Ch 30 Time Capsule Part 2

The past few months for Harry had been the busiest and most fulfilling of his life. From when he got up early in the morning at 4 am to when he went to bed at 11 pm, he didn't stop for a single second.

Early in the morning, he started his day by practising his Occlumency for an hour and immediately after that he went for breakfast and took his classes but only the ones he considered essential, and the rest of he spent practising his magic, except for two hours in the evening when he was personally tutored by Dumbledore.

At this, the only thing Harry was focused on was improving his practical Magical ability, and there wasn't a single waking second of his day that he didn't stimulate his magic one way or the other, he could actually feel his magic reserves and his control over his magic improving day by day.

It only took a month of dedicated practice and Professor Dumbledore's lessor for him to master the art of Silent casting for the combat spells that he knew of which even took the aged Headmaster off guard.

And while he knew that it wasn't a good idea for the future and Hermione nagged about it daily to him. He was adamant about it and had completely disregarded all the unnecessary theories and only learned some essentials while focusing his whole attention on learning combat magic as well as trying to cast as fast and as perfectly as he could.

What he was doing was similar to a medical student who skipped all the basic courses and went straight to practising surgery and that too without learning any theory and only focusing on perfecting his practicals.

A few months ago he had been deadly scared of the competition but his training had been so effective that he had been able to easily fulfil the second task that happened a week and take the first place without anyone's help. Now the competition just seemed like a childish game to him.

Today was Sunday and a relatively free day for the rest of the students but not for him as he was in the Room of Requirement at the moment with Ron and Hermione, practising the Homework that Dumbledore had given him, The Domain.

The Headmaster had already imparted all the Knowledge and nuances associated with the technique and all that was left was for him to improve his control over his magic and practise and practise until he was eventually able to cast it.

"Are you ready, Harry," Ron asked.

Both Ron and Hermoine were standing in front of him with their wands raised with serious expressions on their faces. Harry was standing in front of them with his wand in his hand but he didn't have it raised and his eyes were covered by a black piece of cloth. This was a training exercise that they had been able to come up with and while Hermione had been against it at the start, she had been persuaded by Harry's insistence.

The training went something like this, both Ron and Hermione would cast stinging jinxes at him and Harry wasn't allowed to defend using the usual spells instead he had to intuitively feel where the spell was going to go using his perception and then create an obstruction in front of it such as a small square wooden tile, without casting a proper spell instead just having his magic follow his desire.

They had been going at it for quite a while now and Harry's hands and chest were already covered with angry red marks from where he had been hit.

"I am ready," Harry said after taking a deep breath.

After a single moment of hesitation, Ron and Hermione started throwing stinging jinxes one after the other, while completely focused his attention on feeling their magic and trying to perceive the direction their spells were coming from.

It had taken weeks and weeks of repeated painful practice but he was eventually able to somewhat feel the magic entering his immediate surroundings. But it was still too blurry, it felt as if he was underground in a swamp and was looking at his surroundings through all the mud. He could barely feel Ron and Hermione's magic entering a field a few meters away, but it was too dim for him to identify their exact path.

And after that, he tried to think with all his might about wanting to create a wooden tile in their path without thinking anything about the proper conjuration spell. His magic responded but it was sluggish, and by the time he felt it move the spells were already striking his skin. But he only groaned a little and his mind went to identify the next ones.

It went on like that for a few minutes but the pain became too much and he groaned, "Alright! Stop!"

"Maybe we should stop for the day," Hermione said anxiously, she was almost about to tear up when she saw him bend over and breathing heavily, with his small red burning marks all over his skin.

"No!" Harry shook his head firmly, "I am alright... Just needed a few seconds," he said as he brought his breathing under control, ready to go a few more rounds.

"Umm... Hey Mate, I've got an idea that could maybe speed up the process," Ron said with a frown on his face, "But you'll probably not like it..."

"As long as it works... I think I am ready to try it," Harry said with a forced smile and a shrug, "What is it?"

"Well you know how Hermione always says that you've got a saving people thing," Ron said with air quotes and Harry nodded while rolling his eyes, "Well maybe we could use that... What I mean is that Hermione and I could take turns being the ones who get hit and you would be the one who would be in charge of our protection—"

"No! Absolutely Not!" Harry interrupted loudly, "I can't ask you to do that,"

"No, Harry," Hermione said with her eyes gleaming, "It's a perfect idea, Harry, not only can that give you some time to breathe it would also be able to increase your chances of achieving it,"

"But—" Harry started but was interrupted by Ron, "Mate, we're in this together, Aren't we? Let us help..."

It took some time but in the end, Ron and Hermione were able to persuade Harry in the end. And so began the cycle of three taking turns getting stung.

It was painful for Harry seeing Ron and especially Hermione get hurt and stifle her pain-filled cry because of him. But the sight seemed to fill him with fire and the motivation made him work his magic overtime and since it seemed to be really working, he wasn't able to complain too much.

After about half an hour of their new training regiment, Ron had another one of his brilliant ideas but this time he didn't tell them what it was, instead he just spontaneously decided to act on it and felt that while it would be a bit crossing the line... he thought that if the result was good then he could just apologize in the end.

Harry was standing a few feet behind Hermione who was without her wand and completely defenceless was trying his best to defend Hermione as best as he could but he was always a bit late and his conjuration was a bit off and it was at this moment something changed as Ron suddenly got a fierce look in his eyes and then instead of sending a stinging jinx, he cast a different spell.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The moment Harry heard Ron's shout, he felt as if the whole world was standing still, he couldn't even process what was happening, his mind was completely blank and he couldn't think about why it was happening, all he could think was that Hermione his girlfriend, his best friend was about to be hit by an unforgivable curse.

As he felt the sickly green light moving towards Hermione, he felt a blast go inside his mind, his mind had never felt so clear before. Everything around him seemed to be moving in slow motion, from the dust in the air to Hermione's surprised expression, he was able to 'see' everything so clearly.

He didn't know if Ron had been imperiused or if he was Ron at all and was someone else Polyjuiced as him, he didn't care about any of it. Because at that moment he felt rage and desperation boil inside of him that he had only felt a few times in his life before.

His magic had never felt so responsive, never felt so smooth to him, it felt to him at that moment that anything he wanted, any kind of spell he wanted to cast at that moment, he only need to desire it and his magic would easily do it for him.

It was only now he noticed an invisible membrane around his thoughts that he felt was his Occlumency shield, it was usually in charge of suppressing and dulling his emotions but at this particular moment they focused his intention and amplified his will.

It was as easy as moving his arm, one moment there was nothing and the next there was a brown wooden square directly in the path of the green light, without ever needing him to raise his wand. The green light splashed over the materialised tile... rendering it useless.

A second later he was snatched out of that slow state and immediately he felt everything rushing towards all the sounds and all the lights that had dimmed, and immediately he bent over breathing heavily as if he had run a marathon, he felt so empty and hungry at that moment that for a moment he felt that he was back with the Dursleys and was locked inside his cupboard.

Someone pulled the cover over his eyes, and he saw Hermione's face appear in front of him, she was looking at him with so much worry in her eyes and he could see in the background Ron standing there awkwardly looking at him with apprehension.

The moment Ron saw Harry look at him with that burning gaze, he immediately raised his hand and threw away his wand, "Before you do anything please let me explain," and then without waiting for his answer he immediately started rushing through his words, "That wasn't what you thought it was at all... I just tried one of those tricks that you taught me, you know where you say one spell but cast another one... the one you cast on Malfoy—"

"He's right, Harry," Hermione took over from him, "It was just one of those harmless prank spells, the one with the green paint, Look!" she pointed towards the wooden tile, which now that Harry saw it closely had green splashed on it's surface.

Harry looked at the tile dumbfoundedly while Ron just blabbered on, "I know that it was in poor taste and I know that it was wrong of me.... but you said that you were ready to try anything a-and I just thought that it would work—"

"It did," Harry said quietly.

"Huh?"

"I think I just got the hang of the Domain..."