Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
To Daphne's pleasure, neither witch seemed to grasp the concepts of wandless magic. They seemed to think there was no danger being without their wand, and when Alexander lit two fake wands on fire in front of them, Astoria quickly guessed that he wouldn't have burned their real wands, calming Tracey down. A few hours later, the group called it quits, with a smug Daphne leading her sister and best friend away.
Alexander was pleased that he could see Daphne again after months apart but annoyed that their reunion had been disturbed by an impromptu tutoring session. Still, he knew how valuable a skill wandless magic was, and was quite willing to impart what he knew upon the two Slytherins who meant that much to Daphne. Even if it did cut into their time together.
Still, it'd be a while before he and Daphne would be able to have time together, what with how her focus was split between classes and in keeping the darker elements of House Slytherin away from her sister. Tracey was only partially helpful in this, too busy trading in favors to protect herself, as being a half-blood in Slytherin was no easy task.
Alexander knew he couldn't help them. Were it a simple issue of removing the bullies he would, but Daphne had impressed upon him how political the climate of House Slytherin was. He, and she, both knew he had better things to spend his time with.
Like copying the Restricted Section of Hogwart's Library. Every sixth and seventh year had unrestricted access to it so that they could study for their classes and exams without issue. Alexander spent weeks among those books, disabling not just the copywriting charms on them, but also the curses many of the books had been afflicted with. He made sure to recast them once he was done.
Due to the delicate nature of the spells and books involved, it took him almost two months to finish it, and they could not have passed by slower. And it was mostly because of Sue Li.
Alexander didn't understand why, but it seemed as though every time he turned around in the library, Sue Li was there, waiting to ask him a question. No sooner had he answered it, usually some trivial thing about one of their classes, than she would disappear. He didn't know what to make of it, and he wasn't sure how to bring it up to Daphne.
He had gotten lucky, extraordinarily so, in copying the library texts in that no one had caught him yet. Which was probably why reality had to throw him a curveball on the last day he did his task on the last book he needed. He had no sooner placed it back on the shelf, spells restored, when Madame Pince rushed into the Forbidden Section, her eyes locked onto him.
"What were you doing with that book?" she demanded, whipping her wand out and casting spells on it. Her eyes seemed to widen in surprise when the results revealed the protection spells seemed to be strengthened. "What did you do?"
Knowing he was caught, Alexander chose to come clean. "I was improving the protection spells on the books," he explained. Well, partly clean. He wasn't stupid.
He gestured at the library around them. "I cast the spells on the rest of the library too. I didn't want the books to get damaged by some idiot waving his wand around like a loon."
"So, you waved your wand around instead?" Madame Pince hissed. Her wand whipped about, casting spells wildly at the shelves. "Idiot boy, I'll have to undo all of this! Get out of my library, and never come back!"
Alexander raised his eyebrow but said nothing as he collected his things as he left. In truth, he could have argued he made the books much safer than they were initially, as his additions covered a wide range of dangers. Still, if she wanted to make her books less safe, that was her business. He already had a library of his own.
"I'm sorry to hear you got banned from the library, Alexander," Sue Li's soft voice said. "If you'd like, I can check out books for you."
Surprised by her sudden appearance, but suspicious of the timing of her statement, Alexander shook his head. "No, thanks."
He walked away from her shocked face. After all, what Ravenclaw says no to books?
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander should have known better than to assume that Sue Li would leave him alone. He hadn't slept or even entered Ravenclaw tower in years, and his hidden sanctuary was safe from prying eyes, but before and after every class, she seemed to find him. She was starting to become more direct with him, telling him all about her family, her likes and dislikes, as well as mentioning the various Hogsmeade trips coming up.
Whenever she popped up, he would walk faster, using the bodies of his fellow students as barricades to impede the relentless girl. It got so bad that Alexander briefly contemplated hexing her, but reasoned that was just a step too far to take with her. So instead, he asked his girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass, for advice.
"I'm going to hex her," Daphne growled. Alexander chuckled and wrapped his arm around her tighter. They were walking through the halls of Hogwarts to do something very important to Alexander, something he never thought he was going to do: He was going to show her his private rooms.
It wasn't an easy decision, but with Astoria and Tracey knowing about their usual haunt, he felt it was time. Alexander trusted Daphne as much as he trusted his family, and while he was terrified about her rejecting him, he was willing to take the chance. Although, it was kind of fun watching her get riled up over him.
"I'm going to curse all her hair off," Daphne muttered, still plotting against Sue Li, "and dye her skin lime green."
Privately, Alexander was amused that Daphne's plans were this mundane, especially since his first revenge plot involved getting two seventh years expelled. He almost opened his mouth to remind her of this before shutting it, realizing that as annoying as Sue Li was, it wasn't something to ruin her life over.
Pulling Daphne to a stop near a blank piece of wall, he gently kissed her to stop her muttered rant, a kiss that he was pleased to find her relaxing into. He pulled away and smiled at her, admiring the way she smiled back. "We're here," he said, nodding to the blank wall.
"You wanted to show me a wall? Alex, Hogwarts is full of those," Daphne joked, but her eyes searched the wall regardless. "It looks normal."
Alexander smirked before flicking his finger at the wall. First one brick began rotating, then a second, before dozens began turning, pulling back into an archway. Daphne stared at Alexander's grinning face with an incredulous look.
"You stole Diagon Alley's entrance?" she asked, almost as if she could not believe his audacity. He shrugged and walked in.
"That's not the only spell on the wall, of course, I made it so you can't tap the brick with a wand or even a finger to activate it. Hypothetically, only someone who can do wandless magic should be able to get in," he explained as he walked into his repurposed space.
He hadn't changed much over the years. The worktables and shelves were cleared of bones, the jars of long-dead things disposed of. The shelves were full of his past projects, the stone tablets chief among them, but here and there other odd things that Alexander had experimented with lay. Like the jar of everlasting ice that spread where ever there was heat, or the pen he cursed to write backward. Just your average, what can magic do, experiments.
Daphne was silent as she explored his workshop. She poked a few of his items, fiddled with the star globe he was trying to create, but mostly looked around with the air of an amateur admiring an expert's work without any knowledge of what any of it was. Alexander could tell she was bored.
It wasn't that she wasn't impressed by the assortment of magical artifacts on display. She knew enough about magic to appreciate the skill required to make them. But she had grown up her entire life around such things, and they might as well be commonplace.
But Alexander knew this, which was why he dragged her into the bedroom to show her the view. Unimpeded before them was a view of the Black Lack, and the Forbidden Forest beyond it, with no glass or walls hindering the view. And although magic held back the elements, a gentle breeze could be felt coming into the room. It was beautiful.
As Daphne turned to say so, she found Alexander's lips on hers. She smiled into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. They fell, in a heap of giggles and soft kisses, upon his bed.
And time went on.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
It was the day before the Winter Holidays that Daphne seemed to lose her patience with Sue Li's repeated attempts on her boyfriend, not that anyone knew that fact. No, Alexander and the rest of Hogwarts were startled one morning by a scream of horror of such volume that it echoed unpleasantly afterward. Not a student moved from the Great Hall, where they ate their breakfast, staring at the closed doors in confusion.
Well, most of them. Alexander's eyes spotted Daphne sitting at the Slytherin table with a look of satisfaction upon her face, not unlike a cat who just ate a tasty morsel. She caught Alexander's eye and gave him a quick wink before schooling her features into a bored curiosity that matched the rest of Slytherin.
And not a moment too soon as the doors to the Great Hall slammed open to reveal Sue Li. The usually put together young woman was anything but this morning, her bathrobe poorly tied up, her shoes missing, and a wild look in her eye, but that was nothing compared to the rest of her. Someone had spelled all the hair off of her body and dyed her skin lime green.
"Dantes!" she screeched as she stomped into the hall. She let out a pained gasp and grabbed her face. A few nearby students began to giggle, but she paid them no mind. "Dantes, what did you do to me!"
Honestly surprised and completely innocent, all Alexander could do was shake his head. "I have no idea what's going on," he said. Somehow he wasn't surprised the rest of Hogwarts didn't believe him.
"Mr. Dantes!" Professor McGonagall's shrill tone announced her arrival. Sue Li only groaned again as she held her face. "What is going on here?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "I truthfully don't know, professor," he said as Flitwick joined her. The Ravenclaws sitting near him scooted away from the scene, unwilling to be hit by shrapnel. "I was just eating my breakfast, see?"
The three professors looked at Alexander's partially eaten fruit. Professor McGonagall eyed his grapes as if they personally offended her. "Filius, see to Ms. Li if you'd be so kind."
The half-goblin professor did so, coaxing Sue Li's hands away from her face. Once they were moved, the entire hall gasped in surprise, disgust, and humor, Alexander included. There on the tip of Sue Li's nose was five of the most grotesque warts ever to be seen.
"It's like they grew on top of one another," Professor Flitwick murmured. The students nearby began to whisper excitedly, spreading the news. "But there's no sign of a lingering curse. Odd."
Alexander had a vague suspicion that Daphne was actively cursing Sue Li the moment she walked into the hall but was wise enough to not look at her to check. Instead, he focused on the irate Professor McGonagall.
"Would you like some apple, professor?" he asked, holding one out for her. She gave it the dirtiest look a woman could give a piece of fruit.
"You will tell me what you've cursed this poor girl with at once, Mr. Dantes!" she demanded. Sue Li gasped painfully as another wart grew on the tip of her nose. "What in the world?"
"It appears that every time we say, Mr. Dantes, sorry Ms. Li, another wart appears. What a fascinating curse," Professor Flitwick muttered, his wand dancing around Sue Li. "I can't detect anything at all."
"So any time someone says my name, Sue Li gets a wart on her nose?" Alexander asked out loud for the whole hall to hear. A hush fell over the students before a few troublesome Gryffindors started calling out his name.
Fortunately for Sue Li, Professor Flitwick was quick with his wand, and only a few warts appeared on her. Unfortunately for her, Daphne wasn't done dishing out her punishment and made the last particularly vicious.
Sue Li fell to her knees as warts began appearing all over her body, the pulsing masses making it far too unpleasant to stand. Professor Flitwick took pity on the girl and quickly gestured for Mandy Brocklehurst and Padma Patil to take her to the Hospital Wing. Then he turned his frown upon Alexander.
Alexander, for his part, had returned to his breakfast. It was the whole point of coming down here after all, even if he knew he could call Mopsy to his room with food. He internally shuddered at the thought of that, wise to the fact that House-elves liked causing and cleaning up after chaos a little too much to be healthy. A throat clearing itself alerted Alexander that someone was still focused on him.
"Yes, professor?" he asked Professor McGonagall. Her face was pale, and her lips thin as she glared down at him.
"How did you curse Ms. Li?" she demanded. Her glare did not lessen when Alexander shrugged.
"Wasn't me, professor. Besides, when would I have had the time to, I've been here since breakfast began."
He was vaguely surprised when a few third years chimed in from nearby, claiming that he was there before they were, and they were here first. Alexander belatedly realized that they were some of the kids he helped teach Animation and Transfiguration Spells to two years ago, and he felt a great rush of gratitude toward them. He absentmindly wondered if they still practiced.
But it was Lisa Turpin who spoke up timidly that caught Alexander's attention. "Sue looked like that when we woke up today, professors. She was trying to charm it away when I left. I guess she gave up, but the wart thing is new."
"Must be some sort of triggered spell," Professor Flitwick muttered. Alexander almost rolled his eyes. Of course, the man would be more interested in the magic involved than the welfare of his student. Professor McGonagall wasn't as easily distracted.
"How did you get up into the girl's dormitory?" she demanded, and suddenly Alexander had a lot more attention on him than he liked as suspicious girls and eager boys looked at him.
Fortunately, he wasn't an idiot. "Professor, are you trying to imply that a sixth-year student overcame the protective spells cast by our founders almost a thousand years ago?" he asked, and the whole Great Hall seemed to laugh at that.
Privately, Alexander was laughing too. The legend that the Founders of Hogwarts cast the spells was a lie; one thought up by the faculty to prevent hormonal idiots from getting into trouble. The spells involved were a simple gender identification charm, linked to the stairs, that had to be recast by the Heads of each House every year. That the lie was so easily swallowed was disappointing, did no one remember Professor Babbling's lecture from third year? It would take an incredible effort to make a spell last a thousand years. It would be far more sensible to have one wizard cast the spell once a year.
Alexander paused, thinking over that statement carefully before dismissing it for the time being, as he needed to get rid of the attention on him. "Is there anything else, professors?" he asked. There was nothing they could do without seeing him cast a spell anyway.
From the way Professor McGonagall was gnashing her teeth angrily, she knew it too. "I will be keeping my eye on you, Mr. Dantes," she said threateningly. She angrily stomped away.
Considering she generally didn't like him anyway, Alexander didn't let that bother him too much. Which only left Professor Flitwick, who was looking at him sheepishly.
"I'll be going home this Christmas," Alexander suddenly said, startling the tiny man. "The train leaves tomorrow, correct?"
"Well, yes, Mr. Dantes, but I thought your family was no longer among us?" Professor Flitwick asked. Alexander wondered how the man became a professor with that little tact.
"I have a home, professor," Alexander said icily. He refused to allow his eyes to dart to Slytherin's table. "You needn't be concerned."
Professor Flitwick opened and closed his mouth several times before sighing and walking away. And in Alexander's honest opinion, that was all he was good for.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
His mountain home was covered in snow.
It had taken Alexander a little bit longer to navigate the snow-filled land, but he relished being outside once more. He never realized how stuffy and oppressive Hogwart's dark corridors felt until he was out in the sun again. The chilly air caused little puffs of air to appear with every breath, and Alexander loved it.
He celebrated his return by climbing the mountain once more. It was difficult, far more than even the first time, as he was now battling the elements instead of just his inexperience. Still, he loved the challenge and eagerly pushed himself up the mountain, relying solely on his magic, mind, and muscles to keep him alive.
Two days later, Alexander threw himself off again, once more trying to fly. He plummeted through the air like a stone, and he felt resigned to another crash. His magic seemed to agree, wrapping itself about him like a cocoon of warmth and safety. Combined with the cold air and the softness of the snow below, it was a surprisingly pleasant experience.
But he wasn't just there to learn to fly. Alexander hurried around his clearing, cleaning away the snow, refreshing the protections, and even building a sturdier nest for a family of rabbits he found living under his bed. The poor beasts were frightened out of their minds at the experience of being lifted and carried by magic but seemed to like their new hole well enough after Alexander charmed it to be warm and to have fresh water.
Magic was why he was here, why he was anywhere. As much as he hated the bigotry, Alexander could understand where Pure-bloods were coming from, having access to magic did make him feel like he was more. But he also knew that his feelings stemmed from his own accomplishments, while theirs stemmed from their birthrights. It was a shallow distinction, but he comforted himself that at least he wasn't unwilling to forgo his non-magical studies, always willing to learn more, unlike them.
And it was said willingness to learn that allowed him to name a magical technique that was not talked about in any of the books he read, despite the easily observable effects. Spell Compounding was what Alexander called it, and its implications were world breaking.
Any wizard could cast the same spell upon an object, refreshing it, for lack of a better way to describe it. But it was during the aftermath of Sue Li's curse experience that Alexander remembered that he had seen the result of Spell Compounding before, at the end of his fifth year. Professor McGonagall had been struck by multiple Stunning Spells simultaneously, which didn't just knock her out but put her in a coma.
So Alexander began to experiment. As he was against animal cruelty, the rabbits were spared the troubles of being test subjects. The trees around his home, were not, and quickly began to bear the results of explosions, transfigurations, and hexes. And the results were fascinating.
All of the spells had durations that at least doubled, usually tripling, depending on the spell in question. Transfigurations seemed to be heavily in favor of the doubling rule, while almost all Charms tripled their durations. Hexes, jinxes, and curses varied between the two, depending on the effect of the spell in question, which didn't surprise Alexander at all.
He spent an evening figuring out the number of wizards needed in Ancient Egypt to cast their protection charms, using Spell Compounding. He reluctantly concluded that the math didn't add up. Even with hundreds of thousands of wizards, there were too many sites in Ancient Egypt to be warded in a reasonable amount of time. He checked and even redid the math, but it still didn't come to a number that was consistent with the known population of the time.
So he put aside his notes and math and instead thought about the issue at hand. There were thousands of sites in Egypt, about a third discovered, while the rest were mere ruins. Every year there was a new ruin or two found, but eventually, that number would dwindle to none as the magic finally wore out.
So how would you hide these sites using magic for thousands of years? The short answer, you can't. Spells cast would be lucky to last a hundred years maximum, which was why the bulk of warding was done using runes, as they wore down much more slowly. But some wards still needed to be refreshed using spells periodically.
Which meant there were still magicals checking those sites and maintaining the wards there. But why would they allow sites to be discovered? That was their history, their wealth, being pillaged by modern Curse Breakers. Alexander had a theory on why, and while he hoped he was wrong, he doubted it very much.
He theorized that there was a dwindling population of surviving magical priests, or rather their descendants, who were maintaining the wards. Dwindling, because the sheer number of ruins discovered implies either a great deal of forgetfulness, negligence or the lack of numbers needed to maintain them. There was also the possibility that they were purposefully abandoning the sites, but with the wealth and magical knowledge left behind, Alexander doubted that.
There was one part of this that worried him. Ancient Egyptians were infamous with their obsession with death and how to overcome it with immortality. There was a genuine possibility that there was a group of ancient wizards living in the world. Alexander wasn't a racist by any means, but he was reasonably concerned about the possibility of a group of unknown wizards who had thousands of years to hone their craft. Who knew what tricks they had up their sleeves?
The soft sound of his tablet vibrating alerted Alexander that Daphne was calling. He chuckled, shaking his head at his paranoid thoughts. Even if they were alive, they'd most likely be senile; the human mind wasn't designed to live forever. He answered the mirror.
"Tracey's dead," Daphne said the moment her face appeared on his tablet. Tears were pouring down her face, and her eyes were puffy. "Death Eaters killed her, or that's what my father said. I don't know how; he seemed shaken. They made him accept His Mark! I don't know what to do, Alex, they want me to accept it after I finish Hogwarts!"
As the implications of that statement fell over him, Alexander frowned. One should never dismiss the possibility of wizards being utter bastards.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander was glad they had a year and a half to find a solution to prevent Daphne from being forced to take the Dark Mark. Well, that was incorrect. Alexander already had a solution; he just needed to convince Daphne of it. He hoped she wouldn't be stubborn about it.
"I'm game," she said, the moment he finished explaining his plan to hide her using wards before getting her out of the country. Australia was conveniently far away from England, and a pain for wizards to reach magically. "But, I want to bring Astoria with me."
He wasn't surprised by that request and immediately began to plan out the needed steps mentally. However, there was one critical need to know right now, piece of information that Daphne needed to give him.
"How close to the deadline should we be?" Alexander asked. Daphne bit her lip in thought.
"It's going to have to be right after Astoria finishes her O.W.L. exams next year. I'd like to get my N.E.W.T. exams done, but I can live without them. Astoria won't ever be respected as a witch if she doesn't have at least one O.W.L." Daphne said.
Alexander frowned. That was indeed cutting it close, especially if the Dark Lord ordered her to take it the moment she left Hogwarts. Still, they could work with it. "Can your sister keep a secret?" he asked. "Does she practice Occlumency?"
Daphne frowned, before reluctantly shaking her head no. "She won't mention the wandless magic to anyone, but she lacks the discipline to master Occlumency. Why, what are you thinking, Alex?"
"Then you can't tell her what we're planning. We can't risk anyone finding out, or using her to keep you here when the time comes. We need to get you both to safety, and if that means not telling her until the night you leave, so be it," Alexander explained. Daphne reluctantly nodded before smiling at him.
"Thank you for this, Alex. I owe you for so much, and here you are saving my life again."
He gave her a bitter smile. "You saved mine. After the death of my family, I," he trailed off. "Well, let's just say I wasn't thinking about graduation."
Daphne gave him a sad smile. "I wish I could hold you," she whispered.
Alexander gave her one back. "As do I."
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander's return to Hogwarts gave him an unpleasant mixture of emotions, but he endured them when he saw how relieved Daphne was to see him in the Great Hall. He made a point of walking through the crowd near her, brushing past her close enough that nobody could see how his hand touched hers, how he gripped it reassuringly, before parting.
Astoria looked pale and sad as she clung to Daphne's shadow. She didn't even seem to be aware of Alexander's brief encounter with her sister and walked mechanically towards Slytherin's table, where she sat and ate without ever speaking. Alexander hoped she would recover eventually.
There was little reason for Alexander to return to his seat, now that he had seen Daphne. He had a goal, a purpose today, and he knew he needed to complete it during the feast while everyone was busy. Walking down the stairs to the basement, he walked up to a portrait of a bowl of fruit and tickled the pear. It giggled, before swinging open to reveal the Hogwart's Kitchen.
It was full of activity as House-elves darted around, slicing and dicing, chopping, and stirring. A mountain of food was being made before Alexander's eyes, and they rotated in lazy spirals upwards into the ceiling, where they were no doubt refilling bowls, plates, and pitchers. It was actually one of the most magical sights Alexander had ever seen, and he took a moment to appreciate it.
"Young sir is is Mopsy's kitchen?" a squeaky voice asked from below. Alexander looked down and nearly did a double-take.
Mopsy had changed slightly, her skin becoming paler than the rest of the House-elves. Her mouth had shiny teeth, and a glint of mischief flickered in her eye.
"Mopsy," Alexander nodded politely. "I see you've changed. I take it you're going to become a poltergeist soon?" The life cycle of House-elves and poltergeist both fascinated and disgusted Alexander.
Mopsy nodded. "It's not soon, but it will be soon," she said in an entirely unhelpful manner. Still, Alexander made sure to nod as if it made perfect sense.
"Do you have a moment? I have a problem, and I think you might know the answer," he said.
Mopsy looked at the slavishly working House-elves around the room, seemingly taking delight in their energetic work, while she did nothing. She looked back at Alexander and nodded. "Mopsy can spare a moment, young sir."
"You know you can call me Alexander, right, Mopsy?"
Mopsy seemed surprised but then delighted by the offer. "Mopsy will call you Alex! We're friends now!" She seemed to take a savage delight in that statement, and the nearby House-elves whimpered in envy.
However, Alexander found himself flinching. Only Daphne and his family were permitted to call him Alex. Still, if Mopsy was able to help him, he could allow her this. "That's right, Mopsy and Alex friends now. I was hoping you knew of a place where I could get things without anybody knowing. Supplies and such for camping."
She frowned at him. "Not wizard store?"
"No, I can't let anyone know what I'm up to," Alexander said. The fewer people who knew he was gathering supplies for him, Daphne, and Astoria to flee the country, the better.
The tiny little elf seemed to think about it for a moment. "Alex can use the Come and Go Room! It has everything that's been lost in Hogwarts."
It took Alexander a moment to realize Mopsy meant a Lost and Found. "That sounds perfect, where is it?"
As Mopsy told him, Alexander couldn't help but wonder if there were books in there too. He hoped so.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
AN: I hope you're all enjoying the story!