Susan

"So," said Hanna, "Three broomsticks for lunch, or back to the castle?"

"Hmm," said Susan, "about that …"

"That doesn't sound ominous at all," teased Hanna, "what game do you have afoot?"

"Not sure yet," said Susan, "still playing it by ear, but … I think I can get us into Potter's Posse with nothing more than intermittent legal advice."

"You're … not a barrister."

"No, but Harry will be. Though he doesn't quite have the cultural background yet to know what our laws really are or where to look them up."

"Oh," said Hanna, "and all he really needs is a couple purebloods hanging around telling him when he's being dense, and he'll actually take it as help, rather than insulting the way the 'err muggleborns' do?"

Susan snorted, "I know you've never said 'mudblood' in your entire life, why do you pretend you're trying to break the habit?"

"Because it's cute when Leanne does it."

Susan snickered, "I suppose it is, but … the affectation is less cute about muggleborns than it is about the other bad language you don't use."

"Hmm," said Hanna, "well anyway, I assume you brought it up because Potter and Lunch connects in some way?"

"Yes, they're eating in the three broomsticks and I'm invited. If you come along, and they don't welcome you, and I therefore don't stay long, I think it would send the correct message."

That you're a true hufflepuff and keeping your current friends outweigh the possible advantages of adding a few more. "Of course,"agreed Hanna,"and any special strategy if they do welcome me?"

"Then perhaps they don't need to be taught that lesson."

"Certainly," said Hanna, "but I meant, long term, what's your end game? If you want me playing along, I want to know your strategy."

"Hmm," said Susan, "Goal one, to the extent he's willing to listen, keep him out of legal trouble. Auntie thinks he's the right kind of wild-card to shake up the Wizengamot so that the general sanity level can be increased. Goal two, join his defence study group, if anyone's study style is at all compatible with ours, Goal three, gain access to the gryffindor and ravenclaw social structure, because I need to assess gryffindor and ravenclaw for husband material and report before Auntie comes under more pressure to marry me off or renounce her regency of my vote or similar things, I assume there will be an uptick in that sort of thing as soon as my OWL results are in, and I haven't had as much time seeing them outside of class as I'd prefer."

"And given that Potter has your Auntie's eye?"

"Well there is that, but just because he's showing weird smatterings of competence and responsibility doesn't say anything about his personality. Which I'll care about in a husband."

"Well obviously," said Hanna.

"Also," said Susan, "he might not be willing to submit to a contract that controls how many children he has and what their last names are, usually second and third son of second or third sons are more willing to contemplate such sacrifices."

"How many children do you want?"

"One or two at most," said Susan.

Hanna snorted, "rumours are that Harry wants more than that."

"Rumours about Harry are notoriously unreliable."

"True," said Hanna, "I considered starting some last year, just to see how well I understood the flow of gossip, but … it seemed like using Potter's name for that sort of experiment was cheating."

"I think you just made my point for me."

"I said I was agreeing with you."

Susan snorted.

"The three broomsticks is that way," said Hanna.

"Thanks," said Susan and started walking, "once more to the grindstone."

"So our goals are to protect Potter from himself regarding the law, and get access to his study group, and assess his Posse members for inspiration for the marrying requirements questionnaires that we know our relatives will be sending us soonish."

"Yes, and connections deeper into the gryffindor and ravenclaw social networks."

"You keep mentioning ravenclaw, but I'm not clear why?"

"Granger and Potter are now both in runes and arithmancy, the smart money is on them networking into ravenclaw before they network into the rest of the school, the way most everyone does by seventh year."

"And we're here to try to change that?"

"No, we're here because if they do, and they drag us with them, it could be to our advantage."

"Oh, I see."

.

"Hello dears," said Madam Rosmerta, "table for two?"

"Five at least," said Susan, "We're expecting Potter's group to join us."

"I'll put you in the corner booth then, or did you want to reserve an entire back dining room?"

"Not unless he brings a lot more friends than I know about. Can it be the back corner booth not the front corner?"

"Hmm, alright," she led the way.

"You've been wanting that booth your entire life," muttered Hanna.

"It's strategic," said Susan.

"I'm not arguing," said Hanna, "I'm vicariously enjoying you enjoying the situation."

"Hmm," said Susan, "Good, I'm glad."

What's the reflection of vicarious enjoyment called? Performative?

They were soon joined by the youngest Weasley.

"Do you need the other side of the booth?" she said, "Or do you want us to try to deflect the oncoming mob a booth or two over?"

"What?" said Susan.

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione usually sit in that booth," she said pointing to the next booth over, one of the normal sized booths, "Luna and I or Neville or the Creeveys or whoever can, usually sit here or on the other side and keep mostly out of sight, but close enough to be under their protection, or to help them keep an eye out for trouble, whichever is more appropriate for the personality involved, and the mode of trouble."

"Is there that kind of trouble often?" said Susan.

The redhead shrugged, "not necessarily but when it comes to Harry's luck, it's better if he has as many friendly witnesses as possible."

"Yes, I see," said Susan.

"Actually," said Hanna, "We were invited, so … should we be in the next booth over?"

"No, stay here," said a disembodied voice, "it's about time the king sat at the big table."

Susan and Hanna looked. Susan twitched her head in a way that Hanna suspected was a trick to see through disillusionment charms.

"Nice invisibility cloak," said Susan, "which kind?"

"Harry gave it to me," said the voice, "Not one of the usual kinds."

Little Weasley overcame her momentary loss for words, and held out her hand, "I'm Ginny Weasley, and this is Luna Lovegood."

Susan shook … apparently both their hands.

Hanna, not to be out done, tried that. It was an interesting experience.

Susan tried to peg Lovegood about why she was wearing an invisibility cloak, and how it could keep working even when she stuck her hands out for shaking, but her evasions mostly managed to just give Hanna a headache, so she instead chose to watch the door for gryffindors.

On sight of the next redhead she alerted Susan with a poke to the elbow. So they were both watching in time to see the door open again to reveal Potter just as his cat and owl came in to perch on his shoulders from opposite directions, one with a skitter and leap and the other in perfect silence.

A moment later Madam Rosmerta was leading them over.

Despite Ron's protests, Harry smiled to see everyone already present and greeted everyone except Lovegood by first name, and thanked them for coming. That almost counted as introductions, and invitation to use first names. For Lovegood he merely smiled and winked. So, he seemed to see through Lovegood's cloak. Granger definitely did, she greeted her in a whisper and scooted in first, buffering her from Harry and Ron.

Hanna made note of that, was Hermione trying to keep girls away from her two men, or was there something about Lovegood that required keeping her at a distance from Harry's supposedly bad luck, or … or maybe it was just that some of the people who'd picked up the knack to see through Lovegood's cloak went out of the way to keep anyone from sitting on her.

Potter followed up his 'thanks for coming' by placing 1 galleon 4 on the table and stating that the first round was his treat.

That was enough for Firewhisky or an actual meal, not just the butterbeer Hanna had been contemplating.

That was apparently the first thought of several others, because Granger asked for 'tea and the lunch menu,' both Weasleys followed with 'pumpkin juice and the lunch menu.'

She and Susan shared a look, then ordered butterbeers and the fish sandwich without asking for the menu.

And finally Potter made faces at Lovegood, then ordered a butterbeer and a gillywater.

.

"So … anything of interest to report?" said Susan.

"I assume you mean to your aunt through the unofficial channel of sharing rumours with you?"

"Precisely," said Susan.

"Well," said Harry, "Nothing new, but I've started contemplating a new angle on the Black - Lestrange breakout."

"Good grief that was over a year ago," said Hanna, before she realised how tense everyone was. Apparently they took it all very seriously.

"I'm listening," said Susan, "should I be taking notes?"

Potter blinked, then nodded, "That's probably a good idea."

Susan made a show of patting herself down, but she only had a quill on her.

Granger handed her a pristine roll of parchment as if it were nothing.

"Thanks," said Susan, "I thought I was being rhetorical. Never mind, what's the idea?"

"First year," said Harry, "Do you remember Professor Quirrell?"

"Yes," said Susan.

"He was being possessed by, and gradually being absorbed by, you-know-who."

"I know what possessed means, what do you mean by absorbed?"

"By May or so, he had a new face growing out the back of his head."

"Oh, dear," said Susan, "That's never a good sign, you're sure it was you-know-who?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"That's also not a good sign."

"Granted," said Harry.

"And how do you know all this?"

"When I woke up in the hospital wing, I was purported to be the last one to see him alive, I had confronted him as he was trying to steal the philosopher's stone from the third floor corridor."

"Oh is that what the third floor corridor was about," said Susan, she wrote for quite a while, then she nodded and looked up. "Go on?"

"At the time, he was intent on finding the stone, and I infer resurrecting, himself, or prolonging the professor's life long enough for the absorption to finish or whatever. But he was entirely willing to kill me to keep me out of the way or use me for a tool to get around the traps."

Susan shrugged, "that sort of goes without saying."

"It doesn't," said Harry, "I'm not trying to establish that he was a criminal psychopath, I'm trying to establish a progression."

"Oh," said Susan.

"Second year," said Harry, "a cursed diary possessed a Lord of the Wizengamot and made him pass it to a student, who it also possessed, and forced to lead slytherin's basilisk into the school, apparently in an attempt to kill me before its final bid to sacrifice a student to resurrect you-know-who from the memory stored in that diary."

"You think you were the target of the basilisk attacks?"

"Maybe I was the target, maybe getting the school closed and evacuated was the goal, that is what almost happened at several junctures, I was never quite sure why that never happened. Even temporarily, except perhaps that it was the most logical reaction, and therefore perhaps the plot's intended outcome."

"Or," said Susan, "the fact that Dumbledore blocked that very logical reaction at every turn, resulting in that outcome failing, and his monumental loss of credibility, setting that up as the plot's alternative intended outcome."

Potter blinked, "So direct success might have been killing his enemies or their children, indirect success would have been closing the school, doubly indirect success was Professor Dumbledore losing credibility?"

"Maybe," said Susan.

"And how did he not win the last war?" said Harry.

"Your Mom," said Granger.

Harry sighed, "and Susan's parents, and Ron's and Ginny's uncles, and Neville's parents, and I don't have any idea who else."

"Yes, Lots and lots of Heliopaths," said Lovegood.

Granger huffed.

"I'm caught up," said Susan, "go on."

"Summer before our third year," said Harry. But he was interrupted by the arrival of drinks and the chance for lunch orders.

Again Harry repeated Luna's order to Rosmerta. When she was gone, Harry started up again.

"Summer before our third year," he said, "Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black escaped, or were released, from prison, a straight reading of their dossiers would imply that they were death eaters, and each could be counted on to finish off what they seemed to have been convicted of: attempting finishing off the families of Longbottom and Potter."

"Interesting," said Susan.

"That isn't the way things worked out," said Harry, "Sirius Black turned out not to be a death eater, perhaps Bellatrix wasn't either."

Ron snorted, "you're mental, they found a mark on her."

"Can I see the court records on that?" said Harry.

Ron shut his mouth with a click.

"It's rather academic, given that she's dead," said Susan.

"If she's really dead," said Harry, "then it won't matter much if her status is changed from 'kiss on sight' to 'wanted for questioning with regards to how she broke out or was broken out,' or something similar."

"And yet," mused Susan, "no body was found."

"True," said Harry.

"Alright," said Susan, "interesting connections." She wrote for a while. "alright, what's next?"

"Pettigrew claimed under oath to have been released by a death eater, who he hinted also tried to blackmail him."

Susan wrote, then nodded.

"This year," said Harry, "Bartemius Crouch Junior, another imprisoned death eater was found where he shouldn't have been. And the Triwizard Tournament seems an excellent cover for smuggling all kind of lethal dangers into the school where I and Neville Longbottom just happen to be attending. To say nothing of a growing list of everyone else who has helped me escape death, the last several times."

"Ah," said Susan, "Yes, I see."

"Hello," said Longbottom and leaned on the table, "What's going on?"

"Harry's demonstrating the fine line between paranoia and narcissism on one side, and adequate contingency analysis on the other," said Susan, "Are you drunk?"

"Yesh," said Longbottom, "Just drunk one of the Bulgarians under the table, planned to go to Rosa Lee to sober up, but ended up here. Which is fine, Rosmerta sells tea also. Harry, she's right about the narcississism, wearing an angel and a demon on your shoulders is shapposhed to be a metaphor, not a fafshion advice."

"Ah," said Harry, "And which one is which?"

"White wingzh is angel, parbed tale is demon, obfiously."

"Obviously," agreed Harry, "I'm sure …" he stopped and glanced at his kneazle who'd just started to purr, "I was going to promise to translate, but they seem to already get the compliments."

"Shmart," agreed Longbottom and scratched the kneazle's head twice before wandering off.

Harry picked up four sickles from the centre of the table and wandered after him.

"That was new," said Ginny.

"Not really," said Hermione, "he does that sometimes instead of fighting, and he's a happy drunk, so on his part it seems mostly harmless, especially since he can usually sober himself up with a brisk walk and a liberal application of tea. He tried it on Seamus last year, and was the one who ended up under the table. Other than that, I believe he's outlasted all comers."

"Interesting," said Susan. Harry returned and sat down, after a moment's thought he fished in his pocket and replaced the four sickles he'd borrowed from his advance to take care of Neville.

"Anyway," he said looking at Susan, "That's all the facts, the questions are: How is you-know-who not dead? Is that a common problem? Why does he have it in for me and Neville? and Why did Bellatrix and Sirius seem to be out to get us also, if they weren't? Who is behind the scenes orchestrating their escape? Because they seem a rather halfhearted or half-witted attempt compared to the basilisk. And Crouch Junior's and Pettigrew's escapes now that I think about it."

"If the basilisk was trying to kill you, it seems half-witted," said Susan, "It's only if it was intended to close the school or make Dumbledore culpable if it was not closed and anyone died, that it seems like a strong plot. Similarly Sirius and Bellatrix, did not succeed in killing you, but again, perhaps you were not their target. Maybe it was the general terror level, and the loss of political capital by the ministry and the auror department was the actual goal."

"Oh," said Harry.

"Thanks to diligent work inside and outside the ministry, most of the blame was correctly redirected onto the past administration, rather than the current administration, but from a psychological perspective, some level of ministry incompetence was exposed."

"That's an interesting perspective," agreed Hermione.

Or was that even agreement?

.

"Hello cousins," said Malfoy, "I'm glad to see you're finally branching out to respectable friends."

"What is that supposed to mean, Draco?" sighed Harry.

"It never means anything Harry, you know that, but since impostor syndrome afflicts basically everyone, the way everyone's colours shift in response is informative."

"Oh," said Harry.

"What?" said Hanna, "What did that all mean?"

"It means," said Lovegood, "Draco is trying to buy Harry's loyalty by pretending to flirt away secrets about the family magic."

Draco didn't move a muscle but did go an interesting shade of pink. After a few seconds he shrugged, and glanced around again. "Nice hair, Ginny." He walked away.

Hanna checked. Ginny's hair do was exactly the same as Granger and Potter. The only difference was that hers was Weasley red. When she glanced back, Susan was the one blushing.

Hmm.

.

Their lunches arrived. And almost immediately after, Miss Bulstrode arrived, upon which Ron left to sit with her at another table.

Interesting.

.

Susan rolled up the parchment and slipped it into a pocket. "If that's all the gossip for adults," she said, "What's the gossip for the rest of us?"

No one said anything for several seconds.

"Not gossip precisely," said Harry, "But if no one else has a topic, I have one. I've heard plenty about the legal ramifications, and the patriarchal perspective on arranged marriages, what's the female perspective?"

Hermione huffed.

"It might be a poorly hidden secret," said Susan, "but regardless of the fact that the boys think they're doing the shopping and the fathers think they're doing the buying, the truth is, the girls and their mothers are the ones selling, and control of the supply is a much stronger negotiating position."

"Hmm," said Harry, "I suppose that follows to an extent."

"Anyway," said Susan, "Have you already started compiling a list of desired accomplishments or other eligibility requirements?"

"Like what?"

"Anything from height and hair colour, to a preference for light or dark magic, to an acceptable range of number of children you'd like to have.'

"Oh," said Harry, "Hmm, I think light or blue mage, maybe red, I'm still not clear the full import of the difference."

"Very political answer, given that describes present company fairly strongly."

Harry shrugged, "I don't know that I have a preference on height or hair colour, preferably four or more children."

Susan pointed at Ginny.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Because the Selwins are an average of six years older than you, the Prewits are an average of a decade older than you, and there aren't any legitimate Blacks this generation, and I don't know how you'd go about finding the contract cross breeds, and anyway, their average family size has been shrinking for about a century. "

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ginny," said Susan, "How many children do you want?"

"Five or six," said Ginny, "maybe five and then adopt more."

"There you go," said Susan, "Just about everyone else you ask will say one or two or three."

"And you just know that?" said Hermione.

"It's kind of common knowledge," said Susan, "It might in general be worth checking with the muggleborns. But stereotypically, they aren't looking for arranged marriages."

"I'm not certain I am either," said Harry.

"Sure you are," said Susan, "you've got to produce an heir for Potter, and if Lord Sirius Black doesn't produce an heir before then, an heir for Black, and the rest of us aren't sure about your mother's line, but it might want an heir separate from the Potter heir."

Harry leaned forward, "What does that even mean?"

Susan blinked, "There is no way I'm explaining all that, write your godfather or someone."

"Hmm," said Harry.

"So," said Hermione, "the Potters had one child for two generations in a row, and then Harry wants four, so are you attributing the difference to his muggleborn Mom?"

"Not necessarily," said Susan and Ginny at the same time.

Susan glanced at Ginny and motioned for her to explain.

"His grandmother was a Black, but was quite old when she married, for a Black. That she only managed one child is not terribly surprising, you notice her son James married early and had Harry right away, probably there would be more siblings if his parents had lived. Yes, as a muggleborn, his mother represents and unknown quantity. But she doesn't seem to have pushed Harry's preferences very far from baseline Black back towards baseline Potter. About that. There's probably lots of other things, that we don't know about." Ginny shrugged, "height and hair colour are obvious from looking at a person, assuming they aren't wearing dye or glamours or whatever. Family size is fairly obvious from glancing over family trees. Other personality traits are less obvious and require more time to interview or collect reputation data. And not all of them are heritable."

"Hmm," said Hermione, "I never would have expected desired family size would be heritable, rather than a contingent effect of …" she glanced around and shut her mouth. Then shrugged.

Ginny nodded, "Yeah, some people follow example, or intentionally reject example," she shrugged again. "Anyway, Potters have a reputation for light mages, but Harry not only is open to other options, it seems he's bumped into at least one person who suggested he should consider the red or blue paths, which might imply he is already on one of those paths, and was recognised as such. That might or might not imply his mother was one of those, I've never seen such things discussed openly, without which I cannot guess whether it's more likely to be breeding or example that passes those things on."

"What are those things anyway?" said Hermione.

"In the restricted section," said Susan, "Everything except mostly neutral charms is in the restricted section. Even most light charms and curses are in the restricted section. I suspect that's part of why the triwizard tournament is here and not abroad, for most of two generations Britain has been raising a homogeneous mass of subjects with no power alignment. If anyone wishes to study these things, they have to do it on their own time, either outside of school, or at least pay for their own books."

"At which point," said Hermione, "What is the point of having a library?"

"True," said Susan, "But if we give unrestricted access to the light powers, then we'll be expected to give unrestricted access to the dark powers, which is significantly less rare than red or blue."

"What are red and blue?"

"Can you describe how the light and the dark paths differ?"

"No?"

"Then you're definitely not ready for the tangents that red and blue represent to the standard plane."

"Light is not quite Whig, Dark is not quite Tory, Red is something almost Labour, Blue is a weird cross between rule of law and deontoligy virtue," said Harry.

"Good grief," said Hermione, "but … I never heard of these parties."

"They're not political parties," said Harry, "Their self-reinforcing emotional connections in how to use magic, you don't want to fall into the habit of just one of them, unless you're willing to fall all the way to the point where that is your only access window into magic."

"You make it sound like an addiction of some sort."

"Not a bad analogy," said Harry.

"So definitely something for NEWT year or later?"

"Exactly," said Susan and gave her a weird look, "Though I would have said OWL year."

"Yes, but," said Hermione, "Dabbling with addiction is … sort of considered a pass-time and a responsibility for adults."

"No," said Susan, "No, no, no, it is a health — ugh, it is wise to be informed at any age, it is unwise to experiment without being informed all the consequences, have any of you ever gotten a permission slip to the restricted section?"

Harry raised his hand, "Professor Lupin taught me the patronus charm, I'm guessing that I got about a third of the way with the unaligned book, but only mastered it with hints how to use white or blue emotional components, I'm still not sure which, but my current guess is blue."

Susan nodded, "The patronus charm is fairly powerful, and is generally considered only possible to cast through one of those paths, the fact that you don't know enough to identify which paths you've attempted, and which path you succeeded by, tells me you're dangerously under-informed. But if that is the only aligned charm you have any interest in, it might not matter."

She turned back to Hermione.

"And I've studied some living to living transfiguration theory, but haven't tried to cast any of it," said Harry, "I found that at Flourish and Blots, not the restricted section, but I suspect that's where it would be if Hogwarts owned it."

"I suspect so too," said Susan, "but that's regular dangerous, not magical alignment related." She turned back to Hermione again, "But it provides a good example about why this is an issue. What age do muggles start letting children experiment with addiction?"

"Eighteen to twenty-one, depending on the country, and the substance, some substances are banned outright, even to adults."

Susan nodded, "Right, because they've discovered that most of the addiction pathways in the brain are more resilient against being altered into dependency after the brain has matured."

"Alright," said Hermione, "Sounds right."

Susan held up her beer stein, "yet, mages don't give a damn about their children drinking mild amounts of alcohol after about age thirteen, why?"

Hermione blinked, "I don't know."

"First hint," Susan pointed at Harry, "what he just talked about."

Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Can you break it down farther for those of us who aren't Hermione," said Ginny.

Susan glanced at her, and said "Second hint, What does an animagus think with, because it is evidently not their brain."

Hermione's eyes bulged, "I hope you mean something closer to 'not just their brain.'"

Susan shrugged, "yes, that."

"Alright," said Hermione after a pause, "I think I'm ready to hear your conclusion."

"A muggle keeps about 55% of their brain cells in their head, another 10% or something is in their spine which almost amounts to the same thing, but not quite, another 30% or something surrounding their torso organs, especially intestines, they claim to think with the brain that is in their heads, but they really think with all their brain cells, and possibly also their spirits, hard to tell though, necromancy is forbidden on any being with a spirit regardless of their amount of magic."

Hermione shrugged.

"Addiction is a multifaceted problem, involving desire, self-image, and the structure of motivating thought between desire and action."

"Sounds accurate," said Hermione.

Susan held up her stein again, "chemical dependencies can affect a smaller fraction of that pathway because only the chemical part of the brain is susceptible to them. Similarly: social dependencies, similarly: emotional dependencies, similarly: magical dependencies. Neville might be at higher risk than the rest of us, not because he's dosing himself higher, or mostly not, but because he might be building himself a social identity that involves 'holding his whisky'."

Ginny grunted irritation, "He doesn't do it that often."

No one answered that, but if this was Ginny's second hogsmeade weekend Hanna suspected that Ginny didn't know much about Neville's drinking habits.

"Anyway," said Susan, "The study I read suggested that mages (outside of the magical alignment issues), are at about a third the risk of becoming addicted to anything chemical that muggles get addicted to. And about half as susceptible to social dependencies, and about two thirds to two times greater risk to becoming addicted to magical alignment. Given that is a weird thing to even try to measure.""Yeah," said Hermione, "I'm not sure how to interpret that either."

Susan shrugged, "I interpret it as one of those diagrams of desert tree roots, probably a third of my mind is in my physical brain cells, and two thirds is in my magic. Studies of brain damaged Quidditch players seems to bear out that interpretation."

Hermione shuddered, and poked Harry, "NO Quidditch for you next year, I don't care how good everyone says the twins are at keeping the bludgers off you."

"Works for me," said Harry, "OWL year is kind of more important to me anyway. I'll probably need your help with Oliver though."

"Ugh, no problem," said Hermione, "speaking of brain damage … and addiction."

.

"Oh, ugh," said Ginny. She was enough more vehement than Hermione that the contrast made everyone look at her. She was leaned back to see around the back of Hermione's head. So everyone looked there instead.

Her brother was kissing Miss Bulstrode.

"He looks like his father at my Mom's sister's wedding," muttered Hanna.

Everyone turned to stare at her, and Hanna realised it had been the wrong thing to say. Possibly because who he'd been escorting at the time wasn't who he'd eventually married.

"Sorry," said Hanna, "But he does… Anyway! The other interpretation," said Hanna, "Which Susan won't tell you is that: since for most mages, magic usage is as much a part of their means of acting out their choices as their bodies; therefore, easily as large a part of their identities as their bodies. Therefore, even a tiny starting preference in which motivation pathway they use to access their magic can grow to just as immovable a habit as which hand to use to move their wand."

"But I'm not addicted to using my right hand," said Hermione, and moved her fork to her other hand and took another bite.

Hanna relaxed then realised that Neville had returned and was engrossed in their conversation, she wondered how long he'd been there.

"No," agreed Harry, "But maybe the effortless competence I've trained for with my preferred hand, is part of my identity. And only a stronger identity of 'so competent I can use either hand' would get me out of the rut to train with the other hand."

"Exactly," said Hanna, "so, similarly: most curses can be cast with aligned magic much more powerfully than with unaligned magic, suppose you pick up one style early without knowing what you're doing, using that style can become reflexive without you knowing what you're getting yourself into. To the point that it impairs your ability to use magic in an unaligned way, or the charms that only work with magic aligned differently."

"Which is why," said Neville, "the classic method was to teach several unaligned charms, then one charm or curse of every alignment, until all were mastered, before moving on to the next group, until finally introducing a few that could be cast with two alignments, and teaching to cast with each, for all pairs of alignment, and then offering the student the choice to continue pursuing the balanced approach, or to split off and specialise at whatever they were best, or favoured for other reasons. But that style is more fitting to one-on-one tutoring in preparation for apprenticeship, not the mass classroom."

"Oh, Hi Neville," said Harry, "sit down and take a load off."

"Thanks," said Neville and set down his plate and mug, before sliding in next to Harry. "Sorry, what I said earlier about your cat," he said.

"Not a problem," said Harry, "I seem to have inherited just enough House of Black sensibilities to see 'being dangerous,' as a compliment."

"I thought that was gryffindor," said Ginny.

"Not really," said Hermione, "There are lots of kinds of bravery besides marching into battle."

"Wizards don't march," said Neville, "We apparate or ride brooms."

"Yes well," said Hermione, "The point wasn't about the marching, it was the facing danger."

"It's not about facing danger," said Neville, "It's about doing good and … being competent anyway even in the face of danger."

"Right," said Harry, "'being dangerous,' isn't necessarily about courage, it might even be about being competent enough that situations that are dangerous to others aren't particularly dangerous to you."

"Like you on a broom," said Neville, "competent I mean, without implying that you wish to be a beater."

"Certainly," said Harry, "As a seeker, My role is not to physically pose a danger to anyone. But as a competent seeker I do represent a danger to the other team's chance of winning. Likewise, Nim, is a more than competent hunter of mice and rabbits. And more than able to defend herself against shall we say, physical assault."

"And she's very intelligent for a kneazle," said Neville, "I wouldn't bet against her helping rather than harming your chances, were she allowed to accompany you onto the duelling piste."

Nim sneezed. Harry chuckled, "I can't imagine anyone would agree to that. Unless they thought their own familiar was more dangerous."

"Not likely," scoffed Neville.

...-...

Reactions to the anouncement

"Harry, Are you going to enter?" said Dean.

"Yeah, Harry, You'd be great," said Collin Creevey. Which was quickly echoed by his little brother. Harry wondered just how many of his exploits and rumoured exploits Colin had repeated to Denis. Or if Denis was so much of a Colin fan that he just had to repeat everything.

"We're going to enter," said George.

"Just as soon as we figure out how," said Fred.

"Ugh," said Hermione, "you'd think that everyone would know better than that tripe."

"What tripe is there?" said Ron.

"Eternal glory for one, do you have any idea who won the last tournament?" said Hermione, "No? What kind of eternal glory is that?"

"Aristogeiton Diekhoff, From Durmstrang," said Ron and Lee Jordan. Three others piped up from a bit farther away.

"Although," temporised Kenneth Towler, "he gave the prize money to Fflergant Follman for stopping the rampaging cockatrice Diekhoff had accidentally released. It could be argued that his heroics gained him more notoriety at the time than the contestants enjoyed."

Hermione blinked and glanced between them, "I stand corrected. … Humph. I had no idea."

"Sit," said Fred.

"No idea about what?" said Ron.

"Sports fanatics," said Hermione.

"You know enough of us," said Fred.

"Why are you surprised?" said George.

Hermione's face went red and she went back to eating her dessert.

"Dean, to answer your question," said Harry, "I think I'll be adding a ward line of my own."

"What? why?" said Ron.

"Think about it," said Harry.

"No riddles while I'm eating," said Ron.

"Fine," said Harry, "every year that I've been here we've had to rescue each other from deadly puzzles, sometimes multiple times per school term. Sometimes it seems maliciously aimed at our group, sometimes we're just the nosy ones that trip the trap first, or the prepared or alert ones that arrive to perform the rescue first."

"Sure," said Ron, "But some weird things have happened to other people too. Millicent—"

Harry held up his hand, "I'm not doubting that, I'm pointing out that anyone who wants me or my friends dead or in danger, might most easily put them there by putting their names in that goblet, I'm thinking about adding some runes to block anyone from putting in a name other than their own, and especially block them from putting in my name."

"You can do that?" said Ron.

"Blocking an individual signature might be easier than matching … no … well …"

"Oi!" said Ron, "No riddles until you're done eating."

"Hmm, I might need some help with parts of it."

"Can you get your warding contractor to help?" said Hermione.

"Probably," said Harry, "But … I'd like to have it up as soon as possible, do you think we can put a watch on the goblet until then?"

"We'll help you there," said George, "we want to get in some observations."

"-of our own of how the Headmaster's age line-"

"-operates, before we plan our attempts."

"Ah," said Harry, "Thanks that would make me feel better."

"Not that we're promising to stop and search older students, or keep them from putting your name in or anything."

"That's … not precisely what I'm asking for, but thanks."

So you want to put up a ward that will compare magical signatures contained in parchment to the magic contained in living flesh? And if they don't match, do what?"

If they don't match, can we just unmagic the parchment?

How obvious do we want our interference to be? Burning it might be easier.

And would also fit the fire themed goblet.

Nice.

But … do we really need to … sabotage homework, if a teacher carries a sheaf of it through the entrance hall?

Or legal documents if a ministry worker carries any of that through?

Meh, just drain the magic out of the signature.

Signatures don't work like that, they are a minor ward working, bound to the caster until death, or until the parchment or ink is destroyed or otherwise ended.

So just a ward deactivation spell should work?

Sure, how good are you at deactivating the rune-work of others?

Oh, right.

But your own runes can activate and deactivate each other without problems?

Right.

So, you can really only protect your own signature, not everyone else's.

Seems that way. Drat.

Let's do that right away. Then politely ask Dumbledore whether the other could also be implemented, perhaps on the pedestal or the goblet itself.

.

...-...

In which Dumbledore listens complacently

"Harry, settle down. I agree with everything you've said."

"So, will you do it, more to the point, can it be done?"

"It can be done," said Dumbledore, "what you're discussing is already part of the goblet's enchantments. No signature can be accepted unless it belongs to the person who submits it. That's why I thought the age line would be sufficient protection, and why I chose the diameter of age line I did. Anyone standing outside my age line and tossing in wadded up parchment, like your friends were last night, is far enough from the goblet's detection field that the entry counts as unaccompanied. Yes, the parchment might enter the flames and be burned up, but they weren't near enough by for the goblet to sample their magic and compare it to the signature, those entries were not considered valid, you could tell because the flames changed to a different colour."

"Oh," said Harry, "What about if someone were to throw two wads at once, both with the same signature, one to count as an entry, one to be within the scanning field when it looks to see if a person matching the signature is present?"

"You mean like all of the wads that missed scattered all over the floor last night?"

"Oh," said Harry, "So it is smart enough to differentiate between a signature and the presence of a mage that matches that signature."

"Very definitely," said the Headmaster.

"How tall is the age line?" said Harry.

"I made mine go all the way to the ceiling, and added a couple tricky bits to keep anyone from harming themselves in a broom accident, should anyone decide this is the excuse they've been waiting for, to break the rule forbidding broom riding indoors," said the Headmaster, "but anything you wish should be possible, depending on how you assemble the runes. You're taking runes and arithmancy?"

"I am, but I'm only in third year arithmancy."

The headmaster sighed and nodded, "never mind, you'll pick it up eventually."

...-...

An unexpected name, part 1

"Harry Potter."

"What?"

"Your name just came out of the goblet, please make your way to the room where the other contestants are waiting."

Harry raised an eyebrow, then the pieces fit together.

"Mine," he intoned under his breath and imagined grabbing and confiscating the parchment in Dumbledore's hand. Nothing happened.

"No way!" said Ron. The twins only a fraction of a second later.. The Creevey brothers looked about ready to start cheering, but a snarl from Nim and a glare from Harry quelled them. He turned again to face the Faculty.

"It might be my name," said Harry, "But if everything you told me in our last discussion is true, it is not my signature."

The muttering increased in volume.

Dumbledore was looking more irritated now and less startled, "We'll be discussing that also," with a nod to indicate the door, he said, "Just go."

"Hermione, Neville, would you accompany me please?"

"Sure," said Hermione.

"I guess," said Neville.

"Ron, you're welcome to finish eating first, but … I hope we'll be done by then."

.

"Hello leetle boy," said Fleur Delacour, "What are you doing here?"

"For the last time," said Harry, "lack of age is not the only reason for my will to remain my own in your presence."

She giggled, "and yet, you do not answer my question."

"Headmaster Dumbledore requested I wait in here also, this is my second Hermione Granger, and this is my err cousin Neville Longbottom."

Hermione huffed, "you're allowed to ignore her."

"Alright," said Cedric Diggory, "but why did Professor Dumbledore ask you to wait in here?"

"Because he claims a piece of parchment with my name on it, came out of the Goblet of Fire," said Harry.

"And you don't believe him?"

"I never put a piece of parchment with my signature into the goblet," said Harry, "and I put up a ward to make as sure as I could that no one could carry my signature through his age line. And later he reassured me that no one could put in any signature but their own anyway. So I am at a loss how this could happen, unless someone is practised enough at self deception to sign my name believing it is their own, and thereby placing their own magical signature on a parchment that might otherwise look like mine."

"Good thinking, Potter," said the defence professor appearing from behind a pillar at the far side of the room, "but it's even easier than that, anyone with sufficient power could use the confundus to make anyone believe that they had a different name, and that they wanted to enter the tournament."

Harry blinked, "But—"

"But," continued Hermione, "If the charm wore off before the drawing, they would never know it was their own entry that was approved."

A moment later Dumbledore finally arrived with the other school heads.

"Before we get started," said Dumbledore, "Harry, did you put your name in?"

"No," said Harry, "I did not, and you know I put up a ward to keep anyone else from doing so, before I understood that it was unnecessary."

"If you did, it doesn't look like you did a very good job," said Headmaster Karkaroff.

"It doesn't look like it was unnecessary," said the defence professor.

"I'm certain that it worked … was working when I left it," said Harry, "whatever was on that piece of parchment, was not my signature. I brought two of my friends who should be able to identify my signature. Neville?"

Neville shrugged and sighed and stepped forward, "Sure.'

Dumbledore conjured a table and spread out a large parchment at the bottom were four charred pieces of parchment sewn into the roll.

Neville ignored the rest of the contract and just examined the fourth patch, after a glance he bent closer, after a moment he scratched his temple and stood, "It's a fairly good imitation of Lord Potter's hand writing," said Neville, "but it is not at all the way he signs his name."

"Can you tell whose magic it contains?" said Harry.

"Not with all the contract going on in the background," said Neville, "not that I'm all that good at recognising people by the magic in their signatures. But I'd know yours as well as I know my own and my gran's."

"What is in the contract anyway?" said Hermione, "The rules of the tournament?"

"Yes," said Dumbledore.

"What happens to the confundus victim who signed my name instead of theirs by accident?" said Harry.

"If they don't compete," said Headmistress Maxime, "They will lose their magic."

"I apologise, my English is not of the best," said Victor Krum, "What is the discussion?"

"My signature is not on the contract," said Harry, "So I don't need to compete. But someone's is, and does, and we don't know who."

Neville looked up at Professor Moody, "can you verify whether this person was under the confundus when they wrote this, or merely very good at self deception?"

"Probably not," said Professor Moody.

"Damn," said Neville, "Evidence of confundus or potions to the same effect would allow a competent legal authority to nullify someone's participation in a contract."

"True," said Dumbledore, "for modern contracts, this one is centuries old, and doesn't contain those clauses. Does anyone else have any ideas how to rescue our unknown victim, or even identify them?"

"Does Susan's Aunt have records of magical signatures?" said Hermione.

"Not as young as seventh year," said Professor Moody, "Though the OWL examination records might."

"Or sixth year, but yes," said Cedric.

"How long do you have to find them and bring them up to speed?" said Harry.

Dumbledore glanced at him, then at the contract, "either the first task or the weighing of the wands, I'd have to look closer."

Headmistress Maxime was certain it was the weighing of the wands.

"Harry," said Dumbledore, "would you please consider competing."

"Why?" said Harry.

There was silence.

"Because," said Neville, "as a peer you have the right to insert yourself into a joust or tourney as someone else's champion."

"Um," said Harry, "and what are the repercussions of that?"

Neville shrugged, "if it's another peer, they owe you a favour appropriate to the amount of danger or inconvenience involved. If it's a citizen, they become obligated to become your vassal, if a free subject they become your peasant, if someone else's peasant either they become your peasant or their peer owes you a similar favour as before, for taking up the slack in championing their rights, though good luck trying to collect more than how much that peer values that peasant."

"What would that mean for them in practice?" said Hermione.

Neville snorted, "if you're worried about coercion, next to nothing, in this day in age. Peers trading favours are a law unto themselves, mostly reputation based. And peasants … Harry would have next to no authority over them regardless, except for the case where they specifically wanted to farm on his land, if he has any."

"Alright," said Hermione.

"So," said Harry, "mostly, there is no actual reward?"

"I'm surprised you'd ask that Harry," said Dumbledore, "When a life is at stake."

"You shouldn't be," said Harry, "I always prefer to know what I'm getting into before I leap, And haven't we just established that a life is not at stake, merely someone's magic?"

Just about everyone flinched.

"He's a mudblood?" said Karkaroff, "I thought he was a peer?"

"Not a muggleborn," said Harry, "merely a half blood forced by the circumstance after the last war to be raised as one."

Dumbledore stood up straighter.

Mens Rea, thought Nim.

Yes, agreed Harry, but I don't think about me. Or not only about me.

Interesting, I do believe you are correct.

"Alright, Headmaster," said Harry, "I'll consider participating, but if you really want me to participate, your best course of action is to find the actual victim, and let me interview and perhaps negotiate with them. Without that, it's much easier for me to believe it is another possessed victim waiting for more chances to kill me."

The headmaster shook his head, "I thought you learned last year that even such a victim might be worth saving."

Harry shrugged, "always worth saving where it is possible and risk free, until we know who the victim is, and how they were manipulated into committing this act that seemingly targets me, (but perhaps only targets them-self in this case), we don't know if rescue is possible, and this is definitely not risk free.

"Also given that this is Hogwarts, it seems that you could choose from many more peers than only me. And should be able to find one who is of age and therefore within the new safety rules."

"Harry," Dumbledore shook his head, "I'm surprised at you."

"You shouldn't be," said Harry, "You should be surprised at yourself to think that anyone might not gather the best intelligence possible before risking themselves or anyone else. You ought to have been disappointed if I did not try to find the way of risking myself with the best chance of success before choosing where and how to risk myself."

"He's got you there, Albus" said Professor Moody, "Potter, Have you ever considered a possible career as a hit wizard?"

"Not directly," said Harry, "If you can get me the recruitment literature without putting me on anyone's owling list, I'll read it, though perhaps not before summer hols."

"I think what the headmaster is getting at," muttered Hermione, "was more that you are an obvious Schelling point in the search for a suitable peer to champion, not that you are the ideal peer to do so."

"No argument," said Harry, "My point still stands about them trying to find the victim or a more ideal champion before the wand weighing."

"You're already to Schelling points?" said Karkaroff, "I thought you were fourth years."

"We are," said Hermione with a huff, "we're also both muggle raised."

What's a Schelling point? Thought Nim.

No idea, but I assume its something to do with arithmancy for searching for things that you don't yet know how to search for. And I have no problem with Hermione rubbing his face in her greatness after he called me a mudblood earlier.

You really like her don't you?

I very much admire and respect her.

Even though she doesn't give you proper respect?

She doesn't respect my peerage, which does not bother me. Nor my moniker 'the boy-who-lived' which no one has proved to my satisfaction is something I earned. I prefer she merely continue to respect me for being human, which, I suppose I also did not earn, and for things I have actually accomplished, which she generally does.

Yes, well.

.

...-...

An unexpected name, part 2

"Professor, you asked me to stop by before lunch."

"Yes, Harry, this seems to have been delivered to me by mistake," she offered him an envelope.

It was labelled, "The fourth triwizard champion."

"Ah," said Harry, "By an owl?"

"By Fawks actually."

Harry nodded, "But you see, I am not the fourth triwizard champion, you are."

"That's not what I remember."

"That is precisely the problem," said Harry, "What you remember."

"What are you saying?"

"You know the difference between writing my name and writing my magical signature?"

"Certainly, I teach that topic every year."

Harry nodded, "And if someone confunded you to believe that you were Harry Potter, and were of age, and desired to enter the tournament. Would the resulting parchment contain your magical signature, or mine?"

"Mine," she said.

Harry nodded, "How badly do you want to keep your magic?"

"Um? What?"

"I'd bet that envelope came to you because you entered, the penalty for not competing is to lose your magic. It took me a long time to convince everyone that it was not my signature that had been entered, merely a signature that had the appearance of my name. Not that it matters, the contract has your magic on it, not mine, regardless of whose name it looks like. This is probably an invitation to the wand weighing ceremony this afternoon. Or … at least that's what I suspect from hearing that it was Fawks that delivered the message."

"Oh, dear," she said and slumped back.

Harry nodded, "Do you know if there is an easier way to coax a signature with a mismatched name into existence? Than the confundus charm?"

"No," she said, "with enough self-deception it might be possible, or … under certain circumstances when one doesn't believe that one knows one's own name, or does believe that enough others know you, and should continue to know you, by another name, it is possible to operate under an assumed name or pen name."

"Ah," said Harry.

.

"So … what should I do?"

"The possibilities I see, are: First, the most straightforward but perhaps most excruciating: go to the wand weighing, and all the tasks, as yourself, and explain to everyone how you are a collateral victim of someone's plot to get me killed."

"'Excruciating,' about covers it," she said.

"Second: visit Professor Snape or Professor Moody and try to beg, buy, borrow, or steal, some polyjuice potion, and go as me."

She blinked, "you wouldn't mind that? Also why the defence professor?"

"As long as you don't flirt with the veela, (for some reason I'm impervious to her allure,) if you can maintain that facade under polyjuice, and don't tell the public things that are untrue, … or only things that are blatantly untrue, and use Malfoy's sarcasm voice to say most of them, I think we can get along."

"Yes … I see," she said, "why the defence professor?"

"I … just have an idea that he'd have some in case of emergency evacuations and similar things. He's brought up its existence as a reason to be super-paranoid about establishing the identities of your friends and allies … just about every other lesson."

She smiled, "well, that seems like a reasonable level of planning, given the plot you just suggested."

Harry smiled back.

"And as long as I don't die," she said, "The ruse could very well work. (I suppose if I did die it would only increase your fame for living through the impossible."

"Don't remind me," said Harry, "Also, Please don't die."

"Right," She scratched her cheek, "Did I ever mention that during my time as a Hogwarts student, I was reserve chaser for five years in a row, and never got to play in an official game?"

"Um, no?"

She shrugged, "Same basic thing happened in exploding snap club, always good enough to qualify, never good enough to make the starting team."

She smiled harder, "My time to shine, I'd best go find Professor Snape." She hurried out, taking the letter with her.

"Third," said Harry to the empty room, "ask, buy, or beg, me to go as your champion, meh, whatever. Good luck, maybe I should keep my cloak with me in case I want to be out and about at times when I know she's impersonating me at tournament events."

He got up and walked out, carefully closing the door behind him.

I wonder what her ethics are, mused Harry, of competing in a contest meant for children. Well for seventeen-year-olds.

...-...

The newspaper

"Harry?" said Hermione.

"What," said Harry.

"Did a journalist by the name of Rita Skeeter interview you yesterday?"

"No, why?"

"She claims you gave her an exclusive interview, but half the things she quotes from you are … very much not the things you'd say, and the other half are just not the way you'd say them. Also I thought Defence is your favourite subject."

"Defence is my best subject," said Harry, "I'm not sure I have a favourite subject anymore, what else does it say?"

"You go on and on about arithmancy as a subject, also drop references to fourth and fifth year material, also about me and Susan Bones and the difficulty of dating either one of us without letting the other get jealous, also about how irritated you are that Quidditch was cancelled this year for the tournament."

"Huh?" said Harry,

"You specifically told me that it was a bit of a relief, what with trying to catch up with fourth year arithmancy."

"Oh, that," said Harry.

"Well?"

Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear, "It was Professor Vector who was confounded to enter the tournament under my name, when I told her, she didn't say, 'that's so embarrassing, and dangerous. Please, could you go for me?' she said, 'I never quite made the Quidditch starting team, or the exploding snap team, I'm going to enjoy this!' then we just negotiated whether she was going to explain all the embarrassing part, or just go as me." Harry shrugged, "Anyway, She must have made all that up from her own observations and whatever part of the gossip network she has access to."

Hermione gave a start, then a snort, then covered her mouth to hold in a guffaw. Then she sobered and glared at Harry, "you should probably read this and send apologies explaining all that to all your friends and acquaintances that got implicated in all that."

Harry shrugged, "Yeah, how bad is it?"

Hermione slid him the paper.

He read it three times, "is this is the same author that Mr. Weasley was complaining about making up whatever she wanted about the hooligans at the world cup?"

Hermione blinked, "I believe so," she said.

Harry nodded, "I suspect Vector handled her much better than I would have. All things considered. I'm not going to blow her cover over this, I'll just say: the newspaper didn't listen to a thing I said, and made up most of it."

Hermione frowned and nodded, "It might be … better for your image if you took a tiny bit more responsibility, perhaps imply that you did say some of those things, but she misinterpreted basically everything she could to make up a more sensational story."

"Good morning," said Ginny.

"Hello," said Luna and sat down between Ginny and Hermione, "What's the puzzle of the day?"

"What we should tell people who ask," said Hermione, "when they want to know why Rita Skeeter published all this and said that Harry Potter said these things."

"Oh," said Luna, "What yarns are my aunt knitting this week."

"The idiom is spinning yarns," sighed Hermione.

"She's your aunt?" said Harry.

"Yes, Skeeter is just a nom de gore."

Hermione smirked, "I think you mean nom de plume."

"Whichever," said Luna without looking up from the newspaper.

When she put it down she said, "now you know why you ought to subscribe to the quibbler instead, or at least witch weakly?"

"I suppose," said Hermione, "but without knowing what she heard, I don't know how much she made up."

"Well," said Luna, "it's obvious that she made it sound as bad as possible for Mr. Crouch and Miss Bones and you. Harry, how many girls are you dating?"

"I have yet to invite any girls on a date," said Harry, "However, I do have a group of friends that I do spend time with both in the evening and on weekends, mostly studying or discussing wizarding culture and the state of the world, it includes Hermione, the four youngest Weasleys, you, Miss Bones, and Miss Abbot, and yes, some weekends we meet up in Hogsmeade too."

"Methinks he doth protest too much," said Parvati from several chairs down, "When are you going to invite me on a date? Oh, I mean, 'to your study group'."

Fay and Lavender laughed.

Hermione sniffed.

"What about me?" said Ginny.

"I just said you were welcome," said Harry, "although I'm never sure how much you two want to hang out and listen to fourth years talk about their lessons."

"First of all," said Ginny, "we do that most nights anyway, even when you don't notice, second of all, we're well aware that the three of you spend a lot of time talking about fifth and sixth year material also."

"Wait, we do?" said Ron.

"Fifth is transfiguration and charms," said Hermione, "sixth is just Harry's Survey of Law thing."

"Oh," said Ron, then shrugged, "Ok, whatever."

...-...

{End Chapter 8}

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