A/N: The basic idea behind how I describe Legilimency and Occlumency was inspired by "Weary Wizard," by Yunaine. I will not be using them the same way they are used in that story, however.
Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Impossible," by Belle's Noir. Harry was forced to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, but they can't make him take it seriously, can they? Or even actually compete?
Chapter 32 - If You Want Blood...
Saturday, February 6, 1995, Early Morning.
Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation as she was eating breakfast. Finally! she thought to herself. Fleur is here. She needed to set up an appointment for her and Jasmine to meet with Fleur tomorrow, and she'd begun to think that Fleur might not show up. Neither she nor Jasmine really knew her schedule, so they didn't know if she appeared for every meal or even every breakfast.
Not only was Hermione still eager to find out if the French champion had learned anything from her family about the strange events during the Imbolc celebration, but she had convinced Jasmine that it might help to learn more about how veela viewed sex, love, and intimacy. Hermione was sure that the veela perspective, which she thought might be fairly positive and open, would give Jasmine yet another beneficial viewpoint to help her overcome her problems with intimate touching.
Just then, she saw Jasmine waving her arm at someone. Looking more closely, she realized it was Luna Lovegood who was walking over. "Yes?" Luna asked in an airy sort of voice.
"Ginny told us that you two are friends," Jasmine said, "but I've noticed that you tend to eat alone. Would you like to have breakfast with us?"
Luna blinked a few times in apparent surprise and looked back and forth between Ginny, Neville, Jasmine, and Hermione. Finally, she said, "Well, okay, if you're sure?"
"Absolutely!" Ginny said as she moved sideways to give Luna some room. While the Ravenclaw sat, Ginny shot Jasmine an appreciative smile.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're here!" Hermione abruptly said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a book which she handed across the table to Luna. "My mother sent this, and I was going to give it to Ginny for you, but since you're here I can just give it to you directly. It's a book about the duck-billed platypus."
"Really?" Luna said, her voice brimming with excitement. "Ginny said that you told her this animal was real, but I thought maybe you were just trying to tease me."
"No, not at all," Hermione said sincerely. "I'm sure even more books about the platypus could be had if you wanted more proof that this isn't a prank, but that one should provide you with most of what you might want to know."
The little blonde didn't answer as she was too engrossed in her new book to pay much attention to either the people around her or her meal. Hermione wasn't offended, though, because it was something she'd often done herself — and despite the younger witch's oddness, it caused her to feel a little bit of kinship with her.
Before long, Hermione noticed that Fleur was leaving. She pulled hard on Jasmine's arm, receiving an indignant squawk because Jasmine wasn't finished eating yet, and tried to nonchalantly leave the Great Hall in such a way that she'd accidentally bump into Fleur as they exited through the doors. When she did so, she slipped a piece of parchment into the French witch's hand and kept going out of the castle with Jasmine to get a carriage to Hogsmeade.
None of the three witches involved in that little exchange realized that their actions had been watched very closely from up at the staff table by a pair of twinkling blue eyes.
Saturday, February 6, 1995, Morning.
Sirius was already looking much better when Jasmine and Hermione met him for the second time in the little cave outside of Hogsmeade. He hadn't yet eaten enough to overcome more than a decade of starvation in Azkaban, but his cheeks were a little fuller and had a bit more color. His clothes were better, too, because he had found old clothing in the Black family manor that was an improvement over the even older clothing Dobby had fetched from Hogwarts.
"Alright," said Sirius as they all sat down on rocks with cushioning charms, "let's start with the simplest issue: mail redirection. The short answer is, yes, there are spells which can redirect mail from a person. They are illegal without proper authorization. They are also very difficult to undo. They were probably applied to you when you were an infant because it's easier to override an infant's underdeveloped magic. If the Headmaster did cast any of those spells on you, you'll either need to convince him to change his mind or find a way to get the Ministry to force him to undo them."
From the looks he was getting from both witches, he guessed that neither thought those options were very likely to succeed. "There is one alternative, and that's to take on a second identity that you can have mail sent to. It's not easy to do and if Dumbledore finds out — which he will if you tell many people — he could just cast the same spell again. For now, I recommend not worrying too much about that — it's a problem that we can't solve, and you have too many other things to deal with. That brings me to the second issue," at which point Sirius brought out several books.
"These are all about the mental arts — mostly Legilimency and Occlumency, but there's also some information about other, more obscure mental magical arts that you can practice." Hermione was practically bouncing in her seat as he handed the stack of books over. "I recommend you start with the one on top," he continued. "It explains meditation and other mental exercises in a very clear way. I'm pretty sure it's what I started learning from."
Sirius was happy to have gotten to a topic that put the witches in a better mood. "I think that if you practice diligently, then in a month or two you'll have good foundations established. You won't be able to block any mental attacks, but you should notice your memory and concentration improving, both of which will help you in just about everything. It will probably take another couple of months before you'll be skilled enough to be able to detect mental attacks. This all assumes spending some time every night working on meditation exercises at first, then incorporating attempts at Legilimency on each other."
"So we really have to try to read each other's minds?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, the best way to develop good Occlumency skills is to develop Legilimency skills alongside. The good news is that if you two are as close as you appear, that will go quicker than average. That said, there is a downside to working together too exclusively: you may get to the point where your magics become so attuned to each other that it will become very hard to keep each other out. Maybe impossible."
"Does that normally happen?" Jasmine asked.
"No," Sirius answered. "It's recommended that you practice with many different people. Usually this sort of thing is taught within families by experienced family members. Practicing with many different people doesn't allow that side-effect to develop. You don't have such an option, though, so you'll either have to accept it or forego the training."
It didn't take long for the girls to decide. "We'll do it," Hermione said firmly.
"Yeah," Jasmine agreed. "Having Hermione in my mind whenever she wants is a small price to pay in exchange for keeping everyone else out, especially people like Snape." After another moment, she added, "Actually, I wouldn't say that it's any price at all." She looked at Hermione and smiled as the other witch smiled back. Sirius narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering if there was more going on here than he realized.
"One more thing," Sirius added, "Don't show those books to anyone else. The Ministry frowns heavily on mental magic, especially Occlumency and Legilimency."
"Why?" Hermione asked, annoyed to find yet another subject restricted by the Ministry.
"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Sirius said. "People who know Occlumency can keep secrets, including from the Ministry. People who know Legilimency can discover secrets, including those the Ministry wants to keep quiet. It's also why these skills are taught to certain Ministry employees, like aurors. Otherwise, the Ministry tries to eliminate knowledge of it; but they can't move against the old families like the Blacks and Potters, who have always taught these skills to their children."
Hermione huffed at that, her faith in government and authority taking yet another blow.
"Let's move on to the tournament," Sirius said before Hermione could lose herself in the new books. "I could only find one spell that would likely be more reliable than the various tracking and monitoring charms that you already have access too; unfortunately, you won't want to use it. You almost certainly can't, in fact."
"What is it?" Jasmine asked.
"It's a blood tracking charm," Sirius explained. "Because it's blood magic, it's frowned upon by the Ministry. Only old families still use it with their heirs, both because they can afford to ignore Ministry opinion and they possess the delicate magical instruments you need to anchor the charm."
"What purpose do the instruments serve?" Hermione asked, curious about magic she hadn't heard about before. "I haven't read anything about them, and none of the other charms use them."
"They are what make this charm so much better," Sirius said, "By having an external anchor, you can't easily dispel it — in fact, it's almost impossible. To get rid of a blood tracking charm, you either need to have the device in hand or a huge amount of power to overwhelm the device's anchoring magic, especially at a distance. Once blood is drawn, put in the device, and the proper spells cast, you can use the device to track the target from almost anywhere, and it will be very unlikely that anyone will know that the target is being tracked."
"Won't the standard charms for exposing trackers work?" Hermione asked. "I was under the impression that they could detect all types of monitoring charms."
"It's because the magical instrument is doing all the work," Sirius said. "The magical residue on the target is too slight for the standard checks to perceive it. What's more, the proper charms for checking are much harder to do. Look, here's one of the standard spells that checks for most monitoring charms." Sirius stood up and did a quick wand movement that caused a soft, white glow to envelop each of the two witches.
"See, no tracking or monitoring charms on you. And that was easy to do. But here is the standard spell for checking for blood monitors." Sirius then did a very long, complex, and intricate set of wand movements which gave Hermione the soft, white glow again, but Jasmine glowed a bright, angry red.
"Uhh... what was that, Sirius?" Jasmine asked nervously as she looked at herself.
Sirius just stared at her, dumbfounded. "Let me try that again," he said, his voice betraying concern.
Once again, he went through the wand movements, but this time he seemed to do them a little more slowly and deliberately, as if he wanted to be absolutely sure he was doing it right. Once again Hermione gave off a white glow while Jasmine's was unmistakably red.
"Fuck me!" Sirius said in disbelief, slumping heavily onto his seat.
"Language!" Hermione responded automatically.
"No, you don't understand," Sirius said. "Someone has a blood tracker on Jasmine. They are using her blood to track her every movement and to monitor her health. Someone is watching her, and the magic they're using isn't entirely legal. If it's someone who means her harm, then they'll be able to find her through most wards or other means of hiding her. She isn't safe anywhere!"
"Could it be left over from something Mum and Dad did?" Jasmine asked, trying not to hope too much.
"No, they didn't have any such devices in Godric's Hollow," Sirius answered, his brows furrowed in concentration as he thought back so many years. "The Potters were an old enough family to use such magic, and they certainly would have wanted to watch over you, but they hadn't connected you to a blood tracker as of the last time I visited them. So, I'd say no."
"Who has the ability to do this?" Hermione asked, growing more worried by the minute.
"They'd have to have access to Jasmine and her blood," Sirius said. "They'd have to possess the specialized devices of an old family. They'd have to be skilled enough in magic to be able to get this all done. And they'd have to have a really good reason to track her — this isn't something a student at school would do on a whim or a dare."
"Can you tell how old the tracking is?" Jasmine asked, fear becoming evident in her voice.
Sirius thought about that for a moment, then said, "Not that I know of. Why?"
"Dumbledore," Hermione said for Jasmine. "He has had the opportunity and the motive. I'd say he's skilled enough, and I'm sure he can get access to the relevant devices, even if his own family never had any."
"Sirius," Jasmine said, wrapping her arms around herself, "how much can this sort of charm tell a person about the target's health and well-being?" Hermione blanched as the implications of this question hit her.
"It depends on the instruments used. The best will report back quite a lot, though not tiny details, like whether the person has a splinter or the sniffles," Sirius answered, then frowned. "What am I missing here?"
"Because it means that if the headmaster put this charm on Jasmine," Hermione explained as she moved to enfold her girlfriend in a hug, "then it's possible that he knew quite a bit about how she was treated at the Dursleys. He wouldn't have known everything, but he would have known a lot."
Jasmine leaned into Hermione's shoulder while it started to dawn on Sirius just how much was being kept from him. The parchments they had given him last time must have only included the barest generalities of what she had really gone through. Then he remembered that Jasmine had only endured all of that because of his own rash behavior — which of course induced a new round of rash behavior as he got up in preparation to visit Privet Drive. "Those bloody Durse..."
Jasmine surged to her feet, drew her wand, and yelled "Stop!" Sirius was so taken aback by this sudden and almost violent shift in behavior that he dropped back down into his seat without thinking.
"I lost you once when you foolishly ran off to get revenge — I won't lose you again to the same stupid mistake!" As Jasmine said this, she was joined by Hermione, who had also pulled her wand and aimed it at Sirius. "I'll deal with the Dursleys in my own way and in my own time. For now, I need you free and using the Black library and other Black family resources to help me, not chasing down muggles. Look at how much you've already accomplished for me in just a few days! That's what I need. I can't… I can't lose you again..."
Jasmine's wand started shaking; this time, both Sirius and Hermione pulled her into a hug. They stood like that for quite some time as they waited for Jasmine to calm down. All the while, both Hermione and Sirius made silent vows to do whatever was necessary to visit justice on all those responsible — the Dursleys for sure, but Headmaster Dumbledore as well if he proved culpable.
Their first priority was Jasmine, however, and Sirius was impressed with how much emotional support Hermione was showing his goddaughter. He hadn't seen that depth of friendship since his own with James, and the two of them had been brothers in all but name. It made him feel much, much better about Jasmine facing so many dangers and difficulties knowing that Hermione was by her side. As a young wizard he had felt that whenever he was with James, he could do anything, and he suspected that James' daughter was much the same with Hermione.
Eventually, once everyone had settled back down, Sirius said, "I didn't make as close of a study of these blood trackers as I could have because I was sure you wouldn't want to use them. Even if Ministry disapproval could be ignored, and even if everyone you wanted tracked agreed to it, I don't think we could get enough tracking devices to manage it. Now, though, I'll go back and look at everything again. If there is anything there that can help, I'll find it."
Eventually, once everyone had settled back down, Hermione said, "I'd like to see everything you've got on what needs to be done to remove the charms. Whatever spells that need to be used along with all wand movements and incantations."
"You're not going to get anywhere with them," Sirius cautioned. "At a bare minimum, you need the devices, and even that might not be enough. It's best done by whoever cast the charms."
Jasmine looked at Hermione quizzically, then suddenly understood and nodded in agreement. "Don't worry about that Sirius," Hermione replied. "Just get me the information. If the Headmaster has the devices we may be able to get access to them, but even if not, I've got some ideas."
Sirius wasn't convinced, but he had no reason to say no. "OK, I'll gather up whatever I can find. Oh, that reminds me — I have a list of spells for you." Sirius pulled several pieces of parchment from his robes and handed them over to Hermione. "These are all spells that pack a punch and a couple of a bit grey in nature. I've included notes on how best to use them as well as information about wand movements and incantations. I had hoped to have more for you by now, but..."
"Thank you, Sirius!" Hermione said excitedly, giving the older man a very unexpected hug.
"Get used to it, Sirius," Jasmine said as she smiled at his surprised reaction. "She's always this grateful when given access to new knowledge."
"Wish I'd known birds like you when I was younger," Sirius said with a lopsided grin that reminded Hermione disturbingly of Jasmine. "Imagine how far I could have gotten by taking them home and showing them my family library!"
"Sirius, you lech!" Jasmine said playfully. "That's my gi… my friend you're hitting on. Quit it!"
Sirius just laughed at the two of them, not seeming to notice Jasmine's near-fatal slip. They spent the remaining time with Hermione asking Sirius about his notes on the spells, in some cases having him actually cast the spells to show her what she needed.
Before they parted ways, Sirius once again promised to get everything he could about the blood trackers as well as to find more spells for Hermione.
Saturday, February 6, 1995, Afternoon.
Jasmine thought that the second afternoon practicing high-level spells in the secret location Professor Flitwick had brought them to went even better than the first one. They started out reviewing the spells they had learned to date, including the ones they had previously only practiced in the Room of Requirement. In this isolated canyon, without any need to hold back, the girls discovered that the offensive spells could be even more damaging than they realized.
Once their review was finished, they moved on to new spells which Hermione had written down. After examining the list, Professor Flitwick decided to start with Perforo, a perforation hex which was capable of punching a hole through a moderate shield spell and could greatly weaken stronger shields.
"Alright," he said, "I want you to stand here and cast the hex at the rock wall." After they tried a few times without success, their professor helped them adjust their wand movements to be tighter and more focused, necessary attributes for a spell that created a tight, focused effect. Soon both witches were chipping away at the wall and were even creating holes of increasing depth not long after that.
Calling a halt to their spellcasting, he walked up to the wall and used his wand to measure the depth of their most recent holes. "Very good," he announced, "some of these holes are nearly half a meter deep. I think that once you master the spell, you'll be drilling holes as deep as one or two meters, even in rock this hard."
Stepping back, he conjured two large targets. "Now, let's work on your accuracy," he said. "You have been working on that regularly with other spells, correct?" Both witches said they had and proceeded to cast the perforation hex again, though this time with a bit more care and deliberation. "Good," he said, "I see that your accuracy has improved, though it still has a ways to go. This is a good spell to practice accuracy with because its effects are so narrow. You can clip someone with a Bombarda or Confringo and still affect them, but a Perforo either hits what you want or misses it entirely."
Turning to them, he asked, "Can you tell me the advantages of the Perforo over offensive spells that have a larger area of effect?"
Hermione was the first to answer, saying, "You are more likely to go through or at least damage a shield."
"Correct, Miss Granger," Flitwick said. "Because so much power is focused into such a smaller area, it can do more concentrated damage, up to and including piercing a shield, then impacting whatever is behind it."
"You're more likely to hit a target that is hiding behind cover, like a wall?" Jasmine suggested.
"Excellent, Miss Potter," their professor replied. "Even a strong Reducto or Expulso might not do more than just damage someone's cover, thus at best forcing them to move. A good Perforo, however, will probably go right through their cover and then through them as well. So why not use it all the time?"
"Because you might not hit your target, even after piercing their shield or cover," Hermione answered.
"Correct again, Miss Granger," he said. "It's a pity I can't give you house points." Hermione beamed at him, always pleased at being praised for her knowledge. "This is why it's a good idea to combine a Perforo with another spell. If your target is shielded, cast a Perforo, then something like a Reducto, which can hit them after their shield is gone. If your target is behind cover, cast a few destructive spells to reduce that cover and give you a better idea of where exactly you should aim your Perforo."
After this, Professor Flitwick conjured some large pigs for them to learn Lacero, a laceration curse which was commonly taught to aurors and hit wizards. "Unlike the simple severing charm, Diffindo," he explained to them, "this curse was designed to lacerate animate targets. I know you've managed to do this with Diffindo anyway, but that's only because of your increased power. Using this you'll be able to achieve the same results or better with less power."
He then fixed them with a stern look and continued, "However, this comes at the cost of needing to visualize the appropriate physical injury. It is a slightly grey curse, like Ossus Fragmen, because it has the same prerequisite: being able to visualize physical injury on a person and wanting to cause that kind of injury."
"Why is it only slightly grey, professor?" Hermione asked.
"For the most part, because the kind of injuries you're causing aren't that serious and are relatively easy to treat. In fact, you don't even need a healer to do it — any average witch or wizard can treat them right in the field, if given the time to do so."
Because of its creation for use in combat, the caster had a lot of control over how the curse was angled. Professor Flitwick demonstrated that after the small half-circle made at the beginning of the wand movement, they could angle the laceration any way they chose, depending on what angle they used when they slashed their wand outward to end the movement. This also allowed them to choose between shorter, deeper cuts or longer, shallower ones.
As with the Ossus Fragmen, Jasmine and Hermione both felt a bit uncomfortable causing deep cuts and lacerations on the conjured pigs. They didn't bleed, but in some ways that was worse because it made it even easier to see the muscles and bones that were laid bare by the repeated use of the Lacero spell.
Professor Flitwick then made his own contribution to their list of spells to learn: Episkey, a basic healing spell designed for cuts and lacerations. Since it was equally useful on both animals and humans, they had ready-made subjects to practice on.
"What about broken bones?" Jasmine asked, thinking back to her second year and what Gilderoy Lockhart had done to her.
"Ah, good question," Flitwick said. "The best all-around spell for healing broken bones is Ossus Emendo." He showed them them wand movements and explained that it worked well with simple fractures and clean breaks, but it would do nothing for compound fractures or shattered bones. They once again practiced the Ossus Fragmen curse on conjured pigs, but this time they followed it up with the Ossus Emendo charm to heal the damage.
"Professor," Jasmine said once they were finished with the conjured pigs and had demonstrated a fair competency at casting both healing spells, "I'd like you to create cuts on our arms for us to practice with."
Hermione's eyebrows shot up at this, and Flitwick immediately launched into a refusal, saying, "Really, Miss Potter, that would be completely inappropriate. Even if I weren't one of your professors, to deliberately harm two young witches such as yourselves..."
"Please, Professor," she interrupted him, "Hermione and I have already received quite a few similar wounds in our time at Hogwarts, and we surely will again. I think we need at least a little practice in casting the spell on ourselves and on each other. I'd create the wounds myself, but I trust you — I know you won't do anything that's too deep or too difficult for you to heal if we can't do it."
Hermione immediately saw the wisdom in her words, though she was understandably reluctant to follow them to their logical conclusion. Flitwick, however, was a bit harder to bring around. "I don't know, Miss Potter," he responded, "I understand what you are saying, and I am more than a little flattered that you would trust me in that way. But still, the idea of causing deliberate harm to a student..." He considered for a long moment, then said, "What if I cast a numbing charm on your arms first? That will at least eliminate the pain."
Hermione brightened at that, but her hopes were dashed when Jasmine answered, "I'll admit that sounds more appealing, Professor, but isn't part of the point to practice casting this while being distracted by pain? Again, I trust that you won't do anything to us that is excessively painful. If we can put up with a stinging hex, surely we can put up with some cuts."
Flitwick's frown deepened, but finally he sighed and said, "Very well, I can see that you're determined to do this, and I suspect that if I don't, you'll later try on your own. And you're right, it will be much easier for me to control what happens than you. I just ask that you not tell Minerva about this. She'll have my hide if she finds out that I've been cutting up a pair of her lionesses." After pausing for a moment, he added, "Speaking for myself, though, I think it's unusually brave for you both to be willing to endure being wounded in order to learn like this. Few witches or wizards would tolerate it."
After conjuring a simple knife, Professor Flitwick reluctantly created cuts on the young witches' arms and legs for them to heal. Like Jasmine suspected, casting Episkey on oneself or a friend was harder than it was to cast on a pig. Even the relatively minor pain caused by the cuts was distracting, and they each had to work through the spell several times before they could reach the proficiency that they had already achieved when working with the pigs.
The final offensive spell was Deprimo, a curious curse that for lack of a better word "squished" a target. "In some ways this curse functions like a tripping jinx," Professor Flitwick explained, "because it knocks an opponent off their feet and forces them to the ground. Unlike the tripping jinx, however, it will keep your opponent pinned to the ground with the feeling that a great weight is crushing them. When cast with enough power, it is capable of causing serious injuries or even death."
When Jasmine and Hermione looked concerned, he hastened to reassure them by saying, "This curse is not dark or even grey because it doesn't require that you visualize such effects. You only need to visualize a general sort of pressure or compression. It's equally useful against inanimate targets, like the Reducto curse. It can crush smaller objects such as a rock, or it can be used to collapse a large section of floor in a building. You just need to remember that unlike spells such as Reducto or Bombarda, the effects of Deprimo are always vertical, going down towards the ground."
After the two witches had achieved some proficiency in casting Deprimo, their professor asked, "Can you tell me the advantages of this spell? When would you want to use it instead of Reducto or Bombarda, both of which create similar effects?"
For once, not even Hermione could answer, so Professor Flitwick explained, "This spell can be very useful to reach someone who is behind small cover, say, furniture or a small wall. With a strong Deprimo, you can crush the object they are using for cover down enough to reveal your target, allowing you to hit them if you can cast a follow-up spell quickly enough. Once you are able to control the amount of power you put into your spells, a properly cast Deprimo can put a person down and cause sufficient injuries that they won't be able to get back up again, nor will they be helped by any simple healing spells; yet the injuries won't be so great that their lives will be in immediate danger. That, however, takes quite a bit of control and experience."
Before they finished for the day, Flitwick insisted that they start learning the disillusionment charm. He was willing to teach them offensive magic because he knew that they might need it, but he also wanted them to have the option of avoiding a fight by using stealth. "All other things being equal," he told them, "avoiding a fight is usually safer than charging into one, and I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't provide you with those tools as well."
Rather than make them truly invisible the way Jasmine's cloak did, this charm created a chameleon-like effect. Because it only made them look like whatever was on the other side of them, it had serious limitations — for example, moving too quickly would create a shimmer in the air that opponents would be able to see. It also did nothing to silence one's feet or eliminate smell. More power, though, made it a lot more effective, and their professor was confident that as they learned to master it, their disillusionment would be a lot more effective than that of most wizards and witches.
All in all it was a very tiring but also very productive afternoon. They hadn't mastered the offensive spells yet and still had trouble casting them with consistent power — a single afternoon wasn't enough time for them to achieve all of that. Yet they could at least successfully cast them on a consistent basis, and they were confident that with some more practice they'd get better quickly. It was the disillusionment charm they were looking forward to using the most, knowing that it would come in handy in so many situations.
What made them especially happy was when Flitwick said that he thought they'd be able to cast even the higher-level spells without any supervision after the second task, assuming they continued to progress as they had been.
Albus Dumbledore looked around the cave with concern. When he first got the report from his tracking devices that Miss Potter was heading out of Hogsmeade, but in a direction that was away from Hogwarts, he had a sudden, irrational fear that she was running away to escape the tournament. He managed to calm himself long enough to wait and watch, finally seeing that she stopped only a little ways outside the village and remained in that place for a while before returning.
Now here he was, in the location she most likely spent her time, casting detecting charms in order to better understand what was going on. "What were you doing here in this cave, Miss Potter?" he asked himself. "Were you practicing magic?" That seemed likely. His detection charms were telling him that several powerful spells had been cast here recently, and there weren't many places to practice in private in the castle.
On the other hand, his spells couldn't tell him for sure that Miss Potter was the one who cast whatever magic had been done here. "What else might you be doing out here?" he asked. "Were you meeting someone in secret? Perhaps, but I don't think there is anyone you know who isn't already in Hogwarts that you could be meeting."
Fortunately, there wasn't any indication that any of the spells were dark, even if he couldn't tell what they were. That was one of his worries: that Jasmine Potter might eventually turn dark. There had never been any evidence of it happening, and overall he thought it unlikely, given how good her character was. However, he also knew that good people could be led down a dark path, especially if they were caught in the influence of the wrong sort of person.
That's what happened to himself when he was younger, after all, and it was why he concerned himself so much with guiding and monitoring her associations. If he could be led astray then anyone could, and he worried about her not only because she was a student in his charge, but also because he knew how much the wizarding world would need her.
Of course, there was also the small chance that the soul fragment embedded in her scar might become active. In some ways that would be worse than her turning dark, because it would be a combination of her and Tom, a witch and a wizard who were destined to be powerful equals. Fortunately that seemed even less likely than Miss Potter turning dark on her own: her mother's protection should continue to shield her — and by extension, the entire wizarding world — from the influence of the soul fragment.
The love of one mother for her child protecting not just that child, but everyone else, too... it was amazing magic that he'd yet to decipher, despite having invested long hours into research on it. It was one reason why he had come to regard love as the greatest and most powerful magic in the world.
Eventually, the headmaster had to stop — there simply wasn't any more information that could be gleaned from this site. He was tempted to erect wards and monitoring spells in case she came back, but he decided against it — that seemed like such overkill for what may not have been very important after all. He would, however, have to keep an eye on this: he was certain that she was up to something, even if he couldn't figure out what.
Regardless of what it might be, he really needed to return to the castle and get back to work.