Allison picked Harry up from the Daycare, while his dad was visiting Eureka Division M. She had wanted to scan Harry on her magical scanner ever since the initial scan. She didn't let Jack know, but the readings were not of a maternal residue. The scanner didn't give details but it did let her know that the readings were of a magical signature that was too different to be from his mother. While it was possible that the signature was of his father, assuming his father had tried to charge his magical core when he was an infant, it was not similar enough to his own magical frequency.

That was the key to magic. Each witch or wizard had a frequency that their magic resonated at. Each magical frequency was different, which is why each wand or other focus was different and one focus didn't work the same as it did for another witch or wizard. Families, especially the more pure-blood oriented families such as in Great Britain, ended up with people who had very similar frequencies; this was why sometimes friends or family could borrow wands and have them work, because they had compatible frequencies. Some of them ended up with squibs, which had a magic that resonated at ultra-low frequencies that only a very special focus could harness. They had tried to get Winston a special focus when they discovered his frequency, but since he had never had one, and was well past his 21st birthday, his magic was almost dead. He had just enough magic to allow him to do potions and to not be affected by anti-mundane wards, but that was it. In fact, what little magic he did have was very potions oriented. As a witch, wizard, and in some cases, squib, ages, their magic becomes attuned to a specific area of magic. Those who are most talented with charms or transfiguration or healing, will become attuned to those spells and, while they are able to perform other spells, they will always find their specific area to be very easy and natural for them.

It amazed her that squibs even existed; a father could, during the first 21 days after birth, use his magic to charge the core of the child. It would prime the pump, so to speak, and get the magic flowing. The core would grow normally from there. But, apparently, that knowledge was lost to all but the Russians over time. Only the Russians still practiced the tradition of measuring a 3-day old newborn's core. If the core was already active, or hot, then the child was already a witch or wizard. If the core was cold, then the father could use his magic to ignite the core, and the child would be a witch or wizard. It's a little known fact that every human has a core; mundanes or muggles, have a cold core that remains cold; squibs have a cold core that becomes neutral; witches and wizards have a hot core. And during the 1800's the Russians managed to take a muggle child, one born without magic to 2 muggle parents who had a pure non-magical history, and ignite his core, turning him into a wizard. Sadly, the child, named Rasputin, went mad. They concluded that because the wizard who ignited his core was not his father, the magic destroyed his sanity because the magic and his thoughts were of two conflicting frequencies. A witch cannot ignite the core of another; her magic simply is not capable of doing so.

Allison had just arrived at her lab and was showing and explaining the equipment to Harry.

"And then I will lay you down on the table, and go into that little room right over there and activate the machine. You have to stay very still and not move even an inch. I can put straps on you to help you remember, but I don't want to do that. The machine will move all over you and take a scan, that is information about you, and tell me what the information is. It won't hurt and you can close your eyes and afterwards, I'll take you for ice cream."

"Ice cweam?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Ice Cream!" said Allison.

Harry smiled and he hopped up on the table and lay down and was very still. She scanned him 4 separate times just to be sure the calibrations on the machine were correct. Then she blanked the calibration and scanned him a fifth time. This was not good. She picked up the phone and called Jerry. Jerry was Division M's version of Henry. They weren't related but they were really good friends and colleagues. Jerry was as much a genius in magic as Henry was in science.

She asked Jerry to come and take a look at the results. He just happened to be at GD that day to work on a device designed to mimic the shield spell, so he arrived quickly. He took one look at the results and asked her if she had run the scan again.

"I ran it four times to be sure the calibrations were correct. Then I blanked the calibrations and ran an uncalibrated scan. The results were all the same," said Allison.

"Then there's no doubt. Something has latched on to Harry's magical core. I haven't seen readings like this since we…but that's impossible…it simply cannot be true…" said Jerry.

By that time, Henry had arrived. While he wasn't a wizard, he was still a genius, and his analytical mind, together with Jerry's mind, could lead to solutions that neither of them would see working alone.

"What cannot be true?" asked Henry.

"It is a little known fact, that section 5 and section U both do the same kind of work. I was working for section U when we happened across an artifact belonging to Herpo the Foul. This was a bust of Herpo saturated with dark magic and protective spells. We discovered it was his horcrux. We studied it and studied it, scanning and analyzing it and seeing how it reacted to different spells. We finally had to destroy it when it attempted to possess one of the researchers. The…thing inside of the bust…had the same attenuation frequency as whatever has latched onto Harry," said Jerry.

"What can we do?" said Allison.

"Well, there are several options, mainly geared toward someone possessed by dark magic. We can have the Goblins do a purification and purge ritual. We can contact the Magical Rites, and have them do an exorcism; we can perform some of the old charms, of which Dr. Lovegood is an expert. She might even have a solution that I don't know about. She is often the go-to expert in obscure things. I will setup a meeting with Dr. Lovegood as soon as we can," said Jerry, walking out of the door.

"Henry, any ideas?" asked Allison. Henry had been reading the screen for the past few minutes.

"We can setup a ward that neutralizes the attenuation frequency, but I'm not sure if it would affect his magic. It might be painful. We could even setup a technology, like our magic neutralization field and tune it to the frequency that would neutralize the thing, but that too might be painful. Our best bet might be trying to suppress it and keep it from manifesting rather than outright neutralization. I'll work with Jerry and see what we can come up with," said Henry, walking out the door to follow Jerry.

Allison felt a pull on her pants leg.

"Ice Cweam Ally?" said Harry, with his hands out for her to pick him up. She bent down and picked him up. "Yes Harry, we can get ice cream now," said Allison.

"Yaaaaaay, Ice Cweam… Ice Cweam… Ice Cweam… Ice Cweam… Ice Cweam…" Harry said, and babbled all the way to the Café Diem where Winston set Harry up with a vanilla and hot fudge (no caffeine) cup of ice cream.

Jerry went straight to Dr. Selena Lovegood's office to find that she was in her charms lab. He knocked on the door and waited. She opened the door a few minutes later.

"I suppose you are here about young Harry? Yes, a darkness has latched hold of him and you want to get rid of it?" asked Selena.

"Well…yes, how did…" asked Jerry. As smart as Jerry was, Selena Lovegood never ceased to amaze him. She knew things, just knew them. She wasn't an official Seer, as she had never made an official Prophecy, but he knew that she was a real Seer.

"Well, the best solution is to contact the Magical Rites of the Goblin Church. The exorcism rite will be the best to get rid of the darkness without harming young Harry. If that's not an option, then the second best option is the Blood Rites Purification Ritual, but that requires that we take Harry's blood on the 3rd moon of his fifth year of life and use it in the ritual to purify his magical core. There are 77 potions involved, each having to be brewed with his blood and each having to be brewed before the 8th moon of his 6th year and there is no room for error as if there is even the tiniest mistake, it will render him a squib. The 3rd and final option is to perform the Demon Repellment and Expulsion charm from the Pre-Merlin days, but it has a 1/3 chance of rendering Harry into a squib and a 1/3 chance of killing him. The Magical Rites Exorcism Rite is the only rite that won't kill him or render him into a squib. It is also the easiest to setup as he simply needs to have people who love him to be with him. Unfortunately, at his young age, he may not understand the ritual and his fear could render it ineffective. I recommend waiting until he is at least 3 or shows an understanding of what is going on before performing any ritual, and I strongly recommend the Exorcism. Swordtooth is a deacon, he can help with this. Good day," said Selena and she closed the lab's door.

Jerry stood there feeling dumbfounded, just like he felt every time he talked to Selena. Dr. Lovegood was a brilliant Charms Mistress. So far, in just 3 years of research, she had successfully invented over 35 charms, most of which were practical for everyday use and some of which were only practical for research and development purposes, but all of which worked as they were intended to work. Even though Jerry was 18 years her senior, he always felt like a student addressing a professor when he talked to Selena.

He started to walk away only to have Selena open the door again.

"Before you go, there is a charm that will suppress the darkness within Harry for a short amount of time, about 2 years maximum. It requires being recast every six months and will have to be dissipated for the rituals I mentioned. I will teach it to you tomorrow. It won't cause him any pain or disrupt his growth. However, if you choose to utilize this charm and you don't perform the rituals within the 2 year timeframe, once the charm is gone, the darkness in Harry will leech from his magical core and turn Harry into a Dark Lord that would make Tom Riddle, known to us as Voldemort, look like a paragon of the Light. Be careful. Once dissipated, the charm cannot be reapplied. You could use a piece of technology to suppress the darkness, but it would cause Harry tremendous pain and stunt his magical core's development, possibly even killing him. You could use a ward to suppress the darkness, but it would render him insane. The charm, while risky, presents the least amount of risk for a greater benefit. Your only other option is to not do anything. The Darkness, while present, does not present a great risk, at this time. However, once Harry turns 7, the first age of magical maturity, the Darkness could corrupt his soul and turn Harry dark. It will have to be removed before his fifth birthday, or it could infect his core, and once that happens, there is no ritual that would remove it, not even exorcism, without causing him great and possibly irreparable harm," said Selena, "So I shall see you tomorrow, unless you want me to cast the charm myself. It is best if the same person casts the charm each year, but it is not a requirement for the charm to function. If the original caster is not available or able to recast the charm, then someone of the same gender should recast it, preferably from the same family. Barring that, it should be someone that young Harry trusts," and Selena closed the door.

Jerry thought about what she said. A child's magical core was virtually impenetrable during their first 5 years of life. There was no known form of magic or ritual that could corrupt a child's core during that time. To witches and wizards, this was known as the time of innocence. Not even a muggle's cold core could be penetrated during this time. The day after their 5th birthday, the core opened, and became vulnerable. This was part of the overall growth process. The core would be stunted and useless if it remained invulnerable. This was when accidental magic began, although infants and toddlers did perform a limited amount of accidental magic, the bulk of accidental magic occurred from ages 5 through ages 13, with the accidental magic tapering off and finally stopping at the age of 30. This was because during the ages of 14 through 30, the magical core, while still growing, was stabilizing and finally stabilized permanently the day after a witch or wizard turned 31.

When he finally found Allison at the Café Diem, he pulled her aside to explain to her what Selena said. He figured she would be the best to explain it to Harry's dad. While they talked, Winston entertained Harry by drinking a potion that made him burp bubbles that giggled when they popped. Harry found this to be hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

Allison was distracted on the drive to Jack's and wondered how he would take the news.

Author's Note:

1. Thank you again to Jostanos for proofreading the story.

2. Thank you all for reading and for your reviews. In response to some of them: Sheriff Delacour will be back, and I will write the chapter for the Goblins soon, hopefully sooner than normal.

3. Thank you for your patience. I can only work on these and post 1X per month due to work and life. I will try to speed things up, but no promises.

4. Merry Christmas, Happy Nativity, Happy Holidays, and a Most Blessed and Happy New Year be to you all.

5. Re-read chapter 5 for a recap on the different sections of Division M; Section U is equivalent to Section 5.

6. I'm going to write a One-Shot for this story; please read it as it will be related but will not be a part of the main plot of this story so it will be a separate one shot.

7. Retconn alert: I apologize, but I have to alter the story ever so slightly. Selena Lovegood is now a Charms Mistress and Master of Obscure Magic and Knowledge. She is also a true Seer, even though she has never given a Prophecy; she sees the present, never the future. She also sees possibilities.