Information
Peaceful week. The calm before the storm.I could take advantage of a night to help Remus cast the Fidelius, but I can't risk getting punished so close to the key moment.I should have done it last week.
Well, I'll wait for the maelstrom to pass and as soon as it's safe we'll do it. What I am going to do today, Monday, is go up to the Room of Requirement to play the piano, but I won't tell Cecile, I need to be alone.
That night he saw Lauren and they finalized the details. She told him the last names of the three Rave and the two Gryff malefics and also projected to him their appearance, in case they infiltrated Saturday's training. Two of the Raves and the Gryffs were seventh-years and one Rave was a sixth, all boys.
"Then, four of them will leave the school immediately," Sev deduced.
"Yes, there is not that much danger, only this month and a half, and the Gryffs are not studying Defense either, nor are any of the five training on their own," Lauren replied. "There's no one in fifth-year yet, next year the sixth-year Rave will be left alone, I don't think he'll dare anything."
"Should I tell Dumbledore?"
"Of course. It is the first information you should give him."
"Won't he suspect that someone has helped me learn Legilimency?" he asked.
"When did you get the R.S. book?"
"In December."
"Ugh… maybe he will," she answered. "If he asks you directly, tell him that you learned with Lily, she had the talent."
"Lauren, if all the malefics leave except you and your brother, won't he suspect you?"
"For sure yes. But you know my parents are just sympathizers. Maybe he'll smell everything, but I won't let him appoint me, he will always have doubts."
"And if he warns me about you?" Sev asked.
"Easy. Tell him that you are in charge of reading and controlling me, you have me much more within reach than he does."
"And won't you show yourself too much by studying Defense and being the only one who doesn't participate in training?"
"No, because I still have the alibi that I'm malefic, it would be strange if I did," Lauren replied.
"Ugh, Lauren. You are going to be left alone against the whole House."
"I already was, Severus. And I'm not alone, I have you and Lily, and hopefully soon, Jack too. It's going to be a real break for me, I'll stop watching over the bad guys and I'll have a lot more time to dedicate myself to studying. I am also going to take the Herbology OWL, as I had planned at the beginning."
"Oh yeah?"
"Of course, I love it. Walk through the Forest."
"Then we will also be together on that subject, Lily and I will take it for Potions," he said.
"Excellent. Too bad Jack isn't from our year."
"Yeah. When are you going to contact him?"
"We will wait for Dumbledore to talk to you and propose solutions," she answered.
"I have made a list of topics to discuss with him."
"Very good. Shall we review it?"
"I have divided it into two parts, demands and information, in order of priority," Sev explained.
"Perfect. My boy has learned."
He showed her the list.
DEMANDS
-Security for Stevens and me in our bedroom.
-Safety for Lily.
-A Time Turner.
-Total disposition of the Room of Requirements to train.
-Creation for the next year of a Duel Chair at Hogwarts in charge of a good Auror.
"And so?" Lauren asked.
"Idea of a Rave. But also mine since I yearn to be a Defense teacher since third year."
"Wow… there you would be useful and he would always have you at hand. Maybe he won't get it by himself, I suppose that must depend on the Ministry, but between now and when it's your turn, I'm sure he'll fight and get it, he has a lot of influence, there are countless times that he has rejected the position of Minister of Magic. And in the meantime, he will keep you safe and afterward too. You are going to be a professor at Hogwarts."
"It's my dream," Sev said.
"You never told me."
"I didn't. Because Slughorn discouraged me from preparing the OWL at the beginning of the term."
"And even so you did it, and now he wouldn't do it anymore," she said. "What a joy you are going to give him too. How well he did when the Potions thing happened, he defended you from me."
"I don't care at all about Slughorn's opinion, while I liev I won't forgive him for what he did thirty years ago. The farther the better."
"Yeah, you're right.And if he is close to retirement, as Lily says… "
"Has Lily told you?" he asked.
"Sure, we talk whenever we can. She also wants to be a Potions teacher."
"Yes, to live together in the castle, she will have to put up with the old man for three years without knowing anything."
"Well, that does not matter. You will be the Prince and Princess of the Enchanted Castle," Lauren said.
"Has she also told you that?" Sev asked,amazed.
"Yes, I coaxed it out of her," she replied, laughing.
"Well, you could be Herbology's, Lauren." That way we would also be together and safe, he thought.
"Maybe… Connor is also quite old. I will work hard on my NEWT. Well, what I was saying, that you have cut me off. If Slughorn retires soon and you're a professor and Dumbledore's right-hand man, can't you guess what else you'll be?"
"I can't."
"Ugh, Severus... wake up," Lauren said smiling charmingly. She waited. Sev didn't say anything, Lauren sighed. "Sly's Head."
"Wow… so young?"
"For sure yes. And if you win over Minerva or even fail to win over Minerva, perhaps Dumbledore will put you before her, when he dies, Headmaster."
Sev was stunned.
"Think big, Severus. Didn't you want to be a powerful wizard?"
He sighed. "Well, first we will have to win the damn war."
"Yeah. But it's going to take years, remember the Horcruxes. Let's continue with the list."
-Collaboration in the study of the Ancestral and Dark Magics that we have discovered in the Room of Requirement and put in a safe place.
"Fine, but don't tell him where they are, let them continue in your power," Lauren suggested.
"Of course. When you reveal yourself to Jack, we will study them between the three of us."
"Brilliant. And with Lily when it's safe for her."
"Sure."
They continued.
-Teaching of all his knowledge.
"That is. But I think you won't have to ask him for that," she remarked.
-Curse the Defense NEWT equally even if I do not obtain the Outstanding in Transfiguration.
"You won't have to ask him for that either."
-McGonagall's help to become Lily and I into animagi.
"And so?" Lauren asked.
"A secret that I cannot tell you."
"Well, I guess it has to do with the Gryffs."
"Yeah."
"Well, you know that he himself can do it, it was he who instructed Minerva," she explained. "Before being Headmaster he was the Transfiguration professor."
"True."
"And he is also an animagus. He turns into a phoenix, like his pet."
"Oh…"
"But maybe he'd prefer that Minerva do it, so that you can make friends and take so much work off of him." She laughed. "Keep winning her over for the rest of the term."
"Yeah, I'm going to overwhelm him."
"After all that we have worked, now it is his turn, he will also use the Time Turner. You leave something important behind to demand him."
"What?" Sev asked.
"To keep you safe from Potter and Black."
"True." He wrote it down. "Next list."
INFORMATION
-Five malefics camouflaged in Rave and Gryff.
-Tom Riddle = Voldemort. Horcruxes.
"Okay, but don't share the book with him either," Lauren suggested. "Study it and tell him orally. He's going to give you the Time Turner for sure and he's going to protect you at all costs. Tell him that only you know the secret."
"Of course. How am I going to mention you?"
-Murder of Moaning Myrtle. Existence of a basilisk in the school. Tom Riddle = Heir to Salazar.
"And about this, the same," she said. "That you coaxed from your mother and figured it out. Make the anagram, go to Myrtle's service and look for the tap to show it to him."
"It annoys me to attribute all your merit to myself."
"Don't mind, we are two minds working as one with a clear goal, to defeat Voldemort. You will repay me by teaching me everything he teaches you. You're going to astonish him. Read his expressions, it's Gryff, he doesn't hide like us. He's going to hold you in very, very high esteem, I even think he's not going to try to manipulate you at all, you're going to give him the keys to defeat Voldemort. Let's keep going."
-Knowledge that he possesses the Elder Wand.
"The one from Beedle the Bard's tales, 'The Deathly Hallows'?Are real?" Lauren asked, amazed.
"They are. My mother and I deduced it having dinner." He told her how they did it.
"Your mother is a real mine. How I would like to meet her."
"Me too, you would get along great. She was like you in her youth, pureblood contrary to dogma. She was not disowned, she left her family on her own free will."
"Wow... and Potter has the Invisibility Cloak," she said.
"Yes, but I'm not going to tell him that."
"Don't."
"And only you know about the Wand," Sev said.
"And no one else will know."
"That is."
-Information that I have in my possession all the books withdrawn from the R.S. in a much safer place than the bloody Room of Requirement.
Lauren laughed. "There you are going to embarrass him, anyone could have discovered them. You're going to have him in your hands, he's going to want to retire as Headmaster and put you on. Look, not teaching Occlumency to Minerva…"
"Well, yes."
"Do not blurt out everything at once or be harsh with him. If he falls apart, support him, befriend him. He is alone, he has no family. Maybe he'll confide in you, he must have had a hard life too. And don't tell him that Jack knows where they are. That, little by little, that you have done it all by yourself."
"Hard to believe," said Sev.
"Tell him the process. That you discovered the lunar calendar book in summer, you consulted with your mother, who told you about the Defense compendium and that the books on Ancestral Magics were in the R.S. in her time. That you started reading in December and soon after you managed to do it with Minerva and from there, that you have been looking for them for months in the Room of Requirement. Worthy of admiration."
"Should I tell him that I already possess the power of the Forest?"
"I don't know," she replied. "If he offers you to acquire it, because he surely knows it, you can tell him that you already have it, so you don't waste time with it. But be very careful about telling him who else owns it, ask him who else he wants to pass it on to. Probably to Lily so that she is protected. And in that case, you must also reveal to him that all of us who are in the secret are reliable and occlude perfectly, he will surely want to check it. He will know better than us how to handle that information."
"Sure."
"You need another list."
"Which?" he asked.
"Questions that he is going to ask you and how to answer him."
Sev Summoned another scroll and began to write.
"Come on, think about it," Lauren encouraged him.
"¿Why have we uncovered ourselves like this and at that moment?"
"Of course."
He wrote it down.
"I'll tell him about Malfoy's letter at Christmas and my progressive approach to The Guard," Sev said.
"Yes, he already knows everything. And besides, it's important. He already saw you with Ariel before you got the letter, so he knows you were already trying to make new friends before you got it. That he does not think that you have done it because you had no other choice."
"And also that I found out from Avery that I was going to receive the appointment that breakfast."
"That is, what you've told everyone," she said.
He the wrote it down under question.
"Perhaps he'll suspect that Malfoy is giving you a hand," Lauren added. "If he asks you, tell him you don't know anything."
"Of course," he wrote it down. "Perhaps he'll also deduce that I have continued to see Lily in secret."
"Surely, and more if you ask for protection for her."
"Should I tell him we did?"
"Of course, he is a matchmaker. He's going to be very happy," she laughed. "And this way it's not all bad news."
"And what about the Fidelius?"
"If you want, he will not give you away and it will provoke even more admiration for you. Don't tell him where it is."
"That do we project?" Sev asked.
"Ugh… I don't know. There are no books on Projection in the R.S. I'm sure they were retired, it appears in the Red Magic one, think it's a way to tell on exams. Surely he knows how to do it and perhaps he will offer to teach you, so that you can communicate safely. In that case, in order not to waste time with it, you can tell him that you learned by chance, like my parents did."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. They practiced Mental Arts so much that one day it just came out. In bed," Lauren answered.
"Wooow…"
"You cannot imagine how eager I am to try it. Is it as fantastic as I think?"
"Yes it is. And one day we will do it together," he replied.
"I hope so." They stared at each other adoringly for long seconds. "Come on, let's continue, we're dazzled…" she said.
"Can I tell him that Cecile and Remus are helping us?"
"Yes, of course, so that he also counts on them for Lily's protection and warns them of the camouflaged malefics."
Wow… he's going to be amazed because Remus is helping us, after what happened a year ago, Sev thought. "And that they have trained with the Guard?"
"You can also tell him. Three Houses involved, and he will make things easier for you so that Lily and they can uncover themselves as soon as possible."
"I have to tell you something about the protection that Remus is giving us both, because it can also affect you."
"Tell me," Lauren said.
"He has a map created by exploring the castle and Arithmancy, in which I suspect that all the inhabitants of it appear. So far he hasn't been able to catch us because they don't have access to this Common Room, but it would be wise for him to teach Dumbledore how to make it so he can control the five malefics. And since he must have maps of the entire castle, we couldn't meet here anymore."
"Oh…"
"But we can at a Fidelius, I would conjure one for us, it does not appear on the map, and surely also in the Room of Requirement," he said.
"Yeah. Then it will be a certain risk that we must assume. The first thing is your safety, you are going to see yourself very exposed. Give him permission to teach him how to make it. If you've already told him that you take care of me, I don't think he'll watch me, we'll find a way. If he wants to find out more about you and why you joined the malefics, tell him the truth, tell him about the life you've led. He will be touched and very sorry that he did not protect you from the Gryffs much sooner."
"I'm going to leave him to the drag."
"He has asked for it. He will recover," she said.
"And if he asks me if I've ever considered being a Death Eater?"
"That, no way, tell him never, don't give him ideas. That you became aware of the mess you were in late last year, when the snakes started blackmailing you into leaving Lily and you gave in to the blackmail. He will understand, you were alone, you only had her." She changed to vehement, "You can tell him everything except that you thought about becoming a Death Eater. Under no circumstances, that you have always wanted to be a Defense professor."
"And my fondness for the Dark Arts?" Sev asked.
"For that very reason. You have to know the enemy."
"And if I have taught curses to the Guard?"
"He already knows that, after the carnage you staged in the acromantulas' nest," Lauren answered. "But don't confess it directly if you don't want to, you also have the right to have your secrets. He will surely warn you not to use the Unforgivables and not to kill, because not even he could defend you from that to free you from Azkaban. By the way, as soon as it is safe, it will be my turn to practice them there."
"We must go alone."
"Maybe with Jack. And now there will be much fewer, it will be less dangerous."
"I learned them alone in winter, they are less active due to the low temperature," he explained.
"Perfect then. Next winter it's my turn."
"The plans we have to continue training?"
"Of course. And don't get discouraged about it, keep control. You've earned it hard," she replied.
"Can you think of anything else?"
"Not for the moment. Don't you have any questions for him, other than how he screwed up with the books?"
Sev was left thinking. "Well, I do. Why do we change Defense professors every year?"
"Very good question, I suspect that something strange is happening. When my parents, who are younger than your mother, went to school, it was already like that. Do you know if it also happened in her time?"
"It didn't. We did a review of all her teachers to see who we could read to find the books of Ancient Magic and she only had one."
"Voldemort again," Lauren deduced. "Something happened since your mother left school and my parents started. Right at the moment when they removed the appendices of the Compendium of Defense and the books of Ancestral Magics of the R.S. How many years of difference were between they?"
"Three. He is from 1926-27."
"Just the time you have to wait after graduating to be a teacher."
"He tried to be a teacher at Hogwarts," he realized.
"Defense, like you."
"And he cursed the position because they did not give it to him."
"You already have it, all the ends tied up," she summarized. "But still, ask Dumbledore, get everything you can out of him. You are going to give him a lot of information, let it be mutual. In fact, use your cunning so that everything you tell him is reciprocated by him. With a dropper, a balanced exchange, like when you fight, that you stay even."
"I don't know what I would do without you, Lauren."
"Your favorite phrase. Well, many hypotheses, we can't tie it all together, you'll also have to improvise. If he offers you time, give it to him, you have the whole afternoon ahead of you to talk."
"Do you think he's going to make an appointment with me that same day?" Sev asked.
"Of course, to protect you. And maybe not directly, he'll send you a message through someone, maybe Slughorn, or maybe even project to you, in case it seems dangerous to him to be known that you're under his protection. In that matter, follow his instructions to the letter. If you can't make it to training, let the others take care of it."