A Helping Hand

Chapter 6

Stepping out of Gringotts, Harry took in a deep breath of fresh air, still shocked from the results of his Inheritance Test, beside him Hagrid was experiencing much of the same thing.
"Hagrid, before we go to get a tent, I want to go to Flourish and Blotts. If I'm going to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, I'm going to need to train and get stronger, get a lot stronger. Hopefully, I'll be able to find books that can help me do that."
"You're gonna need to be able to control your power, you just gained access to your full magical core, which given what you've done over the past few years with your core mostly bound, is tremendously powerful. You once told me you produced a Patronus that drove away hundreds of Dementors, if you could do that, as a third year, with your core bound, blimey I wouldn't be surprised of you grew to be more powerful than Dumbledore." Harry's eyes widened as Hagrid spoke to him, he had known he was fairly powerful, but not to that extent. However that feeling of amazement was wiped away and a grin settled across his face, an almost feral expression. He couldn't wait to take revenge on his so-called friends, and on Dumbledore, proving all those who had counted him and betrayed him wrong.
"Harry...Harry, you alright?" said Hagrid in a slightly concerned tone of voice, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"I'm good Hagrid, just thinking." Hagrid nodded, understanding him perfectly and the pair proceeded to Flourish and Blotts.
Harry sighed, frustrated as he still hadn't found any book that looked promising, none of them had spells or any other information that he thought would be if any real use in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Annoyed, Harry went to find Hagrid, who had wandered off after spotting some books about dragons. Harry found Hagrid at the counter but judging by the amount of books Hagrid was attempting to get, Harry knew that he'd been a while. Tapping the big man on the shoulder Harry told him he'd meet him at the tent shop.
"You know where you're going right?" Hagrid asked.
"I have been to Diagon Alley before Hagrid, I know my way around," he responded, grinning. Hagrid smiled back and nodded at him before eagerly turning back to the man at the counter. Smiling ruefully at his friend' seemingly unlimited love for dragons, Harry stepped out of Flourish and Blotts. Sure, he liked reading as much as the next guy - the only reason he didn't read more was to get Ron and Hermione off his back. He knew Ron would whine and moan at him, and he also knew Hermione would get jealous and annoyed if he gave any inclination whatsoever that he was becoming anywhere near as smart as her. A frown crossed over his face, dampening his mood as thought about his two ex best friends. On the other hand, in a way, he was glad to be rid of them. Now he could finally stop holding himself back and show the world why you don't mess with Harry Potter. He was so lost in thought at that happy prospect, he didn't notice the fact that someone had been calling out his name for the past few minutes. As such, he was shocked when a hand landed on his shoulder and spun him round, albeit rather gently.
"Mr Ollivander? What was that for?"
"Forgive me child, but I couldn't help but notice the rather pensive look on your face and it made me think of something, an experiment I've always wanted to try." Raising an eyebrow, Harry wordlessly gestured for the old man to continue. "If I may inspect your wand for a moment. Yes...Ooh, ah I see. The problem lies in the fact that the connection between you and your bond has suddenly diminished. I'm afraid that with this wand, your magic will not be able to reach its full potential," he finished solemnly. At this, Harry felt sadness well up inside of him, but interestingly he was not as sad as one might of thought. To tell the truth, ever the since his name had come out of the goblet, he had felt an unfortunate disconnection between him and his wand. He exhaled, but was curious.
"Mr Ollivander, do you know why I don't feel as connected to the wand anymore?"
"As you know child, the wand chooses the wizard. However I theorize the most important part of this process is the wand core. The core of that wand is a phoenix feather, an undoubtedly light creature. But now I sense your magic is no longer light or dark, rather it is grey, thus your wand will no longer perform adequately for you."
"What do you mean my magic is grey? And I thought Voldemort also had a phoenix feather wand, so how does that work if he's a dark wizard?"
"The answer to your second question is simple, once the Dark Lord became aware his wand would not work for him, he found himself a new wand, one that reflected his darker core, something that leads me to your first question. To summarise, well different people have different views. Personally, I believe it is the intent of the wielder that determines the magic they use. Dark magic tends to be more harmful, more deadly, more painfully but it has the unfortunate tendency to leave people corrupted by it and turned insane. Light magic on the other hand is the opposite. The average light wizard would be weaker than the average dark wizard, but light magic can still be extremely powerful. Most light spells are non-combat based and non-lethal but can still be used in battle. And grey magic," here Ollivander's voice dropped to a whisper as he leant towards Harry, as if he was telling him a great secret. "Grey magic is hardly practiced anymore, but it is the oldest type of magic stemming from Lady Magic herself. It is not common knowledge however, and certainly not something to be bandied about." Harry nodded thoughtfully, in awe and reeling from the relevation the wand-maker had given him. However the old man did not give him a moments respite and ploughed on.
"But now, to find you a new wand. If I remember correctly, it took us quite some time to find you a wand the last time you were here, so perhaps, perhaps this might be better." He led Harry into the backroom of the shop, which was simply furnished, just a table stopped the room from being empty. On that table however were two rows of boxes, Ollivander went across the table opening each box with great care, speaking to Harry as he did so.
"I am going to make you a custom wand, simply place your hand above each type of wood and each core, and bring me the ones you feel the greatest connection to." With that he stepped back from the table, allowing Harry to go forward and try. Harry ran his hand over the first wood, pine, but felt nothing. He felt nothing with the next wood, acacia, nor the third. However, with the fourth, seventh and tenth woods, he felt a great connection unmatched by any others. He felt and equally strong connection with each and as such brought them all to Ollivander. The old man's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing, instead gesturing for Harry to find a core for his wand. Again, it took a while for Harry to find the right core, and he only found one that fit with him, but the rush of energy he felt when he connected with it was far greater than he had ever felt with his old wand, or when trying the different types of wood. Wordlessly, he set the core down in front of Ollivander whose eyebrows rose even higher on his face.
"This will be quite a wand. First the woods. It it rare enough that someone has a wand with two woods, let alone three. Yew, for power and might, Redwood, the tallest tree in the world for your seemingly unlimited potential but Royal Oak, to keep you stable and grounded. But the core, I have never seen or heard of a wand with a core of Nundu Heartstring. Oh yes Mr Potter, once it is created, this may be the most powerful wand I have ever seen..." The old man had drifted off, seemingly lost in his reverie, before snapping back to reality. "It will take an hour to forge this wand, if you have anything else to in Diagon Alley, I recommend you do it now." Amazed at the power of his wand, Harry stepped out of the dusty shop, resolving to find Hagrid. Luckily, due to Hagrid's size, it was rather easy to find him and he caught up with the half-giant with relative ease. Tapping him on the shoulder, Harry launched into his explanation to allay Hagrid's questions. He watched as, throughout his tale, Hagrid's expression changed from fear to shock to thoughtfulness.
"That wand sounds brilliant, but if your core is grey that might bring a few problems. Primarily, you're now technically separate, and in opposition to both Dumbledore and You-Know-Who, because they're the leaders of the Light and the Dark. And as much as we dislike Dumbledore, he's smart and powerful, if he says You-Know-Who isn't dead, he probably isn't - and he'll probably be coming for you." Harry shook his head, he was starting to regret this trip, his mind had been blown more times than he could count. Resolving to deal with it properly some time in the future, he simply entered the tent shop, which he and Hagrid had ended up outside of when they were talking. Buying the tent was a simple process, due to his Potter, Peverell and Black inheritances he was rich enough to live comfortably for the rest of his lifetime. He bought a fairly big, comfortable tent that looked plain and small on the outside, taking up not much space. On the interior however, Harry would be able to live comfortably with ease. It contained four rooms, the large main room equipped with sofas and a table, a separate kitchen and a bedroom with two beds and an en-suite bathroom attached. Despite the ease at which Harry had paid for the tent, it had taken him quite a while to find a tent that he liked, and one that had warding he deemed appropriate. The wards around the tent were nothing spectacular, but they were enough to ensure no-one would be able to get in unless he allowed them to. Upon receiving the tent, the first thing he did was to key Hagrid into the wards. But this process had taken quite some time, and when the pair stepped out of the shop, they were able to immediately go back to Ollivander's. As soon as they entered, the old man's eyes snapped to them and he spoke in a tone of great reverence.
"It is done, and what a fine wand it is. There is no charge Mr Potter, the joy I felt at crafting such a wand more than makes up for it, my only request is that you do great things with it."
Thanking Ollivander, Harry stepped forward and without another word he seized the wand, seized his wand. The rush of power that flowed through him was more than anything he has felt in his life, more than anything he had ever felt with his old wand, more than what he had felt finding the woods for his wand, more that what he had felt finding the core for his wand. He handed it to Hagrid, but, to his surprise, Hagrid immediately recoiled, "Blimey, it burnt me!" The man yelled and dropped the wand. Ollivander bent down to tentatively examine the wand, poking and prodding it before standing back up and carefully handing it back to Harry.
"Ah," the old man said, "Your wand is very closely bonded to you Mr Potter and so it will rather violently reject the touch of others, unless they handle it very carefully. It will also not perform spells for anyone else unless you give them permission." Grinning, Harry looked up at Hagrid who glared back at him playfully. Thanking Ollivander once more, the pair departed, heading towards the Leaky Cauldron where they both flooed back to Hogwarts.

A/N: Wow, longest chapter so far! Also, over 500 reads! Insane! Thank you all so much for the recent comments and chapters.
I'm in my GCSE year (age 15) and so I've got a bunch of work to do so updates may come a bit less frequently, sorry about that. But hopefully I'll still be able to do at least one chapter per week.
Signing off for now...