What May Become

A/N: The concept of 'broomstick water-skiing' belongs to Jill Murphy, author of the excellent 'The Worst Witch' books. This story is set some forty-five or fifty years before the day of the Trio - as a result, some of the Hogwarts customs (such as Parents' Day and minimum ages for Quidditch teams) are different, I figure that this is fair artistic licence, as school traditions do tend to change over time. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and I promise to put 'em back when I'm done.

Young Professor Albus Dumbledore swung back on the legs of his chair, and propped his boots up on the writing table. He had just been handed the most odious of all jobs bequeathed to junior teachers; the bestowing of a good strong telling-off onto misbehaving students. The mischief on this particular occasion had been unusually spectacular, and Headmaster Dippet had generously 'allowed' Albus to take this 'opportunity' to gain the experience of meting out discipline to students. Albus privately felt that perhaps the Headmaster simply hadn't felt up to the occasion; a fear Albus himself perfectly understood. Yet he was still having difficulty keeping the laughter out of his voice - now that the incident was safely over - and adopting a suitably grave and stentorian tone.

That afternoon had been Hogwarts' Annual Parents' Day, when the witch and wizard relatives of Hogwarts students were invited to partake in a school Feast and witness traditional displays of fire, water, earth and air magics. The two students Albus was about to interview had waited until the middle of the House Broom Waterskiing display down at the lake to use a Switching Spell - simple, but effectively and powerfully done - to transfrom the ornamental centrepiece around which the teams were skiing into a particularly large, angry and confused giant squid. In the ensuing panic, three sets of parents had fainted, eight broomsticks were irreparably damaged, someone's grandmother had had a minor heart attack, and the entire Hufflepuff team had been seized by the squid and almost transformed into reverse-calamari. Only the efforts of Professors Horatio and Calderon, the Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers, had been sufficient to calm the squid into releasing its prey, and the entire faculty was now at a loss as to how to remove the creature from the lake, where it had last been seen happily splashing around in circles making faces at the Mer-people.

Albus' unwelcome guests filed into the room. There was a moment's awkward pause as the miscreants shuffled their feet on the threadbare Turkish carpet of the office Albus had recently inherited from Madame Hildebrandt, then - "Professor Dumbledore, sir!" the boy burst out. "You must listen, it was all my idea. I thought of it, and I'm the one who talked Min into doing it, so you mustn't punish her - "

"You liar!" the girl interrupted, a suprisingly deep Scottish purr belying her scrawny build. "We looked up the Switching Spell together, Professor, and I'm the one who started the idea in the first place when we were looking at - ".

Albus marvelled again at how alike they were. Aside from the fact that the girl wore robes trimmed with gold and scarlet while the boy wore silver and green, they could have been brother and sister, could have been twins. Both walked with the same lurching gawkiness on the same tall, angular frame that would one day translate into sweeping power and grace. Both had sooty hair and thin pale faces framing dark eyes that sparkled with mischief and intelligence and a mysterious something deeper that Albus could not quite place. The squid-switching had been an extraordinary feat in itself for a twelve-year-old second-year witch and wizard to carry out; made more remarkable by the fact that it was unusual under any circumstances for a Gryffindor and a Slytherin to be such close friends. Consciously or not, Albus had been watching the boy and girl this past year since he'd arrived back at Hogwarts as a teacher. "You will learn, my boy," Headmaster Dippet had instructed him "that every year of this school from time immemorial has had a set of trouble-makers just as bad, or worse, and that it is imperative that they be soundly squashed as soon as wizardly possible."

But he couldn't help feeling that it would be a pity to squash these two, giant squid, Switching Spells, comatose parents and all. He had an idea that the commencement of third year, when students were deemed old enough to apply for the House Quidditch teams, would make a world of difference to the girl, who showed considerable promise as both a Chaser and a Keeper. As for the boy, while he excelled in all his subjects, his Ancient Runes and Potions work were of a preternaturally high standard for a child of his age, and Albus meant to have a word to Professors Helquist and Abernathy about special tuition before the evening was out.

He held up a hand, staring both of them into silence. "I am not interested in whose consciousness today's particular piece of idiocy originated. I would say that I am disappointed in both of you, but as so many teachers have said this to you already I fear that it will not have much effect. Let us consider the wrongs for which the two of you have been punished since only the beginning of this year." Albus waved his hand, and a large volume appeared open on his lap. "Trapping your classmate Augustus Flitwick on the roof of Greenhouse One and leaving him there for five hours on Christmas Eve. Attempting to exorcise Professor Binns during double History of Magic. Stealing a soft toy chimaera belonging to a first-year named - " Albus consulted his notes "- Rubeus Hagrid, holding it to ransom, then auctioning it off in the Gryffindor common room. Setting Miss Clymnestra Weasley's hair on fire because, and I quote, 'nobody would be able to tell the difference anyway'. And then the matter of today's little unscheduled exhibition."

The boy and girl looked down at the floor, stifling guilty smiles.

"Parents head down to the lake expecting a nice display of water magics for Parents' Day, and are instead horrified to see a monster attacking their children. You must surely understand that this reflects badly on Hogwarts. It shows a lack of judgement and forethought among our students, and severe lack of discipline from our teachers. Not to mention the fact that the entire Hufflepuff broomstick-waterskiing team is now confined to the hospital wing until Professor Everglade is able to figure out how to remove tentacle scars from various parts of their anatomies. All in all, not a pleasant day for anyone - not even the giant squid, which I imagine would be far more comfortable at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean".

Albus paused. "I understand that neither of you had family able to attend today's festivities?"

The boy gazed out the window, scowling ferociously, but the girl just shrugged a skinny shoulder. "My parents breed Hippogriffs, see? Can't leave 'griffs alone in foaling season, sir" - she grinned disarmingly - "however much you might want to."

"So, deprived of the company of your own families, you decided to ruin the day for the other students."

The grin dropped abruptly off the girl's face, and Albus looked from one set of angry dark eyes to another. "I will freely tell you now that the pair of you are easily the most gifted students in your year, perhaps already the most powerful in this school." He smiled as the boy and girl exchanged shocked glances at this unexpected compliment. "If you were not, I dare say, you would not be capable of causing so much trouble. However, there is one lesson that Hogwarts has to teach you that you have not yet managed to learn". Albus leaned back even further on the chair, closing his eyes. "It is a truth for all witches and wizards that when we deal with each other, as when we deal with Muggles and with lesser creatures, the strong must not be allowed to stand over the weak. While your pranks and jokes seem like harmless fun to the two of you, you cross a line when you choose to hurt others, to humiliate them or destroy their pleasure in the name of your own satisfaction. You crossed that line today, and did yourself no credit in the process."

Albus lowered his chair, placing his hands flat on the desk, and surveyed the students. While the girl called Min was now blinking down at her shoes, her face flushed a magnificent shade of fuschia and her mouth twisted on the verge of guilty tears, the boy remained glaring at the window, his face a mask of sullen defiance.

"I see tremendous potential in both of you, Miss McGonagall, Mr. Riddle. But you must be aware that potential may be twisted into evil just as easily as it can be encouraged to grow upright and true. The way you have behaved today is not the way of wizardkind; nor, I hope, will it ever be. There will be no punishment on this occasion; it has been tried and failed on both of you too many times before. The only punishment that will satisfy me is that which your conscience can mete out to you. I ask you now to return to your dormitories for the night, and please to think. Think of the extra work you have created for your teachers, think of the cherished possessions you have destroyed, and think of the consequences of your actions upon a group of innocent students who only wished to give their families a pleasant day. Tom, Minerva, I will tell you both now that strength without compassion can turn to arrogance and cruelty in the blink of an eye. If you are not capable of learning this lesson while you are young, while there is still time, I must honestly say that I do not know what may become of you."

Epilogue:

They walked part of the way back together, past the Charms classrooms. Tom found a piece of rubber balloon left over from Parents' Day lying outside the Great Hall, and kicked it fiercely down the corridor.

"What a load of old cobbler's. That's bloody Albus Dumbledore for you, only two years out of Hogwarts himself and already thinks he can tell everyone everything."

"I don't know." Minerva's face was all hooded eyes and deep shadows in the low light, and Tom had a sudden, creepy impression of what she would look like as an old, old woman. "I think he might've had a point, sort of. I mean, I do feel sort of bad that we..."

"That's just what he wants you to think, Min. Think he gives a toss about some stupid water-skiiers getting cuddled by old Sqiudley? Nah, he's just piling on the guilt so you won't be any more trouble, and he can spend all his time playing Exploding Snap with his precious Hufflepuffs or something."

There was a silence as they stopped at the point where the corridors bifurcated. Tom punted his balloon through the doorway of the Entrance Hall and silently cheered his 'goal'; he still hadn't quite gotten over his fixation with Muggle football. Holding the candle out in front of her, Min carefully snapped it in two, lit the second half and passed it to her friend. "We'd both better get some sleep if we want to be ready for class tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

Tom took the candle stub. "Alright then."

"Goodnight, Tom."

"Goodnight, Minerva."

And they walked down the corridor their separate ways.