Changing from within

Chapter Twelve

"But-" Madame Pomfrey immediately tries to complain, but a stare from the headmaster causes her to  sigh and walk back to her office. With a slam, the door closes and I am left, all alone, with the headmaster.

"Why has no one else had this?" I ask him immediately, he moves around the bed and sits on one of the two hard backed wooden chairs.

"How old were you all before you came back?" He asks me, staring intently into my eyes. I have a vague feeling he's probably using occlumency but I ignore it.

"I was eighteen, Megan, Steph, Katherine and Adam seventeen, Hannah and Gregor were sixteen." I answer immediately.

"I believe, the reason you are the only one experiencing this is because you are of age in both the wizarding and the muggle world. In this case, you have the full power you would have had, fully mature. Yet your friends, especially the four who were seventeen will also have a high amount of power, but not as much." He tells me.

"I'll just pretend that made sense." I reply, raising an eyebrow.

"Think of it this way, a fruit becomes ripe when it is deemed juicy enough by the pluckers, yes?" Dumbledore asks. I frown, not exactly understanding where his idea is going, but I nod anyways. "So, in wizarding terms, this fruit has reached maturity, at seventeen years. It has all the power needed to survive on its own. But, if you take that apple and leave it a little longer, it's seeds will begin to grow, creating more power, understand so far?"

In all honestly, I am completely lost. But I don't want him to go over it again, so instead I nod, keeping my expression blank.

"When the seeds are hatched, the apple grows in power. The power inside the apple doubles. To us, when we reach muggle age of maturity, our power grows more, it festers and develops as we grow, preparing to double in order to give life."

I frown again. What he's saying, is that although wizards reach maturity at seventeen and can legally cast magic everywhere, the magic within them is still growing, getting stronger.

"In your case, your soul was brought back and shaped into the image we see, your eleven year old self. The magic that entered you is the magic which would be held in your eighteen year old body, the magic a soul of eighteen years can easily hold and maintain. Yet you are in an eleven year old body witch will struggle to hold and use the vast amount of energy and magic in it." I start to nod, now understanding.

"But, does that mean that they're power will grow to that of an eighteen year olds on their birthdays?" I ask him.

"I honestly don't know," he tells me, shaking his head, "possibly their powers will remain as they are until they reach their normal ages, or it will grow. We won't know."

"You'll find out soon, Finlay's birthday is on the 21st," I tell him with a smile.

"Either way," Dumbledore finishes, standing up and nodding towards the infirmary doors, "I believe you have a detention to be attending?"

I groan, does being in hospital not mean I can get out of going to detention? By the grin the headmaster is giving me, I decide that, no, being in Hospital does not excuse you from your detention.

Getting out of the Hospital wing, I look around me, having no idea where I am, I can't remember the books ever saying what floor the Hospital Wing was on either, so, deciding I am at least up a couple floors, I decide to hunt for a staircase and just head down until I see something familiar. Finding my way eventually back down to the dungeons, I nock on the classroom door, panting at having ran half the way.

"Your late." The oily tones of the professor inform me needlessly, I glare at the door but open it and step in, carefully keeping my expression blank.