After the Christmas break ended, things got back to business as usual at Hogwarts as they resumed classes and started preparing for their end of year exams. Though they wouldn't take place until June.
One big difference Harry noted was that Daphne was actively going out her way to spend as much time around him as possible outside of class, further reinforcing his suspicion that her father instructed her to get close to him. This of course had the added effects of Hermione bristling with competitiveness whenever she was around, along with Tracey always accompanying her due to them being best friends.
Another change from the first term was that Harry had started exploring the Forbidden Forest more often, in his wolf form.
Every few days Harry would sneak out of the castle after curfew, and transform before roaming the forest as he pleased while slaying more spiders for their hearts. It was during these roams that Harry would familiarize himself with the boundaries of the forest, and the different creatures that lived within it.
Though the spiders roamed beyond their borders for food, they also had a clear territory based around a hollow that Harry discovered while exploring their turf. It was there that he encountered the largest of the spiders yet, ones the size of muggle vehicles, and from prior experience Harry suspected that there was an even larger spider that acted as the patriarch/matriarch of the entire colony.
Another group living within the forest were the centaurs, who readily chased the transformed Harry down and tried to shoot him with their bows the first time they encountered one another. Harry had to transform back to get them to stop, as well as to introduce himself, only to realize afterwards that he would have been better off just running away.
Harry quickly learned that the entitlement and pride of the centaurs were off the charts, possibly even rivaling that of the Altmer And Dunmer back on Tamriel. On top of that, nearly all of them took particular offense to anything that came out of his mouth, no matter what he said or how he meant it. The sole exception was the centaur calling himself Firenze, much to his tribe's irritation.
Aside from them, Harry also spent time learning about other magical creatures living in the forest like the unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs, bugbears, forest trolls, mooncalves and dugbogs. Aside from them, Harry also mentally mapped out the majority of the ponds, lakes, rivers, and even caves that could be found throughout the forest. And then he had an idea.
*Crash!*
"Blimey!" Hagrid exclaimed as he tested the power of the crossbow Harry made for him. One that was far larger than normal, made completely of dragon bone, and was loaded with steel crossbow bolts.
The power of the crossbow was enough that it drove the bolt completely through the tree hagrid had been aiming at. Additionally, it could also puncture the scales of a dragon if need be.
"If you think that's impressive, try one of these bolts." Harry suggested while passing a different quiver to the large man, except the bolts in that one glowed slightly with an orange light.
"Wha' does tha' one do?" Hagrid asked as he accepted the quiver, and loaded one of the new bolts.
"Just try it." Harry replied cryptically, even as hagrid took aim with the crossbow.
*Swish!*
*KABOOM!*
Hagrid jumped beside Harry as the bolt impacted the tree he was using for target practice, and exploded into flames.
"BLIMEY!" Hagrid shouted in alarm, even as his expression shifted to one of excitement as he realized the explosion wasn't going to spread.
"Right? That was an exploding fire bolt, which generates an explosion of fire every time they hit their mark. They're reusable, but be careful, as a strong enough impact could also trigger them." Harry cautioned him, even as he pulled out two more quivers.
"Wha' are they?" The massive man asked curiously, his excitement after the other exposing bolt barely contained.
"Exploding shock and ice bolts." Harry answered with a smirk, and Hagrid excitedly tried them as well.
A short while later saw Harry sitting in Hagrid's hut, enjoying some firewhiskey as well as Hagrid's homemade cakes. They were really tough, but Harry still enjoyed them.
After a while, the Boy-Who-Lived brought up something he had been curious about.
"So you manage all of the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest, right?" Harry asked him suddenly.
"Tha's righ'!" Hagrid beamed with pride, before regaling Harry with numerous tales of his relationship with the creatures who called the forest home. Not only was Hagrid capable of handling the larger and more dangerous beasts, but he was so well known and accepted by the other creatures that he could even help the unicorns that were infamous for despising men.
"Have you ever heard of a chaurus?" Harry asked probingly.
"Can' say tha' I have." Hagrid answered after a moment of thought.
"They're large insectoid creatures that typically live deep underground, or occasionally in swamps. Not only are they dangerous to fight, but they can also spit poison at their prey." Harry explained while pulling a book out of his bag, and flipping open to a previously marked page.
"Oh, she's a beaut!" Hagrid exclaimed as soon as he saw the drawing of a chaurus.
"There three types of her." Harry told him, adding to Hagrid's excitement.
"There is the basic chaurus, like the one you see in that picture. Then there is the chaurus reaper, a larger, stronger breed that typically rules over the others. And finally there is the chaurus hunter, the mature form of the creature after it has undergone chrysalis, similar to a caterpillar into a butterfly."
With each word Harry spoke, and each page he turned, Hagrid's excitement visibly grew until the massive man was trembling like a child. It was only then, that Harry pulled the next object out of his bag.
"One other thing to know about chaurus is that their eggs make good alchemy ingredients. I always keep a supply of them on hand, but chaurus don't live around here. I'll end up running out before long, unless we can figure out how to grow our own population."
Hagrid looked at the jar to see that it was filled with small black spheres covered in blue spots.
"Are those...?!"
"Chaurus eggs? Yes they are. And they're still alive." Harry answered, pushing the jar towards Hagrid. He then pulled out two others, both with different items in them. "I also have with me slaughterfish eggs, and frostbite spider eggs. Think we can try raising them as well?"
"Slaugh'erfish? Frostbi'e spider?" Hagrid asked, his eyes gleaming with interest as Harry turned the pages in the book to show them as well.
...
When Harry returned to the castle that night he felt good after entrusting some of his frostbite spider, chaurus and slaughterfish eggs to Hagrid to try and raise for more alchemical ingredients. Just like how he was working with professor Sprout to cultivate plants from Skyrim in a freshly built greenhouse.
Speaking of, they had seen quite a bit of success in that particular endeavor as plants of all kinds started growing inside it. Though there were a few others that remained stubborn, like the nirnroot.
Those weren't the only projects Harry was seeing progress on though.
"Finally..." Harry muttered as he leaned back to admire the cauldron filled with a distinctive silvery liquid, which swirled and shimmered like liquid clouds.
Picking the cauldron up, Harry carefully carried it to a stone basin that was the main body of the project he'd been working on. The Pensieve.
Harry had been crafting the Pensieve with meticulous care for the last several months, studying every single rune, inside and out, before carving it onto the stone basin. Carefully inlaying each and every precious gem onto it. And then finally brewing the potion that would fill it and house the memories Harry would place within.
With the utmost concentration and caution, Harry slowly began to pour the potion into the basin while making sure there was as little splashing as possible. He poured until every single last drop had fallen, filling the basin completely.
"And that's it...!" Harry said as he pulled the cauldron away, and admired the newly finished Pensieve.
Now that it was together, the potion issued a soft silvery glow that illuminated the corner of the trunk, while the gems that were inlaid shimmered lightly. And despite being completely still, the silvery liquid still swirled slowly within the basin, like clouds in the sky.
"Now to see if it works..." Harry muttered quietly, pulling out his wand and placing the tip against his own scalp.
"Memoria." Harry uttered quietly, his mind focusing on a specific memory that he wanted to use to test the Pensieve as he pulled the wand away from his head.
It almost felt like he was pulling a hair out of his scalp, which told Harry that the spell was working as a silvery-white tendril connected his wand and scalp, before finally breaking off at nearly a foot long. Harry then took the memory strand, and placed it within the liquid filling the basin.
"Here goes..." He said to prepare himself, before the Boy-Who-Lived readily lowered his face into the liquid.
Judging by what the book told him, Harry could assume that he did everything correctly as he found himself suddenly falling before landing on his feet in what looked to be a crowded courtyard, under a majestic tree.
"..."
Words escaped Harry as he took in the sight before him, two rows of seats that were filled to bursting, men and women from all over Skyrim dressed in their very best, and in front of them all, a man with pitch black hair tied back in a nordic braid, matched by his beard, standing beside a priest dressed in orange and yellow robes.
"This appears to be quite the affair." A voice suddenly said beside Harry, barely prompting him to turn his head towards the speaker as he simply took in the surroundings.
"It is a most special day." Harry told Albus, before adding, "And you have the most coincidental timing."
"Ah!" Albus exclaimed, before quickly pulling a book out from within his robes.
"My apologies, but our meeting at this moment was purely coincidental. I merely intended to return the book I borrowed from you previously, and found the Pensieve you had been working on completed. I do hope you'll forgive this old man's intrusion." Albus quickly explained, earning him a snort from Harry.
"Don't worry about it. I was only testing to make sure it worked." Harry replied, even as he approached the bearded man at the front of the gathering.
"If you don't mind my asking, what is it that we are witnessing?" Albus asked curiously, his eyes darting every which way like a child in a candy store as he got his first glimpse of a foreign world.
"This is Whiterun, the central most city in all of Skyrim, and one of the most prosperous because of it." Harry explained, before pointing out the layout of the city and certain landmarks throughout it.
"As for what we are witnessing..." Harry began, before the crowd around them suddenly went silent. At that moment, from the east of the tree they were standing under, a group of women appeared.
In the front of the procession was a group of young girls that were scattering flower petals everywhere, while several adult women followed them slowly in a circle. And at the center of that circle was a woman with brilliant red hair that was wearing a gown woven from white furs.
"This is my wedding." Harry finished, and Albus went wide-eyed as he looked between the woman, Aela, and the man standing beside the priest.
"Your wife is beautiful." He said simply, while Harry was still adjusting to watching his own wedding as a spectator.
"Yeah she is." Harry replied, and said nothing else as they watched Aela approach him and the priest of Mara beneath the tree, the Gildergleam. But when she passed them, Harry couldn't help but to tell Albus with a smile,
"She collected the furs for that gown herself you know. Our plan from the beginning was to have a spring wedding, when the Gildergleam was in bloom. So during the winter she set out to the north on her own for a few weeks, and hunted six snowy sabre cats and several arctic foxes to collect their fur before bringing them to the best tailors in all of Skyrim."
"Beautiful, AND dangerous." Albus commented with a voice of humor, making Harry smirk.
"Of course. She wasn't my she-wolf for nothing." Harry said with pride, before quieting as Aela finally arrived beside him and the priest.
"We are gathered here today to celebrate the union between the Dragonborn, Harold Wyrm-Tongue, and honored member of the Companions, Aela the Huntress. They first fought together to defeat the dreaded dragon that attacked the watchtower, and then set out from Whiterun together afterwards to make the journey to High Hrothgar to meet the Greybeards.
"From the highest peaks of the Throat of the World, to the deepest depths of Blackreach. From North to South, and East to West, these two have journeyed together as they cultivated through the toughest of trials and tribulations the deepest of connections. Love.
"It is from this love that we learn that a life lived alone is no life at all. We gather here today, under Mara's loving gaze, to bear witness to the union of these two souls in eternal companionship. May they journey forth together in this life and the next, in prosperity and poverty, and in joy and hardship. Do you agree to be bound together, in love, now and forever?"
"I do. Now and forever." Aela declared firmly as the priest turned towards her.
"Do you agree to be bound together, in love, now and forever?" He asked once more, turning towards Harry, or rather Harold, this time.
"I do. Now and forever." Harold replied firmly.
"Under the authority of Mara, the Divine of Love, I declare this couple to be wed. I present to the two of you with these matching rings, blessed by Mara's divine grace. May they protect each of you in your new life together!" The priest declared, presenting them both with plain golden bands, which Harold and Aela readily slid onto the other's finger before leaning in for a kiss that sealed the ceremony.
A cheer went up from the crowd as Harold and Aela were both officially wed, and the festivities began.
Harry and Albus watched as the calm of the wedding ceremony devolved into one massive feast and party as everyone celebrated his and Aela's union. Tables were covered with whole roasted cows, elk, and bears, while even giant slabs of mammoth meat were brought out for everyone to enjoy.
Massive kegs of ale and mead were rolled out from the Jarl's palace, before quickly being drained as the Nords drank themselves silly.
Tales a plenty flew from every direction as the Nords told stories of great battles they fought , opponents they faced, and perils that nearly did them in. And with each mug of ale that went down, the tales quickly grew wilder and more outrageous. Not that anyone seemed to mind.
At the center of attention was Harold and Aela, both of which did their fair share of feasting, drinking, and story telling. It was actually their stories that people listened to the most.
Meanwhile, unable to participate themselves, Harry was leading Albus around and explaining the various groups and people that were attending the wedding. There were even Jarl's from nearly every hold throughout Skyrim invited, despite the ongoing civil war.
"How did you manage to get them all to behave?" Albus asked curiously as Harry explained the two factions, along with who belonged to which.
"Firstly, weddings are sacred because they directly invoke Mara herself. And while I don't know about magical Britain, the gods of Tamriel are VERY real. No one would be stupid enough to directly spit in the face of a goddess by ruining a wedding of this scale. And secondly, I may have threatened to raze their respective holds to the ground if any of them DID try anything." Harry said with a shrug, earning himself a bemused look from the elderly man.
Soon, their time within the memory came to an end as they reached the end of the memory Harry pulled from his mind, and they were ejected from the Pensieve.
"That was a very wonderful memory, Harry." Albus said as they found themselves back in Harry's trunk.
"..."
"You want to see more, don't you?" Harry asked while shaking his head.
"May we?" Albus eagerly asked, looking every bit as excited as a child in a candy store.
"Fine... I was feeling a little homesick anyways." Harry relented, before deciding which memory he would draw out next.
In the end, Harry showed Albus High Hrothgar, the Dwemer city of Blackreach, the College of Winterhold, and finally Lakeview Manor.