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The headmaster rose from the table and gestured for us to follow him. With a brisk step and without uttering a word, we walked along the stone corridors of the castle to the very niche with the gargoyle, which moved aside without any passwords, which is quite logical - the owner of the office, whatever one may say. Climbing the spiral staircase, we entered the headmaster's office, and while Dumbledore quickly took his chair at the table and with a feigned sigh took the first parchment from the impressive stack in front of him, Hermione and I just walked closer. The girl was looking around with undisguised curiosity at the many different magic things scattered here and there throughout the office. As always, this multitude of artifacts of unknown purpose quietly rustled, clicked, moved.
"I'm listening to you carefully," the headmaster said without taking his eyes off the parchment. "Though it may not seem so."
Hermione looked at me questioningly.
"Headmaster. The puzzle is solved, the information analyzed, the conclusions drawn. There are concerns and questions."
Dumbledore signed the parchment and set it aside, and looked at us.
"May I know the details of your guesses?"
"I won't tell you the whole path of assumptions, but the conclusions are as follows. Personally from me, they'll "kidnap"" highlighted quotation marks with intonation, "Hermione. She will be in Black Lake, in the city of mermaids. For equal conditions in front of all the champions - by the statue of a newt, in a prominent place. The question is, what security measures are planned for the kidnapped, and how exactly is it planned to ensure their health and being under water for such a long time?"
"I must express my admiration for your analytical skills," smiled the headmaster. "But I would like to hear your suggestions."
"You can neither confirm nor deny?"
The headmaster only smilingly held his hands out to the side.
"We've assumed," Hermione interrupted the conversation, "that Stasis charms might be used."
"Oh, wonderful charms," smiled Dumbledore, nodding. "And while we are talking about this, let me remember the old days and give a short lecture, signing papers along the way."
Dumbledore picked up another parchment and began to read it fluently, playing with a large white quill in his other hand.
"The Stasis Charms is certainly a marvelous development from centuries ago," the Headmaster spoke without taking his eyes off the parchment. "They allow you to literally stop time for the object being cast, whether it be an object or a living being. The creation of this spell has saved quite a few wizards in its time, allowing them to be brought to the healers in time after seemingly fatal injuries."
The headmaster signed another parchment and, putting it aside, picked up the next one.
"Stasis allows you to stop the spread of almost all curses, the effects of trauma, level out low temperatures and high temperatures, within reasonable limits, of course. If blood flowed from the wound, it would stop flowing. Even if a wound is inflicted while the spell is in effect, it will certainly be an injury, but there will be no blood, no consequences until the Stasis spell is removed. And this," the Headmaster put the unsigned parchment aside, "is outright nonsense..."
Taking another document, Dumbledore began to read it, continuing the story:
"The mind of the wizard subjected to Stasis seems to fall asleep, but not as a dream, no. It's as if time has stopped for him for a moment. It is as if you blinked and found yourself in a completely different place. If you were transported there, of course. Yes, there are slight consequences in the form of a failure of the biological clock, as ordinary people say. After Stasis, you have to get used to the passage of time all over again because, for example, you put a wizard in Stasis in the morning and take him out in the evening. But for him, it still feels like morning. But that's a small price to pay to save yourself from injury, isn't it?"
Dumbledore looked up at us, smiled and winked, then went back to his document.
"Amazing charms, it would seem, but they have a serious weakness. It lies in the side effects after the charms have been cast. There are several restrictions that must be strictly observed when working with a person under a Stasis spell. First and foremost, any transfiguration of a wizard who has been subjected to the Stasis Charms should be avoided by all means. In no case should you turn them into an animal, much less an object. Secondly, dimensional space transfiguration, such as transgression, is ruled out, and apparation is not recommended. The reason for the restrictions is simple."
Dumbledore signed the parchment and once again put the document aside and looked at us.
"In the rare cases, the reasons for which remain unclear, the transfiguration of a person under Stasis takes their mind out of the spell for a brief, elusive moment, then immediately sinks it back in. But if up to this moment the mind was asleep, then after the impact, it seems to fall into a loop of those sensations that it experienced in a short moment of awakening. Now imagine what those sensations are. Suppose the transfiguration took place in an animal whose perception of the world is as close to that of a human as possible. In that case, nothing is particularly terrible, although even such a state of shock from the sudden and abrupt change, the difference, the inability to adapt while in this loop... It is terrible. The transfiguration into an object is much scarier in such a case. The same goes for transgression. Suddenness, unfamiliar surroundings, distorted by a peculiarity of perception, inability to think, to adapt, and all this in an endless loop. The mind is left to suffer. Therefore, a competent specialist, and even more so, a practitioner of transfiguration, must know these limitations and be able to determine Stasis on the wizard."
"What about apparation?" asked Hermione, clearly impressed by the story.
"Apparition is permissible, but only by a very strong wizard, capable of creating a very wide puncture in space so that the dimensionality of the human body under Stasis is not distorted. Alternatively, apparation is allowed with the help of magical beings capable of it. This could be a house-elf or a phoenix. Nundu are also said to be able to move in space, but for obvious reasons, this question remains unexplored. They have a different movement mechanism that is safe."
"I see. Thank you for such useful information, Headmaster." Hermione and I nodded appreciatively, and Dumbledore smiled almost imperceptibly.