DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you've seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$ from this…
A/N: This is the last of three transitional chapters from Harry & Friends to Harry & Mission. I hope it's not as "tedious" as the last two. Pace picks up big time after this (I am pretty sure…) Some of the historical references are real.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: THE PROGRAM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3rd 1989 - POTTER HOUSE, LONDON, U.K.
The Grangers, the children and the others returned to London just a few days before on August 2nd. The Grangers and the children left for their Summer Holiday early the next morning. They went to France and specifically for Paris. Hermione had been there before, but neither Harry nor Clarice had gone. Hermione planned to practice her French. She had taken four years of it at the Watanabe School and after passing her proficiency examinations, she started on Chinese this summer, Mandarin Chinese to be exact. She had just passed that proficiency at the end of the last term, not that it would help her at all in Paris.
Both Harry and Clarice were keen on going. They had never been to the continent before and having read so much about it really wanted to see it for themselves. Harry had passed his proficiency exam in Spanish at the end of his first Summer and had just passed a new one in Arabic. Clarice could now add Russian and German to her linguistic skills. All three were now fluent in Japanese as was Rose Granger. They were told early on that the younger you are when you learn a new language, the easier that becomes. The same was true in that the more languages you could speak, the easier it was to learn a new one.
It was not so much a part of some kind of master plan either on their part or any of the adults they knew, including Sensei. It was just one of the many educational opportunities available at their school so they pursued it and would continue to pursue it, schedule permitting of course.
The Grangers departure did not leave the large house empty. Remus and Sirius lived there and, for all practical purposes so did Sophie. Remus had been busy and just missed the Grangers when he finally came home that morning.
"How was Japan," Remus asked Sirius and Sophie.
"That was an amazing place," Sophie said. "Almost wish - no I do wish I could have gone there."
Remus looked at Sirius.
"It's embarrassing in a way," Sirius said.
"How so?"
"They teach far more there than here. And I'd add that their faculty is better overall. Don't get me wrong. McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout could easily teach there. Maybe even Slughorn. But not one of our Defense teachers from Hogwarts would have been able to and let's not even talk about Binns.
"On the other hand, the kids are so damn busy all the time. You know how hard they worked the last year on their projects and with their friends?"
Remus nodded.
"That was a holiday for them! All of them are nose to the grindstone six days a week! I made it a point to make sure my kids - and I consider them my kids, odd that - I made sure they kept up in their classes so that when they had a day off, they took a day off and could act like normal kids for a day."
"Not much pranking then?"
Sirius shook his head. "At least not on school days. They really didn't have the time. But when they did … look out! The better ones would have wiped the floor with us, Moony."
"That good?"
"It's more a question of how much magic they learn and how quickly."
"And how was being the babysitter?"
"There really was not all that much to do. The Prefects handle most things in the dorms. I was there more as a tutor in many ways. Besides, the kids were generally well behaved when they were required to be. It would have been bloody boring after the first Term. Two Terms per Session, five Sessions for the Summer, no fun at all. And as most the kids were truly kids and not teenagers, didn't have to deal with couples in broom closets for the most part."
"So what did you do?"
"Studied."
"Get out!"
"As a Magical Minder, I was allowed to pursue a Mastery."
"Did you?"
Sirius nodded. "Took an abbreviated Defense one. Only two terms instead of the usual six thanks to Auror training."
"Why did you do that? I mean, is their defense training different?"
"It's not law enforcement. They teach combat and not just magical stuff. Their defense masters includes training with muggle weapons: pistols, infantry rifles, marksmanship, demolition and such. Blowing stuff up is actually kind of fun! I also studied the eastern martial arts. Great hand to hand stuff with all kinds of magical dueling potential. And they teach far more about what we call the Dark Arts than they do here even in Auror training. They don't teach the how, so much as the what and how to counter it."
"Wow! Is that all you learned?"
Sirius shook his head. "I am now an I.C.W. Certified Curse Breaker."
"Bloody hell! What do you intend to do with that?"
"Got any openings in Office W?"
Remus looked at his friend. "They're always looking for talent."
"Good. 'Cause as soon as Sophie and I get back from our honeymoon, I believe I'd be inclined to want a respectable job."
"You two set a date yet?"
"Yep!"
"October 15th," Sophie said beaming.
"So soon?"
"Hardly," Sirius said. "We've been a couple for over five years our time. And I love her more now than the day we left. She is the most important thing in my life right now, with you and the kids a close second. I'm done being the bachelor. So the sooner the better."
"Me too," Sophie said with a blush. "I'm tired of 'living in sin' as it were. Although I don't see it that way. We would have married sooner, but I'd like my family to be there and my friends and Sirius's friends as well. Especially you, Remus."
"I need a Best Man, Moony," Sirius added. "It's either you or Harry and he's too young really."
"I'd be honored," Remus replied. "Now about the kids…"
Sirius told them about how Harry, Hermione and Clarice did. But he did not stop there. He also told him about the other ten students, all of which were under his charge as school. Seven were now post N.E.W.T. levels and three had their O.W.L.s. All had done quite well.
"Interesting," Remus said. "Back to the Kids. They really have Masteries?"
Sirius nodded.
"How will they maintain proficiency?"
"For Harry and Hermione it's mostly easy. They can train here for the most part. 'Bout the only thing they cannot do here is firearms training."
"Firearms?"
"Proficiency was part of that program. While they were trained in several different weapons, for marksmanship training they used a Sig-Sauer P226 re-chambered by the school for 6.4mm ammunition. It lacks the range or stopping power of a larger gun, but they use that for target practice, not shooting bad guys. The kids are still a bit too small for standard 9mm guns. They can handle the smaller caliber quite well. They also used a compact version of the American M-16, again because it uses a smaller round than most military rifles in use today. This poses a problem, as those guns are illegal here. I guess we could see about a hunting rifle or some such…"
"Or I could talk to my boss," Remus said. "I don't know about a modified P226, but we do have a range for the agents."
"I'm not so sure…"
"Sirius, you and I both know Office W is interested in Harry at least. They'll probably be interested in many of their friends in a few years time."
"If not sooner," Sirius said. "Jason Evans and two of his friends are set to begin their final year. They're heading back to Japan next summer to earn a degree and try and pick up a Mastery or two. Still, the idea of the muggle government and Harry…"
"Sirius listen. Harry has allowed me to tell my colleagues anything we know or suspect, including anything Sensei told us that is still possible or fact. They know Voldemort is not truly dead and can come back. They also know it won't happen until 1994 or 1995 at the earliest. They know both sides consider Harry important, even critical, in the coming struggle.
"We can't trust Dumbledore with Harry. We know that. The man wanted a martyr and that tends to go bad for the martyr. We can't trust the Ministry with him either. There are only two or three people in that place I trust at all, and only two of them are in a position to help Harry if need be. One is Millicent Bagnold. But I would not count on her being around indefinitely. She's been minister for nine years and has been with the ministry for over seventy. The other is Amelia Bones. If Millie has her way, Amelia would be her replacement. But we know how that works. Fair bet we will get a weak willed bureaucrat who is well above average on the corruption scale. You know the key votes on the Wizengamot want a pliable minister, one who will support their agenda for the right amount of money.
"Half or more of the Death Eaters who survived the last war are free. A few have seats in that body. A fair few actually avoided any suspicion. Just about any candidate other than Amelia could be a Death Eater. Even if they are not, the Death Eaters financial backers are still out there. We know what happened the last time. The Ministry buried its head in the sand until it was truly too late. I'd bet it will be almost the same the next time around.
"So we can rule out Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix. He cannot be trusted. The Ministry is out because they cannot be trusted. But we know Harry will be in the thick of it from the opening salvo until the bitter end, however it turns out. He cannot do that alone. That leaves…"
"The Muggles," Sirius said. "Still, what makes them any different really?"
"Aside from the fact they don't want to control our world? The three factions in our world all want that. The Muggles don't. They would still prefer for us to handle our problems ourselves, but are not above giving us a hand if we ask for it. They offered both the Ministry and Dumbledore support the last time and were repeatedly rebuffed. Because the war had spread into their world, they had to take some action. Had we accepted their support back then, Voldemort's movement might never have really gotten started."
"What kind of support?"
"When the time come financial, logistical, information, that sort of thing."
"Sounds like they want an army of sorts," Sirius said. It was hardly a surprise to him as he had been thinking along similar lines for a while. Learning combat defense, strategy and tactics tended to do that.
"Notionally that's a fair analogy," Remus said. "They want a magical force that can deal with the Pureblood Supremacist movement and is loyal to Her Majesty's Government, but not a part of it."
"Why not?"
"Plausible deniability," Remus smirked. "It will be an all magical force independent of the Ministry and Dumbledore but for all appearances unaffiliated with any other government."
"Why do I sense your hand in this, Moony?"
"Me?" Remus said with mock innocence. "Me? I'm just an innocent Marauder."
"Who's trying to build an army of children to fight Death Eaters," Sophie added. She had learned a lot in Japan, most notably Mind Magic, so she was now in on the 'Secret.' She could not see Sensei and resigned herself to the fact that she might never see him. But she knew about him and knew Sirius could. "They're just children!"
"Physically, you are correct," Sirius said. "Magically, they are the best they can be given their age. But from an experience standpoint, you can add eight years to their current ages. You were there, Soph. We were there for over four years by the count of days. Since Gringotts goes by count of days, Harry and Hermione are legally adults. Clarice will be next summer. Because she passed her N.E.W.T.s, she is free from the restrictions against underage wizardry.
"And do not underestimate them, especially Harry. You remember me telling you that Sensei and Harry were the exact same person until May of last year?"
Sophie nodded.
"The exact same, down to the memories, hopes, dreams, thoughts, scars and injuries. That all changed for our Harry. Sensei's Harry grew up malnourished and it stunted his growth both physically and magically. That should have been dealt with when he arrived at Hogwarts, but it was not. True, he ate better, but the damage he suffered from his Aunt and Uncle was never fixed. He was a good four to six inches shorter than he was meant to be. He probably suffered a similar degradation in his magical potential.
"That Harry never trained as hard with his magic as our Harry does. He never went to the Watanabe School, never attained a single Masters, never went to Secondary School. He did not even know about magic until he was eleven! He was at best an average student at Hogwarts. Failed two of his O.W.L.s, although who really cared about divination or History of Magic really."
"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them," Remus interjected.
"Agreed. And if you pass your O.W.L.s, you know about the Statute of Secrecy and that it is not wise to piss off a Goblin and little else."
"Point taken."
"Anyway, that Harry - the stunted and underachieving one - well, at thirteen he cast a Patronus that drove off over one hundred dementors!"
"Bloody hell," Remus said, "there might be one wizard in a million who could do that!"
"And this Harry was the same as that Harry. Except he is highly trained and has been treated for what he suffered. He will be one powerful wizard as a teen. And it's not because of the Watanabe School. He will know loads of magic because of that and have mastered more magic than most every witch or wizard in Britain - aside from those who go to that school, maybe. Do not confuse him - or Clarice or Hermione for that matter - for normal children. They are anything but that and when the time comes, should it come, I would not want to be a Death Eater if they come knocking."
"Sorry Siri," Sophie said.
"For what? To an extent I agree with you. They should be allowed to be kids. Still, I really do not want to relive the last war. Even if the next one never happens, it is prudent to be prepared just in case. It has been said by many a man in many ways over countless centuries: in peace, prepare for war."
"I actually meant seeing them as little children," Sophie said. "Clarice is actually quite a good Healer. It's a pity she can't do anything with that outside of school."
"Even if they are not truly innocent children and are highly trained, I doubt they could get a job," Sirius said.
"Not in the Wizarding world at any rate," Remus agreed. "The muggle world - well, Office W might be willing to look the other way in regards to the child labor laws."
"What are you talking about?"
"Mike Evans had two of his kids at that school. He was there at the end, remember?"
Sirius nodded. Mike Evans was Remus's boss or immediate superior.
"When he got back, he told me that during the last war, Office W tried to recruit trained witches and wizards into a combat arm. While Office W ran all the ops against Death Eaters, there were too few of them to engage more than a handful of the enemy at a time. The larger Ops were performed by the S.A.S., all Muggles and all of whom had to be told about magic. This had drawbacks."
"Aside from the obvious issues of secrecy?" Sirius asked.
Remus nodded. "They could not use magic. They could not throw up anti-apparition or similar wards over a target. And, it was next to impossible for them to take the enemy alive - bullets and such don't stun to well."
"You're NOT thinking of turning kids into some kind of soldiers," Sophie protested.
"I am certain the Big Boss would take issue were that the idea," Remus said. "Not, what we are hoping to do is have the government invest in the future, as it were."
"And just what does that mean?"
"The training and education the kids received in Japan is first rate. The magical education here in Britain is pretty good, but not as good. A lot of the differences have to do with the extreme restrictions the Ministry places upon knowledge. As I understand it, the schools here teach to the barest minimum of the I.C.W. standards. And believe me, there are those in the Ministry - probably former Death Eaters if you ask me - who still think we teach too much.
"The biggest problem we had during the last war was a lack of qualified witches and wizards. I don't mean lack of N.E.W.T. levels, I mean a lack of knowledge and skills that could be used against the enemy. The Auror Corps accepted less than one percent of the young people finishing school. This was mainly because very few finished school with adequate skills to complete Auror training. You can train a Muggle soldier in as little as six months and get a very good soldier from that. Magic takes more going in and more to complete combat training. Nature of the beast, really. Combat magic is incredibly difficult and is far beyond most young people's abilities to learn quickly if they never learned the basics to begin with. That is a direct result of the Ministry's restrictions.
"And it was not like the Ministry was willing to invest the resources to improve the capabilities of the Auror Corps. Heaven forbid the greedy bastards actually use the Ministry funds for something constructive, rather than redecorating their bloody homes. We could not field an effective force to combat the Death Eaters because our schools failed to provide us with the raw materials and our Ministry refused to either fix that problem or find a way to train potential recruits. Basically, if you did what was necessary to get through school, you could never become and Auror.
"Add to that the Hogwarts bias and …"
"Hogwarts bias?" Sirius asked.
"The Ministry is dominated by Hogwarts graduates," Remus said. "A Hogwarts grad can get a job there just by showing up practically. The other kids? St. Mungo's is not so biased and neither is Grnigotts. But, the Auror Corps is almost entirely made up of former Hogwarts students. Every Department Head is a former Hogwarts student. There are four hundred or so students at Hogwarts and it is one of but six magical schools in the British Isles. The other five have round six hundred students each."
"Day schools," Sirius said with more than a hint of derision.
"Indeed. St. Geroge's in London and Preston Academy near York are the schools that educate the majority of English magical children. St. Andrews near Edinburgh handles the Scots, St. Patrick's the Irish and Queen Anne's the Welsh. The wizarding economy is a product of those schools. The government is a product of Hogwarts. Worse, the Death Eaters were almost entirely Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix was as well. The average wizard would not be keen on fighting in a war that was mostly between Hogwarts families, which was why they did not. Throw in the fact that most were not trained to do so and you can see why we almost lost the last time."
This was not common knowledge and it was all new to Sophie. Sirius, on the other hand, had been an Auror late in the war. While he had not put it all together, he was aware of these general facts. Apparently, the Muggle MI-5 had put this all together and long before the war had ended as well.
"So what's MI-5 planning," Sirius asked.
"Right now, it's just Mike Evans, David Greengrass and myself. We are working on a proposal."
"And?"
"Send as many kids as we can to that school; a true cross section of our country, not just Hogwarts and St. George's. It takes but two summer sessions for them to take a kid from no magical knowledge to Auror or better. When the next war comes, we could have a huge talent pool to draw upon to create a counter to the Death Eaters."
"They're just kids," Sophie began.
"Now," Remus replied. "Right now they are. But according to Sensei, this war will not begin until about a year after Voldemort returns to a corporeal form. Summer 1996 at the earliest. The seven kids who attained their N.E.W.T.s this summer will all be adults by then. Harry, Hermione and Clarice will legally be adults in our world by then.
"If our plan gets approval, MI-5 will foot the bill, or at least a major part of it. It will also seek out students from the schools not already represented. It will encourage and finance as necessary the kids 'Weekend Warriors' during the rest of the year as it can come up with better facilities than this place, as good as this is.
"I would and have also recommended that aside from students 16 year of age or older who have attended the Japanese school, all others should return to their schools as if nothing happened."
"Why?" Sirius asked.
"We need to include Muggleborns," Remus replied. "The only ones in the 'Program' now were friends of the Evans family from school. Unless we can access the Muggleborn lists, we need to be able to recruit from the schools. That means we need students there who can find us talented Muggleborns and others to add to the program."
"Okay, and if they find talent?"
"The kids and any younger magical siblings over age six would be invited to attend Harry's 'Weekend Warriors.' If they stick with it, then next summer we send them to Japan."
"And can Harry handle a lot more members?"
"No," Remus said. "But it's not just Harry, Hermione and Clarice anymore, is it? There are ten others who are at least as qualified as they were last year. Given that resource, I figure the club could handle between a hundred and fifty and two hundred, assuming we can find that many."
"Doubt this house could handle that many at once."
Remus nodded. "Office W has an underused training facility outside of London that can. It is heavily warded. Better than most pureblood manors, truth be told. Perhaps only Hogwarts and Gringotts are better protected. Should be an ideal location."
"And what about their Muggle trips? That was a huge part of Harry's group last year."
"Those can be arranged."
"When?"
"We make our presentation to our boss on Monday. If it is approved in concept, we can probably find a few more members for the club by the time the kids hold their first meeting after they return from holiday. Funding for the school may take longer, but he have until May for that."
Sirius thought about this for a while. There was a glean in his eye as the old prankster was awakened. "You do realize you'll be undermining both the Ministry of Magic and magical education to some extent, don't you?"
Remus nodded. "And gaining a generation of witches and wizards who we hope won't sit and hide should the dark times return."
"A prank is a prank, even for noble causes," Sirius said.
"That thought had crossed my mind too."
"I'd ask to be in but…"
"Ah, but you are a key player."
"H-how?"
"You are currently unemployed with ample free time. You also have spend a full summer at the school and are a fully qualified Auror. Who better than you to extol the virtues of that school."
"You mean….?"
"We want you to be there to answer any questions about the school. As you are considering joining Office W, consider this a pre-interview interview."
_____________________________________________________________
Sensei was arguably enjoying himself as much as an invisible avatar could. He was with Harry and the others for their trip to Paris. It was obvious to him that the kids were having a wonderful time. Sensei could swear that Harry and Hermione held hands the whole time, although he knew that was not true as they did sleep in separate beds and neither accompanied the other into a rest room. Still, it was endearing.
Each kid had something they liked about this city. For Clarice, who was the family shutterbug having been given her first camera before her first trip to Japan, she loved the architecture and vistas. She was the most excited by their trip to the Eifel tower, at least the top of it. Hermione less so. Apparently a fear of heights was an inherent characteristic of the girl and only by hanging on to Harry for dear life - or so it seemed - was she able to relax and enjoy the view. For Hermione, the Louvre was the highlight of their stay. For Harry, it was the food. Regardless, Sensei was pleased that they were enjoying themselves.
Sensei, however, was pondering this upcoming year. Given how far he had overshot his original time target, he knew there was a lot that could be done to improve, if not yet fully change the future. He had already helped people he cared about in his past timeline to some extent. Neville and Luna had friends and were thriving as he recalled from their school. Hermione and Harry, well he was sure this time they would see they were meant to be together. There was no way his sister would die in those accursed camps this time. Sirius was not just a free man, but engaged.
Harry was friends with three of the Weasleys and Ginny was not fawning over him this time. She saw Harry as a kind of big brother - one who did not pick on her or try to prank her. But to Ginny, he still was a boy. At the 'Weekend Warrior' meetings, she saw boys as only being useful when talking about Quidditch, otherwise she hung out with Luna and the Greengrass sisters. Harry was a great friend. But definitely not boyfriend material. Everybody knew that particular position was reserved to Hermione and nobody dared question it.
Fred and George were still Gred and Forge. They were learning loads of stuff and Sensei could only chuckle at the mayhem these two could cause once they started Hogwarts. The surprise from the Weasley family was Percy. He, apparently, had declared a prank war against all of Hogwarts last year. He set a record for house points lost and for nights in detention and was unrepentant, mainly because whatever house points he lost getting caught - and as he was proud of his pranks, he almost always was caught - he earned back in the classroom. Basically, Percy had cost his House no points overall. The twins practically worshiped him as according to Bill and Charlie, he was outdoing them in the prank department and yet would probably make Prefect Fifth Year if he turned over the Weasley franchise to the twins. Ron was the only Weasley Sensei had heard little about. Apparently, he was still "grounded," although just before the kids headed off to Japan it had been said Ron actually managed to read a big book with no pictures and no help.
Harry, Hermione and Clarice had been involved in their own research projects while at school aimed at solving some of the problems they saw and learned of from their discussions with Sensei. One was the means with which they could destroy a Horcrux, hoping there might be an eastern technique similar to the one used on Harry the year before that could avoid the use of Fiendfyre or the need to find and kill a basilisk. The other was finding a cure, if one was available for Neville's parents.
Within weeks of the deaths of Harry and Clarice's parents, Neville's parents Frank and Alice had been attacked by four Death Eater who had managed to escape justice. They were seeking information about their Master, Voldemort who they believed was not dead, but rather imprisoned by their enemies. They tortured the two Aurors for hours using the Cuciatus Curse, a nasty spell designed for but one purpose, inflicting excruciating pain. According to the Healers at St. Mungo's the torture had driven them both into permanent insanity and they had spent the best part of the last eight years in the permanent spell damage ward staring at the ceiling. Neville and his Gran (Frank's mother) visited them frequently, but not once had the couple ever responded to anyone.
Early in her studies to become a Healer, Clarice had found a problem. While it was well documented that the Crutiatus Curse could render a person catatonic, it took days or weeks to reach that point. The Longbottoms had only been missing a few hours. Moreover, the spell's effects lasted a few weeks at most, at which point the patient would either recover or die. There had never been a case like the Longbottoms associated with that curse before. Clarice immediately suspected a misdiagnosis and asked Harry and Hermione, then in their Defense Masters, to help find a curse or curse that could do that to a person so that she might find a cure.
It turned out that the two projects crossed paths. There were three ancient curses that could have caused the Longbottoms' condition, two of which could be cured and the third should have led to their deaths by now. While Clarice worked on learning the cures to the other two, Hermione and Harry were intrigued by the third. It was a curse invented in China in the Third Century B.C.E. specifically to destroy horcruxes.
In the Third Century B.C.E., the Kingdom of Qin embarked upon wars of conquest against its neighbors. For decades, their armies were the scourge of the world and nation after nation fell before them until all of what was then China became unified under the new Emperor Shihuang Di in 221 B.C.E. Shihaug Di was a warrior, not a politician and was a tyrant. After three failed assassination attempts, he commissioned the wizards of his realm to find him magic that would grant him immortality.
Two fields of magic caught the eye of the emperor. One was alchemy, which took off under his patronage, yet failed to produce results and would lead to his death in 210 B.C.E. (His Court Alchemist had noted that a corpse exposed to mercury did not decay, so began dosing his emperor with a potion made from that poison.)
The alchemists did not promise quick results saying it might take decades or longer. They were off by over a thousand years. It was not until the 14th Century that Nicholas Flamel invented the illusive Philosopher's Stone and Elixir of Life, a secret he never revealed. Chinese alchemists would invent gunpowder and the Europeans included some of the greatest minds in Muggle science including Leonardo Da Vinci and most notably the mathematician and father of modern Physics, Sir Isaac Newton. In the West, Alchemy became the Muggle science of Chemistry. But that is another tale.
The other field was Necromancy. Considered the darkest of arts even in the east, the practitioners used death and the dead in their magics. A feared Necromancer named Zhou Xe was said to have invented the Horcrux or something almost identical for the Emperor. He proved to the Emperor it worked by having himself beheaded and then brought back to life by his apprentice Li Huan. Unfortunately, Zhou Xe could not make a horcrux for the Emperor and was beheaded yet again. This time, Li Huan was commissioned to find a way to destroy the Horcrux. He came up with a spell that destroyed magic. Destroy the magic protecting the soul and it is released. It required a stave to cast as no one wizard was powerful enough to cast it with their own magic, but it worked. Zhou Xe's horcrux was destroyed. Li Huan's reward was to have the spell cast upon him. It was said it did not kill him, but he was rendered in a condition not unlike the Longbottoms.
Li Huan's spell could destroy a horcrux! This excited all three children. But for Clarice, she ruled it out as the curse that fell the Longbottoms. It required a stave and was Chinese magic, two things they doubted the Death Eaters would know. Moreover, they doubted Voldemort would tolerate any of his minions knowing magic that could destroy his horcruxes. The other problem with Li Huan's spell was there was no cure. It was as if you had your soul sucked out and once gone, it could never be restored.
"But this doesn't make sense," Hermione complained. "Li Huan's spell destroys the soul and can destroy a horcrux, but does not kill. Yet the Killing Curse destroys the soul too, doesn't it? Yet with Li Huan's spell anyone can destroy a horcrux, but only the maker of one can do so with the killing curse."
"Read it again, Hermione," Harry said. "The Killing Curse releases the soul, it does not destroy it. It seems to affect the life magic that binds the soul to a person. Since both the soul is gone and the magic as well, the body dies. But with Lu Huan, the soul is destroyed before any further damage is done. It's like the Dementor's Kiss."
"Still…"
"Can you think of any other explanation?"
"There has to be one!"
"Is it relevant?"
"It is if it means we can find a counter for the Killing Curse!" And Hermione's new and ultimately long term project was born.
The other two curses Clarice and the others found were both ancient, but wand based and western in origin and had known cures. The children had returned from Japan with a means to destroy Horcruxes and maybe cure the Longbottoms. But Sensei was still concerned.
True, those two tasks were high on his list of things to do sooner rather than later, but there was another tragedy looming. He hoped he could see to it that it was prevented, but could not see how.
In his time line, Luna's mother Jasmine was destined to die in the next year. She was a spell crafter and one of her spells went horribly wrong. Luna had watched helplessly as her mother died before her eyes. This had drastically hurt the poor girl. The problem was, Sensei knew that this event would happen when Luna was nine. She was to turn nine in September of this year. Unfortunately, that's all Sensei knew. Sometime in the year following Luna's ninth birthday, Jasmine would die unless something could be done to prevent it. Sensei had no idea what that something could be. It was the point the pondered over the days and he was no closer to solving this puzzle. There had to be a way!