Chapter 6

Dumbledore's Office

Snape: "And shall I attempt to use passive Legilimency on the brat and report my findings?

Dumbledore: No. I must advise against it. Don't. Just don't. Don't try and provoke him either. Nothing of that nature would cause him to reveal to us what he is.

Hogwarts Express

"We're nearly there," Hermione said quietly looking at the darkness outside the window. Neville who had been dozing quietly for the last forty minutes jerked awake suddenly to the sound of her voice. "I'll wait outside for the lot of you to change into your robes." As she shuffled outside, Neville wheezed and nudged Ron who broke from his loud snore and the lot of them changed in rapid fashion. As the train jerked to a stop, Harry became aware that he was getting a mild headache but he shrugged it off and did not pay much attention for the moment.

"Firs years to me!" An evidently half giant was booming and it was to him that the four of them headed towards once they had gotten off at the station. Harry followed behind the other three, feeling more and more uneasy and uncomfortable as the giant "Hagrid" led the way through the darkened wet streets of Hogesmede, slipping through the narrow alleys between some buildings with outlandish signs, to a small wooden pier by the lake at the edge of the village.

"You'll get yer first look at Hogwarts in a sec." The giant ahead of them promised.

They passed through a low under-bridge before a collection of oohs and gasps broke out from among them. He didn't dare open his eyes. All around him he could sense the rapture of his fellow students, but he knew if he dared it at the very moment, it would kill him. The power that was being emitted at whatever was ahead was overwhelming. It was nothing that he had ever felt in his life, and he sensed he had never truly felt magic until at this very moment, its surging heat and presence produced an ever-agonizing throbbing in his brain and he willed himself not to pass out even as he felt his insides being hammered at, the magic being emanated churning like a maddened volcano spewing out hot embers and thunder strikes in the distance he could imagine. He began to shake involuntarily as he passed some sort of imaginary line and his head split open, he was left clutching the side of the boat desperately willing for the moment to end.

"Are you all right, Harry" came Hermione's concerned voice next to him. "Are you ill?" But he could not answer her but uttered a piteous moan from beneath the folds of his robes, he didn't dare open his eyes. He wasn't sure if whether the rays and the auras would force themselves into his sight, past his defenses and he would disintegrate in the face of pure overwhelming magical fury. He couldn't hold on. He tilted onto the edge willing himself to fall off the edge into the lake but Neville caught hold of him.

"He's really ill, professor Hagrid," Neville squeaked in horror.

Harry screamed and all the boats came to a halt. It was all attacking him from so close and he threw up on the shore. "Fetch Madame Pomfrey," came Hagrid's far-off panicked voice, but as no one among them knew Madame Pomfrey they were helpless. Hagrid bellowed, "Stay here, the lot of ye!" and he carried Harry bodily up the steps of the castle. Harry was jerking frantically in his arms in a fit.

Hospital Wing

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine." Harry repeated stubbornly. It had been fifteen minutes since his collapse and things were beginning to piece themselves back together but his head was still in so much pain he could barely think. But he couldn't show too much weakness for an initial impression. "Please let me go down to the Entrance Hall and be sorted. I've just hurt my eyes so I can't see that's all. I promise I'll come straight back here afterwards and get myself checked up. I really can't miss my sorting. Please Madame Pomfrey."

After performing a series of diagnostic charms and finding there was nothing really physically wrong with him, she let him go reluctantly after he had assured her he was feeling quite better, with the exception of his eyes which were apparently hurting. He still didn't dare open them at the moment, and he could still feel and register shivers at the sheer intensity of the magic pulsating through the walls like an almighty heartbeat. In the end, she had given him a pain relief potion that did help enormously and walked with him down to the entrance of the Great Hall. As Harry strolled in he forced his eyes to open but almost immediately wished he hadn't.

The sheer luminescence and dancing sparks that greeted him was shocking and searing even as he was doing everything he possibly could to restrain his Sight, and he couldn't help but cover his face in a reflex motion despite how it would look. It was as if he was staring into the face of the rising run in its full magnificence and intensity of piercing light, the sparkling effulgence, the shining beacon of a million lights dancing in parallel, twinkling in the midst of a vague background of noise and scattered human forms wreathed in black. He knew that this was not the way he wanted to make his entrance into Hogwarts, cowering as if in fright and there were snickers all around but he could barely see anything at the moment. Blearily, he just managed to spot the line of first years getting ready to be sorted and he hastily moved to the rear. Slowly by separate degrees, over the course of minutes he forced his eyelids further and further open while at the same time desperately forcing down his Sight. It worked, slowly, little by little he was beginning to function again. Luckily his name was not near the top of the list.

"Harry Potter."

He felt the hush that fell across all four tables and then whispers that eruped in its wake, and clenching his teeth walked as composedly as he could to the stool before Dumbledore and all the rest of the professors, jammed the thing down on his head as quickly as possible, grateful for the darkness until an electric shock took over running down his entire spine down to his limbs and he clutched the edge of the stool in agony, willing himself not to cry out.

Harry Potter, the hat said. What have we here?

So I can talk to you then? And you can hear me and respond?

Certainly, the hat replied, I am a sentient being just like you in a sense.

Fascinating. Get on with it then would you? I need to get out of here as quickly as possible.

You have the sight.

What?

You have the sight. Myrddin was the last who tried me on. Just like you he reacted in an unpredictable way when first subject to the castle's formidable wards and array of magical sources. For when anything foreign in magical nature enters these walls, it has to put up a fight before the Castle deems it worthy to be let pass.

So this is why I'm hurting then? A nasty sort of test?

Your body and mind cannot bear to be stimulated by such a refluent flow of magic in such a short period of time. Surely you have experienced such a stress before, even if it was not anything to this scale?

Tell me more about this Sight then, what do you know? I haven't been able to find any information elsewhere about it.

All I know, I know by having examined your last predecessor who possessed this gift. And while I cannot reveal any particular facts, I will give you a general outline of what I know. The sight is evidently a rare and almost unheard of gift given that of all the students that have ever attended you are only the second I have encountered. It seems to be the manifest ability, as you are aware, to make use of the body's senses and intellect to detect and analyze magic, using visual, auditory, scent, and other bodily sensations as cues. Essentially by making use of these cues you are able to read magic as a sort of obscure language, and thus make out meaning and intention. I suspect at this young age, you have only been doing so largely intuitively in general so far, but as you develop a greater consciousness, and hone your abilities to acuteness, you will discover a whole plethora of specific tools and techniques that are open to you. I am certain you have already discovered yourself capable of manipulating your own flow of magic to better suit what a situation requires?

Harry attempted to question the hat for more but it refused to say more. The shock was lessening now but he was still quite sure he was trembling in front of everyone to see.

Ok fine. My last question is this. My last question is this. Was it his sensing ability that made him great and powerful, or was that just an incidental ability of his? Underneath the folds Harry could feel (or sense?) the Sorting Hat twitch with silent bemusement. I have just told you you are the first since him to possess it. Have there been others then? Besides us? Earlier? Certainly. But I cannot confirm it, only logically there has had to be. Why would that be the case? Their names may be lost to ancient history and be unknown to us, but it is evident that every culture, every civilization of magic that has ever existed has had its sacred, mythical founder, that was able to establish the foundations for further development. Current magical Britain which as its roots in the Romano-Celtic tradition is no different. The Founders may have been strong in ambient magic but they were unable to dissect their magic into smaller pieces for general use, to make specific spells with predictable inductive outcomes. Their magic while immensely powerful was vague, hard to control, and even harder to study and learn, much less analyze by cause and effect. Myrddin was the one who unified two traditions of magic and in doing so created something revolutionary. He was able to restructure the tradition of Celtic magic itself into the logical forms found in the ancient Roman tradition, keeping a portion of the original strength of the old spells, while sacrificing a great deal of its power for wider accessibility and comprehension. In this way magic could now be studied by everyone and furthered in a coherent manner. This was what allowed a wider Magical community to spring up so that the full human resources of all who were magical could be fully tapped. So it would no longer be pure divine luck that allowed some people to have their magic, now it was a combination of that with intelligence. The Founders could never after all give an account into anything that they were capable of doing. And so there were ever only Four (exceptional) Founders in over a thousand years. No one else was capable of actually learning their magic until Myrddin changed the rules. Even if he was not their peer in terms of raw power, he was their first pupil and successor by rights.

You could be just like him in this respect. You both have the Sight to push magic and understand it, to develop it along new frontiers, understand new potentialities, benefit wizardkind.

I thank you for your counsel, Harry said, his head swimming with new revelations even as it was continuing to ache. Would you please now do me the honor of sorting me into a proper house and I would be grateful.

I do not have the ability to sort you.

What?

You misunderstand me. I don't have the ability to sort you because let me put it this way whatever magical probe I send to determine your magical character you could easily detect with your Sight, and then adjust and shift your magic as you please to disguise your true intentions. So I cannot sort you with any accuracy while you may so easily deceive me. I can try but it would be ultimately playing a game with you to see who can outwit the other.

Has this been a riddle all the while then, since you cannot discern my true nature so you have got me into conversing with you to reveal inadvertently what I am. In order to properly sort me as is your task.

Very astute of you. Those with the Sight do seem to have more than just the ability to sense magic, they can also often sense intuitively the intention itself behind the magic, albeit only indirectly. But it was the only method left to me, the non-magical method of judging. You are a Ravenclaw undoubtedly as are all who possess the Sight but I had to make sure. Ravenclaw then?

But Myrddin was a Slytherin.

So he was. So he was. Ravenclaw then…

No shut up. I needed to think. He needed Gryffindor. He needed soldiers. He needed to be seen as a symbol fighting evil. He needed Remus and Sirius by him. That was what he needed to be seen as. Gryffindor. It was the strategically sound choice.

I must say you are diametrically opposed to Gryffindor based on my observations.

Harry suddenly had an inkling of thought. Or I could just pull you off right now before you are able to speak and the headmaster will drop you into a bucket of ice water.

The hat's jaw dropped. How can you know? Ah yes, the sight allows for special intuition of others as well, especially on something so close to your head at the very moment. The mind is after all the source of all magic. Never forget that Harry Potter. Very well, I consent and yield to you. Gryffindor it is.

Sitting up stoically at the high table, Professor McGonagoll looked worriedly at her magical watch. It was rapidly approaching fifteen minutes. Harry Potter's sorting had just shattered a thousand year record. The hall was in stunned silence while the First Years who had yet to be sorted were tapping their feet impatiently. Then…

The Hat emitted a hoarse and somewhat shriller voice than usual, GRYFFINDOR!

Note Below (LONG explanation on the historical process of the development of magic/and also somewhat the basis of this fic. My personal notes for this story edited. Read if interested)

In this story, Celtic magic (the tradition) is the powerful but nearly uncontrollable type, immense, capable of astonishing mindblowing feats, the Founders who performed this magic were demi gods. They built Hogwarts and all its magical contents. They founded the Houses. If they wanted something to happen, than it happened, magic simply responded directly to their will. That's how divinely talented they were. They were a golden generation whose magic seemed to spring up almost miraculously, as if due to divine luck (cause no knew why or how not even themselves), and collectively they used such power to build Hogwarts. But because of the obscurity of Celtic magic there is only about one such true sorcerer/shaman in hundreds and hundreds of years. To have four together was unprecedented and why Hogwarts was able to be built.

But as they were never capable of understanding anything of what they did, and while they astonished many and had many students, they could not pass on their abilities to any of their students efficiently. That was until Merlin came and he too initially was also unable to learn anything, even as he could "see" the magic. Frustrated he began to transcribe the magic (forms/runes) and study it. He then encountered the ancient Roman tradition that was still somewhat preserved from the South of England, dating back from the Roman invasion. Roman magic is quite the opposite to the Celtic tradition. It is methodical and scientific, rational, and based on well defined/thought out/clear formulae that had been tried and tested. But because of this coherent clarity, it is much less powerful and limited in what it is able to do. But because of these attributes, it is more easily understood by all; all are able to work/learn this kind of magic to some degree not merely those who are "divinely appointed/talented."

So Merlin began the arduous task of fleshing out the Founder's magic, as much as he was able to observe, and repackaging them in the Roman form, keeping the contents intact as much as was possible, and working how every little detail was composed and could be understood, so that all could understand it in the form of spells/potions. He didn't entirely succeed. Divination is entirely still Celtic in form (and thus available to only the few). Much of dark magic, intent spells like Patronus is Celtic. But transfiguration is an area where he very much succeeded in, as well as Potions/Herbology, while it uses Celtic ingredients and effects, now follows Roman methodology. The foundations of Runes are based on visual cues that Merlin observed, and Harry will realize this later (spoiler.) In Charms he was only partly successful, and as a result it is much less logical, rigorous than transfiguration. The process of converting obscure mystical magic into logical magic, I dub "rationalization."

Under "rationalization", intelligence, and not merely "natural talent for magic" is allowed to become an additional factor of determining magical capacity, as magic now is founded not just on power directly, but is able to be derived indirectly from intellect

I call such a process whereby obscure but powerful magic is transformed into a rational, accessible, logical form of magic, rationalization, and it is clear that rationalization must be the reason for any magical civilization to come into being. Or else all magic would be unable to understood by the masses, mysterious, and available only to the select few with divine-like talent. The Romans themselves had to rationalize their magic initially and they turned to the Greek logical form, the Greeks in turn had the Egyptians to learn from, the Egyptians from Mesopotamia. But it is clear in the process of the history of the development of magic, magic is becoming ever more and more rationalized, as every advancing civilization in history makes further progress in "rationalization." The logical forms by which rationalization is carried out are becoming more and more advanced, refined, and complex. This has allowed magical communities to grow ever more and more complex, varied, highly developed, become more "high tech" in their magic as they are able to develop it further by a process of analysis, and scientific experimentation. Thus for every individual quirk or need, there is a specific, calculated, proportionate magical derived solution that is developed. (spells. Magical objects. Potions.)

Still nothing exists to this day that can replicate the raw power and direct command of magic that the Founders possessed to build Hogwarts. Dumbledore and Voldemort could be considered individuals closest to them in talent. Had they not been schooled in rational magic, their magic would still probably have sprang up spontaneous on its own (Voldemort's underaged magic), and so each are able to perform "incredible feats of magic" that astonish everyone. In the time of the Founders, they would have been considered true shamans. But as it took 4 such talented individuals working together very hard for decades to build Hogwarts, it is unlikely that such a feat can be replicated because it requires at least four such individuals being born at the same time around the same place, willing and incredibly committed to work together for such an extended period of time on one project. Only in such circumstances are incredible magical feats like Hogwarts possible. Rational magic could never alone do it, because it requires the user to first understand the basis of any magic to allow them to perform that magic, which for the building of Hogwarts would require mastery of understanding in thousands of types of magic to an absurdly advanced level which is too much for anyone. So for Hogwarts to have been built, a spontaneous almighty magic of the Founders was needed, the "divine" ability to perform powerful magic without needing to understand it first.

Having his gift of Sight (although he is not intrinsically powerful), Harry can be seen to be something like Merlin's successor. Those with this gift in history have been paradigm-shifting inventors, innovators (by their ability to analyze pure magic in detail) who change the face of what people can do with magic. (And from that also naturally a community is shaped by such people, the nature of any magical community being derived from the nature of its magic.) But first he still has to kill Lord Voldemort.

In Response to one question in the comments by Kairin1979: Harry has the sight. He's grown up being more astute than any other average human being, so he's grown up very quickly, become aware of human nature/character. Imagine being able to from an early age, sense the rough true ulterior motivations behind any individual you ever talked/interacted with. How would you grow up as? This has a cumulative effect, at age 3 he's as astute as a twelve year old, by eleven he essentially is an adult. Harry is almost impossible to dupe/mislead because of his Sight. He has strong intuition, because in those story, intention in any witch/wizard is interlinked with their magic, so any one who can sense/see magic can understand the intention behind it as well. So in answer, Harry is not your typical 11 year old. And because of the intense serious training he has been subjected to, he rationalizes everything. It also means he's not terribly good at relating or conversing with his peers, who he views as childish compared to him.