Chapter 164: Reality
1st November 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2
(Harry Potter POV)
The woman sighed and nodded, “Alright. Consider this to be your first lesson.”
“What is it?”
The woman chuckled, “Reality as you know it is but an illusion. You need to hone your senses, to differentiate between what is true and what is false.”
Suddenly, gravity seemed to have reversed itself, and Harry was pulled away to the side. The wall sort of separated itself, revealing a familiar dark damp room. This was the chamber of secrets. But there was something wrong, something horrible, the basilisk wasn’t dead. Harry ran for his life with his eyes closed.
What the fuck was going on?
Harry didn’t have time to even think about an answer as the giant snake started attacking him. Reflexively, Harry closed his eyes to avoid the giant snake’s death eyes. He felt something very heavy impact his chest and send him flying back into the water.
Without meaning to, he opened his eyes and met the basilisk’s sickly yellow eyes. For some reason, the eyes didn’t kill him, not that he minded much.
In his shock, he didn’t move as the giant snake reeled back and leapt at him, jaw first. Just as he was about to be eaten alive, the basilisk turned into smoke, surrounding Harry, and messing with his vision.
The Boy-Who-Lived was then thrown into the air and landed into a familiar graveyard. He saw Cedric getting killed once more and watched as the shadows took the dreaded form of his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort.
The dark lord looked at him with a sinister smile, “Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, come to die!”
Harry was immediately overwhelmed by his fear of the man, no, monster, before him. He did his best to run away, sending spell after spell desperately at his enemy.
However, this didn’t seem to do much as he was immediately clipped with a banishing spell that sent him flying back. From the shadows, Voldemort slowly walked towards the downed teenager. Harry could hear the mocking laughter of the Death Eaters in the background.
Voldemort, on the other hand, sneered at him, “Are you truly the one who is supposed to defeat me? Have I been wary of a child who barely knows how to hold a wand? You’re weak, Harry Potter, just a useless but lucky little boy, who should have died with his parents. Your mother’s sacrifice is wasted on someone like you.”
Harry kept crawling away into the shadows. Suddenly, he found himself in a familiar cupboard, he looked at his tiny hands in surprise; he was younger again. His Aunt Petunia looked at him like he was a disgusting turd, “Do you think that your mother would have sacrificed herself if she knew how pathetic you would have ended up being? Worthless little freak!”
Uncle Vernon picked him up and sent him towards the shadows that swallowed him up, and spat him back to the graveyard. Voldemort was still there, waiting for him, “Oh, there you are, Harry, there’s no need to run away, accept your death like a man.”
Voldemort sent a Cruciatus Curse at him, but Harry was able to right himself and dodge it. He got up and ran away, dodging curse after curse. Harry looked back, trying to send curses back at his attacker only to find that Voldemort wasn’t even there. Harry looked forward to find Voldemort waiting, in front of him. With a flick of his wand, Voldemort disarmed the young wizard, and petrified him.
Slowly, the monster spoke, “You had so much potential, Harry Potter, and yet you wasted it on jokes and adventures. You knew that I was coming back, and yet you didn’t prepare yourself. You have done your best to prove your aunt and uncle right. You did your best to prove to the world that you wasted your mother’s sacrifice. Lily Potter had given her life just so that you could live and yet you’re doing your best to waste your life. And to think you should have been my fated enemy. You’re a disappointment, Harry Potter. I hope that your afterlife will not be as pathetic as your regular life. Goodbye Harry Potter. Avada Kedavra!”
A green bolt of light raced towards the petrified boy, and everything turned black.
Harry didn’t expect to ever open his eyes again. All he could see was a purely white room. He had thought that he was alone at first, so he checked his body, making sure that he wasn’t hurt somewhere, before looking around for an exit. Suddenly, he heard someone clear their throat.
He twirled around and found Professor Sayre looking at him with her eyebrows raised. He got angry, looking at her, “What the fuck was that?”
The woman kept smirking at him, “Language, Mr. Potter. That is no way to speak to your Professor.”
Harry was enraged, “What did you do?”
“Me? Nothing really. You asked me to teach you how to fight. This was our first lesson.”
“What lesson? You practically tortured me…”
The woman raised her eyebrows, “And how did I do that?”
Harry stayed silent at this for a good minute, “What exactly did you do? How did you do all of this?”
“Finally, a good question. I told you before, magic is practically limitless. This is an exaggerated use of illusion magic. It fooled your regular five senses, and was even able to mess with your balance, which is why you thought that you were being thrown around. In truth, you didn’t even move from your post.”
“But, how was everything so accurate? How did you get every detail right? You even got exactly how the graveyard looked like and how the cupboard was.”
The woman grinned at the young Gryffindor, “Mind magic is a very powerful field of magic. I have started teaching you Occlumency months ago, and I could tell that you were starting to dismiss your daily exercises. Voldemort is a master Legilimens, at your current level, he could mess with your mind as if it was his own. What I did to you, what I showed you, is barely scratching the surface. You need to get better if you’re planning on surviving more than a second against him.”
“Then why did you start with this? Why start with illusions?”
“One of the most important skills a wizard can have, is a way to anchor themselves into reality. Imagine a small signal, or a small picture hidden whenever you look at something. A small sound or humming in the background. This allows you to know if someone has highjacked one of your senses. This way, you’ll always be able to differentiate between reality and illusion. Master your senses and you’ll master yourself. I am teaching you this, because if you’re planning to fight anyone, you have to be extremely sure that you’re seeing the truth. I could teach you the most powerful battle magic spells in existence, and they would be useless if you can’t defend yourself against a simple illusion. You could even end up hitting your allies with them. But even now, it was also a test, one you failed spectacularly”
The teenager protested, “How, in Merlin’s name, was I supposed to stop an illusion? We never learnt about it in school or anywhere, really.”
The woman looked sad at this, “the illusion wasn’t the test, it was how you handled yourself inside the illusion. And the fact was the second Lord Voldemort was in front of you, you were afraid.”
Harry felt fury rise within him, “Everyone is afraid of him, why should I be any different?”
“Fear is a completely acceptable human emotion and very valid response to being threatened. But it’s not just that you’re afraid, you’re terrified. You can barely move the second you lay eyes on him; you couldn’t even breathe. Everything stopped, and all you could do is just spam curses and hope for the best, even though you knew deep inside that nothing was going to work. You accepted your death the second you knew that he was there. You didn’t even try to fight properly. This is why you’re not ready to fight him. This is how you failed the test.”
“Is this it, then? I failed your test so you’re not going to teach me?”
The woman snorted, “Of course I’m going to teach you; you’re my heir, after all. It just means that I’ll need to redefine your meaning of fear…”
Harry didn’t like the sound of that. Before he could ask her to clarify, she continued, “The more pressing issue is the fact that you’re still holding back. Not just with your magic but with your mind. I have seen every secret you have, and the boy that survived his abusive home was nowhere to be found the second he stepped into Hogwarts.”
“I don’t know…”
The defense professor sneered at him, “You’re the boy who learnt how to pick locks so that he could eat scraps after everyone was asleep. You’re the boy that got exactly the grades needed just so that his relatives wouldn’t call him out on cheating. You’re the boy who learnt his cousin’s reactions exactly and knew how to distract him when he wanted to beat him. That boy was a survivor, he thought about everything carefully before doing anything. However, the second you stepped into Hogwarts, you leapt into danger whenever you could, you kept downplaying your abilities so that you would fit in better. You’re never going to fit it. You’re a celebrity among students. Every action you took was scrutinized, and all you did was disappoint everyone with your mediocre results.”
“But…”
“No buts, Potter, you, throwing your life away like it meant nothing is very concerning. I had hoped that it might have been the result of mind magics but no, it was all you. Your mother would have been disappointed to see you do this. Do you think that she gave her life, just so that you would run from acromantula in the forbidden forest, or hunt down dangerous criminals?”
Harry stayed silent at this, wilting under her accusation. There was a grain of truth in them; Harry had been chasing danger after danger ever since his first year. But everything he did was because he wanted to save the school, right?
“I had to; it was my responsibility…”
The woman snorted once more, “Kiddo, the traps in your first year were geared to delay the intruder, not stop. The stone was obviously fake. Your second year, the chamber had nothing to do with you. If you think for one moment, that you weren’t the luckiest boy in the world for surviving that, then you’ll be terribly mistaken. In both of those encounters, you survived either thanks to Dumbledore or because of pure luck. You barely knew a couple of spells. You were first and second years for Merlin’s sake. You have to realize that you have no responsibility to these people. You don’t need to be the hero. You don’t have to save the day. Let someone else do it, especially when they’re more qualified than you are. When you accept these words, we’ll have our next lesson.”
Harry nodded and turned around, “Where are we?”
“Physically, we never left the great hall.”
“How? I followed you to your office after you were done eating.”
Professor Sayre gave him a smirk, “I told you before, mind magic is a very powerful field of magic. I simply felt that you wanted to speak to me and connected with your mind.”
“So, none of this was real? All of this was in my head?”
“Of course, it was in you head, Harry. But why does that mean that it wasn’t real. After all, reality is an illusion.”
Harry then looked panicked for a second, “Then did I stay frozen for half an hour in the middle of the great hall?”
“Of course not, Harry. The mind moves differently from the body. From my calculations, barely ten seconds have passed in the real world. Now, I think it’s time for our conversation to end, Mr. Potter.”
Professor Sayre just touched his temple and Harry was thrown back into his body. He was back at the great hall. He looked around and saw Ron and Hermione looking worriedly at him. Ron was the one to speak up, “Are you alright, mate?”
Harry nodded, “I’m fine.”
Hermione didn’t seem to believe him, “Why were you staring at Professor Sayre?”
“She’s a very scary woman.”
Ah, yes, scary indeed.
Chapter 164: Reality
1st November 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2
(Harry Potter POV)
The woman sighed and nodded, “Alright. Consider this to be your first lesson.”
“What is it?”
The woman chuckled, “Reality as you know it is but an illusion. You need to hone your senses, to differentiate between what is true and what is false.”
Suddenly, gravity seemed to have reversed itself, and Harry was pulled away to the side. The wall sort of separated itself, revealing a familiar dark damp room. This was the chamber of secrets. But there was something wrong, something horrible, the basilisk wasn’t dead. Harry ran for his life with his eyes closed.
What the fuck was going on?
Harry didn’t have time to even think about an answer as the giant snake started attacking him. Reflexively, Harry closed his eyes to avoid the giant snake’s death eyes. He felt something very heavy impact his chest and send him flying back into the water.
Without meaning to, he opened his eyes and met the basilisk’s sickly yellow eyes. For some reason, the eyes didn’t kill him, not that he minded much.
In his shock, he didn’t move as the giant snake reeled back and leapt at him, jaw first. Just as he was about to be eaten alive, the basilisk turned into smoke, surrounding Harry, and messing with his vision.
The Boy-Who-Lived was then thrown into the air and landed into a familiar graveyard. He saw Cedric getting killed once more and watched as the shadows took the dreaded form of his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort.
The dark lord looked at him with a sinister smile, “Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, come to die!”
Harry was immediately overwhelmed by his fear of the man, no, monster, before him. He did his best to run away, sending spell after spell desperately at his enemy.
However, this didn’t seem to do much as he was immediately clipped with a banishing spell that sent him flying back. From the shadows, Voldemort slowly walked towards the downed teenager. Harry could hear the mocking laughter of the Death Eaters in the background.
Voldemort, on the other hand, sneered at him, “Are you truly the one who is supposed to defeat me? Have I been wary of a child who barely knows how to hold a wand? You’re weak, Harry Potter, just a useless but lucky little boy, who should have died with his parents. Your mother’s sacrifice is wasted on someone like you.”
Harry kept crawling away into the shadows. Suddenly, he found himself in a familiar cupboard, he looked at his tiny hands in surprise; he was younger again. His Aunt Petunia looked at him like he was a disgusting turd, “Do you think that your mother would have sacrificed herself if she knew how pathetic you would have ended up being? Worthless little freak!”
Uncle Vernon picked him up and sent him towards the shadows that swallowed him up, and spat him back to the graveyard. Voldemort was still there, waiting for him, “Oh, there you are, Harry, there’s no need to run away, accept your death like a man.”
Voldemort sent a Cruciatus Curse at him, but Harry was able to right himself and dodge it. He got up and ran away, dodging curse after curse. Harry looked back, trying to send curses back at his attacker only to find that Voldemort wasn’t even there. Harry looked forward to find Voldemort waiting, in front of him. With a flick of his wand, Voldemort disarmed the young wizard, and petrified him.
Slowly, the monster spoke, “You had so much potential, Harry Potter, and yet you wasted it on jokes and adventures. You knew that I was coming back, and yet you didn’t prepare yourself. You have done your best to prove your aunt and uncle right. You did your best to prove to the world that you wasted your mother’s sacrifice. Lily Potter had given her life just so that you could live and yet you’re doing your best to waste your life. And to think you should have been my fated enemy. You’re a disappointment, Harry Potter. I hope that your afterlife will not be as pathetic as your regular life. Goodbye Harry Potter. Avada Kedavra!”
A green bolt of light raced towards the petrified boy, and everything turned black.
Harry didn’t expect to ever open his eyes again. All he could see was a purely white room. He had thought that he was alone at first, so he checked his body, making sure that he wasn’t hurt somewhere, before looking around for an exit. Suddenly, he heard someone clear their throat.
He twirled around and found Professor Sayre looking at him with her eyebrows raised. He got angry, looking at her, “What the fuck was that?”
The woman kept smirking at him, “Language, Mr. Potter. That is no way to speak to your Professor.”
Harry was enraged, “What did you do?”
“Me? Nothing really. You asked me to teach you how to fight. This was our first lesson.”
“What lesson? You practically tortured me…”
The woman raised her eyebrows, “And how did I do that?”
Harry stayed silent at this for a good minute, “What exactly did you do? How did you do all of this?”
“Finally, a good question. I told you before, magic is practically limitless. This is an exaggerated use of illusion magic. It fooled your regular five senses, and was even able to mess with your balance, which is why you thought that you were being thrown around. In truth, you didn’t even move from your post.”
“But, how was everything so accurate? How did you get every detail right? You even got exactly how the graveyard looked like and how the cupboard was.”
The woman grinned at the young Gryffindor, “Mind magic is a very powerful field of magic. I have started teaching you Occlumency months ago, and I could tell that you were starting to dismiss your daily exercises. Voldemort is a master Legilimens, at your current level, he could mess with your mind as if it was his own. What I did to you, what I showed you, is barely scratching the surface. You need to get better if you’re planning on surviving more than a second against him.”
“Then why did you start with this? Why start with illusions?”
“One of the most important skills a wizard can have, is a way to anchor themselves into reality. Imagine a small signal, or a small picture hidden whenever you look at something. A small sound or humming in the background. This allows you to know if someone has highjacked one of your senses. This way, you’ll always be able to differentiate between reality and illusion. Master your senses and you’ll master yourself. I am teaching you this, because if you’re planning to fight anyone, you have to be extremely sure that you’re seeing the truth. I could teach you the most powerful battle magic spells in existence, and they would be useless if you can’t defend yourself against a simple illusion. You could even end up hitting your allies with them. But even now, it was also a test, one you failed spectacularly”
The teenager protested, “How, in Merlin’s name, was I supposed to stop an illusion? We never learnt about it in school or anywhere, really.”
The woman looked sad at this, “the illusion wasn’t the test, it was how you handled yourself inside the illusion. And the fact was the second Lord Voldemort was in front of you, you were afraid.”
Harry felt fury rise within him, “Everyone is afraid of him, why should I be any different?”
“Fear is a completely acceptable human emotion and very valid response to being threatened. But it’s not just that you’re afraid, you’re terrified. You can barely move the second you lay eyes on him; you couldn’t even breathe. Everything stopped, and all you could do is just spam curses and hope for the best, even though you knew deep inside that nothing was going to work. You accepted your death the second you knew that he was there. You didn’t even try to fight properly. This is why you’re not ready to fight him. This is how you failed the test.”
“Is this it, then? I failed your test so you’re not going to teach me?”
The woman snorted, “Of course I’m going to teach you; you’re my heir, after all. It just means that I’ll need to redefine your meaning of fear…”
Harry didn’t like the sound of that. Before he could ask her to clarify, she continued, “The more pressing issue is the fact that you’re still holding back. Not just with your magic but with your mind. I have seen every secret you have, and the boy that survived his abusive home was nowhere to be found the second he stepped into Hogwarts.”
“I don’t know…”
The defense professor sneered at him, “You’re the boy who learnt how to pick locks so that he could eat scraps after everyone was asleep. You’re the boy that got exactly the grades needed just so that his relatives wouldn’t call him out on cheating. You’re the boy who learnt his cousin’s reactions exactly and knew how to distract him when he wanted to beat him. That boy was a survivor, he thought about everything carefully before doing anything. However, the second you stepped into Hogwarts, you leapt into danger whenever you could, you kept downplaying your abilities so that you would fit in better. You’re never going to fit it. You’re a celebrity among students. Every action you took was scrutinized, and all you did was disappoint everyone with your mediocre results.”
“But…”
“No buts, Potter, you, throwing your life away like it meant nothing is very concerning. I had hoped that it might have been the result of mind magics but no, it was all you. Your mother would have been disappointed to see you do this. Do you think that she gave her life, just so that you would run from acromantula in the forbidden forest, or hunt down dangerous criminals?”
Harry stayed silent at this, wilting under her accusation. There was a grain of truth in them; Harry had been chasing danger after danger ever since his first year. But everything he did was because he wanted to save the school, right?
“I had to; it was my responsibility…”
The woman snorted once more, “Kiddo, the traps in your first year were geared to delay the intruder, not stop. The stone was obviously fake. Your second year, the chamber had nothing to do with you. If you think for one moment, that you weren’t the luckiest boy in the world for surviving that, then you’ll be terribly mistaken. In both of those encounters, you survived either thanks to Dumbledore or because of pure luck. You barely knew a couple of spells. You were first and second years for Merlin’s sake. You have to realize that you have no responsibility to these people. You don’t need to be the hero. You don’t have to save the day. Let someone else do it, especially when they’re more qualified than you are. When you accept these words, we’ll have our next lesson.”
Harry nodded and turned around, “Where are we?”
“Physically, we never left the great hall.”
“How? I followed you to your office after you were done eating.”
Professor Sayre gave him a smirk, “I told you before, mind magic is a very powerful field of magic. I simply felt that you wanted to speak to me and connected with your mind.”
“So, none of this was real? All of this was in my head?”
“Of course, it was in you head, Harry. But why does that mean that it wasn’t real. After all, reality is an illusion.”
Harry then looked panicked for a second, “Then did I stay frozen for half an hour in the middle of the great hall?”
“Of course not, Harry. The mind moves differently from the body. From my calculations, barely ten seconds have passed in the real world. Now, I think it’s time for our conversation to end, Mr. Potter.”
Professor Sayre just touched his temple and Harry was thrown back into his body. He was back at the great hall. He looked around and saw Ron and Hermione looking worriedly at him. Ron was the one to speak up, “Are you alright, mate?”
Harry nodded, “I’m fine.”
Hermione didn’t seem to believe him, “Why were you staring at Professor Sayre?”
“She’s a very scary woman.”
Ah, yes, scary indeed.
