A Wizards Misadventures

~~Level Ten~~

AN: Long chapters are long. I did advance the plot a lot, though. Next chapter will be a timeskip. We might get to the next world then or the chapter after.

Sorry for being late. Schedules are the bane of me.

[|||| =LEVEL 10= ||||]

Hogwarts felt foreboding from a distance. It stood as a massive castle on a hill, a place where I'd made a huge mistake. I didn't want to do this but I couldn't just up and leave... well I could, but I wouldn't. Ignoring my mistakes was a slippery slope. I didn't want to go down it. Running away from one problem just made me less able to solve the next one and left a regret in my wake. No, it was best to own up and apologize.

It was with this in mind that I walked into Helen's domain. She noticed me instantly, of course, and I was met with a neutral feeling. She wanted to hear what I had to say.

"I'm sorry, and I'll be telling this to Hermione and Harry later as well. I messed up and lost sight of what was important. I could have handled Harry's problems in so many better ways. It would have been as simple as asking him how I could help, but instead I tried to focus on what I thought was the problem and... well, you saw what happened. I traumatized her, Helen. It could have been worse but it should have been better. I should have been better." Helen was unresponsive for a moment. Then her soul reached out to me and seemed to hug me.

"I forgive you... they will too," she whispered to me.

"Thank you," I said gratefully. Helen opened a stairwell beside me and I was about to step down when I hesitated. "Does that lead straight to Harry? I'd rather not apologize in public. It was between Hermione and me more than any bystanders. I might publicly apologize later, though."

Helen sent an image of two lone stick figures and I nodded, feeling that Hermioone and somebody else was as good as it was going to get for me, and descended the stairs. I walked down for a few minutes and summoned a globe of light when the passage above me closed up. I finally came to a trapdoor that I knelt at and pulled open. Down below me Harry and Hermione separated their faces and looked up at me in horror and surprise.

"Um... should I come back later?" I asked awkwardly. "I'm here to apologize but... well you two seem to have a mood going."

Harry groaned and put his blushing face in his hands while Hermione wiped her lips. "Just... just get down here. Please." I dropped down from the trapdoor, closing it on my way down, and glanced back up when I hit the ground. It was under an illusion. Helen, you have so many secrets.

"So as I said, I'm here to apologize," I said while looking around. I had no idea where we were. It looked like a cabin of some sort. There was a small neat bed, which Harry and Hermione were sitting on, but around us there was a round table and chairs, a lit fireplace, and a small bookshelf. Behind the bed was a window looking out over the Hogwarts grounds. I could see the dessicated willow tree from the window, actually. I think it was the Weeping Willow? No, wait, it was Whomping Willow.

I decided not to pull a chair away from the round table since they were kind of short for me and instead stood before the two teenagers. "I messed up last... whatever day that was. Five days ago at any rate. I knew how I had pushed you away from your friends, Harry, when I let slip that you were studying nonverbal and wandless magic. I looked at that issue, never heard about a resolution, and decided to fix it myself when I saw the opportunity."