017.asc

// 2527
//== Locating the Hypothesis

// 2528
//You have always been J. K. Rowling.

// 2529
//Historical note: In the Roman calendar, the “Ides” of a month referred to the
//15th day of March, May, July, and October, and to the 13th day of all other
//months.

// 2530
//__“You start to see the pattern, hear the rhythm of the world.”__

// 2531
//Thursday.

// 2532
//If you wanted to be specific, 7:24am on Thursday morning.

// 2533
//Harry was sitting on his bed, a textbook lying limp in his motionless hands.

// 2534
//Harry had just had an idea for a __truly brilliant__ experimental test.

// 2535
//It would mean waiting an extra hour for breakfast, but that was why he had
//cereal bars. No, this idea absolutely positively had to be tested right away,
//immediately, now.

// 2536
//Harry set the textbook aside, leapt out of bed, raced around his bed, yanked
//out the cavern level of his trunk, ran down the stairs, and started moving
//boxes of books around. (He really needed to unpack and get bookcases at some
//point but he was in the middle of his textbook reading contest with Hermione
//and falling behind so he hadn’t had time.)

// 2537
//Harry found the book he wanted and raced back upstairs.

// 2538
//The other boys were getting ready to go down to breakfast in the Great Hall and
//start the day.

// 2539
//“Excuse me can you do something for me?” said Harry. He was flipping through
//the book’s index as he spoke, found the page with the first ten thousand
//primes, flipped to that page, and thrust the book at Anthony Goldstein. “Pick
//two three-digit numbers from this list. Don’t tell me what they are. Just
//multiply them together and tell me the product. Oh, and can you do the
//calculation twice to double-check? Please make really sure you’ve got the right
//answer, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me or the universe if you make a
//multiplication error.”

// 2540
//It said a lot about what life in that dorm had been like over the past few days
//that Anthony didn’t even bother saying anything like “Why’d you suddenly flip
//out?” or “That seems really weird, what are your reasons for asking?” or “What
//do you mean, you’re not sure what’s going to happen to the universe?”

// 2541
//Anthony wordlessly accepted the book and took out a parchment and quill. Harry
//spun around and shut his eyes, making sure not to see anything, dancing back
//and forth and bouncing up and down with impatience. He got a pad of paper and a
//mechanical pencil and got ready to write.

// 2542
//“Okay,” Anthony said, “One hundred and eighty-one thousand, four hundred and
//twenty-nine.”

// 2543
//Harry wrote down 181,429. He repeated what he’d just written down, and Anthony
//confirmed it.

// 2544
//Then Harry raced back down into the cavern level of his trunk, glanced at his
//watch (the watch said 4:28 which meant 7:28) and then shut his eyes.

// 2545
//Around thirty seconds later, Harry heard the sound of steps, followed by the
//sound of the cavern level of the trunk sliding shut. (Harry wasn’t worried
//about suffocating. An automatic Air-Freshening Charm was part of what you got
//if you were willing to buy a really good trunk. Wasn’t magic wonderful, it
//didn’t have to worry about electric bills.)

// 2546
//And when Harry opened his eyes, he saw just what he’d been hoping to see, a
//folded piece of paper left on the floor, the gift of his future self.

// 2547
//Call that piece of paper “Paper-2”.

// 2548
//Harry tore a piece of paper off his pad.

// 2549
//Call that “Paper-1”. It was, of course, the same piece of paper. You could even
//see, if you looked closely, that the ragged edges matched.

// 2550
//Harry reviewed in his mind the algorithm that he would follow.

// 2551
//If Harry opened up Paper-2 and it was blank, then he would write “101 x 101”
//down on Paper-1, fold it up, study for an hour, go back in time, drop off
//Paper-1 (which would thereby become Paper-2), and head on up out of the cavern
//level to join his dorm mates for breakfast.

// 2552
//If Harry opened up Paper-2 and it had two numbers written on it, Harry would
//multiply those numbers together.

// 2553
//If their product equaled 181,429, Harry would write down those two numbers on
//Paper-1 and send Paper-1 back in time.

// 2554
//Otherwise Harry would add 2 to the number on the right and write down the new
//pair of numbers on Paper-1. Unless that made the number on the right greater
//than 997, in which case Harry would add 2 to the number on the left and write
//down 101 on the right.

// 2555
//And if Paper-2 said 997 x 997, Harry would leave Paper-1 blank.

// 2556
//Which meant that the only possible __stable__ time loop was the one in
//which Paper-2 contained the two prime factors of 181,429.

// 2557
//If this worked, Harry could use it to recover any sort of answer that was easy
//to check but hard to find. He wouldn’t have __just__ shown that P=NP once
//you had a Time-Turner, this trick was __more general__ than that. Harry
//could use it to find the combinations on combination locks, or passwords of
//every sort. Maybe even find the entrance to Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets, if
//Harry could figure out some systematic way of describing all the locations in
//Hogwarts. It would be an awesome cheat even by Harry’s standards of cheating.

// 2558
//Harry took Paper-2 in his trembling hand, and unfolded it.

// 2559
//Paper-2 said in slightly shaky handwriting:

// 2560
//DO NOT MESS WITH TIME

// 2561
//Harry wrote down “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” on Paper-1 in slightly shaky
//handwriting, folded it neatly, and resolved not to do any more truly brilliant
//experiments on Time until he was at least fifteen years old.

// 2562
//To the best of Harry’s knowledge, that had been the scariest experimental
//result in the entire history of science.

// 2563
//It had been somewhat difficult for Harry to focus on reading his textbook for
//the next hour.

// 2564
//That was how Harry’s Thursday started.

// 2565
//Thursday.

// 2566
//If you wanted to be specific, 3:32pm on Thursday afternoon.

// 2567
//Harry and all the other boys in the first year were outside on a grassy field
//with Madam Hooch, standing next to the Hogwarts supply of broomsticks. The
//girls would be learning to fly separately. Apparently, for some reason, girls
//didn’t want to learn how to fly on broomsticks in the presence of boys.

// 2568
//Harry had been a little wobbly all day long. He just couldn’t seem to stop
//wondering how that __particular__ stable time loop had been selected out
//of what was, in retrospect, a rather large space of possibilities.

// 2569
//Also: seriously, __broomsticks?__ He was going to fly on, basically, a
//line segment? Wasn’t that pretty much the single most unstable shape you could
//possibly find, short of attempting to hold on to a point marble? Who’d selected
//__that__ design for a flying device, out of all the possibilities? Harry
//had been hoping that it was just a figure of speech, but no, they were standing
//in front of what looked for all the world like ordinary wooden kitchen
//broomsticks. Had someone just gotten stuck on the idea of broomsticks and
//failed to consider anything else? It had to be. There was no way that the
//__optimal__ designs for cleaning kitchens and flying would happen to
//coincide if you worked them out from scratch.

// 2570
//It was a clear day with a bright blue sky and a brilliant sun that was just
//begging to get in your eyes and make it impossible to see, if you were trying
//to fly around the sky. The ground was nice and dry, smelling positively baked,
//and somehow felt very, very hard under Harry’s shoes.

// 2571
//Harry kept reminding himself that the lowest common denominator of
//eleven-year-olds was expected to learn this and it couldn’t be that hard.

// 2572
//“Stick out your right hand over the broom, or left hand if you’re left-handed,”
//called Madam Hooch. “And say, UP!”

// 2573
//“UP!” everyone shouted.

// 2574
//The broomstick leapt eagerly into Harry’s hand.

// 2575
//Which put him at the head of the class, for once. Apparently saying “UP!” was a
//lot more difficult than it looked, and most of the broomsticks were rolling
//around on the ground or trying to inch away from their would-be riders.

// 2576
//(Of course Harry would have bet money that Hermione had done at least as well
//when it came her own turn to try, earlier in the day. There couldn’t possibly
//be anything __he__ could master on the first try which would baffle
//Hermione, and if there __was__ and it turned out to be __broomstick
//riding__ instead of anything intellectual, Harry would just die.)

// 2577
//It took a while for everyone to get a broomstick in front of them. Madam Hooch
//showed them how to mount and then walked around the field, correcting grips and
//stances. Apparently even among the few children who’d been allowed to fly at
//home, they hadn’t been taught to do it correctly.

// 2578
//Madam Hooch surveyed the field of boys, and nodded. “Now, when I blow my
//whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard.”

// 2579
//Harry swallowed hard, trying to quell the queasy feeling in his stomach.

// 2580
//“Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by
//leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle - three - two -”

// 2581
//One of the brooms shot skyward, accompanied by a young boy’s screams - of
//horror, not delight. The boy was spinning at an awful rate as he ascended, they
//only got glimpses of his white face -

// 2582
//As though in slow motion, Harry was leaping back off his own broomstick and
//scrabbling for his wand, though he didn’t really know what he planned to do
//with it, he’d had exactly two sessions of Charms and the last one __had__
//been the Hover Charm but Harry had only been able to cast the spell
//successfully one time out of three and he certainly couldn’t levitate whole
//people -

// 2583
//__If there is any hidden power in me, let it reveal itself NOW!__

// 2584
//“Come back, boy!” shouted Madam Hooch (which had to be the most unhelpful
//instruction imaginable for dealing with an out-of-control broomstick, from a
//__flying instructor__, and a fully automatic section of Harry’s brain
//added Madam Hooch to his tally of fools).

// 2585
//And the boy was thrown off the broomstick.

// 2586
//He seemed to move very slowly through the air, at first.

// 2587
//“__Wingardium Leviosa!__” screamed Harry.

// 2588
//The spell failed. He could feel it fail.

// 2589
//There was a THUD and a distant cracking sound, and the boy lay facedown on the
//grass in a heap.

// 2590
//Harry sheathed his wand and raced forwards at full speed. He arrived at the
//boy’s side at the same time as Madam Hooch, and Harry reached into his pouch
//and tried to recall oh god what was the name never mind he’d just try “Healer’s
//Pack!” and it popped up into his hand and -

// 2591
//“Broken wrist,” Madam Hooch said. “Calm down, boy, he just has a broken wrist!”

// 2592
//There was a sort of mental lurch as Harry’s mind snapped out of Panic Mode.

// 2593
//The Emergency Healing Pack Plus lay open in front of him, and there was a
//syringe of liquid fire in Harry’s hand, which would have kept the boy’s brain
//oxygenated if he’d managed to snap his neck.

// 2594
//“Ah…” Harry said in a rather wavering sort of voice. His heart was pounding so
//loudly that he almost couldn’t hear himself panting for breath. “Broken bone…
//right… Setting String?”

// 2595
//“That’s for emergencies only,” snapped Madam Hooch. “Put it away, he’s fine.”
//She leaned over the boy, offering him a hand. “Come on, boy, it’s all right, up
//you get!”

// 2596
//“You’re not seriously going to make him ride the broomstick again?” Harry said
//in horror.

// 2597
//Madam Hooch sent Harry a glare. “Of course not!” She pulled the boy to his feet
//using his good arm - Harry saw with a shock that it was Neville Longbottom
//__again,__ what was __with__ him? - and she turned to all the
//watching children. “None of you is to move while I take this boy to the
//hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you’ll be out of
//Hogwarts before you can say ‘Quidditch.’ Come on, dear.”

// 2598
//And Madam Hooch walked off with Neville, who was clutching his wrist and trying
//to control his sniffles.

// 2599
//When they were out of earshot, one of the Slytherins started giggling.

// 2600
//That set off the others.

// 2601
//Harry turned and looked at them. It seemed like a good time to memorise some
//faces.

// 2602
//And Harry saw that Draco was strolling towards him, accompanied by Mr. Crabbe
//and Mr. Goyle. Mr. Crabbe wasn’t smiling. Mr. Goyle decidedly was. Draco
//himself was wearing a very controlled face that twitched occasionally, from
//which Harry inferred that Draco thought it was hilarious but saw no political
//advantage to be gained by laughing about it now instead of in the Slytherin
//dungeons afterwards.

// 2603
//“Well, Potter,” Draco said in a low voice that didn’t carry, still with that
//very controlled face that was twitching occasionally, “Just wanted to say, when
//you take advantage of emergencies to demonstrate leadership, you want to look
//like you’re in total control of the situation, rather than, say, going into a
//complete panic.” Mr. Goyle giggled, and Draco shot him a quelling look. “But
//you probably scored a few points anyway. You need any help stowing that
//healer’s kit?”

// 2604
//Harry turned to look at the Healing Pack, which got his own face turned away
//from Draco. “I think I’m fine,” Harry said. He put the syringe back in its
//place, redid the latches, and stood up.

// 2605
//Ernie Macmillan arrived just as Harry was feeding the pack back into his
//mokeskin pouch.

// 2606
//“Thank you, Harry Potter, on behalf of Hufflepuff,” Ernie Macmillan said
//formally. “It was a good try and a good thought.”

// 2607
//“A good thought indeed,” drawled Draco. “Why didn’t anyone in Hufflepuff have
//their wands out? Maybe if you’d __all__ helped instead of just Potter, you
//could’ve caught him. I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to stick together?”

// 2608
//Ernie looked like he was torn between getting angry and wanting to die of
//shame. “We didn’t think of it in time -”

// 2609
//“Ah,” said Draco, “didn’t __think__ of it, I guess that’s why it’s better
//to have one Ravenclaw as a friend than all of Hufflepuff.”

// 2610
//Oh, hell, how was Harry supposed to juggle this one… “You’re not helping,”
//Harry said in a mild tone. Hoping Draco would interpret that as __you’re
//interfering with my plans, please shut up.__

// 2611
//“Hey, what’s this?” said Mr. Goyle. He stooped to the grass and picked up
//something around the size of a large marble, a glass ball that seemed to be
//filled with a swirling white mist.

// 2612
//Ernie blinked. “Neville’s Remembrall!”

// 2613
//“What’s a Remembrall?” asked Harry.

// 2614
//“It turns red if you’ve forgotten something,” Ernie said. “It doesn’t tell you
//what you forgot, though. Give it here, please, and I’ll hand it back to Neville
//later.” Ernie held out his hand.

// 2615
//A sudden grin flashed across Mr. Goyle’s face and he spun around and raced
//away.

// 2616
//Ernie stood still for a moment in surprise, and then shouted “Hey!” and ran
//after Mr. Goyle.

// 2617
//And Mr. Goyle grabbed a broomstick, hopped on with one smooth motion and took
//to the air.

// 2618
//Harry’s jaw dropped. Hadn’t Madam Hooch said that would get him
//__expelled?__

// 2619
//__“That idiot!__” Draco hissed. He opened his mouth to shout -

// 2620
//“__Hey!__” shouted Ernie. “That’s Neville’s! __Give it back!__”

// 2621
//The Slytherins started cheering and hooting.

// 2622
//Draco’s mouth snapped shut. Harry caught the sudden look of indecision on his
//face.

// 2623
//“Draco,” Harry said in a low tone, “if you don’t order that idiot back on the
//ground, the teacher’s going to get back and -”

// 2624
//“__Come and get it, Hufflepuffle!__” shouted Mr. Goyle, and a great cheer
//went up from the Slytherins.

// 2625
//“I __can’t!__” whispered Draco. “Everyone in Slytherin would think I’m
//__weak!__”

// 2626
//“And if Mr. Goyle gets expelled,” hissed Harry, “your __father__ is going
//to think you’re a __moron!__”

// 2627
//Draco’s face twisted in agony.

// 2628
//At that moment -

// 2629
//“Hey, __Slytherslime__,” shouted Ernie, “didn’t anyone ever tell you that
//Hufflepuffs stick together? __Wands out, Hufflepuff!__”

// 2630
//And there were suddenly a whole lot of wands pointed in Mr. Goyle’s direction.

// 2631
//Three seconds later -

// 2632
//“__Wands out, Slytherin!__” said around five different Slytherins.

// 2633
//And there were a whole lot of wands pointed in Hufflepuff’s direction.

// 2634
//Two seconds later -

// 2635
//“__Wands out, Gryffindor!__”

// 2636
//“__Do something, Potter!__” whispered Draco. ”__I can’t be the one
//to stop this it has to be you! I’ll owe you a favour just think of something
//aren’t you supposed to be brilliant?__”

// 2637
//In around five and a half seconds, realised Harry, someone was going to cast
//the Sumerian Simple Strike Hex and by the time it was over and the teachers
//were done expelling people the only boys left in his year would be Ravenclaws.

// 2638
//“__Wands out, Ravenclaw!__” shouted Michael Corner who was apparently
//feeling left out of the disaster.

// 2639
//“__GREGORY GOYLE!”__ screamed Harry__. “I challenge you to a contest
//for possession of Neville’s Remembrall!”__

// 2640
//There was a sudden pause.

// 2641
//“Oh, really?” said Draco in the loudest drawl Harry had ever heard. “That
//sounds interesting. What sort of contest, Potter?”

// 2642
//Er…

// 2643
//“Contest” had been as far as Harry’s inspiration had gotten. What sort of
//contest, he couldn’t say “chess” because Draco wouldn’t be able to accept
//without it looking strange, he couldn’t say “arm-wrestling” because Mr. Goyle
//would crush him -

// 2644
//“How about this?” Harry said loudly. “Gregory Goyle and I stand apart from each
//other, and no one else is allowed to come near either of us. We don’t use our
//wands and neither does anyone else. I don’t move from where I’m standing, and
//neither does he. And if I can get my hands on Neville’s Remembrall, then
//Gregory Goyle relinquishes all claim to that Remembrall he’s holding and gives
//it to me.”

// 2645
//There was another pause as people’s looks of relief transmuted to confusion.

// 2646
//“Hah, Potter!” said Draco loudly. “I’d like to see you do __that!__ Mr.
//Goyle accepts!”

// 2647
//“It’s on!” said Harry.

// 2648
//“Potter, __what?__” whispered Draco, which he somehow did without moving
//his lips.

// 2649
//Harry didn’t know how to answer without moving his.

// 2650
//People were putting their wands away, and Mr. Goyle swooped gracefully to the
//ground, looking rather confused. Some Hufflepuffs started over towards Mr.
//Goyle, but Harry shot them a desperately pleading look and they backed off.

// 2651
//Harry walked toward Mr. Goyle and stopped when he was a few paces away, far
//enough apart that they couldn’t reach each other.

// 2652
//Slowly, deliberately, Harry sheathed his wand.

// 2653
//Everyone else backed away.

// 2654
//Harry swallowed. He knew in broad outline what he __wanted__ to do, but it
//had to be done in such a way that no one understood __what__ he’d done -

// 2655
//“All right,” Harry said loudly. “And now…” He took a deep breath and raised one
//hand, fingers ready to snap. There were gasps from anyone who’d heard about the
//pies, which was practically everyone. “__I call upon the insanity of
//Hogwarts! Happy happy boom boom swamp swamp swamp!__” And Harry snapped his
//fingers.

// 2656
//A lot of people flinched.

// 2657
//And nothing happened.

// 2658
//Harry let the silence stretch on for a while, developing, until…

// 2659
//“Um,” someone said. “Is that it?”

// 2660
//Harry looked at the boy who’d spoken. “Look in front of you. You see that patch
//of ground that looks barren, without any grass on it?”

// 2661
//“Um, yeah,” said the boy, a Gryffindor (Dean something?).

// 2662
//“Dig it up.”

// 2663
//Now Harry was getting a lot of strange looks.

// 2664
//“Er, why?” said Dean something.

// 2665
//“Just do it,” said Terry Boot in a weary voice. “No point asking why, trust me
//on this one.”

// 2666
//Dean something kneeled down and began to scoop away dirt.

// 2667
//After a minute or so, Dean stood up again. “There’s nothing there,” Dean said.

// 2668
//Huh. Harry had been planning to go back in time and bury a treasure map that
//would lead to another treasure map that would lead to Neville’s Remembrall
//which he would put there after getting it back from Mr. Goyle…

// 2669
//Then Harry realised there was a much simpler way which didn’t threaten the
//secret of Time-Turners quite as much.

// 2670
//“Thanks, Dean!” Harry said loudly. “Ernie, would you look around on the ground
//where Neville fell and see if you can find Neville’s Remembrall?”

// 2671
//People looked even more confused.

// 2672
//“Just do it,” said Terry Boot. “He’ll keep trying until something works, and
//the scary thing is that -”

// 2673
//“__Merlin!__” gasped Ernie. He was holding up Neville’s Remembrall. “It’s
//__here!__ Right where he fell!”

// 2674
//“__What?__” cried Mr. Goyle. He looked down and saw…

// 2675
//…that he was still holding Neville’s Remembrall.

// 2676
//There was a rather long pause.

// 2677
//“Er,” said Dean something, “that’s not possible, is it?”

// 2678
//“It’s a plot hole,” said Harry. “I made myself weird enough to distract the
//universe for a moment and it forgot that Goyle had already picked up the
//Remembrall.”

// 2679
//“No, wait, I mean, that’s __totally__ not possible -”

// 2680
//“Excuse me, are we all standing around here waiting to go flying on
//broomsticks? Yes we are. So shut up. Anyway, once I get my hands on Neville’s
//Remembrall, the contest is over and Gregory Goyle has to relinquish all claim
//to the Remembrall he’s holding and give it to me. Those were the terms,
//remember?” Harry stretched out a hand and beckoned Ernie. “Just roll it over
//here, since no one’s supposed to get close to me, okay?”

// 2681
//“Hold on!” shouted a Slytherin - Blaise Zabini, Harry wasn’t likely to forget
//that name. “How do we know that’s Neville’s Remembrall? You could’ve just
//dropped __another__ Remembrall there -”

// 2682
//“The Slytherin is strong with this one,” Harry said, smiling. “But you have my
//word that the one Ernie’s holding is Neville’s. No comment about the one
//Gregory Goyle’s holding.”

// 2683
//Zabini spun to Draco. “__Malfoy!__ You’re not just going to let him get
//away with that -”

// 2684
//“Shut up, you,” rumbled Mr. Crabbe, standing behind Draco. “Mr. Malfoy doesn’t
//need __you__ to tell him what to do!”

// 2685
//__Good__ minion.

// 2686
//“My bet was with Draco, of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy,” Harry
//said. “Not with you, Zabini. I have done what Mr. Malfoy said he’d like to see
//me do, and as for the judgment of the bet, I leave that up to Mr. Malfoy.”
//Harry inclined his head towards Draco and raised his eyebrows slightly. That
//ought to allow Draco to save enough face.

// 2687
//There was a pause.

// 2688
//“You promise that actually __is__ Neville’s Remembrall?” Draco said.

// 2689
//“Yes,” Harry said. “That’s the one that’ll go back to Neville and it was his
//originally. And the one Gregory Goyle’s holding goes to me.”

// 2690
//Draco nodded, looking decisive. “I won’t question the word of the Noble House
//of Potter, then, no matter how strange that all was. And the Noble and Most
//Ancient House of Malfoy keeps its word as well. Mr. Goyle, give that to Mr.
//Potter -”

// 2691
//“Hey!” Zabini said. “He hasn’t won __yet__, he hasn’t got his hands on -”

// 2692
//“Catch, Harry!” said Ernie, and he tossed the Remembrall.

// 2693
//Harry easily snapped the Remembrall out of the air, he’d always had good
//reflexes that way. “There,” said Harry, “I win…”

// 2694
//Harry trailed off. All conversation stopped.

// 2695
//The Remembrall was glowing bright red in his hand, blazing like a miniature sun
//that cast shadows on the ground in broad daylight.

// 2696
//Thursday.

// 2697
//If you wanted to be specific, 5:09pm on Thursday afternoon, in Professor
//McGonagall’s office, after flying classes. (With an extra hour for Harry
//slipped in between.)

// 2698
//Professor McGonagall sitting on her stool. Harry in the hot seat in front of
//her desk.

// 2699
//“Professor,” Harry said tightly, “Slytherin was pointing their wands at
//Hufflepuff, Gryffindor was pointing their wands at Slytherin, some
//__idiot__ called wands out in Ravenclaw, and I had maybe five seconds to
//keep the whole thing from blowing sky-high! It was all I could think of!”

// 2700
//Professor McGonagall’s face was pinched and angry. “__You are not to use
//the Time-Turner in that fashion, Mr. Potter!__ Is the concept of secrecy not
//something that you understand?”

// 2701
//“They don’t __know__ how I did it! They just think I can do really weird
//things by snapping my fingers! I’ve done other weird stuff that can’t be done
//with Time-Turners even, and I’ll do __more__ stuff like that, and
//__this__ case won’t even stand out! I __had to do it,__ Professor!”

// 2702
//“You did __not__ have to do it!” snapped Professor McGonagall. “All you
//needed to do was get this __anonymous Slytherin__ back on the ground and
//the wands put away! You could have challenged him to a game of Exploding Snap
//but no, you had to use the Time-Turner in a flagrant and unnecessary manner!”

// 2703
//“It was all I could think of! I don’t even know what Exploding Snap
//__is,__ they wouldn’t have accepted a game of chess and if I’d picked
//arm-wresting I would have lost!”

// 2704
//“__Then you should have picked wrestling!__”

// 2705
//Harry blinked. “But then I’d have __lost__ -”

// 2706
//Harry stopped.

// 2707
//Professor McGonagall was looking __very__ angry.

// 2708
//“I’m sorry, Professor McGonagall,” Harry said in a small voice. “I honestly
//didn’t think of that, and you’re right, I should have, it would have been
//brilliant if I had, but I just didn’t think of that at all…”

// 2709
//Harry’s voice trailed off. It was suddenly apparent to him that he’d had a
//__lot__ of other options. He could have asked __Draco__ to suggest
//something, he could have asked the crowd… his use of the Time-Turner
//__had__ been flagrant and unnecessary. There had been a giant space of
//possibilities, why had he picked __that__ one?

// 2710
//Because he’d seen a way to __win.__ Win possession of an unimportant
//trinket that the teachers would’ve taken back from Mr. Goyle anyway.

// 2711
//Intent to win. That was what had gotten him.

// 2712
//“I’m sorry,” Harry said again. “For my pride and my stupidity.”

// 2713
//Professor McGonagall wiped a hand across her forehead. Some of her anger seemed
//to dissipate. But her voice still came out very hard. “One more display like
//that, Mr. Potter, and you will be returning that Time-Turner. Do I make myself
//very clear?”

// 2714
//“Yes,” Harry said. “I understand and I’m sorry.”

// 2715
//“Then, Mr. Potter, you will be allowed to retain the Time-Turner for now. And
//considering the size of the debacle you did, in fact, avert, I will not deduct
//any points from Ravenclaw.”

// 2716
//__Plus you couldn’t explain why you’d deducted the points.__ But Harry
//wasn’t dumb enough to say that out loud.

// 2717
//“More importantly, why did the Remembrall go off like that?” Harry said. “Does
//it mean I’ve been Obliviated?”

// 2718
//“That puzzles me as well,” Professor McGonagall said slowly. “If it were that
//simple, I would think that the courts would use Remembralls, and they do not. I
//shall look into it, Mr. Potter.” She sighed. “You can go now.”

// 2719
//Harry started to get up from his chair, then halted. “Um, sorry, I did have
//something else I wanted to tell you -”

// 2720
//You could hardly see the flinch. “What is it, Mr. Potter?”

// 2721
//“It’s about Professor Quirrell -”

// 2722
//“I’m sure, Mr. Potter, that it is nothing of importance.” Professor McGonagall
//spoke the words in a great rush. “Surely you heard the Headmaster tell the
//students that you were not to bother us with any unimportant complaints about
//the Defence Professor?”

// 2723
//Harry was rather confused. “But this could __be__ important, yesterday I
//got this sudden sense of doom when -”

// 2724
//“Mr. Potter! I have a sense of doom as well! And my sense of doom is suggesting
//that __you must not finish that sentence!__”

// 2725
//Harry’s mouth gaped open. Professor McGonagall had succeeded; Harry was
//speechless.

// 2726
//“Mr. Potter,” said Professor McGonagall, “if you have discovered anything that
//seems interesting about Professor Quirrell, please feel free not to share it
//with me or anyone else. Now I think you’ve taken up enough of my valuable time
//-”

// 2727
//“__This isn’t like you!__” Harry burst out. “I’m sorry but that just seems
//__unbelievably__ irresponsible! From what I’ve heard there’s some kind of
//jinx on the Defence position, and if you already __know__ something’s
//going to go wrong, I’d think you’d all be on your toes -”

// 2728
//“Go __wrong__, Mr. Potter? __I certainly hope not.__” Professor
//McGonagall’s face was expressionless. “After Professor Blake was caught in a
//closet with no fewer than three fifth-year Slytherins last February, and a year
//before that, Professor Summers failed so completely as an educator that her
//students thought a boggart was a kind of furniture, it would be
//__catastrophic__ if some problem with the extraordinarily competent
//Professor Quirrell came to my attention now, and I daresay most of our students
//would fail their Defence O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.”

// 2729
//“I see,” Harry said slowly, taking it all in. “So in other words, whatever’s
//wrong with Professor Quirrell, you desperately don’t want to know about it
//until the end of the school year. And since it’s currently September, he could
//assassinate the Prime Minister on live television and get away with it so far
//as you’re concerned.”

// 2730
//Professor McGonagall gazed at him unblinkingly. “I am certain that I could
//never be heard endorsing such a statement, Mr. Potter. At Hogwarts we strive to
//be proactive with respect to __anything__ that threatens the educational
//attainment of our students.”

// 2731
//__Such as first-year Ravenclaws who can’t keep their mouths shut.__ “I
//believe I understand you completely, Professor McGonagall.”

// 2732
//“Oh, I doubt that, Mr. Potter. I doubt that very much.” Professor McGonagall
//leaned forward, her face tightening again. “Since you and I have already
//discussed matters far more sensitive than these, I shall speak frankly. You,
//and you alone, have reported this mysterious sense of doom. You, and you alone,
//are a chaos magnet the likes of which I have never seen. After our little
//shopping trip to Diagon Alley, and __then__ the Sorting Hat, and then
//__today’s__ little episode, I can well foresee that I am fated to sit in
//the Headmaster’s office and hear some hilarious tale about Professor Quirrell
//in which you and you alone play a starring role, after which there will be no
//choice but to fire him. I am already resigned to it, Mr. Potter. And if this
//sad event takes place any earlier than the Ides of May, I will string you up by
//the gates of Hogwarts with your own intestines and pour fire beetles into your
//nose. __Now__ do you understand me completely?”

// 2733
//Harry nodded, his eyes very wide. Then, after a second, “What do I get if I can
//make it happen on the last day of the school year?”

// 2734
//“__Get out of my office!__”

// 2735
//Thursday.

// 2736
//There must have been something about Thursdays in Hogwarts.

// 2737
//It was 5:32pm on Thursday afternoon, and Harry was standing next to Professor
//Flitwick, in front of the great stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the
//Headmaster’s office.

// 2738
//No sooner had he made it back from Professor McGonagall’s office to the
//Ravenclaw study rooms than one of the students told him to report to Professor
//Flitwick’s office, and there Harry had learned that Dumbledore wanted to speak
//to him.

// 2739
//Harry, feeling rather apprehensive, had asked Professor Flitwick if the
//Headmaster had said what this was about.

// 2740
//Professor Flitwick had shrugged in a helpless sort of way.

// 2741
//Apparently Dumbledore had said that Harry was far too young to invoke the words
//of power and madness.

// 2742
//__Happy happy boom boom swamp swamp swamp?__ Harry had thought but not
//said aloud.

// 2743
//“Please don’t worry too much, Mr. Potter,” squeaked Professor Flitwick from
//somewhere around Harry’s shoulder level. (Harry was grateful for Professor
//Flitwick’s gigantic puffy beard, it was hard getting used to a Professor who
//was not only shorter than him but spoke in a higher-pitched voice.) “Headmaster
//Dumbledore may seem a little odd, or a lot odd, or even extremely odd, but he
//has never hurt a student in the slightest, and I don’t believe he ever will.”
//Professor Flitwick gave Harry an encouraging smile. “Just keep that in mind at
//all times and you’ll be sure not to panic!”

// 2744
//This was not helping.

// 2745
//“Good luck!” squeaked Professor Flitwick, and leaned over to the gargoyle and
//said something that Harry somehow failed to hear at all. (Of course, the
//password wouldn’t be much good if you could hear someone saying it.) And the
//stone gargoyle walked aside with a very natural and ordinary movement that
//Harry found rather shocking, since the gargoyle still looked like solid,
//immovable stone the whole time.

// 2746
//Behind the gargoyle was a set of slowly revolving spiral stairs. There was
//something disturbingly hypnotic about it, and even more disturbing was that
//__revolving__ the spiral ought not to take you anywhere.

// 2747
//“Up you go!” squeaked Flitwick.

// 2748
//Harry rather nervously stepped onto the spiral, and found himself, for some
//reason that his brain couldn’t seem to visualise at all, moving upwards.

// 2749
//The gargoyle thudded back into place behind him, and the spiral stairs kept
//turning and Harry kept being higher up, and after a rather dizzying time, Harry
//found himself in front of an oak door with a brass griffin knocker.

// 2750
//Harry reached out and turned the doorknob.

// 2751
//The door swung open.

// 2752
//And Harry saw the most interesting room he’d ever seen in his life.

// 2753
//There were tiny metal mechanisms that whirred or ticked or slowly changed shape
//or emitted little puffs of smoke. There were dozens of mysterious fluids in
//dozens of oddly shaped containers, all bubbling, boiling, oozing, changing
//color, or forming into interesting shapes that vanished half a second after you
//saw them. There were things that looked like clocks with many hands, inscribed
//with numbers or in unrecognisable languages. There was a bracelet bearing a
//lenticular crystal that sparkled with a thousand colors, and a bird perched
//atop a golden platform, and a wooden cup filled with what looked like blood,
//and a statue of a falcon encrusted in black enamel. The wall was all hung with
//pictures of people sleeping, and the Sorting Hat was casually poised on a
//hatrack that was also holding two umbrellas and three red slippers for left
//feet.

// 2754
//In the midst of all the chaos was a clean black oaken desk. Before the desk was
//an oaken stool. And behind the desk was a well-cushioned throne containing
//Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who was adorned with a long silver
//beard, a hat like a squashed giant mushroom, and what looked to Muggle eyes
//like three layers of bright pink pyjamas.

// 2755
//Dumbledore was smiling, and his bright eyes twinkled with a mad intensity.

// 2756
//With some trepidation, Harry seated himself in front of the desk. The door
//swung shut behind him with a loud __thunk.__

// 2757
//“Hello, Harry,” said Dumbledore.

// 2758
//“Hello, Headmaster,” Harry replied. So they were on a first-name basis? Would
//Dumbledore now say to call him -

// 2759
//“Please, Harry!” said Dumbledore. “Headmaster sounds so formal. Just call me
//Heh for short.”

// 2760
//“I’ll be sure to, Heh,” said Harry.

// 2761
//There was a slight pause.

// 2762
//“Do you know,” said Dumbledore, “you’re the first person who’s ever taken me up
//on that?”

// 2763
//“Ah…” Harry said. He tried to control his voice despite the sudden sinking
//feeling in his stomach. “I’m sorry, I, ah, Headmaster, you told me to do it so
//I did -”

// 2764
//“Heh, please!” said Dumbledore cheerfully. “And there’s no call to be so
//worried, I won’t launch you out a window just because you make one mistake.
//I’ll give you plenty of warnings first, if you’re doing something wrong!
//Besides, what matters isn’t how people talk to you, it’s what they think of
//you.”

// 2765
//__He’s never hurt a student, just keep remembering that and you’ll be
//sure not to panic.__

// 2766
//Dumbledore drew forth a small metal case and flipped it open, showing some
//small yellow lumps. “Sherbet lemon?” said the Headmaster.

// 2767
//“Er, no thank you, Heh,” said Harry. __Does slipping a student LSD count
//as hurting them, or does that fall into the category of harmless fun?__ “You,
//um, said something about my being too young to invoke the words of power and
//madness?”

// 2768
//“That you most certainly are!” Dumbledore said. “Thankfully the Words of Power
//and Madness were lost seven centuries ago and no one has the slightest idea
//what they are anymore. It was just a little remark.”

// 2769
//“Ah…” Harry said. He was aware that his mouth was hanging open. “Why did you
//call me here, then?”

// 2770
//“__Why?__” Dumbledore repeated. “Ah, Harry, if I went around all day
//asking __why__ I do things, I’d never have time to get a single thing
//done! I’m quite a busy person, you know.”

// 2771
//Harry nodded, smiling. “Yes, it was a very impressive list. Headmaster of
//Hogwarts, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the
//International Confederation of Wizards. Sorry to ask but I was wondering, is it
//possible to get more than six hours if you use more than one Time-Turner?
//Because it’s pretty impressive if you’re doing all that on just thirty hours a
//day.”

// 2772
//There was another slight pause, during which Harry went on smiling. He was a
//little apprehensive, actually a lot apprehensive, but once it had become clear
//that Dumbledore was deliberately messing with him, something within him
//__absolutely refused__ to sit and take it like a defenceless lump.

// 2773
//“I’m afraid Time doesn’t like being stretched out too much,” said Dumbledore
//after the slight pause, “and yet we ourselves seem to be a little too large for
//it, and so it’s a constant struggle to fit our lives into Time.”

// 2774
//“Indeed,” Harry said with grave solemnity. “That’s why it’s best to come to our
//points quickly.”

// 2775
//For a moment Harry wondered if he’d gone too far.

// 2776
//Then Dumbledore chuckled. “Straight to the point it shall be.” The Headmaster
//leaned forwards, tilting his squashed mushroom hat and brushing his beard
//against his desk. “Harry, this Monday you did something that should have been
//impossible even with a Time-Turner. Or rather, impossible with __only__ a
//Time-Turner. Where did those two pies come from, I wonder?”

// 2777
//A jolt of adrenaline shot through Harry. He’d done that using the Cloak of
//Invisibility, the one that had been given him in a Christmas box along with a
//note, and that note had said: __If Dumbledore saw a chance to possess one
//of the Deathly Hallows he would never let it escape his grasp.____…__

// 2778
//“A natural thought,” Dumbledore went on, “is that since none of the first-years
//present were able to cast such a spell, someone else was present, and yet
//unseen. And if no one could see them, why, it would be easy enough for them to
//throw the pies. One might further suspect that since you had a Time-Turner, you
//were the invisible one; and that since the spell of Disillusionment is far
//beyond your current abilities, you had an invisibility cloak.” Dumbledore
//smiled conspiratorially. “Am I on the right track so far, Harry?”

// 2779
//Harry was frozen. He had the feeling that an outright lie would not at all be
//wise, and possibly not the least bit helpful, and he couldn’t think of anything
//else to say.

// 2780
//Dumbledore waved a friendly hand. “Don’t worry, Harry, you haven’t done
//anything wrong. Invisibility cloaks aren’t against the rules - I suppose
//they’re rare enough that no one ever got around to putting them on the list.
//But really I was wondering something else entirely.”

// 2781
//“Oh?” Harry said in the most normal voice he could manage.

// 2782
//Dumbledore’s eyes shone with enthusiasm. “You see, Harry, after you’ve been
//through a few adventures you tend to catch the hang of these things. You start
//to see the pattern, hear the rhythm of the world. You begin to harbour
//suspicions __before__ the moment of revelation. You are the Boy-Who-Lived,
//and somehow an invisibility cloak made its way into your hands only four days
//after you discovered our magical Britain. Such cloaks are not for sale in
//Diagon Alley, but there is __one__ which might find its own way to a
//destined wearer. And so I cannot help but wonder if by some strange chance you
//have found not just __an__ invisibility cloak, but __the__ Cloak of
//Invisibility, one of the three Deathly Hallows and reputed to hide the wearer
//from the gaze of Death himself.” Dumbledore’s gaze was bright and eager. “May I
//see it, Harry?”

// 2783
//Harry swallowed. There was a full flood of adrenaline in his system now and it
//was entirely useless, this was the most powerful wizard in the world and there
//was no way he could make it out the door and there was nowhere in Hogwarts for
//him to hide if he did, he was about to lose the Cloak that had been passed down
//through the Potters for who knew how long -

// 2784
//Slowly Dumbledore leaned back into his high chair. The bright light had gone
//out of his eyes, and he looked puzzled and a little sorrowful. “Harry,” said
//Dumbledore, “if you don’t want to, you can just say no.”

// 2785
//“I can?” Harry croaked.

// 2786
//“Yes, Harry,” said Dumbledore. His voice sounded sad now, and worried. “It
//seems that you’re afraid of me, Harry. May I ask what I’ve done to earn your
//distrust?”

// 2787
//Harry swallowed. “Is there some way you can swear a binding magical oath that
//you won’t take my cloak?”

// 2788
//Dumbledore shook his head slowly. “Unbreakable Vows are not to be used so
//lightly. And besides, Harry, if you did not already know the spell, you would
//have only my word that the spell was binding. Yet surely you realise that I do
//not __need__ your permission to see the Cloak. I am powerful enough to
//draw it forth myself, mokeskin pouch or no.” Dumbledore’s face was very grave.
//“But this I will not do. The Cloak is yours, Harry. I will not seize it from
//you. Not even to look at for just a moment, unless you decide to show it to me.
//That is a promise and an oath. Should I need to prohibit you from using it on
//the school grounds, I will require you to go to your vault at Gringotts and
//store it there.”

// 2789
//“Ah…” Harry said. He swallowed hard, trying to calm the flood of adrenaline and
//think reasonably. He took the mokeskin pouch off his belt. “If you really
//__don’t__ need my permission… then you have it.” Harry held out the pouch
//to Dumbledore, and bit down hard on his lip, sending that signal to himself in
//case he was Obliviated afterwards.

// 2790
//The old wizard reached into the pouch, and without saying any word of
//retrieval, drew forth the Cloak of Invisibility.

// 2791
//“Ah,” breathed Dumbledore. “I was right…” He poured the shimmering black velvet
//mesh through his hand. “Centuries old, and still as perfect as the day it was
//made. We have lost much of our art over the years, and now I cannot make such a
//thing myself, no one can. I can feel the power of it like an echo in my mind,
//like a song forever being sung without anyone to hear it…” The wizard looked up
//from the Cloak. “Do not sell it,” he said, “do not give it to anyone as a
//possession. Think twice before you show it to anyone, and ponder three times
//again before you reveal it is a Deathly Hallow. Treat it with respect, for this
//is indeed a Thing of Power.”

// 2792
//For a moment Dumbledore’s face grew wistful…

// 2793
//…and then he handed the Cloak back to Harry.

// 2794
//Harry put it back in his pouch.

// 2795
//Dumbledore’s face was grave once more. “May I ask again, Harry, how you came to
//distrust me so?”

// 2796
//Suddenly Harry felt rather ashamed.

// 2797
//“There was a note with the Cloak,” Harry said in a small voice. “It said that
//you would try to take the Cloak from me, if you knew. I don’t know who left the
//note, though, I really don’t.”

// 2798
//“I… see,” Dumbledore said slowly. “Well, Harry, I won’t impugn the motives of
//whoever left you that note. Who knows but that they themselves may have had the
//best of good intentions? They did give you the Cloak, after all.”

// 2799
//Harry nodded, impressed by Dumbledore’s charity, and abashed at the sharp
//contrast with his own attitude.

// 2800
//The old wizard went on. “But you and I are both gamepieces of the same color, I
//think. The boy who finally defeated Voldemort, and the old man who held him off
//long enough for you to save the day. I will not hold your caution against you,
//Harry, we must all do our best to be wise. I will only ask that you think twice
//and ponder three times again, the next time someone tells you to distrust me.”

// 2801
//“I’m sorry,” Harry said. He felt wretched at this point, he’d just told off
//Gandalf essentially, and Dumbledore’s kindness was only making him feel worse.
//“I shouldn’t have distrusted you.”

// 2802
//“Alas, Harry, in this world…” The old wizard shook his head. “I cannot even say
//you were unwise. You did not know me. And in truth there are some at Hogwarts
//who you would do well not to trust. Perhaps even some you call friends.”

// 2803
//Harry swallowed. That sounded rather ominous. “Like who?”

// 2804
//Dumbledore stood up from his chair, and began examining one of his instruments,
//a dial with eight hands of varying length.

// 2805
//After a few moments, the old wizard spoke again. “He probably seems to you
//quite charming,” said Dumbledore. “Polite - to you at least. Well-spoken, maybe
//even admiring. Always ready with a helping hand, a favour, a word of advice -”

// 2806
//“Oh, __Draco Malfoy!__” Harry said, feeling rather relieved that it wasn’t
//Hermione or something. “Oh no, no no no, you’ve got it all wrong, he’s not
//turning me, I’m turning him.”

// 2807
//Dumbledore froze where he was peering at the dial. “You’re __what?__”

// 2808
//“I’m going to turn Draco Malfoy from the Dark Side,” Harry said. “You know,
//make him a good guy.”

// 2809
//Dumbledore straightened and turned to Harry. He was wearing one of the most
//astonished expressions Harry had ever seen on anyone, let alone someone with a
//long silver beard. “Are you certain,” said the old wizard after a moment, “that
//he is ready to be redeemed? I fear that whatever goodness you think you see
//within him is only wishful thinking - or worse, a lure, a bait -”

// 2810
//“Er, not likely,” Harry said. “I mean if he’s trying to disguise himself as a
//good guy he’s incredibly bad at it. This isn’t a question of Draco coming up to
//me and being all charming and me deciding that he must have a hidden core of
//goodness deep down. I selected him for redemption specifically because he’s the
//heir to House Malfoy and if you had to pick one person to redeem, it would
//obviously be him.”

// 2811
//Dumbledore’s left eye twitched. “You intend to sow seeds of love and kindness
//in Draco Malfoy’s heart because you expect Malfoy’s heir to prove valuable to
//you?”

// 2812
//“Not just to __me!__” Harry said indignantly. “To all of magical Britain,
//if this works out! __And__ he’ll have a happier and mentally healthier
//life himself! Look, I don’t have enough time to turn __everyone__ away
//from the Dark Side and I’ve got to ask where the Light can gain the most
//advantage the fastest -”

// 2813
//Dumbledore started laughing. Laughing a lot harder than Harry would expect,
//almost howling. It seemed positively __undignified.__ An ancient and
//powerful wizard ought to chuckle in deep booming tones, not laugh so hard he
//was gasping for breath. Harry had once literally fallen out of his chair while
//watching the Marx Brothers movie __Duck Soup,__ and that was how hard
//Dumbledore was laughing now.

// 2814
//“It’s not __that__ funny,” Harry said after a while. He was starting to
//worry about Dumbledore’s sanity again.

// 2815
//Dumbledore got himself under control again with a visible effort. “Ah, Harry,
//one symptom of the disease called wisdom is that you begin laughing at things
//that no one else thinks is funny, because when you’re wise, Harry, you start
//getting the jokes!” The old wizard wiped tears away from his eyes. “Ah, me. Ah,
//me. Oft evil will shall evil mar indeed, in very deed.”

// 2816
//Harry’s brain took a moment to place the familiar words… “Hey, that’s a
//__Tolkien__ quote! __Gandalf__ says that!”

// 2817
//“Theoden, actually,” said Dumbledore.

// 2818
//“You’re __Muggleborn?__” Harry said in shock.

// 2819
//“I’m afraid not,” said Dumbledore, smiling again. “I was born seventy years
//before that book was published, dear child. But it seems that my Muggleborn
//students tend to think alike in certain ways. I have accumulated no fewer than
//twenty copies of __The Lord of the Rings__ and three sets of Tolkien’s
//entire collected works, and I treasure every one of them.” Dumbledore drew his
//wand and held it up and struck a pose. “__You cannot pass!__ How does that
//look?”

// 2820
//“Ah,” Harry said in something approaching complete brain shutdown, “I think
//you’re missing a Balrog.” And the pink pyjamas and squashed mushroom hat were
//not helping in the slightest.

// 2821
//“I see.” Dumbledore sighed and glumly sheathed the wand in his belt. “I fear
//there have been precious few Balrogs in my life of late. Nowadays it’s all
//meetings of the Wizengamot where I must try desperately to prevent any work
//from getting done, and formal dinners where foreign politicians compete to see
//who can be the most obstinate fool. And being mysterious at people, knowing
//things I have no way of knowing, making cryptic statements which can only be
//understood in hindsight, and all the other small ways in which powerful wizards
//amuse themselves after they have left the part of the pattern that allows them
//to be heroes. Speaking of which, Harry, I have a certain something to give you,
//something which belonged to your father.”

// 2822
//“You do?” said Harry. “Gosh, who would have figured.”

// 2823
//“Yes indeed,” said Dumbledore. “I suppose it is a little predictable, isn’t
//it?” His face turned solemn. “Nonetheless…”

// 2824
//Dumbledore went back to his desk and sat down, pulling out one of the drawers
//as he did so. He reached in using both arms, and, straining slightly, pulled a
//rather large and heavy-looking object out of the drawer, which he then
//deposited on his oaken desk with a huge thunk.

// 2825
//“This,” Dumbledore said, “was your father’s rock.”

// 2826
//Harry stared at it. It was light gray, discolored, irregularly shaped,
//sharp-edged, and very much a plain old ordinary large rock. Dumbledore had
//deposited it so that it rested on the widest available cross-section, but it
//still wobbled unstably on his desk.

// 2827
//Harry looked up. “This is a joke, right?”

// 2828
//“It is not,” said Dumbledore, shaking his head and looking very serious. “I
//took this from the ruins of James and Lily’s home in Godric’s Hollow, where
//also I found you; and I have kept it from then until now, against the day when
//I could give it to you.”

// 2829
//In the mixture of hypotheses that served as Harry’s model of the world,
//Dumbledore’s insanity was rapidly rising in probability. But there __was__
//still a substantial amount of probability allocated to other alternatives… “Um,
//is it a __magical__ rock?”

// 2830
//“Not so far as I know,” said Dumbledore. “But I advise you with the greatest
//possible stringency to keep it close about your person at all times.”

// 2831
//All right. Dumbledore was __probably__ insane but if he __wasn’t__…
//well, it would be just too__ embarrassing__ to get in trouble from
//ignoring the advice of the inscrutable old wizard. That had to be like #4 on
//the list of the Top 100 Obvious Failure Modes.

// 2832
//Harry stepped forward and put his hands on the rock, trying to find some angle
//from which to lift it without cutting himself. “I’ll put it in my pouch, then.”

// 2833
//Dumbledore frowned. “That may not be close enough to your person. And what if
//your mokeskin pouch is lost, or stolen?”

// 2834
//“You think I should just carry a big rock everywhere I go?”

// 2835
//Dumbledore gave Harry a serious look. “That might prove wise.”

// 2836
//“Ah…” Harry said. It looked rather heavy. “I’d think the other students would
//tend to ask me questions about that.”

// 2837
//“Tell them I ordered you to do it,” said Dumbledore. “No one will question
//that, since they all think I’m insane.” His face was still perfectly serious.

// 2838
//“Er, to be honest if you go around ordering your students to carry large rocks
//I can kind of see why people would think that.”

// 2839
//“Ah, Harry,” said Dumbledore. The old wizard gestured, a sweep of one hand that
//seemed to take in all the mysterious instruments around the room. “When we are
//young we believe that we know everything, and so we believe that if we see no
//explanation for something, then no explanation exists. When we are older we
//realise that the whole universe works by a rhythm and a reason, even if we
//ourselves do not know it. It is only our own ignorance which appears to us as
//insanity.”

// 2840
//“Reality is always lawful,” said Harry, “even if we don’t know the law.”

// 2841
//“Precisely, Harry,” said Dumbledore. “To understand this - and I see that you
//__do__ understand it - is the essence of wisdom.”

// 2842
//“So… __why__ do I have to carry this rock exactly?”

// 2843
//“I can’t think of a reason, actually,” said Dumbledore.

// 2844
//“…you can’t.”

// 2845
//Dumbledore nodded. “But just because I can’t think of a reason doesn’t mean
//there __is__ no reason.”

// 2846
//The instruments ticked on.

// 2847
//“Okay,” said Harry, “I’m not even sure if I should be saying this, but that is
//simply not the correct way to deal with our admitted ignorance of how the
//universe works.”

// 2848
//“It isn’t?” said the old wizard, looking surprised and disappointed.

// 2849
//Harry had the feeling this conversation was not going to work out in his
//favour, but he carried on regardless. “No. I don’t even know if that fallacy
//has an official name, but if I had to make one up myself, it would be
//‘privileging the hypothesis’ or something like that. How can I put this
//formally… um… suppose you had a million boxes, and only one of the boxes
//contained a diamond. And you had a box full of diamond-detectors, and each
//diamond-detector always went off in the presence of a diamond, and went off
//half the time on boxes that didn’t have a diamond. If you ran twenty detectors
//over all the boxes, you’d have, on average, one false candidate and one true
//candidate left. And then it would just take one or two more detectors before
//you were left with the one true candidate. The point being that when there are
//lots of possible answers, __most__ of the evidence you need goes into just
//__locating__ the true hypothesis out of millions of possibilities -
//bringing it to your attention in the first place. The amount of evidence you
//need to judge between two or three plausible candidates is much smaller by
//comparison. So if you just jump ahead without evidence and promote one
//particular possibility to the focus of your attention, you’re skipping over
//most of the work. Like, you live in a city where there are a million people,
//and there’s a murder, and a detective says, well, we’ve got no evidence at all,
//so have we considered the possibility that Mortimer Snodgrass did it?”

// 2850
//“Did he?” said Dumbledore.

// 2851
//“No,” said Harry. “But later it turns out that the murderer had black hair, and
//Mortimer has black hair, so everyone’s like, ah, looks like Mortimer did it
//after all. So it’s unfair to Mortimer for the police to __promote him to
//their attention__ without having good reasons already in hand to suspect him.
//When there are lots of possibilities, most of the work goes into just
//__locating__ the true answer - starting to pay attention to it. You don’t
//need __proof__, or the sort of official evidence that scientists or courts
//demand, but you need some sort of __hint__, and that hint has to
//discriminate that particular possibility from the millions of others. Otherwise
//you can’t just pluck the right answer out of thin air. You can’t even pluck a
//possibility worth thinking about out of thin air. And there’s got to be a
//million other things I could do besides carrying around my father’s rock. Just
//because I’m ignorant about the universe doesn’t mean that I’m unsure about how
//I should reason in the presence of my uncertainty. The laws for thinking with
//probabilities are no less iron than the laws that govern old-fashioned logic,
//and what you just did is __not allowed.__” Harry paused. ”__Unless__,
//of course, you have some __hint__ you’re not mentioning.”

// 2852
//“Ah,” said Dumbledore. He tapped his cheek, looking thoughtful. “An interesting
//argument, certainly, but doesn’t it break down at the point where you make an
//analogy between a million potential murderers only one of whom committed the
//murder, and taking one out of many possible courses of action, when many
//possible courses of action may all be wise? I do not say that carrying your
//father’s rock is the one best possible course of action, only that it is wiser
//to do than not.”

// 2853
//Dumbledore once again reached into the same desk drawer he had accessed
//earlier, this time seeming to root around inside - at least his arm seemed to
//be moving. “I will remark,” Dumbledore said while Harry was still trying to
//sort out how to reply to this completely unexpected rejoinder, “that it is a
//common misconception of Ravenclaws that all the smart children are Sorted
//there, leaving none for other Houses. This is not so; being Sorted to Ravenclaw
//indicates that you are driven by your desire to know things, which is not at
//all the same quality as being intelligent.” The wizard was smiling as he bent
//over the drawer. “Nonetheless, you __do__ seem rather intelligent. Less
//like an ordinary young hero and more like a young mysterious ancient wizard. I
//think I may have been taking the wrong approach with you, Harry, and that you
//may be able to understand things that few others could grasp. So I shall be
//daring, and offer you a certain __other __heirloom.”

// 2854
//“You don’t mean…” gasped Harry. “My father… __owned another rock?__”

// 2855
//“Excuse me,” said Dumbledore, “I __am__ still older and more mysterious
//than you and if there are any revelations to be made then __I__ will do
//the revealing, thank you… oh, where __is__ that thing!” Dumbledore reached
//down further into the desk drawer, and still further. His head and shoulders
//and whole torso disappeared inside until only his hips and legs were sticking
//out, as though the desk drawer was eating him.

// 2856
//Harry couldn’t help but wonder just how much stuff was in there and what the
//complete inventory would look like.

// 2857
//Finally Dumbledore rose back up out of the drawer, holding the objective of his
//search, which he set down on the desk alongside the rock.

// 2858
//It was a used, ragged-edged, worn-spined textbook: __Intermediate Potion
//Making__ by Libatius Borage. There was a picture of a smoking vial on the cover.

// 2859
//“This,” Dumbledore intoned, “was your mother’s fifth-year Potions textbook.”

// 2860
//“Which I am to carry with me at all times,” said Harry.

// 2861
//“__Which holds a terrible secret__. A secret whose revelation could prove
//so disastrous that I must ask you to swear - and I do require you to swear it
//seriously, Harry, whatever you may think of all this - never to tell anyone or
//anything else.”

// 2862
//Harry considered his mother’s fifth-year Potions textbook, which, apparently,
//held a terrible secret.

// 2863
//The problem was that Harry __did__ take that oaths like that very
//seriously. Any vow was an Unbreakable Vow if made by the right sort of person.

// 2864
//And…

// 2865
//“I’m feeling thirsty,” Harry said, “and that is not at all a good sign.”

// 2866
//Dumbledore entirely failed to ask any questions about this cryptic statement.
//“__Do__ you swear, Harry?” said Dumbledore. His eyes gazed intently into
//Harry’s. “Otherwise I cannot tell you.”

// 2867
//“Yes,” said Harry. “I swear.” That was the trouble with being a Ravenclaw. You
//couldn’t refuse an offer like that or your curiosity would eat you alive, and
//everyone else knew it.

// 2868
//“And I swear in turn,” said Dumbledore, “that what I am about to tell you is
//the truth.”

// 2869
//Dumbledore opened the book, seemingly at random, and Harry leaned in to see.

// 2870
//“Do you see these notes,” Dumbledore said in a voice so low it was almost a
//whisper, “written in the margins of the book?”

// 2871
//Harry squinted slightly. The yellowing pages seemed to be describing something
//called a __potion of eagle’s splendour,__ many of the ingredients being
//items that Harry didn’t recognise at all and whose names didn’t appear to
//derive from English. Scrawled in the margin was a handwritten annotation
//saying, __I wonder what would happen if you used Thestral blood here
//instead of blueberries?__ and immediately beneath was a reply in different
//handwriting, __You’d get sick for weeks and maybe die.__

// 2872
//“I see them,” said Harry. “What about them?”

// 2873
//Dumbledore pointed to the second scrawl. “The ones in this handwriting,” he
//said, still in that low voice, “were written by your mother. And the ones in
//__this__ handwriting,” moving his finger to indicate the first scrawl,
//“were written by me. I would turn myself invisible and sneak into her dorm room
//while she was sleeping. Lily thought one of her friends was writing them and
//they had the most amazing fights.”

// 2874
//That was the exact point at which Harry realised that the Headmaster of
//Hogwarts __was,__ in fact, crazy.

// 2875
//Dumbledore was looking at him with a serious expression. “Do you understand the
//implications of what I have just told you, Harry?”

// 2876
//“Ehhh…” Harry said. His voice seemed to be stuck. “Sorry… I… not really…”

// 2877
//“Ah well,” said Dumbledore, and sighed. “I suppose your cleverness has limits
//after all, then. Shall we all just pretend I didn’t say anything?”

// 2878
//Harry rose from his chair, wearing a fixed smile. “Of course,” Harry said. “You
//know it’s actually getting rather late in the day and I’m a bit hungry, so I
//should be going down to dinner, really” and Harry made a beeline for the door.

// 2879
//The doorknob entirely failed to turn.

// 2880
//“You wound me, Harry,” said Dumbledore’s voice in quiet tones that were coming
//from right behind him. “Do you not at least realise that what I have told you
//is a sign of trust?”

// 2881
//Harry slowly turned around.

// 2882
//In front of him was a very powerful and very insane wizard with a long silver
//beard, a hat like a squashed giant mushroom, and wearing what looked to Muggle
//eyes like three layers of bright pink pyjamas.

// 2883
//Behind him was a door that didn’t seem to be working at the moment.

// 2884
//Dumbledore was looking rather saddened and weary, like he wanted to lean on a
//wizard’s staff he didn’t have. “Really,” said Dumbledore, “you try anything new
//instead of following the same pattern every time for a hundred and ten years,
//and people all start running away.” The old wizard shook his head in sorrow.
//“I’d hoped for better from you, Harry Potter. I’d heard that your own friends
//also think you mad. I know they are mistaken. Will you not believe the same of
//me?”

// 2885
//“Please open the door,” Harry said, his voice trembling. “If you ever want me
//to trust you again, open the door.”

// 2886
//There was the sound behind him of a door opening.

// 2887
//“There were more things I planned to say to you,” Dumbledore said, “and if you
//leave now, you will not know what they were.”

// 2888
//Sometimes Harry absolutely __hated__ being a Ravenclaw.

// 2889
//__He’s never hurt a student,__ said Harry’s Gryffindor side.__ Just
//keep remembering that and you’ll be sure not to panic. You’re not going to run
//away just because things are getting interesting, are you?__

// 2890
//__You can’t just walk out on the Headmaster!__ said the Hufflepuff part.
//__What if he starts deducting House points? He could make your school
//life very difficult if he decides he doesn’t like you!__

// 2891
//And a piece of himself which Harry didn’t much like but couldn’t quite manage
//to silence was pondering the potential advantages of being one of the few
//friends of this mad old wizard who also happened to be Headmaster, Chief
//Warlock, and Supreme Mugwump. And unfortunately his inner Slytherin seemed to
//be much better than Draco at turning people to the Dark Side, because it was
//saying things like __poor fellow, he looks like he needs someone to talk
//to, doesn’t he?__ and __you wouldn’t want such a powerful man to end up
//trusting someone less virtuous, would you?__ and __I wonder what sort of
//incredible secrets Dumbledore could tell you if, you know, you became friends
//with him__ and even __I bet he’s got a reaallly interesting book
//collection.__

// 2892
//__You’re all a bunch of lunatics,__ Harry thought at the entire
//assemblage, but he’d been unanimously outvoted by every component part of
//himself.

// 2893
//Harry turned, took a step towards the open door, reached out, and deliberately
//closed it again. It was a costless sacrifice given that he was staying anyway,
//Dumbledore could control his movements regardless, but maybe it would impress
//Dumbledore.

// 2894
//When Harry turned back around he saw that the powerful insane wizard was once
//more smiling and looking friendly. That was good, maybe.

// 2895
//“Please don’t do that again,” Harry said. “I don’t like being trapped.”

// 2896
//“I __am__ sorry about that, Harry,” said Dumbledore in what sounded like
//tones of sincere apology. “But it would have been terribly unwise to let you
//leave without your father’s rock.”

// 2897
//“Of course,” Harry said. “It wasn’t reasonable of me to expect the door to open
//before I put the quest items in my inventory.”

// 2898
//Dumbledore smiled and nodded.

// 2899
//Harry went over to the desk, twisted his mokeskin pouch around to the front of
//his belt, and, with some effort, managed to heave up the rock in his
//eleven-year-old arms and feed it in.

// 2900
//He could actually feel the weight slowly diminishing as the Widening Lip charm
//ate the rock, and the burp which followed was rather noisy and had a distinctly
//complaining sound to it.

// 2901
//His mother’s fifth-year Potions textbook (which held a secret that was in fact
//pretty terrible) followed shortly after.

// 2902
//And then Harry’s inner Slytherin made a sly suggestion for ingratiating himself
//with the Headmaster, which, unfortunately, had been perfectly pitched in such a
//way as to gain the support of the majority Ravenclaw faction.

// 2903
//“So,” Harry said. “Um. As long as I’m hanging around, I don’t suppose you would
//like to give me a bit of a tour of your office? I’m a bit curious as to what
//some of these things are,” and that was his understatement for the month of
//September.

// 2904
//Dumbledore gazed at him, and then nodded with a slight grin. “I’m flattered by
//your interest,” said Dumbledore, “but I’m afraid there isn’t much to say.”
//Dumbledore took a step closer to the wall and pointed to a painting of a
//sleeping man. “These are portraits of past Headmasters of Hogwarts.” He turned
//and pointed to his desk. “This is my desk.” He pointed to his chair. “This is
//my chair -”

// 2905
//“Excuse me,” Harry said, “actually I was wondering about those.” Harry pointed
//to a small cube that was softly whispering “blorple… blorple… blorple”.

// 2906
//“Oh, the little fiddly things?” said Dumbledore. “They came with the
//Headmaster’s office and I have absolutely no idea what most of them do.
//Although __this__ dial with the eight hands counts the number of, let’s
//call them sneezes, by left-handed witches within the borders of France, you
//would not believe how much work it took to nail that down. And __this__
//one with the golden wibblers is my own invention and Minerva is never, ever
//going to figure out what it’s doing.”

// 2907
//Dumbledore took a step over to the hatrack while Harry was still processing
//this. “Here of course we have the Sorting Hat, I believe the two of you have
//met. It told me that it was never again to be placed on your head under any
//circumstances. You’re only the fourteenth student in history it’s said that
//about, Baba Yaga was another one and I’ll tell you about the other twelve when
//you’re older. This is an umbrella. This is another umbrella.” Dumbledore took
//another few steps and turned around, now smiling quite broadly. “And of course,
//most people who come to my office want to see Fawkes.”

// 2908
//Dumbledore was standing next to the bird on the golden platform.

// 2909
//Harry came over, rather puzzled. “This is Fawkes?”

// 2910
//“Fawkes is a phoenix,” said Dumbledore. “Very rare, very powerful magical
//creatures.”

// 2911
//“Ah…” Harry said. He lowered his head and stared into the tiny, beady black
//eyes, which showed not the slightest sign of power or intelligence.

// 2912
//“Ahhh…” Harry said again.

// 2913
//He was pretty sure he recognised the shape of the bird. It was pretty hard to
//miss.

// 2914
//“Umm…”

// 2915
//__Say something intelligent!__ Harry’s mind roared at itself.
//__Don’t just stand there sounding like a gibbering moron!__

// 2916
//__Well what the heck am I __supposed__ to say?__ Harry’s mind fired
//back.

// 2917
//__Anything!__

// 2918
//__You mean, anything besides “Fawkes is a chicken” -__

// 2919
//__Yes! Anything but that!__

// 2920
//“So, ah, what sort of magic do phoenixes do, then?”

// 2921
//“Their tears have the power to heal,” Dumbledore said. “They are creatures of
//fire, and move between all places as easily as fire may extinguish itself in
//one place and be kindled in another. The tremendous strain of their innate
//magic ages their bodies quickly, and yet they are as close to undying as any
//creature that exists in this world, for whenever their bodies fail them they
//immolate themselves in a burst of fire and leave behind a hatchling, or
//sometimes an egg.” Dumbledore came closer and inspected the chicken, frowning.
//“Hm… looking a little peaky there, I’d say.”

// 2922
//By the time this statement registered fully in Harry’s mind, the chicken was
//already on fire.

// 2923
//The chicken’s beak opened, but it didn’t have time for so much as a single caw
//before it began to wither and char. The blaze was brief, intense, and entirely
//self-contained; there was no smell of burning.

// 2924
//And then the fire died down only seconds after it had begun, leaving behind a
//tiny, pathetic heap of ashes on the golden platform.

// 2925
//“Don’t look so horrified, Harry!” said Dumbledore. “Fawkes hasn’t been hurt.”
//Dumbledore’s hand dipped into a pocket, and then the same hand sifted through
//the ashes and turned up a small yellowish egg. “Look, here’s an egg!”

// 2926
//“Oh… wow… amazing…”

// 2927
//“But now we really should get on with things,” Dumbledore said. Leaving the egg
//behind in the ashes of the chicken, he returned to his throne and seated
//himself. “It’s almost time for dinner, after all, and we wouldn’t want to have
//to use our Time-Turners.”

// 2928
//There was a violent power struggle going on in the Government of Harry.
//Slytherin and Hufflepuff had switched sides after seeing the Headmaster of
//Hogwarts set fire to a chicken.

// 2929
//“Yes, things,” said Harry’s lips. “And then dinner.”

// 2930
//__You’re sounding like a gibbering moron again__ observed Harry’s Internal
//Critic.

// 2931
//“Well,” Dumbledore said. “I fear I have a confession to make, Harry. A
//confession and an apology.”

// 2932
//“Apologies are good” __that doesn’t even make sense! What am I talking
//about?__

// 2933
//The old wizard sighed deeply. “You may not still think so after understanding
//what I have to say. I’m afraid, Harry, that I’ve been manipulating you your
//entire life. It was I who consigned you to the care of your wicked stepparents
//-”

// 2934
//“My stepparents aren’t wicked!” blurted Harry. “My __parents,__ I mean!”

// 2935
//“They aren’t?” Dumbledore said, looking surprised and disappointed. “Not even a
//little wicked? That doesn’t fit the pattern…”

// 2936
//Harry’s inner Slytherin screamed at the top of its mental lungs, __SHUT
//UP YOU IDIOT HE’LL TAKE YOU AWAY FROM THEM!__

// 2937
//“No, no,” said Harry, lips frozen in a ghastly grimace, “I was just trying to
//spare your feelings, they’re actually very wicked…”

// 2938
//“They are?” Dumbledore leaned forward, gazing at him intently. “What do they
//do?”

// 2939
//__Talk fast __“they, ah, I have to do dishes and wash problems and they
//don’t let me read a lot of books and -”

// 2940
//“Ah, good, that’s good to hear,” said Dumbledore, leaning back again. He smiled
//in a sad sort of way. “I apologise for __that__, then. Now where was I?
//Ah, yes. I’m sorry to say, Harry, that I am responsible for virtually
//everything bad that has ever happened to you. I know that this will probably
//make you very angry.”

// 2941
//“Yes, I’m very angry!” said Harry. “Grrr!”

// 2942
//Harry’s Internal Critic promptly awarded him the All-Time Award for the Worst
//Acting in the History of Ever.

// 2943
//“And I just wanted you to know,” Dumbledore said, “I wanted to tell you as
//early as possible, in case something happens to one of us later, that I am
//truly, truly sorry. For everything that has already happened, and everything
//that will.”

// 2944
//Moisture glistened in the old wizard’s eyes.

// 2945
//“And I’m very angry!” said Harry. “So angry that I want to leave right now
//unless you’ve got anything else to say!”

// 2946
//__Just GO before he sets you on fire!__ shrieked Slytherin, Hufflepuff,
//and Gryffindor.

// 2947
//“I understand,” said Dumbledore. “One last thing then, Harry. You are
//__not__ to attempt the forbidden door on the third-floor corridor. There’s
//no possible way you could get through all the traps, and I wouldn’t want to
//hear that you’d been hurt trying. Why, I doubt that you could so much as open
//the first door, since it’s locked and you don’t know the spell
//__Alohomora -__”

// 2948
//Harry spun around and bolted for the exit at top speed, the doorknob turned
//agreeably in his hand and then he was racing down the spiral stairs even as
//they turned, his feet almost stumbling over themselves, in just a moment he was
//at the bottom and the gargoyle was walking aside and Harry fired out of the
//stairwell like a cannonball.

// 2949
//Harry Potter.

// 2950
//There must have been something about Harry Potter.

// 2951
//It was Thursday for everyone, after all, and yet this sort of thing didn’t seem
//to happen to anyone else.

// 2952
//It was 6:21pm on Thursday afternoon when Harry Potter, firing out of the
//stairwell like a cannonball and accelerating at top speed, ran directly into
//Minerva McGonagall as she was turning a corner on her way to the Headmaster’s
//office.

// 2953
//Thankfully neither of them were much hurt. As had been explained to Harry a
//little earlier in the day - back when he was refusing to go anywhere near a
//broomstick again - Quidditch needed solid iron Bludgers just to stand a decent
//chance of injuring the players, since wizards tended to be a lot more resistant
//than Muggles to impacts.

// 2954
//Harry and Professor McGonagall did both end up on the floor, and the parchments
//she had been carrying went all over the corridor.

// 2955
//There was a terrible, terrible pause.

// 2956
//“Harry Potter,” breathed Professor McGonagall from where she was lying on the
//floor right next to Harry. Her voice rose to nearly a shriek. “__What
//were you doing in the Headmaster’s office?”__

// 2957
//“Nothing!” squeaked Harry.

// 2958
//__“Were you talking about the Defence Professor?”__

// 2959
//“No! Dumbledore called me up there and he gave me this big rock and said it was
//my father’s and I should carry it everywhere!”

// 2960
//There was another terrible pause.

// 2961
//“I see,” said Professor McGonagall, her voice a little calmer. She stood up,
//brushed herself off, and glared at the scattered parchments, which jumped into
//a neat stack and scurried back against the corridor wall as though to hide from
//her gaze. “My sympathies, Mr. Potter, and I apologise for doubting you.”

// 2962
//“Professor McGonagall,” Harry said. His voice was wavering. He pushed himself
//off the floor, stood, and looked up at her trustworthy, __sane__ face.
//“Professor McGonagall…”

// 2963
//“Yes, Mr. Potter?”

// 2964
//“Do you think I should?” Harry said in a small voice. “Carry my father’s rock
//everywhere?”

// 2965
//Professor McGonagall sighed. “That is between you and the Headmaster, I’m
//afraid.” She hesitated. “I will say that ignoring the Headmaster completely is
//almost never wise. I __am__ sorry to hear of your dilemma, Mr. Potter, and
//if there’s any way I __can__ help you with whatever you decide to do -”

// 2966
//“Um,” Harry said. “Actually I was thinking that once I know how, I could
//Transfigure the rock into a ring and wear it on my finger. If you could teach
//me how to sustain a Transfiguration -”

// 2967
//“It is good that you asked me first,” Professor McGonagall said, her face
//growing a bit stern. “If you lost control of the Transfiguration the reversal
//would cut off your finger and probably rip your hand in half. And at your age,
//even a ring is too large a target for you to sustain indefinitely without it
//being a serious drain on your magic. But I can have a ring forged for you with
//a setting for a jewel, a __small__ jewel, in contact with your skin, and
//you can practice sustaining a safe subject, like a marshmallow. When you have
//kept it up successfully, even in your sleep, for a full month, I will allow you
//to Transfigure, ah, your father’s rock…” Professor McGonagall’s voice trailed
//off. “Did the Headmaster __really -__”

// 2968
//“Yes. Ah… um…”

// 2969
//Professor McGonagall sighed. “That’s a bit strange even for him.” She stooped
//and picked up the stack of parchments. “I’m sorry about this, Mr. Potter. I
//apologise again for mistrusting you. But now it’s my own turn to see the
//Headmaster.”

// 2970
//“Ah… good luck, I guess. Er…”

// 2971
//“Thank you, Mr. Potter.”

// 2972
//“Um…”

// 2973
//Professor McGonagall walked over to the gargoyle, inaudibly spoke the password,
//and stepped through into the revolving spiral stairs. She began to rise out of
//sight, and the gargoyle started back -

// 2974
//“__Professor McGonagall the Headmaster set fire to a chicken!”__

// 2975
//“He __wha-__”