The days until the ritual was ready dragged on extremely slowly. It started right away on the morning of December twenty-fifth, and with every hour, the waiting became more and more tedious. I didn't find Hermione in the common room when I went out for my morning run and other physical exercises, but there was Lavender hurrying somewhere.
"Hi," I waved my hand in greeting, and the blonde turned around abruptly.
"Oh, hi," smiled Lavender, recognizing me. "I didn't expect anyone to wake up this early."
"I wake up like this every day. Listen, is Hermione going to practice today?"
"Hermione," Lavender thought for a moment. "Well, there's a snoring lump lying in bed, pulling the blanket up over her curly head. She was buried in books almost until morning, so it's unlikely."
"Yeah? Well, okay. Everyone needs a rest sometimes."
"Max, I have to run, I have to see McGonagall..."
The blonde hurriedly retreated, and I just shrugged my shoulders and headed off to practice. The day began on the usual schedule.
After training, showering, and breakfast, which was skipped by Hermione, I went to the Restricted Section, but not so much for reading as for brainstorming.
Considering that when I have a personality disorder during the ritual, I acquire some very different life reference points, I need to set myself the task of going to Voldemort's lair and killing him with a sword.
«That's where I can help» ...
Rowena expressed a simple idea that if these three individuals were informed about the goal in the current situation, they would go to fulfill it. The reason for this is simple — they have my knowledge, which means they will be well aware of the danger that Voldemort poses right now. In general, the probability that my body would go out and kill the Dark Lord on its own after the ritual is quite high.
And how to set the right task before the sword?
«I can set a task.»
So it turns out that I rely on four schizophrenias in my head for the success of a vital event?
«Something like that. Imagine that this is a squad of three fighters, and you sent them on a mission.»
Wonderful!
However, I have no other option, and I don't flatter myself that I will be able to overpower Voldemort in open combat, even with my various trump cards. Unless, at the crucial moment, I could make use of the phase-inversion magic that I had developed? But that would have to be used at the crucial moment, so that he wouldn't have time to realize and take action. And I also need to finish the laser. Right now…
Closer to lunch, Hermione visited the Restricted Section and wanted to study the books, but when she saw me, she came over.
"Hi, Max."
"Hi, Miona," I smiled back.
"We need to talk."
The girl looked extremely serious, which means that the conversation should not be postponed.
"I'm listening to you carefully."
The girl pulled out her wand and waved it around us, casting muffling charms. Only after that, she sit down on a bench nearby. She was looking somewhere to the side, and after a couple of seconds of silence, she spoke:
"I've been thinking for a long time. About different things. I was thinking about the battle at the Ministry. I counted more than ten scenarios in which you wouldn't have to kill anyone."
"I have to admit, there were options. The most obvious one is to pick up Sirius together with you, arrange an explosive wave from the short apparation and go on the defensive."
"Here. I had no doubt that you had calculated at least several scenarios. But you chose to kill consciously and unnecessarily."
"Not without reason. First - they were Death Eaters. To be more precise, almost everyone was in the so-called Inner Circle, according to the publicly available interrogation protocols of the late Karkarov. The list of their deeds and crimes is worth half a dozen life sentences or the death penalty."
"Is this really a reason to kill them?" Hermione finally looked at me, and her face expressed an incomprehensible mixture of anxiety with something else, even though the emotions were noticeably muffled by occlumency.
"And if not, then what? DMLE and Aurors are powerless and can only work from the defense. Perhaps right now, the one I wouldn't have killed would be enjoying someone's torment and agony, depriving the family of a father, mother, or their children."
"But to kill..."
"What about the situation after the World Cup?"
Hermione looked at me like I was a stupid schoolboy.
"We were trapped. We didn't really know how to do anything, if seriously. We couldn't defeat them, just as we couldn't apparate or use short apparation. You, it seems to me, couldn't win. But to kill in response to a Killing Curse… It's easier than winning."
"Suppose. A hopeless situation. What about training in healing magic?"
"That's not it. In rare moments, I saw something in Lady Greengrass's gaze… Vindictive, yes," Hermione nodded to her own words. "It was her personal revenge that she combined. So to speak, pleasant with useful. I don't know the reasons, but that's her business. It seems to me that she would have killed them anyway, and the only question was whether these deaths would be of use."