there was a dwarf standing before him.

He was about 1.2 meters high, dressed in leather with an axe hanging at his side. He had small eyes, and a few scars crossed his face; his short brown hair was messy and partially blocked his view. He pushed some of his bangs aside, clearing his vision in a quick motion of the hand, before eyeing Harry from head to toe.

"So you're the one who needs weapons?"

"Y-yes," stuttered Harry, quite nervous.

"Right, come on, we don't have time to waste talking."

Harry grumbled a bit as he followed the dwarf. After all, he wasn't the one who was late!

The dwarf led him towards a hill and after a half-an-hour walk, he knelt on the ground and opened a trap door. Harry's eyes widened. He would have never guessed something was hidden there, even if he had come here quite often for his training. The door had to be magical--there wasn't any other explanation for an entrance to be disguised that perfectly. A hole was now visible, but Harry couldn't see where it led as no lights were lightening it.

As Harry was lost in his thoughts, the dwarf snapped him back to reality.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste."

They stepped inside the hole, and ended in a tunnel lit by fluorescent stones.

"Follow me closely, it's easy to get lost here, and I don't have time to give you a tour."

Harry nodded and obeyed. He didn't want to get lost in those tunnels.

They walked for a few minutes before entering a huge cavern. Four huge fires were roaring and a few dwarves were busying themselves around them. Loud sounds of hammers hitting red-hot metal echoed in the cave. Sparks flew each time the metal was hit, and steam was shooting in the air as newly made weapons were cooled down in large basins. Harry's eyes were darting from one dwarf to another, his mind a bit dizzy from all the activity going on there. Sweat started to roll down his back as the atmosphere of the cave was stifling.

"Well, I'm going to show you how to make your weapons and how to take care of them. Listen attentively, I won't repeat my explanations."

Harry nodded again and listened to his guide.

First, the dwarf, Terio, showed him how to choose the right materials: he taught Harry how to see the flaws in the metal, then once it was done, how to create the best mix possible, depending on what you wanted to use your weapons for and the qualities desired by the crafter. Then, he showed him the different steps to a sword's creation. He told Harry that learning how to make weapons was a lifetime task and that he would only teach him the basics, but that those would help him to understand his blades better. The night passed quickly under the dwarf's authority. Harry left the underground at 2 a.m., and woke up at 7 a.m. For the whole week, the days followed the same pattern. By the end, the dwarf led Harry to a different room. On their way they met quite a few dwarves. Some of them Harry had met during his time there, and others were perfect strangers, but none of them paid them a lot of attention. They finally stopped before a huge steel-door. This was the first door Harry had seen there. Terio turned to Harry.

"We keep all the weapons we make in there. Now, listen carefully. You don't choose the weapon--it's the weapon which chooses you, always remember that," he explained.

"I will."

"Good, follow me."

He put his hand on the door, which glowed slightly before opening.

They entered slowly and Harry stared in wonder. He felt like he had opened his Gringotts' vault for the first time. There were weapons everywhere: daggers and swords of all types, sheaths, bows with a quiver and some arrows, spears, knives...

"Have a look around. You will know when you'll found the ones right for you," said Terio.

Harry obeyed and started to walk through the room, sometimes picking up a sword or a bow, testing them a bit before putting them back to the piles. After an hour, he still hadn't found anything that seemed right for him. Glancing at Terio. he found him sitting in a corner, smoking. Sighing, Harry went back to the task at hand. Finally a flash of metal attracted his eye. He approached it. It was a sword--a masterpiece.

The blade was the perfect weight, and perfectly polished and sharpened. The metal used was quite peculiar and Harry couldn't recognize it. The handle ending the blade was well crafted and when Harry picked it up, it seemed to have been made for his hand. The sheath was made of leather with a golden pattern on it. He looked at the blade, studying it in the light. The stone placed at the junction of the blade and the handle shone a little. Some of the swords made by dwarves comported stones, as Terio had told him, which could be used to store some magical powers, allowing their bearer to deflect curses with them. The nature of the stone depended on the bearer. Here, it was a piece of amber.

Looking closer at it, Harry noticed the stone had something embedded in its center, but he couldn't see what it was. This was his sword, he thought without any hesitation. He looked around, trying to see if there was anything else interesting there. A dagger caught his eye. It was made of the same metal as the sword and held a stone as well. The handle was shaped like claws on the sides. Harry found his bow a few minutes later with its quiver and arrows.

He came back to Terio, who had observed him throughout his search, wondering which weapons he would end with. The human was interesting to watch. He was young--that was a given--and prone to the mistakes of youth, but at the same time he had a maturity rarely seen in younglings. Yes... the boy was interesting. And that power! When he had first met him it had hit him like a hammer and Harry had no idea about the forces he was wielding. He schooled his features as the boy came towards him.

His face was unreadable when Harry showed him what he had picked up.

"The sword and the dagger, as well as the tips of the arrows, are made of a mix which we are now unable to produce. Its inventor died with his secret and didn't see fit to pass it down to one of his apprentices. These are his last and best creations. The bow is made of ebony and birch and the strings of dragons' ligaments taken after their death. The arrows are made of willow and some eagle and phoenix feathers," explained the dwarf.

He led Harry outside. Before leaving, he looked closely at the youth.

"Take good care of those weapons. If you have a problem come back and ask for me, I'll help you."

"Thank you."

"No need, good luck."

Harry nodded, thanking the dwarf again before going back to the Headquarters. He hid his weapons in a charmed box. he had made it expandable and impossible for anyone other than himself to open. To add to these security measures, the box was hidden in the wall, behind a few removable bricks Harry had personally charmed.

The next morning, he was up at 4 a.m. for his training.

After an hour of jogging, stretching and warming-up, he started to practice with his new sword. This did it. After the first few moves, Harry wanted only one thing: to master sword fighting. Moving with his sword gave him incredible feelings: a mix of power, strength, and something else he couldn't really name, a sense of completion that filled him, making him a bit dizzy.

End of the Flashback.

From that day, his progress in this field was quick. He improved in archery and reached an average level. He trained also in hand to hand combat, mixing street fighting, martial arts, and gymnastics, creating his own style of fighting. Sometimes he would learn a new technique in hours; other times, it would take him days before getting another one straight....

Arxeren also trained him to hone his magical abilities. Firstly, he taught him how to channel his magic out of his body, therefore allowing him to use wandless magic. This was a tedious task that took Harry a month to complete. When he managed to shoot a few sparks out of his hand, he was overjoyed, and it took Arxeren minutes to calm him. Once he had done that, his training became easier. He would learn how to cast the spells with andwithout his wand, but in the end, he found the wandless way easier.

Arxeren told him that theoretically any wizard or witch could learn how to do wandless magic, but also that it was extremely difficult to understand the concept and that people's abilities varied more or less, for it depended on how the flows of magic circulated in their bodies.

To his pleasure, Harry progressed steadily. Of course, he sometimes had to overcome some problems and setbacks, but that didn't stop him.

Another aspect of his training was Mind Magic. He slowly reached a good level of empathy and could move things with his mind but it took him a lot of energy. Nonetheless he trained, knowing that this ability might save his life one day. At first Mind Magic had sounded to him like Magic sounded to a muggle: a fairy tale. But Arxeren explained to him that what the elves called Mind Magic was what he called accidental magic, in a way. These abilities were focused mostly on his will and inner core of magic. It was all about redirecting his inner magic through his mind and supplying it with enough power to exert his will.

The more energies his mind channelled, the more areas of his mind were put to work, and the more of his brain he used.

Harry had once read that humans only used 20% of their brain. Arxeren told him that adequate stimulation of certain areas could lead to the appearance and control of new abilities, but that those would always be dependent on his power level, since they would feed on it, making it extremely draining.

However, Mind Magic had an interesting secondary effect: it enhanced his magical skills. With his mind, he could now see the magic inside him and manipulate it to allow himself easier access to it and increase his power.

His skills weren't the only things that had changed. He had changed, both physically and mentally. His training was shaping him. Slowly, he was changing from a scrawny boy to a well-toned teenager. However, when looking at him, you wouldn't expect him to be strong.

He was slender and didn't have bulging muscles to show his strength. But there wasn't any fat on him, thanks to the Dursleys and to the diet Arxeren forced him to follow. He needed strength, but huge muscles would have cost him some of his agility, and would have slowed his movements. However, his hair was as messy as ever and he had lost all hope of taming it. The biggest change was visible in his eyes.

Since Christmas, his eyes had been cold, cautious. He had become more silent, learned to melt into the shadows, walk without a sound, and on top of all of this, he had learned how to hide his emotions. Those things were essential to his survival. Some of the other students, meaning Garth, Chrisianne, Ribor, Xjahl and Vlad, would jump at any opportunity to mock him.

Though they still taunted him from time to time, they didn't as often as they used to. Harry had built himself a blank mask that he constantly wore, hiding what he was feeling and thinking, only showing blank and cold indifference. He was more thoughtful, and collected. If someone from Hogwarts was to see him now, he would have had a hard time recognizing the Boy-Who-Lived, with all the changes he had undergone during the past nine months.

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