Chapter Seventeen

Dumbledore At Work

"Gone? What do you mean he's gone?" Aurelius said when Alex pulled him aside before breakfast.

"He left last night. He stopped by the common rooms and told me. And I think that he would have told to two of you too, but he said you were out on the grounds somewhere," Alex said.

"Wait a minute, did he happen to mention to anyone else I was out on the grounds?" Aurelius asked.

"He mentioned it to me," Alex said. "Why weren't you in your rooms this time, anyhow?"

"I'll explain at lunch," Aurelius said, glancing in to see Heph and Stock waving for him at the table. "But don't mention it to anyone, it's a part of the Pact."

"I can't mention anything I don't know about yet, can I?" Alex said with annoyance, glancing at Mandria who just shrugged as she followed her in.

The Great Hall felt different that morning. Sunbeams poured through the windows shadowed only by owls peeking in as the students took their seats, their plates filling from the moment they sat down.

Andrew and Halbert had been there for quite some time, huddled up together and talking quietly about the night before as they started on their second platefuls. But they were interrupted quite abruptly as Stewart came up and made his brother Ted move a few places over so that he and Conner could sit in opposite Andrew.

"So, is it true?" Conner asked him, leaning over the table a bit.

"Is what true?" Andrew asked when he realized Conner was speaking to him.

"That Dumbledore sent your father out on his ear, of course," Conner said. "Several people said he left the school last night and they're rearranging some of his classes as if he's been replaced."

"You're lying!" Halbert snapped in surprise. "Dumbledore wouldn't do that to Professor Snape, especially after everything he's been through since Dumbledore left him in charge of the school."

"Oh come on, Halbert, you saw how mad Dumbledore was when he came back. Everyone did, and it was just as obvious as to who it was aimed at," Conner said.

"I think if anything happened concerning Father's job security, they would have mentioned it to us," Andrew reasoned.

"Look sharp, here comes the Headmaster now," Ted Gaffney said, his eyes focused on the main doors. But Dumbledore didn't seem to be in the bad mood he had been in the night before. Instead he seemed to have completely recovered, back to his old self again as he walked between the tables, nodding to the students he saw glancing up at him. As he came to where they were sitting, he paused with a pleased smile on his face.

"What is this I see? Is it actually a Snape sitting at the Gryffindor table in Gryffindor colors?" Dumbledore asked, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Oh, that must have caused quite a family scandal."

"It took them all a while to get used to it," Andrew admitted with a grin.

"And there is Halbert too! I was hoping that your parents would see their way through to send you here, even though I'm sure your mother was a bit disappointed. But somehow I knew you'd be here at this table and with an appetite to match Andrew," he chuckled. "You are in good company here with Rose, Conner and the Gaffneys," he assured them, patting Conner on the shoulder. Conner looked slightly uncomfortable. "I hope you studied for your Defense test. I understand you have one today," he said to Conner.

"But how are we going to have Defense?" Conner asked looking back at him. "I mean, well, we heard…"

"Professor Snape has gone on a personal leave of absence to clear up some family matters, but I'm sure you'll strive to do your best with the poor man who haplessly volunteered to fill in. Try to be understanding and not too hard on him. I understand the substitute is a very fine educator, but is a bit rusty in the classroom."

"Just please tell us he's not as old as Witolf," Ted smirked, getting whacked from across the table.

"That's my grandfather!" Rose scowled at him.

"And he is doing a magnificent job himself. Everyone has in my absence, for that matter," Dumbledore said with a nod. "However, there are some things I would like to speak with you and your siblings about, Andrew. Over lunch, perhaps?"

"Yes sir, gladly," Andrew agreed.

"Good, then we'll meet in your father's office," he smiled, heading over to the Slytherin table next.

"Do you think it's about us staying out last night?" Halbert murmured to Andrew.

"If it were, I think you'd be there too," Andrew whispered back. "I wonder why we're meeting in Father's office?"

"Something to do with the new teacher?" Stewart suggested. "I wonder who they suckered into taking that job?"

It was Aurelius' class that first found out the answer to that question, walking into the Defense classroom to see a strange familiar's stand placed by the desk unoccupied; a perch with a large silver tray underneath. Several of the other students had gathered around it as well, careful not to touch it but looking at it curiously.

"What sort of creature is that for?" Ranly asked, glancing at the ashes. "A dragon?"

"A Phoenix, Ranly."

The class looked up to see Dumbledore standing in the office doorway, wearing the most unusual robe they've ever seen him in; a Hogwarts robe, black as night and hanging nearly to the floor and a beautiful embroidered Hogwarts crest on the left side, each of the animals blinking or looking around every now and again when eyes fell upon it. But although it was obviously charmed and tailored, it otherwise looked little different from any of the regular professor's Hogwarts robes. He did, however, wear a rather colorful brick red brocade hat, where a Phoenix chick clung to precariously, flapping its still feathering wings whenever Dumbledore walked.

"Unfortunately, Fawkes is a bit skittish his first few days after a burning, but I'm sure he'll take to the stand soon enough, he always does," Dumbledore smiled at them. "So, shall we find our seats? I do have a great deal to talk with you about today."

"You are going to teach us?" Aurelius asked incredulously.

"Would you like to see my teaching credentials before we start?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes serious but his smile full of good humor. "I think we will be able to manage all right until Professor Snape returns, although you will have a bit more homework." Aurelius didn't like the sound of that at all. Dumbledore still looked at Aurelius as if addressing him, but his voice carried so the whole class could hear. "I'm not going to interfere with what you already have on your study plan, so I expect you to keep up the reading, for it will be covered on your tests, of course. But I admit I have my own agenda on what I want to teach you as well. I will most likely be lecturing on other topics other than your obligated work, although I will ask daily about any questions you have on your material and have some open discussions on it. You will, of course, find my topics on your tests too while I'm here. But I am trusting you, all of you, to keep up on your book work… not that it won't be reflected in your marks if you don't, but all the same, this is a good time to brush up on your study habits if you like doing things last minute," he smiled at Aurelius, turning to the rest of the class. "So does anyone have any questions on what I've just said or any of the material assigned for today, or shall we continue?"

The expressions of his housemates were wary at best; the Hufflepuffs were a bit more enthusiastic about the change. Reluctantly, Aurelius took his seat between Stock and Heph.

"There goes our points in here for the year, right out the window, or should I say up in smoke?" Stock murmured.

"Where is Snape exactly, anyhow?" Heph asked Aurelius. But Aurelius, who wasn't expecting to get any answers until lunch, just sat quietly, watching Dumbledore intently.

"Today I'm going to talk to you about a specific set of charms that aren't exactly what one would call Dark spells, but I personally wouldn't call them Light spells either. The definition being, of course, is that any magic designed with beneficial intent is considered Light, and anything else, its intent on harm, is Dark. Of course, 'intent' truly is the trick word, for intent hardly dictates the outcome of how any spell is used.

"Let's see, you are second years, so I suppose you would know what controlled spells are by now. Hephaestus?"

"They're restricted spells," Heph answered. "Spells that you either need to hold a special license to legally cast them, or hold a job title, or meet a certain criteria of conditions of use."

"Yes, and many of them have been the subject of many debates in the Wizard Council on whether or not some of them should be allowed at all. One of these happen to be used quite a lot during wizard events of all sorts, and that is the Obliviation Charm, although I believe Curse would be a more appropriate term. It is a memory charm that was designed for short-term use, and can be easily be manipulated to give those that it is inflicted a suggested memory… or in other words, provide them an alternate explanation as to what might have happened in that time period. So long as that explanation is reasonable, it is normally quite effective at keeping Muggles that have stumbled onto a magical situation from remembering what had happened. Yes, George? You look rather puzzled."

"I just don't understand why anyone would want to oppose that. I mean, it doesn't really harm them, does it?" Stock asked.

"That's rather a matter of opinion, I think, depending in part on one's definition of what 'harm' is," Dumbledore said. "But the true concern for those that oppose it is the restriction itself. It states that only those authorized by the Ministry may cast it, and then it can only be used on Muggles, never wizards. Many of the Council wonder why we would be so willing to inflict on Muggles something that we would not use upon ourselves. Yes, Aurelius?"

"I suppose this debate you refer to is what caused the Haven's Bluff incident?" Aurelius asked.

"In part, yes, although I'm not sure I would call what happened an incident," Dumbledore said. "For those of you who may not have frequented Haven's Bluff or Willowby's Weeds and Wands, it is a very small farming community where the local Muggles all know we exist. It happened about the time that the strange fluctuations of magic caused some of our protections to fade, leaving wizard hovels, government buildings, even the prison briefly, quite visible by anyone. Of course, in most of these cases, hundreds were affected instead of mere individuals, and so the Ministry used cleverly phrased explanations that the Muggles would understand and convince themselves to believe. In fact, I think people in both Muggle and Wizardkind societies do not hesitate to believe something odd was caused by some sort of government conspiracy," he admitted with amusement. "Haven's Bluff, however, was an unusual situation, and it provided a rather unusual opportunity. You see, several years before when Voldemort still terrorized this world, he and his followers attacked Haven's Bluff and several other Muggle towns. Many Muggles died that night, many very good, wise people. It left the towns in fear, anguish, and confusion, and much time was spent by the Ministry to put things right again. Because of this, those towns were watched very closely in the years following. Haven's Bluff, because of its remoteness away from other towns, dislike of strangers, and close-knit behavior actually recovered faster than the others, but there were always suspicions as to what truly happened.

"So, when the protections surrounding a certain wizard family's household dropped in the area, the truth of what had been going on did not come as a shock to any of them. And rather than accusing, ostracizing, or going to the London Times, they chose… the town itself, that is, to accept this new branch of their town and welcome them willingly. It was decided by members of the Ministry and myself that it would be best to honor their choice to look after their own business, as they put it, and so with quite a bit of cornering, lobbying, and other political maneuvers, we were able to convince them to leave Haven's Bluff to do just that. And you know, the fact of the matter is that if we had attempted to give them 'reasonable explanations,' this particular community probably would have found out the truth all that much quicker. They are a suspicious and loyal group, two highly admirable traits.

"And, it is also fuel for the fire for those who oppose using the Obliviation spell on Muggles, for its success as a town has gotten to be rather well known. So, too, was how the Ministry handled when the Lost Tower of London appeared that same year, using the conspiracy theory tactic. There are many ways that we can minimize damage of such incidents without damaging anyone's memories, and it wouldn't hurt if we weren't just a bit more careful on how we use our magic to begin with.

"But now I digress. The point is that the spell still functions as a controlled spell for the reasons I pointed out, but the spell is, as you can imagine, highly abusable."

"Any spell can be abused, no matter what it is," Heph said.

"That's very true, Hephaestus, and I'll give Slytherin five points for pointing that out," Dumbledore nodded sagely. "But I'll ask that you not speak out of turn again or I'm afraid you shall lose them." Heph grimaced sheepishly. "Well, as it turns out, this spell is actually rather easy to cast for any wizard with an above average mental capacity. But someone of exceptional ability or intellect must be very careful when using it, for it was found out not long after the Ministry started using it that this seemingly innocent charm was actually powerful enough to push the memories of its victim so far out of reach that they seem to lose them completely," he explained, glancing around. "Aurelius?"

"What do you mean seem to? You mean they don't really lose them?" Aurelius asked. Dumbledore gazed at the intense look on Aurelius' face.

"Well, yes and no," he answered thoughtfully. "I do not mean lost as in that they are technically gone. They are lost because the person who had those memories can't retrieve them, but they are not lost in the sense that they are erased. To accomplish that, one would literally have to tap into one's soul to do it, which is something, thank goodness; no wizard has been able to do to my knowledge. Yes, a memory can be captured and stored, much like in a Pensieve… but even when we can't recall it, it doesn't mean that our souls don't know we've been through it. However, Aurelius, while it is true that our memories are still preserved in the fabric of our spirits, I'm afraid that there hasn't been a case of someone who has been inflicted with this curse to that extremity who has made a full recovery. True, after several years of hard work, some of them have been able to gain pieces of their memory back, but as of yet, there is no true cure. Yet," Dumbledore added again, nodding gently at Aurelius before turning back to the class.

"Now, I suppose you're wondering how someone protects oneself from this sort of curse," Dumbledore said. "You will find, however, that I will always recommend to you the same three basic rules on how to protect yourself no matter what the curse we're speaking of is. And that is first, to be aware that it exists. Second, is to understand that other wizards and witches are also aware of it, and third, to make a conscious decision never to abuse it yourself. Now, how many of you here think you can make that decision about this particular spell?" Dumbledore was not surprised when Aurelius was the first to raise his hand.

As the class ended and the rest of the students cleared out for lunch, Aurelius waited for them to leave before going over to Dumbledore. Dumbledore was watching him carefully, nodding almost in confirmation.

"I see the secret has already made its way into your Pact," Dumbledore said quietly.

"The others don't know yet," Aurelius said. "And I don't think Professor Snape would have told me if I hadn't been such an ass lately."

"We all have our moments, Aurelius. I had one of mine recently too, as you know," Dumbledore chuckled softly. "And I think in many ways for the same reasons. But don't worry. You and all of your siblings, yes, Alicia too, are going to have a nice lunch with me, and, if we can get Andrew to take a breath between bites now and again, have a long conversation to go with it."

"Are you're going to tell them the truth? About her memory being gone and there not being any cure?" Aurelius said.

"There are treatments, Aurelius. And if you'll recall, I said there was no cure yet. I haven't given up hope that the Jennifer we know and love will return and take up her calling again. And you shouldn't give up hope, either. The world was turned upside down to find her by her friends, so I should think that before its all over, it'll be turned upside down to find a way to cure her. But right now, it's up to your father to bring her home safe and sound, and until then, we'll just have to carry on, I suppose. Hopefully without too many broken curfews or wandering off the grounds without permission," he added almost casually as he showed him in his office. Aurelius decided quite wisely not to comment.