Snake Eyes

"I know I'm new to this, but I am fairly certain that's impossible." Luke said.

"Yeah, well you try telling that to the old hag, Rita Skeeter." Albus replied.

It was Sunday afternoon and Albus who hadn't fallen asleep until dawn was just getting up. He and Luke had decided to go down to Hagrid's but upon arrival had found a note from Hagrid saying he was out in the forest caring for Arista, the eldest of Aragog's kin. So, the two of friends decided to just walk around, waiting for an idea of what to do to pop in their heads.

"I can't believe they're making you do that." Luke said.

"I swear that look on Ravensddole's face made it seem like she was getting some sort of satisfaction out of it." Albus said.

"Well, I'm telling you, if she finds out that you did magic without a wand..."

"Well, no one else seemed to notice, but Skeeter seems to have a way of finding out things people don't want her to know." Albus stated.

"What time do you have to meet her at?" asked Luke.

"Tonight at eleven." Albus.

"Well, good luck," Luke laughed.

Albus sighed, "I'm going to go see if Rose will let me copy her History of Magic essay, you want to come with?"

Luke started to run ahead of Albus towards the castle, "Have you ever known me do my own work?"

Albus walked the horrid walls of the castle's second-floor. He hadn't any choice and if it were up to him he'd be up in Gryffindor Tower still, however Rita Skeeter had convinced the school to somehow get him for an interview. Past the bloody stains that had frustrated Argus Filch for years since it was spread across the walls in his father's days he walked towards the classroom that had been set up for the interview.

As he entered the dark room he noticed that the journalist hadn't yet arrived. While he was waiting he thought again about the mysterious power he had displayed at the Racing match. He wondered, would it be possible to do that again? Could he do this mysterious wandless magic once more? He closed his eyes and under his breath he murmured, "Lumos."

He opened his eyes to see a faint light hovering at his fingertips. So he could do it again. He was about to go in for a closer examination when he heard someone walk in. He quickly put out his light and turned to see a beaming Rita Skeeter enter the room. She was as she had been in pictures of herself from a couple of years ago that Albus had seen. Same stiff blond hair, same claw like nails, same rhinestone glasses that glistened a little even in the dim light and she smiled a devilish grin, exposing her few golden and gleaming white teeth. Her face looked a little more wrinkled, but Albus figured she must have a ton of magical cosmetics in her crocodile-skin handbag to keep herself looking much younger than she really is. She walked over to Albus and without a word sat down in a chair across from him and took out an acid green quill and a long sheet of parchment. Finally, she adjusted her glasses and leaned in closer than Albus felt comfortable with, "Hello, Albus, dear."

"Hullo," Albus leaned back uncomfortably.

"Well, let's get right down to it, shall we? So, apparently you're the new Racing star here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She said.

"Yes."

"Well I think that's just fabulous." Rita said, "Now, I can ask you about the match and the aftermath and how you felt later, what I want to know is how you explain this." She reached into her handbag and pulled out a moving picture. It was of Albus pushing aside students and splitting the stone bridge in half without the aid a wand. "Well?"

"How did you get that?" Albus demanded.

"Well, I was passing in through Diagon Alley when I dropped by the Daily Prophet's main office. Well, I went in and naturally, the chief sports Quidditch correspondent of the paper, your mother, was standing around with some of her colleges talking and I heard her mention that she was going to your brother Quidditch match which surprised her because she wasn't being sent there. In fact, she hadn't even heard about it until your father told which made no sense that the paper wasn't telling her to go cover the match. So, naturally I figured there might be a story to find out about, but I was busy on another assignment, so I sent one of my photographers and he brought me back this picture. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that it had been you competing in a Race and my even greater surprise at what was going on in the picture," Rita spun the picture in front of Albus.

Albus was nervous. He knew he couldn't reveal the truth, she published that he was some sort of nutter that needed to be locked up, "Well, you may not know it, but Hogwarts' new magical boundaries have had spell enhancing effects these last few years."

Rita leaned her face farther in and said, "Not that, you didn't have a wand with you. My photographer says he saw you lose it about a minute before this picture was taken."

"Really," Albus' left eyebrow lifted and he pulled out his wand from his pocket, "Then how do you explain this?"

Rita's jaw dropped, "There's no way you could have that."

Albus laughed, "Who's the nutter now, huh?"

Just then a loud boom, as if the sound barrier had been broken within the halls of Hogwarts castle, erupted from nearby. Both he and the phony journalist forgot their confrontation and jumped out of their seats and out the door. As they ran down the halls, they arrived at a doorway where an echo of the noise seemed to remain. It was the girls' lavatory. THE girl lavatory, where the horror of past times lie still. Albus dashed through the wet floors into the bathroom. As he arrived he saw the sinks were all crushed together. On top of the destroyed taps lay many small little pieces of wood.

Albus was taking it all in, unaware of the screaming Rita Skeeter next to him, when a dozen footsteps were heard and several staff members and students led by Harry entered the lavatory.

Harry walked over to the mess a picked up the wooden remains atop the ruined sinks, "Elder. The Elder Wand." He muttered louder then he probably realized.

"Hiya, Harry." said a young girl's voice from behind Albus.

"Now not a good time, Myrtle." Harry said to the ghost of a young girl behind them.

"It never is with you." Myrtle pouted and she dived into one of the toilets.

Albus was horrified. He was looking directly into the dark green eyes jewels that were the eyes of the engraved snake on one of the sinks.

"Albus," a loud voice from a distant land said, "Albus!" But he just stared at the eyes. It was frightening him. It seemed to be doing something to him, internally. He could feel power in his hands. An amplified version power he felt from the wandless magic of his prior experiences. His father still calling him but Albus wasn't listening. Instead, without thinking he ran off.

He would go anywhere, anywhere, to get away from the bathroom. He followed his legs until he reached a place that took Albus a moment to realize where it was. He was in his father's office, staring over the Pensieve that his father had inherited from Albus Dumbledore. Albus instinctively leaned in and as his face touched the silvery surface, he felt his feet leave the ground as he was plunged into a brief darkness and taken thrown back into a dim light as he saw the sun was just rising, standing over a teenage boy. The boy looked just like Albus except he was taller with a little more mature features and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Before him sat an old man with a great silver beard, piercing blue eyes and half-moon spectacles that stood before them. It was a man who Albus had heard some much about and seen so little of. He was staring at Albus Dumbledore.

"Why did he do it, then?" Albus looked back down at his father who appeared to be shaking, "Why did he try and kill me as a baby? He should have waited to see whether Neville or I looked more dangerous when we were older and tried to kill whoever it was them-"

Dumbledore nodded in agreement, "That might, indeed, have been the more practical course, except that Voldemort's information about the prophecy was incomplete. The Hog's Head Inn, which Trelawney chose for its cheapness, has long attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks. As you and your friends found out at your own cost, and I mine that night, it is a place where it is never safe to assume you are not being overheard. Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sybill Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing. My-our-one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "So he only heard…?"

Dumbledore nodded, "He only heard the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you-again marking you as his equal. So Voldemort never knew there might be danger in attacking you that it might be wise to wait or to learn more. He did know that you would have 'the power the Dark Lord knows not'-"

Harry stood up, "But I don't!" he sat back down, struggling to calm himself, "I haven't any powers he hasn't got, I couldn't fight him the way he did tonight, I can't posses people or-or kill them-"

Dumbledore lowered his voice to nearly a whisper, "There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power also took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession from Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment before opening them as he began to speak again, "The end of the prophecy…it was something about…'neither can live…'"

"'…while the other survives'" said Harry Potter of the present from behind Albus, "Come, I think the present awaits us." And the two left the depths of the Pensieve.

Back in Harry's office, Albus felt his face become wet. It was tears, he soon realized. He was crying. It wasn't the memory he had seen but the events in real-time that had just taken place, this mysterious destructive force and the strange powers that were being wielded by Albus. Harry went down on his knees and hugged his son. "Albus, I don't know what happening, but I know this- you were born for a reason. A time when you would be needed, but I can't have you worrying."

Albus wasn't sure why powerful magical items were being destroyed and felt that all he could do is watch. Meanwhile, he felt this mysterious power gaining control over his magical abilities.

Then he remembered something from the memory.

"Dad?" asked Albus asked his father, "What exactly did Professor Dumbledore mean when he told you that there was a greater power that you had, that Voldemort could never obtain?"

"It was something you have to. Something only the wickedest of people don't have. People who really aren't even people. It's love Albus, we have that power of love and that, beyond any other force in our way, is the greatest power anyone could ever have. That night in the Pensieve, it saved me. I wanted to die but my love for my godfather, Sirius was so great, that it gave me a strength I hadn't had before. Love."

Father and son hugged once more, refusing to let go and sat in each other's grips for a long time.