Ch. 13: Trust issues
Harry was the only one not surprised by the absence of the exchange students or the teacher on the Defence against the Dark Arts lesson. He hasn't said anything about the previous night to neither Ron nor Hermione, because it was enough to relieve both the dream and the encounter with Hatter and Raven once, when he had to tell everything to Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks.
The latter two wanted to go after the islanders immediately, furious that they dared to threaten Harry, however, Dumbledore pointed out that they were ambassadors of the Four Great Dukedoms and it would do the Order no good to antagonise the other society without a good reason. He promised to talk with them and ensure that they did not go unpunished and then shooed Harry back to his dormitory, where he spent the rest of the night trying to not think.
'I wonder what happened,' Ron mused as they sat on their desks, waiting for the lesson to be over, so that they could go to the next one. 'I kind of started liking those lessons, although I'm a bit apprehensive about this whole "raw magic" deal that we were supposed to start today,' he added.
'I'm surprised you know such a word like "apprehensive", Weasley,' Malfoy sneered, stopping next to them, Crabbe and Goyle in tow.
'Get lost Malfoy,' Harry said, too tired and worried to be properly bothered by the Slytherin student. 'Find somebody else to bother or go and die in a corner,' he added, surprising everybody, including himself. Before anybody could say anything, he grabbed his bag and left, because he didn't feel like having to explain his outburst to Hermione and Ron.
He didn't know where he was going, but it didn't matter, because all he wanted was to be alone somewhere, where he could sleep. He didn't stop until he saw Oz sitting on the ledge of a tall window, alone. The boy looked up at him as Harry froze, unsure of what to do. The brilliant green eyes that were the same colour as his own were full of conflicting emotions even as a genuine smile stretched Oz's lips.
'I was hoping to meet you before they find me,' Oz said, sounding honestly happy. He jumped off the ledge gracefully and took a couple of careful steps towards Harry, who couldn't quite decide if he should back off or not.
'Before they find you?' he repeated finally. Oz rolled his eyes.
'Alice, Elliot and Leo,' he explained. 'We all think that we should not be alone if it can be helped. But I wanted to talk with you and I think it will be more efficient if we are alone, so I'm also happy that Ron and Hermione are not with you,' he added and took another step towards Harry. This time, the Gryffindor took a tentative step back and a hurt expression crossed Oz's face.
'Fair enough,' the boy said with resignation and went back to sit on the ledge, looking at Harry seriously. 'I guess I just wanted you to know that Raven was not going to shoot you. If he would even shoot at all, he would have missed on purpose,' he added and it was too much for Harry. How dared that kid say those things in such a calm tone, as though nothing had happened?
'How would he know where I was, if I was invisible?' Harry yelled, shocked when Oz put a finger to his lips and smiled slightly, instead of answering.
'Hush, Harry. There's a lesson of History of Magic taking place nearby,' he said. 'You don't want to have those students hear about your secrets,' he added, sounding almost amused. Belatedly, Harry realised that he had just betrayed his ability to become invisible to Oz and he regretted his temper. Then again, Oz seemed to have known that Harry was there last night. Harry frowned, realising that nobody should know it has been him under the Invisibility Cloak.
'How did you know that Raven tried to shoot me?' he asked.
'Raven did not try to shoot you,' Oz corrected with a slight hint of annoyance, clearing his throat afterwards. 'Hatter figured out it was you and your headmaster did nothing to try and deny that,' he replied to the question. Harry didn't miss that he said "your headmaster", as though he was not a part of the school.
'Are you going to get expelled?' he asked, wondering if he was happy about it or disappointed. Oz laughed humourlessly.
'I don't think so,' he said. 'For a moment I thought they would send us back but then Hatter told them everything and it seems that we're staying here for a while. I think that Dumbledore hopes to keep us four in the school as some sort of hostages. I suppose you could say that we are leverage for Raven and Hatter, in case they go berserk on the Order,' he explained, laughing humourlessly again. 'Not that they would.'
'Raven and Hatter will be with the Order?' Harry asked incredulously. Something didn't add up in that situation. Sure, he had seen the two fight Deatheaters and sure, Nagini did attack them, but Raven and Hatter working with the Order? Did Dumbledore not see the murderous intent in their eyes?
'Yup, trying to hunt down Voldemort,' Oz confirmed before Harry formed any of his thoughts into a sentence. 'That was more less what they came here for after all. It's still supposed to be a secret though, so I would appreciate if you didn't spread it around,' he added.
'They came here to bring Voldemort down,' Harry repeated, making Oz nod shortly. 'What did you come here for then?' he asked, somewhat satisfied when Oz looked away. He was silent for so long that Harry thought he wouldn't reply, but he spoke eventually.
'To learn,' Oz said simply and looked at Harry with a sad smile. 'Our way to use magic is to harness raw magic and make it do our bidding,' he added, surprising Harry with the frank admission. It was the first time that any of the exchange students were honest about what they did with magic at home and it irked Harry because he knew that Oz was only trying to buy back his trust.
'Show me,' he demanded, but Oz shook his head.
'I am not allowed,' he said. 'I'm not even supposed to be telling you those things and Hatter will have my head if he finds out, but you deserve to be told the truth.'
'That's really rich, coming from somebody who was lying for so many weeks,' Harry seethed and Oz looked away again. He seemed honestly sad about the situation and Harry started to wonder if he even had a choice about it. Could it have been that he was simply sent to Hogwarts with a set of orders to follow?
'The raw magic is not something to be toyed with,' Oz whispered finally. 'You know it only in form of unintentional magic before you learn to control it, we purposefully let it grow strong and spend years learning how to bend it to our will. That is why your Ministry reinforced the isolation.'
'I will not lie to you,' Oz continued. 'We were sent here as a cover for Raven and Hatter, but I came here to learn. Back at home we use no spells while you can do just about everything with a flick of a wand and muttered word.'
'Can't you?' Harry asked. Oz laughed shortly and said that he would not trust the precision of his directions for the raw magic to cut the potatoes or do the dishes. 'So what is this raw magic good for?' Oz shrugged.
'Duelling, protection, loads of things,' he said without much conviction in his voice. He still sounded sad and, when Harry asked about it, he admitted that he had enjoyed having friends at school.
'Back at home,' he said. 'I am the heir to the title and I live in this huge mansion with loads of servants. I mean, I have friends at home of course, I don't want you to think that I'm some sort of pathetic thing,' he amended with a momentary scowl. 'I have Alice, Leo and Elliot and I wouldn't exchange them for the world, even if we argue a lot. But they're not, I mean, they are people who will become my opponents in the government one day,' he trailed off.
Harry did the only thing he could think of, because he hated to see somebody sad like that and he needed to be cheered up himself. He took out his Invisibility Cloak and asked Oz if he wanted to see how Harry could become invisible. The green eyes sparkled in excitement at his words and the awed exclamation, when Harry disappeared from view made the latter laugh.
'This is incredible,' Oz whispered, touching the Cloak gently. 'I didn't know that things like that existed in the world,' he added, his eyes opening even wider when Harry told him that they were extremely rare.
It was almost time for the end of the first lesson of that day.
'How much trouble will you get in if you skip lessons today?' Harry asked on a whim. Oz blinked at him before grinning and saying that there was no point of being the heir of the Vessalius family if he couldn't get out of trouble with it. Harry laughed and wondered if the exchange students ever were afraid of the curfew set for them by Raven or if they all were so sure of themselves.
'Why don't we visit my friend?' he asked. 'He has been away for a while, but he's back now and I'm sure he'll be thrilled to meet you,' he added.
'Can we get out of the castle unnoticed?' Oz asked worriedly, but Harry only looked at him and threw the Cloak over the two of them. 'Awesome.'
'Hush, they can still hear us,' he whispered.
})i({
'So you have sent that kid to placate Harry Potter?' Cain Kruspe asked after a long while of silence. Gilbert glared at him, annoyed at his very presence in their rooms.
'Why were you staying here again?' he asked. Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall left shortly after Break's proclamation about sending Voldemort into the deepest pits of hell, presumably to consult the members of the Order. Kruspe, however, volunteered to guard them until decisions were made.
'Oz wanted to apologise to Harry Potter for the scare we must have given him last night,' Break said calmly at the same time. 'It is not our fault that he managed to make friends with one of the students,' he added, taking yet another cookie from the table. He glanced at Alice, Leo and Elliot. 'Shouldn't you be going to find Oz before he gets into trouble?' he asked, ignoring the glares from Elliot and Leo. Didn't they remember that Break couldn't see them?
'I'm staying here because I have questions that I didn't want to ask in front of the headmaster,' Cain Kruspe answered Gilbert's question once the door to the room closed behind the students.
'How nice of you to wait for the children to be gone,' Reim said mockingly, making the teacher laugh.
'Please,' he said. 'With the concentration of raw magic around them, none of them are ignorant to the matters I would like to discuss.'
'Concentration of raw magic?' Gilbert repeated doubtfully. Before they left for Hogwarts, Duke Barma told them that Chains could be interpreted as sentient personifications of raw magic and that was what they should say, should they have to explain themselves.
'I talked with Professor Binns recently,' Kruspe said in a conversational tone. 'He's a ghost who has lived before the isolation of the magical community of Hebrides was put in place and he remembers that the wizards there seemed to favour raw magic instead of spells and potions, like we do. Apparently the Ministry considered that too dangerous and although their official reason was the unpredictability of the raw magic, Binns believes it was because the ones who master such magic risk the influence of the dark side of the magic's core.'
'Sounds like a bunch of fairy tales if you ask me,' Break laughed.
'Maybe,' Kruspe agreed easily. 'However, before coming here I have cast a spell on myself, allowing me to see different kinds of magic hovering around. That is how I could judge at a glance if you have cast any malevolent spells in the room or on yourselves but it also allowed me to see raw magic. It's enveloping you all in different degrees and I'm willing to bet that being a Baskerville means you're more adept in manipulating that raw magic than the others,' he finished, glancing at Gilbert.
'You're free to bet whatever you want,' he muttered, not happy about the consequences of those observations. If Voldemort would figure that much as well, they would be in deep trouble next time they would go to meet the Deatheaters. After all, there was a limited amount of times that he could "accidentally" be in the way of a curse shot towards Break. Not that the Hatter needed to know about that.
'Is there any reason why you haven't said all those things in front of the headmaster?' Reim asked quietly, as always going straight to the point.
'It's quite simple I'm afraid,' Kruspe said. 'Sheer curiosity pushed me to omit that detail and, besides, the headmaster asked about malevolent spells, not every kind of magic that was in the room.'
'Let's say for a while that you are correct in your assumptions,' Break said. 'What are you planning to do with that knowledge? I should add that we don't respond well to blackmail and, if your assumptions are correct, threatening the lives of our precious, innocent children will not give you much leverage,' he added, carefully wrapping his words in irony.
'Nothing so crude as blackmail,' Kruspe assured them. 'The headmaster would probably flip if he found out that the fears of the Ministry a hundred years ago have been well founded after all. He might have ordered you removed, imprisoned or killed, although I doubt that he would go that far. However, if you are gone I cannot get what I want from you: information, which is why I have no plans to tell him any of my so-called assumptions.' Break made a face.
'That reminds me too much of Duke Barma,' he said with disgust, making Gilbert roll his eyes. He did have a point though.
'We will not teach you to use raw magic like we do,' Gilbert said firmly. 'If this is your desire than you can go and tell the headmaster all you want and you will never see us again,' he added.
'Disappointing, but maybe I can change your mind eventually,' Kruspe replied neutrally and added that he would content himself with knowing first why they refused to use wands. He admitted that it has been bugging him since the first lesson, when Alice had refused Hermione's wand and proceeded to kick a magical creature with surprising agility.
'Ah, Alice likes to get physical,' Break enthused, probably perfectly aware of how wrong that statement could be understood. 'We haven't heard that she kicked some poor thing in your lesson though,' he added, sounding disappointed when Kruspe didn't take the bait.
The Defence against the Dark Arts teacher told them about Alice pouncing on a creature that was easily twice her size, kicking it between the eyes and then looking surprised when everybody stared at her. It sounded exactly like something that stupid rabbit could do.
'We are infused with raw magic,' Break spoke after a while of silence that followed Kruspe's story.
'Hatter,' both Gilbert and Reim exclaimed in protest, but Break glared at them, silencing them efficiently.
'We use this magic and it uses us in a sort of exclusive relationship, you could say,' he continued, unaware of Kruspe's eager expression. Or was he? One never knew with the Mad Hatter. 'A wand, like everybody here likes to say "chooses the wizard". It has some sort of independency which invades the wizard's magical field to see if they're compatible, at the first encounter, and afterwards, to be used in the most efficient way. The raw magic that we are infused with does not tolerate sharing.'
'It's as simple as that, huh?' Kruspe muttered, looking at Break speculatively. He seemed to be satisfied with the answer. Assuming that Oz had been successful with Harry Potter, they now had two new allies. It wasn't bad as consequences of such a spectacular fiasco, but would either of the wizards actually trust them?
Break's words from many years ago echoed in Gilbert's head: "You don't really need to believe me. You should just use me. Just as I am only going to use you." It seemed like they were back in the game.