Chapter 7: An Interview with the Headmaster

"Good evening all," their Headmaster said as he sank onto one of the couches in the room, motioning for the others to have a seat as well. "I have heard that you all seem to be having a difficult day. I am here to see if we can shed some light on that situation. Now, let's see so far, Harry somehow made Ron stop laughing on command, and then seemingly stopped a storm by wishing it was over, then Miss. Weasley blew-up the cupboard in the kitchen using wandless magic, and it appears a few of the legs on the sofa, next Miss. Granger becomes able to see auras, and Mr. Longbottom healed, using only his own magic, his toad after it was hit by the Knight bus, and Ms. Lovegood predicted accurately I might add the exact moment, I would be arriving to take her away for the rest of the summer. Have I missed anything?"

"Umm, yeah, Ron was floating, he was laughing rather hard and then he was just up in the air. We couldn't figure out how to get him down so I told him something that kind of shocked him and down, he came." Ginny said all this with out looking at anyone or pausing for breath.

"Ahh, I do not have a definite answer for you about what is happening, however I do have a theory, allow me to share it with you. It is I trust you all know, the thirty-first of July, and today marks the sixteenth birthday of both Harry and Neville, now it is common for extremely powerful wizards, to spend the first sixteen years of their lives only able to tap into a small percentage of their power, only enough power to allow them to be equal or marginally above their peers. So for these wizards the sixteenth birthday marks a right of passage and they gain the rest of their powers. The more new powers they are to gain, the longer it will take for them to manifest themselves. Now, I think I must pause here to point out that, you are each of you, extraordinarily powerful, there are maybe ten wizards in history that are stronger than you, or at least five of you." After this he paused for effect and all six of them held their breath hoping that they were not the one to be excluded. "Harry, you are the one that is not included in those five, now before you wonder, this is not because the others are more powerful than you, and it is in fact because you are much more powerful than them. It is a little early to say but I think, there maybe only two wizards in history more powerful than you."

At this point in his narrative the old man, paused and conjured a table, full of food, in the midst of the couches on which his students were perched. "I understand that you have not eaten yet, as you were supposed to have dinner at the party, but I have pressing business and may not be able to speak with you until your return to school, so Mrs. Weasley has agreed to move the celebration to tomorrow night. Where was I, yes, so we have established that you are all very powerful, to continue I believe that the reason that your powers all manifested themselves on the same day is because you have a deep emotional connection. Your experience in the Department has bound the six of you. I know this is a lot to process, so why don't we eat, and then I will do my best to answer your questions."

For the next several minutes the only sounds made in the room were the clinks of silverware against dishes. When they had all finished eating, Dumbledore vanished the table and sat back clearly prepared to answer their questions. The friends looked around the room nervously not sure where to begin. Finally, unable to bare the silence anymore Harry spoke, "What do we need to do to learn to control these powers; I mean we aren't even sure what they are?"

"Well the first step will be to identify them, to do this Professor McGonagall; will begin coming every afternoon to help you with this. As for controlling your powers, it should be easier, probably noticeably so, in the morning, today your bodies and minds were forced into a rapid adaptation so that they could accommodate these changes. I do believe that there are certain things that you can do to minimize the damage you cause over the next several days. First, I would try to remain in this room as much as possible, as there is little of great value, you should also try to avoid anything which would make you lose control either anger or hysterical laughter. Ginny, I suggest that when you can't avoid losing your temper you try to keep you hands by your sides, no one has been hurt yet and we would like to keep it that way."

"Sir," Neville began unused to addressing the headmaster, "how was I able to heal Trevor, he was dead wasn't he?"

"No, Neville, he was not dead. If he had been you would not have been able to help him, your toad was barley clinging to life when you found him, I dare say if you had been any later than you were getting to him, he would be dead."

"Professor, I saw Trelawney make a prediction in my third year, she did not remember it, didn't even know she had made a prediction, how is it Luna was able to remember her prediction." Harry asked.

"It would seem that however much Professor Trelawney wishes to be a great seer, she possesses very little inner sight, thus when she does make a real prediction, she is acting as a medium for a higher power. Miss. Lovegood's power is extremely great, and that same higher power shows them much like a muggle motion picture to her, she is able to and pass them on as she sees fit."

"The light, I suppose is the best way to describe it, around everyone, what does it mean, I know that it changes but what does it mean exactly?"

"Can you tell me how many types of light you are seeing, Hermione?"

She appeared to think for several seconds before responding, "Three, sir. One seems to be constantly changing, another has altered greatly in Harry, Ginny and Ron through out the day, it has also altered in Neville and Luna significantly since they have been here, but I noticed that in you, Mrs. Weasley, and the twins that it is nearly as stable as the first light and the third light is changing constantly, sometimes it changes so quickly that I do not even register a color before it is gone."

"That is indeed a most extraordinary gift, most wizards and witches can only see one of the colors, have in fact only met two who could see two colors, but never anyone other than myself who could see all three bands. The bands represent power, emotion and personality. The easiest band to detected is the emotional one, this is the one that constantly fluxgates, with practice you will learn which colors represent which emotions. The next band is the power band this one changes considerably during early life and then levels off, you have indeed noticed that, in everyone around you, and have observed the powers of your friends growing today, when you return to school you will see power growing in the students. Most people continue to gain power until they are out of school. The third band and I have never known anyone else, who could see it, will tell you about personality, with practice you will be able to identify what traits drive a person."

"So, instead of having Professor McGonagall come to find out what powers we have can you just look at our power bands?"

"No, actually you can not just determine powers using that band, in wizards personality also reflects which power we have, so you must compare personality bands and the power bands. And the colors in your power bands have not set themselves yet. Also, it is unusual for personality bands to be completely set in ones, so young as yourselves, still I must admit your personality bands have not changed much since you entered Hogwarts."

Ginny was the next to speak, "Am I just doing wandless magic? I mean is that how I blew-up the cupboard?"

"No, actually a blasting spell should not be nearly so easy with wandless magic. I think that you have developed a different power, it is very old and only manifests itself in witches, and there are several books that could explain it better than I can. Now, it is late, and I must be off." He waved his wand several times, producing a door and a stack of blankets. "That door leads into a bathroom, which you may use so you do not have to leave this room, I will have Molly bring up your meals."

With that the old wizard started toward the door, only to be stopped by the sound of Ginny's voice as she asked rather sheepishly, "Please, Professor before you go can you fix the legs on the two broken sofas?" Harry watched her face turn increasingly red a she spoke, and he realized just how in love with the girl he was.

The Headmaster nodded, waved his wand, and said, "I hope the rest of your summer is pleasant, and good night." He then turned and walked out the door leaving a group of stunned teenagers in his wake.