Chapter 4:

I was in the Ravenclaw common room talking to Padma Patil. I was describing my theory about how thought creates reality. Padma said, "The fact that intent is such a central part to magic, would indicate the truth of that statement. I am trying to think of some specific examples, do you have any that motivated this thought?"

I paused, and tried to think what I could say, and finally said, "There are things related to this topic that I cannot say now, but would like to. I'll try to figure out how I can talk more freely. Sorry if I'm being mysterious for now."

Later I thought about how, in canon, Hermione tried to setup a magical block on knowledge of Dumbledore's army being revealed, but simply didn't have the experience to know how to do that properly, and Dolores Umbridge found out. I also remember in some fan fictions the main character either created their own magical contracts or went to a magical lawyer. In my case, I would ask Dumbledore, who is already in my circle of trust.

At my next meeting with Dumbledore, I said, "Remember when you said, that I should ask for your help before deciding whether to trust others with my special knowledge. I would like to include Padma Patil,"

Dumbledore answered, "I can indeed help you with this. One additional danger that you might not have considered, is that as you grow to care for people around you, threats to them could be used to make you give up information. I can draw up several magical contracts. One would make it impossible for you to reveal information when the motivation is to respond to a threat to others. Another would be for those who you reveal your special information to. Another would be for a lower level of information security for your future equivalent of Dumbledore's Army. They might not know the origin of your information, but the knowledge of who is in that army, and operational information would need to be protected."

Dumbledore continued, "As for Padma Patil, I must caution you that magically keeping secrets from her twin sister could be damaging to her, so I suggest you reveal your secrets to both of them, rather than just to Padma."

I answered, "That would be fine, to include both. Parvati is already learning mind arts with the rest of us, and in the original history was part of Dumbledore's Army."

Dumbledore said, "Also, while you have not revealed your full abilities to me, my non-magical mind arts have convinced me of the possibility that you might be able to bypass a magical contract. I don't expect you to answer if you can, but I would implore you to accept the contract that prevents information from being revealed by you due to threats to others or yourself. I separated the contracts, so, if you had this ability, you can accept certain ones."

Soon afterwards, the three of us met outside Dumbledore's office. Each of us had a letter inviting us, which also included the password, "Ginger Newt". When the gargoyle let us in and we arrived in his office, Dumbledore said "Welcome, Miss Patil, Miss Patil, Mr. Picard." and offered Lemon Drops. He then explained he was going to do an extra scan for any eavesdropping or false identities, and performed some silent spells.

Dumbledore continued, "Mr. Picard has information that must remain safe. He would like to share this information with you. If you agree, I will have all of us, including myself, sign some magic contracts to ensure the security of this information."

"The first contract states that no information related to Tom Picard's information, nor the fact that he has special information or abilities will be revealed in response to a threat of harm or torture to others or yourself. Look it over before signing. It allows, if person B is held prisoner by person V, giving some specific tactical information to person C to be used in a rescue attempt, but prevents, if person V says that person B is going to tortured or harmed unless you tell V something, from you telling V something, even if you decide to." We all signed this contract.

"The next contract says that none of us will reveal Tom Picard's special information or abilities to anyone without his authorization. We may use the information, but not reveal the source or provide enough information where the source could be deduced. Again, read it carefully before signing." The others, besides myself signed it.

"The last contract says that you will be learning advanced techniques, beyond that normally taught at your age. You will not reveal who else is learning such techniques to others, nor operational details, such as passwords that might be used in such an organization. You can leave this organization at any time, and, in which case, that specific knowledge of who is included, and operational details will be forgotten by you." We all signed this contract.

"Now that we are all on board, I'm going to show you Tom's memory of his arrival in this universe."

They watched, in the pensieve, my meeting with Q and my arrival in the Picard home."

Padma said, "I see what you were not able to say about thought creating reality. I would like to learn more about this Q. Also, what was your life like before seeing Q?"

I said, "I never investigated if my self or family exist in this universe, because it would become a great vulnerability to myself now, and possibly a risk to the universe if I understand how time turners work. I decided this when I arrived to make this an absolute rule, so besides general information, such as I was in America, not from this year, and the universes are similar but not identical, I cannot speak further. However, I know much of what would have happened in the British magical world if I had not arrived, and that I can talk about."

Dumbledore said, "I'm sure you have more to talk about. That is why the first set of advanced techniques I will teach you, will be to ensure that there are no eavesdroppers, and that none of you has been substituted or under magical control. Some of the techniques will be non-magical, such as pass phrases."

On Halloween, I was going to make some more changes to this timeline. Quirrell had unique skills in handling trolls, and the substitute thief of the stone would be unlikely to, so we weren't likely to see a troll. In canon, Hermione ran to the bathroom after Ron Weasley insulted her, and then Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown talked to her in the bathroom and were told by Hermione to leave her alone. This time, Padma would be with them, and have a speech, that we had prepared earlier.

After Hermione told them to go away, Padma said, "Hermione, this is Padma, Parvati's twin sister in Ravenclaw, I'd like to say a few words. It's okay if you don't answer. I do understand what you are going through. Until I was in Ravenclaw others sometimes reacted the same way to me. You will grow into your Gryffindor role, and were sorted there for a good reason. However, you are now and always will be, also the definition of a Ravenclaw. Some will resent you for being smarter than them. We have a group, that is not limited to Ravenclaw, of students in our year who are studying magic beyond what is taught for our year. We would very much like to learn with you and to be your friend. You don't need to answer now, just let me or Parvati know and you'll get an invitation to our meeting."

A few days later, Hermione did tell Parvati that the idea of advanced study was something she would like to know more about. She received an invitation to see Dumbledore, also asking that she not mention the invitation to anyone but the one who told her about advanced study. "Chupa Chups" she told the gargoyle and was let into to Dumbledore's office. "Good morning Miss Granger. I am leading the advanced study club, and do need to keep it secret."

So far we had 10 students in our group. Some of our meetings were with Dumbledore, and some were to practice on our own. This group was not made aware of my special background or knowledge, but were told about indications of a return of Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

Meanwhile Fillus Flitwick's dueling club for first years got started. Dumbledore made sure that Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom signed up. Also the members of our secret learning club signed up. He started by teaching us a light beam spell, a shield spell, and Expellimellius, the wand disarming spell. We would practice just these 3 spells, and whoever was hit by the light beam lost that round. He also taught movement and dodging.

After discretely being told by Dumbledore, Flitwick told Neville that his wand was not properly in tune with him, and that legacy wands were usually not ideal. He wrote a note for his grandmother to bring him to Ollivanders.