16

XXXI. Impression

If you have a public persona and plan on showing that face to the public, it is a good idea to get it out early. Showing your strength and majesty off to people, especially early on in their lives, will create impressions that last- whether as a somewhat benevolent figure, or as a shadow that looms over the whole of their adult life. Seizing control of a government should also allow you access to the schools- edit the curriculum to your heart's content. The intended purpose of schools is to create a productive, functioning member of society- you just need to realign the school, to make it produce members of your society.

When Harry received McGonagall's letter, his response was yes. It sounded like fun, he would admit, and if he taught those kids some skills that saved their lives someday that would be awesome.

Admittedly, some part of him wanted to showboat a little, especially with his staff. He wondered if there would be a rise in popularity for staves if he put on a good show… He had to wonder if any other people even made them.

For rather obvious reasons, Harry couldn't just floo to Hogwarts, but he could Apparate pretty far these days… so he popped up in front of the gate to Hogwarts after several jumps, where McGonagall waited for him.

She smiled warmly. "Harry- it's good to see you. Did you really need to wear those muggle clothes?"

"I'm not attending Hogwarts anymore, I don't need to wear the uniform." Harry defended himself.

As they walked towards Hogwarts, Harry interviewed her about the process of becoming an Animagus. Harry decided that mentioning his plans to possibly alter his state of mind or induce an emotional response to hopefully change or influence his Animagus form was not really a wise idea.

The duel was a bit unusual in that it was taking place outside- it wasn't the typical form for this sort of thing, but McGonagall didn't want to repair the building should Harry and Flitwick go a little too crazy, they were left with the outdoors.

A broad area by the lake was set aside as the arena for this duel, and both the students and staff made sounds of amazement when Harry pulled out his own staff. (An informal club dedicated to acquiring and using staves was formed before the day was up.)

Flitwick grinned. "It's been a long time since I've dueled a staff user- the Expanded Buda ruleset, then?"

"I'm not familiar." Harry said.

"Let's just not kill each other then- fight to incapacitation or surrender?"

"Sounds good." They both bowed- Harry could definitely respect Flitwick- and then drew, waiting for a single, stretched moment before going on the attack.

Flitwick opened with a charm that glowed a brilliant purple, one that Harry dodged out of the way for before using one of his new favorites: "Serpensortia!"

The snake that burst from the staff was bigger than the sort you'd get using a typical wand… and Harry made it a lot bigger with a quickly applied a growing charm- one that made the snake nearly as wide as Flitwick was tall.

"Constrict him, but don't kill him!" Harry cried as he ducked out the way of a gout of fire, before going on the offensive, hoping to keep Flitwick busy while the snake slithered at him.

Unfortunately, Flitwick held his ground against the buffeting wind Harry sent his way, responding to the oversized snake with a featherweight charm then a repelling charm in rapid succession, sending the unfortunate creature flying into the lake.

It swam with shocking grace for a beast its size and seemed quite willing to get back into the fight, but it would take a moment, leaving Harry and Flitwick to exchange spells.

The sheer unwieldiness of the staff made his usual standby spells a lot harder to aim, so Harry got creative. Perhaps raising water from the lake and sending it at Flitwick like bullets was a little wasteful, energy wise, but it was fun!

Harry dodged and weaved with surprising agility for someone carrying a staff that was as tall as he was, lifting up walls of dirt or stone whenever any spell got too close to comfort- and Flitwick had remarkable aim. Thankfully, Harry had managed to avoid any spells that would have debilitated him immediately- Jelly Legs or the like- although it was hard to tell given how many were cast wordlessly.

The crowd gazed in amazement as the weather picked up along with the duel- the sky growing cloudy and the wind growing intense. The rain was shockingly focused, though, landing around Flitwick in sheets so thick that the ground turned into a muddy slog, while Harry danced over stiff, dry soil less than a dozen meters away. Some students were almost worried that if the wind got too strong Flitwick would be blown clear out of bounds- ending the duel early.

With a spin of his staff, Harry filled the ground between them with rocky outcroppings and spurs of earth. Obstacles that Flitwick had a harder time seeing over, allowing Harry to duck behind one with ease… before approaching Flitwick in the form of a snarling puma.

If the crowd was amazed before, they were stunned now- and even Flitwick seemed surprised. He recovered quickly, but when facing a puma those few moments of distraction let Harry cover ground incredibly quickly, charging with terrible white fangs…

Flitwick aimed a stunner at the beast's head, hoping to catch Harry, before Potter smoothly transformed back into human form, the stunner missing- before Flitwick felt the rough woof of a staff bump into his forehead.

"Do you surrender?" Harry asked, feeling more than a little proud of him.

Flitwick sighed. "I do, but…" he jammed his wand into Harry's stomach and fired off a wordless stinging hex.

"Merlin! What was that for?"

"Show me the decency of stunning me next time, will you? A good showing, but a bit of a sloppy finish." Harry had the decency to flush a little, at least.

It was around then that Harry realized everyone was clapping. Several students were already weighing the value of keeping such an amazing duel in their own memories… or selling the Pensieve memory.

Harry stayed on the grounds after the duel had drawn to a close, both out of nostalgia… and to look into some things. It wasn't like McGonagall would deny him a look around the library and the Forbidden Forest after the show he put on.

Oh, and there was the matter of getting some food as well- he figured he'd just grab some in the Great Hall. So he walked in, intent on taking a seat with the Gryffindors, when someone called his name.

"Harry! Over here!" Turning, Harry saw the smiling face of Astoria Greengrass. Well, how could he refuse? Sure, it meant sitting with the Slytherins, but it wasn't like there was some ironclad rule that alumni needed to sit with their old houses- at least not one that Harry knew of.

"I don't think this counts as you treating me." Harry remarked.

"Of course not- we're going to muggle London, and we're going to get…" she stopped talking for a moment. "What sorts of food do you have there?"

"A lot- I'm sure you could find something you'd fancy." Harry said- while the Dursleys hadn't exactly been the greatest when it came to introducing him to the wonderful world of muggle foodstuffs, he did get the chance to try all sorts of stuff while escorting the vampires around- not to mention international cuisine.

They ate in relatively silence for a few moments- letting Harry realize just how many people were muttering and sending quick glimpses their way. Wonderful.

"It seems like we're the center of attention."

"Do you think I care?" She laughed. "Let them stare." (She was putting on a bit of a front, admittedly- she found the attention a little shocking, but figured that it was part and parcel when it came to sticking around Harry Potter. And a few people gawking wouldn't stop here from doing that.)

"Well, I've got some business in the castle- would you like to come along?" She shot to her feet before he had finished asking.

The library was quite similar to how Harry had remembered it, even though Harry was suddenly a lot more excited at the prospect of exploring the place now than he once was.

Going into the Forbidden Section of the library with permission was honestly a touch underwhelming. It just wasn't the same when there wasn't the risk of getting busted- knowing he had similar magic back home probably made it feel a bit less exotic, too.

Astoria wasn't allowed to go into the Forbidden Section, but she was perusing the normal section, looking for anything interesting. Both she and Harry were making very liberal use of the Gemino charm- the copies were sort of impermanent, tending to rot away more quickly, but that didn't matter since Harry had presses now. He could make a bona fide copy- or several, even. It would certainly help to fill any gaps in his library.

Astoria came up to him with a broad smile and an armful of books. "Is there anything else you need while you're here?"

"Well, there is something else I'd like to check out…"

Astoria had heard rumors about the Room of Requirement as early as her third year, when Harry started that little DADA club… The Greengrass family was "good enough" for Voldemort and his cronies, as long as you were willing to swallow your pride and tow the line, so she never had to take shelter in the Room of Requirement.

But Harry knew it like the back of his hand. Admittedly, Astoria wasn't entirely sure what to expect when the door opened- somewhere nice and quiet and isolated, maybe?

The room was quiet, although she wouldn't say it was nice. It looked like a wreck, the walls and floors covered in thick layers of ash and soot that stuck to her robes and boots, not to mention the char and burn marks stretching up to the ceiling of the room.

"What happened here?"

"Fiendfyre happened." Harry answered.

"How would you kno- ooooh." Astoria said. Fiendfyre, in an enclosed space? How was he alive? Well, he probably got that a lot.

"Yeah. Not fun." Harry sighed. "It's a shame, though- this room used to hold so much incredible stuff. You might have found the Half Blood Prince's potion book useful, actually…"

"The who?"

Harry chuckled. "Right… Snape. It was Snape's old potions textbook, back when he was a student."

"Really?"

"Yep- it took me a while to connect the dots though. I dumped it here after…" Harry gulped. "Well, do you remember that time Draco got that big cut across his chest?"

Astoria froze. "That was you?"

"I didn't know the spell would do that- plus, it was Snape who invented it!"

"You just used a random spell written in the margins of a textbook?"

"It wasn't my finest moment, I will admit- but I killed a vampire with that spell, you know."

"You killed a vampire?" Astoria squawked. "But you had all those vampires-"

"They were all servants of the vampire I killed- and he kept them locked in a castle for centuries."

"Centuries!?"

"Yeah- but we're getting off topic. I need to take some measurements…" He pulled out his staff and began to take note of the size of the room. You needed this sort of information for setting up rune arrays, after all.

"Oh, and make sure to wipe off any ash on you. Like, all of it."

"Why?"

"You might have some Crabbe on you." Mainly, it was because Harry didn't want so much as an ounce of the room's contents to leave it- potentially screwing with some notoriously temperamental magic, but a respect for the dead played a part.

Astoria's face paled and she immediately began wiping any and all ashes off her clothes. "Merlin!"

Before Harry stepped foot in the Forbidden Forest, he talked with Hagrid, reassuring him that his creatures were ok- and inquiring into the acromantulas.

Of course, Harry knew giant spiders weren't exactly everyone's cup of tea, but he hoped that the island (and the non insignificant cave network dug out below it) would provide enough space to keep arachnophobes far away from their fear. If they could manage that, then there were a number of interesting things they might be able to get: they could sell the venom for profit, he guessed, but there was also the silk.

They needed a lot of things to be independent economically- like domestic fabric production, if they wanted to make their own clothes. He was sure everyone would look absolutely fetching in silk, if they could get reasonable amounts… but they were fairly big spiders.

So he pulled out his staff and ventured towards the acromantula colony. Of course, he didn't come ill prepared: he had brought one of the treasures of Britain- the food multiplying basket- and some meat from the Hogwarts kitchens. Coming to them empty handed would just be stupid, after all.

The main area or nest wasn't really what it used to be, and neither were the numbers of the colony. During the battle of Hogwarts, acromantulas fought (and were killed) by both sides. Without Aragog, they were wild cards, but they were intelligent, so Harry hoped he could bait some over to his island.

Harry felt a bit of revulsion when he first saw one- no fear, not really, but a bit of awe at the sheer size of the thing- how many woodland creatures did these things kill each day to sustain themselves? Anyways, it stared at him with a sort of questioning look, maybe wondering if Harry was edible.

"Hey there…" Harry said, before tossing a piece of lamb flank at the spider. "How'd you like more where that came from?"

Admittedly, Harry wasn't very skilled at reading the facial expressions of spiders, but it seemed kind of interested in what Harry was saying.

"I've got an island- if you could move there and make us webbing, you can get all the food you want. For you and your spider friends." The spider stared at Harry rather intensely, with all eight of its eyes, before skittering off into the forest.

Did it believe it was too good to be true? Or was it actually a worse deal than Harry thought it would be? If only it had talked- and he was fairly certain they could talk- he might have gotten an opinion. Before Harry could start searching for another spider to start talking to, a decently sized group of them burst from the bushes- Harry almost set them all on fire before realizing they were being led by the same spider Harry had seen before. Wonderful!

There were probably enough spiders for there to be at least one breeding pair among their number, and that hopefully meant a sustainable population as long as Harry could keep them fed. Maybe he should look into normal cattle or livestock? Did spiders eat fish?

Hell, maybe it was possible that he could fortify the population- and prevent inbreeding, if such a thing really impacted magical creatures- with some wild or near wild ones gathered from Borneo or thereabouts. If he was remembering his Care of Magical Creatures correctly, it was where they came from…

Unfortunately, Harry couldn't just take the spiders straight to the island from inside the Forbidden Forest- meaning he had to walk them out of the Hogwarts wards before he could get them home. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a few people were still keeping their eyes open for Harry Potter, hoping to spot him and whatever business he was doing in the forest. They spotted Harry- leading a small herd of acromantulas.

Admittedly, Harry wasn't entirely sure of how to properly test the limits and catches of becoming an Animagus, as he only had the one shot. You couldn't exactly do anything approaching testing when every person was different and it wasn't really repeatable.

It turned out that there were very few people outside of Harry on the island who were actually compatible with the process. For rather obvious reasons werewolves, Veela, and Agathe the Selkie already had animal (or animal adjacent forms) they could transform into. He was sorely tempted to try, but didn't want them to get hurt. Obviously, Teddy was out and Andromeda didn't want to be high on mandrake leaf or transformed into a state where she couldn't mother Teddy.

So that meant it was just Harry. Well, he had support from just about everyone on the island, but the actual process of becoming an Animagus would just be him. He could get help with preparing the potion (not like it was immensely complex) but the actual process would be his alone. He tried to keep track of it- if anyone else had ever undergone the same process as Harry did, he had never heard of it. Breaking new ground and whatnot.

It turned out that his Nahual puma form did have some unexpected effects on the process of becoming an Animagus. He wasn't entirely sure if Animagus were supposed to have cryptic dreams about being wildlife, but he figured that the puma doggedly chasing him whenever he visited dreamland was probably a little unusual.

And maybe that helped define his form. Even if it was a dream, Harry had no interest in being on the receiving end of the mauling by a puma process, and so he fled. Where to and how varied- at the beginning he did all sorts of things: climbing trees, hiding in small holes, swimming up or downstream… but the one he liked the most and the one that provided the greatest feeling of security was flight.

Flying above the puma that haunted his dreams was immensely gratifying, and he imagined the feeling of real flight would only be better.

XXXII. Perspective

Unless you're some real nut job who plans on destroying the world, you need to look far ahead while planning and generally keep things in perspective. This is a general tip for wherever your villainous pursuits might take you- look at whatever issues you face from every angle you can, and consider how whatever solutions you come up with will impact the world, both in the long and short terms. Going absolutely ham on the murder of something might feel good and really reduce the enemy's numbers- but it makes devoted enemies, and weakens your future state. Of course, every dead enemy is one that will never join a resistance to your regime. Putting even the smallest amount of thought into how your actions will affect others in the long term, how the ripples will spread… It's critical.

Singapore was a cultural crossroads, and tacking down a single national identity would be rather tricky- people influenced by European culture, Malay culture, and Chinese culture all lived together in one city state, in one of the densest population centers on the planet.

This led to a minor problem straight off the bat- where exactly was he going to put his ship? He supposed that he could have just used some magic to convince port officials to let him park his boat normally… but why go through such an indelicate process when he could just park his ship outside the port and keep the weather calm, so there was no need for a harbor in the first place?

Still, after Harry had arranged an appropriate mooring for his ship, he did look at what other ships had made their way to Singapore. There were the typical cargo ships, being unloaded by great cranes, but Harry's eye was drawn to a ship quite like the others- one that might have fit in the harbor some two hundred years ago, painted in black and white… the Belle Epoque. On the bright side, since Harry wasn't searching for any particular treasure in Singapore he couldn't be beaten to it by Jean Paul.

There was the typical touristy stuff to do, of course: botanical gardens and a zoo, which was alright, if a little lackluster compared to some of the magical creatures that Harry had seen.

The amount of architectural disparity between the colonial and Chinatown portions of the city was also quite interesting.

Of course, this population density and diversity was also reflected on the magical side of things- Harry was surprised to find some wizards that looked like they could have been from home, walking next to ones in more Chinese or Indonesian looking garb. If he thought the magical community and marketplaces in Macau were cosmopolitan, the ones in Singapore were incredible.

Finding books in the Queen's English was some relief, although they were frequently found next to books in Chinese or Malayan- there were other languages too, ones Harry could begin to guess, like Arabic, and ones that he couldn't (unbeknownst to him, Thai). Apothecary felt like the wrong word for the tremendous size of the ingredients market in Singapore- it felt like there must have been hundreds of sellers hawking their goods in a curious dialect of English with heavy influence from the many other cultures of Singapore. Fittingly enough, it was called Singlish.

At this point, Harry was starting to get a few passing references to the broad umbrella category of creatures known as djinn- although his western ears would have probably known it better as a genie. They had apparently come alongside Islam- with no small number being actual believers- although there seemed to be some debate on whether or not getting your power from djinn was 'black magic' as opposed to a gift of magic from God.

Harry wasn't entirely sure himself- Hogwarts certainly didn't offer any theology classes, but it did seem that opinions on magic were a mixed bag, with some people genuinely considering it a divine gift. Of course, Harry figured those sorts of questions would get a lot more pressing if magic was ever revealed to be a real thing and not just a subject of fiction…

Honestly, Harry wasn't really sure if he believed in some overarching concept like destiny- sure, he was the subject of a prophecy, but that prophecy only played itself out because Voldemort bought into it… but would the prophecy have somehow adjusted itself if Voldemort wasn't destined to hear it, or if Snape had misheard it?

To put it quite simply, Harry didn't want to waste time pondering that sort of metaphysical stuff- although it sometimes felt like the world was dealing from a stacked deck. Maybe he was destined to meet some people, maybe he wasn't- but pondering that didn't change the fact that he ran into Jean Paul while investigating a store that sold magic carpets (Harry already had his, but he wanted to know if there were different varieties).

Jean Paul didn't look too different from the last time Harry saw him- at least, as far as Harry could tell from the current angle-, other than the sword that now sat at his hip- one that seemed to gently rattle in its sheath as Harry approached. That wouldn't be unusual if Jean Paul was walking, but he was standing perfectly still, on stable ground… leading Harry to believe there was something up with the sword.

"Is your sword supposed to do that?" Harry asked.

He spun around at speed, clumsily drawing his sword- which began to jerk and buck in his hands like it was trying to work its way free. Harry took a step back to avoid the sword- and it was definitely an odd one, with a curved blade. It definitely seemed sharp, and the metal had a certain mottled look to it, almost like flowing water.

After a second Jean Paul lowered his blade slightly, before beginning the process of fighting it back inside its sheathe. "Potter. It is supposed to do that, actually- many of the kris swords of Indonesia are said to hold spirits, who would compel the blades to move."

"Have you considered a tamer spirit?" Harry suggested.

"I would never!" He replied. "This was a gift I received for reuniting a Javenese family with a lost heirloom of theirs." He seemed more than a little proud of it, and Harry couldn't really fault him- it was a pretty neat sword, and he could almost understand wanting to grasp on tightly to a token of affection.

"I thought you would have been further along than just Singapore by now." Harry mused.

He puffed up a little. "I was busy investigating rumors of Yamashita's treasure in the Philippines."

"Did you actually find anything?"

"Of course- who do you think I am?"

Harry almost considered indulging him by answering 'the Baron of Ys,' but decided against it. He pretended to be interested in one of the magic carpets in front of him- a family sized one with room for up to a dozen. "Are you thinking of buying one?"

"Maybe- they seem a bit like the chasse-galerie back home- I suppose something to fly inland on would be pretty useful…"

Harry responded with a few anecdotes from his trip to China and the usefulness of flying carpets and eventually Jean folded, choosing a painfully small one. Harry had to wonder how big Yamashita's treasure really was if the man felt the need to be so frugal…

Harry's next destination was India, although it was possible that was, in some ways, similar to the slight underestimation of China's size he had engaged in recently. India was massive- not quite as large as China, but nearly as populous- and Harry imagined that he might come by to see it again in the future.

He figured that a good place to start would be the Ganges- even he knew of the cultural significance of that particular river, and he figured they could park the boat at the river's mouth, letting Harry work his way upstream.

He had time to take a few brief trips inland before he needed to return to the island- he wanted to do his transformation there instead of some random place in India, just in case something went wrong. Or, he supposed, it was perfectly possible that he could also go to some place in Bangladesh, considering that it controlled the land where the Ganges finally met the sea.

Harry did spend a bit of time romping around in puma form there, but tried his hardest to keep from attacking any humans or any animals- they weren't exactly in great conditions for continued survival already, considering all the human settlements nearby, they didn't need Harry exacerbating the problem. Still, Harry decided to look into any possible magical methods of preventing the extinction of creatures- Harry wasn't the biggest environmentalist, but saving a species from extinction sounded like an interesting side pursuit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, being a Nagual and working towards being an Animagus gave him a greater appreciation for animals- and how they tasted.

Margaret was more than a little worried- she knew Harry was a powerful and fairly intelligent wizard, but she still fretted. Why he couldn't just settle for a suitably impressive puma form, she wasn't entirely sure… but she was here to help, even if she thought it wasn't the greatest idea. Still, everything had been going just according to plan so far.

They were on the highest, currently incomplete floor of the castle, and the storm that Harry had whipped up just for this purpose was sending down heavy rain. Of course, that didn't really matter, given that she had magic, but she would have suffered it anyways just to make sure that Harry was alright.

As she watched, he began to shrink, his body growing smaller and smaller as his hair seemed to thicken at first, before they sprouted delicate little vanes, which formed the feathers. The mess of hair turned into slightly disheveled feathers- including a rather distinctive messy crest on the top of the head. The arms, of course, became delicate wings, the feet transforming into claws.

Margaret had made no great effort to study birds, but even she could recognize a crow. As Harry hopped around, still getting used to his new form, Margaret approached and held out her cupped hands. After a moment of hesitation, Harry climbed into the palms of her hands, taking a moment or two to settle.

Admittedly, if she was in Harry's position Margaret figured she would have spent no small amount of time flying, but she certainly wasn't going to complain if the good master decided to grace her with his presence… even if it was in the form of a bird. They would need to reintroduce everyone to Harry, just so no one did anything stupid.

A bit of research- and some close peering at a few books on birdwatching- led to the conclusion that Harry's new form was the humble fish crow. Not exactly the most intimidating of birds, but it could fly and that was basically enough for Harry- circling the tower, weaving through the courtyards and arches without a broom, or a single care.

One minor bright side of Harry's new form was an increased fondness for seafood- while the Yuki Onna and their Japanese cooking made seafood a little more tolerable and less repetitive, a decent part of his being basically being devoted to devouring fish and smaller sea creatures changed his dietary preferences. He had also grown worryingly fond of taking his fish raw…

The thing that interested Harry the most- and what he poured a large amount of time into practicing- was transforming from puma form into crow form. It was slow at first, but Harry found the idea so cool that he couldn't help but practice until he got it down to an art.

Suffice it to say that Harry grew very fond of a terrifying dueling trick involving transforming into a bird, diving, and then shifting to puma form moments before landing.