Chương 3: Elemental Magic
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***
When Harry Potter woke up in the dark room of The Leaky Cauldron, it was pitch black night. He looked around; it was so intense darkness that he couldn't see anything around him. After waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, Harry was able to make out the outline of the room. He was lying on a bed, with Hagrid sleeping on a sofa five metres away from him on a sofa, whimpering inaudibly. On the nightstand next to him, Harry found his glasses. They were covered in dust and some other substance. Harry picked them up and went to the bathroom to wash them.
How had he ended up here? Harry Potter lay back down on the bed and began to remember the events of the previous day. The memory was slowly coming back. After fifteen minutes he remembered what had happened at The Leaky Cauldron. He began to reflect gloomily on what had happened. Too many people wanting to shake the hand of the great Harry Potter. How would he avoid those pesky people? Then a great idea popped into his head.
- Hagrid! - he called out to the giant, and then walked over to him, wanting to shake him, but afraid to touch him and instead tugged at his clothes. - Hagrid, get up!
- Merlin! Harry! - Hagrid was instantly awake and out of bed, any remnants of drowsiness quickly disappearing when he saw the boy. - I was terribly frightened when you fainted, at the time I thought something terrible had happened to you.
- Hagrid, can you please stop strangers from touching me and holding out their hands for me to shake? - Harry asked.
- 'All right, Harry. It's not like I didn't know you'd react to it like that. You would have told me beforehand, I wouldn't have let what happened in the bar happen,' the half-giant replied guiltily.
- Let's go shopping now, it's nighttime, there are no people around. It's a great opportunity to buy things,' Harry said hopefully.
- Harry, what are you doing? - Hagrid looked at him in surprise. - Shops don't open at night.
Potter mentally cursed. He'd been so excited about his brilliant idea that he hadn't thought of the details.
- I'm sorry, Hagrid, I forgot,' he said guiltily.
- That's all right, Harry. We'll go early tomorrow. There won't be many people - don't worry. Now let's go to bed.
With those words, Hagrid lay down on his other side and fell asleep almost immediately.
Harry couldn't fall asleep for a while. Since he had just woken up, he didn't want to sleep. However, not even an hour later, Harry was able to settle down and drift off into the realm of Morpheus.
* * *
The next morning he and Hagrid went shopping. As it turned out, while he was lying passed out in The Leaky Cauldron room, Hagrid had taken some of his money from the safe in the Gringotts magical bank. Harry didn't know he had any money, much less a safe, but even so, he wondered how Hagrid had managed to take money from HIS safe. No, Harry trusted Hagrid and was grateful to him for showing him the magical world, and if it wasn't for him, the boy would still be at the Dursleys' and wouldn't know about any money. But it didn't suit him that his safe could be used by anyone.
This oddity was soon explained: Hagrid, it turned out, had a key to his safe. Where it had come from, Harry didn't ask. He decided that it didn't matter much. As long as Hagrid had it now, he could keep it until Potter was of age.
After the fainting spell, Harry's dealings with other people got much worse. He panicked and shied away from everyone who passed by. In the early morning, however, there were few of them, and no one paid much attention to the strange boy.
First they went into Madam Malkin's shop to get robes. Harry resisted and wouldn't let her touch him, so it took a long time to get the measurements taken. However, Madam Malkin came up with a way to measure the boy without touching him. She enchanted a centimetre, and it measured Harry Potter by itself. Harry watched the enchanted object with fascination and decided that he would definitely learn such a spell.
After they bought robes, cloak, gloves, and hat, they went to get their textbooks. This is where Hagrid and Harry had their first conflict. Potter, in addition to the required textbooks, wanted to buy books with the titles: 'Magical Outburst: What It Is and How to Avoid It', "How to Become Invisible to People" and "Don't Let Fire Hurt You". Hagrid, on the other hand, flatly refused to buy anything but textbooks. As gawkers began to gather at the conflict, Harry abruptly made a compromise: he could only take one book for himself. Harry, deciding that learning how to use his magic was paramount, settled on a book on magical emissions.
After the books, they bought a telescope, copper scales, a set of crystal vials, and a pewter cauldron. Then they went to an apothecary that smelled like rotten eggs and bought potion ingredients. When they left the apothecary, Hagrid asked Harry to show him the letter and scrutinised it again.
- 'Harry,' he began cautiously. - Why didn't you accept my gift?
Potter didn't understand what he was talking about at first. Then he remembered the box he had mistaken for a trap at the Dursleys' house and blushed.
- Um... Hagrid, I'm sorry, I've just never been given a present. And I... it... Well, anyway, I thought it was some kind of trap,' he mumbled, looking at his feet.
- Harry! - Hagrid was even more horrified than when Potter had fainted. - 'You have nothing to apologise for, it's, on the contrary, I need to apologise. When we've bought everything we need, I'll go into our room at The Leaky Cauldron and give you that box. Now come on, I'll buy you a real present. Even though your birthday was yesterday and didn't end well, I still want you to remember it for the rest of your life.
Hagrid took Harry to a pet shop. It wasn't exactly a pet shop. It was more like a shelter for all animals. Potter had never been to a zoo. The only opportunity to go there with Dudley he had missed was because of the leg that Pierce had hurt him. Although Harry knew that there were a huge number of different kinds of animals, it was one thing to know and quite another to see them all in one place. All at the same time.
Snakes, frogs, rats, mice, owls, some combination of rabbits and pigs, rabbits themselves, puppies, kittens, hamsters, monkeys, parrots, spiders. Harry's eyes were running wild. He looked at the animals with fascination. At first Harry thought that Hagrid had given him the zoo trip for his birthday that he had wanted to see for so long. But then he saw the price tags and realised - Hagrid wanted to buy him a friend, and one who couldn't beat him, betray him or hate him. He felt such an immense gratitude for the giant that it was hard to describe in words.
- How do you feel about owls? Cats, mice and toads are all useless animals. And owls do a great job of carrying mail,' Hagrid brought him out of his stupor.
- I'm fine with that! - Harry glanced at the yellow and pink parrot, but decided that Hagrid had a better understanding of the magical world.
So fifteen minutes later, they walked out of the pet shop. Harry was carrying a cage with a snow-white polar owl in his hand. He was so happy that he didn't even jump away from Hagrid when he accidentally grazed his shoulder, he was covered in goosebumps, but compared to his previous reaction, it was a huge improvement.
When Potter, probably for the tenth time, tried to thank the giant, he stopped him:
- 'That's it, Harry, that's enough,' he muttered embarrassedly. - All we have to do is get you a wand.
'The Ollivander family have been wand makers since 382 B.C.,' Harry read the sign outside the shop. You've got to be kidding me. All his life doing nothing but making magic wands. Every Ollivander becomes a wand maker whether they wanted to or not. Harry was sure that coercion had played no small part in making the tradition last so long. If every Ollivander did what they wanted, the Ollivanders would produce wands for three or four generations at most, that is, until the 100s AD. And that is if fathers would raise their sons well and instil in them a love of the craft. Although what difference does it make whether Ollivanders were forced to produce magic wands. The important thing is that they know their craft well. I guess... Well, they must have learnt a lot in two millennia.
As soon as Harry and Hagrid and the caged owl entered the small, shabby building, a bell rang and an old man came out. Hagrid said that this was Mr Ollivander. Potter was left with a very unpleasant impression of the man. First, he told him many things about Harry's parents, the Dark Lord, and Harry himself, though more about their wands rather than the personalities themselves. He also learnt that Hagrid had been expelled from school and his wand had been broken, and that he kept the shards of it in a pink umbrella.
But Harry was not fooled by Ollivander's excessive sociability, and he kept a close eye on him the whole time. As soon as the shopkeeper came close to him and tried to touch his scar, Potter quickly jumped back to the exit. Hagrid was forced to stand up for him:
- 'Mr Ollivander, the thing is, Harry doesn't like to be approached, much less touched,' he said, covering the boy's back.
Despite the fact that Harry had received a great deal of information about the magical world throughout the process of buying a wand, walking out of the shop, Potter was angry. Yes, he'd gotten some cool wand, the sister wand of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Phoenix feather, Holly, eleven inches, very flexible. Harry liked the wand, it looked nice, it was comfortable in his hand, but it would make him feel special again and get in the way of handshakes, brrrr.
- Hagrid, a characteristic of my wand is its flexibility. How will it manifest itself? - Harry asked.
- I don't know. I don't know much about wands. Why didn't you ask Ollivander when we were in the shop? - Hagrid asked.
- I just didn't like Ollivander. Walking next to me, staring at my scar the whole time. He even scared me a little. So what about the wand? I don't need exact information. At least tell me what you think,' Harry replied.
- Well...' Hagrid thought for a moment. - 'It's all rubbish to me. My wand was oak, sixteen inches long, very agile. And none of those factors showed up in the time I used it. I even felt like it moved slower. So when they say 'good for spells' or 'good for transformations' and the like, then it shows up strongly. But when they say 'very agile', 'flexible', 'stiff', 'comfortable' and other nonsense, then it's just made up. I sometimes see kids from Muggle families off to buy wands with me. They're always getting shoddy ones.
Harry thought for a moment.
- Thank you, Hagrid, I understand. Can you not tell anyone that I got a wand like that? I mean, it's related to You-Know-Who's wand,' he asked cautiously.
- Okay, Harry, I'll be as quiet as a fish,' Hagrid returned Harry's phrase from the boat.
- Thank you, Hagrid,' Potter replied with a smile.
Soon they boarded the Underground and travelled to the correct station in silence. They walked fifteen minutes to some sort of train station. Hagrid bought a ticket and helped carry the purchases into the carriage as the train approached.
- 'That's it, Harry, I've got to go. Here - this is your train ticket. First of September, King's Cross Station, it says it all on the ticket. If you have any trouble, send me a letter with an owl on it, she'll know where to find me... Well, I'll see you soon, Harry.
The train started. Harry wanted to wave at it, but saw that there were many people watching the train to see their relatives off, so he changed his mind.
When Hagrid was out of sight, Harry remembered that the giant had never given him the box he had given him for his birthday. All the way home he speculated as to what it might have been.
* * *
For the next week at the Dursleys', Potter showed wonders of secrecy. And it wasn't just his aunt and uncle. The older Dursleys had stopped paying attention to him, and considering that all they'd ever done before was scold and beat him, or work him to death, Harry was fine with that tactic.
He hid from Dudley, Piers and their company. For the first couple of days he stayed in the closet, but Aunt Petunia kicked him out when she found out. Harry hid in the bushes, which were very dense, and Dudley and Piers had no idea that he would be able to get in there and stay there for long. However, he could not hide there for long. Gordon, Dudley's friend, had spotted Harry coming out of the bushes and told his cousin and Piers about it.
Now, however, Harry was simply running away from slower pursuers. He needed to buy time to hide and finish reading the book on magical emissions. He had no idea how it could help him though. It only talked about general information about magical discharge and how to avoid it. Harry, on the other hand, tended to use it at will. In a week of reading the same book, he was able to grasp the basic gist of it.
Magical ejection or elemental magic is when a wizard performs magic involuntarily. Most often manifestations of elemental magic are peculiar to children up to eleven years old in critical situations, especially when there is a threat to their life and health. Then children go to school, where they learn to do magic with a wand, and manifestations of elemental magic become rare.
Even though Harry had already turned eleven, he hadn't gone to school yet, so he hoped he would be able to use this magic at will. Potter had formulated three prerequisites for the use of elemental magic:
1)A threat to life or a sudden shock.
Harry should have no problems here, any action of Piers and Dudley could be classified as a threat to life.
2)A strong desire to avoid an unpleasant situation.
This is one Harry hasn't tried yet. He usually resigned himself to torture.
3)Directing his magic to get rid of the unpleasant situation.
This Harry didn't understand at all. There wasn't a single explanation in the entire book. The only thing he found was that channelling magic towards something specific was useless.
However, Harry hoped that if he kept running from Piers and his company, he wouldn't need the help of magic.
During this week Harry had also managed to communicate with his owl. Harry told her how hard his life was, and she looked at him and seemed to understand everything he said. Potter had come up with a name for her, 'The Element.' From the phrase 'Elemental Magic' that he found in the only book on magic he had started reading.
Harry was concerned about a question regarding the owl food. The owl's cage was open, and at night he let her out to hunt. But what would happen if she couldn't catch anything, or the Dursleys stopped letting him let the Elemental out to hunt? All in all, it couldn't hurt to be reassured. Harry sent a letter to Hagrid, outlining the nature of the feeding problem and recounting the situation with the Dursleys.
Potter missed the giant a little. Hagrid was the first person who cared about him.
That was how quietly the first week of August went. Everything changed on the ninth of August. That was the day Harry fell into a mini-trap prepared by Malcolm, another member of Dudley's gang. Harry had been on his way back to the Dursleys' house in the evening and, because of the darkness, hadn't noticed any movement in the bushes near the passage to Tees Street. He was startled when a shadow suddenly leapt out of the bushes at him.
- I've got him! - yelled Malcolm, grabbing his arm.
Harry was so frightened that he did something he would regret for the rest of his life, if he got caught of course. He remembered how Dudley had beaten him as a child and, trying to make a similar hand movement, he punched Malcolm in the eye with all his might. He let him go at once. Harry, however, wasted no time in running with all his might towards the forest. He was immediately followed by Piers, Dennis and Dudley, who appeared to be behind the house waiting for him.
Harry could hear the slapping of the ground behind him. He ran faster and faster. Dudley fell behind after a minute, and Potter had broken away from Piers by a good distance, but Dennis, who was the fastest in his cousin's company, had almost caught up with him.
Harry realised that if he was caught now, he would get his fill for all the days he had been hiding from them.
It seemed impossible for an eleven year old boy to keep up such a fast pace for so long, but Harry managed to speed up. After another three minutes of running, Pierce was finally behind and Dennis had disappeared somewhere. Potter quickly jumped into a bush and froze. He lay on the ground for about two minutes and listened to the sounds of the environment. Some birds were singing - Harry was near the edge of the forest. No suspicious sounds he heard.
Finally, he caught his breath and staggered towards Yew Street, remembering to look round. At first he could hardly move his legs to avoid making any sound, but as time went on he became bolder and quicker. Suddenly, sounds of running were heard behind him. Harry turned around - Dennis was coming towards him fast. He was already two metres away. Potter let out something like a panicked shriek and ran. But he didn't even have time to accelerate - Dennis caught up with him and threw him to the ground. He began beating Harry furiously. Potter pushed him off with his legs and pulled out his wand. Pointing it at Dennis, Harry immediately realised that he didn't know any spells. He rattled off the first thing that came into his head:
- Abra kadabra! - he shouted, waving his wand wildly.
And nothing happened. After a second, Dennis laughed.
- You're a wizard! - Dennis said through his laughter. - Now I'll show you some real magic.
With those words, Dennis kicked Harry in the stomach. The blow was so hard that Potter flew a couple of metres away and crashed into a tree.
- Your wand? - Dennis asked snidely. - I wonder what would happen if I bent it?
Dennis had no idea how right he was. He reached over to Harry and snatched the wand from his weakened hands.
'It's very flexible,' Harry remembered. 'It won't break. Potter felt strangely sure of that.
Dennis snapped the wand in half. And then again and again.
- Ow!' Dennis grinned. - It's all right, don't be sad, I'll comfort you now.
Dennis threw eight pieces of Holly and phoenix feather wand at his feet. Harry looked at them with pain in his eyes. The wand, which had a kinship with the Dark Lord's wand, had broken.
Dennis pulled out a lighter, snuffed out the fire and held it up to Harry's nose.
'No! Not the fire,' Potter thought in horror. He tried to crawl away, but there was a tree behind him. He tried with all his might to avoid contact with the fire, and suddenly he felt some kind of energy rushing towards the lighter.
The fire went out. Dennis looked at his lighter with bewilderment. He tried to light the fire again. And again. Finally he succeeded.
And a second later, Dennis was on fire.....
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