Harry had been told to take as much free time as he had wished by Dumbledore who had said "Normal procedure for the death of a close friend or relation is to send them home to be with relatives or guardians… but I fear that sending you to the Dursley's would not be a wise decision on my part"

"I would prefer to stay at Hogwarts, sir"

"Very well, I would like you to temporarily take up residence in a spare quarters near my office then, if you ever need to talk my door will always be open for you no matter the time of day or subject."

He had accepted the offer and spent two weeks out of lessons, he had eaten meals with Dumbledore in his office and the two often discussed magical theory, every so often a teacher would join them, the most common teachers were Professors Flitwick and Babbling, on the third day of Harry's time off Flitwick had brought Bathsheda Babbling along with him and told Harry she was the runes professor, Harry had been very interested in how runes worked ever since he had first read up about them and had eagerly struck up a discussion over the use and application of runes with Flitwick and Dumbledore adding their own opinions into the mix too.

Quickly seeing the use of combining runes with his mithril such as the preservation rune he and Hermione had tried so hard to learn about, he had managed to get Professor Babbling to draw out a basic preservation rune under the pretext of him wanting to combine it to a transfigured object which was technically true, Dumbledore had raised his eyebrows at that and smiled slyly, Harry made eye contact with him and felt Dumbledore's magic brush against his mind and deliver just one word "Cheater"

Upon returning to school life he became aware of the fact that the other students were extra cautious around him, the story of the troll had spread it seemed and although nobody knew of his use of mithril it had become common knowledge that Harry had sent giant spikes into the troll with enough power to force it backwards, most assumed he had transfigured the rubble on the stairs but some who had grown up with the myth of the boy-who-lived believed Harry had summoned the spikes from thin air using powers he had been taught as a child, Harry thought it ironic that they were closer to the truth than the others. Regardless of what story the students of Hogwarts believed in it was considered fact that Harry had almost killed a fully grown mountain troll in just two hits as a first year, never mind the fact that it had been Dumbledore who had actually finished it.

One of the only students who had not tried to avoid Harry was Ron who had cornered Harry in the library

"Listen mate, I'm really sorry about Hermione, I didn't mean it and I didn't want her to get hurt"

"I'm not your mate Ron, if you had not insulted her she would never have been in the toilet crying and the troll would never have killed her. You cost me the best friend I've ever had just because you can't be arsed to put any effort into doing magic and were embarrassed that Hermione actually puts the effort in and got better results as a result. Get lost Ron, you lost the right to be my friend the moment you insulted Hermione"

Harry had left Ron in the library, all that day Ron mulled over what Harry had said and with shame admitted he was right, he vowed to both himself and the memory of Hermione that he would put more effort into his work, his roommates noticed Ron was much more quiet and withdrawn after that fateful Halloween, he put much more work into his studies and it started showing too as his grades had picked up putting him at above average, it was a hollow victory for Ronald as it came at the cost of the best friend he himself had ever gotten and he knew this was what Harry was feeling.

Another student that had approached Harry was Draco Malfoy, he did not believe the ridiculous rumours that Harry had single-handedly beaten the troll, for reasons best known to himself he had decided to be the one to show the entire school that he was better than the boy-who-lived and deserved the attention Harry received.

"Mourning for your Mudblood friend Potter?" He had stepped in front of Harry and blocked his way in the middle of a moving staircase, the very same staircase that Harry had fought the troll on, Harry glanced at Draco and saw only smug glee, he was going to ignore the boy and moved to go past him when Draco said "I would be glad if it were me, I can't imagine what it must have been like to put up with the Mudblood all day long, even being in the same class had been enough for me to want to kill her myself 'Oh please Professor, Pick me! Pick me!' it's a shame the troll was killed, I would have had it rewarded." Draco mimicked Hermione jumping up and down with his hand raised, he noticed that Harry had still not drawn his wand and felt braver.

Harry snapped at hearing his friend mocked for her intelligence and turned and thrust his palm at Malfoy willing his magic to push Draco back down the steps, in his anger however he severely overpowered it and rather than just push Draco back a few steps it flung him completely off the staircase, luckily for Malfoy the staircase directly below had moved so that he landed on it just one floor down rather than fall all the way to the ground floor. Students gasped when they saw Malfoy fly off the staircase and parted when Harry continued up the stairs not wishing to be pushed off either.

Internally Harry was panicking and angry and was barely keeping it contained, it was only his conditioning under the Dursleys that kept his emotions from getting loose, on the outside he looked calm and impassionate, as if nearly murdering a fellow student was of no consequence, Malfoy had wanted to prove Harry was weak but had only managed to raise the boy onto a pedestal that none wanted to compete with while lowering his own social position.

Sitting in front of Dumbledore's desk Harry told the headmaster what had happened, sighing Albus sat down heavily, he knew Lucius would soon be out for blood, he also knew he should be punishing Harry but completely understood why he had reacted and that it had been an accident, remembering all the complaints he had received from teachers and students about young Mr Malfoy he realised that he needed to remove the power Lucius possessed quickly, dismissing Harry after giving him detention with Flitwick for a week he sent a letter to Lucius inviting him for a meeting tomorrow.

Lucius had received his sons the morning of his meeting and was enraged that Dumbledore had not deemed fit to inform him, storming into Dumbledore's office he was caught off guard when he saw Harry Potter sitting beside Dumbledore's desk facing the door, for the boy this probably meant nothing but Lucius recognised it well, the power that came from a large desk was something all purebloods learned at a young age, the person behind the desk held the power in the setting and the one sitting in front of the desk was lesser, to remain standing for either party signified that they did not recognise the power of the other person and was a huge form of disrespect. Sitting beside the desk signified that Dumbledore had claimed the boy as an equal and under his protection, Lucius was stunned that the headmaster would so blatantly show this and sat down in front of the desk before he had really considered what he was doing.

"Lucius, so glad you could join us. As you may be aware the reason I invited you here today is to discuss your son, Mr Malfoy's behaviour has been unacceptable but we both know you won't let him get punished for it so here is what is going to happen, you are going to resign from the board of governors and let the incident yesterday slide."

"And why would I do that?!" Lucius hissed, outraged that Dumbledore would be so blunt and in front of a child was a grave insult to his pride and honour.

"Because Harry here is commonly known as the boy-who-lived and I wonder what Cornelius would think if he heard that your son had been insulting him… particularly since you owe Harry a debt for saving you from the imperious curse when he defeated Voldemort… he might also be interested in the various letters from the board of governors detailing the threats and bribes you have committed while on the board I received last night."

"This is outrageous! My son was sent to the hospital wing after being pushed off the stairs, I will not be threatened by the likes of you Dumbledore!"

Lucius was going to say more but became aware of the magical pressure coming from the aged headmaster, it was suffocating and oppressive, it demanded subservience and respect, it was as if Lucius was back in front of the Dark Lord and his anger fled as he became aware of the danger he was potentially in, on the political field Lucius could have defeated both Dumbledore and the boy-who-lived but here and now in a competition of magic he was pathetically outmatched.

"Quite frankly your son deserved it Lucius, now that he and Harry have settled their differences I see no reason to further punish either, you can either agree and resign from the board honourably or you can resist and lose what power you have left, the ball is in your court, rest assured that if you try anything against Harry I will take it as a personal attack and deal with it accordingly, are we understood?"

Lucius ground his teeth and nodded surly, he recognised that despite the headmasters grandfather attitude he held the power to make Lucius' life very miserable, better yield now and keep some of his power rather than resist and potentially lose it all, he could always work from the shadows to discredit Dumbledore and make him lose his power that way, once the old man had lost his power Lucius would strike and then Dumbledore would regret crossing Lucius Malfoy.

Rising to leave Lucius paused when Harry finally spoke "Mr Malfoy, you might wish to tell your son that I have no quarrel with him, yesterday he insulted my dead best friend and I dealt with it, I now consider it finished, if he leaves me alone I will leave him, he attacks me I will attack back, he helps me I will help him in return."

Sitting in his workshop a few days later he absentmindedly fiddled with Hermione's mithril ring, after returning to his workshop he was glad to see that the ring had not faded, other magic she had cast had long since collapsed when her magic had faded with her death yet the ring kept producing her magical signature, it was all that was left of her that Harry had and he had worn it ever her since dead in memory of her, the other students dared not ask him why he now wore a ring.

Currently he was waiting for Dumbledore, ever since Harry had returned to school life Dumbledore had made time to sit with Harry every lunch in his workshop and observe him experiment with magic, he claimed it was to ensure Harry was safe but Harry suspected Dumbledore did not want him to be alone, regardless of the reason Harry appreciated the gesture. Tonight he wanted to inscribe the first preservation rune into a small sphere of mithril he had made just for this experiment, he had formed it with the idea of internal decay and as such the mithril glowed brightly with magic as much more was required to keep its density intact. Harry theorised the preservation rune would counter the decay and the excess magic generated that was previously going into fighting the decay would just discharge out into the air to be collected.

When Dumbledore entered he sat down at the table and handed over a rune etching kit and said "Ready when you are Harry" Harry nodded and tried to etch the rune into the mithril only to realise that the chisel would break long before the mithril would get a scratch, feeling foolish Harry formed a mithril chisel identical to the one Dumbledore had made and formed it with the idea of sharp and sculpting, he then reformed the sphere and added the idea of malleable underneath the decaying idea.

With his new tool he once more tried to etch the rune and was thrilled when the new mithril chisel began etching into the mithril easily, he also felt his magic start to swell up within the chisel, he slowly and carefully etched the entire preservation rune into the sphere and when he drew the last line he felt the magic that had welled up within the chisel rush into the rune which glowed green with power, instantly the sphere began to grow in size and Harry stepped back hastily, Dumbledore drew his wand and pointed it at the sphere although he cast no magic, Harry quickly reached out with the chisel and scored a deep line right through the rune, when she had taught Harry a few runes Babbling had drilled it into his head that if a rune ever goes wrong cutting straight through it was the easiest and quickest way to stop it if it went wrong.

The magic in the rune lost its focus and attempted to explode outwards only to be dragged into the sphere which had grown from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a beach ball in the few short seconds the rune had been active, luckily with the rune gone the sphere stopped growing and sat on the table as if it had been formed that big "That went well" Harry said shakily, Dumbledore chuckled and sat down, he slowly released his hold on Hogwarts wards which he was just about to tell to stop all magic within the room and move him and Harry to his office.

"Would you care to explain to me what happened Harry?"

"Well from my observations mithril wants to stay the exact size and density it was when it was formed, I formed this sphere with the idea of internal decay so the magic was constantly trying to repair what was lost to maintain its density, by adding the preservation rune I hoped to counter the decay with the rune and the magic that was going to the decay would go elsewhere, I had hoped it would have gone outwards into the air but I think when I added the idea of it being malleable for the chisel it lost the idea of remaining the same size and as such the excess magic went into the sphere which made it grow."

Harry then placed his hand on the sphere and drew in the magic he had used to first form and then to break the rune, the sphere shrunk accordingly and Harry added "I suspect that the sphere would have grown until the magic it had produced to counter the decay was gone or the rune died, I can't be sure of course and I don't want to risk it trying to find out. On the plus side I now know I can get more magic incredibly easily…"

"Harry?"

"Well… it didn't take that much magic to form the sphere, chisel or the rune and it made the sphere huge, just that small bit I drained I completely restored but absorbing back a bit of the sphere and it's still almost three times its original size… I could have formed it the size of a marble and let it run till it was this size and it would have taken barely no magic…" Harry paused to take a deep breath then expanded further into his explanation

"From what I can tell the mithril produces exactly the same magical signature of the creator, as you know when you transfigure something your magic mixes with the object so that it is no longer pure, from what I can tell that is why that magic can never be reclaimed as magic is meant to be one directional, mithril is different as it is completely pure magic and identical to a magical aura. As it is purely the creators magical signature it can be reabsorbed as if it had never left, but it doesn't just hold magic and wait for it to be called, magic is constantly being used and mithril produces its own magic as if it were a witch or wizard. I can trick the mithril into producing magic and by using runes I can theoretically make that magic go elsewhere, such as expanding, I can then take that magic and shrink the shape down then let it expand again without using any of my own magic."

Dumbledore paused as he realised the gravity of this discovery, it was fact amongst magicals that magic came from inside and went out, Harry had found a way to get an infinite source of magic externally and bring it inside.

"Simply incredible… Harry every so often there comes a witch or wizard that cannot help but reshape the world of magic around them, their mere presence sends ripples across magic, we call these witches and wizards magi invicta, which translates to 'Invincible mage' I was one such wizard and Voldemort was another… and now I believe that already you are another."

Harry was stunned, he had not expected that at all, he had never even heard of magi invicta before, unsure of how to reply Harry just sat there until he thought of something else

"Erm, thank you sir… I've also just thought of something else, if I change malleable to something like transfer or store I could theoretically make even more magic… for example wards require a huge amount of power right? It's why unless they are running on ley lines such as Hogwarts they require constant maintenance… well I have basically made a way to create a completely portable ley line…"

"I think you should keep this discovery very quiet Harry, at the very least until you have graduated from Hogwarts, use this time to refine it and improve then when you leave Hogwarts it would be more than enough to set you up for life, you could get any apprenticeship you want with this so long as you keep it quiet for just these few years."

"I will sir, could you possible make a small power hungry ward on the table? I want to test my theory"

Albus drew up the ward scheme for the ward and with a touch of his wand powered it up

"This will last about five minutes currently" Dumbledore informed him.

As Albus had been drawing up the ward Harry had reconfigured the sphere with the idea of transmitting rather than being malleable and had also formed a wire made of mithril with the idea of flexible, transmission and conductive, he had then formed a small indent in the sphere which he pushed the wire into then formed a small disk on the other end of the wire which he placed exactly where Dumbledore had charged the ward, holding his breath he redrew the preservation rune and instantly the ward shone brightly as it got overpowered, turning to Dumbledore excitedly Harry said "I think that ward is now powered infinitely, in order to break down the ward you need to over power it right? Well so long as this mithril battery was underneath the ward the only way to break down the ward is to unplug the mithril."

"Remarkable" Dumbledore muttered as he experimented with the ward, he realised the Harry was correct, or mostly correct, the only reasons wards couldn't be relied solely upon was because they could be overpowered if the attacker was more powerful than the person who charged the wards, this ward was basically continuously charged meaning that an attacker would drain their own magical supply trying to overcome it, however Albus suspected that ward could potentially be beaten if the transfer speed was overcome by multiple high power wizards attacking the ward at simultaneously, he told Harry of this flaw, Harry grinned and formed another wire which he also plugged into the ward scheme and sphere and although the ward did not glow any brighter it was clear to Albus that the transfer speed of the magic had doubled, he realised Harry could have just placed the entire sphere on top of the ward charge point and not worry about the transfer speed at all.

"Harry I have a proposition for you, continue working on this and ensure there are no weak points and once you have proven that to me that you have met my requirements I would like for you to install this on the Hogwarts ward anchor, some wards around Hogwarts have had to suffer in order to maintain other more important wards as although ley lines are an infinite source of magic they have a limit on how much can be drawn, as you may or may not know Hogwarts has war wards that require a huge quantity of magic and I fear that under the current ward scheme the war wards would be unable to operate at full capacity while also keeping up the current wards, with this mithril generator the current war wards would not only be able to operate at full power but I would also be able to add and edit other wards without fearing for the safety of the school… one such ward that seems to have been neglected is the beast ward as I should have been alerted the moment a creature the size and power of a troll got anywhere near the castle. In return for this I will sponsor you through a charms and runes mastery should you wish it as well as offer an apprenticeship under either myself or someone of your choosing."

"I will gladly do that professor!" Harry said excitedly, he was mournful he had not thought of it before Halloween as if the wards had been more powerful the troll could never have gotten inside, yet at least he had managed to get it to work so other, future students would never have to be endangered again

"One requirement for this is that you bring Bathsheda Babbling into your confidence, this is because as we saw today your experiment could have gone disastrously wrong and although you handled it mavously next time you may not be able to handle it and I cannot be present at all times, another reason is that Bathsheda is by far superior when it comes to runes. Due to the nature of this project I will place her under a magical oath to not reveal what you two would be working on so it will still be your secret."

"That would be great sir, thank you"

Dumbledore smiled amiably then tried to bring down the temporary ward scheme so he could go, he frowned when it resisted his efforts and he realised that to bring down a ward scheme required draining it of power the same as breaking it down, for the ward holder that was normally no problem as even if the holder was not the charger the runes responded to the holder as if they were the charger, Hogwarts wards had an entire identification section that recognised the current headmaster of Hogwarts as the ward holder. The problem now was that by charging this ward with the mithril's magic which was identical to Harry's own magical signature the magic had overpowered Dumbledore's claim over the ward and made Harry the ward holder.

"I appear to have an issue Harry, by charging and overpowering the ward with your own magic through the mithril I seem to have lost claim over the ward… this will also have to be fixed or overcome before adding it to the Hogwarts wards as it would mean even though I am Headmaster you would have a greater claim over the wards, that would also mean even after several centuries after you are dead the ward would still recognise you as the greater owner and as the magic would still be fresh from the mithril I suspect it would go into a sort of limbo as it would need you to depower the ward to let another take ownership and obviously you could not do that if you are not alive…

Dumbledore realised that Harry could use this to take over and control another ward from the outside, almost every ward available takes the magic from an attacking spell and feeds it to the charge point as power for the ward, if a ward scheme does not have a ley line built in then a witch or wizard could charge the ward from the outside and get control over the ward that way… this often left them extremely weak and vulnerable so it was almost never done but now Harry had a way to do it with 'free' magic…

Harry disconnected the mithril wires from the ward and scored the preservation rune off as magic had started to pool at the end of the wires and he did not want to find out what happens if mithril explodes from too much magic, mulling over Dumbledore's words he tried to think of a way to prevent it, at first he thought he could teach Dumbledore to make the mithril battery but realised that only moved the problem as Dumbledore could die before passing on ownership and he would have to teach his successor how to do it which carried the same issue.

Dumbledore sat in his office sucking on a sherbet lemon thinking about Harry, he knew now the boy was undeniably destined for greatness beyond anything he had ever personally achieved and also suspected that the boy had made a form of immortality equal to that of the Philosophers Stone, having studied under Flamel he had gotten the chance to study the Stone and had realised the stone took the magic from the user and made the elixir of life with the user's magic as the primary ingredient, as such each elixir only worked for the brewer, an elixir made for Nicolas would not work for Perenelle.

Few knew that witches and wizards aged differently to their muggle counterparts, it was one of the reasons they were considered another species as Muggles aged and died as their cells decayed, magicals aged and died as their magic decayed… now that Harry had made a way to produce an exact replica of his magic even greater than that made by the Philosopher's Stone, Harry was now effectively immune to aging, after spending so much of his childhood searching for ways to undo death Dumbledore knew how bad it could be to outlive everyone you care for.

This is primarily fallout over Halloween, I find it funny that Mithril will/is a huge part of this story when I originally came up with it on a whim.

Two related stories are 'The Mind Arts' by Wu Gang and 'Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path' by Temporal Knight which are two of my favourite stories and inspired a lot of this chapter