Chapter Four
Harry Potter stood in front of the stone Gargoyle that led to Dumbledore's office. "Here we go again." he thought. And spoke the password that gave him entrance. "Bloodpop." thinking as he walked up the steps how his mentor had a strange fixation for exotic sweets.
This had been the routine for nearly two weeks. Every morning he would wake in the familiarity of his dorm room in the Gryffindor tower, dress, and trudge the ten minute walk to Dumbledore's office, where the day would proceed with into unknown magical territory, laying open the expanse of known artistry of wizardry.
Harry had always heard that Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard in an age, but to see it first hand was something entirely different. He was an artist, a genius with a wand, for lack of a better term a magician, even among magicians, something that Harry thought he would never be, and that Dumbledore assured him he would.
He reached the wooden door , and pulling the brass latch. The door opened with a creak, and Harry slipped inside.
"Good morning Harry, I trust you are well rested today." said a smiling Dumbledore from behind his desk.
"Yes, Professor."
"Good, Good."Dumbledore said as he rose from his plush seat and moved around the desk to stand in front of Harry. "Have you received word from you friends yet."
"No, Sir, but I should think I'll have a reply any day now." Harry had sent a letter to the Weasley household two days ago, he knew Hermione was staying there, and since his new schedule didn't permit much time for writing letters he had just sent one addressed to all.
"Excellent, now, may I please have your wand." said Dumbledore holding out his hand.
Harry pulled his wand from his school robe and placed it in his Professor's out stretched hand.
The old wizard studied the wand for a moment, smiling to himself in a mystifying way, and then placed the wand on the desk behind him. Turning back to Harry he pulled out his own wand, and with a flick, a large cauldron appeared in the middle of the floor between them.
"Harry, you are aware of the difficulties you might face in a duel with Voldemort." Dumbledore said, eyeing Harry appraisingly. "You cannot use your wand on him."
"Yes." said Harry. Voldemort's wand and Harry's shared the same core, which rendered them useless against the other.
Dumbledore eyed Harry a little longer, blue eyes met green, and Harry felt a pull at the back of his head.
"How was it you were able to nearly kill Visily, simply by willing it to be so?"
Harry stared at the floor below him. He and Dumbledore hadn't discussed this part of his meeting with Tolov, and he thought he wouldn't have to.
"I don't know, I just was so angry and frightened, I wanted to hurt him, to...."
"To Kill him, yes Harry, its alright, nothing to be ashamed of, you were only trying to protect yourself." Dumbledore walked around the cauldron and stood in front of Harry.
"You realize Harry, that it isn't possible to simply wish someone dead, and have it happen. That is it shouldn't be possible for most of us that practice magic."
"I guess, I mean, I just wanted to kill him and I didn't have my wand, so I willed his throat to close." Harry realized now that he felt quite shameful for how easy it had been for him to decide to take that man's life, and he would have if he hadn't been stopped.
Dumbledore nodded knowingly, and gestured to the large black cauldron in front of them. "Lift it, Harry."
Not having a wand, Harry started forward to take the cauldron in his hands, but Dumbledore stopped him. " No Harry, do not lift it like that, simply will it to rise, only a foot or so mind you."
Harry looked up at Dumbledore, and then back at the cauldron. Will it to rise?
"But Professor, how can I without my wand?"
"Just like with Visily Harry, just will it to rise off the floor."
Harry shrugged and turned back to the cauldron. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember what it was he had done before.
"Picture the cauldron in you mind Harry." Dumbledore said, whispering next to him.
Harry conjured up the image of the large cast iron kettle in his head, it felt heavy just picturing it. He stared at the specter of the bowl in his mind until he felt himself relax.
"Rise." he thought.
He remained with his eyes closed for a moment more, but he couldn't resist a peek. So he cracked one eye open, and then the other, when he saw the cauldron sitting firmly on the ground in front of him. Harry frowned at the cauldron and then looked up and frowned at the wizard next to him.
"Interesting." said Dumbledore, still looking at the cauldron that most defiantly had not left the ground.
"Step back a pace or two will you Harry." said Dumbledore still staring at the complacent cauldron.
Harry took a step back and was about to make a comment on how ridiculous he felt, when Dumbledore with a flick of his wand lifted the cauldron off the ground, and then with another, sent the metal bowl hurtling in Harry's direction.
Frozen in place with nowhere to go, Harry lifted up his arms to cover his face, thinking as he was doing it how feeble a defense it was, and at the same time how crazy Dumbledore was for doing it to him. But also came another thought.
"No." said Harry reaching out with his left hand, and with it the desire to not be flattened by the very heavy looking cauldron.
At once Harry was lifted off his feet, and sent flying back against the wall behind him, which he hit with a crash that he was sure would be the end of him. He felt himself slide down the wall and slump against the floor, but thankfully he wasn't knock senseless and found he could open his eyes after a mere second.
He saw Dumbledore standing in what appeared to be the same spot he had occupied before, with an annoyingly smug smile on his face. Harry then noticed that Dumbledore's desk had been turned over and the papers that had littered it were now slowly floating down from the ceiling and landing amongst smouldering pieces of something unidentifiable.
"What happened?" asked Harry.
"You stopped it. A bit more enthusiastically then I would have liked, but stopped it none the less."
Harry stood shakily from his spot on the floor and walked to one the smoking pieces of something and nudged it with his foot. It appeared to be a very melted and very disfigured piece of cauldron.
"It exploded?" said Harry astonished.
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because you wished it not to hit you and the magic acted according to its most viable option, unfortunately, you were rather tardy with your request so there were some side effects. Namely your abrupt encounter with the wall." Dumbledore said this, all the while smiling happily as if it was an occasion for celebration.
"You threw it at me." said Harry frowning
"You needed a reason to react and you had to let the magic work on its own." Dumbledore, with a wave of his wand cleared the room of the cauldron debris and righted his turned over desk. With another wave he conjured two cushy looking chairs and motioned Harry to sit.
"Visily gave you a gift remember."
"Yes." said Harry. "He said he needed to arm me."
Dumbledore nodded and folded his hands in front of him. " It wasn't so much a weapon Harry, it was more a completion of what you already were. You had already proven yourself a very powerful wizard."
"But I'm not, I mean, I can't do a tenth the spells you can Sir, or Voldemort for that matter." said Harry squirming in his seat.
"That might be true of Voldemort Harry, Tom Riddle was always very studious in his acquisition of little known spells and curses. More so then even Miss Granger." Dumbledore's mouth twitched at that last part. "Tell me Harry, how many spells have I used today."
"Well." said Harry, trying to recall all the times he saw Dumbledore use his wand. "You conjured the cauldron, and then sent it flying at my head." Harry said shooting a frown at the smiling old wizard. "And then you cleaned it up."
Dumbledore continued to smile and nodded at everyone of Harry's recollections' "Yes you saw me brandish my wand, but how many spells Harry?"
Harry felt his face wrinkle in confusion.
"None, Harry." said Dumbledore. "Not one spell. And you will find that I have not used a spell in the last one hundred thirty three years."
"What? But How." said Harry
Dumbledore took out his wand and twirled it in his fingers smiling at it fondly. " You see Harry, I don't need this. I just like the way it feels in my hand, a bit silly really, but it's been a part of me for so long, I just cant seem to bring myself to do magic without it."
Harry gaped at his mentor, he had never heard of a wizard doing magic without a wand, of course some could do accidental magic, like he had to his Aunt Marge in third year. But to be able do everything that Albus Dumbledore had done in his life, would take a Wizard of unbelievable power. It simply shouldn't be possible.
"You don't need yours now either Harry."
Harry's head snapped up so sharply he was sure someone would have heard the crack outside in the corridor.
"That's right Harry." said Dumbledore smiling at him fondly, " You see, Visily gave you the keys to the Kingdom, in a manner of speaking. The ability to simply DO magic. No spells, no wand, just magic."
Harry felt his throat constrict. Oh god. He was sure he had paled considerably.
"It is Harry." said Dumbledore, taking on a more serious look. " A very large resonsiblilty. In my youth, if not for the help of someone to control my magic, I might have blown myself up, very quickly."
"Someone helped you?" said Harry "Like your helping me."
"Yes." said Dumbledore.
"Who?" as soon as the word left his mouth, he somehow knew he wouldn't get an answer.
Dumbledore broke into an all out smile this time. "That Harry. Is for another place and another time."
Something about the smile told more then Harry would have thought. "It was a woman?"
Dumbledore's smile grew wider. "Did you think I was always the old boring Headmaster Harry?"
Harry felt his face flush, thinking of the Headmaster, as anything other that just that, he had to admit was hard to imagine.
"Anyway." said Dumbledore, breaking Harry out of his revelry. " You must be careful as we continue in your studies, in a matter of weeks you will begin to harness the magic and you will find that many things will be possible, some wonderful, some mundane, and some very dangerous." Dumbledore eyed Harry for a moment. "Harry, I must ask you to try and hold yourself in check, if you were to become angry, you might hurt someone."
"I know." said Harry, and felt that he did.
"No Harry." Dumbledore let out a sigh. " You have been given the ability to wield magic on a scale that most cannot fathom. If you were to become angry at someone, and say half heartily wished them ill, even death. You are capable of doing it."
"You mean, I could just wish them death."
Dumbledore only nodded.
"Can I do that to Voldemort."
"Unfortunately Harry, he is much to powerful for that, he wouldn't allow it."
They sat in silence for a few moments, both Harry felt, feeling the weight of what he must do.
Finally Dumbledore spoke up. "Thats all for today Harry, Im sure you have some letters to write."
"Are you sure." Harry had been use to working many more hours, but he realized now that the previous two weeks, when they had simply been doing various spells and potions , it was only his sixth year material. Dumbledore just wanted some more time to think how to broach the situation.
"Yes Harry, quite."
Harry rose from his chair and turned to leave.
"And Harry."
"Yes." said Harry turning back around.
"Happy Birthday." said Dumbledore, as he tossed Harry's forgotten wand across the room to him.
Catching it deftly in his hand, he felt it for a moment. The smooth grain, and worn handle. Maybe he would never do magic without it either.
Harry quickly left the Headmaster's offices, lost in his thoughts, entranced by the rhythmic clicking of his footsteps along the stone corridor.
What did Dumbledore mean, he could just DO magic. No wand, No spells. It set him thinking about what magic was. If it wasn't stored in his wand, and it was in the words used to accomplish it? What was it? Energy, maybe? Hmmm, maybe he should ask Hermione.
"Greetings Potter."
Harry spun on his heel, somehow in the middle of reverie, he had walked right past his insufferable, greasy haired potions master. Severus Snape.
"Professor." Harry said cooly.
"Interesting meeting you here Potter, I was just thinking about you, and how much I miss our encounters of the school term, during the summer." Sneered Snape, looking the very part of the hated teacher he is.
"No doubt longing for my return and the parade of house points you will remove." Harry said with a sneer of his own. He wanted to remind the git that they were mostly unwarranted, but Harry had neither the inclination nor the energy to deal with a moody Snape. It was his birthday, he was to have a lessons free afternoon, and he really just hated to be in the presence of the man.
Harry was about to continue on his way to Gryffindor tower, when Snape spoke up.
"He knows, Potter, he knows what you are."
Harry in mid-turn stopped. "Does he, Professor?"
"He summoned his followers last night." Snape said, rubbing his forearm. " apparently he was warned in someway."
"And what diabolical plan is he cooking up this time, Snape. It's getting rather comical you know, his lack of execution. Can't even kill a baby, let alone a much older, much angrier me." Harry stared into the black eyes of his Professors, trying to keep an even temperament, Dumbledore's words of caution still ringing in his ears.
"The Dark Lord is not to be tampered with you silly boy." snarled Snape.
"Tom Riddle is a fool, Snape. Sickening in his absurdity."
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Shrieked Snape.
"I will, he's nothing more then a wizard, like you or I. More like myself, considering his half-blood."
Snape paled at Harry words.
"H- H- Half-Blood?"
Harry snorted. "You didn't know that the poster child for supreme purity, could never in this life time truly make such a claim? Yes Tom Riddle is the son of a witch with a muggle for a father."
Snape still looking dazed, mouth open, took his eyes off Harry and cast a look around, seeming to search for something. "I didn't know." said Snape who had taken to rubbing his forearm again.
"Most don't." said Harry smugly. He watched Snape's hand as it traveled over the spot where the Dark Mark, the symbol of Voldemort and his followers, was burned into the wizards arm. Then before he knew what he was doing he reached out and pulled the sleeve of Snape's robe back reveling the hated thing.
Snape still to shocked, let him.
A ghastly snake intertwined with the skull of a human, seethed and twisted on the pale skin of Severus Snape, it was a constant reminder of his transgressions toward his fellow wizard.
Upon seeing it, a hate so deep it could only be described as bottomless reared in the center of Harry's body. Involuntarily his grasped the forearm of his teacher. The air in the quiet corridor thickened as the molecules became charged with magic.
Snape let out a howl and dropped to his knees, his arm still clutched in Harry's grasp.
" I know your there Tom, I can feel you." rasped Harry, who for his part, did not feel very in control of his actions.
Snape let out another scream, as the animated snake on his arm writhed under Harry's grasp.
"Yes, your always watching me, always calculating." Harry said trying to figure out were the words were coming from, he knew it was himself, but not, like he was repeating someone else's words.
Harry saw sweat break over snape's brow, his eyes unfocused, dilating drastically.
"Harry Potter." came an unearthly voice from Snape's mouth, unmistakably Lord Voldemort.
"Riddle." spat Harry.
"It appears." said the voice. "That I underestimated the need to be rid of you. I thought I would kill you for simple pleasure, but it appears your death will be much much more satisfying."
Harry felt his face contort with rage. "My death Tom Riddle? My death? You are more of a fool then all those before you." Harry clenched the Dark Mark with increasing force, trying to squeeze the magic from it. "I will no longer be the hunted, you have no hold on me. I am far more then anything you could possibly grasp. Your death is my responsibility, one I have come to relish with every passing moment."
Snape's broke into a smirk. "Imagine that, the Golden Boy of the Wizarding World, threatening a fellow man with death, what would Dumbledore say Potter? I thought the Light didn't condone the use of unforgivable's, assuming you would want to destroy myself using the curse I killed you foolish parent's with."
"On a fellow man maybe Tom. But you stopped being Human long before I was born."
Snape's face lowered to a grimace. "My patience runs thin Potter, you would do well to let me kill you without a fight, or else I might have to resort to further methods of pain."
"I have no doubt you will anyway. So on that note I leave you, but Im taking Snape with me." With that Harry turned the Potion masters arm to face the floor, where the magical contract he bore to Tom Riddle dripped like water on to the stone, it pooled and writhed with malice, thick like blood, but grudgingly disappeared without a trace.
Harry released the arm, and Snape promptly collapsed on the floor in a heap of robes.
Harry stood breathing rapidly, his control coming back to him. He looked down at Snape, passed out at his feet, his pale, newly bare arm, sticking out for all the world to see. He bent down on one knee, and place a hand on Snape's neck. The pulse was strong, so at least he wasn't dead.
"Professor." Harry said , shaking the bundle of robes slightly. "Professor." he said again a bit louder.
"MMMm."moaned Snape. Rocking his head from side to side. He moaned again, and then Harry saw him crack one eye open. Quicker then Harry would have thought possible for a man just coming back to wakefulness, he sat up, staring wide eyed at Harry.
"No." he said, and to Harry's surprise and to his slight dismay, he sobbed.
"NO. STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY." Snape screamed pushing his way to the wall still on his back side, away from Harry.
"It's alright Professor." Harry said reaching out a hand to try and help the sobbing man up.
Snape batted the hand away and cringed at the touch. Then with a wild look in his eyes, he leaped up, and tore down the corridor, screaming all the way. "HEADMASTER, HEADMASTER, HELP ME." leaving a bewildered Harry in his wake.
Harry Potter stood in front of the stone Gargoyle that led to Dumbledore's office. "Here we go again." he thought. And spoke the password that gave him entrance. "Bloodpop." thinking as he walked up the steps how his mentor had a strange fixation for exotic sweets.
This had been the routine for nearly two weeks. Every morning he would wake in the familiarity of his dorm room in the Gryffindor tower, dress, and trudge the ten minute walk to Dumbledore's office, where the day would proceed with into unknown magical territory, laying open the expanse of known artistry of wizardry.
Harry had always heard that Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard in an age, but to see it first hand was something entirely different. He was an artist, a genius with a wand, for lack of a better term a magician, even among magicians, something that Harry thought he would never be, and that Dumbledore assured him he would.
He reached the wooden door , and pulling the brass latch. The door opened with a creak, and Harry slipped inside.
"Good morning Harry, I trust you are well rested today." said a smiling Dumbledore from behind his desk.
"Yes, Professor."
"Good, Good."Dumbledore said as he rose from his plush seat and moved around the desk to stand in front of Harry. "Have you received word from you friends yet."
"No, Sir, but I should think I'll have a reply any day now." Harry had sent a letter to the Weasley household two days ago, he knew Hermione was staying there, and since his new schedule didn't permit much time for writing letters he had just sent one addressed to all.
"Excellent, now, may I please have your wand." said Dumbledore holding out his hand.
Harry pulled his wand from his school robe and placed it in his Professor's out stretched hand.
The old wizard studied the wand for a moment, smiling to himself in a mystifying way, and then placed the wand on the desk behind him. Turning back to Harry he pulled out his own wand, and with a flick, a large cauldron appeared in the middle of the floor between them.
"Harry, you are aware of the difficulties you might face in a duel with Voldemort." Dumbledore said, eyeing Harry appraisingly. "You cannot use your wand on him."
"Yes." said Harry. Voldemort's wand and Harry's shared the same core, which rendered them useless against the other.
Dumbledore eyed Harry a little longer, blue eyes met green, and Harry felt a pull at the back of his head.
"How was it you were able to nearly kill Visily, simply by willing it to be so?"
Harry stared at the floor below him. He and Dumbledore hadn't discussed this part of his meeting with Tolov, and he thought he wouldn't have to.
"I don't know, I just was so angry and frightened, I wanted to hurt him, to...."
"To Kill him, yes Harry, its alright, nothing to be ashamed of, you were only trying to protect yourself." Dumbledore walked around the cauldron and stood in front of Harry.
"You realize Harry, that it isn't possible to simply wish someone dead, and have it happen. That is it shouldn't be possible for most of us that practice magic."
"I guess, I mean, I just wanted to kill him and I didn't have my wand, so I willed his throat to close." Harry realized now that he felt quite shameful for how easy it had been for him to decide to take that man's life, and he would have if he hadn't been stopped.
Dumbledore nodded knowingly, and gestured to the large black cauldron in front of them. "Lift it, Harry."
Not having a wand, Harry started forward to take the cauldron in his hands, but Dumbledore stopped him. " No Harry, do not lift it like that, simply will it to rise, only a foot or so mind you."
Harry looked up at Dumbledore, and then back at the cauldron. Will it to rise?
"But Professor, how can I without my wand?"
"Just like with Visily Harry, just will it to rise off the floor."
Harry shrugged and turned back to the cauldron. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember what it was he had done before.
"Picture the cauldron in you mind Harry." Dumbledore said, whispering next to him.
Harry conjured up the image of the large cast iron kettle in his head, it felt heavy just picturing it. He stared at the specter of the bowl in his mind until he felt himself relax.
"Rise." he thought.
He remained with his eyes closed for a moment more, but he couldn't resist a peek. So he cracked one eye open, and then the other, when he saw the cauldron sitting firmly on the ground in front of him. Harry frowned at the cauldron and then looked up and frowned at the wizard next to him.
"Interesting." said Dumbledore, still looking at the cauldron that most defiantly had not left the ground.
"Step back a pace or two will you Harry." said Dumbledore still staring at the complacent cauldron.
Harry took a step back and was about to make a comment on how ridiculous he felt, when Dumbledore with a flick of his wand lifted the cauldron off the ground, and then with another, sent the metal bowl hurtling in Harry's direction.
Frozen in place with nowhere to go, Harry lifted up his arms to cover his face, thinking as he was doing it how feeble a defense it was, and at the same time how crazy Dumbledore was for doing it to him. But also came another thought.
"No." said Harry reaching out with his left hand, and with it the desire to not be flattened by the very heavy looking cauldron.
At once Harry was lifted off his feet, and sent flying back against the wall behind him, which he hit with a crash that he was sure would be the end of him. He felt himself slide down the wall and slump against the floor, but thankfully he wasn't knock senseless and found he could open his eyes after a mere second.
He saw Dumbledore standing in what appeared to be the same spot he had occupied before, with an annoyingly smug smile on his face. Harry then noticed that Dumbledore's desk had been turned over and the papers that had littered it were now slowly floating down from the ceiling and landing amongst smouldering pieces of something unidentifiable.
"What happened?" asked Harry.
"You stopped it. A bit more enthusiastically then I would have liked, but stopped it none the less."
Harry stood shakily from his spot on the floor and walked to one the smoking pieces of something and nudged it with his foot. It appeared to be a very melted and very disfigured piece of cauldron.
"It exploded?" said Harry astonished.
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because you wished it not to hit you and the magic acted according to its most viable option, unfortunately, you were rather tardy with your request so there were some side effects. Namely your abrupt encounter with the wall." Dumbledore said this, all the while smiling happily as if it was an occasion for celebration.
"You threw it at me." said Harry frowning
"You needed a reason to react and you had to let the magic work on its own." Dumbledore, with a wave of his wand cleared the room of the cauldron debris and righted his turned over desk. With another wave he conjured two cushy looking chairs and motioned Harry to sit.
"Visily gave you a gift remember."
"Yes." said Harry. "He said he needed to arm me."
Dumbledore nodded and folded his hands in front of him. " It wasn't so much a weapon Harry, it was more a completion of what you already were. You had already proven yourself a very powerful wizard."
"But I'm not, I mean, I can't do a tenth the spells you can Sir, or Voldemort for that matter." said Harry squirming in his seat.
"That might be true of Voldemort Harry, Tom Riddle was always very studious in his acquisition of little known spells and curses. More so then even Miss Granger." Dumbledore's mouth twitched at that last part. "Tell me Harry, how many spells have I used today."
"Well." said Harry, trying to recall all the times he saw Dumbledore use his wand. "You conjured the cauldron, and then sent it flying at my head." Harry said shooting a frown at the smiling old wizard. "And then you cleaned it up."
Dumbledore continued to smile and nodded at everyone of Harry's recollections' "Yes you saw me brandish my wand, but how many spells Harry?"
Harry felt his face wrinkle in confusion.
"None, Harry." said Dumbledore. "Not one spell. And you will find that I have not used a spell in the last one hundred thirty three years."
"What? But How." said Harry
Dumbledore took out his wand and twirled it in his fingers smiling at it fondly. " You see Harry, I don't need this. I just like the way it feels in my hand, a bit silly really, but it's been a part of me for so long, I just cant seem to bring myself to do magic without it."
Harry gaped at his mentor, he had never heard of a wizard doing magic without a wand, of course some could do accidental magic, like he had to his Aunt Marge in third year. But to be able do everything that Albus Dumbledore had done in his life, would take a Wizard of unbelievable power. It simply shouldn't be possible.
"You don't need yours now either Harry."
Harry's head snapped up so sharply he was sure someone would have heard the crack outside in the corridor.
"That's right Harry." said Dumbledore smiling at him fondly, " You see, Visily gave you the keys to the Kingdom, in a manner of speaking. The ability to simply DO magic. No spells, no wand, just magic."
Harry felt his throat constrict. Oh god. He was sure he had paled considerably.
"It is Harry." said Dumbledore, taking on a more serious look. " A very large resonsiblilty. In my youth, if not for the help of someone to control my magic, I might have blown myself up, very quickly."
"Someone helped you?" said Harry "Like your helping me."
"Yes." said Dumbledore.
"Who?" as soon as the word left his mouth, he somehow knew he wouldn't get an answer.
Dumbledore broke into an all out smile this time. "That Harry. Is for another place and another time."
Something about the smile told more then Harry would have thought. "It was a woman?"
Dumbledore's smile grew wider. "Did you think I was always the old boring Headmaster Harry?"
Harry felt his face flush, thinking of the Headmaster, as anything other that just that, he had to admit was hard to imagine.
"Anyway." said Dumbledore, breaking Harry out of his revelry. " You must be careful as we continue in your studies, in a matter of weeks you will begin to harness the magic and you will find that many things will be possible, some wonderful, some mundane, and some very dangerous." Dumbledore eyed Harry for a moment. "Harry, I must ask you to try and hold yourself in check, if you were to become angry, you might hurt someone."
"I know." said Harry, and felt that he did.
"No Harry." Dumbledore let out a sigh. " You have been given the ability to wield magic on a scale that most cannot fathom. If you were to become angry at someone, and say half heartily wished them ill, even death. You are capable of doing it."
"You mean, I could just wish them death."
Dumbledore only nodded.
"Can I do that to Voldemort."
"Unfortunately Harry, he is much to powerful for that, he wouldn't allow it."
They sat in silence for a few moments, both Harry felt, feeling the weight of what he must do.
Finally Dumbledore spoke up. "Thats all for today Harry, Im sure you have some letters to write."
"Are you sure." Harry had been use to working many more hours, but he realized now that the previous two weeks, when they had simply been doing various spells and potions , it was only his sixth year material. Dumbledore just wanted some more time to think how to broach the situation.
"Yes Harry, quite."
Harry rose from his chair and turned to leave.
"And Harry."
"Yes." said Harry turning back around.
"Happy Birthday." said Dumbledore, as he tossed Harry's forgotten wand across the room to him.
Catching it deftly in his hand, he felt it for a moment. The smooth grain, and worn handle. Maybe he would never do magic without it either.
Harry quickly left the Headmaster's offices, lost in his thoughts, entranced by the rhythmic clicking of his footsteps along the stone corridor.
What did Dumbledore mean, he could just DO magic. No wand, No spells. It set him thinking about what magic was. If it wasn't stored in his wand, and it was in the words used to accomplish it? What was it? Energy, maybe? Hmmm, maybe he should ask Hermione.
"Greetings Potter."
Harry spun on his heel, somehow in the middle of reverie, he had walked right past his insufferable, greasy haired potions master. Severus Snape.
"Professor." Harry said cooly.
"Interesting meeting you here Potter, I was just thinking about you, and how much I miss our encounters of the school term, during the summer." Sneered Snape, looking the very part of the hated teacher he is.
"No doubt longing for my return and the parade of house points you will remove." Harry said with a sneer of his own. He wanted to remind the git that they were mostly unwarranted, but Harry had neither the inclination nor the energy to deal with a moody Snape. It was his birthday, he was to have a lessons free afternoon, and he really just hated to be in the presence of the man.
Harry was about to continue on his way to Gryffindor tower, when Snape spoke up.
"He knows, Potter, he knows what you are."
Harry in mid-turn stopped. "Does he, Professor?"
"He summoned his followers last night." Snape said, rubbing his forearm. " apparently he was warned in someway."
"And what diabolical plan is he cooking up this time, Snape. It's getting rather comical you know, his lack of execution. Can't even kill a baby, let alone a much older, much angrier me." Harry stared into the black eyes of his Professors, trying to keep an even temperament, Dumbledore's words of caution still ringing in his ears.
"The Dark Lord is not to be tampered with you silly boy." snarled Snape.
"Tom Riddle is a fool, Snape. Sickening in his absurdity."
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Shrieked Snape.
"I will, he's nothing more then a wizard, like you or I. More like myself, considering his half-blood."
Snape paled at Harry words.
"H- H- Half-Blood?"
Harry snorted. "You didn't know that the poster child for supreme purity, could never in this life time truly make such a claim? Yes Tom Riddle is the son of a witch with a muggle for a father."
Snape still looking dazed, mouth open, took his eyes off Harry and cast a look around, seeming to search for something. "I didn't know." said Snape who had taken to rubbing his forearm again.
"Most don't." said Harry smugly. He watched Snape's hand as it traveled over the spot where the Dark Mark, the symbol of Voldemort and his followers, was burned into the wizards arm. Then before he knew what he was doing he reached out and pulled the sleeve of Snape's robe back reveling the hated thing.
Snape still to shocked, let him.
A ghastly snake intertwined with the skull of a human, seethed and twisted on the pale skin of Severus Snape, it was a constant reminder of his transgressions toward his fellow wizard.
Upon seeing it, a hate so deep it could only be described as bottomless reared in the center of Harry's body. Involuntarily his grasped the forearm of his teacher. The air in the quiet corridor thickened as the molecules became charged with magic.
Snape let out a howl and dropped to his knees, his arm still clutched in Harry's grasp.
" I know your there Tom, I can feel you." rasped Harry, who for his part, did not feel very in control of his actions.
Snape let out another scream, as the animated snake on his arm writhed under Harry's grasp.
"Yes, your always watching me, always calculating." Harry said trying to figure out were the words were coming from, he knew it was himself, but not, like he was repeating someone else's words.
Harry saw sweat break over snape's brow, his eyes unfocused, dilating drastically.
"Harry Potter." came an unearthly voice from Snape's mouth, unmistakably Lord Voldemort.
"Riddle." spat Harry.
"It appears." said the voice. "That I underestimated the need to be rid of you. I thought I would kill you for simple pleasure, but it appears your death will be much much more satisfying."
Harry felt his face contort with rage. "My death Tom Riddle? My death? You are more of a fool then all those before you." Harry clenched the Dark Mark with increasing force, trying to squeeze the magic from it. "I will no longer be the hunted, you have no hold on me. I am far more then anything you could possibly grasp. Your death is my responsibility, one I have come to relish with every passing moment."
Snape's broke into a smirk. "Imagine that, the Golden Boy of the Wizarding World, threatening a fellow man with death, what would Dumbledore say Potter? I thought the Light didn't condone the use of unforgivable's, assuming you would want to destroy myself using the curse I killed you foolish parent's with."
"On a fellow man maybe Tom. But you stopped being Human long before I was born."
Snape's face lowered to a grimace. "My patience runs thin Potter, you would do well to let me kill you without a fight, or else I might have to resort to further methods of pain."
"I have no doubt you will anyway. So on that note I leave you, but Im taking Snape with me." With that Harry turned the Potion masters arm to face the floor, where the magical contract he bore to Tom Riddle dripped like water on to the stone, it pooled and writhed with malice, thick like blood, but grudgingly disappeared without a trace.
Harry released the arm, and Snape promptly collapsed on the floor in a heap of robes.
Harry stood breathing rapidly, his control coming back to him. He looked down at Snape, passed out at his feet, his pale, newly bare arm, sticking out for all the world to see. He bent down on one knee, and place a hand on Snape's neck. The pulse was strong, so at least he wasn't dead.
"Professor." Harry said , shaking the bundle of robes slightly. "Professor." he said again a bit louder.
"MMMm."moaned Snape. Rocking his head from side to side. He moaned again, and then Harry saw him crack one eye open. Quicker then Harry would have thought possible for a man just coming back to wakefulness, he sat up, staring wide eyed at Harry.
"No." he said, and to Harry's surprise and to his slight dismay, he sobbed.
"NO. STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY." Snape screamed pushing his way to the wall still on his back side, away from Harry.
"It's alright Professor." Harry said reaching out a hand to try and help the sobbing man up.
Snape batted the hand away and cringed at the touch. Then with a wild look in his eyes, he leaped up, and tore down the corridor, screaming all the way. "HEADMASTER, HEADMASTER, HELP ME." leaving a bewildered Harry in his wake.