Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J. K. Rowling, not me.
Dumbledore Answers Harry - Chapter 16 - Controlling the Elements
As Harry sat down on the floor in the basement, he took one last look at the plate he'd set up ten feet in front of him for his elemental test. In the center was a tall candle that he'd attached using its own wax. On the left of the normal-sized plate was a cup full of soil, and on the right was a cup full of water. According to the book Harry had, every elemental magician would be able to perform the test, and then find out to what extent their control goes with each element.
He nodded, satisfied, and waved his wand, causing the room to go completely dark. He then set his wand down and closed his eyes to help him concentrate. After approximately five minutes, when Harry felt he was calm, he muttered a Latin incantation.
The candle lit, and Harry opened his eyes, which he directed toward the soil. As he stared at it, he muttered something else, and the dirt moved out of the cup onto the plate, forming a one-inch tall barrier around the edge of the plate. Once that was complete, he turned his attention to the glass of water. After muttering another Latin incantation, it seemed to jump out of the glass and onto the middle of the plate, surrounding the bottom of the tall candle. The dirt stopped the water from spilling off the plate. Harry finally looked at the flame and said the last phrase, and it blew out.
The room was pitch black for exactly five seconds until at the same moment several things happened. The candle relit, only this time with a huge flame, three times as large as you would expect from a candle. The flame appeared to be dancing in a wind that Harry could feel blowing through his hair, but the fire wouldn't go out. The soil and the water stayed completely still. As Harry sat there, both the flame and the wind grew stronger and stronger as Harry felt weaker and weaker. Finally, about thirty seconds after it started, it was over, and Harry fell unconscious.
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"Harry! Harry are you alright?" Harry heard a voice while his eyes were still closed.
He felt extremely drained as he used his arm to force himself to sit up. He opened his eyes. "Si-Sirius?"
"Yes. What were you doing?"
"How long have I been out?"
"I don't know, but you've been down here about three hours. When I got down here, it was dark. After I lit the lanterns, I saw you lying on the floor. Are you alright?"
"I, I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired."
"What were you doing in the dark?"
"A test to see if I can control elements."
"Could you?" said Sirius, his face suddenly full of excitement.
"I'd like to double-check the book, but it looks like I can control fire and air."
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Sirius followed Harry to his room where he'd kept the book for safe keeping (he didn't want it to catch fire or get drenched). Harry grabbed the book and read.
"After the candle has gone out the first time, the elemental magician's powers will activate, causing whatever elements they control to react as powerfully as the magician has the potential affect them. Over the first few seconds, the force used will increase until it reaches its maximum potential. After demonstrating the power for approximately thirty seconds, the effects will discontinue. Depending on the amount of power used, the elemental magician may feel slightly drained."
"But I fainted!" said Harry. "The book didn't say that could happen! And the fire and wind kept increasing until the end of the spell! It didn't stop increasing after a few seconds! What went wrong?"
Sirius looked at Harry in awe. He took a deep breath. "If I had to guess, I'd say that you haven't seen your potential with those two elements, and since you used more power than anyone the writer had heard of, it drained you to the point of fainting."
"But it was only two elements!" argued Harry, "and I'm sure that something went haywire in the spell, not that I'm some super-powerful elemental sorcerer!"
Sirius shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to argue about this. He knew Dumbledore would be by later that week to do it. "How long does the book say it takes an elemental magician to learn how to use their powers to their full potential?"
After Harry checked the book, he frustratedly said, "Anywhere between one and five years, depending on how much power, mental discipline, and time the wizard has."
"Well, we can't do anything about your power. Hopefully your occlumency will help with the mental discipline. Hopefully you can devote enough time to it." Sirius took on a grim expression. "I hate to say it, but you're in a race against Voldemort. He wants to fight you as soon as he can, because he knows that you're growing in power every day, so his odds of survival keep decreasing. You need to be able to beat him when he faces you next. The Order of the Phoenix tries to delay that to help you prepare so that you'll win when that battle comes. Could you imagine if you didn't know this was going to happen?"
"I'd probably be creating excuses for not doing homework over the summer instead of preparing. When I finally faced Voldemort, I'd be completely outclassed and easily killed."
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Sirius soon asked Harry to give him the pensieve memory of the test so he could watch it. After he'd seen it, Sirius was more convinced than ever that he was right about Harry's powers. Unbeknownst to Harry, he discussed it with Dumbledore that day, even bringing him the memory to observe.
Beyond Harry's training, he was bored with his friends on vacation still. He'd been happy that they'd come for his birthday, but he wished they'd stayed. He was glad that they'd be returning for good - both the Weasleys and the Grangers - on Ginny's birthday. There would be a party at the Burrow - not a surprise one. It would be hard to hide the 'coincidence' that they went home on Ginny's birthday.
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When Dumbledore arrived to discuss elemental magic, he feigned ignorance and asked Harry, "Did you read the chapter I requested?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very good, Harry. Would you like to perform the test to determine if you have any elemental control?"
Harry looked down. "I, er, already tried it, but something went wrong."
Albus' eyes twinkled, "Are you saying that the elements didn't respond to you?"
"No, they did, but…it's hard to describe. Let me show you the memory so you can see what I did wrong."
After Harry showed him the memory of setting up and running the test, Dumbledore said merrily, "You did nothing wrong that I could detect. I believe that the spell simply didn't provide enough time for your elements, fire and air, to show their full potential."
Harry's eyes went wide as he began to believe it. "Then Sirius was right. Do I have to run a different test?"
"I don't think that will be necessary," said Dumbledore chuckling. "The point is that you can learn how to control fire and air, and have a lot of potential in both. That means that there's probably no use for either element that I've heard of that you won't be able to do with proper training. Now let's discuss what you learned from the chapter."
After an hour discussion, Dumbledore had Harry begin doing a simple exercise. Lighting a candle and blowing it out. It took Harry fifteen minutes of heavy concentration to do either. "I expect you to practice for an hour each day. You'll keep doing that until your time improves significantly, and then we'll work on other exercises."
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A week after that was Ginny's birthday, and Harry was happy to have his best friends back for the last few weeks of summer. He also knew that the girls were getting impatient, and he'd have to make a decision soon about which one he wanted to date. When his booklist from Hogwarts came, he found out that he and Hermione would be able to go to Hogsmeade (Sirius signed Harry's permission form), but Ginny was still too young. He wondered if he should let that factor into his decision.
Harry had Dobby organize the prank candy the twins had given him into separate containers based off of the affect on the eater in anticipation of returning to school. Hermione's parents let her stay the last few weeks of the summer at the Burrow, and they were all going to Diagon Alley with Harry and Sirius for school shopping.
The day before the trip, Harry was thinking about this as he sat down to try lighting the candle yet again. He'd been practicing for weeks, and it still took him fifteen minutes to get the thing to light. He had to admit, he was getting frustrated as it took him that long for each step of the process that night, too. He lay in bed and let his thoughts drift to other things as he went to sleep, anticipating his trip to Diagon Alley in the morning.
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