A/N: Quick reminder that this story is rated M.

Chapter 27: ChChChChChanges

Albus walked solemnly back to the castle with Minerva.

The three of them went all the way to Albus's office where there was already a pot of tea waiting for them. They sat.

Albus began to speak, his arm around Minerva. "There was no excuse for keeping you uninformed, Minerva," he said, glancing at Harry. "However I can offer an explanation, if you so desire."

Minerva sniffed noncommittally.

It took Harry a moment to notice that Albus was looking at him.

"I trust you," he told Albus, meaning it far more than was applicable to the situation.

Albus returned his attention to Minerva.

"Harry was attacked in the middle of his class yesterday," he glanced at Harry fleetingly, "and Harry felt the immediate need to confront Tom Riddle, who has been harassing and threatening him with increasing seriousness."

Harry was impressed with Albus in general, but was in this moment blown away by his ability to manipulate the truth to preserve the vagaries of their absence.

"I was misled by Harry's actions preceding his departure, and, to my surprise, side-along apperated with him to the house of Black where Tom was staying. Due to a series of unfortunate events leading up to Mr. Bloom's death," Harry coughed at the euphemism and Minerva gasped in shock. "I was convinced of Harry's guilt in the matter and brought him back to the castle where I was planning to, er, interrogate him," he finished sheepishly.

"Due to some rather dark magic," Harry coughed again, "Harry was unconscious all night and I was unable to wake him. I…I realize that in this time I should have alerted you of our situation, Minerva. I must confess that I was too …out of sorts to think of it."

Harry felt a pang of guilt about making Albus out of sorts.

"When Harry awoke, he cleared up the…misunderstanding convincingly."

"Albus," said Minerva, "mixed as they may be to me, what were your feelings about the death of Mr. Bloom such that you held Harry responsible?"

Harry translated that to mean "Why did you think Harry killed Wister?"

"Well, I…" Albus hesitated, clearly trying to word his answer exactly right.

"It seems to me, Albus, that you'd been very paranoid about Harry ever since he beat you in the duel," said Minerva, the trace of a smile creeping onto her face.

"I was not unduly para—we tied that duel, thank you Minerva."

"Thanks for taking my side, Minerva. I was juts telling him—"

"I'm not done being angry with you, Harry Crockett."

"I—Ok," said Harry.

"Don't worry, Minerva. I'll make sure I beat him soundly in our rematch, I—"

"I hope you demolish each other. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have class." She stood up and left.

"Well, I think she'll be alright," said Harry.

Albus nodded hesitantly. "I…suppose she'll be fine. I have a suspicion that there are more issues here than there appear…" he trailed off. Albus's watch made a small popping noise and he looked down at it. Harry looked to see that it wasn't the stars and moon watch Harry was accustomed to seeing, but a regular watch with twelve numbers.

"Thought I loathe to remind you, Harry, you have a class to teach."

"Right, I'll just…" Harry walked over to the door and pulled it open.

"And—," Albus started. Harry turned around. "It was nice meeting you, Harry James Potter."

It was the secret hours of the night, hours meant just for them. They pressed together in the dark, feeling each other's warm skin. Hands roamed all over Harry—one on his back, one on his chest, both more vivid than any dream Harry had ever had. He pressed against the touch, and pulled back his partner's head by the hair to bare the long neck for Harry's teeth. Harry could hear deep sighs and sharp, pleasurable intakes of breath. He felt hot breath exhaled onto him, and felt the way the air tickled through his hair. His partner was so vivid that Harry could even smell the rising scent of his his arousal, but it was dark, and he couldn't see the hands on him, couldn't see the body moving against him, couldn't see the long hair in his hand. He wished he could see…and then right in front of him, almost glowing in the dark—

"Blue eyes

Baby's got blue eyes

Like a deep blue sea

On a blue blue day

Blue eyes

Baby's got blue eyes

When the morning comes—"

Harry woke to the early morning light and his magical record player, accurate as always.

"That's quite enough, thank you, Sir Elton John!" groaned Harry as he rolled out of bed and headed to the shower. The cold shower.

While Harry showered, he wondered how Fawkes had managed to hide Harry's attraction to Albus so completely for so long. Looking back, Harry thought, there were some clues. For one, he'd known immediately and inexplicably when he saw Albus's job advertisement that he wanted to work at Hogwarts. He'd grown close to Albus. They'd even shared dre—they'd—they'd even—the dream—

Harry burst out of the shower, shutting off the water with a wave of his hand: full panic. He caught sight of himself in the mirror, and noticed the flush of embarrassment that had spread all the way from his bellybutton to his ears.

What if they'd shared the dream?

He waved a hand over his body to clothe himself before apparating directly to the top of Albus's escalator and pounding on the door.

The moments stretched on endlessly while Harry waited there on the landing, and he recalled years of being the nighttime radio aerial for Voldemort's soul. Was he turning into that for Albus, or was this time really just a dream? Harry rubbed his scar out of habit. At least the Albus dreams were more fun.

Suddenly, Harry realized he didn't know what he was doing outside Albus's office. What if he and Albus had shared the dream? What would Harry say? Apologize? Explain? Would Albus know Harry was involved, or would he just think it was his own dream? What if they hadn't shared the dream? What excuse would he have to be at Albus's doorstep? Harry turned to leave, but it was too late.

As his foot hit the first stair, he felt a flutter in his chest and what felt like a finger gently stroking down the back of his neck so softly that he could have imagined it. Momentarily lost in curiosity, he reached an aura out behind himself and touched back, only to be met with a wave of intense panic and embarrassment, and then nothing.

Then the door flew open.

"Come in, Harry," said Albus from inside, and Harry had no choice but turn around and go back in.

Albus reclined behind his desk in a silk, lilac dressing down, and could have been a picture of calm except for two small tells. Harry had noticed over the years that whenever Albus was calm, his desk was empty of anything but his folded, still hands. Whenever Albus was worried, puzzled, or anxious, he left one item in the middle of his desk, maybe a silver instrument or some token representing the object of his thoughts, such as the sword of Gryffindor or the Pensieve. Today it was just his gold watch, but it was enough.

The other tell, of course, was the panic and embarrassment.

But Albus smiled all the same, and gestured to the chair across from himself. Harry waved his thanks, but leaned against a column instead. He crossed his arms, suddenly completely comfortable now that he knew Albus was flustered.

"Just popping in for a moment," he said. "New security system?" he asked, and leveled Albus with a look.

Albus had the decency to look abashed, and began fidgeting with the gold watch.

"I didn't know it was you," Albus smiled up at Harry.

"And then you did," teased Harry.

Albus twinkled at Harry for a moment, and then looked down at the watch. If Harry's eyesight had been any better, he would have detected a blush.

"I'm not in the habit of...predetermining my guests," Albus said with a faint smile. "But I admit, I was desiring a modicum more premonition this morning, even if only a moment. I continue to find that a Headmaster's days and nights are not his own."

"Rough visits so far this morning?" Harry asked, smirking. Suddenly, he remembered the feeling of his teeth scraping lightly over Albus's jugular.

"Rough…" Albus tried out the word. His eyes flicked to a staircase on the right, to the ceiling, to Harry, and down to the watch so quickly that Harry almost missed it.

"Opaque, to say the least— Harry, I'm being rude," he seemed to suddenly remember his prowess at controlling conversations. He put on his watch, and gave Harry all of his focus. "It's lovely to see you. Please, what can I do for you this morning?"

Harry was satisfied that Albus didn't know he'd shared the dream with Harry. "Oh, I just…ummm…I had a question about our rematch—the duel, you know, but I think it can wait until we both have more time. I fancy a spot of breakfast before class, after all," he invented, "And I wouldn't dream of wasting another minute of your morning."

Harry walked to the door and opened it up. Albus stood.

"Please don't misunderstand, Harry. I would be happy to discuss—"

"Flustered is becoming on you, Albus," said Harry stepping out. "So's that robe."

Harry closed the door and dropped himself down through three floors, unsure if the jolting in his chest was from the feeling of falling through the floor or from the conversation he'd just had.

Albus collapsed back into his chair. He took a moment to glance down at his "becoming" lilac dressing gown before remembering the cause of his fluster. He put the watch back on the desk, stood up, and made his way to his shower trying, in spite of himself, to remember the dream he'd had.

In truth, he'd slept late and only woken up a few minutes before the pounding on his door. Those few minutes had been spent at first in a sleepy bliss, and then severe discomfort as he discovered that he'd gone to sleep with his watch on and that the dial was digging painfully into his wrist. He spent a few moments in a rush to remove the watch, and even when he did, he still had a deep imprint of the jagged dial, and a light reversed "G.G." from the inscription on the underside.

But the watch had nothing to do with the dream. Albus sighed and stepped into the shower. Not anymore.

Albus couldn't remember having a more erotic dream. Normally his dreams were lucid and orderly, but this one had been out of control, body and mind. When he first detected that it was Harry on his doorstep, he feared that he'd accidentally broadcasted the dream to Harry. Maybe poor Harry, with his miserably feeble occlumancy, had had to play unwilling voyeur to Albus's tryst— On the other hand, if that was the case, maybe Harry could tell Albus who the mystery lover was.

"He looked very becoming on you," said Harry's voice in Albus's head.

Albus choked on some water and turned the shower to cold.

It was Friday morning and Harry was introducing his fourth years to a vocabulary of useful defensive spells. He was focusing on the ones he'd learned in his fourth year to get through the maze in the third task. He'd started with Expelliarmus, which the students had mastered quickly, and progressed onto having them practice useful charms like Impedimenta and stunners. He'd taken the students up to the Room of Requirement. The room had recreated the maze it had erected for the first years with a few modifications. There were more enchanted objects that posed a threat to the students. There was even a bogart loose somewhere in the maze, from what Harry had heard from the emerging students.

The assignment was different this time, however. He'd asked the first years not to get stuck in the middle without calling for help, but the fourth years were required to make their ways all the way through. He sent two students from the same house at each time (so that they wouldn't curse each other). Only two students were in the maze at a time, so Harry spent the lesson teaching the other students new spells (though he frequently had to dive into the maze to rescue someone).

Harry saw sparks in the maze and excused himself from his students.

"Keep practicing that! Remember, it's 'reducto.' Don't point that at anyone but the dummies." He walked straight at the maze wall and a small gap melted open in front of him.

He walked through two, three, four, five walls before he came out next to Pius Thickneese who was being pinned to the wall by, what Harry suspected, was a vampire. The vampire was quite cliché. It wore a long red and black cloak and too much eye makeup. Oblivious to Harry, the vampire leaned in to Thicknesse and cocked his head to bite, the way vampires do.

"No, no! Ahh—no! Please, don't!" whimpered Thicknesse, helpless.

Harry didn't think he could give Thicknesse instructions effectively enough to get him out of trouble, so he pointed his wand at the vampire and called, "Riddikulus!"

There was a whip-crack and suddenly everything went dark and Harry couldn't move. Harry was encased in burning tar, and he couldn't move.

Flash.

The memory of Wister's body hitting the ground, and Harry didn't care.

Flash.

The memory of Fawkes exploding into a pile of ashes, and Harry didn't care.

Flash.

Harry was all-powerful and wanted the whole world at any means. Nothing would stop him.

The tar around Harry leeched and leeched.

Albus was sitting behind his desk looking through the lesson plans Harry had given him. Friday, September 13th read "4th years: Maze in RoR. 3rd task spells."

Albus steepled his fingers. RoR had to be the Room of Requirement, but Albus wondered what "3rd task spells" could possibly be. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and Albus swept out of his office to the escalator.

He was the headmaster. He could look in on classes if he wanted.

He reached the 7th floor corridor and found the patch of wall across from the tapestry of ballet trolls. He paced in front of it thinking about wanting to see Harry's lesson.

The door appeared and Albus smiled and opened it.

"Reducto!"

"Reducto!"

Students were practicing spells on dummies on one side of the room, but stopped when they caught sight of their headmaster.

"Oh, don't stop on account of me," smiled Albus. "I only wonder, where is Professor Crockett?"

"He's in the maze, sir," replied Dorcas Meadows. "He's with Pius, sir. They've been in their longer than they usually are, though, sir. He should be out soon."

Just as Meadows finished speaking, there was a bang from inside the maze. Albus and the students looked up to see red sparks floating somewhere in the middle.

Albus frowned. "I'll be back soon," he muttered. He walked straight at the wall of the maze. Like it had for Harry, part of the wall melted to give him a small doorway.

He walked through two, three, four, walls and then stopped. The wall in front of him had crumbled, as if it had been smashed with a wrecking ball. Behind the debris, Albus could see a spiraling black mass of crystal pulling at the light.

"Crockett!" he called.

He heard a call for help from behind the crumbled wall. Albus nimbly vaulted his way over the debris until he was in the adjoining hall. Thicknesse crouched against one side of the hall, wand in the air sending up a constant stream of sparks.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

"Where's Crockett?" Albus demanded.

Thicknesse pointed at the jagged black mass of crystal. "There was a vampire, sir, and then Professor Crockett appeared and—and he said it was ridiculous, or a spell or something, and then, all of a sudden this thing appeared where Professor Crockett was, and—"

"That's enough, Thicknesse, thank you," said Albus urgently. "Would you please join your classmates? Go back through that way." He pointed to the melted doorways behind him.

Thicknesse didn't have to be told twice. He scrambled over the broken stone and disappeared behind the wall.

Albus turned to the giant black crystal that was sucking light from the room. He raised his wand, and shouted "Ridikkulus!"

There was a crack and the crystal was gone. In its place, there were four men and one little girl. Three of the men were shouting, and shouting. Spells started firing between the three of them. Two of the spell casters faded; they were not important. The third, slim, auburn haired wizard raised his wand, and the little girl darted out in front and—

"Riddikulus!" shouted the fourth man. The three spell casters and the little girl vanished, and were replaced by a towering dementor.

Harry chuckled at the irony. He'd tried to force the boggart into something comforting. The ironic part was that the dementor was comforting.

"Expecto Patronum!" incanted Albus. A great, shining bird sprung from Albus' wand and swooped down on the Dementor. Harry squinted at it, trying to figure out what it was. If Harry had been looking at Albus, though, he would have seen a look of utter shock. Fawkes whistled in Harry's head and Harry remembered that they were in the middle of a fight.

"Expecto Patronum!" chimed Harry, adding his own phoenix patronus to the mix. The two birds swooped and dove over the dementor.

The dementor cowered and suddenly shifted into Gellert Grindelwald. Both patronuses faded.

"Riddikulus!" Harry and Albus shouted with equal venom. Harry wondered if this fear had been supplied by Albus or Harry. Either way, the boggart exploded under the force of the spells, and its remains drifted to the ground in sparks and dust.

Harry and Albus were both slightly out of breath.

Harry spoke first.

"I've never had that much trouble with a boggart before."

"I was wondering why you forced it to become a dementor, of all things."

"I wanted something comforting," chuckled Harry.

"You knew you could beat it?" guessed Albus.

Harry nodded, still catching his breath. "It was my first boggart. It's been my boggart since I was thirteen. I can beat both the boggart and the dementor, so I suppose it is comforting…expected. –It changed, obviously. My boggart changed…" Harry trailed off and frowned, remembering how the black crystal sucked at him, worse than a dementor because he knew it was all his fault.

He shook himself and changed the subject.

"What's your patronus?" he asked Albus. "I didn't get a good look at it."

"My patronus has always been a lion—Harry, the students." The distraction worked.

"Oh!" Harry closed his eyes, and with a thought he made the maze and debris disappear.

He put on his teacher face as he approached the frantically jabbering students. Casual. This happens every day.

"Sorry if I alarmed you. I got held up by a boggart." That changed. "They're tricky to get rid of." Very tricky. "I'll teach you about them in a few weeks and show you how to kill them. For now, all you need to know is that they take the shape of whatever you fear most." Harry's worst fear had changed from dementors, fear itself, to the fear of his own darkness taking over and controlling him. He remembered his own disregard for life… and the power…where the dementor forced him to remember his worst memories, the crystal made him imagine what he could do at his worst. Harry knew that with the power he had, if he didn't have a conscience he could do worse things than anyone had ever done to him.

Harry shook himself out of his daze and looked down at his wizard's watch. It was time for lunch.

"For next lesson, please practice the spells you learned today. Focus on reducto and impedimenta. It's time for lunch." Harry thought about having the door materialize outside the great hall, and then opened it to let the students out. Some of them looked around in disorient and surprise before exiting.

When all of the students had filed out, Harry turned to Albus.

"Lunch?"

Albus considered Harry for a moment, then his face opened up, excited. "Alas, no. I am meeting a friend for lunch. He and I have some, ah, business to attend to."

Harry faked a smile and refrained from prying.

"Oh, er, have fun. I'll just…be going, then," said Harry making for the door.

"Enjoy your lunch, Harry!"

Harry stepped out onto the flagstone entryway outside the great hall. The door vanished. Harry's fake smile faded into a glare and he stomped off to lunch.