Mystery of Heart Trees

Dreadfort Castle

POV of Domeric Bolton

Domeric, or Harry as he was once called was not much of a botanist. No, that badge would go to Neville who was a genius when it came to understanding and nurturing magical plants. But he had learned Herbology in Hogwarts until his 7th year and some of the lessons he learned in those classes stuck in his mind.

So, with his knowledge of magical plants and the help of all the history books in Maester's library, it didn't take him very long to understand the mystery that was in the Weirwood tree.

And the first thing he found out about them was that they were not nature's creation, but man-made. Or 'Children' made if that made sense. From what little he could find out from the history and his own research; he was sure that Heart trees were just Weirwood trees that the children carved a face on. But that was not all there was to it.

He was sure that some kind of sacrifice was used to create the Heart trees. He would have guessed that the Children used human sacrifices but the first humans to ever arrive in Westeros were the first men and the Weirwood trees have already existed in the Continent if history is to be believed.

Perhaps the Children used to sacrifice other Children for the purpose but from what he had heard of them, they seemed like a peaceful species, so he somehow doubted that. Maybe they just used their blood to create new Heart trees. Blood sacrifices, after all, were rather common even in his past life.

The particular event in which the rat forcibly took his blood to revive his dark master came to mind before he shook his head and removed such thoughts with the help of Occlumency.

The main reason why Heart trees were so different from other Weirwood trees aside from the face carved into them was that the Weirwood trees were able to tap into the magical network running through the world and are connected in some way to the Old Gods.

He was not 100% sure but he had a feeling that if he had the ability of the seers, then he would be able to use the magical network from the Weirwood tree to look at anything and everything that happens in the world. However, in the end, he was not a seer, and this speculation would remain just that.

He turned to many Weirwood saplings that he had tried to grow with the help of his magic and found that none of them had connected to the magical network going around the world.

That was unfortunate. He was sure that if put a lot of time and effort into it then he'll be able to create a proper Heart tree. Something that would generate magical energy and increase the level of ambient magic in the world allowing his magic to regenerate at a faster rate and to have a large magic reserve over time.

But now he was the lord of his own lands, and he had plans to bring new reforms in these lands, so it was doubtful that he'd have enough time to research the magical trees.

In the end, he probably had to go North and search for Children of the Forest. If they even exist in the world anymore. He hoped they did. The people in the world already seem intent on killing magical beings. If possible, he'll help the magical beings and try to protect as many of them as possible.

But these things had to wait for a while because he had more urgent things to do right now.

Like improving his body and finding himself a teacher or teachers if necessary for his swordsmanship and other war arts training.

He already started to improve his body in the early mornings. He was accustomed to some training methods from his past life as an auror. After all, everybody knew that a standing auror was as same as a dead auror.

But auror training was mostly about improving someone's dodging skills, reflexes, aim, and stamina. It was a good start for his untrained 7-year-old body but definitely not enough. He also needed to improve other aspects of his body like strength and agility.

And for these and other things, he needed good teachers, not like half-baked ones in his castle.

'I need to talk about this with my Auntie. As my regent, it was her responsibility to provide him with education and training that was deemed necessary and appropriate things. But she still an unofficial regent.'

When he became a lord, he appointed his aunt as his regent but to make it official he had to get approval from his Lord Paramount who is Lord Eddard Stark, the Warden of The North.

He also had to go to Winterfell soon and give his oath of fealty and bend his knee to his Lord Paramount, Lord Eddard Stark which displeased him a lot. But he knew when to adapt. Till became powerful enough to live as he wished he had to adapt to this world's rules.

But that didn't mean that he couldn't use his magical powers to gain some edges from others or create some opportunities for himself.

"Well… what kind of surprise shall I prepare for 'my Lord Paramount'? Ah, I need to inform him about my visit to Winterfell, right? I hope he likes my letter."

If he had to play this game with others' rules for now, at least he would play with his style.

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