6 Discovery

Harry continued with his meditation and the seconds trickled into minutes. His mind became calmer and calmer with his breathing becoming more and more stable. He entered a serene state he had never known existed. He lost track of time. After an unknown period of time Harry felt his awareness had increased and he felt something.

Whenever he used to meditate in his past life, he would stop thinking and simply went by whatever he was feeling. This was strengthened now and he had a hunch that it had something to do with his soul merging with the original Harry's soul and as a result, the result was a stronger one soul.

Harry continued feeling his surroundings with his enhanced awareness and found tiny particles of light dancing all around him. They were small, the size of tiny sand grains. He found that a small number of them were entering his body through his pores. He extended his consciousness to touch them and see if he could increase the number of these small light particles that entered his pores.

Harry slowly guided the small light particles to come closer to him with care as if they were precious delicate glass. As he did so, many of these tiny lights rushed into his body through his pores, as if embracing a long lost lover.

Harry's body received a jolt. He turned his attention towards his body and only to find the light particles melting and joining a bright network of light energy spreading throughout his body. They resembled the network of blood vessels but they weren't. They ran parallel to the blood vessels and found they were nourishing his body and mind.

Harry continued guiding the light particles around him and they entered his body like a torrent of water. His mind and body were constantly being nourished and soon found himself fully energised. Harry opened his eyes, his might still calm like clear and still water. He found he couldn't see the little light particles with his naked eye but could feel they were all around him.

Harry took his pillow and placed it in front of him and closed his eyes again. The little light particles appeared once more, dancing brighter than ever around him. He wanted to cast the Levitatation spell and as soon as the intention was formed, the tiny light particles danced around happily and started surrounding the pillow. Harry also found that a small amount of light particles detached itself from his energy network flowed out of his body surrounding the pillow, slowly raising it into the air.

"Oh my god," gasped Harry in shock. "Did I just do what I think I did?"

____________________

During his hours of mediation and playing around with spells during the night, Harry was finally too exhausted mentally to continue. Although absorbing the light particles relieved Harry's of his fatigue, his mental fatigue still accumulated, forcing him to fall asleep.

The next morning Harry woke up at dawn fully recovering from his mental fatigue. He went into the ground for a jogging session. At this time, there were hardly an students that were awake. The very few early birds that woke up were still either in their dorm room or in their house common room.

Harry slowly increased his speed to find his body's speed and endurance limit. Not even ten minutes had passed that he was gasping for air as he slumped on the ground.

"Damn ... this body ... is weak ...," muttered Harry, as he tried to stabilize his breathing. "I knew ... Harry was ... going to be ... physically weak, but ... this is ridiculous."

After resting for a few minutes, Harry resumed his running, however, he kept his speed at a slow sprint while regulating his breathing. This time he managed to extend the time of jogging to about twenty minutes before slumping on the ground again, exhausted.

He sat cross-legged and started circulating the absorbing the light particles - to which he now referred to as mana particles -in the air in meditative position. He found that his speed of absorption was faster than the previous night by a large margin. He also noticed that the mana particles he was absorbing were nourishing his physical body, relieving it of its fatigue. It was not long before his body's capacity to hold the amount of mana was filled to the brim. However, he felt a qualitative change in the his mana network. They seemed sturdier and more refined, and it's shine was clearer.

Happy was very happy about his improvement, Harry resumed his jogging and was very excited to see he keep sprinting at a slightly faster pace and for a longer period of time before dropping to the ground, exhausted. He started circulating the magic in his body around his mana reserves to drive away his physical fatigue. This was something he had discovered last night that he could do when he was trying to figure out how the mana particles worked. With his fatigue gone, he sensed that he had used about two-third of the mana in his body. He quickly refilled his mana reserves and started making his way back to his dorm. By this time, the sun had already come out and the other student were getting ready for their first day of term.

"This explains why wizards hardly ever gets ill," thought Harry. "Magic really strengthens the body and it has healing properties. This is going to make it so much more easier to train my body."

After changing into his uniform in his dorm and having breakfast at the great hall, Harry went to his first class of term; Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.

Upon entering the classroom, Harry saw that majority of the students had already arrived. He was one of the few that came last. Those that had already arrived were chatting away, completely ignoring the cat that was perched on the professor's desk. Harry walked up to the cat and stood in front of it. After staring at the cat for a few seconds, Harry stretched out his hand but stopped halfway. He smiled at the cat and mouthed a few words before turning around and taking a seat next to Hermione. The cat looked at Harry curiously.

After everyone was seated the cat jumped from the table and transformed into Professor McGonagall, greatly shocking all the students.

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Minerva McGonagall and I will be taking you through the course of Transfiguration. What I just demonstrated was the peak of what can be achieved in Transfiguration by any wizard. Can any of you tell me what it's called?"

The hand of a certain book-worm immediately shot up.

"Miss Granger?"

"It's called an Animagus. It's the highest feat that can be achieved by any wizard with only seven registered Animagus in Britain," replied Hermione.

"Well done, Miss Granger, five points to Gryffindor.

It is known as an Animagus, as pointed out by Miss Granger. It is almost impossible to differentiate an Amimagus and a normal animal, as evident by the fact that none of you save but one could tell," said Professor McGonagall, looking at Harry with a smile. "Good morning to you too, Mr Potter."

"You should all understand the difficulty in becoming an Animagus is and how difficult the noble art of Transfiguration is just due to the fact there are so few Animagus in the country. It is the most dangerous branch of magic taught at Hogwarts. Can anyone tell me why?"

This time another hand shot up.

"Mr Potter?"

"Let's imagine transfiguring a shard of poisonous glass into a glass of water and feed it to someone you don't like," said Harry with a smirk. "What do you suppose will happen when that water transforms back into the shard of poisonous glass?"

Almost everyone shuddered with fear as they imagined such a scenario. In fact, a chill even went down Professor McGonagall's spine.

"Harry, with a mind like yours, why are you not in Slytherine?" asked Ron from behind Harry.

"You're asking the wrong Hat, red-head," replied Harry, causing Hermione to stifle a giggle.

"Ahem ... now you all understand that Transfiguration is not a subject to be taken lightly. There have never been a great wizard who has ever flunked this subject; rather they have excelled at it," said Professor McGonagall. "A few points to always remember before Transfiguring anything.

One, never, ever Transfigure anything into gas or liquid.

Two, it is very important to never use Transfiguration if you don't know the exact outcome.

Three - this is the most important point - never ever even think of using Transfiguration magic on yourself without my permission! Only after gaining my satisfaction will you ever be allowed to do it elsewhere.

If you are ever caught breaking any of the above rules - which you will be - you will be expelled from Hogwarts! Am I clear?"

All students nodded their heads and went quite.

"So that mean I'll have to tell her about wanting to become an Animagus," thought Harry, frowning. "This strict crane will definitely force me to register if she finds out."

Seeing that her point had been made, she continued.

"Now, as long as you tread with care, Transfiguration can be very fun. Our first class will be transforming the matchstick in front of you into a needle. Please follow my demonstration exactly as I do it," said Professor McGonagall.