The muffled sound of Salazar yelling for him to hurry up so he could learn something before having to go back to the dormitories managed to reach not only Harry, but his godfather too.
'I'd better go,' he apologised.
'It does sound like something's happening,' Sirius noted, 'lots of shouting about something.'
'We'll talk again soon,' Harry promised, 'maybe I'll have been briefed by then.'
He had a slight hope that if he knew a little more about the prophecy he might be able to persuade his godfather to talk about it and even help him.
'See you soon, Harry,' Sirius grinned, then Harry found himself staring at his own reflection again.
He summoned the bridge, and opened the door to the study, stalking angrily inside.
'Did you have to interrupt?' Harry demanded.
'You don't have time to waste,' Salazar reminded him, 'Riddle's biding his time and building up his power, not chatting to people through enchanted mirrors. Now what were your questions?'
'I need to get a lot better at duelling,' Harry told his ancestor, remembering how the graveyard had dissolved into shattered fragments of stone and flying curses the moment Voldemort had stopped toying with him.
'Can you defend your mind?' Slytherin asked instead of answering Harry's unvoiced query.
'Yes.' Snape had been repulsed completely. 'What about your legilimency?'
'I've convinced Neville to let me teach him,' Harry told the founder, 'and I'm starting to get good at creating a connection of the right strength. I can send concepts and images if I want to easily enough too.'
'You've tested it, haven't you?' The painting's tone was faintly disapproving.
'It was worth the risk,' Harry assured him.
'You weren't caught,' the portrait replied evenly, 'so it doesn't matter.'
'And duelling?' Harry prompted.
'There are ways to improve yourself to give an advantage,' Salazar told him. 'Your eyesight is a weakness, your glasses could easily be exploited by an unscrupulous foe, and your reflexes and strength could be improved by a ritual or two.'
'More rituals?' Harry was rather less bothered by that than he had expected he would be. It didn't feel wrong anymore, they weren't dark, nothing was dark, and it was hardly cheating to want to live.
'Yes,' the painting answered. 'We'll need to use blood as a medium for the best effect, and you'll have to get your hands on some magical ingredients which have the ability to enhance certain things. We can create our own ritual to keep the effects permanently using blood magic.'
'What will the sacrifice be?' Harry asked warily.
'Nothing too dear,' Slytherin reassured him gently. 'Time. Blood. Pain. All things you can afford to give and not regret afterwards.' 'What will I need?'
'Wormwood and Bayberry, they will provide the source for fixing your eyes, unicorn horn, or hair, something of a highly magical creature to imbue your items with, you will need enough for two rituals, and then a griffin's claw and Salamander's blood with which to improve your physical body.'
'Will that be enough?'
Slytherin laughed bitterly. 'It is never enough, I can assure you of that, but while the former will simply fix your eyesight, the latter will certainly give you an edge over most other wizards.'
'I just have to find that list?' Harry asked.
'You'll need a lot of blood too,' Salazar warned, 'best to do them separately. Your eyesight is the most pressing concern.' 'I don't think I'm going to be finding many of those things just lying around,' Harry pointed out. 'I might be able to buy some of them,' he gestured at the bag of galleons he'd won from the Triwizard Tournament, but something tells me they won't come cheap.'
'In the meantime think about what your strengths and weaknesses are,' Salazar suggested. 'Create your own style that plays to these. What do you remember from duelling Voldemort?'
'He was fast,' Harry replied immediately, 'he was bloody fast, I couldn't even think the incarnations as fast he was casting them.'
'Practise turning one wand-motion into the next, the flick of the wrist for the Blasting Curse can easily transition into the curve of the Bone-Splintering curse.' Slytherin peered down at him expectantly. 'What else?' 'He deflected almost everything I sent at him that was blockable,' Harry remembered with a scowl. He'd not really even come close to touching him, not even at the end when he managed to break through his shield with what was his strongest spell.
'Mastering how to deflect hexes would combine very well with your,' Salazar paused in disgust, 'ridiculous butterfly conjuring defence. You can use those ridiculous insects to swallow curses like the Killing Curse and deflect anything else back out at your opponents. Almost anything that isn't an Unforgivable can be deflected, or at least blocked, by a proficient, practised duellist.'
'I'll practise,' Harry promised. He could practise at least some of it with Fleur when he visited in a few days time. She'd be more than happy to teach him how to deflect hexes by sending mild jinxes his way. Gabrielle probably would too. 'You'll die if you don't,' Salazar told him bluntly, cutting right through his surge of motivation.
'Thanks,' Harry responded dryly. 'I'm going to go to the library and research those ingredients, if I'm lucky they're in some of the potions taught here and I can simply steal them from Snape.'
'You'll need them whole, not ground, powdered, or preserved in any fashion,' Slytherin warned as he left. That pretty much ruled out Snape's potion's stores.
He hoped they sold all of it in Diagon Alley. He was fairly sure that he could find Salamander's blood, and the magical plants there, but a whole griffin's claw seemed a less likely prospect. Harry really didn't want to go and have to wrestle a griffin for one of its talons, so he committed to hoping instead.
Hope wasn't so hard for him to find anymore. He had his plans, his power, both growing unseen by either Riddle, the Ministry or Dumbledore, and he had Neville, Katie and Fleur beside him.
Things are beginning to go my way, Harry mused, as the Chamber of Secrets slid closed behind him.
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