On Teenagers and Love
a story by anamatics
part three - the fog
Chapter 41 - On Charms (pt 2)
an: lol more grad school
Her wand is pressed to her temple as she focuses on the third year arithmancy textbook in front of her. Hermione inhales slowly, her mind flashing, panicked, to the previous year and seeing the shell of Gilderoy Lockhart, made incompetent by the strength of this charm. Regardless of the decision she comes to with her parents, she needs to know how to do this and there's no one she can practice with except herself.
Glancing at the text, Hermione refreshes her memory to hold the idea closely in her mind. Q-Constants are means of accounting for the fragmentation of magical energy when regulating the intensity of a spell. Back in third year, when they were just learning the subject, Professor Vector had explained to them that some spells are stronger based on the magical energy attributed to them, but others, such as lumos could be regulated with alterations to the main spell incantation. Q-Constants accounted for that variation in spells that did not carry a modification to the incantation. They were ways to account in proofs for how strong a person would have to be in order to achieve the maximum effect of the spell.
Next to the textbook is a second book, one taken from the restricted section with Madame Pince's blessing, ostensibly because Hermione was practicing for her N.E.W.T.s and was looking to master some of the more challenging practical and theoretical tests they may be set. Hermione runs her finger over the text. It isn't fear that grips her, but rather a discomfort with what she's doing.
-determination is key in removing memories. It is not so much the memory, as it is the impression which must be erased. Consider a bed: when casting a charm to straighten the sheets, they become as flat as a still lake. Erasing a memory is much the same. The impression must be removed entirely in order for the memory to be gone.
In order to achieve this end, the caster must focus on not merely the forgetting, but the obliteration of the memory in the first place. In short, the caster must really mean it in order to fully remove the memory. It is advised that the caster be intimately familiar with the memory set to be erased, and that memory be fresh in the caster's mind, before it is removed from the subject's own.
Hermione exhales. She knows Q-Constants. She knows them well enough to solve for them in her sleep. Now, she wants to forget them. She wants to forget them more than she's ever wanted anything in her life. Her wand digs into the skin at her temple and she stares at herself in the mirror over the sink in the Gryffindor girl's dormitory. "Obliviate," the word comes out a whisper.
At first, it feels as though nothing had happened. Hermione supposes it's a good sign she isn't addled and drooling on the floor. She can't fathom why she has her third year arithmancy text open and propped against the tap over the sink next to the book on memory charms, but she supposes that she must have been checking some sort of reference before running her test. Shrugging, she gathers the books and dumps them in her trunk before heading down to dinner.
