Studying, warding and teacups
Over the next few days I got acclimated to my new mind, at first I was waking up at all hours and frantically scribbling down the half remembered ideas. It seems the combination of void touched and super genius has had a strange affect on my psyche. I would occasionally head out too the sanctum where I would have training and therapy with the ancient one. I got special one on one training due to my unique nature and the fact that I was technically a child.
Most of it consisted of meditation and theory but I did get too go on the astral acid trip, it was a much more relaxing experience due to my nature of being void touched. I had actually visited many of these dimensions and universes previously when I was a wandering spirit, but the tour around the multiverse was necessary so I could link my new physical body and begin channeling the energies through that. The majority of sorcerers channel energy from all universes equally which is referred to as eldritch magic, not actual eldritch magic just a melting pot of everything. Certain students have gifts which give them an affinity for one type of energy over another, which results in their magic appearing differently than normal.
The ancient one told me that when I begin performing sorcery my magic would most likely appear different than the standard due to my affinity for void energies. In fact channeling energy from the void is considered very hard and is even something the ancient one struggles with so that's another advantage in my favor.
I was currently listening to a lecture from the ancient one on the theory of channeling energy. "Once a connection too the multiverse has been established to your physical body, you can almost immediately begin the channeling of eldritch magic. However in order to have the magic function beyond a pretty light-show you must channel the energy in specific patterns and shapes, every universe has its own unique fractal structure, certain energies flow along specific patterns more easily than others. For example spacial energies flow much easier through a circular pattern, which is why our portals appear the way they do." The ancient took a sip of tea before continuing.
"Certain spells require complicated patterns to cast and would be impossible to channel by yourself, we get around this by employing the use of a sling ring. The rings undergo multiple enchanting processes during creation and are forged from special alloys that allow them too fold and shape magic in complicated ways. Portals are also an example of a spell requiring use of such a focus, as the geometry required to fold two places of space together would be impossible for a human mind to comprehend."
"You could think of magic as the source code of reality and magical foci as processors able to compute mass amounts of this code at once."
Needless too say, the woman's lectures were very interesting. I was allowed to study the beginner texts and managed to almost flawlessly perform astral projection the first time, we theorized it was due to the large amount of time I spent as a spirit. My projection also appeared different then others. The ancient one described my astral form as looking like my physical body but certain parts were... off, sometimes my edges would be blurred and parts of me would appear as if they folding in on themselves in impossible ways. She described staring into my eyes as staring into a singularity and that she could get the faint sense that there was a much larger, older force she could not see.
I had also spent time going over my wizarding texts and the ancient one had knowledge in this field of magic as well, so she was able to help tutor me. I say I had all of the first 3 years covered by now in both the practical side and the theory side, the later years would be more difficult to perform wandlessly so my progressions would start slowing at this point.
Speaking of wands the ancient one informed me that they could modify my wand in the same way as a sling ring so I would be able to perform sorcery with it as well as wizarding magic. She also provided me with texts on wandlore and wand crafting and informed me that if I could study and understand them in their entirety then I would be allowed to craft my own wand and bypass the need for Ollivanders and by proxy, the trace. I spent the next few days after that in a ravenous state of study.
Later on I asked the ancient one to help ward my home with protections on top of the ones the goblins had given it, I wanted insurance against any form of attack. She only performed a small handful of spells stating that the protections placed on previously were quite thorough in their coverage, she added a few features to prevent scrying and portaling unless I had given permission for entry. It was then I remembered the blood wards I had bound to myself and when I asked her about them, she had me follow her too the library.
It was on our way towards the library that I stopped, I felt a sudden... pull, a feeling of kinship, a voice? beckoning me. I saw an artifact within an otherwise empty chamber, sitting on a pedestal. It was singing. Singing like the old ones I had encountered, this song was the march of time, the grains of sand slipping through your fingers. I wanted so desperately to join in, no... I needed to sing with it, too have our voices crescendo together in a dual choir. I reached out my hand and I-
"Mr. Potter are you alright?" I froze... I was suddenly aware of what I was doing.
"I...I'm sorry I appeared to have lost myself there, I just- I heard this... singing and... I don't know how to describe it." I hoped the ancient one could tell I was sincere in my statement.
"singing? I've heard the magic of certain artifacts be described as 'singing' but never in the literal sense. Then again there is much mystery surrounding the infinity stones." I was shocked momentarily. Of course the mysterious singing artifact was actually the eye of agamotto, infinity stones were one of the first things to come into existence, they were the collection of songs from old ones so powerful that they formed into crystals and became beings of their own. Like tiny baby old ones singing their own universes together. I relayed this information too the Ancient one.
"It seems you share a connection with them, remarkable. Certain artifacts call to sorcerers that they for lack of a better term 'like', however never have I heard of a connection like what you have described, and with an infinity stone of all things." The ancient one was excited, there was a very small amount of topics she had no knowledge in, and learning anything new had become a rare occurrence for her.
"perhaps when you've achieved your mastery and have better control of your gift I shall let you experiment with the stone, until then come... we need to figure out what exact kind of blood ward your mother created."
The ancient one took too the forbidden section to search through a book of blood magic, before we left I remembered something and quickly requested something of her. "Hey do you have a sticky note and a pen? I need to do something real quick."
She quirked her eyebrow and with a wave of her hand I had both requested items. I quickly started looking through the titles of forbidden tomes while the Ancient one watched on in curiosity.
"Lets see here, 'a demons guide to necromancy' no, 'an account of mephisto' nope, 'The magic of dreams' nuh-uh." I looked through multiple tomes with a specific one in mind. " 'secrets of the darkest art' hey! I know this one, but not what I'm looking for." Eventually I discovered what I had been looking for. "Here it is! 'The book of Cagliostro'" I flipped through the pages until I got too the section about Dormammu. I placed the sticky note on the page and wrote 'evil liar and thief, will tell you any lie to have you carry out its will. general asshole. weakness is time.' With my work done I closed the book and placed it back in its place.
Turning back around to face the ancient one she merely raises her eyebrow in question. I explain simply "It's a surprise tool that will help us later!" she seems to ponder on this for a brief moment before leading me out too the main library.
We go through the text on blood rituals until eventually coming to one that the ancient one is able to modify to suit my needs. The ritual will take the blood wards from within me and bind them too the wards on my new home. Essentially merging the existing wards with them, because of the merge the blood wards will no longer require any people other than me to charge and once I reach 17 and the Voldemort protections wear off, the property will still retain blood wards protecting me from anyone I don't wish onto the property. The ancient one is still working out the kinks in the modified ritual but so far we know that it will have to be performed on Halloween night, the same time of Lily's sacrifice.
We also have a theory that having the wards actually bound in my body is slowly having my magic leak into them, specifically the void energies that I have. We are unsure what effect this might have on the wards but the ancient one believes that it shouldn't hinder any of the protections.
Another very important conversation I've had with the ancient one was about Albus Dumbledore, I was worried I might be inhabiting a world with one of the more malicious versions of the man, but the ancient one assured me that Dumbledore seems genuine. Apparently he had studied at Kamar-Taj before and although he was incapable of sorcery, he learned a great deal of knowledge that he was able to apply to wizarding magic. I feel slightly relieved but I'll still keep myself on guard when I meet the man. My occlumency is perfect in the sense that I can organize and scramble my mind with quite literally a thought. I've had the ancient one test my mental defenses and she's assured me there is little to improve in that area, however there are deeper branches of occlumency and mind arts on the sorcery side that I have yet too master.
A few months pass and the ancient one deems I'm ready to start advancing in my occlumency, I'm focusing on mastering all aspects of occlumency as quickly as possible. This is because I want full fortifications on my mind by the time I meet Albus just in case, the ancient one assures me that it wouldn't be necessary for meeting with the Headmaster of Hogwarts but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'm sitting before the ancient one as she begins her lecture.
"While being able to scramble one's thoughts and prevent foreign minds from reading your own requires a great deal of study, true masters of occlumency are able to prevent enemy intrusions entirely. This process is known as 'warding your mind' and requires the construction of mental 'walls'. To even begin at warding your mind you must first learn to channel magic too other parts of your body, in this instance your head. Not many know that channeling magic throughout the entire body is possible to begin with, and those that do find the process difficult if not impossible."
The ancient one pauses and takes a drink from her cup... wait hold on there wasn't a tea set in this room where did she get tha-
"However you informed me previously that you have already trained yourself in channeling magic throughout your body so we can move on too the next step. The main boon that warding your mind grants is complete privacy of your thoughts, one does not have to probe your mind to pick up the surface level thoughts that drift in and out of your consciousness. Even by mastering the art of scrambling ones thoughts the surface level is still unguarded. By warding your mind you essentially become a black hole of thought, completely invisible to anyone trying to pick up on stray thoughts."
Devoid of thought huh? I'm sure I can make a joke out of that but I'm too distracted by the teacup thing, seriously every time I look back at it the designs on the cup change. Is she getting new ones!? like what the-
"Once you are channeling your magic through your head, focus on pulling it in towards the deepest recessed of your mind and once you feel that every part of your mind is flowing in magic you must cast a spell. Not in the traditional sense, you must cast this spell the way all magicals first use their magic as children, by focusing on raw emotion and intent instead of wand waving and incantation. Hold on to the ideas of protection, visualization helps as well, most practitioners start by visualizing simple walls, however the simpler the construct the easier it will be overcome by outside forces. You do not need to limit yourself too the laws of reality the more abstract the better. You will know when the spell has worked."
The ancient one finishes her lecture and also her tea, at this point I've given up on the cup, seriously. Anyway moving on I take a deep breath... close my eyes... and focus my magic through my head.
I feel it flowing around the surface of my head, with a simple thought it soaks in deep until every cell of skin, muscle, bone and neuron is flowing with magic. With another breath I focus and conjure ideas of safety and protection. I sit there for awhile and feel like I'm making no progress until I start thinking of...mom, Lily's protections, the memory of her voice from that night, how she carved out the strongest protections she could using her own blood and like that I start too feel something stir in my mind. I try too keep it going but I'm stagnating now, until another thought enters my mind, this one about the journey I took through the Multiverse and more specifically, the void. I conjure up the memories I have of that place, the complete unreality of it all, how even looking at such a thing as a mortal would result in instant insanity... and then... everything clicks into place.
The ancient one notifies me that she can no longer sense any thoughts from me at all, as if I disappeared completely. It worked. She tells me I don't have to constantly be channeling magic through my mind, only when creating the walls, fortifying them or repairing them require a constant stream of magic. She then tests my defenses with a weak mental probe and well...she is completely caught off guard. It seems picturing the void actually called upon that aspect of my magic as the ancient one described my defense as an infinite darkness and an infinite blind light at the same time, filled with impossible constructs and beings. She had struggled slightly when trying to end the attack as she could actually feel my mind trying to pull her entire consciousness into itself, I wasn't even aware I was doing that but apparently that void energy is some really powerful bullshit.
She recovers quickly and informs me that if anyone else where too try and attack my mind for too long they would drive themselves mad. She ends our lesson by informing me that we will start my training on properly utilizing my void energies in our next session.
Afterward I get on with life for awhile, I spend my time bouncing between the Pottery and the London Sanctum, practicing and studying both my sorcery and my wizardry. I make good progress and can more easily call upon and control my void magic when casting now, I've also started learning the more utilitarian functions of occlumency, such as being able to dampen my emotions when the need arises, after constructing my defenses this one came easy too me. I was also informed that constantly dampening my emotions instead of dealing with them will just lead to more problems in the long run, so no mental illness cheat codes for me sadly.
I've made the Pottery a cozy little living space that's a mashup of a wizard tower and a modern home. I have the more modern muggle technologies in the house but the lighting is completely magical, I have plants in pots and planters on the walls and I've put tiny crystals sitting in their roots that have been enchanted to glow. This causes a nice level of pretty ambient lighting around my home as well as making the plants look cool. I also have a nice, wide, brick fireplace with a bookshelf sitting next too it. All the books are my more basic knowledge ones that I finished ages ago as well as a few story books I picked up. All my really cool books are still in the secret cellar. I have a few shelves here and there along the walls that I decorate with various magical knick knacks, really going for that Dumbledore's office look.
My bedroom has a nice large bed with a one way enchanted window, but the best part is I managed to enchant the ceiling. Yes that same enchantment in the Hogwarts hall but with a few tweaks. During the day its a nice clear blue sky with the occasional cloud but at night it changed to a view of deep space with the milky way swirling among clouds of stardust and other celestial bodies. Its not an actual live view, just an image I managed to capture from my mind. I had to use a modified version of the spell that allows you to pull memories and then weeks of research into pensieves (thank god there is one in Kamar-Taj) to put the whole thing together...and maybe a little help from the ancient one where she maybe, perhaps, corrected a few errors in my spellwork that would've resulted in it exploding.
Other than that its the same day in and day out, eventually Halloween rolls around and by then the ancient one has the ritual all sorted out. I had taken the main ward stone out from its hiding place in the cellar, as long as it doesn't stray too far from the property the wards will be fine. She has a massive circle drawn around the ward line, the circle is in blood and I am not asking where she got it from, nope. She casts a spell that allows the wards to become visible, which would have failed had I not keyed her into the wards beforehand. The goblins handiwork fills the air in the form of beautiful swirling runes and patterns all connecting and flowing together, its hard to find out where one rune sequence ends and another begins. I feel it out with my magic and the ancient one helps me to add an open framework that will accept the blood wards and allow them into the rune scheme.
It was day when we started and by now its starting to get late. we finish modifying the wards and then she turns too me and casts the same revealing spell, I channel my magic and slowly unbind the blood wards from myself and lift them out. The wards still radiated that sense of warmth associated with a mother's love but there was also the tiniest hint of void as well, and the patterns seemed to sometimes fold in ways impossible for a ward. It seems our theory was proven correct.
The ancient one starts to call upon void energies specifically and helps guide my magic in tying the blood wards to the main scheme. Once they're in place she begins chanting in a language I don't recognize. The air seems to crackle with energy and the wards start to glow brighter, the ritual circle lights up in a crimson fire and when the ancient one reaches the height of her chanting I cut open my hand and allow my blood to pour onto the main ward stone.
The stone glows a bright white that's so blinding I can't see anything... and then its finished. We both stand before the new ward scheme glowing in front of us, the patterns seemed to have multiplied and now the entire ward scheme gives off that sense of warmth. The ancient one comments that the wards are slightly blurry and hard to focus on in certain places, I however can see them just fine. It's then I notice that I can feel the wards as if they were a part of my magic, the wards seem to respond to my thoughts as they move and change shape, almost like they're alive. I think we might've deepened my connection too the blood wards.
I tell the ancient one my thoughts and she informs me that she'll look into it. After a few more hours making sure everything is in order we clean up and the ancient one departs. I head to bed and while drifting too sleep my mind wanders to the next big task in my immediate future, a meeting with a certain old man.