A/N: Okies, Chapter one … these chapters are currently unbeta'd while I try and find someone who will even reply to my emails lol If anyone has a strength in Grammar and wants to beta this, then drop me a line and I'll be really grateful!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything to do with J.K's world.

Open Puzzles

Dear Mr. Potter

Late last night one of our oldest accounts activated a clause in its contract and as the appointed guardians of the account, Gringotts Bank; London Branch was obligated to carry out the attached instructions.

In an attempt to ensure the safety of our clients and due to the unusual circumstances, I regret to inform you that some of the Gringotts goblins felt that they were within their rights to have the document tested for harmful magics' and in the process attempted to read the document, which now rests safely in your hands.

They have assured us that they could not read past the first page, which only details a repeat of the instructions given to Gringotts and the goblins punishment for this breach of clientele privacy is being delt with as I write to you.

I am pleased o report, however, that their tests for harmful magic came back negative and we have sent this document to you as per our instructions.

If you wish to dispute the goblins punishment or find any damage to this document please don't hesitate to contacts us.

Yours sincerely,

Griphook

Potter Account Manager.

Harry re-read the Gringotts letter twice before turning puzzled eyes on the simple, leather bound book. There was no other way to describe it; Gringotts use of the word 'document' was an understatement.

He turned his eyes back to the letter and studied the Gringotts seal carefully for a moment before he sighed and decided to just hope that it wasn't some kind of Death Eater trick.

So far, Harry's summer had been horrendous, plagued by nightmares of Sirius' death alongside the now familiar ones of Voldemort, Cedric, Peter Pettigrew and others. The Dursley's were working him to exhaustion in an attempt to stop his nightly terrors. "If you think I'm going to let you disturb our sleep all summer, you've got another think coming boy!" Vernon hissed, throwing a garden bucket at the teenager, who dodged; the sudden movement breaking his memory.

It was half past ten on the night of July 30th when Harry's clock watching had been interrupted by the Gringotts owl, now after slow perusal of the letter, Harry reached for the purple leather bound book opening the cover with the utmost care, and slight trepidation. There was nothing particularly startling about the inside; just like the cover it was a simple design. The first page contained what Harry assumed to be the books title; Greatness of Heart will Reveal all Secrets.

Sharp green eyes studied the cursive text for a moment, it seemed strangely familiar but when he couldn't place it the young man sighed and continued to the next page, his eyes clouding in confusion when he found not the described instructions to Gringotts goblins but what appeared to be a letter detailing the books contents.

Harry glanced at his bedside clock as it counted down to his sixteenth birthday. He needed something to do, and reading seemed like a pretty good distraction for the next hour in comparison to the nightmare he was sure to experience if he surrendered to sleep.

Pushing his windows open in preparation for the birthday owls he was expecting soon after midnight, Harry settled himself beneath the bed sheets with the thin volume, determined to discover the purpose of his new acquisition.

Greatness of

Heart will

Reveal all

Secrets

Greetings,

If you are reading this then time are dire and you are in great danger. Although your exact identity if unknown, I do know that what is to be revealed to you within this book will be of the utmost importance if you wish to survive the war in which you currently find yourself.

Stored in this book are some of the most powerful spells of our time and you will eventually come to master them – of this I have no doubt but be warned; Although this book has powerful magic crafted into it to prevent others reading this content, if you, as the heir, hand it to another you will grant them full access to these most precious secrets.

Now my warnings are complete. Use this information wisely. Red on and allow these humble pages to teach you what you desperately need to take the next step.

Godric Gryfindor by R.R

Godric is of an average height, with messy brown hair that is constantly and irritatingly falling into deep honey brown eyes. He is strong with tones muscles due t sword fighting and a vigorous training schedule that his father drilled into him from a young age in case there is even a need to go to war. H has a disturbing love of bright colours, such as red, yellow, orange and even pink on occasion.

The family of Gryfindor is of a very old pureblood family at this time when many pureblood families can only trace their lines back five generations or so. A hereditary power of the Gryfindor line is that of wandless magic. Despite the fact that many witches and wizards have mastered this skill, Gryfindors trait allows his heir unparalleled control in this area of magic. In other words, the caster is not limited to the lower level spells in wandless casting which the witch or wizard usually restricted to due to the strength of will required to cast the most basic of spells in this way.

Helga Hufflepuff by G.G

Helga is quite short for a young lady at 5'2" and the youngest of our little group. She has light blonde hair, which brushes the top of her shoulders and compliments her slender figure while framing her sapphire blue eyes.

Helga favours a simplistic style of dress in unobtrusive, earthy tones such as browns, greys and greens with pale reds, oranges and pinks to contrast.

The family of Hufflepuff is one of the newer pureblood families and not always considered such by the other families who hold this status. Their family crest consists of a silver badger overlaid onto a golden tree.

Hufflepuffs heredity power seems to be manifesting as the coveted healing magic. The skill to become a natural healer is strong within their family and will hopefully develop itself further, in ways that are beyond prediction.

Rowena Ravenclaw by S.S

Rowena has entrancing dark brown eyes and exceptionally long hair that cascades in waves to her waits in a strange shade of black appearing almost a dull grey, which confuses the eye. She is taller than most women standing at 5'11", Rowena has the coveted hourglass form that most achieve with the aid of a corset.

She wears very simple dresses needing little decoration to display her beauty. Rowena's complexion leads her towards wearing what could be called 'gemstone colours' such as ruby red, emerald greens, sapphire blues and amethyst purples.

Rowena's exotic appearance betrays her family's Egyptian heritage, which is nearly lost in time, as her family has resided in Wales on a permanent basis for tat least twelve generations. Her family shield bears a Rave, carrying an unravelling scroll from its beak, bearing the inscription "There are no new ideas only new combinations".

Ravenclaws hereditary trait covers a wide range of skills, any of which could manifest throughout the bloodline. Although it is highly unusual to have more than two traits related to mind magic, it has been recorded as a possibility. The skills of mind magics can cover anything from a natural affinity for occlumency and legillimency, to telekinesis and telepathy and very rarely the gift of seer sight.

Salazar Slytherin by H.H

Salazar is very tall at 6'2½ , and although he appears thin his build hides a wiry strength. Salazar's obsidian hair falls in a smooth cascade to his shoulders on the rare days that he doesn't wear it tied back, to reveal bright emerald eyes.

He favours dark colours in his attire as Salazar prefers to go unnoticed and this allows him to blend into the shadows easily. Unfortunately, his preference is helping to fuel the current rumour about his love for the new dark arts.

Although the Slytherin bloodline is more recently acknowledged than Gryfindors or Ravenclaws, it is still commonly accepted as a pure bloodline. Their family crest is a serpent in the shape of an 'S' with it's tail wrapped around a castle.

Slytherins family trait is the gift of tongues. It allows them to easily learn other languages at an incredible speed. In some cases it allows the Slytherins to instinctively know a language and to be able to speak and understand it fluently

Harry jumped as a torrent of owls suddenly flew through his window landing silently on the desk. Casting his eyes back to the book he reluctantly put it aside, carefully marking his place.

As he quickly relieved the numerous birds of their burdens, Harry considered what he had just been reading – full, in depth descriptions of the four founders, by the four founders of Hogwarts. His hands shook as what really amazed Harry finally sank in; the text was written in the present tense, which meant that it had bee written who knew how many hundreds of years ago!

With a sharp shake of his head, the now sixteen-year-old wizard started opening his birthday presents. The first one had no letter but he knew that the book of occlumency was from Remus because of the short inscription just inside the cover "Happy birthday pup, this is a useful book, give it a try" Harry frowned and wondered if he should talk to Dumbledor about it in September, but for now he placed the book on the foot of his bed before moving on.

Surprising Harry, the next present he opened was from Fred and George with a note telling him to "terrorise the Muggles" pinned to a good supply o Filibusters indoor wet start fireworks. Grinning, Harry stashed his new horde under the loose floorboard beneath his bed immediately, it would do now good to fall asleep and forget to hide them from Vernon and Dudley.

Next, Harry's eyes landed on Hagrids scrawling handwriting and he opened the handmade card firs, smiling softly at the crude drawing of a Hippogriff, or a badly mauled Horse;

"Hapy Birfday Harry!

Seems like only yestday I was pickin' yah up from that rock the Dursleys was hindin' on.

See yah in September

Hagrid"

The parchment was stained with tears and Harry opened the box to reveal a cake almost identical to the one Hagrid had given him for his eleventh birthday. Tears welled but Harry quickly shut them off. Every year he was still surprised by how much his friends cared about him.

After a moment to steady himself, Harry continued once again, placing the cake with Remus' book on his bed Harry gathered his last two gifts and his care package from Mrs. Weasley and settled himself on the bed with them before ripping into the two gifts from Ron and Hermione. True to form, Hermione had got him a book, which at least looked interesting 'Brooms and their improvements' which promised to show the history of broom upgrades and what broom companies were hoping to achieve next. Ron was also predictable, but like Hermione no less welcome than the rest; He had gotten Harry some Bertie Botts Beans and Honeydukes chocolate to keep him going at the Dursleys, but besides short notes wishing him Happy Birthday, there were no letters and Harry shivered remembering the summer before his second year and the lack of communication from anyone that lead to Siriu… The warm glow he'd been feeling faded and Harry longed to send Hedwig off with a letter but she was out hunting.

Frowning, he stared around the room, refusing to go to sleep when he knew it would only bring nightmares; his eyes landed on the books from Remus and Hermione. As Harry considered the book, he remembered the one from Gringotts and dug it out form where it had slid under his pillows. Opening it from where he left off Harry settled down comfortably once again to continue the intriguing read, and wait for dawn.

Areas of Magic

There are many areas of magic that can be studied to level of Master. Most spells fall under a particular area of expertise making sure that Masters remain highly sought after and never out of work; in fact they are frequently overworked due to the small number of them available.

This section will give you a basic overview of these areas and the chance to study them in-depth at the end.

Transfiguration

Transfiguration is that art of changing something into something else. This is not a type of illusion, where only what you see changes but here the very core of the object or creature changes also. For example, if you transfigure a table into a horse, correctly, then the animal can live out the rest of it's days as though it had been born that way – dependant on the innate power of the witch or wizard the creature should also be able to breed without complications.

Animagus transformations work in a similar way. Those who are successful in completing the transformation, report strong animal instincts that can take some months for the witch or wizard to overcome and control with the remaining human aspect of their minds.

Potions

Although many compare potions to cooking, and at first glance it does appear to have similarities such as ingredients and a 'cooking pot', besides that there is very little that link the two activities.

In coking, if you add an ingredient a little later in the recipe, or leave it out, people may not even notice – do that in a potion and you or your client may die.

Potions are very delicate substances that can react with anything from a strong breeze through your workroom to a potion ingredient picked a few minutes too late, however they are very versatile and you can store them for later use unlike a spell.

Practically anything that is possible with a spell can be replicated with a potion and even some things that we don't have spells for yet.

Charms

Charms covers a range of spells including everything from basic spell casting, like jinxes right up to the recently developed 'unforgivables'

Charms Masters usually develop new spells or counters from spells currently available and their field covers most anything that doesn't fall under the dark arts, the defence of, and transfiguration.

Some Charms Masters cross their expertise with the dark arts; either to improve their spells or to develop charms against them, however most Charms experts prefer to avoid contact and focus their energy on a particular kind of Charms Spells such as shield charms or offensive spells that do not fall into the category of Dark Magic.

Herbology

Herbology is almost vital to Potions Masters and many Masters of one have at least a Journeyman level in the other.

Herbology is an extensive subject and very hard work, as many plants have to be harvested in three or four different ways depending on what they are to be used for.

A Herbology Master must have a comprehensive working knowledge for all they plants they are required to work with and usually this is limited to the country in which the Master resides. Due to the varying agricultures of other countries, a Herbology Master trained in England could not get work in France as a Master without retraining.

Care of Magical Creatures

This area of study is nearly as comprehensive as Herbology although not quite so bad as to have to retrain to work in other countries although there are exceptions.

Many magical creatures range across a variety of countries, such as the centaurs, mermaids and werewolves, whereas others are more localised like the Sphinx making a Magical Creatures Master and international task, with job opportunities worldwide- so long as they are prepared to do research into the more localised creatures they may come across.

Dark Arts

The dark arts are often misunderstood. Originally it referred to spells that could only be cast after dark, then when magic began to evolve it became spells with a darker purpose such as love spells or anything that could bring personal gain to the caster – this has been warped by the truly dark wizards who use the term to describe the spells they use such as curses, blood magic ad the recently developed 'unforgiveables'.

The true dark arts is anything that is frowned upon in polite society, and is therefore not often talked about or taught, however the few remaining Masters of this area of magic are turning their skills to eradicating the new brand of 'dark arts' before the term is permanently corrupted.

Defence Against the Dark Arts

This is an exceptionally new area of magical study, designed to train Masters to defend against the new type of dark witch and wizard.

It has been suggested that once trained, Defence Masters will develop spells to combat the powerfully destructive spells cropping up at the moment and will also be hired by the Ministry of Magic to protect the public in a new department.

What is also likely from this new branch is that they will be expected to protect the Royal Family who are currently the suspected targets of the new dark wizards that are arising.

Divination

Divination is a very specialised form of magic; it cannot be taught if one does not have the innate spark.

If a witch or wizard does posses the power of prophecy however, it must be nurtured in some way or the build up of latent power can become destructive to the witch or wizard and to those around them.

Runes

Most people have only a rudimentary understanding of Runes and so Masters are rare as many do not see the purpose pf Mastering this branch of magic.

Runes are very stabilising if the witch or wizard is attempting a powerful piece of magic, or an extended ritual.

If, for example, a building is constructed on a natural formation of the protection, concealment and opportunity Rune, Algiz, it is unlikely that the building will ever fall into disrepair or surrender to enemy attack if it is even found.

Do You Wish To Learn?

You were told at the start that this information is crucial to your success, but you can still refuse to use this resource.

If, however, you decide that there may be contained within the following pages information that you cannot or will not be taught in your time then the spell to activate the book can be located below.

You do not need a wand. You need only speak the words aloud.

Good Luck.

Harry blinked slowly, staring at the words 'Good Luck'. There was the spell, just as the author had promised.

Hesitantly, Harry turned to the next page and found it blank. It was another moment or so before he realised that he was staring at the spell again, considering the message from the author and the information he has already devoured.

Sighing he studied the words of the spell carefully, surprised that he was actually considering casting it when he had no clue about what it would do, or even who had sent him this book … and yet …

The information so far, although basic, had intrigued him. Harry felt almost that he'd learnt more here than in his five years at Hogwarts … almost.

Reading through the spell again he frowned. What harm could it do? All it would do was let him read the rest of the book, right?

Making a decision, he sat up in bed crossing his legs Harry pushed up the huge sleeves of Dudleys' old pyjamas and held the book in both hands. He only cast a single nervous glance at his bedroom door before hoping this wouldn't be too loud and starting to speak;

"I speak the truth,

I feel from the heart,

I hear what you're teaching,

I've seen from the start.

.

I sensed my chance,

During this time,

To solve all the problems,

To clear all the grime.

.

So open your hearts,

Please, open your minds,

Allow me the knowledge,

To stop hideous crimes."

Considering the urgent tone of the book, Harry felt that the spell was rather anti-climatic. He blinked, staring around the room, unsure what he had expected – but certainly not this. Nothing. Even Hedwig was still asleep.

Asleep? At night? And when had she returned from hunting anyway? Frowning, Harry glanced out of his window only to see that it was daylight. As he stared in confusion, birds flew past and leaves fell – but something seemed off and with a suddenly jolt it sank in and Harry realised … everything was moving backwards!

Spinning his head so quickly his neck cracked, Harry's wide eyes landed on his bedside clock; watching the time and date run backwards he started to feel sick; Maybe the book hadn't been genuine after all …

Harry couldn't say how long he watched the past fly by, and when then building started to de construct before his eyes he started to panic, but daren't move from the bed that seemed to be the only thing that was staying with him.

The sixteen year old wizard could hear his breathing start to become erratic and thoughts of how on earth he was going to get back home began running through his head. Just how far back in time was he going anyway? What were his friends going to think? How long until Dumbledore found out?…

Everything around him started to spin, including the field where Privet Drive would some day be built, and just before he passed out, the last thought to pass through his mind was that he never got the chance to thank anyone for his birthday presents.