090.asc

// 16239
//== Roles, Pt 1

// 16240
//A simple __Innervate__ from the Headmaster had awakened Fred Weasley,
//followed by a preliminary healing Charm for a broken arm and cracked ribs.
//Harry’s voice had distantly told the Headmaster about the Transfigured acid
//inside the troll’s head (Dumbledore had looked down over the side of the
//terrace and made a gesture before returning) and then about the Weasley twins’
//minds having been tampered with, carrying on a separate conversation that Harry
//remembered but could not process.

// 16241
//Harry still stood over Hermione’s body, he hadn’t moved from that spot,
//thinking as fast as he could through the sense of dissociation and fragmented
//time, was there anything he should be doing __now,__ any opportunities
//that were passing irrevocably. Some way to reduce the amount of magical
//omnipotence that would be required later. A temporal beacon effect to mark this
//instant for later time travel, if he someday found a way to travel back further
//than six hours. There were theories of time travel under General Relativity
//(which had seemed much less plausible before Harry had run across Time-Turners)
//and those theories said you couldn’t go back to before the time machine was
//built - a relativistic time machine maintained a continuous pathway through
//time, it didn’t teleport anything. But Harry didn’t see anything helpful he
//could do using spells in his lexicon, Dumbledore wasn’t being very cooperative,
//and in any case this was several minutes after the critical location within
//Time

// 16242
//“Harry,” the Headmaster whispered, laying his hand on Harry’s shoulder. He had
//vanished from where he was standing over the Weasley twins and come into
//existence beside Harry; George Weasley had discontinously teleported from where
//he was sitting to be kneeling next to his brother’s side, and Fred was now
//lying straight with his eyes open and wincing as he breathed. “Harry, you must
//go from this place.”

// 16243
//“Hold on,” said Harry’s voice. “I’m trying to think if there’s anything else I
//can do.”

// 16244
//The old wizard’s voice sounded helpless. “Harry - I know you do not believe in
//souls - but whether Hermione is watching you now, or no, I do not think she
//would wish for you to be like this.”

// 16245
//…no, it was obvious.

// 16246
//Harry leveled his wand at Hermione’s body -

// 16247
//“Harry! What are you -”

// 16248
//- and poured __everything__ down his arm into his hand -

// 16249
//__“Frigideiro!”__

// 16250
//“- doing?”

// 16251
//“Hypothermia,” Harry said distantly, as he staggered. It’d been one of the
//spells he and Hermione had experimented on, a lifetime ago, so he was able to
//control it precisely, though it had taken a lot of power to affect that much
//mass. Hermione’s body should now be at almost exactly five degrees Celsius.
//“People have been revived from cold water after more than thirty minutes
//without breathing. The cold protects you from brain damage, you see, it slows
//everything down. There’s a saying Muggle doctors have, you’re not dead until
//you’re warm and dead - I think they even cool down the patient during some
//surgeries, if they have to stop someone’s heart for a while.”

// 16252
//Fred and George started sobbing.

// 16253
//Dumbledore’s face was already streaked with tears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
//“Harry, I’m so sorry, but you have to stop this.” The Headmaster took Harry by
//the shoulders and pulled on him.

// 16254
//Harry allowed himself to be turned away from Hermione’s body, walked forward as
//the Headmaster pushed him away from the blood. The Cooling Charm would buy him
//time. Hours at least, maybe days if he could manage to keep casting the spell
//on Hermione or if they stored her body somewhere cold.

// 16255
//Now there was time to think.

// 16256
//Minerva had seen Albus’s face and she’d known something was wrong; there had
//been time for her to wonder what had happened, and even who had died; her mind
//flashing to Alastor, to Augusta, to Arthur and Molly, all the most likely
//targets at the start of Voldemort’s second rise. She had thought that she had
//steeled herself, she had thought herself ready for the worst.

// 16257
//Then Albus spoke, and all the steel left her.

// 16258
//__Not Hermione - no -__

// 16259
//Albus gave her a brief space to weep; and then told her that Harry Potter, who
//had watched Miss Granger die, had seated himself outside the infirmary
//storeroom where Miss Granger’s remains were being kept, refusing to move from
//the spot, and telling anyone who spoke to him to go away so he could think.

// 16260
//The only thing that had elicited any reaction from the boy was when Fawkes had
//tried to sing to him; Harry Potter had shrieked at the phoenix not to do that,
//his feelings were real, he didn’t want magic trying to __heal__ them like
//they were a disease. After that Fawkes had refused to sing again.

// 16261
//Albus thought that she might have the best chance of reaching Harry Potter now.

// 16262
//So she had to pull herself together, and clean up her face; there would be time
//later for private grief, when her surviving children no longer needed her.

// 16263
//Minerva McGonagall pulled together the dislocated pieces of herself, wiped her
//eyes a final time, and laid her hand on the doorknob of the infirmary section
//whose back storeroom was now being used, for the second time this century and
//for the fifth time since the castle of Hogwarts had been raised, as the resting
//place of a promising young student.

// 16264
//She opened the door.

// 16265
//Harry Potter’s eyes gazed at her. The boy was sitting on the floor in front of
//the door to the back storeroom, and holding his wand in his lap. If those eyes
//were grieving, if they were empty, if they were even broken, it couldn’t be
//seen from looking at the boy’s face. There were no dried tears on those cheeks.

// 16266
//“Why are you here, Professor McGonagall?” Harry Potter said. “I told the
//Headmaster I’d like to be left alone for a while.”

// 16267
//She couldn’t think of anything to say. __To help you - you’re not all
//right -__ but she didn’t know what to say, there was nothing she could imagine
//saying that would make things better. She hadn’t planned ahead before she’d
//walked into the room, having not been at her best.

// 16268
//“What are you thinking about?” Minerva said. It was the only sentence that came
//into her mind. Albus had told her that Harry had been saying, over and over,
//that he was thinking; and she had to get Harry talking, somehow.

// 16269
//Harry stared half at her and half past her, a tension coming into his face, as
//she held her breath.

// 16270
//It took a while before Harry spoke.

// 16271
//“I’m trying to think if there’s anything I should be doing right now,” said
//Harry Potter. “It’s hard, though. My mind keeps on imagining ways the past
//could have gone differently if I’d thought faster, and I can’t rule out that
//there might be a key insight in there somewhere.”

// 16272
//“Mr. Potter -” she said falteringly. “Harry, I don’t think it’s healthy for you
//to be - thinking like that -”

// 16273
//“I disagree. It’s not thinking that gets people killed.” The words were spoken
//in a level monotone, as though reciting lines from a book.

// 16274
//“Harry,” she said, hardly even thinking as she said it, “there’s nothing you
//could have done -”

// 16275
//Something flickered in Harry’s expression. His eyes seemed to focus on her for
//the first time.

// 16276
//“Nothing I could have __done?__” Harry’s voice rose on the last word.
//__“Nothing I could have DONE? I’ve lost track of how many different ways
//I could’ve saved her! If I’d asked to have us all given communications mirrors!
//If I’d insisted on Hermione being taken out of Hogwarts and put in a school
//that isn’t insane! If I’d snuck out immediately instead of trying to argue with
//normal people! If I’d remembered the Patronus earlier! If I’d thought through
//possible emergencies and trained myself to think about Patronuses earlier! Even
//at the very last minute it might not have been too late! I killed the troll and
//turned to her and she was still ALIVE and I just knelt next to her listening to
//her last words like an IDIOT instead of casting the Patronus again and calling
//Dumbledore to send Fawkes! __Or if I’d just approached the whole problem from a
//different angle - if I’d looked for a student with a Time-Turner to send a
//message back in time __before__ I found out about anything happening to
//her, instead of ending up with an outcome that can’t be altered - I
//__asked__ the Headmaster to go back and save Hermione and then fake
//everything, fake the dead body, edit everyone’s memories, but Dumbledore said
//that he tried something like that once and it didn’t work and he lost another
//friend instead. Or if I’d - if I’d only gone with - if, that night -”

// 16277
//Harry pressed his hands over his face, and when he removed them again, his face
//was calm and composed once more.

// 16278
//“Anyway,” said Harry Potter, now in a monotone again, “I don’t want to repeat
//that mistake, so I’m going to spend until dinnertime thinking if there’s
//anything I should be doing. If I haven’t thought of anything by then I’ll go to
//dinner and eat. Now please go away.”

// 16279
//She was aware now that tears were sliding down her cheeks, again. “Harry -
//Harry, you have to believe that this isn’t your fault!”

// 16280
//“Of course it’s my fault. There’s no one else here who could be responsible for
//anything.”

// 16281
//“No! You-Know-Who killed Hermione!” She was hardly aware of what she was
//saying, that she hadn’t screened the room against who might be listening. “Not
//you! No matter what else you could’ve done, it’s not you who killed her, it was
//Voldemort! If you can’t believe that you’ll go mad, Harry!”

// 16282
//“That’s not how responsibility works, Professor.” Harry’s voice was patient,
//like he was explaining things to a child who was certain not to understand. He
//wasn’t looking at her anymore, just staring off at the wall to her right side.
//“When you do a fault analysis, there’s no point in assigning fault to a part of
//the system you can’t change afterward, it’s like stepping off a cliff and
//blaming gravity. Gravity isn’t going to change next time. There’s no point in
//trying to allocate responsibility to people who aren’t going to alter their
//actions. Once you look at it from that perspective, you realize that allocating
//blame never helps anything unless you blame yourself, because you’re the only
//one whose actions you can change by putting blame there. That’s why Dumbledore
//has his room full of broken wands. He understands that part, at least.”

// 16283
//Some distant part of her mind made a note to wait until much later and then
//speak sharply to the Headmaster about what he was showing to impressionable
//young children. She might even scream at him this time. She’d been thinking
//about screaming at him anyway, because of Miss Granger -

// 16284
//“You’re __not__ responsible,” she said, though her voice trembled. “It’s
//the Professors - it’s us who are responsible for student safety, not you.”

// 16285
//Harry’s eyes flicked back to her. “__You’re__ responsible?” There was a
//tightness in the voice. “You want me to hold you responsible, Professor
//McGonagall?”

// 16286
//She raised her chin and nodded. It would be better, by far, than Harry blaming
//himself.

// 16287
//The boy pushed himself up from where he was sitting on the floor, and took a
//step forward. “All right, then,” Harry said in a monotone. “I tried to do the
//sensible thing, when I saw Hermione was missing and that none of the Professors
//knew. I asked for a seventh-year student to go with me on a broomstick and
//protect me while we looked for Hermione. I asked for help. I begged for help.
//And nobody helped me. Because you gave everyone an absolute order to stay in
//one place or they’d be expelled, no excuses. No matter what else Dumbledore
//gets wrong, he at least thinks of his students as people, not animals that have
//to be herded into a pen and kept from wandering out. You knew you weren’t any
//good at military thinking, your first idea was to have us walking through the
//hallways, you knew some students there were better than you at strategy and
//tactics, and you still nailed us down in one room without any discretionary
//judgment. So when something you didn’t foresee happened and it would’ve made
//perfect sense to send out a seventh-year student on a fast broom to look for
//Hermione Granger, the students knew you wouldn’t understand or forgive. They
//weren’t afraid of the troll, they were afraid of you. The discipline, the
//conformity, the __cowardice__ that you instilled in them delayed me just
//long enough for Hermione to die. Not that I should’ve tried asking for help
//from normal people, of course, and I will change and be less stupid next time.
//But if I were dumb enough to allocate responsibility to someone who isn’t me,
//that’s what I’d say.”

// 16288
//Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

// 16289
//“That’s what I’d tell you if I thought you could be responsible for anything.
//But normal people don’t choose on the basis of consequences, they just play
//roles. There’s a picture in your head of a stern disciplinarian and you do
//whatever that picture would do, whether or not it makes any sense. A stern
//disciplinarian would order the students back to their rooms, even if there was
//a troll roaming the hallways. A stern disciplinarian would order students not
//to leave the Hall on pain of expulsion. And the little picture of Professor
//McGonagall that you have in your head can’t learn from experience or change
//herself, so there isn’t any point to this conversation. People like you aren’t
//responsible for anything, people like me are, and when we fail there’s no one
//else to blame.”

// 16290
//The boy strode forward to stand directly before her. His hand darted beneath
//his robes, brought forth the golden sphere that was the Ministry-issued
//protective shell of his Time Turner. He spoke in a dead, level voice without
//any emphasis. “This could’ve saved Hermione, if I’d been able to use it. But
//you thought it was your role to shut me down and get in my way. Nobody has died
//in Hogwarts in fifty years, you said that when you locked it, do you remember?
//I should’ve asked again after Bellatrix Black got loose from Azkaban, or after
//Hermione got framed for attempted murder. But I forgot because I was stupid.
//Please unlock it now before any of my other friends die.”

// 16291
//Unable to speak, she brought forth her wand and did so, releasing the
//time-keyed enchantment she’d laced into the shell’s lock.

// 16292
//Harry Potter flipped open the golden shell, looked at the tiny glass hourglass
//within its circles, nodded, and then snapped the case shut. “Thank you. Now go
//away.” The boy’s voice cracked again. “I have to think.”

// 16293
//She closed the door behind her, an awful and still mostly-muffled sound
//escaping her throat -

// 16294
//Albus shimmered into existence beside her, taking on a brief garish hue as the
//Disillusionment wore off.

// 16295
//She did not jump, quite. “I’ve told you, stop doing that,” Minerva said. Her
//voice sounded dull in her own ears. “That was private.”

// 16296
//Albus flickered his fingers at the door behind her. “I was afraid Mr. Potter
//might do you some harm.” The Headmaster paused, then said quietly, “I am very
//surprised that you stood there and took that.”

// 16297
//“All I had to do was say ‘Mr. Potter’, and he would have stopped.” Her voice
//had dropped almost to a whisper. “Just that, and he would have stopped. And
//then he would have had no one to say those awful things to, no one at all.”

// 16298
//“I thought Mr. Potter’s remarks were entirely unfair and undeserved,” Albus
//said.

// 16299
//“If it had been you, Albus, you would not have threatened to expel anyone
//leaving the room. Can you honestly tell me otherwise?”

// 16300
//Albus’s brows rose. “Your role in this disaster was tiny, your decisions quite
//sensible at the time, and it is only Harry Potter’s perfect hindsight that lets
//him imagine otherwise. Surely you are wiser than to blame yourself for this,
//Minerva.”

// 16301
//She knew perfectly well that Albus would be placing a picture of Hermione in
//that awful room of his, that it would occupy a place of honor. Albus would hold
//__himself__ responsible, she was certain, even though he hadn’t even been
//in Hogwarts at the time. But not her.

// 16302
//__So you also don’t think it’s worth the trouble of holding me
//responsible…__

// 16303
//She slumped against the nearest wall, trying not to let the tears emerge again;
//she’d never seen Albus weep save thrice. “You have always believed in your
//students, as I never have. They would not have been afraid of you. They would
//have known you would understand.”

// 16304
//“Minerva -”

// 16305
//“I am not fit to succeed you as Headmistress. We both know it.”

// 16306
//“You are wrong,” Albus said quietly. “When the time comes, you will be the
//forty-fifth Headmistress of Hogwarts and you will do an excellent job of it.”

// 16307
//She shook her head. “What now, Albus? If he will not listen to me, then who?”

// 16308
//It was perhaps half an hour later. The boy still guarded the door to where his
//best friend’s body lay, sitting his vigil. He was staring downward, at his wand
//as it lay in his hands. Sometimes his face screwed up in thought, at other
//times it relaxed.

// 16309
//Although the door did not open, and there was no sound, the boy looked up. He
//composed his face. His voice, when he spoke, was dull. “I don’t want company.”

// 16310
//The door opened.

// 16311
//The Defense Professor of Hogwarts entered into the room and shut the door
//behind him, taking up careful position in a corner between two walls, as far
//away from the boy as the room permitted. A sharp sense of catastrophe had risen
//in the air between the two of them, and hung there unchanging.

// 16312
//“Why are you here?” said the boy.

// 16313
//The man tilted his head slightly. Pale eyes examined the boy as though he were
//a specimen of life from a distant planet, and correspondingly dangerous.

// 16314
//“I’ve come to apologize, Mr. Potter,” the man said quietly.

// 16315
//“Apologize for what?” the boy said. “Why, what could __you__ have done to
//prevent Hermione’s death?”

// 16316
//“I should have thought to check for the presence of yourself, Mr. Longbottom,
//and Miss Granger, all of whom were obvious next targets,” the Defense Professor
//said without hesitation. “Mr. Hagrid was not mentally equipped to command the
//student contingent. I should have ignored the Deputy Headmistress’s request for
//silence, and told her to leave behind Professor Flitwick, who would have been
//better able to defend the students from any threat, and who could have
//maintained communication via Patronus.”

// 16317
//“Correct.” The boy’s voice was razor-sharp. “I’d forgotten there was someone
//else in Hogwarts who could be responsible for things. So why didn’t you think
//of it, Professor? Because I don’t believe that __you__ were stupid.”

// 16318
//There was a pause, and the boy’s fingers whitened on his wand.

// 16319
//“You did not think of it either, Mr. Potter, at the time.” There was a
//weariness in the Defense Professor’s voice. “I am smarter than you. I think
//faster than you. I am more experienced than you. But the gap between the two of
//us is not the same as the gap between us and them. If you can miss something,
//then so can I.” The man’s lips twisted. “You see, I deduced at once that the
//troll was but a distraction from some other matter, and of no great importance
//in itself. So long as nobody sent the students wandering pointlessly through
//the halls, or uncaringly dispatched the young Slytherins to those very dungeons
//where the troll had been spotted.”

// 16320
//The boy did not seem to relax. “I suppose that is plausible.”

// 16321
//“In any case,” said the man, “if there is anyone who can be said to be
//responsible for Miss Granger’s death, it is myself, not you. It is I, not you,
//who should have -”

// 16322
//“I perceive that you have spoken to Professor McGonagall and that she has given
//you a script to follow.” The boy did not bother keeping the bitterness from his
//voice. “If you have something to say to me, Professor, say it without the
//masks.”

// 16323
//There was a pause.

// 16324
//“As you wish,” the Defense Professor said emotionlessly. The pale eyes stayed
//keen and sharp. “I do regret that the girl is dead. She was a good student in
//my Defense class, and could have been an ally to you later. I would wish to
//console you for your loss, but I cannot see how to go about doing so.
//Naturally, if I find the ones responsible I shall kill them. You are welcome to
//join in should circumstances permit.”

// 16325
//“How touching,” the boy said, his voice cool. “You are not claiming to have
//liked Hermione, then?”

// 16326
//“Her charms were lost on me, I suspect. I no longer form such bonds easily.”

// 16327
//The boy nodded. “Thank you for being honest. Is that all, Professor?”

// 16328
//There was a pause.

// 16329
//“The castle is scarred, now,” said the man standing in the corner.

// 16330
//“What?”

// 16331
//“When a certain ancient device in my possession informed me that Miss Granger
//was on the verge of death, I cast that spell of cursed fire of which I once
//spoke. I burned through some walls and floors so that my broomstick could take
//a more direct path.” The man still spoke tonelessly. “Hogwarts will not heal
//such wounds easily, if at all. I suppose it will be necessary to patch over the
//holes with lesser conjurations. I regret that now, since I was in any case too
//late.”

// 16332
//“Ah,” said the boy. He closed his eyes briefly. “You did want to save her. You
//wanted it so strongly that you made some sort of actual effort. I suppose your
//mind, if not theirs, would be capable of that.”

// 16333
//A brief, dry smile from the man.

// 16334
//“Thank you for that, Professor. But I would like to be left alone now until
//dinnertime. You of all people will understand. Is that all?”

// 16335
//“Not quite,” the man said. A tinge of sardonic dryness now returned to his
//voice. “You see, based on recent experiences, I am concerned that you may now
//intend to do something extremely foolish.”

// 16336
//“Such as what?” said the boy.

// 16337
//“I am not quite sure. Perhaps you have decided that a universe without Miss
//Granger is devoid of value, and should be destroyed for the insults it has
//dealt you.”

// 16338
//The boy smiled without any humor. “Your own issues are showing, Professor. I
//don’t really go in for that sort of thing. Did you, at some point?”

// 16339
//“Not particularly. I have no great fondness for the universe, but I do live
//there.”

// 16340
//There was a pause.

// 16341
//“What are you planning, Mr. Potter?” said the man in the corner. “You have come
//to some significant resolution, though you are trying to hide it from me. What
//do you now intend?”

// 16342
//The boy shook his head. “I’m still thinking, and would like to be left alone to
//do it.”

// 16343
//“I recall an offer you once made to me, some months ago,” said the Defense
//Professor. “Do you want someone intelligent to talk to? I will understand if
//you are not pleasant to be around.”

// 16344
//The boy shook his head again. “No, thank you.”

// 16345
//“Well, then,” said the Defense Professor. “What about someone who is powerful
//and not particularly bound by naive scruples?”

// 16346
//There was a hesitation, and then the boy once more shook his head.

// 16347
//“Someone who is knowledgeable of much secret lore, and magics that some might
//consider to be unnatural?”

// 16348
//There was a slight narrowing of the boy’s eyes, so imperceptible that someone
//else might not have -

// 16349
//“I see,” said the Defense Professor. “Go ahead and ask me about it, then. I
//give you my word that I will repeat nothing of it to the others.”

// 16350
//The boy took a while to speak, and when he did it was in a cracked voice.

// 16351
//“I mean to bring Hermione back. Because there isn’t an afterlife, and I’m not
//about to just let her - just __not be__ -”

// 16352
//The boy pressed his hands over his face, and when he withdrew them, he once
//more seemed as dispassionate as the man standing in the corner.

// 16353
//The Defense Professor’s eyes were abstract, and faintly puzzled.

// 16354
//“How?” the man said finally.

// 16355
//“However I have to.”

// 16356
//There was another pause.

// 16357
//“Regardless of the risks,” the man in the corner said. “Regardless of how
//dangerous the magic required to accomplish it.”

// 16358
//“Yes.”

// 16359
//The Defense Professor’s eyes were thoughtful. “But what general approach did
//you have in mind? I presume that turning her corpse into an Inferius is not
//what you -”

// 16360
//“Would she be able to think?” the boy said. “Would her body still decay?”

// 16361
//“No, and yes.”

// 16362
//“Then no.”

// 16363
//“What of the Resurrection Stone of Cadmus Peverell, if it could be obtained for
//you?”

// 16364
//The boy shook his head. “I don’t want an illusion of Hermione drawn from my
//memories. I want her to be able to __live __her__ life -__” the boy’s
//voice cracked. “I haven’t decided yet on an object-level angle of attack. If I
//have to brute-force the problem by acquiring enough power and knowledge to just
//__make it happen__, I will.”

// 16365
//Another pause.

// 16366
//“And to go about __that,__” the man in the corner said, “you will use your
//favorite tool, science.”

// 16367
//“Of course.”

// 16368
//The Defense Professor exhaled, almost like a sigh. “I suppose that makes sense
//of it.”

// 16369
//“Are you willing to help, or not?” the boy said.

// 16370
//“What help do you seek?”

// 16371
//“Magic. Where does it come from?”

// 16372
//“I do not know,” said the man.

// 16373
//“And neither does anyone else?”

// 16374
//“Oh, the situation is far worse than that, Mr. Potter. There is hardly a
//scholar of the esoteric who has not unraveled the nature of magic, and every
//one of them believes something different.”

// 16375
//“Where do new spells come from? I keep reading about someone who invented a
//spell to do something-or-other but there’s no mention of __how__.”

// 16376
//A shrug of robed shoulders. “Where do new books come from, Mr. Potter? Those
//who read many books sometimes become able to write them in turn. How? No one
//knows.”

// 16377
//“There are books on how to write -”

// 16378
//“Reading them will not make you a famous playwright. After all such advice is
//accounted for, what remains is mystery. The invention of new spells is a
//similar mystery of purer form.” The man’s head tilted. “Such endeavors are
//dangerous. The saying is that one should either not have children, or else wait
//until after they are grown. There is a reason why so many innovators seem to
//hail from Gryffindor, rather than Ravenclaw as might be expected.”

// 16379
//“And the more powerful sorts of magics?” the boy said.

// 16380
//“A legendary wizard might invent one sacrificial ritual in his life, and pass
//on the knowledge to his heirs. To try inventing five such would be suicide.
//That is why wizards of true power are those who have acquired ancient lore.”

// 16381
//The boy nodded distantly. “So much for the direct solution, then. It would’ve
//been nice to just invent a spell for ‘Raise Dead’, ‘Become God’ or ‘Summon
//Terminal’. Do you know anything about Atlantis?”

// 16382
//“Only what any scholar knows,” the man said dryly. “If you would like to hear
//about the top eighteen standard theories - do not glare at me, Mr. Potter. If
//it were that simple, I would have done it many years earlier.”

// 16383
//“I understand. Sorry.”

// 16384
//There was a time of silence. The Defense Professor’s gaze rested on the boy,
//the boy stared off seemingly at nothing.

// 16385
//“There’s some magics I mean to learn. Spells I could’ve used earlier today, if
//I’d thought to study them beforehand.” The boy’s voice was cold. “Spells I’ll
//need, if this sort of thing goes on happening. Most I expect I can just look
//up. Some I expect I can’t.”

// 16386
//The Defense Professor inclined his head. “I shall teach you almost any magic
//you wish to know, Mr. Potter. I do have some limits, but you may always ask.
//But what specifically do you seek? You lack the raw power for the Killing Curse
//and most other spells deemed forbidden -”

// 16387
//“That spell of cursed fire. I don’t suppose it’s a sacrificial ritual that even
//a child could use, if he dared?”

// 16388
//The Defense Professor’s lips twitched. “It requires the permanent sacrifice of
//a drop of blood; your body would be lighter by that drop of blood, from that
//day forward. Not the sort of thing one would wish to do often, Mr. Potter.
//Strength of will is demanded for the cursed fire not to turn upon you and
//consume you; the usual practice is to first test one’s will in lesser trials.
//And although it is not a primary element of the ritual, I am afraid that it
//does require more magic than you shall possess for another few years.”

// 16389
//“Pity,” the boy said. “It would’ve been nice to see the look on the enemy’s
//face the next time they tried using a troll.”

// 16390
//The Defense Professor inclined his head, his lips twitching again.

// 16391
//“What about Memory Charms? The Weasley twins were acting oddly and the
//Headmaster said he thinks they’ve been Obliviated. It seems to be one of the
//enemy’s favorite tricks.”

// 16392
//“Rule Eight,” said the Defense Professor. “Any technique which is good enough
//to defeat me once is good enough to learn myself.”

// 16393
//The boy smiled humorlessly. “And I once heard about an adult casting Obliviate
//while she was almost completely drained, so it must not take too much magic to
//cast. It’s not even considered Unforgiveable, though I can’t imagine why not.
//If I could’ve made Mr. Hagrid remember a different set of orders -”

// 16394
//“It is not that straightforward,” said the Defense Professor. “You are not
//powerful enough to use the False Memory Charm, and even a simple Obliviation
//will stretch the edge of your current stamina. It is a dangerous art, illegal
//to use without Ministry authorization, and I would caution you not to use it
//under circumstances where it would be inconvenient to accidentally erase ten
//years of someone’s life. I wish I could promise you that I would obtain one of
//those highly guarded tomes from the Department of Mysteries, and pass it to you
//beneath a disguised cover. But what I must actually tell you is that you will
//find the standard introductory text in the north-northwest stacks of the main
//Hogwarts library, filed under M.”

// 16395
//“Seriously,” the boy said flatly.

// 16396
//“Indeed.”

// 16397
//“Thank you for your guidance, Professor.”

// 16398
//“Your creativity has become a great deal more practical, Mr. Potter, since I
//have known you.”

// 16399
//“Thank you for the compliment.” The boy did not look up from where he was again
//gazing down at the wand held between his hands. “I would like to go back to
//thinking now. Please explain to them on my behalf what happens if I am
//disturbed.”

// 16400
//The door to the storeroom clicked open, and Professor Quirrell stepped out. His
//face had a dead, emotionless look to it; she would have said that it reminded
//her of Severus, though Severus had never looked quite like that.

// 16401
//Even as the door clicked shut again, Minerva had thrown up a wordless Quieting
//barrier. The words spilled forth from her rapidly: “How did it go - you were in
//there for a while - is Harry talking now?”

// 16402
//Professor Quirrell paced swiftly across the room to the far wall near the
//entrance, looked back at her. The emotionlessness slid off his face, as though
//he were taking off a mask, leaving behind someone very grim. “I spoke to Mr.
//Potter as he expected me to speak, and avoided saying things that would annoy
//him. I do not think it consoled him. I do not think I have the knack.”

// 16403
//“Thank you - it is good that he spoke at all -” She hesitated. “What did Mr.
//Potter say?”

// 16404
//“I am afraid that I promised him not to speak of it. And now… I think that I
//must visit the Hogwarts library.”

// 16405
//“The __library?__”

// 16406
//“Yes,” Professor Quirrell said. An uncharacteristic tension had come into his
//voice. “I intend to strengthen the security upon the Restricted Section with
//certain precautions of my own devising. The current wards are a joke. And Mr.
//Potter must be kept out of the Restricted Section __at all costs.__”

// 16407
//She stared at the Defense Professor, her heart suddenly in her throat.

// 16408
//Professor Quirrell continued speaking. “You will __not__ tell the boy that
//I have said this much to you. You will confirm to Flitwick and Vector that the
//boy is to be diverted by the usual evasions if he asks precocious questions
//about spell creation. And though it is not my own area of expertise, Deputy
//Headmistress, if there is any way you can imagine to convince the boy to stop
//sinking further into his grief and madness - any way at all to undo the
//resolutions he is coming to - then I suggest you resort to it
//__immediately__.”