CH 239

Dumbledore smiled — a smile he'd spent a lot of time over the years getting just right. He knew it was welcoming and warm, while at the same time firm, with a hint of steel. "I suppose you might be wondering why I decided to oversee your detention personally rather than give it to your head of house?"

The boy finished sitting himself down, and Albus couldn't help notice that the spot he choose was exactly the same one that Riddle had sat in for his seven years of Hogwarts. "I assumed it was because he's a ghost?"

"Not at all, my boy. The Baron is just as much a head of house as Professors McGonagall, Sprout, or Flitwick. No, the reason is that I wished to talk to you personally, and felt that this would be a good opportunity to do so. I had been planning to speak with you soon anyway, but your, ahem, actions"—and here he looked over his moon shaped glasses down at the boy—"caused me to alter my plans somewhat." Harry Potter tilted his head.

"You'll be working on your transfiguration. I've heard rumours of your abilities, and I'd like to see what you're capable of. I was something of a prodigy myself in my younger years, you know." He floated over a brick to Harry Potter's table. "Now, why don't you show me what you can do?"

Harry Potter shrugged, picked up his wand, and started to shape the brick into many wondrous things, many far more advanced then any first year should possibly be able to do, but none quite as good as conjuring an armchair right in the middle of the Slytherin common room.

Mmmm…

Daphne

smirked.

She

didn't

know

the forbidden forest, and, like with apparition, you couldn't use a mirror to see a place you had never seen yourself. But that didn't stop her. Just like a chain apparating wizard could hop from one visible location to another across the land or sea, so she could jump from spot to spot using the mirror, so long as the mirror could see the next spot she wanted to jump to.

She was currently viewing a beautiful little creek, in which water ran over a tiny waterfall. It was just a shame that the mirror couldn't pick up sound, or this would be quite relaxing.

A small beeping noise distracted her.

Hermione looked up from her book and shook her beeping wand. "Time for the threat assessment." Daphne nodded, focused her magic through her inner eye, and tapped the crystal ball in front of her. It lit up a dim pink.

The two girls stared at it.

Hermione bit her lip. "Maybe we should head back inside?"

Daphne shook her head. "It's still fine. What ever it is isn't going to happen for a while. We've got time."

Hermione nodded uncertainly, but did return to her book.

"And are you making many friends?"

"Oh, yes, Headmaster. Draco, and Daphne, and Hermione, and Theo, and Pansy." Potter thought for a moment. "And Tracey." Albus frowned. "You might want to be careful, Harry. Young Draco's family in particular are not known for their fondness of people in your situation."

Harry Potter frowned. "But, they all seem so friendly — especially when I showed them some of my better tricks."

Albus mentally winced. While Harry going to Slytherin had been expected, Harry being powerful enough to overcome the natural leeriness his peers would have to a muggle raised, squib-mistaken, half-blood, Potter, twin brother of the boy-who-lived, had not.

"Harry," he took off his glasses and rubbed his face. "It gives me no pleasure in saying this, but there are many who will try to be friendly with you, just to use you. And the moment you are no longer useful, they will abandon you." Harry's expression parents, Sir?"

darkened.

"Like

my

And there it was. Albus suspected it would be there, but he hoped it wouldn't. Resentment. He sighed. "Harry, your parents did what they did for a very good reason."

Harry Potter leaned forward. "What reason?"

"Alas, I cannot say. Not now — wait," he said, seeing Harry was about to interrupt, "when you are older, no, when you are ready, you will know."

Albus settled back and regarded the boy in front of him, still watching him with those darkened eyes. Had he made a mistake by asking Lily to have Petunia to treat Harry as her own? He figured a well brought up child would be less risky than one who followed Tom's path too closely, but now… he wasn't so sure.

Whatever the case, it was clear the youngest Potter was still holding secrets. He could smell them all over him. So did John, for that matter — and that, was perhaps more worrying than anything else.

Daphne gasped. There, in the mirror, she could clearly see the beautiful and majestic form of a unicorn limping through the forest. The almost glowing white of its hair flowed across its back and sides until it hit a horrible gash in the animal's back leg, from where silvery blood dribbled out and fell on the floor as the purest thing Daphne had ever seen whinnied and tossed its head in pain. Even without sound, it tore at her heart.

"Hermione," she whispered. Hermione didn't move.

"Hermione," she said a little louder.

"Huh?" Hermione looked up and gasped. "Oh no. Poor thing."

Daphne stood up, heart hammering in her chest. "It's not far. You can help it right?" Hermione's eyes widened. "But, we can't! Harry said we mustn't leave."

"No, he said ring him if there was trouble." "And! …Go back inside!"

"Only if it was dangerous," she wheedled. Hermione pointed wildly at the mirror, eyes panicked. "Have you forgotten what's hunting it!" Daphne bit her lip. "But… but…"

"Do the threat check spell!"

Daphne cast the spell on the crystal ball, all the while looking back at the mirror. The crystal ball glowed an angry bright red.

"You see!"

Daphne couldn't help it. Tears started to form around her eyes. "But, if we don't do anything, the unicorn is going to DIE!" Hermione's lip trembled. Her shoulders slumped.

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