I own none of these characters
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Icarus
by MarbleGlove
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Dear Headmaster Dumbledore,
I was certainly surprised to receive your letter. Upon consideration though, I realize that it comes as a gift from Merlin.
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Hermione didn't think she had ever been so furious in her life, and certainly not with Headmaster Dumbledore. What had started out as astonished amusement (with some hysteria) at having received a letter from the Headmaster, turned into curiosity as to how he had known to send the letter, and then into fury when she realized the answer.
The Dark Lord's letter, which arrived the day after Dumbledore's, let her know that he had consulted with Potions Master Severus Snape in order to work out some of the kinks in the lycanthrope potion they were designing. Dumbledore had to have learned of Icarus' existence from Professor Snape. All it would take was one comment in her next letter to the Dark Lord and he would know that Professor Snape was a traitor to the Death Eaters. Dumbledore had to have known that when he wrote that letter and yet he still wrote it.
After so many years of defending the Professor to her friends, telling them that they owed the Professor their respect, she was furious that the Headmaster of all people would value the Professor so lightly. The very least the Headmaster could have done was hold off on sending the letter for a month or two so it wasn't quite so obvious where his information had come from.
It was the fury that had her deciding to respond to the letter. Before this, she had given the Headmaster blind and total respect. If there was something worrying her or one of her friends, they should go to the Headmaster who would know the answer and fix everything. When he turned down her request for supervision on a project, she had been disappointed but understood that he had more important things to do. But with this letter, the Headmaster was for once thoroughly and utterly at fault.
Originally she had intended to ignore the letter, believing that responding to the letter would immediately give all her secrets away. It was obvious now that Dumbledore was far from perfect.
Hermione pressed her lips together in a tight smile. He was just a man. And, she ran her eyes down his letter one more time, he had fewer masteries than the Dark Lord.
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As you know, your friendship of the werewolf Remus Lupin is a well documented fact. I am presently in need of two potions ingredients that you are best placed to collect, if you so desire: the hair of a werewolf during the dark of the moon, thus, a werewolf in human form, and the hair of a werewolf during the full moon, thus a werewolf in wolf form. I am curious to see what happens if these hairs are used in polyjuice.
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Hermione smirked as she composed her response to the Headmaster. With Lord Voldemort she had to be careful to not show any weakness or temptation towards the dark arts. It had quickly become clear that he was intent upon seducing her towards the dark and if she wanted a chance in hell of not falling, she had to be strict with herself and show no opening in her defenses.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, was thoroughly on the side of the light, and she rather thought, given his letter, brief though it was, that he was intent upon seducing her back to the light. That, a good deed in the name of evil is still good implied to her that he didn't necessarily think she was doing good, but was trying to guide her towards being good, convince her that she could be good. And, of course, set himself up as the arbitrator of what good is.
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The first experiment would be to use wolf-form hair in a polyjuice and apply it during the dark of the moon. It will be interesting to see if the recipient transforms into the wolf that the hair came from (or at least shows wolf-like traits, given that polyjuice isn't intended for full animal transformations) or if the recipient transforms into the human form of the werewolf, given the state of the moon.
The second experiment would be to use the human-form hair in a polyjuice and apply it during a full moon. Does the recipient turn into a wolf or into a man?
Of course, both of these two experiments run the risk of permanently turning the recipient into a werewolf. However, the knowledge regarding whether that happens or not would also be interesting feedback.
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To Dumbledore, she could safely voice all of her darker ideas and know that he would attempt to restrain her rather than encourage her. And she might be able to get real feedback on it, too. And she didn't have to tell him that she was not prepared to actually perform these experiments, nor that she had absolutely no intention of telling the Dark Lord of these ideas.
It would be interesting to see what the arbitrator of all that it light would say in response. Would he give up on as being too dark? Would he try all the more to save her from herself? Or would he compromise his principles and go along with her ideas?
Anyway, she had an inkling that some of these experiments had already been run, but that the results were in the books that she didn't feel competent to read. Some dark arts books were dangerous to the touch, much less actual studying. A Master of Defense Against the Dark Arts would know about them, though, and could let her know.
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A third experiment requires a hair from some non-werewolf placed in polyjuice, but then the potion applied to a werewolf directly before the rising of a full moon. Does the werewolf transform immediately or does the transformation await the loss of the polyjuice image?
Depending on the outcomes of the second and third experiments, a fourth experiment might be to have a werewolf drink polyjuice containing his own hair, harvested during the dark of the moon.
I am sure you can contact Remus Lupin or some other, less infamous, werewolf to discuss the gathering of the potions ingredients or possibly the implementation of the experiments. I can certainly understand that you might be wary of trusting such experiments to either the Dark Lord or an anonymous corespondent.
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No matter how hidden Remus Lupin was, Dumbledore, or rather whoever the official Headmaster of Hogwarts was, could always send him a letter. Hogwarts was famous for it's ability to correctly address letters to anyone anywhere. All you needed was a name.
Well, actually, you also needed an idea of some distinguishing characteristic that identified the person you wanted a letter to go to from the various other people who might share the same name. Although that was generally only necessary when owling muggles. The wizarding community was small enough that duplicate names among the living were very rare. A wizard might share a name with a historical figure, but it was highly unlikely that they'd share a name with another wizard living down the road.
It was a very good thing, Hermione thought, that only existed as a name on a P.C. Box. No matter how good the owls of Hogwarts were, Icarus lived as a P.C. Box, to the extent that he lived at all. He was a very useful cypher, as Hermione had no desire for the Headmaster to see his owl, or possibly even his phoenix, deliver his letter to one of his students, i.e. her.
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I have included in this letter a summary of the research I and the Dark Lord have done, the results we have achieved, and the avenues we are intent upon exploring further. Any thoughts or ideas that you might have would be greatly appreciated.
I look forward to receiving your next communication.
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While she was looking forward to seeing what response this letter garnered if any, she was also rather relieved that she could send all of her research and ideas to someone who would understand it and use it for good. She had every intention of publishing and making her discoveries available to the general public as soon as she had some real confirmed results, but it was nice to know that even if she died before that happened, her current work would not be monopolized by someone who was so definitely evil as the Dark Lord was.
Hermione raked a hand through her hair with exasperation. It had become a habit for her whenever she thought about the fact that her corespondent, whose letters she really enjoyed was evil. She tried not to think about that too much beyond making the precautions against being killed by him. On the other side of things, she wasn't all that impressed by the Headmaster's letter, but at least he was definitively on the side of good. It would be nice to consult someone who was good for a change.
If she were honest with herself, and she did try to be, it was also rather fun to tweak the Headmaster's nose a bit. had apparently become someone of sufficient interest and importance for the Headmaster to write a letter. Hermione Granger, on the other hand, was just a student who's project on the possible interaction of muggle and wizarding science did not rate the time for supervision.
Hermione shook her head with mock censor, all alone in her room. The things kids get up to when they aren't properly supervised is really quite shocking.
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I name myself,
Icarus
