A Taste of Magic

Chapter 25: 25th Course - Turbulent Time

Dumbledore looked around the wreckage grimly. The door to the classroom had been broken violently and shards of wood from broken chairs and tables and said door littered the ground. He wished this was an isolated incident but it was not. Ever since the second term started, finding broken things like this were becoming more common.

They have not found the culprit. Each location was devoid of investigational evidence. No signs of anything that could lend any kind of hint what or who was causing it. And lately, not even students have escaped unscathed. Some have been found nearby and each had been knocked unconscious in some way. None remember seeing what did it. Many cases they woke up as confused as the ones investigating. Luckily their injuries were minor save for some loss of memory and bruises and scrapes.

Dumbledore waved his wand and the pieces of the tables and chairs pieced themselves together. Not even Aurors had been successful at finding what was going on. It was difficult, he would not downplay that. Hogwarts was saturated with magic from ages and ages, so it was difficult to find things magically sometimes. He had received letters from concerned parents and angry governors, demanding answers and solutions.

As if I do not want the same, he thought with some bitterness.

As he was walking away, he stopped, noticing something. He bent over the recently repaired desk and touched something that gleamed. He looked at the ink staining his fingertips. With every student, and faculty, in the castle using ink and having their own bottles, finding drops and pools of ink was hardly new. Yet this ink felt odd to him and he knew this particular classroom had not been in use for some time.

He wiped his finger clean with a spell and thought hard as he left the repaired room.

-0-

"Anything?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Nothing. Well, one thing. I found some ink among the wreckage but it is hardly anything to truly go off of." He looked at Remus worriedly. "Should you be up and about?"

"I'm fine," Remus said. "I always look like this after the moon. Besides, I'm your Defense professor and I need to help." He yawned and blinked owlishly. "I've been looking through my notes and journals, trying to find anything that might help. Sadly, nothing seems to jump out at me. The damage is so mundane literally anything large enough can cause it. We just don't know how it's getting around and where it's going."

The Headmaster sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Well, we can only continue on and try our best. And hope we get a lucky break."

"You believe in luck?" Remus asked with a slight smile.

"When you have lived as long as I have and seen what I have, you have a very healthy respect for random chance," Dumbledore said dryly. "And from there it is easy to wish for good fortune and curse bad fortune."

-0-

Remus dismissed his class and started to clean the blackboard. Of course there was a spell for it, there was a spell for almost everything really, but he enjoyed using the eraser sometimes. The simple physical motion was soothing to him and let his mind wander a bit as his body moved out of reflex. Once he finished, he turned and smiled, seeing Harry waiting patiently.

"Hello Harry. My apologies, I was lost in thought," he said apologetically.

"No problem. Just wanted to give you this."