Chapter 91 — A Working Chapter
Chapter 91: A Working Chapter
"So, here is our plan for your education."
Godric finished speaking and looked at me carefully. In truth, all the Founders had been watching me with careful eyes throughout. And I probably wouldn't have argued with the plan at all, were it not for one particular thing.
"And this is the thanks I get."
I shook my head.
"Something doesn't suit you?"
"Yes. I'm entirely unhappy with the curriculum you've drawn up. It requires me to give up several plans of my own."
"What exactly is it that doesn't suit you?"
Salazar cut in. His tone was acidly amused, as if to say: My dear child, what business do you have meddling with your unwashed hands? The adults have decided everything. You simply need to say thank you. And honestly, that sort of dismissiveness irritated me quite a bit.
"To begin with, I don't see any time in this plan of yours for developing my Gift. I'm not talking about rest time; rest is rest. I mean dedicated time for working on the Gift itself. Are you asking me to abandon it entirely? And no, my Gift is not Charms and Enchantments. It's just that progress in that discipline supports the development of the Gift, which is exactly why I pay particular attention to it."
We were in the Room of Requirement. Hanging on the wall were previously empty frames, which I had linked to the Founders' portraits now fixed in the Great Hall.
"Beyond that, I'm unhappy with the reduction in time for combat magic, the dueling arts, and work with cold steel. I devote criminally little time to the last of those as it is, just an hour or two in the mornings, and even then mostly practicing with the axe I already know."
"Any further objections?"
Godric was watching me, and with every word his expression grew steadily darker.
"Not objections, observations. With all due respect to Helga, I am not a Herbologist and have no plans to become one. Not in the foreseeable future, at any rate. So tell me, why do I need to study the subject in depth?"
"For general development. Besides, the Convergence is drawing near, and afterwards it may be necessary to cultivate new species and…"
"Then recruit a class of students for it! Longbottom, for instance, has a genuine gift for Herbology. I do not. I have always studied only the school curriculum and never pursued anything beyond it. Next, Potions."
I sighed.
"Undoubtedly a very useful subject, especially given my Gift. But I do not need to know everything. Being able to follow a recipe without making a mess of it is quite sufficient for my purposes. And Transfiguration..."
I looked at Godric.
"Is equally useless to me."
"Oh, stop whining! Four of the greatest wizards in Hogwarts's history are offering to teach you, and you're turning up your nose at it!"
Candida had lost patience and raised her voice.
"Teaching me? The way I see it, you're trying to put me in an early grave. You see, I absolutely must earn it, and through no fault of my own, it's now impossible this year, but at least next summer, I need my Mastery in Charms and Enchantments. With the program you've drawn up, I won't earn that Mastery next summer. I won't earn it by the time I leave school."
"Very well. We can concentrate..."
"We cannot. Because once I have that Mastery, I intend to take on my betrothed girls as apprentices and train them in that discipline with every effort I can give. The survival of the people closest to me matters more to me than almost any body of knowledge. And if you also factor in the fact that the obligation to repair the castle and restore its enchantments has not been lifted from my shoulders..."
I shook my head.
"Trying to fit everything together will produce nothing at all. Don't forget, I'm only twelve. I already know and can do significantly more than many Hogwarts graduates. But I am still human, and I cannot do the impossible. And then there is this Aura business as well."
I shook my head, thinking of the study notes my mothers had sent me. They had been compiled after Summer's first few lessons. The early sessions had focused entirely on the Grimm, making it plain that one could never truly be prepared for them, since they mutated and existed in as many forms as there were species of animals. After that she had moved on to explaining how her world fought them.
From what I understand, Aura is a kind of power that exists in a significantly larger portion of the population than magic does. My mothers said it was successfully unlocked in thirty-five out of forty Squibs we'd hired as guards, and in forty out of fifty ordinary people. Those people were now learning to use it.
I looked around at the portraits.
My mothers had also unlocked their own Aura, though they hadn't made much sense of it yet. They can only say that Narcissa's appears to be connected to healing, and Bellatrix's to fire magic. Which means this summer I'll also need to unlock mine and train with it.
I sighed.
"So where, exactly, do you propose I find the time for all of that?"
"Ahem."
The portraits exchanged glances.
"Perhaps we got a little... carried away?"
Helga said with mild embarrassment.
"But you must understand our position. For each of us, finding someone to pass our knowledge on to has become a reason to exist. Yes, in time there will be many such people, assuming Hogwarts survives the Convergence, but that is all in the future."
"I do understand."
I nodded to Godric.
"And I am genuinely grateful for the honour. But you must also understand, I simply cannot absorb that volume of material. Right now I can maintain only one astral projection. By the start of the next school year there may be two, but that only handles theory. And what I chiefly need to master is practice."
"Well."
Candida tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"There is something in one of my hiding places, an object that could give you more time."
I flinched. From canon, I knew of only one object capable of giving a person more time for study.
"Please don't say a Time-Turner."
I shook my head and actually took a step back from the portraits.
"What?!"
Candida nearly rose from her little chair.
"Do you have any idea what you're saying?! Using a Time-Turner for study purposes?! That's like using Fiendfyre to swat a fly! Time-Turners are deeply unpleasant devices. They don't actually travel through time at all; they transport you into parallel worlds. And those worlds differ from the one you left. Usually the differences are so small you won't notice them, but..."
Candida shook her head and, composing herself, settled back into her chair.
"No. I haven't gone quite mad enough to hand one of those to anyone. What I have is an artifact that allows you to enter a space where time flows somewhat differently than it does here. I call it the Mirror Dimension. There you can practice spells, rest, and practice again. It will allow you to progress much faster in hands-on work. The only drawback is that we cannot be there with you, but you can take your mentor along."
I nodded slowly.
Interesting. It's rather like the Mirror Dimension from Marvel.
"That is genuinely interesting. What about aging?"
"In what sense?"
"Will I age faster?"
"No. It's all very complicated, and explaining it properly would require knowledge of advanced magic, not a handful of spells but genuine mastery across several disciplines."
"All right. Let's say I accept that."
I nodded slowly.
"Let's say the bracelet gives me time for practical work. But you still can't fill my head with all the theory."
I looked around at the Founders.
"So let's negotiate what needs to be learned first, and don't forget that I also have a castle to repair."
"Very well."
Several hours later.
"Finally!"
I was genuinely glad we had finally finished discussing what I would be taught first. The answer, in short, was this: all four Founders would begin by teaching me the school curriculum, so that by the start of my third year I could sit examinations covering every Hogwarts course. Given that I already knew the material for the first three or four years in every subject except Charms and Enchantments (which I knew far beyond any school standard, being an Apprentice after all), this was at least manageable.
From the following year onwards, the real work would begin.
In short, I was not going to have an easy time of it.
"Good. That's settled."
I sighed.
"Now we need to collect the artifact Lady Candida mentioned, and try working with it."
"Yes. Find my daughter and ask her to take you to my private chambers. There's a portrait of her hanging near the bed; behind it is a small alcove with a safe, which contains a bracelet. Don't touch that bracelet. In the right-hand wall of the safe there is an unassuming door that opens with a simple push, and inside is the bracelet you actually need."
I gave a grateful nod.
"Right. I suppose I should start by finding Helena."
"Yes."
Candida nodded. I said my farewells to the Founders and left the Room of Requirement to go and find Candida's daughter.
"Helena."
It took almost two hours to find her. It wasn't wasted time, however. I used it to think everything through properly. And I concluded that regardless of what had been agreed, I would end up being taught everything. Because the Founders would almost certainly teach me according to the curriculum of their own era. Well, not quite, since the modern program is in many respects more refined. But they would study it quickly and compress it into something they considered more suitable.
I had no objection to that in principle. The main thing was that they didn't forget I was human, with a child's body, and that I could not bear an unlimited load.
"Draco."
She gave a small nod.
"You need something?"
"Yes. Your mother asked you to take me to her private chambers."
"Hm. Very well."
She nodded and turned, gliding off in a direction only she knew. She glided for quite some time. We climbed several floors, walked down several long corridors, and finally came to a halt before an unremarkable door.
"That's it."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Strange. I expected something grander from the entrance to a Founder's private rooms."
I placed my hand on the door handle. It opened quietly and without resistance, and I found myself in what appeared to be an ordinary, unused classroom.
"Ahem."
"This way."
Helena drifted to one section of the wall and touched several points on it. I tapped each one with my wand, and the wall opened to reveal a small sitting room.
"Now this..."
I moved through the room and looked around carefully.
"This is considerably more interesting."
I walked to the far door.
"And where is..."
"Through here."
She drifted to a door and I passed through it into rather sparse surroundings: a wardrobe, a bed, a portrait of Helena, and a pair of bedside tables. Not a single book.
"Unexpected."
I shook my head.
"What is?"
"I expected there to be a great many books. But it's rather..."
I looked around the room again.
"Empty."
"Mother preferred not to keep books in her bedroom. She understood that if they were there, her sleep would suffer."
"I see."
I walked to the portrait of Helena and carefully moved it aside, then gently opened the safe and the hidden panel inside, where the bracelet lay. I placed it carefully in my pocket, then returned everything to its original position.
"I suppose I should go back to Lady Candida now, so she can explain how the artifact works."
With that we left the room, and I made my way back to the Room of Requirement.
"I'm back. This bracelet?"
"Yes."
Everyone nods.
"Shall I put it on?"
"Yes."
I put the bracelet on obediently. They explained how to activate the transition into the Mirror Dimension and back, and I even tried it. And yes, the Mirror Dimension really did resemble its Marvel counterpart.
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