Harry watched Moody begin walking away only to be intercepted by a
newly arrived Cornelius Fudge. When had Fudge joined the Order?
Fudge eyed Harry suspiciously before putting on the fakest smile Harry had ever seen. The annoyance was clear in his voice. "So nice to see you are following Ministry orders, Moody. I wasn't aware Potter was being moved tonight."
Moody shrugged non-committally. "We planned the date last meeting. You were there."
Fudge was fuming. "We agreed on tomorrow as the date."
Moody tapped the watch on his wrist and then held it up to his ear. "I'll be damned. My watch stopped. It had the wrong date. No wonder everybody kept telling me we should wait for tomorrow."
Watching the expression on Fudge's face, Harry had to suppress a laugh. Fudge could tell something wasn't right in what Moody had said, but he was too stupid to realize what it was. If Moody's watch stopped, he should be a day late, not early.
Fudge looked frighteningly like Dudley when he scowled. "Well, where did Dumbledore wander off to? He was right in front of me getting here. Let's get the meeting started."
"I don't know where he went, Minister. Said something about needing more lemon sherbets. I'm sure he will be back soon."
"Lemon sherbets? At a time like this? With all these people waiting? That's very inconsiderate."
Moody shrugged. "Excuse me, Minister."
Moody quickly crossed the room and began a conversation with Snape.
Harry watched Fudge eyeing Moody suspiciously for a moment before wandering back to the others. It was time to satisfy some of his curiosity.
"Mione, what's a changeling?"
He was not at all surprised by Hermione's exaggerated sigh. He would have been more surprised without it.
"Really, Harry. Not all of Binn's lessons are boring. Well, at least, not all are as boring as listening to him go on and on about Goblin Rebellions. Although, we should invite Dobby and some of the other house elves to one of Binn's goblin lectures. They might -"
"-Hermione! Down girl. It's summer vacation." Ron pleaded. "Oy and you Harry. What's wrong with you? Asking a school question? Somebody get Moody, I think they brought a Death Eater back by mistake."
Everyone else sniggered at Ron's comments, but Harry just waited for them to be done.
"Seriously though. I want to know."
"Well," began Hermione. "You know about muggle fairy tale changelings, right? Fairies or demons replace human babies with their own to trick them into raising them."
Harry interrupted. "Yeah, yeah. Get to the wizard stuff."
After giving Harry an annoyed look, Hermione continued. "Well supposedly, the muggle fairy tales are based in wizard fact.
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, during the Great Wizard Purge, before the last of the pure-blood witches and wizards were destroyed -"
"Hold on." Harry interrupted. "What purge? And what last of the pure-bloods being destroyed? Did something happen to the Malfoys and no one told me?"
Hermione snorted. "Harry, never again will I let you copy my History of Magic homework."
Harry knew it wasn't true so he didn't argue. "What purge?"
Hermione gave Harry a snotty look before starting again. "Well you do know that what is now a days considered pure-blood, isn't really pure- blood.
Real pure-bloods were much more magical than wizards today. I'm not sure I believe all the stuff about telekinesis, knowingness, foci, and all those other supposed wand-less abilities and ancient magics. I mean some of those things are just too far out of the realm of reason, but even today there are wizards who practice legilimency, occlumency, animagus transformations, and of course apporation, all of which can be done without a wand. But according to legends, wizards used to be magical enough that they didn't need wands to do spell magic.
Wizards today use dragon heart strings, veela hairs, unicorn hairs and other items from magical creatures to accentuate and bring out their magical powers. For a long time, witches and wizards were magical enough that they didn't need external help to do their magic. There blood was pure magic, hence the term pure-blood.
But eventually, after many generations, there came a time when the blood was showing signs of becoming, well I guess diluted would be the word. More and more witches and wizards were being born who couldn't do magic. Some couldn't do it at all; others could only do it sometimes or couldn't control it very well."
"Squibs." Harry spoke knowingly.
Hermione shook her head before continuing. "That's when the idea of using wands became necessary. By drawing out the magic from other creatures, all the children could do magic."
Not squibs, thought Harry, keeping his mouth closed. Surely the law of averages meant he had to get one right sooner or later. Right?
"Everything went well for generations and supposedly back then, wizards could live for many hundreds of years, so a generation for them was a long time. But fewer and fewer wizards could do magic without wands. Then when a few children began to be born who couldn't do magic even with wands - Yes, Harry squibs - people began to panic.
People started to be afraid of those that didn't need wands to cast spells. They were jealous of their power. They saw them as a threat. There were so few of them left, that it wasn't too difficult to round up most of them and destroy them. Some were given trials, but I mean really it was about as fair as Buckbeak's trial.
The legends start to get really weird with Lachesis Themis." Hermione frowned.
"She was an extremely powerful sorceress. When a mob came for her, she didn't go willingly. She destroyed a whole village before fleeing.
Supposedly she sought protection under a powerful lord. She evaded capture for years living under a Fidelius Charm in a cottage on his estate. The lord was already married, but she bore him two children out of wedlock.
Now eventually, people did come to their senses and realized getting rid of the last few pure-bloods was not the solution. Instead, they decided the last could be put to a much better use in another way, but that's an entirely different story.
But for her crimes, Lachesis still needed to be punished.
In the end, under pressure from the other Lords in the area, her protector gave up her location. But after what she had done to a whole village of wizards, no one wanted to confront her. A bargain was made to send Dementors to retrieve her. The Dementors went, but in the ensuing struggle, Lachesis's daughter was killed.
The Lord, although already married, had no male heirs. So he made certain no harm came to the male child. He took the male child in and claimed him as heir. That caused a problem though, because the Dementors had been promised two souls and with the death of the daughter, only one was left.
When it was discovered Lachesis was pregnant again, the problem was considered solved. With the new child's birth, the previous bargain could be kept. The plan was to keep Lachesis imprisoned until she gave birth. But it was easier said than done.
In the end, the Dementors ended up performing the Kiss on her before the child's birth. Of course she was still technically alive afterwards, but not in any meaningful kind of way. The pregnancy progressed and as soon as the child was born, another girl, she was given over to the Dementors. They performed the Kiss on the infant, but something went wrong -"
"Cycle cyssan fram healf deofel hell feond gebringan idelness." Interrupted Loki in a sad voice. He had returned and was conversing with some of the other adults from Harry's escort. The two groups were close enough to overhear each other's conversations. Now Fletcher, Malone, Tonks, and Lupin stopped their own conversation and listened to Loki along with the children.
"Err, definitely." Nodded Ron, looking at a Loki, who no longer appeared aware of the room.
Loki blinked and looked at Ron for a minute before translating. "Chill kiss from half devil hell fiend brings emptiness. They weren't called Dementors back then."
Loki continued the story in place of Hermione, still with that expression on his face.
"Yes, something did go wrong, horridly wrong. Exactly what went wrong, no one knew for sure. The Kiss had no effect on the infant. Some said since the mother had no soul, the child had never received one. Never possessing one.
Others thought some sort of immunity had been passed on to the child from the mother. A few thought that a newborn didn't have any memories, happy or unhappy for the hell feonds to feed upon. Some just weren't sure what had happened, but given the things Lachesis said before they finally performed the Kiss on her, no one was really surprised that things didn't go according to plan.
Regardless, it was decided the child should be destroyed. Three men were sent to do it. None were proud of the idea of killing an infant, but it needed to be done. They were grown men, but they were afraid of a child just a few days old."
"No, I shouldn't say that." said Loki. "Not afraid of the child really, just of the things Lachesis had said."
"What did she say?" asked Tonks.
Loki ignored her.
"Originally, the plan was for all three to pierce the child with their daggers at once. Thereby sharing and gods willing, diluting the force of the curses Lachesis had put on those she knew would come to harm her only remaining rightful heir.
Two of the men hesitated. They were married and had established lines. The other was unwed and had no heirs. The two prevailed upon the one that for the greater good, he alone should bare the curse.
The one put his blade to the infant's throat. As he pushed it in, he reported a resistance. The blade would not pierce.
Astounded one of the two attempted. He too reported the resistance, but he doubled his efforts and his dagger sank into the infant's chest. As he removed the blade, the divided skin immediately resealed. The same man repeated the action and again he felt the warning resistance and the yielding followed by the resealing. A third try gave the same results, but on the fourth attempt, the resistance was increased. The point of the dagger could no longer be made to pierce.
Bewildered, the third tried. His results were the same as the second man's had been in the beginning. A small resistance, a yielding, and then the repair. Again and again, he sank his blade into the infant. He pierced a different place each time for eight tries. Each time, no lasting effect could be found on the child, yet blood still remained on the dagger. After the eighth time, the resistance would yield no longer for the third man.
The child still lived.
What did it mean? What curse, what protection was it that guarded this infant? What had it meant when the skin varied in the amount of times it would yield to the blade? The men were fearful. They had done what Lachesis had said not to do, they had attempted to end by force her line. They had not succeeded, but still for the attempt, they expected the Themis. The Divine Justice.
But where was it? No harm had befallen them. Perhaps the men began to wonder, Lachesis was not so powerful as had been supposed. Certainly, they had failed in their attempts, but where was the Divine Justice of which she had spoken, against any who tried?
Still the men refused to linger. They left the child to the hell feonds and fled.
As they approached the unbonded man's house, they even began to jest on the matter. But before they could part ways, a servant boy belonging to the second man approached. 'Murder!' He cried, 'Most foul and treacherous murder!'
Again, the men were fearful as they rushed to the second man's cottage. There they found indeed a most foul and treacherous sight. The man's children, all three of them, had been slain. A dagger wound each to the chest.
In a blind panic, the third man rode home. There he found all eight of his little ones dead. Each pierced in a different place.
At last, they knew the meaning of what had occurred earlier. The first man of course had no heirs and so had not been allowed to harm the child. The others had been allowed, but only until they too had no heirs.
After that, no further attempts were made on the child's life. She was left in the care of the hell feonds, until she came of age. When she reentered the wizarding world, she was completely and irretrievably mad. Of course, whether that was from the Kiss or spending seventeen years with only the hell feonds for company, well who can really know."
"But that's just a story isn't it? A legend?" asked Hermione. "No one would really leave a baby with Dementors. And people can't do magic without wands."
"Oh, you would be surprised what some people are willing to do for the supposed greater good." said Loki. "As for wand-less magic, I'm sure it would be possible even today for some people to do, but it is forbidden for the most part to even attempt to train the ability. Apporation and animagus transformations are dangerous to attempt, but that's not why the licenses are so regulated."
Seeing Hermione's disbelief, Loki tried a different tact. "Do you mean to tell me you never did a bit of magic before you got your wand? Before someone came to tell you, you're a witch and gave you your Hogwarts acceptance letter, didn't you always suspect something wasn't quite what it should be? You never got angry or upset and made things happen that shouldn't have?"
Hermione looked torn between agreeing, thereby opening up the possibility that all Loki had said was true, not just legend or trying to further refute his statements. But thinking back to his only trip to the zoo and his rapidly expanding Aunt Marge, Harry nodded.
"That's the way it used to be for everyone all the time." Loki laughed and smiled. "Gods, children used to be such a hazard with all their untapped energies and unbridled emotions. Parents had to be vigilant. Now-a-days, sure occasionally a kid will inflate themselves or make someone disappear, but no more burning all of Rome to the ground."
Loki seemed sad and almost wistful as he continued. "No, all the magic is going out of the world. It's no one's fault really, the so-called pure- bloods might blame the mudbloods, but it's not their doing. After all, there have always been so few of the wizarding sort that if we hadn't begun to breed with muggles we would have ended anyways. It's happening though. Every generation more and more squibs are being born. Someday all the wands and all the Kwikspell courses in the world won't help bring back what used to be-"
"Merlin's beard Loki, you are the voice of doomsday." said Lupin. "I don't think things are that bad."
"No, you don't think so?" asked Loki sadly. "See Ollivander over there? Go talk to him. Ask him how many families haven't produced a squib in the last few generations. Why the only families that still have never produced a squib are the Blacks, the Malfoys, and the Themis. And I don't think we need Ollivander to explain why the Blacks and the Malfoys have such a tragic history of child mortality almost all coincidentally occurring at age ten."
Neville was the one who spoke up to explain it for Harry and Hermione. "Usually as soon as a baby is born to a wizarding family, you can tell they have magical ability. But if you don't have magical abilities, you aren't declared a squib right away. Most turn out to be squibs, but sometimes after a few years abilities show. Eleven is when wizard schooling begins, so officially you aren't declared a squib until then."
The awkward way Neville said this and a comment Neville had made early in their first year of Hogwarts made Harry wonder. Neville once said his family was very excited when he got his letter to go to Hogwarts, they had thought he 'might not be magic enough.' Granted, Neville was never the best and the brightest in classes, excepting Herbology, but he had certainly behaved admirably at the Department of Mysteries. Harry and Neville had been the last of the Hogwarts bunch standing. Surely, Neville hadn't really ever been thought to be a squib?
Again, Tonks asked her question. "What did Lachesis say? Before the Dementors performed the Kiss?"
This time Loki answered. "Well Lachesis was of course angry that her location had been revealed. But more than that, she was outraged that the father of her children had spared the life of one, but bargained away the very soul of the other based on gender.
Now it's said of the gods of old that 'divine favors once bestowed might not be revoked.' And this held not just for the gods. Lachesis could do nothing to remove the protections she had put upon her son and of course she could do nothing to bring back the daughter she had lost. But as for the daughter yet to be born.
She put all her powers and every bit of her magic into protecting that life still growing inside her. Lachesis knew what was to become of her child, what awaited her as soon as she was born. But she vowed that anyone attempting to end, by force, her line would suffer the same fate to theirs.
She decreed that henceforth her line would no longer keep bonds with men. Men would serve their purpose to create new life within the woman, but no part of the man would be retained in the child. Her line would continue matrilineal, without the taint of man.
And that, is why the line of Themis has retained it's pure-blood quality throughout the ages."
Hermione was perplexed. "Okay, so the not keeping bonds with men would be the old marriage blood bonds, right?"
Loki nodded.
"But what's the other part and how after all these centuries can they still be considered pure-bloods?"
Loki readily responded. "Lachesis was a pure-blood. If you start off with a female pure-blood and discount anything ever contributed by a man, any children produced would still be considered pure-bloods. Of course, the males don't retain the pure-bloodedness to the next generation, but the females can carry it for all of eternity."
"That doesn't make any sense." Hermione was starting to get annoyed. "You can't just remove any contribution a father makes towards a child. The very nature of DNA and chromosomes, why the very idea."
"Well, yes." Loki agreed. "But it was a curse. And a powerful one at that. Between that and the whole do they even have souls thing, the whole line is considered damned, just like vampires, werewolves and all the other cursed races that have been created."
"That's the stupidest story I have ever heard. I mean you don't really believe that do you?" asked Hermione skeptically.
Hermione never got her answer because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen. Once again, Harry's life was put in danger as Mrs. Weasley attempted to squeeze the life out of him. Mr. Weasley just greeted Harry with an oversized grin and a nod.
"Oh Harry, we were getting so worried. Why didn't anyone come tell us you had arrived? Really Ron, I thought better of you. Harry, you look thin and pale. Come into the kitchen and I'll make you a sandwich."
Once he recovered from the crushing of his ribs, Harry declined. "Thank you Mrs. Weasley, but I'm not really hungry. Loki and Hermione were just giving some of us a history lesson."
Mrs. Weasley looked at the group suspiciously, but after getting Harry and the others to at least take some butterbeer, she took off to talk with Mrs. Figg.
Trying to get back to his original question, Harry asked, "Okay, but what does any of this have to do with changelings?"
Loki again began to explain. "Well, now the line was matrilineal, but male children were still born. They were not however wanted. But to attempt to destroy them would have potentially brought the protective curse back on the mother. Instead they were given out to be raised by others.
Of course, who would willingly pollute their home with a damned child? It was necessary to trick people into accepting the children. The easiest way was to simply switch the babies with other wizard families as soon as they were born. This worked well for centuries, but eventually people began to suspect something was going on. It became harder and harder to find infants left unattended.
That's where supposedly muggle born wizards come from. After a while it became easier to just leave the male children with non-wizarding families. They didn't know enough to be suspicious, so they often left their babies unattended.
"What did they do with the babies they took?" asked Hermione.
Loki made a hand motion across his neck in response.
Seeing Hermione's horrified reaction, Loki nodded. "Aye, between supposedly being soulless, killing babies, and being responsible for most muggle born wizards, Themis were rather unpopular for years.
Of course, not everyone has a problem with the idea of having their less powerful sons eliminated. For centuries, some of the older families have been known to leave their newborn sons unattended at night in hopes that they could replenish their failing blood lines."
Harry frowned. "They only gave away male children? What about the female babies?"
Loki shook his head. "Females are far too valuable to give away. Besides being pure-blooded, the line has been known to have other abilities."
"If only male children were given away, why did Bellatrix Lestrange call Professor McGonagall a changeling?" Harry wondered aloud.
Loki blushed. "Well, Kitten 'accidentally' got placed with muggles after her mother was murdered by Grindelwald-"
Harry couldn't stop himself from interrupting. "I've heard of Grindelwald! He is mentioned on Professor Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card."
Loki was clearly irritated. "Sure put it on a Chocolate Frog card and everyone knows about it. Maybe if they ever give the werewolves and hell feonds their own cards then you children will actually learn where they came from-"
"Loki, what language is that? The hell feond bit?" asked Tonks. "It doesn't sound like Latin."
Loki ignored Tonks's question so Hermione tried to answer. I'm not certain, but I think it's Anglo-Saxon or Old English. When I was reading Beowulf, it was in modern English of course, but there were excerpts from the original text. It sounded like that."
Mundungus raised his eyebrows. "And again, I ask, just how old are you, Loki?"
Loki looked awkward for a second before responding. "I do believe I need more butterbeer."
Before he could walk away, Tonks put a hand on his arm. "Loki, your glass is half full."
"Ah, Tonks I do so appreciate the way you see the world. You see the glass as half full. I however see the glass as I see myself - having space for more butterbeer."
Everyone chuckled as Loki made his escape.
"Seriously, does anyone know how old he is? Does anyone ever remember him looking any younger than he does now?" asked Mundungus.
"Oh come off of it, Mundungus. Everyone knows Loki is a crackpot." Was Arthur Weasley's exasperated response.
"I mean it Arthur. He speaks Old English, you heard the way he told that story, you saw his face as he said it all. I am sincerely, beginning to think-"
"I have a much more important question." Interrupted Ron. "He calls Professor McGonagall kitten? Does she know? Cause if she doesn't know, I like Loki and all, but can we tell her and watch her rip into him like she did Umbridge? Cause I don't know about you guys, but I found that entertaining."
Harry saw Hermione open her mouth to tell Ron off, but she stopped when the previously quiet Malone finally joined the conversation.
"Why would she get upset? It is her first name."
Ron looked at Malone like he was crazy. "Professor McGonagall's first name is Minerva. It's on the letterhead of all the notes she used to send to Mum about Fred and George's behavior. Believe me we've had enough to wallpaper the whole house if we wanted."
"Well yes, that was her first, first name. But when she went to live with my grandparents, they didn't know she already had a name so they renamed her."
Ron was horrified. "Your grandparents named her Kitten?"
Malone had a thoughtful expression on his face. "As I seem to recall the way Moody told it, it was actually my father who named her. I must admit, he didn't put much thought into the name, but then he was rather angry at the time. When they left the house that afternoon, my grandparents told him they were going out to get a dog. So you can imagine his disappointment when they brought back her instead."
Harry knew he just had to be missing something. Looking around at the others listening to Malone, he was glad to see for once, he wasn't the only one.
"Is that why Professor McGonagall and her brother didn't get along because of her name? You mentioned before that she didn't admit to having a brother."
"I don't really know." Malone shrugged, but from the expression on his face, Harry suspected there was something more to it.
"I suppose it could have been. My father never spoke of her. My parents died when I was six. After that I went to live with my mother's parents. I never even knew I had an aunt until I was eight. I came across boxes of her medical records playing in the attic on a rainy day. Even my grandparents didn't know she existed."
Malone's eyes drifted to the closed sitting room door.
"I didn't realize Professor McGonagall had any family. She usually stays at Hogwarts for Christmas so I just assumed she didn't."
Harry had an idea of why Professor McGonagall would stay at Hogwarts anyways, but he wasn't going to say anything to Ron right then.
"We aren't very close. We did try Christmas dinner together once when I was younger, but it didn't go well."
"How does Christmas dinner not go well?" asked Ron.
"It was so long ago, I think it was my first or second year at Hogwarts. It was at my grandparent's house and they didn't know she was a witch. I don't even remember anymore what was said or done to upset her. I just remember her going to the fireplace and taking a handful of my parents' ashes out of their urn. She threw them into the fire while yelling, 'Hogsmeade! Hogsmeade!' Then she tried to climb inside the lit fireplace and her dress caught fire. After that, my grandparents never invited her back."
Mundungus wasn't the only one struggling to hold in laughter when Malone finished.
"I remember that year." Lupin was laughing. "Professor Janus, the Muggle Studies professor, told us that the muggles were taking up witch burning again."
Now Hermione had a question. "So you aren't actually blood related to Professor McGonagall, right?"
Malone nodded.
"What luck than that you would happen to be a wizard."
Malone shrugged. "Nothing to do with luck really. When I was younger I used to spend the first two weeks of the summer with her. When I was ten, my Grandmother had a heart attack. My Grandfather was busy with my Grandmother at the hospital so I was sent to spend a few weeks with her. It was during the school year, so she was at Hogwarts. That's actually how I found out she was a witch. It all seemed so wonderful and well magical. When she told me if I wanted to I could come back the following year I jumped at the chance to spend more time with her."
"Right." said Hermione. "But what luck that you should happen to have the magical abilities making you able to attend a wizarding school."
"Oh, I don't have any magical abilities. I just use hers."
Harry had long since given up on trying to make any sense of what Malone said, but he noticed Malone's gaze again come to rest on the door of the sitting room.
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall is alright." Harry tried to assure the older man. Any earlier anger he had towards Malone had quickly evaporated when it became clear the man's dislike of Lupin had nothing to do with lycanthropy. Having seen and heard of a few of the Marauders exploits at school, Harry didn't find it at all unusual that someone who went to school with them would dislike one of them.
"Of course, she is. Dumbledore is with her now." said Lupin.
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall's wrist will be fine. Neville's grandmother has lots of experience with broken things." Harry ducked his head to avoid looking at Neville's blushing face.
Malone McGonagall confused Harry. He was seemed concerned about his aunt, but made no effort to be near her. "I'm sure Moody and Dumbledore would let you go in by her."
"No." Malone shook his head forcefully.
After all they had been through this night, Harry couldn't help being more than a little curious about his Transfiguration Professor's relationship with her nephew. "Why not?"
"As I said earlier, we aren't very close. We haven't spoken since the beginning of my seventh year at Hogwarts."
Even knowing it wasn't any of his business, Harry couldn't stop himself from asking again, "Why not?"
Malone's voice was rather matter of fact as he spoke. "I called her a whore. Told her she was immoral and shouldn't be allowed around children. She told me I was my father's son. After that there really wasn't much left to talk about. Excuse me." With that Malone needlessly brushed past Lupin to go out of the room.
Fudge eyed Harry suspiciously before putting on the fakest smile Harry had ever seen. The annoyance was clear in his voice. "So nice to see you are following Ministry orders, Moody. I wasn't aware Potter was being moved tonight."
Moody shrugged non-committally. "We planned the date last meeting. You were there."
Fudge was fuming. "We agreed on tomorrow as the date."
Moody tapped the watch on his wrist and then held it up to his ear. "I'll be damned. My watch stopped. It had the wrong date. No wonder everybody kept telling me we should wait for tomorrow."
Watching the expression on Fudge's face, Harry had to suppress a laugh. Fudge could tell something wasn't right in what Moody had said, but he was too stupid to realize what it was. If Moody's watch stopped, he should be a day late, not early.
Fudge looked frighteningly like Dudley when he scowled. "Well, where did Dumbledore wander off to? He was right in front of me getting here. Let's get the meeting started."
"I don't know where he went, Minister. Said something about needing more lemon sherbets. I'm sure he will be back soon."
"Lemon sherbets? At a time like this? With all these people waiting? That's very inconsiderate."
Moody shrugged. "Excuse me, Minister."
Moody quickly crossed the room and began a conversation with Snape.
Harry watched Fudge eyeing Moody suspiciously for a moment before wandering back to the others. It was time to satisfy some of his curiosity.
"Mione, what's a changeling?"
He was not at all surprised by Hermione's exaggerated sigh. He would have been more surprised without it.
"Really, Harry. Not all of Binn's lessons are boring. Well, at least, not all are as boring as listening to him go on and on about Goblin Rebellions. Although, we should invite Dobby and some of the other house elves to one of Binn's goblin lectures. They might -"
"-Hermione! Down girl. It's summer vacation." Ron pleaded. "Oy and you Harry. What's wrong with you? Asking a school question? Somebody get Moody, I think they brought a Death Eater back by mistake."
Everyone else sniggered at Ron's comments, but Harry just waited for them to be done.
"Seriously though. I want to know."
"Well," began Hermione. "You know about muggle fairy tale changelings, right? Fairies or demons replace human babies with their own to trick them into raising them."
Harry interrupted. "Yeah, yeah. Get to the wizard stuff."
After giving Harry an annoyed look, Hermione continued. "Well supposedly, the muggle fairy tales are based in wizard fact.
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, during the Great Wizard Purge, before the last of the pure-blood witches and wizards were destroyed -"
"Hold on." Harry interrupted. "What purge? And what last of the pure-bloods being destroyed? Did something happen to the Malfoys and no one told me?"
Hermione snorted. "Harry, never again will I let you copy my History of Magic homework."
Harry knew it wasn't true so he didn't argue. "What purge?"
Hermione gave Harry a snotty look before starting again. "Well you do know that what is now a days considered pure-blood, isn't really pure- blood.
Real pure-bloods were much more magical than wizards today. I'm not sure I believe all the stuff about telekinesis, knowingness, foci, and all those other supposed wand-less abilities and ancient magics. I mean some of those things are just too far out of the realm of reason, but even today there are wizards who practice legilimency, occlumency, animagus transformations, and of course apporation, all of which can be done without a wand. But according to legends, wizards used to be magical enough that they didn't need wands to do spell magic.
Wizards today use dragon heart strings, veela hairs, unicorn hairs and other items from magical creatures to accentuate and bring out their magical powers. For a long time, witches and wizards were magical enough that they didn't need external help to do their magic. There blood was pure magic, hence the term pure-blood.
But eventually, after many generations, there came a time when the blood was showing signs of becoming, well I guess diluted would be the word. More and more witches and wizards were being born who couldn't do magic. Some couldn't do it at all; others could only do it sometimes or couldn't control it very well."
"Squibs." Harry spoke knowingly.
Hermione shook her head before continuing. "That's when the idea of using wands became necessary. By drawing out the magic from other creatures, all the children could do magic."
Not squibs, thought Harry, keeping his mouth closed. Surely the law of averages meant he had to get one right sooner or later. Right?
"Everything went well for generations and supposedly back then, wizards could live for many hundreds of years, so a generation for them was a long time. But fewer and fewer wizards could do magic without wands. Then when a few children began to be born who couldn't do magic even with wands - Yes, Harry squibs - people began to panic.
People started to be afraid of those that didn't need wands to cast spells. They were jealous of their power. They saw them as a threat. There were so few of them left, that it wasn't too difficult to round up most of them and destroy them. Some were given trials, but I mean really it was about as fair as Buckbeak's trial.
The legends start to get really weird with Lachesis Themis." Hermione frowned.
"She was an extremely powerful sorceress. When a mob came for her, she didn't go willingly. She destroyed a whole village before fleeing.
Supposedly she sought protection under a powerful lord. She evaded capture for years living under a Fidelius Charm in a cottage on his estate. The lord was already married, but she bore him two children out of wedlock.
Now eventually, people did come to their senses and realized getting rid of the last few pure-bloods was not the solution. Instead, they decided the last could be put to a much better use in another way, but that's an entirely different story.
But for her crimes, Lachesis still needed to be punished.
In the end, under pressure from the other Lords in the area, her protector gave up her location. But after what she had done to a whole village of wizards, no one wanted to confront her. A bargain was made to send Dementors to retrieve her. The Dementors went, but in the ensuing struggle, Lachesis's daughter was killed.
The Lord, although already married, had no male heirs. So he made certain no harm came to the male child. He took the male child in and claimed him as heir. That caused a problem though, because the Dementors had been promised two souls and with the death of the daughter, only one was left.
When it was discovered Lachesis was pregnant again, the problem was considered solved. With the new child's birth, the previous bargain could be kept. The plan was to keep Lachesis imprisoned until she gave birth. But it was easier said than done.
In the end, the Dementors ended up performing the Kiss on her before the child's birth. Of course she was still technically alive afterwards, but not in any meaningful kind of way. The pregnancy progressed and as soon as the child was born, another girl, she was given over to the Dementors. They performed the Kiss on the infant, but something went wrong -"
"Cycle cyssan fram healf deofel hell feond gebringan idelness." Interrupted Loki in a sad voice. He had returned and was conversing with some of the other adults from Harry's escort. The two groups were close enough to overhear each other's conversations. Now Fletcher, Malone, Tonks, and Lupin stopped their own conversation and listened to Loki along with the children.
"Err, definitely." Nodded Ron, looking at a Loki, who no longer appeared aware of the room.
Loki blinked and looked at Ron for a minute before translating. "Chill kiss from half devil hell fiend brings emptiness. They weren't called Dementors back then."
Loki continued the story in place of Hermione, still with that expression on his face.
"Yes, something did go wrong, horridly wrong. Exactly what went wrong, no one knew for sure. The Kiss had no effect on the infant. Some said since the mother had no soul, the child had never received one. Never possessing one.
Others thought some sort of immunity had been passed on to the child from the mother. A few thought that a newborn didn't have any memories, happy or unhappy for the hell feonds to feed upon. Some just weren't sure what had happened, but given the things Lachesis said before they finally performed the Kiss on her, no one was really surprised that things didn't go according to plan.
Regardless, it was decided the child should be destroyed. Three men were sent to do it. None were proud of the idea of killing an infant, but it needed to be done. They were grown men, but they were afraid of a child just a few days old."
"No, I shouldn't say that." said Loki. "Not afraid of the child really, just of the things Lachesis had said."
"What did she say?" asked Tonks.
Loki ignored her.
"Originally, the plan was for all three to pierce the child with their daggers at once. Thereby sharing and gods willing, diluting the force of the curses Lachesis had put on those she knew would come to harm her only remaining rightful heir.
Two of the men hesitated. They were married and had established lines. The other was unwed and had no heirs. The two prevailed upon the one that for the greater good, he alone should bare the curse.
The one put his blade to the infant's throat. As he pushed it in, he reported a resistance. The blade would not pierce.
Astounded one of the two attempted. He too reported the resistance, but he doubled his efforts and his dagger sank into the infant's chest. As he removed the blade, the divided skin immediately resealed. The same man repeated the action and again he felt the warning resistance and the yielding followed by the resealing. A third try gave the same results, but on the fourth attempt, the resistance was increased. The point of the dagger could no longer be made to pierce.
Bewildered, the third tried. His results were the same as the second man's had been in the beginning. A small resistance, a yielding, and then the repair. Again and again, he sank his blade into the infant. He pierced a different place each time for eight tries. Each time, no lasting effect could be found on the child, yet blood still remained on the dagger. After the eighth time, the resistance would yield no longer for the third man.
The child still lived.
What did it mean? What curse, what protection was it that guarded this infant? What had it meant when the skin varied in the amount of times it would yield to the blade? The men were fearful. They had done what Lachesis had said not to do, they had attempted to end by force her line. They had not succeeded, but still for the attempt, they expected the Themis. The Divine Justice.
But where was it? No harm had befallen them. Perhaps the men began to wonder, Lachesis was not so powerful as had been supposed. Certainly, they had failed in their attempts, but where was the Divine Justice of which she had spoken, against any who tried?
Still the men refused to linger. They left the child to the hell feonds and fled.
As they approached the unbonded man's house, they even began to jest on the matter. But before they could part ways, a servant boy belonging to the second man approached. 'Murder!' He cried, 'Most foul and treacherous murder!'
Again, the men were fearful as they rushed to the second man's cottage. There they found indeed a most foul and treacherous sight. The man's children, all three of them, had been slain. A dagger wound each to the chest.
In a blind panic, the third man rode home. There he found all eight of his little ones dead. Each pierced in a different place.
At last, they knew the meaning of what had occurred earlier. The first man of course had no heirs and so had not been allowed to harm the child. The others had been allowed, but only until they too had no heirs.
After that, no further attempts were made on the child's life. She was left in the care of the hell feonds, until she came of age. When she reentered the wizarding world, she was completely and irretrievably mad. Of course, whether that was from the Kiss or spending seventeen years with only the hell feonds for company, well who can really know."
"But that's just a story isn't it? A legend?" asked Hermione. "No one would really leave a baby with Dementors. And people can't do magic without wands."
"Oh, you would be surprised what some people are willing to do for the supposed greater good." said Loki. "As for wand-less magic, I'm sure it would be possible even today for some people to do, but it is forbidden for the most part to even attempt to train the ability. Apporation and animagus transformations are dangerous to attempt, but that's not why the licenses are so regulated."
Seeing Hermione's disbelief, Loki tried a different tact. "Do you mean to tell me you never did a bit of magic before you got your wand? Before someone came to tell you, you're a witch and gave you your Hogwarts acceptance letter, didn't you always suspect something wasn't quite what it should be? You never got angry or upset and made things happen that shouldn't have?"
Hermione looked torn between agreeing, thereby opening up the possibility that all Loki had said was true, not just legend or trying to further refute his statements. But thinking back to his only trip to the zoo and his rapidly expanding Aunt Marge, Harry nodded.
"That's the way it used to be for everyone all the time." Loki laughed and smiled. "Gods, children used to be such a hazard with all their untapped energies and unbridled emotions. Parents had to be vigilant. Now-a-days, sure occasionally a kid will inflate themselves or make someone disappear, but no more burning all of Rome to the ground."
Loki seemed sad and almost wistful as he continued. "No, all the magic is going out of the world. It's no one's fault really, the so-called pure- bloods might blame the mudbloods, but it's not their doing. After all, there have always been so few of the wizarding sort that if we hadn't begun to breed with muggles we would have ended anyways. It's happening though. Every generation more and more squibs are being born. Someday all the wands and all the Kwikspell courses in the world won't help bring back what used to be-"
"Merlin's beard Loki, you are the voice of doomsday." said Lupin. "I don't think things are that bad."
"No, you don't think so?" asked Loki sadly. "See Ollivander over there? Go talk to him. Ask him how many families haven't produced a squib in the last few generations. Why the only families that still have never produced a squib are the Blacks, the Malfoys, and the Themis. And I don't think we need Ollivander to explain why the Blacks and the Malfoys have such a tragic history of child mortality almost all coincidentally occurring at age ten."
Neville was the one who spoke up to explain it for Harry and Hermione. "Usually as soon as a baby is born to a wizarding family, you can tell they have magical ability. But if you don't have magical abilities, you aren't declared a squib right away. Most turn out to be squibs, but sometimes after a few years abilities show. Eleven is when wizard schooling begins, so officially you aren't declared a squib until then."
The awkward way Neville said this and a comment Neville had made early in their first year of Hogwarts made Harry wonder. Neville once said his family was very excited when he got his letter to go to Hogwarts, they had thought he 'might not be magic enough.' Granted, Neville was never the best and the brightest in classes, excepting Herbology, but he had certainly behaved admirably at the Department of Mysteries. Harry and Neville had been the last of the Hogwarts bunch standing. Surely, Neville hadn't really ever been thought to be a squib?
Again, Tonks asked her question. "What did Lachesis say? Before the Dementors performed the Kiss?"
This time Loki answered. "Well Lachesis was of course angry that her location had been revealed. But more than that, she was outraged that the father of her children had spared the life of one, but bargained away the very soul of the other based on gender.
Now it's said of the gods of old that 'divine favors once bestowed might not be revoked.' And this held not just for the gods. Lachesis could do nothing to remove the protections she had put upon her son and of course she could do nothing to bring back the daughter she had lost. But as for the daughter yet to be born.
She put all her powers and every bit of her magic into protecting that life still growing inside her. Lachesis knew what was to become of her child, what awaited her as soon as she was born. But she vowed that anyone attempting to end, by force, her line would suffer the same fate to theirs.
She decreed that henceforth her line would no longer keep bonds with men. Men would serve their purpose to create new life within the woman, but no part of the man would be retained in the child. Her line would continue matrilineal, without the taint of man.
And that, is why the line of Themis has retained it's pure-blood quality throughout the ages."
Hermione was perplexed. "Okay, so the not keeping bonds with men would be the old marriage blood bonds, right?"
Loki nodded.
"But what's the other part and how after all these centuries can they still be considered pure-bloods?"
Loki readily responded. "Lachesis was a pure-blood. If you start off with a female pure-blood and discount anything ever contributed by a man, any children produced would still be considered pure-bloods. Of course, the males don't retain the pure-bloodedness to the next generation, but the females can carry it for all of eternity."
"That doesn't make any sense." Hermione was starting to get annoyed. "You can't just remove any contribution a father makes towards a child. The very nature of DNA and chromosomes, why the very idea."
"Well, yes." Loki agreed. "But it was a curse. And a powerful one at that. Between that and the whole do they even have souls thing, the whole line is considered damned, just like vampires, werewolves and all the other cursed races that have been created."
"That's the stupidest story I have ever heard. I mean you don't really believe that do you?" asked Hermione skeptically.
Hermione never got her answer because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen. Once again, Harry's life was put in danger as Mrs. Weasley attempted to squeeze the life out of him. Mr. Weasley just greeted Harry with an oversized grin and a nod.
"Oh Harry, we were getting so worried. Why didn't anyone come tell us you had arrived? Really Ron, I thought better of you. Harry, you look thin and pale. Come into the kitchen and I'll make you a sandwich."
Once he recovered from the crushing of his ribs, Harry declined. "Thank you Mrs. Weasley, but I'm not really hungry. Loki and Hermione were just giving some of us a history lesson."
Mrs. Weasley looked at the group suspiciously, but after getting Harry and the others to at least take some butterbeer, she took off to talk with Mrs. Figg.
Trying to get back to his original question, Harry asked, "Okay, but what does any of this have to do with changelings?"
Loki again began to explain. "Well, now the line was matrilineal, but male children were still born. They were not however wanted. But to attempt to destroy them would have potentially brought the protective curse back on the mother. Instead they were given out to be raised by others.
Of course, who would willingly pollute their home with a damned child? It was necessary to trick people into accepting the children. The easiest way was to simply switch the babies with other wizard families as soon as they were born. This worked well for centuries, but eventually people began to suspect something was going on. It became harder and harder to find infants left unattended.
That's where supposedly muggle born wizards come from. After a while it became easier to just leave the male children with non-wizarding families. They didn't know enough to be suspicious, so they often left their babies unattended.
"What did they do with the babies they took?" asked Hermione.
Loki made a hand motion across his neck in response.
Seeing Hermione's horrified reaction, Loki nodded. "Aye, between supposedly being soulless, killing babies, and being responsible for most muggle born wizards, Themis were rather unpopular for years.
Of course, not everyone has a problem with the idea of having their less powerful sons eliminated. For centuries, some of the older families have been known to leave their newborn sons unattended at night in hopes that they could replenish their failing blood lines."
Harry frowned. "They only gave away male children? What about the female babies?"
Loki shook his head. "Females are far too valuable to give away. Besides being pure-blooded, the line has been known to have other abilities."
"If only male children were given away, why did Bellatrix Lestrange call Professor McGonagall a changeling?" Harry wondered aloud.
Loki blushed. "Well, Kitten 'accidentally' got placed with muggles after her mother was murdered by Grindelwald-"
Harry couldn't stop himself from interrupting. "I've heard of Grindelwald! He is mentioned on Professor Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card."
Loki was clearly irritated. "Sure put it on a Chocolate Frog card and everyone knows about it. Maybe if they ever give the werewolves and hell feonds their own cards then you children will actually learn where they came from-"
"Loki, what language is that? The hell feond bit?" asked Tonks. "It doesn't sound like Latin."
Loki ignored Tonks's question so Hermione tried to answer. I'm not certain, but I think it's Anglo-Saxon or Old English. When I was reading Beowulf, it was in modern English of course, but there were excerpts from the original text. It sounded like that."
Mundungus raised his eyebrows. "And again, I ask, just how old are you, Loki?"
Loki looked awkward for a second before responding. "I do believe I need more butterbeer."
Before he could walk away, Tonks put a hand on his arm. "Loki, your glass is half full."
"Ah, Tonks I do so appreciate the way you see the world. You see the glass as half full. I however see the glass as I see myself - having space for more butterbeer."
Everyone chuckled as Loki made his escape.
"Seriously, does anyone know how old he is? Does anyone ever remember him looking any younger than he does now?" asked Mundungus.
"Oh come off of it, Mundungus. Everyone knows Loki is a crackpot." Was Arthur Weasley's exasperated response.
"I mean it Arthur. He speaks Old English, you heard the way he told that story, you saw his face as he said it all. I am sincerely, beginning to think-"
"I have a much more important question." Interrupted Ron. "He calls Professor McGonagall kitten? Does she know? Cause if she doesn't know, I like Loki and all, but can we tell her and watch her rip into him like she did Umbridge? Cause I don't know about you guys, but I found that entertaining."
Harry saw Hermione open her mouth to tell Ron off, but she stopped when the previously quiet Malone finally joined the conversation.
"Why would she get upset? It is her first name."
Ron looked at Malone like he was crazy. "Professor McGonagall's first name is Minerva. It's on the letterhead of all the notes she used to send to Mum about Fred and George's behavior. Believe me we've had enough to wallpaper the whole house if we wanted."
"Well yes, that was her first, first name. But when she went to live with my grandparents, they didn't know she already had a name so they renamed her."
Ron was horrified. "Your grandparents named her Kitten?"
Malone had a thoughtful expression on his face. "As I seem to recall the way Moody told it, it was actually my father who named her. I must admit, he didn't put much thought into the name, but then he was rather angry at the time. When they left the house that afternoon, my grandparents told him they were going out to get a dog. So you can imagine his disappointment when they brought back her instead."
Harry knew he just had to be missing something. Looking around at the others listening to Malone, he was glad to see for once, he wasn't the only one.
"Is that why Professor McGonagall and her brother didn't get along because of her name? You mentioned before that she didn't admit to having a brother."
"I don't really know." Malone shrugged, but from the expression on his face, Harry suspected there was something more to it.
"I suppose it could have been. My father never spoke of her. My parents died when I was six. After that I went to live with my mother's parents. I never even knew I had an aunt until I was eight. I came across boxes of her medical records playing in the attic on a rainy day. Even my grandparents didn't know she existed."
Malone's eyes drifted to the closed sitting room door.
"I didn't realize Professor McGonagall had any family. She usually stays at Hogwarts for Christmas so I just assumed she didn't."
Harry had an idea of why Professor McGonagall would stay at Hogwarts anyways, but he wasn't going to say anything to Ron right then.
"We aren't very close. We did try Christmas dinner together once when I was younger, but it didn't go well."
"How does Christmas dinner not go well?" asked Ron.
"It was so long ago, I think it was my first or second year at Hogwarts. It was at my grandparent's house and they didn't know she was a witch. I don't even remember anymore what was said or done to upset her. I just remember her going to the fireplace and taking a handful of my parents' ashes out of their urn. She threw them into the fire while yelling, 'Hogsmeade! Hogsmeade!' Then she tried to climb inside the lit fireplace and her dress caught fire. After that, my grandparents never invited her back."
Mundungus wasn't the only one struggling to hold in laughter when Malone finished.
"I remember that year." Lupin was laughing. "Professor Janus, the Muggle Studies professor, told us that the muggles were taking up witch burning again."
Now Hermione had a question. "So you aren't actually blood related to Professor McGonagall, right?"
Malone nodded.
"What luck than that you would happen to be a wizard."
Malone shrugged. "Nothing to do with luck really. When I was younger I used to spend the first two weeks of the summer with her. When I was ten, my Grandmother had a heart attack. My Grandfather was busy with my Grandmother at the hospital so I was sent to spend a few weeks with her. It was during the school year, so she was at Hogwarts. That's actually how I found out she was a witch. It all seemed so wonderful and well magical. When she told me if I wanted to I could come back the following year I jumped at the chance to spend more time with her."
"Right." said Hermione. "But what luck that you should happen to have the magical abilities making you able to attend a wizarding school."
"Oh, I don't have any magical abilities. I just use hers."
Harry had long since given up on trying to make any sense of what Malone said, but he noticed Malone's gaze again come to rest on the door of the sitting room.
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall is alright." Harry tried to assure the older man. Any earlier anger he had towards Malone had quickly evaporated when it became clear the man's dislike of Lupin had nothing to do with lycanthropy. Having seen and heard of a few of the Marauders exploits at school, Harry didn't find it at all unusual that someone who went to school with them would dislike one of them.
"Of course, she is. Dumbledore is with her now." said Lupin.
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall's wrist will be fine. Neville's grandmother has lots of experience with broken things." Harry ducked his head to avoid looking at Neville's blushing face.
Malone McGonagall confused Harry. He was seemed concerned about his aunt, but made no effort to be near her. "I'm sure Moody and Dumbledore would let you go in by her."
"No." Malone shook his head forcefully.
After all they had been through this night, Harry couldn't help being more than a little curious about his Transfiguration Professor's relationship with her nephew. "Why not?"
"As I said earlier, we aren't very close. We haven't spoken since the beginning of my seventh year at Hogwarts."
Even knowing it wasn't any of his business, Harry couldn't stop himself from asking again, "Why not?"
Malone's voice was rather matter of fact as he spoke. "I called her a whore. Told her she was immoral and shouldn't be allowed around children. She told me I was my father's son. After that there really wasn't much left to talk about. Excuse me." With that Malone needlessly brushed past Lupin to go out of the room.