Harry portkeyed to the the Chamber of secrets having decided to get a hang of the sensation so that he won't make a fool of himself. He had decided to show his wands to Salazar and Helga before sleeping. He landed on his butt this time in the outer study. 'Atleast I didn't end sprawled up on the floor' He thought.
"Salazar! Helga! I got my new wands." He said after the wall slid open. "That's wonderful dear, what is it made of? And wait. Did you say wands, as in plural?"
Harry quickly told them what had exactly happened at Ollivanders and told them about his new wands. On hearing about it, Salazar let out a low whistle "That is indeed an impressive wand. I have never heard of a wand with a liquid core material, let alone phoenix tears. I won't claim to be studied in the subject of wand-lore. But as far as I know it is impressive. Morgana had a yew, chimera heartstring wand. Myrddin, while in school had a white ash, Griffin and phoenix feather wand and later fashioned himself a staff."
"The fact that you are overpowering spells would need some work on." Helga added. "But don't worry, you will get hang of it soon. We have decided to start training you from tomorrow."
'Okay. When should I come?" Harry enquired. "Do you get up early every day?" Salazar questioned. Harry nodded in affirmative and said, "at five thirty every day. It's a habit since I was six years old."
"Good. You will come here in the morning by quarter to six from tomorrow. Wear comfortable clothes in which you can move easily. We will let you go at half past seven. Then you will come back here after break fast at 8.30 and study till lunch, a house elf will bring you lunch. Then using a time turner, you will go back and attend classes. For the rest of the day, you may do your own study. This is enough for this year, and first quarter of the next year. Then we will start increasing the time afterwards. For now 6 hours is enough." Salazar said.
"And what will I be doing?" Harry questioned.
"In the morning, we shall start with exercise. One hour of exercise and rest of the time for spell casting practice. After breakfast we will dedicate time to theory of magic, Potions, Runes, occlumency, arithmancy, Political knowledge, widening your spell arsenal, Herbology, History, Healing and so on. Two to three combination of subjects a day." Salazar said.
"That's a lot of subjects."
"You won't be doing a lot till the end of this month and coincidently this academic year atleast. We will concentrate on bringing you up to a proper level for an exemplary student for each school subject, occlumency and broadening your spell arsenal. In the summer we will start with Runes, Arithmancy, politics and continue with the rest of the subjects " Helga said. Harry had to admit it was a perfect plan. Harry was also glad that he would be able to do something in the summer than sitting on his arse and being bored out of his mind.
"How will I practice magic? I can't practice magic at my relatives. Even if I come here, there are no means by which I can go back." Harry asked
"You will portkey here in the morning, follow the same schedule, till lunch and then go back using a time turner and enjoy your summer. Summer is meant to be enjoyed not spent being trained. Technically you would be able to enjoy the full summer. As for the transport issue, you will portkey here and a house elf will pop you back."
"Nice. Now I need my beauty sleep. See you guys tomorrow." Harry said waving them goodbye.
The next day Harry arrived on time by portkey, as Salazar had asked, wearing comfortable clothes one could exercise in. This time he fell on his but again, but felt that the spinning sensation was much less than the first time. He opened the wall, and was greeted by Salazar. "Good, you are on time. I half expected you to be late."
Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance and said, "Well, I am sorry to say but one doesn't have all his or hers expectations fulfilled. And I am known to break expectations. Like I was expected to die due to the killing curse, I was expected to fail in my first quidditch match by most of the students, I was expected by Tom Riddle to die fighting the basilisk, but none of it happened! So if you expect me to fail, it is a fools expectation." Harry sassed.
"Of course I would receive a cheeky one. Now start the exercise." Salazar grumbled.
"Can you tell me why we are doing this? I wouldn't have expected you to make me learn muggle exercise."
"Harry, exercise keeps the body fit. It will help your magic to cope with your body. Also it will help you move faster in a duel. Most wizards and witches don't do exercise. So they become fat and slow." Helga explained.
"And what is muggle exercise? Exercise is exercise there is no muggle and magical in it. Now start running three laps around the chamber" Salazar told him and Harry obeyed.
After an hour Harry was sweating profusely and his muscles were aching. Salazar and Helga had made him do 2 sets of 10 pushup, 10 squats, 10 crunches, two minute of planks. It was not much in their opinion stating that once he got the hang of it, it will be very easy. Helga had then ordered an elf to bring him a glass of fruit juice and a banana. He ate and drank the things given, thankful for it.
" Now that you have had your 5 minute break, let's see your spell casting. Show me all the spells you know that can be used in combat." Helga said. Harry casted all the jinxes and hexes he knew, which were not much, due to his incompetent teachers in DADA.
"Is that all?" Salazar questioned. At Harry's nod, he continued, "Your arsenal is very limited, we need to work on teaching you more combat spells. There were no curses, neither a single shield. Your speed of casting was Pathetic! And you are saying the spells aloud and doing unnecessary wand movements ! Your only saving grace was that whatever you cast was cast perfectly, just overpowered. That's another thing we need to work on. Additionally most of your current arsenal is useless. Only expelliarmus, serpentosortia and petrificus totalus is something that I will use in a fight. Now do that again." Harry was feeling an odd sort of emotion. He knew that by no means was he a competent spell caster. It had only been two years since he had joined the Wizarding world and had incompetent teachers. But for Salazar to find a fault in everything was something he had not expected.
"Don't be upset Harry, Salazar isn't saying this to demean you. It is not your fault that you have had such useless teachers for DADA. But learning about your shortcomings, will help you improve. It's better that we find your faults and correct you rather than an enemy to find and exploit them. And I assure you that we will help you in every way possible." Helga told him gently. Harry nodded and got into stance again.
"Your legs are too wide, no, no now they are too narrow, Yes, yes a little more... Perfect. Now turn a little. Wand a bit higher..." Salazar started to perfect his stance for a duel. He explained that such a stance would reduce body area and make it easier to dodge.
"Now your stance is correct, show me the disarming hex."
Moving his wand in a semi circle motion he said "Expelliarmus". A perfect red light hit the pillar. "Loose the wand motion, it's not needed." Harry tried again without the wand motion. He was rewarded with the same light again. "Again" Helga said. They made him do it this way for half a dozen more times. "Excellent now don't speak the incantation aloud. Only in your mind."
'Expelliarmus' he thought. The spell was not as good as his previous attempts but it came out none the less. "Try again and focus. You lost some focus last time." Salazar said. Harry did as told and this time the light was as strong as usual.
" Very good. Repeat 15 times" after his fifth or so try it was feeling easier to do it. By his tenth try it was feeling natural. Harry tried to shoot faster for the last 5 spells. It took him three seconds to shoot them. He was so engrossed that he didn't see the two founders exchange a look.
"Okay, now put the wand away and try." Harry holstered his wand and pointed his hand at the pillar. 'expelliarmus' he thought. Nothing happened. He frowned and tried again. He closed his eyes and focused for a moment before thinking again 'EXPELLIARMUS' He was rewarded with a perfect disarming hex from his palm. He smiled and tried again, this time his two mentors didn't even need to prompt. He practiced it 15 times till he was sure he could do it anytime now. It was not as potent as it was with his wand but it would be effective nevertheless.
"Now with your off hand" Helga said smiling. Harry obeyed. It was easier than the previous tries, and perfected it within 5 tries but did two more for assurance. He heard clapping. "Well done Harry" Helga said as Salazar gave him an approving nod.
" How much time do you have before you need to leave for breakfast?" Harry looked at his watch and replied that it was 7.08 and thus he had twenty minutes more.
"Good let's teach you A new spell known as the stunning spell. It's incantation is stupefy and doesn't need wand movements. It's jet is a crimson light. It knocks an opponent out for sometime, depending on the power put. It also has a counter, ennervate. It can be blocked with a simple protego. It is a spell widely used by aurors. " Salazar said. It took harry four tries to get the spell correct verbally. He then proceeded to repeat the procedure as he did with the disarming hex. Before breakfast he had perfected the stunner.
"Good. Remember this spell. It is extremely useful. Also I suggest you to buy a diary, to write these spells you learn in. Now after breakfast we will do occlumency and theory of magic today." Helga said. "Now go and have a healthy breakfast. Eating healthy food is important for your magic and body. Eat fruits and protein. I will recommend you to eat atleast one egg with it."
Harry nodded. He usually had bacon and eggs for breakfast or toasts and sometimes pancakes if he felt like it.
"After you come back we will start with theory of magic and occlumency. Now go have a good breakfast as Helga said. It is necessary for you to eat proper now as your magic will start maturing with your body in puberty." Salazar said.
Harry nodded and called for dobby.
"Dobby, please pop me back to my room after I wear my invisibility cloak." And he was off.
After breakfast Harry returned to the chamber by saying, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus"
It was certainly a long password, but who was he to argue over something done almost 2 millennia ago.
The rest of the time till lunch was spent in learning magical theory and occlumency. Harry realized that there was much more to magic, then just using spells, Runes and potions. Each had its own reason for use and its own advantages. For example if one wants to cheer a person, they could use a cheering charm, a happiness potion or make a runic array for the same purpose on an object.
Spells were the quickest way, potions would not need magic and runes would make the effect from the object permanent.
Also each branch of magic had a different fundamental. Charms required intent, transfiguration needed visualization and hexes, jinxes and curses depended on Arithmancy and thus incantation as their main aspects of casting.
Occlumency, at initial stage required clearing the mind of all thoughts. Once this was achieved, one would have to reorganize their thoughts by slipping into their subconscious. The next step was forming a shield like object around these thoughts. This shield would protect against intrusion. Whilst clearing the mind would stop Legilimency at surface thought, but won't protect against a proper probe. This was the maximum the majority would go in the study if Occlumency. After that came the making of a mind place. This took the longest to do. After that came adding defenses in the mind place and forming an additional mental shield. This was where the most determined people stopped. But there were two extra levels in the art. Levels due to which Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Voldemort were so great at magic and called master Occlumens. The mind arts were indeed the most powerful magic to be studied. The sixth step was finding the magical core. This actually was the stage where one to find and merge with their Animagus form, if one used the mind arts technique to become an Animagus that is. There was the other method of using a potion. It enabled one to find their form quickly, but it took a lot more time to master the changing of forms. The mind arts technique was the opposite. It took patience to find their form but the change would become instantaneous. Another advantage was that due to this method the person's senses increased to suit their animal form. Canines and Felines would get better eye sight and hearing, while perhaps a snake Animagus would be able to feel the motions.
The final step was connecting the magical core and the mind. It enabled the person to bend magic to their whims, literally. This step made Dumbledore, Voldemort, Grindelwald, Merlin, Morgana and the founders superior magic users, Titans of magic. Of course they were more powerful than other witches and wizards but there had been other witches and wizards who were as powerful as them in terms of raw power, but didn't measure up to their level simply because they could not bend magic like they did. Harry vowed to master that level as soon as possible. "Before my OWL exams I will be a master Occlumen." He said to himself. He would be great. He would make his parents proud. He would not disappoint his mother. He would surpass them all. And for that, his training had begun.