Chapter 61: The Sky is Falling

The students arrived back to school on Sunday night, the 5th of January. The castle was louder and it felt like the temperature went up inside a few degrees. Classes started again on Monday the 6th, and Harry was back to teaching. Unfortunately, he had to work extra hard to fake his abilities. He was up to, maybe, a fourth or fifth year level. He could transfigure small animals and summon up a decent stunner—he could even conjure a Patronus if he thought about his kiss with Albus…

He managed to get through his morning alright. The first years didn't notice anything wrong. Harry was teaching them fully body binds that day—a spell he could both perform, counter-curse and block successfully. He'd spent some time over the weekend picking out a nice stick and magically boring a hole through the center so that he could shoot spells through it and make it look like was using a wand. The first years bought it, and Harry was feeling confident and even excited about the new semester.

Something very odd happened at lunch that day, however.

Harry strolled to lunch, chatting with his first years, and then took his seat next to Albus.

"Hello, Harry," he said. "How did your morning classes go?"

"Alright," said Harry. "The Prewett twins are learning astoundingly fast, as usual. Had half the class stiff as boards ten minutes in with body binding curses. Normally I would have noticed earlier, but…you know…Anyway, I had to give them something else to work on."

Albus chuckled. "That's good to hear." He pulled out a little bottle, uncorked it, and poured it in his goblet.

Harry looked at him curiously.

"…Elixir," he said. " Once a month."

"Oh…" said Harry.

"I have considered stopping. I'm not going to live forever, and I don't think I want to anyway so this may be pointless."

Harry would have been happy to have a philosophical conversation about life and death at the lunch table with Albus, but just then, it got significantly darker in the great hall.

All of the students looked around confused—and ultimately, they looked up at the source of the problem.

The ceiling had…died, for lack of a better word. There above them were beautiful arches and finely crafted molding, but no sky—no weather to be seen. The Great Hall's famous ceiling had stopped working. What had formerly been the middle of a sunny day was now wood and stone.

Cries of confusion and alarm rung throughout the hall and Albus stood up.

"May I have your attention, please." The students were immediately silent, anxious for an answer to their confusion.

"As you may have noticed, the ceiling has just gone out," he smiled. Perhaps he was amused at the situation or the way he'd phrased the sentence or maybe he was just trying to make the students feel more calm about the situation. If the last was his goal, it worked.

"I will investigate this—in the mean time, please enjoy the rest of your lunch." He pulled the deluminator out of his pocket and clicked it. Balls of light zoomed out into the dimly-lit hall and hovered like little suns near the ceiling. Many of the students cried out in wonder and all returned to their lunches.

"Do you know what's wrong?" Harry asked Albus quietly.

"I suspect it may be one in a series of problems we've been witnessing throughout the castle: the staircase falling, the room of requirement empty, the kitchen not working, and while you were gone all of the photos and paintings around the castle stopped moving for the better part of an hour. It was eerie. If I didn't know better, I would say that the castle was, for lack of a better word, ill."

"Hmm," said Harry. "Actually, the castle has its own magical aura. I felt it when I first came in months ago. It's so big that it's sort of easy to tune out, so I forgot."

"Perhaps the castle has a consciousness, too, but I don't know how to make it better, or even how to access it," said Albus. "In the mean time, this is no small issue. One person has already gotten hurt, but imagine if the protections to the castle went down. We would be vulnerable to malicious entry," he said solemnly. "Not to mention parents."

Harry laughed. "I would help, but you know my magic's completely boggled right now. I doubt I'd be able to feel the difference between a wizard's magical aura and a hippogriff's"

Albus nodded.

Sunlight suddenly streamed through the ceiling, and there was an interested commotion from the students. The ceiling was working again.

"Well, that's that," said Albus. "Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to study it…"

Harry took a fortifying swig of his pumpkin juice and lowered his voice so that only Albus could hear him over the chattering students. "Albus…do you want to come with me to dinner at Comede Noctem this Saturday at around…eight? Minerva says they've got something special this weekend…"

Albus beamed at Harry, caught off guard. "Of course."

The rest of Monday was more challenging for Harry. He had double 6th and 7th years. He normally showed off a bit for his NEWT students, but obviously couldn't that day. When Longbottom asked him if something was wrong, he just said he'd had a long, tiring morning. He could have sworn he heard Moody cough "bullshit" under his breath.

Next he had tea with Minerva. He told her that Albus had agreed to a date that Saturday at Comede Noctem.

"You did what?" she asked.

"You told me there was something good at Comede Noctem this weekend, so I asked…Albus…to go with me…?" He trailed off as Minerva's expression changed to supreme irritation.

"Crockett, that's where I'm going on a date with Eli this weekend."

"Oh, we can compare notes after?"

"At the same time, Crockett!"

"Well, that's alright. We sort of want to meet him."

"It is not alright—," she said. Harry wasn't sure how facetious she was this time. "And it's we now? You and Albus are a we?" she asked incredulously.

"I dunno, maybe! Is there something wrong with that?"

Minerva backpedaled. "I guess not. It's good to see you happy," she forced out. "Plus, I'm happy too."

"With Eli," said Harry.

"With Eli," confirmed Minerva.

"I'm glad you found someone," he said.

"Me too," said Minerva.

"Yep," said Harry.

They both drank the rest of their tea in silence.

By Thursday, magic was coming much more easily to Harry. He was improving at a much faster rate and was almost up to the level where he was when he started his Auror training. He taught his sixth and seventh years again on Thursday afternoon, and managed to use magic in front of them without embarrassing himself.

It was during that class that Moody, who was still shadowing the NEWT class despite being a fifth year, reminded Harry of his promise.

"Professor Crockett, will you start teaching me wandless magic?" he growled straightforwardly at the end of class.

"Oh!" Harry had, naturally, forgotten. "Yeah," he said, but then he hesitated. "Don't you have some OWL to be studying for?"

"No," he said simply.

"Alright, well, how about after class on Thursdays? I have a free block."

"Thank you, sir. When can we start?"

"How about next week?"

Moody nodded.

Harry supposed they could have started that very day, but there was something else that Harry wanted to do. He had hardly seen Albus in days, and he was starting to worry. It was possible that he was just working on the castle problem or having a particularly busy week, but Harry wanted to make sure.

So when class was over and he was done talking to Moody, he dismissed his students and started walking up to Albus's office. He supposed that, given his budding relationship with Albus, he didn't need an excuse to go visit him, but he came up with one anyway. He decided he'd ask Albus to help test his magical ability, see if Albus had any useful comments.

He reached the top of the escalator-staircase outside Albus's office and had raised his hand to knock, but overheard an animated argument from within.

He let his hand fall back down and started to leave, but then he recognized who the two voices belonged to: Minerva and Albus. Too curious, he stayed and listened.

"Minerva, I can't tell you why, but you should stop seeing this Elijah. I believe he's dangerous."

"He's a farm boy from Ireland, Albus, and it's not your duty to protect me from men."

"That is not what I am talking—"

"Is it so hard for you to see me happy, Albus?" she asked, clearly finally losing patience with whatever argument they'd had until that moment. "Finally I'm happy—after years of pining over you, as you well knew, and suddenly you take an interest in my romantic life—Well it's too late!"

"Minerva, you know perfectly well why that is an invalid accusation."

"Right, because now you have Crockett. And you didn't even tell me, Albus! I had to walk in on you—in a public space, no less!"

"I'm sure you saw this coming long before I did," he replied.

"I did! Do you think that made it better? It made it worse!"

"I am sorry, Minerva," he said sincerely. "I had no idea how these actions would affect you. I now wish I had conducted myself differently. Though, I did think you may have had it in you to be happy for me."

"Yes, well, you were very insensitive," Minerva said, calming down. "I'm trying, Albus. And in my way, I am happy for you."

"None of this, however, changes the fact that Elijah is dangerous and that you should cut your ties with him immediately."

"Can't you just LEAVE US ALONE?" she bellowed.

"Minerva, I happen to have information—"

"You've been spying on him?"

"Minerva—"

"I can't believe this. You have no consideration for my privacy, nor do you care for my happiness or wellbeing. All you care about is YOURSELF. I hope you and Crockett are very happy together."

Harry heard Minerva stomping across the office floor and realized she was going for the door just in time to teleport back to his office to get out of her way. When he got there, he found himself out of breath. He had no idea that he and Albus had hurt Minerva so much. He didn't understand why she was spending so much time with Harry gossiping about Albus and helping him get ready for their date and everything.

Harry did think it was a bit insensitive of Albus to be telling Minerva to break it off with her boyfriend, though. Maybe he had a good reason.

Harry didn't see Albus at all on Friday, nor did he see Minerva. He had a really nice lunch with Filius Flitwick, who turned out to be a fantastic conversationalist. Flitwick, who actually seemed to be taller at forty than his older self would be, was impressed with the way that Harry dueled. He said he'd never been particularly interested in dueling before, but had joined a dueling club over the winter break. From this Harry gathered that he had not yet won his dueling championship.

After his classes on Friday afternoon, Harry sat in his tower and listened to whatever music his record player put on (which, to his annoyance, narrowed eventually to the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction and Beyonce's Single Ladies alternating on repeat). He finally turned it off when it started playing the 12 Days of Christmas and got stuck on FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!

He was in a poor mood, but at least he had his date to look forward to on Saturday night.

Saturday went by very slowly, though. By lunch he reckoned something must be wrong with his record player. It was now just playing Beyonce's Single Ladies—and just the one part of a line "put a ring on it! Put a ring on it! Put a ring on it! Put a ring on it!" in a never ending loop of skipping.

Neither Albus nor Minerva were at lunch, again. He hadn't seen or heard from either of them since he listened outside Albus's door. He thought that maybe Minerva was getting ready for her date with Elijah. Albus might have been busy or something, but Harry didn't mind too much because he knew he'd see him at dinner that night.

It was almost eight. Harry didn't have to get dressed specially, because Comede Noctem's magic would do that for him. A few minutes before eight, he went down to the entryway and stood by the stairs. Albus wasn't there yet, so he waited.

Fashionably late? Harry wondered. Usually Albus was prompt, but maybe this was some sort of 1800s seduction tactic. He hoped it was, anyway.

At quarter past eight, Harry's mind stared to wander to possible places Albus could be. Was he with the Flamels and he'd lost track of time? Maybe he realized that he wasn't gay and was off somewhere doing unspeakable things with Minerva.

— Nope, he thought, imagining the way he'd kissed Harry. Albus was definitely into men.

Maybe he…Harry smacked himself on the forehead. He'd probably thought Harry meant they would meet at Comede Noctem. He teleported out immediately and reappeared in the alleyway outside of the restaurant. The last time he'd been there was in the fall. It was now winter, and the theme of the restaurant had changed completely. Instead of live fairies making up the lighted letters of the sign on the archway, glowing ice formed the script instead. Harry felt himself enchanted already by the spell.

He walked under the arch, and immediately he felt his clothing transform in a brisk winter wind. He stepped into the beautiful winter wonderland courtyard outside the main restaurant. Witches and wizards lined up outside the door like he remembered, each wearing a beautiful fur or sleeved evening gown…but Albus was nowhere to be seen. Despite the enchantments and the beautiful surroundings, Harry felt something drop into the pit of his stomach.

He teleported straight into Albus's office, and called out, hoping to hear Albus's voice. Maybe he'd… gotten his hair caught in a curler?

But he knew that wasn't what happened.

He knew deep down that something was very wrong.