[1stNovember 1990.]
[Hogwarts]
[Nate's POV]
Nate had just exited the potions classroom. Severus Snape looked like he was going to vomit throughout the day.
' It shows the respect the man holds for his Lord.' Nate had scoffed internally looking at the man. Nate was always surprised that the man held his position as a spy.
'The grey knight taking the White Bishop helped in keeping the knight's cover.' Nate thought of the murder of the Astronomy tower.
It took Nate ten minutes just to walk to the seventh-floor corridor from the dungeons.
Nate started his daily ritual of walking back and forth three times while thinking about his study room. The door for the room appeared as it always did.
Nate pushed the door open, and just as he was about to enter, a hand softly landed on his shoulder.
Nata's spine froze when he heard who had clasped his shoulder, "For a long time, you have come almost regularly to this very room, in this very corridor, on the seventh floor. What are you up to Mr Grey?" came the voice of Albus Dumbledore.
Nate did not turn but he could feel his wand exiting the holster and the grip on his shoulder tightening as the old man felt the wandless magic, " Headmaster Dumbledore, you have been spying on me."
"Your actions a year prior had me concerned, initially I had thought it was to practise magic that you used this corridor but you do that by the lake, for all to see your magical prowess. Not that many pay attention to your skill other than a select few of the older Ravenclaws and Slytherins.
Then I thought of you using it for magic more frowned upon but the lack of wards near the corridor has disapproved that too. Dark magic leaves traces that the school's wards would pick up inevitably but the wards never did. Your exhausted look after coming to this corridor would suggest exertion on your part.
Then it came down crashing on me just yesterday as I was thinking about your prank on the school. Marvellous idea by the way. Obscure magic that is not dark at all wouldn't leave many traces for the wards to pick on, the wards of Hogwarts weren't designed for it.
The question remains, what ancient magic have you been studying? Death? Your fascination with the Hallows gave that away by the way. Try not to give away too much information to those that aren't your friends." Dumbledore had drawn the wrong conclusion from a good amount of information simply because of a faulty greater image.
Nate could see that the man was serious in saying all that "I am surprised you don't have your Phoenix with yourself, seeing as you are a Light Lord, me studying the magic of that nature would make it your obligation to stop me."
Dumbledore chuckled, "I am old Mr Grey, you aren't the first wizard to have a fascination with death. You have not practised Necromancy, at least so the wards say, studying Death is not wrong. Dangerous due to its very vague nature but not wrong. I had thought you would entertain an outside perspective. Finally, there is no such title as Light Lord."
"You were very reckless in your approach, if I had drawn the wrong conclusions from your presence this could have gotten ugly. If I somehow killed you mistakenly, I would have a very angry immortal bird at my throat for the rest of my most probable short life." Nate joked nervously.
"I was a Gryffindor too, Mr Grey. Recklessness is a required entry trait. And Fawkes is the name of the Phoenix you refer to." The man fired back.
"That is not a point in my favour, is it?"
"So, should we walk in?"
"I don't think that will be required, Headmaster," Nate said carefully, not sure of the man's reaction to chronomancy.
The man pushed on regardless. As he entered the room, he muttered, "I did not think I would find this room again. I have come upon it once before. A room providing anything you need. I have heard the Elves talking about it. I never really asked for the location as I thought it was unnecessary with my mastery of Transfiguration."
Nate had drawn his wand out in the open and prepared for a duel. He said again, "You will remain determined in your quest to know what I am doing, won't you?"
Dumbledore did not reply immediately, but when he did, it was as if the room's temperature increased, " Fawkes."
The effect was immediate, as a ball of fire appeared in the room and the red phoenix glided on its master's shoulder.
Nate muttered, " Mist." and his spirit hound appeared, not as a single wolf but as a pack of six white wolves with red eyes.
Twelve blood-red eyes stared at two beady black eyes which looked back with a challenge. Both waiting for the command of their master.
"Time? Nate, I thought you reckless but not idiotic enough to temper with that which was." Dumbledore said his previous joviality was absent.
Nate smirked, "Idiotic? I don't think so. I know for a fact that it is magic that can be controlled. I am sure not many have the refined control to achieve it."
"It is unstable. The time-reversal charm is a pinnacle of arithmancy and even that spell is too unstable to use directly. The department of mysteries studies time under very close scrutiny for a reason. Your whole family could be executed under ministry laws, you foolish boy." thundered Dumbledore.
"Who will tell them? You?" Nate said.
"You don't understand the consequences of using time, do you? You could erase yourself trying to change history." Dumbledore paused and then continued," Unless you are not trying to go to the past, you have no motive. You are trying to manipulate time itself.
You wish to master time, a universal truth surpassing death. You were not acting when you said you wish to scare death away. You meant it literally. The Elder wand did not hold much value for that same reason. You invite me to your home, you giving me the false lead about the Hallows, me forcing you to Hogwarts behind a deal for a duel. All of this so that you could study time away from the ministry's scrutiny.
Bravo! Mr Grey, I have to say you fooled me. But I don't think that you anticipated this meeting now."
"I was thinking of having this meeting two years from now. My mastery of time would have made the fight difficult for you." Nate shrugged.
"Not impossible? I would say you would be invincible."
Nate chuckled at the man's words, "That's like saying that using transfiguration would allow you to raise a castle-like Hogwarts in a day from the ground up."
"So there are constraints on using time freely, huh? Like free spatial manipulation."
"Spatial manipulation freely?" Nate was confused since he had not heard of anything other than an apparition, portkeys, vanishing cabinets and space expansion charms.
"I forget that, despite your brilliance in your chosen fields, your overall magical knowledge is quite small."
"Forgive me for being born so late," Nate commented dryly.
"Well, there has been a wizard that has wielded the fabric of space as a weapon using a sword as a magical focus. He could open portals, cut through space itself, change the dimensions of an object and also change the distance between objects immediately. The constraints were that the area he could affect for anything bar the portals was smaller than most magical phenomena, it was often draining on him and finally, space itself started correcting itself often violently as soon as the magic faded.
It was an observation made by the Soviet department of mysteries. The man had used apparition as a base to manipulate space and developed it as an instinctual piece of magic."
"He must have been a pretty famous wizard to achieve to that," Nate commented.
Dumbledore grimaced, "He was one of the worst Dark Lords in the thirteenth century."
"So he was famous." Nate laughed, then said, "I have done something similar but used another's example in doing so. Aion developed the free time manipulation spell, χρόνος, he was not that powerful so couldn't get much out of it. It requires control over your magic that not many have. I suffer from similar constraints."
Nate summoned an hourglass and cast, " χρόνος" and as the flow of time reversed, one could see the translucent blue mist-covered hourglass's sand flowing upwards, all the sand had gone up defying gravity.
Nate looked at the still wandless headmaster whose eyebrows had shot up at seeing proof of Nate's bragging words.
"You truly can control it. It must be more difficult than fiendfyre."
"If it was ever-growing, but at small scales, it is quite easy to control and stable as well. You just adapt to the spell over time."
"But I still don't think you should practice such magic Nate, it could lead to trouble with the ministry."
"If it was a moral dilemma, I would have most probably agreed with you. Laws have nothing to do with morality, Dumbledore, but everything to do with control over a population."
"What can you give me in return for my silence, my boy?"
Nate's lips curled, he had brought the man to the negotiation table.