AN: As per all the birds: Harry flies. Harry loves to fly. It's like his favorite thing. Ever. He was born to inhabit the skies. (No. This will not become an elemental fic. Fun stuff with will magic to follow.)
Chapter Thirteen
Plots, Pitfalls and Power
Not many people saw Ginny that Sunday. Madame Pomfrey kept her confined to the hospital wing. Percy visited. The twins stopped by. A healer from St. Mungo's came upon a request. Once the Gryffindors spread the story around, no one really bothered to worry about Ginny.
Not many people saw Harry that Sunday. Paradise found him almost immediately after breakfast. She brought news that Neville had freaked out when he wasn't at breakfast and that had spiraled into Emma freaking out and that panicked most everyone else. McGonagall had gotten everything under control. Eventually. Paradise left not long after she verified that Harry was okay and had no problems beyond a slight fever.
Even when his fever faded, Harry fought to let Aurora allow him to invite Emi and friends (of her choice) to join him to study. Saturday dinner, he'd arranged to study with Artemis Ingraham, and he didn't want to not make that appointment. Pomfrey had said that he should stay in Aurora's chambers for the day. She'd volunteered to inform Oliver, so that the Quidditch captain wouldn't totally freak out. To Harry's delight, she'd also sent along the three young staff kids. And, as his meeting with Emi wasn't until later that afternoon, the kids could stay well into the afternoon.
Aurora had to leave to attend to some of her professor tasks, so that left Harry in the sitting room with Tyler, Ciara and Becks. The three of them had brought a bunch of various wizarding games that Harry had never heard of. The children spent several hours introducing Harry to the vital aspects of wizardry that he had missed growing up as a muggle. Their indignation over his ignorance was kind of humorous, in all honesty. It was adorably innocent.
Becks was the quietest of the three, and while she seemed incredibly comfortable with the Pomfreys, it took her close to an hour to open up around Harry. The three of them played games and talked and ate a lunch of sandwiches that the house-elves had brought up. Both Madame Pomfrey and Aurora checked on them throughout the day. And both of them mentioned that Dumbledore seemed very eager to talk to Harry.
Near three, Tyler, Ciara and Becks left the small room, grumbling and complaining about the interactions they were allowed to have with students. The regular students were not supposed to know that the staff kids existed. Becks didn't mind the rule, but Ciara utterly despised it. A little after three, Emi arrived, bringing along four other Hufflepuff second years. Harry let them in and they sat on the floor, clustered around the fire.
"Pallas Ingraham," Artemis said, immediately, "my twin sister. Natalia—"
"Nat!"
"Nat Shacklebolt," Artemis rolled her eyes, "Gabriel Morgan-Shultz, and Charlotte Jackson. And yeah, we all know who you are."
"Of course I know," Gabriel complained, "I have to dorm with Harvette."
Nat snickered. "Well, it's worse for the first years."
"Changing the subject now," Harry said. They had brought books. Pallas had a textbook that he'd never seen before. It looked like it was on transfiguration. He wanted it. Pallas seemed to sense that and handed him the book. The Hufflepuffs were a good group. They chatted easily enough, but studied hard and asked each other for help. He should hang out with Hufflepuffs more often, Harry decided. If they were always this open and honest, he could learn a lot. Besides, he genuinely liked all the Hufflepuffs in his year. And… Sally-Anne. Harry kept his face blank, but inwardly, he wanted to smack himself with a huge hammer.
She hadn't returned. Harry made a mental note to write her a letter. Like, as soon as he finished studying-talking with the second years.
"Do you think you can do all the second year Hufflepuffs?" Charlotte asked, breaking up a rather heated conversation about alternative levitation between Artemis and Nat. "You've seemed to have slowed down in your Campaign, you know, outside of Gryffindor."
He wanted to bash his head against a textbook again.
"I'm close friends with Clara and Clementine. Clementine that it would be funny to have all the kids with c-names be friends and before I knew it, bam, I was sucked in. But yeah, they talk about you a lot."
"Yay me," Harry complained, a sarcastic lilt to his voice. He wondered why Charlotte didn't mention Colin. Because Colin Creevey was definitely a c-name. "Let's see, there's you five here. Um, Harry Vanette. Greg, I think." He vaguely remembered meeting a bunch of Hufflepuff second years when he'd sat down with Harry. That was when he'd met Nat. "Um, Xavier?" At Charlotte's nod, Harry wracked his brain for who could be left. He honestly couldn't remember.
"One more," Charlotte prompted. When Harry didn't get it, she shrugged. "Close enough. You missed Brianna Whitby."
"Right." Harry filed that away. He was no longer forgetting about Ernie Macmillian or Theodore Nott; he'd just have to add Brianna to the list of people to keep repeating to himself. He enjoyed himself around the five Hufflepuffs; they were a good distraction, but not much more than that. The Ingrahams were cool, even if Pallas didn't say much and seemed to follow her sister on nearly everything. Near five, the Hufflepuffs left. Artemis left him a piece of parchment and a quill to use, asking for the quill back but telling him to use the parchment. He didn't tell her what it was for.
He knew his guardian would be returning to the room around six, so he spent the next hour crafting a letter to Sally-Anne Perks. He asked questions: how was she doing, how was her mother doing, was there anything he could do to help, and suchlike. Mostly, however, Harry rambled about the senseless things that he knew Sally-Anne might want to hear about. He told her Professor Sprout's reaction to their Herbology project, which was coming really well. He went into detail about the growth within the flowers that they'd chosen to grow. Due to their combination of the three natural growers and Harry, Sprout had asked them to add a certain level of complexity to their project. They had had to cross pollinate lily strands to try and come up with a safe way of creating rainbow colored, magical lilies. They had a specific goal in mind. Other groups just had to cross pollinate flowers.
He talked senselessly about the play and how Fred and George Weasley had had a screaming match with Filch outside the Great Hall one morning. That had earned them a few weeks detention, but neither of the twins actually minded. He hoped she'd find it funny. Harry rolled the parchment, but didn't seal it, as he wanted to see if Neville or anyone else wanted to add anything. At that time, he still had a good fifteen minutes to burn before his teacher got back and as he was forbidden to read and she'd threatened punishment if he touched a textbook or The Two Towers outside of the study meeting with the 'puffs… Harry moved to her bookcase and pulled out a book that at least semi-normal. There seemed to be an abnormal about romance novels on the shelves and he wasn't going to touch those. The book was The Princess and the Goblins by George MacDonald. That was one of the authors that Patricia had mentioned!
Harry plopped down in his chair and buried himself in the MacDonald book. It was obviously a very fairytalish story and Harry enjoyed it. A lot. He thought a lot of different things about little Princess Irene; pity, sympathy, and a lot of things he didn't really put words to. "Merlin, Harry, you're such a Ravenclaw!" He started from his book. Paradise was already perched on the arm his chair, smirking at his apparent shock. Neville, Hermione, Sarah and Able stood behind Paradise, all holding themselves a little awkwardly, as if they didn't know how to act around a teacher who wasn't there so much as a teacher. And Sinistra was there, conjuring more chairs and a little table for the seven of them to eat off of.
Dinner conversation branched into a few various discussions. Able and Aurora explained to Paradise why Astronomy was a necessary class. Harry paid half an ear to that conversation and was a bit surprised when Aurora mentioned Astronomy was a class that focused a lot on essay writing and how to write a good essay. They also read books and stories that went along with the stars. Their teacher reckoned it to a themed English course that often crossed over with various scientific courses in normal muggle school.
Hermione and Sarah were talking about the upcoming talent show. Harry mentioned to Neville his letter about Sally-Anne and the two of them speculated about what was wrong. Harry asked Sarah if she had any pictures of the greenhouses – a yes – and asked if he could send a copy to Sally-Anne. The affirmative response was more timid, but she did say yes. By the time dinner was over, Neville had written his own letter on parchment borrowed from Hermione and Sarah and promised to fetch her pictures and then mail the three parts of the letter with Hedwig.
Harry loved dinner. He honestly loved his friends and his new sister. Sure, Paradise was his friend, but she didn't really fit in with Hermione, Neville, Able and Sarah. He'd been surprised how quickly Hermione and Sarah bonded. The two slightly ostracized, bookish girls had – apparently – just not taken the time to get to know each other earlier. Now, within Gryffindor, they were nearly inseparable. Sarah wasn't nearly as intelligent as Hermione; she struggled in several subjects, but she still wasn't as outspoken and full of life as the average Gryffindor. No one in Harry's group truly was. Neville and Able had accepted him into their duo seamlessly, or so it seemed, and they genuinely liked having the girls around. Sure, a sometimes, Harry missed his trio with Ron and Hermione, but the penta… the penta was awesome.
As for Paradise, she was just the younger sister, like Emma might see Mary or the twins see Ginny or Able see… wait. Able and Romilda were siblings? Oh. Hrm. They shared the same last name. Okay, so he and Paradise didn't exactly have a normal sibling relationship. Still. At the end of dinner, the five Gryffindors said goodbye, but only with promises that Harry would be back in classes the next morning. That let Harry and Aurora. She vanished the table and most of the chairs and the two of them moved to the armchairs. Harry picked up the MacDonald book and dove back into the story of Princess Irene.
"Dumbledore's coming," Aurora said, after a few moments. "He's been demanding to speak to you lately."
Harry put his book down. "Oh." He didn't want to talk to Dumbledore. He didn't! "He's coming… here?"
Aurora nodded. "He can't and won't force me to leave, all right? You don't have to face him without support."
"Thanks," Harry whispered, his voice choked. If he had the courage to admit it, he would have said aloud that Dumbledore scared him. Dumbledore's power and influence scared him. What Dumbledore had done to his life scared him. He had, at some point, idolized the old headmaster. How long ago had that faded away? Harry turned back to his, but couldn't fully distract himself from thinking about Dumbledore.
Aurora read her own book, but Harry could tell she was just staring at one page for the entire time. At least he bothered to turn the pages. At some point during the wait, he received a tentative probe from Hedwig. This was new, as they'd only just started communicating mentally on a very basic mental level. Harry focused in on the feeling; she was asking permission to fly a letter for someone else. Immediately, Harry sent his consent. He'd asked Sarah to use Hedwig, so that was probably his and Neville's letter.
He'd barely finished wishing Hedwig luck when the portrait door swung open and Headmaster Dumbledore stepped into the sitting room. Instantly, Aurora's mouth thinned. Her employer hadn't bothered to knock. The ancient man stepped into the little room, took stock of the two chair situation and conjured his own, massive armchair. He set down right in front of the fire, blocking Harry and Sinistra from seeing the fire. "Harry," Dumbledore said, "how are you feeling?"
"Fine."
Dumbledore raised a congenial eyebrow. "Then why do you remain here?"
Harry closed his book and rested it on the arm of his chair. "Madame Pomfrey suggested I stay away from the majority of the students after a fever like I had. But she also said I didn't have to stay confined to the infirmary." That was true enough.
"Harry, I'd like to talk about your nightma—"
He probably shouldn't. He should just play the agreeable student and let the headmaster ramble at him. "Get rid of the dementors, sir."
A twinkle filled Dumbledore's eye. "Excuse me?"
"Get rid of the dementors, Headmaster, and I'll tell you about my nightmares." He glanced at Aurora for confirmation. There was an almost imperceptible glint of a smirk on her face.
Dumbledore notice her smirk as well. He appeared to think for a time, before calmly saying, "I'm sorry, Mr. Potter. The dementors remain at Hogwarts for everybody's safety. I would hope you'd trust me to talk about these nighttime visions."
Harry managed not to shout out a loud, very untrusting response. Trust was everything. Trust was what had convinced Madame Ayna to let Aurora take the role of his guardian. And he did not trust Headmaster Dumbledore. "I'm sorry, sir, but I do not feel like I can trust you with that."
The headmaster templed his fingers together. He peered at the student while covertly studying the teacher. "Then how about your patroni. Will you please show me your now fabled ability?"
Harry frowned. He looked at Aurora for guidance. She looked confused for a few seconds, before shrugging. "I don't know, headmaster. Madame Pomfrey said I should be careful using magic."
"I'm sure it couldn't hurt."
Harry shrugged. He grabbed his wand and focused on a powerful memory, but one he hadn't tried yet. "Expecto patronum," Harry said. Nothing spurted out the end of his wand. Dumbledore seemed to relax, by just a hair, as if he'd been hoping that the much talked about power of the third year had been just a rumor. Harry focused on the memory again. It wasn't happy, but it was ever so strong and it made his wand sing when he thought about it. "Expecto patronum." Out from the wand spurted a large bird, a bird so large and magnificent, it would have overshadowed Kleio. Accents of red graced the silver bird's feathers. Harry stared. He hadn't been expecting thinking about when he first touched his holly and phoenix feather wand to have produced a… a phoenix.
The phoenix opened his beak and uttered a silent caw. The patronus could make no sound, but Harry swore that it didn't need words to communicate. Dumbledore just stared. Aurora just stared. The phoenix swooped around the miniscule room and alit on the back of Harry's chair. Three patronus tears splashed out of the bird's eyes and fell amongst Harry's poorly tamed hair. The boy instantly felt safer and more secure, even with Dumbledore in the room. "That is," Dumbledore murmured, after taking a few moments to compose himself, "spectacular, Harry."
It was with that that Dumbledore stood. He'd made his decision. There would be no manipulation that could turn Harry back around. He had already progressed too far out of control and this needed to be stopped. Grateful that neither Harry nor Aurora could see his thoughts, the old man issued a hurried goodbye before heading for the heart of Hogwarts. This could not be allowed to continue. Harry's unguided growth needed to be stopped. None of the portraits or gargoyles or statues or ghosts paid much attention to Dumbledore's very purposeful, powerful strides through the older portions of the castle. He was down in the bowls of the ancient castle frequently enough that it wasn't an oddity, even if no one knew why he bothered to spend so much time in a particular corridor of the castle.
Hogwarts belonged to the Headmaster. Every headmaster and headmistress to run the school had a connection to the non-sentient castle. Non-sentient and non-magical are not the same thing, for Hogwarts was very magical. Dumbledore slipped into the secret heart of Hogwarts. The power available to funnel from this room was massive. The room itself was simple, stone gray walls, stone gray floor, stone gray ceiling. In the middle of the room, on a pedestal, stood a small, glowing orb of magic. He'd never tapped into the power to accomplish this particular purpose, but the power was full, alive, and oh so good! He'd certainly used it for other things. The headmaster laid his non-wand hand on a glowing orange orb, one that pulsated with different colors of magic.
With his wand in hand – the powerful, unbeatable Elder Wand – Dumbledore whispered the spell. Shouting a spell does nothing when there is this much power coursing through you. "Obliviate!"
Like a wonderful drug, the power and magic coursed through the old man's veins. The spell reached to every student and every staff-member.
The spell ended. Dumbledore pulled his hand away from the orb, slowly, reluctant to draw away from so much power.
The occupants of Hogwarts simply… forgot.