"Sorry, what was that?" interrupted Salazar as Harry answered the portrait's question. The both of them had agreed that it would be prudent that Harry had a proper understanding of his abilities, lest he accidentally cause a scene in public.
Unfortunately, that did not mean Salazar was willing to teach Harry how to use his wandless magic. The portrait had stubbornly stated that the majority of his improvement would revolve around his skill in Occlumency, and that it was unwise for him to start learning Occlumency without a proper understanding of his emotions, which he had not yet developed.
"Er - I'm a Parselmouth?" repeated Harry.
"No, before that."
"I'm a Partial Metamorphmagus?"
"That does not exist." declared Salazar, his eyebrows raised.
It was now Harry's turn to be confused.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, "Of course it does, I can change my appearance and all without a wand."
"Go ahead then." said Salazar, watching as Harry readied himself. Sure enough, Harry's features become slightly more rough, making the change rather apparent.
"I still stand by what I said.'' said Salazar once Harry had returned to normal, "There is no such thing as a Partial Metamorphmagus. You either are one, or you are not. It is more likely that you are using wandless magic, rather than you being a Metamorphmagus."
"Then why did the goblins say I was a Partial Metamorphmagus?"
Salazar's eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"The goblins do not truly understand wizard magic, just as no wizard understands goblin magic." reprimanded the portrait, "Take the words of anyone, even your own, with a grain of salt. Just because something has been said does not mean it is correct."
"There's definitely a difference between myself and a full - sorry, a normal Metamorphmagus." noted Harry, "I've seen Tonks changing her appearance, it's much more significant that what I can do."
"Exactly. Then you are not a metamorphmagus, but rather you are using wandless magic. Even if you were a weak metamorphmagus, then you would simply have a lesser potential with the skill than she does." said Salazar, "That does not make your ability anything different than hers. Is a person less magically powerful considered a partial wizard?"
"I think I remember Malfoy calling Neville that once." muttered Harry to himself.
"Why does it matter what that boy says?" asked Salazar, "What did I just tell you?"
Take the words of anyone, even your own, with a grain of salt.
...
Two more weeks had passed by, the gentle breeze now growing stronger. The two weeks had hyped up the Triwizard Tournament to the point where nearly every single person was currently dashing through their dorms, preparing for the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations. Harry was one of the few who was not doing such a thing, but was instead pacing back and forth through the Chamber of Secrets, engaging in an educational discussion with Salazar on his wandless magic.
The past few weeks had gone fairly well for Harry. Salazar had continued to advance him in each of his magical classes; he was now at least a few months ahead in every lesson. He now got every spell perfectly on his first try, much to the ire of Hermione, and the amazement of others. His written work, however, was as lacking as ever, anchoring him to the center of the academic leaderboard. Salazar had assured Harry that they would be tackling that soon.
The portrait had also begun to teach Harry dark magic (though Salazar called it offensive magic), something Harry had been rather skeptical to try.
It turned out that he had been rather talented in the field, with Salazar even telling him that he had a gift in the art. That had been enough to get Harry to hesitantly continue learning the art; Salazar telling someone they had a gift in something was equivalent to being called a prodigy. Unfortunately, he had not been able to advance very far into the art; Salazar had claimed that if Harry wished to learn how to fight, he would need someone to fight against, or at the very least, a few training dummies.
The portrait had given Harry a rather stern lecture a week previously, explaining the difference between fighting and dueling. According to Salazar, duels were a sort of display where the participants could make attempts at being impressive. When fighting, however, there were no rules, other than kill or be killed.
Harry had been rather hesitant at accepting the way of thinking, until listening to the Salazar make a few points involving Harry's past experiences. The concept had suddenly made much more sense after that, much to Harry's annoyance.
The effects of both rituals had completely finished as well. Harry's physique had filled out rather nicely in his opinion, giving him the body of an athletic fourteen year old. His facial features had all changed slightly as well. He was now what many might consider to be relatively handsome, although he had still not quite finished growing; that was something that would take several more years. Thankfully, the change had not made Harry more similar in appearance to Tom Riddle, but rather the opposite.
Funnily enough, Harry had gotten teased a bit because of his sudden change in appearance, mostly by older students (sixth and seventh years). Nobody had yet attacked him, though many had verbally assaulted him.
It was somehow made even worse when he caught a group of sixth year Ravenclaw witches (who teased him quite often) staring at him during a visit to the library.
The teasing became practically unbearable due to the fact that he could not retaliate unless someone full out attacked him. Salazar had warned him that it would be a poor choice to attack another student; given the fact that he was considered to be a major icon in the wizarding world, doing such a thing would be catastrophic. He had been very lucky to have not ended up in hot water the first time, though that was mostly due to the timely intervention of Tonks and Hestia.
.....
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