Prologue: BattleFlag Pt1
"So you want me to what, sir, specialize in a magical art?" Harry Potter was sitting in Headmaster Dumbledore's office, where each 7th year student at the start of the term was invited to discuss their future in the wizarding world.
"Not exactly, Harry," Dumbledore replied. "You have the speed and skill to be an auror, but even the best aurors can easily be defeated by our Mister Riddle. You need to be able to fight with your head, even more than your hands. It's not about power, it's not about knowing the stronger curses and hexes.
"Let me put it this way - stand up and take out your wand." With this, Dumbledore stood and with a wave of his own wand the room was cleared in a ten foot circle.
"Ready, Harry?" he asked, and upon seeing the nod pulled two lemon drops from his pocket. "Then disarm me."
Harry pointed his wand at the headmaster and spoke the required incantation. "Expelliarmus!" As the spell left Harry's wand his teacher dropped one of the lemon drops to the ground, where it bounced off his boot.
An instant later Harry felt the point of a wand poking him in the back.
"See, Harry? There is no counter for the killing curse no matter how powerful you are, but a simple lemon drop could save your life." With that, Dumbledore leaned over, carefully bracing himself between Harry and the desk behind him and picked up the fallen sweet. Studying it carefully for any debris and finding none, he smiled and popped it in his mouth.
"Any questions?"
Harry was stupefied. "How? What?" He didn't even bother to point out that the sweet now occupying the headmaster's mouth had just been on the floor - Professor Dumbledore had always been a little "off" to Harry, but that was what made him so memorable.
"It was easy my boy. Before you came in I merely enchanted the drop to transport me a few feet. A simple but effective use of a portkey, yes?"
"Yes, sir, I guess." Harry paused for moment, his eyes widening as he started to catch on. "So if I became an enchanter I could create portkeys to protect myself and keep Voldemort off guard?"
"You're still thinking too small, Harry. It's unlikely you'll have to deal with just him; there will be Death Eaters as well. Think, now."
Harry was flustered. "Uh, well, if I could enchant something with a protection spell I'd only have to worry about the Avada Kedavras instead of casting defensive spells all the time."
"You're getting there. It's not that simple. What if you're not alone? How do you prepare a group? How do you protect a group? What if you get caught in a place full of muggles? What if you can't apparate? There is no way to prepare for every eventuality, Harry. Even if you could, how could you carry or get to what you need in time?"
"So what can I do?" Harry didn't understand what Dumbledore was getting at.
"What you do, Harry, is learn how to make what you need when you need to have it." With that, Dumbledore tossed the remaining lemon drop to Harry, who caught the tiny candy thanks only to his years as a seeker.
As soon as his fingers closed around it, Harry felt a familiar pull behind his navel.
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