Defense tutoring
Georgina took to occlumency training like a badger to digging. Tom hated to think what sort of childhood she must have had to give her such an affinity for it. He knew what sort of childhood he and Professor Snape had, likewise the Rosier twins, and rumours about Lady Lestrange.
He'd known Georgina was the love child of a betrothal gone wrong. Which could be as bad as being raised a bastard, or on the opposite extreme it could have led to the most disastrous of environments either smothering or spoiling.
But she'd never given evidence or shared memories of feeling smothered, at least not before her father caught wind of her mother's illness and convinced his wife that they might owe the two of them something, if only until her mother recovered.
Except her mother should never have recovered, so it was reasonable that an adoption offer had been in negotiation and within weeks of being final when Tom's untimely gift had indefinitely averted the apparent death sentence.
As it was Ms. Perks could live a normal life, and Georgina owed her father the niceties due her head of house, even though she no longer felt the slightest debt of duty or loyalty to him once she 'cured' her mother herself, and done a much better job than her mother's muggle doctors, or her father's magical healers.
In the process of learning occlumency she'd also learned how to detect when Ember's magic was active and how to forge a connection for a dragon conversation. She'd even warned him that some of the foreigners seemed to wear dragon shaped magic from time to time, though they were often so bunched together she couldn't identify which by face or name.
Also she'd come to notice his spontaneous duplication, and shortly after, the somewhat predictable shapes his multiple presences wove through time until she guessed exactly what a time turner must be without having heard or seen one before.
One day she'd followed him to his rendezvous with Harriet and Luna and invited herself along. Tom and Harriet were impressed enough by her deductions. Luna was unsurprised, as usual.
.
The day when she invited herself along again, her presence reminded Harriet of the abbreviated conversation between Dumbledore and Tom, and asked to be let in on his reasoning behind claiming that the killing curse was actually a charm.
Which saw the four of them appearing in front of the office of the senior transfiguration professor.
Professor Dumbledore welcomed them inside with a twinkle, and an expression of intrigued surprise at the unusual group of students.
"How can I be of assistance," said Professor Dumbledore.
"I'm afraid that our debate last month after the first task sparked interest in the soul rescue charm popularly called the killing curse, and I thought it would be appropriate for … you to be … faculty advisor for any defence tutoring I attempt, or token gryffindor for our impromptu research group, and token pureblood head of house actually trained for that position, or whatever role you would need to appoint for yourself to allow our conversation to continue with … whatever annotations or asides needed to let the others keep up."
Professor Dumbledore sighed and looked over the group again, "And you're all here for that?"
"No, I'm tagging along because I'm—" Georgina gulped, "trying to get Harriet to help me deliver a message and haven't had a chance to get a word in edgewise. Though it sounds kind of interesting, in a ravenclaw sort of way, but I had other things I was going to be doing this afternoon."
It was only half an hour until supper.
Dumbledore chuckled, Harriet hung her head. Luna's wide-eyed unsurprise … looked like Luna.
"If it's more convenient," said Tom, "We could come back earlier."
Harriet's head dropped fractionally lower.
"Ah," said Dumbledore smiling benevolently, "That explains the note I left myself, about three hours then, mind if I tag along?"
The girls all gulped.
"That should be fine," said Tom.
Harriet relaxed and brought out her time turner, they all looped a hand through it and Harriet spun. Georgina ran off. Dumbledore left himself a note, and then asked where their preferred meeting place was.
Harriet suggested a dead end balcony lounge on third floor.
Tom suggested outside Hogwarts' grounds, in case any demonstrations might be necessary.
Dumbledore looked particularly severe at the suggestion of demonstrations.
Tom cleared his throat, "Miss Lovegood, where would be optimal for us to work?"
Luna turned to him and blinked quizzically, "Best for communication, or best for survival?"
Harriet cleared her throat, "best for the future of Britain, magical and otherwise."
Luna nodded, "Direct sunlight, reasonable privacy from interruptions, not too arid (sorry Ember), how about the little overgrown garden behind the shrieking shack."
"I'm not … aware of such a place," said Tom he glanced at Dumbledore. Who was nodding.
"I can follow Fawkes if he can carry you and the girls."
"Ah," said Dumbledore, "I believe that is possible."
Harriet gave Tom a betrayed look but did not argue.
.
When they were standing in the warm mid-afternoon sun, surrounded by green, Luna nodded and relaxed.
"Why is it necessary to be out here?" said Harriet.
"Because I have a memory of my 'grandfather' annoying Professor Dumbledore, then headmaster until he set the curse on all teachers of defence in a bout of accidental magic, and I am not fool enough to teach anything defence or dark arts related within its wards."
Professor Dumbledore acted surprised. Though not vehemently enough for the girls to notice.
"But you said the killing curse isn't dark arts," said Harriet.
Tom sighed, "I do say that, but I suspect that my understanding isn't what counts for the curse, it is Professor Dumbledore's understanding that counts, or whatever his understanding was at the moment he set the curse."
"Oh," said Harriet.
"Now then," said Tom, "the killing curse or the 'soul rescue charm' is intended to kill as painlessly as possible, most other means of dying require around half an hour of somewhat painful and often frightening asphyxiation before they are … permanent. Destruction of the brain and neck can sometimes be faster but hardly ever are. Luckily for everyone's soul, losing consciousness from the shock of blood loss or panic, generally happens seconds into the ordeal and allows them to transition into body-less existence before permanent emotional scarring sets in.
Tom sighed, "Now then, all that is … was, the natural state of the world and not enough to prompt the invention of the rescue charm. For that, what was required was the opening of the debate on ethics, research into the nature of souls, and especially what bearing the intermittent evidence for re-incarnation had on the ethics of executions, and into that environment a kindhearted witch was forced to watch half her family burn to death."
Dumbledore cleared his throat and muttered soto-voice, "literary embellishment."
Tom mock glared at him and continued, "Before we get into its mechanics, let us take a small detour into magical nomenclature. Harriet, you are taking runes and arithmancy."
"Yes," said Harriet.
"Runes, guide and shape magic by the exact arithmancy denotation of the runes. Compared to accidental magic which is guided and shaped by strong emotions and the often very vaguely formed desires implied by those emotions. Ceremonial magic and hedge magic are shaped by connotation, by the words we use and the meaning we expect them to have. Ceremonial magic gains its power and predictability from being used repeatedly for the exact same purpose, as well as from being used at the auspicious times and seasons which further limit and guide and strengthen its capabilities. Hedge magic gains its versatility from never happening the same way twice. It can be used predictably but it requires almost if not more arithmancy than runes. But it's the arithmancy work of making up a dictionary so that you can say your simple prayer to magic, (or that is how it is sometimes described), rather than pouring over dictionaries of runes, until you find a rune set that contains at least one way of expressing each concept you need."
Dumbledore rumbled.
"But that is just background of how magic can be instructed what to do. What effect the caster wishes it to have. Most of what we do is wand magic, which is generally just reusing one of those three whenever we wish, because someone in the process of instructing magic about how to achieve an effect, took the additional time and effort to give the spell a permanent name by which it can be called up again and again, with new parameters each time. Generally speaking wand spells are categorised not by how the spell was created, but by what sort of parameters are required. One definition of dark spells (not to be confused with sorcery by the dark powers), dark spells are those which require an emotional parameter. Not because 'all emotions are dark' or some hogwash, but because the damage some magicals do to themselves in order to manifest the emotion required to get some spells to trigger."
"Huh?" said Harriet.
"Take the cheering charm, or the patronus charm. Both require strong positive emotion to activate."
"Sure," said Harriet.
"And the cheering charm even implies the hubris of believing the caster has the right to dictate an appropriate emotional state to the target."
Dumbledore rumbled again.
"But never mind that, the point is. Reigning one's own emotions is considered by some to be an element of maturity. (Though many wise sages have suggested the more healthful technique is to leave one's emotions alone, but merely to reign in one's actions,) But manufacturing false emotions seems to be lying."
"Certainly," said Harriet, "Or it is acting, which is sometimes a more complex instance of explaining the truth in a way people can better understand."
"True," said Tom, "but acting has its own sordid connotations, at least to some, let us return to spell parameters. There are spells that do not require a wand, many more that are designed for a wand but do not require it, if the caster is willing to go through the extra trouble to specify what he wants mentally or with words rather than by pointing or tapping with one's wand."
He cast the time telling charm wandlessly.
"Why are we even talking about spell parameters?" said Harriet.
"Safety," said Tom, "The more dangerous a spell is, or in some cases the more paranoid the spell-crofter, the more likely a spell is to have been built with safety features to keep it from having an unintended consequence. The most common safety feature is limited duration, or obvious counter, but depending on the intended effects that is not possible. Hence adding mental components to help limit or define what the caster wants. But there is an upper limit, hardly anyone can hold seven numbers in their head simultaneously. Even the most complex rune diagrams hardly ever have more than six blocks interacting, though each block might be made up of smaller blocks. The more complex a spell parameter, the less likely it is to leave room in the mind for other parameters."
"Um, alright," said Harriet.
"The point is, the piercing hex can kill more easily than a muggle gun, but is neither unforgivable (because it is very useful in herbology and manufacture) nor is it dark, (having no emotional component at all). It could have been terribly dangerous, for instance if it were to create a whole whose size and depth were only determined by the amount of magic provided, and the duration that it is supplied. But it was not designed that way, it requires mental instructions how wide and deep to pierce, and it requires the location and direction of the whole to be supplied by the wand, and confirmed by in the mental parameters. It is difficult to get wrong."
Tom picked a leaf and laid it on his palm before casting the piercing charm through it. He held up his hand to show no damage. "Even vastly overpowered," he did the same thing again vaporising most of the leaf. He held up his hand again, still undamaged.
"The killing curse is similar, it is designed to be safe, one of the methods to ensure that no one is killed except that whom is meant to die, is a parameter, which if you choose properly and specifically enough will refrain from killing your best friend, if they happen to approach you while polyjuiced as your worst enemy."
"That is not how it is taught," said Dumbledore.
"Unfortunately it is not," said Tom, "nor is it taught that neither hate nor anger is required, only that you truly believe that good will come of the divorce of soul from body of the entity you specify. Like I said, I see no evidence that it was originally intended for enemies or battle rather than for terminal patients in hospital. There are too many safeguards for it to be a proper weapon."
"I don't see it," said Dumbledore.
Tom huffed, and looked up, "See that bird?"
Everyone looked, "Avada Kedavra," said Tom.
At the first syllable everyone looked back at him. Everyone saw the green lighting leave his wand and impact his hand. Tom blinked hard at the sting, not because the curse had hurt him but because he'd forgotten not to overpower it.
"Most people are taught only enough to bypass the safety features intended by the target parameter, not to use it for their benefit, and to protect against collateral damage or friendly fire."
"What is that mental component?" said Harriet.
"The first is same as for the point-me spell," said Tom, "The second parameter is belief that the world would be better off without the target continuing to live. The common phrase is, 'you have to mean it.' But what most people think that means, and what the spell creator wanted that to mean are different things. For instance."
He pointed his wand at Dumbledore, then thought better of it and pointed at Luna, "Avada Kedavra."
His wand poofed a cloud of silver sparks then vibrated oddly as they were reabsorbed.
He was mildly amused and offended that Harriet and Fawkes had interposed themselves.
"Dashur Alban!" said Tom, "what do you take me for?"
The all stared and blinked at him, except Luna did not seem surprised, she hadn't even flinched for the incantation. Or perhaps she had flinched several tens of seconds early.
"Anyway," he said, "you do have to mean it, but that is a safety feature, and a complement to the spell designer, at least as much as it might be a indictment of anyone who happens to manage to use it for murder instead of euthanasia or food preparation."
"And you don't think euthanasia is also murder?" said Dumbledore. At least he was predictable.
"I admit that depends on what you think the purpose of life is, and how you interpret suffering and the alleviation of suffering in the context of partial reincarnation."
Dumbledore made a face that implied he was preparing a long sermon.
"Anyway," said Tom, turning back to Harriet, "hit me here." He tapped his chest low enough that he should be able to see the curse coming, if she managed to cast it at all.
"Avada … Kedavra," she sighed, the green lightning formed and floated to him in a lethargic and reluctant sort of manner. Tom sidestepped and threw a stasis net around it; slowing it gently to a stop.
"I didn't think that would work," said Harriet, trying to apologise through her shock and horror.
"I'm not surprised," said Tom, "you told me once you wouldn't turn down the chance to execute my Grandfather if the opportunity was shoved in your face too emphatically."
"Yes but…" she said.
"Harriet, I forgive you," said Tom, "especially given the amount of reluctance you displayed and that you managed to under-power it on your first cast. Also, thank you for complying with the lesson plan. None of the others could have cast it on anyone present."
"Oh," said Harriet.
"Now then," he poked his wand through the net, upgrading the enclosure with several space modifications, "And I believe, this." He poked the green glow which had by then coiled and collapsed from bolt lightning into ball lightning. It responded properly and disassembled itself from an active spell into its constituent runes.
"Linear-B," sighed Tom, "Typical, typical."
"What exactly are you hoping to teach here?" said Professor Dumbledore.
"First of all," said Tom, pointing at the trapped green runes, "That is not a curse. Do you read Linear-B?"
"Not well," said Dumbledore.
"Me either, but I recognise these three runes for wand orientation, this one for mental parameter and those next to it for some kind of abstract interpretation of the same. The two mini blocks down here for soul and life essence, and this trigraph for … Harriet, why would …"
"What?"
"Why would a killing spell, either curse or blessing need to… But where does it go and why bother to…"
Tom turned and created another containment space and started drawing runes in it.
"What are you doing?" said Dumbledore, stepping around to see the runes from the front.
"Don't worry, he gets like this sometimes," said Harriet, "Patience is best."
"He's re-deriving the forgotten part," said Luna, "it will help him heal. Let him finish."
Tom continued forming the rune diagram as much as he could from runes and rune blocks he'd used before, when he could go no further he sketched in the missing parts in plain English.
He was vaguely aware that Dumbledore had turned back to the killing curse and begun poking at it until it translated into a representation somewhat newer than late bronze age.
But Tom also had caught the attention of some power which was exploring his design and overwriting the obvious bits into runes, working its way inward.
"So …" said Harriet, "the killing curse creates a horcrux like copy of the soul it removes?"
"Not exactly," said Tom, "There is a cutting or dividing event but it's not of the soul. There's no copy, just a trapped … image. Souls killed by it are neither released to pass on nor allowed reincarnation nor to haunt the living. They're just waiting, not sure where."
"Bound to, or possibly in the wand of the caster," read Dumbledore from the rune diagram he was manipulating, "the life essence also, though less clearly partitioned, I wouldn't be surprised if some of dark lords with reputations for extreme power, were merely wielding wands overcharged by repeated use of the killing curse."
Tom tisked and kept working. Adding parallel phrases over and over until his unseen assistant recognised one or interpolated between two or more and translated the lot into equivalent runes.
Then he got to that point when he needed to specify which life to restore, he opened a space where the rune block ought to go, and tried to imagine the arithmancy of selecting a trapped soul from the myriad within his older self's previous wand.
"How well are the removed souls labelled or partitioned from each other within the casting wand?"
"Not at all, that I can see." said Dumbledore, "though … Oh, ho! Curious and curiouser."
Tom turned around to see that Dumbledore had pushed the parameter rune structures to be replaced by what they referenced, leaving his identity rune in plain sight and Harriet's contradictory feelings toward him spelled out in excruciating detail, in Proto-Atlantian. He was happy to note that Dumbledore didn't seem at all able to or interested in reading or translating that.
Tom came closer and examined what was left.
"Does that look to you, like the mental specification of the target becomes the mental specification of the contained soul?"
"Hmm," rumbled Dumbledore, "perhaps. This looks like it might be possible to communicate with the contained entities, given a sufficient understanding of fidelomancy."
"I don't think Professor Snape is in the habit of spell crafting, but if he could be convinced, do you think he could create a priory incantatem type name telling charm, to help retrieve the unnamed souls in a more controlled manner?"
"Hmm, doubtful," murmured Dumbledore, "though there might be a few things which could persuade him."
"Or more simply," said Tom, "let them all relabel the space within which each is contained with the name of the soul so contained."
"I think 'space' and 'contained' are misnomers," said Dumbledore.
"Agreed," said Tom, "but the only correct terms I know are necromantic not fidelomantic and I prefer not to allow thought of those methods while I'm working on this."
Dumbledore turned around to see what he was working on.
"My my," he said, "it does look stable, where did you learn to compose like this."
"I had help," said Tom.
"How so," said Dumbledore.
Tom sketched in the prose for what he'd learned so far about identifying trapped souls.
Again the edges of meaning dissolved from English into abstract structure runes, waiting for the inner bits to fill in. He rephrased a few things and more meaning became runes. Suddenly a new layer of runes appeared between him and his work surface the runes were: "ne e pranojmë këtë!" (was that: I recognise this!, or we?)
And another inch nearer Tom's eyes a new rune diagram appeared, dense with rune blocks, after a second they spread out where he could see them, then slid around into the same orientation he'd used in his diagram.
"Linear-B again," said Tom.
"Same author, almost certainly," said Dumbledore, "Who's your assistant though?"
"Not certain," said Tom, "But I got the feeling I should recognise her sense of humour."
"Her?"
Under the glowing blue, "ne e pranojmë këtë!" appeared a scarlet oval bound with knot-work and inside it swept an ornate calligraphy that embossed itself with gold lettering. And below that a two headed bird in black.
"I must approve of her choice of colours," muttered Dumbledore.
"I don't think that's Linear-B," said Tom.
"That is Linear-A," said Dumbledore, "and the knot work box might imply the signature inside is royalty, though it's a different knot work than I'm used to seeing for hieroglyphics."
"As does the earlier use of the plural pronoun," said Tom, "Your Majesty, what is the preferred pronunciation of this spell?"
"kokku elu"
Tom attempted that. It was instantly replaced by an excruciatingly verbose pronunciation guide. He attempted that repeatedly, each time his the letters changed colour to highlight his failures. Finally he said it correctly and it reverted to its original spelling, then vanished to be replaced by an animated wand motion.
Tom tried that. It highlighted his mistakes and he tried again until it was satisfied.
Tom felt the brush of cool lips on his cheekbone. He spun around but no one was there. When he turned back it had all vanished to be replaced by letters that might spell "e dashur" and a stack of runes that did not convey a pronunciation but were inside a knot oval anyway. The third one was the fire rune that had become Tom's identity rune back in his fourth year. When he'd spent months learning the signature meditation, instead of the more common dilettante/initiation ritual performed by the old families for their children at their seventh birthday.
"That is a lot of fire," said Dumbledore, "sparks-of-ash, coals, burning, and … wrought?"
Tom looked back, the three runes had been joined by a fourth. "Cinder, ember, brand, and … forged? Reborn from fire?" the fourth rune disappeared, blinked again, then the whole signature block vanished.
Tom felt feint and chilly. Ember crowed. Though Tom wasn't sure what her instinctive call would have sounded like had she actually been the one with a body at that moment.
"You recognise this second royal?" said Dumbledore.
I'm afraid that is to become the name the gods refer to us by, thought Tom, and shivered again.
"Which powers are these?" said Dumbledore.
"I'm afraid I don't know," said Tom, "but I'm guessing not any of the powers, but some small gods."
The first red and gold signature reappeared briefly, followed by a paragraph of text in the same script.
"Though I notice she's been courteous enough to introduce herself when asked," murmured Tom, "Twice now."
"Hmm," said Dumbledore,
Aloud Tom said, "You know I can't read linear-a."
Tom would almost swear he heard a woman huff as half of the words translated into Latin a quarter into English, before all the letters of the paragraph were pushed out of sight in a jumble.
'E dashur punuar' whispered in his ear. And the presence of amusement was gone. Oh! Was that, 'my darling … piece of work'?
They were all staring at him.
"She's left," said Tom, "Might have told me to call again if I need anything, or have so interesting a problem again."
"Was she helpful?"
"She didn't let me look at the previous spell long enough to see how to feed it the proper mental components. But …"
"But you think you can figure it out?"
Tom shivered, "If I had Old Tom's wand, and maybe enough of his fresh corpses."
"Ah," said Dumbledore.
"The point of the charm isn't death but surgery," said Tom, "and I can't exactly condone the experiments it would take to … oh obviously."
He summoned a bird from a nearby bush. He trapped it in a stasis field. He killed it with the killing curse, (or surgery start charm). He backed up a meter and created another stasis field with net charm. He backed up another meter, and cast the reanimation charm at the bird, through the net. It took several tries with the obvious mental components in various permutations until one took. Gold lightning flew at the bird and became caught in the net and stasis field. He ran forward and stretched out the net and spell until he could see the runes.
"Um, professor, how did you get it to translate to something less ancient?"
Dumbledore stepped forward and twitched some things around, most of the runes transformed.
"It uses A to B, B to A logic," said Tom, "Which probably felt natural in that culture and assuming you're using both charms together in a single session."
Dumbledore rumbled something like agreement.
"Now can you use it?"
Tom nodded and collapsed the net and ended the stasis field allowing the golden lightning to continue on as before. He released the bird which fell to the ground and hopped about dizzily for several seconds, then flew away. As it flew Tom hit it with both charms again in rapid succession, they arrived so closely together that the wing beats didn't falter. The bird continued on her way.
Tom turned to Dumbledore and they shared a very grave look. He couldn't be sure if Dumbledore was crying. He knew he had a lump in his own throat.
"There's no point," said Tom, "In stealing every wand in the world if I have no bodies to revive."
"Ember can forge a new body every three weeks or so," said Luna, "If you don't do much other magic."
"Something for you to do in your spare time, after school then," said Dumbledore. He said it in a tone that implied he knew Tom would never forgo magic that long at a time.
But Tom knew differently, and that using magic in the meantime would only slow the speed at which Ember would regain her massive strength, not stop it completely.
"Are there any wands here today that contain innocent dead?" said Tom.
Dumbledore flinched.
Harriet scoffed, "The only time I've tried that curse, you sidestepped it and trapped it and your goddess friend vanished it."
"Sir, Do you have dead, you would like me to—" Tom found he couldn't speak.
"As if you don't know," said Dumbledore.
"I … only meant … that if you'd like to master the revival charms, but only with small soulless creatures and only with a wand you know contains no remnants you'd like to save for when you're sure you've mastered it, and …"
Dumbledore swallowed.
Tom looked away long enough to put Dumbledore's emotions far enough from his mind that he could resume logical thinking.
"And if you want my dragon to reforge their bodies."
"You seem awfully sure of yourself."
"I am," said Tom gravely, "I just had a goddess and a seer pronounce me adequate, though weak."
Harriet snorted.
Dumbledore resumed breathing, "How will you 'forge' her body?"
"Normally I'd attempt legilimency first, then the necromancy ritual Ravenclaw and Anabel refined for me, if it can still be called necromancy once all the sacrificial components have been replace with normal power donation."
"I'd like to see that," said Dumbledore, "but … would a pensive work just as well?"
"Not legilimency with you," said Tom, "With her, oh."
He turned to Luna, "Is this truly impossible or is there an obvious solution which I'm missing?"
"Yes," said Luna.
"Is the mistake I'm making easy to explain?"
"Privacy taboo," said Luna, "Ember would see around it."
"Then by all means," said Tom and stalked several meters away to transform into Ember.
He turned back and looked at Dumbledore, who had full occlumency barriers in place. A glance at Luna told him not to probe there at the risk of his sanity, even with the strength of Ember's mind at his disposal. He transformed back and walked to Harriet, "Cousin, hold my wand a minute."
"Alright," said Harriet.
Tom crossed to stand in front of Dumbledore, "I have seen the correct route, my offer stands. Whenever you … bring me the wand in question."
"Why can't you let her Rest in Peace?"
They stared at each other.
"How do we know that she has gone on, and not that she is waiting to be released?" said Tom, "I admit that we haven't proved she hasn't gone on, only that she may be waiting for a wand to deteriorate, instead of for a body to do so."
Dumbledore sighed, "I don't know if my wand killed her, or that of … one of my duelling partners."
Tom nodded and sighed, "collateral damage then? Are you certain she died of the killing charm?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore, "Almost certainly."
"Then, it should still be worth attempting."
Dumbledore disappeared in a burst of flame and almost instantly reappeared.
He held out three wands, very reluctantly, "I don't really wish to be informed which of us killed her."
Tom prepared room in his occlumency space and raised each wand to his temple and cast, "kokku elu."
Nothing.
And the next, "kokku elu."
Nothing.
And the next, "kokku elu."
Two German officers, one which cowered and cringed and begged for mercy, one who stoically insisted that his mistake had been the correct decision with the information he'd had at the time, and one young woman who could say nothing in German, except that she was not a spy. And would say nothing else in any language Tom knew. Even changing the occlumency space around them to resemble a sunny meadow, elicited nothing more from them. Except the stoic officer turned around and asked the air if it were heaven.
Tom gave him the soothing reassurances Ember wished to convey and retreated from them.
"Professor Dumbledore, what is her name or signature rune?"
"Don't know her rune, her name was Ariana Dumbledore, she was my sister."
Tom returned to the side of the woman who would speak nothing but the fact that she was not a spy.
She did not respond to the name Dumbledore had given, she did not even seem to notice it more than anything the German officers said to each other.
Tom began to understand exactly what the three of them had put each other through, waiting an eternity in a purgatory accidentally created for them when the spell was crafted with no expiration date.
He retreated again, "Professor Dumbledore, it is as you feared, the wand's ability to hold them safe is exactly as strong as its ability to be interrogated with the forensic charm. She was not in any of these wands."
"And she is not in your head now?"
"No," said Tom, "three victims of Grindelwald are, and the purgatory they seem to have inflicted on each other in their impatience is … unforgivable. The … surgery start charm has much more pressing problems with it than the surgery end charm."
Dumbledore slumped.
"I am drawn to the justice of an old superstition that the four-day-old dead are dead and gone. Perhaps if my goddess will help me modify the surgery charm I will amend the oversight."
Dumbledore slumped further, "That may be appropriate for a surgery charm, but … think of law enforcement."
Tom nodded, "Their names and faces should be preserved, even after the spirit is allowed to depart."
Dumbledore nodded.
"I'd prefer if a more comprehensive record of the identification and justification parameters could be kept as well. Aurors should be able to differentiate who's been using it for executions and who's merely been apprehended mid surgery."
"I don't quite trust the darker elements of society not to learn to mimic those emotions instead of the normal."
Tom shrugged, "There are already much more effective methods to kill. Only healers and snipers ought need a spell as specialised and safety conscious as the surgery start charm."
"And your Old Tom and his followers?"
Tom ducked his head in acknowledgement, "and terrorists, preying on the public's aversion to and misunderstanding of 'violence that one must mean'. Though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that old Tom trained his more capable followers to use as exact as possible identification to minimise the risk of friendly fire and collateral damage."
"What is your reasoning?"
"I find in myself the desire to rule a nation, can only be predicated on the possible goals of improving it or exploiting it, neither of which are optimised by destroying it or letting it be destroyed. Though perhaps old Tom knew things I don't yet understand."
"Anything else interesting you'd like to tell me about Old Tom or his tactics?"
"He took much too long to fail so badly," said Tom, "But I've long thought wars and revolutions that last more than two years imply improper planning or poor intelligence."
"Does that imply old Tom had either or both those problems?"
Tom shrugged, "Or had priorities completely tangential to his stated goals."
"Do you have priorities completely tangential to his stated goals."
"I have hardly any goals in common with his stated goals. I cannot imagine what his unstated priorities might be."
"Are you so sure?" said Dumbledore.
Tom looked away.
Finally he said, "we wanted sponsorship once, before we'd found out we were half-blood. We didn't know what it was called, but we expected that from you."
Dumbledore recoiled.
"Professor Slughorn directed us to the information, in a carefully disavowable way. While you extended to us neither the tutoring we'd need to survive in this world, nor once we had it, the permission to stay the summer, safely out of reach of frightened muggles."
Dumbledore recoiled again, "That was not my decision, that has never been allowed except to children of summer staff."
Tom snorted.
"I was not summer staff, except after your sixth year."
"Oh," said Tom, "intriguing point."
They stared at each other, Tom considered backing down, but after a moment's deliberation decided to press one step farther first.
"Then why do you always seem guilty about it."
"Do you really not know?" said Dumbledore, "because when I was a student I was as bright and promising as yourself. When I had just finished school my sister also had a run in with frightened muggles. She was acquitted of wrongdoing, but they were never the same afterwards, and neither was she."
"It was quite evident before I took a job here, that I was suited to do and to teach, but not to raise children, nor was I suited to maintain discipline over slytherin type geniuses. You ask why I didn't take you in after Headmaster Dippit refused your request, it is because given the choice of Ariana, myself, or Grindelwald. I hoped that you would turn out like myself or Professor Snape."
"Hmm," said Tom.
"You certainly made a showing of turning out like Grindelwald, and yet…"
"Old Tom certainly made a showing of turning out like Grindelwald," said Tom.
"And yourself?" said Dumbledore.
"I sort of fancy myself in the department of mysteries, or as undersecretary," said Tom with a shrug, "But blood status laws do change from time to time."
"Hmm," said Dumbledore.
"Then again, the being courted by a goddess thing is new and disturbing in a diverting sort of way. I may need to put all plans aside just in an endeavour to survive it."
"Ah," said Dumbledore, "Better you than me."
"Your confidence in me is inspiring," said Tom.
Dumbledore rolled his eyes, then smiled for the first time in hours, "Now then, shall we return to the castle and to our long awaited dinners?"
"Yes, please," said Luna.
"Fawkes," said Dumbledore.
"If it's all the same to you, sir," said Harriet, "may Cinder carry me?"
"Ah," said Dumbledore, "he may at those times you give him exact permission. The question is, can he."
Tom drew his wand and cast a flame protection charm on her hand, "That should do it cousin."
Dumbledore looked betrayed, but put it aside when Luna put a hand on his elbow and another on Fawkes' tail-feathers.
"So is getting hold of Voldemort's wand your next priority?" said Harriet.
"Getting three of Grindelwald's victims out of my head is my next priority," said Tom, "getting hold of Voldemort's wand would certainly seem to be Harry Potter's priority though."
"That's … mostly what I meant," said Harriet, "will you teach me the … surgery finish charm?"
"Yes, of course, probably later this week," said Tom, "you are the healer trainee among us."
She flashed him a grin and extended her cupped hand, Tom transformed into Cinder and levitated into her outstretched palm.
A quick swim through non-space and they were standing outside Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore and Luna were just exiting.
Tom echoed Luna's gratitude, "Thank you sir, for your time."
Dumbledore taken off guard by his enthusiasm, extended his hand.
Tom shook it with a precisely calibrated slowness and let go.
Dumbledore blinked at him in shock for half a second, and then twinkled.
Tom did his best to twinkle back, though he doubted he did anything resembling a passable job.
"Stop it you two," said Luna, "the wards might collapse."
"Huh?" said Harriet.
"That much posturing in one place, and both of them have phoenixes, there's no telling what could happen to reality."
.
Interlude: Germ
Greyfalgre Nornton, monster maker extraordinaire, put the finishing touches on the germ, and cast the charms to build it into a seed, which he carefully planted in the experimentally modified nyalynn seedling fosterer. Not that it quite counted as 'experimental' when the seers had told him exactly what modifications to make, and the scouts' guild arithmancers had verified that when they saw the modifications he was to make to the hybrid seed of bay-fortress and road-fortress.
So all that remained now was to wait for it to germinate, (and to keep it well guarded as it developed).
He was glad the politics of forming a whole new council of scouts and guard rotations wasn't his problem. And he was especially grateful that he didn't need to take the choice of best final planting place for the seedling and for the roads and cities that would undoubtedly grow around it.
{End Chapter 6}
