30 Easter With Sirius
"Sirius!" exclaimed Harry as he hugged Sirius. "I didn't hear anything from you until last week after the whole Wormtail incident."
"Sorry, Harry," apologised Sirius, returning Harry's hug. "I've just been very busy. Coming home after ten years of prison time leaves one a lot to catch up on."
Sirius had come to Hogsmeade to pick Harry up. Ron, Hermione, Daphne and everyone else had stayed back in Hogwarts to continue their studying since exams were less than two months away.
"That seems to be going better for you, Sirius," said Harry with a sly grin. "New fashionable clothing, healthy skin, confident aura ... all you're missing is a woman to hold your hand."
"No time for that, Harry," says Sirius. "We have more important things to focus on."
"This isn't the best place to talk," said Harry, "Do you want to come to Hogwarts? I've got the place that's very good for hiding."
"No, let's to my house," said Sirius. "Remus is already there waiting for us."
"Very well, let's go," said Harry. "Please tell me you'll apparate both of directly there."
"I'll do that," replied Sirius. "I'm not a fan of long journeys either."
Harry held onto Sirius as they apparated away from Hogsmeade. The experience of Apparition was just as it was described in the books, like passing through a rubber tube. As abruptly as it started, the Apparition ended and Harry found himself inside of Sirius' house in the living room. He found Remus sitting on a couch sipping tea from a mug.
"Hello, Remus," said Harry with a smile. "I hope you've moved in with Sirius now."
"Harry, it's good to see you again," said Remus, getting up to hug Harry. "Yes, I've moved in here for now. How've you been at Hogwarts?"
"I've been good," said Harry. "Exams are coming up soon, so I've been busy."
"I have to congratulate you, Harry," said Sirius with a smile. "That deal you manages to strike with the Ministry was very good. You've got them hooked onto something very strong. How did you come up with it?"
"I was experimenting with my skills and I showed my clothes I had enchanted to Dumbledore," said Harry. "He praised it highly and said if only the Ministery had something like that. That's when I thought of selling it to them. But I wasn't expecting them to buy it so readily."
"They are high quality enchantment magic," said Remus. "Naturally they'd want to readily buy the items."
"Harry, something has been bothering us for a while now," said Sirius with a serious face. "How did you know Wormtail was Peter's nickname?"
"I can use Legilimency," said Harry shrugging his shoulders. "I used it on Pettigrew to get information."
"How much did you find out?" asked Remus shakily.
"Pretty much everything," said Harry, smiling slyly. "Even your monthly little problem."
"Ha, little problem!" exclaimed Remus. "You hear that Sirius? Like father, like son. He also called it a 'little problem'."
"Remus, I don't want to get your hopes up too high, but I may be able to help you cure it," said Harry, looking at Remus straight in the eyes.
"How?" asked Remus, this time fully shakened up.
"I've come up with a new method to get stronger," replied Harry. "I've reached a Stage where my body heals itself as long as I have magic in my body. Right now it's not that strong and I don't know how to use it externally on others. I also don't know if the effects will be the same for others once they've reached my level."
"Do you want us to train in this path?" asked Sirius.
"It's up to the both of you," replied Harry. "This new method allows us to feel the magic that is in the air and absorb it into our bodies. From what I've experienced do far, it has healing properties. I've included a physical training programme with it because our bodies act as the retainers of magic. It's like a pressure cooker not being able to handle the pressure and exploding."
"How far have you advanced so far?" asked Remus.
"Right now, I'm in Stage 6," replied Harry.
"How many stages are there?" asked Sirius.
"I don't know since I've only started in this path in September," said Harry. "This will make your magical abilities increase tremendously. If you don't like it, you can always stop and it won't harm you."
As Sirius and Remus were in deep thought, Harry started talking with the system. "System, is there a way for me to get rid of Remus' problem?"
[There is, however, you will need an S rank mana control.]
"Why so high?" asked Harry, stunned.
[Because this is an S type of curse. Plus Remus Lupin has been in this affected for almost his entire life raising the difficulty of breaking the curse.]
"Ok, what about if they were to practice my cultivation method?" asked Harry.
[For Remus Lupin, it would be difficult to reach Stage 6 since his werewolf curse will interfere with his Dantian formation.]
"Which means I only have a few short months to raise my mana control," said Harry. "Then what is the method to get rid of the curse?"
[Once you've reached S-Rank in mana control, you'll be able to sense the curse that affects Remus Lupin and through guiding the mana particles under your control, you'll be able to destroy the infected cells.]
"You make it sound like it's an infection," said Harry in his mind.
[It is an infection.]
"If I place all my focus solely on increasing my mana control, how will I grow strong enough to face Voldemort at the end of the year?" asked Harry, frowning.
[The increased mana control will also give a boost to your strength. Don't forget, by having a strong control on your magic, your strength will be greatly boosted. The best thing to know is that your magic is aligned towards Divine magic and one of the strongest properties of Divine magic is its ability to heal. This makes you use healing magic much easier. This is not the only advantage to it though as it increases your affinity to other elements.]
"Let's focus on the healing aspect," said Harry. "If I increase my proficiency in healing, would I be able to help werewolves retain their sanity once they transform during a full moon?"
[That's hard to say. It's something you can only know once you have reached that point. However, one thing is certain. You will definitely be able to get rid of the infection should you train in healing magic.]
"What are you in deep thoughts about, Harry?" asked Sirius.
"I might have a solution to Remus's problem," said Harry slowly.
"What do you mean?" asked Remus nervously.
"I mean a way of preventing you transforming into a werewolf," said Harry, looking at Remus. "If I'm able to gain sufficient control over my magic, there's a chance whete I'll be able to stop you becoming a wereful."
"You'll be able to do that?" asked Remus in shock.
"It's not guaranteed," said Harry, shaking his head. "But I just might be able to do that."
"Harry, how is that possible?" asked Sirius, also in shock.
"I don't want to give you false hope as what I'm going to do is a long shot," said Harry. "I don't know how long it's going to take. But I'll definitely do everything I can."
"Harry, the best wizards in the world don't have a cure to becoming a werewolve," said Remus sadly. "How can you just say you'll be able to cure it?"
"Let's not talk about that now," said Harry. "For now, let's focus on me teaching both of you of my discovery. We can come back to curing your werewolf transformation when I'm strong enough to do so. Also, while I teach you both of my discovery, I want you both to teach me how to become an Animagus."
"We don't have a problem with that," said Sirius with a smile. "But you should know that Animagi is the highest form of Transfiguration."
"I'm aware," replied Harry. "But before we start, there's a spell I want you both to learn first. It will speed things up considerably."
With that, Harry taught them how to perform the Shadow Clone. Ever since they had seen Harry using it in the Shrieking Shack, they had been wanting to learn it. When Harry had told them whatever the clones experienced would return to them, to say they were greatly shocked was an understatement.
The trio spent the following two weeks in constant training. Harry had learnt how to become an Animagi and he had, in return taught Sirius and Remus his cultivation discovery.
Harry was surprised at their speed of development. Their talent was a in no way inferior to his own. In the two short weeks he spent with them, they had swiftly advanced to Stage 3 and were smoothly making their way to Stage 4: Mana Infusion. Given their speed, it would only take another week or so before they would be ready to train for the Stage 5: Mana Armour.
During his time in Sirius' house, Harry came across Kreache, the Black family's house elf. Sirius showed constant dislike and annoyance towards Kreacher behaviour. Harry' politeness to Kreavher surprised Sirius as the house elf was constantly bad mouthing them.
Harry warned Sirius to be polite to Kreacher to gain his trust and allegience as it would be important for their fight against Voldemort. He did not want the Black family's house elf to leak information to Narcissa Lestrange.
Sirius showed great contempt towards his family and anything to do with them and Kreacher's loyalty to his family did not help. Harry got angry with Sirius over his mistreatment towards the house elf and with great difficulty managed to convince his godfather to be nice to him. Harry was still worried that Sirius would continue mistreating Kreacher when he returned to Hogwarts and told Remus to keep an eye over them.
The two weeks flew by quickly and Harry returned to Hogwarts. He was now in the Great Hall having breakfast with Ron, Hermione and Daphne
"Harry, how was your holiday?" asked Hermione.
"It was eventful to say the least," replied Harry. "How was your studies?"
"It was great," replied Daphne. "The Shadow Clone spell helped out immensely."
"That's good to hear," said Harry. "Make sure you have sufficient rest otherwise it can be damaging when all you do is train and study."
"We've been doing that," said Ron with a smile. "We are looking forward to winning the Quidditch cup this year."
"It's good that you're excited," said Harry. "But you need to focus on your studies more. I told McGonagall that you three are ready to take your first year exams before the holidays. Don't make me look bad by failing now."
"Oh we already took the exams during the holidays," said Hermione excitedly. "ProfessorMcGonagall approached us about it and we got our results yesterday."
"From the way you're smiling, you seem to have done really well," said Harry, returning the smile.
"Of course she did really well as did me and Ron," said Daphne happily. "Hermione got full marks and I got an average of 97%."
"I got 90% average," said Ron proudly. "I told my parents and they very happy. They said a present is waiting for me at home once I return."
"Well done, all of you," said Harry.
"I also told them about my earnings from the enchanted items you're selling to the Ministry," said Ron. "They were shocked at first and didn't believe me until I sent them my earnings. They are very proud. Percy got annoyed a bit at my bragging but I know h's very happy as well. I also got letters from Bill and Charlie congratulating me."
"That's good to great, Ron," said Harry. "Now the Malfoys say any nonsense to speak of."
"Obviously," said Ron, grinning from ear to ear.