[Two Weeks Later]
In these two weeks, Harry had become a changed man.
Gone was the boy who used to cower in fear and anxiety.
He had been replaced by a man of determination and confidence and most importantly, a man of power.
The first and most important task Harry had undertaken was to delve into Cadmus’s memories regarding the working and principles of the Resurrection Stone.
He had harbored a desperate hope that he could finally communicate with his parents, that he could feel their love, if only for a moment, but his hopes had been ultimately for naught.
It was not that the Resurrection Stone lacked the power to summon the dead, but rather that the process was far from peaceful for the soul.
Harry did not need to perform any in-depth research to understand why.
Cadmus had left a clear, haunting warning within his memories.
He had informed Harry that summoning a soul was an act of profound selfishness.
Those who have crossed the veil have found peace, and dragging them back into the mortal coil was a painful, agonizing process.
Though it remained a theory, as no living being truly knew what awaited beyond death, Harry chose to believe it.
He ultimately concluded that calling his parents back was a burden he could not, in good conscience, place upon them.
No matter how deeply his heart ached for them, he let the desire go.
Even if it was a mere possibility, he was not willing to take the risk.
And his instinct was also telling him to do this only.
The second thing Harry did was organize his mindscape.
Throughout these two weeks, he had continuously absorbed the memories of the three brothers and the fragments of Voldemort’s memories.
Through this process, he had also mastered the foundation of the magical arts of Occlumency and Legilimency.
His mindscape was now unrecognizable.
Harry entered his mind, projecting his consciousness in his mindscape, and he was greeted by the sight of humongous, snow-capped mountains and lush, ancient forests that seemed to stretch into infinity.
The area had nearly doubled in size since he first saw it, and the landscape now possessed a vibrant, almost living, terrifyingly real quality.
He also noticed that the blue fog, the visual representation of his magic, was far denser and more luminous than before, floating and roaming through the valleys like a physical presence.
Harry concluded that this expansion was a direct result of absorbing the vast knowledge and experiences of the Peverell brothers and Voldemort.
He also realized that he had not just inherited their memories.
He had also integrated a portion of their magical potential, causing his own power to surge toward heights he was only beginning to understand and comprehend. Enjoying the story? Read on at NovelPing.
With a blink of his thought, Harry arrived in the same gorge where the Peverell brothers had once trapped Voldemort.
During his practice and experiments in his mindscape, he had discovered that the brothers were right.
He could do anything here and that meant literally anything, including instantaneous teleportation.
Standing exactly where the stone hut had once been, there now stood a gigantic castle built in a stark, medieval style.
This fortress was the core of Harry’s mindscape, the vault, the locker, that housed all his memories.
The castle was laced with large scale defensive measures, including an army of mythic creatures.
Fire-breathing dragons, swarms of Acromantulas, basilisks, Nundus, and Chimeras were the least of a trespasser’s worries if they actually managed to reach the castle gates.
Such was the fortitude and power of Harry’s mental shields.
The surrounding mountains were acting as a massive outer shield, and they, too, were laced with unimaginative and lethal traps.
While creating these defenses, Harry had pondered whether anyone could simply manifest whatever they imagined.
Just like he was able to do?
The dragons and the basilisks?
Theoretically, the answer was yes, but in reality, it was a firm no.
Every mind had a limit.
Beyond a certain point, a wizard’s mindscape and magic would buckle under the stress of such complex imagery and crumble.
For an average wizard, their entire mindscape was smaller than even one of the creatures Harry had created.
They simply did not have the space or the power to sustain such feats.
A mindscape is a reflection of the magic sustaining it, and Harry now understood that his limit was insanely high, especially after absorbing the memories and magical imprints of four of history’s most powerful wizards.
Practically speaking, Harry could achieve anything within his mind, provided he had the imagination to conceive it.
The next thing Harry discovered was the true nature of his connection with the Deathly Hallows.
He realized that he did not just own them.
In fact, they had become a part of his very being.
For instance, he had no physical need to draw the Elder Wand to cast spells.
He could perform magic wandlessly with a mere thought, the power of the legendary wand flowing through him as easily as breathing.
This was a monumental boon.
To Harry’s relief, his original Holly wand was also responding perfectly, serving as the ideal wand for public use.
The same applied to the Invisibility Cloak.
He no longer needed to physically drape the fabric over his shoulders.
With a simple mental thought, he could turn invisible, his presence deleted from the world.
However, amidst this newfound power, a cold worry had settled in his chest.
His friends.
With the recent revelations regarding Dumbledore’s manipulations, he was no longer certain who he could trust.
And the person about whom he was concerned the most was Ron Weasley.
Harry had known from the beginning that Ron could be jealous and narrow-minded, yet he had cherished their friendship for three years.
After all, Ron was his first friend.
But now, doubt had begun to fester in his mind.
He wondered if the Weasley family were merely pawns in Dumbledore’s plans.
He was now certain that his chance meeting with them during his first trip to Hogwarts was no coincidence.
What reason would an old, pure-blooded magical family have to use the Muggle side of the station?
And why would Molly Weasley, who had attended Hogwarts herself and already sent five older sons through that gate, be shouting about the location of Platform 93/4?
It was a blatant breach of the International Statute of Secrecy.
It made no sense for Ginny to be asking about the platform number when her mother herself had made the trip dozens of times.
Harry’s only question now was whether the Weasleys were willing participants in Dumbledore’s plotting, or if they were being manipulated by the old man just as he had been.
And if it was the former, he had to determine who among the family were the perpetrators and who were merely innocent pawns.
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