Chapter 6
“And this is the armory, a little dirty but I promise it does not always look like this” Lucy hurried to say when Harry stared wide eyed at the alarming number of swords and spears that were littered all over the place. It would be a miracle if he left that place without a scratch on him!
Unless he used magic that is.
And seeing as he preferred having all of his limbs attached, he figured that it would be worth the fearful stares he would gain from the narnians if it meant nobody ended up nicked by the weapons.
“I think I can do something about that” he whipped his wand out and turned towards Trumpkin, “is there a specific section designated for each weapon?”
“Spears and swords to the stands on the left, shields to the right” was the grunted reply he got.
Say no more, Harry was quick to cast some levitating charms in every single one of the weapons, clearing the ground they were walking on, and directing them to the stands they were meant to be. He was done in a matter of seconds, and he was not shamed to admit that he could now breath a little easier, knowing that he was not in danger of losing a foot, or a leg.
Lucy looked at the wizard in concern, “are you sure you should be using magic so soon?”
Harry smiled at her, “it’s fine, the charm does not need much magic to maintain it, it mostly relies on concentration. As long as I don’t cast anything too heavy for the next day or so, I’ll be fine”
“Is that the usual amount of time you need to recover from magical exhaustion?” Edmund asked, having got the feeling that the wizard was not being completely truthful.
“Erm… no, usually Madame Pomphrey would order us to take it easy for three to four days” at the intense look he was gaining from the brunet king, he could not help adding, “and she would give us a pepper up potion.”
“But you don’t have that potion.”
“No, but I could brew it” probably, Harry might remember the recipe, but he was not really confident that he would be able to pull it off even if he was able to find all the ingredients needed. “Or look for herbs that have a similar effect to the potion.”
Now that he was certain he could pull of, he may not be a herbology genius like his friend Neville, but he knew his herbs quite well. The problem here was that he was not sure just how different the flora of Narnia was compared to their birth world, perhaps he could approach the centaurs regarding that. Or would it be better to approach a nymph? He honestly had no idea.
“Well, your magic does come in handy” the dwarf pointed out, looking in approval at the neat rows of weapons arranged to the sides, like it should have been in the first place. Really, they were asking to lose a limb with the way it had looked before, he was going to have a word with the ones responsible for this area.
Turning to look at the satisfied young wizard, he supposed that he could finally admit that the kid was indeed a wizard like everyone was saying. Although whether he was a good one or a bad one was left to be seen. One could never know the true nature of someone without knowing them for some time.
“Indeed it does, Master Harry does your magic have a, say, offensive application?” Nikabrik asked, a strange glint in those beady eyes of his that made Harry pause, just when had the dark-haired dwarf managed to catch up with them?
“Well, I did study defense against the dark arts, so… yes?” he replied, not sure why the dwarf was asking him that, specially when he had explained a little about the subject last night.
“Of course, of course, what I meant to ask is if there are specific spells that could cause, ah, significant damage when used against others.”
Trumpkin instantly turned towards his fellow dwarf, his eyes wide as he finally realized what his friend was fishing for, Nikabrik had always been quite vocal in regard to what they should do in order to free themselves of the ‘vermin’ as he liked to refer to the telmarines. And had mentioned a time or two how if they had access to the magic of old, they would have been able to get rid of them before they caused any harm to their people – often times, giving hits of thinking that it would have been for the best of the White witch had never been destroyed.
He would often laugh it up and say he never meant it and he believed him, but he had to wonder if a part of his friend had actually believed that.
“Nikabrik” he said lowly so as to make his friend the only one to hear him, but if he heard him, he made no motion of having paid attention to the question and warning mixed in his voice.
Harry paused, giving the dwarf a long look, Edmund doing the same thing behind him, “yes… although it depends on what kind of damage you are aiming for” was what he responded, his body tensing and unconsciously reaching for his scared hand.
The siblings noticed this, both of them remembering the state the wizard had been when he first arrived and the little information he had given about his war. They knew that magic could be used to harm, although, the young man had not been clear as to how that came to be. And, while they were curious to know more, they did not wish to make the wizard more uncomfortable.
“Oh? Can you give an example?” he asked, beady eyes glittering.
Not liking where the conversation was going or the memories it could possibly be bringing forth, Edmund approached the young man and leant on his ear to whisper, “you do not need to explain more if you don’t wish to, Nikabrik cannot demand you to say anything.”
Harry felt the hairs in the back of his neck stand on end and a slight shiver work through his spine. It was, surprisingly, not an unpleasant kind of shiver, perhaps because the man behind him did not mean to harm him in any way.
He tilted his head slightly towards him and gave a nod of understanding, a little thankful that they were not going to make him spill all his secrets, specially in front of this dwarf. The glint in his eyes made him wary of sharing anything regarding magical combat.
Then again, what could he do with the information given? Dwarf magic was different from wizard magic and from what little Lucy had told him, nobody here seemed to harness magic or even know how to. So really, the information that he could give was close to useless to them.
Except…
It would make them fear me. He thought, make them wary that I would do something to them.
He pursed his lips, considering his options. He could go ahead and tell them, risking all of them fearing him and the possibility of him using his magic against him, or he could keep quiet for now until he has gotten to know them better.
“What about you and your siblings? Will you demand me to tell you everything?” he whispered back to the royal, the title and everything that it represented beginning to settle on Harry like a noose around his neck.
He was aware of his position here, very much so, if the young king demanded it of him, he would have to comply less he be hurt for defying him by his subjects. They may not be that kind of royals, maybe they were, he did not know, he barely knew the Pevensies. The point was that he had his hands tied here and, if he wanted to survive and maybe find a way back home, he would have to listen to what this man would say.
Even if he did not like it.
“No,” was the immediate reply Edmund gave, but then paused to add, “Peter might want to know more about you, your past and your magic, but he would not outright demand it from you” I think, went unsaid.
Edmund knew his brother, he was a good king and a great leader in the battlefield. The Peter from before would not demand information from an innocent that had committed no wrong. But ever since they returned he had been a bit odd… Perhaps the wizard had true reason to be wary of him.
“Pretty sure that the monarchs of Earth would not agree to that.”
That earned him a chuckle, “perhaps” with that he withdrew but stayed close to him. Harry could feel his warmth in his back, making him relax slightly, feeling better about any decision he took.
“You could ask Lady Lucy, she treated me from wound created by my kinsmen using magic” he said, settling for the ‘I am not going to tell anything to the creepy dwarf’ approach while also giving the others an idea of what magic could do to harm others.
Maybe in the future he will tell them something about it.
He ignored the somewhat disappointed face of the elf and turned towards the blond queen, “where next to, your highness?”
The girl giggled at the form of address, coming forward to take his hand along with that of her brother “just call me Lucy, silly” with that they were off to who knows were.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
They came to a secluded area near the river, made of stone wall that had seen better days with no ceiling – unless you classified the thin pieces of fabric placed on top of them as a ceiling. Harry noticed that there was a slight smell of smoke around the place, making him assume that they were getting close to he kitchens.
His assumption was soon proven wrong when, upon crossing the threshold of the dilapidated building, he found several rows of rope holding wet pieces of fabric, some of them being blankets others being clothes or smaller pieces of fabric. Upon further inspection, he saw several big wooden buckets filled with water along with a big fireplace where something was being heated.
“This is part of the room is the laundry room, this is where you come when you need to clean your clothes” the young queen gave a long glance at the tattered clothes the wizard was wearing, “something that you need to do soon”
Harry did not even get the chance to feel embarrassed before he got dragged away from the room, taking the left corridor that was still standing, coming toa spacious area where the corridor divided itself into two. One curved towards the left, the other towards the right and Harry thought he say something inscribed at the top part of the archways that formed the corridor, but time had erased whatever they once upon a times said.
“This area also houses the bathing facilities, its divided in two, one for girls and one for boys. Really simple” Lucy informed him, “you go that way with Edmund” she pointed at the corridor on the left side and gave them both a little push.
When they both stayed where they stood, looking at the girl, she just gave a shooing motion at them. Shrugging, they went ahead and walked towards the corridor. It was not a big one, just a couple of meters long perhaps, and it opened up into a big space were several wooden buckets, not so different from the ones in the infirmary, were scattered around the aread.
Some of them looked very small, he imagined that those were used by the smaller creatures around here, while others could probably fit a horse – maybe two – and it did not take a genius as to who used them.
At the moment, there were empty and there was no one around, so Harry took his time going over the area. Finding a few cases filled with what looked to be soap and rough pieces of clothes to clean yourself, there were also some vials containing some unknown liquid inside.
“Edmund” he called, “what is this?”
“That, is Narnia’s version of shampoo” he replied.
Harry uncorked it and gave it a smell, “smells like Pinetree, I think” he gave it another sneeze. Yep, definitely pinetree.
“Unfortunately, that is the only smell we have around here. Well, that and the scentless one. Haven’t exactly had time to make other kinds of shampoos lately” he drawled out.
“Makes sense” Harry covered the vial and put it back in its case, turning to look at the chamber, “I imagine that you get your water from the river, do you guys heat it the laundry room and then fill the baths?” he asked.
“Pretty much yes, although…”
“Yes?”
Edmund gave the wizard a slightly pitying look, “we don’t normally do that, we mostly stick to using cold water to clean ourselves, unless it’s a very cold day. You’ll have to get used to it”
Harry blinked, feeling horror settling in as the prospect of never having his usual warm baths set in his mind. Sure, he was used to cold baths and showers, his relatives never allowed him to have warm water, but he had gotten used to having them in Hogwarts.
And if there was one thing, he was not willing to let go of, even in another world, was his precious warm baths.
“Oh hell no” was his reply, “I am going to do something about that”
“Let me guess,” Edmund turned his body fully to him and crossed his arms in front his chest, “you would use magic to warm your water and carry it here?”
“That or I can just make a functioning bathing room with running warm water.”
The just king arched an incredulous eyebrow, “in the state that you are currently in?” he asked, being very much aware that what the wizard was proposing sounded like a taxing task on his magic, the very thing he should not be doing with recovering from his magical exhaustion.
Harry waved him off, “there are other ways to make it work without harming my core, runes for one” and it was as a subject he had never taken in his life. His godfather had only shown him the basic of the basic, meaning he knew the runes of certain elements and that’s all. But it could be more than enough for this project.
And if that did not work, then he was going to work with the theory of how runes came to be in the first place. Which is one he had come up with himself. It was clear that ancient runes were once upon a time a form of written language, but magic users gave power to these written words, these symbols.
Siri mentioned that there were the common runes we all were taught from the Futhark alphabet, but there were also the hieroglyphs from the Egyptians and the Aztecs, the kanjis from the Chinese and the Japanese, even the native Americans had their own symbols, their own runes. This all made Harry come to one conclusion.
If wixens could take certain symbols and give them power to turn them into runes, then, he could do the same with his own birth language or any symbol he decided to use.
His theory could fail, maybe it would explode in his head, but it was an endeavor with researching. And what a better way to prove it (or disprove it) by undertaking this project? Its not like he had classes that would prevent him from doing anything, or homework for that matter.
The raven-haired king looked uncertain, “I’m pretty certain that Lucy would prefer it if you did not use any magic for the time being” and so would him, “although, it would be nice to have a proper bathing room” he admitted. It would save him from hearing his sisters complain about how cold the water was, even Peter despaired about it but endured it. Plenty of their subjects would appreciate a proper bathing room, so it was not a really bad idea.
The problem was the time it would take, the resources needed and how well was the wizard. He told the wizard as much.
“Well, I could use this very same rooms, that way I will not have to tear a mountain apart for the necessary materials. Then again, if I transfigure several of the boulders that I’ve seen scattered around, I might still be able to create a whole new building” which would be preferable if his little experiment blew up on his face and brought the building crashing down. Wouldn’t want to leave the narnians without a means to clean themselves if this did not turn out how he wanted. “Aside of that, I could transfigure discarded pieces of metal from the armory that they no longer need for the faucets, and stones and pieces of twigs for the rest that I might need. The carving can be done with my wand, so really, I don’t need much.”
“Except your magic, which is still in a delicate state” Edmund helpfully pointed out, “this transfiguration, would it take a lot from you?”
Harry took a moment to consider his answer. He had always been good at transfiguration, and it had never felt particularly draining to him, despite his classmates saying that they always felt extremely tired after McGonagall’s class, even Hermione had said so once. So that could mean that it was a taxing art for some but not too taxing for him, probably because he had an affinity for it. Still…
“If its small things, I don’t think so, I could try to transfigure a few things to get a feel for how my core is.”
“Or” Edmund said, coming to stand behind the teenager and placing his hands on top of his shoulders to guide him away from the room, “you wait until tomorrow to try anything, and we finish your orientation.”
“Eh? yes but don’t push me out just yet, I need to clean myself!” Harry protested as he tried to dig his feet into the ground, not having much success with the older teen being stronger than him.
“You can do it later.”
“But- “
“Later”
Harry could only sigh and let himself be dragged away from the bathing room, all the while cursing the king in his mind nine ways to Sunday.