Summary…Just days after the DOM a mysterious letter arrives and Harry is faced with a decision. Reject the offer and continue on the path Dumbledore has set for him or forge a new one and challenge every opinion ever forced on him.

SLASH. Creature fic, new school, Grey/Powerful Harry, possibility of Mpreg but will maybe take a vote on it…

Oh if anything else warning worthy develops I will put the warning in the authors note. I'll also try to highlight it in the text. K?

Sorry I haven't mentioned anybody here, i'm going to try and reply to everyones review directly instead of in the chapter. The only time i'll put a reply in the chapter is when it addresses something that I think needs explaining.

A/N…Right as stated in the summary this is SLASH so i would hope that anyone whose got to this point has got that by now, so remember if you don't like it don't read it. HBP and eventual DH spoilers, but I think most people will have read that by now, so just in case. Will mention Mpreg but it isnt likely it will actually happen in the story. Possibly in the sequel. Could do but i doubt it.

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Pairing news... Hello everyone, major pairing news. Ok first of all I didn't change this section on the last chapter because I forgot. After that I lost my poll chart so I went back and counted them all and made doubly sure no one was voting more than once. Results have because of that drastically changed. Chrysan is the pairing winner. So the main relationship which again doesn't happen until the sequel will be Harry/Chrysan. But I have decided so as not to disappoint all those people who thought it would be Harry/Remus, that I will post not one, but two versions of the sequel. One will have the Harry/Chrysan pairing and the other Harry/Remus. Hope that meets with everyone's approval.

P.s. I'm sorry it took so long to update I've had a bit of a bad time recently. We're struggling a bit for money because of the recession and my Aunt died the other month. It's been a bit hectic so I'm sorry I haven't had time to reply to the majority of reviews I got for the last chapter. I promise I will sit down and reply to them in a couple of days when I will hopefully have time. ^_^

Oh and I know I promised a few of you a really really long chapter, well sorry I had to cut a scene and move it to the next one as I had no muse for it. If I wait to write that scene you wouldnt have gotten an update today. So I apologise, the chapter is still about fifteen pages long so hopefully its enough. I will be updating again soon. Hopefully next weekend as well.

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Mysteria

Chapter Eleven

It was a Wednesday not long before Halloween when the bottom half of the school was rocked by an explosion. The force of it was enough to rattle the floor causing Harry to do an incorrect wand movement. His spell, bright purple in colour which was a very odd colour for a stunning spell, just missed hitting Malfoy in the back. The blonde turned to glare at him but Harry just shrugged. It wasn't his damn fault that the school decided to rattle like a box of every flavour beans. Although he did seem to be responsible for quite a high number of incidents, this one certainly hadn't been his fault.

The moment break came all of the first years hurried off to see what had happened. When they finally tracked down the location of the morning's occurrence they were met by a magnificent hole in the Potions classroom's outer wall.

"Huh, now there's a thing." Chrysan muttered and Harry had to agree with him.

Harry had seen plenty of potions accidents in his time, caused quite a few himself but he'd never seen one do this amount of damage. The wall around the hole was charred black and small pieces kept flaking off and floating or thudding to the floor. Half of the floor's stone work was also cracked and blackened and a load of rubble, no doubt blown out by the force of the explosion was at the other end of the corridor. A very long corridor.

It was one hell of an accident.

Looking around Harry realised none of the older years were present. All of the first years had come running from their various classes but no older year had even walked past the area. They were obviously used to seeing stuff like this, but still, where was their curiosity?

"They've seen it all before and didn't feel the need to show up and see the castle repair itself again."

Focusing back on what was going on around him Harry saw the head of his Potions Mistress poking out through the gap. She was grimy, her clothes and hands covered in dust and soot that she'd then rubbed off on her nose when she'd pinched it in agitation. No doubt caused by the House Elves helping her clean up. Their natural exuberance annoyed her, which was funny because she was a match for them any day. Since she was looking directly at him he assumed that he'd actually spoken his question aloud. Either that or being able to read minds was a universal trait of all Potions Masters.

And wasn't that a scary thought. Harry mused. She grinned at him playfully as though she did know what he was thinking.

"You lot still have potions first thing this afternoon, so be prepared." Her grin got even wider if possible as she looked from him, to Neville and Chrysan. "We're going to be testing your brewing skills today."

And with that she ducked back inside and a moment later they could hear her ordering house elves about. Feeling sorry for the house elves Harry and his friends hurried off to their next lesson, rituals. Harry already wishing he was back there cleaning instead.

Surprisingly, what she'd said was actually good news. As the three of them hadn't done one single bit of brewing since they'd started classes. Oh yes they'd chopped ingredients, even put a couple in cauldrons to test their reactivity but that was all. They hadn't actually created a full potion and despite himself he was really looking forward to it.

0000

Both after lunch periods on Wednesday were reserved for potions. Harry had always dreaded double lessons of potions but he found himself enjoying them at Mysteria. Part of it was that they weren't stuck in a creepy dungeon with loads of dead things on the wall. The absence of pickled creatures seemed to lighten the mood, allowing for more concentration on his part. But the main reason was that he just loved his teacher. She managed to make potions fun, which up until now he hadn't believed possible. After having her as a teacher no wonder Snape had wanted to devote his life to the art. It was just a shame that the git hadn't adopted her style of teaching. Maybe the reason Snape was such a bastard was because he just couldn't live up to the standard set by his last teacher and that rankled.

When he'd first seen her, Harry had been sure there'd been a mistake. He couldn't believe that he was being taught potions by this remarkable woman, the visionary who'd been the one to create the Wolfsbane. He'd read all about her and all the trials of creating the potion last year. When he'd took on extra reading for History of Magic, not trusting Binns to get across the more important points necessary for his OWLs. She was a very remarkable Witch.

He, Neville and Chrysan entered the bright and airy classroom, the three of them still marvelling at how quickly the wall had been replaced. Even as they'd watched it they'd seen the last bit of gap fill itself in and the reduction in the remaining burnt stone. It was just another thing to note about the school. When they'd said it had a mind of its own, they were right. Over the last three months that he'd been here Harry had seen many instances that had convinced him that the school was intelligent. Harry had seen staircase banisters snap, causing students to fall down the stairs then magically fixing once it was over. He'd seen sections of floor disappear out from under whole groups of people. Luckily most of this stuff seemed to be happening to the older years; it seemed they were used to a lot of the schools everyday tricks as hardly anyone got hurt. You could always tell when something that the older years hadn't experienced before happened, like the time that second year had been pounced on by a suit of armour with a mace.

Almost every single first year had experienced something, bar Harry. Whether it was just them alone or in a group. Harry was the only one who hadn't been attacked by the school. When the other first years had questioned it, Malfoy had been heard to remark that it was just Harry's damnable luck.

And that led to the question, why had nothing ever happened to him?

Chrysan, Neville and Melaisa liked to joke that the school obviously liked him a lot. But all Harry could think then was was it true? Did the school like him more than the other first years? Why?

Even Chrysan and Neville had been the victim of a few pranks. Once a total of four steps from the main staircase had disappeared and Neville had sunk down to his neck. He'd been stuck there for about half an hour before Harry and Chrysan had found him after he didn't show up for breakfast.

And Chrysan, Harry chuckled to himself, the memory of the look on his face always made him giggle. It seemed the school liked to get statues to pinch the demon's arse. Not that he could blame her, it was a very nice arse and he did keep it on view a lot with all those loin cloths he liked to wear. Harry resisted the urge to fan himself, it was very, very hot!

The only times when he saw Chrysan covered up were in lessons like today's, when he had to wear protective robes over his skin. This was a good thing in Harry's opinion as he didn't need a new type of distraction making him bad at potions.

"Hey hey my darlings." She greeted them as they took their seats. "Now today we are actually going to be doing some brewing. I know you've all been a little frustrated with me over the last couple of months. But with Potions it's necessary to get all the basics out of the way first. The two of you who've studied potions before will notice a major difference in your brewing skills after this lesson. Oh and Chrysan don't worry about anything, I assure you that after today you'll definitely feel like all three of you are on the same level. Just because they've had instruction before doesn't mean it was the right instruction."

Harry was surprised, this was the first time she'd mentioned their previous experience in the subject. She'd begun their first lesson as though they were first years at Hogwarts and he'd actually learned more in the three hours he spent with her that first week than he felt he'd ever learned at Hogwarts.

"You don't like Professor Snape?" Neville asked timidly. And Harry was pleased to note that although the boy was still quiet he didn't stutter when he said Snape's name.

She smiled slightly. "Severus is a wonderful man. No he is." She grinned. "Remember dears teacher knows best. He is a good man; he just doesn't show it much. He made some bad choices and it isn't my place to tell you what those were so don't ask but those choices and his general snarky git of a personality didn't make it easy for him to get a job. Severus wanted to follow in my footsteps and research new potions. He was a natural at potions, he was a Master before he even finished his third year. As his teacher and mentor I didn't feel it wise to keep him on for another two years as an apprentice when I knew that he could earn his Mastery right then. I should have kept him on, maybe things would have been different. He took the exam, passed with flying colours as I knew he would and went out into the world. There was a lot of pressure at those times and even though you learn a lot here, it doesn't make you invulnerable and it certainly doesn't make you worldly wise either. He made mistakes, like everyone and paid for it with the loss of his dream. Stuff like that tends to turn anyone bitter. He's an amazing Potions Master, any wizarding company or hospital would be lucky to get him. Instead he's stuck doing a job he feels is unfulfilling. Severus was never a mixer and now he has to surround himself with hundreds of people each day, instead of working on what he wants to do and engaging his brain. He doesn't put any effort into teaching because he doesn't like it, but he's stuck there because of his choices. So yes I like him, I just don't think his methods are brilliant. Now can we get onto the lesson?"

They all nodded, silently thinking about what she had just said.

She smiled charmingly, her white hair catching the light. Whenever he saw her he couldn't help thinking about how much she must have suffered for her art. Mir Fasari, the namesake of his little cat was the inventor of numerous potions, the Wolfsbane potion her most notable to date and she was a vampire. She just didn't look like one.

Her appearance was apparently a direct result of her experimentations with the Wolfsbane formula. Her hair had gone from the traditional vampire's black, to a startling ghostly white. Caused through stress and her many failed attempts before she hit upon the right combination. The effect on her hair was permanent. But the rest of her body, a frail almost emaciated form was due to her continued experimentation with the process. This could be healed if she ended her experiments but she chose not to.

She had never once considered her potion complete and had returned to work on it and others in her spare time, the results of which often took a great toll on her body. When she came to class you could always tell when she'd been experimenting, on the days when she hadn't her vampire healing abilities seemed to have kicked in somewhat and filled out her flesh a little. On other days she appeared as though a skeleton clothed in pale skin, no flesh remaining to cover the bones. And she was still a beautiful woman, even like this.

Harry knew that if she were any other creature she could never do what she did, the lengths she went to and the depths she took her body's devastation to would have surely killed anyone else. Harry considered her a true visionary, someone who cared enough about the world outside herself to do what she could. And she took it to extremes there was no doubt about that.

"I'll start from the beginning shall I? I think you've forgotten what I said earlier. Today class we will finally be getting to do some brewing." Her eyes were alight with anticipation, showing a passion that Snape had never shown, not once in five years. "We will be starting with one of the first year potions and then following up with a second year potion. Hopefully now that we have discussed the basics you will see an improvement in your work. The instructions are in the books which have been spelled to remain open on the correct page to prevent any mix ups. I'll teach you the charm at the end of class; it's a very useful little thing. Anyway the ingredients and tools you need are in the respective baskets beside your cauldrons. Oh-"

She paused abruptly noticing that they didn't actually have anything set up on the desks yet. She waved her hand and wandlessly conjured everything they needed while carrying on with her speech. "You may ask each other for help if you wish but I would prefer you to ask me, as if not I'll just be walking up and down the row looking at what you are doing. And although I love potions it is a little boring to watch with nothing to do yourself. Of course when we get to the higher levels you'll be keeping me on my toes a bit more, for though we all improve with time, we'll never get to the point where we don't cock up."

That startled a laugh out of them. "When you live as long as I do your body gets into a rhythm and you do everything you've done before almost instinctively but when it comes to new stuff, ooh there's mistakes galore. And that is when some of the best discoveries are made. Huh, I'm rambling again aren't I class, please tell me if I do it for I will only stop when I realise and once that took me the whole class period. I've gotten used to hearing my own voice over the years." She glanced at her watch before looking back at the clock on the wall above her desk. Why she checked both Harry would never know and he'd not bothered to ask, he didn't know how long the explanation could last. "This potion should take about half an hour, give or take a bit of time for questions and explanations; we may even get to the third year potion today as well. I love it when they give us three hours together, there's a lot more time to play with." And with that she waved her arm and they, used to her abrupt dismissals of subjects began reading the instructions.

Harry did as she instructed, he read over the instructions twice; the first time familiarising himself with the potion, and the second time picking out particularly troublesome spots. There were two points in the brewing of this potion where easy mistakes could be made. Snape had never explained stuff like this to them. He never told them the differences between slicing and dicing, he just expected them to know them. And although Harry had been cooking for his relatives for years, to him chopping, cutting, slicing and dicing and all the other ways were all the same, as no one had ever shown him how they were different.

Now he knew how precisely to cut things for the best of their properties to be released. An example of this was the shrivel fig, the best method of preparation for this was to skin the thing in one long strip instead of in bits and pieces. This apparently was because the more even the skin and flesh was cut the better it was to pulverise into paste or in other potions, slice while still retaining its juices. And other things like caterpillars had to be cut in their segments instead of just randomly, this was a very precise way of measuring without using something to check the size of the pieces and in a lot of potions the timing of the addition of ingredients was everything.

Harry finally knew why this was the case, Snape had never explained why one minute or one stir could make such a difference to a potion. It was all about boiling points and the breakdown periods of ingredients, or reductions in the thickness of the potion itself, even the neutralisation of poisonous substances or things that reacted badly with following ingredients. It was a lot easier to brew potions when you knew some of the whys and hows behind them, as Harry found out during this particular lesson.

This potion happened to be the simple boil cure potion that Snape had set them in their very first lesson in first year at Hogwarts. I was safe to say that Harry made a much better potion this time. But that wasn't to say his improvement was due to Snape's further teaching or the information Mir had been giving him over the last month. The real tests though would be the third year potion. Next week they would likely be doing potions from fourth and fifth year, as those were more complex and they would need more time to complete them. That was no doubt why Mir was hoping to get the third year potion done this lesson.

Somehow Harry didn't think the second year potion would be Polyjuice. He wondered if he'd ever be able to make that! Well, make it on his own, without any help.

Their second year potion funnily enough was the Swelling Solution. While making it Harry had to fight back a grin remembering Malfoy's face after he got a face full of the stuff. Incidentally that was also the lesson that Hermione stole the ingredients for the Polyjuice potion.

The third year potion was the opposite of the second year potion, the Shrinking Solution. This again for some reason involved a damn Shrivelfig. As Harry cut up the Daisy roots, making sure every single piece was the same size, he again remembered the actual lesson that he'd first made the potion. This time it was the one after Malfoy provoked Buckbeak and manipulated the situation so that Harry and Ron had to do his work for him. The git.

At the end of the lesson, she took their sample vials and hopped up onto her desk.

"Right then, we are now going to be testing these potions to see if you made them correctly." She rolled up her left sleeve, exposing her stick like forearm and then waved her wand arm over it. A moment later three extremely big and painful looking boils appeared, almost dwarfing her arm. She didn't even wince though she just reached blindly for one of the Boil Cure vials and looked at the label.

"Neville's." She pronounced before expertly tipping it to drop a single drop on the first boil. The boil popped and then instantly deflated, the red colour slowly bleaching from her skin. "Perfect! Very well done Neville." She sealed the vial with another spell and put it to her other side. Another wave of her hand and Neville's potion, which like all the others had been saved in separate containers while the next one was brewing, immediately decanted itself into various jars and other containers and stacked themselves on a shelf marked 'Infirmary'.

She then preceded to test all the other. Both Chrysan's and Harry's hadn't been perfect but they'd been perfectly usable. Harry's was a little thin, Chrysan's a little thick. After telling them what they'd done wrong, she took them back over to their cauldrons and directed them on how to fix their potions. Chrysan just needed to add water and Harry just needed to add some extra Shrivelfig pulp. After that both their potions were perfect and became stock for the infirmary.

The testing for the other potions went the same way, she applied a drop of Shrinking Solution to her hand and then fixed it with the Swelling Solution. All of the potions were perfectly made and Neville and Chrysan both left the room at the end with a spring in their steps.

Harry stayed behind, it was break so he wouldn't be late for his next class and he wanted to ask her something.

"What can I do for you Harry?" She asked when she realised he was still there.

"I wanted to ask you something." He said.

"Yes I kind of got that dear." She bounced over to the shelves, leaving Harry to marvel at her energy. She wasn't old for a vampire, not appearing to be much older than twenty but because of her body condition she didn't look like she had the energy to spare. "Why don't you come over here and help me pack this shelf into this box. Then you can be a dear and levitate it to the infirmary for me if you want."

Harry smiled to himself as he headed over and began packing the potions they'd made today and other medicinal potions she'd made.

"What did you want to ask?"

"I wanted to ask about your work on the Wolfsbane and the cure you're working on?"

She stopped and straightened. He expected to see distrust in her eyes, like she believed he wanted to steal her research but she merely looked curious.

"Remus is my Godfather." He said by way of explanation.

Her confusion cleared and she went back to enthusiastically packing up her potions.

"Ah I take it he must have told you a little bit about what he's doing."

He laughed. "Not as much as you might think. I just realised I didn't really know how much he was doing or how much the two of you would've accomplished. I just want to know what he's killing himself over."

She smiled again, she did it a lot but this time it was in understanding rather than in mischievousness.

"First of all dear, he certainly isn't killing himself. I wouldn't allow it, Remus is a very good friend of mine. We look after each other. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for great discoveries. Have you ever seen him transform?"

He nodded. The vivid memory from his third year was one of the main reasons he was here asking these questions.

"Was that with or without Wolfsbane?"

"He hadn't taken it that night but he'd taken it all the others he was supposed to." Harry said immediately, everything about that night ingrained on his mind.

She nodded to herself, muttering. "In a six part solution, he'd have gotten... three and a half full measures. Ok." She turned her attention back to him. "You saw him when he had approximately three and a half full measures of the pain suppressant in his system. Usually after a dosing he would have four full measures spread over the seven doses so as to not create too much of a build up in his system. So what you saw that night was a very watered down transformation. He felt more pain than he would normally if he'd taken his full dose of Wolfsbane but he didn't feel anywhere near the level of pain he would if he hadn't taken the other six parts of his dose."

She stated it all so crisp and clear, efficiently rolling off the facts of the matter. It was a side of her he hadn't seen in any of their lessons so far, suddenly she became very professional. He realised what she was telling him, that horrific part of Remus' life that he'd witnessed was nothing compared to the full thing. He couldn't imagine the amount of pain Remus must have felt before the Wolfsbane. He suddenly understood what Remus had meant in his letter. When he said he'd do it all again, for himself and everyone else out there who had and would be infected. Harry now understood his conviction.

"How much do you know about Lycanthropy Harry?" she asked after he'd remained quiet for a few minutes.

"Not much." He admitted. "Only what they've told us in lessons at Hogwarts."

"Not much at all then." She muttered. "Lycanthropy unlike Vampirism is a disease. Vampires are born as they are, as are Demons. But Werewolves are made. It began simply, a witch or wizard, who knows which particular one was bitten by a wolf and happened to have a particularly weak immune system. Whether it was just naturally weak or it had become weak through illness who knows. Either way the wolf's saliva somehow managed to merge with the Witch/Wizards magic. The immune system which would normally have stopped this was overpowered. Somehow the wolf's DNA managed to combine oddly with the persons, the traits of the wolf managed to latch onto the human genes and couldn't be dislodged. Being an alien gene it never has full control of the body, only able to take over and control its vessel under the influence of the full moon. Wolves have always been associated with the Lunar cycle, if we can ever figure out why we might be able to do something about the disease. What was I saying, I was rambling again... Well as this person began to recover and their immune system recovered their magic began trying to force out the alien genes. But as the wolf's genes had merged with the body this was no longer possible. The wolf gene had the strength of the body that contained it and although the magic fought against the intrusion it couldn't very well destroy the vessel that housed them both. So finally exhausted from the battle and with the added influence of the full moon the wolf genes took over the body and transformed the person from human to a blend of both, the werewolf. The wolf of course feeling threatened by the human elements surrounding it, would then attack any human it came into contact with."

"So the werewolf bit someone and passed it on." Harry surmised.

She looked delighted that he'd managed to catch on so fast. He felt a bit annoyed, he wasn't that stupid.

"Yes but this time instead of just passing the gene on and starting the whole process again, we believe that the persons magic attempts to expel the intruder by turning it into a virus that it can fight and pass on to others. But unlike normal virus' Lycanthropy cannot be defeated by the fighting of the body."

"So magic changed this gene into a disease and passed it on to try and get it away from its own Witch or Wizard."

"Exactly. This is all theory of course but this is the most widely accepted one. And I can see it happening. Our magic performs without our direction when we are children so why shouldn't it do so of its own accord when it feels the need. So anyway the person who gets bitten doesn't just get the gene latching onto them and having it grow stronger over the next month, no they get it given to them at the full strength. As a virus it gets into the bloodstream easily and merges before the magic can even attempt to fight it off."

"So it wouldn't matter if this person had an amazingly strong immune system to prevent the wolf DNA from latching onto their magic, as a virus it just slips in and then it's too late." Harry stated.

"Yep."

"Makes sense I suppose. And because it's a magically mutated virus it also affects Muggles, who have magic but just can't access it. But then why do all Werewolves look pale and sickly if it's now part of them?"

"The first person had the wolf's traits merge with their DNA, it was a part of them even though it did slip the human leash and come out once a month. But the ones bitten after are living with an internal war."

"Internal war?"

"Yes, the virus is waging a war on the body, trying to gain full control over it, turn it either completely to wolf or make it werewolf for the majority of time. But the immune system and the magic of the body are also fighting the virus, trying to eradicate it. The immune system is constantly making new antibodies, which don't work. And the magic is acting on its own to eradicate it. So not only is the person having this internal war, they are also suffering magic depletion and are being hit with other more common diseases which the immune system often waits to combat, trying to get rid of what it sees as the bigger threat first. The person gets more and more rundown as the weeks pass. Then there is the full moon and afterwards the virus seems content for a while and retreats. Allowing the magic and immune system a respite. Long enough to fix any major problems and begin to regenerate. Then the virus comes back and the fighting starts all over again."

Harry was in shock. "And that's what it's like for Remus each month?"

"It's a never ending cycle Harry. It will kill him eventually. As he ages the battle takes more toll on his body, one day it will be too much for him and he'll die. I've studied werewolves for a long time, trying to find this cure so I know a lot about them. My estimation is that Remus has about ten to fifteen years left. He won't make sixty at any rate. And that's why he pushes himself hard," She snarled. "that's why he lets me test the potion on him and that's why he works on his spells. Every person that gets bitten is given a death sentence, it just takes a long time for it to be enacted but it cuts a Witch or Wizard's life in half and it isn't fair!"

There was silence after her outburst. Harry trying to absorb all the information she'd given him and Mir trying to get her breathing under control.

"He's my friend Harry. Silay's my friend too. Do you think I do this to myself for the fun of it!" she said, gesturing down at her emaciated form. "I can assure you I don't."

"Why does Silay look better than Remus?" he asked timidly.

She sighed and patted him on the shoulder before turning back to the shelves. "Silay, although he has offered cannot be a test subject of mine. His heart is too weak to make the testing possible. It's a genetic problem that his magic can't fix. So he helps me in other ways. He gathers the ingredients I need when I'm too weak to go out and other stuff like that. Silay looks less ill than Remus because he doesn't test the potions or the spells and uses the already developed form of Wolfsbane every month. Another thing that helps is that there are other werewolves here, it gives the wolf the feeling that there is a pack around it, it feels safer and doesn't fight as hard. Another reason is that he wears a glamour."

"He wears a glamour?" Harry asked confused. Silay didn't seem the type to be strung up about his appearance. After all his brother looked worse and that greasy git didn't even wear a glamour.

She laughed. "Yes, he got sick of students seeing him as weak. No matter how many of them he knocked on their arses, new ones just kept coming. Trying to catch him out with pranks, some cocky little shits even challenged him to duels. He got sick of not getting any respect and putting teenagers in the hospital so he started using the glamour. And no one's challenged him since." She concluded brightly.

Harry smirked; he could just see his mentor being pestered by idiotic students.

"Any more questions Harry?"

He thought for a moment, trying to see if there was anything he didn't understand.

"Yeah, there is. What can I do to help?"

0000

Break was over by the time he got out of the infirmary but luckily his Natural Magic teacher was also late, the class were just milling around when he reached them. Spotting Neville, Chrysan and Melaisa talking a little ways off, Harry began making his way to them. After a few minutes of twisting and turning he bumped into someone, making an apology he attempted to move on but someone grabbed the back of his robes and he was roughly dragged back.

"You idiot!" a voice yelled. "You made me lose it."

Turning around Harry found himself face to face with a perfectly ordinary boy, not the werewolf or vampire he'd expected. Unfortunately this wasn't only a Wizard either. This guy was an elemental like Melaisa.

He had blonde hair, the tips of which he'd dyed red. Idiot, advertising what he was. Judging by the hair colour Harry guessed that this guy was of the fire variety.

"Lose what?" Harry snapped back.

"My flame idiot."

Harry didn't know why but he really didn't like this guy.

"Oh, what can't get it up more than once?"

The effect of his words was instantaneous; the people around them who had silently been listening in took a step back. The boy who still had a hold of his robes stiffened and pulled him in even closer.

"Listen Potter, you may think you're some sort of big shot but we've all seen you in duelling class. You're weak, bloody Dumbledore must fight all your battles for you. Well listen freak, you don't want to fight me."

It was probably the word 'freak', he'd always hated that word, either way Harry had his wand in his hand before he could blink.

While the fast movement made the other students blink, it certainly gained no reaction from the elemental. Other than for him to draw his own wand of course.

"You really wanna fight me?"

Harry just nodded. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his own friends appear at his back, they had their own wands drawn and were keeping them pointed on the boy's friends, three on three nice and even.

Around them whispers had broken out as students started taking bets on the outcome. Despite all the other voices Harry only heard one, he didn't know why but it actually gave him confidence.

"One hundred Galleons on Potter." Said a bored drawling voice.

"Are you sure Malfoy?" Someone else asked. "He doesn't look like much."

Harry could hear the smirk in Malfoy's voice. "You don't know Potter like I do. No one knows you better than your rival."

Despite himself Harry smiled.

"What you smiling about? You ain't gonna to be smiling in a minute."

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Why gonna try and talk me out of it?"

"No I just want to know what idiot it is whose arse I'm going to kick."

He scoffed. "Mike."

"Mike, I like it, nice and simple. At least you don't go about calling yourself Lord all the time, it gets annoying when someone starts threatening you in the third person you know."

Mike was staring at him as though he'd grown an extra head.

"Do you still want to duel with me Mike?"

Harry could see the awareness suddenly spring up in his eyes. Had he even thought on what he was doing or did he just let his temper take over?

Not wanting to show how scared he suddenly felt, Mike attacked.

His shouted "stupefy" was easy enough for Harry to dodge. He danced out of the way, absently noticing the other students backing up. That spell had been exceedingly low level, it hadn't even hit one of the people that surrounded them, dissipating before it came anywhere near them.

He shot off one of his own and was happy to note that about four people went down from the blast. Unfortunately not the one he wanted to hit as he just managed to dive to the floor and out of the way. He was on the floor now looking up at Harry, the shock plain on his face.

"You know the problem with duelling lessons are that they teach you only one way of moving and sometimes the body just has to move in its own way. I'm not even going to bother knocking you out, it's a big waste of my time. If you want to challenge me again, work harder on your spell work. Oh and you might want to pay a bit more attention in this class. You're going to need a lot more power to back up that big mouth of yours."

Leaving the gobsmacked boy behind him Harry headed back over to his friends.

"Potter wait?"

Looking back Harry found the boy still staring at him, not taking any notice of the friends who were pulling him to his feet.

"How did you make that spell that strong? Did you take any magic?"

Harry snorted. "Do you mean, did I use the techniques we've been taught in natural magic to make myself more powerful?" Seeing him nod, he answered honestly. "No I didn't. I don't need to use it against you."

"How do we know that? You could still be weak, just a cheater as well." That was said by one of Mike's idiotic friends.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Alright, if this will save me being bothered by you idiots."

He motioned with his hand, his friends jumped out of the way immediately, the people behind them took a little longer but still did it.

Harry closed his eyes and focusing in on himself began to draw the magic out of the things around him. The reason why the lesson was held out here was that there was a lot of magical energy to spare. He didn't take too much, just enough to get his point across.

Seeing a rather large rock about ten, fifteen metres away Harry aimed his wand.

"STUPEFY"

The spell hit the rock with a sound like the clap of thunder. The rock flew through the air, landing an immeasurable distance away before shattering upon impact.

Hearing nothing but silence behind him, Harry repaired the rock with a quick "Reparo" and levitated it back into place.

"How...?"

Harry smirked. "Fights and battles aren't about grades. It doesn't matter if you get congratulated by the teacher for learning his methods or knocked down because you do something different. Just because you can't do what everyone expects of you doesn't mean you can't do it your own way. Remember that and if you ever have another duel you might actually survive it."

Harry walked off, deciding not to wait for the teacher.

"Harry, Harry wait up!"

Hearing that voice Harry stopped. A moment later Melaisa had run into his arms and was hugging the life out of him.

"That was brilliant Harry, but please don't get in a fight again. Please."

He laughed. "I'll try not to but I can't promise you anything."

"You showed him Harry. And I think Malfoy might like you a little more now, I don't want to think about how much money he must have made there."

"He doesn't need the money Nev, it'll be more important to him that he won. Malfoy's don't lose after all."

"Unless they're against you, eh Harry." Chrysan said. The lilac eyed teen seemed a bit shell shocked. His ice blue skin was lightly flushed, the slightest bit of pink within the blue made Harry think of the Aurora Borealis. Their teacher had shown them images of the Northern Lights last lesson, apparently that's what a high concentration of magic looked like.

"You alright Chrys?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Er yeh, do you know how hot you look when you take charge like that?"

Harry couldn't help it, he started laughing.

"What? I was serious!"

That just made Harry laugh all the harder. Suddenly he was tackled to the floor.

Looking up he found a very amused Demon sitting on his stomach.

"What's so funny about you looking hot when you get all leadery?"

"Is that even a word?" Harry asked, a little breathless, there was a half naked man in a loincloth sat very close to something that he certainly didn't want to draw attention to.

Chrysan just arched one perfectly sculpted blonde eyebrow. Very sexy.

"I'm not attractive." He mumbled, embarrassed.

Chrysan chuckled. "You are my friend, you are." He suddenly turned very serious, regarding Harry with a slight tilt of the head.

"As much as I hate to break this up-"

With a glance to the left and a yelp Harry jumped up, knocking the Demon to the floor. Chrysan continued to lay there for a moment looking very dazed as Harry tried to straighten his robes and get the blush out of his cheeks.

Once he thought he'd succeeded he turned back to his silently laughing teacher. She controlled herself and smiled, beckoning him forward. Glaring, Harry realised his other friends were making no such effort.

"You three..." Professor Steele said, regaining her professional demeanour and pointing to them each in turn. "Back to class. Mr. Potter stay here."

Once they were all out of earshot she began speaking.

"That was an impressive display Mr. Potter. You've learnt control very well. Now get out of here, I have a class to teach."

Harry was struck dumb, by the abrupt dismissal. Was he being kicked out of the class?

"Huh?"

"You don't need this class anymore Harry, you've just shown you can gather up magic as well as anybody twice your age. So go, find something else to do in place of this class, or take the hour off, whatever you want. You don't need to come back next week either. Nothing left to teach you boy, now get going."

Dumbly, Harry left.

Well, after his monthly meeting with Silay he better go and see if he could get a meeting with Calfora. She'd said she wanted to see him after he finished Natural Magic, or maybe she meant go straight away? He'd go along now. For some reason he was afraid of keeping her waiting if she was expecting him. She was after all a Seer and she'd said come straight there. Sighing Harry headed back into the school.