Chapter 20: Chapter 20 Elemental magic
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Seven months after Harry's seventh birthday.
Chamber of Secrets, Basilisk Chamber.
Harry stood alone in the giant chamber with his eyes closed in complete concentration, suddenly a circle of fire sprang into life around him. Slowly the flames surrounding him started to change and morph into something, pretty soon a large snake sized basilisk made entirely out of flames is coiling around harry's body protecting its master.
Harry slowly opened his eyes and smiled seeing the basilisk surrounding him. He waved his hand and the fire basilisk instantly flew through the air towards the nearest snake statue, but instead of destroying the statue entirely the basilisk burned right through it leaving a basilisk shaped hole of melted stone in the statue before flying back to harry.
This is not a normal stone statue, this statue like all the other things in the chamber are enchanted to be indestructible by powerful magic but the fire basilisk tore through the magical defences like it was a mere piece of paper. This is the power of elemental magic.
Elemental magic is completely different from elemental spells like water making spell (aguamenti), fire-making spell (incendio), etc which are technically conjuration spells. For example, the fire-making spell works by collecting the oxygen in the air to use as fuel to make a small flame, since air is so easily available even the first years can perform this spell. The water-making spell on the other hand conjures water from the nearest source or uses the humidity in the air to make water, this requires a lot more magical power than the fire-making spell that's why it is considered as a Newt level spell even though both the spells are technically the same.
The elements produced by elemental spells are restricted by the physical world like it's is much harder to perform the fire-making spell in cold environments or underwater, and the power of such spells is very limited even against the weakest kind of magical defences. That's why such spells are more useful in physical situations rather than in magical combat.
Elemental magic the other hand is a very advanced form of magic performed only by the most skilled wizards and witches. While using elemental magic a wizard or witch convert their own magic into the element they have an affinity for. Since these elements are powered directly by magic they are not limited by the physical world, that's why harry's fire can exist even underwater or even in a vacuum, his flames can also burn far hotter than the physical limits of fire itself.
Elemental magic can also easily destroy most magical defences since it is both physical and magical in nature. That's why most wizards have no way to defend against a dragon's fire and also why it takes more than a dozen experienced dragon handlers to subdue a single weakened dragon.
It takes immense power and control to perform elemental magic. Even if a wizard has the necessary power to convert their magic into their element, this element is also much harder to control than regular magic, there were many wizards and witches who were either injured or killed by their own magic while attempting elemental magic.
After turning seven just like any other magical child Harry started going through his first magical maturity. But this state of growth which usually takes three years it took harry only six months to complete. This shocked both Harry and Slytherin's portrait, while they expected the rituals to change some things but they didn't expect the rituals to speed up his magical maturity to such a degree.
Since Harry's magic grew so rapidly in the past six months he couldn't perform any magic that required delicate and precise magic control. That's why harry decided to use this opportunity to train his elemental magic which only requires raw powerful magic and a strong will to control your element.
Even though he has decades of experience with elemental magic it still took harry seven months to master his fire element. In the previous timeline, harry had an ice elemental affinity instead of fire, this change in affinity occurred due to the enhancement rituals, since his magic took a few properties from a phoenix and a dragon, both creatures which are known for their powerful connection to fire. The Basilisk doesn't have a connection to any traditional elements but instead has the strongest connection to death.
When Harry first started training his fire element all he could do was create a fireball that causes a large amount of damage indiscriminately. But Dumbledore once again helped harry, Since Dumbledore also has a fire affinity his notes that he left for harry in the previous timeline helped him quickly master his fire.
After the war with Voldemort's confirmed death, Gringotts bestowed harry with a trunk from his old headmaster. In this trunk was Dumbledore's private collection of books which he collected throughout his life and also a set of books that the headmaster personally wrote to help harry master his powerful magic.
Dumbledore couldn't train harry while a piece of Voldemort's soul was still stuck to him since there was always a possibility that the Dark Lord could take over Harry's mind and body. So the old wizard devised a way to guide harry even after his death.
There is a muggle saying that when it rains it pours, while his old headmaster left his knowledge behind for harry in the form of books, Voldemort also left unintentionally left harry his knowledge in the form of his memories.
Every piece of Voldemort's soul had a copy of his consciousness inside it, after his death those copies of consciousness died with him. But the destruction of the consciousness in Harry's scar left its memories in his mind.
Just the knowledge from even one of these two sources would have been incredibly helpful to Harry much earlier when he was actually fighting a war and had to face off against the strongest Dark Lord ever. But the headmaster couldn't teach him as long as Voldemort was alive and the piece of soul in his scar was always trying to take over harry's body since the night he got that scar, it was only his mother's protection that kept it at bay.
That's why Harry had to bulldoze his way through the war relying mostly on his raw magical power, and he only won against Voldemort at the last moment because the Elder wand rejected its holder for its true master.