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Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy! Harry crafts some more, makes a new trinket, gives Penny and Tonks his answer and may have just taken a step in the direction of true Artificer! Plus a Christmas surprise!

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Chapter 5 – New Trinket, Answers, Christmas Surprise

It was the last week of November and Harry had finally made a decision on teaching Penny and Tonks his method of Wandless Magic. It had been three days since he’d told his two closest friends he’d think about it and now they were coming to meet him in his hidden workshop for his answer. He’d thought long and hard about his answer and hoped they’d be alright with it. A knock on the door let him know his friends had arrived and he let them in a moment later.

“Afternoon Harry, I take it your homework is already done?” Penny asked getting a smile from Harry. Penny would always be the consummate Prefect.

“Yes Penny, just like I always do.” Harry replied and it was true. He had found that with a bit of effort most homework assignments could be finished within a day or so of them being assigned. Only longer projects needed more time to complete. This is how Harry was able to maintain his schoolwork and still practice his Magic and his Enchanting.

“Wotcher, Harrikins, your Tonksie has arrived.” Tonks teased as she pulled him into a side hug. Harry sighed and just accepted the hug since there was no way to discourage Tonks’ teasing so he was trying to learn to roll with it.

“Good to see you too, Tonks.” Harry smiled as Tonks let him go and moved over to sit next to Penny. Deciding to get to the heart of the matter Harry took a deep breath and started.

“So I’ve been thinking about teaching you both Wandless Magic, the method I stumbled upon to discover it and giving you basic instruction on casting spells without a focus.” Harry began getting both Tonks and Penny to perk up slightly. “If you’re willing to put in the work and listen, then I’ll be willing to teach you since you two are my closest friends.” He finished getting surprised looks from both girls before Penny gave him a warm smile and Tonks shot up from her chair with a cheer.

“Hell yeah! You’re the best Harrikins!” Tonks exclaimed as she quickly rushed over to him and pulled him into a hug. Then she started repeatedly kissing his cheeks in an overly dramatic way.

“Tonks, stop it, let go you crazy girl!” Harry struggled only for Tonks to laugh and hug him tighter. Penny sighed as she stood up and made her way over to help Harry get out of Tonks’ arms. After separating the two Harry began their impromptu first lesson. “What do you two know about Occlumency?”

“I know it’s Magic to protect the mind. I’ve tried to learn a bit since my mum knows it and she says it’ll help me get into the Aurors after school.” Tonks replied.

“I’ve only seen it mentioned in a few books.” Penny answered having only briefly read about the obscure branch of Magic.

“Well I found a journal and some school books that were my mother’s when I was eight. She’d left detailed notes on a lot of Magical Subjects as well as her own thoughts, opinions and theories. Occlumency was one such subject. I was worried that someone could read my mind so I tried to learn it. It took months before I was able to make any headway, but I was eight, so clearing my mind was difficult and entering a meditative state was challenging. Once I’d finally gotten to the meditative point something was different. Instead of thinking nothing I found my consciousness in a dull void with multitudes of blueish-white and purplish-black orbs. After a while of experimenting I learned that these two colors could merge together to make a silvery-grey orb that was twice the size. I eventually made the decision to merge all of the orbs together pair by pair until only one remained. Immediately after I did that the new large orb pulsed, for lack of a better term, and I was knocked out of my meditative state. I slept almost instantly for over an hour and a half before waking up feeling, I don’t know, lighter or stronger, maybe? But I was still exhausted so I went to bed and ended up sleeping for over ten hours.”

“So that’s how you can do Wandless Magic? You found some way, through Occlumency, to mess with your Magic directly?” Penny asked trying to get some clarification.

“That’s my best theory. The dull void is apparently a magical representation of one’s mind and Magic. By bringing all of my free floating Magic together into a single, I guess you could call it a core, it synced up with my body and that lets me access it even without a focus. Though I believe I made a single mistake between my attempts at Occlumency and what traditional Occlumens are taught.” Harry explained.

“What mistake?” Tonks questioned since to her it sounded like Harry had done it better than most.

“I think I still had the thought that I was doing the meditation and trying to learn Occlumency because of Magic. I knew I was going through this process for the Magic of it rather than to try and clear and protect my mind. I’m working off the theory that because I was focusing on Magic instead of a cleared mind I found my Magic rather than a cleared and empty mind like normal.” Harry theorized as he thought about his discovery of Magic.

“I see; you wanted to practice and learn Occlumency for the Magic so you found your Magic within instead of your mind. It’s a fascinating theory; it could rewrite a lot of Magical Theory if it could be studied correctly. How one would go about studying it escapes me though.” Penny mused as she thought about how much variation each individual could represent in such a study.

“So are you going to teach us this alternate Occlumency then?” Tonks asked still eager to learn Wandless Magic.

“That would be an appropriate name, I guess.” Harry chuckled. “It did actually protect my mind in the end. My Magic keeps strengthening the protection around my mind as it continues to get stronger so maybe this is a new form of Occlumency?”

“Well I’m ready to start! Let’s go!” Tonks grinned as she sat back down and waited.

“If you’re willing to start now, Harry, we’re both ready to try and learn.” Penny nodded at him. Harry breathed deeply before exhaling and tried to explain the process he’d gone through step by step. The two older teens listened with rapt attention in hopes of learning this new path that had been opened up for them.

-The Next Saturday-

This wasn’t fair! Sure Tonks had some prior experience with Occlumency. Sure Penny was an intelligent girl with a great work ethic. Sure he’d only been eight when he’d stumbled through it and sure he’d taught them so they didn’t have to go through all the experimenting with trial and error. But a week! Really?! The Universe wasn’t fair! He wasn’t pouting!

“He’s adorable when he pouts like that.” Tonks laughed while Penny giggled lightly behind her hand.

“I’m not pouting!” Harry grumbled from his place behind his work table in his hidden workshop. Both girls just laughed again before asking for some instruction on actual casting. Both Tonks and Penny had completed finding their Magic and forming their cores. Penny proposed calling this second step ‘Core Formation’ or ‘Coring’ in future lessons. They’d all pretty much agreed that the first step would be ‘Alternate Occlumency’.

“Before that I want to know how your Occlumency Defenses are forming.” Harry inquired since he’d explained his ‘Bramble Defense’ that naturally occurred and started growing once he’d completed ‘Core Formation’.

“Me first, me first!” Tonks exclaimed waving her hand over her head exaggeratedly. “My defense is a lot like water. It flows in streams from my core to my body and the whole mind is encapsulated in a sphere of water. I tried the ‘seeing from outside’ trick you mentioned and it’s literally like a storm on the outside. All waves and whirlpools and a thick misty fog that makes it impossible to perceive anything.” The happy Metamorphmagus explained getting a nod from Harry. He was still trying to figure out what factors played into how these natural Occlumency defenses formed. With more users maybe he’d be able to understand them, for now it was just a lot of questions and curiosities.

“Mine are more akin to metal. I have large beams that seem to connect my core to my body. From there they branch out and connect to each other in a frame work of smaller beams. So far these smaller beams have actually filled in the area directly around my mind and fused into solid walls of metal. Using the ‘seeing from outside’ trick, as Tonks put it, the beams of metal are slowly but constantly expanding and connecting to one another forming a larger more complex frame work with sections eventually filling in and forming more solid walls. I believe they’ll eventually layer my mind with wall after wall of metal until it becomes impenetrable.” Penny informed as Harry listened and tried to puzzle out whatever differences he could. Perhaps Tonks’ defense was more fluid because of her personality? Or did being a Metamorphmagus make her Magic more fluid? Penny was a girl of structure so maybe personality did effect the defense formation? So many questions.

“Alright, let’s start with something easy, the Lumos Charm.” Harry began getting a nod from Penny but Tonks let out a groan about it being boring. Harry grinned and sent a low powered Flipendo at her. Tonks yelped as she dove from the chair to the floor and Harry’s jinx smacked into the wall next to the old chalkboard.

“Hey, you lookin’ for a duel?!” Tonks challenged as she brandished her wand only to notice that Harry wasn’t looking at her but behind her. Turning her head, along with Penny, the three stared at the door that was next to the chalkboard. After all, that door hadn’t been there a minute ago.

“That’s new.” Harry remarked as he slowly approached the newly revealed door.

“Careful, we don’t know why this door appeared or where it might lead.” Penny cautioned her wand already in her hand. Tonks followed along, her wand pointed forward and ready. Upon reaching the door Harry noticed something on the ground in front of it. Crouching down to look close at the object Harry noticed the runes covering it. It was made of wood and was around fifteen centimeters long and eight centimeters wide. Tapping the wooden object with his shoe to see if it would react yielded nothing, so Harry slowly picked it up.

“The heck is it?” Tonks asked as Harry stood up with the object in hand.

“Give me a moment.” Harry requested already distracted by looking over the runic sequence on the wood. A little over a minute later Harry grinned as he’d finally figured out what he was looking at. “This is a Sight Lock.”

“A what?” Penny asked confused. Tonks looked equally confused by the term.

“A type of Ward Object. It’s similar to the Hiding Stone but it makes whatever object it’s placed on completely invisible. Even if someone is directly looking for said object they won’t be able to perceive it or the Sight Lock even if they’re both right in front of them. Its only weakness is that it can be removed by anybody. It also has the limitation of only working on objects and doesn’t function on people. I saw a basic design for one in my Advanced Magical Crafting book.” Harry explained as he set the Sight Lock on a piece of parchment on top of his work table and the parchment and the Sight Lock disappeared from Penny and Tonks’ sight.

“So only the one that places it can see it?” Penny questioned getting a nod from Harry as he picked it up and the parchment reappeared. Tonks had a mischievous look on her face as she looked at the Sight Lock. Oh the pranks she could play with that little item!

“The only thing strange is why it’s still working. Sight Locks are supposed to be charged with the placer’s Magic and that disperses after a day or so at best. This one was still working possibly since the last time this classroom was used.” Harry puzzled over the strange Sight Lock. “I’ll have to go over the runic sequence in full to determine why it was able to keep working. But first let’s see what’s behind the door.” Penny and Tonks both raised their wands again as Harry carefully examined the door for any more surprises. Not finding anything Harry tried to open the door. The door didn’t budge and Harry guessed it was locked. A wandless Alohomora made the lock click and Harry gently pulled the door open. Inside was a fairly large room which Harry estimated to be roughly thirty or so square meters. It had a couple of windows on one wall that overlooked the back courtyard of the castle. As the trio slowly moved into the room Tonks moved over to a smaller door and opened it to discover a full bathroom with a shower, bathtub, sink, and toilet.

“I think I know what this room is.” Penny stated getting Harry and Tonks to look at the Prefect. “This is probably the Professor’s quarters. According to ‘Hogwarts: A History’ back when the school had far more students, many of them permanent live-in, there were far more Professors. I think each subject use to have a minimum of three Professors, but each Professor’s classroom also had their quarters attached. This was probably the Ancient Rune Professor’s quarters before they left.”

“But how long ago was that?” Tonks asked as she looked around the room, if it had been locked up and hidden like this then the small amount of dust made sense. Especially if it was even hidden from the House Elves of the castle, those little ones would be appalled at even this small amount of dust. Then again some of the other abandoned classrooms she’d found in her years here had been left in a state of neglect. Maybe the House Elves eventually left rooms that weren’t used alone?

“The last time that there was more than a single Professor for any subject was in the late Eighteen Hundreds. If I remember correctly, that is.” Penny replied as she looked out the windows at the rarely used rear courtyard.

“I could use this space.” Harry nodded to himself. Penny immediately noticed the look on Harry’s face and sighed as she prepared to burst his bubble.

“Harry, you can’t move into this room. It’s against the rules and I’m supposed to help enforce them. You also know that people would quickly realize you weren’t staying in Ravenclaw Tower anymore. You might be able to get away with staying here overnight a couple of times a school year but any more than that and someone is definitely going to notice.” Penny explained getting Harry to sigh and nod in acceptance. He looked over the largish room again before really focusing on the windows. Suddenly a grin came to his face as a problem he’d been having might finally be solved.

“What’s that look for, Harrikins?” Tonks asked upon seeing Harry’s expression. Harry turned to smile at both his friends before explaining his change in mood.

“You know how I was lamenting the slow increase in my Transfiguration skill and how it was limiting my ability to craft with metal?” Harry asked and received nods in return. “Well, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to either rapidly increase my Transfiguration skill, which isn’t likely, or find a place to build a forge and shape it the old fashioned way. This room has everything a proper blacksmith workshop needs with only a few minor modifications.” He explained happily as he surveyed the room to plan where to put things for his blacksmithing. He may only know the most basic of the craft but that wasn’t anything some experience and studying couldn’t fix!

“Harry, I’m not sure that’s allowed.” Penny started only to have to stop and actually think about it. Were there any rules against setting up a blacksmith workshop in Hogwarts? The school had a history spanning a thousand years, so surely this kind of question had come up beforehand, right? “At least let me check the rules before you start building or setting up? I don’t want you getting in trouble.” She asked getting a nod from Harry even as he continued to roughly measure stuff in his mind.

“Not that this hasn’t been a fun discovery but can we still have that Wandless Magic lesson?” Tonks asked a moment later getting both Harry and Penny to realize they’d gotten completely distracted. With his mind refocused on his previous task Harry gestured for the two to follow him back into the former classroom so he could start teaching them Wandless Casting. A few hours later Penny and Tonks could proudly claim that they could cast a Lumos Charm wandlessly, even if it was the most basic and simple spell out there. Progress was progress! They’d even decide on names for all the steps of Harry’s Wandless Magic Method, that name was still pending. The first step was ‘Alternate Occlumency’ the second step was ‘Core Formation’ the third step was ‘Mana Manipulation’ and the fourth and final step was ‘Spell Construction’.

“It’s nice to have names and labels for the process but why are you so adamant we get it set up right away?” Harry asked Tonks after the lesson. Even Penny was surprised by how much Tonks seemed to want to get the process organized.

“It’s something we’re going to teach our children, right? We should have it worked out entirely for when the time comes!” Tonks explained with a bubbling laugh as both Harry and Penny’s faces turned dark red and both tried to hide their blushes. The fact that neither would meet her eyes; or each other’s for that matter, only made the bright and warm laughter increase.

The next morning as Harry was eating his breakfast Penny came and sat beside him and started filling her own plate. After exchanging ‘Good mornings’ with each other Penny explained that she hadn’t discovered any rules against setting up his blacksmith workshop on school grounds. Apparently Hogwarts had even offered blacksmithing as a class way back in the day when metallurgy was completely done by hand. Having a valuable Muggle skill made it easier for Wizards and Witches to avoid suspicion and blend in from the Thirteenth Century until the class stopped being offered in the late Seventeenth Century. The Headmaster of the time had apparently stripped Hogwarts of all the ‘Muggle Foolishness’ during his tenure and nobody had ever bothered to try and reinstate it.

“Well good to know that I’m not breaking any rules. I might need you and Tonks to help me with some Transfiguration though.” Harry mused as Penny shook her head fondly. Harry was a kindred spirit of work ethic when it came to her, she should’ve known he was still planning out his new workshop even before he’d known whether he would be allowed to build it. The two spent the rest of breakfast together before heading their separate ways for a couple hours. Harry spent the rest of his Sunday morning going over plans for his blacksmith workshop. He spent the afternoon helping Tonks and Penny practice their Wandless Magic. He also went over measurements and what Transfiguration he’d need from them to get his blacksmith workshop set up in the old Professor’s quarters. The weekdays were spent attending classes as usual, though Harry had long since stopped paying attention in Binns’ class, and only Potions was still annoying because of Snape. The evening free time between the end of dinner and curfew was often spent practicing Wandless Magic with Penny and Tonks.

“So this here and I’ll need the pipe to go through this window.” Harry mumbled to himself as he looked over his sketched out plans for his blacksmith workshop. It was Saturday and Harry was going to hand over the final plans for the workshop to Tonks and Penny so that the older girls could perform the Transfiguration he’d need to safely have a forge in the abandoned Professor’s quarters. He only had one week left before Tonks and Penny would be heading home for Yule Break. While the two weeks of no classes would give Harry plenty of time to practice his Enchanting and Wandless Magic he was going to miss his friends. Even Mandy, Hermione and Padma were all going home so his occasional study buddies wouldn’t be around either. Though he had come up with a good gift idea for the three after asking Tonks and Penny, all three girls would be getting a set of their favorite candy and a Flourish and Blott’s gift certificate. Hermione who didn’t indulge in sweets much because of her dentist parents was getting Tooth Flossing String Mints. Harry had laughed upon learning about them from Penny, who would have thought of mints that actually flossed your teeth? 

Hagrid’s gift had come along well, in Harry’s opinion anyway. The large Groundskeeper was getting an Enchanted Warming Charm Scarf of his own as well as a pair of Enchanted Gloves to match. Making gloves had been more difficult than mittens but with some trial and error Harry had figured them out and sized them up to fit Hagrid’s large hands. Sewing and stitching leather into the wool gloves so that they’d be durable enough for Hagrid’s work had been another task in itself but they’d come out fully functional and Harry was proud of them. It had turned out to be true that you could order almost anything from Owl Order after all, considering the leather had been ordered through the service. With his Christmas gifts ready to go Harry was left with some extra hours on his hands while he waited for Tonks and Penny to arrive and start the Transfiguration work.

“Well I guess I can look more into the Sight Lock.” Harry nodded to himself as he sat down at his work table and got out a fresh sheet of parchment to note down any oddities he noticed about the runic sequence. Picking the object up Harry set about studying the sequence. It was a while before he jotted down the only abnormal part of the sequence he could find. ‘The runic sequence for accepting the placer’s mana is altered from the normal variation. This looks like it can accept magic from any source so long as it’s in direct contact. Is that how it’s stayed active for so long? Hogwarts practically overflows with magic and the Sight Lock was placed on the door. Maybe it has just been pulling the magic it needs from the castle this whole time? But this alteration isn’t very efficient at drawing in magic though, the only place this accident could have happened is at a place that overflows with magic like the castle. Maybe I could find a better way? If I can figure out a way for my Objects to draw in the ambient magic from the planet they’d never need to be directly empowered again. Well, as long as their function wasn’t too magic intensive. I highly doubt I can work out a sequence that would draw enough magic to empower a powerful set of wards just from the ambient magic alone. I’d have to make a sequence capable of tapping into the ley lines for that.’ As Harry was musing to himself and jotting down ideas he’d lost track of time and was only reminded by the sudden knocking on the door.

“Tonks and Clearwater Transfiguration Services!” Tonks sing songed as Harry opened the door and chuckled at his friend’s antics. Penny playfully shoved Tonks into the room before the door was closed and the two started going over what alterations Harry wanted. A decent sized hole was to be transfigured into the middle window of the Professor’s quarters for the forge’s chimney. Filling an enclosed space with smoke wasn’t good. Ideally there wouldn’t be much of any smoke as that meant the fire wasn’t being taken care of properly. Harry may not have much experience at actual blacksmithing but he’d paid attention to the old blacksmith from the day camp and learned quite a bit. Then two tanks needed to be transfigured, a water filled slack tub and one he’d fill with oil when needed to act as a quench tank. Harry also required their Transfiguration skills in making an anvil and a few metal racks along with a sturdy work table. The final tools he’d need to start working metal he’d spend a bit of his limited funds on to Owl Order. He’d rather spend the money on proper tools rather than try and make them himself and potentially ruin a future project with a broken tool.

“Hmm, we’re going to need quite a bit of metal for all of this Harry; though because we’ll only be changing the metal and some stone from one shape into another it’ll be much easier to make the Transfigurations permanent.” Penny explained as she looked over the designs Harry had drawn up.

“Where exactly do we get this much metal though? I doubt that we’ll find a ton of it just lying around Hogwarts.” Tonks commented as she looked over the plans as well.

“We can probably scrounge up enough by raiding a few of the unused classrooms. A lot of the chairs and some of the tables have metal legs, plus we could get lucky and find a metal table or two.” Penny replied as the three made plans to quickly go through every room in the corridor the hidden workshop was in and then expand out to the rest of the mostly abandoned section of this floor of the castle. By the end of their raiding trip the trio had found quite a bit of metal that wouldn’t be missed. But they’d taken long enough that Tonks and Penny only had just over an hour to get everything transfigured before curfew and Penny would have to start making her Prefect rounds. But the two proved their capability by finishing everything with time to spare. The only thing they didn’t have enough metal for was a full size anvil. So Harry had agreed to make the anvil a bit smaller than standard to start and they’d try to ‘reclaim’ more metal after the Yule Break to get it up to size. All in all Harry couldn’t be happier with his new blacksmith workshop or smithy as they were technically called; but Harry was pretty sure to call it that implied that he was a professional which he clearly wasn’t yet.

Sunday was spent collecting stone to transfigure into the forge itself so that when Harry’s tools were delivered he’d be able to start working as soon as he had some free time. This only took the better part of the morning and so the trio had spent time practicing Wandless Magic. Tonks had gotten the Stinging Hex to work wandlessly and was quick to demonstrate it to Harry, with him as the unfortunate target. She’d been beaten to the punch by Penny though. The Ravenclaw Prefect had been able to get three spells working in the same time that Tonks had gotten one. Penny’s wandless spells were Flipendo, Wingardium Leviosa, and the Impedimenta Charm. Tonks had asked her younger friend about her speed and Penny had stated that she did the same as when she learned a new spell with her wand. Penny just seemed to have a knack for breaking a spell down and figuring out how to make it work.

The school week went by with increasing excitement as the Yule Break approached. Harry’s tools arrived on Wednesday and he’d stored them in his finished smithy. Now all that was left was to get some charcoal to fuel it and Harry would be set. Hagrid had mentioned that you could buy charcoal from Hogsmeade and agreed to pick some up for Harry when he went into the village on the coming Saturday. With nothing else much to do with his homework finished, Harry had taken to working out his newest runic design for his Rune Safe. Trying to incorporate the ambient magic absorption function into his multi-layered security sequence was proving itself very difficult. He was still trying to tweak the ambient magic sequence to be more efficient and to take in large amounts of mana all at once. If he wanted to charge his safe’s array quickly it would be for the best if he could just drop a large amount of mana into it all at once. Figuring out how to make all the different runic sequences work together as a proper array would probably be the hardest task he attempted this year and Harry couldn’t wait to make his design a reality.

Harry waved Tonks and Penny goodbye as they boarded the self-moving carriages that would take them to the Hogwarts Express and back to their families for the break. Hagrid would be bringing the charcoal around noon tomorrow and until then Harry planned to finish all of the homework given to them for the break. With it out of the way Harry could spend the rest of the break working in his smithy to make more metal for his Enchanting. In between that he’d continue to work on the Rune Safe array. He’d made a breakthrough with getting all of the security sequences to work together but he still needed to tweak the mana absorption sequence to get it to integrate. Maybe if he upped the strength of the absorption? Or the rate that it could absorb mana? He’d rewrite it again and see if either version of the sequence worked.

The next day Hagrid delivered Harry his charcoal as promised. After a grateful thank you to his friend Harry had made his way to his hidden workshop and set about getting his forge ready. With a bit of metal he’d managed to ‘reclaim’ from an abandoned classroom on the sixth floor, Harry set about his first attempt at metallurgy. The results were better than he expected, the metal had been properly imbued with his mana and it had become the shape he’d wanted it. Harry was fairly sure that the fire had been a bit too hot a few times as three of the metal bars he’d made had melted out of shape. He’d had to pound them with one of his hammers back into the correct thin bar he was aiming for. He still had five more glass lenses so he was going to make another set of Scouters. Four of them would go through Owl Order again while he’d be writing to Madam Aveline in France about selling her the fifth one.

On Sunday Harry had written his letter to Madam Aveline with his offer of selling her the Scouter she wanted directly for ten Galleons. He’d sent the missive off with one of the school owls and then passed Hedwig the gifts for Penny and Tonks.

“Have a safe flight, Hedwig, feel free to stay at whoever’s house you deliver to last if you want.” Harry smiled as he stroked Hedwig’s feathers. With a hoot Hedwig had taken flight from the Owlery and headed south. The gifts for Padma, Mandy and Hermione were each given to a different school owl and Harry watched them fly away until he couldn’t see them anymore. He’d give Hagrid his present on Christmas morning in the Great Hall, he was sure the gentle giant would like it.

The next day just after lunch Harry had been sitting in the Great Hall waiting for what he knew was coming. Within a few minutes of most of the students leaving four owls from the Owl Order Service landed on the table in front of Harry. Each of the highly trained owls waited patiently as Harry first took off the small parcel that contained his Galleons from their legs before replacing them with the wrapped packages containing the Scouters he’d sold. Once the packages were secure the four owls took flight and were out of the Great Hall in less than a minute. With that done Harry quickly retreated to his workshop to stash his new gold. Having secured his Galleons in the back of the bottom drawer of the Professor’s desk he’d commandeered as his work table Harry started work on his newest trinket.

“Just have to etch the sequence and then I can get to testing.” Harry smiled to himself as he pulled out the last two flat metal bars he’d forged and pulled out the metal etching tool from his Rune Carving Kit. Several minutes later Harry was finished with the etching and admiring his new trinket. This time he’d gone for another simple design, he called it a Silent Step. Attaching this trinket to the bottom of a person’s shoes should make their steps silent. Harry quickly used a Sticking Charm, from his wand since he hadn’t gotten this particular Charm to work wandlessly yet, to attach one bar to the bottom of his left trainer before doing the same with his right. Once both small bars were attached horizontally across the soles of his shoes, so they wouldn’t impede the soles’ ability to bend, Harry had taken a few steps across the room. When no sound was made by his steps Harry grinned and started stomping and jumping up and down. Still no sound was made and Harry cheered in triumph. Even if it was just a simple trinket it always felt good to succeed with a creation.

When Christmas morning came Harry was happy as any eleven year old to see a few gifts on top of his trunk. Smiling Harry picked up the first one and laughed when he saw that it was from Tonks. Honestly the wrapping paper gave it away, who else would use a Color Changing Charm to swap the traditional green and red coloration of Christmas for neon blue and hot pink? Opening the gift he was met with the sight of a new Rune Carving Kit. This one looked much fancier than the three he’d found in his workshop. Reading the card Tonks had sent he was surprised to learn she’d been planning this since October. The tools in this kit were made with alchemical metal alloys allowing them to be used with almost every material imaginable.

“This kit must have cost at least nine or ten Galleons, maybe more, I’ll have to hope she likes my gift as much as I like hers.” Harry mumbled to himself as he set the Kit aside. He’d definitely save it for after he got the hang of dealing with normal metals. After that maybe it would be prudent to look into alchemic metal alloys for his Enchanting? He had a Kit that could work with those magical metals now and it would be a shame to not explore the idea.

The next gift he picked up was from Hermione. She’d sent him a book called ‘Famous Enchanted Objects from around the World’ he’d definitely have a look through this tonight before bed. It would be interesting to see what other Enchanters had come up with and gotten famous for.

The third gift he picked up was from Mandy. She’d gotten him a sample of what had to be every single magical candy out there. Some of these he had never even heard of. He knew the girl had a sweet tooth but now he’d have to carefully read what each of these candies did before he ate one. Magical candy was known to have a variety of effects after all.

Padma’s gift ended up being fourth. The Indian witch had sent him a book on learning Devanagari for use in Runes. He’d have to thank his study buddy for this when she got back. If he could learn another Runic Language he’d open up a whole new path for his Enchanting. Not to mention the potential of mixing Runic Languages into a working array. The theory was sound enough but only a few Enchanters had actually succeeded from what Harry had read.

The fifth gift was from Penny and he smiled when he read the card. The sweet girl was once again thanking him for teaching her Wandless Magic and hoped her gift made him happy. The gift turned out to be another book but its title caught Harry’s attention. ‘Beginners Alchemy for Enchanters’ was embossed on the cover and Harry opened it to read the forward. This book would teach the beginnings of alchemy and the products it could create to assist in Enchanting. Harry had only briefly come across this in his Advanced Magical Crafting book. But the possibility of using alchemic compounds to create magical circuits between Runes to spread their effects or to link them up in new ways was briefly mentioned near the end of it and Harry’s mind was already abuzz with new thoughts and ideas.

“I do believe my two closest friends collaborated on their gifts for me.” Harry mused fondly; those two were far too good to him.

The second to last gift was from Hagrid. The gentle giant had given him a hand carved wooden flute. Blowing into it produced a sound similar to an owl. Hmm, maybe a side hobby to pick up? It would be good to take his mind off his Enchanting or Magic practice whenever he got stuck. He was certain he’d hit dead ends multiple times throughout his life so something else to do might be a good idea.

The last gift was unsigned but the card mentioned that it had been left in the person’s care by his father before he died. Carefully unwrapping the gift a silvery cloth fell out onto Harry’s bed. Slowly picking it up Harry realized it was a hooded cloak. Deciding to try it on Harry noticed that his body disappeared as soon as the cloak was settled.

“An Invisibility Cloak? I thought their magic dispersed within a decade? How is this one still working if it was my father’s?” Harry wondered as he removed the cloak and re-read the card. There were no further clues and without having another Invisibility Cloak to compare his new one to he couldn’t say for sure if there was anything different about it. His stomach rumbling let Harry know it was time for breakfast. Deciding to stow the cloak in his trunk for now Harry picked up his gift to Hagrid and made his way down to the Great Hall.

“Merry Christmas, Hagrid.” Harry smiled as he handed his friend the gift he’d made him. Hagrid smiled back as he took the gift and placed it on the staff table to unwrap it. Seeing the large scarf and gloves Hagrid beamed at Harry as he picked them up.

“These are great, Harry, did yeh make them yerself?” Hagrid asked as he pulled the gloves on and found they fit nicely.

“Yeah, those wooden buttons will produce a continuous Warming Charm when you put a bit of magic into them. I’ve seen you working outside when it’s been cold so I thought you’d appreciate the function.” Harry explained happy Hagrid enjoyed his gift.

“Yeh don’t say.” Hagrid replied as he touched the wooden button on one of the gloves he was currently wearing. Feeling pleasant warmth cover his hand Hagrid couldn’t help but sigh. This would definitely make the winter grounds keeping jobs much more enjoyable. “This is nice, certainly gonna be much nicer doin’ the outside work when I’m all warm and toasty.”

“I’m glad you like them, Hagrid.” Harry grinned as Hagrid smiled back and removed the gloves. The large man placed the gloves and the scarf safely inside his large coat and promised to use them well. “Thank you for the flute, by the way, I think I’ll try and learn to play it. It could be a good non-Magic related hobby for when I just want to take a break.”

“Aw, yer welcome Harry. I’m glad yeh like it. Was never the best player meself, but I do enjoy a nice tune.” Hagrid replied with a grin before telling Harry to go fill his rumbling stomach. It was just after Harry finished eating that an owl flew in and landed in front of him. Taking the letter from the owl Harry looked at the sender in confusion. ‘What could St. Mungos want with me?’ He pondered to himself. Opening the letter Harry read over it his eyes widening the further he read.

His Godfather, Sirius Black, had awoken from his decade long coma in the early hours of the morning. At Sirius’ request Harry was being invited to visit on Boxing Day to meet his Godfather.

Harry suddenly felt like he might have experienced a genuine Christmas Miracle firsthand.

-End Chapter-

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The Dogfather cometh! Harry’s about to get a new lease on his time outside of Hogwarts! Plus new branches of Enchanting are opening up to him! Will this propel him towards the Title of Artificer sooner? Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!

Comments

Christian Jeffress

Great chapter, and love the character building as well

KristofferXxXxX

Looks like Harry is all set to take it to the next level. Plus I'm so glad that Harry finally will get to meet his godfather :3

Thomas E Nellis

That was fantastic! The Dogfather will guide Harry in the ways of understanding women and Tonks will have someone to tease her now mauahah haha! I loved it!

Kairomaru

Yep! Time to start making Items from Magical Base Materials! Sirius will be opening a whole new door for Harry's summers regarding Magic.

Kairomaru

Teasing is generational! Glad you liked it! Sirius will try to make Harry more open to women, but a certain duo might just have to stake their claim when they find out!

Anonymous

Looks like Harry has discovered more areas of Magic that he needs to learn, with Alchemy being the newest I’m now wondering if Dumbledore will take notice and offer to teach him some since he apprenticed with Flamel. Either way it’s a fantastic chapter!

Kairomaru

You didn't think he was going to become an Artificer just by reading a couple books, did you? True Artifacts are near indestructible and don't require maintenance, so multiple Branches of Magic are required to craft one. I've actually already got a mentor in mind for after Harry earns the Artificer Title. I already foreshadowed it and everything, read carefully everyone!

Jetrois Mathurin

I wonder will the advanced chapters be posted in any other formats? I use a screen reader lol

Kairomaru

Unfortunately Patreon only seems to have one format for text posts. I sometimes get annoyed by it myself because no matter how you orient the screen it doesn't really help much!

Jetrois Mathurin

No worries where there is a will there’s a way it’s just fairly technicle.