Chapter 7- The Return of The Second Years

"Dumbledore?" exclaimed the entire class together. The old man jumped back in surprise from hearing his name said by so many people at once.

"Yes, that is my name," he said.

"You… you're our teacher?" asked one student in surprise.

"You didn't think all I did around here was sign papers and nod my head when people do a job well done?" he asked them. No one said a word. "So, are you saying you're unhappy to see me?"

"No!" said everyone immediately.

Dumbledore smiled at them.

"Oh good," he grinned. "Now, time for class to begin. I'm sure that many of you have heard that this class is extremely hard, almost impossible. Well, I can say that I am behind all of those terrible rumors, but that is just to deter as many as possible from taking this class, because not many possess the talent necessary to do this, and I don't want a hundred little students running around with only a half idea on how to make spells. I would rather have only a handful be an expert at it."

With that, he walked over to his desk at the front of the room, opened a drawer, and took out a small cauldron. He placed it on the top of the desk where everyone could see it.

"This," he said, "is a Ordinator Potion. From this concoction, all spells are created, made, and altered." He took out his wand, and pointed it at the rather calm concoction inside. "Let me show you what a simple MMSC Code looks like. Lumos!" The spell, rather than creating a small beam of light, came out as a thick cloud and flowed right into the potion, making it turn a bright yellow.

"The spell is now inside the potion, and is completely changeable. But, before we alter it just yet, let me show you what code makes this spell up in the first place. Ordinatum!" No beam came out of the wand, but a holographic screen popped right out of the potion, and projected itself into the air. It looked like a Muggle computer or television screen, only larger and perfectly flat. Then, Harry noticed, there were words on the screen:

(Light Spell)

lumos

size 1

see light light + 100

smell none

hear none

taste none

touch none

Harry had no idea what it meant, but before he could try to make sense of it, Dumbledore started explaining it.

"This is the MMSC Code, the code that tells what should happen as soon as you summon this spell. At the top, in comment parentheses, is the name of the spell, and below it, in the greater than and less than signs, is what you say to use the spell. Usually, a word not heard in normal speech is used, to try and prevent people from accidentally using spells while engaging in conversation. So, words from other languages are used, mostly obscure ones like Latin, though some still prefer French, Japanese, Greek, or even English even though they are still in use today.

"Below that part is where the real fun begins. The size part tells how big the beam is. In Lumos' case, the beam is relatively small, the standard size. The larger the beam, the more magical energy it takes to use the spell.

"And below that indicates what the spell does. The spell can produce something that you see when you use it, smell when you use it, hear when you use it or when it hits

you target, taste when you eat it, or feel when you use it or when your target is it with it. Now, Lumos does not do anything except produce a beam of light, so it does not require more than a single line of code, and minimal magical energy. The 'light light +100' part shows that when you use it, it creates a thin beam, as indicated by the size, that increases the light in the area of that beam by one hundred. The more lines of code that are used and the higher the numbers, the more magical energy is drained upon summoning the spell. Now, any questions?" Hermione, of course, raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Granger."

"Professor, how are the see, smell, hear, taste, and touch constants declared?" she asked, insightfully. "How does the spell know what they are?" .

"That," said Dumbledore, raising his pitch, "goes all the way back to the creation of magic. As you should know from your History of Magic lessons-"

"Yeah right," whispered Ron to Harry.

"-Majik Premer was the first wizard… ever. He spent years and years trying to invent the first spell, but he couldn't figure out how to change the physical world without actually touching anything. It took him decades to finally figure out a way to change the five senses that we can experience, and since then, not a wizard has ever even touched the code he made that declares those constant's values… even I can barely understand it. But, we don't have to worry about that. All we need to do, nowadays, is to simply put in the words, and tell what should happen to that specific sense."

"But," continued Hermione, "if you can change what the five senses experience, then wouldn't it be possible to change things beyond our physical grasp… like time?"

"But we can already do that," interrupted another student. "Remember Time Turners?"

"Ah," said Dumbledore, putting up his finger. "That is not actually true. Not many wizards know that Time Turners do not actually take you back in time, but really just change the world around us to a specific place in time. You see, every second, a Time Turner sends off an invisible wave throughout the entire universe that records everything it touches, and saves that data inside. When it is turned to return to a certain time, the Time Turner merely accesses the saved time, and 'loads' it into the current world by changing everything to match what it was. So, you are not really time traveling, just returning the universe to look exactly like a certain time."

"But isn't that just as good?" asked the same student. "I mean, what could make actual time travel superior to that?"

"Another very good point," said Dumbledore, scratching his nose. "But if you think about it hard enough, you can find the answer quite easily. You see, a Time Turner only starts sending out waves after it has been created. So, a Time Turner cannot bring you further into the past before the time it has been created. For example, lets say you created a Time Turner on Wednesday the fourth. You wait a week, and you could return to either the tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, or all the way back to the fourth, the day you created it. But, no matter how many times you turned it, you could not go to the third or before that."

"But don't we have Time Turners that go all the way back for hundreds of years?" asked the same student again, determined to try and prove her point. Dumbledore shook his head.

"No," he said. "In fact, the Time Turner is a very recent invention. The latest someone could go back is about… thirteen years I think."

"So that's why Voldemort didn't just get one of his Death Eaters to use a Time Turner and go back and stop him from going to your house," whispered Ron to Harry. "They hadn't been invented yet!"

"So," said Hermione, trying to wrap up the entire discussion, "if someone were to figure out a way to declare time as a constant, a person would be able to travel backwards and forwards through time as he or she pleased?"

"Yes," said Dumbledore, giving a grin, and showing a twinkle in his eye, "the development of such a thing would be the greatest invention ever in the history of magic, except for its actual invention."

For the rest of the class, Dumbledore showed the students various spells and their MMSC code. He showed them a few more not very complex spells (like Wingardium Leviosa) and some very sophisticated offensive spells (like Stupefy and Porcini Magus). He said they would all, by the end of the year, be able to create spells like these, and everyone was anxious to try and make their own. To get them all excited, he showed them the MMSC of one of his own spells, the Anata Naru Spell, an unavoidable spell that allowed you to switch bodies with someone else. Harry was going to ask if he could try it out, but the bell rang and everyone returned to their common rooms, to do their Potions Homework.

The first week of school went by very quickly and before Harry knew it, Friday arrived, bringing with it the tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. After classes had ended, Harry, along with Ron, walked out to the Quidditch Field, where the tryout would be held. When they arrived, there were ten people, ready to go. Much to Harry's dismay, the first years he had helped last year as a Prefect were all there, just as they had said.

"Hey Harry!" called Chris, the most athletic of them all.

"We've been practicing all summer long!" said Mike.

"And now we're really good!" squeaked Akshay, flexing his tiny muscles.

"I LIKE THE QUAFFLE!" grunted Joe, running after the red ball.

"Ron," whispered Harry. "We can't risk having any of them on the team."

"What should we do then?"

Harry thought for a second."

"I know," he said, "let's just have a Quidditch match. Two Beaters, two Chasers, and a Keeper to each time, five on five. First to… oh say… one hundred wins, and the winning team makes it, and the losers go away."

"But how will that help us get rid of them quickly?" asked Ron.

"Well, we'll make one of them the captain of one of the two teams. That one will surely pick the rest of his friends, and then that team will lose."

"But what about the poor guy who gets stuck with the four of them for tryouts?" asked Ron.

Harry shrugged.

"Oh well," said Harry. "All victories have some sort of sacrifice."

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Alright!" announced Harry to the hopefuls, clearing his throat. "We've decided… after much talk and deliberation… that the best way to hold this tryout would

be to have a Quidditch match. Two Beaters, two Chasers, and a Keeper to each team. First to one hundred wins, and the winning team makes the official Gryffindor one. Got it?"

"Yes!" said the ten of them together.

"Alright," said Harry, putting his arms akimbo. "Who wants to be a captain of a team?"

"OOOHHH! ME!" screamed Joe, bouncing up and down and throwing his hands into the air. Harry stifled down a laugh.

"Alright Joe," he said, pointing to him, "you're up!"

"Yahoo!" he yelled, running up next to Harry.

"Who else?" demanded Harry.

"How about me?" asked Akshay, putting his hand up.

"Uh… no," said Harry. If two of the boys that he didn't want to make the team came up, that would ruin his plan. "How about… you! Dean! Come on up." Dean Thomas shrugged, and walked up on the other side of Harry.

"Alright Joe, you start."

"I choose… Chris!" yelled Joe. Chris walked up next to him.

"Dean?"

"I'll have… Seamus!"

"Chris?"

"Mike!"

"Seamus?"

"Dennis!" Harry was surprised to see Dennis Creevey try out… especially with what happened to his brother last year.

"Mike?"

"Akshay!"

"Dennis?"

"Natalie!"

"Akshay?"

"Aku!"

"Aku! WHERE?" yelled Mike, jumping up.

"What are you talking about?" asked Harry, feeling sorry for Ak that he was on their team and was now unofficially out of the running.

"Oh…" said Mike, calming down. "It's just that… well, never mind."

"Okay…" said Harry, turning back. "Natalie, who do you want?"

"Emma, the only one left!" S

She skipped up and high fived Natalie.

Harry stood back and looked at the two teams. Now, that he saw them both, neither was really all too desirable. He wished he could just have Fred, George and everyone else back instead.

"Okay!" yelled Ron, rubbing his hands together. "Teams, figure out your positions and Joe, your team goal will be the one on the left and you're team name will be the uh…"

"THE ELITES!" he barked.

"Okay, your team name will be the Elites…" said Ron, wincing. "And your team, Dean, your goal will be down to the right. Your team name will be…"

"The Wizard Duelers!"

"Excellent name," said Ron, grinning. He and Harry waited for the two teams to arrive at their positions and decided who would be playing as what.

"You guys ready?" called Harry to them.

"Yeah!" the both teams yelled back.

"Alright then!" yelled Ron, opening the box of balls, and releasing the two Bludgers. Since there would be no Seekers in this match, the Snitch was unnecessary. "Three… two… one… go!" He opened the straps for the Quaffle and it flew straight into the middle of the match.

"And they're off!" yelled Harry, magically magnifying his voice so the players could hear. "And it's… Joe in possession?" It was true. Through he didn't look like much, Joe shot for the Quaffle faster than any other player and grabbed it before the match was even a quarter second old.

"Don't worry," said Ron. "Seamus will stop him." Harry looked over and saw Seamus shooting right at Joe, looking ready to knock him off. Harry smiled… but then, right at the last second, Joe threw the Quaffle right into the air, flew under Seamus, and since Seamus was distracted by this, Mike easily flew in and grabbed the Quaffle and shot it into the goal, scoring the Elites the first ten points of the game. Harry's jaw fell to the ground.

"Wow, they're good," said Ron.

Harry jabbed him in the side.

"Okay, the score is ten to zero, with the Elites ahead. Come on Wizard Duelers!"

The wizards Duelers were trying their best, but were being badly beaten by the Elites. It was almost scary, how the four of them seemed to be linked telepathically or something; the way the coordinated their movements… it was almost scary. Harry, for a few minutes, suspected that Ak was helping them with his magic, but he kept a close eye on him in his Keeper position, and his wand was in his pocket at all times. Now, just five minutes into the game, the score was ninety to zero.

"Harry… I don't think your plan is working," smiled Ron.

Harry glared at him.

"I think the Wizard Duelers are do for a comeback," he said, returning his attention to the field. Chris suddenly whacked a Bludger in the direction of the Wizard Dueler's goals, and Emma, mistaking it for a Quaffle went after it. This left Mike wide open to pass to Akshay, who was already by that goal, and easily dropped the Quaffle into the goal, scoring Gryffindor their last and final ten points that they needed to win even before Emma realized the mistake she had made.

"Hey!" called Joe, flying down in front of Harry. "We won!"

Harry sighed.

"Yes… yes you did."

"Hey," whispered Ron, "they may be a bit crazy, but hey, they're good!"

"I suppose you're right…." moaned Harry. "Hey, Wizard Duelers… good try." Harry waved to the losing tam as they miserably walked back inside the castle. The rest of the Elites flew down next to Joe.

"I told you we've been practicing," said Akshay, giving Mike a high five.

"Yeah, well, you won," said Harry, folding his arms. "So now, you have to do it again… in our first match against Ravenclaw. Think you're up to it?"

"Yeah!" said the five of them.

"Alright. Ak, you played Keeper, right?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, well, we've already got a Keeper, and you look like you're more built for action. So, you'll be one of our Beaters. Chris, you too. You're as good as Fred or George. As for you three others, Mike, Akshay, and Joe, you'll be the Chasers. I haven't seen such awesome cooperation between Chasers since the last World Cup."

"Thanks," they said.

"Alright," said Harry, trying to look at his team for their playing ability, not how he personally felt. "Meet back here every night after classes. You'll practice your new positions and who knows… we may win."

"Yay!" yelled the four first years, throwing their brooms into the air.

"Okay… bye," said Harry quickly, walking back up to the castle with Ron while listening to the excited chatter among the four of them.

"Hey!" Harry heard Ak call.

"Yeah?"

"Our first Wizard Duel meeting is tonight… in just a few minutes in fact. You coming?"

"Of course!" said Ron, looking thoroughly excited.

"Alright!" said Ak, running ahead of them back to the castle.

"Harry!" came a voice again.

"What is it?" asked Harry in an annoyed voice. He expected to see one of the second years, but it was actually Professor McGonagall. "Oh, I'm so sorry professor! You see-"

"It's quite alright Harry," she said, waving her hand. Harry noticed, this was one of the first few times she had called him by his first name. The previous time was when he asked her if he could become an Animagus…. What did she have to say.

"A letter just came for you," she said, breathing hard and taking a rather large envelope out of her pocket.

"Why didn't Hedwig just bring it to me?" he asked.

"This one was not delivered by a magical owl," she said, giving him the letter. "It was sent by a Muggle owl. Though they are still competent letter senders, they are not very good at delivering them to specific people. Luckily, I saw it hooting outside a window. The poor thing didn't know what to do."

"Who's it from?"

"Look for yourself," she said. Harry turned the envelop over, and to his surprise, the return address was to Dudley!

"Dudley sent me a letter!" he cried in surprise.

"Yes, that's why I wanted to bring it to you personally," continued Professor McGonagall. "It was probably important."

"Thanks professor," said Harry, continuing on his walk back up the castle and shaking the envelope. From the sound of it, there was definitely something inside… but what could Dudley have sent him?

"Anytime," she called to him, sounding a little breathless. She began walking back as well. Harry and Ron ran all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room, unable to wait much longer to see what was inside. What could Dudley have possibly sent him?

When the two of them arrived in the common room, they walked over to a corner, and opened it up.

"What's that?" asked Hermione, coming over to them.

"Something from Dudley," said Harry, trying to shake whatever was inside it out. Hermione made a face of surprise.

"What's he doing sending you stuff?"

"I dunno, but it must be imp-" Harry stopped there, and it seemed as if the whole world froze. When he saw what had fallen out of the bag and onto the floor, someone could have knocked him over with a feather, and he probably would have turned to dust from the impact. Right there, before the three of them, was a Sorceror's Stone.