"Can you change it instantly?"
A spark appeared in all eyes present.
"I can't. However, it should only be a fraction of a second without master having any of his magic. The pain will be proportional to the amount lost."
Hela was visibly saddened at Kreacher's words. It had been such a good idea, but She didn't think the pain to her Master was worth the overall increase.
Harry, however, was racing ideas through his mind faster than he ever had before. If the pain was proportional to the amount of magic he had, he simply needed to drain the rest of his magic. Well, strike that. No pain, no gain was a lesson that Shard had learned very well, according to the memories he had gained.
"If it causes pain to lose my magic, then we should either increase the size of the block or have me perform a ritual to drain almost all of it," Harry said with finality.
Hela straightened. How had this not occurred to her? Her Master was already drained, as she had seen on the clay. However, there was something nagging at the back of her mind.
"We also need to increase the capacity, Kreacher, or our Master will not be able to handle the increase. If we can immediately, The rune sequence is very short." Keeping her hand still, she inscribed the sequence, ᚱᛈ, on the clay.
Harry gasped in pain. For a second, it seemed like he had lost any stamina, was ready to burn up immediately from the uncontrolled magic flowing through his veins. Now, however, he felt empty, as though he had not just been full of magic ready to burn him up. Looking at the runes, he frowned. Seeing his expression, Hela explained the runes.
"The first one is radio, and it represents the journey. The other is pertho, and what it represents is more fluid. Some see it as a cup that dice have just been thrown from, Some see it as a container, but here it is completely different. My favourite interpretation is that of a cup waiting to be filled. In combination with the radio, Your capacity is now something that can never be filled, no matter how much you put in. I recommend the increase and then the block removal as I suspect the percentage will stay the same through the change.
Your regeneration rate, however, will be two of the uruz rune. This rune stands for life force, physical health, courage, healing, vigour, and endurance. Some other interpretations are determination, luck, and brutality. This will give you a faster regeneration period,
Harry looked at Hela in a new light. She had just come into the magical world, but she was already smarter than most he had known and had come to that conclusion without any help. Even Hermione had had to look in a book to find answers.
That reminded him, after all of this he had to go see them and have a chat about the compulsions and love potion. Telling Hela to wait subconsciously, he sent an owl to the Weasleys, letting them know that he had escaped and wanted to meet with his old friends. Suddenly, an idea about the magical blocks occurred to him.
Jumping back to the present, Harry stiffened. Running through the idea, Harry grinned.
"Okay. Kreacher, increase the block to a point where under a hundredth of a Makt remains. Also, set the regeneration to stasis. After that, Hela, change the core Makt to a 9 raised to half the remaining space of tightly packed ones, with that raised to the remaining space filled with tightly packed ones. We'll go on from there. We can optimize it later. I'll also want a way to mask my magic or control it. We have removed the blocks on wandless magic, but all some control buffs there too."
Just a few seconds later, the block read:
Core - Grey-Dark
Current Capacity: 0.001 M
Regeneration Rate: Stasis
Maximum Capacity: ᚱᛈ
Bind: 0.999996666667%; Albus Dumbledore & Kreacher (Black Family House-Elf)
Ability: Magic Masking
Ability: Enhanced Magic Control
Ability: Magical Occlumency
Harry raised an eyebrow. Hela truly never ceased to amaze him with her mind. About to praise her, Harry felt the drain. He slurred "Noowwww… " as he fell into a magical coma.
Hela looked at Kreacher. He had passed out as well. Holding the enchanted awl carefully, she made a last-second decision to replace the nine she was going to write with three ones. Immediately, Harry woke up. Hela quickly bound him to the table. She kept writing ones, packing the space. After the second, Kreacher seemed to de-age even more and woke up. He immediately Apparated away to avoid the possible death he would have faced.
Hela, however, was already dead and could not die. In addition, Hela found her Master's magic intoxicating. She kept writing. By the eighth one, Hela would have died. By the eleventh, the ward stones for the flying fortress were being powered by him alone. Hela took a break before raising the power again.
Harry was grinning in anticipation. It was all of the exhilaration of using magic combined with a lack of tiredness. He was aware that he had transcended his previous power by levels previously unimaginable. (A/N: Calculations, for those of you who want to know: I had to use WolframAlpha. 111^111111111111111111111111111111) Knowing there was still more to go, the world wouldn't know what hit it.
30 ones later, and Harry was forcing himself to use his newfound "Magical Occlumency" to keep himself from accidentally hurting someone or destroying the world. With a mere thought, he used his magic to create a form of harnessing itself. (A/N: 111^111111111111111111111111111111^111111111111111111111111111111)
The text on his chest now read:
Core - Grey-Dark
Current Capacity: 111^111111111111111111111111111111^111111111111111111111111111111
Regeneration Rate: ᚢᚢ
Maximum Capacity: ᚱᛈ
Bind: 0.999996666667%; Albus Dumbledore & Kreacher (Black Family House-Elf)
Ability: Magic Masking
Ability: Enhanced Magic Control
Ability: Magical Occlumency
Ability: Magical Sentience
After a few hours of practice, he was distracted by Hela screaming, falling to the floor, and writhing in pain. Seeing this, Harry rushed over to her.
"Hela! Are you okay? What's happening?"
"Odin… summoning… permission... "
Realizing what she meant, Harry swore. "You can go. You don't need to ask me for permission for this if you're being summoned. We also need to keep up the cover, so please, Hela, go back."
Hela was instantly taken away.
Walking through the flying fortress, Harry wondered what to do. He was surrounded by all these books, and one had floated up to him: the family grimoire. Opening it, he was pulled into his mindscape. The book was there as well, but this time it disappeared when he opened it, the knowledge flowing into his mind like Shard's memories had.
He was in the Ravenclaw ancestral home, a "normal" manor that could fly and was filled with every book ever written, magical or muggle. There was only a single spell with a description. It gave the caster the knowledge of all of the books in a library, without repeat, instantaneously. Realizing he was still under some blocks, Harry called Kreacher to finish the job.
When Kreacher arrived, Harry was thoroughly surprised. He had known that house-elves mirrored the state of their masters, but Kreacher had actually de-aged a good thirty years since the ritual.
Shaking this off, Harry asked Kreacher to remove the remaining blocks but to leave the core bind for now. It would definitely prove to be a shock to the Weasleys and Hermione if they truly had less then honourable intentions.
Within another thirty seconds, Harry now had natural, mental, and magical Occlumency at a level previously unheard of, ready to take on the largest library in history.
"Scientiam meam," He intoned. The knowledge flowed into his head into the replica library he had created. This library, however, was a computer that translated all languages and even updated the English tongue. He merely had to think and all of the books related to the subject he had thought about would appear in front of him in his mind. Much like the grimoire, he could absorb these books with a mere touch.
Thinking no more about that other than to mentally absorb everything in the background, he thought of Apparating. Several dozen books appeared in his mind, one describing an equally accurate way that was practiced before the Albion Laws of Magic had effectively banned it; Shadow Walking.
Harry spent the next couple hours going through all of the books on Shadow Magic, even testing out some of the spells and seeing some of the flaws. Wanting to improve these flaws caused the entire Arithmancy section to appear in front of him in his mindscape. Absorbing the books, he tried the spells again, this time creating several minor improvements and one major improvement. Finally, Harry fell through his own shadow, practicing the skill until it was almost second nature.
Choosing one near the Burrow, Harry appeared in the nearby forests of the Lovegood home. Changing his mind, Harry turned and knocked on the door to the house. An older Luna opened it, her ever-present smile widening when she saw him.
"Welcome back, Harry. You finally found out."
"Luna, I… "
"We both know what you must do, Harry. You need to confront your past."
Harry nodded.
"Is your father still alive?"
"He passed away years ago. It's been just me for a while."
Harry smiled. Calling upon his power as the Master of Death, Harry brought a dementor to the house. It truly was amazing that he could stand so close and not fear for his life. Slowly, he removed the soul of the dementor and replaced it with one that left this realm a long time ago: Pandora Lovegood, Luna's mom.
The dementor slowly changed into the form the soul requested, wiping away the shroud and revealing a young woman with Luna's exact blonde hair. She fell to one knee before Harry.
"Rise, Pandora. I have brought you here to protect your daughter while I am away. You may draw upon your inherent powers or my core at any time. Treat her as you would if you were still alive. She is your daughter."
The ex-Dementor nodded. Luna, finally getting over her shock, hugged Harry and then her reincarnated mother. Harry returned the hug, said his goodbyes, and turned towards the Weasley house.
A few minutes later, he arrived. He stopped himself just before knocking on the door. Conjuring a mirror, he realized that it was a miracle that Luna recognized him at their earlier meeting. His clothes were torn, he looked so different after the blood glamour was lifted, and he hadn't bathed in a good 40 years.
After a second of thought, Harry banished his "clothes", replacing them with fabric seemingly pulled from his own shadow. A quick Scourgify cleaned his body, and he applied a glamour that changed his features enough that it was reasonable that he changed to this after 40 years away.
Satisfied, he knocked on the door.
After some grumbling from inside, George opened the door. His jaw dropped.
"Are you… Harry?"
Harry pulled him into a hug.
"George. Is Fred here?"
With that, George gripped Harry tighter and started crying.
"Dead… 35 years… " He gasped out in between his sobs. Harry pulled back.
"I want to make a deal, George. I can bring him back. Just… don't break down."
George nodded. Harry repeated the process from earlier, this time with Fred's soul. The new Fred, too, fell to one knee before Harry.
"Rise, Fred Weasley. Join your brother, and continue the life you led before you lost it 35 years ago."
The Ex-dementor rose, hugging his twin.
"Let's go inside. I bet they can't wait to see me again," Fred said. The three turned and walked into the dining room. All activity stopped. An older Molly Weasley slowly approached them.
"Fred? George? Is he… am I… How?"
Fred laughed, the sound cutting through the silence.
"I am Fred, and you have only Harry to thank for this."
All eyes turned to Harry.
Ron was the first to speak.
"Harry, mate… what happened? How'd you do that? Are you okay?"
Harry chuckled, bringing the tension back to the room. It truly was amazing, that Ron was keeping up the facade so well.
"I came into some new abilities recently, Ron. After 40 years, you make some friends. If those friends can control souls, well… They can put one into another Dementor and, to all effect, bring someone back to life. Before you stands the soul of Fred Weasley, inhabiting the body of one of the many Dementors assigned to torture me these past 40 years."
It was at this point that Arthur Weasley, Ginny, Hermione, Bill, Charlie, Fleur, and one other woman he couldn't place, came through the Floo. Each of them had the same reaction, freezing in place at the sight of two people long gone from their lives.
Fred, being Fred, decided to revert to his Dementor form to "inspire a reaction". Unsurprisingly, everyone but Harry and George jumped back and screamed.
"Really, my brother," George remarked, "you truly are the same soul you always were."
Harry smirked at the truth behind that statement.
"Hey, guys," Harry called out. "Long time no see. How has life been?"
Hermione was the first to break out of her shock.
"Harry?"
"It's me. How have the past 40 years been, Hermione?"
The background activities in the room resumed. Hermione grabbed a nearby Quibbler.
"You absolute idiot! You spent 40 years with demons sucking your soul, and you are asking me how I am? Have you lost your mind?"
Each syllable was punctuated with a hit over the head from the paper. Raising his hands in defence, Harry replied.
"I'm not an idiot, Hermione. I went to the healers, and they helped me get my mind back. I'm still not able to do that much physically though."
Seeing that he was okay and that he was telling the truth, Hermione stopped hitting him and pulled him into a hug.
"We need to talk," Hermione whispered into his ear. "In private."
Pulling back, Hermione continued her rant.
"And for some reason, you decided to turn a dementor into Fred? How did you pacify it!"
Harry sighed.
"I only want to say this once, and I don't know everyone here."
Noticing the pointedness of his comment, the unknown woman introduced herself.
"Hello. I am Elena Codreanu," she said in a mild accent. "I am Charlie's wife. I worked with him for many years. If you want me to keep a secret, I will."
Harry nodded. He had never met her or had any idea what motivated her, but maybe Hermione would know. Judging by the way she held herself, she had been either a medic or on the more political side of the war. Taking a risk, Harry decided that she would more likely have been a politician. Harry drummed his fingers on the table.
"Before I do anything, I would like to know what happened during the 40 years I was stuck in Azkaban."
Hermione caught the signal. In their fourth year, they had developed a signal that they wanted to talk in private. This particular varition meant outside, usually by the Black Lake. It had been useful during the time between the drawing of names and the end of the first task, when Ron had been more annoying than usual.
"I can tell you, Harry. It would be easier in the archives, but… " She turned to look at the Weasleys. Molly's eyes dawned with a look of recognition.
"Of course, dears. Take all of the time that you need. We'll still be here."
Hermione stood. Immediately, she dragged Harry to the Floo. Throwing a handful of powder in, she called out "Archive". Harry followed her through the Floo.
Before Hermione could start the tale, Harry took her arm and Apparated to the Ravenclaw Manor's sitting room. Hermione looked around in bewilderment.
"Where are we?" she asked. As far as she knew, Harry had never owned any houses other than Grimmauld Place after Sirius had died in the war twenty years ago. This, however, was a well-maintained, untouched sitting room that she had never been in, not throughout all of her visits as Minister.
"We are at Potter Manor," Harry replied. "I've been here the past few days, recovering. I need to get Luna as well, she'll also want to hear this tale."
Hermione stood in silence. So much she hadn't known about him, and about to learn all of it. Just… why did Luna Lovegood of all people need to be there?