The Wand

Sev and Albus watched the training from the window. Sev saw himself organizing the fourth-year kids with Lorenz, while he thought about the information he had just received.

Sev was thinking, (Wow, Albus has been on Riddle's trail for forty years. If he'd known about the Horcruxes much sooner, he probably would have destroyed them long ago. He must be knackered. At his age, for him to have to deal with a problem like that, and not being able to entrust it to anyone but me.

(I must collaborate with him in everything he requires, but in exchange I am going to ask him for something essential, that as many warriors as possible be properly instructed in the Ancestral Magics, to have a decisive advantage over the army that Voldemort is creating and only die a minimum part of them.

(And of course, they must also learn curses, even if they are not the Unforgivables, in order to eliminate the Death Eaters so that their number is diminished and ours is not.

(Albus has asked me twice in the Pensieve to look closely at objects. I know why, he suspects that Voldemort has turned them into Horcruxes. Very typical of him, proud of his family heirlooms, symbols of power.

(But ugh... the Resurrection Stone is also involved. Albus knows this and has the Wand, and Potter the Cloak, in the same school, all three too close at hand. What a danger. It is clear that I must accompany him to search, it would not be surprising if he wanted to keep it, I must dissuade him at all costs and make it disappear, even find it myself, on my own.

(And if the objects are significant, the places where they are must be significant too, important places in Voldemort's life. Perhaps the Gaunt house itself, which is why he has also given me the name of the village. Maybe also the orphanage where he grew up.

(And Hogwarts itself, if he tried to be a Defense professor here, it is because he is attached to the school. And where to hide something in Hogwarts? Obviously, in the Room of Requirement in its storage aspect.

(More possible places? The two Horcruxes we've seen were jewels and he is surrounded by wealthy purebloods, with security vaults at Gringotts. Bellatrix or Lucius himself may be in possession of one of them, perhaps without knowing it. Lauren's parents will have to be asked to read Bellatrix in that regard, and Lucius, now that he's also reading, to investigate among the high command.

(Look, there I am with the fifth-years. Today I barely paid attention to Deborah, but she didn't need it either, she had the smallest group. Now I'm going for Jack. How nice is the Gryff boy, I have a feeling that we will become good friends. I've already forgotten his name again, I'm a disaster with names.

(Ok, conclusions. Teaching Ancient Magics and curses to warriors, and about Horcruxes, two items to look for, the ring and the locket, and Albus probably knows more. And four places, the Gaunt house, the orphanage, Hogwarts and the Death Eater security vaults, but this last one I have to put up as a suggestion, since I can't reveal to Albus that we have spies on the other side, it would endanger Lauren.

(There I go with the seventh-years. How nice is Genevre, and I also like her. I enjoy being with her, she is intelligent, kind, dedicated, very pretty and also a good warrior.)

"Five past ten," Dumbledore told him. "Should we continue chatting for a while?"

"Sure, Albus."

"Let's go back to the office then."

They went downstairs and sat down again on either side of the large desk.

"I calculate that we will need an hour to give you the teachings for your protection," said the Headmaster. "We'll talk until eleven and we'll watch the break again, you've missed the most exciting moment of the training."

"I know, when I started to cry in front of almost thirty people."

"How many real friends do you already have?"

"Ugh… I've lost count, I don't even know everyone's names," Sev answered. "By the way, is there a spell to memorize? You know the last names of all the students in the school."

"Of course it exists, and not only for the names of people, but everything that happens to you in life, even what you think you have already forgotten, rescue it from the depths of your mind."

"Wow…" amazed.

"It belongs to one of the books of Ancestral Magic that disappeared from the R.S., that of Druid Magic," Dumbledore explained. "Power is acquired through a ritual in a cave."

(Oh… we didn't look at the meanings of the caves,) Sev thought,

"Unfortunately, there are no caves at Hogwarts, but we can escape one day by Apparating," Albus continued.

"It would be great, because I am going to have to deal with more than a hundred people. Everyone at home plus the warriors, and I don't feel good if everyone knows me and treats me familiarly and I don't even know their names."

"Very well, then we will do it without fail next week."

"Thank you very much, Albus." (He doesn't tell me anything about the books we've stolen. He's not going to screw me at all.)

"Do you know how to fly on a broomstick?" asked the Headmaster.

"No, since my first year I haven't. I have never had the chance to buy one."

"Oh, what a shame. Well, you should also learn, not only to move, but to teach how to fight riding on it. Death Eaters use them in skirmishes."

"Yes, I know," Sev said.

"It's probably what you would have been trained in this summer, considering you can't use your wand yet."

"Of course... I hadn't realized."

"We have got rid of a good mess by having you on our side," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you Albus."

"Thanks to you for choosing well. It's okay, we'll go out through a passageway in the castle to Hogsmeade. Well, have you come to any conclusions about what we've seen?"

"Yes, several."

"Tell me then," asked the old man.

"First, if you've spent forty years tracking down Voldemort and two significant objects already appear in a single memory, you should know more about them."

"You are right, but we will see that little by little. Bad news is enough for today, especially for you."

(Okay, I'll save the basilisk thing for another day.) Sev thought. "I appreciate it, Albus. In relation to that, counting on the fact that the war is going to be long and bloody, I think it is essential to teach the warriors Ancient Magics, in order to have a clear advantage over the enemy and to lose as few lives as possible. Of course, everyone who knows them should also be taught Occlumency. In exchange for that, I offer you to do everything in my power to help you with the Horcruxes."

"You're completely right. I don't understand why the Ministry doesn't allow even Aurors to use Unforgivables. You can't fight Avadas with Incarceres and Reflexos."

"Well, you're giving me the following conclusion. We must also learn curses, even if they are not the Unforgivables, which is not only about defending ourselves, but also about reducing the ranks of the enemy."

"Completely agree with you," said the Headmaster. "Those who graduate this year no longer have time to learn everything you are proposing to me, they will have to go through the Auror Academy, but from the next promotion we should think about forming a small army based on commandos, affinity groups. One of the Ancient Magics, the Red Magic, is based on that."

(The Magic of Love. The most powerful weapon against the Dark Arts,) Sev thought.

"Part of the teachings I've given your Gryff friends have been about it, I had never tried it and it turned out perfect," Albus added.

(What Lily told me about the Bond.)

"Before the end of the year, Lily and you will also practice it as a Couple, so that you can protect yourselves in summer," Dumbledore continued. "And whenever you want, if you are confident enough, we can also do it with your escort or part of it, so that you are in less danger at school. It is not necessary that it be with everyone, in theory you will also protect everyone you love and is close to you."

"Great, all of us who occlude could do it, there are five of us."

"Who else besides Steed and Beamy?"

"Stevens and Fairbank," Sev replied.

"All right. We will extend the chain of your Time-Turner so that you can use it together and we will do it on Monday," said Dumbledore. "I would prefer tomorrow, but I don't know how I'll have the day because of the Daily Prophet."

"Never mind, Albus, and thank you very much."

"Any other conclusion?"

"Yeah. Now I will try to correspond to what you are granting me, telling you the ideas that I have had about Horcruxes."

"Sure, tell me," asked the Headmaster.

"I imagine that both the ring and the locket are."

"Yes, I'm sure of it. In subsequent memories you will see how Riddle got hold of them and another one."

(Ugh… he only has three identified,) Sev thought. "I've also been thinking about what places they can be, significant places for Voldemort. Four possibilities have occurred to me."

"Wow…" admired.

"The Gaunts' own home."

"I think so too," Albus agreed.

(Because of successive memories.) "The orphanage where he grew up."

"It could be. Or somewhere related to his childhood."

(He already knows where, he knew him as a child,) Sev thought. "Hogwarts, the Room of Requirement in its storage aspect."

"Oh, that had not occurred to me, and yes, you're right. It could be."

(Because he came to apply for the position of Defense professor.) "And some Gringotts vault, of the wealthy families that support him, perhaps the Black family, by Lestrange."

"Very good idea," said Dumbledore, admired. "But it will be very difficult to get to it, Gringotts enjoys maximum security. They even have a dragon to guard those vaults."

"Ugh…"

"We will have to sneak in somehow, when we know for sure which one it is in."

(Which we need spies for, I've been blabbing. He'll propose to me when I graduate.)

"Do you want to continue with the list of information?" Albus asked.

Sev thought, (I'm not going to talk about the basilisk today, and next is the Elder Wand, and yes, we should talk about it, because he must already know very well that the stone of the ring of the memory is the Resurrection Stone, he can't go to look for the ring alone. But I can't tell him how Mum and I figured it out, because it was through Potter's Cloak. Let's see how I do it subtly, because with Lauren I didn't talk about this.) "I'm going to skip the next point, because it's also very thorny and it's not so urgent, we'll leave it for the next chat session."

"It's fine with me, Prince, whatever you consider appropriate. It didn't seem convenient to me either to tell you everything I know at once."

"Would you be so kind as to show me your wand?"

"Of course," Dumbledore accepted.

(He's so proud of it, he took it from the darkest wizard of his time.)

Albus took his wand out and placed it on the desk between the two of them. Sev took it, watching it carefully and touching it, appreciating the texture of its wood and its knots.

"It's very rare, I've never seen another like it," Sev said. "Do you bought it? Or did you get it in a duel?" he stared at the Headmaster.

(He's speechless again, but doesn't try to read me anymore, he knows he can't,) Sev thought and continued, "If you bought it, you'll know what wood it is and its core. Mine is also quite special, made of black pine and dragon's heartstring. I haven't seen another black wand in the whole school."

Sev grinned at him, the Elder Wand in his right hand, his left arm resting on the back of the chair. (I have the Deathly Wand in my hand, probably for the first and last time in my life, because after this he is never going to let me touch it again. He still doesn't speak, he didn't expect it. He's Gryff, doesn't know how to lie improvising, only if he plans it in advance.) "Come on, Albus…" he said cheerfully, "Tell me, you're looking forward to it."

"Don't think I'm so proud of that," the old man told him sadly.

Sev also became serious and put the wand back on the table. (He's confessing to me that he won it over from Grindelwald and he's getting nostalgic, something happened between them.) "Sorry to intrude, but I didn't do it for fun, I did it to warn you, Albus. I know it's the Elder Wand, and the memory you've shown me shows the Resurrection Stone. I also know the story of the Peverells, we were discussing it at Easter with my mother, she told me that in her time it was rumored that Grindelwald possessed it and we deduced that if the Hallows were real, you were the owner of the Wand. Seeing the Resurrection Stone in the memory that you have shown me, I have deduced that, in effect, they exist, without further ado."

"You're Sly to the core, my boy. You vastly outsmart me."

"No, I just caught you by surprise. You have been used to getting into people's minds for many years to find out what they are thinking and anticipate it, you are not used to treating seriously someone who does not submit and whom you cannot read. I, on the other hand, have been dealing with enemies all my life, the first, since my earliest childhood, my father. After the children of the Muggle school, at Hogwarts the quartet and for a little over a year now, the vipers, and I have been reading for less than six months, I have had to develop other skills to protect myself." (Let him know how hard my life has been, as Lauren told me, and I encourage him to confess too, he needs it.)

Albus nodded gravely. "There's a reason you're exceptional at such a young age, much better than me at ninety."

"Don't think that, Albus, you have done many things well. You rid us from one grave danger thirty years ago, and you've been trying to control another for forty years. The Wizarding World wouldn't be what it is without you."

"What I did thirty years ago was nothing more than paying a debt that I had pending since I was twenty."

(Back in 1905, he spent forty owing the debt.)

"I'll tell you," continued the old man. "My family comes from Godric's Hollow, and my parents and three siblings lived there. I'm the eldest, then comes Aberforth, the owner of Hog's Head."

"Is he your brother?" surprised.

"He is."

"Now that you mention it, it's true, you look alike," Sev commented.

"He spies for me, so I have controlled the movements of the Death Eaters when they approach the school."

"Oh…"

"And we had a younger sister, Ariana," related the Headmaster. "One day, when she was still little and doing involuntary magic, three Muggle boys saw her and attacked her. She was very affected, she was no longer the same, disabled."

"Oh, Albus. Very sorry."

"But that was only the first of a long series of misfortunes. My father attacked the boys who had hurt her, and he ended up in Azkaban. He died there."

"Ugh…"

"As we were at school, my mother was left alone taking care of her, she had a very difficult life, she got sick and Ariana accidentally killed her shortly after I graduated."

"Oh…"

"So the three siblings were left alone," Dumbledore continued. "I was the eldest, who had to take care of them, but I did not resign myself. I was a very brilliant wizard with delusions of grandeur, I wanted to travel, continue instructing me and not stay locked up at home taking care of my insane sister. My brother, much more responsible than me, reproached me and did not finish his studies for taking care of her. I lived in the house anyway, but I didn't take care of anything. One year after I graduated, in the summer, the nephew of a family friend, Bathilda Bagsot, came to town."

"The writer of the Treatise on the History of Magic?"

"The same. The thing is, that boy and I found out that we were one of a kind, the best of friends, we both shared that desire for fame and greatness and we developed a whole theory according to which wizards were above Muggles and should rule the world. We called it 'The Greater Good', and one of our goals was to get hold of the Deathly Hallows, to be infinitely powerful and put our ideas into practice. That boy I'm telling you about was Gellert Grindelwald."

"Oh…" Sev exclaimed amazed and with deep understanding.

"We spent two months conspiring and making plans to travel together in search of our objectives. I neglected my brothers and Aberforth always reproached me, until one day, when the four of us were in my house, Grindelwald, my two brothers and I, a serious argument broke out, in which the three of us took out our wands and Ariana was killed."

Sev snorted, resting his elbow on the table and letting his forehead drop to his hand. "I'm so sorry, Albus."

Albus was crying. "I will never know if it was my own spell that reached her."

"It was an accident."

"No, it wasn't, because at that time what I wanted was to get rid of the burden that she entailed, I felt that she was clipping my wings, and in the end I got what I was looking for, to get rid of her."

"Albus, you can't keep feeling guilty after seventy years. It wasn't a crime, it was an accident."

"And I still contributed to creating the monster that became my best friend."

"But then you fought him, you said so yourself, you paid your debt, and you have dedicated your whole life to doing good. These seventy years must weigh more than those two months of youthful madness."

"My brother still hasn't forgiven me," said the old man.

"Well, he's wrong, don't take into account what he thinks. He would have to know how to forgive."

(Maybe I'm the first person he's told it to.) "I forgive you," Sev told him.

"I have been resisting ever since I got the memory I showed you today, of running to Little Hungleton to the Gaunts' for the ring with the Stone, since I know from later memorys almost certainly that it is there, because I want to see my family again even if it is one last time. It has prevented it that I didn't want to be absent from school in case there was an emergency with you."

"Well, luckily you didn't, Albus, because handling a Horcrux is very dangerous. Do not even think of going alone or without having thoroughly studied the book. I have it safe, we will study it together and go look for it. We'll destroy it, and if the Stone can still be used, you'll do, but just to say sorry and goodbye, you can't keep it, you'd go mad, and we need you in the present. Now we are your family and we are counting on you, do not abandon us, without you we will not be able to do anything."

"Of course, Prince, I will not fail you."

"Brave Gryff. I am very sorry for having upset you, I did not expect at all that there would be such a hard story behind the damn Elder Wand, I just wanted to warn you not to be tempted by the Stone, because I already told you that it is very dangerous to handle a Horcrux. A curse can be included in it to protect it, and in any case, it possesses you if you spend too much time with it on or near it, everything is explained in the book. So when we find it, don't even think about putting the ring on, you could die."

"Thank you Prince, because it was what I planned to do. I owe you my life."

(Let's lighten the mood up a bit by changing the subject, and give him a little cheer,) Sev thought. "Do you know that it was lucky that the Gryffs attacked me the other night?"

"And so?"

"Do you remember that before I have offered you a potion with which you sleep instantly and each hour of sleep is worth three?"

"Yes, of course, and I have already told you that I never heard it, it is very interesting," Albus answered. "I know 'Restorative Sleep' and sometimes I use it, but that one is only worth two."

"You never heard it because it's my invention."

"What are you telling me?" amazed and admired.

"What you're hearing," Sev replied. "I also got it at Christmas, combining 'Restorative Sleep' and 'Immediate Sleep' and improving the restorative effect through Arithmancy."

"But that is postgraduate work or even more advanced."

"So says Madam Pomfrey. The fact is that Remus, Remus again, when he saw me in bed across from him, he told her, because he's been using it since January to recover more quickly from his crises and thus loses only half a day and not the whole day."

"Oh…"

"And do you know what Madame Pomfrey did when she found out?" the Sly boy asked.

"I can imagine. Write to Profesor Damocles Belby. They were partners of EXTASIS."

"That's right. And he responded as soon as her owl arrived, enclosing a message for me." Sev took the letter out of his pocket and handed it to him. "Read it. He is going to fix my life."

Albus read the message. "Wow Prince, Profesor Belby is the best Potions researcher in the UK, probably in all of Europe. You can't have a better mentor."

"Excellent. I'm going to study the NEWT of Medimagic. It is enough for me to add Arithmancy to the Potions subjects, because I have also created spells, quite a few, and some healers."

"Wow," said the Headmaster, amazed. "Is there something you're bad at it?"

"Yes, Transfiguration," Sev told him laughing. "Your favorite subject."

"Well, not getting off the Exceeds Expectations means you're not so bad at it."

"Yeah, but I'm used to Outstandings, so I think I'm bad at it."

"I understand you, you are very demanding with yourself," Albus said.

"That is. I'm telling you this because I want to Floo from here and not from loudmouth Slughorn's office, but also so you know I have other interests than all the mess we're in and I don't want to die young, because I think I have a lot to offer the world." (Let him get used to the idea that I am not going to let myself be marked when I finish studying.)

"Of course, Prince, I will make it easy for you to go to St. Mungo's whenever you need it. Use the Time Turner if you want for that too, because weekdays coincide with school days."

Sev thought, (And to play the piano, read Muggle Studies Science and History books, escape into the Forest alone or with Lauren when everyone is in class… etcetera, etcetera.) "Of course, Albus, I was already thinking of doing it, that's why I told you before that it's going to be the best used Time Turner in history."

"Do not abuse it either, it can alter your sleep and wakefulness rhythm."

(Bah… if my days are twenty-seven or twenty-eight hours instead of twenty-four, I sleep ten instead of eight and in peace. I'll get used to it.) "No more than the sleep potions have altered it, and otherwise, I also use it to take a nap."

Dumbledore rolled his eyes. "You'll see what you do."

"I'm young. I will resist."

"True. Who will catch the sixteen again."

"Better seventeen," Sev retorted.

"With the Time Turner you will take longer to reach them."

"But it will be time well spent."

They chatted informally for another while until eleven, when they went up to the window again to watch the training break, and Sev could see what he had missed in the morning because he was crying. How his twenty-eight friends had approached him to comfort him.

They then proceeded to the Dueling Room, which had one wall half smashed from the curses Lily and Remus had cast in the morning that Dumbledore hadn't had time to repair.

He explained it to him. "They have cast curses through the shield."

"Wow… I want too."

"Well, since the Slys are going to come on Monday, I won't repair it, because you're going to destroy it again."

"Of course, especially us," Sev was laughing. "I'm thinking of launching even Avadas, to test the shield well if I ever have to use them."

"I don't think so bad," Albus was laughing too.

He then taught him to perform the talking Patronus, which worked out in a quarter of an hour, half the time it had taken the Gryffs. He again absented himself from the office to send it to him and it also worked. It was not yet twelve.

"We still have an hour and a half left. What else are we going to do?" Sev asked.

"I'm going to start teaching you to project."

"I already know how to project, Albus," he laughed.

"What are you saying?" amazed.

"What you're hearing. Lily and I practiced so much Legilimency that one day it just came off. That's why at noon I made my escort change places in the Great Hall, to catch up with you both."

"Can you reach me from where you are?" Dumbledore asked amazed.

"I guess so. I reach Lily and she reaches me, and I'm an equal distance from you both."

"Oh…"

"Work that we took away from you," Sev said. "Also, that way she has already told me everything you had done in the morning." He laughed. (Albus's face is a poem.)

"And you tell me now. You already knew that I had a Time Turner for you, the Red Magic thing, the Bond thing…"

"Everything, everything. Know that my main characteristic in the Celtic horoscope is…"

"When is your birthday?" asked the old man.

"January ninth."

"The mistery."

"That is." Sev was dying of laughter, and he got Albus to do it too.

"And speaking of that. You already know Druid Magic, that you do have told me. How did you perform the tree rituals?"

"Correctly, in contact with the ground and the trunk. I discovered it by chance."

"Then you already have the power," Dumbledore deduced.

"Of course. Look." Sev stepped away and performed the Spherical Protego.

"Does anyone else have it?" asked the Headmaster.

"Yeah. The three Gryffs and five Slys we occluded. We just learned to do it so you wouldn't catch us." He laughed again.

(Albus is desperate, I'm going to hold back a bit.) "And know that it is not necessary to go to the tree that is due on the calendar, the magic is always present," Sev continued. "With everyone except Beamy I did it in a centenary fir tree, on dates that it was not due. We made it coincide with the new moon just in case, but I think that doesn't matter either." (Because with Lauren I did it in the waning quarter, it wasn't her tree either and it also worked out.) "And also, if you carry out joint rituals, between several witches, with hands in contact, the natural talents are transmitted from one to the other, so maybe you could help us with that, transmit your talent for Transfiguration to become Animagi." (And incidentally everyones else.)

"Okay, then we'll go anyway, I've never done a joint ritual."

"Great, we'll go to my fir tree whenever you want, in two and a half hours we'll go and come back and the three of us shall do it. And also individual, which I haven't done since February and it's time to renew requests."

"Have you tried doing rituals in other natural spaces?" asked the Headmaster.

"Yes, on the coast, at Easter, on a beach and on the cliffs of Dover."

"And did you also get what you demanded?"

"On the dune beach, which means open-mindedness and willingness to change, and contact with seawater, healing wounds to the soul, everything came out instantly, and it wasn't exactly a meditation, but rather a conversation between Lily and me," Sev answered. "And on the cliffs, which means wide and high perspectives, I was meditating while walking on everything that I would like to do in life, so that will take longer to come true. I am missing the springs, streams and the Lake, which is what we have at hand here."

"Well, the powers that are acquired in those spaces are also very interesting."

"Of course, I know. We also found the Druid Magic book that was in the R.S. in the same old bookstore, that's how we were able to consult the ones on the coasts. I also want to perform those rituals now that the hottest months are coming, I'll run away with the Time Turner."

"Prince, don't go around alone," Dumbledore admonished.

Sev again had a fit of laughter. "Bah… if everyone is in class, what does it matter? I am a lonely being, it overwhelms me to be surrounded by people all the time."

"I understand you, I am too." Albus laughed too. "Besides, if you can already make the spherical shield you can protect yourself, and if you're careful that no one sees you, I don't think they'll follow you to the Forest. Either way, you'd better wait until I have the Map ready for you so you're safer."

"Okay, Albus," he told him seriously.

(Let's admit it, because he hasn't screwed me up when it comes to the books, it must be obvious by now that I'm not the only one who knows where they are. I have to go get the one on Dark Magic and take it home, now that the malefics are gone, to have it handy when we meet again, because we should go to Little Hungleton as soon as possible for the ring, so Albus won't be tempted to go alone.)

"Did you have anything else prepared for today?" Sev asked.

"I didn't."

"Okay, then we are going to finalize details until we meet again. Where do we train tomorrow?"

"I have installed the Room on the ground floor, after the Library, in the corridor to the left, so that the Slys have a better hand, since you are the most numerous," the Headmaster answered. "I have not put it in the dungeons because you would have lacked natural light."

"Brilliant."

"To enter you have to do like to the Room of Requirement, demand the space, but it is enough to stand in front of the wall thinking 'Duel Training Room'."

"Perfect, so no one will suspect the change," Sev commented.

"If the people from the Daily Prophet are here I will take care that they do not go to that area, with the excuse of the Library, a place of study that they must respect."

"Cunning Gryff. And Monday, for the teachings?"

"You are five," said Dumbledore.

"Yes, including Beamy."

"Do you know if they take or have taken Ancient Runes?"

"Stevens, no, Beamy yes, Steed and Fairbank I don't know," Sev replied.

"Well, then it will take us more time, but I reckon that the morning will be enough. Do you prefer before class or after?"

"I do not care. Shall I ask them and are we in communication projecting to each other tomorrow? Today I don't think I'll show up for dinner."

"Sure, we'll talk tomorrow," Albus agreed. "I don't think I can stop by the training, you know, the Daily Prophet, but tell me how it went in the Great Hall and we'll appoint for Monday. According to what you decide, I give you instructions on how you have to do it."

"All right. And I would also like to meet as soon as possible to study the Dark Magic book together and go to Little Hungleton, I don't want you to go alone, Albus, I'm very serious."

"Of course I won't, Prince, I'm not going to risk my life at a time like this. That is why I also ask you to be very careful, the hope of many people depends on you. If something happened to you, everybody would be demoralized, now you are responsible for everyone. So maybe the same Tuesday we can have another, shorter session, let's take it patiently. We'll project to each other and appoint."

"Perfect. We still have more than an hour left. Are you tired?"

"No, your potion works great."

"So, you know what I'd love to do?" Sev asked.

"Tell me."

"Fight against you for a while. It would be an honor for me to do it against the victor of Grindelwald, against the Deathly Wand, no less. You're going to beat me, today I'm at fifty percent, because of my arm. Do you feel like it?"

"Of course. How was it? No disarm, legal, non-verbal, and no Protegos, right?" Albus asked.

"You read the Gryffs. You are funny."

Now it was Dumbledore who laughed. They fought for a long time, Albus against Sev. And despite his advanced age and not being used to doing it often, indeed, he was able to beat him.

When they were tired, Albus Summoned some seats, performed a spell to lengthen the Time-Turner's chain, and they sat down for a while longer to chat, about Ancient Magics and how to communicate them to the rest of the warriors, since it was a huge job. Apart from the seventh-years, they were going to have to instruct at least fifty more people in Occlumency and all the teachings.

At one twenty-five they left the dueling room for the office. Sev Summoned another dispenser and poured the Headmaster two hours' dose of Restorative Potion worth for six. The old man had already been on his feet for sixteen hours and he still had to deal with Slughorn to read him and convince him not to come to Slytherin house that night.

That May morning, Albus and Sev sealed a pact of collaboration and mutual support that would last until the Headmaster's death.