CHAPTER 135: Requirements II

Alastor Moody was puzzled. Harry had found the Room of Requirement, which isn't all that strange, but he had gotten a horcrux from it, which was. You can't summon horcruxes, everybody with any experience in dealing with dark wizards knew this. "Accio horcrux" failed outright, almost as though it was interdicted. But the Room of Reqirement just summoned one.

The rule of science is rather simple. Given two hypotheses, come up with some experiments for distinguishing between the two, and run them. The obvious experiment was find the Room of Requrement (not easy) while thinking you need the Pioneer space probe. But he already knew the answer to that one by checking the library. The Room of Requirement could only summon things that were either in Hogwarts or (potentially, depending on how he interpreted the notes) owned by Hogwarts.

Then the shoe dropped.

Harry couldn't have cast patronous to block a killing curse as an infant. Accidental magic is very powerful, and has been known to break Gamp's rule, but there's no way it can cast any kind of patronous, or else little children would never ever be harmed by a dementor. Accidental magic worked by casting what the child believed he or she needed, not by what charm the child thought he needed to cast. A little child if faced with a dementor (shudder) would, if it perceived the danger in time, apparate away, usually to some safe spot known to the child. If that spot was still too close to the dementor, (shudder) ...

But the patronous charm required mental discipline to cast and hold. Harry didn't have it the first time around, everybody knew that. Then there's that thing. The reason he'd been so quick to believe it was Harry's patronous that came to him was the simple fact that only members of the Order of the Phoenix knew how to do that, at least until Harry had told Draco about it.

Harry didn't cast a patronous when Voldermort came to kill him. Harry had blocked a killing curse with his patronous some other time. Harry had blocked Voldermort's killing curse with his patronous some other time. It couldn't have been that day that Harry called for help; there was no explosion. Harry had battled Voldermort some time before that fateful day when Voldermort dared again to walk openly.

Harry had battled Voldermort the day Bellatrix was sprung from Azkaban. Harry had lied about his activity if not his whereabouts. Harry was the only thing known to scare dementors, one of the few things it was known that Voldermort could not do. The dementors at Azkaban had been scared into disobeying the aurors.

Harry had sprung Bellatrix from Azkaban.

Why hadn't anybody realized this much sooner?

Because Harry had passed the test of proving his time turner hadn't been used yet that day. The laws of time were set in stone. Or were they? He had already defeated them under the directon of a muggle. Michael Evans-Verres, Harry's father, had seen immediately how to set aside the laws of time. Perhaps Harry had done the same? It wasn't that implausible compared to scaring a dementor.

But why would Harry spring Bellatrix from Azkaban?

Sometimes constant vigilance wasn't enough.

"I will go to Azkaban and start snapping fingers. It might cost me my life, but by the time I'm done there won't be an Azkaban anymore."

He only had first year magics. Greater magics by far would be required for Azkaban to cease to exist. No wait, they weren't. He himself had powered a starship with a ridicously underpowered transfiguration that was merely difficult to learn but Harry already knew. The son thinks like the father. The destruction of Azkaban was well-within the power range of a first-year student who just happened to have been raised by a muggle scientist, and that was a terrible thought.

And Harry had said that Voldermort was learning science as though it was a terrible threat. At Voldermort's power level, ...

New requrement. Find a way to take down Voldermort alive so he could be obliviated. That knowledge was simply too dangerous in Voldy's hands. Would that even work? Normally it didn't, but Voldy's horcruxes were different and he was casting interdicted magic through them, and Hermoine's horcrux hadn't reset her memory to the point when it was formed. There was no reason to believe it wound't work. For the sake of all humanity, it had better work.

But first, time to go speak with Minerva, then Amelia Bones.

"What? Take him alive? Are you blooming mad?" Amelia Bones was furious. "I will not risk one auror in battle with Voldermort one single second longer than I have to. If that means killing him again, so much the better."

"Amelia, listen to me", Alastor said. "He's not like any other dark lord to ever walk the face of the earth. The horror stories of dark deeds committed by wizards in the name of dark lords long defeated pale in comparison to the corruption of this one. He remembers. The next dark wizard's body that arises in his name casts interdicted magics that he knows, and it has just come to my attention that he has already learned magics that can literally destroy the world in an instant.

"Take him alive and obliviate him. Wipe it all out. Then kill him, or better yet, the kiss, if you have any dementors left.

"If you ever find out where he is, send for me. I will face him again."

"Thanks for the offer," Amelia said, "but that's quite illegal. It's a pity I can't hire you back on. I would in a heartbeat if I could."

"Too bad Bahry One-Hand got obliviated. He faced Voldermort alone and lived. Someone should tell him about it."

"Wait just one minute. Why are we saying you-know-who's name out loud again? Isn't it still tabooed?"

"My dear Amelia Bones, if there's any place I want him to come, it's right here."

Then to everybody who was listening in, "If faced with an opponent and aurors on the other side, cast area effect spells so your bolts don't go right through when dodged and hit your friends. Voldermort cannot be outdueled but even he cannot duel an army."

Then almost at a whisper, "I should have asked this a long time ago, but do you know of any short-duration shield spell that can withstand an army that looks like a red octagon?"

"No, sorry, I do not."

Reese Belka, a newly-hired clerk, cut in, "Sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear. I saw one of those once back in Hogwarts. It was really weird. A little firstie witch shouldn't have been able to cast anything like that, but she did. Wandlessly."

"Wait what?"

Me and my big mouth though Reese. "I-um-"

Then with surprising patience Alastor asked again, "What year? What month? That's all I need to know."

"1992, March 1992"

Mad-Eye said something unworthy of printing.

"What is it Moody?" asked Amelia Bones.

"The one year we get a good defense professor and it's you-know-who himself. I think we're looking for him in all the wrong ways. See, he is intelligent, cunning, and patient beyond measure and still unredeemably evil."

They all felt the time pressure bearing down upon them, but saving the people from the dark lord was beyond reach of prophesy. Reese Belka pointed a finger at Mad-Eye and spoke words not her own that would haunt them forever: "You have cheated time, therefore this war shall run for years unnumbered and you will not escape its burden until the last enemy is destroyed."