Aeternum: Group Chat

Chapter 21: Flashes of the Past

Harry stood near the black lake as he kept his eyes closed. He was meditating, this time without trying to feel anything or go into sage mode. For weeks now, he had started meditating at five in the morning and then he would train Kawazu Kumite and, when it was over, he would meditate again. Meditation helped him stay calmer and combat training helped him not to get rusty, he might need to fight hand to hand at any time.

When he finished his training, he entered the castle so he could take a shower and start the school day. Harry was a little happy today, his ideas were a little more organized than yesterday. With the end of his mission and werewolf research, he didn't know what to do. His life could now be more controlled by him and he has greater freedom with his emancipation, so he didn't have to worry about such useless things. And since he couldn't make trips to other worlds for a while, at first he didn't know what to do.

Last night, he sorted out his thoughts and ideas, creating a small list of what he could do. The first was his studies at Hogwarts, that will always be on his mind until he graduates, so he put it on his list above all else. The second was the start of a new research related to magic particles and the world around them. The third was the Triwizard Tournament, or more specifically, Voldemort in the finals. Finally, after the year was over, he wrote down several places and countries he could travel to on vacation and relax a bit.

When he arrived at the great hall for breakfast, he was given different looks: respect, admiration, jealousy, envy, and more. Harry simply ignored this, but inside he felt a little upset. He really wasn't that much of a genius, he just had the opportunity to become better at training with chakra. Therefore, he was annoyed by people who looked at him with jealousy and envy. Did they want to have the same thing as him? Then let them try hard! Let them study and they will be able to go far in whatever they want!

At this moment he also realized that many people who entered the magical world, or even outside of it, would just sit there doing nothing and look at the one who had more with different feelings. Why didn't they try hard?... even if it was just a little, just a little was enough. Why did they just sit there, waiting for something to happen for their lives to change? Why couldn't they be the ones to change their lives? Harry asked himself all those questions in his head while maintaining his indifferent expression.

"Good morning, Harry," Hermione snapped him out of his thoughts when she greeted him.

"Good morning, Hermione," Harry smiled slightly, noticing that Hermione was proof of what he thought. She was someone who took authorities/teachers into account even higher than her own opinions. She only realized her mistakes and reflected on them before she began to realize her mistakes and improve herself. It was only one step, just one step, to be able to start changing things in your life, but it seems that no one wanted to take that step.

"Did you notice that someone is looking at you?", Hermione asked quietly, almost in a whisper.

"A lot of people are looking at me, Hermione. But if you mean the Slytherin girl in particular, then yes, I know she is looking at me."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"I'm already used to stares of all kinds. So, I don't feel bothered. Rather, maybe curiosity would be the right word. I mean, isn't it a little strange that someone from Slytherin looks at me so much?"

"Yes... it is, really," Hermione replied with a nod. "Especially when it's Daphne Greengrass."

Harry raised an eyebrow: "Who?"

"Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin girl our age. Next to us, she's one of the best in her classes, except for potions. I don't know if she just doesn't find it worth it or if she's bad at it."

"Plus, she's one of the few in our year who doesn't see herself hanging out with Malfoy or Pansy."

"Greengrass, huh?" Harry looked at her for a few moments, causing her to look away immediately. Harry noticed that she had dark hair and grey eyes with skin that was a little whiter than normal.

"Strange... I don't remember doing anything to get her attention like that," Harry commented, noticing that the girl's previous look wasn't one of admiration, jealousy or envy. Perhaps there was a bit of respect, but the rest was more curiosity and a bit of doubt.

"Who knows..." Hermione shrugged.

. . .

Inside the Transfiguration class, Harry Potter looked at his guinea fowl, perplexed. Before, he had been focused on so many things at once that he couldn't really think about the repercussions or ways in which Transfiguration worked. Of course, you used a spell and a wave of the wand to get the result you wanted, but the problem was that he didn't understand how exactly those results were achieved.

You turned the hen into a guinea pig, but what made that happen? It was impossible for just will, the spiritual connection-magic particles (connection between the body, energy of the same name and magic particles to do magic) to achieve this. The same thing happened with conjuring and vanishing. Where did something end up when you vanished it? How and where did something you conjured come from?

The same thing happened with transformations like the one in the first year, when they changed a match into a needle. This was the reason for seeing the hen with a perplexed expression. In the end, Harry pushed those thoughts further back in his mind and focused on class, managing to turn the guinea fowl into a guinea pig on the fourth attempt.

McGonagall had been keeping an eye on him and nodded when he managed it in so few attempts, but when class ended, she asked him to stay and smiled a little amused at the look on Harry's face, who seemed more lost in his thoughts than on her.

"Mr. Potter... You seem to have some doubts?"

"Ah...", Harry snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "Yes, I do."

"I was wondering if even the concepts of objects changed. Would a match turned into a needle still burn? Would the cup we turned from an animal in the first class of fourth year still die if damaged?... That sort of thing....", Harry felt a little odd as he received the bright-eyed look from the usually stoic teacher.

"These are very unfounded thoughts and doubts. I can explain a little more if you want," Harry nodded with a hungry glint in his eyes, making the teacher snort a little at the enormous curiosity of the boy in front of her.

"Let's start a little with the transformations, shall we?" she asked kindly, Harry just nodded as he sat down.

"As I said in the first class, transfiguration, despite everything, is really dangerous. Especially when a spell is used on a human being. This is one of the reasons why being an animagus is not only a long and complicated process, but also extremely dangerous."

"Now... transfigurations are not permanent, I repeat, they are not permanent."

"But..." Harry frowned a little. "If transfigurations aren't permanent, how come the Philosopher's Stone can turn gold? Even extend one's lifespan?"

"You're getting too ahead of yourself, Mr. Potter. The Philosopher's Stone isn't just transfiguration, but alchemy as well. It's something far more complicated and mysterious than you think."

"Now... as for your question of concepts... and as I said earlier, transfigurations aren't permanent. So, if you turn something, say... wood into a liquid... what would happen if you drank it?"

"Uh..." Harry's eyes widened in a bit of horror. "After a while, the transformation would reverse itself and you'd end up with a piece of wood in your stomach, plus maybe some other stuff in your blood."

"Right... This is something I wanted you to think about for yourself in the first class, where I warned you of the dangers of this class. But nobody cares!... Even if I'm a teacher and I have to watch over the students' safety, almost nobody ends up interested in the class and they only study what they need to in order to get passing grades

"But...", Harry frowned a little.

"Another question, Mr. Potter?", McGonagall was happy to answer as many as she could. She was glad that someone really understood the dangers and wonders of transfiguration.

"I don't know if you've read Muggle science. But it should be impossible to partially transfigure something... If you change something into something else, the entirety of that 'something' should change. If you change just one part... "

"It could all be destroyed, yes," McGonagall smiled with a twinkle in her eyes. "And, there comes the permanence of a transformation again."

"Even now, the few experts on the subject, haven't been able to figure out something like that," she slowly shook her head.

"And now, I must congratulate you on your achievements, Mr. Potter."

"Huh?" Harry looked at her bewildered.

"Your tests on the magical core, its connections and, above all, the magical particles, have made many experts feel excited and return to their old research that had been left aside. It sparked the interest and determination of the older ones to go ahead and discover more mysteries of our magical world."

Harry scratched his head a little, nodding and accepting the teacher's congratulations. But, his mind was more focused on other things. He didn't even notice Minerva's look of exasperation when he left the classroom.

"That boy... he's probably thinking too many things," she shook her head a little, waiting for Harry to make another huge discovery, especially about transfiguration.

Harry sat on his bed as he stared ahead, making Neville and Dean Thomas, who were in the room, a little uncomfortable. All afternoon, he had been thinking about the things McGonagall had told him.

Then, a question popped into his head: If transfigurations aren't permanent, how do they go back to what they were before magic was used? It couldn't go back on its own, there was no way for that to just happen out of nowhere; there had to be something that makes these things possible.

Harry continued to think about this without realizing that it was already dark and his roommates were already asleep. He looked at his trunk and nodded, deciding to use his invisibility cloak after a while to go to the room of requirements.

However, when he got out of bed and opened his trunk, the contact of his left hand grabbing his cloak triggered something he never expected. His breathing stagnated as he began to hear voices; It was far away, and full of echoes, different voices manifested in his ears as Harry gritted his teeth as images appeared in front of his eyes.

It was three men talking...

Three men traveling... going through some troubles.

Brothers who could be considered geniuses and at the same time, a little greedy and arrogant.

The voices continued as Harry kept listening and watching, learning and understanding more and more.

Objects, magical items... relics with different purposes, but all related to one thing, death.

A wand to be the strongest, but that brought greedy looks and in the end, only brought death.

A stone to meet the dead, but that would only bring despair and suffering.

Finally, a cloak that hid you from death... the only one of the three objects that did not attract greed, suffering or death.

Finally, a single word echoed in his ears before everything returned to normal.

"Abscondere Morte!"

Harry gasped loudly as one of his knees hit the ground, his forehead dripping with sweat as his unfocused eyes slowly returned to normal. He hadn't realized it, but he had repeated those last words. And, as he did, the cloak moved on its own, hardening before surrounding his entire body and rendering him invisible to all media.

Sight, smell, hearing, heat, and magic; Harry had become invisible to everything.

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