Thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming! ~F

Chapter Eleven

Truth and Lies

Nobu'tan felt like the seconds dragged on for days as he stared at the Headmaster, his back to the reflective surface of the Mirror of Erised, trying to prevent the old man from seeing what he himself had seen within, the faces and identities of Nobu'tan's most important people, and the world that he desperately wanted to return to.

"Well, with just one visit to this mirror, I presume you could guess at what it does?" Dumbledore said, casually walking around to sit in an unused and dusty chair, cleaning it with a flick of his wand.

"I suppose," Nobu'tan began slowly, "that it shows us what we want most of all…"

"Precisely, Harry, precisely." The Headmaster said, clearly pleased that Nobu'tan figured it out in one attempt. "The mirror shows us, nothing more or less, than the deepest and most desperate desire of our hearts. A man that was completely content with his life would alone be able to use the mirror as a normal mirror, reflecting his life just as it was. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Many have wasted away in from of it, wishing for what they see within it, or worse, driven mad. This is why the mirror will shortly be moved to a new home. I trust that you understand the need to not go seeking for it. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

The old man seemed to be stalling for something, and slowly Nobu'tan began to realize, that the man couldn't see what Nobu'tan saw in this mirror, as it wouldn't be Dumbledore's deepest desire. So the old wizard was trying to trick Nobu'tan into sharing what he saw, into actually telling the old man what he wanted to know. Not likely to happen.

"I understand, sir," he said instead, stepping away from the mirror, and giving it one last look. Gul'dan's red eyes gleamed in the reflected scene, reassuring in their intensity. Nobu'tan swore to himself that he would see that face, and those eyes again, even if he had to burn this and many other worlds to do it. Nothing was more important to him.

"I should probably get going, need to prepare for when classes resume," Nobu'tan said, excusing himself from the old man's presence, and sensing the slight change in the Headmaster's aura, revealing the disappointment that the old man felt in failing his desire to get secrets out of the young warlock.

With his route to the library cut off, Nobu'tan had little option left but to return to the nearly deserted common room. He sat there, in front of the large fireplace, idly playing with the small infernal stone in his hand, wondering about the meaning of all of this. What could the 'Standing Stones,' possibly be. The only way he could contact the masters of the Burning Legion was either through a representative, such as an imp messenger or some being higher up in the ranks, a nathrezim or even an eredar possibly, or else a demon gate had to be used to speak to one of the great lords directly.

But what could they want with him, a small, scrawny human warlock that had little training on his own. Checking the personal Ravenclaw library, really more of a bookshelf with leftovers from old students that were long gone, Nobu'tan found a magical atlas of Europe. Hoping that some reference to these stones wouldn't be farther out of his way than the rest of the British isle, he carefully scanned the important magical landmarks for something that fit the description.

Curiously, he was able to trace several of the known ley lines around major stone structures that baffled muggles, and many wizards, for centuries. Many ancient druidic stone circles among them, such as The Hurlers, Mên-an-Tol and Doll Tor were situated atop one or two lines, but by and large the one that stood out the most was the apparently famous Stonehenge, with four lines running under it, rivaling Hogwarts castle itself.

Yes, Nobu'tan thought to himself, that location had to be what was mentioned in his message, there was no other section of standing stones that was nearly powerful enough magically and located close enough for him to attempt to access. The only problem was just that, getting access to the stones to use their magic. He would naturally have to wait until the summer, and then it depended on where and to whom he was sent.

Nobu'tan couldn't imagine Dumbledore wanting him to be too far out of reach, and less likely was that he'd go with any of the people that he had befriended. He would have to get himself up to Wiltshire to see the stone circle and back, hopefully with more instruction and assistance from the Legion for it, all before the old man noticed that he had left wherever he had been placed.

It still left many questions unanswered, but Nobu'tan contented himself to wait for the right opportunity to ask whatever demon had summoned him in person. Until then there was much he could do, like prepare to start training new mages and warlocks in secret, while still pretending that any of the classes they had here were any sort of challenge for him.

Well before the winter holidays he had grown extremely bored with the coursework, having already had plenty of time to leap ahead and finish all the first year books and practice the spells within. Potions were something that still interested him, but the class was somewhat strained with Snape being as he was with the students, Nobu'tan in particular.

Thankfully, there seemed to be enough of a similarity between this world and Azeroth that Nobu'tan was able to find a decent selection of herbs and other plant components that he was familiar with, ordering things by owl from various apothecaries to restart his hobby of inscription. Materials for his enchanting were harder to come by, but thankfully he could create some of the things he needed for inscription with the right amount of parchment and herbs.

With time to kill, he pulled out the kit he had put together, comprised of a small magical trunk he also ordered from Diagon, into its many expanded compartments he had placed massive quantities of simple herbs, Silverleaf, Peacebloom, and Earthroot, all of which he had had to recognize by sight and odor because of their different names on this world.

Still, he had enough of a supply to create the most basic of inks, under the light of the moon, which would cause the vials to glow with a low silvery light. It was fulfilling work, grinding the various herbs together into a pure white pigment, before setting portions in each vial that he had ready, about twenty in all, over a low fire to boil as the sun started to set. Placing each nearest to a window facing where the moon was going to rise, Nobu'tan watched as the flames broke down the crushed plant parts and pulled the liquid to the top of each vial, to be met with the light of the rising moon.

Injecting a small amount of his personal magic into each vial, the orc raised human hummed with delight as the newly made ink started to shine with the silver light it was absorbing, almost ready to be siphoned away from the fleshy remains of the planet they were being extracted from. Looking down at his wand, which he had placed to the side as he began, Nobu'tan wondered if he could use wizard magic to speed up the process, or at least the transferring of the ink to fresh bottles, as it was the most tedious and dirty part of the task. Setting up the new clean vials, roughly ten that were to be filled, Nobu'tan snapped up the wand, running through possible spells in his mind.

A few flicks to pop the corks of the twenty filled vials, and a swish to kill the flames beneath so they didn't boil over, a whispered 'Wingardium Leviosa,' sent the twenty vials floating over their new containers, carefully pouring through a strainer to fill the other ten with pure silvery ink, while keeping the coarse remnants of the original herbs out to be discarded.

Within moments he had finished work that usually took an hour to complete, and Nobu'tan had ten vials of Moonglow Ink, ready for a quill to put it to parchment and magic to empower it. A good start, but he would need much more in the long run, but his current supply of herbs was already growing depleted. He would have to order more over the summer to prepare, depending on where he went.

Still, as he packed away his tools and supplies, cleaning them with a wave of his wand as he went, Nobu'tan smiled at the silvery ink that sat in the window, soaking in as much moonlight as he could get them to before stowing them safely in his inscription trunk. It wouldn't do for just anyone to find and use these, especially with what Nobu'tan had planned to use them for already.

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Hermione returned to Hogwarts the day before Christmas break ended, along with many of the other students. Much to her pleasure the library was all but abandoned for her to immediately set to work, pulling out books that had more background on the assignments and lessons that had just been working on before the break, to refresh herself on where they were and what was likely to come up in lessons next. It always paid to be slightly ahead.

It also didn't hurt to be in the one place that she was most likely to spot the reclusive and shy creature known as Harry Potter. The boy hadn't come down yet to mingle with the returning students, so Hermione had presumed that he was off doing some project or another, like the typical Ravenclaw, and she was sad to confess that she was surprised to not find him in the library immediately when she arrived.

But as she set her things down and started to peruse the books, the door opened again, and she smiled as the black haired Ravenclaw nodded to Madam Pince and walked down a seemingly random shelf of books.

Almost as though drawn to each other, they both reappeared with their chosen texts and sat at the same table where Hermione had placed her bag without a word. "Hello Harry," Hermione said after a few moments of arranging her things to all be within reach should she need them.

"Hello Hermione…" Harry replied, stuttering only slightly but with a fair amount of confidence.

Hermione wondered again at the strangeness of Harry's sporadic speaking ability, when the answer dawned on her like a brick to the head. "You English is coming along quite nicely, isn't it?" she asked casually, as though it wasn't that big of a deal.

Harry blinked at her, probably surprised as how swiftly she had guessed. "It's difficult," he said slowly, gaining momentum as he spoke, "the charm helps a lot with learning the words, but getting my own mouth to say them is still hard. I know what I want to say, but it's still foreign to move my tongue to make the sounds."

Hermione smiled, "You'll get it eventually, and I daresay only a sparse few would even notice in a few months."

"Thank you," Harry replied, genuinely smiling at her kindness.

"Well, now that I've found you, after I've reviewed some of the coursework, would you like to talk a walk through the castle?" Hermione asked, hinting at something slightly more. Harry seemed to understand exactly what she wanted to discuss, and assisted her in briefly going over each class, what they had last learned about, and how it would apply to their upcoming lessons in their various text books.

Still, it took roughly twenty or so minutes for them to touch on every class, and it was nearing lunch when they set off to wander the corridors of the castle. They took a meandering course, intentionally dodging around the grand staircase so it took longer, and slowly they started down the castle toward the Great Hall. "So," Harry started as they went, "I take it you want to begin studying the Arcane as quickly as possible, then?"

Hermione smiled widely, glad that the boy had chosen to go straight to the heart of the matter, "If it's not too much of a distraction from you other work and projects and whatever else you're up to," she replied, unable to wipe the grin from her face at the thought of learning an entirely different form of magic.

"No, it wouldn't be too difficult to make time for your lessons, in fact I had been thinking up way to teach the basics to others for the entirety of the break, as I can imagine in due time others will want to learn about the Arcane if it became more common knowledge again." Harry said, looking hopeful.

"Oh, you should talk to the Headmaster about that, maybe he'd want one of the Professors to learn it, or knows others that do…" Hermione started, but the look of irritation that flashed across Harry's face at the mention of Professor Dumbledore silenced her thought.

"I've… discussed it with the Headmaster," Harry started slowly, "and he wants to learn as much about the Arcane as possible, but the relationship between us is strained… that's all I want to say regarding it. In essence, yes, your thought is already in motion, but not necessarily the way that I would desire it to be done."

"Oh," Hermione said, not fully understanding what Harry meant. It was clear he was leaving several things out, but out of respect for his privacy, especially about a matter between him and Professor Dumbledore, Hermione chose not to push. "Alright, well if the Headmaster is learning it, then I doubt there's too much worry if I learned it as well."

"No, perhaps not," Harry said, smiling, "If you'd like we can start after lunch, I know a place on the seventh floor that will give us the privacy required to get a fresh start on things."

Hermione beamed at him as they reached the entrance hall, and couldn't stop smiling all the way through lunch, even if Ron Weasley was annoyingly commenting on her happiness in a rude and completely disgusting manner, occasionally spraying some of the massive amounts of food he was shoveling into his face onto the table as he spoke through a full mouth.

She ignored him however, her thoughts racing on what she should expect from her upcoming lesson from Harry, and this as of yet unknown place on the seventh floor. Since Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers were location off that floor, she assumed that Harry must have found it while walking to or from classes, but wondered why she hadn't noticed such a place as well.

Still, she restrained herself to making sure she had a full and well rounded meal before turning to make certain that Harry was also finished. The boy stood and glanced once at the Head Table, where only about half the Professors were present, before starting for the door. Hermione caught up to him quickly, her enthusiasm possibly aiding her speed.

This time they took the direct route all the way to the top floor, and walked swiftly to the corridor that Hermione knew was only a short distance away from the Gryffindor common room. Abruptly Harry stopped in the middle of the corridor; next to a tapestry of a daft wizard attempting to train trolls how to dance ballet.

The boy was staring at the opposite wall, deep in concentration, and for a moment Hermione hadn't a clue what he thought he was doing, until an unassuming door appeared in the far wall, as though melting out of the stone. Smiling to himself, Harry approached and pulled the simply handle outward, revealing a large room beyond.

As Hermione entered, she marveled at the dimensions of the room, and wondered how it was possible for a room this size to be so high up in the castle, "I love magic…" she breathed, figuring that that was the only explanation to the absurd physics of the room's proportions and placement.

"Indeed," Harry agreed, standing next to a chalkboard with a handful of seats in front of it. "Before we begin in full there are a few details you need to be aware of. These will help you accept the fundamental differences between wand based magic and the Arcane."

Drawing his wand, he tapped the chalkboard once, and several pieces of colored chalk floated up and began to draw as he spoke, "The wizards, with their wand magic, have learned to pull magical energy from within themselves, drawing on the core of a living being to channel their powers, this is why so many things, like an individual's wand are so important and tailors iteself for that person. It's all extremely dependant on the individual, and the same spell will be slightly different depending on the person casting it. Certainly it will have the same function, look and feel and for all intents and purposes be the same, but the signature of magic will differ. This is why the Ministry is able to so easily find wizards who perform magic in muggle areas, as their personal signature is on every spell they perform."

Hermione nodded, understanding the concept, even as the chalk behind Harry drew a rather detailed figure, with a bubble-like aura around them in multiple colors, all focusing through a wand in the figure's hand.

"Now, the ways of Arcane magic are drastically different in this regard, as the magic does not originate from the individual casting the magic, at least not completely." Harry continued, as the chalk drew another figure, hand raised and a small aura around them.

"No, the Arcane is based on a principle of where you are in relation to the magic of the world around you," Harry explained, and the chalk drew a large rock beside the second figure, with a large aura around the grey drawing.

"Is that something related to how Hogwarts has so much ambient magic around it?" Hermione asked intelligently.

"Intimately," Harry answered, "Hogwarts was built over four different lines of pure magic that run through the planet's core. The whole planet is fed by hundreds these lines, so you can imagine the immense amount of power they contain. The Arcane works directly off these lines, or another powerful outside source of magic, and draws it through the magic user like a funnel."

The chalk flew across the board, drawing lines of magic coming from the stone and into the figure's hand.

"Of course, like all magic, there's a drawback," Harry continued, "even as wand magic can tire you out and eventually leave you comatose if you overuse it, the Arcane can burn you out from the inside if you try to force too much of it through your body all at once. In addition, if there simply isn't enough ambient magic around, it will produce weak, if any, results. To counteract this, many Arcane wielders would work together in rituals for larger or more complicated spells, and try their hardest to gather where places of extreme magic lay hidden."

"It sounds like your describing the druids from before the Roman era," Hermione said suddenly, "it was part of some of our first History of Magic lessons, the druids would gather at places where they built stone circles and practice their arts there, creating powerful spells that lasted for ages, a shame that the Romans and other peoples drove them out and killed many, if not all, of the druids. It's said that Merlin was one of the last to hold on to their magical knowledge and practice it, but even he has vanished."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Harry said honestly, "in my studies of the magical layout of this world, there are many lines that run through all the druidic stone circles, as well as other specific locations, but the strangest thing is that other than those this world is rather magic deficient. It's as if there was some great catastrophe that drained a massive amount of magic from the world, but I couldn't say for sure."

They were both silent for a moment, wondering at the prospects, "But enough of the history lesson," Harry said after a moment, setting down his wand and moving to a larger open area in the middle of the room, "A practical demonstration I presume will be in order. There are three main branches of Arcane styled magic, confusingly enough one is also called Arcane, and deals with pure magic, while the other two are elemental in nature and work with fire or ice respectively."

He paused for a moment, and out of the floor by the far wall raised several statues in the shape of indistinct figures, targets most likely. "I was predominantly taught combat magic regarding the Arcane, but each branch was well represented. Observe."

Harry raised both hands, and for a moment seemed to just inhale deeply, causing a purple glow to envelope each of his hands. Throwing them both outward, palms toward his target, the far left statue, a small concussive ripple appeared in the air, and the area around the statue blasted with the same purple lights, causing damage to the statue. Harry repeated the process twice more, causing substantially more damage with each subsequent attack, before cupping both hands around each other and throwing them forward, launching a spiral of purple Arcane energy at the same statue, blasting it apart as the magical attack struck.

"Arcane-based attacks build as the caster establishes an active draw on the source they are using, growing stronger as they continue to cast, and that draw can be severed in the midst of an attack, allowing the backlash to be thrown as an additional attack." Harry explained, before turning to the rightmost statue.

This time, flames engulfed his hands, seeming to burn but without any pain to the black haired boy, and he started launching balls of fire in various sized at the statue, charring the stone and setting small patches alight as some oily substance was left from the attacks. Concentrating hard, Harry conjured a molten boulder and hurled it with all his might, knocking the head of the statue clean off the body and toppling the entire thing.

"Fire, as the name suggests, deals with the properties of flame, setting opponents alight and causing high amounts of pain; effective, but also potentially dangerous if you're in the wrong location." Harry commented.

Looking at the final, central statue, ice started to grow between Harry's fingers as he concentrated once more, before sending a volley of icicles flying at the statue, causing the freezing air to start congealing around the base of the statue, several larger balls of snow and ice were formed, almost effortlessly, and hurled with extreme precision to cause the ice to rise higher on the statue. Finally a crack started to form on the rapidly freezing statue, and a well placed icicle cause the entire block of stone to shatter into tiny pieces.

"Frost focuses on the finer details, hindering mobility and potentially freezing the opponent in their tracks, giving the caster time to look for weaknesses and flaws to exploit with a well timed strike." Harry said, allowing the magic to drain away from him, "I don't expect you to get to the same level I am at all at once, naturally, but these are samples of abilities you can yet learn to produce and to give you a direction to think about. Specialty in one of the branches over the others is very common, and don't feel badly when one of the three performs poorly to your commands."

Hermione nodded, excited to take the first steps into embracing this new and fascinating magic. She was still a touch disappointed that she wouldn't be producing such feats immediately, but obeyed when Harry instructed her to sit upon the stone floor and close her eyes.

"I know this may be difficult, but you need to quiet the storm of your brilliant mind Hermione," he said calmly, "you need to be still and wait to feel the movement of the magic around you in the castle, feel the pulse of the land beneath us, and beyond it the literal heartbeat of the planet."

For a long time Hermione just sat there, unsure what she was supposed to be keeping a lookout for, and having a hard time stopping random thoughts from fluttering through her mind. Shutting them down wasn't really working, as then she was focusing on each one.

"Don't try to clamp down and force thoughts from your mind," Harry instructed, obvious seeing the problems she was having, "but just watch the thought float by, don't question it but don't act upon it either, just let it drift by."

Hermione nodded, immediately trying the tactic on her next several thoughts. It was hard to just ignore the thought, but every so slowly she was able to embrace the silence and felt her body relax. That's when she started to feel something. Deep below her, there was a faint something, like a flash of light from a deep chasm, sparkling and pulsing like her own heart in her chest.

"I see it," she said calmly, focusing intently on the pulsing power.

"Good, now wait for it to come to you, let it connect and pass through you. It might be slightly painful at first, but you will not be harmed.

Hermione was already stretching mentally toward the light, wanting to feel the warmth that she thought it would represent. Surprisingly faster than she expected, the light rocketed up to her call, as thought the castle wanted nothing more than to make the connection. But the light was not warm; it was frigid and sent shivers through her as it passed into her body. There was a magnificent burst of insight, and for a fraction of a second she could sense everything in and around the castle and its grounds. It was glorious, but gone all too soon, and Hermione found herself on the floor of the seventh floor, panting with the strain of what she had just experienced.

"Congratulations are in order I think," Harry said, offering her a hand and pulling her to her feet when she accepted, "You are a Mage now, in addition to a witch. Describe the sensation, don't leave out any detail, it will be useful to me in determining what specialization you may be leaning toward."

"It was cold, and then I had a massive burst of awareness," Hermione said, explaining it as best as she could, but it was hard to describe feelings like that. Harry was patient and listened intently, muttering softly to himself as she struggled her way through it.

"I think I know what ones you are suited for, but we'll still go through the basics to attune you to the new magic you've formed a connection to." Harry explained, and Hermione checked the time casually, widening her eyes when she realized that it had been several hours and was almost time for dinner.

"I have to admit, I was surprised how quickly you made the connection," Harry said, smiling slightly, "I believe the castle hasn't had many Mages in its walls in recent years."

"It felt desperate," Hermione said, "Almost as thought it wanted to make the connection with me as much as I did." To which Harry nodded.

"It would make sense, if these druids were the only Mages in Britain in centuries, the magic of the earth would be growing and waiting for the right person to reach for it." Harry fell quiet as they took their leave of the room, which disappeared as they exited.

"Well, all that you expected?" Harry said, smiling again as they made their way to the stairs back down to the Great Hall.

"Absolutely not," Hermione replied, laughing.

"Yeah, me neither when I first learned," Harry agreed, laughing at some memory, "My mentor was so pleased when I made the connection, granted he may have been impressed when I did it within one hour of practice, with no previous magical training."

Hermione looked at him confused. She knew that the boy had been considered missing for the ten years since his family was attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but Harry had never willingly talked about where he was or who he was with before.

"What was your mentor like?" she asked, wanting more information but respecting that perhaps the boy wanted to keep the man's identify to himself for whatever reason.

"Powerful," Harry replied, growing wistful, "and extremely cunning, much like how people describe this Salazar Slytherin, I think. When angered he could do so many great and terrible things to those that offended him or threatened those he cared about, which were few and far between to be true, but still. I love him with all my heart, because he took me in when no one else would have."

Hermione smiled for Harry, it was good to hear that even if he didn't live with his own family, at least the boy had had someone who cared fiercely for him. It was almost sad when they arrived in the Great Hall, and Hermione could see the walls go up again over Harry's emotions. He nodded softly to her before departing for the Ravenclaw Table, and Hermione sighed as she headed for the mass of red and gold.

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Severus, despite everything that occurred on Halloween with the troll and his hatred of James Potter none the less, couldn't help but start to find himself appreciating the presence of Harry Potter in his classes. Despite being the Marauder's spawn, Potter had a good head on his shoulders, and quickly grasped the finer points of Potions making. Despite the boy being Ravenclaw, Severus was tempted to give the boy special lessons to nurture his talent, but he had yet to pass the idea past the Headmaster, mostly because the old man would probably turn it into a spying mission, and Severus would hate it all the more.

Truth be told, he had expected far more of James Potter to be shining through the boy, irritating Severus to no end, but clearly whoever had raised the boy had not tolerated such behavior, and Lily's brilliance had been given room to grow. While he may never like the child, purely on principle, he could at least respect that he was indeed the last living memory of Lily Evans on earth.

However, before he could even have the chance of that, he had to sit with the other Heads of House and watch the Gryffindor play Quidditch against Hufflepuff. It started as a rather usual game, each team favoring their chasers over beaters or seekers, although the Weasley twins were clearly dominating the iron cannon balls of destruction.

Even still, Quidditch wasn't the most entertaining thing for Severus, and occasionally his attention would drift across the stands, checking on the students, Slytherins primarily. Over and across the sea of black he could easily pinpoint the green and silver, nestled next to the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw house.

Spotting the blond hair of Draco Malfoy, Severus could only guess that Lucius' child was even now his with constant companion, Theodore Nott. It was only because he was looking in the direction that he spotted when not one, but both bludgers abruptly altered their courses and sped at the Slytherin stands.

As soon as the screams started, Severus was already on the move. Flying across to the stands as fast as his feet could carry him, Severus worried for the safety of the students, and his heart nearly exploded when he got to the top of the Ravenclaw stands. Shoving a pair of seventh years aside who were ushering the younger students away, Severus revealed Harry Potter as the boy continually dove for cover as the pair of bludgers assaulted him.

His wand slapped into his hand, but Severus couldn't get a fix on either of the iron balls as they caused massive damage to the wooden stands. Potter threw up his hands, and a concussive blasts of flames erupted upward, rupturing the Bludgers and setting flame to the stands around him. The display of magic was astounding, if not for the blatant taint mixed in with the fire.

Severus had never seen such a powerful control over what amounted to fiendfyre, but that was hardly something to be commended about. The only forgiving aspect was that it seemed that Potter had only used the cursed fire as a natural reaction to defend himself, but Albus wouldn't see it that way. Striding through the flames quickly, Severus seized the boy and brought him from the stands, getting him away from whoever had jinxed the iron spheres to attack him.

The Potions Master had a fairly good guess who specifically was behind the attack, but he duty was to protect the boy first and foremost, even from himself. Ignoring the concerns of the students, even the burning of the stands as they left, Severus led the boy roughly back to the castle, ignoring the boy's angry protests and struggling.

"Settle down Potter," Severus snapped, resisting the urge to simply smack the boy so he would be still. "Someone just tried very hard to serious injure or kill you, the only safe place for the moment is with the Headmaster, whether you like it or not."

The boy glared, but stopped fighting as they strode the rest of the way to the Headmaster's office, bypassing the gargoyle with a sneer, as Severus was coded in because he refused to utter the ridicules passwords that the old man came up with.

"Ah, Severus, Harry, I saw the blast at the stadium from here, care to share the details." Albus didn't appear angered, but Severus knew better. The man logically presumed that Potter had caused something to do with this mess.

"I shall be frank and brief Headmaster. The one we discussed I believe has attempted to harm Potter, jinxing the bludgers at the match to attack him. Before I or anyone else could rescue the boy however, he had used dark magic to conjure what I can only presume to be fiendfyre to melt the bludgers attacking him."

Dumbledore was quite for a long moment, before quietly he withdrew a book from his desk, flipping through to a specific page. "I take that you tapped into the Arcane to protect yourself, didn't you Harry." he said, and the boy's noncommittal response told them that that had been exactly what had taken place.

"Well, the main question that I have is if, as this book supplies that the magic you've describe is based off the very heart of our world, how do you explain the dark taint that Severus describes?" Albus said, giving Potter a piercing stare, but the boy still stubbornly refused to respond.

"Harry, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to use Dark Magic of any sort in Hogwarts, less so if it's a version we do not as of yet understand, so unless you explain yourself and answer our questions, I'll have to take drastic measure to protect the other students." The Headmaster said sternly.

Facing such an ultimatum, Severus wasn't surprised that the boy backed down. With a glare at the Headmaster he took a seat in front of the desk and waited. "There were some quite dark times while I was gone then…" he said calmly, "because the magic I used was perfectly acceptable where I came from, so forgive me for not understanding why you and your people frown so much on a perfectly controlled burst of fire…"

"It's not so much the spell itself," Albus explained calmly, and Severus could see that he wanted to keep Potter talking as long as he could. "It's just the aspect of it that Severus could easily detect that so easily resembled the cursed fiendfyre that burns without control."

"Well, no offense to Professor Snape," Potter replied, "but just because two things seem similar does not mean they are related. I'm sure if you went to check the stands would be just fine now, aside from the damage those iron balls caused. I certainly have no desire to visit one of those matches ever again, by the way."

"I couldn't blame you for that," Severus said, smirking slightly at the memory of the bludgers speeding at Potter with a driven purpose.

"I can accept that perhaps we are hasty in immediately comparing the fire you produced to fiendfyre, but surely you can understand our concern, as we are severely handicapped in understanding just what it is you are doing, this power of the Arcane as you call it." gesturing at his book Albus continued, "I've only been able to learn small tokens about it through this, as most of the great books regarding that version of magic have been lost for well over a thousand years, along with the last known practitioner."

Albus looked imploring at the boy, and Severus knew that he secretly was hoping for some sign that the great Merlin was still active in the world. Potter gave no reaction to the statement however, just continued waiting for the next question.

"Who taught you this power," Dumbledore finally asked with a sigh, and Severus could see the beginnings of tired frustration in the old man's eyes. He had a remarkably long fuse, but Potter was quickly finding the end of it in the few months he had been at Hogwarts.

"Several people, but it wouldn't matter if it told you their names; you could never meet them…" Potter replied cryptically. Severus could easily tell that the one thing the boy was hiding were those names, even if he couldn't sense a lie in what Potter had said.

"And why couldn't we meet them?" Albus asked, not wanting to push the argument that had already been waged multiple times regarding the names.

"They are too far away for you to contact with any method of wizarding travel or communication that are presently created." Potter replied, closing his eyes. Severus was almost willing to go and get a vial of Veritaserum if Albus asked for it by this point. He was quite tired of the half truths and partial answers that the boy was carefully giving, and just three drops would break that iron will and give them the answers that the old man wanted so badly.

Unfortunately, he also knew that Albus would never condone its use unless immediately safety of another was threatened, and less willing to use it on a child, regardless of how powerful Potter seemed to be.

"Is this why you are trying to create a new and more powerful form of travel?" Albus wisely asked.

Potter sneered, but answered, "Yes."

"I see," Albus said, clearly not wanting to stop, but light was beginning to fade, and there were classes the following morning and appearances for them all to keep up. "Then I will allow you to go for now, but I want you to be careful. You used your magic to defend yourself, this is true, but the fact that you had to do so at an innocent game of Quidditch is very important Harry. Be cautious of those you are around, be they adults or students, we care about your safety as much as any others."

"I already do, Sir." Potter replied, the backhanded comment not missing its mark. Neither Professor reacted however, as it was a fair point.

"Alright then, of you trot, to bed please, and no detours." Albus said, allowing the boy to leave.

Once the door closed Severus turned to him, "What do you make of the boy Severus, outside of his attitude and strange powers." The Headmaster asked honestly.

"I'd say he's actually a rather pleasant person, with a sharp mind and clear attention to detail. Until this event I was debating asking for permission to give him private advanced potions lessons." Severus answered with equal honestly.

"And coming from you that speaks great volumes of respect for his proficiency with the subject, for you to overlook his parentage." Albus guessed, "I will allow it, but you know what I will ask of you. Try to convince him to confide in you, although I doubt it will happen, at least its several more hours a week that the boy will be watched. I am just so far out of depth with his abilities, and too busy to properly examine his limits, not that I expect Harry will be too willing to share them with me."

"Not that I condone his behavior toward you," Severus added, "but it is hard to not have expected this sort of reaction, when he was basically dropped headfirst into our world, and suddenly scooped up and smuggled away here without a choice in the matter, and for all intents and purposes held here against his will. He is dangerous, yes, but we are also keeping him all but a prisoner."

Albus nodded, "I understand this, hopefully the summer holiday will give him the chance to explore this and the muggle world at his own pace, and we can invite him to come back next year and hope for the best, although I don't like that we need to let him have too much freedom so soon, who knows what sort of mischief he could get up to, let alone disappear again on us."