Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry Potter.

Chapter 6: The Wand

Harry stood on the front steps of the castle early on Friday morning. Really, the only reason he had come down was because boredom drove him. He missed Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Being away from them reminded him of staying at the Dursley's. He hardly talked to anyone outside of classes with Merrythought and he missed spending time at the Burrow where he'd been staying since the war ended, although sometimes he stayed with Andromeda when she needed more help with Teddy.

Teddy was growing up fast. Harry missed him, too. He was a very quiet baby who liked to study what was given to him. In that way, he was a lot like Remus and even looked like him. His hair always changed color, though, and he was starting to laugh a lot, which reminded Harry more of Tonks. He got a healthy dose of both of them.

Ginny came with Harry a lot to see him. In June, they began their relationship again after an awkward month at the Burrow. He couldn't look at Ginny without wanting to be with her. Ron surprised Harry when he urged him just to get back with her after Hermione talked to him that Ginny wanted to be back with Harry. So, then, Harry asked her to go to Diagon Alley with him one day.

The great, oak front door of the castle opened. Harry turned to see who came out and was surprised to see a Dumbledore. Not Albus, but Aberforth. Harry only knew this Dumbledore from the Defense classes.

Aberforth stared at him with the same piercing blue eyes as Albus, which caused Harry to look away. Aberforth was a little shorter than Albus and had blonde hair like the portrait of Ariana in the Hog's Head. Albus and Aberforth did look remarkably alike, though.

Aberforth passed by Harry and started across the lawn. Harry stared after him, but with a split decision, he caught up with him.

"Dumbledore," Harry said about a meter away from him.

"What?" he gruffed, stopping to look at him again.

Harry slid on the dew-ridden grass and crashed into him. "Sorry," Harry said as he straightened up.

Aberforth huffed. "Why would Albus waste his time with you? Can't even walk properly."

He started walking again, but Harry didn't give up. Harry knew how Aberforth was. Even though he was gruff at first, he would begin talking eventually. Harry noticed he was carrying the book Albus had given him. "Can I talk to you?" Harry asked, rushing to catch up again. Aberforth walked just as fast as Albus, too.

"About what, exactly?" Aberforth asked. Harry could see he was going toward the greenhouses. "Albus could surely answer anything you want. He's the brilliant one in the family, you see."

"He could," Harry said practically running. "But you're more truthful than he is."

Aberforth looked down at him with a slight glare. "That's obvious. Thank Merlin you see that. Are we done now? I really must-"

"Do you know what he's doing?" Harry asked.

Aberforth stopped again, but his time Harry didn't run into him, which he was glad for. "Of course I know what he's doing. I've seen his papers."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that.

His eyes narrowed again, but his cheeks turned a little red and he started on again. "I can read in a way," Aberforth said quietly, reading Harry's expression. "What's all this to you, anyway? What school did you go to? You can't be much older than Albus."

Harry didn't answer immediately. Aberforth couldn't know he was from the future or that would ruin everything. "I'm eighteen and I was home-schooled." Harry thought about saying he had gone to Durmstrang, but he remembered Grindelwald had gone there. That wouldn't work at all. Harry knew he had a strong British accent and he didn't think Aberforth would believe him if he said he went to a foreign school when he was eleven. He could have lost some of his accent by the time he was eighteen.

Aberforth huffed again just as they got to the greenhouses. He opened up the door to Greenhouse three and went all the way to the back. He sat down at one of the tables and dropped the book on the table.

"Albus is strange and mad," Aberforth said. "Do yourself a favor and don't get mixed up in his schemes."

"I know," Harry said, annoyed. "Merrythought and Horace Slughorn have already said that. But, you know him better than any of us."

"Exactly. That's why I'm saying this. He might be a good person to be friendly with, but not a good person to become his puppet later on when he becomes Minister of Magic. I know for a fact he's taking the Junior Assistant to the Minister job. Spavin loves Albus."

"I doubt it," Harry said.

"I don't," he said. "I know what he's thinking aren't his full ideas yet, but they could become all he wants for the Wizarding World later on. He believes in equality now, but that doesn't mean that he'll believe that later. He's been reading books about Muggle politics lately. He's going on a trip next summer. I bet he's going to see what types of governments other countries have in their Wizard Ministries. Or do you agree with Albus? Is that it?"

"You don't know what I think about politics," Harry said, sitting on the stool behind him.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Politics are corrupt and there's inequality because pure-bloods think they're better than everyone else even when half-blood and Muggle-borns can be just as powerful. Equality is better. What about you?"

"No body can be equal," he said. "There's always going to be someone above you, controlling you. What you say and what you do will always be monitored and criticized because they'll be someone smarter and more powerful than you are. Even my genius brother will be overpowered at some point because it's inevitable."

There was a long pause. Harry stared at Aberforth in surprise. He had no idea that's what Aberforth thought, unless his ideas changed in a hundred years, although his personality certainly hadn't. "That's optimistic," Harry said sarcastically.

"It's neither pessimistic, nor optimistic. It's true. Now, will you leave? I must weed my project before class."

Not wanting to make Aberforth more irritated, Harry walked back up to the castle. At least he gave more information about what Dumbledore was thinking. At least he wasn't thinking that wizards were over Muggles yet. He was just reading up on the politics. Maybe there was still hope.

As Harry made his way to the Defense class, he went back to thinking about Ginny. The day he went to Diagon Alley had been a good day. They had flooed into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes because Ginny still hadn't been old enough to get her Apparation license yet.

Diagon Alley had still been in the rebuilding process even a month afterward Voldemort was gone. Lots of shops were still closed down and empty, but a majority of them still had the original proprietors. Harry and Ginny wandered around most of the time they were there after going to Fortescue's to get ice cream. He was glad that most people left him alone while they were there, although he got a few stares and a few 'Thank yous', no one really stopped to chat.

When they passed by Ollivander's, Harry stopped.

"Should we go in?" Harry asked, staring up at the peeling gold paint on the sign.

"Neither of us need a wand," Ginny said.

Harry shrugged and went up to the door, but it merely twisted and didn't open. "I guess he's not in."

Ginny put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's look at the Menagerie. You might need a new owl."

"I don't want a new owl," Harry said lowly as they walked on.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh, if people could see how much of a baby the Destroyer of Voldemort is. 'I don't want a new owl. I want my old one!' Honestly." She smiled at him playfully.

Harry had a hard time not laughing and when she pulled him into the Menagerie, it didn't take long for him to find an owlet the same size as Pig. Ginny immediately called her Greta, but Harry shook his head. "No way am I naming her Greta."

"Fine," Ginny said. "Then what?"

"Ariana."

And with understanding, Ginny smiled and she kissed him for the first time in almost a year.

Days later when Harry went to the Hogs Head, he sat at the bar and waited for Aberforth to come in from the back. That was when he saw the book Dumbledore gave him for his birthday the first time, although he hadn't known that at the time.

"Good Merlin, boy," Aberforth said, stopping at the doorway. "What do you want?"

"Firewhiskey?" Harry said, even though he knew that wasn't what Aberforth meant.

"You want to get drunk?" he asked with raised eyebrows. He came forward to the bar.

"Yes," Harry said even though there wasn't a reason for it.

Aberforth reached under the counter, and instead gave Harry a butterbeer instead. Harry didn't refuse, though, and put down two sickles. He popped the top off by tapping his wand against it.

"Are you here for a reason?" Aberforth asked.

"I named my new owl after your sister."

Aberforth grunted and shook his head. "Were you drunk when you did?"

Harry wiped the dust off the butterbeer bottle. "I've never been drunk before," Harry said and then took a large gulp of the butterbeer.

"Oh, sweet mother of Merlin," Aberforth said and with that, Harry laughed and said nothing else as he drank his non-alcoholic beverage. He came back to the Hogs Head every week after that and always ordered a firewhiskey even though Aberforth turned and gave him a butterbeer instead.

Harry got up to the Defense classroom just as Merrythought got there.

"Ready for some dueling with the fifth years?" she asked as she pushed open the door.

Harry was glad to say, "Yeah."

Albus stood in front of the window in his dormitory, which looked out onto the grounds. The morning was clear and bright, but what was different was the fact that he could see Aberforth and Harry all the way from the tower. Harry was practically running to catch up with Albus's brother and it was clear that they were talking. Soon they disappeared into one of the Greenhouses. He stared at it for a long time, wondering what they were talking about.

Harry had told him before that he knew Aberforth. He didn't go into how or where he knew Aberforth from. It seemed odd to Albus that he knew so many older wizards. He didn't really know what to make of that.

Albus made a mental note to ask either Aberforth or Harry about what they were talking about, grabbed his school bag, and made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

He wasn't sure how long Aberforth and Harry would talk, so he ate at his normal pace and stood up to go out to the Greenhouses fifteen minutes later.

Aberforth was by himself with a strange, exotic looking plant with large, heavy leaves beside him. He was in the process of pulling weeds from the soil. Dumbledore actually wasn't sure what the plant was.

"What do you have there?" he asked Aberforth.

His brother looked up. "You don't know it?"

"Herbology isn't one of my strong areas," he said, reaching out, but Aberforth slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch it!" he said. Albus could see now that he wore gloves. "It's poisonous."

"Sorry. What happens if you touch it?" Albus asked, studying the leaves and small bumps around the top of the steam. They looked like berries.

"The poison will eat your skin away. If you accidentally eat the berries than they'll cause terrible ulcers that can't be cured so you're left without a stomach, and then the acid will get into your bloodstream and you die in a very short amount of time."

"Just what I want," Albus said.

Aberforth let out a humorless laugh. "I'm sure that's what everyone wants. How did you know I was here, anyway?"

"I saw you and Harry from the dormitory."

Aberforth grunted. "Yeah? Are you spying on me or Potter?"

"Neither. I just saw you. Were you talking about anything interesting?"

He shook his head. "Just politics. He has some interesting ideas. He said politics are corrupt and that all blood races should be equal."

Albus tilted his head to the side with a hum. "Anything else?"

"He said he doubted you'd work for Spavin. I think he's nervous about your political standpoints, at least what you're studying."

Albus didn't exactly understand what he was talking about. There wasn't anything to really be nervous about. He believed everyone should be as equal as possible. It was true that he had looked up politics from other countries, but he didn't exactly believe any of that. He knew of the greater good, that was what he studied the most, but didn't exactly have a real opinion of it yet. He shrugged and turned to walk out. "Good luck with your plant."

"Good luck with your mad endeavors."

Albus shook his head.

Later that day, Dumbledore was on his Head Boy duties when he ran across Harry on the seventh floor corridor. He seemed to have appeared, oddly, out of nowhere.

"Hello," Dumbledore said as he passed by him.

"Er, hi," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What you are doing?"

"Just looking around," Harry said with a glance down the corridor. "I'm just trying to see what's different. I haven't gotten around to doing that."

Dumbledore looked up and down the corridor as well, but didn't see anything different at all. He wondered how different it was in Harry's time. "Tomorrow I'm seeing Flamel. Would you like to come? He'd like to discuss with you what's going on with the potion."

Harry brightened immediately. "Yeah. What time?"

Dumbledore told him ten. "Merrythought's coming along. We'll meet in her office."

Harry nodded and Albus continued on way while Harry went the other.

But as Dumbledore went on, he began thinking. What was Harry doing wandering around the castle? Was he really just looking around?

Dumbledore turned and ran back the way he came toward Harry. When he got past the area he had left Harry, he put a disillusionment charm on himself and a silence charm on his shoes. It wasn't as strong as he'd like it, but he still had time to work on that.

He listened carefully. He could hear footsteps a few corridors over and began following them as fast as he could.

One of the classroom doors was opened, which was not normal. Most unused classrooms were closed. The footsteps had also died away, but Dumbledore peeked around the corner and saw Harry sitting at one of the desks with a piece of parchment out. Dumbledore carefully walked to him.

It wasn't the same parchment Harry usually had out. It was just a normal piece. He held a quill out over it. The only markings were at the very top, "'Dear Ginny,'" it read, "'I miss you,'" but that was it.

Albus wondered who Ginny was. He didn't know any Ginnys at Hogwarts and there wasn't any way that Harry knew anyone outside of Hogwarts.

Harry held the quill over the parchment for a long time. Albus stood still next to him, waiting for him to write more.

When he finally did, Dumbledore read over his shoulder. "'I feel stupid writing this because it's going to be a year before you get to read it. It's just difficult to be away from you, Ron, Hermione, and Teddy. Dumbledore's nice. He's pretty much the same, just younger and less experienced. He's a seventh year, like you. I've missed you since you went back, and now since I've gone into the past, it will be a very long time before I get to talk to you again.'"

Harry stopped. He rubbed his forehead. Dumbledore found it interesting that he didn't rub his forehead randomly, but rubbed his scar. It would have just been a habit to feel the scar, but Dumbledore wasn't sure.

But before Dumbledore could think about that more, Harry continued writing. "I was thinking this morning about when we went on our first date after the year apart-" so Ginny was his girlfriend, Dumbledore concluded, "'I never told you about why I wanted to go into Ollivander's. It's because I still have Dumbledore's wand. I need to get rid of it, but I don't want it to get stolen again. I know the magic will be lost once I die normally, but it has to be hidden. I don't know what to do, honestly.'"

Harry paused again. Dumbledore didn't know what to think about what he had just written.

"'I never thought I'd say this, but I miss going to work everyday. I feel like I should be doing more than what Professor Merrythought's set up for me to do. I need to be an Auror. It feels like last year all over again because all I'm doing is waiting for answers to come. I can already imagine the sort of things Hermione will say once I tell all of you what happened.

"'Right now I don't know what else to say. I guess should go help Merrythought grade essays. She's a lot like Tonks. Anyway, I'll write more letters that I can give to you when I get back. Love, Harry.'"

Then, Harry folded it carefully, placed it in his mokeskin pouch and stood. Dumbledore moved to let him by. Harry twirled the quill in his hand and then he was gone.

Dumbledore sat down in the vacant seat Harry had failed to push in. Why on Earth would Harry have his wand? Why didn't he have it? That seemed so odd. It sounded like Harry had had the wand for months now. Dumbledore wondered if Harry had stolen it himself, but because he seemed to trust him so much and seemed comfortable around him, that couldn't be a possibility.

Albus sighed, shook his head, and went back to his Head Boy duties. That just added to the list of things he needed to find out about Harry.

Harry got to Merrythought's office right on time. Dumbledore was there, messing with the metal pieces on the desk behind Merrythought's.

"She's not very good at being on time," Dumbledore said as he messed with some mechanical device. "She said she'll be down soon."

There was a short, stiff silence. Dumbledore clicked on the device he was holding, but when nothing happened, he gave an angry sort of sigh that surprised Harry.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"My final project for Flamel," he said, but that was it.

The door to the office opened. Both teenagers turned as Merrythought came in, looking winded as she went over to her fireplace and grabbed a handful of Floo powder. "Sorry I'm late," she said. She looked between them. "Well, let's go!" And she disappeared.

"That's what happens when she gets overwhelmed," Dumbledore said. "Might as well follow her, right?"

"Yeah, might as well."

Dumbleore let Harry go first, although Harry wished he could apparate instead. He didn't much like the feeling the Floo gave him. But it was quickly over and he stood in a workshop.

It was small, but there were all sorts of tools and mechanical objects on top of large, wooden work tables. Merrythought stood with a man a few steps away. Flamel had a short, white beard, sunken eyes, and was rounder than expected. He hardly looked any older than Dumbledore had in Harry's time.

"Ah, Harry," Merrythought said, gesturing for him to come to them, which ended up being a good idea because Dumbledore came through the fireplace shortly afterward. "Nicolas," she said, "This is Harry Potter."

The man observed him almost cautiously, his large, clear eyes sweeping over him. Without warning, he reached up and touched Harry's scar. "The magic has died, hasn't it?" he asked, his voice grumbling and thick. "You should have died many times."

Harry didn't know what to say because he didn't know how Flamel would know anything about that. Harry nodded and tried not to look at Dumbledore beside him. Flamel's hand lifted off Harry's scar, but a tingle was left. It didn't hurt. No, it just felt like he'd ran a feather over it.

"If the Elixir doesn't work on you, I will be astonished." he said. He turned, walking to a cauldron on one of the table. It was smoking.

"That's not it, is it?" Harry asked.

"No, it's soup."

Harry would have laughed, but couldn't bring himself to. Dumbledore, though, chuckled beside him.

"And you," Flamel said, turning to Dumbledore, who stopped laughing immediately. "You have something for me?"

Dumbledore reached into his robes and took out the device he had been working on when Harry saw him. Flamel brought it up close to his eyes, clicked on it and said, "Minimal effort," and handed it back to him. "You're not even close. We'll talk about that as soon as I explain the process to Mr. Potter."

Flamel turned, limping slightly down one of the worktables while Dumbledore seemed to suppress a sigh. "Miss Galatea," he said, smiling and waving his hand to beacon her forward. "Perenelle is with the most fantastic young lady in the sitting room, if you'd like to join her."

She didn't move toward him. "I'd rather stay, but if you insist," Merrythought said.

Flamel sighed. "You may stay, I suppose. I rather thought you'd like to speak to Bathilda Bagshot-"

"Bathilda Bagshot?" Harry said. He remembered that Dumbledore had told him she was coming to Hogwarts, but to have her near by excited him until he remembered something. Originally he had gone to see her with Hermione in Godric's Hollow to see if she had the sword of Gryffindor. That had been found already and he didn't need any information about Dumbledore anymore. It seemed ridiculous to want to meet her and talk to her now that Voldemort was gone and he had Dumbledore right there with him.

"Yes, Mrs. Bagshot, the historian," Flamel said, nodding. He turned to Merrythought again. "Miss Galatea?"

"I'd love to meet her," she said, genuinely interested.

"Good-"

"But I promised Harry I would help him."

Flamel shook his head and after a short pause where Harry thought he would insist she leave, he said she could stay with a great sigh. "Well, might as well tell you what I've done so far."

And for the next two hours, Flamel explained everything to Dumbledore, Merrythought, and Harry.

AN: First: This chapter was incredibly easy for me to write this time. The next chapter should be up by Friday, September 18. That will have a lot more Flamel in it. This is like a tiny little cliffhanger. Kind of. Actually, I wanted to add in all of Flamel's part in this one, but I decided to split it into two parts because I got carried away with Harry, Aberforth, and Dumbledore.

Second: It came to my attention that Dumbledore had too much leverage with the teachers, especially when it came to Merrythought. I changed a part in the first chapter to make Merrythought more authoritative, but there's no reason to go back to read it because it fits right into the story.

If you see anything off with characters or story lines or whatever, please tell me so I can fix it (especially if you see Dumbledore being too authoritative with teachers in the first 4 chapters (I'll try to avoid that in the later chapters). That will have to fixed. I overlooked it while editing, but I agree he's too young for that).

I'm very open to changing anything if anyone sees a problem. I don't mind and I won't get mad or anything, I promise! Have a great day, everyone!