Worthy Of Magic

Part 17 - Part Three - Plans

Colours and Cores

Dumbledore changed his mind at the last second and with a grunt of effort, redirected the curse to splash harmlessly against the wall.

He couldn't do it. He knew he should. He knew removing all those horrible memories from the boy's mind would at least give him a chance to change into his model of the boy who lived. But obliviating and planting false memories in Harry's mind would bring him down to the level of a criminal. He was anything but that. He would lose his mind with the guilt that would accompany that act.

Harry's magic had flared and formed a protective cocoon around him. Dumbledore could feel its power. It had a thickness and fluidity that he had rarely seen in a wizard. Nicolas Flamel had magic that was similar. His own was like steel, Harry's was like a swamp: Thick, impenetrable and harsh. Flamel's was like a thick viscous fluid that was just as impenetrable but comforting where Harry's was destructive.

The boy's eyes were wide with surprise and showing the embers of a growing anger.

Dumbledore decided to show the boy his power but then he changed his mind again. He had done the same with Tom Riddle. It had been a colossal mistake. He had to do something that he had never done before in order to hope for a different outcome because no matter how many permutations and combinations his mind made, the boy was destined to be a dark wizard. Maybe even a dark lord if he found the proper motivation.

In the end. After years of attempting to push Harry Potter into becoming a hero that inevitably was going to be sacrificed for the greater good. Dumbledore let go.

The steel cage clanged and swung open.

"From here on out," Dumbledore said heavily. "I will not protect you. I will not favour you nor will I treat you any different from the other students at this school. You break the rules and I will leave you at the mercy of the rules. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Harry shrugged. His mind and soul had not yet fully recovered from that night in the woods.

Being held behind bars helped in a way. He spent a lot of time meditating like he had seen that accursed man do. He focused on the Void whose nature seemed to have shifted.

Harry was trying to understand it. He was trying to find the ground it stood upon now.

He focused on the colours of magic like he had seen in the man and now he could see it in others too.

Dumbledore had a powerful red, almost golden, at the base of his spine. It was the strongest Harry had ever seen. He had an active orange around his navel and a pulsating green around his heart. The blue surrounding his neck seemed like an endless ocean of knowledge.

Unlike the man in the forest, none of the colours were in sync with each other. They dominated their regions. Red for power. Yellow for authority. Green for empathy. Blue for knowledge.

Dumbledore was really fascinating, Harry realised. He himself had a strong red. He barely had orange and yellow. Orange he understood was pleasure. What kind of pleasure he didn't understand. His green was a faint thing that he had to focus really hard to see. If the man hadn't put it in him, it would have never been there. His blue was vibrant and violet - which he realised was clairvoyance, a soft glow. Dumbledore's violet was dark.

Magic having colours made Harry realise those colours were sort of like emotions strongest in living creatures. Although, how knowledge could be classified as an emotion, he wondered many a times and yet the blue around the throat always spoke to him of depth of knowledge. Or maybe it was the voice. Power to inspire with knowledge? So was inspiration the emotion? Or was it the wonder that was created in others with knowledge that was the emotion? Perhaps it was the power to manipulate emotions in others?