Harry Potter and the Secrets from the Past

Chapter 26. AQUA, AERE, IGNIS ET TERRAM

I'm recalling you

Beautiful as you are

Maybe even more

I'm recalling you

Sweeter as never before,

As you've never been

An angel fallen down from heaven

This you are in all my dreams

I want you so much, I want you so much...

...

"I'm recalling you" by Lucio Battisti

Harry thought he was really in trouble this time; Hermione was furious and she didn't talk to him for the whole afternoon and even during dinner, making him feel extremely guilty.

That evening, Harry found a bad surprise waiting for him in the common room. He had just entered through the fat lady's portrait when he saw a large group of students crowded in front of the message board.

Harry and Ron got closer and as soon as they managed to read, they widened their eyes in horror.

"No more Quidditch?" Ron shouted, extremely upset.

"They must be joking!" Harry couldn't believe to his eyes.

Professor McGonagall had just affixed a list of several restrictions in order to guarantee her students' maximum safety: as Ron had already anticipated, from now on it wasn't allowed to go out in the gardens after sunset, trespassing Hogwarts borders, reaching Hogsmeade during weekends and also no more Quidditch trainings or games.

"It's a real nightmare!" Ron commented, collapsing on the large armchair in front of the fireplace.

"What's the sense in forbidding Quidditch? Trainings and matches always take place during day time! Without Quidditch, there is no reason to stay at school; it would be much better to go back home!" Ron couldn't overcome his disappointment.

"This is a day I wish I could forget! I don't believe that anything worse could happen to me tonight!" said Harry hopelessly, sitting at Ron's side.

In that moment Neville came closer.

"Hey, guys! I'm sorry, but I've got a message for you from McGonagall."

Harry and Ron stared at him worriedly.

"Oh, no! I can't stand more bad news!"

"Since Quidditch trainings and matches have been cancelled and since from now on you're going to have much more free time, McGonagall said that you can attend extra Transfiguration lessons, regularly, twice a week."

"B-but why? J-just the both of us?" Ron asked, deeply astonished.

"Well, she's asked me to do it as well. It's for the official apparation examination, you know? If I don't manage to get at least an Acceptable, this time my granny won't let me enter her house any more! I'm really sorry, mates."

When Neville left, Harry and Ron remained seated, staring at the fire in deep shock.

***O***

The week passed by very slowly for Harry; the school was almost deserted now, since most of the students had gone back home, especially the first and second years. Nevertheless, it seemed that all the teachers had become sterner than usual.

Even little Professor Flitwick had succeeded in becoming unbearable; he kept assigning pages and pages from the text book and difficult essays about past, present and future subjects.

"Does he think that all of us are some kind of Seers or what?" Ron commented on a Tuesday afternoon, when Professor Flitwick surprised them all with an unexpected exercise in class, saying that it couldn't be so unexpected after all.

The previous Monday, Professor McGonagall had started with human disapparating, asking her students to successfully disapparate themselves on the following Wednesday class; unfortunately, most of them, including Harry and Ron, were more or less able to disapparate just their fingers.

And Ron's comment was: "It's impossible to manage of disapparating at the second lesson! None would be ever able to do it!"

But Harry received the final blow from Snape, during the last two Potions' hours on Friday afternoon; with the excuse of refilling his ingredients cupboard, the teacher ordered to him and Seamus to select, wash, divide and then cut up a mountain of lizard's eyes, bat's wings and coleopter's entrails, without using magic.

During the lesson, Harry had furtively gazed at Hermione and each time she turned to him, he blushed red like a lobster; that situation was deeply humiliating and Harry succeeded in hating Snape even more than usual.

On top of it, on Tuesday and Thursday night, Harry, Ron and Neville had to show up to Professor McGonagall's office for their extra disapparating lessons and on Friday evening there was Harry's usual Occlumency meeting with Snape.

Finally, Saturday morning came and Harry realized that he didn't have any desire to get up.

He lay down, staring at the ceiling for a long time with the curtains closed around his bed, waiting for his roommates to go down for breakfast.

"Harry? Are you awake? I'm going downstairs to meet Luna. I'll see you later, right?" Ron shouted at him, before closing the door behind him.

All alone, Harry was already starting to relax when he heard a little voice at a distance.

"Harry? Harry?"

He sprung up and looked around him, trying to understand who was calling out his name.

"Harry, are you there?"

As soon as he realized that the voice was coming out from his trunk, Harry rushed to open it and struggled furiously among his clothes, until he found what he was looking for.

"Mark!"

Harry was squeezing the two way mirror in his hands, which was reflecting Mark Evans' smiling face.

"Hi Harry! I hope I didn't wake you up!"

"Not at all! Don't worry. H-how are you?" Harry thought it was absurd talking to someone reflected in a mirror, but he also knew that in the magical world, things like this were normal.

"I'm fine. I just wanted to ask you how your training is going."

"Training?" Harry stared at Mark, astonished.

"In order to learn how to use your powers!"

A sudden realization hit him: with all the things which had happened during the last week, he had completely forgotten about his secret trainings.

"Yes, I-I'm on track!" He lied so as to not worry him.

"I wanted to suggest to you a good book, which can teach you how to contact Sirius. The book's name is 'The Eternal Quest,' written by Sir Conan Oroptimus."

"Well, thank you!"

"I must go now, but please, keep me informed about your progress."

"All right! See you soon Mark."

Suddenly, Mark Evans' image disappeared in a vortex of fog.

"I must absolutely start again with the training!" Harry thought, while setting the mirror in his trunk.

"I don't think Hermione would help me this time. I'll ask Ron!" he said to himself, while putting on a pair of extra large jeans and a grey woollen sweater.

Harry got closer to the dormitory mirror and quickly passed a hand in his black hair, just managing to ruffle it even more. Then he exited in the corridor and rushed to the deserted common room.

When he reached the Great Hall for breakfast, he found Ron and Luna chatting happily at the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning Luna, Ron!" Harry greeted them and took a seat close by.

Instinctively, he scanned the table with his eyes looking for Hermione, but he didn't find her. Since the day of their quarrel, Harry hadn't found the courage to talk to her yet. He was feeling deeply guilty and besides, he wanted to let his best friend calm down before trying again.

"If you're looking for Hermione, well, she just left a few minutes ago!" Luna's comment made him jump in his place.

Harry turned to Ron abruptly and frowned at him, fearing that his friend had told Luna about his love troubles, but Ron replied by shrugging his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Ron didn't tell me anything. Lavender did it! Last Monday she found Hermione in tears in her dormitory," Luna explained simply.

Harry didn't know what to say; other people talking about his private life was the thing he hated the most. He sighed deeply and poured some tea into his cup.

"What are you going to do this weekend?" Ron asked curiously and suddenly Harry recalled what Mark had just told him.

"Ron, listen! Would you like to help me?"

"Sure! Tell me what it's all about."

"I should train myself for... you know what." Harry didn't want Luna listening to them, but she had just got closer, not missing a word.

"Your new powers? Of course, I can help you!" Ron said happily.

"We wanted to spend the whole day together!" Luna protested and Ron hurriedly found a good solution for not disappointing her.

"Well, why don't you come with us?"

"No way!" Harry didn't like the idea; if Luna knew his secret, she would fill the whole school with the news.

"Why not? I'll be as dumb as a fish, nobody will ever know about it, I swear!"

Harry didn't know what to do.

"If you want my help, then Luna'll have to come with us!" exclaimed Ron with a firm voice and Harry had no other choice.

"All right, then, we'll go after breakfast." Harry ended resigned, before starting to sip his tea.

***O***

Ron was sitting leg crossed on the soft carpet of the Room of Requirements, skimming through the pages of an ancient book entitled "How to gain control over the universal elements: theory and practice".

While he was trying hard to understand as much as possible, Harry was walking along the library to find the text Mark had suggested him and Luna was curiously looking at the huge series of strange mechanical devices which were standing on the shelves around the room.

Finally, Harry found the book he was looking for, "The Eternal Quest" by Sir Conan Oroptimus: he got really surprised when he saw that it was smaller that all the other books in the library.

"I'm going to read it later on," he thought, slipping the text in his jeans' pocket.

"Why don't we start with something practical? This stuff is incredible!" said Ron excitedly and Harry came immediately to his side.

"I'll read you what it says here: Among the numerous powers of a Seer, one of the most interesting is the ability to control the universal elements, like Fire, Water, Earth and Air. As soon as he gets in deep concentration, a Seer is able to evoke those elements at will and order them to increase or decrease... COOL! I'm almost envying you!" As soon as Ron ended the sentence, Harry frowned at him.

"I was just joking! Shall we try it? Let's see... IGNIS is the word to evoke the Fire, TERRAM is used for earthquakes, I think! I'd start with the Air, since it looks easier."

"All right, then. Let's start with that."

Harry stood right in the center of the room, while Ron was still reading carefully through the book.

"You should try to get deeply concentrated."

Harry followed Ron's suggestion and closed his eyes.

"CRASHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, they heard a terrible noise and both turned to face Luna.

"Oops! I'm so sorry! I won't do that again, I promise!"

Luna had just pushed down a curious crystal still and its slimy greenish content had spread all over the floor.

"Er... honey? Why don't you come here and sit close to me?" Ron asked her kindly, trying not to seem too harsh and Harry rolled his eyes.

Luna reached his boyfriend and sat crossed legged on the floor.

"Well, let's start again. Are you deeply concentrated? All right! Now try to visualize the Air which surrounds us in this room."

Harry closed his eyes again and followed Ron's words.

"Now, visualize the Air which surrounds the whole castle, the gardens, Hogsmeade's village, the whole country, the world and the universe. You should try to feel one with this element. Are you there?"

Harry nodded with a light sign of his head, forcing himself to remain concentrated.

"Now you should stretch out your arms and say the magical words Aere Emanatum."

Harry obeyed: he extended his arms in front of him and pronounced the magical words aloud and with deep determination.

"AERE EMANATUM!"

After a few seconds he opened his eyes and was disappointed to see that nothing had happened.

"Well, I wouldn't worry if I were you, Harry. You know, the first time isn't always so easy to..."

"Wait! Look at that!" Luna grabbed Ron's head and forced him to turn toward a far corner of the room.

"I-I can't believe it!" exclaimed Harry surprised.

A tiny vortex of air, big as the palm of a hand, was whirling in that corner.

"Very good Harry, very good!" Ron couldn't disguise his excitement "Now, try to concentrate again and order the vortex to increase. You should say Augeo!"

Harry closed his eyes again and pointed his arms toward the tiny tornado.

"AUGEO!"

The vortex quickly grew bigger: at the beginning it was as tall as a table, then as a cupboard; finally it reached the ceiling and was strong enough to drag along all that it had found in its path, filling the room with a heavy wind. The vortex was dangerously heading toward the three of them.

Harry stepped backwards, while Ron and Luna stood up and flattened themselves against the wall, covering their faces with their hands.

Each object in the room was thrown violently everywhere.

Panic rose in Harry's heart, since he thought impossible to control the vortex anymore; then suddenly, he became weaker and weaker, his head started to throb painfully and he sensed a sharp pain inside his breast. Harry raised a hand to his heart and without managing to resist, he fell on his knees.

In that moment, the vortex lost its power and started to decrease more and more, until it became smaller again, just like the palm of a hand. Finally it disappeared with a little "POP!"

"Is everything all right?" asked Ron extremely worried, coming closer to his best friend.

Harry was panting heavily and didn't even have enough strength to reply, so he nodded a yes with his head. Ron grabbed Harry's arm and helped him stand up.

"Mark had told me that, using these powers could leave me weak," said Harry, wiping his forehead's sweat with the sweater's sleeve, exhausted.

"Stop it here, then!" Ron spoke with a firm tone and closed the book which was still holding tightly in his hands.

"NO! I want to go on! The only way to control these powers is to practice. Please Ron, I need your help again!"

Ron nodded uncertainly and opened the book unwillingly.

"Shall we try with Water?" he asked doubtfully and Harry nodded, reaching the center of the room.

"This time we need something liquid to start with," said Ron, looking around him.

"Maybe that greenish substance could be useful!" asked Luna, quietly.

"Well, since we haven't got anything else, I think it'll be fine. Harry, you should deeply concentrate on that substance and say the magical words Aqua Emanatum!"

Harry obeyed; he closed his eyes again and stretched out his arms toward the point where Luna had broken the still.

"AQUA EMANATUM!"

This time, Harry saw immediately a small spiral springing out from the liquid, even if it was as small as a wine goblet.

"AUGEO!"

At Harry's order, the whirl increased more and more, until it became tall as a table; it was already starting to engulf everything along his path when Harry felt his strength being completely dragged out of him and the sharp pain in his breast became unbearable.

His head was throbbing, making him dizzy and he felt the need of throwing up. When the vortex of water decreased abruptly, Harry fainted on the floor, senseless.

7