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  This chapter was edited by Gdiusx. Check his works on HP and ASOIAF, I highly recommend them.

  Time unknown

  The sounds of birds singing, bugs buzzing, and critters crawling caused Harry to awaken with a groan. His head pounded like a troll was beating it with a nailed club, and his eyelids felt as if they were made from lead. His entire body felt like one massive bruise, and there was an unpleasant sticky sensation on his back as if it were glued to the ground.

  Harry’s throat was as dry as the desert, and his lips were chapped - having experienced the unbearably hot temperatures of the Scorched Vale, he could now tell what a desert felt like. He struggled to open his eyes for what felt like an hour until he finally succeeded, only to shut them again from the bright light.

  A terrible thumping seemed to come from somewhere, and it took him a minute to realise it was the sound of his heartbeat. Harry listened to the rhythmic beating as he tried valiantly to open his eyes again, eventually succeeding and finding himself staring at the twilight skies above.

  The sun wasn't shining straight down, in fact, it seemed to be either dusk or dawn time. Harry turned his aching head to find the ground missing the weirwood sap and magical parts. Instead, it was covered in some smelly bck liquid.

  Harry turned his body with a groan, all his muscles and bones aching in protest. His back in particur struggled to free itself from whatever held it to the ground. Eventually, he rolled over, holding his body with his elbows and knees as he struggled to catch his breath.

  Only for something sticky to tickle his penis.

  His eyes widened as he looked at his member. Jon always felt he was well-endowed, yet it definitely was not so rge to reach the ground from his position before the ritual. Harry did not have time to ponder more on the size of his cock before he realised the filthy and stinky liquid covering the ground and smearing his skin.

  “What the fuck?”

  He groaned again as he tiredly stood up, his bare feet sticking to the ground and his hands dirty from the muck. Harry stumbled to the door, feeling like he was not using his own body as his feet threatened to entangle themselves. He stared in confusion at the white robe hanging over the door; he did not recall the hook being so close to the ground or the robe looking so small.

  Too tired, thirsty, and hungry to care, Harry opened the door, finding it not budging. In his tired state, he pulled harder, feeling the muscles in his arms and back tingling with something, until…he ripped out the bronze handle from the frame. He stared at it dumbly before shaking his head and immediately regretting it as he felt like his brain was loose in his skull. Trying to breathe through his nose to steady himself, Harry instantly retched from the terrible smell, and his nose twitched.

  Achoo!

  He had instinctively turned sideways to sneeze, his head aiming inside the room, and stared in disbelief as a shower of sparks erupted from his nostrils instead of spittle. The fireball nded on the gunk and immediately set it abze, turning the whole room into a firestorm.

  Harry instinctively covered his face with his hands but felt no pain. He could feel the heat’s pleasant warmth as it tickled his skin, yet it did not hurt at all!

  Once the searing brightness abated and the air turned pleasantly cool, he lowered his hands only to find the room completely clean from the muck. Harry still had no idea what that bck stuff was but decided to save some in a vial for Chiara to study ter. If the sticky sensation he felt on his back meant anything, he still had enough to gather a sample.

  Harry turned towards the broken door, wondering how he would open it without a handle before noticing the melted joints and hinges. Shrugging, he grabbed the door from the sides, feeling the familiar tingle in his muscles, and heaved, ripping the whole thing out of the frame. Passing through to the corridor, he pced it on the side to be fixed ter, and then walked towards the special room he had prepared before the ritual.

  The room was as he left it; a grandfather clock showed it was close to six o’clock, a wardrobe with clothes of different sizes in case his height had changed, and a medical station with several potions like pepper up, blood replenisher, and others. There were also empty vials for him to fill with his blood for Chiara to go over any changes, and a bathroom to clean up.

  Harry moved to a table where he had his wand and Invisibility Cloak set, grabbed the wand, and then carefully collected the bck gunk on his skin before depositing it in a vial. Next, he aimed a small cutting spell on his palm to drain some blood…only for the spell to spsh harmlessly on his skin.

  Harry frowned. He would rather not try any more magic than he needed to until he thoroughly examined what he gained from the ritual. Sighing and pcing the wand back, he grabbed a change of clothing and hurried to the bathroom to finally clean up.

  Thirty minutes and a very hot shower ter, Harry discovered that no matter how high he set the temperature, it did not seem to scald him. At least he was now as clean as he could be. Having gone through three loofas to scrub every inch of his body and sending dregs of the bck muck stuck to his skin into the sewers, Harry could finally move his limbs without any sticky feeling, but his body and limbs felt awkward, even more so than the night he had sin the basilisk.

  Pushing down his apprehension, he dragged himself before the foggy mirror and wiped it clean, staring at the stranger who gazed back.

  He had changed…considerably so that he could never hide it. His hair remained the messy bck mess, and his eyes were a pair of glowing emeralds. His white skin looked as pale as chalk, almost like abaster, yet it was unblemished save for the faint lightning-shaped scar on his brow, the mark where the basilisk fang had sunk into his arm, and his test scar on his abdomen where the manticore’s stinger punctured him.

  His body was thin, his corded muscles barely there. His thin yer of fat seemed to have almost fully melted away, making his veins stand out in an unhealthy way. Just looking at his body made him feel hungry, he was practically skin and bones.

  Most importantly, Harry had gotten tall!

  He must be nearly two metres tall now, and considering his age, he might get even taller! Harry was already loving the effects of the ritual, yet his gaze fell below his waist, and he grimaced at the sight waiting for him. Harry did not know whether to ugh or cry at the sight of his cock dangling nearly to his knees and how heavy his now apple-sized balls felt as they hid behind his impressive girth. He did not even know if he could wear any proper trousers anymore!

  It was a disturbing sight compared to the rest of his thin body.

  Hang on, he narrowed his eyes as he focused for a second before gasping at what he saw. Normally, his attempts at self-transfiguration required a lot of focus and concentration. Tonks had expined that it was not metamorphosis like her powers, for she could easily shapeshift to anything with but a single thought. Harry stared in happiness as his junk shrank back to a much more manageable size. Looking at himself in the mirror again, he imagined his pale skin with a more healthy rosy hue, and it instantly changed colour. Now he looked like he had a nice tan from being outdoors yet still clearly white.

  Could he? Hoping that he had truly awakened the vaunted powers of a metamorphmagus, Harry imagined himself growing even taller. Right before his eyes, his body shifted up and up, until he was 7’7” tall. He focused harder and continued growing over a foot more until he felt a severe drain on his magic, his muscles felt numb, and a dull ache jolted through his spine.

  “Wicked!”

  Now nearly 9 feet tall, Harry was even taller than the mirror, and his head brushed with the ceiling. The ache in his spine was worrying, but he thought he could get used to it. Still, there was no need to risk his health over something silly like this. Slowly shrinking back down, he stopped at 7’7”, the sweet spot where he felt no drain on his magic or any aches in his body. It was simir to Tonks. She too could grow or shrink a foot from her natural height.

  Experimenting a bit more with his height, Harry shrank himself to 5'7”, feeling no change to his magic, nor did he feel foreign in his own body. Shrinking down further was possible, and Harry managed to bring his height down to 5 feet, though once more, there was a drain on his magic. Instead of an ache in his spine, though, his body felt sluggish and heavy.

  “Interesting,” he figured that maintaining his now normal height of two metres would raise far too many questions, so Harry settled for being an inch taller than Susan at 5’8”. He had no doubt his voluptuous girlfriend would continue growing, so he decided he would just edge her out by an inch.

  He couldn't wait to surprise her with this new body; Susan knew he was undergoing a ritual, but not the specifics. Harry had intentionally avoided meeting her since their date before his excursion in the Forest, much to the girl's chagrin, but he looked forward to meeting her soon.

  Feeling satisfied with his experiments so far, Harry’s eyes fell back to his dick…should he? A mischievous smile bloomed on his face as he rubbed his chin. It was all in the name of science and magic. Definitely not because he wanted to test his limits.

  With a thought, Harry continued experimenting with his body parts.

  .

  .

  .

  Half an hour ter, Harry was finally satisfied and returned to the room, dressed in a loose pair of trousers and a T-shirt. While his new powers of shape-shifting allowed him to bulk up at any time, it appeared he still needed to train. Aside from the magical drain, the transformation, while completely real, caused him to become incredibly clumsy. As if he needed to acclimate himself to every change to his body, and now Harry truly felt sympathy for Tonks' clumsiness.

  Even so, it defied the ws of biology, which once again had him wonder if muggle sciences could truly complement magic.

  He still hoped to make headways into magical sciences, but perhaps that was something for others to look into. For now, he tried to ignore the rumbling of his stomach as his hunger climbed to new heights; it was obvious that his newfound power required a lot of energy, and not all of it was magical.

  Turning calories to magic sounded like something out of Dudley’s old comic books.

  Harry walked back to the medical corner, grabbed his wand, and pointed it at his palm, “Diffindo!”

  The crimson-coloured charm looked and felt far more ominous than earlier yet it spshed harmlessly on his palm. Or, not harmlessly, as he definitely felt a sting and a thin red line marred his palm, yet he did not bleed.

  “Well, this is going to be awkward.”

  “MASTER HARRY!” He whipped around at the sudden shout, finding Dobby staring at him from the open door in shock, his eyes wide and full of tears. “YOU ARE AWAKE!!!”

  The house elf dashed to hug his leg, muttering inconsobly all the while. “Dobby, what’s wrong? What’s so strange about my being awake?”

  “M-Master!” The elf sniffled, and stared upwards, his big green eyes crying tears of joy. “You’ve been asleep for so long!”

  A sudden chill crawled up his spine as a whisper formed in his mind. What if him being so tall, and looking much older than thirteen was not due to the ritual?

  “W-What do you mean? How long have I been asleep?!”

  “T-Too long, Master. It’s been so, so, long.”

  Harry could feel his heart beating like mad, and his eyes widened. Suddenly, what the Eye said about not being particurly fast rang in his mind.

  He took a step back, looking for a chair to sit on, but stumbled with the elf still holding his leg. Swiftly, his gaze flew to an empty portrait, “Where’s Henry? Why isn’t he here? Chiara? Cinder?”

  “T-T-They…”

  “Yes, where are they, Dobby?” Harry grabbed the elf and lifted him to his face, even as he tried to search inwards for his dearest companion - Ghost was asleep, thank God, and Harry nudged him awake. “What happened to them?!”

  Dobby stiffened and bit his lip tightly as if stopping himself from answering. Something passed through his eyes, as he seemed to gnce around him, and Harry suddenly felt something was off. Ghost chose this moment to wake up with a massive yawn in his head and gazed at the elf through his eyes, causing Dobby to instantly freeze.

  “Dobby…I am ordering you to tell me how long I have been asleep, and where Chiara, Henry, and Cinder are.”

  The elf’s cheeks looked ready to burst as he tried to remain silent despite the direct order. “I-I…”

  A sudden burst of ughter came from behind the windowsill, and Harry instantly turned to find Cinder floating, her fiery hair dancing everywhere. “KAHAHAHA! Okay, that’s enough, Dobby, you did great!”

  “I’m sorry, Master Harry! She made me do it!!” The house elf was now crying tears of regret as Harry gred back at him, “But it really felt a long time since you were awake…”

  “How many days?” He ground out.

  “You’ve been asleep for two days, honey.” Cinder floated inside the room and gently patted his hands as he dropped the elf. “Wait, no, this is the third day, it’s Tuesday morning now. Anyway, I couldn’t help it and had to prank you. The look on your freaking face!”

  The Fae’s melodic giggle was different from her earlier vulgar one, and while it was pleasant to the ears, it brought Harry no joy.

  “Hah hah hah, how funny. I hope you enjoyed your joke, Cinder, because Dobby is more distressed than anything else.” He stared down at the house elf who looked to be on the verge of smashing his head on the table as punishment for…well, he did not lie but he certainly led him on. “Stand down, Dobby. Go wake Chiara and have breakfast ready.”

  The elf nodded his head rapidly and popped away, Harry then turned to the ethereal creature who hugged his left arm to her ample chest - still grinning unashamedly. “You do realise that you are just opening yourself for retaliation.”

  “Nope,” The Fae giggled again, her hair bzing in different colours and floating away as she seemed to lounge midair with her hands hooked behind her head. “This is payback for that stunt with your name.”

  “Ugh, I already said it was unintentional. Is that why you forced Dobby to lie to me?”

  “Actually, he did not lie. It was just more believable if he was the first one to greet you.”

  Harry stifled a sigh of exasperation and decided to let the matter go; the Fae were known for their pranks, and this was quite benign compared to things he had heard. It did not mean he would forget it, but it was not worth getting angry about.

  He grabbed his wand again and cast Diffindo on his palm, this time channelling a lot more magic into the wand and causing a cracking sound as the charm merely stung him. His hand flinched by reflex from the pain, yet the spell still did not break his skin, “Bloody hell, why is my spell not working? Did the ritual take my magic in exchange for my height?”

  “Oh my dear boyo, that would certainly be a fair trade. You look decidedly scrumptious.” The Fae licked her lips and rubbed her legs together. Harry gulped as he remembered the woman could not lie, and he decidedly ignored the way her breasts jiggled in her dress as she chuckled. “If only you put some flesh and muscles on those bones. But no, your magic is fine, better than fine, I dare say you are far more in tune with your magic now. I believe it is your skin that has gotten an upgrade. Wasn’t one of the parts for the ritual from a Mountain Troll? Those beasts are quite magically resistant, oh, and the Manticore as well. Having two parts out of five with thick hides must have done something for you.”

  Harry hummed as he tried to think up a more powerful cutting curse but came up bnk. Despite his talent in magic, his curse repertoire was sadly behind compared to his other spells. Actually, now that he thought on it, Harry's spell arsenal was sorely cking aside from joke hexes and school jinxes.

  “I can teach you a powerful cutting curse.” Cinder nded and grew to her full height of six feet before hooking her arms around his neck as she gave him a smouldering gaze. “One that can cut most things… should you prove to be a good student.”

  Harry stared at her ruby eye, her other one was still missing yet he could almost see the outline of a red iris in the yellow fme. “What’s your price?”

  For that was part of the terms of their contract. Cinder would swear fealty to him, and he shall provide a home for her. In return, she will protect his nds, and cooperate with him and his people - provided she seeks his permission to any contract she wishes to form with others for he had exclusive rights to her. Anything more she could offer shall need to be negotiated, just as she would always offer something in return for a favour.

  It was probably why she drank his entire supply of mead for providing him the sap.

  Cinder grinned and opened her mouth before biting her lips and shaking her head - Harry raised an eyebrow curiously, but she just smirked as she patted his cheek.

  “Too early for that. We have a good thing going on, so let's not ruin it. Anyway,” She raised her voice, interrupting his unasked question - he could have sworn her voice was slightly more high-pitched. “I have come to enjoy your liquor and mead. Bell, Dobby, and I have been busy attempting to make wine from the Weirwood Sap yet we need more tools and ingredients for experimentation. I want a proper brewery, more wine to sample, and more minions - preferably fairies.”

  Harry raised an eyebrow at the taller woman and decided he did not like her staring down at him - no matter how soft and warm her breasts felt. Growing to his full height of two metres then all the way to nearly eight feet, he towered over the Fae whose eyes widened as she licked her lips. “Don’t be greedy, you want to teach me a single spell for so much in return?”

  “Oh, going to haggle? I thought you were above such trivialities.”

  His business with Reginald had yet to bear fruit even though the prospects were high. There was a reason he chose the 7th to meet with his friends in the Alley. Yet, this was not a matter of gold.

  “Make your choice, Cinder.” He rumbled, his voice growing deeper from his increased size - and perhaps maniputing his vocal cords slightly, “One thing only.”

  The Fae giggled as she floated away and hummed in thought, “Fine, get me something special to drink. I need to sample more drinks before I decide on how to work with the sap. Apparently, living in a cave for over a hundred years, and growing up for two hundred in court, did not give me a lot of options on what to drink or eat.”

  “Alright, I will see what I can do.” He thanked his lucky stars; he did not stock the manor with any kind of liquor aside from the mead she already drank. This way, he could continuously bribe her with various drinks in exchange for favours. “Does it have to be alcoholic?”

  “I don’t think so. I mean, as long as it’s something I have not tried before…” Cinder stared at him curiously, “I thought alcoholic beverages were the only kind of drinks you humans made.”

  Harry took a moment to understand what she meant and did his best not to grin; Cinder did not seem to be worldly, and must not have experienced any of the endless variety of newer muggle drinks. Two hundred years in court, she said, most likely the Summer Court, but clearly, she was not high on the hierarchy there judging by her surprising innocence and something she mentioned about disliking her people.

  “You will find out. Now, the spell?”

  “Alright, I’ll trust you on that.” The Fae floated back to him and id herself in his arms as she pced her hands on his temples. “I don’t know how to actually cast the spell, so I will just impnt it in your mind.”

  Before he could ask what she meant, Harry suddenly felt something probe his mind, as if asking permission. When he arched his eyebrow at the red-skinned woman, she pouted, causing him to chuckle before allowing her in, where some sort of vision was suddenly impnted in his mind.

  Two men in dark robes, wearing white masks, chased a woman wearing a revealing dress in an abandoned alley. Harry could not discern anything about them, for their robes and masks seemed charmed to obfuscate their identity.

  “Sectumsempra.”

  One of the wizards muttered as he sshed his wand at the woman. A white light in the shape of a crescent flew from his wand with the speed of a fully drawn arrow and sliced the woman’s back, causing blood to burst everywhere.

  The two figures approached the downed woman nguidly as the wizard inspected his handiwork as if it were a work of art. He ignored the bleeding and whimpering woman as he turned to the other hooded figure. “Not bad. I barely channelled magic into the spell, yet it was still strong enough to cut this skank down. You say with training and magic, it should be strong enough to cut her in half?”

  The voice seemed garbled, and Harry assumed it was a charm to hide their identity. They were lucky to be so careful, for right now, he felt nothing but contempt and disgust over their actions; if he had recognised them, there was no doubt in Harry’s mind he would do the best he could to make their lives miserable.

  “Easily. Now watch closely as I cast the counter-curse.” The other wizard pointed his wand at the bleeding woman, vanished her clothes, and knelt over her before directly pcing his wand over the deep wound on her back - so deep that Harry could almost see the spine. “Vulnera Sanentur.”

  The spell was intoned in a song-like way, as the wizard, almost gently, traced the wand over the wound, causing the bleeding to stop. He intoned the incantation once more, tracing the wand over the wound with the same song-like cadence, causing some sort of dark residue to be dispelled from the wound. One final use of the incantation caused the muscles and skin to start to knit themselves back, before the wizard poured what Harry recognised as Essence of Dittany over the scar, causing the skin to return to its unblemished state.

  “Fascinating. First, you stop the bleeding, then purge the curse's darkness, before finally healing the wound. And you created this curse and its counter-curse while in school?”

  “The counter-curse, I learned from someone, but I developed the curse myself, yes.”

  “Heh, I see. Did you have to heal the filth’s scar, however? You are still soft, though I am not one to compin.” The wizard who healed the woman turned away as his companion fiddled with his robes and began to undress, “They may be muggle filth, yet they certainly look simir enough to us. Tell me, though, what made you develop such a curse at such a young age?”

  The other wizard did not look back as the raper spread the woman’s legs and held his cock.

  “For Enemies.”

  Harry shuddered as the vision ended and found Cinder’s concerned eyes inches from his own. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah,” He took a deep breath to settle his heartbeat at the atrocity he had just witnessed - the way those dark wizards were so cavalier in attacking an innocent woman just to try out a spell, then raping her… His blood roared with fury, and even Ghost growled in his mind and it took Harry a few moments to centre himself. “Where did you learn these spells?”

  The Fae smirked before tracing her hands down her chest and belly. “Where do you think?”

  If Harry felt any grain of mercy for Lucius Malfoy’s soul becoming the fiery woman’s eternal snack, it was utterly squashed now. He pced his hand over the girl’s warm stomach and focused…the sounds of his hated enemy crying in pain and fear as he continuously burned helped assuage his rage. Considering the way Malfoy died, he could easily guess he was the raper in the vision, but who was the other man?

  “My, so bold! Touching this dy so casually might give me ideas~.” Harry huffed as he gently pushed the Fae away, causing her to giggle as she floated in midair and did some acrobatic somersaults. “Stop tempting me, Harry. With that new body of yours, I might just lose control of myself one of these days and decide to take our retionship up a notch!”

  He stared at the woman momentarily before she burst into more giggles. Deciding that it was no use taking her seriously when she constantly used so many buts and mights in her sentences, Harry focused on what he had learned.

  He withdrew his wand and pointed it at his palm, channelling a minute amount of magic, then sshing it over his palm like a knife. “Sectumsempra!”

  The wand tip fshed white and a small cut appeared on his palm, though it seemed to bleed a lot more than its size would suggest. Harry quickly brought a vial and filled it with his blood before muttering the counter-curse and sealing the wound. It left a small scar, but even as he stared, Harry got a strange impulse to somehow channel his magic to it…and the scar disappeared.

  “Wicked.”

  “More like how stupid of you, Mr Potter.” He turned to the door to find a drowsy Chiara entering as she stared at him with an unamused look. “You do realise I left you a syringe to use, right?”

  Harry slowly turned to the medical bay to notice that, yes, there were a dozen syringes, scalpels, and other muggle medical implements arranged on one of the tables. He stifled a groan, but at Cinder’s cackle, he turned it into a sigh. “Good morning, Chiara.”

  “Morning, Mr Potter. You look…different.”

  He stared at her in confusion before remembering how tall he was now. He shrank down to his chosen height, now simirly sized to his attendant. “Fruits of the ritual. So far, I have grown nearly two feet and become a Metamorphmagus. Oh, and I somehow sneezed fire.”

  Harry turned an unimpressed gaze to Cinder as she cackled even harder. “You’re welcome, boyo. Just remember me whenever you feel like spewing fmes at your enemies, and I might just give you a hand.”

  Chiara simply sighed as she took the vial from him and waved her wand, causing a drop to float midair where she cast several diagnostic spells that he could not decipher. “Hmm, did you happen to feel any pain from that fire?”

  “Nope, could barely feel the hot water when I showered.”

  Chiara nodded as she summoned a dicta-quill and a notebook, “High magical resistance, extremely high fire affinity and resistance, and–” The white-haired girl suddenly yawned as she rubbed her eyes and pced the blood back in the vial before storing it away in her satchel. “Sorry, I haven’t had my coffee yet. This will need more testing, but it can wait until after breakfast.”

  “Thanks, Chiara. Oh, and I found myself covered in this weird gunk when I woke up.” He showed her the vial of bck sludge, which caused the werewolf to wrinkle her nose. “Thoughts?”

  “It stinks.” She pointed her wand over it, causing some magical mumbo jumbo to appear in the form of letters and lights before she waved it all away. “It's filth.”

  “Pardon?”

  “It’s literally filth, Harry.” Chiara yawned again as she continued to rub the sleep from her eyes. “The human body accumutes a lot of impurities that are not easy to remove with a simple shower. I take it you have never done a cleansing ritual before?” He shook his head, “Well, now you have. Can we go eat now? I’ve had a long shift st night - had to stay after my training ended.”

  Harry chuckled at Chiara's sass; the girl was far too uptight and polite. It was only when she was hungry or craving coffee that she let loose. “Sure, just tell me what a cleansing ritual is along the way.”

  He followed the girl out of the room, Cinder tching onto his arm, causing him to frown at her, only for the mischievous Fae to giggle and poke her tongue out. Harry shook his head at the flirty girl and decided she wasn’t worth the trouble.

  “A cleansing ritual is one of the simplest and most common rituals around.” Chiara was saying, “Safest too, for it is nothing more than a very expensive deep shower.”

  “Pardon?”

  “You heard me, many wizards and witches grow so zy with age that they don't bother with personal hygiene anymore.” Unbidden memories of his first time in the Leaky Cauldron came to Harry and he grimaced as he remembered how filthy many of the customers were - long dirty nails, bad teeth, food and drink stains on their clothes; in fact, even during his test stay, the tavern goers were just as filthy, though thankfully, Tom kept the pce clean. “And as would be the norm for magicals, instead of following common-sense and taking better care of their personal hygiene, they opted for the more convoluted route.”

  “Cleansing rituals?”

  “Indeed, and they are not cheap.” Chiara gnced at him through drowsy eyes, “It appears Magic was very satisfied with your offering to bless you with a cleansing as a bonus.”

  Harry hummed non-committally as they continued walking before deciding to change the subject. “Did I miss anything while I was asleep over the st few days?”

  “Not much, we were obviously worried when it took you so long to awaken, yet Cinder assured us you were fine.” Harry turned to the fiery fae, who gave him a peace sign, and wondered how she woke up before him - or was she even physically brought to his mind? Her existence in the material world was a confusing subject, so he simply shrugged the matter off. “Henry has gone to visit an old painting buddy of his in the hunter’s guild on the mainnd. Something about a dragon stealing an important artefact and some upstart adventurer getting lost in a wildnd in the Alps.”

  Dragons can steal things? Harry shook his head in bewilderment but Chiara merely shrugged at his look so he gave a simple, “I see.”

  They arrived in the dining room to find Dobby had prepared a full English breakfast, along with extra meat servings that instantly reminded Harry of how hungry he was. They quickly took their seats, Cinder opting to continue floating as she nibbled on a piece of buttered toast that she toasted even more. Any further conversation was deyed in favour of food; Chiara grabbing a bit of every meat on the table, eggs, and cheese. The werewolf naturally ate a lot to keep her enhanced physique up, yet most of her diet was proteins, with the steak a bit on the rare side.

  Harry quickly finished pte after pte of fried eggs, beans, bacon, sausages and more; practically competing with his attendant over the meat servings if not for Dobby’s expedient refilling of the table once they finish a course - the elf had learned early on that his two charges ate a lot more than their bodies would suggest.

  Still, it seemed that even with the ritual over, his appetite had remained the same - perhaps even more pronounced with his Metamorphic powers, as he recalled Tonks also had a healthy appetite.

  “Anything else to note? Did the vampires make a reappearance?” It was half an hour ter, and Chiara was drinking her coffee, looking far more energetic. Harry was sipping on a boiling cup of tea while Cinder seemed to stare curiously at Chiara’s drink, causing him to smirk.

  “No, things have been quiet tely, thank goodness. For once, I had a normal Sunday.” The werewolf giggled for a moment before her eyes widened. “Ah yes, your Hogwarts letter has arrived with the shopping list.”

  “Brilliant, I’ll take a look at it ter.”

  “Also, Lady Greengrass sent an owl yesterday.” Chiara sipped from her drink, giving an appreciative sigh as she fshed a smile at Dobby. “She has finished all her research over the sword and requests a meeting at your earliest convenience.”

  Harry grinned; it had been weeks since the beautiful matriarch of House Greengrass had begun her research on Gryffindor. He had visited twice since then, and both times, she had shown him some interesting discoveries, yet she had yet to crack the truth behind the sword’s magic. Looks like Estelle Greengrass had finally come through!

  “Excellent, I shall write them a letter to meet ter today, perhaps over dinner. Hedwig?” His owl flew in from the window, and Dobby wordlessly pced his enchanted quill, a sheet of paper, an envelope, and a pot of melted wax before popping away. Harry quickly wrote the message before sealing it with his signet ring and tying it around Hedwig's leg. “See that it's delivered quickly, girl.”

  The owl barked as she grabbed a piece of bacon he reserved for her and then took off. Harry smiled fondly before turning back to Chiara.

  “I will join you at St Mungo’s to have a complete physical checkup. I know we told Head Healer Tonks to expect me yesterday, but hopefully, he will be free enough today.”

  “I’m sure he won’t mind, especially if we leave early.” She turned to the clock on the wall, showing 07:30, then drank the st of her coffee and pced the cup on the table. “I can be ready in five minutes.”

  “Good, I will wait for you here then.” Normally, Harry would be mighty impressed at that cim, having had to wait on Arya many times when she was up to mischief. But then he remembered she was a witch and stifled a chuckle as Chiara rushed to her room before turning to Cinder as she frowned at the werewolf’s abandoned cup. “See something interesting, Cinder?”

  “Hmm, just what is this beverage?”

  “You’ve been living with us for nearly two weeks, and you just noticed Chiara drinking it? She’s practically addicted to the stuff!”

  “I’ve mostly kept to the grounds and the Heart Tree.” Cinder shrugged, and Harry realised this was the first time she had joined them for breakfast. “Now, come on! What is it?”

  Harry chuckled at the fiery woman’s exuberance, “Coffee. It’s been around in the Isles for a long time, and I’m surprised you never had it. Want a cup?”

  “Sure,” Cinder chirped before suddenly opening her eyes wide, “I-I mean–”

  “Dobby,” The elf popped in once more with a bow, “get a full coffee set for Cinder.”

  “At once, Master Harry.” He popped away for barely a few seconds before returning with a steaming hot cup of dark liquid, a bowl of sugar, and a small jug of cream. “Would that be all, Master Harry?”

  “That would be all, Dobby.” He nodded to the elf, who was clearly eager to make up for his morning stunt, and Harry turned to the pouting Fae, “Well, Cinder? Here is your drink.”

  “Hmph, You are so sneaky!” Her pout intensified as her cheeks infted like a chipmunk, causing him to hide his smile behind his cup of tea.

  “Coming from a Fae, that is a hell of a compliment.”

  Harry ughed as he easily paid back the Fae for the spell she taught him. Before he could see her reaction to the drink, Chiara returned, dressed in her healer robes and carrying her satchel. “I’m ready, Harry.”

  “Brilliant,” He quickly stood and followed the werewolf to the foyer, “Don’t burn the house while we’re gone, Cinder.”

  “Yeah, yeah, go on then. Hmm, so you say I can add sugar to it, Dobby? But what about–”

  Harry tuned her out as he followed his attendant to the firepce, put on a pair of sandals, threw some floo powder, and clearly intoned, “Saint Mungos.”

  The results are out: Harry has become a sex fiend–I mean, a grown man!

  A very hungry and skinny grown man.

  The list of upgrades he got will take time to compile, and most of it won’t be entirely apparent immediately, even after a complete health check.

  Dealing with Cinder is like dealing with the devil. A very cute and beautiful devil that literally received the OK from the powers that be to torture an evil soul for a long time.

  Surprisingly, coffee has been around in the British Isles long before tea.