Chapter 64

Saturday had been an entirely different day for Harry than for Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

As the young hero had been off slaying a massive legion zombie in an Instant Dungeon dimension, the Headmaster had been running around in his office in a way that strongly resembled a headless chicken.

Why?

Half an hour ago the Headmaster had been notified by the protective wards of the school that a student was in 'mortal danger.' Such a thing was nothing new in the halls of Hogwarts since students that were learning magic tended to be extremely destructive; blowing up cauldrons being one of the most common examples; even if it was rarely mortally dangerous.

However, something that was worsening the situation was the addition of the Philosopher's Stone to the third-floor corridor and the public announcement to forbid students from entering it. It had the exact opposite effect and had ended in students almost regularly stumbling upon the giant three-headed dog, which meant that the wards hit an alarm almost every single day.

When they did, standard and boring procedure ensued - check the location using portraits, armors and house elves, check if there's a presence of professor nearby, ask the professor to check on the incident and if there are no professors in the immediate vicinity, ask any professor to visit location in a specific time, usually the second after location check was made - there was a reason Hogwarts teachers were permitted limited use of a time turner after all. A misbehaving spell or potion could kill students a bit too fast to react without one.

The end result usually left the students safe, if a bit scolded and damaged, but otherwise alive with the vigilant professors saving the day. The standard and boring procedure was one that never failed.

But Saturday was different.

As he was about to go send off a portrait to notify nearby professors and put on one of his gloomier robes; the blue one that had ballerinas dancing all over around; he suddenly noticed the smell of something burning. Looking around, he realized what it was with a jolt of panic. He hurriedly walked over to the giant assortment of silver whirring instruments on his desk and picked up the small table-clock that had started emitting sparks.

Its single dial, that had Harry Potter's face on it, was on 'mortal peril' and was trembling, as if mortal peril didn't quite capture the severity of the danger Harry Potter was in.

So he immediately activated another contraption that showed Harry's rough position within the castle. This contraption gave a giant heave and melted, almost as if it couldn't decide whether Harry was inside the castle or not. Albus Dumbledore was panicking now. There was no reasonable explanation that he could come up with for something like that. He was wary and was genuinely becoming worried. Harry Potter was in an unknown location and in direct danger to his life.

Dumbledore's brain promptly shut down for a second only to reboot in a few seconds and burst up with dozens of locating, messaging and guiding spells. He tried each and every one of them-he even tried to send his phoenix Fawkes to help.

Nothing worked, and for the first time in decades, Dumbledore was not sure what to do. He went for the closest device only to stop, turn and go for a supposedly better solution, only to rethink, stop, make a step, run, stop again and turn…his thought process was much too complex to match a chicken, but his behavior so strongly resembled one that any outsider who saw him would instantly make the comparison.

And then suddenly it stopped.

The clock stopped sparking and moved out of 'mortal peril' to 'flying class' and the melted device somehow completely fixed itself and pointed in the direction of the Quidditch pitch.

Thoroughly puzzled, he cast the strongest disillusionment he knew and promptly apparated onto the Quidditch pitch stands, where a young boy had somehow ended up with an out of control broom and was lying still on the ground. He was about to go down and help, since he knew the boy could be permanently disabled if not treated quickly, when he noticed that Harry Potter of all people was rushing towards the boy.

Dumbledore clearly saw him pull out a potion, the glowing green of which he easily identified as a Wiggenwald healing potion, and tip it into the boy's mouth.

Knowing that the boy would survive and that Harry Potter was safe, he apparated back to his office with questions revolving through his mind.

What was happening? Why did the contraptions go off? Where did Harry get the healing potion?

One thing was clear. Harry was not possessed. Lord Voldemort would have let the Longbottom boy die instantly without a single thought. So was he being paranoid? Was Harry just a boy from violent home conditions? He spent a long time pondering over these questions.

It was midnight when the cry of a phoenix filled the school grounds and distracted him from his ponderings. Dumbledore's trained ears recognized it as the cry of a much younger one than his millennium old companion.

Fawkes perked up and soared out of the open window.

'A friend of his perhaps?' Dumbledore thought as he rose and went over to the window, where his eyebrows climbed up his wizened forehead as he watched Fawkes and a pure white phoenix fly straight into the window of the Ravenclaw tower that he knew to be the nearest to Harry Potter.

Turning around, he quickly cast a Patronus with a flick of his wand and spoke a message to it.

"Elphias, I regret to intrude my friend but I have to ask you to send me the Mirror of Erised. I will answer any of your questions when I come over to pick it up. Say hello to little Emily from me."

Sending the Patronus away, he went on to write the last of the letters to his teachers, each detailing the final series of traps to be set for the Philosopher's stone.

Although he was apprehensive about Quirinus's trolls, he felt sure that the alerting charms on them would allow him to quickly save Harry if he couldn't handle that part of the traps. Besides, Quirinus had assured him that they were the most docile trolls he had ever seen, and Dumbledore had no reason to doubt his old friend and employee.

The Philosopher's stone had always been meant to be a test for Harry Potter's strength of magic and knowledge, but the Mirror would add a necessary test for his character as well. Dropping into his Occlumency barriers, Dumbledore started planning out when and where he would drop the clues for Harry to get him interested in protecting the stone.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the next week passed without any real excitement.

Most of the class was still stuck with transfiguring needles and matchsticks back and forth, so Harry's transfiguration skill hadn't leveled up anymore. Neither had his Charms skill. Due to excessive amounts of schoolwork and research, he had relegated all the grinding and training to weekends. He had learned many new spells though and considered that a good flip side to all this.

Thursday night brought with itself some interest and relief from the boring rhythm that Harry had fallen into.

Astronomy was famous for being one of the most mediocre classes in all of Hogwarts. Not too good and not too bad. Rarely anything interesting ever happened. Thus, Harry was quite surprised when in his second class, instead of just Professor Sinistra standing on the podium, there was another witch in black robes standing with her. And what's more, all first-year students from all houses were there, waiting impatiently for whatever big announcement they had all been gathered for.

Intrigued, he sat down near the front and looked forth with interest.

After the entire class settled down and the buzz of curious murmuring ceased, Professor Sinistra spoke, "Welcome, welcome. You spent most of your first class here memorizing and learning the basics of the Astronomy class. Incredibly boring, I know, I know."

Some of the students chuckled, clearly agreeing.

"But I'm afraid it was necessary. For any of you to understand how today's class could impact your magical education, you needed to be well versed in the basics. I'll let Professor Vector take it from here."

The witch in black robes stepped up to speak, "All of you here have been aware of the magical world for at least a month now. In this time, you have done your research and seen the various cultures and traditions of the wizarding world. The reason why you were taught the basics of Astronomy in such a hurried manner is that today, your second Astronomy class, is scheduled to be your first Ministry approved W.O.M.B.A.T test."

A nervous chattering filled the entire class. The chalk rose from the teacher's desk without any volition and started writing.

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