Mage

By Cataclysmic

Chapter 4
Welcome to a New World.

Surprisingly it took a lot longer than she thought it would to tell Harry's story, or at least tell it to a degree satisfactory to her listeners. Long after she had finished the story, well as far as the beginning of fifth year anyway, the questions were still flying and they were in no way closer to being dismissed for the night.

Of all the things they could have imagined they would be doing after they finally achieved the miracle of defeating Voldemort sitting in a stuffy old office explaining their life stories was not among them.

By this time Hermione was getting more and more omissive and huge yawns were not uncommon sights. After Hermione completed the extremely short version of Harry' life after fifth year it was getting late and, deciding that enough was enough Harry called a stop to what was largely an embarrassing rehash of his life. Neither he not Hermione had eaten anything substantial in about twenty-four hours with the only sustenance they managed to take in being Albus's very filling biscuits, lemon drops and mint tea. Although nice they were not a good substitute for real food. No one else though it seemed, excepting maybe Hermione shared his views in regards to eating, instead rapped up in the story of his and to a degree Hermione's lives. It was now past eleven thirty at night and none of them looked ready to call it a night anytime soon.

Enough was enough.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione had finished his tale up until fifth year and it was getting late, neither Harry or Hermione had yet eaten and Hermione had decided that enough was enough, it was time to leave the story for another day, although Harry's life until fifteen had been somewhat abbreviated and to the point it had still taken a long time to get even the bare facts out, she had carefully left out details that some people may not be aware of like Remus being a werewolf, although they probably knew that and the Marauders being animagus and of course the Marauders Map.

She could tell James was curious to know whether or not they knew these details but she just could not let them out safely without alerting the rest of the room of the presence of the secrets.

"Do you mind if we leave it there for tonight?" she asked Albus "And could we possibly stay in the castle until we sort things out?" personally she had no idea what they were going to do to sort things out but she was nearly positive that the old professor would let them stay in the castle until they had somewhere else to go. Albus and the rest looked more than a little disappointed. Well too bad she was getting way too tired for this, she thought, punctuating this with yet another yawn, they just kept getting more frequent.

"Of course, of course I will show you to some rooms and I am assuming that you would like to stay also?" he asked gesturing at the 'guards' and Lily and James when he was met with slightly tired nods he stood up to lead them to the guest quarters within the castle. They had not been used or needed in a long time and had previously been teachers rooms in times gone by when extra teachers had been needed and guests, visitors and refugees were more common, most of these were filled with the influx of students they had had following the reign of Voldemort but they still had plenty of left over rooms to suit their purposes for the night.

Albus led them down a passageway towards the main teacher's corridor but turned aside into a barely visible passage just before they got there and ducked under a tapestry that had previously hidden the entrance to this new corridor or rather Hall.

The Hall was a bright silver colour with golden architraves, portraits lined the walls and one had to wonder why the regular teacher had chosen the regular corridor when this one was available, although the other rooms had the benefits of having more than one entrance, one of which led directly to their classrooms, little did they know that you could actually spell these rooms to have the same effects.

Harry and Hermione had been here before this had been where their permanent rooms had been in their world.

Albus gestured vaguely at the hall, "you may pick your own rooms and choose your own passwords the rooms are currently empty and will accept any password you choose, Goodnight and I will be expecting you all at breakfast in the morning." He said with a smile, everyone smiled back as he made his way to the other end of the corridor that appeared to be a dead end until he walked straight through the wall and disappeared.

Even James had smiled, which was a little odd considering the amount of hostility between the two in recent years.

Harry and Hermione made their way to a portrait on the right side of the room, where a portrait of a brilliant silver and white phoenix with a sky blue backdrop lay.

"Same password?" Harry asked as everyone made their way to their own rooms to tired for idle conversation or to notice the pair entering their room, or to bid them goodnight, or to notice they were entering their room TOGETHER.

They entered their room and not surprisingly found it exactly as it had been when they had first moved in, in the other world. It was a little refreshing to find that the room was not filled with war strategies or books on the dark arts; the absence of bloodstains on the carpet was definitely a plus.

Another plus of the room was the closets, every room in this corridor had a special feature and this particular room allowed you to find whatever clothing you wished to wear, subconsciously of course (for the picky people) so you would always be wearing the most perfect clothing for what you were going to be doing that day, or in their case sleeping. This was a great advantage considering the fact that apart from Harry's battle robes and a few objects he had spelled to remain with him no matter what they had none of their belongings with them.

Changing quickly the two crawled under the silver and red bedspread and instantly found themselves in the realm of dreams, unusually the two found themselves in the same dream, a dream of the man who had given them this chance in the first place, a dream of Albus Dumbledore the man who had died in battle and selflessly shortened his time in the realm of the living to give Harry a chance at a normal life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Silver mist enveloped him as soon as his eyes were closed, no not mist that wasn't quite right. It was dust.

He could feel the dust settling on his skin and building up on his eyelashes, silently he wished that the dust would go away… he needed to see! Surprisingly the swirling dust seemed to answer his wish as it fell to the floor. For a moment everything was bright and blinding, then his eyes adjusted and he could see two figures moving towards him, instinctively he knew the figures were not a danger, that they would not hurt him. So he waited.

Sure enough as the figures were getting closer and now that the dust had receded it was becoming easier to see, a quick check of his surroundings showed that the dust, sand whatever it was, was still there no longer falling around his but swirling, swirling like a savage tornado around himself and the two other figures, as they got closer the swirly tornado of dust closed around them, seemingly bringing them together.

The figures features became clearer now.

It was Hermione and Albus, not the Dumbledore he had most recently seen in this dimension it was his Dumbledore, the Albus that had died in battle, had you not seen both in a short space of time you would not have noticed the differences, the added wrinkle here and there, a few more worry lines on his brow, if you had not seen them both as close up as Harry had you would not be able to tell which had led the easier life. But he could, and his Albus clearly stood out as the harder done by.

Albus smiled at the pair, two of the students he had became closest to over the years, he was extremely happy that Hermione was still alive to join Harry in this other dimension, he had been hoping she would be, she deserved the chance to live a happy life as much as Harry did, and he would likely need a grounding influence over the years, someone to keep him from going over the top experiencing freedoms he never had at home.

"I imagine you are wondering what is going on here, that is if you haven't figured it out already?" Albus asked his twinkle well defined as he asked the question, they couldn't help but chuckle he never really changed, no matter where you were, this Dumbledore though had an advantage on his counter part, he already knew them. He had been by there sides or encouraging them from the sidelines for nearly their entire lives, well the parts that really mattered anyway, he probably knew a great deal more about them than they did themselves.

That he was now dead and had more than likely been watching over them would have only added to his knowledge. He knew they did not know the answer; he was just teasing them for the pure fun of it.

Harry smiled; he had missed Albus's roundabout little conversations, the way he liked to gloat, in his own little way, about knowledge he knew they didn't have and would likely never receive should he choose not to tell them. Although after all the effort he put into appearing omniscient it became very strange, and very funny, when you came across something he didn't know, or didn't know about.

"Why don't you enlighten us?" asked Harry lightly, too used to Albus's antics to do anything else, it was a near certainty that Albus knew more about practically anything that was going on than they did. Harry grinned at Albus they had always played this game, Albus trying to make him come up with the answer himself and Harry trying to get Albus to tell him the answer and save him the thinking, it always ended up somewhere in the middle, Harry getting half the answer and Albus telling the other half.

It was somewhat of a surprise then, a small breaking from tradition when Albus answered.


"Alas I am going to have to; we do not have much time here. The portal you went through has brought you to an alternate dimension, which no doubt you have already found. This dimension is as close to what you and I believe should have occurred, for example Harry's parents lived he died and Voldemort was destroyed the first time. It is what the world should or could have been like if you will. It will not be it exactly be your perfect world, there will be discrepancies from our own world, some large, some small. You must remember that nothing is ever as perfect as it appears while everything may appear good on the surface that darkness is always there waiting for complacency. People you knew before in our world, may have totally different upbringings or outlooks than you remember, you must keep an open mind, people may be different, have different personalities than you remember never take anything for a given. You must remember that they have lived in a different world, where key events that may have shaped their personalties in our own world may or may not have occurred."

"The portal you used was keyed to activate only after Voldemort's final defeat, I would like to say I was confident of you ability to defeat him, however I was not entirely confident, you only ever had a slim chance of truly defeating him, I was confident you would manage to kill him a few times but to truly defeat him took a lot more than a simple death of the body."

"In any case I was hoping that you would eventually complete your task, and so I gave you a gift, this chance to start over, as best you can. Please understand Harry that this world will be so much better for you to make a life in, you will not have every man woman and child looking up to you as an idol, I believe that you need this chance, this chance to start over, as do you Hermione you have lost many people that you have loved during this war, this is a chance to in some ways get them back. This is your chance for a new life, do with it what you will."


Harry and Hermione gave him small smiles, it was hard to express gratitude for something as large as this, especially for them, for years they had been trapped unable to show or express much in the way of emotions, they were glad that Albus knew that and in return did not take it personally. Then again Albus was the closest person to them, alive or dead, he was probably just really good at reading them.

"So tell me everything that has happened since I passed." Albus demanded leaning towards them his blue eyes sparkling spectacularly.

Harry and Hermione laughed, "haven't you been paying attention, I thought you would be able to watch what was going on from where you were or something?" Hermione asked

Albus pouted, "Well I have, but it's much more fun to hear it from your point of view." He pointed out and chuckled.

And so they told him of the final battle, how Harry had poured his power and a small part of his soul into the one spell that would bind Voldemort for eternity, the spell that would have the things fallen enemies guarding him for all eternity. By doing this he had sentence all those killed by the Dark Lord to become his keeper forever more, he had sentenced his parents to this fate as much as he hated to think of it, but it had been the only way, the only sure way. There were others but they would involve his death, they were the final options, when all else failed, for how would the world survive without himself taking the brunt of the Dark Lords wrath? Albus who had not fallen by Voldemort's hand, rather by his minions remained unaffected.

He tried not to think of the torment the keepers must be going though it was too much for him to bear.

Albus sensed his doubts and it took it upon himself to tell Harry what those who could not would have, that it was not his fault, he could not change the past and he had done what was best. And most of that they would understand, that those that had fallen by his hand would understand the need for what he had done. Already they had been here several hours, and the silver dust storm was closing in on them again, letting them know their time was running out.

Before leaving Albus hugged them both before stepping back to relieve them of one final burden.

"Before I return to well, I am not at liberty to say were I came from," he said with an enigmatic smile, "I will relieve you of the burden of telling your story, I will plant your story, from my own point of view of course within this world's Albus's mind, just the bare details and he can inform the others, I know how much it pains you to relive your lives, especially the recent history." he said with a regretful grin truly apologetic that he could not do more for them.

The dust storm was all around and he could only barely see the retreating form of his mentor, "Farewell Harry, Hermione, until we meet again." and he was gone leaving them to drift back to consciousness, consciousness in a world that promised to be better than their own, new beginnings, and one thought ran simultaneously through both their minds, Thank God we don't have to explain!

Unfortunately for Harry and Hermione, there were still two people in the next room who very much did want and need an explanation. Those two people were Harry's parents who had miraculously re-gained their son only the day before after years and years of pent up guilt and frustration and misplaced anger.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lily and James were worried; they had now both accepted that this was Harry, their Harry even if he was from another world. Or In James case had at least decided to outright doubt him before he had proof that he wasn't who he said he was. They wanted him to be their son, even James on some level, but the question remained, what did Harry want? How much more had their son gone through before returning to them? Would he want parents? Would he need parents? He seemed to but how could they be sure? And even if he did want them to be his parents, their parenting experience was limited to parental experience with baby Harry, did they even know how to be good parents? This of course would not really pose to many problems as Harry had never know anyone other than the Weasley's, Albus, Sirius and Remus who had acted in a remotely parental manner and even that was partially destroyed by the war effort, his training did not really allow for such weaknesses as family and even though he had tried to overcome that particular problem, his success had been limited and he unconsciously stayed detached from everyone with the exceptions of Sirius, Albus, Hermione and Ron, even Ron was included in his detached persona towards the end for which he felt extremely guilty.

All this wondering was really starting to stress them out and it wasn't until Albus Dumbledore poked his head in the door that they realized just how long they had been feeding on each others insecurities, well that and how hungry they were.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Both Harry and Hermione were in the best mood they had been in, in very a long time. It seemed like forever if ever since they had last been this happy.

It felt good to be somewhat carefree again, sure they were in a strange world were they hardly knew anybody, and all the people they had known throughout their lives wouldn't know them, but finally they no longer had to look over their shoulders worrying about Death Eaters, assassins or spies. They were still a long way from the carefree kids they once were, the being careful or paranoid as they would have called it was so ingrained by this point it would not surprise them if they were in the top ten most paranoid people on the planet and even then they would probably be near the top of the list, they might even one up Moody on a good day.

They knew their good mood would not last long though, for today they had woken with a mission. Today they would ask after friends and family, to find out who was and who wasn't alive. Somewhere in there they would have to work in a history lesson as well.

As they made their way down the hall they caught many a strange glance aimed their way. As Albus had informed them that he had informed the school of their arrival (a little premature in their opinion) they weren't quite sure what the student body found so interesting.

It wasn't until they reached the Great Hall that they figured out what the problem was… it seemed that word had travelled ahead of them.

"Headmaster!" the Potions Master protested, "You cannot possibly allow that Boy to carry a sword it is simply not acceptable! this is a school!" the Professor bit out in outrage, at which point he turned to continue his argument face to face with his absent boss, it had to have been one of the first times ever the Headmaster was absent for Breakfast, needless to say he turned very red much to the delight of the students who had never seen this side of their most hated Professor, watching this Harry and Hermione could not help but chuckle, some things never changed they thought with a glance towards the Slytherin table who stoutly refused to laugh at their Head of House.

Hiding smiles Harry and Hermione continued on to the Head Table pretending like they hadn't heard him, taking seats towards the end of the table next to an extremely excited Hagrid they proceeded to begin their breakfast.

Thankfully it seemed that Hagrid's love of dangerous creatures did not extend to humans, although he did complement Harry on his sword, commenting that it was one of the best swords he had seen in years. Harry however did not agree with him, the Gryffindor sword was too heavy and extravagant for him; unfortunately he had never had the time to track down one more to his liking. That and it was fitting to wear the sword of Gryffindor to the defeat of the heir of Slytherin. Swords were no longer a commonly held item in anyone's possession as far as he knew, he was likely the only person still getting around with a sword strapped to their hip, even in his world, a world torn with war where muggle weapons were now common in the wizarding world most had preferred the more modern muggle technology such as guns and grenades. He though, he had preferred the old weapons, swords and the like he had to get closer to the enemy to do the damage but they just felt right in his hands and he had a natural gift for the weapons, he seemed to automatically know what to do with them, although the sword had taken some practice that was mainly to develop the muscles needed to wield the heavy weapon.

The Marauder within was very glad that he had managed to embarrass Snape with his entrance, although in his own world the two were somewhat friends, Snape was still very biased in his teaching methods and the act of embarrassing Snape helped his relations with the kids, or at least they weren't looking at him like he was Voldemort anymore, after all anyone who could embarrass Snape HAD to be good didn't they?

He could just imagine the effect on the students of his arrival had he not added some form of comic relief, they wouldn't scream or run around like chooks with their heads cut off but they would have been silent, and deadly silent, afraid that if they made a sound he would turn into some mad axe murderer who had come after them or like Voldemort with a vengeance and Harry was probably the most experienced person in any world when it came to attracting Voldemort's vengeance.

Harry smiled as he nibbled on his bagel it was nice not to be stared at, well not stared at openly, sure they were still staring at him but at least they were being discreet about it, he couldn't help thinking how great it was not to be famous.

Thinking about his fame made him think of his great allies throughout the war, he should probably make contact with them at some point, the elves although they had remained hidden for centuries were surprisingly well informed as to the goings on of the wizarding world and although they would not know of him personally here or even heard of him yet they would have felt his appearance into this world, they were well in tune with the magical fields of the world and his appearance would have pulled a large amount of magical energy in towards him, Herm would have pulled more than her fair share to of magic to herself as well, to them it would probably appear to be like a sudden magical black hole sucking up energy, it was probably best that he contacted them first before they did something to restore a balance that did not really need to be restored. That or they started to panic.

So far Hermione was a little behind him, they always had worked well together shared practically everything they learned, he was the muscle in the relationship he went out to do what needed to be done and she was his backup. She was the one that found out what new things needed to be done and when he needed to do them. The elves had always been an exception to this, they could not work together on them because they would not have contact with anyone but him, and swore him to secrecy on everything he learned. That unfortunately also applied to Hermione and his training with the Elves began the first real divergence in their knowledge, he worked with the magic while she worked with what her book learning taught her. Hermione had never discovered what exactly went on when he disappeared for a few days at a time, she had asked of course but she had never received an answer and for a long time it had hampered their relationship, but she had eventually accepted that there were some things he could never tell her.

It was especially difficult with the world that they lived in to disappear for a few days without being able to tell anyone where he was going or who he was going to be with, personally he didn't blame Herm for her doubts, he would have had them himself if it had been the other way around, but she had accepted it and for that he was thankful and it had only served to strengthen their relationship.

What was especially strange was the way that the Elves had managed to become some of his greatest Allies in the war without ever coming into direct contact with anyone but himself. Centuries of hiding their existence and keeping an eye on both the wizarding and muggle worlds had made the Elves amazing spies and assassins, though several of the texts he had read about Elves clearly identified them as being 'pure' creatures they were still a long way from being so, though they had higher moral values than any human on the planet they had no problems with killing anyone who became a threat to them, especially Death Eaters or Dark Ones as they called them. It was the Elves mission in life to rid the world of the Dark Ones and their minions throughout the world. Centuries of hiding had given them an innate skill for hiding and disguising themselves something very useful in the war effort. And their information was practically priceless.

The Elves were fearsome warriors but their skills were never used against one another in any other form than a friendly spar, they were not especially gifted at healing themselves but their methods when transposed to humans was remarkably effective, they lived in peace and watched the human world closely for fear of discovery.

It was many generations ago that the Elves had separated themselves from the humans, and none could remember the exact reason for the split, however the Elves revulsion for all things 'dark' was probably part of the cause, thus it had been somewhat of a surprise for Harry when they had encouraged him to learn the DARK Arts, but this had probably become the most important thing he had learned from them, they believed that no magic was essentially Dark it depended on which side of the cause people were fighting for what 'colour' the magic was, intentions or something like that, personally he thought their views were a little strange but he had come to accept them.
 
Magic is neither light nor dark it is the wizard that determines the darkness of magic and as long as you use the magic for a purpose that benefits the people as a whole, not for personal gain then the magic you perform can never be truly dark.
 
He had learned many things in his time with the Elves but one thing had always weighed on him since the time they had first contacted him, and that was WHY they had contacted him in the first place, yes he was the most powerful wizard, no mage EVER but they had never really troubled themselves about contacting any other wizards and they had assured him that the Elvin Kingdom was in no danger from the Dark Forces and yet they had troubled themselves and risked exposure to the general wizarding community to help HIM.
 
He wasn't sure he would ever get an answer to that question but in all his visits and the most strongly magical thing he had learned from the Elves to help in his battles was the forgotten connection to magic, inner magic, magic in the air it didn't matter the Elves had taught him to feel and ultimately control ALL magic. It had somewhat shocked them when he had started controlling the magic, it was something that they had obtained like most witches and wizards in small quantities but the level on which Harry had control of surrounding magic was astounding, it just seemed to bend to his will and that is how he had ultimately destroyed Voldemort by distorting his magic to such an extent it became possible to defeat him, but it was by no means easy and although it drained him, a lot. His power was still sufficiently intact when he arrived in this world and he had no doubt that he was soaking up magic from the very air to replenish that lost in the battle, in the whole scheme of things it would not change much, as even as he was soaking it up the magic was being replenished, no one knew, not even the Elves how this happened but they did know it did, that magic could never be 'used up' that it was constantly replacing lost magic. But generally there was a balance, which living things and magic lived by, Albus's spell would not upset that balance, it was specifically designed not to, though he didn't know how Albus had known to do that, balance the ley lines of magic in both worlds so the premature loss of the two of them balanced out with this world gaining them.
 
Snapping himself out of his thoughts he looked to the doors of the Great Hall, it was disconcerting to see them so opened and welcoming, though the first thought that came to mind when he saw them was undefended. Closing his eyes he could feel that there was no magic guarding the entrance and he had to frown at that, you could never be too careful, somewhere along the way Moody's call for CONSTANT VIGALANCE had sunk in and he found it rather foolish to have NO wards on the entrance to the most commonly used meeting place in the castle excluding the common rooms, even if there was no visible threat like a Dark Lord there was always some madman lurking around the corner ready to take the place of the previous, that or just your regular run of the mill madmen.

It was irrational of them to lower their defences between Dark Lords for centuries one Dark Lord had followed another, the community coming under siege again after they lowered their defences! Yet time after time instead of strengthening defences after the fall of one Dark Lord they proceeded to neglect or remove their protection. It was madness!

He sighed as he realised he had gotten sidetracked again, there was a reason he had looked to the entrance of the Great Hall and that reason was that there were people entering. Several people in fact.

Professor Dumbledore led in two people he had allowed himself to forget in all this. This. What should he call this, he really had no idea he had never experienced anything like this ever before, he should feel, did feel good about his parents being alive but someone else had taken their place in his heart and he wasn't sure if he was ready to fill the gap both Sirius's and Albus's death had left with the love of the parents he had never known, and still didn't know much about he thought, why did everything have to be so difficult?

He felt a little relieved when they had to sit on the other side of the teachers table, all other spaces currently being in use, after all what exactly would he talk to them about? He groaned when he realised they would want the story finished before remembering that Albus now knew enough about it that he could probably finish the story himself, Harry hoped he would, he didn't think he was really up to finishing the basic run-down of his life let alone go into detail, even the basic story he found more than slightly depressing.

Harry looked over to Hagrid who was looking at him with a curious expression on his face, The Giants were another interesting Ally, they were not as brutish or barbaric as they had been portrayed throughout history they were actually a very developed culture, albeit different to any other in the world, to others their culture did seem barbaric but the Giants lifestyle was such that only the strongest could and thus DID survive. They also had a very well developed sense for people, this in the past had caused problems during the first uprising of Voldemort, having felt that the 'light' side would not understand, did not understand their beliefs they had sided with the one who could offer them freedom, freedom to live their lives as they pleased and not under the thumb of some ministry official. For all that they had known that Voldemort was dark and that he would likely betray them, but they also knew that their chance to live harmoniously with the 'light' was very slim and they had been willing to take the risk.

Hagrid stared at him for a few minutes before coming though with a broad grin although it was slightly uncertain and he was sure that the half-giant would be keeping an eye on him, traces of Dark Magic would likely hang off him for a long time even if he refrained from using it, which he probably wouldn't but he was sure that he eluded enough traces of light magic that it would nearly entirely overwhelm his use of Dark Magic.

Hagrid held out his hand and with a smile Harry accepted it, he already knew the man better than he was sure Hagrid thought possible but it was good to know that he would still be friends or at least on good terms with his favourite informant friend, even if he did give off information unwittingly he was still one of the most valuable friends Harry had ever, his first and rescuer from the Dursley's.

"Rubeus Hagrid," he said in his familiar bustling speech, "But doub'less ya know that"

"Hi Hagrid, I'm Harry and this is Hermione," Harry smiled "Would you mind telling us what Albus told the school last night, we might be able to help put the students at ease a bit." Harry said noticing several students stares directed directly at the two of them and quite a few indirectly as well, though mainly at Harry with more than a little apprehension, previous slight on Snape beginning to fade into their young under productive memories as Snape would put it.

"Ah, don' ya worry bout them, they'll get used to ya" Hagrid replied, suddenly his eyes got a strange gleam in them, " Doub'less you've met some pretty interesting creatures in ya world, can ya tell me about 'em?"

His big beady black eyes shining with excitement.

"Sure, I've met a few." Harry replied with a yawn.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Albus smiled at Harry and Hermione, they seemed the perfect solution to his Defence Problem, although his other self had warned him they might be a little overenthusiastic he couldn't help but feel excited, perhaps he had found THE teachers the perfect teachers to break the curse on the Defence Job.

Although it had been theorized by students for generations none had actually truly believed that the curse was actually real, and not only was it for just the Dark Arts Job, however the Defence position had always been notoriously harder to fill than any other teaching position. He supposed that was probably to be expected as along with the Defence teaching position came the responsibility for defending the castle, though that was a little known fact. The Defence teacher was not only responsible for the teaching of the students but also the updating of wards and preparing plans to deal with any threat to the castle.

The Curse dated back to the time of the founders, each having different ideas on HOW the subjects should be taught they had came up with the perfect image of what talents the teachers for each position should obtain, no one knew exactly what these requirements were but the closer to the specification you were, the longer you lasted, thus unsuitable teachers were dealt with either by the Headmaster or the castle itself.

Hogwarts castle had in fact probably removed more teachers than the entire complement of Hogwarts Headmaster's combined, as only Hogwarts really knew the exact correct specifications for its teachers.

Something about the pair screamed that they were perfect for the job, well not really something, it probably had a great deal to do with the memories his other-self had shared with him the night before.

He desperately hoped they would accept the position; he had his doubts, although the other Albus seemed to think that they would not turn it down. He however although he had viewed memories forms his other self did not truly understand the pair the way their own mentor did.

He would ask them after breakfast he decided, the others could wait for their explanations, right now he needed a Defence Teacher As Soon As Possible, or maybe even two? He smiled to himself, these two sure had timing.