Chapter 8 - Doing the thing right.

November 8th 1991

The Friday the following week after Halloween I slipped out of my dorm, and out of the roost.

The embers in the three fireplaces lit the room in a dull glow, one fifth year had passed out in one of the rich comfortable armchairs and another student, possibly a seventh year slumped over one of the desks within the Ravenclaw library.

The door had taken some sort of attitude with me, I'd no clue why It didn't like me.

"Bit late for an outing no? I should tell the Head of House." The Eagle knocker said slyly.

I glared my best Snape impression.

"It is 11.47, I will inform the Professor no later than 3am."

I had rushed to the third floor corridor to state my own curiosity as to whether the obstacles remained. If so I thought them worth beating, especially if the stone was down there.

The whole thing was a bit anticlimactic.

After a quick Alohomora into an empty room I opened up the trap door and sent out a lumos, being able to see the devils snare I dropped down into the darkness.

The landing was squishy and I could already feel the snare creeping closer, I unleashed a ring of fire above my head and a bright lumos close to the plant itself. It quickly gave way to allow me to drop through another floor, this a much shorter drop.

The corridor was narrow but mercifully short, the door looked like any other in the castle.

As I opened it the noise I was met with reminded me of the aviaries they have in most zoo's.

The hundreds of tiny wings flapping must have cooled the room as it was cooler than most of the corridors on the first two floors, and even some areas of the dungeons.

In the centre of the room a broom hovered.

I hadn't had my flying lessons yet but hey, what's the harm in trying?

Unlike the movie, it wasn't when I touched the broom that the keys went bananas; it was when my feet left the ground. It was a maelstrom of noise, metal, wings and wind.

It took long enough to both locate and catch the key that my shoulders were aching and was glad to be on terra firma.

The key I needed had a slightly different flight pattern than all the others, of which there appear to be five of.

As soon as the key touched the lock it froze the other keys before they went back to lazily floating around.

"Tempus" I casted, the time displayed on the air.

0124 glowed a faint blue where I'd cast the spell.

The chess room.

I suck at chess, so after losing a rook and both bishops I had placed myself as knight about halfway across the board, and to quote Frank Reynolds, I started blastin'.

I managed to take out both the king and queen pieces then depuls-i-oed my way to the other side, a bishop and a rook chased me but I reached the door first, again as with the keys as soon as I touched the door the pieces stilled and returned to their starting positions.

The troll was gone.

Finally the potion puzzle, I knocked back the little one and the black flames tickled at best.

The room with the mirror of erised just felt different.

The room had a glow, the ring of dimly lit braziers circled the wall.

I descended the few steps.

For the first time I considered what the mirror may show me. I mean since being thrown into this new world, one I only thought of as fictitious, I'd only been focused on making it better than canon.

Step

Seriously, who did I think I was to mess with the world around me as I planned to?

Step

Was I here to change things?

Step

Or keep them the same?

Step

Was I doing the right thing in trying to improve this world?

Step

Am I doing this of my own free will?

Step

Or was I sent here?

Step

I swore I heard a voice whisper "yessssss"

Step

I was now in front of the mirror.

At first it was just my reflection, well Harry Potter's I guess, at that thought it shifted into how I must've looked before the end of my old life, but because my memory of that life was mostly missing, the face was hidden in shadows.

Thing was this life had grown to be the only one I felt comfortable in.

The scene changed to me as Harry, older, clearly in a post Riddle world, but showing multiple routes, one where I as Harry am an academic, creating spells, potions and lauded as some kind of genius, in one version I'm a Quidditch star, holding the World Cup above my head.

Another version of me is being inaugurated as the minister of magic, another as the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, or maybe it was Chief Warlock?

Seven, ten, even fifteen possibilities splintered out across the mirror making it look cracked.

I realised though that none of these reflected what I truly wanted.

To simply be, and be happy.

The mirror me seemed to snap back to just show me, with a soft golden glow and a warmth spreading through me.

I remembered my reason for being here and the glow around me faded, then mirror Harry winked and tapped my pocket on my robes and I felt the weight of the stone drop into it.

That's my Christmas shopping for one Headmaster done.

"Tempus"

0227

After the stone had dropped into my pocket two braziers to my right light up fully and a door that I could swear wasn't there earlier had appeared.

I quickly made my way through the door, up a flight of stairs and through another door, I had ended up half way down the corridor I'd started at.

Still with less than half an hour of the common room

door's deadline I hurried my way back to the tower.

My escapade almost came to end when I spotted Mrs. Norris at the end of the fourth floor corridor, luckily I was on this corridor to hitch a secret passage way up to the six floor.

I slipped behind the tapestry and stepped through the fake wall.

The rest of the way was easy, when I got to the door it spoke.

"Cutting it fine aren't we?"

"Tempus" I spoke, ignoring the eagle knocker.

0258

"Just let me in"

"What lives only in light, yet is killed by it?"

"Your Shadow"

"You may enter"

"Yeah yeah shut up" I mutter under my breath, why does that damn door only have something against me?

Once back in my room, my sanctuary at Hogwarts; I sat at my desk and wrote a standard letter to all the shops I could get gifts from in both hogsmeade and Diagon alley.

I also wrote one to keep with the stone.

With that done I flopped into bed and let sleep take over.

The third week of November saw the beginning of winter, with the occasional light dusting of snow and the odd cold snap, which made the lessons in the greenhouses unbearable, and when Professor sprout cast a warming charm over the whole class, it only made it that much worse when the lesson ended and we had to trundle out into the cold.

Outside of classes, where I was increasingly becoming more and more boring, and spending time with my Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, I almost lived in the room of requirement.

My time was split between training, mapping out the room of hidden things in my Horcrux hunt, extra practice for transfiguration with which I hoped would lead to Animagus.

The last use of my time was Occlumency, after I was tired out from all the other things I was doing, I would meditate and try to 'clear my mind'. It wasn't in the hippie-dippie 'chill-out man' version I turned the RoR into where I had my first Occlumency breakthrough, it was on the last Friday of November when the winter sun was warm enough for what I assumed would be the last enjoyable flight I'd be able to take on one of the borrowed school brooms.

I was floating around the Quidditch pitch and the memory of my first lesson came to me suddenly.

"UP" I demanded of the Broomstick.

The broom snapped up from the ground into my hand.

"Wicked"

"Well done Mr. Potter, three points to Ravenclaw." Yelled Madam Hooch over the many student yelling at their flying sticks.

It was those first few moments hovering above ground that teased total freedom to defy physics and logic, the ability to fly.

We were able to do far more than canon Harry did, it was slow but Hooch taught us how to gain finer control over direction, acceleration and deceleration.

But it was that feeling I'd enjoyed.

I had allowed this feeling of comfort in the air to overtake all others and dominate my consciousness , it was like focused meditation.

I wondered if it was something innate in being Harry that gave me this kind of control in the air or if it was my own willingness to explore the best of this new world.

The thoughts of freedom felt as though they expanded into an awareness of my surroundings and how I connected to them.

It was the memory that made me turn this awareness inwards, and I could feel my mind ready to begin to organise itself and all my memories, I landed in the stands to slow myself to focus more.

As I did though my focus on the feeling flyinggave me faded; and so did my awareness.

I took a deep breath and knew this was the start to my journey into mastering Occlumency.

As I'd predicted it was December the fourth that overnight saw the grounds of Hogwarts turn into a winter wonderland, herbology for everyone and care of magical creatures classes for the upper years were cancelled for two days while snow was cleared and charms cast preventing anymore snow to stick on those paths.

Half way through the second week of December everyone was kept in their common rooms.

After a particularly gruelling training session the night prior (my combat spells were coming along quite nicely) I had allowed myself the rare lie-in.

This of course made me late to the party.

"Mornin' Terry, mornin' Kevin."

"Morning Harry" replied Kevin, Terry grunted.

"Burning the candle at both ends are we?" I asked Terry.

"Uuuurrrgghhhheeee" Terry groaned into the desk he had his head on.

"Terry was behind on three essays, Charms, Transfiguration and Potions." Kevin translated.

"So more like throwing the candle into the fire."

I laughed at that and asked,

"So what's this all about?"

I gestured to the room.

"Something went missing from the forbidden corridor, there's rumours of it being all sorts, people are suggesting everything from a manticore to items left here by the founders." He paused to breathe.

"Though no one knows for sure."

So Dumbledore finally realised the Stone was removed from the mirror.

The conversation turned to the mid year exams, nowhere near as bad as the end of year ones but still considered important.

Breakfast was served in the common room, and they were finally let out an hour or so before lunch, McGonagall's voice echoed through the school.

"Classes will begin after lunch, all students are to attend the great hall at the beginning of the lunch period."

A couple of the N.E.W.T and O.W.L Students peeled out the door, probably to race to the Library.

After that the common room turned to normal occupancy.

"Game of Gobstones?" Terry managed to mumble.

The mid year exams were all done inside of the normal lessons over the final fortnight of the term, however most in the first week.

The only subject without one was History thanks to Binns apparent lack of awareness of the day of the week or even the year.

The way I'd been working myself to the bone in the R.o.R was paying back tenfold, I was now secure in all first year spells, however was still trying to get improvement in using both wands just as well as each other. My Demiguise wand still could do intricate spell work impossible with my powerful Phoenix wand.

I had even managed to get a few spells wandlessly, I had also made it another milestone in occlumency, I had been working through my memories backwards to organise the mind, which apparently you need to do in order to 'clear your mind', it was still work in progress but getting there.

On the last day with a mid-year exam we had no lessons after, and after spending an hour in the library with Terry, Kevin, Hermione and Neville, I made my excuses to leave and headed to the room.

I walked the aisles to the wands and simply went down the aisle, trying the wands to see if any matched. A few tingled but no overwhelming sense of connection, the first shelf to my left held not a single match. However, half way back up the right side I picked up a wand that was two twirling pieces of wood, a flat square at the base and an almost sharp pointed tip. The tag tied to it said Redwood and Laurel woods, Dragon Heartstring, 9 ", Whippy.

It gave off a power level not quite as strong as my Phoenix wand but still stronger than the demiguise, it was something of an in between.

I nipped out of the room, changed it to my usual training room and decided to work on using my new back up wand.

The next day was the last Sunday before the end of term on the Thursday that week.

After breakfast I promised to meet my Claws and Lions in the Library, as I'd fallen asleep the night I'd been wondering about wand holsters, rather than clumsily carrying three wands around all day in a pocket where it was difficult to access.

The room organised to its supermarket layout.

I ran to aisle 104, and thankfully the holsters and their details, make, material, size, and surprisingly, age and cost.

I scanned them quickly and managed to find two pairs, a pair of standard leather and a fancier pair made of dragonhide. Both pairs had a maximum capacity of three wands per holster, the holsters adhered to the forearms and had charms to make them invisible if need be.

After Christmas occlumency and casting with both hands was next to learn.

I had only transfiguration and potions first year stuff left to learn and had tentatively started on second year stuff in the other subjects.

The lessons in the last three days of the term were just a discussion of what was to come the next term, and the assigning of homework.

As Wednesday wound to a close and people filed in to the Great Hall for the end of term feast.

Once everyone was seated Dumbledore approached the edge of the steps that held the teachers table above most of the hall.

"Christmas, or Yule as Wizards of old called it, regardless of magic or muggle, has always been a time of forgiveness and caring." He paused to take a breath.

"As you are all aware something was placed in the third floor corridor for protection. It has since been removed without permission."

He surveyed the room, eyes without the usual 'twinkle'.

His gaze passed me but I didn't feel any magic against my feeble occlumency shields when our line of sight connected briefly.

"If anyone knows anything about this theft, they can inform me of it by the end of the first week back."

Another pause

"And the culprit may come forward without facing punishment if they return what was taken."

Murmurs jumped around the students as discussion and rumours spread.

"After which, law enforcement may be involved."

More murmurs spread at the news of the seriousness of the theft.

"And with that unpleasantness dealt with, may I say that I wish you all to enjoy your holidays, and see you in the new year. Let the feast commence."

What appeared in front of us was a Christmas dinner all you can eat feast like no other.

There were more dishes than I could fathom, and was full before I could try them all, I managed a small portion of Christmas pudding before it all vanished.

Dumbledore rose from his seat.

"Once again I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. The train leaves tomorrow at 10.30am so off to bed."

With that the students trundled off to their rooms for one long, happy winters nap.

Once up in my room, I took stock of my abilities, the most visible in the fire and candle light in my room.

Wanded, wandless and non-verbal spells

Lumos

Spongify

Alohomora

Colloportus - the locking spell

Homenum Revelio - the human presence revealing spell

Sagitta iactum - the arrow creation and launching spell

Avis - conjures birds that can be used offensively, the number depends on magic used

Depulso - the spell that throws things and people away from caster

Flipendo - a mini version of Depulso, even though only appearing in the video games, turned out to actually work.

Fumos - makes a smokescreen

Verdimillious trio charm - a weak offensive spell, the spell used as a flare in the maze in goblet. Could be a clever way to distract when silently cast though.

Mutatri Verto - the switching spell

Glaci - the ice jinx, creates a ice block about 10cm by 10cm, but can be shaped differently depending on intent. Use on duelling dummies by creating a 10cm by 1cm sheet of ice and sliding underfoot, low magic effort required, could actually be useful.

Incendio - I can do this non-verbal but verbally, the power is nearly a hundred fold. Need to increase power when casting silently.

Spells that are wanded and wandless but still require verbal incanting.

Petrificus Totalus - haven't got non verbal, have done so with leg Locker (Locomotor Mortis) and jelly legs (Locomotor wibbly)

Levicorpus - not worked on non verbal yet

Patronus - I can hold it in the wispy form for about 3 minutes, much longer than the 30s at the start of the year.

Accio - can do both with and without wand, but am more accurate with summoning with wand. Still work to do.

Reparo - just need to make non verbal

Other than spells

Improving on Occlumency daily, still organising my mind, then will be working on defending it.

Started reading that book on animagus, may have to put off as the don't recommend the young try it both for difficulty and magic ability still growing.

Still haven't started to get ahead on arithmancy and ancient runes. May leave til after exams. I wanna be able to make my own spells as soon as possible.

Other spells to learn

Disillusionment charm - looked into this one, there are a couple of light spells worth learning first to make this easier as it appears this is more to bend light around you rather than the invisibility the cloak offers.

Transfiguration - I've started to improve leaps and bounds with transfiguration but it'll be a long road.

Finally spells and charms like the featherweight one - third year spell, will come back to this.

Prank spells - there's a book I need to pick up, recommendations from the Weasley twins.

The castle was quiet on the morning that the students were due to depart.

Dumbledore had cast a couple of featherweight spells on himself and a levitation charm allowing him to walk across even the heaviest of snowfall on his favourite route. Warming charms kept him comfortable in the brisk Scottish winter.

After making it back to the castles he began the climb to his office.

Normally the walk would clear his head of his usual over-thinking and plans and cogs turning but with Nicholas's stone missing it was far from its usual relaxing nature.

And then his plan, Harry was meant to stumble into the gauntlet and work his way to the mirror.

But alas, all for naught.

With nothing more to go on than Sybil's prophecy Dumbledore had searched tirelessly for ways to both give Harry a fighting chance and a normal childhood.

"Oh what am I to do Fawkes?" He spoke out loud.

Fawkes sang a brief but beautiful song that ebbed his anxiety away.