Harry Potter and the Memories of a Sociopath, Ch 14: More Questions Than Answers

Here's how it is:

During his second year at Hogwarts, Harry is still concerned about the fate of the world, but has made significant progress: Hermione has obtained a phoenix and destroyed Azkaban's dementors. Progress toward a functional Philosopher's Stone based hospital at Hogwarts has stalled due to ward incompatibilities but a temporary solution is operational in the now-abandoned Azkaban tower.

Sprout received a cursed Hufflepuff Cup, and displayed uncharacteristically aggressive behavior afterwards. Moody detected evidence of dark magic on her but it was inconclusive. Since then, Moody has researched more specific spells for detecting horcrux effects and, as one might expect, Hermione tested positive. Harry thought of some potential countermeasures Voldemort could have used against parseltongue and obliviation and began to suspect that Voldemort's plan had been to pretend to lose while preparing a powerful and immortal host for himself who Harry would trust implicitly (and explicitly, given the unbreakable vow). Unfortunately, that same vow has prevented him from sharing his suspicions. Draco found the Riddle Diary, which then passed through a series of other people, affecting their behavior and leaving evidence of memory charms behind. Moody and McGonagall set up a test to find anyone affected and locate the artifact presumed responsible.

Luna demonstrates uncanny knowledge even though she's obviously not a real seer. Moody has hypothesized that Defense professor Gilderoy Lockhart is incompetent and relying on liquid luck for his accomplishments. And obviously plotting something. Bellatrix is still at large and able to appear in public despite topping Magical Britain's most wanted list.

Harry has a relatively long list of things he intends to investigate, including big picture items like Merlin's Interdict, prophecy, time-turner paradoxes, magic-technology interactions, and rescuing Dumbledore, as well as smaller scale things like looking into Ravenclaw's Diadem or whether the potion liquid luck is a real thing or a cover story. Magical interferences with technology are proving more difficult to pin down than he had hoped, so he has focused more strongly on learning arithmancy, which involves putting spells together to achieve novel functions.

Harry sighed. His attempt to apply epidemiological principles (as if a horcrux were a mere infectious disease) had not been particularly successful. Things had looked hopeful; the assumed horcrux had followed a logical path for a time. Progressing from Draco to other second-year Slytherins made sense. Daphne and Tracey were evidently best friends and where therefore frequently together. The progression from Daphne to Lavender made similar sense.

But that was it. Harry had advised Moody to expect some other second year Slytherins or possibly former Dragon Army lieutenants to show evidence of memory charms, because the horcrux should have been somewhere before it passed to Draco. Harry would have bet on Gregory or Vincent showing symptoms. Similarly, Harry had advised that Lavender was most likely to have passed the horcrux to Parvati, Padma, Susan, or Hannah. Or possibly to another second-year Gryffindor. Or someone from the Sunshine Regiment.

But no. Moody had polyjuiced as Madame Pomfrey and had scanned every student under the guise of checking for Dragon Pox. No one had shown a trace of legilimency, memory charms, or obliviation. There was no dark magic on the students or their luggage. One of the invisible aurors was a specialist curse-breaker who could find and open magically hidden compartments in seconds without leaving a trace. The number of banned objects he had reported shocked McGonagall but none of it had been worth exposing the search for. Moody had then run down Lockhart and scanned him, over his objections that he was in a hurry to catch a port-key to Australia (and some rambling about hunting drop-bears). Moody had reluctantly let him go ("Another ten minutes, and I'm sure I would've found evidence of something illegal he's mixed up in", Moody had insisted) and the aurors had returned to their normal duties.

McGonagall had then asked the house elves to search the school for apparently lost or hidden objects and bring them to her office. As a result, there was a pile next to her desk containing assorted textbooks, parchments, quills, a couple of gloves, and a shoe ("How does a student lose a shoe?" she had exclaimed). And then Moody had insisted that she order the elves to line up in a corridor so he could verify that none of them had been affected by the horcrux. There had been no new hint about where the horcrux had come from, where it had gone, nor how or even whether Professor Sprout had been involved. Harry sighed again. It was likely that they were chasing a false horcrux; that Voldemort had faked it in the form of an unsolvable puzzle to confuse anyone investigating him (or to mess with Harry, specifically).

"Harry!" Petunia ran across the room to hug him.

"Hi, mum! Hi, Dad!" Michael had entered, carrying a large box, "Oh, books!" Harry ran over and peeked into the box.

McGonagall entered behind them, "Isn't it traditional to wait until Christmas day to exchange presents?"

Michael shrugged, "We've always done presents at the earliest time it was convenient. Never seemed rational to wait longer than that."

"The keypunch and punch-cards I was expecting. You got me a microscope?"

"It's not electronic, so it should work. Hopefully it will be useful."

Harry nodded, "Your new books are in the box over there. It's mostly wizard history and fiction. There are a few that cover hypotheses about the nature of magic. They might be interesting, but it's important to remember that their authors don't actually know anything."

"Magic violates conservation of mass-energy and momentum, right?"

"Apparently."

"Any of their ideas have a solution for that?"

"Somehow I doubt they see it as a problem."

"Well, I consider it a problem; physics can't be that wrong. It can't be a coincidence that all the experimental tests have backed the Standard Model. I've been wondering whether the solution might involve dark matter. When there are phenomena that appear to create mass, and 75% of the mass in the universe is practically undetectable, it makes sense to look for a connection. When we say dark matter only interacts gravitationally, maybe we should really be saying it only interacts gravitationally or magically."

"Or if gravity is a form of magic that just happens to be particularly well-behaved and easy to detect, that might explain why general relativity and quantum theory have been so hard to unify."

"Or the missing solar neutrinos might be part of it. At some point, you should see if you can get a few thousand wizards to cast spells simultaneously to see if a neutrino detector picks up a difference. There's a testable prediction..."

McGonagall looked questioningly at Petunia, who smiled and shrugged. McGonagall shrugged back, turned and walked away.

Harry sneezed once again as he walked into the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey looked up at him, and Harry asked, "What do you have for an upper respiratory inf-". The rest was cut off as Harry started coughing.

She handed him a glass of water, while motioning for him to sit. She then waved her wand over him and muttered a few spells.

"Pepper-up potion will clear that up quickly enough. I'll give you a dose; take it about half-an-hour before you plan to sleep. Also, you appear to be sleep deprived, so you need to make an effort to get more sleep. That is especially important for people who have had their sleep cycle lengthened. The lack of sleep makes you more susceptible to every illness that passes through the school."

"Thank you for the potion. I'll make an effort to get more sleep."

Dean approached Harry as he was leaving the great hall after dinner, "Hey, I did that experiment; I brought a digital watch back and observed where it stopped working. I also brought records back."

"Great, I'll get the record player stuff and a map. I think visualizing the places where electronics will and won't work might be helpful." He ran off.

Dean was about to call after him, then shrugged and walked back toward the Gryffindor rooms, "He really doesn't need to make things this difficult."

A few minutes later, Harry approached the Gryffindor common room, when he had a thought that could be best expressed as, "Crap. Password." He then slowly smiled, and muttered, "It would be a shame not to try it." He touched his wand to his robes and transfigured it such that the colored parts were red and gold. He quickly glanced around the corner to locate the portrait that guarded the door and cast, 'quietus' at it.

He casually walked up to the door and the woman in the portrait silently mouthed some kind of greeting or challenge. Harry began, "So this is the entrance to Gryffindor and there's a password. Obviously, being a Gryffindor, I know the password, and it probably isn't a very secure password. It might have something to do with phoenices or fighting Slytherins or stupid heroics or something. A Gryffindor password would be something like that. Or some other word. There are so many words, because English took lots of words from German and French and other languages."

During this time, the two-dimensional woman had held her hands to her ears and strained to listen carefully, then attempted to clean her ears, and finally began to look annoyed. She mouthed something Harry didn't catch.

Harry stopped talking for a moment, during which he forced himself to look progressively more concerned. Then he asked "Why aren't you opening the door?"

The portrait's expression changed from annoyed to confused. She appeared to say, "I can't hear."

Harry forced himself to look panicked and began repeating, "Why won't you open the door? You have to open the door."

The door unlatched and the woman hurried to the side, past the portrait's frame. Harry walked in.

Dean looked over, mildly surprised, "How did you get in here?"

"I snapped my fingers."

"No, really."

"Social engineering."

"Whatever. Anyway, before you ran off, I was going to tell you not to bother with the map. The watch worked fine until the carriage got to the bridge in front of the castle. Then it turned off and didn't come back on."

Harry frowned, "You mean it worked on platform nine-point-seven-five? And on the train? It only stopped inside the Hogwarts wards?"

"Yes. Clearly you were expecting something more complicated?"

"Well, yes. That contradicts previous results." Harry pulled out a calculator, "I couldn't get this to turn on the last time I was at the train platform."

Percy interrupted, "Why are you wearing Gryffindor robes?"

Harry suppressed a smirk and mentally canceled the transfiguration, then looked down at himself, "They look the same as usual to me." He turned to Dean, "They look like Ravenclaw robes to you right?" Dean nodded. Harry turned back to Percy, "Maybe you're under a confundus charm?"

"Cute." He gestured at the calculator, "You know that won't work in the castle, right?"

Harry nodded and Dean answered, "Harry's been trying to figure out where it works and where it doesn't. But it sounds like the places where technology works change. Sort of like the hallways here; maybe you have to figure out a different map for Mondays vs. Fridays and everything."

Percy's expression brightened noticeably, "My father actually has a calculator that looks similar to that one; he said it makes it bearable to keep the budget for his department at the Ministry. He's done quite a bit of work with muggle electronics, and might know something about that. He'd probably also be interested in hearing about what you've tried so far."

"That... sounds really useful. Ask him to send me an owl and we can start exchanging results."

Percy nodded then walked away.

"So what did you come up with to play a record?"

Harry pulled an irregularly shaped wooden box out of his pouch. It had an open front, though its most notable feature was a turntable on its top surface. Harry then retrieved a car battery and a motor and placed them inside the box.

"That looks like it's made from a desk from one of the classrooms", Dean observed.

"It contains parts from several desks, actually. I imagine the house elves were pretty confused when they had to clean up that mess." While talking, Harry attached a variable resistor to the battery and motor using alligator clips. The turntable began spinning slowly.

"It doesn't exactly look like a professional setup."

"How many professionals are there at combining magic with muggle technology?"

"Fair point." Dean shrugged and placed a record carefully onto the turntable.

Harry pulled a metal bar from his pouch, affixed one end to the box, and carefully lowered the other onto the record.

Dean watched expectantly, then commented, "I think you need an amplifier and speakers and I don't see how you're going to connect them to that."

"A speaker is basically just a cone that vibrates to cause the air in front of it to vibrate. Sound is just vibrating air. The grooves of a record cause the needle to vibrate according to the sounds it stores. This needle is mechanically linked little cones here and here; it doesn't need electronics."

Dean stepped forward and looked carefully at the needle, "That's not going to be very loud."

Harry pointed his wand at the record player, "Sonorus." A low pitched hum became audible. He swung his wand around to point left, "Ventriliquo." He cast the same pair of spells, this time pointing to the right. "There's a 50% chance I got the left and right channels correct. If you decide it's backwards, switch the sides when you cast it next time." He then picked up the variable resistor and turned the knob, speeding up the motor. The hum rose in pitch until it resolved into music and singing. "That sounds about right", Harry concluded.

"Do I have to worry about maintaining a transfiguration on the parts or something?"

"No, they're permanent."

"Please don't try to tell me you can make transfigurations permanent by snapping your fingers."

Harry smiled, "That would be a useful skill. Actually, there's an advanced free transfiguration technique called shaping that lets you specify how the initial object turns into the final object. For example, you can take a sphere and make the outer layer turn into the left side of a rod, then make the inside turn into the right side of the rod. If you cut the rod in half and reverse the transfiguration, the left half becomes a hollow sphere and the right half is the part that would have been the inside. Or you can transfigure something into paper and cut out the pattern you need; that's what I did for these parts."

At this point, Fred announced loudly, "Cool, random party!"

George followed up with, "The butter-beer and sweets are over here."

Percy frowned, "Why do you two have all of that?"

"It's important to be prepared for these things."

Percy shrugged, "It's the first night back from the break, so I suppose it's okay. Just don't make a habit of it."

"Of course, Percy. We would never want to interfere with the monotony of the Hogwarts experience."

Percy shook his head and hid a smile as he walked away.

Harry approached Fred and George, "Hey, are you guys interested in helping me with a prank?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Not so fast, George. It's important that we get some details first. We don't attach our brand to anything too mundane or derivative."

Fred nodded, "You're absolutely correct, Fred." They looked at Harry seriously.

Harry waited.

After a few seconds, they started laughing and simultaneously asked, "What do you need?"

Hermione sat next to Harry at breakfast and asked, "Do you want to go to the quidditch match today?"

"No more than usual, why?"

"Well, I feel like I should see at least one during my time at Hogwarts. Who knows, maybe it will be interesting. And I heard the Ravenclaw and Slytherin seekers deliberately ignored the snitch to run up the score last year. What did they ever do to fix that?"

"I don't know. That was a somewhat eventful day, and I kind of stopped following the whole thing after that. I suppose we could go, if you'd like, though I'd preferred if you'd chosen a nice day, rather than the middle of January when it looks like we'll be getting a blizzard."

"Well, then maybe we can teach the children of the magical community about sledding."

Harry laughed, then stopped when he realized Hermione didn't. "Uh... sure, we can watch a quidditch game."

Harry brushed the snow off a seat and sat down, "Ugh. I guess I'll be trying to use arithmancy to optimize the warming charm for the next hour."

Hermione just smiled at him.

"You should probably at least pretend to be cold."

"Yeah, probably."

Another group of students walked over. Daphne looked at the seats, then at the field, and announced, "This is ridiculous. I'm going back inside."

Tracey added, "Yeah, me too. Hermione, you picked the worst possible day to watch your first quidditch game."

Susan scoffed, "This isn't nearly as bad as when it's cold and rainy. Some people just aren't real fans."

Hannah shrugged, "Well, Slytherin isn't playing today."

Harry frowned, "They should really get view screens like Professor Quirrell used in his classes or battles. We're not going to be able to see much out here today."

Lavender sighed, "There has got to be a spell to fix weather like this."

Harry looked thoughtful, "I think if there were weather modification spells, we'd have heard about it by now. Unless they're covered by the Interdict of Merlin. Although, we should probably check the library just in case."

Lavender added, "Well, someone needs to hurry up and invent one. And I'm looking at you, General Chaos. Get on that."

Hermione snickered then suggested, "Maybe they have a spell to blow the snow away or something."

Padma answered, "If they do, I've never seen it before."

Hermione nodded and was about to reply when Lee Jordan's amplified voice filled the stands, "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to today's game between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff house teams. The snitch is away and the quaffle will be released in thirty seconds, so find a seat if you haven't already. Neither team has yet been mathematically eliminated from winning the House Cup, though really, don't we all know which team-"

McGonagall interrupted, "Mr. Jordan, what have I told you about showing favoritism in your announcing?"

"Keep it subtle rather than blatant?"

"I'm quite sure I never said that."

"Well, it's what I heard. Anyway, the quaffle is in the air, and Ravenclaw appears to have possession, based on the yellow and blue blurs racing toward the Hufflepuff goal."

As the game continued, Harry pondered why they were here. It was out of character for Hermione, so hilariously out of character that no one attempting to model Hermione's behavior would have made such a mistake. The obvious answer was that Hermione/Voldemort was plotting something and needed Harry to be otherwise occupied. No, that wasn't it; it would have been easier to convince him to spend the day in his office (or in the library if the plot was happening in his office). A better answer was that she wanted a public alibi. Though anyone who both knew Hermione and knew about time-turners would be more suspicious of her after learning that her alibi involved a quidditch game.

Lee's voice sounded again, "Due to the poor weather and visibility, and general weakness of character, the members of both teams have elected to end the game after the first team reaches 100 points, breaking centuries of wizarding tradition, causing the quidditch players of prior eras to spin in their graves and bringing dishonor to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for the next three generations-"

McGonagall interrupted, "Mr. Jordan, no one is dishonored over a friendly school game."

"Really? You can say that with a straight face?"

"At least tell them the real reason."

"Ugh, fine. The official story is that someone (who we're expected to believe is not working for either team) cast a spell to locate the snitch and found it to be immobile on the ground outside the stadium. An attempt to accio it failed, implying that it's frozen to the ground. Of course, the casual use of two spells which are (for obvious reasons) banned for quidditch matches, raises disturbing questions. I assure you all that this announcer-slash-quidditch-investigative-reporter will be looking into who is casting these spells during games, and what surreptitious methods they're using to communicate that information to whichever seeker is paying the largest bribes-"

"Please spread conspiracy theories on your own time, Mr. Jordan."

"Oh, believe me, I will-"

"And refrain from doing so during games. Especially when you heard me cast the detection spell after a request to do so by both seekers. And you are aware that there are wards preventing cheating by both the players and spectators."

"You heard it here first, folks: the scandal goes all the way to the top!"

Eventually, Lee announced, "Yay! The game is finally over! Neither team actually 'wins' because they were playing by crazy definitely-not-quidditch rules, but we all win because we can go back inside!"

Hermione asked the group, "Hey, does anyone feel like walking around the lake?"

There were several objections of the "frostbite and hypothermia sound unpleasant" variety, after which Hermione announced that she hadn't spent enough time outside recently and was going anyway. The others went back to the castle.

Once inside, Ron approached and quietly said, "Remember Operation Firebolt." He quickly walked away.

The others looked at each other questioningly. Lavender answered, "Secret Gryffindor business. You don't need to know." She and Parvati left before anyone could ask a follow-up question.

Harry shook his head, "I should probably look into that, but I'm way behind on my to-do list for today. And I have a feeling that I really don't want to know."

After Harry walked to his office, he tried to think of an excuse he could give for an auror to follow Hermione without raising suspicions. By the time he reached the office, he had eliminated most of the options he'd considered. He was about to sit down, when he jumped back suddenly and pulled out a communications mirror, "Hey, Mad-Eye, I think someone tampered with my office. When you get a chance-"

"Well, don't touch anything. In fact, wait outside. I'll be there in a few minutes."

An hour or two later, Moody had scanned nearly everything in the office for magical traces without finding anything suspicious.

Moody's head snapped up and to the side as he exclaimed, "What the fuck?" Harry followed his gaze to... an ordinary looking area of the ceiling. Meanwhile, Moody pulled a small object out of his robes, which quickly expanded into a broom. He flew up the stairs and out of the tower.

Harry pulled a broom out of his pouch and followed, only to see Moody staring out into the dark.

"Dammit!", Moody exclaimed. He spun around and raced toward the astronomy tower. Harry began to follow until Moody shouted back, "Go back inside."

Moody sighed, "I've officially gotten old. There was a time I would have dropped both of them and damn the consequences. Now I'm all worried about putting students in danger."

McGonagall frowned, "Feeling a sense of responsibility is not a bad thing."

Bones commented, "I'm just surprised you didn't have a fast enough broom to intercept them. Normally, you're prepared for things like that."

Moody scoffed, "I have one of the fastest racing brooms you can get. Unfortunately, those smugglers had a dragon pulling them. If there were a broom that could intercept a dragon, I would own one."

"A dragon! Where the hell did a dragon come from?"

McGonagall sighed, "Alastor caught Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, and Ronald Weasley at the astronomy tower. I interviewed them and from what I've put together, the grounds keeper, Hagrid, raised it from an egg. Weasley's older brother works at a dragon preserve, and sent some of his co-workers to take the dragon somewhere where it will be cared for. Hagrid's on his way here."

Moody nodded, "Good. I have some veritaserum. We can do a proper interrogation."

McGonagall asked, "Are you sure that's strictly necessary?"

"Of course."

Harry added, "I agree."

Bones nodded as well, "After the last time we interviewed that man, truth serum can only speed things up."

There was a knock at the door, and McGonagall called, "Come in, Hagrid."

Moody was ready with a glass of water with two drops of veritaserum dissolved in it. Hagrid looked around at the others, then reluctantly drank it.

"Where did the dragon come from?" Moody began.

"Someone I met at Hogsmeade had a dragon egg he was trying to find a home for. I'd always wanted a dragon, so it worked out for both of us."

Harry asked, "Is it common for people to give away dragon eggs?"

Bones answered, "No, it's utterly ridiculous. Dragons are carefully regulated; every dragon in Britain should be registered. Even if someone has a permit to raise them, they are extremely expensive. And they're not common on the black market because it's difficult to hatch the eggs and there's nowhere to hide an adult dragon. So Mr. Hagrid, what did you pay for that egg?"

"I didn't pay. He gave it to me... Though now that I think about it, he asked me a lot of questions I probably shouldn't have answered."

"Such as?"

"Well, I'd recently picked up something from Gringotts for Dumbledore. He asked about that." Hagrid paused, then looked over at Harry, "He also asked some things about Harry. I don't remember exactly what, but I hadn't met him yet and couldn't really say much."

Bones looked thoughtful, "I'd assume that was Voldemort. Or a death eater."

Harry nodded, "Could be. My guess would be polyjuiced Lucius. Or someone working for Lucius; maybe someone from the Daily Prophet."

Bones turned back to Hagrid, "And you thought you could actually get away with raising a dragon?"

"I really wanted one, so I brought it back here. I got some books on dragon care., and it seemed doable enough."

Harry had a sudden thought, "Auror Moody said dragons are faster than any broom. How fast is a dragon?"

Hagrid appeared to relax a little, "They can get going pretty fast in level flight, but a dragon pulling out of a powered dive can chase down nearly anything."

Harry continued, "Including unicorns?"

Hagrid flinched, "It's happened once that I'm aware of."

Bones narrowed her eyes, "Here? Earlier this year?"

"Yeah. I thought I was feeding it enough, but it decided to hunt. And there are so many unicorns out there now."

McGonagall asked, "And that's why you decided to relocate it?"

"Yeah. Not enough for it to eat here, and not enough room for it, not without getting discovered."

Moody grunted and asked, "What other dangerous animals do you have out there that no one else knows about?"

"I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'dangerous'."

Harry clarified, "Have you brought anything alive onto the Hogwarts grounds without explicit permission?"

Hagrid sighed, "Well there's the acromantulas. And my brother, Grawp. I'm pretty sure Dumbledore knew he was living out there, but he never actually said it was okay."

"Acromantulas!", exclaimed several people.

"How did you get an acromantula past the wards?", Moody demanded.

"I don't know exactly. Dippet was headmaster at the time, and I don't think he was as good as Dumbledore at reading the wards."

McGonagall replied, "I can believe that. I don't think I can sense a tenth of what Dumbledore could from the wards. But Hagrid, why would you bring acromantulas here?"

"I was trying to keep him safe. Wizards tend to be... unfriendly to everyone who's different or who they don't understand. Believe me, I've seen it closer than I'd have liked. You also usually tend to kill things when they're labeled 'dangerous creatures'."

Moody stared at him, "Acromantulas eat people when they get the opportunity. What's your definition of dangerous?"

"Acromantulas are basically people with extra legs. They're smart; they can even learn English. Sure, they eat other animals for food, but so do people."

"And how many are there now?"

"I don't know exactly. Probably hundreds."

Moody just shook his head. Bones mumbled, "You moron."

McGonagall asked, "Is there anything else we should know? Or that you think we'd want to know?"

"Er, I don't think so."

The floo lit up, and Bones stated, "An auror is coming to take you to a detainment room until we decide what to do with you. Or in case we have follow-up questions."

An auror stepped into the room and led Hagrid back out.

Harry spoke first, "How did Hagrid ever get a job here?"

McGonagall answered, "He knows magical creatures really well. And he's a good man. He was an ally during the wizarding war and a friend of both myself and Dumbledore. And your parents. He's just made some mistakes. He doesn't have the best judgment."

"Well, he needs someone with at least a hint of common sense to babysit him whenever he's on the grounds. Or better, everywhere."

Moody chuckled, "Who should we get to clean out the acromantulas? There are a few rookie aurors who could use some practical experience."

Harry frowned, "Is it true that they're sentient?"

Moody shrugged, "They're pretty smart for magical creatures I suppose. I've never heard one talk and I don't think they have near-human intelligence though."

"Then I'd prefer to relocate them somewhere where they aren't a threat to anyone. Where are they originally from?"

McGonagall replied, "South America, I believe. I think most of them live in a nature preserve in Brazil."

"So we could transfer them there?"

Bones answered, "We could probably arrange that with the Brazilians. Safely moving hundreds of giant, hostile spiders, on the other hand, sounds... tedious."

Harry smirked, "Luckily there's a world-famous expert in handling dangerous creatures right here at Hogwarts."

Moody slowly smiled, "That's something I want to see. Oh, tell him he can write his next book about it, maybe 'Arresting Acromantulas'."

Harry replied, "Or 'Sequestering Spiders'."

"'Wrestling Web-builders'."

"'Arachnid Attacks'."

Bones rolled her eyes, "Since we're apparently done with the meeting part of this meeting, I'm going. Minerva, let me know when you decide what you want to do with Hagrid. Or his brother. I consider this a Hogwarts matter, so I'll defer to your judgment."

Harry left the meeting in deep thought. Hagrid and the dragon were responsible for the death of the unicorn, which they had previously attributed to a dark wizard. Because he had considered the unicorn to be evidence that Voldemort was at Hogwarts, that probability was now necessarily lower, so he had to reevaluate the evidence and determine whether it was still rational to believe in Voldemort's continued presence.

The explosion in the potions class could have been an evil plot, but it could have also been an accident (it was astounding how some students could manage to blow up even the safest potions) or a reckless attempt to make the potions class more exciting, producing a larger bang than expected. Students had recently cast 'obliviate', but it was possible that students were learning it and using it on each other to avoid being caught or punished for whatever else they were doing. Any number of students had a motive for the spider-based attack on Jugson and Sloper. Memory charms had been used then as well, but there was apparently a learning curve to reading the wards. It was possible that the spell had triggered the wards, but McGonagall hadn't yet known enough to be aware of it. Harry made a note to ask her about it

Sprout was harder to explain, but there were too many unknowns to infer very much. The detection of 'dark magic' had raised more questions than answers about what a trace of dark magic was or what it meant. The memories Moody had read from Draco were the best evidence of Voldemort, but pointed to an original-recipe horcrux, not a contemporary immortal Voldemort horcrux. Memory charms by a reasonably well informed or creative individual could have also sufficed. The Malfoy family still had enemies, and an apparent Voldemort possession, if made public, could ensure that Draco would never consolidate much political power by raising suspicion that he was a death eater or Voldemort himself.

Voldemort- just because it was possible that one might use a horcrux network to escape obliviation and capture didn't mean Voldemort had that ability. Voldemort's final hours could have been a diabolical plan disguised by pretending to lose, but it also could have been a real defeat. He could have miscalculated, been overconfident. Everyone makes mistakes; it's not like he had some supernatural rationality power. He wasn't some kind of evil god; just a wizard smarter, more resourceful, and more powerful than most.

And Hermione had left her room and started interacting with people again. She apparently seemed fine to everyone, despite the sudden and inexplicable interest in quidditch. Maybe she'd just been homesick or something all along and spending some time at home had fixed everything. In retrospect, it was possible Harry had been overly paranoid. He had called for Moody to search his office twice, and both times had been false alarms.

Moody had told Harry about a potion called Bahl's Stupifaction, which produced a confundus-like effect causing people to make stupid decisions for an extended time, typically resulting in self-sabotage of whatever they were attempting. It had been a long shot, but apparently there had been a chance that Voldemort had been exposed to it while performing his resurrection ritual. Which made his defeat more believable. Bahl's Stupifaction- Harry's current hypothesis was that it was like the opposite of liquid luck and both potions somehow used information from the future; one potion caused people to make decisions which turned out to be optimal and the other caused maximally suboptimal decisions. He really needed to find some liquid luck to test. For someone smart, it could be an instant victory condition; it could allow one to skip over hours of trial and error to produce workable solutions to any number of problems. He'd have to find a subtle way to discuss it with Lockhart. Or maybe just let Moody read his mind.