Author's Note: In the posted chapter 11 of Intercession, Taylor and Sirius ambushed Dumbledore when he least expected it, stealing his wand, stunning him, and ultimately obliviating him without even trying to explain Taylor's situation. Was this the right move? Why didn't Taylor try to talk to him? If they had just explained… Where would that have gone?

Here's a look at my working through this very question when I was finalizing the last two chapters, back when chapter 12 did not involve Dumbledore at all (see the next entry to see how that would have worked). Specifically, me having an explanation happen here, either as a successful explanation, or as a failed one. As a reminder, we're starting from the same point as in canon chapter 11, the first two paragraphs of text serving as the merge point (to avoid me copying out the preceding 3k words). For the purposes of this exercise, we will assume Sirius knows anything Taylor could have told him, as that would be easy to go back and include in their conversation scene as needed. The exact details of the setup are mutable, as necessary. This was just to get a feel for what it would be like.

Take 1: Sirius tries to explain (and succeeds)

"It's first on my list, bloody useful," Sirius remarked. "Okay… That's the Voldemort issue. Now…" He trailed off, looking contemplatively at Dumbledore.

"Now you change me back and return my wand," Dumbledore reminded them. "I am very impressed with your quick thinking, but the danger you suspected does not exist."

"Funny you should say that," Sirius said. "I seem to have that problem often. Remember the danger you told me about?"

Harry froze. This wasn't part of the plan. If Sirius was referring to–

"That is not a topic for young ears," Dumbledore hissed urgently. "You know this!" Funnily enough, Dumbledore didn't want to talk about it any more than Harry did.

"Well, I'll be vague," Sirius told him, waving Dumbledore's concerns away like insignificant gnats. "I heard your concerns, and they were valid. Thing was, you didn't talk to her. What if she had a reasonable explanation? Remus was right to ask why you thought it was Summoning, it could have been something else."

The pained, worried hiss Dumbledore let out in response to that made Harry think that, were he human, he would either be cradling his head in his hands or reaching for his wand. "You didn't, Sirius, tell me you did not do exactly what I asked you not to do!" Harry reluctantly translated for him. "You could have spread it by acknowledging its existence, or any number of horrible fates!"

"I did talk to her," Sirius said happily. "And I've got to tell you, you got her all wrong. I don't mean that in a creepy brainwashed way, either, you can have anybody who knows legilimency check my mind for the obvious influence you were talking about feeling. Sure, she's a freak of magic, but it's not what you think."

Dumbledore was silent on the bed. Aside from translating, Harry was silent too… Because all else aside, this was either going to be the truth, which he didn't know, or a lie to beat all lies.

"As it turns out," Sirius explained, with all the enthusiasm of a man relating a funny story from a friend, "she's from another world, all right. Pretty fucked-up one too. They had all sorts of nasty Summons running around, mucking with heads, all of that. Thing is, they had ways to deal with those Summons, and she was at the bleeding edge, fighting them off with help from her own. Now, I won't say it's a nice Summon, that's ridiculous."

Dumbledore's little snake head nodded.

"But it was a small part of a very evil larger whole, and Taylor herself struck the killing blow on that whole," Sirius explained. Without the head, it was every itty-bitty Summon for itself, and hers decided that it only cared about her from then on. It won't even do anything without her willing it, from what I gather the whole point is to study what she does with the power it gives her. When or if she dies, it'll move on to her kid and study him, and so on."

Harry flinched.

"Don't worry, as it turns out Veritaserum got it talking to me directly, it's downright angelic as Summons go," Sirius assured him. "It's all about hands-off observation. It even scolded me for using magic to contact it directly, since that required it to speak through Taylor. You'll just have a little observer taking notes whenever you do magic. It won't even tell you any secrets, I asked. It just wants to learn for learning's sake, forever."

Harry decided that this had to be a very creative lie. That thought helped him relax, at least.

"So, there we have teenage Taylor Hebert, helpful Summon in the back of her head, having killed the big bad Summon brain," Sirius continued. "Thing was, people didn't like her very much for that. She had to get down and dirty to have any kind of chance, you know how people will turn on a hero after the danger is gone. One of the stronger people with a Summon took her, injured and all from the big battle, and dropped her here. That person used her own Divination Summon, which by the way sounds infinitely more useful than our Divination, and set things up so Taylor would be happy here in our world and would never want to come back. This required she have Harry, for reasons. She also locked Taylor's Summon away, to give Taylor a chance to live a normal life. It was working. Then you turned up."

Snake-Dumbledore cringed inward. Harry eyed him warily. He couldn't possibly be believing this, could he?

"Now, what happens when you obliviate a nice, friendly woman of her driving motivation to get up every morning for the last ten years?" Sirius asked, his voice taking a darker tone. "Remind me, Dumbledore. Just so I know you knew."

"Memory loss," Dumbledore said stiffly. "Some confusion, whenever the topic comes up."

"Which is already crippling, but think harder," Sirius demanded. "What else? You remove a support pillar in a house. What happens?"

"The rest of the house comes crashing down," Dumbledore reluctantly concluded. "Sirius–"

"See, you get it, but you didn't think twice, did you?" Sirius asked. "Now, Taylor is a pretty strong person, and she didn't know anything was more wrong than what she thought was normal, but enough time feeling shitty… She's not in a good place. Meanwhile, you keep her son from her, lie to him, and go about your very misinformed way… Just because you were worried talking to her might spring the monster in her head."

"It might have," Dumbledore argued.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it was very likely, and it turns out it takes a hell of a lot for her Summon to latch onto anyone," Sirius said. "Not by anything as easy as asking her about it. And it wouldn't be a huge deal if it did spread, it's just taking notes because that's all it cares about doing. If the Summon brain was still around, we'd have a problem, but it's not. So… any questions?"

"More than you could ever possibly answer," Dumbledore said. "How can I know you are not compromised?"

"Check my head, have someone else check my head, check Taylor's head to see the blatant, unmissable difference," Sirius said. "That enough for you?"

"If it were as you say, I would need her memories," Dumbledore said. "Pensieve. Enough to confirm everything you have told me, hundreds of hours of them, and I would need to be able to choose them."

Harry translated Dumbledore's request, but slowly. He could not believe Dumbledore was buying this. It sounded like something straight out of a comic book! Then again, Dumbledore might never have seen a comic book…

"Fighting Summons wasn't a good time, she'll be reluctant, and she doesn't like you," Sirius said bluntly. "But we can make it happen if it fixes this. I'm on the 'there are no sides here' side, but let me tell you, I sympathize with her way more than I do you right now."

"A full examination of your mind, a full examination of her mind, and full access to her memories," Dumbledore summarized. "As well as yours, of that conversation you had with her Summon. I will run a full suite of tests on her, with her cooperation."

"Nondestructive tests," Sirius specified. "I'm telling you right now, Albus, killing her is off the table."

"Yeah," Harry added. Here, at least, he had something he could contribute.

"If," Dumbledore stressed with a long hiss, "all of this adds up. If I am satisfied it is as you say. That she and her Summon are benign."

"Yes?" Sirius prompted.

"Then we will see what comes next, but it is likely to involve me apologizing. To her, and to you, Harry." Dumbledore looked up at him.

"Don't look at me," Harry said, "this is all so insane it's going in one ear and out the other." And he didn't believe a word of it. Sirius was just telling Dumbledore what he needed to hear to bugger off and leave Taylor alone. There was probably a much less insane explanation for Dumbledore's observations. Though he couldn't think of one that would justify telling this crazy made-up story instead of just telling the truth.

"We have an agreement," Sirius intoned. "Are you going to attack me and take your wand back when I change you back?"

"I would like my wand back, and I would like to examine your mind right now, to cut down on the chance of trickery," Dumbledore said stiffly. "Also, are you certain your friend there is still asleep?"

"She lost both arms and an eye, she hasn't woken from her coma yet," Sirius said sadly. "Harry, could you check?"

Harry reached over to lightly shake Taylor's arm, amazed that Dumbledore hadn't put two and two together yet. Taylor let herself be shaken, lying limply. "No, she's still out of it."

"Good. Summoning is still not a topic for unexpecting ears," Dumbledore hissed. "We have an agreement."

"Yeah…" Sirius shrugged. "Okay." He reversed the transfiguration into a snake, and then sheepishly reversed the straightjacket transfiguration, too. "Still good?"

"Why Sirius, are you only now regretting ambushing me?" Dumbledore asked with a hint of a smile.

"Nope, you were hauling around a possession-capable diary of doom," Sirius retorted. "That it also gave me a chance to lecture you without you being able to ambush and tie me up before I got a word out edgewise was a happy coincidence."

"We shall see whether it is happy or not…" Dumbledore held his hand out, and Sirius gingerly returned his wand. "Now, hold still. I will not be sticking to surface thoughts."

Harry tensed. If Dumbledore was going to see everything Sirius knew about Taylor, he would come out of his spell knowing who was in the room with them.

Sirius was betting that when he found out, it wouldn' matter anymore. Harry wasn't so sure.

"Legillimens," Dumbledore said firmly, looking directly into Sirius' eyes. The two engaged in a silent staring contest, from Harry's point of view.

He wasn't useless while Dumbledore looked into Sirius' mind. He moved over to Taylor's bed, careful of her lingering injuries, and sat where he could put himself between her torso and Dumbledore's wand. If only they had wands here–

Sirius' own wand was sticking out of the back of his robes, stuck in his waistband. Harry's eyes bulged as he saw the apparently unnoticed wand. Then he came to his senses and snatched it, sliding it up his sleeve. Just in case.

He felt a lot better with a wand, even if this one didn't feel right. He could use it in a pinch.

After a good ten minutes of tense staring, Dumbledore lowered his wand. "You did not tell the full story," he said.

"Yeah, well, you'd never have relaxed if you knew before putting yourself at her mercy for that long," Sirius said casually.

"This is… I must think on this." Dumbledore looked over at Taylor, and Harry, and he frowned. "I will not do anything rash."

"Sure you won't." Harry said.

"I do mean it, Harry…" Dumbledore turned away from them. "Sirius, I will arrange for a skilled healer here to examine you in full. We will set up the memory session once you are out of Saint Mungo's."

"Once she's out, too," Sirius pointed out, literally pointing at Taylor. "Those missing arms, damaged eye, and coma aren't for show, you know."

"I understand." Dumbledore looked… tired. "Be well, Sirius."

Harry didn't let out his bated breath until the door closed behind Dumbledore. Sirius slumped down on his bed, and Taylor relaxed.

"Can't believe… that worked…" Taylor rasped. "Expected you to… have to stun him. Obliviate him of the… conversation."

"I'd have obliviated him of the conversation, and then everything about you if I could," Sirius said, "but… yeah. Didn't know if that would work either."

"It was such a crazy story, too," Harry chuckled.

Sirius looked at him, then Taylor. "Taylor, you want to take this one?"

Harry suddenly recalled that Dumbledore had read Sirius' mind.

He looked to his mum.

"Not… How I wanted to tell you."

Oh.

Diagnosis: The details could definitely stand to be refined, but in a vacuum I'm okay with how this went, in the technical sense. It's good enough to draw conclusions from. Outside of that vacuum, considering the characters at play… Taylor being quiet is problematic, though as she says, she expected Dumbledore to deny it as true and for Sirius to obliviate him of the failed explanation attempt. That's still risky, though. I could retrofit the preceding scene to have her unconscious, possibly from the difficulty of casting a stunner, but then we have new issues involving Sirius massively violating her trust… again. Or she could suggest he tell and then obliviate if it doesn't work, which might make more sense. That character difficulty isn't a dealbreaker on its own, I can work around making it make sense for this general thing to happen. The outcome could be believable, in a sense, if Dumbledore can specify enough thorough precautions to satisfy himself, but that's a big if and even then it doesn't feel good as a story beat. It invalidates a huge swath of the Dumbledore-Taylor conflict if this could have happened at any time. Sure, it theoretically could have, but to use it as a solution confirms that everything was just a waste of time.

Thematically, this is a huge letdown. Sirius explains, and all is well. There's no inherent parallel between start or end, and it's a massive burst of empty space where a final confrontation should be. Again, the exact details can be tweaked all I want, but this? No. Even if I added another scene later to provide, say, a verbal confrontation between Dumbledore and Taylor over a Pensieve and a back-and-forth battle of drawing specific memories out to view, which is kind of a cool concept in theory if I really go all-in, that doesn't make THIS scene fall any less flat. (Might just write that scene as an AU thing, though, because that sounds fun.)


Take 2: Sirius tries to explain (and fails)

See above, but substitute in 'Dumbledore attacks them' before or after he mind-reads Sirius. From there, he either fails, in which case we return to the current official outcome with an extra blob of explanation bloating the story for no reason, or he succeeds, in which case he either does something story-breaking (kill Taylor, obliviate all present, etc), or he forcibly reads Sirius' mind and finds he's telling the truth as he knows it, and it's all awkward but resolves as in the above.

Diagnosis: Didn't need to write that one out, as it's a bunch of minor variations on the main bulk of the first option. In the same vein, any permutation of this that ends as the above does has the same problems. Any permutation that doesn't just puts the story in a dead end.


Take 3: Sirius and Taylor try to explain (and succeed)

See Take 1, but substitute in suitable impassioned, dark, emotional, bottom line effective explanation from Taylor instead of / in addition to Sirius. Not a plot change, purely a detail change. A fiddly one, but details nonetheless.

Diagnosis: This doesn't solve any of the problems of Take 1, and it means that if I did do the Take 1 sub-idea of a Pensieve-set memory debate / argument, this scene would end up being redundant, as Taylor is participating here. With that possibility existing, this option feels flat-out inferior to Take 1. If I could choose between the Pensieve setting for a confrontation, where Taylor is presumably not crippled, and a hospital scene where she has to lecture Dumbledore with no arms and one eye not working, I'll take the dynamic pensieve scene any day of the week.


Take 4: Sirius and Taylor try to explain (and fail)

See Take 3, but with the permutations described in Take 2.

Diagnosis: Again, this is flat-out inferior to the version where they succeed in explaining.


Final Thoughts: Writing it out and then looking at how the various permutations go, I'm pretty sure any variation where they tell him and then end up having to obliviate him anyway is just going to needlessly complicate the narrative for no further payoff, as it is easily predicted (he was set up as overly cautious, after all) and smacks of removing the consequences of a stupid short-term decision for no gain either in or out of story. So this means they either don't tell him, or do and succeed. The former is where the story goes as of right now, and the latter doesn't look like it would improve the story at all. One nugget of an interesting idea is the pensieve debate (or simply explanation) scene that this could set up later. That came to me writing these Diagnoses, as inspired by Dumbledore's obvious security measures. So something interesting came out of this, at least. The matter of Dumblefore's resolution definitely merits further examination.