A/N My apologies for being somewhat long, but at the same time, as I get more into the story, the chapters are kinda just gonna get long.
So, I've got a couple of things to note here before I let y'all get to it. One: as a reader of fanfiction, one of the things that annoys the ever loving shit out of me is OP characters. Lycus is not going to be OP because of the thestral animagus thing. He may not ever get around to becoming an animagus, either. This is just in case anybody thought that was going to happen in this story. Two: I wrote the first chapter two years ago at a time when I would write something that was four to twenty pages in one go, and then never go back to it. I have at least thirty "stories" like this for Harry Potter alone. My writing has changed a lot since then, so... it's not the best example of my writing. If you've continued reading this far despite the decently bad first chapter and awkward second chapter, you have my thanks. That being said, I have gone back and changed them to better fit my current style of writing, so maybe they weren't so cringey to you, depending on when you began reading this.
Enjoy.
Lycus had officially decided to put off his metamorphmagus training in favour of researching all known magical and muggle ways of communication, at least until he had the communication thing done. Ravenclaws were known as the most intelligent house, but gaining knowledge only takes you so far. He needed to invent something, and invention would require much more than simple information. He needed to make a completely new method of communication, which required trial and error that no amount of research could accommodate.
In the three days he had before winter break ended but after being told about this new mission, he was unable to acquire a time turner. It was unlikely he'd be able to just get one now that he was on his way to Hogwarts. He had, however, been given eleven days to think about what magical creatures he would talk to at Hogwarts, and how he would approach them.
His first thought went to the centaurs. Firenze was already within the castle, teaching Divination, so finding out how to contact the herd was just a conversation away. Lycus knew the dispute centaurs had with the Ministry was far greater than that of almost any other magical creatures, and that they hate humans. Contacting them risked death since he was no longer quite young enough to be considered a child. But they were absolutely fed up with the Ministry constantly reducing the land they had in the Forbidden Forest, so the possibility of being able to get back at the Ministry may appeal to them enough to prevent that. They would be the easiest to contact, yet anything but the easiest to talk to.
Centaurs weren't the only creatures within the forest that had intelligence. There were acromantulas in there as well, and if Lycus was correct, their colony father could speak English. Acromantulas were about as neutral as you could get when it came to magical creatures. Death Eaters, students, professors, muggles, all of them were just considered food to the acromantulas. To step into their nest would be practical suicide. Maybe if he could get his hands on a basilisk, he could threaten them into listening, but that was never going to happen. If Lycus was going to tackle the acromantulas, he'd need to get help.
Then there were the selkies of the Black Lake. They lived at the bottom of the lake, and would be more difficult to access. Not only that, but they had a good relationship with Dumbledore and seemed very content to live at the bottom of the Black Lake. To speak to them was one thing; to befriend them was another. What could Lycus offer that they did not already have? A bigger lake? They didn't want one. The only thing he could think of was something he would be telling the centaurs - that they would be able to partake in the Ministry without being associated with creatures such as vampires and hags. They did want to be part of those labeled 'Being' by the Ministry, but refused because of that association with those darker creatures. Surely they held some form of resentment because of this that he could build off of.
And then he thought about the house elves, who would be by far the most powerful ally, and the most difficult to convince to side with 'Dacarus.' They were loyal to Hogwarts, Lycus would never try to take them away from the castle. He didn't need them to stop being house elves, he just needed their support in what Marvolo was doing. Unlike the rest of the magical creatures, house elves didn't care for promises of rights, because they didn't want any. They were the most likely to report anything he said to Dumbledore, too. If he went at the house elves alone, and people found out, he would be immediately brought under attention, and attention was the last thing he needed when doing this.
There was one thing he could think of that may help him in staying covert when it came to interacting with the house elves - S.P.E.W. That stupid organization made by Hermione Granger. She had a nice reason for it, but she also had no idea what she was promoting. Hermione was a muggle-born, who saw creatures that could speak English being used as servants to magic folk, and instantly assumed that this meant the house elves were being enslaved. This was one of the few things that displayed why Hermione Granger was not put into Ravenclaw. She had so much heart sometimes that she forgot to think.
But if Lycus could talk to her... explain the situation behind house elves, and convince her to change how she was going about it... well, not only will Lycus have a cover, but nobody would expect him to be affiliated with anything related to the dark or the late Dark Lord. Hermione was very outspoken and adamant on helping magical creatures gain rights as though it was her purpose in life. She was smart enough to know that she could only do so much without the help of someone else who had influence within the wizarding world. Lycus could offer that help. Who knows, maybe she'd even be willing to help with the other magical creatures if he told her about their misgivings with the Ministry.
Lycus would, of course, need to ask Marvolo for permission first. He could think of a few reasons for why Hermione would be a benefit to them that may be able to convince Marvolo to let him at least try. If Hermione didn't seem like she would be able to keep a secret, or like she was catching on to the reality behind Lycus's reasons for wanting to help the magical creatures, he could always just obliviate her.
He was sorted into Ravenclaw, while Hermione wasn't, for a reason. He should be able to make sure she'd stay in line.
Lycus was probably biased when he said that thestrals were magnificent creatures. They had dragon-like triangular heads with small horns on the top of their head, and bright ghostly eyes that looked like orbs filled with white smoke, contrasting wonderfully with their dark unsaturated skin. They were one of the most graceful and delicate creatures he had ever met, while retaining a sharp strength unlike any other. They were so majestic.
Once again, probably biased.
It didn't help that the only other person who shared even a little bit of this sentiment was Luna Lovegood, who didn't really have a great name in credibility. She was a lovely and delightful person, her mannerisms and preferred topics of conversation just led to her being considered a bit out of it. She certainly seemed out of it, though Lycus considered that to be part of her charm. She was more interesting than anyone else could ever hope to be because of it.
Lycus boarded one of the available carriages for students returning from their winter holidays, very ready to get back to Ravenclaw tower where people understood the importance of reading and wouldn't interrupt him. He was joined by two others, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor pair known as the Patil twins. He knew Padma well enough, being another Ravenclaw, but not so much her sister.
Not that you needed to know Parvati for her to talk up a storm for you, which he supposed made the pair very good in social situations with strangers. Parvati could bring people in, and Padma could make sure they didn't run away.
Padma greeted him when boarding the carriage before her sister could, "Hello, Lycus. How was your break?"
He smiled at the twins amiably, "It was rather uneventful, unfortunately. What about yours? I heard you got to travel to the Maldives."
Naturally, Parvati took up the lead in the conversation, detailing their trip to the Maldives almost enough for Lycus to imagine having been there himself. She was very good at illustrating her experiences, whether because she was used to doing that, or it was natural to her. Lycus wondered if she was going to become a journalist or authour. If she could write the way she spoke, she would be very successful in either of those occupations.
Arriving at Hogwarts saw them separate as Parvati headed off to join her friend Lavender Brown, saying a quick goodbye to the two Ravenclaws.
"Sorry about that Lycus. It's your fault for asking about it, though." Padma said once her sister was out of earshot.
Lycus laughed agreeably, "Yes, my mistake. It was an interesting tale, though. Does the ocean really look like 'luminous crystalline turquoise sand' that 'spans to the great canvas encompassing a spectrum of rich colours from both the sky and the sea'?"
Padma groaned, much to Lycus's amusement, clearly embarrassed for her sister. "She's not... wrong. She just embellishes a little."
They began the walk to the Great Hall, but Lycus wasn't going to let her drop the subject. "I think she has a talent in using words to captivate people. Do you know if she's thought about being an authour?"
This caused Padma to stop in her tracks, almost forcing someone to bump into her before she started walking again. "Parvati? An authour? Sure, she can describe things better than anyone else I've met, but she'd never- okay, maybe she would. She's constantly reading magazines and would love to work for Teen Witch Weekly if she could. I don't think she's ever thought about pursuing a job like that though."
"Maybe you should mention it to her. There are plenty of witches out there who can't travel. If she published her own magazine about her experiences, she's bound to build up a subscriber base."
The Indian witch had a pensive look as she thought about this. Lycus sported a teasing grin at his next line, "And if she's anywhere near as captivating in a bathing suit as she is with words, I'm sure she'd build a great male fanbase as well. It's a win win situation really."
He laughed as she hit his shoulder, rubbing it in mock pain.
Padma regained her regality quickly, "You're right-" she glared at Lycus for saying "I know" and interrupting her, "-and I think I'll mention it to her. Though I'll be keeping some of those thoughts a secret."
They continued conversing to the Great Hall, picking up Michael Corner along the way, and seating themselves at Ravenclaw table amongst the rest of their peers. Dumbledore welcomed the students back, and they all tucked in.
After dinner, Lycus didn't remain in the common room to continue socializing with friends, claiming he had to catch up on reading. Which was true enough, he just didn't mention what kind of reading.
He had taken a few books from the family library and was hoping to talk to Terry Boot about muggle methods of communication - furtively, of course. He would be claiming that he was interested in communication via magic ever since Hermione used the Protean charm on some small disks to allow Professor Tonks to tell her students when they would next meet for extra defense tuition. After Merlin knows how many years of inconsistent teachers, with only one of them being any good in the past four, Professor Tonks thought that her students would need extra classes to be able to catch up to the level they were supposed to be at. After four months under her tuition, Lycus was inclined to agree.
He was looking over a book about some more obscure forms of magical communication. The Protean charm and "vibe" were standing out the most to him. The Protean charm linked multiple objects together, so that when one of those objects changed, the other objects changed along with. You could therefore transfigure a message onto the object, and it would transfigure all of the objects linked to it to display the same message. That's what Professor Tonks was using it for.
The vibe, however, was much more curious. His current book wasn't really able to explain what a "vibe" was or how it worked. It was described as sending a message in the form of a thought to another person who was prepared to accept such a message. You had to have a clear mind to send one, and an even clearer one to receive the vibe. How one did this was not explained, and no range was mentioned, but Lycus wasn't going to put it off just yet.
There were problems with both of them. If he used the Protean charm, there was a chance that the object that linked him and Marvolo would be found. There was also no guarantee that they would see one another's message instantly. With the vibe, Lycus wasn't even sure where to start. He speculated that it required some mastery of legilimency and occlumency, both of which he and Marvolo had, but that would require him and Marvolo to be able to practice with each other. That wasn't happening any time soon.
But then he thought about the pendant. The horcrux. Lycus knew, just like everybody else, that Potter had received 'visions' from the Dark Lord about a graveyard, which is what alerted him of the Dark Lord's plans for the Triwizard Tournament. The thing was that everyone assumed that Voldemort was accidentally sending those visions across. He hadn't been, which means he was able to communicate, in some way, to Potter through his soul.
Lycus had part of Marvolo's soul on him at all times. What if he could use the horcrux as a form of communication? They already knew Marvolo could send messages, or at least images, through his soul. It couldn't be much harder to send a message back.
Potter had the horcrux as a part of his skin, and it was therefore technically part of him. The pendant wasn't part of Lycus, but maybe he could figure out a way around that. There was no way for this kind of communication to be detected. If they could figure out how to make it work, the amount of time it took and range could be discovered from there. If those didn't prove satisfactory to Marvolo, Lycus would continue working on it. Until then, he had to ask his mother for every book on horcruxes and souls she could find. He didn't have those books yet, so he settled for research into the charm and the vibe for the rest of the night.
Lycus had always been an early riser, getting up at five or six in the morning. Typically he would use his time to read, or practice spells, or even just sit and think to strengthen his mind. With his two missions, he actually had things he could do that could be considered more proactive. They had come back to Hogwarts on a Tuesday, meaning that he had to wait a week until he had Divination - which, this year, was with Firenze rather than Trelawney. Only the Ravenclaws had Firenze as a Divination professor for fifth year, much to a couple Gryffindor girl's chagrin. That was very convenient for him.
But he had five days to wait until he had a class with the centaur. It was his first class as well, which meant he'd have to stay a few minutes after class and miss the first few minutes of potions. Snape wouldn't care much for a note, so maybe he shouldn't even bother waiting until he had class with Firenze to talk to him. At the same time, talking to him on the first week back could be perceived as odd.
At least Lycus would have an excuse to suddenly talk to Hermione, citing annoyance at her ignorance to house elves but also sympathizing with her point of view. He didn't have that with Firenze, or anyone else really.
Even if he did have that excuse for Hermione, going to her on the first day back would also see some heads turn. He had to play it on the down low, and take it slow. Marvolo never said that he had to have relationships fully established by the end of summer, and certainly not any involving loyalty, only his parents. He had time, and assuming he was unable to come up with a method of communication that Marvolo liked, he could always make a full report come spring break.
He didn't have an invisibility cloak, and spells only worked so well at concealing someone. The thestral's natural invisibility was the only reason he had even considered becoming an animagus, because their invisibility was only paralleled by that of the invisibility cloak from death. Besides the factor of people being able to see him if they had seen a death, it was a near perfect way to get around unnoticed. As that would take far too long to achieve, bordering on years, he needed another way to visit the Forbidden Forest or Black Lake often without detection.
He had thought about this before, and thought that maybe he could hide in plain sight. If he made a habit out of being outside or away from Hogwarts for extended periods of time people wouldn't question him. More specifically, if he went running in the morning and training in the afternoon after classes, people would eventually just assume he was out running or training during those times. Even if he was really in the Forbidden Forest or Black Lake.
That had its own drawbacks. Purebloods don't do exercise, so he had no worry that one of them would want to join him, but half-bloods and muggle borns might have an interest. If he went with the exercise excuse, there was a chance that he still wouldn't be able to get away from people. Knowing Professor Tonks, she might even make that a thing for her students.
Where he was at currently, the most he could do was think and plan. He had nobody he could trust at school, and a lot of things that could go wrong. Marvolo had given him a mission that he absolutely could not fail. If he had learned anything since he was a child, it was better to do things right the first time than to risk failure. Failure led to people knowing that you tried to do something, and people being in the know was a bad thing.
So he would bide his time and plan. Marvolo took twelve years to make a plan, and Lycus had yet to find a fault in it. The only faults possible were the ones that he and his parents would make.
With those dreadful thoughts out of the way, Lycus felt much more comfortable with his stress. Doing nothing and having nobody learn of Marvolo's plans was a far right better than attempting something and someone learning of them.
So Lycus allowed the rest of the day to pass by normally. He had ancient runes as the last class, which was always anice class for him. The amount of possibilities when it came to ancient runes never ceased to amaze him. Durability, protection, imprisonment, memory aid, magic control, speed... he could go on and on. It was only as difficult as you made it. A complex set of runes could be diminished to a set of only four or five runes if you knew how. It was a shame that the Hogwarts class on ancient runes would never go beyond the most simple forms of ancient runes.
As a bit of a review after coming back from a three week break, and to make sure they hadn't left the basics behind, they went over the first ten runes you learn. The ones that represent the numbers.
From the start of the class, Lycus had an epiphany that turned his brain upside down. The creature used to represent the number zero was the demiguise, used for this because of the demiguise's ability to go invisible. Demiguise hair was also used to make invisibility cloaks, though they only lasted for so long before degrading. Zero represented the absence of quantity, and invisibility cloaks made it seem as though there was an absence by bending the light around the object in question so it didn't reflect. Moody was able to see through this, because there was still something happening to the object. But what if you were able to make "nothing" happen to something?
They were already on number eight, quickly going through the numbers since they had Hermione in class, who was probably the best at remembering things than anyone else. Lycus had a suspicion that she would be a natural at occlumency if she tried.
When they got to the end of that review, Lycus's hand shot up, not willing to let this question go. Professor Babbling was confused by his abrupt hand, as he didn't typically have questions in her class, and called on him to speak.
"Would it be possible to use the demiguise rune to make something disappear?"
Professor Babbling, along with the rest of the class, went silent. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. In all her time teaching, this question had never come up. It was also phrased in a way that made her just a bit confused, "Do you mean make something invisible?"
Lycus shook his head, "I mean disappear. Invisible doesn't mean you're no longer there, only that you can't be seen. The demiguise rune represents zero, which is the absence of anything. I want to know if that can be translated into something other than a number, such as the absence of, say, a cup."
The class was silent again, and more than one head was trying to answer his question. Nobody found that they could refute the idea, but neither could they find a way to make it work.
It took a few minutes for Professor Babbling to come up with an answer, and it was exactly the same answer that everyone else had determined, "I don't know."
This didn't deter Lycus in the slightest, "If you don't know, then it's a possibility?"
"I suppose... yes." was all she could say. He was satisfied enough with that to let the subject drop and let Professor Babbling get the class back on track. His question, and Professor Babbling's answer, left a few heads distracted for the rest of the class, and one of them was not content to drop that subject.
There were a few hours left until dinner, and Lycus was planning to head back to Ravenclaw tower to write a letter to his mother about those books on horcruxes and souls, and now ancient runes as well, even the ones he had already read. If there was a chance to make himself invisible or "disappear" with runes, then there must be a chance for him to make some sort of communication device with runes as well. Oh boy was he as giddy as he had ever been.
But his walk to the Ravenclaw commons was interrupted by none other than Hermione Granger, who apparently was just as curious about the use of the demiguise rune as he was, "Where did that question come from?" Or perhaps she was just curious about why he was interested.
Lycus would admit that he asked that question in a bit of haste, and maybe could have saved it until after class. At the same time, if played right, this could end up being his ticket into Hermione's good graces, and an eventual ally in aiding the house elves. He made a note in his mind to write a letter to Marvolo as soon as he could regarding this.
For now, he would play the typical teen, "I'm a growing man with needs, Hermione. One of those needs is the need to find a way around teachers after curfew," he followed that up with a wink, causing Hermione to roll her eyes. She clearly didn't believe him, not completely, but she also didn't think it was anything nefarious. Technically, he had no nefarious schemes whatsoever. All he wanted to do was help the dejected magical creatures of the world.
"Right. And ehwaz means defense."
Lycus grinned and played along, "And eihwaz means partnership. Glad we could agree on something."
They walked for a few minutes in silence. Whether Hermione knew he was going to Ravenclaw tower or not, he didn't know, but before they got to the branch in path that would determine this, she spoke up again, "I could help, you know."
He raised an eyebrow, at least three questions in his head, though he only asked one, "Why?"
"Why not? It is a fascinating concept. I know you'll try to use the demiguise rune in one way or another anyways, and I'd like to be there if you figure it out." She stopped as they reached the turn in which their paths separated, showing that she knew where he planned to go. He stopped along with her.
She turned to him with an inquisitive eye, though it also held good-natured humour, "Besides, I'm the brightest witch the wizarding world has seen in a long time. With my help, you're bound to succeed." She turned and walked away, her hair flipping naturally with it, her smirk the last thing Lycus saw before she blended in with the crowd.
With a roll of his own eyes, one she didn't get to see, he made his way back to Ravenclaw tower. He knew he had to wait until Marvolo gave him the green light to start including other students in their plans, but Hermione was making it so easy. It's not like she was wrong about being the brightest witch, either. When she put her mind to something, she would no doubt make great intellectual help. Especially if she were willing to sit down and listen instead of assuming things as she had a habit of doing.
With the invisibility thing, however, he didn't need to get Marvolo's permission. That wasn't part of the plan, it was something Lycus felt he needed in order to accomplish a mission that was. He could enlist Hermione's help in creating a way to "disappear" without letting her know anything, and she already expressed that she was willing to help for the simple learning experience.
In the meantime, he still needed to send a letter to his parents. Once in Ravenclaw tower, he brought out a parchment and quill, and began to write, requesting books on "pendants," ancient runes, and things related to making a "pendant," with some general stuff crammed in between.
He didn't really think that the school checked the mail, but he liked to play it safe when it came to delicate situations like this.
Lycus resolved to send the letter on his way back from dinner, and settled down for some nice quiet reading time. Well, researching time. He didn't have the books or materials he needed for the comprehensive research he would end up doing, but he didn't have to be idle.
Not that he had much that he could do throughout the week other than classes and research, but he did decide to make a point of going outside more often than he used to. Nobody had questioned him yet, and didn't seem like they were going to either. He found himself enjoying the fresh air and the grass, but not so much the bugs. Of all the charms he didn't know, bug repellant had to be one of them.
Monday morning at nine o'clock saw him in the class of the blond centaur. Divination was a class Lycus had no care for, as he didn't have any ability to see the future. It was also well beyond him to understand why Dumbledore felt a need to have it as an elective, seeing as it would benefit one student every two generations in honing their third-eye, and was a waste to anyone else who took it. The only reason Lycus took it in the first place was out of curiosity. Ironically, him taking divination gave him a gateway to the centaurs, as if fate decreed it so.
But he knew he wouldn't be able to talk to Firenze during class, or after. Maybe he'd try to come in early next week to visit before class began. He certainly had no idea where Firenze was going to be at any other time of the day.
Towards the end of that class, Firenze said something that made Lycus think that maybe he wouldn't need to talk to Firenze at all, "Centaurs look at the stars every night to glimpse part of their future. We are no demiguise when it comes to foretelling the actions of others, but you will find yourself surprised by us more than you will be able to surprise us."
Lycus could almost swear on his magic that Firenze focused on him more than the other students when saying that, but he wasn't dumb enough to do that. He took arithmancy, too, and he was as certain as a fifth year could be that the numbers didn't add up to chance for that statement. It was the demiguise part that really caught Lycus's attention. That was just such a random creature to mention, even if it did have prophetic abilities.
Divination passed into potions, which became lunch, and Lycus thought briefly that he should go talk to Hermione. With a somewhat confirmation of being able to speak to the centaurs, he really needed to start applying his research into a project. Merlin forbid he starts the process of making an "Evanescent Cloak" without telling her, because if she found out, she may be partial to set the twins on him. And he wasn't talking about the Patil twins.
But he didn't talk to her during lunch that day. He waited until after another ancient runes class to approach her, which gave them more time to speak than lunch would have.
He knew she noticed him walking next to her out of the class. How could she not? But she was being mock conceited, apparently still playing the "brightest witch of the ages" character who had no time for him.
He could play games too. And he did, by walking past her, mumbling to himself, "The cloak should come in today. I can start adding the template to it after dinner."
Lycus resisted the itch to smile when he saw her pause in step in his peripheral, mouth somewhat agape and no longer pretending to ignore him. She rushed up to get back in pace next to him, looking both annoyed and excited.
"You're making an invisibility cloak, aren't you?"
He hummed in thought for a moment, drawing out her suspension. "Nope. I'm not making any kind of cloak yet. Whatever made you think that?"
She took a deep breath, drawing up her shoulders slightly as she did, before letting it out as a huff. "Because I heard you say so."
He feigned innocence, "Who? Me? I would never. I'm pretty sure those are against the rules."
She looked just about ready to whack him arm with one of her books, so he quit the act. "Oh, you must be talking about my future plans to make an Evanescent Cloak. Yes. I did say that."
She hit him with a book anyway. "So you figured out how to make one all on your own? It's been a week!"
Lycus shook his head, "No. I have a few ideas, but I wanted to run them by you before trying anything. You'll probably be able to see any flaws I can't. I do have some test cloaks arriving at dinner, though."
The look in her eyes was one he had rarely seen in the most voracious of Ravenclaws. "When can I look at them? I have some too, if you don't mind. I couldn't help it. I know I'm missing something though, because I can never finish the templates. Maybe tomorrow after arithmancy we can talk? I need to help Ron finish his transfiguration essay today. He barely has one page and it's due first thing in the morning."
Lycus fought to hide his chuckle at the fabled "Hermione Chatter," quick to jump in during her breath so she didn't continue, "Yes, that should be fine. We can compare templates and see if we can't combine some of them. We can also talk about why you can't seem to complete any templates tomorrow if you want."
They were approaching the branch in paths again, so Hermione made her reply short. "Great. I'd like that. Library?"
He nodded to her and they parted ways. Figures that she would try to make her own runic templates. She was as much of an overachiever as any Ravenclaw was, if not more so. He didn't see Padma or Anthony trying to make templates for something like this, even though they had seen him doing so. Not everyone had the same enjoyment in ancient runes as he did, he supposed.
The package with the cloaks did indeed arrive during dinner, and Lycus was unable to miss the excitement generated from a certain Gryffindor at this. He opened the package in his bed later that night to make sure they were what he had ordered. You can never be too cautious.
Runes had to be engraved into something for them to work. They needed to be part of the construct. You could write runes on a piece of paper for homework, but you couldn't power them to receive a desired effect. Cloaks were made of cloth, and therefore you can't engrave anything into them. These cloaks were specially made to have a lining of silver along the inside edges of the cloak for runic carvings, and to have silver twine interwoven with the fabric to make sure there was no way magic could decide the silver wasn't a genuine part of the cloak. He had ten of them made, and was hoping to get the template right before he got to the eighth. Then both he and Marvolo would have an "Evanescent Cloak." Though Hermione would probably want one too.
The next day, Lycus and Hermione had been bouncing their ideas for what they wanted the runic template to do back and forth on the way to the library from arithmancy, with Lycus doing it purely to amuse Hermione. By the time they got to their destination, it was clear to Lycus why she was never able to complete a template.
"You're trying to use the demiguise rune as the focal point. Of course that's not working. The only template that will allow that to happen is one where you put something inside a box and it disappears. And I don't just mean visually."
Hermione put her books on the table with a retort ready before what he was implying sunk in. That box he described was a box of death. So she now saw why she couldn't make a full template, but that left her with not knowing how to make a template for this at all.
Lycus could easily see how she was feeling much more easily than he could tell what Marvolo was thinking. He took out and slid a couple of his templates across the table to her, all the while explaining, "I tried that out at first too. Make whatever is under the cloak disappear, simple as that. But you don't actually want to disappear, so that's not a good idea. I then tried to think of a way to make the area around you disappear, thus tricking the eye into believing that nothing existed in the center of it either. That also didn't work, as you can see." He pointed to one of the templates she was looking at.
She appraised the template before coming up with her own explanation, "Because it would be too unstable. Making the area around you disappear might work for a short amount of time, but the structure of the space would begin to crumble in on you. Not to mention that moving around too quickly would see you moving into emptiness, and who knows what repercussions that might have."
He nodded in affirmation. That was the same line of thought he had after making the template. It was good to know that he made the right choice in trusting she would be intellectually useful, though it was only useful if she just affirmed what he already knew.
"Rather than beating around the bush going over all of the failed templates, let's just get right into the two that I think are the most possible." He took out two more pages and handed them over.
What she saw had her perplexed, "I don't even recognize half of these runes. And there are so few of them. How could these possibly work for something so complex?"
Lycus had anticipated this reaction, which was shown through his grin. He passed her another runic template that was more on the level of a fifth year student. "One of those is a more concise version of this one. The reason you don't recognize half of those runes is because they aren't taught at Hogwarts. We're given the basics of ancient runes here, but there's a whole other world out there that's so much more intricate and developed. Part of that world is knowing how to turn Shakespeare into Jane Austen."
She had a short lived smile at the literary references before looking from one template to another, comparing them. One had a good forty or so runes on it, which she could read perfectly, and the other had only sixteen. She could only read three of those runes. Yet they were supposedly the same thing.
"Where did you learn these other runes?"
He pulled out a couple of books instead of templates this time. If there was one thing he could accurately predict, it was Hermione Granger wanting to have these books. That didn't take having a third-eye.
"From these. One of them, Rune Master, is an advanced text by a genuine Rune Master, Arbjorn Brooks, detailing every rune imaginable, their meaning, most common uses, and even a little bit on how to create runes yourself. That book is a work of rune magic itself." He gave her a meaningful look, "You can borrow it if you like, but I am going to need it back."
She nodded her head vigourously, and almost reverently put it into her own bag.
"The other one is written by Coraline Dalish, a friend of Brooks if I remember correctly, though not a Rune Master herself. It's about runic templates and how to best combine runes together for maximum efficiency. She emphasizes that more is not better, and that with runes, you should always try to find the simplest and most concise variant of what you're trying to achieve. If you don't, according to her, you not only have a long arduous task of carving who knows how many runes, but it also leaves room for more mistakes. She alludes to the idea that runes have a bit of a mind of their own, and some don't like to work with one another, much less with hundreds of each other. So keeping the number down is important."
Hermione slowly nodded her head, able to comprehend what was being said. She had some questions about what he meant by "a mind of their own" but knew they'd be answered when reading the book.
She was clearly interested in both books, but Lycus still had something to say about the second, "That one also has a section on rune usage, and impresses the importance on being experimental and creative when using them. That section is what helped give me the idea for the other template that you can't read, which I made without having to make a more complex version first."
She looked up at him in a silent plea to let her borrow this one too, which was answered with a little hand movement that meant she could. Lycus didn't think she'd be quite this impassioned about runes. She never showed much love for it during class, but maybe that was because the conventional teachings of it were boring to someone of her intelligence. He had certainly found it so, only finding joy in the class by seeing Professor Babbling and his peers getting excited over it. His personal appreciation for the subject was what led him to seeking out outside sources of study for it, and going above and beyond even the N.E.W.T level teachings.
Conveniently, his personal in depth study was what allowed him to bring the Dark Lord back to life and in his original body. That stupid runic circle took him a month to finalize as a template, and two weeks to carve out.
Hermione set the complex template aside for reference while looking at the two simpler ones. The one that she didn't have a reference to had four more runes than the other, making it twenty.
Knowing that she wasn't just there to look at templates and admire ancient runes, she gave her opinion of the two she was assessing, "I know this one is supposed to make it so everything you do disappears without actually making you or the space around you disappear. I can see a lot of repetitive demiguise runes one the original. I guess you had to specify each and every action that needed to be concealed?" She received a nod at this inference. "So, both of these are essentially saying that the sound you make when walking disappears, your scent disappears when it exits the cloak, and other things along those lines. A whole lot of it is covering the visual aspect of disappearing. Is this because you can't just make the space you're in disappear, and have to come up with a convoluted way to prevent people from seeing you?"
Lycus sighed and admitted defeat at that aspect of the template, "It's just not possible to use the demiguise rune to make something no longer appear there visually if it is there. That defeats the purpose of the number zero."
"How did you make this template then?"
He puffed up just a little bit at his accomplishment, "I made it so that light bends around you instead of reflecting off of you, like an invisibility cloak would."
To say that Hermione was gobsmacked was putting it lightly. "That's not possible! People would have been making invisibility cloaks like that for ages if it were." Even as she said that she was looking at the reference template, and found exactly the spot that dictated light bend around you. It was by far one of the most annoyingly complex pieces of rune work she had seen to date. She shuddered to think of applying that part of the template to anything.
But she had a thought while looking at it that would dampen his pride for not thinking of it himself, "Why didn't you just have the demiguise rune disappear the light around you so it never hit you? That would make you more invisible than the average invisibility cloak, and light is so infinitesimal that it wouldn't break space."
Unlike her expectations, he didn't lose any of his pride. "I thought about that after drawing up the final version of the template. It would have been simple to redraw it with that in mind, but instead it gave me another idea. That idea became the other template you have."
She looked at him expectantly, and he didn't disappoint, "Dalish's book talks about being creative. To 'look at things from different perspectives' to find the best fitting one. I kept thinking, as are you, that I needed to make myself unseen by others. That was only one perspective - in a literal sense. So I changed up my thought process from how can I be unseen to how can I make others not see me. It was less of a question on what can I do to myself as it was what can I do to others. Follow me?"
He wanted to see if she could figure it out on her own. The only person in Ravenclaw who actively thought outside the box was Luna. Everyone else normally had to be given a method before they would use that method, never coming up with one themselves. Hermione wasn't in Ravenclaw, but she was still very much by the book. If he was going to consider continuing their friendship beyond what it was right then, which he already was doing, he needed to be sure that she could keep up with him.
Maybe she was less by the book than he thought, though, as it didn't take her very long to catch on to what he was saying. "Instead of trying to make yourself invisible, you came up with a way to make others not see you're there. You made something that would warp their perspective."
He smiled at her blithely, glad that she was quick in understanding him, "Indeed. So instead of having it disappear the sounds I make..." Lycus began, waiting for her to fill it in.
"They simply don't hear those sounds." She looked down at the template she couldn't read without a reference in wonder and a little bit of apprehension. "But how? How could it be so simple?"
"We often overthink things until they make sense. It's a bad habit that we need to break. The simplest answer is more often than not the correct one." It didn't pass over either of them that the answer to "how it could be so simple" was simply "because the simple answer is often the right one." It was such a simple answer that Hermione didn't want to believe it, but of course she did. She was a muggle born. She knew Occam's Razor before Lycus did.
With such a simple answer, she just had to ask, "Why are there twenty runes if that's all you need? I could probably make one with only six."
"I could have simplified it into three runes that would mean others know nothing of me,' but just because you can't be perceived doesn't mean the things you interact with can't be. Sixteen of those runes are along the lines of 'things around me within this radius are not perceived by others' and 'obstructions coming towards me automatically move out of the radius without realizing it.' Which basically means that if I open a door while wearing the cloak, nobody will notice, and if someone is coming towards me, they will automatically go around me, and nobody will notice that either. It also means that the cloak can be worn normally, and the effects will work just as well as if you were under it. Among a couple of other things."
Hermione was already flabbergasted at the power of runes she was just now learning about. She was almost uncertain about asking for anymore information in case she couldn't handle it, and that was something Hermione Granger never felt. "What are those other things, exactly?"
Lycus took it upon himself to start clearing off the table of the soon to be discarded templates so the table wasn't so messy as he answered her, "One of them is just my way of making sure the cloak is never lost, as there would be no way to find it, by requiring it to be worn to work. The other is making sure that this works against magical methods of detection, like 'reveal life' spells, or Moody's eye."
"You mean to tell me that not even Moody could see through it?"
His sly grin was all the answer she needed, but he gave her a verbal one anyways, "Assuming it works the way it's supposed to, yes."
This was all a bit too much for the Gryffindor, though not because she was a Gryffindor, and she lowered her head into her hand.
Lycus allowed her a few moments before springing the best order of words on her that she could ever hope for, "When do you want to start testing it out?"
She would get the chance to see this thing in action. She would take part in the creation of it! If there was ever something that she had wanted to do, it was to do something that could change the world. This was something that could do that.
Any thoughts she may have had that questioned Lycus's motives were thrown out the window almost as soon as the conversation started. Now, she had no room in her mind for anything but her newfound passion for ancient runes. He was right when he thought that he could control her.
A/N Now that it's not considered a spoiler: Umbridge isn't the DADA professor because Voldemort was killed and his horcruxes destroyed. The Ministry in this story wasn't quite so incompetent as to blatantly ignore Harry, so once Voldemort was killed, they sent a qualified auror to fill in the DADA position until Dumbledore could find a permanent professor, rather than someone like Umbridge to control Hogwarts. There is a bit of backstory going on that isn't part of this story, and I did think that maybe I should start the story earlier in the timeline so these things were explained, but ultimately decided that I wanted this story to be about Marvolo's comeback only. I'm trying to fill in the blanks through exposition and dialogue, but I can only do so when it's not out of place. Therefore, there may be a lot of things that don't get explained unless I do so through authour notes. At that point, I might as well go and make a prequel to this, right?
Joshua the Arcanis: Empress will steal the hearts of many. I'm the one who wrote her, and she's already stolen mine. This chapter doesn't make it too obvious, but goblins aren't the only people who will be promised things. And as the story title suggests, it will span to more than Britain.