SS13 Challenge
Title: The People I Have To Put Up With
Summary: For Saturday Challenge #13: Albus Dumbledore as a young man. Being in the library gives Albus time to reflect on his plans for the future.
Characters/Pairings: Dumbledore, Aberforth, Elphias Doge, and a few OCs.
Genre: General
Rating/Warnings: PG13 for misery, angst, homophobic bullying and waxing lyrical about eugenics.
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 1996
The library always seems to close too early. Albus had calculated that if he spent five hours in the library every evening between starting Hogwarts and graduating, even at his competent reading speed he couldn't hope to cover more than two-fifths of the books lining the shelves. And that didn't take into account homework or revision time. It was a frighteningly inconvenient problem, and Albus realised early on that if he was to learn as much as he could out of books, he would be forced to make some decisions, to put some thoughts above others.
He had designated himself a routine, based upon that: Mondays and Tuesdays were to concentrate on transfiguration studies, Wednesdays would be for potions or magical history. Thursday was a designated day off; he would take the chance to spend time in the common room, or walk around the grounds of the school if the weather was favourable, and then Friday was back to the library, to brush up on Arithmancy. As for the weekends...
...the weekends were for time in the Restricted Section.
Through the years of studying, Albus had developed an unusually strong rapport with the librarian, to the point where the man and the teenager knew one another on first-name terms. It was a quiet place of refuge, and the two seemed to share that view of the world: everything outside that door was a storm; the contents of each book a shelter.
The man was wispy and shrunken, he had thick glasses that didn't make him look intelligent, but instead made him look like he should be in a park with some kind of paper bag. But Albus knew the man was utterly benign, a little afraid of the world, perhaps, but utterly benign.
It was for people like this librarian that Albus wanted to change things. The shape of wizarding destiny had been blighted by that Statute of Secrecy all those centuries ago; had it never been signed, someone like this librarian would flourish, Albus was sure. He would be one of those wizards to whom the world would be receptive, who would find his place so much better if he didn't have to hide, if he didn't have to base his sacntuary in a library.
Albus, too, felt the same way. Perhaps it was his teenage hot-headedness rearing its head, but if he was going to achieve anything with his life (like so many of his teachers were sure he would), then he would make it so: the overthrowing of the International Statute of Secrecy, and the formulation of a system that better reflects the modern world.
He had it all planned out. People would resist it at first, probably by smearing him through propaganda, by proclaiming him to be some kind of Dark Wizard. That would be a dreadful inconvenience, but there were ways around it. It would be like playing wizard chess against a many-headed, invisible opponent. Being a minority of one was not an indication of madness.
Even so, he felt like having a peer who could equal him and stand alongside him would help his case out immensely. It would reduce the likelihood of him being seen as a Dark Wizard, and increase the legitimacy of his campaigns.
"Albus," said the librarian, interrupting the teenager's thoughts, "I'm closing the library in about fifteen minutes. Could you be ready to go, please?"
Albus smiled at the librarian, meeting his gaze. Intuitively, Albus knew they could have been friends had they not been seperated by a generation or two, but it just fell to the list of things that would never be.
And walking back to the dormitories, he passed teachers and students alike; Albus felt that he was more on a par with the teachers than the students. They were his peers, not these infants running round willy-nilly, to come to a shuddering halt when they heard footsteps approach, in case it was a teacher. Albus wondered what it would feel like to be a teacher, to have that power over how the way children behaved. In a few months, the Prefect badges would be issued out to the students, and Albus would get an insight in how this would feel. He would get his first taste of power, and his first chance to prove that he could handle it properly and appropriately. If that was settled, he would be in so much better stead to prove his worth in later political activism. After all, people who seek greatness leave those resentful masses in their wake. He would have to handle that as best he could, and that meant not putting a foot wrong today. An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure, after all.
"Nox Dormienda," he said to the portrait, climbing through it with ease. The Common Room was nearly empty; Albus scanned the room to check if he recognised anybody there he wished to speak to. There were none, so he sighed and climbed the stairs to his dormitory.
Barely crossing the threshhold, he heard a voice yell: "Incarcerous."
He tumbled to the ground and heard a pair of feet spring off the nearby bed. "Got him, Chris."
"Good. Wingardium Leviosa."
Albus was winched off the ground by an untold weightlessness, he floated up to the ceiling until he was looking down at the figures. Two of the three boys he shared his dorm with were looking up at him.
"You keep sneaking in at night," the boy called Chris called up to him. "Why do you do that, eh?"
Albus couldn't speak; the ropes were bound too tightly over his mouth and throat. Chris sneered. "I think we know why, don't we?"
The other boy, Joseph, chuckled. "It's to sneak a peek at us when we're changing for bed, isn't it?"
Albus, trapped, could only raise an eyebrow in bewilderment. Chris took that as a sign of defiance and sent a curse up at Albus' stomach. He wheezed, feeling blood in his throat.
"We don't stand for stuff like that," said Joseph. "For people who like you, it's not right. It's a sign of illness, didn't you know? Everybody knows that, even Muggles."
"But it's the fact you won't admit to it," Chris said, with a grin. "We could help you, I'm sure."
"Maybe there's a potion that could fix it-"
"Or a poison if there isn't-"
Joseph sniggered. Albus felt queasy and seasick. "You don't deny it, either, do you?"
Albus didn't know what to say. Joseph had recently made it onto Gryffindor's Quidditch team as a Beater, and had become drunk on the power it brought, forever fraternising with girls, always promising them the world, but refusing to court any of them properly. Chris wasn't much better: a tall boy with light blond hair, he had been dating a girl in Hufflepuff for nearly a year, and had become particularly insistant the boys in his dorm did the same, especially the ones with 'stupid names'.
"There's nothing right about it," Joseph repeated. "Is that way you spend so much time in the library, eh? With that weird librarian? Does he make you feel wecome?"
Chris looked up. "You don't mean?"
Joseph shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe Albus can tell us."
"Disgusting," Chris spat. "Absolutely awful. What is wrong with the wizarding world? It's nearly the twentieth century, and you're still allowing things like this to happen?"
"It's not a problem," Joseph smiled. "All we have to do is fix it. It's what Gryffindors do best, right? Get rid of problems in the most hands-on way thinkable?"
A silence, until Chris spoke. "Open the window."
Joseph waved his wand which unlatched the high stained glass; Albus could feel the breeze on his face. He knew they wanted to scare him, by dangling him outside, but Chris and Joseph weren't the sort to let him drop. They wanted to scare him. That's all.
As Chris moved Albus' bound form closer to the window, he couldn't deny it was working. He could see the stars outside, twinkling innocently, while down below the boys laughed cruelly.
"Vomitare Viridus!"
There was a retching from below; Chris was on all-fours, bring up his lunch. From somewhere unseen, Joseph yelled "Densaugeo!" and something crashed. A voice squeaked "Langlock," Joseph countered "Protego, and a variety of flashes and bangs while Albus continued to drift toward the open window, and then...
"Petrificus Totalus!"
A new voice had joined in, and Joseph fell on the ground. Albus' eyes found Elphias Doge, wand pointed up, grinning. "What are we going to do with you, eh?"
Behind Elphias, Chris had regained enough composure to blast a curse at Elphias, knocking him into the other wall. A shriek of something, and Chris was transfigured into a goat.
Moments before it happened, Albus knew he was going to fall, now the charm's bearer was no longer human. As he plummeted to the ground, Albus braced himself for the pain...
"Arresto Momentum!"
He stopped accellerating, slowing down with enough time to recognise the voice of this unseen saviour, who showed himself and loosened the ropes round Albus' mouth.
"Thank you, Aberforth."
"What did you do to them?" said his brother, severing the ropes carefully. "Why did they want to throw you out the window?"
"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Albus graciously, smiling at his brother. "But I must ask: how did you learn to do human transfiguration of that extent? That's difficult even at N.E.W.T level."
Aberforth shrugged. "You don't have a patent on transfiguration skills, Albus."
"I suppose not," Albus smiled kindly at his brother, going over to tend to Elphias. "Thank you for helping me."
Aberforth looked at the petrified boy, and the goat. "Are they the..."
"Yes, they're the Muggle-borns I was telling you about."
Aberforth looked like he wanted to yell profanity. Finally he settled to grimacing, "what is it with Muggles and wanting to hurt other people? I don't get it. I don't get it at all."
"Don't worry, Aberforth," Albus said wisely. "Soon enough, things will change and we'll be able to make Muggles accountable for their actions."
"Huh, we'll see." Aberforth shrugged. "I need to go to bed, I was only passing on the stairs. Night. Keep the goat."
"No problem," Albus smiled, bidding farewell to his brother.
After levitating Joseph's jinxed body atop his own bed, vanishing the vomit, and Silencing Chris' bleating and conjuring a cage to keep him from running away, he escorted Elphias to the Hospital Wing. He was grateful of having a friend in the Gryffindor dormitory, one whom he could rely on, and the ultimate reason why was because Elphias was from a wizarding background. He understood the way the world was meant to be. Compared to the likes of Chris and Joseph, the two boys who found their way into Hogwarts from Muggle backgrounds, bringing in Muggle prejudice and hatred, corrupting and polluting everything and everybody they spoke to with their half-witted arrogance.
No, he was glad Elphias was different. Wiser. Stronger. A better wizard.
Though it was not something Albus cared to admit, he thought that right now, Elphias Doge could well be the person best suited to help him in his quest to change the world for the better. It would take some persuading, some correcting of Elphias' personal politics, but it could work.
Enjoying a quiet night in the dormitory, Albus Dumbledore slept silently and peacefully in his own bed, deciding to leave the human mobile and trapped goat in their place until the morning.
After all, Muggle-borns would soon know their place, and it was as good a chance to test the waters as anything.
He would visit Elphias in the morning, and propose they travel the world together upon graduating.
Until then, Albus took a deviation from his set routine in the library, choosing instead to master wandless, wordless magic instead. He would not be caught off-guard by Muggles ever again.
Rob//Gryffindor//67 points GET!!
Summary: For Saturday Challenge #13: Albus Dumbledore as a young man. Being in the library gives Albus time to reflect on his plans for the future.
Characters/Pairings: Dumbledore, Aberforth, Elphias Doge, and a few OCs.
Genre: General
Rating/Warnings: PG13 for misery, angst, homophobic bullying and waxing lyrical about eugenics.
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 1996
The library always seems to close too early. Albus had calculated that if he spent five hours in the library every evening between starting Hogwarts and graduating, even at his competent reading speed he couldn't hope to cover more than two-fifths of the books lining the shelves. And that didn't take into account homework or revision time. It was a frighteningly inconvenient problem, and Albus realised early on that if he was to learn as much as he could out of books, he would be forced to make some decisions, to put some thoughts above others.
He had designated himself a routine, based upon that: Mondays and Tuesdays were to concentrate on transfiguration studies, Wednesdays would be for potions or magical history. Thursday was a designated day off; he would take the chance to spend time in the common room, or walk around the grounds of the school if the weather was favourable, and then Friday was back to the library, to brush up on Arithmancy. As for the weekends...
...the weekends were for time in the Restricted Section.
Through the years of studying, Albus had developed an unusually strong rapport with the librarian, to the point where the man and the teenager knew one another on first-name terms. It was a quiet place of refuge, and the two seemed to share that view of the world: everything outside that door was a storm; the contents of each book a shelter.
The man was wispy and shrunken, he had thick glasses that didn't make him look intelligent, but instead made him look like he should be in a park with some kind of paper bag. But Albus knew the man was utterly benign, a little afraid of the world, perhaps, but utterly benign.
It was for people like this librarian that Albus wanted to change things. The shape of wizarding destiny had been blighted by that Statute of Secrecy all those centuries ago; had it never been signed, someone like this librarian would flourish, Albus was sure. He would be one of those wizards to whom the world would be receptive, who would find his place so much better if he didn't have to hide, if he didn't have to base his sacntuary in a library.
Albus, too, felt the same way. Perhaps it was his teenage hot-headedness rearing its head, but if he was going to achieve anything with his life (like so many of his teachers were sure he would), then he would make it so: the overthrowing of the International Statute of Secrecy, and the formulation of a system that better reflects the modern world.
He had it all planned out. People would resist it at first, probably by smearing him through propaganda, by proclaiming him to be some kind of Dark Wizard. That would be a dreadful inconvenience, but there were ways around it. It would be like playing wizard chess against a many-headed, invisible opponent. Being a minority of one was not an indication of madness.
Even so, he felt like having a peer who could equal him and stand alongside him would help his case out immensely. It would reduce the likelihood of him being seen as a Dark Wizard, and increase the legitimacy of his campaigns.
"Albus," said the librarian, interrupting the teenager's thoughts, "I'm closing the library in about fifteen minutes. Could you be ready to go, please?"
Albus smiled at the librarian, meeting his gaze. Intuitively, Albus knew they could have been friends had they not been seperated by a generation or two, but it just fell to the list of things that would never be.
And walking back to the dormitories, he passed teachers and students alike; Albus felt that he was more on a par with the teachers than the students. They were his peers, not these infants running round willy-nilly, to come to a shuddering halt when they heard footsteps approach, in case it was a teacher. Albus wondered what it would feel like to be a teacher, to have that power over how the way children behaved. In a few months, the Prefect badges would be issued out to the students, and Albus would get an insight in how this would feel. He would get his first taste of power, and his first chance to prove that he could handle it properly and appropriately. If that was settled, he would be in so much better stead to prove his worth in later political activism. After all, people who seek greatness leave those resentful masses in their wake. He would have to handle that as best he could, and that meant not putting a foot wrong today. An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure, after all.
"Nox Dormienda," he said to the portrait, climbing through it with ease. The Common Room was nearly empty; Albus scanned the room to check if he recognised anybody there he wished to speak to. There were none, so he sighed and climbed the stairs to his dormitory.
Barely crossing the threshhold, he heard a voice yell: "Incarcerous."
He tumbled to the ground and heard a pair of feet spring off the nearby bed. "Got him, Chris."
"Good. Wingardium Leviosa."
Albus was winched off the ground by an untold weightlessness, he floated up to the ceiling until he was looking down at the figures. Two of the three boys he shared his dorm with were looking up at him.
"You keep sneaking in at night," the boy called Chris called up to him. "Why do you do that, eh?"
Albus couldn't speak; the ropes were bound too tightly over his mouth and throat. Chris sneered. "I think we know why, don't we?"
The other boy, Joseph, chuckled. "It's to sneak a peek at us when we're changing for bed, isn't it?"
Albus, trapped, could only raise an eyebrow in bewilderment. Chris took that as a sign of defiance and sent a curse up at Albus' stomach. He wheezed, feeling blood in his throat.
"We don't stand for stuff like that," said Joseph. "For people who like you, it's not right. It's a sign of illness, didn't you know? Everybody knows that, even Muggles."
"But it's the fact you won't admit to it," Chris said, with a grin. "We could help you, I'm sure."
"Maybe there's a potion that could fix it-"
"Or a poison if there isn't-"
Joseph sniggered. Albus felt queasy and seasick. "You don't deny it, either, do you?"
Albus didn't know what to say. Joseph had recently made it onto Gryffindor's Quidditch team as a Beater, and had become drunk on the power it brought, forever fraternising with girls, always promising them the world, but refusing to court any of them properly. Chris wasn't much better: a tall boy with light blond hair, he had been dating a girl in Hufflepuff for nearly a year, and had become particularly insistant the boys in his dorm did the same, especially the ones with 'stupid names'.
"There's nothing right about it," Joseph repeated. "Is that way you spend so much time in the library, eh? With that weird librarian? Does he make you feel wecome?"
Chris looked up. "You don't mean?"
Joseph shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe Albus can tell us."
"Disgusting," Chris spat. "Absolutely awful. What is wrong with the wizarding world? It's nearly the twentieth century, and you're still allowing things like this to happen?"
"It's not a problem," Joseph smiled. "All we have to do is fix it. It's what Gryffindors do best, right? Get rid of problems in the most hands-on way thinkable?"
A silence, until Chris spoke. "Open the window."
Joseph waved his wand which unlatched the high stained glass; Albus could feel the breeze on his face. He knew they wanted to scare him, by dangling him outside, but Chris and Joseph weren't the sort to let him drop. They wanted to scare him. That's all.
As Chris moved Albus' bound form closer to the window, he couldn't deny it was working. He could see the stars outside, twinkling innocently, while down below the boys laughed cruelly.
"Vomitare Viridus!"
There was a retching from below; Chris was on all-fours, bring up his lunch. From somewhere unseen, Joseph yelled "Densaugeo!" and something crashed. A voice squeaked "Langlock," Joseph countered "Protego, and a variety of flashes and bangs while Albus continued to drift toward the open window, and then...
"Petrificus Totalus!"
A new voice had joined in, and Joseph fell on the ground. Albus' eyes found Elphias Doge, wand pointed up, grinning. "What are we going to do with you, eh?"
Behind Elphias, Chris had regained enough composure to blast a curse at Elphias, knocking him into the other wall. A shriek of something, and Chris was transfigured into a goat.
Moments before it happened, Albus knew he was going to fall, now the charm's bearer was no longer human. As he plummeted to the ground, Albus braced himself for the pain...
"Arresto Momentum!"
He stopped accellerating, slowing down with enough time to recognise the voice of this unseen saviour, who showed himself and loosened the ropes round Albus' mouth.
"Thank you, Aberforth."
"What did you do to them?" said his brother, severing the ropes carefully. "Why did they want to throw you out the window?"
"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Albus graciously, smiling at his brother. "But I must ask: how did you learn to do human transfiguration of that extent? That's difficult even at N.E.W.T level."
Aberforth shrugged. "You don't have a patent on transfiguration skills, Albus."
"I suppose not," Albus smiled kindly at his brother, going over to tend to Elphias. "Thank you for helping me."
Aberforth looked at the petrified boy, and the goat. "Are they the..."
"Yes, they're the Muggle-borns I was telling you about."
Aberforth looked like he wanted to yell profanity. Finally he settled to grimacing, "what is it with Muggles and wanting to hurt other people? I don't get it. I don't get it at all."
"Don't worry, Aberforth," Albus said wisely. "Soon enough, things will change and we'll be able to make Muggles accountable for their actions."
"Huh, we'll see." Aberforth shrugged. "I need to go to bed, I was only passing on the stairs. Night. Keep the goat."
"No problem," Albus smiled, bidding farewell to his brother.
After levitating Joseph's jinxed body atop his own bed, vanishing the vomit, and Silencing Chris' bleating and conjuring a cage to keep him from running away, he escorted Elphias to the Hospital Wing. He was grateful of having a friend in the Gryffindor dormitory, one whom he could rely on, and the ultimate reason why was because Elphias was from a wizarding background. He understood the way the world was meant to be. Compared to the likes of Chris and Joseph, the two boys who found their way into Hogwarts from Muggle backgrounds, bringing in Muggle prejudice and hatred, corrupting and polluting everything and everybody they spoke to with their half-witted arrogance.
No, he was glad Elphias was different. Wiser. Stronger. A better wizard.
Though it was not something Albus cared to admit, he thought that right now, Elphias Doge could well be the person best suited to help him in his quest to change the world for the better. It would take some persuading, some correcting of Elphias' personal politics, but it could work.
Enjoying a quiet night in the dormitory, Albus Dumbledore slept silently and peacefully in his own bed, deciding to leave the human mobile and trapped goat in their place until the morning.
After all, Muggle-borns would soon know their place, and it was as good a chance to test the waters as anything.
He would visit Elphias in the morning, and propose they travel the world together upon graduating.
Until then, Albus took a deviation from his set routine in the library, choosing instead to master wandless, wordless magic instead. He would not be caught off-guard by Muggles ever again.
Rob//Gryffindor//67 points GET!!