Master of Puppets 4

Harry sat on the train back to King's Cross, nervously fingering a sheet of parchment in his hands. Professor Dumbledore had given it to him, and on it was the various ways that a young wizard could get about the country, even abroad, if they so chose. It mentioned the Knight Bus, official portkey locations and where they went, the floo network, and it even contained a rather interesting part about thestral riding not being illegal, and the mounts somehow covering their riders with their semi-invisibility when being rode as well.

He glanced up at his three companions, his 'dolls', 'puppets', or however you wanted to call them. All three of them were remaining relatively quiet for now, though he didn't know how long that would last with Chachazero. Hermione would have been there as well, but she was now in the compartment next door, a massive stack of notes spread all over the compartment she had to herself as she went over everything she knew about golems and their creation.

When she had first met them, things had been… interesting. However, upon finding out that the art was considered 'lost', she threw herself into attempting to recreate them. Hermione did have a rather strong competitive streak, and a desire to prove herself, so it was little wonder that she wanted to be the one who managed to bring back the lost art.

Harry carefully neglected to mention the book that the Sorting Hat had dropped on his head. That book was something he'd been gifted, and he treasured it quite a bit. While he would never say this to the girl, he didn't want Hermione to get her hands on it because she would pore over it until it had nothing left to give, and just this once… he'd like to read something at his own pace, enjoy it, not treat it like an enemy to be conquered like Hermione did. If she did get her hands on it, he knew she'd natter on about it constantly, and it would sour him against it.

He didn't want that, and yet he still wanted Hermione's friendship, so he kept the book his little secret.

He felt guilty about that, and he would probably have handed the book over to her if it wasn't for one little thing, the urgings of his dolls. They each said, in their own unique ways, that he really should have something that was 'his', something for himself, a little thing to be selfish over.

Chachazero had said it was a normal human thing to do, something she'd seen plenty of times in her long life. Everyone needed a way to unwind and relax, and while she would prefer it if he would 'blow shit up and kill a few people', she also agreed that something that violent wasn't in his nature.

Ashlotte had said to do as he wished, she did not have the experience necessary to make a judgement on human behaviour, though she did believe that keeping secrets from his friends was not necessarily a bad thing, and she would prefer it if no one but he had the knowledge of how she works, meaning no one would be able to alter her, or even try to do so.

Suigintou barely had the patience for him, and she had no desire to share anything with another human, so she was most definitely against sharing that particular book. She was, in fact, rather enjoying being five foot eight, and particularly pleased that having the effect constantly active didn't seem to wear either herself or him out.

Chachazero had also been given a necklace of size-changing as well, though after running around like that for half a dozen hours, was content enough to return to regular size, and even urged him to experiment more with crafting different magical effects like that, which the house elves had confirmed should not be picked up by the underage magic detectors, and neither would other things, like potions or alchemy.

That did get him curious about the latter subject, and Hogwarts did offer lessons in it. However, it was only two hours per week for fifth years and above, and only for those that had achieved an O in Transfiguration and passed a basic apptitude test, as apparently Alchemy was incredibly complicated and time-consuming to practise.

Regarding enchanting items with magic, in the last few days before the train had departed from Hogwarts, Harry had learned a few things. First, that spells that could be classified as 'alteration' were some of the easiest to enchant something with, whether that be changing the size or colour of something or whether it was completely transforming one object into another.

That crude wooden puppet that he'd been practising puppeteering on with magic 'strings' had turned into a horrifying monstrosity in miniature quite easily, even if the new form was hellaciously difficult for him to articulate properly, and that's especially true considering his usual attempts at puppeteering consisted of making a doll flop around the table top in a pathetic parody of true motion.

"Ow!" Harry yelped in pain and clapped his hands to his forehead as a stinging sensation brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Suigintou levelling a flat look his way, only a step below a glare.

"Stop brooding." She commanded him, pulling her hand away from his face. "Do something more productive, this train journey marks the last few hours you'll be able to actively cast magic, so make use of it while you can."

Harry grumbled under his breath, but that quickly subsided under Suigintou's gaze. Once he was done, he pulled out a small rough cut wooden case that Hagrid had made for him to hold all the little tools he'd made over the past few days. The giant of a man had been quite happy to help Harry collect twigs and sticks that were magically receptive, the gamekeeper knowing quite a bit about the subject, having gathered a lot of the wood Ollivander had used to make wands for the past few decades.

Inside the case was a series of small sticks, more like dowels with a pointy end than a wand, and each of them had a word or short phrase etched on their side. 'Repair', 'fire', 'levitate', 'unlock', and more were amongst them. The sticks were basically wands capable of casting only a single spell, his successful attempts at doing so at least, as making 'directed spells' was really not as easy as things that affected the wearer. He actually wore a band of leather around his left wrist which had a shield spell imbued in it, and that… well, it had been harder than his initial attempt at the enlarge/reduce necklace he'd made for Suigintou.

Plucking a pebble out of the box, he held it in his hand as it began to glow with light. Like this, it was obvious that the stone had been imbued with the 'lumos' spell. However, that's all it was. He'd tried to add a second effect, even a simple one like making it levitate at shoulder height, but it had failed. It seemed the method he was using had a few serious limitations on what it could do.

First, only one spell could be imbued in an object at a time, though with some creative thinking there was a way around this. For example, that stone that glowed? He could make a net to hold it and enchant that with the levitation effect, but this was both inefficient and not good enough for him to really be proud of the result.

Second, only some of the weaker spells could be imbued into something like this. While he couldn't cast anything beyond what an accomplished second year might be able to do, Professor Dumbledore had shown Harry what would happen if a spell too powerful for the imbuing to manage was cast on it for imprinting.

The explosion had been impressive if nothing else.

Dumbledore seemed to enjoy it as well, laughing like a schoolboy at Harry's shocked expression. The man had then directed Harry to a few of the less read books in the library, and had even given him a provisional pass for a few of the tomes in the restricted section. Specifically, he'd looked up the 'Arte of Portraite Magics', 'Magical Minds and how not to make a monster', and 'Thinking Spells and their limitations'.

The first book was all about how someone might enchant a magical portrait, with emphasis on how the personality was a copy of a real person who was alive when the painting was made, their blood having been mixed into the paints, and how it was possible to make a completely fictional character in a painting. That latter bit was very important, as there had been attempts before to display portraits of the four founders that had been proven fake.

The second book included some rather advanced animation charms, ones that went straight over Harry's head, that could be used to turn statues into guard dogs, and how simple mistakes could change them from guardians into vicious beasts that would hunt down and kill everything they could before they were destroyed.

The third book was about how making anything intelligent was actually very difficult. While there were prank products that would insult someone who tried to use them, and even things like attempts to replace house elves with mechanical servants, they could only do what they'd been 'pre-programmed' to do, more reactive than truly intelligent.

Harry replaced the light pebble back in the box and began to organise the items in there. The rods had all of their names facing upwards and were firmly secured in the box, the pebbles and other similar objects were strapped to the inside lid of the box with the writing on them clearly visible as well, and he made a quick run down of everything he had, and if there was anything else he might need in a pinch.

He wished he could have made a sort of tazer with a stunning spell or something, but that spell was beyond his ability to cast, being more something that a fourth or fifth year might know than someone that had just finished his second year. However, Harry was not without his own accomplishments…

One thing he was particularly proud of was his first attempt at actually making a sort of golem, using what limited knowledge he currently had at his disposal. The doll was small and crude, with a spherical head, a blocky body, arms, and legs, with no fingers on its hands, and it had been imbued with the spell Flitwick had taught them to make a pineapple dance, but it was quite entertaining to watch, as it would attempt to dance to any music it heard when activated, which always put a smile on his face.

Ashlotte had been fascinated by it as well, though her own attempts at dancing were nowhere near as co-ordinated or graceful as the model, and Chachazero's cackling laughter had echoed madly off the walls, though when she made her own attempt at dancing… well, Ashlotte actually managed something akin to a smug smirk at that.

Suigintou had refused to even attempt dancing.

A small smile pulled at Harry's lips as he remembered this, watching the doll dance to the music he'd conjured up. He winced whenever his spell mangled the notes, and tried to keep the melody from speeding up or slowing down as it tended to do if you didn't focus completely on it.

xxxxx

Getting off the train, Harry said goodbye to everyone that said their own farewells to him. A few people he knew in passing, like Susan Bones, the Patil sisters, and Sally-Anne Perks, and others that he knew much better, like Hermione and the Quidditch Team for example.

Thankfully, he only really had Ashlotte at his side right now. Chachazero and Suigintou were both in his trunk, along with Ashlotte's weapon, though neither of them were particularly happy about it. The only reason they could get in there at all was because Dumbledore had cast an expansion charm on the inside of the trunk, making it a room that was around ten feet cubed right now.

It was only when they passed through the barrier to King's Cross that they saw the Dursleys, and they didn't look particularly happy to see Ashlotte following him over to them, even if she was now dressed more to blend in amongst muggles, though a maid's outfit was really not… subtle.

Harry was tempted to throttle whoever had come up with that idea.

"Boy..." Vernon began in a low voice, but Harry was already explaining what had happened.

"I can't get rid of her, but I only actually need to stay a week with you." He'd been told 169 hours by Dumbledore, and 7 days was 168 hours, so it was close enough. "As long as I stay indoors for seven complete days, I can leave for the rest of the holidays and not come back until next year, where I'd only stay a week then too."

Vernon narrowed his eyes, before huffing, which Harry took to mean agreement. "Pull your weight for those seven days, and don't even try and contact us the rest of the year and you have a deal, boy, but I want absolutely no funny business, you hear me?"

"Understood, uncle." Harry agreed instantly.

"Get in the car then, and your… maid can put your trunk in the boot." Vernon didn't give him time to say anything more, as he immediately turned away and headed for the car.

Still, Harry thought this might actually be the best summer he'll have, if only because he truly wasn't alone.

Of course, he was going to keep his little box of imbued items on him. If the Dursleys tried something on him, well, they might be in for a bit of a surprise.

For the first time ever, a mischevious smile grew across Harry Potter's face.

Heh, I've been playing an Artificer in DnD fifth edition just recently, and it inspired me to make another chapter of this.