Hermione checks up
Luna was alone in a locked compartment reading her Yule issue of the Quibbler, since Draco still had her current issue. She'd waited long enough they should have let her back in.
None of them had high probability futures where they didn't let her back in, if they'd been planning on letting her back in.
So they must have already decided not to.
Or at least one of them had already decided not to. Which might amount to the same thing if that someone was anyone other than Hermione, the others didn't listen to her the way the other three listened to each other. And Hermione was better at unlocking charms than locking charms, so the others could have gotten out to let her in, if they had wanted to.
And they hadn't.
So they didn't want to.
So she found a compartment to be alone in. And she read her Quibbler and wished her father was rich and had enough extra time to teach her at home.
…
Someone knocked on the door, "Luna?" said Hermione, "I know you're in there."
Why would Hermione be looking for her? Hermione wasn't her friend, not yet anyway.
Maybe the others had sent her. Sometimes friends tell each other what to do, and Hermione seemed like their friend, sometimes.
Obeying orders had never gotten Luna any friends, except Ginny, sort of, maybe.
"Open up," said Hermione, "Luna, are you alright?"
Luna opened the door.
"I'm fine," said Luna.
"We're sorry we locked you out so long," said Hermione, "we got distracted discussing v—'you-know-who' and then Padma's escape from him and what's wrong with him."
Luna blinked, "You need to lock the door and make it quiet before you talk about those things."
"Right," said Hermione, "that's why we forgot to let you in, sorry."
"I see," said Luna.
"Anyway, Potter and Matirni are talking on their mirrors, Draco and his Mom are talking on theirs, and Padma went to talk to Parvati so … so …"
"So only you're here to talk to me?" said Luna.
Hermione looked confused, "I wanted … may I lock the door."
Luna almost tried to make a off colour joke, some people seemed to use them to make friends very very well, but it didn't look like that method ever worked on Hermione. "Yes, that's alright," said Luna. Also Luna didn't think Potter would like her making off colour jokes at anyone but him, and she wasn't sure he'd be alright with them 'in public' for several more years. Which might be strange and sad, so many people liked them. Or it might be good for his mental discipline if he had to work harder to make other kinds of jokes.
Hermione finished locking the door and sat down.
"How did you find me," said Luna.
"Four points charm," said Hermione.
Luna nodded, so that's which futures they were in. That group of futures had not seemed particularly likely. But … apparently those four in a room together could perhaps be wagered upon to discuss absolutely everything any of them had on their mind.
"What did you want to talk about?"
Conversations were so much more tedious going the other direction. When Luna wanted to ask questions she could just think them and look at all the possible futures to see the most probable answers, but when other people needed to ask questions she had to sit still and wait for them to put them all the way into words and…
"Lord Potter is a metamorphmagus," said Hermione, "and so is his cousin."
"Draco isn't," said Luna.
"I meant Harriet Matirni," said Hermione.
"Oh, no," said Luna, "There is no Harriet Matirni."
"What?" said Hermione.
Lie, now. Or distract her from her insecurities.
"I mean … what I mean is … metamorphmagi are always conceived as males, x and y chromosomes, there is another name for x x metamorphs but they are much less common and often never learn to use their power. But some metamorphmagi develop a preference for the female shape, some even before birth, depending on how alert to their magic and their environment they are while in the womb, they almost always continue to stay predominantly female until age three or four, then they start expanding their horizons and therefore their repertoire. On the other hand in cases where their primary caretaker is their father or an older brother or godparent or nurse or anything, they're much more likely to learn to imitate that caretaker, and perhaps learn to prefer that imitation."
"I think I understand," said Hermione, "where did you learn all this?"
"I'm a ravenclaw, aren't I?" said Luna, "I can research. Especially when I find out someone I don't know is going to marry me and is a metamorphmagi with two names."
"You're serious about Potter being both of them, not … Matirni and him trading places like he says."
"Like Padma says," corrected Luna, "Anyway, I think you don't have any futures where you meet both of them at the same time."
"Hmm," said Hermione, "alright, do I ever meet one of them not knowing something I told the other one?"
"No," said Luna.
"So even if there are two of them, I can simplify my mental model of the world by eliminating the extra."
"Also true," said Luna.
Hermione's futures simplified.
"There, isn't that better," said Luna.
"So which one of them is real?"
"They are both camouflage for the other depending on what they expect the danger to be. Fewer people would bother to manipulate Matirni if they only want to change Potter's mind, fewer people would chase Potter down dark alleys if they only wanted Matirni's purse."
"And both of them are male, regardless of which form they are wearing?"
"Both of them are genetically male," said Luna, "Just like Tonks too, but their shape is mostly decided by the sort of person they want to be, or think they ought to be, their genetics only determine the range within which they can work."
"Ah," said Hermione, "and … Matirni never really considered being Lord Potter until after she'd been in the care of Snape and Draco for several months."
"True," said Luna.
"But is Matirni really Lord Potter?"
"That's how she was named when she was born, but she's thought she was Harriet Matirni for so long that the naming charm shows both."
"What's the naming charm?"
"It's … the wizard version of the magic that lets mail owls find who to deliver messages, it's not quite as precise as what the goblins do to bank keys and things, that can even differentiate identical twins who share genetics. Even the weirdest ones who share names and wands."
"Hmm," said Hermione.
"Do you want me to teach you?" said Luna.
Her eyes lit up, and her futures simplified.
Oh, is that how to make friends with Hermione.
So Luna taught her.
…
"So who knows that Matirni is Potter?" said Hermione, "And who is allowed to know?"
"Draco and his Mother, Professor Snape and … Padma will be allowed to know soon, but… I guess not yet."
"No one else?"
"Not even Matirni's Mom knows Harriet knows she's Potter."
"That makes me feel weird."
Luna shrugged, "Just call her whichever face she's wearing at the moment, I keep seeing that I need to pick up the habit but I haven't gotten the hang of it yet."
Hermione nodded, "That's fine, I guess."
Debate Club gets personal
"So," said Riddle, "first meeting of the year of the modern politics debate club is called to order. Welcome back to Hogwarts both of you, any new business?"
"I request that we allow new members," said Draco, "with a possible preferential treatment for those who have someone inside the club already, to sponsor them,"
Riddle sighed, "who do you with so sponsor?"
"The girl I'm courting, Padma Patil."
Riddle frowned, "she doesn't exactly like me, I made several miscalculations … before I 'was myself'."
"So we've heard, I think she's willing to overlook that. She seemed to indicate she'd been wanting to rescue you in spite of the fact she did not understand the danger to herself at the time."
Riddle raised an eyebrow, "that's … people aren't like that."
"What?" said Matirni, "people aren't nice? Or people aren't foolish about making offers before they know what's involved."
"People don't forgive me once they catch me at miscalculations that severe," said Riddle.
"I think," said Matirni, "you're lacking a large swath of family experiences that most people take for granted. People do forgive, and hope that the person they've forgiven will learn from their feeling of regret to avoid making similar mistakes in the future."
"That doesn't work," said Riddle.
"It works on emotionally smart people like Hufflepuffs," said Matirni, "the rest of us tend to need punishment in order to feel regret, and sometimes something a bit stronger to turn the regret into resolve to make better assessments, calculations, and decisions next time."
"You differentiate between emotionally smart and other kinds of intelligence," said Riddle.
"I do," said Matirni, "I don't claim much intuitive talent in that direction but eight or more years of apprenticing at the acting profession has given me something of an ability to model the reactions of others, helping me to predict how they will act even if I don't generally experience emotions as strongly as they seem to."
"Ah," said Riddle, "do you second Malfoy's motion."
"I do," said Matirni.
"Well that carries, unless I can convince you to enter into debate," sighed Riddle.
"What is there to debate?" said Matirni.
"Do either of these people want to join?" said Riddle.
Draco's head snapped to look at Matirni, "Luna?"
Matirni nodded then frowned, "How did you know?"
"Just a guess," said Riddle, "I don't want them here unless they want to be here and want to research and debate properly, we don't need dead weight that just asks what things mean and we don't need them distracting you from the topic at hand."
"I understand your point of view," said Draco, "and I'd offer some sort of concession along the lines of, no sponsoring of members who are still only courting, only serious engagements or contracted spouses allowed, except … seeing how well she holds her own here is precisely … well it would be a useful thing to know about her before I enter into such a contract."
"Ah," said Riddle.
"Ditto," said Matirni, "only she's a prospective spouse for Lord Potter."
"Are these girls purebloods?" said Riddle.
"Yes," said Draco, "and both Ravenclaws. Hi-ers is a firste, which I object to, but only mildly."
"Ah," said Riddle, "I propose a counter offer: non-members may apply to audit discussions for a month and apply to join if they still wish to at that time, and can convince one sponsor. After which they are provisionally members for six months. After which they must be voted on to become full members, which requires a simple majority of all full members. Likewise they can be removed any time before they are full members by a unanimous vote of a quorum."
"Cut both those times in half," said Matirni, "and I agree."
"Add a clause where even full members can be removed, or bumped back to non-voting provisional members, by a unanimous-except-for-them vote of all voting members." said Draco.
"Hmm," said Riddle, "How big a club are we really wanting to have?"
"It doesn't matter," said Draco, "If we get the rules right so that people know they have to act responsibly in order to stay."
"Of course," said Riddle, "what I'm getting at is, getting and keeping nine out of ten votes might be amazingly difficult, loosing nine out of ten votes might require a single large faux pas, loosing ninety nine out of a hundred votes might require an act of god, are we sure we want to say 'unanimous minus one vote of all voting members' for any of these things instead of something more practical like three-quarters majority of a quorum.
"I suggest," said Matirni, "that we set the quorum as two thirds of all full members who have attended in the last month. So … because I've heard sixth and seventh years get really busy and stop attending clubs."
"Ah," said Riddle, "so all the advantages of having a quorum rule, and none of the disadvantages. Or rather since the club exists for the benefit of the members of the club, if only a few people actually show up we can still regulate our members, but we don't need to go through the trouble of removing members who don't show up just to keep the quorum small enough to be effective."
"Suits me," said Draco.
"Alright I'll have all that added to the bylaws by next week," said Riddle, glaring at his dict-a-quill to make sure it was still getting everything.
"Can Padma and Luna still audit this week?" said Matirni, "or are there pending reports or debates that we want to finish before they are allowed in?"
"No pending debates," said Riddle, "all of us have pending reports, do any of us have any finished?"
"No," said Matirni, "I unexpectedly spent most of my hols shopping for formal gowns."
"Don't say that like you aren't thankful for my invitation," said Draco.
"I'm not ungrateful," said Matirni, "I had a wonderful time, and so did Lord Potter. But I look forward to the day when I stop growing and I can buy twenty gowns in six colours each and wear them in order and not worry about accidentally showing up for the same meeting in the same one twice, or any of the other things one mustn't do."
"Just be glad you aren't a muggle, their fashions change every season instead of over the course of a decade."
Matirni patted her forehead to show her opining of that idea. "It's not that I don't like fancy clothes," said Matirni, "It's that they take so long to buy or have made."
"Quite," said Draco.
Matirni suddenly smirked enigmatically.
"I don't have my report finished," said Riddle, "I've run into difficulty gaining access to the records I need, I can get in to see the ministry records on Saturdays with my Hogwarts papers, but I'm having trouble getting in to see the relevant muggle records. I'm not clear on if they want proof of nativity or proof of age or proof of something else, but they won't let me in without a photo ID and I'm not clear how those are even obtained."
"Talk to my Mum," said Draco, "or a muggleborn, Probably an older muggleborn first to get an idea how the muggles expect you to have gone about it, so you have an idea how to act about requests to see your various papers, then to my Mum for how wizards normally get similar documents."
"Noted," said Riddle.
"I've only finished the one report on wards: overload protection has only been commonly practised since the 1760s even thought the techniques were available from the early thirteen hundreds. If everyone assumes they will be wakened by the wards long before they give way, escape tunnels and and floo provided a way to escape long before the wards collapsed. It wasn't until the anti-apparition and anti-portkey charm was demonstrated that people began to consider the possibility of needing to survive the collapse of their wards."
"Noted," said Riddle, "And that was long enough before the attack on property rights that one may safely assume it's not connected."
"Seems like it to me," said Draco.
"Do we wish to revisit the debate leading up to the request for that report?" said Riddle.
"I'm good," said Matirni, "it was a throw away objection, and all my other points were defeated anyway, Draco's point stands."
"Thank you," said Draco.
"No," said Matirni, "Thank you for the history lesson."
Draco shrugged. It was one of the points Severus had driven home to them several times at the beginning, losing a debate isn't like losing a duel, the point of the debate is to learn, for that all sides must bring their best arguments, and may the best idea win.
It follows then that the 'loser' of the debate is usually the one who learns the most, and therefore is the 'winner' in that he or she gets the most return from the investment of the time and energy that the debate takes.
Riddle checked the agenda again, "neither Professor Snape nor Headmistress Malfoy have provided us with a list of new debate topics in almost a month, do we have any available from newspapers, current events, or gossip."
"I might have one next week." said Matirni, "Potter said something odd about the hearing for his emancipation and I want to check up what he meant by it."
"Oh?" said Draco.
"Are there a different levels of rights and responsibilities required from a newly emancipated thirteen year old, compared to a newly of age seventeen year old."
"Potter is twelve, you're thirteen," said Draco.
"That's hardly my point," said Matirni, "what I'm getting at is, does anyone ever bother to tell seventeen-year-olds what responsibilities they're taking up?"
"Oh," said Draco, "I don't know, it's probably a family by family thing."
"Hmm," said Matirni, "I agree in theory but in practice I feel like the family of Great Britain ought to notify its members what it expects of them. It tells kids who wish to be emancipated, apparently, but does it tell anyone else?"
"Hmm," said Riddle, "how much did he tell you about this ceremony?"
"More than Lady Malfoy told him going in," said Matirni, "Which seems like it was a ploy on her part," so Matirni gave a brief narrative, highlighting the questions asked, not Lord Potter's stumbling replies.
"I wonder if I should attempt this ritual," said Riddle, "you said he got a letter of emancipation or something to carry with him?"
"Yes," said Matirni, "I could show you a memory of it."
"We seriously need to get a Pensieve," said Riddle, "Snape is still ignoring our request."
"How much do they cost?" said Draco.
"Over a hundred galleons new," said Riddle, "I wonder if we could hire a seventh year runes pupil to make one for us. I'm sure any of us could make the potion."
"I don't mind attempting to talk Mum out of that much, and ordering it, but in that case it's mine and I take it with me when I leave seventh year."
Riddle pretended to look around for additional members hiding, "I don't see anyone who has a good reason to object to that, but where are you going to keep it, here? In your room? Are you going to lug it up and down to the dungeons every week or just once a month?"
"Hmm," said Draco, "add a bag big enough to accept it with an undetectable extension and anti-spill charms, and we're talking over three hundred aren't we."
"Bags that big aren't exactly practical," said Riddle, "you may be able to find one used at a great price."
"If you think I'm going to be carrying around a brand new pensieve in an old beat up—"
"Who said we needed a new pensieve," said Riddle, "they're not indestructible, but I've never heard of one wearing out in a way that wasn't easily remedied with a pen knife and a rune brush. That's why they keep their value. Also they tend to sit in offices and not move, not get carried all over creation. Though inside the protection of an extension charm and the right anti-spill charm, it might as well be sitting still, locked in a room, all by itself."
"Hmm," said Draco, "if we find one for less than fifty I'll buy it."
"If we find one for less than seventy I can contribute the difference," said Matirni, "but it will annoy me."
"And either Draco will owe you the day he takes it out of here," said Riddle, "or the club will reimburse you both, some day when we hate ourselves enough to start charging dues."
"Have we had any expenses so far?" said Draco.
"Parchment and ink and one dict-a-quill," said Riddle, "all of which I've provided, so far, except we've shared the ink."
"So fifteen galleons?" said Draco.
"Where do you shop?" said Riddle, "two galleons total if that much, it's a used dict-a-quill."
"Even then," said Draco…
"Alright fine," said Riddle, "I found it abandoned and didn't turn it in to lost and found, Merlin."
"Ah," said Draco, "Actually, I wonder if the school sells the lost and found items that don't get claimed."
"I don't know," said Riddle, "It ought to, and if it does I'm writing a letter to the authors of Hogwarts a History and telling them they should mention it."
"Who should we ask, and which of us should ask?" said Matirni.
"I should ask," said Riddle, "If Draco asks he looks like a cheapskate or trying to cash in on some form of nepotism, if you ask it reflects poorly on your sponsor, if I ask, well, I'm just an orphan trying to keep my scholarship expenses in house, don't you know."
"I second the motion," said Draco, "and I suggest asking Filch first. If he isn't the one to ask, he's the one who would know without it reflecting to one of the teachers."
"Research so assigned," said Riddle, "any more business?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Then I move we switch to general discussion format, who's moderating tonight... Hmm, I think that's you Matirni. Here."
"Oh, wait," said Draco, "may I move that we invite our possible guests to audit tonight."
"Feel free," said Riddle, "but we have no debate points scheduled."
Matirni looked at the blank sheet of parchment Riddle had just handed her and put it down with comically narrowed eyes.
"All the more reason to invite them," said Draco.
"Hmm," said Riddle, "alright if it doesn't take too long." The other option you idiots is adjourning the club and you can go hang out with your friends in some other setting.
Draco pulled out a mirror, "Padma?"
"Umm," several sound of fabric swishing and grinding, "Yes, Draco."
"Do you want to join us?" said Draco, "we're several classrooms down from the second year study room."
"Uhh sure," said Padma.
"Do you mind finding Luna also," said Matirni, "I expect—"
"I'm here," said Luna, "I'll be there."
"Alright see you," said Matirni.
"I'll get the door," said Draco and pocketed the mirror.
…
By the time the other girls appeared Matirni had transfigured two more arm chairs with note-taking-desk attachments on their arms.
Padma took one look at the position of Draco's parchments and sat to his right. Luna was left with the choice of two chairs, the one to Draco's left was obviously already Matirni's, the one to Matirni's left would be the one to the right of the desk Riddle was sitting behind, she ignored everything and just took the empty chair as if there wasn't a different way things could be arranged.
"So," thought Riddle, when they were all seated, "Here we are three, four, five purebloods by the most generous standards, and only one who was brought up to it. An orphan, a foreign princess, a second generation Lord, a muggleborn by the old standards, though pureblood by her own families' standards, and self sponsoring with a little help from her cousin and his allies, and a … what is your story Miss Luna?"
"What?" said Luna.
"Lost her Mother before she was a year old," said Matirni looking affronted, "her father taught her many important things, bowing and curtsying wasn't one of them."
"Oh," said Luna and sighed dramatically.
"Have you ever read Family First, and Magic Follows?" said Matirni.
Luna shivered dramatically, "that was an awful book," said Luna springing up and taking a step away, as if flinching away from the memory, "Padma read it to me about three months ago."
"What's wrong with it?" said Draco defensively.
"It made me cry," said Luna, "and it gave me nightmares."
"Good grief," said Matirni springing up and embracing her, "why?"
"Because the only family I have is my father," said Luna as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. It probably was.
Even Riddle could tell it wouldn't be the normal first choice to teach an orphan about bloodpureism. In fact the number of muggleborns who lived as orphans in their later life, if they did join the community… it shouldn't ever be a tutoring book for the first generation. Assuming it's title had anything to do with it's contents.
"That's not true," said Draco, "I'm your third cousin, you have several others here at Hogwarts."
"What?" said Luna, "you are?"
"Yes, definitely," said Draco.
"No, I mean," said Luna, "I didn't think anyone cared about third cousins."
"I do," said Draco, "I think everyone who tries to live by that book does too."
"Oh," said Luna.
"I assumed that since you didn't come to me, that you already had enough friends without me. I was very happy when you chose my good friend Padma to be among them."
"No," said Luna, "Last week Padma was my only at all, and … most of the ravenclaws and some of their friends treat me and talk about me as if I belong to her, not like she's my friend, so I haven't been sure about her either."
"I want to be your friend for real," said Padma, "don't worry about how the others talk about me."
"Me too," said Matirni, "And so does Lord Potter."
"As does, your third cousin Draco Malfoy," said Malfoy.
Luna looked up, and brushed tears back enough to see, not acting ashamed of them at all.
"Ok, ok everybody," said Luna. And she looked around and found Riddle watching them all from the far side of the desk. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't worry about it," said Riddle, "we ran out of debate topics last week, so there's not much you're interrupting by getting this taken care of now."
"That's not what I meant," said Luna, "though I'm glad not to be putting you out."
"What did you mean?" said Riddle.
"I meant, complaining about having a little family still alive, when you don't have any." Said Luna.
"Yes, I see," said Riddle, "very perceptive of you, someday when you're grown and have a large family and you're tutoring your children in their responsibilities to the family, perhaps you should also consider writing a better book to introduce the topic to muggleborns who might be kicked out for their magic. Also halfblood orphans."
"Yes, I see," said Luna, she looked around again, "Potter and Matirni will help."
"Perhaps," said Riddle.
"I'm willing to propose a discussion topic," said Padma, "I'm willing to be voted down for reasons of … its emotional nature, for most of us present."
"Let's hear it," said Matirni.
"How far is family to be recognised before it becomes academic rather than a question of emotional connection and mutual responsibility?"
"I think it depends on how much ability one has to feel the emotional connection and if one has enough close family to saturate that," suggested Draco, "or if one must search farther out along the family tree before one finds enough names and faces to satisfy one's need for connections."
"I think it has to do with the mutual responsibility aspect," said Matirni, "I'm willing to acknowledge anyone who I expect will acknowledge me in return, or in some cases will acknowledge a mutual connection to help me discharge a responsibility for that intermediate connection."
Riddle looked around, "Do you have anything to add?"
Padma shook her head, "It is a very strange question for me, I am very close to my family, my close family I mean, and some cousins in London. I know that I have a very large family in India, but I grew up expecting to never get to meet any of them. Maybe someday I shall, I see new possibilities every day."
Riddle turned to Luna, "anything to add?"
Luna shook her head, though she seemed to weigh a heavy statement of some sort as she did so.
"Alright," said Riddle, "back to you Draco, do you have an idea how many connections on average people are willing to acknowledge, or conversely are able to track and appreciate? And how many you in particular feel an emotional connection for."
"I have no idea," said Draco, "I'd guess even the most gregarious maxes out at about three hundred, a lot of relationship things max out there for most people, and that's normal friendships, connections that feel like family instead is probably a smaller number. I probably feel a close connection to fifteen to twenty, some of them are toward members of client lines that have never been allied by marriage. I think I could stand to add another ten at least."
"Hmm," said Riddle. "What about you, Matirni?"
"You first," said Matirni.
Riddle shrugged, "what is there to tell, I'm an orphan, and there's nothing I can track down for extended family either way."
"And if I tracked down someone for you?" said Matirni, "how interested would you be? If they were emotionally competent would you let them in? If they were magically and socially competent would you ally? Or whatever the word is for … acknowledging a desire for mutual responsibility even if no need is ever manifested or no excess of resources ever grows large enough to share?"
"Hmm," said Riddle, "I'm not sure it is a fair hypothetical to pose."
"It's not a hypothetical," said Matirni, "the pureblood world on an island this small is interconnected and grows more interconnected with every passing generation, even if those old connections stretch farther and farther."
"It is not a fair question," said Riddle more forcefully, still trying to keep a reign on his temper, for all Matirni's normal tact and alertness to her surroundings, she'd said three less than well calculated things so far tonight and if she didn't wake up she seemed ready to say something far worse, and to him directly this time, not in passing and while trying to talk to Luna. And why didn't Luna have a last name already, damn it.
Matirni let go of Luna and turned to face him full on, "I've been authorised twice, very specifically, by Lord Potter, I infer that he is getting impatient, but the topic hasn't come up, until now."
"What?" said Riddle.
Matirni sighed, "I … I can't do this, like this, does anyone mind if I channel him."
"No," said Draco as if he was bored with this question, "but I offer two sickles for the right to hold your wand for the duration."
"No thanks," said Matirni, "I guess I should clear it with him."
"Or just verify his wishes so that you can act in his name as he's already authorised," muttered Draco, still annoyed.
Matirni seemed to be flipping through a muggle wallet that had spaces for pictures, but instead of photos there were hand mirrors, she pulled one out, "Lord Potter, Matirni here."
No response, but she held it up to her eyes and stared into it.
Legilimency?
What an odd couple Matirni and he made.
Matirni clutched the mirror down to her chest and drew her wand and clutched it to her chest as well. And convulsed slightly. Much too violent for a shiver, therefore it must be the next thing more violent.
She opened her eyes and they were bright emerald green and her forehead was rippling to show creases and scars and a uncharacteristic bit of tan.
Riddle grimaced at the sight, Lord Potter wasn't especially unattractive but the transformation between the two was … disconcerting to say the least.
§-Cousssin of the deathh ssstone, I ssee you. It is I, your cousssin of the death sskin. Do you ssee me?-§
Ah, that is not what he'd expected to hear.
§-I hhear you, cousssin, perhapss we can disscuss what we ssee at a more private time, the princess can alsso hhear uss.-§
"Very well then," said Lord Potter, "Contact my retainer at your leisure," and his features retreated from throat and chin and eyes, and a moment later from the rest of Matirni's face. After a second her lips trembled and she put her wand and then her mirror away.
"You are a show-off and an idiot," said Patil.
"Huh?" said Riddle and Matirni.
"He admitted to us on the train," explained Patil, "both of them are Metamorphmagi and they trade places whenever they feel like it. That's Potter not Matirni."
"But," said Matirni standing up and looking around. After a second she half way relaxed and started throwing all manner of privacy spells at the door and the walls and then at the space inside.
"Alright," she said when she was done, and her features transformed to Potter's all at once and much more gracefully, except there was still something about scars on the forehead in the middle of the transformation, though not when he was finished, "I admit that you are correct and that in here it's all within the family, but you could have checked first."
"You're paranoid, and still a show-off and an idiot," said Padma.
Lord Potter sniffed, and turned to Riddle, "I apologise for the deception, but it is necessary, you aren't its target, but be prepared for that little skit whenever you wish me to respond in Parseltongue in public."
"Why?" said Riddle.
"Because Matirni isn't a parselmouth, though she does have enough of my memories of speaking it that she can somewhat understand it sometimes. Also we'll do it certain other times when it seems better to have Lord Potter responding directly to the situation than trusting people to believe that her authority to speak in my name extends to whatever the topic is."
"Ah," said Riddle, "and the channelling thing does work?"
"It does, we're not sure where it came about, perhaps accidental magic, originally. At first we just exchanged memories without needing eye contact, though it was only certain memories, later we were separated against our will, which lasted until the first time one of us channelled the other. Now we can … hmm talk without mirrors, but we usually pull out mirrors to keep from looking insane."
Riddle grinned his amusement.
"And are you authorised to speak in her name as well?"
"I am," said Potter, "though it hardly ever comes up at my school, she's not a known celebrity, and her cousins there aren't as anxious about her as Draco, Snape and Dumbledore are about me."
"Ah,"
"Why do you ask?"
"What is her opinion on the debate topic?" said Riddle, "You do realise it's her turn to moderate, not mine?"
"Hmm." said Potter and frowned thoughtfully for half a minute, "She might be the only person I know with an emotional connection list over a hundred people long. How to say this, she maintains a emotional connection list, and an alliance list."
"What are you trying to imply?"
"That she'd have done equally well in hufflepuff, though she'll never forgive me for saying so."
"I think you have a distorted view of what Matirni can forgive," said Draco.
"Different levels of forgiveness," said Potter and waved it away.
"More to the point," said Malfoy, "I maintain both lists, one is for family, one is for business, especially slytherin business."
"Ah, yes, I see," said Potter.
"And you can't expect me to believe that you don't do the same," said Malfoy.
"Perhaps I do," said Potter, "but can't see myself do so, I maintain the alliance list and the emotional connections list manages itself."
"What does that imply?" said Riddle.
"Strong silent type who can't explain his feelings," said Malfoy.
"Oi, really Draco," said Potter, "take that back or I'll … I'll hug you."
"I won't take it back," said Malfoy, "and who said I didn't want a hug?"
They stared at each other for several seconds.
"I think you'd better hug your cousin so we can get back to the discussion at hand," sighed Riddle.
Potter stood and stepped to the corner of Malfoy's chair.
Malfoy sent Riddle an annoyed look, but after a second he stood and they embraced. Though there was something awkwardly formal about it. Not the way they'd acted together at the Yule Ball.
…
That topic lasted at most ten minutes more, and then they were out of topics again.
Potter was so good as to do his duty as moderator and announce the problem, and request suggestions.
To Riddle's surprise it was Patil who spoke up, again, "I have another one, it's likely to be even more awkward than the last."
"Don't worry about that," said Potter, "this is a politics debate club, ethics and pureblood beliefs and other awkward things are often delved into, Please do contribute."
"It's about umm soul boxes."
"There are several kinds of soul jars," said Riddle, "perhaps you could elaborate?"
"I've heard that there is one that … requires the owner or creator to kill or commit a similarly heinous act in order to split the soul, and the split off piece is the fraction of his or her soul that refused to participate."
"Is this really about politics," said Riddle.
"I'm getting to that," said Patil, "Does anyone know if it is the decision, or the action, or the transition from order to disorder on the part of the victim that powers the splitting of the soul?"
"You're trying to formulate a ceremony for creating a soul jar that does not involve sacrifice?" said Riddle.
"It is necessary for the ethics of my proposal that no sacrifice is required except on the part of the creator. But we perhaps could leave that part aside as details, the point of my question is this, does the split off portion of the soul represent a higher quality ethical value precisely because it refused to participate in the decision to commit the heinous act, and could and/or should outside actors punish murder by forcing the murder to create a soul box, then execute the murderous portion of the soul and reincarnate the purified portion from the soul box?"
"That is a large number of hypotheticals," said Riddle, "presuming this procedure is intended only for convicted criminals who have already committed the act, and are already going to be executed, and a non-destructive ritual to 'reincarnate' from the soul box, I'm not seeing any ethical problem with permitting the experiment, but it would be just that, an experiment, I'm not sure the other answers are known, if it is the decision or the act or the sacrifice that causes the split, if the split is random or meaningful, if the fragment is of higher purity for having been filtered. Does anyone else have any insight?"
"If we're assume all her statements are true," said Draco, "and that the procedure is deemed ethically preferable to regular execution, it occurs to me that the dementors kiss leaves the body alive, perhaps ready for the soul box or jar to be reintroduced without need for extraneous rituals and sacrifices."
"Nice one," said Riddle, and shuddered.
Everyone else cringed, except Patil, she sighed and relaxed. So was she just trying to get something off her chest and was thankful that she was being taken seriously. Or was she really reserching whether to kill him. Or was she … looking for forgiveness for allowing him to bring himself back into existence.
Probably she was just … being ravenclaw about an interesting experience she'd had recently.
"My understanding of the killing curse," said Potter, "is that to cast it is murder and is always murder, not revenge, not self-defence, not culling the breed."
"That is how it is taught," said Riddle, "but hate is not the only, nor even the optimal emotion, it was invented to slaughter small birds for the cooking pot without shattering their skeleton or polluting their meat with their entrails, the optimal emotion to power the killing curse is said to be a sort of refined selfish indifference."
"Do you know what that means?" said Draco.
"No," said Riddle, "I just know that mere anger is not sufficient."
"That's not what I meant," said Draco and gave him a look that was either intended to imply Riddle should not have admitted to attempting the killing curse either successfully or not.
"It seems to me then," said Potter, "all the more reason to execute people known to be capable of casting it, it's one thing to manage to value a particular life in the negative, it seems a very different thing to devalue a human life to the same as any other animal."
"Do you really mean human life?" said Riddle, "And not hmm, 'witch or wizard's life', or perhaps 'being's life'?"
"I certainly mean to include at least squibs," said Potter, "I intended to include all beings and perhaps beasts of 'near human' intelligence as well."
"Alright," said Riddle and sat back, "who's next."
"I wasn't finished," said Potter, "what I meant to say, is that if only the act is necessary, especially if the act can be simplified to casting the killing curse, can we have them casting the curse at an apparently restrained victim behind a disillusioned wall? Or some other barrier that will keep them from realising that the act is meaningless while still protecting the victim?"
"Ingenious," said Riddle.
"But if the decision and act do the filtering," said Luna, "all the rest of the presentation become part of the filter, suppose you brought aurors in, explaining that it was a test, or that they were being awarded a special clearance that required them to have soul jars for immortality or whatever, when they complied with the order to cast the killing curse, that compliance to the hierarchy would also be part of their decision to kill, and therefore also part of what got executed and removed to make way for the purified soul fragment that refused to kill, even under orders and the offer of a promotion. They might be good people after that, but they wouldn't be useful as aurors."
"I sort of expected this to be used on everyone except aurors," said Potter, "but your point is still valid, if it's a government program for administrators, let us suppose, we might remove the loyalty to the government that they are supposed to serve."
"Also similar problems for legislators," said Draco, "the essence of a good law is that it identifies with not just society as a whole, but with the candidate perpetrator, offering a sentence which as closely as possible balances out whatever is meant to be gained by breaking that law. Creating legislators too perfect to consider committing a crime would very likely lead to them being unable to identify with those they are meant to dissuade from doing harm, you could very likely end up with very fine sounding laws that don't particularly interface with the real world and its problems."
"So," said Potter, "except in the case of an auror operation fronting as a criminal recruiting operation, convincing random citizens to commit murder is going to create more problems than it solves."
"I think even there it runs into trouble," said Riddle, "your average citizen doesn't just turn to a life of crime, they have to be driven to it, by a desire for something specific, usually feeding their family."
"So we'd be turning out deadbeats that wouldn't hurt a fly but wouldn't lift a finger to help themselves or their family either," said Potter, "alright, I think we can safely agree that Luna's point stands. If the decision filters, the presentation of the decision becomes part of the filter, and none of this looks good."
"Then does it follow," said Malfoy, "that even if we were using the rest of the procedure on other convicted murderers that we'd have to interview them very carefully regarding their motive before we offer this means of rehabilitating them."
"Perhaps," said Riddle, "the other problem with so straightforward a system is that it might remove the element of deterrence from the equation."
"I think," said Patil drily, "that we already established that it might be a very drastic alteration to the motivations and personality of the convict. I think that after a year or two most people would understand that whatever kind of 'personality modification' the ministry had invented, was effectively just as bad for the continuity of one's 'internal narrative' as execution."
Riddle closed his eyes, and opened them again, "I like the way you think, I wonder whether it would take a year, or more like a decade. Rumours travel fast, but having a chance to meet someone you used to know, before they 'went bad' and then again after they have been 'modified' by the ministry might not constitute enough of a comparison right away."
The coo-coo clock announced the hour.
"That can't possibly be right," said Patil and drew her wand to check the time.
"No," explained Riddle getting up to stop the pendulum, "that only means we've been at this for two hours and we should stop before curfew."
"Oh," Patil looked again at the time, "What happens with debates still in progress?"
Potter cleared his throat, "I motion this debate is as finished as it can be without further research, and perhaps even experimentation, do we hear motions or volunteers to continue research and report back?"
Everyone shrugged.
"Are there objections to closing the debate?" said Potter.
Everyone shrugged.
"Shall we entertain a debate on actionable steps to take regarding our findings from this debate?"
"What would that even mean?" said Patil.
"Probably writing a letter to the Department of Mysteries explaining our theories, and our assessments of them, and proposing they divert a few convicts to see if we're at all close to correct."
"I see," said Patil, "I could do that, it was my idea."
"What excuse would we present for even being aware of or discussing this topic?"
"I was almost sacrificed as part of a reincarnation ritual," said Patil, "I am a ravenclaw, is someone seriously proposing that I would not have done research."
Riddle nodded, "what's the rest of our excuse?"
"When I suggested we invite you for Yule," said Malfoy, "My mother told me what you are and where you came from in excruciating detail."
"Ah," said Riddle, "and you Potter?"
"Matirni told me who you were thought to be, but it wasn't until Draco spelled it out on the train that I understood where you came from, and I inferred the Peverell-Slytherin-Gaunt connection. It pleases me to approach you as family rather than as mere ally."
"I might be your most distant cousin on the whole island, and you 'approach me as family'?" said Riddle.
"Your family connection can be traced precisely," said Potter, "that makes me feel close even if the connection is a very long one."
Meaning we are both celebrities and heirs of great lines, not that … well, being a celebrity increases the odds of being a useful ally, having a precise family trace also implies seeing the missteps of the other could form a more accurate translation for avoiding sub-optimal habits of thoughts in ones own mind, which could generate those missteps.
"Ah, I see, I still calculate that is illogical," said Riddle, "but emotions, I am led to believe, have their own logic."
Riddle looked to the next person in line, "And you, Luna who-hasn't-told-me-your-last-name?"
"Lovegood," said Lovegood, "I saw what you were before you escaped your imprisonment."
"What?" said Riddle "And you didn't—"
"That is between her and I," interrupted Patil, "and we will discuss it elsewhere and in private."
"Alright," said Riddle, "I accept that I was not the primarily wronged party."
"I thought I did well actually," said Luna, "You seem very satisfied with your new body."
Riddle wasn't sure what to think of that, "Perhaps we also should discuss that elsewhere and in private."
Potter sniffed hard.
Riddle looked at him, doesn't want me taking his court companion in private, hmm.
For the sake of the possible friendship that perhaps should be avoided.
"Speaking of, Potter," said Riddle, "are you sleeping in the slytherin girls dorm like that."
"I usually wear Matirni's face in such cases, just as she wears mine in the opposite case."
"Be that as it may," said Riddle, "perhaps it would be more apropos for you join me in my suite."
Potter was obviously against the idea, in fact. Though from the way he wavered, his principles seemed to prompt him the other way.
"Luna, what do you think?" said Potter.
The way they've deferred to each other is already growing, and they aren't even betrothed yet?
Lovegood gave them each a very assessing glance, and then nodded, "I think it would be good for each of you, perhaps very good. Yes, I give you permission to spend the night in your cousin's apartments."
"That's settled," said Draco, "I move that we adjourn."
"Seconded," said Riddle and Potter together.
"Please people," said Riddle, "bring debate topics next week!"
…
{End Chapter 14}
A/N: The next chapter will be about as long, after that things will hopefully settle down.
As always thanks for the favorites and reviews.
~Bregalad