Harry watched the woman stand over him, he found he couldn't move and was forced to watch as a green light enveloped her as she dropped to the ground lifelessly, alongside the light were the first words he could remember "Avada Kedavra!"

He awoke with a start, drenched in sweat, he looked at the watch he had been given when he had gotten his letter as he had persuaded Vernon that he might need a watch to be able to get to class on time, according to his watch it was only two in the morning, he thought about going back to sleep but fear of the dream and being rather hungry led him out of the dormitory down to the common room in search of some food, finding none he decided to see if the great hall had any food, knowing it was against the rules to be in the corridors during curfew he knew he couldn't just waltz into the hall, that was how he found himself sneaking from shadow to shadow and using his magic to keep himself quiet, he had plenty of practise for this as at the Dursleys he often had to sneak out at night for food.

Thankfully despite Hogwarts being considerably larger than the Dursleys there were plenty of statues and pedestals to hide behind if he heard anyone coming however his caution seemed unneeded as he encountered not a single person on his quest to find the great hall, the issue lay in the fact he had no idea where to find the hall, he wandered the passageways hoping to stumble across somewhere he recognised but he couldn't help feeling he was going in the wrong direction.

He eventually came across a darkened corridor, were the previous corridors had lit torches and large windows the torches had been removed and the windows had large drapes blocking out the moonlight, he was about to continue down the corridor when a voice called out to him

"Not lost are you Harry?" Turning Harry saw Professor Dumbledore standing behind him, eyes twinkling kindly

"Err, yes sir, I was looking for the great hall" he hung his head expecting to be punished but Dumbledore only chuckled
"I assumed you were looking for this corridor, your father and his friends tried to explore the forbidden forest on their first night, not following in his footsteps are you my boy?" He smiled as he said this to show Harry he was not in trouble, he had his concerns when he visited his home so was quite pleased to see the child try to rebel.

"No sir, I was just hungry, why would I be looking for this corridor sir?" Albus sensed the boy was being honest with him and realised he may have taken too many assumptions "Ah, well in that case I will show you where the kitchens are, the house elves are always eager to cook, as to why you might have wanted to find this corridor, it is located on the third floor" He waited to see the boy realise where he was but was met with only a confused look "It is the third floor corridor Harry, the one that is forbidden, I did mention it in my speech"

"Oh, sorry sir, I wasn't really paying attention, I was a bit distracted"
"No worries my boy… I think it maybe a good idea for you to see why it is forbidden, I suspect you may be naturally curious if you are anything like your parents and I would prefer you to see it now while I am here to look after you rather than you to go looking on your own and get hurt."

He led Harry down the corridor to the last door and after pressing his fingers to the lock smoothly opened the doors, inside was a sleeping three headed dog, it was huge and Harry could barely take it all in before it started to wake up, Dumbledore quickly shut the door and once more pressed his fingers to the lock, just then something, Harry assumed the dog, slammed into the door and dust fell from the ceiling, Harry jumped back in panic fearing the dog was about to break loose but Dumbledore placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"No need to be scared my boy, Fluffy is trained to not leave that room, and even if it were to escape the end of the corridor is charmed to kill Fluffy as a last resort. So long as nobody wanders into the corridor my students safety will not be impared, as headmaster of this school it is my duty to ensure no student may come to any undue harm" He spoke so firmly Harry couldn't help feeling safe.

He was led down to the entrance hall, but rather than go into the hall he was led down a staircase he hadn't noticed the day before and brought before a painting of a bowl of fruit, Dumbledore then tickled the pear and the entire painting swung forward revealing a small passageway behind it.

"These are the kitchens my boy, we have a charm of around a hundred house elves at last count, a charm being the proper name of a group of house elves over three, here the food is made and placed on those tables, they are exactly below the house tables above and when I give the signal the food is swapped from down here to up there."
He let Harry take in his surroundings and subtly ordered the house elves to prepare a small platter of food for himself and the boy, when he felt enough time had passed he continued his talk.

"The tables are a brilliant piece of magic, as you will find out in transfiguration, or perhaps already know, it is easier to move one object from one location to another location if the two locations have a pre-existing connection, it is my own personal theory that magic will piggyback off that connection to make the transition easier, in this case the tables are in the same physical locations, just different levels and each table above was crafted from the same tree as the ones below, before Hogwarts was here the forbidden forest covered most of the land and almost exactly at this point there stood about a dozen giant trees, four of those trees each made two tables and benches to go alongside them, so the tables share a location and a point of origin, could you find another link?"

Harry looked at the tables and tried to remember the tables above, he couldn't identify any other link so went with the obvious "The purpose sir?"

"Could you expand upon that Harry?"

"Well obviously both are tables so it would be expected that there be food on them, I would imagine if the tables themselves are magic then they would want food to be on them so it would be a case of pointing the table above at the one below and telling it to take food from it, the students above would also be wanting food which would help magic and the house elves would want the food to go up to the students if they like cooking for the students, that way you have a push factor down here with two pull factors above as well as the other two links you mentioned I would imagine it would require little actual magic."

"Well done, I must admit I hadn't even considered the idea that the wants of the students and elves would have any sway but you are completely correct, magic always works best when the users truly wants it to happen, the link I was going for was actually the house crests located at the ends of each table, that is where the magic of the table is actually stored as wood while good for transfering magic is bad at holding it, look around Hogwarts and you will find that anything magical is almost always made of stone or metal, the moving staircases for example are stone with metal bracing."

"What would happen if you ran a beam of wood from the top table to down here sir? I would suspect that would add a physical link meaning even less magic would be required, especially with wood being good at conducting magic like you said."
"Ahh but that would affect the food itself, while in transit the food takes on some of what it goes through, which is why the kitchens have such a high roof, in the early days of Hogwarts it was said there was another room between the kitchens and the great hall but the founders realised the amount of stone the food passed through along with whatever may have been in the room resulted in the food often being poor quality or worse poisonous so the founders removed the room and made the kitchens taller, there is also charms in place above us to keep the air completely sanitary, by adding a wooden connection you would have to ensure every bit of wood between here and the hall is completely sanitary and safe, however it is a very good idea and if we were transporting something non edible, office supplies for example, it would be extremely useful, if you find yourself in need of a project I would suggest looking into it, just inform me or another teacher before you experiment so we can ensure you are safe."

Harry nodded happily, he had impressed Dumbledore, which from what he had heard was no small feat, he tucked into the food the elves provided and eventually felt full enough that he could wait till breakfast which was only a few hours away, as Dumbledore led Harry back to his common room he said "Now it is against school rules to be out after hours but as your intent was justified I will let you off with a small warning, if you are caught after hours again you will receive detention, if you are in need of food during the night simply ask aloud for it and the elves will deliver you a snack without needing to leave your common room, now any questions before I let you go back into the world of dreams?"
"Yes sir, how did you know where I was?"

"Ah, well as I said earlier, it is my duty to ensure my students are safe, as such after curfew the school informs me whenever a student, especially a first year, leaves their common room, I tell you this in an act of trust so I will be most disappointed if you tell anyone this but as the students grow older their connection to the school loosens but generally I am alerted whenever they leave, after I was alerted you left it was a simple matter of getting here then following you, I must say you have stealth magic down very well, your disillusion charm may even have fooled a sixth or seventh year, however and forgive me for being vain, but I am no sixth or seventh year and as such I was not fooled, on top of that you may want to think about the magic you leave behind, I could have followed you even without seeing you by the magical scent you left from the various charms you cast, charms that are normally taught after fifth year so you have my respect for that."

Seeing that Harry had no more questions he touched the common room door and willed a small amount of magic into it, once it recognised his as the headmaster the door opened without asking a riddle or requiring a student inside to open it, he smiled then walked away, he then paused and said, "Oh, also don't feel like you need to keep Fluffy a big secret, I find there is nothing like some good gossip to make friends, good night, Harry"

Smaller chapter, only 2000 words… going to have been home from holiday this time next week so more time to write.

A Lot more theoretical discussions in this one, this will be most of first and second year as while I have Harry about as capable as an average third or fourth year he isn't as knowledgeable as said third or fourth year so to me while Harry is smart enough to think about and theorise advanced magic he can't really do it straight away, for example he couldn't cast a patronus in first year, maybe second, in cannon Harry is more powerful than average anyway as he could cast a full patronus powerful enough to stop like 100 dementors in his third year despite it being a NEWT level spell.

Likewise I don't see Dumbledore as !greatergood or anything in this story, in my mind he is an old man who hasn't really had anyone close to him in intellect to talk to for a very long time (More on that in future chapters) however despite that he still cares for the children under his care, for those confused Dumbledore showed Harry Fluffy cause he still felt Harry may be a troublemaker like James and figured if he didn't show Harry then he would come back another time and get hurt, likewise he locked and unlocked the door silently and wandlessly to try and prevent Harry copying him, a panicky first year (Hermione in the books) wouldn't question trying a first year spell on a door, a troublemaker trying to break in would think it requires more power and since Dumbledore did it that way it would look complicated.

Phew that was a long note.