Albus Dumbledore was very worried. He had seen into the young man's mind, regardless of how quickly he averted his gaze. For someone so skilled with magic as Albus was, eye contact was only needed to create a legillemens connection, not to keep it. It was less subtle than Albus preferred but he felt it was justified under the circumstances. If the boy had any knowledge of how mind magic had felt he would have noticed the obvious intrusion, but he didn't.

The boy was telling the truth, and even worse, Albus had seen exactly how terrible his own weakness for power truly was; trying on the horcrux hallow without even checking it for curses. No, Albus was already sure that power would corrupt him as it had so nearly done that one summer all those years ago. However, to lose himself so easily after all these years of self control had put any ideas of doing it all himself out of his mind.

Albus had lied to the boy when he said he didn't know of any spell that detected souls. He had, in fact, done research into it after his suspicions of horcruxes and possessions due to the events of second year. The soul of one Harry Potter was forever gone - to where he did not know. Dementors were such terrible creatures. He could also feel the remnants of Tom Riddle's magic and soul as well. For someone as sensitive to magic as himself, it was obvious what had happened.

Harry was dead, but so was the soul piece that had been with him. At first, Albus had not planned on checking Harry for the horcrux - Albus hadn't wanted to intrude or bring undue attention to it.

But he had, and Harry was gone, as sure as it was to be gone. Albus would not, no, could not try to bring Harry back. Down that path lay madness.

He had never been completely sure of the prophesy, it had all the hallmarks of a proper one but it had also been a job interview and Trelawny had never spoke another one that Albus was aware of since. If Severus hadn't heard and reported part of the prophesy to Tom, he would have let it go. Looking into the future was always hard at the best of times.

After, when Harry had been marked he had continued as if the prophesy was true, because even if it wasn't, it was obvious that Tom believed it.

Which led him back to the problem of the new soul that had appeared in the body of Harry. Clearly, outside forces were at work here, ones more powerful than any he had seen before. If he hadn't known better, he would have said with absolute certainty that the body and the soul belonged together. There were no signs of possession because the body and the soul matched, somehow. By tomorrow, the lingering signs of Tom's soul would be completely gone, and it would be as if the new soul had always existed in Harry's body.

Even worse, was his knowledge and his ignorance. The boy clearly had only an outsiders view of what magic was, what it felt like. Albus had been able to force himself into the his mind, and he hadn't even been detected. The boy had thought he had managed to keep Albus out. He knew Albus might try to get into his mind, hut he had no way of knowing if it had happened at all.

He had no knowledge of magic save the words of a few spells, and that sometimes there were wand motions attached to them. Albus couldn't attempt to just put the boy with a new soul right back into Hogwarts, besides his entire lack of magical knowledge he didn't even speak like a proper British person would. He had the accent of an American of all things.

This new Harry would blend in terribly, and others would take advantage of his weakness as soon as they were seen. And yet, he couldn't have him not show up for third year either. Albus had a lot of titles, but they were mostly useless. The International Confederation of Wizards was useless and only gave suggestions for various governments. They could no more affect change than the Muggle United Nations could.

The wizengamot was a judicial branch, not a political one. Its job was to ensure proper law was upheld, and met out punishments where it was needed. He didn't even have a vote in it because his job was only there to ensure proper laws were being enforced.

Dumbledore had been very careful to avoid power and now if something were to happen to Harry, as it so clearly had, Albus would be unable to change things. Getting kicked out of Hogwarts was a very real possibility. The minister, even though he was voted in, held much more political and legal power than Albus had wanted or gained.

If word got out that Harry was missing, or died, or was in a coma, Albus would have a hard time ensuring the safety of the students from a now obviously not dead Tom Riddle, along with his followers like Sirius Black.

This all was in spite of the fact that the boy he had come to see as his own grandson was now dead.

Yes, Albus Dumbledore was very worried.

In a far off forest, somewhere near Albania a disembodied soul felt a deep sense of cold, and then the absolute terror of watching a dementor suck the very soul out of its own body.

It screamed as it felt a piece of itself torn out of existence. It writhed in terror as its own existence was snuffed out of being, and yet somehow, it still existed.

If it could think more clearly it would have noticed that it shouldn't have left a piece of itself in anything living, but it didn't. If it had more than rage and terror in its black heart, it would have wondered why it was seeing from the eyes of a child and not the adult it was supposed to be.

As it was, the feeling of a dementor ripping itsself out of existence was enough to reaffirm all its fears. It would not die like some pathetic muggle, pretending to accept what was merely because it couldn't be changed. It would live, and live well. It turned and headed out of the forest. It was time to go and find a worthy servant to gain a new body. It was time to see who was truly loyal.

In a small curtained off room in the hospital wing, a small malnourished boy with green eyes and messy black hair cheered quietly as he watched the colored lights reach to his wand and made it move away from himself. It hadn't exploded this time, and his eyebrows had already grown back from the last time thanks to a frowning Madam Pomphrey.

It may not be going the right direction, but magic was surprisingly easy. All he had to do was want something to happen, and it was like his body reacted to make it happen. Well, easy considering how fruitless his first few hundred attempts had been. After he had badgered the exasperated nurse into teaching him the summoning charm it had been surprisingly simple to set his wand down and try to recreate the color of magic that made things come to those who called for them.

Of course, he had expected it to take about a month to get it down, so a week was still a happy surprise. Want it, send the right color of magic to it, and stuff happened. He hadn't succeeded yet, but obvious progress was also being made too.

The sound of another explosion sending his wand clattering away along with his newly regrown eyebrows was heard.

In a small office in the hospital wing Madam Pomphrey sighed a small sigh of frustration. Idle hands were truly the devils work.

In the Hogwarts library a small brown haired girl looked for books on mind magic and worried about her friend.