"I'm ready," Harry said, watching Dumbledore raise his wand toward the bracelet.
But before the Headmaster could tap it, Harry felt that a shift in his awareness.
His eyes darkened as the words formed in his mind:
[Three Hun and Seven Po - Chinese Mythology] – Costs 0CP, 175CP available to spend.
The dualism of existence is seen in all things, and this is all the more evident in the soul. A soul in this mythos is divided into two main parts, the hun and po. The hun is the ethereal/yang soul, tied to consciousness and existing independently of the body. The po, also known as the dense/yin soul, governs and is tied to the function of one's physical vessel. The effects of possessing this combined soul is twofold. Your mind is no longer affected by the ills and failings of your body, for it is divorced from such by the hun. Your body's condition is now affected by the state of your po, or physical soul; a healthy soul will help maintain your physical vessel in its prime condition, barring the interference of outside forces.
"Grandpa," Harry said quickly, "it's happening again. Another offer."
Dumbledore lowered his wand immediately. "What does it say exactly?"
Harry recited the words appearing in his mind: "Three Hun and Seven Po, from Chinese Mythology. It costs nothing, and I have 175 CP left." He paused, and then continued. "It talks about souls being split into two parts - hun and po. The hun is like... the thinking part that exists separate from the body, and the po is connected to the physical body. If I take it, my mind won't be affected by what happens to my body, and having a healthy soul will help keep my body healthy too."
Dumbledore's usual composed demeanor cracked. His mouth fell open slightly, and for once he looked genuinely shocked rather than just mildly surprised.
The reaction made Harry nervous, he'd never seen his grandfather figure look so startled before.
"Could you... repeat that description one more time?" Dumbledore asked carefully, holding a hand against his forehead. "Word for word, if you can."
Harry did so. When he was finished, Dumbledore sank back onto his purple cushion, looking thoughtful and slightly troubled.
"The ancient Chinese wizards wrote extensively about the Hun and Po souls, but most modern scholars dismissed their work as metaphorical rather than literal." He stroked his beard, lost in thought. "To think they might have been right all along in some fashion..."
"Is it dangerous?" Harry asked, remembering how quickly Dumbledore had warned him away from the zombie offer.
"No, quite the opposite," Dumbledore said slowly. "If I understand correctly, this would grant you a form of protection that most Chinese wizard-scholars spend many decades trying and failing to achieve through meditation and study."
"Will it interfere with the Occlumency training?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore shook his head. "Most likely not. Even if this Hun Soul separates your mind from physical limitations, it shouldn't put your thoughts out of reach. The mind would still be there to protect, just... less bound by bodily constraints."
Harry nodded slowly. It wasn't that his mind would float away or become untouchable, it would just work independently of things like being tired or hurt. Like how his eagle body could still think clearly even when the brain was clearly not that of a human. This Hun Soul actually resembled the Animagus transformation quite a bit, in fact, but on a more permanent basis…
"Should I take it then?" he asked, looking up at Dumbledore.
"Yes, you should take it," Dumbledore said softly. "From what I understand, it will only be beneficial."
Harry nodded and accepted the offer. Not long after, a deep, intense sensation started in his chest and spread outward. It wasn't painful like when he first got his chi paths, but it was strong.
It felt as if someone was carefully restructuring his entire body from the inside out.
The feeling spread through him in waves. His chi paths, which he'd mapped so carefully over months of practice, suddenly felt different. Stronger. Where before they'd been like small streams of warm energy, now they felt like channels carved in smoothened stone.
The energy rushing became denser as well.
"Something's happening with my chi," Harry quietly told Dumbledore.
He held up his hand, wanting to test this new feeling.
Harry focused on the simple exercise he'd done hundreds of times before. He started by gathering chi below his heart, where the main warmth lived. He guided it down his arm, following the path he knew led to his palm. Usually this took some control to keep the chi going smoothly, but now it moved a lot easier.
When the chi pooled in his palm, Harry noticed another difference.
It felt more... complete somehow.
He let it spark into flame above his hand, and his eyes widened at what he saw.
Instead of the usual orange flame, a bright blue fire hovered over his palm. It was hotter, he could feel that immediately, but also more controlled.
"Amazing," Harry whispered, quickly understanding what had happened. The improved chi paths meant better energy flow, and better flow meant hotter, more efficient flames. It was like upgrading from a rickety old Cleansweep Four to a brand-new Comet 260, everything just moved a lot better...
Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something, but Harry felt another shift beginning.
He closed his eyes and felt that something deeper and harder to grasp was… blooming?
But then a sudden warmth at his hip drew his attention next! The Hero's Journal seemed to slowly lose physical substance. Harry felt rather than saw it dissolve, flowing into him like water soaking into soil. But that wasn't quite right either. It wasn't flowing into his body, but into something else.
Something that felt vast and ethereal, yet was undeniably him.
His Hun Soul.
The part of him that thought and dreamed and existed beyond mere flesh. The Journal wasn't just bound to him anymore, no, it was becoming part of his very essence!
The enchantments that had been placed on the Journal before he entered the Vault of Fear shifted and changed. He could feel them integrating into this deeper part of himself until you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. The protections against poison and disease, and the slight resistance to magic… they weren't just enchantments anymore.
They were innately part of him.
Harry paused when what he'd assumed was a talent for Alchemy twisted and revealed itself as an instinctual affinity for Potions instead.
And there was more…
The Journal's ability to record and hint had evolved. Instead of just writing in a book, Harry could feel gentle nudges in his mind. It resembled having a friend tap your shoulder to point something out, except the friend was part of your soul and the shoulder was your thoughts.
When the transformation was finished, Harry opened his eyes and held out his hand.
The Hero's Journal appeared in his palm, but this wasn't the real Hero's Journal. The true Journal lived in his Hun Soul, and this book was just how it chose to show itself in the physical world.
Harry looked at Dumbledore, wondering how to explain what had just happened.
How could he describe feeling his own soul split and reform? How could he put into words the way the Hero's Journal had become more than just an enchanted soul-bound book, but had rather become an innate part of him?
"The Hero's Journal changed," Harry said slowly. "It's not just a book anymore. It's... part of me now."
"What do you mean, my boy?"
"Before, it was like having a special book that only I could read. Now it's more like..." Harry scrunched up his face, trying to find the right words. "Like having another part of myself that can give me hints. And all the special enchantments put on it, they're part of me too now."
He closed his eyes. "I can feel them. The protection against poison and disease, and the magic resistance, they're not just spells on a book anymore. They're mixed into my soul."
He opened his eyes and looked up at Dumbledore. "Both parts of my soul. The hun and the po."
"And your firebending?" Dumbledore gestured to Harry's hand.
"It's better now. Stronger..." Harry demonstrated by creating another small blue flame. "See? The fire's blue now because the energy flows better. I had already mapped all of my chi paths before, but I can feel now that my control had still been lacking in the end."
"And what did it feel like, Harry? The soul transformation?" Dumbledore asked. His blue eyes sparkled with curiosity behind his half-moon spectacles.
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Kind of like... when you're drawing and you can see the picture in your head, but then you actually start putting it on paper and it becomes real? Except instead of drawing, it was like something was drawing me. Making me more... me. It is difficult to explain."
Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up. "In other words, you can actually feel both aspects of your soul?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded, "but I think it's because of the Journal and my chi paths. The Journal went into my Hun Soul, the thinking part. And my chi paths feel like… a reflection of my Po Soul, the body part. So I can feel both of them changing and working."
He shifted on his cushion, trying to put his thoughts in order. "And, I think I can feel them because they just changed. Like how I learned to map my chi paths because I didn't have them before. If I was born with chi, it would just feel normal, and I wouldn't know what was chi and what wasn't."
"Most wizards who study soul magic spend decades trying to achieve such awareness of the soul." Dumbledore said softly.
Harry shrugged. "After a while, I'd probably stop noticing them at all. I can feel my souls right now because they're new and different, though I feel I won't forget because of my eidetic memory. But… can we try the bracelet now? I want to see if the bracelet will still work after this transformation of my soul!"
Dumbledore chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Are you certain? This has been quite an eventful afternoon already."
"Yes!" Harry looked at the red bracelet on his wrist in anticipation.
"Very well," Dumbledore said, tapping the red bracelet with his wand.
Three seconds later, Harry felt as if someone had poured static noise directly into his head. It wasn't painful, but it felt very strange, as if trying to think through many thoughts at the same time.
His first instinct was to fight against it or push it away.
But he remembered Dumbledore's advice about letting it happen. Harry took a deep breath and tried to stay calm, letting the static buzz through his thoughts without resisting it.
That's when he noticed something interesting, though not unexpected. The static seemed to only affect his Hun Soul, the thinking part. His chi paths and the way his body moved remained clear and unchanged.
It was like having noise in an upstairs room while the downstairs stayed quiet.
"I can feel where it's affecting me," Harry whispered. "It's only in my Hun Soul, not the Po Soul."
"Hmm," Dumbledore tilted his head. "The bracelet was designed to create general mental interference. The fact that you can distinguish which aspect of your soul it affects suggests your new dual-soul nature is already providing benefits."
The static grew stronger, becoming more like a loud buzz than gentle white noise. Harry focused on his breathing, remembering his meditation practice.
He could do this. Just stay calm and let it pass...
After about a minute, the static faded away. Harry blinked a few times, adjusting to the sudden quiet in his mind.
"How did that feel?" Dumbledore asked.
"Weird," Harry said honestly. "But not as bad as I thought it would be. It's easier when I can tell exactly where it's happening instead of it just being all mixed up in my head."
Dumbledore nodded approvingly. "Shall we increase the intensity and try again?"
Harry straightened up on his cushion. "Yes please!"
Dumbledore tapped the bracelet again, and this time the static hit much harder. Where before it had been a gentle buzz, now it felt like thousands of voices all speaking at once, creating a deafening roar in Harry's Hun Soul.
He tried to stay calm, to let it pass over him like before, but the sheer intensity made it impossible to focus. His thoughts scattered like startled birds, refusing to settle. Even with his eidetic memory, he couldn't hold onto a single clear idea as each attempt at concentration shattered under the overwhelming noise.
"I- I can't-" Harry stammered, gripping the cushion tightly with both hands.
His Po Soul remained steady, but his Hun Soul felt like it was drowning in chaos.
"Breathe, Harry," Dumbledore's voice came from somewhere far away.
"Remember, you don't need to fight it."
But Harry couldn't find the calm center he'd maintained before.
The static was too loud, too overwhelming.
Just when he thought he couldn't take anymore, Dumbledore tapped the bracelet again and the static vanished.
Harry sucked in a big breath as he tried to calm himself.
"Well," Dumbledore said gently, "I believe we've found your current limit."
"That was..." Harry shook his head, trying to clear the lingering echoes of chaos. "It was overwhelming."
"Indeed. Having separate souls may help you identify where the interference occurs, but it doesn't automatically grant immunity to its effects." Dumbledore conjured a glass of water and handed it to Harry. "This is why we practice, to gradually build tolerance to such mental intrusions."
Harry took a sip of water with shaky hands. "At least my Po Soul stayed stable…"
"A significant advantage," Dumbledore agreed.
Harry nodded. "Can we try again? Maybe if I start with meditation first..."
Dumbledore held up a hand. "I think that's enough for now. Remember, Harry, the goal isn't to master everything at once. Progress takes time, even with your gifts."
"But-"
"No buts," Dumbledore said firmly, though his eyes twinkled. "Besides, I believe you have a painting session scheduled with Professor McGonagall this afternoon? It would be a shame to miss it because you've exhausted yourself with Occlumency practice."
"My session with Aunt Min is the day after tomorrow at 2 PM," Harry corrected automatically. "But I suppose I could use the free time this afternoon to practice capturing what the static felt like in my sketchbook."
"An excellent idea," Dumbledore said, standing up and vanishing the purple cushions with a wave of his wand. "Sometimes expressing these experiences through art can help us understand them better."
"Thank you, Grandpa," Harry said, getting up and heading toward the office door.
He paused with his hand on the handle. "Do you think... do you think my parents would be proud? Of how I'm learning all this?"
Dumbledore's expression softened. "Without a doubt, my boy. Without a doubt."