Disclaimer – I don't own it, I am not making any money off of it, and I am not trying to infringe on it. 

Chapter 11 – The Better Part of Valor

"The better part of valor is discretion"

William Shakespeare      Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 4

It had not been a good day. Indeed if truth be told, and Albus Dumbledore was by and large a truthful man, it had not been a good week. No, not good at all.

The old wizard shuffled across his office to the fireplace and looked at the disembodied head of Remus Lupin floating in the flames.

"Sorry to disturb you Headmaster, but I am down in the lower kitchens, and there is something here you ought to see."

"I'll be right down Remus," the Headmaster sighed. He summoned Dobby to watch the sleeping boy, and went to get his dressing gown. He did not want to go down several flights of stairs at this time of night. Indeed, he had just been about to go to bed when he heard Remus' call. And he really needed his sleep tonight. Today had been particularly trying.

Still, if Remus thought it was important, then it probably was. All week long they had been finding more and more evidence of the creature that was inhabiting Hogwarts' walls. The ward alarms that Tonks and Kingsley had set last week in the more disused parts of the castle had been going off continuously, yet they had repeatedly arrived too late to find anything, except perhaps another hole in the stone walls. The students would not be arriving for several weeks yet, but Albus wanted this mystery solved before then – after all, he had enough to worry about with Severus.

Severus. The name swirled in the thoughts of the Headmaster night and day. And as he made his way out of his office and down the many sets of stairs to the lower kitchens, he continued to ponder the dilemma that the child provided him.

For one week now Severus had had access to his full range of powers. But he had no ability to control that power, nor had he shown any signs of gaining any. For a solid week he had wreaked havoc in the school, leaving a swath of destruction wherever Albus took him. And he never took him far. At the moment Albus' and Minerva's rooms were the only places left the Headmaster dared to venture.

A few days ago Albus had even resorted to what he considered desperate measures. He had taken Filius Flitwick into his confidence and told him the truth about the boy. The Head of Ravenclaw was not a member of the Order, but Albus knew he could trust him, and he was a Charm's Master. Albus had pinned a large amount of hope on the idea that Flitwick could cast a simple limiting spell on the boy – the way they occasionally needed to do on a first year whose magic was coming out in unpredictable spurts. A limiting spell was a simple thing when cast correctly – not at all related to the Dark Magic of a magical binding spell.  It was painless, easily removable by any competent adult, and wore off on its own in a few months time if not removed first. It would have been the perfect solution. But to Albus' great disappointment, the exercise did nothing more then land the tiny Charms professor half way across the room with a broken wand tip. Severus' magic apparently was not willing to be tampered with.

When Albus dutifully arrived at the lower kitchens, he was led to a far off pantry nearing the back. The door was unlocked by Remus, and the two men stepped in, followed by several shaking house elves. The floor of the pantry was littered with discarded wrappers and half consumed bottles of soft cider. Crumbs covered a good section of the floor as well.

Albus looked quizzically at his former Defense teacher, "Hungry staff members?"

Remus chuckled, but shook his head. "No, Sir. This pantry is used to store foods only used for feasts. One of the house elves was checking the stock in preparation for the Welcoming Feast when he found someone, or something, had been in here. He came and got me, and showed me this…," at that Remus moved the door slightly, which a moment ago had been pushed back against the inner wall, and exposed the man-shaped opening that ran along it.

Albus nodded and looked around him once more. "It seems our guest is more corporal than we thought. At the very least, it needs to eat."

"Demons need to eat," Remus ventured.

Albus nodded. "Yes, they do, though they usually eat their food alive. Of course if this is all they have access to…" the Headmaster gave a shudder. Then he looked at Remus' panicked expression as well as the wide saucer eyes of the listening house elves and codified his statement. "Of course there are lots of other creatures that need to eat as well. Many completely harmless!" He added a smile for good measure.

Albus ordered the pantry, and all the pantries and kitchens, to be alarm warded in the morning. He advised the house elves to work in pairs and then bid Remus, who was staying in the castle to help with the current mystery, a goodnight. He made his way up to the main floor and was waiting in the Entrance Hall for the staircase he needed to move back into its proper position, when he noticed that Phineas was watching him from his recently hung portrait.

The Headmaster had not seen the former Slytherin Headmaster in his picture in the main office this past week, except for one thirty minute tirade about the scratches Severus' initial demonstration of power had left around his gilded frame. After that he had pretty much stayed away, and Albus had figured he was simply angry at him and the boy. Therefore, it was quite surprising to the old wizard when the Slytherin spoke to him.

"Another wall episode?"

Albus nodded. "Yes, this time a pantry in the lower kitchens."

Phineas gave an infinitesimal start of surprise, and then immediately blanked his expression. On a member of any other House it would not have even been worth noting, but on a Slytherin, it meant something was up. Albus had known for quite a while that Phineas had been hiding something, and by now he had had enough.

The Headmaster was exhausted. In less than six hours the boy would be awake and flinging uncontrolled magic – wild charms, disastrous spells, devastating hexes, impossible transfigurations, you name it - about his office. He would then be spending the vast majority of time distracting the child's attention so as to turn off the stream the magic, or desperately trying to research how to limit this phenomenal power in the few quiet moments in between, and of course repairing whatever he could not prevent from occurring in the first place. He also had a potential demon, or some other such creature, running through the walls of Hogwarts with less than a month before the students returned. And speaking of that, he still did not have a Head of House for Slytherin nor an upper forms Potions teacher, despite Minerva canvassing the wizarding world looking for such a candidate. So the Headmaster was definitely out of patience for nonsense and let Phineas know that in no uncertain terms.

A few harsh words later, Albus was feeling quite a bit better for having been able to relieve some of his pent up frustration from the last week. But to Albus' surprise, the former Headmaster did not come clean nor even rise to his own defense - instead he simply stalked out of his frame, looking for the first time that Albus could remember, embarrassed.

The old wizard sighed and sat down on one of the ancient velvet covered benches that lined the entrance way and rubbed his eyes. The staircases, which usually responded to Albus' presence immediately, were not being cooperative this evening. He decided to close his eyes for a moment while he waited. Only seconds later, the exhausted Headmaster was asleep.

***

"Albus, wake up." It was Minerva McGonagall tapping him on the shoulder.

The Headmaster sat upright and saw the light streaming in through the Entrance Hall windows near the high ceiling. He had apparently slept on the blasted bench all night, and he could feel every muscle in his shoulder, back and neck screaming at him for it.

Just then the memories of last night flooded into his conscious mind, and concern for Severus being the chief one, he looked worriedly at Minerva. The Transfiguration Professor knew exactly what his panicked expression referred to and she put a calming hand on the older wizard's arm.

"Dobby contacted me this morning when you did not return. Poppy has taken Sebastian to the infirmary with her. I have been looking for you for an hour now – I passed you twice without noticing you. If Phineas hadn't said something I might have passed you by a third time."

Albus looked over at the portrait, but caught only a glimpse of the old Headmaster's robes as he quickly exited his frame. "I am not sure the infirmary is a good place for the boy." Albus turned back towards the old witch. "So many breakables…."

Minerva shook her head and tutted. "If he can destroy both our offices and bedchambers, I see no reason why the infirmary should be off limits. Besides, ever since you forced Poppy to release Harry and allow him to start his auror training she has been quite lonely in the hospital wing, all by herself.  It will do her good to have something to occupy her time until the students return.

Albus stood up and snorted ungracefully, "I hardly think shouting "impedimenta" all morning is her idea of something to do. Still, I could use the time to see how Ms. Granger's research is progressing. I, myself, haven't been able to find anything even remotely helpful."

Minerva politely transfigured Albus' dressing gown to day robes and then convinced him to breakfast with her first, while he filled her in on their resident hole maker. Afterwards he bid her good day and headed to the library where he knew Hermione was conducting research on the problem that was quickly consuming nearly all of Albus' time and energy. When he arrived, the future Potion's Instructor looked up at him with a startled expression, and quickly shut the book she had moments ago been looking at intently. She then tried her best to slip the book underneath some of her nearby parchment notes and adopted a nonchalant pose for the Headmaster.

Albus chuckled to himself. She was every bit a Gryffindor – subtly was not their specialty. He knew that he had not been giving her any time at all to set her curriculum up for the Fall Term, and that the students would be arriving far too soon. Ms. Granger was no doubt trying to slip in a few moments here and there to organize her program when she was supposed to be researching Severus' dilemma at his request.

"So, Ms. Granger, have you had any more luck than I?" he asked with a smile, trying to pretend that he did not know what she had been up to.

Hermione's' face turned thoughtful and then serious. "Professor Dumbledore, I know it's been only a week, but what if there isn't a solution? It is not like magical bindings are commonly used anymore, and now that Sebastian's powers have been building for so long, I'm not sure that a full scale rebinding would even work."

It was now Albus' turn to grow serious. "My dear, I assure you, I have no desire to rebind his magic. Just to find a way to limit or redirect it. Have you seen anything that might help with that?"

Hermione shook her head. "Nothing that either you, Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick hasn't already tried. There is one potential potion that could be of use, but….well…"

"Yes, Ms Granger, please go on."

"It is very complicated and involves the Dark Arts. It seems to work on the theory of magical magnetism. If the...er…'victim' they call it, is kept dosed with the right amount of the potion, a portion of his powers will be drawn into the air by the magic that already exists there. The potion needs to be repeated regularly and there does seem to be a point where it loses its effect though." At this point Hermione summoned her courage and looked directly into the powerful wizard's eyes.

"Excuse me for saying so, Sir, but even if I was able to brew such a potion – and I am clearly not, indeed none of us could, except perhaps Professor Snape – I don't think it would be right to use it on him. He's been through enough. We've experimented on him so much, and every time we make it worse for him. Maybe we should have just let St. Mungo's handle him in the first place."

Albus nodded slowly. He had been so emotional that day after the battle. He had lost so many students, present and former, and seen so much hurt and pain. He had been so afraid that he would lose Severus too that he had clearly jumped without looking first. He should have just held Severus in the infirmary, immobilized of course, until he was sure St. Mungo's could handle him. Or he could have sent him somewhere else. There were plenty of fine magical hospitals in Ireland and the States. No, he had definitely not been thinking clearly. And now he had placed a crisis of his own making on the hands of both the staff and the Order, and of course, on Severus.

"Thank you for your help, Ms. Granger, as well as your thoughts." The Headmaster nodded politely and made his way out of the library and over to the other side of Hogwarts - to the infirmary, so as to relieve Poppy of her charge.

When he arrived he found a disturbing, but not unfamiliar sight. Severus was lying on a bed, his small chest rising and falling rapidly, and his hands tightly covering his eyes. The room surrounding him was in shambles. Several metal beds were upturned, nightstands knocked over and bed linens strewn around the room, The cupboards in the far corner were standing with their doors open, or completely missing, and there was not a single potions bottle on any of the shelves. Albus looked at the floor and saw splatters and puddles of colored liquid everywhere, but he could see no glass shards – Madame Pomfrey must have managed to remove those already for Severus' safety.

Just then the mediwitch arrived in the main room, exiting from her office. "Oh Albus, I was just trying to floo you. As you can see, Sebastian was attempting to 'help' me restock the cupboards. Things got a slight bit out of his control."

Albus looked over to the boy. He had not turned his head when the mediwitch spoke, but his breathing did seem a bit slower now. "Yes, I see. Was there anything else that occurred Poppy?"

Poppy Pomfrey wiped her hands on the apron of her uniform, and did not meet Albus' gaze, a sure sign she was about to lie. Hufflepuffs were even worse liars than Gryffindors. "No, everything else went fine."

"I'll bring him back to my office, then." Albus moved to the cot and gently removed Severus' hands from his eyes. The boy's eyelids were drooping and he was clearly falling asleep. He barely seemed to register the presence of his caretaker.

"I gave him a little something Albus, just to calm him down a bit."

Albus nodded and lifted the boy to his shoulder. The toddler did not protest at all. Apparently the potion was nearing full effect. "Thank you for watching him. I will send a house elf by to help you tidy up the place and I'll see to it that extra money is in your budget for replacement potions."

As he was making his way to the door with the now sleeping child, the mediwitch put a hand on Albus' arm and stopped him. "Headmaster, the child can not take much more of this. I know you are trying to find a solution, but something will have to be done soon. I gave him the potion because his heart rate was dangerously high. His body is just too small to handle magic at this level."

"But this is his magic," Albus protested. "It is what he was meant to have." But even as he spoke the words Albus knew it was not true. He had unwittingly placed forty years worth of incredibly powerful magic into the body and mind of a two year old. Sebastian could not handle this. Albus wasn't sure if even Severus would have been able to handle it had they discovered these powers while he was still in his adult form.

Poppy released Albus' arm, but not before running a gentle hand along his robe sleeve to his fingers, and giving them a squeeze. "It's not your fault Albus. No one could have known what would happen."

Albus gave her a wane smile of thanks and headed out with the sleeping child. No, he could not have known. But perhaps he should have guessed. Nothing was ever given easily to Severus – old or young.

Authors notes:

Randi – Yeah, you were right. In the last chapter where is says that Ron and Harry pointed their wands at the flying frames, it was meant to be Ron and Hermione. Because of the H, and typing speed, I switched the names. I did reread it (twice) before posting, but missed it all the same. I would repost the chapter with the correction, but it seems minor. Does anyone know if I repost a chapter, do I lose those chapter's reviews?

Athena Keating-Thomas – You may still have to wait a bit for the return of his voice. Getting his magic back didn't erase the trauma he experienced by losing it. He is still too close in age to the time when he experienced the original ceremony. He will talk again in this fic, but just not yet.
 
To all my reviewers – Thank You! Your taking the time to send me your thoughts and comments means a lot to me. J