Chapter 15 - Ancestral Potter lands

Harry and his 6 summons arrived at York after 2 hours of grueling ride in the knight bus. The fact that he was pleasantly stuck between Caitlyn and Xuanzang made the trip much more bearable than usual.

It was nearly 8pm, and they were still quite somedistance away from their destination. From York, they took 2 taxis to go to the nearby village, Armont. It was a 30 minutes ride. The village was at the foot of a mild mountainous area north of York. They left the village on foot and walked for an hour to reach the Potter lands. There were plenty of isolated farms around the village, and small groups of houses in between, so there was a main road that circled around the village.

They reached a sparsely wooded area, and had to leave that main road at some point to follow a dirt path wich disapeared in the woods. The 3 casters noticed there was a weak notice-me-not charm and a weak muggle-repelent charm tied to a ward in the area. Said ward was anchored to a large cut stone used as landmark. Muggle would know of the dirt path, but would care about it and have no interest in what lay beyond. They followed the dirt path, illuminated by Harry having used his rod for a lumos.

"We are at the edge of another boundary field" suddenly said Semimaris, with Scathach and Xuanzang nodding. "It's has the same function as the one at the crossroad, and it's damaged, barely holding on. It's also covering a wider area. We are very close."

They soon came in view of an old wall covered in plant growth, with a broken gate in the middle. Harry stoped at the sight of the entrance of his family lands. The place where his father and grandparents had lived. He felt a deep sense of loss seeing the neglected state of the place. He passed the gate in a slight daze, with the women following and keeping an eye on him. They could make out a vague structure ahead of them.

"Lumos maxima!"

The women g.r.o.a.n.e.d or hissed at the sudden blinding light in front of them, raising their arms and turning their faces away. But Harry didn't notice, even when Vi growled at him. His entire attention was on the charred remains of his family manor. The walls of the ground floor were still standing, mostly. But anything above was gone. The windows were empty blackened holes, and there was no door at the main entrance.

He realised it was the place where his grandparents were killed, and tears started to stream down his face. He dropped his trunk, slowly advanced, and entered the ruins.

The inside walls were even more damaged, and anything left from the furnitures had rotted away. There were small plants and moss everywhere on the ground, and to his slight surprise, some devil snare moved away from him. There were holes in the ground, where the upper floors collapsed all the way down to the bas.e.m.e.nt, spreading the destructive fire over there. The women stayed near him, with the casters muttering spells for detection and analyse.

"Some of the structural reinforcement enchantements are still active" stated Scathach. "It is what kept the rest of the groundfloor from collapsing."

"There is another subtle boundary field active" added Semimaris. "An identification ward it seem, limited to the building interior."

Harry distantly listened, but continued to move. Following his intuition, he jumped in one of the holes leading underground, to the slight panic of the girls. They quickly followed him. Harry moved through the broken remains and stood in front of a large and clear stone tile, gazing at it. The casters, seeing his reaction, analysed it.

"There is something hidden underneath" said Scathach. "Since you were attracted it this place, it must be a family based protection magic."

Hearing this, and thinking about the blood wards that were supposed to be at Privet Drive, Harry decided to cut his palm with a weak diffindo and placed it on the center of the tile while channeling some magic. The tile faintly glowed and vibrated, releasing a low and deep humming, then slowy sank in the ground with him. The girls tried to join him, but they couldn't reach him. Any momentum forward was annuled.

"Tsk. It is a family protection" Semimaris said with a displeased expression. "Only family can continue further. We have to wait here."

The tile descended for about 5 meters, and stopped. Harry found himself at the edge of a circular room around 2m in diameter and height with a stone at its center. The ground, walls and ceiling were made of white glowing material, and Harry guessed that the 150cm hexagonal stone with engraving on it was the wardstone of the property.

He knew that he should be able to take control of the property wards, but didn't know how that was supposed to work. So he just put his blooded hand on top of the wardstone, thinking it would activate something like the tile. And it did. Some of the inscription on the stone started to glow red, and he felt himself be scanned by the stone, similar to when madam Pomfrey checked on him. When the scan stopped, the inscriptions turned gold.

Harry suddenly felt something weird in his head, as if his senses had been disturbed, but they clearly weren't. As the feeling got clearer, he had the impression to have awakened a new sense. He perceived 2 differents things, active and weak, and several others that were inactive. His eyes widened in realisation.

"I'm connected to the wardstone... I can feel the wards."

At the moment, the wardstone had been working at low power for years, and suddenly activating all the wards would just damage it as it wasn't used to such strain. Thankfully, Harry didn't need the full wards. Nobody knew he was there, except maybe his account manager, and that was all he needed to insure his safety and privacy.

To keep it, he just needed the to activate the magic containing ward, and the anti-scrying and anti-tracking wards. He also activated the perimeter ward, to know when someone or something entered or exited the property.