Chapter 14

Ron Weasley was not a happy camper. He had tried time and again to make friends with Harry Potter but had been thwarted at every turn. Either the boy was not to be found or he was busy doing something with that annoying know-it-all girl. The other day, for the first time he had managed to get the boy alone and the boy had flat out refused to play. What kind of boy would rather do homework with A-A GIRL, then having fun? He had to be some sort of sissy. If only his mother wasn't so hell bent on making sure he got to know the boy. He had gotten yet another letter from her this morning asking him about his progress and the constant nagging was driving him up the wall. Why did he have to be the one forced to make friends with the sissy? Suddenly an idea bloomed in his mind and he swiftly grabbed a parchment and quill.

Hey Mum,

How are things at home? Just wanted to let you know that you can stop asking me to get chummy with Harry Potter. He and I spent ages playing chess yesterday and are now best mates. He'd probably love to try some of your pumpkin pie, so send me some.

Luv,

Ron.

Ron smirked as he looked over his letter. 'That should get her off my back" he thought before heading off to the owlery to send the letter. He was already daydreaming about the pie.

.oo00oo.

"Potter, all the elements of our plan are nearly in place. It's high time you made your decision regarding Snape."

Harry was once again in Quirrell's quarters, Sirius was also attending the meeting through one of the charmed mirrors which Harry had set up on a stand so that Sirius could see both of them.

"The thing is Professor, I absolutely detest the man and part of me really wants to say yes. I'm afraid that I'm letting that affect my judgment and I really don't want to condemn a man based purely on my personal feelings."

"What is the hold up? He was one of my inner circle and for that he deserves to die. Plain and simple. He has to pay for his crimes along with the rest of them."

"Unlike the others there are some mitigating circumstances with Snape."

"Really, are you talking about that cock and bull story about him being a spy for Dumbledore. You forget Potter, I knew - no, I know Snape. He was clearly the most intelligent of all my Death Eaters. Do you really think someone as brilliant as that would not have hedged his bets. He was the one who informed me of the prophecy after all. That alone would have given him enough reason to go to Dumbledore. He was simply protecting himself against the chance that the prophecy was in fact true."

"He's got a point Harry" interjected Sirius.

"I know, I know, but what if he truly repented? There is the slim chance of that."

"Really? If he had truly repented he would have some guilt about your parents deaths. Would he have treated you the way he did? Everyone has heard about your first Potions class. You do not treat an eleven year old child that way Potter."

"Pot calling Kettle. You put Weasley on the spot in your class. True, it was nowhere as vicious as Snape but you did embarrass the boy. Not that I'm complaining, as far as I'm concerned you can embarrass him whenever you want."

"And then I gave him points to make up for it. Did Snape do that with you? Was he trying to make a point or was he simply bent on humiliating you?"

"Yes, yes, I know. But how do we know for a fact that Snape wasn't truly trying to reform. He did ask you to spare my mother, right?"

"Is that what this is about? Yes, Potter, he did ask me to spare your mother, but that is ALL he did. He was one of the people I consulted when I was attempting to ascertain who the child of prophecy was. You know there were two choices - You and the Longbottom boy. If Snape truly wanted to protect your mother he could have attempted to convince me that the Longbottom boy was the one that the prophecy spoke off. Did he do that? No. For that matter, Mr. Black here was not in hiding at the time. He was in fact quite visible as he acted as bait. Snape could easily have warned him when I was close to finding you. Simply sending him an owl would have been enough. Did he do that? No. True, he hated Mr. Black, but if he had truly wanted to help your mother he would have looked past that and found a way to warn her. All he did was go to Dumbledore, pretend to be remorseful and agree to act as a spy. Those are the actions of someone looking out for themselves, nothing more than that. And lets not forget the fact that he was only too happy at the thought of your father being murdered."

"Still, as long as there is the slightest chance of him not truly being evil - I find it hard to condemn him to death."

"In that case, I vote we arrange for him to get arrested. At his trial, I will make the motion that he is be interrogated under Veritaserum. If we find that he does in fact deserve to die, why then - chances are that the Wizengamot will sentence him to die. Even if they don't, he will probably get sent to Azkaban. That's worse than death in my book" said Sirius.

"And what if he somehow manages to get off? He is a Potions Master and an expert Occlumens, there is the chance that he can beat Veritaserum" snarled Quirrell, "What will you do then?"

"Then-Then we track him down and kill him" said Sirius.

"I guess that's our best option" said Harry.

"Fine, but don't blame me if the man manages to escape" said Quirrell.

"We won't. I'll blame myself if that happens. Is that acceptable to you?" said Harry.

"Fine, it's decided then. We shall make sure he gets arrested. Then we shall see what happens at his trial."

"So where are we on the rest of the plan?" said Sirius.

"I have been ordered to procure a troll for the stones protection. Once that is in place we can implement the first part of the plan."

"How long will that take you?" said Sirius.

"It should be here by next week" said Quirrell.

"So, everything is more or less on track then. Excellent" said Harry.

.oo00oo.

Harry was sitting in the Gryffindor common room waving his wand at what used to be a matchbox. Now it was sporting rather more legs than nature would have found feasible. He was still wound up after his meeting with Sirius and Quirrell and he figured that concentrating on a little transfiguration might help him to relax.

"Hey Harry."

"What's up Hermione?"

"Well, I just found out that you were wrong about something."

"What would that be? Pray tell?" Harry said, a bit put off at the smugness in her voice but he decided to ignore it. The girl did love to parade her knowledge after all.

"Remember when we were talking about electronic items on the train and you said that electrical items can be made to work around magic. Well, have a look at this section in Hogwarts, A History, it clearly says that electronic items or electrical appliances don't work in Hogwarts due to the large amounts of magic in the air."

"Hermione, how many times do I have to tell you that you can't believe everything you read?"

"Aha, but I confirmed this. I spoke to some of the older muggleborn students and all of them say that their electronic stuff stops working after a while."

"So?"

"So that proves it, doesn't it?"

"Okay, lets start at the beginning, you said that electronic items stop working after a while. Now what type of items are these?" Harry frowned at his transfigured creation. It needed ... something. He jabbed his wand at it and added an eye.

"The student I spoke to said her Walkman shorted out after a couple of weeks."

"So we're talking about music players. Do you know when music players first started becoming truly portable."

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess probably around the fifties or sixties."

"Right. What kind of music was getting popular around then?"

"Rock and Roll of course."

"Ever see any of those movies about the birth of rock and roll. One of the really common themes was about the reaction of the older generation to that type of music. There were a ton of people who claimed Rock and Roll was subversive and was going to corrupt the youth of the day. Remember Footloose? That came out in the eighties and it still had Rock music and dancing being banned in some town."

"Yes, but that was just a movie."

"True, but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of people did not approve of that type of music, and those were in the normal world. You've seen how wizards are, their culture is clearly far more conservative."

"I'm still not seeing what that has to do with electronic items."

"So, it's the sixties, portable cassette players are becoming popular and affordable, so obviously some muggleborn students would have started getting them to school. In fact that's probably the first type of electronic items that were brought to Hogwarts. Is that a fair assumption?"

"I guess."

"So what do you think the staffs reaction was the first time they walked into a common room and heard the Beatles singing It's been a Hard Day's Night. What do you think their reaction was to lines like - 'when I get home to you I find the things that you do will make me feel alright'. Especially because it sounds like they're singing 'when I get on top of you'."

"Ummm..."

"I would assume that the Headmaster of the time was quite horrified, and that was a reasonably, in fact - extremely tame song. So what would a dyed in the wool conservative wizard do in this type of situation?"

"He could have simply forbidden the use of music players or playing music in the common room."

"Oh please, Dumbledore talked about the list of forbidden items at the opening feast. Does anybody ever bother to read the list? I think not."

"So what do you think they did?"

"Modified the Hogwarts wards to fry any electronic item that is used within the school of course. He's not going to tell the students he's done that because if they knew that they might start looking for ways around it. Some sort of Faraday Cage would probably work quite well. So he simply tells the staff to tell any student that asks that electrical items don't work around magic. Purebloods wouldn't care and muggleborns can't practice magic at home so there's really no way they can test it. Not until they leave school at least, at which point they probably assume that it's just Hogwarts that had levels of magic high enough to affect electrical gadgets."

"Ungghhh, I'm getting a headache. Honestly Harry, you and your conspiracy theories are going to drive me crazy."

"Hermione, just because I have a theory regarding why muggle tech doesn't work in Hogwarts doesn't make it a conspiracy theory. And - if you're so sure I'm wrong, how do you explain Diagon Alley?"

"Huh?"

"Diagon Alley and the Ministry are both in London. That's one of the most densely populated areas in all of Britain. If magic really interferes with electronics then there should be a large zone around Charing Cross Road where muggle electronics would simply refuse to work. The Ministry is somewhere near Whitehall in Central London. Do you really think the muggles would not notice something like that?"

"But still, music being the reason that electronics don't work here. You have to admit that's a little far fetched."

"Well, Rock is only one reason for someone to prevent electronics from working here. For all I know, previous Headmasters simply didn't like any kind of Muggle Tech and didn't want any inside Hogwarts. That would explain why we're still forced to use parchment and quills too. Tradition is fine but quills? Really?"

"There's got to be a way to test this."

"If there is, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Hermione blinked at the table in front of her, there seemed to be an eldritch monstrosity with hundreds of eyes staring at her. Harry was still jabbing his wand at it and each jab seemed to add a few more eyes to the creature.

"Harry, I think that it's got enough eyes - really."

"Should I add a few more tentacles then?"

"Only if you're planning on making me throw up. Why on earth are you making that thing anyway?"

"Just practicing."

"Practicing what? I don't think you're ever going to have to create something like this Harry, maybe you should just stick to matchsticks and needles for now."

"Nah, this is more fun. You should give it a try sometime."

"You are such a - such a BOY. Why can't you make something pretty?"

"Then I wouldn't be a boy, now would I Hermione?" snickered Harry, messing with Hermione's preconceptions of the wizarding world never failed to cheer him up.

.oo00oo.