Young Celestial Wizard [Celestial Grimoire, Harry Potter]

The tug of a Portkey grabbed Harry around the navel, and the world spun into a blur of colors and motion that he could nevertheless keep track of. When his feet hit solid ground again, he looked around and found himself in what appeared to be a stone chamber. Massive scorch marks covered the floor tiles, and there were some wooden tables and various pieces of old equipment scattered about.

But what caught his attention immediately was the wall directly in front of them.

Five enormous paintings hung there, each showing what looked like a ruined castle engulfed in flames. There was enough detail that Harry could almost feel the heat coming from the painted fires.

And not far from the paintings, a massive broken chain lay coiled on the floor beside another large scorch mark.

Well, it was clear there was indeed a dragon here at some point...

"Is that door a way out?" Merula muttered, staring at the central painting. Right at the front, there was a massive door, though it was hard to tell what lay beyond it since so much of the painted castle had been destroyed.

Bill was curious as well. "What do you think is up with these paintings? They're huge."

Charlotte pointed at the scorch marks and broken chain. "Look at all this damage. That dragon was definitely here at some point. Maybe it was already defeated by someone? Maybe Jacob?"

Harry shrugged since he wasn't sure what to make of the scene either, but something about the whole situation felt off to him.

Why would a dragon just disappear?

And if someone had defeated it, where was the body?

"Focus, everyone," Rakepick said sharply, standing next to the broken chain with one hand on her hip. "Breaking the curse will require less talking and more doing."

She turned to look at Merula. "Miss Snyde, what would you do first? Search the vault or try the door?"

Merula blinked in surprise. "You're asking me? Not Whitewood?"

Rakepick smiled. "Yes. You've been my most steadfast and loyal pupil."

Harry could see Merula practically glowing with pride. "Thank you! I knew I was your favorite." She straightened up importantly. "I would... search the vault first. We might find something that will help us break the curse."

Charlotte interrupted immediately. "I think we should try the door. It wouldn't be here unless there was something important behind it."

Merula rolled her eyes. "Or the door could be a trap. And Rakepick didn't ask you. She asked me."

"All right, everyone," Rakepick stopped them before their argument could continue.

"Let's search the vault first. Split up and look for anything that might be useful."

Harry nodded and walked away from the group to look at the chamber more carefully. He kneaded chakra from his chi and activated his Sharingan, only to pause in surprise.

His vision was much sharper than before. Everything seemed clearer, more detailed. Even the smallest scratches on the stone walls stood out like they'd been highlighted.

Did his Sharingan improve somehow?

But he didn't even know it could improve...

Maybe as his chi became more potent, the Sharingan would improve accordingly?

Harry pulled out a small mirror from his enchanted pouch and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. His red eyes no longer had one tomoe rotating around each pupil. Both eyes now had two tomoes spinning slowly.

So that represented an increase in visual acuity?

Did that mean the Sharingan could progress to three tomoes, four, and beyond? Was nine tomoes the limit? It was going to look pretty odd if he ended up with more tomoes than that spinning around in his eyes.

Well, it was useful to know, but Harry put away the mirror and continued examining the chamber.

Everyone was searching through the various objects and furniture, but they all seemed to be coming up empty-handed.

Harry's Sharingan didn't catch anything particularly important either. There were cobwebs everywhere, old candles, suits of armor that looked like they hadn't been touched in decades.

But there was nothing that seemed connected to breaking any kind of curse.

After a few more minutes, everyone gathered back in the center of the chamber.

"It seems there's nothing here that will get us any closer to breaking the curse," Bill said, looking disappointed.

"I'm all for checking out the portrait wall and that door," he continued.

Merula turned toward Charlotte with a smug expression. "Whitewood, you wanted to try the door so badly. You go and open it."

But Rakepick shook her head before Charlotte could respond. "No, not Miss Whitewood."

Charlotte looked confused. "Why not me?"

"It's not time," Rakepick said simply. "You stand back."

Charlotte's confusion deepened. "Not time? I don't understand..."

Before that conversation could continue, Harry interrupted them:

"Pay attention! The dragon is coming!"

A massive dark-green Hungarian Horntail dragon with a broken chain around its neck was running toward them from inside the central painting with rage burning in its yellowed eyes.

"Everyone, get back!" Bill yelled.

"Run!" Merula screamed.

The dragon let out a deafening roar as it burst through the painting and into the chamber. The sound was so loud that the entire room shook, and massive stones began falling from the ceiling.

Before the stones could crush Bill and Merula, Harry vanished from his position and appeared next to them in a blur of motion. He grabbed both of them around the waist and pulled them out of the way just as chunks of stone crashed where they'd been standing.

"Bloody hell!" Bill gasped as Harry set them down safely to the side.

"Arresto Momentum!" Rakepick shouted, pointing her wand at the falling rubble. The stones slowed to a stop mid-air, hovering dangerously above them.

Charlotte had her wand out too, looking ready to cast something.

"I don't know how long I can keep more rubble from falling on us!" Rakepick called out.

"I'll try to stop the dragon!" Charlotte shouted back.

Harry appeared in front of her before she could take another step. "Let me handle this. Just pay attention to Merula and Bill."

Charlotte hesitated. "Harry, are you sure you can-"

"I'm sure." Harry's green eyes met hers with complete confidence. "Trust me."

Something in his expression convinced her, so Charlotte nodded reluctantly and stepped back toward the others.

The dragon let out another thunderous roar, clearly unhappy at being ignored.

Harry turned toward the massive beast with a slight smirk on his face.

He activated his Sharingan again, and the two tomoe spun lazily in his red eyes. Combined with his Inner Eye, his predictive abilities were incredible now. The dragon's movements seemed to slow down, and thanks to the passive effect of his Virtue Power, Harry could predict nearly three seconds in advance what it was going to do in extreme detail.

But Harry wasn't in a hurry to kill the dragon. He wanted to test out some of his abilities first…

Lifting one hand, he conjured one thousand steel knives and launched them at the angry dragon. The beast couldn't seem to fly properly with its broken chain, but it closed its eyes and started charging at him on both its legs and wings.

The knives pinged off its scales harmlessly.

Well, that was understandable. The knives he conjured were just normal steel in the end.

Harry turned his body to the side and let the dragon charge past him straight into the wall. He used his chi to form a flaming whip out of his own body heat and lashed it against the dragon's back.

He made sure to hold back, because his flames were astonishingly potent by now.

Even so, the dragon let out a roar of agony as the solidified whip of azure fire smacked into its back and forced it to crash to the ground. It seemed dazed from the impact, and couldn't react to the next whip lash that smashed it even further into the stone floor.

The tiles beneath the dragon couldn't endure the pressure and shattered into countless little pieces.

Harry sighed slightly at how easy this was, whispering under his breath, "How boring."

In the end, it was just a normal dragon in a weak world, and it couldn't even fly properly right now.

If it were something like Ran and Shaw from the bending world, he would take it a lot more seriously. Their flying speed was incredible, and Shaw's Death Flames could probably nullify his own flames. Well, he suspected Shaw could do that at least. His own artificially produced Death Flames seemed to work in a similar manner.

He let the flame whip dissipate and waited for the dragon to recover slightly. It struggled to get up from the ground, and flames gathered within its throat.

Harry had a small smirk as he covered his head with Soul Resonance Mist to absorb all of his own emotions. That empty state wiped the smirk off his face and in turn allowed him to create Death Flames that he formed into a shield that utterly absorbed the dragon's incoming flame breath.

His cold Sharingan eyes stared into the dragon's terrified yellow eyes, and he did nothing else.

The dragon let out a terrified whimper.

Harry pulled out a red-and-white Pokeball from his pouch and threw it at the scared dragon. It hit one of its scales, bounced off, and released a red beam of light that absorbed the dragon. The ball closed and hit the ground.

It shook once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then it let out a cheerful 'ping' of success.

Harry retrieved the pokeball and tossed it into the air, catching it casually.

"You beat the dragon that easily... and even put it in a little ball?" Merula stared at him in complete shock.

Harry nodded as if this was all perfectly normal.

Charlotte seemed both impressed and like she had expected it already. "Does that break the curse?"

"We'll find out soon enough," Bill said, glancing at Harry in awe. "Is everyone all right?"

Everyone nodded.

Rakepick had managed to levitate all the rocks off to the side. "We should check out the door now. It should respond now that its guardian has been defeated."

She seemed very calm, not even that shocked by Harry defeating the dragon so easily.

Bill tried to push the door in the central painting open. "It doesn't even budge..."

That was when Harry noticed something off about Charlotte. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be in pain.

"Miss Whitewood, what is it?" Rakepick asked.

Charlotte muttered through gritted teeth, "Someone... or something is in my head. My Occlumency is holding it off slightly, but it's not enough..."

Rakepick smiled. "It's the door!"

"The door?" Merula looked confused.

Rakepick nodded. "Yes! Objects can be enchanted with intelligence and even Legilimency! It's how the Sorting Hat knows what house to place a student in..."

Charlotte whispered, "But Legilimency and the door? Something about a door... I remember..."

"What do you remember? Think!" Rakepick urged.

Charlotte said, "Dumbledore once told me if I mastered my Legilimency... it could open doors... in hidden places!"

Harry was slightly dumbfounded at this point. Charlotte knew Legilimency?

Why would she learn that?

And why did Dumbledore give such a specific hint to Charlotte?

Charlotte continued, "So if the door can get into my mind, does that mean I can get into..."

Rakepick seemed excited and hurried her along. "Yes! Now focus... FOCUS!"

"I'm trying..." Charlotte grunted and flinched in pain again.

"What is going on?" Bill was utterly confused.

"I don't understand either," Merula added.

Charlotte opened her eyes and stared at the door, swishing her wand. "Legilimens!"

In response, the door in the portrait let out a small click. It slowly swung open, revealing a black void beyond.

"Brilliant, Charlotte! We're in!" Bill exclaimed.

Harry was suspicious at this point, very suspicious. Charlotte frequently mentioned headaches and hearing voices during her vault adventures... so were those all because of Legilimency? And why was Rakepick acting so oddly? Like she knew Charlotte had Legilimency from the start? And that they needed Legilimency to continue?

Everything was so strange…

"It seems Legilimency was the 'key' to opening the door," Charlotte muttered. "When Dumbledore taught me Legilimency... I couldn't have made the connection at the time."

So in the end Grandpa Dumbledore taught her Legilimency?

The old man knew Legilimency well enough to teach it to others??

How did he even know that this Cursed Vault required Legilimency???

Harry was completely befuddled at this point, but that was when his thoughts were interrupted by the softest whisper behind him that confirmed his suspicions about Rakepick beyond all doubt.

"Avada Kedavra"

Harry could have dodged the green flash of light easily. His Sharingan was still active, his Inner Eye was working perfectly, and his speed alone would have let him move out of the way without any trouble at all.

But was he going to dodge this surprise attack from Rakepick?

No.

He wanted to know what would happen when the Killing Curse hit him beyond his Inner Sight showing it had no real effect on him.

The Flexible Soul offer had specifically mentioned that soul-harming effects like the Killing Curse would only be one-tenth as effective against him. So theoretically, he'd need to get hit by ten Killing Curses in a row before he'd actually die if he ignored any other means of resistance.

But what did that mean in practice?

Would it just hurt? Or was it going to damage his Heaven-Earth Soul that could contain countless souls in the future? There was only one way to find out, and he preferred doing so while he was certain he had everything under control.

His family certainly wasn't going to risk throwing a Killing Curse at him…

Harry let the green light hit him square in the back and immediately collapsed to the ground, pretending to be dead while he analyzed what had actually happened to him.

The Killing Curse was interesting. It didn't harm his body at all, no, instead, it tried to sever the connection between his soul and his body. If someone had no spiritual defenses or resistance, the spell would probably work exactly as intended.

Luckily Harry had multiple layers of protection.

His 20% Magic Resistance pushed back against the curse. His World Power naturally resisted it. Even his Virtue Power seemed to reject the spell's influence just by existing. And his Heaven-Earth Soul was innately completely beyond the curse's ability to affect.

That made sense if you thought about it. If any random wizard could cast a few Killing Curses inside one of his Textures and kill him, that would be a pretty serious design flaw. His Heaven-Earth Soul represented an entire World, so harming its source would require something much more powerful than a simple spell.

The curse did have a slight impact on his Source Soul, which was directly connected to his physical body. But it only caused a small amount of pain that Harry barely noticed. Since his consciousness was located in his Heaven-Earth Soul's Heaven, pain in his body couldn't affect his thinking anyway.

Was his Source Soul damaged because of this? Not really. His chi offered a little bit of defense since it was both physical and spiritual energy combined, and at his current level of potency, that was more than enough.

His Source Soul was also naturally strong because it represented his strong body.

In the end, the Killing Curse had basically no effect on him. If a dozen wizards cast it simultaneously, or if one wizard kept casting it over and over while Harry was completely defenseless, he might worry about the connection between his Source Soul and physical body taking a good amount of damage.

A single Killing Curse? Nothing to be concerned about!

Harry did wonder what would happen if the connection was actually destroyed. His body would definitely die, and his Source Soul would probably linger inside, but what about his Heaven-Earth Soul? Would he get sent to this world's afterlife?

Would he become a World floating around in the realm of the dead?

Well, he wasn't planning to test that theory anytime soon.

Harry kept his eyes mostly closed but watched through his eyelashes as Rakepick flicked her wand at his friends. Charlotte, Bill, and Merula were only going to get sent crashing to the ground, so he didn't intervene.

All three of them did indeed crash to the ground not long after, unable to move thanks to the curse.

Rakepick seemed utterly confident now that she had won. "It's a shame I had to kill the Boy-Who-Lived," she said casually. "But he was too powerful, and I can't have any of you going into that room."

She gestured toward the open door in the painting. "You see, I was here first. I've been to this Cursed Vault before. With Jacob."

Charlotte's eyes widened in shock.

Harry could even see tears forming, she probably thought he was actually dead.

"Yes, Miss Whitewood," Rakepick continued with a smirk. "I've been here with Jacob. Not just him, but with Peter Pettigrew too. I was working with both of them. Same plan, same portkey. But that power-hungry coward Pettigrew lost his nerve as soon as he saw the Horntail."

She sneered as she said Pettigrew's name. "He transported out with the portrait and went into hiding, leaving your brother and me to die. We distracted the dragon for as long as we could, long enough for your brother to use his Legilimency to open the door."

Rakepick's expression became predatory. "Because only a Legilimens can unlock the treasures within this Cursed Vault. It's why I needed your brother. And why I needed YOU."

Billmanaged to grunt through the curse's effects. "W-why did you need the rest of us…?"

Rakepick's smirk widened. "Dragon bait."

She continued explaining as if she was discussing the weather. "Jacob and I alone weren't able to defeat the dragon, so I knew I'd need more students. I figured together you'd slay the dragon, or die trying. Who knew Harry Potter was able to do it all by himself?"

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger at how casually she was talking about using his friends as disposable tools.

"It's also why I held off Miss Whitewood from approaching the door," Rakepick added. "I couldn't risk putting my key to the door on the front line in a dragon battle. The rest of you 'curse-breakers'? Collateral damage, I'm afraid. Entirely expendable to me."

Bill's face turned red with fury. He managed to shake off the curse enough to run at Rakepick with his fist raised and tears running down his cheeks, but she just pointed her wand at him. He crashed back to the ground immediately.

"Bill!" Charlotte whispered.

"I'm all right," Bill managed to reply through gritted teeth.

Charlotte glared at Rakepick and was about to shout something when she caught sight of Harry opening his eyes slightly. He stared directly at her, and Charlotte's expression immediately shifted from despair to relief. She let out a small sigh, but shook her head to focus on Rakepick again.

"Where is my brother?" Charlotte demanded. "What happened to him?"

Rakepick seemed happy to explain. "He opened the door, but we hadn't defeated the dragon. Only held it off, so the Portrait Curse was never broken. The dragon was trapped once again in a portrait... and so was Jacob."

Charlotte looked like she'd been punched in the stomach. "He's in that portrait? With the dragon?"

Rakepick shook her head. "No, in another portrait. In the room beyond that door."

Charlotte had managed to shake off the curse by this point, but Rakepick sent her crashing back down with another flick of her wand.

"First Bill, then you," Rakepick sighed. "I just told you… none of you are going into that room."

Charlotte gritted her teeth. "You just left my brother trapped in a portrait here for all this time?"

Rakepick shrugged. "I had no choice. I touched the column in the room, but it didn't unlock any treasure. It transported me out and into the Forbidden Forest. I don't know why. I suppose with the dragon still in play and the curse unbroken, the treasure was still untouchable."

Her expression became annoyed. "With no Portkey and no clue as to what rock Pettigrew crawled under, I had no way of returning here. Until I found my way back into Hogwarts and found you."

"You could have told someone my brother was here!" Charlotte shouted. "You could have tried to save him!"

Rakepick replied nonchalantly, "I'm afraid finding my way back into the vault and its treasure took up all of my time."

She gave Charlotte a small smirk. "You know how it is. You're obsessed with the Cursed Vaults too."

Charlotte looked outraged. "Because I was trying to break curses and find my brother, not some stupid mystery treasure!"

"Keep telling yourself that, Miss Whitewood," Rakepick said dismissively. "As I said, I was transported out of here against my will, so I had no choice but to leave Jacob behind. But if I did have a choice... I would have left him here to rot anyway."

Charlotte's eyes turned red. "He trusted you, you selfish witch!"

"So did all of you at one point or another," Rakepick replied coldly. "The good news is, I won't sentence you to a fate as long and grueling as Jacob's. You've outlived your usefulness, so I'll kill you all now-"

Merula seemed to secretly resisted the curse and gathered her courage to flick her wand at Rakepick, but the professor easily deflected the curse with her own wand.

Rakepick smirked down at Merula and pointed her wand directly at her.

"Crucio!"

"No, don't!" Charlotte shouted.

But she didn't need to worry. Harry moved so fast he seemed to apparate right in front of Merula, taking the Cruciatus Curse himself on purpose.

His Inner Sight hadn't failed him so far.

The curse hit Harry like a bolt of pure agony. Every nerve in his body flared up at once, as if someone had poured molten metal into his veins and set his bones on fire. His muscles seized and twisted, trying to tear themselves apart from the inside as his entire nervous system screamed from the curse trying to overload every pain receptor he had.

It felt like being burned alive, electrocuted, and having his skin peeled off all at the same time. The Cruciatus Curse was designed to cause the worst pain a human body could possibly experience.

Unluckily for Rakepick, the slight disconnect between Harry's Heaven-Earth Soul and Source Soul meant he completely ignored the pain. His consciousness existed in his Heaven-Earth Soul, so the agony tearing through his physical body couldn't affect his thinking at all.

He wasn't bothered by it in the slightest.

Harry stared directly at Rakepick with cold green eyes, showing no reaction to the torture curse whatsoever. Her face went pale with shock as she realized the Cruciatus Curse was having no effect on him.

"Impossible," she whispered. "You're supposed to be dead."