An Apprenticeship?

All character and events that you recognize from the Harry Potter books belong to J.K Rowling.

I know a I promised regular updates. I'll try to be regular, but I'm pretty much swamped with work….

Timeskip ( 1 Month Later)

Harry was sitting in the pub Griffon Buver, waiting for his food to arrive. He found France to be peaceful as compared to England. They were no loud voices of men goading each other in drinking contests or something else. People here are more aloof and tended to carry their conversation in a quiet manner, well that what's Harry concluded. It has been a month since he came to France with Bill and Fleur. He stayed a few days staying with the Delacours, during which he was warmly welcomed by them and Mrs Delacour's hospitality rivaled to Mrs Weasley's and of course young Gabrielle was still shy in his presence yet she nonetheless warmed upto him and gave him a tour of the manor. After this, he accompanied Fleur and Bill along with Gabrielle to various magical and non magical places in France, like the Place Cachée, France's equivalent of Diagon Alley, the Eifel Tower, he gave Fleur and Bill and some space there so they could spend time together. During this trip, he came across many locations that were hidden with wards, so Muggles can;t find them, so he developed an interest in Runes and as he hadn't took this subject at Hogwarts, Bill was more than happy to teach Harry some rudimentary basics. From there, Harry after learning the basics was so endeared by Runes and Wards, that he decided to start learning Curse breaking. Provided he first needed to fully learn Runes till NEWT level, (he only learned the basics yet) but Bill was more than happy to teach him atleast till their trip.

He was startled, after the waiter brought him his food, Confit de canard a french dish consisting of duck. He had tried duck here in France and he seemed to have developed a linking for it. Thanking the waiter, he dug into his food appreciating the delicious taste of the duck and roasted potatoes. He thought as he took a bite, where should his next destination be. Bill and Fleur have returned to England, but Harry chose to stay behind to continue his trip on his own. He still had to give an answer to Patricia Rakepick a renowed Curse breaker who had worked for Gringotts, and as he showed an interest in learning curse breaking, Bill talked with her, and she was more than honoured to take Harry Potter, The Man Who Survived as her apprentice. She was currently living in France, so it would be convenient for Harry as he hadn't decided his next destination, so with no further delays, he decided to accept her offer. After finishing his meal and paying for it, he left Griffon Buver and went to the Owl Post to send a letter to Patricia. Place Cachée was far bigger than Diagon Alley, it is accessed through a magical bronze statue, and they are more shops here than there are in Diagon Alley. He had finished the letter a while ago while at the pub and tied it to an owl, who took flight to deliver his letter. He paid at the counter for his letter and went back to his room at Hotel De Ginestou. He thew himself on his bed, wondering what the next few months had in store for him.

Timeskip (January 1998)

It has been five months since his apprenticeship has started and Harry was enjoying every bit of it. One thing he realised, that studying one subject all day increases the progress substantially. Harry was now starting NEWTs level material, he covered the OWLs material in record time as Patricia told him. The lessons were more hands on than they would have been at Hogwarts. No essays to take up your time, the time was spent painstakingly learning how to inscribe runes. He was to learn them in his free time as Patricia would guide him how the Runes would be inscribed, how to charge them and most importantly how to chain them into performing multiple actions. Fair to say Harry was learning loads. 'Hermione would surely be jealous that I was getting Runes training from Patricia' thought Harry grinning all the while.

Patricia herself, was a beautiful woman in her late 40's though women in wizarding world aged slowly than their Muggle counterparts so she looked like she was still in her late 20's. Harry found her attractive, but the age barrier plus she had become his friend like Hermione that he was comfortable having her only as his friend, and he suspected the same was for her. He found that her Husband had died in the war, and she grew close to him and liked him but not in a romantic sense.

Another Timeskip (July 1998)

Harry was camping in the outskirts of Romania. A fire was lit along his tent and Harry was roasting some marshmallows thinking of the past 6 moths. He had complted his apprenticeship with Patricia and he was now a recognized Curse Breaker. He was surprised at his progress but he knew that due to his impatience and longing to travel further, he only learned the important areas on Curse breaking and not learning the delicate intricacies that were involved with and having no experience whatsoever, Harry was a fairly novice curse breaker at best. Sure he could now ward places, dismantle wards expertly, but the delicate art of removing curses from objects was the thing Harry struggled with. But an advantage of learning Runes was now could make runic symbols from his wand in the air instead of inscribing them and physical objects. Apparently, he found a book from his Potter library written by Alaric Potter his ancestor from Egypt, who specialized in Runic symbols and the art of making them in the open. Why no one else learned this is a mystery for Harry. As runes on physical objects needed to be charged, then activated, this was apparently not the case with Runes written by his wand on air, as they activated as soon as he wanted.

He was put out his musings, by a wolf sound near the forest, followed by a blinding light. Curious as to what produced such light, Harry as the hero he was decided to investigate. He folded the tent the tent with a casual flick of his wand and transfigured it into a chain that he wore around his neck. Alongside it was pendant, that he enchanted to hold all his belongings, his trunk that consisited of all his gold, invisibility cloak, the reserruction stone, prepared potions in statis as well as ingredients rare and commonly found, he had taken a liking to collect potion ingredients. He also had some wand cores as well like some dragon heartstrings and a nundu feather that cost him quite much and some rare woods like blackthorn, fir and hawthorn. He wanted to study wandcrafting at one point. Also, his family heirlooms were in there as well. Harry had gotten a little paranoid of always having things on his person should the unexpected happens like the attack on Bill and Fleur's wedding. If Hermione wasn't prepared they would have been fucked.

Without any further delay, he started walking towards the woods where light had come from. His wand was in his right hand and unsheathing the dagger from his hip. It was the same dagger that he found in his heirlooms. He had started wearing the dagger on his hip after getting a dagger belt.

When he reached the source of the current situation, he was astounded to find a archway along a rocky path that lead to the mountains. It fairly resembled the Veil of death. 'What is this accursed thing doing her' thought Harry. Well he would be taking no chances, as he sent a little detection spell to check if the archway was active. The spell reflected back, that meant it was not active. He cast Homenum Revelio to check if there was anyone here. 'No one here' thought Harry as he went towards the archway. It was inscribed with Greek runes. He started hearing the all too familiar voices of faint whispering. He started reading a rune which roughly translated to Bow to Death….. and suddenly the veil started fluttering and Harry was being absorbed by it. He was rendered petrified as the veil swallowed him up. As soon as Harry entered the veil, it disappeared.

A filler chapter. Not much action. Lots of timeskip, but they are necessary to move forward with the story. I know it seems rushed but I am eager to leave for Westeros. If that is where we're going first…. I'll try to update sooner. Please like and leave a review. PM me for any questions. Thanks…