How to Hide Memories
"I'm so happy for you, congratulations!" laughed Harry when he heard the next evening that Julian had found his grandfather.
"Thank you, it really took a burden off my soul yesterday."
Julian told him how they had found Rodolphus and gave a detailed account of the conversation. It was important to him that Harry should not think ill of Rodolphus as he was today. Then he talked about the clue that could be of importance for Harry's mission:
"Do you know anything about this white magic weapon that Slytherin is supposed to have left behind, the counterpart to the Basilisk?" asked Julian.
Harry shook his head in amazement. "I've never heard of that. A weapon that lifts every curse, heals every soul and only works against Evil? The description would most likely fit a phoenix, Fawkes for example, who disappeared after Dumbledore's death. Among other things, he neutralised the poison of the Basilisk, thus saving my life. But I have never heard of any connection between Fawkes and Salazar Slytherin. Fawkes must be much older and have lived long before Slytherin was born. Besides, he served Dumbledore, and after all we are talking about a weapon only available to Slytherins."
"And otherwise? Any weapon that has to be at Hogwarts and can only be wielded by Slytherins?" insisted Roy.
"Er – Roy," Harry smiled, "may I remind you that I am a Gryffindor? Sorry, but I am not familiar with Slytherin's secrets."
"Maybe you should try to find Fawkes," Arabella suggested. "If you want to free Hermione from her curse, you're going to need any help you can get."
Harry sighed. "Oh yeah. But you can't whistle a phoenix like a dog. No one knows where he is or how to find him. If he's coming to help me, he will do so of his own accord; I have no influence on that."
As no one said anything more, Harry cleared his throat: "Let us now move on to today's topic: Memory Charms. Each of you may find yourselves in the situation of having to change another person's memory in such a way that the person in question can no longer remember certain events. This is what the next DA lessons will be about. But before we start, we need to turn to a problem that is related to this: If our plan fails and I am arrested, you too will probably be arrested and interrogated. And we have to assume that the Aurors will not only question you, but will use Legilimency to penetrate your mind or administer Veritaserum to make you say everything you know about the Ulysses operation. If you do, you are considered confidants or even accomplices."
The Incorruptibles swallowed. This was something they hadn't thought of yet.
"You can only conceal what you don't know," Harry continued. "So you must be able to wilfully wipe or protect those parts of your memories that could compromise you. Such a degree of Occlumency or memory control is normally only achieved through several years of training, and even then it might be still imperfect. We don't have enough time for that."
He paused for effect, looked at his students and realised that they had understood the importance of the problem.
"Fortunately, there is the option of conditioned memory wiping, which means that memories are only wiped when there is a certain triggering event, and even then, not all memories are erased – which would mean complete amnesia – but only those that meet certain criteria or have been magically marked beforehand. Can you follow me?"
"Thank you, you are explaining it very well," Orpheus said, speaking for everyone.
"Good," Harry said, "I don't want to go into details now, it's a very broad field. Long story short: You will mark for deletion all your memories that would reveal your involvement with Ulysses. For this, you sink them into your memory containers."
Harry pulled seven vials out of his cloak, filled with a cloudy liquid and each labelled with the name of one of its seven Patroni, his own being "Stag", Albus' "Snake", the others' "Fox", "Puma", "Bull", "Bear" and "Wolf".
"Once we have sunk our memories into it, I will cast a spell over them all," Harry explained. "Then you take it out of the bottle again and put it back in your head. The spell will cause them to be automatically deleted as soon as one of the following five events occur: Either someone tries to penetrate your mind through Legilimency, or put an Imperius curse on you, or torture you, or infuse you Veritaserum, or you yourself speak the formula 'Condamnesia' with magical intent. Since it is a spell with an impact on yourself, you don't need a wand to do it."
"So we forget everything we know about Ulysses then?" asked Roy.
"That's right. The same applies to related memories, for example our conversation with McGonagall. As for our DA lessons, we will change your memories the same way so that I am no longer a part of them," Harry added. "That means that even if they catch me, you cannot be tied to what I've done."
"If they catch you, Harry," Roy said, "we'll get you out ..."
"No, you won't!" shouted Harry.
"Yes, we will" Roy replied.
"What do you think this Memory Charm is good for?", Harry snapped at him. "For your safety! I won't tolerate you putting yourselves in danger for my sake!"
"Not for your sake," Roy replied calmly, "but for Albus'."
Harry smiled, touched.
"I understand. Your care for Albus is really ..."
"No, you don't understand anything!" Julian cut across him. "It's not about Roy's care for Albus, it's about your son being a Slytherin! We will not tolerate any of us losing his father to the Dementors. Not if his crime is only to fight against the downfall of the wizarding world."
When Harry saw the others nodding resolutely, he understood that any argument would be fruitless, as for the Slytherins it was a question of honour, against which any other point of view was secondary. He didn't know how to answer. Roy used his speechlessness to continue his thought:
"However, if we have forgotten everything, then we lack the crucial background information to help you. We might even believe the Daily Prophet when they write that you tried to steal silver spoons from the Ministry or something like that. You're right: We need to be able to wipe compromising memories. But we also need to be able to restore them as soon as the Aurors let us go again."
"Well ..." said Harry thoughtfully. "Of course, a second copy of these memories could be hidden anywhere for you to retrieve. The only problem is that you would then have to know these copies exist and where you can find them. But if you know it, the Aurors can get it out of you."
"What if they were entrusted to someone trustworthy to us, but unsuspicious to the Ministry, someone who could tell us about them once we were free again?" asked Albus. "Maybe Professor McGonagall?"
His father shook his head. "Firstly, McGonagall is on Hermione's blacklist, so she is not unsuspicious from the Ministry's point of view. Secondly, I am not sure that she would approve of the Ulysses operation. I think she is quite happy not to know exactly what we are up to, so she is spared conflicts of conscience. However, if I were arrested, she might calculate that the outsourcing of your memories is to conceal your complicity. Thirdly, I don't want to involve her, she is too important as a Headmistress."
"Well, in that case I have another idea. It might sound a bit crazy," Albus said excusingly.
"Crazy ideas have the advantage that the other side isn't expecting them," his father replied, "so fire away."
"Bernie Wildfellow."
Everyone looked at him, puzzled.
"I mean," Albus said, blushing a little, "Bernie's a friend, he won't tell on us. Besides, he is a Muggle, and the son of the Prime Minister, with whom Hermione wants to work together so closely. She certainly won't have him arrested, she can't dare."
This time it was Roy who answered: "I suppose, too, he wouldn't betray us. But she could well, precisely because he's your friend, send a friendly Auror to him, who, in a kind questioning, might get into his mind without his noticing."
Harry nodded. "I'm afraid there is simply no one who would be willing and able to support us and yet is not targeted by the Ministry."
"If it cannot be a human being ..." murmured Orpheus. "What about an animal?"
"Now it's really getting exotic," Ares grumbled.
"It would have to be an intelligent, that is, a magical animal," Harry said. "Of course, one of you could become an Animagus and go underground as an animal, but you know there are severe penalties for that. Besides, that person would also have to come back at some point if he didn't want to spend the rest of his life as an animal, and then he'd be all the more suspicious."
Now they were really helpless.
A magical animal, Albus thought, there might be one ... But now that he had already put forward two not-so-good ideas, he first wanted to make sure that this one would would work.
"All right," Harry said. "I understand that you will accept a Memory Charm only if we make sure that you get your memories back afterwards. I'll have to think about that for a while. It is now eight o'clock, too late to start another lesson. I suggest we continue on Wednesday."
"Today, I would like to go first," Albus said, surprising the others. They usually didn't all leave the room at the same time, and normally Albus was the last to go because he had the Marauder's Map.
"It's fine," said Roy. "Just give me the map, I have to stay behind today anyway because I still have to discuss the Polyjuice thing with your dad."