A/N: This was beta'd by my actual grandmother.

Chapter 39: Secret Projects

Harry began dividing his time between three projects: the upcoming dueling tournament, the vault, and changing his animagus form to a phoenix.

On weeknights, Harry usually found himself tutoring and giving extra lessons to his defense against the dark arts students in preparation for the dueling tournament. He had a very steady crowd of students worried about getting crushed in a duel, students who really wanted to win, and students who just enjoyed his class. The difference between the tutoring sessions and his normal classes was that he didn't assign homework, and could rarely plan ahead because sometimes he was working with a group, and sometimes he worked one-on-one, depending on the night. Alastor Moody always managed to find him on nights with no other students, but the Prewett twins usually showed up in a group: all the better to cause chaos. The out-of-class lessons were a lot more free-form than his class periods and often reminded him of DA meetings.

Albus frequently showed up to help Harry when the group meetings got huge. Some nights, they would split the group up. Albus would take the students who needed to learn and practice new magic, and Harry would take the students who needed to practice their dueling technique and reflexes. Some nights, they would all go out on the lawns, split the group into two teams, and have a dueling war. The students would often request that Harry and Albus duel, but they always refused; they never talked about it, but Harry and Albus both wanted to save their second face-off for the faculty tournament—ideally the championship.

On free weekend days, Harry often asked Minerva to go with him to visit his vault. After a week of having to trek all the way to Gringotts and dealing with Goblins, Harry created his own set of vanishing cabinets that would take him to and from the vault. He found that he could only get there, though, when he had his cloak on.

Harry wanted to go through the catalogs of the contents of the vault, and the diaries and accounts of his ancestors. It was never difficult to talk Minerva into coming along.

They spent long afternoons going through the letters in the desk drawers. Minerva wanted to make a master list of all of the objects in the vault, and Harry wanted to piece together a tree of his ancestors in chronological order. They spent most of their time in the huge room with the library and artifacts. A blank space of wall appeared there, and they posted a huge piece of paper over it. They turned the piece of paper into a time line, putting in each descendant where they inherited the cloak and died with a colored line marking their lifespan. Harry and Minerva also put in some of the most important artifacts with a colored line between when they were deposited and withdrawn. In some cases, objects disappeared and reappeared —it was a very old vault, after all.

Though Harry specifically asked her not to, Minerva also made a graph of how much money was in the vault over time. Harry found it one afternoon a week or two after she'd finished. Harry got ten seconds into telling her off when she interrupted, "you just have no idea what to do with it all. Don't worry, Crockett, I won't treat you differently because you're rich," and laughed to his face. He'd had a hard time staying angry with her.

Though he enjoyed exploring his vault, Harry couldn't spend every day of every weekend at Gringotts. Minerva was busy sometimes, and though Harry didn't mind hanging out in the vault alone, he could only spend so much time there without attracting the suspicion of Albus. As it was, Harry found himself telling Albus that he was working on his animagus project while he was actually going to the vault with Minerva or by himself.

What spare time Harry had after his job, his tutoring, and the vault he spent working on changing his animagus form. He'd told Albus that he was trying to change into a phoenix, but he didn't tell Minerva. Harry wasn't going to tell Minerva. The morning after Halloween, a Friday with no classes, Minerva had marched Harry down to the Ministry of Magic to register their animagi forms. Harry had no interest in registering his phoenix form, if he ever achieved it, and so he resolved not to tell Minerva lest she tattle on him to the ministry. Albus, Harry knew, would be more sympathetic —and he was. Albus was fascinated. He helped Harry do research and offered to let Harry work in his office so that he could help immediately if something went wrong. Harry agreed. He wasn't interested in spending another evening stuck as an animal, or something equally traumatic.

When Harry was working on changing his form, he told Minerva that he was going to the vault by himself. Minerva was busy enough not to ask too many questions, so the vault alibi worked pretty well on her. Even when she was paying attention, though, he could rearrange the vault to look like he'd been working while she was gone. He had a bit of a harder time lying to Albus. This constituted the most dishonest he'd been with Albus or anyone else since his accidental horcrux was healed, and Fawkes was not pleased about it one bit. Fawkes fed Harry's mind a constant stream of inconvenient truths while Harry was with either Minerva or Albus making it harder for Harry to filter his words, and Harry suspected that Fawkes was intentionally making him more forgetful. Once, Harry accidentally left an animagus book in Albus's office, and then came back and said he'd been reading it while he was actually in the vault. He had to think quickly.

"I've got another copy. I duplicated it and left that copy because I thought you were reading it," he lied, trying to look nonchalant.

"Oh, how very thoughtful of you, Harry," smiled Albus. "Would you like some tea? Do you happen to have any of those lemon drops on you?"

Harry smiled in relief and conjured a few lemon drops for Albus.

"I did read some of it since we worked together last, actually," said Albus. "I wondered what you thought of this passage...?" He pointed to the open book, but made no motion to hand it to Harry across the desk. Harry walked around the desk and looked over Albus's shoulder at the passage in question. Harry felt something nudge the back of his knees and he turned to see a chair that was definitely not there before. Albus hadn't lifted his wand.

Harry cleared his throat as he sat. "Would you rather I compliment you on that trick, or take it in silent awe?"

"Comment, by all means," replied Albus, glancing at Harry sideways with a sly smile.

"In that case, nice-that's a pretty complicated thing to conjure," said Harry. "You've only been practicing for two months, right?"

"Ah," said Albus. "You give me too much credit. I merely summoned it from behind you. I can, however, conjure...ah..." He clicked his fingers and a candle appeared in front of them.

"Nice," said Harry. He moved closer and ran his hand over the candle. When he took his hand away, the candle was lit. The light flickered off the polished surface of the desk. Albus made the same motion, but the candle remained lit. He frowned. He focused intently on the candle, and snapped his fingers. The candle remained lit. Harry looked at him questioningly.

"I haven't been able to do light," said Albus with a puzzled smile. He blew out the candle.

"Light?" asked Harry.

"Light. See, when I..." He snapped his fingers and the candle lit. "Look. It doesn't cast any light." The candle's light had flickered off the desk when Harry'd lit it, but there was no flicker for Albus's flame. The flame cast no light.

"But...That doesn't make sense. I can see the flame so it must be casting light," said Harry. "That's...not how light works."

"I seem to have broken physics."

Harry blew out the candle and lit it again. The light flickered on the desktop.

"Try putting it out again," said Harry.

Albus clicked his fingers, but nothing happened.

"Try...try focusing on making the flame go out. If you're trying to do 'nox' or something, don't. Do something specifically to put out fire."

Albus snapped his fingers again, and the flame went out. But even as a thin stream of smoke rose from the black, unlit wick, light still flickered against the desk and the melting wax.

"Woah," said Harry. "Where is that coming from?"

"I don't know," said Albus, making a steeple with his fingers. "I can't wandlessly turn on or off any lights. While I was on tour, staying in a muggle hotel, I conjured a torch wandlessly. I could switch it on and off, but the torch didn't cast any light. I could flip the switch with my hands or with my wand and it would work, but never with wandless magic. It was the same with the overhead lights. I turned it on at night, and I could see the light on, but nothing else in the room was illuminated"

"How weird," said Harry, lighting and putting out the candle with idle taps of his fingers.

The slight creak of a handle was the only warning before the door of Albus's office was thrown open. Harry found himself flat on his arse as the chair beneath him was vanished. He looked up at Albus and mouthed, "Was that wandless?"

Albus nodded, with a slightly satisfied smile.

Their attention turned to whoever had entered the room. Harry was thoroughly hidden behind the desk and couldn't see anything except Albus and a few portraits, but he didn't have to see to know who it was.

"Albus! Hey, do you have some super secret way to get in touch with Crockett? I told him I was busy, but it turns out I'm not and he's gone already."

"Hello, Minerva. I'm so sorry, I didn't hear you knock." He could almost hear Minerva's sarcastic smile. "I believe Harry said he was working on a project," said Albus. Harry had asked him not to let Minerva in on the animagus project.

"Yeah," she said. "He's working on a project with me. I'm helping him."

Harry's stomach lurched, but Albus smiled. "This must be a different project."

"Agh," Minerva sighed in exasperation. "It's not a different project. He needs me." Harry rolled his eyes. "Could you just...is there some way to get in touch with him?"

Albus glanced surreptitiously down at Harry and Harry shook his head vigorously.

"I'm afraid I don't have a special Harry communication system. I could try a patronus—"

"I already tried that. He's in a place— it doesn't— he isn't answering. Can't you guys read each other's minds or something?"

"Ah. Not...really," said Albus, glancing briefly at Harry. "Do you know where Harry is? You do, of course, have permission to leave campus."

"I know where he is. He just— I just— It's— I can't get there without him. Not that he's off campus."

"You would get lost? Perhaps I would know how to get there. What is the project you are working on?"

"Oh, it's nothing. It's too far for...Don't worry about..."

Harry whacked Albus's leg under the desk. Albus looked down and Harry mouthed, "Get her out!" with emphatic gestures. Albus just smirked curiously and turned back up to Minerva.

"I didn't realize you were working on a project together. Is it anything I'd be interested in?"

Harry'd had enough. He dissapparated and apparated outside Albus's door and then burst through it.

"Albus! Oh, hello, Minerva."

"Crockett!"

"Harry. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you knock. We were just talking about you," he smiled calmly

Harry smiled back sarcastically.

"I was just looking for you," said Minerva. "I'm...not busy."

"Ah," croaked Harry. He really hadn't thought through how this would work. He swallowed, and found his throat dry. "Yeah. Well."

Albus and Minerva both looked at Harry expectantly as he stuttered on.

"It's just— I was—" The minute seemed to stretch for an hour. He pleaded Albus with his eyes to take pity, but Albus's slightly amused smile only seemed to become more pronounced.

Unfortunately, Harry's best solution was a lie that everyone would know was a lie. Hopefully, thought Harry, both Albus and Minerva would think the lie was for the sake of the other. "I was working with a student," said Harry. "On the tournament. And he asked about the bracket system, so I thought it was about time that Albus and I sorted that all out..." Albus looked at him expectantly. "That is, if you have time." Harry wrung his hands a bit. "If you aren't busy with Minerva."

Then, to Harry's horror, Albus turned to look at Minerva, and then looked back at Harry. "Actually Minerva and I were in the middle of something. Do you have time tomorrow?"

Harry's throat went dryer than it had been a moment ago, and he felt his face flush with helplessness.

"Actually, Albus," said Minerva, "I really ought to—"

"Nonsense, Minerva. Our conversation is of the utmost importance to me right now."

"But, Albus-"

"I insist, Minerva."

"Albus!" exclaimed Harry indignantly.

"I'm sorry, Harry. Minerva and I were just discussing a rather important project, and I'd really like to hear more about it."

Yeah. My project, thought Harry.

"Now. How about three-o-clock tomorrow? Tomorrow is the first of December? We can have tea. And Harry, do bring some of those lemon drops. Good of you to drop by."

Harry had no choice but to leave, so he did with a warning, threatening glance at Minerva and a hurt glare at Albus.

As he descended the stone escalator, he thought of dozens of different ways he could have handled that encounter to a better result. He thought that maybe if he hadn't apparated out, maybe Albus would have been forced to dismiss Minerva earlier. Maybe he shouldn't have let Albus vanish his chair in the first place, and he could have just told Minerva a lie for Albus's sake and then made something else later. He could have even popped out from behind the desk and come up with some good reason he was behind it. Then again, maybe not.

Fawkes supplied an unhelpful image of Harry taking Albus by the hand and showing him the vault. Harry actually stopped in the middle of the hall. "Fawkes, no. The guy's like a Hallows addict without a sponsor."

What he needed was a time turner. With a time turner, he could be at Hogwarts and in Gringotts at the same time. He could cover for himself. Though he feared the damage was already done, there was no harm in looking for a time turner, so he stopped in front of the blank wall where the Room of Requirement was.

I need a place to find a Time Turner. I need a time turner. I need a time turner, he thought, and a door appeared in the wall. Harry smiled and opened it.

No sooner was it open than Harry was thrown backwards. The door remained open, and through it came the most horrible, lonely shrieking. It sounded like a chorus of wounded wolves backed with a horrible wind through a thousand mountainous trees. The doorway was black— a deep sucking black that frightened Harry. He dove towards the door and slammed it shut. He leaned against it and listened to his heart beat in his chest while his breathing calmed down a little.

Did time turners not exist yet? Did the Room of Requirement just...not have one? He doubted it. The room of requirement had a pensive, and pensives were quite rare.

After a moment of thought, he turned back to the wall.

I need a place to hide my...er...scone. I have a scone, and I need a place to hide it. I need a place to hide my scone.

There. A normal request that had worked a half dozen times for Harry before. The door was there, and he opened it.

The same wind shrieked in his ears, and the black sucked at his eyes. He slammed the door shut before he could be toppled backwards. He leaned against the wall across from the fading door and pulled off his glasses. He rubbed his eyes and his temples, trying to stop the headache that the void seemed to be trying to cause him.

He exhaled and put his glasses back on. He was done being messed with that day.

I need a place to take out my frustration. I need a place to hit things. I need a room for a duel or something. And if that door doesn't open, he thought menacingly...

He wrenched the door open for the third time, and his eyes landed on...the room of requirement, stocked full of targets and weapons and a lovely animated dummy. He was so surprised that it had worked that he shut the door again.

I need a place to hide my lemon drops. I need a place where no one will find my lemon drops. I need to hide my lemon drops.

He pulled the door open again, and there was the huge, towering maze of clutter. It was almost as if the room had just...glitched. It was working now, but Harry forgot all about his initial mission as someone screamed.

Harry slammed the door and ran.