046.asc

// 8373
//== Humanism, Pt 4

// 8374
//The last tip of the Sun was sinking below the horizon, the red light fading
//from the treetops, only the blue sky illuminating the six people standing upon
//the winter-dried and snow-spotted grass, near a vacant cage on whose floor lay
//an empty, tattered cloak.

// 8375
//Harry felt… well, __normal__ again. Sane-ish. The spell hadn’t undone the
//day and its damage, hadn’t made the injuries as if they had never been, but his
//hurts had been… bandaged, meliorated? It was hard to describe.

// 8376
//Dumbledore was also looking healthier, though not fully restored. The old
//wizard’s head turned for a moment, locked eyes with Professor Quirrell, then
//looked back to Harry. “Harry,” Dumbledore said, “are you about to collapse in
//exhaustion and possibly die?”

// 8377
//“No, strangely enough,” Harry said. “That took something out of me, but a lot
//less than I thought it would.” __Or maybe it gave something back, as well
//as taking… __“Honestly, I expected my body to be hitting the ground with a thud
//about now.”

// 8378
//There was a distinct body-hitting-the-ground-with-a-thuddish sort of sound.

// 8379
//“Thank you for taking care of that, Quirinus,” said Dumbledore to Professor
//Quirrell, who was now standing above and behind the unconscious forms of the
//three Aurors. “I confess I am still feeling a bit peaky. Though I shall handle
//the Memory Charms myself.”

// 8380
//Professor Quirrell inclined his head, and then looked at Harry. “I will omit a
//good deal of useless incredulity,” said Professor Quirrell, “remarks to the
//effect that Merlin himself failed to do that, et cetera. Let us go straight to
//asking the important question. What the sweet slithering snakes was
//__that?__”

// 8381
//“The Patronus Charm,” Harry said. “Version 2.0.”

// 8382
//“I rejoice to see that you are your usual self again,” said Dumbledore. “But
//you are not going __anywhere__, young Ravenclaw, until you tell me what
//exactly was that warm and happy thought.”

// 8383
//“Hm…” said Harry. He tapped a contemplative finger on his cheek. “I wonder if I
//should?”

// 8384
//Professor Quirrell suddenly grinned.

// 8385
//“Please?” said the Headmaster. “Pretty please with sugar on top?”

// 8386
//Harry felt an impulse and decided to go with it. It was dangerous, but there
//might not ever be a better opportunity until the end of time.

// 8387
//“Three sodas,” Harry said to his pouch, then looked up at the Defense Professor
//and the Headmaster of Hogwarts. “Gentlemen,” Harry said, “I bought these sodas
//on my first visit to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, on the day I entered
//into Hogwarts. I have been saving them for special occasions; there is a minor
//enchantment on them to ensure they are drunk at the right time. This is the
//last of my supply, but I do not think there will ever come a finer occasion.
//Shall we?”

// 8388
//Dumbledore took a soda can from Harry, and Harry tossed another to Professor
//Quirrell. The two older men each muttered identical charms over the can and
//frowned briefly at the result. Harry, for his part, simply popped the top and
//drank.

// 8389
//The Defense Professor and the Headmaster of Hogwarts politely followed suit.

// 8390
//Harry said, “I thought of my absolute rejection of death as the natural order.”

// 8391
//It might not be the right kind of warm feeling you needed to cast a Patronus
//Charm, but it was going into Harry’s Top 10 nonetheless.

// 8392
//The looks he got from the Defense Professor and the Headmaster briefly made
//Harry nervous, as the spilled Comed-Tea faded out of existence; but then the
//two of them each glanced at the other and both apparently decided that they
//couldn’t get away with doing anything really awful to Harry in the other’s
//presence.

// 8393
//“Mr. Potter,” said Professor Quirrell, “even __I__ know that is not how
//things are supposed to work.”

// 8394
//“Indeed,” said Dumbledore. “Explain.”

// 8395
//Harry opened his mouth, and then, as realization hit him, rapidly snapped his
//mouth shut again. Godric hadn’t told anyone, nor had Rowena if she’d known;
//there might have been any number of wizards who’d figured it out and kept their
//mouths shut. You couldn’t forget if you __knew__ that was what you were
//trying to do; once you realized __how__ it worked, the animal form of the
//Patronus Charm would never work for you again - and most wizards didn’t have
//the right upbringing to turn on Dementors and destroy them -

// 8396
//“Erm, sorry about this,” said Harry. “But I’ve just this instant realized that
//explaining would be an __incredibly__ bad idea until you work some things
//out on your own.”

// 8397
//“Is that the truth, Harry?” Dumbledore said slowly. “Or are you just pretending
//to be wise -”

// 8398
//“__Headmaster!__” said Professor Quirrell, sounding genuinely shocked.
//“Mr. Potter has told you that this spell is not spoken of with those who cannot
//cast it! You do not press a wizard on such matters!”

// 8399
//“If I told you -” Harry began.

// 8400
//“No,” Professor Quirrell said, sounding rather severe. “You don’t tell us
//__why,__ Mr. Potter, you simply tell us that we are not to know. If you
//wish to devise a hint, you do so carefully, at leisure, not in the midst of
//conversation.”

// 8401
//Harry nodded.

// 8402
//“But,” said the Headmaster. “But, but what am I to tell the Ministry? You can’t
//just __lose__ a Dementor!”

// 8403
//“Tell them I ate it,” said Professor Quirrell, causing Harry to choke on the
//soda he had unthinkingly raised to his lips. “I don’t mind. Shall we head on
//back, Mr. Potter?”

// 8404
//The two of them began to walk the dirt path back to Hogwarts, leaving behind
//Albus Dumbledore staring forlornly at the empty cage and the three sleeping
//Aurors awaiting their Memory Charms.

// 8405
//__Aftermath, Harry Potter and Professor Quirrell:__

// 8406
//They walked for a while before Professor Quirrell spoke, and all background
//noise dropped into silence when he did.

// 8407
//“You are exceptionally good at killing things, my student,” said Professor
//Quirrell.

// 8408
//“Thank you,” Harry said sincerely.

// 8409
//“I am not prying,” said Professor Quirrell, “but on the off-chance that it was
//__only__ the Headmaster who you did not trust with the secret…?”

// 8410
//Harry considered this. Professor Quirrell already couldn’t cast the animal
//Patronus Charm.

// 8411
//But you couldn’t untell a secret, and Harry was a fast enough learner to
//realize that he ought to at least __think__ for a while before unleashing
//this one upon the world.

// 8412
//Harry shook his head, and Professor Quirrell nodded acceptance.

// 8413
//“Out of curiosity, Professor Quirrell,” said Harry, “if your bringing the
//Dementor to Hogwarts had been part of an evil plot, what would have been its
//goal?”

// 8414
//“Assassinate Dumbledore while he was weakened,” Professor Quirrell said without
//even hesitating. “Hm. The Headmaster told you he was suspicious of me?”

// 8415
//Harry said nothing for a second while he tried to think of a reply, and then
//gave up when he realized he’d already answered.

// 8416
//“Interesting…” Professor Quirrell said. “Mr. Potter, it is not out of the
//question that there __was__ a plot at work today. Your wand ending up that
//close to the Dementor’s cage __could__ have been an accident. Or one of
//the Aurors could have been Imperiused, Confunded, or Legilimized to exert an
//influence. Flitwick and myself should not be excluded as suspects, in your
//calculation. One notes that Professor Snape canceled all his classes today, and
//I suspect he is powerful enough to Disillusion himself; the Aurors cast
//detection charms early on, but they did not repeat them immediately before your
//turn. But most easily of all, Mr. Potter, the deed could have been plotted by
//Dumbledore himself; and if he __did__, why, he might also take steps in
//advance to cast your suspicion elsewhere.”

// 8417
//They walked on for a few steps.

// 8418
//“But why __would__ he?” Harry said.

// 8419
//The Defense Professor stayed quiet a moment, and then said, “Mr. Potter, what
//steps have you taken to investigate the Headmaster’s character?”

// 8420
//“Not many,” said Harry. He’d only recently realized… “Not nearly enough.”

// 8421
//“Then I will observe,” said Professor Quirrell, “that you do not find out all
//there is to know about a man by asking only his friends.”

// 8422
//Now it was Harry’s turn to walk a few steps in silence on the slightly beaten
//dirt path that led back to Hogwarts. He’d really been supposed to know better
//than that already. Confirmation bias was the technical term; it meant, among
//other things, that when you chose your information sources, there was a notable
//tendency to choose information sources that agreed with your current opinions.

// 8423
//“Thank you,” Harry said. “Actually… I didn’t say it earlier, did I? Thank you
//for __everything__. If another Dementor ever threatens you, or for that
//matter, slightly annoys you, just let me know and I’ll introduce it to Mister
//Glowy Person. I don’t like it when Dementors slightly annoy my friends.”

// 8424
//That got him an indecipherable glance from Professor Quirrell. “You destroyed
//the Dementor because it threatened me?”

// 8425
//“Erm,” Harry said, “I’d sort of decided on it before then, but yes, that would
//have been sufficient reason by itself.”

// 8426
//“I see,” said Professor Quirrell. “And what would you have done about the
//threat to me if your spell __hadn’t__ worked for destroying the Dementor?”

// 8427
//“Plan B,” said Harry. “Encase the Dementor in dense metal with a high melting
//point, probably tungsten, drop it into an active volcano, and hope it ends up
//inside Earth’s mantle. Ah, the whole planet is filled with molten lava under
//its surface -”

// 8428
//“Yes,” said Professor Quirrell. “I know.” The Defense Professor was wearing a
//very odd smile. “I really should have thought of that myself, all things
//considered. Tell me, Mr. Potter, if you wanted to lose something where no one
//would ever find it again, where would you put it?”

// 8429
//Harry considered this question. “I suppose I shouldn’t ask __what__ you’ve
//found that needs losing -”

// 8430
//“Quite,” said Professor Quirrell, as Harry had expected; and then, “Perhaps you
//will be told when you are older,” which Harry hadn’t.

// 8431
//“Well,” said Harry, “besides trying to get it into the molten core of the
//planet, you could bury it in solid rock a kilometer underground in a randomly
//selected location - maybe teleport it in, if there’s some way to do that
//blindly, or drill a hole and repair the hole afterward; the important thing
//would be not to leave any traces leading there, so it’s just an anonymous cubic
//meter somewhere in the Earth’s crust. You could drop it into the Mariana
//Trench, that’s the deepest depth of ocean on the planet - or just pick some
//random other ocean trench, to make it less obvious. If you could make it
//buoyant and invisible, then you could throw it into the stratosphere. Or
//ideally you would launch it into space, with a cloak against detection, and a
//randomly fluctuating acceleration factor that would take it out of the Solar
//System. And afterward, of course, you’d Obliviate yourself, so even you didn’t
//know exactly where it was.”

// 8432
//The Defense Professor was laughing, and it sounded even odder than his smile.

// 8433
//“Professor Quirrell?” Harry said.

// 8434
//“All excellent suggestions,” said Professor Quirrell. “But tell me, Mr. Potter,
//why those exact five?”

// 8435
//“Huh?” said Harry. “They just seemed like the obvious sorts of ideas.”

// 8436
//“Oh?” said Professor Quirrell. “But there is an interesting pattern to them,
//you see. One might say it sounds like something of a riddle. I must admit, Mr.
//Potter, that although it has had its ups and downs, on the whole, this has been
//a surprisingly good day.”

// 8437
//And they continued walking down the path that led to the gates of Hogwarts,
//quite some distance apart; as Harry, without even thinking about it,
//automatically stayed far enough away from the Defense Professor not to trigger
//that sense of doom, which for some reason seemed unusually strong right now.

// 8438
//__Aftermath, Daphne Greengrass:__

// 8439
//Hermione had refused to answer any questions, and as soon as they’d passed the
//split leading to the Slytherin dungeons, Daphne and Tracey had peeled off at
//once, walking as quickly as they could. Rumor traveled fast in Hogwarts, so
//they’d have to go to the dungeons right away if they wanted to be the first to
//tell everyone the story.

// 8440
//“Now remember,” said Daphne, “don’t just blurt out about the kiss as soon as we
//walk in, okay? It works better if we tell the whole story in order.”

// 8441
//Tracey nodded excitedly.

// 8442
//And as soon as they burst into the Slytherin common room, Tracey Davis took a
//deep breath and shouted, “__Everyone! Harry Potter couldn’t cast the
//Patronus Charm and the Dementor almost ate him and Professor Quirrell saved him
//but then Potter was all evil until Granger brought him back with a kiss! It’s
//true love for sure!__”

// 8443
//It was ordered storytelling of a sort, Daphne supposed.

// 8444
//The news failed to produce the expected reaction. Most of the girls glanced
//over and then stayed in their couches, or the boys simply kept reading in their
//chairs.

// 8445
//“Yes,” said Pansy sourly, from where she was sitting with Gregory’s feet in her
//lap, leaning back and reading what seemed to be a coloring book, “Millicent
//already told us.”

// 8446
//__How -__

// 8447
//“Why didn’t __you__ kiss him first, Tracey?” said Flora and Hestia Carrow
//from their own chairs. “Now Potter’s going to marry a mudblood girl!
//__You__ could’ve been his true love and gotten into a rich Noble House and
//everything if you’d just kissed him first!”

// 8448
//Tracey’s face was a picture in stunned realization.

// 8449
//“__What?__” shrieked Daphne. “Love does not work like that!”

// 8450
//“Of course it does,” stated Millicent from where she was practicing some sort
//of Charm while looking out a window at the swirling waters of the Hogwarts
//Lake. “First kiss gets the prince.”

// 8451
//“__It wasn’t their first kiss!__” shouted Daphne. “Hermione was
//__already__ his true love! That’s why __she__ could bring him back!”
//Then Daphne realized what she’d just said and winced internally, but as the
//saying went, you had to fit the tongue to the ear.

// 8452
//“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?” said Gregory, swinging his feet off Pansy’s lap.
//“What’s this? Miss Bulstrode didn’t tell that part.”

// 8453
//Everyone else was also looking at Daphne, now.

// 8454
//“Oh, yeah,” said Daphne, “Harry shoved her away and shouted, ‘I told you, no
//kissing!’ Then Harry screamed like he was dying and Fawkes started singing to
//him - I’m not sure which one of those happened first, actually -”

// 8455
//“That doesn’t sound like true love to __me,__” said the Carrow twins.
//“That sounds like the __wrong person__ kissed him.”

// 8456
//“It was supposed to be __me__,” whispered Tracey. Her face was still
//stunned. “__I__ was supposed to be his true love. Harry Potter was
//__my__ general. I should’ve, I should’ve fought Granger for him -”

// 8457
//Daphne spun on Tracey, incensed. “__You?__ Take Harry away from Hermione?”

// 8458
//“Yeah!” said Tracey. “Me!”

// 8459
//“You’re nuts,” Daphne stated with conviction. “Even if you __had__ kissed
//him first, you know what that would make you? The sad little lovestruck girl
//who dies at the end of Act Two.”

// 8460
//“__You take that back!__” shouted Tracey.

// 8461
//Meanwhile, Gregory had crossed the room to where Vincent was doing his
//homework. “Mr. Crabbe,” Gregory said in a low voice, “I think Mr. Malfoy needs
//to know about this.”

// 8462
//__Aftermath, Hermione Granger:__

// 8463
//Hermione stared at the wax-sealed paper, on the surface of which was inscribed
//simply the number __42.__

// 8464
//__I figured out why we couldn’t cast the Patronus Charm, Hermione, it
//doesn’t have anything to do with us not being happy enough. But I can’t tell
//you. I couldn’t even tell the Headmaster. It needs to be even more secret than
//partial Transfiguration, for now, anyway. But if you ever need to fight
//Dementors, the secret is written here, cryptically, so that if someone doesn’t
//know it’s about Dementors and the Patronus Charm, they won’t know what it
//means…__

// 8465
//She’d told Harry about seeing him dying, her parents dying, all her friends
//dying, everyone dying. She hadn’t told him about her terror of dying alone,
//somehow that was still too painful.

// 8466
//Harry had told her about remembering his parents dying, and that he’d thought
//it was funny.

// 8467
//__There’s no light in the place the Dementor takes you, Hermione. No
//warmth. No caring. It’s somewhere that you can’t even understand happiness.
//There’s pain, and fear, and those can still drive you. You can hate, and take
//pleasure in destroying what you hate. You can laugh, when you see other people
//hurting. But you can’t ever be happy, you can’t even remember what it is that
//isn’t there anymore… I don’t think there’s any way I can ever explain just what
//you saved me from. I’m usually ashamed to put people to trouble, I usually
//can’t stand it when people make sacrifices for me, but this one time I’ll say
//that no matter what it ends up costing you to have kissed me, don’t ever doubt
//for a second that it was the right thing to do.__

// 8468
//Hermione hadn’t realized how __little__ the Dementor had touched her, how
//small and shallow had been the darkness into which it had taken her.

// 8469
//She’d seen everyone dying, and that had still been able to hurt.

// 8470
//Hermione put the paper back into her pouch, like a good girl ought to.

// 8471
//She’d really wanted to read it, though.

// 8472
//She was frightened of Dementors.

// 8473
//__Aftermath, Minerva McGonagall:__

// 8474
//She felt frozen; she shouldn’t have been so shocked, she shouldn’t have found
//Harry so hard to face, but after what he’d been through… She had searched the
//young boy in front of her for any signs of Dementation, and failed to find
//them. But something about the calm with which he had asked such a foreboding
//question seemed deeply worrying. “Mr. Potter, I can’t possibly speak of such
//matters without the Headmaster’s permission!”

// 8475
//The boy in her office took this in without changing expression. “I would prefer
//not to disturb the Headmaster over this matter,” Harry Potter said calmly. “I
//__insist__ on not disturbing him, in fact, and you did promise that our
//conversation would be kept private. So let me put it this way. I know that
//there was, in fact, a prophecy. I know that you are the one who originally
//heard it from Professor Trelawney. I know that the prophecy identified the
//child of James and Lily as someone dangerous to the Dark Lord. And I know who I
//am, indeed everyone now knows who I am, so you are revealing nothing new or
//dangerous, if you tell me only this: What was the __exact wording__ which
//identified __me,__ the child of James and Lily?”

// 8476
//Trelawney’s hollow voice echoed in her mind -

// 8477
//__BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM,__

// 8478
//__BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…__

// 8479
//“Harry,” said Professor McGonagall, “I can’t possibly tell you that!” It
//chilled her to the bone that Harry knew so much already, she couldn’t imagine
//how Harry had learned -

// 8480
//The boy looked at her with strange, sorrowful eyes. “Can you not sneeze without
//the Headmaster’s permission, Professor McGonagall? For I do promise to you that
//I have good reason to ask, and good reason to keep the question private.”

// 8481
//“Please don’t, Harry,” she whispered.

// 8482
//“All right,” Harry said. “One simple question. Please. Was the Potter family
//mentioned by __name?__ Does the prophecy literally say ‘Potter’?”

// 8483
//She stared at Harry for a while. She couldn’t have said why or where she got
//the sense that this was a critical point, that she could not lightly refuse the
//request, nor lightly accede to it -

// 8484
//“No,” she finally said. “Please, Harry, don’t ask any more.”

// 8485
//The boy smiled, a little sadly it seemed, and said, “Thank you, Minerva. You
//are a good woman and true.”

// 8486
//And while her mouth was still open in utter shock, Harry Potter got up and left
//the office; and only then did she realize that Harry had taken her refusal as
//an answer, and the true answer at that -

// 8487
//Harry closed the door behind himself.

// 8488
//The logic had presented itself with a strange diamondlike clarity. Harry
//couldn’t have said if it had come to him during Fawkes’s singing, or maybe even
//before.

// 8489
//Lord Voldemort had killed James Potter. He had preferred to spare Lily Potter’s
//life. He had continued his attack, therefore, with the sole purpose of killing
//their infant child.

// 8490
//Dark Lords were not usually scared of infant children.

// 8491
//So there was a prophecy about Harry Potter being dangerous to Lord Voldemort,
//and Lord Voldemort had known that prophecy.

// 8492
//__“I give you this rare chance to flee. But I will not trouble myself to
//subdue you, and your death here will not save your child. Step aside, foolish
//woman, if you have any sense in you at all!”__

// 8493
//Had it been a whim, to give her that chance? But then Lord Voldemort would not
//have tried to persuade her. Had the prophecy warned Lord Voldemort against
//killing Lily Potter? Then Lord Voldemort __would __have troubled himself
//to subdue her. Lord Voldemort had been __mildly__ inclined not to kill
//Lily Potter. The preference had been stronger than a whim, but not as strong as
//a warning.

// 8494
//So suppose that someone whom Lord Voldemort considered a lesser ally or
//servant, useful but not indispensable, had begged the Dark Lord to spare Lily’s
//life. Lily’s, but not James’s.

// 8495
//This person had known that Lord Voldemort would attack the house of the
//Potters. Had known both the prophecy, and the fact that the Dark Lord knew it.
//Otherwise he would not have begged Lily’s life.

// 8496
//According to Professor McGonagall, besides herself, the other two who knew of
//the prophecy were Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

// 8497
//Severus Snape, who had loved Lily before she was Lily Potter, and hated James.

// 8498
//Severus, then, had learned of the prophecy, and told it to the Dark Lord. Which
//he had done because the prophecy had not described the Potters by name. It had
//been a riddle, and Severus had solved that riddle only too late.

// 8499
//But if Severus had been the __first__ to hear the prophecy, and disposed
//to tell it to the Dark Lord, then why would he also have told Dumbledore or
//Professor McGonagall?

// 8500
//Therefore Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall had heard it first.

// 8501
//The Headmaster of Hogwarts had no obvious reason to tell the Transfiguration
//Professor about an extremely sensitive and crucial prophecy. But the
//Transfiguration Professor had every reason to tell the Headmaster.

// 8502
//It seemed likely, then, that Professor McGonagall had been the first to hear
//it.

// 8503
//The prior probabilities said that it had been Professor Trelawney, Hogwarts’s
//resident seer. Seers were rare, so if you counted up most of the seconds
//Professor McGonagall had spent in the presence of a seer over the course of her
//lifetime, most of those seer-seconds would be Trelawney-seconds.

// 8504
//Professor McGonagall had told Dumbledore, and would have told no one else about
//the prophecy without permission.

// 8505
//Therefore, it was Albus Dumbledore who had arranged for Severus Snape to
//somehow learn of the prophecy. And Dumbledore himself had solved the riddle
//successfully, or he would not have selected __Severus__, who had once
//loved Lily, as the intermediary.

// 8506
//Dumbledore had deliberately arranged for Lord Voldemort to hear about the
//prophecy, in hopes of luring him to his death. Perhaps Dumbledore had arranged
//for Severus to learn only __some__ of the prophecy, or there were other
//prophecies of which Severus had remained innocent… somehow Dumbledore had known
//that an __immediate__ attack on the Potters would still lead to Lord
//Voldemort’s __immediate__ defeat, although Lord Voldemort himself had not
//believed this. Or maybe that had just been a lucky stroke of Dumbledore’s
//insanity, his taste for bizarre plots…

// 8507
//Severus had ended up serving Dumbledore afterward; perhaps the Death Eaters
//would not look kindly on Severus if Dumbledore revealed his role in their
//defeat.

// 8508
//Dumbledore had tried to arrange for Harry’s mother to be spared. But that part
//of his plot had failed. And he had knowingly condemned James Potter to his
//death.

// 8509
//Dumbledore was responsible for the deaths of Harry’s parents. __If__ the
//whole chain of logic was correct. Harry could not, in justice, say that
//successfully ending the Wizarding War did not count as extenuating
//circumstances. But somehow this still… __bothered him a great deal.__

// 8510
//And it was time and past time to ask Draco Malfoy what the __other__ side
//of that war had to say about the character of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian
//Dumbledore.