Chapter 3
Harry was not sure what it was about the place, maybe it was that the trees were greener, maybe it was the earthy scent that permeated the area or maybe it was simply the lack of giant man-eating spiders, but he found himself thinking that the place was very welcoming – less hostile.
But he did get the sense that something was off about the trees, the magic permeating the area felt stilted, like when he concentrates his magic on the tip of his wand and waits for the right moment to utter the spell, but slightly different. He could not grasp what it was, then again, it was unlikely that he would understand much in his current state.
He let out a big yawn as he let himself be hurried along a dirt path with stones littered over the place by the young queen that had taken upon herself to give him a crash course of Narnian history, both current and old. More specifically, she went into detail over the period of time where they first came here and a little off what had happened after they left.
Harry had to admit that it was an interesting story, certainly much more entertaining than any of the classes professor Binn had given him, thought he would have appreciated the history lesson better if he were not about to drop dead on the suddenly before inviting ground and sleep until next week.
For that was the thing with magical exhaustion. You could be physically, mentally and psychologically fine, but if your magic was depleted, you might as well feel as if you had just run a hundred laps around Hogwarts. He remembers Madame Pomphrey likening their magic to a muscle, the more you work on it, the easier it will become to cast more powerful magic. But the price you pay for that is your energy.
That and the straining your magic core but he honestly has not read enough book to understand how magic cores work.
When the finally arrived at a somewhat big glade, where the majority of the centaur population resided, Lucy introduced him to them, and it was only so easy for him to slip back into the traditional greeting. This earned him several startled looks, some curious ones and a very delighted grin on the young queen’s face.
After the shock passed, they approached him and began to introduce themselves one by one (after Lucy reassured them that he was not a Telmarine).
Now, there was a lot that Harry was capable of doing. Fighting against psychopath wizards, face off against a dragon and even deal with a sixty-foot basilisk was not problem to him. That is, as long as he had enough energy to pull it off.
Something that he was lacking at the moment.
Having a vision from Voldemort in the middle of the night, going to the Ministry to save his godfather, dueling a bunch of wizards twice sometimes thrice his age and then ending up in a different world made the perfect recipe for a very exhausted Harry Potter.
And an exhausted Harry Potter was one that had the attention span of a squirrel, the clumsiness of a newborn calf and the memory retention of a strainer.
Hence why, by the time the thirtieth centaur introduced himself to him, he had forgotten all the names that had been thrown at him or they just kind of mixed with each other. If someone where to come and ask him the names of everyone in the glade, it was very likely that he would have blurted pure nonsense.
Something must have shown in his face, because one of the female centaurs – he was almost certain that her name started with an M – suggested him being shown the rest of the camp before dinner time. That would give them enough time to have his sleeping quarters ready for him.
Thankfully, for him that is, dinner was bound to start soon, so Lucy decided to speed through the tour of the camp. On the bright side, this prevented him from learning more names that he would end up forgetting a moment after, on the not so bright side, he was forced to almost run to catch up to the quick step of the two royals. Something that the raven king found very entertaining.
After leaving the glade, Lucy had to think fast on her feet on what parts of the camp he should see first, based on what – she believed - the wizard would be more familiar with. Harry found it amusing as she tried to guess what he would have seen in their birth world and what he probably hadn’t and, at first, he though there would not be much of a difference between creatures.
He was proven wrong when, upon meeting the griffins, one of them opened its beak and spoke to him in a very much male and very human sounding voice. He will not admit, not even upon pain of death, that he jumped and let out a squeak of surprise when that happened. He could only be thankful that none of his friends where there to see him, the twins would have never let him live that one down. It was bad enough that the griffins had fallen into a laughing heap at his reaction, and he had a feeling that the dark-haired king might use the incident against him at some point.
At least the griffins had taken a liking to him, that was good, right?
Eventually, they were all notified to make their way to something called ‘The Hall’, which he had not seen yet but he imagined it was where they had their meals. But boy did he almost felt like kissing the satyr that had delivered the news, for it was beginning to lose his battle with sleep and he was sure that having some food in his system might help wake him up a bit.
The Hall turned out to be a big room with a bonfire burning in the center of it, the smoke produced by the burning wood getting out through a hole on the ceiling that opened up to the sky, and several small logs of wood surrounding longer pieces, that worked as tables, were spread around the area.
A satyr led them to one log that was occupied by the older Pevensie siblings, along with Glenstorm, Reepicheep – the mouse that he first met – and a giant… badger?
Harry only blinked at the sight before shrugging and taking a seat besides the centaur, who was just across the badger. After meeting the talking griffins, it was safe to say that a giant badger was low in his list of ‘things to be surprised about’.
He had taken the seat closes to the centaur for two reasons, the first one being that he felt comfortable when being around the big guy, there was just something that about the centaur that screamed ‘safe’ to him. The second reason was that he did not think it would be a good idea to sit beside the royals of this world, the eldest of the kings had been quite clear in stating that he did not like or trust him and he had no wish to start a fight with him.
Not when it was likely that the rest of the Narnian population would take his side. Something that would likely end up with him getting imprisoned or killed and he rather not have to deal with either of those fates. And so, to avoid starting a conflict, he chose to sit away from the family, therefore ensuring his safety.
Not that his plan worked, for as soon as he sat, the blond girl took on of the wooden logs that were nearby and dragged it towards him, placing it just a few feet away from him. Her brother copied the action on his other side, making him feel trapped.
The glare he received from Peter certainly did not help him dissuade that feeling.
“Did you guys have fun?” asked Susan, an amused glint shinning in her blue eyes at her younger sibling’s actions.
Lucy’s eyes brightened at the question before nodding, “We did, Harry knew how to greet almost all of them in their traditional way” she informed her.
“Really?” Peter mused, “Did your book tell you this information Mr. Potter?”
Harry felt his eye twitch at the tone in which his last name was said, it reminded him way too much of Snape, “Yes, plus in our world I take a subject called Care of Magical Creatures where we cover the way to approach several races” thought they did not cover what to do when faced with a griffin that could speak like a human, but he was not about to share that with them.
“A subject? Does that mean that you are a student?” Susan tilted her head in thought, she supposed it made sense that wizards and witches would not be born knowing how to control their gifts from the start, an education would be needed. And the teenager before them looked to be around their age, actually, “how old are you?”
Harry was about to reply, when a satyr passed and placed a plate filled with some kind of stew on it, “thank you” he turned towards the queen after thanking the satyr, “I’m fifteen, sixteen in a few months and yes, I am a student. The school I go to is called Hogwarts and it’s a boarding school. We study several other subjects that help us control our power and learn more of our world.”
“And what are these subjects? If you don’t mind me asking” the badger inquired, eyes glittering in interest at the prospect of learning something new.
“I don’t mind, Mr…” he trailed off, silently asking for their name. He blinked in confusion when the badger let out a light laugh, not understating what he had found funny.
“No no, I am no Mr” the animal gave the teen a small smile, or at least, it seemed to look like that in Harry’s eyes, “you may call me Trufflehunter”
Well, ain’t that a unique name, “I understand, well, to answer your question Trufflehunter, we study Charms, Transfiguration, Astronomy, Defense against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Herbology and Potions. Which I’m pants at, according to my professor that is” he added good humoredly, “those are our main core subjects. Then we have our electives, Divination, Arythmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of magical creatures and Muggle studies. In the past they used to teach Alchemy and Magical Law but for some reason it was dropped from the curriculum”
“Fascinating” the badger’s beady eyes gleamed, “and are there more educational institutes for your kind?”
Harry nodded, “as far as I know, there are several school of magic spread around the world. I do not know all of them, but some of the ones I do know are called, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Ilvermorny”
Edmund frowned, “you mentioned something about defense against the dark arts, what is that about?”
“Exactly as it sounds, the class focus on teaching us offensive and defensive spells. We are taught how to protect ourselves and others from dark magic.” Harry took a sip of the goblet that had been given to him, finding that it contained pomegranate juice, he had honestly expected there to be wine, but he was not about to complain about this, “But in all honesty it should only be called Defense in my opinion.”
“Why is that?” Trufflehunter asked.
“Because, while dark magic can harm people, light magic is just as deadly when used with less than pure intentions” he replied and took a mouthful of the stew, feeling considerably more awake now that they were talking a subject that he felt very strongly about.
It was something he had come to realize when he was in his second year and with the passing of the years, that belief had only grew stronger. Not that he had ever gotten the chance to voice it out, the whole of wizarding Britain would have probably sent him straight to Azkaban for fear of him turning ‘dark’.
“In the wizarding world, there is this big and I really mean big prejudice over dark magic, claiming that it is evil magic when it is not” he said after swallowing his food, “when the reality if that dark magic is not completely evil, sure, there are some things there that are terrible, but there are plenty spells and rituals that can do a lot of good. Especially when it comes to healing but, well, prejudice makes people idiots.”
“Does this prejudice come from the war that you mentioned before?” based on all the history lessons she had acquired in her own school; Susan had come to understand that prejudices often came from having a terrible experience with something, usually a group of individuals, creatures or even objects. Meaning there must be a reason as to why magicals in their world had a problem with dark magic.
This conversation brough to question just what kind of magic the white witch had been using, perhaps Harry would be able to answer that for them.
“It certainly played a part in it but no, it was not my war the one that caused this prejudice. It was another one” the young wizard took a moment call fourth what little he knew about a time before Voldemort existed, “there was another dark lord, his name was Gellert Grindelwald and he was known for being a very powerful dark magic user, plus, his followers tended to be dark wizards and witches”
“Back in the day, dark magic was something that was practiced just as openly as light magic was, in fact, some school even taught this magic alongside the other subjects. But when Grindelwald came into the picture, the Ministry – that’s our government institution – began to go on a banning spree, wanting to cut off all access to dark magic as fast as possible.”
“Well, they were smart enough to deal with the problem at the root” Peter mussed, taking a sip of his goblet, “they lessened the chances of it being used to hurt others”
Harry snorted, “no, banning dark magic is what made the war that is being waged on today possible, that and trying to make our world be like the muggle one” if the Ministry was worried that another dark lord would appear, they should not have banned dark magic, restrict its use would have been a better path to take.
If they paid attention to the muggle side of history they would know that the more restrictions you place in a group of people, the more likely that you will have a revolution in your hands.
Peter narrowed his eyes, “if they had not banned dark magic then more people would have died because of it, how that lead to war? And what’s so wrong with making the magical world more like the muggle one? Wouldn’t that make it easier for the muggleborns to adapt?”
“Because banning dark magic kills those that are born in a dark magic core, because banning magic hurts Lady magic and because banning dark magic makes it so more people die from a sickness that a dark ritual or spell could have cured or diagnosed in a matter of seconds, but those stupid laws condemn them to death” Harry replied hotly, feeling particularly strongly about the last argument.
Sirius had ones told him that there was a potion that could cure his eye sight, making it so he would never have to rely on his glasses to see, but because the potion was classed as a dark, nobody was willing to brew it. And the sole reason it was considered dark was because it needed the blood of the patient to key itself to the magical’s body, meaning that it would work on them but not on someone that decided to steal the potion and take them for themselves.
It pissed him off that in Britain he would never be able to get access to that potion but in other countries this potion was available to the public, heck, ministries around the world would pay for the potion so that their auror trainees – the ones that had sight deficiencies – could take them. Their reason being that, were they to lose their glasses, they would become useless in the field, and it increased their chances of getting killed. Taking the potion ensured that they would at least get a fair fighting chance of survival on the field.
But if you tried to brew in Britain, you got yourself a one-way ticket to Azkaban where you had to serve a five-year sentence and nobody was willing to risk being sent up there, even to help a family member.
“Lady Magic?” Lucy had never heard that before, “is that the deity your people follow?”
The green eyed teen nodded, “one of many, yes, but she is the primordial one. Her and her brother, Lord Death” he took another bite of his stew, “my family in particular had a strong connection to him” at least, that’s what Siri had told him ones, he had not had the time to properly look into it and now…
Everyone, save for Peter, stared in confusion at the way the young man’s shoulder slumped and he let out a tired sigh.
“Are you alright, child?” Glenstorm asked.
“Yeah, I’m just tired. It been a rather eventful day.”
The siblings frowned; how could the wizard be tired after being healed by Lucy? Usually speaking, after having a few drops of her cordial, even if you had been in death’s doorstep, you would wake up full of energy. So how come that Harry still felt tired?
Seeing the confused looks, he proceeded to explain “magical exhaustion, you can use potions to help treat it, but sleep and food is the best way to deal with it.”
Everyone made a sound of understanding and continued on with their meal, something for which Harry was thankful, he felt that his nerves were a little fried after the conversation and he did not think that accidental magic might endear him to the Narnian population.
If was only after he finished the meal that he noticed that someone was missing from the table, the other dark-haired teen, what was his name again? Caldur? Casim? Castor?... oh right, it was Caspian.
“Is Caspian not going to join us?” he inquired.
“He and Trumpkin are currently checking the boarders, they will come soon” Susan replied, wiping her mouth delicately with a napkin. Her actions made him feel like his table manners were inadequate in this place, reminding him that here he was pretty much a peasant. “But you should probably head to your tent and sleep, you’ll need your energy for tomorrow.”
“And why is that?”
“Did you finish the tour of the camp?” she answered with a question of her own.
Harry glanced at the blond girl sitting beside him, for he had no sure answer to the question, but Lucy sure as hell did.
“Nop” she looked quite happy about that, much to happy for Harry’s liking, “we have not shown him the training area, the armory and the stone table. More importantly, he had not met Trumpkin yet!”
Guess that covered what his plans were going to be for tomorrow, that was something for future Harry to deal with. Current Harry was too tired to do anything, now that he was no longer in danger and he had a full stomach plus the warmth coming from the bonfire, he could do nothing but lean into the table and settle himself in a semi comfortable position.
The sound of the conversation flowing lulled into a stat of semi consciousness, Harry heard someone ask something, but he had no idea what he replied, only that it caused a pair of strong arms to hold him and lift him up from his seat.
Come morning, he will feel embarrassed for collapsing in front of so many people, royalty to make matter worse, but right now, he only cared about answering Morpheus’ call.
Who knows, maybe after he wakes up, he’ll find himself in Hogwarts’s infirmary with Madame Pomphrey pestering him to drink some awful potion and reprimanding him for the umpteenth time for being so reckless.