Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
When he returned to Hogwarts, Alexander was surprised to find a depressed Hermione Granger sitting at his usual table in the library. Despite having made up with his brother, he wasn't sure if he was ready for another emotionally turbulent conversation so soon, finding them strangely exhausting. Unfortunately, as Alexander decided to find a new table, Hermione looked up and gave him such a gut-twistingly hopeful expression, that he couldn't find it within himself to walk away. With a sigh, he approached.
"Evening, Hermione. What happened?" Alexander asked. He reasoned something must have happened as otherwise, she wouldn't be here now.
"Hello, Alexander," she gave him a beaming smile that he didn't return. The smile then faded. "Harry and Ron aren't talking to me."
It took a moment of silence for Alexander to realize he should say something. "That's horrible," he said, digging through his bag for his quill.
Hermione didn't seem to note his disinterest. "It is! All I did was tell Professor McGonagall that Harry got a broomstick for Christmas! With Sirius Black on the loose, I thought he should be safe!"
"From killer broomsticks," Alexander muttered. Hermione nodded happily.
"Exactly! But he and Ron are throwing the most childish fit and now refuse to talk to me. When will they realize I was trying to help?"
Alexander grunted, and Hermione sighed. "Well, enough about me. How was your break?" she asked primly.
"It was good. I spent it with my family. A nice relaxing holiday which was just what I needed after the doom and gloom spread by the Dementors," Alexander said. He very carefully tried not to think about The Talk, that his father gave him the night before he left. Alexander was still trying to blot it out of his mind.
"That's good. I'm a little sad I didn't go home this year. But if I hadn't, Harry might have been cursed!" Hermione began to fret, pulling at her hair.
"So, did you finish our Potions homework? Snape wanted two feet on growing potions, but I only have one and a half," Alexander said. It immediately derailed Hermione's thoughts.
"Two feet? I wrote four!"
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
The next few weeks were a novel experience for Alexander. For the past three years, the most interaction he had with his fellow students was during lessons, usually when they were paired to work on some project, and they had to work together and communicate to accomplish the given task. Because of this, he was used to spending long hours in the library researching or practicing magic in his hidden workspace.
So having Hermione Granger join him every time he entered the library was a novel experience considering that she could read books as fast as he could. However, as the weeks passed by, he noted a significant difference between their chosen reading material.
Hermione focused on whatever course work the professors assigned, religiously reading the assigned books to the point where she could quote portions of them from memory. When she read outside of those areas, it was always theoretical, never anything that she would practice or use. Even worse were the thick historical tomes she loved reading, that contained dry and useless information that no one, except a historian, would ever need.
Alexander, by contrast, read the theory behind as many different branches of magic as he could, and often experimented to see how the magic worked. He had a passion for runes and would spend hours pouring over their translations, and reading how various combinations worked. He loved magic that could be used, reveling in it.
Still, despite their differing choice in reading material, Alexander found himself enjoy the company of someone who could intellectually keep up with him. Although, he did find it trying when she went off on a hero-worshipping tangent, holding professors all over Hogwarts in high regard, despite their lackluster teaching abilities. The more she talked about the work of other great witches and wizards, the more Alexander wondered if she didn't want to stand equal to them. But if she did, why didn't she study magic instead of history?
At the beginning of February, Hermione approached Alexander in the library, blushing up a storm. "Alexander, do you have a minute?"
He looked up from his book. "Sure. What's up, Hermione?" She looked unusually flushed to his eyes. Was she sick?
"Are you going to Hogsmeade with anyone?" she asked, nervous. That wasn't at all what Alexander was expecting.
"No?" he said.
"WillyougottoHogsmeadewithme?" she said in a rush.
Alexander blinked, trying to untangle that in his head. And then he blinked again once he realized what she was asking. Realizing he was staring at an increasingly nervous Gryffindor, he replied, "yes."
"Great!" Her brilliant smile made Alexander unwillingly smile back. "I have to go to Creatures, talk to you later!"
As Hermione rushed off to get her things from Gryffindor Tower, Alexander couldn't help the warm feeling spreading through him. Maybe things were finally going right for him?
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander should have known it was too good to last.
"So you're friends again?" he asked. It was the following day, and Hermione was looking anywhere but at him.
"Well, with Harry. Ron is still being difficult, but I think things will get better now that Harry is talking to me again!" she explained.
"Ron, who doesn't like anyone outside of Gryffindor, like Ravenclaws," Alexander sighed. "Are they coming with us to Hogsmeade then?"
Hermione's silence was distinctly uncomfortable, and at once, Alexander understood that the trip would not be occurring now. Any warm feeling that he might have had remaining left him all at once, leaving him filled with ice. "I see. Well, I hope you have fun then."
Alexander swept his things off the library table and left, not stopping to listen to Hermione's protests. It was telling that she did not pursue him from the library, and Alexander knew that despite her friendly nature, Hermione was just not interested in him.
As he entered his secret set of rooms, he resisted the urge to lash out with his fists and magic, to wreck the space. It would bring him no relief he knew, and he would have to repair whatever he broke. Instead, he looked for a distraction, and his hand darted to his neck to feel the leather cord that rested there.
Although severely tempted, Alexander let his hand fall. He wasn't in the right state of mind to examine the Philosopher's Stone shard in-depth, something which would be vital when interacting with any, significantly powerful, magical artifact. His eyes fell upon the recently restocked pile of firewood, and he knew he had his answer.
"Mopsy!" he called out. A pop later and the elf appeared, a spatula in her hand. With a snap of her fingers, it vanished.
"Young sir!" she cried. "How can Mopsy being helping you?"
"I was hoping you could tell me more about House-elves. The library has very little information about your species, other than that you seem to get something out of serving wizards."
Mopsy nodded, sending her large ears flapping in the wind. "Yes, sir! Well, it started long ago..."
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander shuddered after Mopsy left. House-elves just became one of the more terrifying magical creatures in his mind, ones that should always be handled with caution. And the reason, strangely enough, was Peeves the Poltergeist.
Despite popular opinion, House-elves did not thrive off magic. They thrived off chaos, gaining tiny bits of magic from each mess they cleaned up. If a House Elf gathered enough chaos in their lifetime, they would explode, shedding their physical form to become a poltergeist.
It was rare that enough chaos is generated in one place to create a poltergeist. But a magical school, filled with hundreds of idiot teenagers? That was a perfect place. It still took hundreds of years to make Peeves, but with his attitude toward pranks, Peeves would help other House Elves grow, by creating chaos that the House-elves could feed off of.
The only reason why House-elves and poltergeists hadn't run over the world was because of one intelligent wizard, hundreds of years ago, recognized the threat of the creatures. He cursed the House-elves only to be able to feed off of wizard chaos, meaning that they wouldn't be able to terrorize muggles by stealing their children for power, any longer.
Alexander belatedly realized the stories of magical gremlins stealing children and leaving changelings behind, made a lot more sense.
He also didn't doubt that Hogwarts would gain a new poltergeist, most likely in the next few years, based on how giddy the idea made Mopsy. Alexander could only hope that he wasn't still at Hogwarts when it happened, as Peeves was enough of a nuisance for one lifetime.
Mopsy also revealed the dangers of being a House Elf. Being given clothes broke a House Elf, ensuring that they'd never be able to gain enough magic to become a poltergeist. It wasn't freedom they feared, the House-Elves knew they'd achieve that once they became a poltergeist, but they feared being prevented from that state. It would take a genuinely desperate elf to give up their chance at true freedom.
Alexander could only thank whatever quirk of nature that prevented poltergeists from having the same level of magical control as House-elves. A Peeves who could cast spells? That'd be terrifying and the stuff of nightmares.
At least he was sufficiently distracted now.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
The weeks passed Alexander by quickly, filled with intense study and research. It was only broken by Hermione Granger's repeated attempts to speak with him, and the occasional curse thrown at him by Argo Gibbon, one of the three boys still at Hogwarts who tortured him in the first year. He was surprised to find that he had almost forgotten about them but began to design a plan to punish them suitably.
As for Hermione, he felt nothing. He has no desire to speak to her, not even when he noticed that Harry and Ron were still excluding her. Alexander wanted nothing to do with her, especially as he had discovered several startling and fascinating things to occupy his time.
The first concerned the Philosopher's Stone and, more specifically, what it was made of. Nicholas Flamel had somehow crystalized blood and magic into one substance, compressing vast quantities of it into an object he could easily hold in his hand. The shard, all that remained of that stone, was far weaker but still contained an incalculable amount of blood and magic. Alexander wondered how Nicholas Flamel gathered it as it would take thousands of bodies to be emptied of their precious life-fluids to create a full-sized stone.
Which led to his second discovery and one he wasn't even expecting. He came across an old medical text which detailed the study of magic by a dark lord some three hundred years ago. The witch theorized that every living thing, creature, and plant, contained a small amount of magic. She reasoned that this magic made up what was often considered a soul. Which meant even non-magical humans were magical to some degree.
While this was all fascinating, it wasn't until Alexander reexamined the Philosopher's Stone that he realized what Nicholas Flamel must have done to create it.
The Alchemist must have murdered thousands of non-magical humans, draining them of their souls and blood, and using some sort of ritual to bind it all together. A quick check of the history books revealed that right around the time that Nicholas Flamel made his stone, the population of Paris was cut in half, supposedly to the Black Plague. Or perhaps the wizard took advantage of the massive amounts of death at the time, killing the sick and dying and taking their blood?
Either way, Alexander remembered shuddering at the realization that Albus Dumbledore invited a mass murderer into Hogwarts. It became even worse when he realized that Dumbledore also spent several years learning under him. Who knew what sort of drastic actions he learned directly from Nicholas Flamel?
In great need of a break from this work, Alexander turned his attention back to the concept of a portable library. With a deeper understanding of runic languages and Arithmancy, he succeeded in creating a stone tablet that could display the pages of a closed book from a foot away using grains of sand. While very limited, he's pleased that he had a way forward, if he could just settle the problem of storage.
Fortunately, he had nothing but time on his hands.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander raised his hand. He was dimly aware that the entire Ancient Runes classroom was staring at him, but that didn't concern him. Professor Babbling always ended her classes with an open-ended invitation for anyone to ask questions. Most of his classmates would ask clarifying questions about their homework or the day's assignments, but the professor had proven willing to answer questions about other, more esoteric topics.
"Mr. Dantes?" Professor Babbling raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Do you have a question about the homework?"
"No, professor," Alexander replied. Drawing out a two rune system to create a night light? He could carve that by hand in his first year. "I had a question about expansion charms."
Professor Babbling's other eyebrow joined the first. "I would have thought you'd direct this question to Professor Flitwick. He is a Charm's Master, after all."
Alexander shook his head. While he would attend the man's class, he would never speak to him again if he had his way, not after the professor's dismal failure and actions two years ago. "I was curious if there was a runic scheme to secure and stabilize an expanded space. I couldn't find anything touching on them in the library, and it seemed like they're prone to failure."
And hadn't that annoyed him. Still, Professor Babbling hadn't accused him of being a liar or cheater yet, which put her above the other professors in his mind. Asking her was a risk, but one he was willing to take if it meant getting his information.
"Well, you're right, they are prone to failure," Professor Babbling said. "Unfortunately, there are no known runic structures that can be used to stabilize them. In fact, if you attempt to power up a rune in an expanded space, you usually just make the area explode."
She walked around to the front of her desk to lean against it. "Most witches and wizards simply rely on Magical Locking Charms, using passwords that must be dispelled before you may dismiss the underlying charm. You can layer these charms upon one another, using nonsense and random words to ensure they don't ever get dispelled accidentally, but the charms can fade after a few years."
Alexander wasn't the only student taking notes. "There are no enchantments that we can use, professor?" a Slytherin girl asked.
"No, Ms. Greengrass, although long theorized, password enchantments are not a viable path for one simple reason: No one can create one."
"No one?" Hannah Abbott asked.
Professor Babbling seemed to consider her statement before shaking her head. "Perhaps it should be said no one has figured out how to make one. The Ancient Egyptians have one of the most stable runic languages in the world, and even their magical locking charms fall apart after a few years. They layered hundreds of thousands of the things on their ruins, extending their life through unknown means, which took thousands of years to wear off. Still, for every magical artifact site we uncover in Egypt, another three sites are lost due to the spells failing and imploding. This is part of why Curse Breakers have such a dangerous profession, class."
As the rest of the class chattered excitedly about Curse Breaking, Egypt, and history, Alexander sat there quietly and thought. He would find a way to make the enchantment. And then he'd use it to show the world why the muggle-born were worthy of magic.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Exams came and went, and Alexander found them far too easy. Even Professor Vector's Arithmancy exam was a breeze, even though she glared at him the whole time. Still, with how her eyes never left him, she couldn't claim he cheated and would have to mark him fairly.
Who was he kidding? She, like Professor McGonagall, would probably still mark him down as a failure.
Alexander decided to follow the rest of Hogwarts down for one last Hogsmeade weekend. He reasoned he needed the fresh air, figuring it would be good for him to get out of the castle and to enjoy the sights. It only took two minutes for him to be reminded that the most exciting thing in Hogsmeade was a haunted building.
"We live in a castle filled with ghosts, yet somehow everyone is afraid of a haunted building," he angrily muttered to himself. It was ridiculous any way you looked at it. He wouldn't be surprised if the howling heard from the shack at night was just some amorous couple in search of a secret rendevous spot.
He walked away from the building and found himself near the rubbish bin he had found a werewolf digging through. He vaguely wondered how she was doing, especially since the full moon was tonight. A man clearing his throat behind Alexander caused him to turn around.
A brutish looking man wearing expensive robes stood there. He was smiling at Alexander, but it was one of those smiles that told you the bearer had already considered what value you had and found you lacking. It made Alexander want to smash a brick into it.
"You haven't seen a mongrel around here, have you lad?" the man asked. "I seem to have lost mine." Alexander mentally upgraded that brick into a whole house but answered the man anyway.
"No, sir," he said. There was a touch of danger about the man, so Alexander chose to tread cautiously. The man sighed.
"I thought not." The stranger gave Alexander a considering look. "What's your family's name, lad?"
Warning bells rang in Alexander's head, and something told him he needed to lie. "Boot, sir."
The man nodded approvingly. "Ah, a Pure-blood of acceptable stock. Well, you let Lord Nott," the man jammed a thumb at himself, "know if you see that Mudblood werewolf, you hear?"
"Yes, sir," Alexander said. He gripped his hands tightly to the point of pain. Lord Nott gave him one last nod before apparating away.
Alexander scowled deeply, and his magic within him churned angrily. His eyes darted around for something to unleash it, to tear apart, to destroy. A shrill scream begging for aid caught his attention, causing him to whirl around and head toward it. He found his target.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
His fury knew no bounds. Alexander thought he was angry before, that the wretched Lord Nott seeking his "pet" pushed him to his limit, but he was wrong. Oh, how he wished the lows wizards would sink to would cease to surprise him, cease horrifying him, but how wrong he was.
Argo Gibbon, Kevin Rowle, and Albert Tripe. The last three names for Alexander to punish for their role in bullying him in his first year. He had exercised patience, working on several cursed letters that they would touch on their last day at Hogwarts, cursing them with misfortune for the rest of their days. No spell would work on the first cast, often going wrong with disastrous consequences, a perfect curse to harass three boys who harassed him.
Only now they were focused on someone else.
Rowle and Tripe held the blonde girl down, holding her frantically struggling limbs while Gibbon tore at her clothes. Her mouth was opened and moving, no sound coming forth, and Alexander didn't doubt she was silenced with magic. Her frantic, terrified eyes made contact with his, and for one moment, understanding passed between them. She begged him to do anything to stop them.
Alexander didn't step forward, he lunged. He didn't draw his wand, he raised his hands. And he didn't shout or call attention to himself, he pushed his magic at the three boys with only one thought in mind: Get them away from her.
The three boys were thrown from the girl, who Alexander vaguely recognized from his Ancient Runes class. The green trim on her torn robes told him little more, but he couldn't recall her name. Instead, he pulled off his robes, thankful that like most muggle-borns, he wore the full Hogwarts uniform underneath, and tossed it at her.
A wave of his hand at her mouth dispelled the silencing charm. "Are you alright?" he asked.
She opened and closed her mouth a few times in shock, her eyes darting between his face, hands, and the three groaning boys. "Yes, thank you," she said breathlessly. Satisfied, Alexander turned his focus onto the three boys and stalked closer.
"Ugh, what hit us?" Tripe asked. Alexander stretched out a hand at a loose rock on the ground, threw his magic at it, and commanded it to smash into his face. Tripe was knocked down, unconscious.
"Shit, Tripe!" Rowle was looking around, dazed, trying to find where the stone came from. "Gibbon, what the hell happened?"
"Shut up! Where is she?" Gibbon asked, holding his hand to his head.
"I don't care about some useless tart! Just because you need help spreading her legs, doesn't mean I want her!" Rowle shouted. Alexander's face grew hard and cold at that. He reached out again, wrapping his magic around Rowle. He lifted the surprised boy off the dirt before slamming him back down violently, knocking him out.
"Rowle?" Gibbon finally looked up to see Alexander, glaring down at him. "Mudblood! So you're the one who did this. I'll make you regret that."
Alexander disagreed. "You needed your mates to hold me down in my first year to beat me up, Gibbon. It's a shame to see that nothing's changed."
He did nothing as Gibbon staggered to his feet, drawing his wand. "Don't need my fists to make you bleed, Mudblood," Gibbon spat, shooting an angry ball of red light at Alexander.
Alexander raised his hand and whispered, "Protego." The ball smashed into the shield, dissipating.
"What?" Gibbon seemed shocked, either that a Mudblood blocked his spell, or that Alexander did it without a wand. Perhaps both.
Alexander didn't care to ask to find out. He twisted his hand and sent out a Stunning spell, knocking the Pure-blood out. Alexander became aware that the girl was staring at him with wide, blue eyes. Eyeing her for a moment, he gave her a polite nod, before sweeping his hand before him.
He said no spell, for he didn't know if there was one for what he wanted. Instead, he focused on his intent and held it firm with his will power. The three boys lifted smoothly off the ground and levitated in the air before him. Without another look, Alexander and his new cargo took off for the edge of Hogsmeade, where it met the Forbidden Forest.
Alexander was aware that the girl was following behind him, but didn't feel the need to call her out on it. He would have been curious too, why his savior wasn't taking his tormentors to the castle, to justice. Or maybe it was the fact she kept glancing at his hands, at his casual use of wandless magic. He just didn't know.
That they arrived at the edge of the village unbothered by anyone didn't surprise Alexander one bit. Witches and wizards were remarkably self-absorbed at the best of times. Short of knocking on their doors and windows, he didn't think there was anything he could do to gain their attention. Or maybe they were all hiding inside from the ever-pervasive chill of the Dementors? Because that was why he was there now.
He could see them now, floating over the trees of the Forbidden Forest, like the wraiths they were. They seemed to drift without direction, only maintaining enough awareness not to crash into one another. Alexander turned his head slightly to the side so that he could look the girl he saved in the eye.
"Are you adverse to them being punished?" he asked. She looked between him and the Dementors for a long moment before finally answering.
"No." Her voice was steady. Victim she may be, she did not shy away from what needed to be done.
And with that, Alexander focused on the closest Dementor. He didn't know how to do what he wanted to be done, but he did have the will and the magic to make it happen. He somehow knew that would be enough.
He reached out and curled his hand, as if grabbing the Dementor. His magic lept from his body, invisible to all save him before it struck the dark wraith. It paused, twisting and turning in confusion, before turning to him.
"Come," Alexander ordered. He closed his hand and slowly pulled it close, never once wavering.
The Dementor ghosted toward him. Immediately the chill worsened, and Alexander began to feel sluggish. But he called on his magic, letting it wrap around him, burning with all the fury and rage the last hour had created within him. The chill in the air abated, and Alexander could hear a soft gasp of surprise behind him as it also affected the girl he saved.
It was close now, hovering just a short distance away. It seemed to look curiously between the three unmoving boys on the ground and the two figures standing without issue before it. Its gaze focused on Alexander, and a whispered howl echoed through the air.
"...yyyYYYEEEEESSSsss...?" it seemed to whisper into Alexander's ear from a distance. It was unsettling, it was inhuman, and Alexander wished never to hear it again. But he was here for a reason, so he simply pointed at the three boys on the ground.
"It's dinner time."
The Dementor didn't hesitate, swooping down and latching onto Kevin Rowle. Its head bent low, and an awful sucking noise was heard as if a vacuum was being used to clean out a sewer. Alexander couldn't see what happened exactly, but the Dementor moved on to its next victim, leaving behind Rowle's body, which was oddly still.
It only took a few moments for the Dementor to finish. It gave Alexander and the Slytherin girl a seemingly intense look before floating away, neither hurried or sluggish. It joined its fellows without issue, and soon blended into their number entirely.
Alexander turned fully to the girl. She was clutching his robe tightly to herself, but Alexander eyed it critically. He waved his hand, and the Ravenclaw Blue trim changed into Slytherin Green, matching her tie underneath. They both pretended not to notice she flinched when he gestured his hand at her.
"You grew bored of Hogsmeade," Alexander said. She gave him a confused look. "You were bored. You went back to Hogwarts and decided to read in your common room. Somewhere nice and visible, where you couldn't possibly have been in Hogsmeade when this happened."
She nodded in understanding but looked displeased. "Just pretend it didn't happen?" she said distastefully.
Alexander shrugged. "No one ever believes anything I say anyway. Unless you say it did, everyone is just going to assume this was a tragic accident. Do you want everyone to know what happened here?"
She averted her gaze. "Then, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, it didn't," Alexander said. He began to walk away.
"Thank you!" she called out again. Alexander stopped, turning to face her again. "You didn't have to help me."
"Yes, I did," he disagreed. "I could never have stood by, not after having been at their mercy before. I'm not that cruel."
She looked at the three soulless bodies behind her for a moment. "I suppose you aren't."
Alexander left. In a few more days, he would be back in the non-magical world, relaxing with his family and finally free of the spectres of his past haunting him. The seven bullies were gone, in one way or another, from the Wizarding World and his life. For the first time in three years, he felt truly free.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
AN: End of Year Three.
I hope you're all enjoying the story!