Dumbledore and Harry's Adventures

The Dark Tiara

With that thought, he had instead focused on the effect he wanted. As he focused on the idea of an object removing all the filth, all the grime, all the build-up, returning to a state of pristine condition, Harry placed his hand on the wall of the kitchen. Kreacher had done a wonderful job cleaning the house, but it still had years of magical grunge worked deep into the various materials. Harry pushed his magic into the wall and had felt resistance. The magical residue keeping the filth in place was fighting him. Thinking back to the Malfoy wards, he had begun to experiment with "vibrating" his magic (Albus had not been able to explain his process in a way that made sense, so Harry was guessing here). He quickly lowered and increased his power, he forced the magic to push out in a wave across his hand, he even tried a blast at full strength (which did work a bit, but no more than the regular overpowered cleaning spell). Then he thought about how he would clean something like this without magic during his Dursley days. He took a deep cleansing breath, and then began to focus on the magic swirling out from the center of his hand, like using a round scrubbing brush. The resisting magic began to break down in the swirling eddies of Harry's magic. When he lifted his hand, there was now a pristine handprint on the wall. With a smile, Harry put his hand back, and focused on having the cleaning swirls continue out from beyond the borders of his hand. Ten minutes later, the walls glowed with yellow light as decades of filth dissipated into nothingness. Twenty-five minutes later, a tired Harry sat in a completely pristine kitchen (yet another thing which endeared him to the portrait of Sirius's mother, much to Sirius's annoyance).

It was that experiment where Harry finally understood that his brand of magic was unique to Harry James Potter. When he cleaned, it was a Potter spell. When he floated through the air, he was using a Potter specific levitation spell (he chuckled as he thought of correcting Hermione by saying "You're saying it wrong. It's Wing-Potter-ium Levi-o-sa"). That revelation is what led him to begin his experiments in using parts of his body to cast magic other than his hands and fingers. Sadly, he had yet to figure out how to remove the need to touch an item to cast his brand of spells, but he knew he would get there eventually. Albus had offered to give some ideas, but Harry wanted this to be his own project. This was his path to make, and he would have fun making it.

"Oh dear" spoke Albus, breaking Harry out of his reverie. He had not realized that he had so lost himself in thought. Though, he was pleased to see that he had instinctually kept floating around the room without bumping into anything (or any napping House Elf in a hammock).

Harry rotated to face down toward Albus, seeing the man was reading a letter. "What's wrong?"

"Hmmm? Oh, it appears Professor Rodgers won't be returning to his post next year."

"Professor Rodgers?"

"The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. He's an old friend of Silvanus... Headmaster Kettleburn. It appears the poor man has had a spate of bad luck."

"What sort of bad luck?"

Albus looked down at the letter. "It appears he has managed to have over a dozen cases of food poisoning, which should normally be impossible. He has had miscast spells hit him during class, breaking both of his arms on more than one occasion. Yet, the man persevered. It appears the final straw was when the stairs randomly shifted faster than normal and then rapidly reversed directions. He then fell over the railing, managed to hang on and then the stairs moved at previously unseen speed and slammed him into the wall... 13 times in a row, though he may not recall the number precisely. He lost his grip and managed to cast a spell as he fell six stories to somewhat soften the floor right before landing and managed to survive. They he did shatter all the bones in both of his legs and completely crushed his wand. It appears the poor man has decided that the position is... not the best fit for him."