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Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2025-09-18 03:11:16 +0000 UTC[Minerva McGonagall]
"Acid Pops," Minerva said as she stood in front of the gargoyle statue.
The statue moved out of the way soon after the password was spoken, revealing the stairs that led to the headmaster's office.
Minerva herself had just returned from her quarters, which she had fled to using her Animagus form after waking from her very restful sleep in Albus's room earlier.
Still, she had some very conflicted feelings about the whole situation. On the one hand, she knew why Albus had made her go to sleep; she had been exhausted and barely functional.
On the other hand, she was mad he hadn't given her a choice in the matter. She loved Albus, she really did, but sometimes, she found it very hard not to curse him.
'Making me sneak back into my room like some teenager,' she thought in embarrassment. She was way too old for those antics, and the Hogwarts rumor mill was not something she wanted to be a part of.
'Especially not now, when he's returned to his handsome past self.' She shook her head, dispelling the thought.
No matter how handsome he became—or, more accurately, *returned* to being—she would still remember all the stupid things he did when he decided he was old enough to start being an eccentric old wizard.
Like wearing those brightly colored clothes, making lame jokes, and spending his money on sweets—or using alchemy to invent them.
She would not forget how he had borrowed her money to buy those new Muggle sweets, only to get scammed in the process….
'I remember too much of his stupid antics to be swayed by the return of his handsome face,' she thought as she tried to ignore the small, traitorous part of her that wondered if Albus would see or even care about the decades that lined her own face.
She sighed as she sat down inside the office, waiting for her colleagues to join her for the private meeting Albus had promised. He had a lot of explaining to do.
'Where is he, anyway? I know he spent most of his day talking to and teaching students, but I don't know what he did after… None of the students or house-elves I asked knew anything about it…'
She looked around, seeing Albus's touches on the headmaster's circular office: the 'smoking trinkets', the 'lighting trinkets'—yes, that's what Albus called them—and the portraits of all past headmasters and mistresses.
Her eyes landed on the portrait of Headmaster Dippet, who was staring silently at her.
'Ugh, you don't fool anyone with that judgmental look, old man. I know you're bored and thrive on gossip,' she wanted to say.
Instead…
"Headmaster Dippet…" she said softly, nodding at him. She knew the nosy portrait was about to start annoying her.
It was all Albus's fault…
X_
[Albus Dumbledore]
'There's nothing better than watching the results of your hard work bear fruit.'
Here I was, standing in front of one of Hogwarts' primary warding stones, watching the modifications I had made take place and work in real-time.
I hadn't done many adjustments to this one; I just modified the cloaking wards, upgraded the magic regulation enchantments, and added some newly created wards—invented by yours truly.
The new wards functioned like some sort of blessing; they made sleep more restful, studying more effective and efficient, and all in all, helped students in their pursuit of magical study.
Now, was that all I did? No, it was not. But those would be the most obvious changes, at least until someone stupid decided to attack Hogwarts…
'Okay, now I've finished my second objective of the day…' I reminded myself. 'What else do I have to do?'
'Ah, yes. Meeting the rest of the faculty, right…' And so I went ahead and started heading towards my tower.
'I could call it an office, but "tower" just sounds more wizardly,' I snickered to myself.
Still, today was a very successful day. I taught students and reminded those who had forgotten why I was considered the most powerful wizard.
I had also scared the shit out of them, but that was step one of my "Dumbledore Army" plan.
Say what you want, but fear-mongering has always been one of the most effective methods to rally people together.
I wouldn't be relying on that solely, however. No, I just wanted to plant the seeds of ambition in them, and what better way to do so than when their psyche is a little shaken?
'My Bright Lord essence makes influencing people all too easy…' I thought as I finally reached the door of my office.
Pretty fast, right? Well, of course it is; I just went straight from a room underground to the top floor in less than a minute… magical secret passages are helpful like that.
'Time to face the music,' I shook my head slightly as I started climbing the stairs.
X_
[Filius Flitwick]
Filius found himself sitting with his colleagues, or well, most of them. There was Minerva, Aurora, Septima, Bathsheda, and Pomona…
He did not really know where the rest were, but he wasn't going to ask either. He had just woken up; he needed some time to become his usual happy self. A cup of tea and some light pastries usually did the trick…
"Ah, you are all here, good…" a voice brought his attention back to the table. Dumbledore, he thought, recognizing his voice…
"Albus, I am so glad you are awake, whole and healthy," Pomona said in a happy tone. "But if you come to my office and force me to sleep again, I will unleash upon you my new cross-bred Devil's Snare…" The shift between happy to dead serious was very quick…
'Women,' he shook his head. 'This is why I choose to be single, and not because the only witches available for dating are those with some very concerning fetishes…' He reminded himself.
"Haha, don't worry. This was a one-time thing. You were all too exhausted to be functional, and I felt a little guilty, so…" Albus chuckled, his tone something between awkward and amused… as if he couldn't decide which one to choose.
"Ah, forget it…" Pomona sighed and leaned back in her chair.
"So, why don't we start with our meeting? You ask your questions, and I answer them," Albus said as he looked at them. Now it was his turn to ask.
"Okay, I will start then. What in Merlin's name happened?" He asked the question that everyone wanted to know.
"Ah, Filius, still haven't had your tea, I see," Albus nodded at him, making him shake his head. "As for what happened. Well, I don't actually know quite yet." Now that was an answer he didn't expect.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Minerva asked before he or anyone else could, sounding very concerned if her tone was anything to go by.
"Well, it was like this. I went out because I got word that a stray devil, one of those beings that started appearing in the past decade, was sighted near Hogwarts," Albus began explaining. "So I went to check the location and kill it, standard ICW protocol, but when I arrived there, I was ambushed by Voldemort…."
He couldn't complete his sentence as Bathsheda's gasp interrupted him, making him look at her and sigh…
"Ah, I didn't inform you that he was still alive, did I?" He asked, though he sounded more casual than the situation necessitated.
'Young or old, Dumbledore will always be Dumbledore, I guess,' he sighed, feeling drained all of a sudden.
"Anyway, we will get back to that later. Now, let me continue the story," Albus said in a slightly mischievous tone, his eyes doing the twinkling thing they do when he is feeling amused.
"So there I was, standing face to face with the now snake-faced Voldemort-devil, who for once wasted no time monologuing and started throwing spells. Which was something I found very out of character for him, but I didn't have the time to think about such a thing back then." The headmaster chuckled a little.
"So there we were, fighting, throwing spells. He was like 'Avada Kedavra' and I was like 'Expelliarmus' and then he was like 'Pestis Incendium ' and conjuring a huge snake of fiendfyre, and I was like 'Aguamenti Maxima' conjuring a huge amount of water and then 'Aqua Erectus' shaping the continuously conjured water into a water prison around his snake…."
"Okay Albus, that's enough!!" Minerva interrupted in an exhausted tone. "We are not children, Albus. You either tell us what happened like a normal person or we can just skip it…"
'Ah, leave it to Minerva to spoil the mood. Why was she a Gryffindor again?' he thought but didn't dare to voice that thought out loud.
"Ah, alright… the boring way it is, then," Dumbledore sighed regretfully, his eyes losing their twinkle. "So we fought. I managed to kill him, or more accurately, I managed to destroy his new body, and was left there, wounded, bleeding, and exhausted…"
He saw how Albus shook his head and sighed.
"And when I was there, I found myself wondering 'Would wizarding Britain survive if Voldemort found another, stronger stray to possess?' 'Will they be ready?' 'Did I actually do a good job leading them?' …" Albus continued, raising his hand to stop them from interrupting him again.
"So while on death's door, a time I thought I would welcome with open arms, I found myself not willing to leave just yet. Not when I hadn't made sure the new generation was at least ready for what is to come…"
"It was then that something happened. I found myself looking back on my life, my studies, my practice, my friendships, my ambitions, and everything in between. But what caught my attention the most was how I had stopped my pursuit of magic… As I got older, I studied, but I didn't have the same drive, the same vigor, interest, and hunger I did when I was younger." He saw the serene smile Albus had when remembering such a thing.
He thought he'd see him at least grimace at the thought, but no, he was smiling…
"And so, amidst my journey through memory lane, something happened. I found myself standing there, in my old family house, in my childhood room, looking over a younger me reading books that he really shouldn't be reading… and I just stood there, watching as the young me ventured into Hogwarts, studied, got his ego inflated by everyone's praise of his talent."
Filius, and pretty much everyone in the room, found themselves smiling as they saw how fond and happy Albus was when telling this part of the story. The way his face lit up, and the magic around them felt a little bit lighter too, as if a Patronus had been cast nearby.
"… and so I was there, looking over my life from a different perspective, a much older one. I noticed the flaws I had, the mistakes I made, the failures I experienced… it was like I was studying everything all over again, though this time, with a much more experienced view. It was a fascinating phenomenon… I made a lot of breakthroughs in the way of magic; I felt my horizons broaden…And then I woke up a week later and the first thing I see is an exhausted Poppy complaining about the news and throwing newspapers."
Okay, was it just him, or did that feel a little too abrupt? He looked around to see his colleagues, all of them looking at each other, as if asking what just happened.
'Oh, good. So it wasn't just me.' Though one look at Albus's face told him everything he needed to know 'he did that just to see our reactions didn't he?'
X_
[Bathsheda Babbling]
She could feel her eyes widen and her mouth hang open as she heard the abrupt end of the story. She turned her head to the right to see if Septima had heard the same thing…
'I didn't somehow skip the important part of the story while ogling Albus, did I?' she thought, but the looks on her friends' and colleagues' faces told her she wasn't the only one thinking that.
"…Albus, I think you skipped some important parts of the story," Flitwick asked, his awkward tone mirroring the awkward and bewildered atmosphere.
"Hmm, I don't think I did. I truly do not know anything beyond the fact that I apparently studied and practiced magic for a whole week while unconscious…" Albus replied. His tone, face, and expression told her he was being completely honest.
"Although, I have for some reason gained the ability to manipulate light, and heal…" the Headmaster's voice trailed off as his expression became thoughtful.
"And you don't have any working theories about this? Because the public has so many theories…" she couldn't help but comment.
"Ah, the working theory is that I ascended to the rank of great wizards—or Archwizard, as I like to call it—like the Founders and Merlin, but saying that out loud feels a little presumptuous, don't you think?…" His hand missed when he tried to stroke his beard.
'He, too, wasn't used to having a younger body, huh…'
She might have been a little jealous and had forgotten to think about how his apparent age-regression was going to affect him. And who could blame her? She was a woman getting on in age.
Although, watching him try to play it off like he always meant to stroke his now much shorter beard was funny…
"So, what are you going to tell the public?" she heard Septima ask, her voice tinged with worry.
"I don't know yet. I will think about it later." Somehow, she didn't find the answer very surprising.
Albus was almost always like that.
'Most people don't know that, though,' she reminded herself. But then again, most people didn't realize that Albus Dumbledore had pretty much taught or supervised the magic studies of the last eight or nine generations of witches and wizards here in the Isles.
'For Merlin's sake, he taught us, and we are professors,' she shook her head in amusement.
"So, any other questions, or is that all you needed to know?" Albus asked as he stifled a yawn.
"No, we still need to know what you did to the castle, too. I felt the wards shifting before their quarterly schedule," Flitwick was the one to ask.
Heh, leave it to the Charms professor to have the keenest magical sense amongst them…
"Ah, I knew I forgot to mention something. Well, I did a lot of things to the wards. I added some wards and enchantments, modified others, and, you know, upped the fortification, shielding, and all-in-all protection wards to the best of my ability," he informed them, making her blink.
'Really? He did that in a few hours?' She stared at him incredulously. This wasn't something you could just do… and clearly she wasn't the only one thinking that; the others were gawking at him too…
"Ah, don't give me that look. I didn't do it alone. My newly created Archive magic is handling this as we speak," he revealed with a proud look on his face.
"Sigh, Albus." Minerva audibly sighed. "Can you start by telling us what this new magic is you're talking about?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention it again?" He asked, acting oblivious.
"You know damn well…" Minerva was about to start yelling, but she stopped herself, leaned back in her chair, and sighed again. "Just go on and explain."
"Well, I told you how I was studying magic in my head, right? I didn't tell you the exact period of time I spent in my mindscape? I don't rightly know what to call that place…" he shrugged, as if what he'd just said was not important.
"Anyway, this new Archive magic is something I created after taking Occlumency to a new level… it's a mind magic that lets you convert information into magical data, which you can then transfer to someone or use it, like I did, and connect it to the castle and let the wards be upgraded in real time. The more I research and know, the more advanced the protection of the castle will be…" he explained, and she found herself gawking again, her mouth opening and closing as she failed to formulate a response.
This… this could save them a lot of research time… she could already imagine the applications of such magic…
"D-does that mean that you could, theoretically, cast said magic and create a library that houses all kinds of magicks?" Septima stuttered slightly as she asked, clearly already picturing how helpful such magic would be for research purposes.
"Yes, yes it does…" the smugness in his voice was palpable, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. She imagined she would have been a hundred times worse if she had created a new brand of magic.
None of them said anything for a few minutes; they just sat there in silence, processing what they had just learned.
X_
[Albus Dumbledore]
I watched my staff as they sat there in silence, thinking about what I had just told them. I couldn't even fault them for that. My Super Archive magic is so broken it's not even an exaggeration to say it's the most overpowered magic that exists here…
I had this idea while I was browsing my memories and came across the Fairy Tail brands of magic. They were so diverse that I couldn't help but think about what it would take to make them real in this world.
It was then that I started experimenting and thinking of how to create some of them. My Super Archive magic was the first I created, and that was only because I had a solid theory of how it would work and the foundation of mind magicks I already knew.
“So how does one start practicing this magic? Do we need to be at your level in the mind arts for it to work? What are the principles? The Arithmancy calculations? The runic definitions? …” Flitwick was the first to break the silence by sending a barrage of questions.
“Slow down a little, Filius. You don’t really need to study much; I can just give you access, and then you will always be connected to the Archive. Your magical research is going to be much faster, too…” I answered, making them widen their eyes in surprise.
“What are you waiting for, then???” Septima and Bathsheda asked at the same time, too excited to notice the tone they used. But I wasn't really bothered.
Neither the new me nor the old me cared much for how people address us, and the staff only ever used polite and formal speech when they needed an increased budget…
“Haha, ok, here.” I chuckled and snapped my fingers, making a screen-like projection appear in front of me. Everyone in the room, be they staff or portraits, suddenly became more focused and interested.
“You see this screen here? This is what I call the interface. After you finish uploading your knowledge into it, it will show you the options of what to do next,” I explained. “Now, just cast a *Lumos* or something and touch the screen to initiate the link.”
They did, and I now have access to their minds and magic. I don’t really need it, but it’s good to have something and not need it than need it and not have it.
At least now I can start to de-age them slowly and let them think it’s thanks to their growing power and knowledge. The more the magical world believes something to be true, the more likely it is to become a truth…
“Ok, off you go then. You have new magic to figure out and play with, and I want to do some research before sleeping. I have a great many things to do tomorrow,” I said, shaking my head as I saw the professors leave my office without much fanfare, waving their wands in front of them and exploring the interface.
‘Now what else do I have to do?’ I asked myself as I started going down to my own magical lab.
My tower is really the greatest: an office in the middle, a bedroom on the top floor, and a laboratory on the ground floor…
What else could I really want…
