Chapter – 15 – Core Magic
Words 2,672
AN: you readers have almost caught up with me chapter wise, so expect updates to be slow from here on out
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"Tweaky – Abe called out.
"Yes sir – the elf replied
"I need to explain some things to these people, can you watch your master and mistress for a-bit.
"I'll do that Abe," Madam Pomfrey said. "I have some post-coma tests to run anyway.
"I will have Tweaky put a chair at the opening into the lounge, Poppy – that way you can keep an eye on your patients and still listen in.
"Tweaky –
"Already done, - - sir, - Mr. Dumbledore – sir.
"Will you need me anymore Abe," Dean asked. "My squad goes on guard duty in ten.
"No, Dean - and thank-you.
"Anytime, I tell the lads the gaffer is awake," Dean said over his shoulder as he left the tent.
"Good lad, - Ron's second in command, - you know. A fine small unit commander - - has led some raids on his own – takes good care of the lads." Abe said to the others as they said down in the thirty square foot expensively furnished lounge
"Tweaky - Could you bring refreshments for your masters guests? This might take a while.
"Sir-yes-sir
"Can I hear this too," Harry asked in a sour mood. You won't let me join Ron's group, or be a part of operational briefings. It's like I'm under house-arrest.
"How is your Occlumency, Harry? Do you still share Tom's consciousness?
"Snape refused to teach me. It's not my fault.
"Nothing appears to be your fault anymore. Which is a radical change of attitude for you – is it not?" Abe replied calmly. "You use to blame yourself for everything Tom did – or so I was told. But frankly - you're under house arrest because Dean and Dirk don't trust you not to betray Ron again.
"How many times must I say I'm sorry?
"Oh, Ronald has forgiven you Harry, but the Christian concept of forgiveness doesn't mean he'll ever forget what you did to him. He might even become your friend again, if he survives this next battle. But don't expect him to trust you as blindly as he did before. My elder brother didn't tell you everything for a really good reason, - - mainly your mental-connection to Tom" Abe countered.
"But yes - Mr. Potter, now that Ron is awake - we can expect to execute a modified version of his original plan in just a few hours. So there is no security risk at this point - in you knowing our backstory.
"As you know, Ron calls me his Master and I am, just as he is my core power protégé and apprentice. We first met in Azkaban in mid-October, with my cell door directly across from his. I had been arrested because of my connection to my brother - just as Ron had been for his connection to you and Granger. There is not much to do in prison, so we got to talking about ourselves.
"What few people knew about Albus until Skeeter's book came-our - - was his hunger for power over others. All of us Dumbledore's crave power; in one form or another - it is a family weakness that stretches back many generations. When the use of brute force became a deal breaker between my gay brother and his lover back in 1945 – Albus renounced violence and entered the teaching profession, but that did not make my sibling lose his desire to manipulate the Wizarding society. He just changed his modis-operendi.
"To what exactly," Arthur asked very intrigued
"In animal husbandry if you want certain traits, you breed it into the herd – careful breeding is also the corner-stone of pure-blood Wizarding bigotry. Well I have recently come to believe that my power hungry sibling has employed little-used ancient spells to play matchmaker at Hogwarts. In particular Mr. Potter - I believe – but honestly cannot prove, that my brother wished to cross pollinate a bookworm with a child of destiny.
"WHAT – you mean the Headmaster hexed Hermione and me?" Harry asked outraged.
"In Albus way of thinking I'm sure he thought he was doing you both a favor. In most children's story-books the chosen-one hero and his brilliant heroin are supposed to ride off into the sunset together.
"But professor Flitwick said there were no lust spells, and forced love potions fade quickly," Harry protested.
"A specially modified Imperio curse - I suppose - could prompt an irresistible sexual craving – but if not reinforced periodically – it would only last temporarily," Bill the former curse-breaker of Gringotts suggested.
"All that would have been required is for Granger to fall pregnant – and then the match would have been made –'for the sake of the children' - as the saying goes. But this is just a theory," Abe retorted his hands held up in surrender at the outrage he saw on several faces. "And I cannot prove a thing.
"Beside; there are several very strong counter arguments. For one thing – Granger is not the type to 'forget' about protection – not even once. So the 'Imperio' would have faded during the summer-hol. Secondly; If he did hex Granger - then Albus had to have done it back in December of 1997 as a reaction to Ron asking Granger to be his girlfriend in the Great Hall – as Harry here has admitted to me - that their first tryst was during that Christmas hol a fortnight later. - So considering her romantic feelings for Ron at that time - I'd say that he'd be more likely to benefit from a super randy Granger than you – don't you agree, Harry?
"Then he didn't hex us.
"I disagree," Abe replied. "I sure my brother hexed you both or just one of you with something, your near comatose apathy after Grangers torture at Malfoy manor proves that. Your overall behavior after Ron asked Granger out - was seriously out of character for both of you - and that alone makes me suspicious.
"Ron is a very likeable young man and his troops are extremely loyal to him – so Granger's betrayal of him has often been the subject of campfire debate. Harry; whatever the root-cause for your casual sex fetish during the last year – it is of secondary in importance - to the overall affect it had on Ron psychic. When I met him in Azkaban he was a suicidal depressed young man who remained alive - only because his up-bringing taught him that doing himself-in was wrong - as it was the coward's way out.
"Now I mentioned earlier - all Dumbledore's craving of power, and I am not an exception to that rule. Whereas my brother once craved direct control of the world as a dictator and then after 1945 switch tactics to manipulating Wizarding society genetically. I always believed that knowledge was the ultimate source of power. So after 1945, when Albus became a teacher, I entered the Ministry as a Unspeakable researcher. My fifty year project was to determine once and for all what specifically made a wizard as compared to a Muggle.
"My conclusion was what I called Core Magic. There is two thousand feet of parchment, filed away in a cabinet somewhere in the Ministry – my final report before retiring. I doubt anyone has ever read it or ever will. I could spend the next month boring you all to tears with technical mumbo-jumbo but to put it simply.
Core magic is like water in a sealed container. The size of that container determines how much magical power a person can wield. I have limited additional-access to my core, beyond what's normal - and because of that my gift is the ability to see the lay-lines in people and our surroundings – in the air and earth. Hogwarts and the Ministry both lay on the lay-line intersections of air and earth. That is why those locations are so powerful magically. But core magic is everywhere really and an individual's core allows them to use the magic directly. Again as any woman can tell you – size does matter.
A typical Muggle has a trickle sized core, a thimble sized container of about one ounce or less. The average squib has a container big enough to fill a shot glass or a maximum of about three ounces. As everyone knows there are weak wizards and strong ones. The difference is how much liquid core power they have in them or more simply the comparison between; a squirt gun and a fire-hose - or - a lake and an ocean. My research indicated that a weak witch or wizard with limited ability with a wand has about a six ounce core container. The average wizard, and if you don't mind, Arthur I'd like to use you as an example;
"Go ahead, I don't mind," the Weasley patriarch said in good humor. "The only thing exceptional about me has been my luck with one particular witch." He said smiling lovingly at his wife, and Molly had the good grace to blush back at the praise.
"Arthur – later," she said in a husky tone. Making her son Bill and Harry blush – hard.
"Now I's knows ver Bill gets dis silver tongue," Fleur said in a soft whisper while coping a feel of her husband's arse. Bill jumped a-little and Abe chuckled as he realized why Weasley men were so desirable as life-mates.
"As I was saying, Arthur is an average wizard and as I can actually see lay-lines and a person's core magic - I can tell you that Arthur has an eight ounce core, in fact everyone else in this room with two exceptions - have the average eight ounce core, including you Harry. You are touched by prophecy – and a child of destiny but you're only average in magical power.
"Who are the exceptional ones – you I suppose," Molly asked non-too happy.
"Well yes, we Dumbledore's are above average - magical core wise, I have a ten ounce core and my brother when he lived rated a sixteen ounce core. I'm not sure about Tom, but if I had to guess - I'd say he is a peer of Albus - power core wise.
"So you are the most powerful person in this room", Harry said disappointed that he was only average.
"Sorry to disappoint you Mr. Potter - but no - I'm not the most uber powerful in this tent's lounge, Mrs. Weasley is.
"Me? – Molly said surprised.
"No, I'm sorry, I misspoke - I meant the other Mrs. Weasley in the lounge - - Fleur Isabelle Weasley, as a half-Veela - her core is a very solid twelve ounces.
"Are there none bigger?" Bill asked beaming in pride at his wife, while hoping their children would be powerful too.
"Beside Tom you mean. - oh my yes – Here in England there are two other's with rather large cores, with one of them far stronger than Tom," Abe said. "But having a huge core does not automatically translate into ability. That takes faith in oneself and practice.
"Can the resistance recruit these big core wizards?" Bill asked.
"Why do you just assume that they are both males?" Abe said sounding offended. "Although to be honest - the female's core level has only recently been increased – due to her mate's direct intervention. When Miss Granger was first brought here beaten to within an inch of death - her core level was the average eight. But that was before Ron came to possess her, mind – body and soul.
"That horrible slag," Molly spat.
"That slag, I believe has reformed, renounce her hedonistic ways and has been welcomed back with open arms into your son's heart.
"He can't trust her," Molly sated as fact.
"He can - - - if as I think – they now share a common consciousness, which means a part of Ron's mind has a permanent place in Hermione's mind as she does in his. During their shared coma, while Ron was purging her memories of the curcio-pain - - I believe that his and her cognizance merged in a way that we may never fully understand. I theorized about this while doing my research, but it required such huge amounts of core power - - I didn't think I'd ever live to see it actually done.
"How big a core are we talking about? Harry asked.
"Well Granger came in at a eight and she now has the capacity for at least fourteen and - - -
"- - A fourteen, that's almost double," Harry interrupted
"I'm sure it was Ron's doing, - - Molly has trained him to regard a woman as a partner in life - instead of just brood mares as pure bloods often do," Abe said while Molly beamed in pride. "So I can't image him wanting a wife that wasn't as close to parity to him in everything as possible.
"Then Ron is a fourteen too," Harry said feeling deeply jealous.
"Oh no, I didn't mean to give you that impression, The reason I took him on as my apprentice was because in Azkaban I found the most powerful core in a single wizard.
"How big is Ron's core?
"Double that of my brother Albus," Abe admitted.
"A Thirty-two,? - Harry exclaimed gob-smacked.
"Yes, and at one time with a potential for even more, regretfully he has only about seven ounces left.
"What – Why," Molly verbalized what everyone else was thinking.
"Well – to tell the truth his loss of core was my doing," Abe admitted with deep regret
"Good, at least I'm more powerful than he is" Harry said louder than he intended - with a sneer on his face and feeling rather smug.
"Harry?" Molly said outraged.
"That was a very Slytherin comment to make, Harry. Does it give you a lot of pleasure to feel superior to your former best-mate?" Abe inquired with unusual interest.
"The whole world has turned topsy-turvy lately," Harry complained bitterly. "I'm the chosen one not Ron, but since he found us, three days ago. I've started to feel like the sidekick to his hero …and that's just wrong.
"You are correct Harry; you are the child of Destiny," Abe retorted. "Your life is controlled by a prophecy with every step you make predetermined as if set in stone. But you have only one unshakable task to do - - face Tom.
"Yeah that's right – I'm the hero here," Harry said with a snicker that would have made a Malfoy proud.
"Harry, what's happened to you - - you've changed – and I don't like it one-bit - - Molly said in deep disappointment
(- End Tran -)