Chapter 41: Skipped
“Enter,” Dumbledore called.
Hailey walked in. The dementor-girl was with her again, and the new week’s report was floating in front of her again.
“I think,” Dumbledore went on, before Hailey could speak. “I think I’ve figured out how you were able to produce such a powerful patronus on the train.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “Because… When I was… a girl, I couldn’t produce anything from concentrating on that. Hated it, too. Thanks for the bra, though, it helped- a lot. But now that I’m back, well, me, I can concentrate on the fact that I’ve returned, and…” He sighed, drawing his wand. “Expecto Patronum.”
A feeble, wispy phoenix fluttered out of the Elder Wand. It was the weakest Patronus he’d ever seen it produce, but it was a patronus.
The dementor-girl smiled softly at it.
He sighed again, while Hailey nodded thoughtfully. “What I noticed, is that while being a girl makes you happy, it put me in a state of constant distress and even depression- almost despair, though I knew it was fully reversible.” He watched his feeble patronus flutter over to the dementor-girl, and land on her outstretched arm- after which she started stroking it with her other hand. “Yet you… You were ‘flipped’ like that at or even before you were born- which made that depressed, despairing state your base state. And since the Patronus requires happiness beyond our base state, meaning the happier we are throughout our youth, the harder it is to cast a patronus…” He paused. “Because of that, removing that depressive state by becoming a girl creates the illusion of enormous happiness… Or perhaps enormous true happiness, I don’t know.”
“It’s true happiness,” Hailey told him outright. “I have that on good authority.” She nodded. “The same… er, authority, told me the negative when I’m Harry is also very real.”
“Authority…?”
“I know a telempath.”
“Ahh,” he muttered. “Still, though, I expect that because the depressed state ended up being your base state, you’re able to utilize the full difference between the two, not just the positivity you experience now, for the Patronus. And considering the sheer power of the negative state… That half alone would be enough to outshine any other Patronus ever cast.” He finally allowed his feeble patronus to collapse.
Hailey, looking at it, scowled when the dementor-girl gazed unseeingly at her suddenly empty hands, looking sad. She sighed, and drew her own wand. “Expecto Patronum,” she muttered.
A great, silver stag erupted from her wand, landing on the dementor-girl’s other side. She immediately looked up at it, as it turned to step up next to her, and smiled brightly at it.
“She likes patroni,” Hailey observed.
Dumbledore tried not to be envious of her patronus. She’d evidently cast it effortlessly, but it was still on par with one of the brightest patroni he’d ever produced from the Elder Wand. “Is that what you did on the train?”
“Oh, not even close,” she said. “That one was absolutely blinding.”
“Hailey?”
Hailey looked; Lupin had called to her from around his office door. “Mm?”
“What are you doing?” he asked, curiously. “Where are your friends?”
“Hogsmeade,” she answered quickly, then smiled. “I still think it’s amusing that everybody seems to think I didn’t get my form signed.”
He scowled. “Why are you still here?” he asked.
Hailey glanced down at the dementor-girl she had under her arm. “Sadarina needed me.”
“Sadarina?” he asked.
“I don’t think she really understands the world around her just yet, but very early on, she managed to form words, and told me her name.” She smiled. “The understanding is coming, though- lately, she seems to understand when I tell her I’ll be right back, and she does respond to her name.”
He nodded slowly. “How long do you think it will be?”
“Not long,” she told him. “Madam Pomfrey said most of her brain is developed, she’s just got the last few parts to form. Shouldn’t be any more than a week or so before she’s as smart as any other ten-year-old girl.”
“And… the Patronus?” He gestured at the silvery stag that had been walking next to them, but was now just standing.
“She likes patroni. They make her smile, without fail.”
“Ahh.” He paused, considering her for a moment. “Why don’t you come in? I’ve just taken delivery of a Grindylow for our next lesson.”
“A Grindylow?” Hailey asked, stepping forwards in evident acceptance of his offer.
He stepped backward, holding the door wide. “Water demon,” he announced to her. “We shouldn’t have much trouble with him- not after the Kappas, at least.”
“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, rubbing her chin as she gazed at the Grindylow.
Lupin paused, looking at her expression. “Would you like a cup of tea?” he offered. “I was just thinking of making one.”
She looked up at him, down at Sadarina, and back up at him again. “Sure, why not?” she smiled. “Though I will warn you, Sadarina doesn’t like to sit still for too long.”
He chuckled. “A curious one, then?” He tapped the kettle with his wand, using a quick flash-boil charm.
“Oh yes,” Hailey told him. “Not sure if she’s a Gryffindor or not just yet, though.”
He sighed. “Even though she’ll die before the year ends.”
She sighed. “Yeah. But if a patronus resurrected her, perhaps a patronus can keep her alive? I mean, she does like them.” She took a sip of her tea. “Mm, good tea, thank you.”
“Speaking of tea,” Lupin muttered. “How has Divination been going? I understand you’re reading the tea leaves right now.”
She smiled. “Yup. Professor Trelawney likes to see Grimms in my cup, but it’s not the Grim- it’s Padfoot.”
Lupin froze. Padfoot? How did she know about Sirius? Did she know about him too?
Right at that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Lupin called.
Snape entered, carrying a goblet of Wolfsbane Potion for him.
“Ahh, thank you, Severus,” he greeted. “Could you leave it for me here, on my desk?”
Lupin couldn’t help but notice Snape’s sideways glance at Hailey, who had raised an eyebrow, while he continued to tell him how he should take it. Funny, he already knew- was Snape trying to clue Hailey in? Though, that reminded him of something.
Finally, Snape left.
“I’ve been feeling a bit off-color lately,” Lupin informed Hailey off-hand, hoping to pass it off to the Goddess of Reports in front of him as something mundane.
He went on, talking simply about how he wasn’t much of a potion brewer and Snape had kindly concocted that one for him- but try as he might, Hailey only watched him in silence, her teacup in her hands.
Finally, he just drained the goblet and made a face at it. “Disgusting,” he grumbled- it really was, but at least it worked. “Anyways,” he announced, and picked up his own teacup once again, to wash the flavor of the potion out of his mouth. At least it didn’t matter what he followed it with, it would still do its job. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, so-!” He took a sip of tea.
Hailey picked that moment to speak. “That was Wolfsbane Potion.” It wasn’t a question.
Lupin was only peripherally aware that he’d done a spit-take, spraying tea all over the ungraded homework scrolls from his sixth-year class the day before, while he turned to stare at her. “How… How could you tell?”
“I guessed, mostly. Prongs told me about Moony.”
He stared at her; yes, she evidently did know about him. “Prongs?” he asked, slowly. “Isn’t he… dead?”
“Some dead men,” Hailey smiled softly, “can still talk.” She smiled up at him. “I don’t have a problem with it- you’re obviously taking steps to manage your…” She paused, as if searching for an appropriate word. “Condition,” she continued eventually, “so why should it be a problem? Most of our classes had a bunch of trouble with the Hinkypunk and are a class behind, so a day off to let them catch up probably wouldn’t be out of order- what do you think?” She tilted her head curiously at him.
“You know a knife won’t get you through that hole, right?”
Sirius Black whirled around at the blithe comment, searching for the speaker. It most certainly wasn’t the Fat Lady before him, the guardian of the Gryffindor dormitories- who he’d been about to start slashing at with his knife. He was so close to Peter!
He spotted the speaker.
It was… What-was-her-name, that girl he’d run into on Privet Drive, who had used such an amused tone when she’d informed him Harry had disappeared over a year prior. She had a younger companion, who he didn’t recognize- and, he realized, she was wearing a Gryffindor badge. “You,” he stated. Perhaps he could get her to tell him the password?
She nodded calmly. “Me,” she agreed, walking calmly closer. A bright patronus walked around the corner behind them, a great stag following them closely.
He waited for her to walk right up to him, without a care in the world. “What’s the password?” he asked.
“You know I can’t give that to you,” she told him, as if she were telling off a naughty child.
He showed her the knife. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he was mad enough he might just.
She sighed. “First of all,” she began- then reached up and casually, effortlessly, plucked the knife from his tight grip. “This is a nice knife, so let’s not destroy it, shall we?”
He stared at her. “H-How-!?” he began.
“I’m stronger than I look.”
Her companion, the younger girl, spoke up suddenly. “Innocent!” She looked up at the older girl. “Black Innocent!” It looked like it took great concentration to form each word.
“Yes, Sadarina,” the older girl answered, smiling down at her. “I know he’s innocent.”
The younger girl- Sadarina- seemed confused. “Know?”
She nodded. “Yes- it was Peter that snitched on my parents and killed thirteen muggles, not Sirius. Prongs told me.”
“Prongs?” Sirius blurted out, trying to make sense of what he’d just heard.
The girl looked back up at him, and smiled. “Yes. Turns out some dead men can talk.”
He stared at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
She didn’t wait for him to finish, handing the knife back to him, handle-first. “By the way, not only are there five hundred and twenty one third-year Gryffindor boys, scattered across two thousand, four hundred and two dormitories, but a knife is a terrible weapon when your target is a rat. You’ve got a much better bet with a cat.” She shrugged. “Aside from that, in my opinion, a verbal password is one of the easiest accesses to breach- you merely have to be close enough when somebody else hollers it and boom.
“Well… Not that the others are any harder, of course. Slytherin also has a password, but Hufflepuff you just tap the right barrel- and it never changes, though if you get the wrong one, you get to smell like vinegar for a week. At least Ravenclaw makes you answer a riddle, and it does change- every time, actually- but anyone with half a brain can get in because they’re really simple riddles, selected from a pool of about fifty.”
He blinked, and stared at her. “How… How do you know…?”
She shrugged. “Because I’m the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.”
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Ooh, still a good chapter!
Haily not just abusing the False Vaccuum of Magic but going into the Imaginary values also?
Wait, you have a Japanese folklore creature in Britain?
Also, for Sirius to get into the student dorm without Dumbledore knowing showed how lax the school's security is. Despite being a magical fortress, its intruder detection system is really flaw.
I have read 2 of your stories so far.
Weird, different, unique, written as such they couldn't be, yet the worlds keep going on their own.
The people, and the magic seems about right.
No visible inconsistencies to me, no blanks that can't actually be filled.
I can keep going with the qualities of this, I see no lows, except for the seemingly fast pacing.
11084136
The Kappa line is straight from the book (yes I've memorized parts of it, don'tjudgeme)
As for Dumbledore, well, I'm pretty sure Computerneek is running with the ongoing theory that Dumbledore is aware of stuff like this, but lets it happen anyway because it's all part of a larger plan of his own devising
11084136
That's a canon phrase, actually.
And in canon, Sirius shredded the portrait and left... and only Peeves could tell Dumbledore who it was. I agree, Hogwarts security is nonexistent. The castle wasn't made to defend, but to intimidate- or maybe even just to look regal.
what if the Patronus is the life-blood of the poor former Dementor?