Harry Potter and the Berserker

Chapter 23

Disclaimer- Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and Berserk is owned by Kentaro Miura. I own nothing.

True to her word, Flora reserved their question and answer session until the morning. The elderly witch and her young disciple convened at the crack of dawn in the dining room of the spirit-tree. Miniature versions of the large golem Harry had faced walked about presenting their hosts with a fruit platter variety so the residents could then break their fast.

"Good morning to you," Flora said, spotting Harry peeking in from the entryway of the dining hall. "Please, come and join us. The golems have gathered fresh fruit, do have some."

Taking a seat opposite of the two witches, a short little golem walked over and presented him with a fruit platter as well. "...Thank you?" Harry said to the tiny rock person. The golem made no sign of acknowledgment and walked to stand off to the side of the wall.

"You're wondering how they exist, aren't you?" Harry saw Flora looking at him from the corner of her eye. "No doubt it is one of many of a long list of questions."

"Did you do that mind trick again?" Harry assumed.

"No. That would just be intuition on my end," Flora smiled. "They each contain a talisman within them."

"Like a charm or a necklace," Harry listed.

"More like a small artifact," Schierke said, dabbing the corner of her mouth with a cloth. "Mistress Flora made each Talisman from scratch and charmed them so that they could then take the form of the golems we have now."

"These are different from the one when I first came here," Harry observed how peaceful and content these ones seemed to behave. "So, the more powerful talisman there is, the stronger the golem would be?"

Flora looked impressed. "What an astute observation. Yes, that does tend to be the case for most of the time, but look closely at these golems here." Turning his attention, Harry noted that all the golems looked exactly the same, just much smaller from the goliath he had encountered.

"They all look alike."

"That is because I used the same type of talisman for each one. And because of that, they can join together to create one of the sizes that you encountered before. That branch of magic is known as enchanting."

"So there are different types of magic then?" Harry asked, feeling a jolt of excitement. "Like ones that require a wand, or making potions?" he was really just asking about what people usually associate with witches and wizards.

"You wouldn't be wrong to think so," Flora nodded. "But that is only an outside view on the study of magic as a whole." She saw that she had him hooked, and she continued. "Magic is a school of thought, it is meant to go beyond reasoning. Magi study this aspect of the astral world and can gain a better understanding of the bigger picture that unfolds around us. Think of magic like this tree; there are many branches of it, each stretching out to one plain or the next, but in the end, they are all rooted to one place. Does that help clarify?"

He thought over her words. From the way she phrased it, she made it sound like magic was a living thing, something that could grow in anyone and far more ancient than humanity or just about anything else. If different schools of magic were like branches, and then the tree would be thought it, something that all people and animals were capable of in some regards. He nodded. "I think so, yeah." He thought over his next question. "So, in what other ways does magic branch out?"

Instead of answering, Flora picked an apple from the platter and examined it from every angle. She seemed determined to memorize every aspect that she could, taking a bite out of it she tossed it to the side. "Watch closely." Before Harry's eyes, a form began to take shape in Flora's outstretched hand, slowly at first, but it soon turned into a tangible object. It was the apple she had tossed away previously. Harry knew it to be the same since it had a piece missing from where she had bitten into it.