Harry Potter: The Mage's Path Chapter 28

Hi all,

Here's the bonus chapter. Hermione gets a surprising gift and Harry increases his strength explosively.

"Are you sure they will not attack?" Harry asked with trepidation. They were climbing the side of the hill where the Grievers were located. As they got closer, they could hear the occasional roar in the distance. The sound never failed to give him pause, and he questioned his decision to get closer.

"As long as you don't approach them too closely, they will not attack you," Remus replied. "They are very intelligent creatures. However, they also have some cubs, so there is still a need for caution."

"Really?" Hermione breathed, holding a hand to her side. She found the hill climb challenging. "I would love to hold one of them."

"Yeah, that would go down well," Celeste giggled. "They would tear you apart before devouring you. With your hair, I bet they would cough up one massive hairball."

"Funny," Hermione rolled her eyes.

They crested the hill and looked down onto a small field below them. Immediately, they spotted the pride of Grievers sunning themselves on the grass without a care in the world.

"Wow," Hermione said, speechless.

Harry agreed. He was finding it difficult to describe in mere words what he was seeing. The first thing that struck him was the sheer size of the adult Grievers. He estimated that they were three times larger than a normal lion. While they looked like any other lion, they were adorned with huge majestic wings that were protruding from their sides. Considering their bulk, the wings would have to be substantial enough to carry their weight. Unless there was magic involved.

One of them was considerably larger than the others, and it had a huge mane around its face. This was obviously the male, and it had a group of four females surrounding it. There were five cubs frolicking around the adults, playing with each other and jumping on the adults occasionally. As Harry stepped forward to get a better look, one of the adult lions turned its large golden eyes onto him. Harry froze, captivated and terrified at the same time. Their eyes remained locked together for some time before it finally turned its head and growled at the one next to it as if it was trying to convey some message to it.

It attracted the attention of the other adults and they rose in unison, with one of the females nudging the cubs behind their bodies in a protective gesture. The male Griever stepped forward and roared to the sky with its wings spread as if it was about to take flight.

"Are you sure they are not going to attack?" Hermione asked, her hands wringing anxiously.

"They didn't react to me like that when I first came here," Remus said. "Maybe we should back up a bit."

"No, they will not hurt us," Harry said firmly. "Not with me here anyway."

"How do you know?" Hermione looked at him sceptically.

"Just a feeling," Harry began to descend to the field below and almost slipped a few times as he struggled to gain traction on the slippery slope.

"Harry," Remus called, but Harry ignored him, determined to meet the Grievers.

As Harry came to even ground, he cautiously approached them, who had not moved from their position. The male Griever roared again in an effort to assert his dominance by releasing another roar, but Harry refused to back down and continued to approach. When he was only ten metres away, he stopped and some instinct told him to raise his hand and display the Potter's ring for the Grievers to see.

It had a noticeable effect on them. The male cocked its head, staring intently at his hand before settling back on its haunches. The females followed his lead. Harry relaxed and closed the rest of the distance until he was standing a couple of metres away from the male.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Harry Potter, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter. I am not sure if you are able to understand me, but it is an honour to meet such majestic creatures."

The male Griever leaned forward and Harry had to resist the temptation to step back. Now was not the time to be scared. He felt hot breath on his face before a massive tongue licked his face, covering it in drool. Harry grimaced. Unfortunately, the females stepped forward to repeat the action and he suffered repeated tongue lashings. Assuming it was some ritual of theirs, he wouldn't offend them by stepping back in disgust. It was important for him to make a good first impression.

After they finished, Harry wiped the majority of the drool off his face, only to feel his leg nudged. He looked down and saw that one of the cubs had stepped forward bravely to confront the stranger. When it opened its mouth, it bared its fangs at him, trying to intimidate him, but all it succeeded in doing was making him look adorable. Harry sat down and reached out a hand and rubbed its head, causing it to swipe at his hand.

"Is everything alright, Harry?" Remus called from the edge of the field. Hermione was standing beside him, looking like she wanted to run forward to meet the Grievers, but Remus held her back.

Harry pointed at Remus and Hermione and said, "They are my friends. Is it okay if they approach? I promise they won't hurt your cubs in any way."

The male nodded, and Harry motioned Remus and Hermione over. "It's okay. They won't attack."

Remus hesitated for a moment before releasing Hermione and stepping forward. Hermione sprinted forward and sat next to Harry. She certainly didn't lack any courage. The other cubs approached Harry at that point and sniffed around him with their noses.

Hermione vibrated with eagerness, looking like she wanted to reach out and pet a cub. One of them made the decision for her, as it approached her and climbed onto her lap.

"This is so awesome," Hermione said. She carefully stroked the cub's stubby white wings, a look of reverence on her face.

Remus sat down a couple of metres behind them, watching with an interested expression. The cubs surrounded Harry mainly, but the one in Hermione's lap refused to budge, lying supine as she petted it.

"Ow," Hermione cried. "The little bugger bit me."

Harry looked over and saw the girl had her left hand pressed against her side. His eyes widened when he saw a faint golden glow surrounding her. Even the adult Grievers noticed the phenomenon as well, their growls rising in unison.

"Hermione, I think the cub just initiated a familiar bond with you," Harry said.

"What?" the girl yelled, before freezing as if she had just noticed something. "Harry, I can feel the cub in my mind, although its words are not comprehensible. He is definitely a male, though."

"It's probably because it's still young," Remus said thoughtfully. "A familiar bond usually overcomes the language barrier, but its mind is still immature, so it may take some time to communicate properly."

Hermione picked the cub up and hugged it with joy. Clearly, the adult Grievers did not seem to be bothered by this development based on their relaxed posture. One of the lionesses stood up and approached the pair, and Hermione froze. Only to giggle when she was licked thoroughly across the face.

"Are you okay with the cub leaving your side?" Harry asked the pride.

"Actually, I think I will leave him here for the moment," Hermione said. "It is still too early for him to leave his parents. Can I come here frequently?"

"Of course," Harry said.

The male lion shook its head, crawled forward and nudged the cub further into Hermione's arms.

"I think what it's trying to communicate is that it's not too young," Harry said. "He probably feels that now that the cub has you, it won't be affected by the separation from his parents."

"We have to be careful," Remus warned. "Apart from the Grievers under the Potter's protection, the rest died out as a result of being hunted for their wings. Their feathers are highly magical, and they can be used in potions and rituals. So, we may need to talk to Dumbledore about concealing him until we can think of a more permanent solution."

The adults didn't like that, their lips peeling back in a snarl. In case it wasn't already evident, they could understand what they were saying. Was their understanding of the English language instinctual, or had someone taught them it at some point?

"That sounds like pure greed," Hermione scowled. "I bet the Grievers shed a lot of feathers that they wouldn't mind giving away. It sounds so short-sighted. If there are enough Grievers around, they could supply enough feathers for everyone's needs, without resorting to slaughter."

"I think another reason is that the Potter family were so close to them, that some other families feared they might grow too powerful with so many Grievers on their side."

"How did they gain the trust of the Grievers and bond with them?" Hermione asked.

"Who knows?" Remus shrugged. "There may be some kind of magic involved, most likely a ritual or a magical vow. The Potters may have some information on the matter somewhere."

"Are these the only Grievers on the property?" Harry asked.

"There are three other Griever prides on the property," Remus said. "You will have to introduce yourself to them before we leave."

Harry looked at Hermione, who was completely absorbed in her familiar. He turned to the male Griever who he decided to name Brutus. "I need to introduce myself to the other prides. Can I leave Hermione here in your safekeeping?"

Brutus nodded majestically, and Harry stood up. Hermione waved him off when he told her his plans, so he followed Remus and descended the hill.

<====({owo})====>

After spending a few hours on the property, they returned to Hogwarts. They talked to Dumbledore about the issue with Hermione's familiar, and he came up with an easy solution. He enchanted a collar that disguised the cub as a half-Kneazle cat. Either it was Dumbledore's sense of humour, or the collar was broken somehow, but his appearance was strange.

The cub now appeared very big, with wild ginger-coloured fur and bandy legs. Its most unfortunate feature, however, was that it had a squashed head that looked like it had run into a brick wall. Harry expected Hermione to react negatively to its appearance but was surprised by her reaction.

"He's so cute," Hermione squealed, hugging the big cat against her chest. "I have the perfect name for you. I will call you Crookshanks."

"Are you naming him based on his disguised appearance?" Harry asked incredulously.

"What about it?" Hermione stared at him with arched eyebrows. "Is it not a good name?"

Harry held up his hands and backed away. "It's beautiful. Couldn't think of a better name if I tried."

Now that he had taken care of some business, he wanted to focus on improving his own strength. He never knew when he would need it, so he couldn't wait anymore. The first thing he wanted to do was level up his Fire Mage class, and see how stronger it would make him.

He spent all of the experience and levelled the class up to level twenty-two. His main job only reached level twenty, but that was because he gained an experience boost from the Grimoire of Flames. It was a very generous bonus. If he was ever going to level up his Shadow Mage class, he would need to find the Shadow Grimoire first to receive the bonus experience. But he also had the Charms Grimoire, which he could use for his Explosion Mage class as well. Could he get one for all of his classes?

Harry received a notification, so he opened them up to see the results of his levelling.

=====

The player has increased his Fire Mage class by several levels!

Level 5: Immolation Lv 10 learned!

Level 10: Firespear Lvl 2 learned! Resistance + 10

Level 15: Flame Cloak Lv 1 learned!

Level 20: Inferno Lv 1 learned! Willpower + 10; Resistance + 10

Fire Resistance +21%

Fire Damage +21%;

Fire Magic Cost -21%

=====

The player has increased his Apprentice Mage Job level to twenty.

AP + 95

Magic + 19

Willpower + 19

Vitality + 19

The player has relearned the Perks:

Mind Arts Mastery

Golem Magic

=====

The player has learned a new perk!

Vitality: Regeneration +

Description: It is impossible to keep the player down for long. His Energy regenerates at twice the rate.

Note: Attribute bonuses from equipping classes do not count towards gaining perks when the attribute reaches increments of twenty-five.

=====

Harry was amazed by the number of bonuses he received. He removed the Generalist class and equipped the Fire Mage class. Opening his Status, he looked at his current attributes and whistled. Even without spending a single AP, his parameters already looked substantial. Now that he had a lot of AP to play with, he had to decide what to spend them on.

First, he spent thirty-two AP to increase his Magic, Intelligence, Willpower and Perception to regain the perks he had before. This left him with sixty-three points left to spend.

Harry looked at his Agility. He wondered how it would affect his actual speed. Because he was a long-range fighter, or at least that was his ultimate goal, he considered this attribute important. Of course, he had the Warp skill, but it may become less useful against more experienced opponents who would be able to predict his movements. There was also the fact that items existed that could block his ability to warp, such as when Azkaban was invaded. In that case, Agility was crucial if he wanted to keep up with faster enemies.

Leaving his room, Harry made his way down to the library. He wanted to find Hermione to see if she would help him out, and it was the most obvious place to look. Sure enough, Hermione was sitting at one of the tables, while Crookshanks was sprawled beside her, soundly asleep.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, looking up from a huge book she was reading.

"I am interested in learning to duel, so I want to test my speed," Harry said. "Do you know the Tempus Charm?"

"Of course," Hermione said. "It's useful to have in case my watch stops working for some reason. It's mechanical, so it shouldn't be affected by magic here, but it still could be broken."

"Great. Can you time me?"

"Okay," Hermione said, standing up, and taking the book with her.

"Let's go down to the grounds near the Black Lake."

Outside, Harry measured out a hundred metres to use as a calculation for his speed and lined up behind the starting line. Hermione was down at the other end and had already cast the charm. As long as you concentrated, the charm could last indefinitely, so long as you fed it magic.

"Go!" Hermione shouted.

Harry sprinted to the finish line as fast as he could. He felt incredibly slow after the system change as if his natural speed had been reduced. As he crossed the finish line, he came to a halt. Looking back at Hermione, he was interested in seeing the results.

"Sixteen seconds roughly," Hermione said.

Harry grimaced. At school, he was hitting fourteen seconds consistently in the hundred-metre dash. He thought it made sense, since his natural speed had been altered by the system, and his Agility wasn't that high. He considered spending AP in order to increase it. It would not matter that much in the grand scheme of things if he didn't train his attribute up to twenty.

He decided to do some more hundred-metre dashes and see if that would increase his Agility. After another fifteen turns, he got a notification that his Agility had increased to fifteen. However, it took a lot out of him, so he sat down to rest. It was unfortunate that he didn't have a Resource for stamina, or something similar. His Agility wouldn't be overpowered, since the faster he moved, the faster he'd exhaust himself. As a result, he would not be able to move at his top speed in a fight, unless he could end the fight as quickly as possible.

After recovering, he did some more dashes. A few hours later, Harry had increased his Agility to nineteen. He was beyond knackered, sprawled out on the grass, thinking of staying there for the night as he couldn't be bothered to move. Since she wasn't needed, Hermione returned to reading her book, showing amazing concentration. She didn't look up from her book even once while he trained.

He increased his agility by five. It would be interesting to see how that affected his top speed. After resting for a short while longer, he called Hermione back to do one final hundred-metre sprint.

"Fifteen seconds," Hermione declared after he crossed the finish line.

"Awesome," Harry grinned. He wondered how fast he would be if he added fifty points to his Agility. Would the growth be exponential, or would it slow down? He imagined it would be the latter, as he would probably reach a point where moving too quickly would negatively affect his body.

"How did you improve so fast?" Hermione scrunched her eyebrows. "Even a one-second improvement on a hundred-metre dash is huge, especially in a few hours."

"That's because witches and wizards are different from non-magical people," a voice said.

They turned around and saw Professor Flitwick approaching them. The wizard's walking style was quite strange, as he appeared to bounce slightly as if he was compensating for his lack of height. He looked extremely comical while doing so.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"That's because they can reinforce their bodies to be more robust and faster," Flitwick replied, stopping in front of them. "Are you interested in learning?"

An impromptu lesson from the Charms professor and a former duelling Champion? Heck, yeah. Harry sat down next to Hermione and listened attentively as the professor continued.

"First, you must understand that a witch's or wizard's physical limits are significantly higher than ordinary people," Flitwick said. "They could surpass the fastest human alive when it comes to running speed, or surpass the strongest when it comes to lifting strength. That's because magic has a very nourishing effect on our bodies. You may have noticed that when you are injured, you recover faster than usual, compared to others."

Given the injuries Harry sustained at the hands of the Dursleys, he could testify to that. It was one reason why they got away with it for so long, as he recovered fast enough that the injuries weren't noticed by others.

"However, there is still an upper limit," Flitwick continued. "Everybody is different, and figuring out that limit is difficult. Take me for example. Because I am much smaller than a normal adult human, you may think my strength is lower than theirs. However, I am a half-goblin, and they are known for being incredibly strong, so it makes up the difference, and as a result, my strength surpasses some humans.

"Another example is Hagrid. He is a half-giant, which means he is far superior in strength, although not to the ridiculous degree of a pure giant. However, he is quite slow because of his size. Speed and strength do not always have a direct correlation, but in my case it is true. I am considerably faster than most humans and it is one of the reasons I succeeded on the duelling circuit.

Flitwick conjured a small chair and sat down. "Physical enhancements can be divided into two categories: growth magic and instantaneous magic. They can also be categorized as active or passive magic.

"Growth magic helps enhance an individual's training to reach a specific milestone in strength and speed and is a lot more natural with fewer downsides. However, that does not mean that it is not still incredibly dangerous.

"Potions belong to this category. They don't have an explosive and temporary effect like other magic. The Strengthening Potion, for example, is designed to build muscle rather than acting as an instant source of strength. If you took one every day and used it in tandem with training, it would increase its effectiveness by a fair margin. You will get more results with less effort. However, overusing the potion can cause serious adverse effects. It can result in the erosion of the stomach lining and a loss of muscle mass. Healers have reported seeing some people's muscles erode within a few days of taking it, and in the most severe cases, crippling the person."

"It sounds like steroids," Hermione commented. "Although there are differences, the same principle applies. Relying on outside stimuli to take shortcuts can lead to severe consequences."

"I don't know what steroids are, but it doesn't surprise me that ordinary people have them as well," Flitwick commented. "It's human nature to want shortcuts and get benefits easier, regardless of the cost."

Did he just get low-key roasted by Flitwick? Harry realised that his gamer ability could be considered like a drug. He couldn't deny there was an addictive quality to it, as getting stronger was very enjoyable and it was difficult to stop himself from grinding every second of every day. It didn't help that he had access to dungeons that gave him more time to grind even more.

Flitwick continued. "However, you cannot reach your absolute strength and speed limit with training alone, so you must rely on some magic to bridge the gap. There is active magic, like spells that can be cast on yourself, although they cost a lot to use. There is also passive magic like enchantments or special abilities. I myself am known as a Velocior, which is Latin for quickener. My magic passively boosts my speed, so I am almost reaching or at my limit as long as my body can handle it."

Flitwick looked at Harry with an interested expression. "I suspect you are the same, Mr Potter. What I think happened was that you tapped into your ability to reach your current limit. However, since your body is still immature, and you haven't developed it, you can only run so fast."

It was a plausible explanation, he guessed. At least he wouldn't have to explain himself when he suddenly got faster in the future. "Can you show me how fast you are in the one-hundred-metre dash?"

"Very well," Flitwick hopped down and stepped up to the starting line. Hermione dashed down to the other end and cast the Tempus Charm.

"Go!" Hermione called.

Harry blinked, as Flitwick vanished as he took off, and appeared at the finish line a moment later. He couldn't track him at all. He ran down and joined them at the finish line. "How fast was that?"

"2.30 seconds," Hermione said faintly. "It may have been faster, but I couldn't react in time."

"Wow," Harry said, turning to Flitwick. "With that speed, you must be unbeatable."

"Not at all," Flitwick shook his head. "I never fight at top speed because it gets tiring very fast. Secondly, fighting at that speed reduces your accuracy by a lot because it is difficult to factor in the adjustments you have to make to your spellcasting. You will end up missing more often than not. It may be handy to get out of a sticky situation but that is it."

Harry recalled how the hit-wizards moved in the dungeon, and he hadn't seen them use any remarkable feats of speed. He mentioned this to Flitwick, who grimaced.

"Well, that is a complicated question," he replied. "First of all, if you are any sort of decent wizard, you do not use more stamina than needed, as you may need it later. Secondly, British wizards are notoriously lazy, and I think that is due in part to the pure-bloods rhetoric. They believe that any sort of exercise is beneath them, so they cannot push their bodies much before they injure themselves. Remember that your body must be in great condition if you want to enhance it with magic without hurting yourself."

"So, they hamper themselves?" Hermione asked. "I would expect the Aurors to at least be physically trained to give themselves an advantage."

"Some of them are," Flitwick said. "Amelia pushes for more Aurors to be physically trained, but there is resistance. It's unfortunate that she doesn't have enough recruits coming through, so she is left with what she has, and many of them are lazy."

"That does not bode well for the future with the dungeons appearing," Harry said.

"Indeed, but there will come a point when they must change or suffer for it," Flitwick said bluntly. "Now, it's almost time for supper, so let's finish for today."

"Thanks for the lesson," Hermione said, although she wore a grumpy expression.

"Someone is just realising that physical exercise is important," Harry teased her. "Don't worry, we can start training together tomorrow. I will whip you into shape."

"I don't want to think about it," Hermione scowled, marching back to the castle.

<====({owo})====>

After supper, Harry retreated to his room to continue working on his status. Now that he had raised his Agility to nineteen, he deemed it close enough to his original goal, so he decided to increase it by spending some AP. First, he spent six points to increase it to twenty-five. Taking a look at his other attributes, he considered what he should improve next.

There were two routes he was thinking about going down. First, spend fifty points to increase his Magic to a hundred. This would significantly increase his mana pool, and to a lesser extent, affect how much damage he dealt. Since he had the Meditation skill, the former merit wasn't the greatest, but the latter would be welcome. There were also two perks he would receive for increasing his Magic to a hundred.

The other option was to spend twenty-five points on both Agility and Perception, which would boost his overall combat ability a lot more than the first option. It would mean he was faster and nimbler in battle, and his reaction time and chances of scoring critical attacks would increase.

Of the two options, the latter was definitely more attractive, so he didn't hesitate and spent twenty-five AP on Agility and Perception. That gave him three new perks in total and seven AP in reserve. He opened his notifications to see the perks he had gained.

=====

The player has gained the following perks.

Agility: Agile Grace

Description: The player has increased his ability to move his body gracefully. He can now jump higher, climb obstacles, manoeuvre himself in the air, and take less fall damage from falling.

Agility: Stamina Horse

Description: The player can do this all day! His natural stamina has doubled, allowing him to carry on for longer.

Perception: Enhanced Senses

Description: The players' senses have increased. His ability to see, hear, smell, touch and taste has been enhanced, enabling him to perceive the world in more detail.

=====

Now that he had been made aware of it, he noticed the difference in his senses immediately. He looked at Hedwig, who was perched on her stand, and noticed some fine details like individual feathers on her body. This was something he couldn't do before.

Harry gave himself a sniff and wrinkled his nose. He smelled rank from all the running he had done, so he needed a bath. Now that his smell had been enhanced, it was even more egregious.

Taking out a cottage pie, he ate a spoonful and chewed. Instantly, he noticed an explosion of flavour on his tongue. Harry moaned in pleasure. This was definitely the most rewarding perk when it came to sheer pleasure. However, the cottage pie also had an odd taste, something he had never noticed before. It seemed it was not as good as he had imagined. He may be able to improve his recipes in the future by using his enhanced sense of taste.

Having distracted himself enough, Harry looked at his finished status with eagerness.

======

Harry Potter

Age: [10] 11 (+26 days; due to the dungeon)

Title: Elite Hunter [4%]

Job: Apprentice Mage: Level 20 [Next: 74/100%]

Experience Pool: (0)

AP: 7

=====

Job/Player Perks:

Apprentice Mage: + 1 to Magic, Willpower per level; 1 Class can be equipped at a time.

Abyss Walker: + 1 to Vitality per level; Unaffected by the Abyss' mental degradation effects.

Agility: Agile Grace; Stamina Horse

Vitality: Regeneration +

Magic: Golem Magic; Elemental Fury

Intelligence: Skill Points

Willpower: Mind Arts Mastery; MP Regeneration +

Perception: 20/20 Vision; Enhanced Senses.

=====

Classes currently equipped: Fire Mage Lv22

=====

Resources

Energy: 580/580 Regen: 58 per hour

Mana: 780/780 Regen: 160 per hour

Attributes

AGI: 50

VIT: 29

MAG: 50

INT: 25

WIL: 80 [50]

PER: 50

CHA: 17

RES: 30 [10]

Physical Defence: 12.9 [+Firecloak] 25.8

Magical Defence: 13 [+Firecloak] 26

=====

Fire Mage Class Status/Bonuses/Detriments

Willpower + 30

Resistance + 20

Fire Resist + 31%

Fire Damage +31%

Fire Magic Cost -31%

-50% damage against opponents with the water element.

Weakness to Water Element: +50%

[Item Acquisition Bonus] Fire Grimoire: + 25% to Fire Mage class levelling.

Spells: Fireball Lv 10; Immolation Lv 10; Firespear Lv 2; Fire Cloak Lv 1; Inferno Lv 1

=====

Harry nodded with satisfaction. He certainly had improved greatly. This was stark evidence he needed to see what the class system had to offer. Although he only specialised in one area of magic, it was still very powerful.

He would face obstacles in the future if he didn't diversify into other classes at some point. However, he also had to avoid spreading himself too thin. His next goal would be to level his Job to Novice Mage so he could equip two classes at once.

It was time to return to the dungeons to grind for experience. Hell, he was addicted, and Gaia was his enabler.

So, what do you think? Harry will be back in the Peverell Dungeon next chapter and testing out his class.

Thanks for reading