Two Problems

Twenty Third April Nineteen Ninety-Four – Hogwarts: Headmasters Office

"Something is wrong."

Dumbledore looked up and observed Tonks. She looked worried.

"His pattern has changed?"

"He's been looking more tired lately. His blood sucking slug story is full of holes and he's been unfocused in class."

Dumbledore pursed his lips and looked at Snape who was sitting next to Tonks.

"I can feel his desire to murder me," Snape said drily.

"You probably feel that from every student," Tonks quipped.

The portraits of headmasters laughed softly.

Snape glared around Dumbledore's office silencing the old fossils. "I brushed against his mind as well. I was very subtle."

"Snape!" Tonks gasped. "You didn't!"

Dumbledore remained impassive. "And?" he pressed meaningfully.

"You were right. I immediately felt magic try and trap me. I don't think he does it consciously. It's his subconscious."

"Legilimency is frowned upon Snape," Tonks said, her hair turning brown and long. Her eyes turned blue with severity.

"We're allowed if we feel a student is hiding something that could affect the school and students," Snape replied smoothly. "And it is an art only the talented can learn." Here his lips curled into a sneer. "That's probably why you can't learn it Professor Tonks."

"What did you see?" Dumbledore asked, ignoring the byplay.

A sparrow flew into the office from the open window. The sun was above the forest and the sky was glowing bright blue. Cool wind circulated around the office getting rid of the stale air of a closed room. Fawkes was not around.

Snape frowned. "I didn't see," he murmured. He himself was unsure of what had happened in the fourth of a second in which he had looked into Harry's mind. "I felt," he said.

"There was a cold rage. Cold and controlled. A Will unlike anything I have experienced," Snape trailed into silence, pondering over Harry's mind. "There's a dream he wants fulfilled," he said at last. "That's the closest I can come to describing it. A dream born from the rage."

"Did you see anything?" Dumbledore stressed on see. It was important. "You must have seen something."

Snape sighed. Dumbledore was being forceful today. "It was dark. Could be a manifestation of the night. It's a common form of defence in some Occlumens. There was a breeze and it was hot. I felt like my body was burning up with heat."

"Interesting," Dumbledore murmured.

Snape shrugged. He hoped Dumbledore didn't ask him to do it again. He wasn't sure he'd be fast enough to get away from that strange magic the next time.

There was a moment of silence as Dumbledore put the dots of Harry's life in his mind's eye and then tried to connect them to understand him. Couple of minutes later, he stood up, walked to his pensive and deposited a string of thoughts into it.

He then sat back down with a sigh and smiled at Tonks. "You're already being touted as the best defence against the dark arts teacher in decades. Your mind is sharp and bullshit doesn't escape you."

Tonks laughed, turning pink. "Way to be candid Albus!"

"And your clumsiness has a fan following," Snape added acidly.

"I want you to keep an eye on Harry this weekend," Dumbledore said to Tonks seriously. "Follow him, observe him and keep your distance. Do not come into his line of sight in any direction," he instructed. "He is up to something and when a psychopath is up to something you can guarantee is not a good thing."

"I don't understand why you don't cart him off to Azkaban," Snape groused.

Tonks shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Hearing you say the boy who lived is a psychopath is not reassuring Professor-

"It's Albus Tonks," Dumbledore interrupted with amusement.

"-Albus," Tonks corrected. "Not after you told us about the prophecy. Harry should be locked up, not let loose."

"To what end?" Dumbledore sighed.

"Train him!" Tonks said.

"To become a weapon that we use at our leisure?"

"You just said he's a psychopath. Wouldn't some directioning help him at least focus on killing you know who? -

"It's Voldemort Tonks," Dumbledore interrupted.

"-Oh for Merlin's sake Albus! Stop doing that!"

Dumbledore sighed. "Prophecies are funny things Tonks. We never know if our actions are driven by prophecies or if prophecies are driven by our actions. Harry is important, we cannot let our rules decide his path. He is on the path of a true prophecy. You don't see it yet, but his actions are shaping our world."

"But he does nothing!" Tonks exclaimed.

"And look at the chaos that has wrought," Dumbledore said mysteriously.

Tonks went blank. The Headmaster was not making any sense anymore.

"Nevermind," Dumbledore said with a smile. It was deeply philosophical and theoretical discussion he was not keen on having with Tonks.

"Just keep a close eye on him Tonks," Snape snapped. "He's crazy and dangerous. He's a Potter!"

Dumbledore resisted the urge to punch the sarcasm out of Snape.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Second May Nineteen Ninety-Four - Hogwarts: History of Magic Class

It was History of Magic and Harry was upset. He had come across a startling discovery that had shaken his desert dream. It had been absolutely unexpected. He had migrated to the other side of the divide towards the unexplored forest and while in the middle of watching his rune suck all the moisture out of the ground, turning it into sand, a Gryffin had walked past unaffected by the magic.

Harry looked at it in shock and the Griffin stared back at Harry. By the time the ground beneath and turned to sand, the Griffin had strolled back into the forest and disappeared from sight.

The Griffin had brought a whole new set of realisations to Harry. One, the creature had just walked across and two, it had not been affected by the magic. Only matter that was not channeling magic was affected by the runic magic. That meant a lot of things were going to be unaffected by his runes. It made Harry realise that even if he managed to create and power a rune structure to take over an entire city, the people could easily escape! The thought upset him. Since then he was thinking of ways to trap people in the desert. It would do no good if they used their pathetic form of magic and just escaped!

He was so engrossed in his dilemma he didn't even register Draco Malfoy trying to get his attention.

Eventually Draco gave up and caught Daphne's eye. Daphne smirked at him and he turned away with a scowl. Things were vastly different in the Slytherin common room from when he was there. There was a divide in the house. There were those who called themselves true Slytherin's, who preached cunning and ambition, who were unanimously represented by rising star Daphne Greengrass, and there were those who prided on being pure of blood, now represented by Draco Malfoy whose father was the minister of magic and thus held a lot of power.

Daphne had more numbers on her side and since Draco's return, there had been a few verbal encounters between them. So far, Draco had not come out on top of any of them. The sixth and seventh years usually stayed out of it but lately, after Lucius became minister, there were those who sided with Draco for personal reasons and those who sided with Daphne to oppose those with Draco. The environment in the house of Slytherin was rife with tension all the time.

Recently Daphne had raised the stakes and beaten Draco at a game of chess. With Professors cracking down on duelling and fighting with detentions and letters home, students were forced to find other means to challenge each other. The debate clubs had their weekend sessions full. Daphne was a prominent voice in all of them. She took on her peers and her seniors with confidence and boldness and she always came out on top of the debates. Students agreed with her views and it was reaching a stage where her ideals were being spoken about in common rooms at night.

The pureblood scions were fast becoming a minority at the school. Draco's return as the son of the minister of magic helped their cause a bit but it took all their efforts to maintain an image of superiority which was fast losing its dignity.

The debate about the controversial move by Minister Malfoy to dismantle the Wizengamot had been the topic of discussion last Sunday and Daphne had torn Draco apart, calling his father a dictator and the man who would bring down the economy to a level not seen since the medieval times.

No pureblood could counter her claims and she never gave them the time. She bulldozed over them and was radiating smugness since the latest debate.

Draco was beginning to hate her. He wanted nothing more than to draw his wand and show her what power really was.

The drone of Professor Binns sent a wave of sleepiness across the room and many yawned. Some were already fast asleep.

Daphne was sitting next to Tracey and playing tic tac toe. Half her mind was on the game and the other half on Ted.

She had been stunned to learn he was the man leading the rebellion. Ted was her father's assistant and it was why she had trusted him in the first place and let him into her home when he came knocking. They were a two-man army when it came to court cases and her father's destruction had also led to Ted's destruction. His status as a muggleborn only made things worse for him.

He was forced to leave his wife and kid to prevent bringing them down with him. He was forced to quit his job and had to become a janitor at the ministry to support himself just barely. His wife, being from a prominent family was left alone and not run into the ground like Daphne's mom. Mrs Greengrass was a first generation pureblood after all. Her mother was a half blood.

Daphne's mind wandered to her meeting with Tonks last week. To learn that Tonks was Ted's daughter was quite a shock. She had only ever known Ted as Ted the few times she had met him in the past long gone. She never knew him as Ted Tonks; husband of Andromeda Black and father of Nymphadora Tonks. She had never made the connection and was embarrassed about it outward but furious inside. If she had found out more about her father's assistant she could have approached Tonks when she joined Hogwarts as a Professor. Because she was upset with not making the connection, she never thought to wonder why Tonks hadn't approached her after all this time.

However, because of that connection she had grown close to Tonks in secret in no time at all. They spoke about the rebellion and the desire to see Lucius destroyed. They talked about how the rebellion was not effective enough and how they needed to do something drastic to push the scales in their favour.

In Tonks, Daphne had found a true friend. Tonks was also training her to fight. There were times Daphne felt intimidated when she went against older Slytherins and she hated feeling weak. So she had asked Tonks for private lessons and the older girl had willingly agreed.

"I win again," Tracy muttered with a bored sigh.

"In Sixteen twelve the inn Three Broomsticks was used as headquarters by wizards to quell the Goblin rebellion," Binns droned.

"Maybe the Goblins could learn a thing about winning from you," Daphne joked and the two girls dissolved into soft giggles. Despite throwing her weight all over the place, Daphne was still a young girl and enjoyed light hearted humour with her friend.

Harry turned back and glared at the giggling girls.

Daphne caught Harry's glare and her eyes widened. She quickly stifled her giggles and smiled feebly at Harry with a tinge of red rising up her neck.

The bell rang and the class was quick to run to the door.

"And that will be all for today," Binns said with a ghostly yawn.

Harry was the last to leave.

It was four in the evening and classes were over for the day. Today, Harry didn't go to the library, nor did he stealth his way into the forbidden forest. Today, he wandered around the castle aimlessly.

There was a crisis in his mind. The goal of the desert was unravelling. Could he trap people in the desert with his magic? How was be going to power the enchantment to grow to the majestic size of a real desert? His mind spun out of control. His feet led him into a maze of corridors into the lower levels of the castle. Thoughts flew past with dizzying pace until one came along with the hint of a solution. Wandering through the dungeons made Harry realise the corridors were like a labyrinth. It was a thought made far from his conscious mind but as his conscious searched for a solution, this particular thought stood out.

A labyrinth!

His mind went back to the wards around his godfather's land. They didn't let him leave. The wards warped around him when he reached the edges and pushed him back into another part of the land within the wards. The wards were like a maze. He was always in search for an exit.

A truly magnificent idea came to him and his mood improved.

What if the magic of the wards was woven into rune enchantment? What if he could reproduce the effect of the wards in tandem with the desert rune?!

His heart raced with excitement. His day had just brightened. He looked around to see where he had ended up and couldn't find any particular markers that looked familiar. He decided to attempt to walk back the way he came and as he made his way up, following the trail of magic noticed an abundance of magic coming from a wall.

He stopped and moved towards what looked like a man sized haze of transparent magic. As he got close, the haze suddenly moved and ran away.

Harry was stunned. Before he could react the magic had disappeared and he came to a chilling realisation. He was being followed.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Through the next two weeks Harry was always on alert when roaming through the castle between classes. He had noticed the haze on five different occasions and all five times it had disappeared as soon as it was detected.

It had him on the edge. He yearned to go back to the forest but didn't want to risk his secret getting out. So in order to supress the desire to go back to his home within the depths of the forest, he buried himself in studying the magic behind wards. The amount of reliance on wand movements in the books made him sick and he spent hours writing in his journal, creating the equivalent rune structures.

He spent sleepless nights figuring out a way to create a rune structure that made a labyrinth. It had to be something that warped the air or land in order to trap a person inside. The end product was easy to imagine but writing it in rune was proving to be difficult. Harry needed more information. There was something missing. An important component that would help him understand the language of magic. A piece of knowledge that would make the ease the difficulty of writing that language with runes.

Presently he was in Transfiguration, staring out the window; controlling the itch in his leg that was beginning to become unbearable.

"Potter!"

McGonagall's voice whipped through his ear drums.

The class was with the Gryffindors. Harry saw a red headed boy laughing at him when he jumped to attention at the professor's voice.

"Yes, professor?" he said obediently. He had observed, over the course of time since his return from the desert, that surrendering a few words towards a conversation made the orange of people brighten. They liked being acknowledged.

"Why aren't you transfiguring your quill into glass?" she asked severely.

Harry scowled and drew his wand. With a glare at McGonagall he moved his wand through the necessary wand motions while pushing the void through it. The magic manifested into a web that settled over the quill and it shimmered into the state of a glass quill.

McGonagall pursed her lips and with reluctance gave ten points to Ravenclaw.

By now, no one batted an eye at feats of magic performed by Harry. His silent and perfect spell casting drew eyes at first and had sent a buzz through the castle about a prodigy but his barely pass grades on his assignments and tests let the buzz die out until he was considered as just gifted. Now, only Hermione glared at his skill with a wand with envy. Hermione Granger had had many a discussion with Daphne about her friendship with Harry and his study methods but the beautiful Slytherin was very evasive when it came to her odd friendship with Harry Potter.

Now that McGonagall had left Harry returned to staring out the window towards the forbidden forest. His itch grew stronger. He couldn't hold off any longer. Tonight he was going to return to his forest. He didn't care if someone was following him. Inside the forest. Where magic was one with him. They would not be able to escape.

Harry smiled. He couldn't wait to try out his new rune design.