Bab 29: ch 29
Never gets old.
I stood at the front gate of Hogwarts, looking at the massive castle that had taught me so much over the past five years. It's beauty was a testament to its construction. My mind pondered on how many runic stones must be at its core to hold all of the wards and intricacies the castle offered.
Runes are the only way they would have survived the test of time, especially over a thousand years. You need runes to absorb the natural magic from the leylines, and then you need runes to direct where the power will go, and then what it will do. It must have taken Rowena her whole life to complete them. I thought to myself, my magical horizons opening because of my basic knowledge of Runes.
The complexity of the runic clusters must be astounding. I'm not sure if the Room of Requirement, or the castle itself is her most impressive achievement. I continued to ponder on the idea for a moment before footsteps brought me back to the present.
Dumbledore walked slowly down the path, his eyes everywhere but on me. They darted to the birds in the air, who were enjoying the last few weeks of summer. September would arrive soon, the start of a new school year and closer to fall. He wore surprisingly simple robes, compared to his normal style. The only oddity was the glove on his hand, a new addition.
Something in the back of my mind itched, as if I should know what the glove symbolized. I frowned at it for a moment before making a note to ask him about it.
The gate did not swing open, when I knew it could with a thought from the old man walking towards me. Dumbledore loves to be dramatic.
As soon as I finished the thought, the gate finally decided to allow me access. I entered without complaint.
"Sorry for the delay Mr. Weasley, I insisted on being the one to come despite Fillius' offer. It is just too good of a day to pass up." Dumbledore said as he turned back the direction he came.
I caught up quickly, coming shoulder to shoulder with him before responding. I was actually a little bit taller than him now, which would put me at greater height than I achieved in the books.
Rituals. I deduced.
"It's no problem Headmaster. I was just observing the castle, memorizing it's features." I replied.
"Worried that this will be the last time you get a good look?" Dumbledore asked me, finally gracing me with a look.
"I imagine it's a common thing students do when their time here is up." I told him.
He nodded at my comment. "Yes, but normally they are about two years older, and a great deal less wise than you."
I smiled at the compliment. "I don't feel wise, but at the same time I feel old."
Our walk brought us to the courtyard right before the front door of Hogwarts. Dumbledore chuckled at me before responding. "Another thing we have in common."
That calmed me, as being compared to him always did. At one point it would have terrified me, but that would be my biases from my past life. Seeing him as his now, as he really is, it just makes me proud.
"Any idea what he'll say?" I asked sensing the conversation dying and getting to the real reason I was here.
"I have no doubt it will take some convincing, but I don't see him denying you. You did get a meeting after all." Dumbledore responded.
We fell into a comfortable silence, walking towards our destination. The ghosts of the castle floated around us, in conversation. The paintings seemed surprisingly spry and happy, with more full than normal.
"Why the glove, Headmaster?" I asked him as we reached the stairs and went down.
Dumbledore tensed for a moment but didn't interrupt his pace. I made another mental note at the reaction. "That is a conversation for another time." His simple reply came. The twinkle in his eyes gone.
I frowned but didn't press the issue. "Have you found your replacement?" I continued the conversation.
"Slughorn thinks he is clever, but I have known where he is for a while now. Harry and I will make a trip to visit him soon." Dumbledore responded truthfully, still planning on using Harry to lure the old potion master back to teaching.
"He'll come back." I offered reassurance.
"He has no choice." Dumbledore said with a bit of steel in his voice.
I chuckled, knowing that he was absolutely correct. You don't deny Albus Dumbledore too many times.
Dumbledore stopped at a door and faced me. We were well into the dungeons of the castle now.
"You must be here, Ron. Convince him." Albus said putting his hand on my shoulder, looking deep into my eyes.
I almost faltered at his gaze, but didn't and held it. My mind worked, thinking back to the clues of the day. The glove, the dismissal of it, Slughorn coming back, it made me nervous. I nodded to him regardless, agreeing with the statement.
Dumbledore grinned for a moment and then removed his hand from my shoulder and started back in the direction we came from not saying another word. I breathed in deep as I raised my hand to the door and knocked three times.
"Come in." Severus Snape's voice called out quickly from the other side of the door.
I obliged and entered the room. His office. I realized.
"Hello, Professor." I said, seeing the frown on his face. "Might I have a moment of your time?"
His eyes met mine and I felt a small legilimens probe that I repelled without too much thought or effort.
His frown changed and his eyebrows rose in surprise. He leaned back in his chair, signaling that I had his attention.
"Impressive, Mr. Weasley." Snape said and I couldn't help but hear a bit of respect in his voice. "Your Occlumency is far more advanced than most wizards three times your age, some might call you a master."
I smiled at the compliment, it also threw me off a bit realizing that I really did have his respect. I got a little bold and sent my own probe at him.
I was immediately rebuffed, strongly. If the skill level between the two of us could be compared, I would be a castle like Hogwarts and he would be a literal mountain, impenetrable.
"Not nearly as prodigious as your own." I offered. A new level of respect for the man rose within me. I quashed it immediately.
Have you already agreed? Have you taken the Unbreakable Vow Severus?
He actually grinned, before it disappeared quickly. "And a full Legillimens too. The Dark Lord was right about you."
"I try not to disappoint, Professor." I responded before we fell into a silence and I thought about how to bring up the real reason I had come to visit him.
Snape beat me to it.
"So you are here for an apprenticeship then." Snape deduced quickly.
I tried not to let my surprise at him figuring it out so soon show. I was successful.
"Yes, Professor." I agreed not seeing a reason to lie to him.
He hummed for a moment and leaned forward. His elbows came to rest on the desk in front of him as his hands clasped together in front of him.
He's actually considering it. I thought to myself, a little surprised.
"I will take a lot of the load off of you Professor, it will give you more time for ….extracurricular activities." I offered him. We both knew what I was talking about.
"And I jumpstart your career." Snape continued. "The youngest Potions master in history, training the youngest Defense Against the Dark Arts apprentice and most likely master in history."
I smiled at him, nodding in agreement. He had no idea that I hadn't even considered the possibility, it wasn't my motivation. My motivation revolved around one thing, keeping Albus Dumbledore alive and away from the end of Snape's wand.
I don't care if the old man wants Snape to be the one to kill him, although I still don't know why he would want that. I thought to myself and my mind went to the glove on Dumbledore's hand. I tried to pull the memory out from the depths of my mind, I failed.
"And I get to stay in the castle, with my friends and learn from the vast knowledge it offers to those willing." I told him going a little deeper into my reasons.
Snape just stared at me for a long time, the silence between us lasted longer than I wanted. In a swift movement he leaned back again and nodded.
"I can't believe I am doing this, but you are right, it will free up a lot of my time." Severus said.
I smiled, letting my joy be known at his agreement. Mentally I was doing jumping jacks in happiness. While I would be keeping an eye on Snape, I was also doing as he said and jump starting my career. Not only would I work towards my master in DADA but also my teaching certification. Something I didn't know about until I had actually looked at the paperwork the other day.
"BUT." Snape interrupted my thinking and celebration. "First you must get an Outstanding on your Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT. Assuming you do that, then I will agree to the apprenticeship."
"That won't be a problem." I assured him.
"Do not think that this will be easy, you don't know my expectations yet."
I nodded and moved forward to his desk to sit at the seat in front of it. "Of course." I offered.
"You will attend every class, as I must. I will even have you teach some of the younger years later on in the year, earlier if I think you're ready, understood?" Snape started.
I nodded again. I can do that.
"You will grade every single paper. And you will grade it to my own standards."
Oh shit, every paper? And at his standard? The student body is going to collectively hate me. I realized.
He smiled as my dread spread throughout my face.
"And you will take my shifts monitoring the castle at night." Snape finished and I waited for him to continue. He didn't.
That's it? I kind of expected more… Wait I'll be doing everything… I thought to myself.
"And we will duel, once a week, to make sure that you are actually worthy of a mastery in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Severus actually smiled, like a real smile at that.
I mirrored him and a broad grin split my face, finally hearing something I liked.
His eyebrow rose seeing my reaction. I took it as a question.
"A chance to duel one the most talented duelist in the world? Sounds fantastic." I answered him truthfully.
"You aren't worried I will spill your secrets to The Dark Lord?" Severus asked.
"Of course I am." I answered. "I just plan on getting so good it doesn't matter."
I did something that I don't think anyone on the planet had ever done.
Severus Snape smiled for the third time since our conversation began.
Flick, flick, swish.
A copper metal pole appeared and stabbed into the floor in front of me. I frowned as I walked in a circle around it, inspected it.
Two runes smudged, the other five are perfect. I deduced and vanished the conjuration with a negligible swipe of my wand.
"You did it perfectly earlier." I heard Harry's voice say from down farther along the dueling chamber in 12 Grimmauld Place. "What happened?"
He was right of course, I had already perfected this piece of magic. At least I perfected it with the seven wand motions it normally requires.
"I compressed the seven wand motions into three." I answered him. "Messed up two runes on it."
His jaw dropped. "And you actually managed to conjure it and get the other five runes correct, on your fifth try!?" Harry said looking at me as if it was something impressive.
Actually I guess that is pretty good. I realized and my mood increased immediately. Not as good as this one.
Flick. Flick. Swish.
This time the copper gleamed menacingly and I knew that I had gotten it right without even inspecting it. I walked around it to make sure, not that confident.
"Perfect." I said and walked away from the conjuration a good fifteen feet. I felt the magic rising. The smell of ozone filled the room.
"Fulmen."
Harry's lightning bolt raced through the air. He aimed it a fair distance away from the copper metal pole. Just as it was about to pass it and impact the wall behind it, the lightning bolt arced in a ninety degree angle and hit the pole.
Awareness ran through my mind immediately. It was a very very basic awareness. I counted the seconds as the metal pole started vibrating. Or was it only vibrating in my mind?
I flipped the mental switch. Now.
Instead of the lightning racing back towards Harry, it shot towards me. It was intentional.
Time slowed and my wand moved instinctively. It would have been nearly impossible for anyone but the most talented of wizards to that I hadn't made any wand motions. A small ethereal shield appeared on the end of my wand. It was about the same size as a deflective shield, although far brighter in appearance. There was a cluster of three runes, assembled in a triangle on the shield.
The lightning raced my direction and I swatted it up into the ceiling. There were two audible cracks that shook the room we were in, the first was when the bolt of lightning hit my shield, the second was when it hit the ceiling.
Dust and debris filled the room and it took me a moment to cast the reparo to fix whatever damage I had just done to the house. I looked up to the ceiling to see a fairly decent sized crater in the stone above us being filled back in by magic.
"Bloody hell mate!." Harry yelled out. "What were you thinking!?"
He was mad, like really mad. "I wanted to try something." I shrugged in response.
He looked at me like I was crazy. His arm rose and pointed at me as if he was going to tell me off. Then he composed himself and I could tell he was using Occlumency to do it.
"How did you even deflect that? The book says you're not supposed to be able to." Harry said as he approached me.
"Another spell I've been working on." I answered. "It's a modified protego, deflecting spell. Then I added a runic cluster on top of it, tailor made to lightning."
"That sounds ridiculously specific." Harry said.
"Yea, but it worked, and now I know that a Protego can be influenced with runes to deflect physical objects and not just spells." I revealed, telling him the real reason I was so reckless.
Harry once again looked at me like I was crazy. "Then why didn't you have me throw a stick at you, instead of a bloody lightning bolt!"
He actually has a good point. I realized.
"Ummmm…"
I was interrupted by the door to the room blowing open and Sirius running inside.
"What the bloody hell was that?!"
"Ronald Weasley."
I raised my hand to signal that I knew she was calling me. I closed my notebook after making a few notes on the runic cluster I was working on, my most ambitious yet.
I stood up and looked around the room, wondering if anyone had come in after I did. There was a witch in the corner filling out a paper that looked like the proof of education request form.
I turned my attention back to the woman who called my name. She had olive skin and deep brown hair. As I got closer I saw her violet eyes roaming my form.
I'm taken, sorry. I thought as she made a motion to follow her.
We walked through a couple of hallways until we found our destination. I couldn't help but think of how it mirrored the non-magical world in blandness.
The power to remake almost any architecture work, and we come up with something this bland? Why? I thought to myself. We could go miles underground without risking the integrity of the earth. If done right, with the skill of the right runemasters and expansion charms we could make a city the size of London and not take up a quarter of the actual real estate.
I stopped my rambling of the inadequacies of the wizarding world as we entered examination room number three. Inside was a woman sitting at one of the two desks in the room. I entered and the violet eyed girl left immediately and shut the door.
"Ronald Weasley." The old old woman said.
"Griselda Marshbanks." I guessed, and my tone reflected it.
She nodded her head. "So you aren't entirely stupid."
I was taken aback by the statement. Can't say most people my age aren't stupid.
"Let's get on with it then. Written exam first." She continued, not even letting me reply.
"Do I get the pleasure of having you as an examiner for all of my NEWT's?" I asked sarcastically.
I sat down at the only other desk in the room, directly in front of her. My exam paper was already laying on the too-small desk.
'Transfiguration.'
"May I begin?" I asked as I picked up the quil from the desk and dipped it in the provided ink. I didn't get an answer, instead she just stared at me.
Well she is a joy to be around. I thought.
I flipped open the front page to find instructions on how to take the test, once again I was reminded by how the test mirrored the non-magical world in format.
Are they really just seeing how muggles do it and putting their own spin on it? I wondered as I kept flipping through the pages. Finally I reached the first question, and it was a doozy.
'Name all of Gawps Law of Elemental Transfiguration, state them, and give examples of each.'
I rolled my wrist to warm it up and started writing.
I stood up from my desk quietly and walked over to where Madam Marshbanks sat, dead asleep.
I had noticed her lack of movement about half way through the test and ignored it, unfortunately I would have to wake her up to continue and something bothered me about the idea. I smiled a bit, thinking of a great way to do it.
I moved behind her and drew my wand. I sent a simple transfiguration at the desk I was sitting at. It transformed into a type of wood golem. It's head was human shaped and had a too smooth face that showed no emotion at all. There was a wooden crown sitting on its head. The rest of its body had decorative armor, with engravings and detail that anyone would be proud of. It gripped a beautiful wooden sword with even more detail.
It took a long time for me to finish this beauty. It was a project of mine to practice my transfiguration back in fourth year, when I first began inhabiting this body. Truly it would have been enough for an Outstanding on this test on the sheer detail involved alone. No doubt she would want more than just this.
Another wave of my wand and I animated the statue to come grab the paper from my hand. It slammed the exam on the desk in front of her and leaned in like she was being interrogated.
As it did this, I couldn't help but think I might not have thought this through. She might have a heart attack.
I was wrong. She opened her eyes tiredly, completely ignoring the 'wooden king' in front of her. She blinked a few times before finally noticing it.
"That all you can do?" Griselda asked once she understood what was going on.
"Well that was anticlimactic." I said disappointed at her reaction.
"You've got to do better than that. I've been at this for longer than your grandparents have been alive." She said.
"And have you been falling asleep during exams the whole time?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Of course I have! What would you do if you watched incompetant children take hours to stumble over twenty basic questions for a hundred years?" Griselda asked.
"I would hire someone else to do it." I replied immediately knowing the answer. "Delegate."
"No fun in that." She said. "Now is that your practical or would you like to do something else?"
I smirked and vanished the 'wooden king'. Next, I conjured a familiar copper metal pole with a single wand motion, complete with a different set of runes.
Her eyes widened and looked at the piece of magic. "Impressive, less wand motions than required and silently…"
I interrupted her by flicking my wand out in a complex pattern and casting another spell that I had perfected since the last time anyone saw me do it.
A lightning bolt erupted from my wand in a flash of white, impacting the copper metal pole. Where previously the pole would build up the absorbed the lightning bolt and send it back, this time it melted into a puddle on the floor.
I heard a sharp intake of breath beside me but I ignored it. I pointed my wand at the molten copper on the ground and it lifted into the air as one. Another flick of the wrist and it slowly started forming into the proper shape I wanted. It took a few moments until a shape could be seen, a human head.
It kept forming until I found it accurate. With a dramatic flick of my wrist it cooled rapidly and hardened. I grabbed it out of mid air and presented it to my examiner.
A bronze sculpture of my smiling face.
She blinked a couple of times before finally responding.
"Merlin."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone