The Provisional Laws of Acquired Behavior or Learning

Authors Note: I'm thinking of changing the summary to better reflect the story concept, which by the way has expanded like whoa. And because Maurice is still suffering from low key survivor's guilt this chapter happened.

Disclaimer: I don't at this time own any published work of Sega or JK Rowling, if I did I'd gut the current Sonic fandom and only allow literate people to contribute cutting the fandom back by 90% and improving the quality by the same percentage.

Saturday, November 2nd

With the freezing weather outside and with no other obligations between them the three of them had spent the last few days clearing up the hidden room and turning it into a makeshift clubhouse, though they had yet to decide a name for it.
"I still think a double matted frame would look better" Susan gestured at the non-magical world map Maurice had stuck on the wall.
Maurice stretched as he considered the map "Well for now just use the aluminum frame and we can move onto fixing the upholstery and come back to this later."
"Hey, nice digs!"
Maurice and Susan jumped and spun looking around at the intruder, Parvati stood with a male freckled redhead with brown eyes in Ravenclaw uniform and an Italian looking boy with a dark complexion, a black crew cut hairstyle and brown eyes in Slytherin uniform.
Parvati beamed "Sugar these guys have agreed to help us ward the clubhouse, ain't that mighty nice o them?"
The redhead introduced himself first posing dramatically with his chest puffed out "I'm Fred Weasley and this is Blaise Zabini and together we're Hogwarts first detective agency! From lost cats to buried treasure we'll find what you're looking for! For a small fee of course."
Blaise spoke up demurely "Miss Parvati has contracted us to ward this clubhouse from curious eyes"
"What's your fee for this service?" asked Maurice wondering what Buns had gotten them into.
"Well, Miss Parvati suggested we share the clubhouse as a base for our detective business as long as we keep the wards updated for however long we stay here until we get our own public base set up as well as teach you some warding techniques if ya want."
Maurice mused over that it was a good idea "What do you think Sue?"
Susan nodded "It does sound like a good idea and I'd really like to learn some warding, let's go for it."
"Just run any changes through us first okay?"
"Sure thing"

Astronomy Tower 11:00pm Tuesday, November 5th
"Ooh!"
"That one looks like a rabbit!"
"I thought wizards didn't really celebrate Non-Magical holidays much?" spoke Maurice reclined on a beanie bag on the astronomy tower watching the multicolored fizzing fireworks go off in the sky far above Hogsmeade.
Susan smirked remembering something her aunt had said "It's an excuse to make explosions in the sky seen for miles around and not be in violation of the Statue of Secrecy, you just try to stop them"
"Are shooting stars meant to do that?" Maurice gestured as the yellow firework stars danced erratically in the sky, circling each other in a well-coordinated flyover.
"…"

Library 7:00am Saturday, November 9th
"Susan, I was thinking, do you want to go to Cambridge tomorrow?"
Susan blinked that offer came completely out of the blue pun intended "Well there aren't really any rules keeping students here on a weekend not really, what do you have in mind" Maurice toed the dirt "Do you want to spend this Sunday in the non-magical world? Its Remembrance Sunday and I honestly wouldn't feel right being at a noisy Quidditch match the whole day, there's a parade in Cambridge and people are going to be speaking about the wars" Susan paused noting the red poppy clipped to his Ravenclaw tie at his neck "I had completely forgotten the date" Susan paused again noting Maurice's relieved look.
"Is there a reason you've decided not to watch Quidditch?"
Maurice shifted in place "Nothing against the sport, truthfully I'm just looking for a bit of closure"
"Closure?"
"Closure" reaffirmed Maurice at her questioning look "Diagon Alley didn't get a memorial service, I want to move on, what happened that day was horrible the people deserve to be remembered even in some small way. And really it's Slytherin versus Gryffindor, nothing to do with us"
Susan blinked realization hitting "Right, No house points this year" Noticing he was still waiting for an answer "Okay let's go tomorrow morning then, I'll have to send a letter to my aunt though"

Dear Aunt Amelia
I'm mailing you to ask for advice about something, my friend Maurice, the one I've told you about lost some people in the Diagon Alley incident and hasn't had a chance to properly grieve. He's asked me to accompany him to Cambridge this Sunday to celebrate the Non-Magical's Remembrance Sunday in memory of those who have fallen with the intent of including those who died in Diagon.
Lots of Love
Susan Amelia Bones

Dear Susan
I think your friend Maurice had a brilliant idea and I intend to institute a similar wizarding Remembrance Day, regardless of the boys incredible ability I don't like the idea of two eleven year olds alone in Cambridge all day alone, as I cannot come in person how would you feel about having Alastor Moody acting as chaperone?
Love
Amelia Bones
Minister of Magic

Ravenclaw Common Room
Susan thanked Professor Flitwick for couriering the letter through the floo, being the niece of the Minister of Magic had its perks such as allowing her to completely skip using owl mail and get a fast reply.
Penning a short reply and handing it to Flitwick, Susan went to see Maurice and saw he was chatting with Bunnie. "Auntie said yes but she's sending Moody as chaperone" Susan spoke causing Bunnie to light up, a familiar voice issued from her bag "I'll be here at eight tomorrow taking all three of you to Cambridge and then onto London for the formal dedication at eleven" Bunnie pulled out a purple heart-shaped face mirror from which Moody's face was visible "A two-way mirror?" Susan exclaimed in surprise.
Moody grinned unsettlingly from the purple hand mirror "This ain't no ordinary mirror I enchanted it myself It connects to any mirror I add to the network" Susan whistled "I know what I want for my birthday"
"I've already written the enchantment down fer yeh" Moody in the mirror replied. "So you have any plans boyo?"
Maurice startled "I was going to stop by the Sunday Faire and pick up some lunch for us at the Botanic Garden glasshouse where there's a storytelling session led by veterans."
"Sounds interesting, anything else?"
"No that was it."
"Well, how would you like to Floo to London for their ceremony? If yer serious about it that is" "Sure"

Sunday, November 10th
Hogwarts Quidditch Broom Storage Shed 5:50am
"A preliminary inspection of the brooms has shown that all teams will be on equal footing ma'am and if I may say they are in excellent condition, I don't quite understand why I was called in."
McGonagall spoke "I was simply making sure they hadn't been affected by the events of the Acromantula attack"
The inspector snapped his fingers in realization "Acromantula venom is highly corrosive towards organic materials, I didn't even think of that. Smart thinking Headmistress, anyway the broomsticks are in mint condition with no corrosion evident in my scans I'll be on my way"
The inspector made his way down from the castle to the Three Broomsticks and to his rented room. Upon closing the door the glamour fell revealing a short frizzy blond haired woman with the build of a marathon athlete and deeply unsettling yellow eyes "Easy as pie" the other person in the room was built like a bodybuilder and had dark skin and eyes with messy short black hair. Observing the false inspector briefly he spoke, idly fiddling with an odd ceramic contraption and a rune carving pen "Did you get what the boss was looking for Cat?"
"Yes Bull, Everything's fine, the warding algorithm hasn't changed much from the prior samples we examined."
"Much? What's changed?"
Cat smiled like her namesake had caught a canary "There's an anti-aggression ward over the school"
Bull looked lost for a moment "…Lollapalooza say what now?"
The fake inspector grinned maliciously "You heard me"
A pause "That's not a good thing is it?"
"On the contrary, it is very good, for us, the population is being trained to be relatively docile, don't count on the next generation knowing much destructive magic"
"You think the Boss will be happy Cat?
Cat nodded still grinning "He'll be ecstatic"

Unused classroom, ground floor
Red light splashed against the hanging canvas each time getting closer and closer to hitting the moving animated target drawn in its surface. "Stupefy!" Spoke Ronald firmly attempting to track the animated bull's eye and anticipate where it would be. Knowing hundreds of spells was nice and all but the more he read the more Ronald was convinced that he only needed to know a few spells and master them, even more important than that aim.

Cambridge University Botanic Gardens
After a long day in London watching various dedications and a speech from the queen Susan listened enraptured as the old men spoke of their experiences during world wars drawing those listening into their story.
Moody sat next to Bunnie un-glamoured apart from his spinning eye which was enchanted to look like a normal eye as he also listened to the men talking. Maurice sat on the blanket on the ground in the botanical gardens hot greenhouse letting the voices wash over him, the heat lulling him into a state of calm. Bunnie was lying down on her front, head propped up on her elbows "This was a good idea sugar" "More fun than a Quidditch match?" Bunnie nodded "Warmer too" Bunny gestured at the large flowering cacti on her right. "You feeling any better sugar?" Maurice smiled "Yes, I am"

Hogwarts, 7th floor, unknown room
Lee surveyed the cavernous room writing on a notepad as he went, "This is truly amazing, I had no idea such a place existed" Spoke Professor Fronsac from the small landscape propped on an easel near the door.
The room itself looked to be a massive cavern large enough to fit sixteen Pyramids of Giza comfortably with space for a highway between them, the walls were marbled through with glowing white onyx, sparkling opal on a background of what looked like very dark purple hewn sugilite.
"It makes sense in hindsight, I doubt the founders wanted to do much walking every time they needed direct access the ward stone"
Professor Fronsac shook his head in disbelief "But storing it in an expanded wizarding space like this, it shouldn't be possible"
Lee sat down and sighed looking around "I think that instead of just being powered by the leylines the entire room actively draws power from them and stores it here for use, but I think the founders overestimated how much magic the school needed"
Lee pointed at the glowing for lack of a better word, hill of white onyx in the center of the room "then over the years the volume of stored magic, that the school didn't use, crystallized"
Professor Fronsac followed Lee's chain of thought perfectly and frowned "The founders designed the school to house thousands of students and clearly expected that number to increase over time but… why didn't it?"
Lee had an answer to this and it wasn't a pleasant realization "The ward stone draws magic from the leylines of the planet and it isn't giving it back, so there's less magic to go around, added onto that wizarding wars every few centuries and selective breeding by purebloods means that the issue hasn't been noticed. Because of the way the Hogwarts ward stone is designed, trapping the magical energy like this, it's almost as if the leylines have accidentally been trained to deposit all their energy here. The slightest disruption anywhere else means that the magical energy is redirected here permanently." Lee fell silent pondering the enormity of what he'd discovered.
"We can't tell anyone about this and there is no way we can return the energy to the leylines because the backlash of this much magic might glass the planet, we can't stop it because the knowledge has been lost to time and experimenting on this could also glass the planet. We can't tell anyone about this because some idiot might get it onto their head to attempt to use it and end up glassing the planet by purpose or by accident." Lee laid flat on his back on the floor and huffed which oddly turned into a laugh.
"I see nothing funny about this" Spoke Professor Fronsac icily.
Lee scoffed "I remember Professor Quirrell stating that non-magicals had us beat in pure destructive capabilities with their atomic weapons, then I see this monstrosity and just.." Lee sighed and closed his eyes resisting the urge to break something.