In classroom seven, Felix sat in a swivel chair, deep in thought.
The place where he is now has a circular platform with a floor that seems to have been carefully polished from an undamaged single block of black stone, and one can clearly see silhouettes of people in it.
In the space before him, a blurry book floated in the air, irregular in size and shape, but when Felix looked over, the book became what he wanted it to be.
He waved his wand and a silvery solid Patronus materialized.
It looked like a small Rain Swallow, and when it appeared it immediately flew quickly around and circled over the circular room, circling twice before landing directly in front of Felix as if it had never moved.
Felix waved his wand a second time and a golden, round, fluffy-feathered Snidget flew down, leaping and swaying along the floor, while at the same time a black, furry, Acromantula appeared out of nowhere, a horrific-looking creature that looked a little more pleasant in its Patronus state.
There are Long-horned, Emerald-green Serpent; Golden Phoenix with two long, beautiful plumes; Dragons of various shapes and sizes; Snow White Ferret-like creature with no name; Thin, skeletal Thestral with a pair of bat wings; and if you look closely, you will find a Dementor mixed among them, which, even in Patronus state, looked like a black and grey piece of rotten cloth.
Compared to it, the rags in the Hog's Head Inn are a hundred times better.
Felix sat in the centre, like a head keeper of some magical zoo, staring at these thousand strange Patronus in his sight.
He looked at them over and over again.
These creatures seemed to possess their own 'characters', and they were all different.
For example, the Thestral is timid and retains those silver-grey, pupil-less eyes, while the round Golden Snidget bird and the unknown white ferret seem to possess an exuberant curiosity and bounce around; and as for the Dragons - they kept roaring with their eyes filled with rage, although they don't stand a few dozen feet tall now. They don't look much taller than a Fire Dwelling Salamander on the ground, so when a small Hungarian Horntail craned its neck and roared, the Occamy coiled next to it sprang up and knocked the dragon off its feet.
Not far away, a Long-horned Emerald Serpent slithered and leaped into the smooth, calm lake-like floor, its body swimming freely within, before poking its head out the other side and locking eyes with the glowering Sphinx.
...
If they have anything in common, it is that they have all been carefully studied by Felix. In other words - at least in theory - he could easily turn into one of their kind.
There was a loud banging on the door from outside, and it sounded like a troll might be standing outside waving a wooden stick and slamming the door hard.
Of all the Professor's memory bodies in Classroom Seven, the only one capable of such a thing would be - well - himself, Felix grimaced, as golden lines emerged from the walls of the circular room, which twisted into the shape of a door, and the next second, the door was pushed open from the outside.
"Wow!"
The memory body whistled, the whistle echoing off the smooth floor as he looked around, "You can do this now? Hah~ I really want to have that part of knowledge!" With that he turned his body into a silvery transparent state as well, his two legs covered in mist, as he pretended like he is a Patronus too.
"Hi big guy, I'm your companion," the memory body introduced itself to a towering Thunderbird, "I," he pointed to himself, "and you guys- -" his hand traced a circle horizontally, circling all the magical creatures present, "are the same."
Thunderbird looked at him with sidelong glances and didn't move a single feather.
Felix rolled his eyes.
"You should watch out, it's 'pride' incarnate."
"What's the point? Is it supposed to impersonate a statue?" The memory body circled around the Thunderbird cheerfully, and the Thunderbird, which stood a head taller than a normal human, flapped its wings and blew the memory body away, and he floated up to Felix as if he weighed nothing.
As they looked at each other, Memory Body cleared his throat.
Felix suddenly thought of something and said to his memory body, "I have a question which I need your input on for reference." He said slowly, "Voldemort's soul is broken, and my idea is to work on that, but playing with souls is a more taboo and evil field than time, and public information about it is scarce ...
I can alter the time of an apple, but I can't do the same to the soul of a rat or anything...
Soul, memory, emotion, the three are intertwined, and if given enough time -" Felix furrowed his brow.
The memory body looked like he had been listening carefully.
"Keep talking!"
"-don't interrupt." Felix said, "Whether it's the field of Time or the field of Soul, I was only exposed to a few scattered points of information to begin with ..."
For the former, Felix had the research material of the successive generations of Unspeakables that he had copied from the Department of Mysteries, and the Hour-Reversal Charm is part of the results they had produced.
He also has ample time energy to play with and find the truth behind it.
The so-called 'ample' is only relative; the thing is like a Dementor, once it's put into research, the number will decrease drastically and there will never be enough.
And of the latter - the Domain of Soul - Felix also has a few insignificant footholds to stand and work on, such as the Unforgivable Curses, and the Thestral Perspective. But trying to create a soul cage with these isolated bits and pieces can only be described as highly challenging.
The good thing is that Felix is highly proficient in memory magic and has an in-depth study on one of its branches - Emotions. What he has been busy with these days is also related to this subject: Using memory magic and emotion magic as a springboard to step into the domain of the soul.
His increasingly bizarre Patronus is a combined result of these two.
In addition to Patronus, Felix had to thank the Dementors for their contribution to this cause with their lives.
Dementors were not true beings, they shared some similar characteristics to Voldemort's spirit form, and if a Patronus could trap a Dementor, could it trap Voldemort's spirit form?
Felix is working on just that. He is somewhat hesitant at the moment though, unsure of which one to use as the main attacker.
"Which emotion do you think Voldemort has the weakest resistance to?" Felix asked.
"Well ..." the memory body mused.
"It can't be any of the negative emotions," Felix said to himself, "so it comes down to the positive emotions? But can remorse be classified among the positive emotions? It might play an important part in the 'prison formation' later on, but to use it to capture him ..."
He shook his head, it probably wouldn't work too well.
"I think ..." The memory body opened its mouth.
"... Can't say for sure though," Felix's attitude wavered again, " 'remorse' or 'repentance' is an emotion that Voldemort would never be able to produce on his own, as his self-proclaimed nobility would not allow him to do so, so such an emotion might cause him great pain."
"I say, why don't you just group them and send them together?" After several interruptions, the memory body spoke in a very aggressive tone.
" All together? Send them all together with a single mind?" Felix blinked.
"Yeah, in one big swarm." The memory body looked towards the hulking Patronus, "You've got a whole army of Patronus."
Felix switched his mental gears on, it wasn't that he hadn't thought of a similar line of thought, but these Patronus weren't meant for fighting, they were meant to trap Voldemort and be used as a type of cage. Essentially, it would be no different from a Dementor capture cage - at best, the cage holding Voldemort would have to be stronger ...
When he was about to open his mouth to explain, a strange idea was suddenly born in his mind, and he was fascinated by it.
A swarm? No, rather he should create some kind of cycle.
...
When he saw Sirius again the next day, he looked mildly disinterested.
"I wonder which part of that old man's mind went wrong." Sirius said with an unpleasant look on his face, "He came into my office last night and asked all sorts of questions and rushed me-" He suddenly stopped and changed the subject stiffly, "By the way, did you mess with him, he kept making things up about you."
"I'm a little more curious, how did he get to your office?" Felix asked.
When he looked around the great hall, he could clearly discern two distinct groups of students in the school: those who attended their classes as usual, who were still in the mood to discuss whether or not their breakfast was tasty, as their final exams had yet to begin; and those in the other group - the fifth and seventh years - who looked pale and had no appetite.
One seventh-year Ravenclaw girl stared blankly at the vegetable soup, while her friend carefully looked at the strawberry tart that she had just taken two bites of, as if she was worried that there might be poison in it - or maybe it was the other way around, Felix guessed in his mind.
Either way, they hadn't done anything for a full two minutes.
"Because I had moved his portrait there," Sirius said sullenly, as if regretting his former hasty decision, "just the day before I was appointed. He told me that since even Kreacher helped out in the kitchen here in his spare time, there was no reason to leave him in the big house."
"So you agreed?" Felix asked with some amusement, "You should know that his feelings are not real. And he's not your great-grandfather either."
"Yeah, I know, even without learning about it. If you had had to deal with all those stiff-reacting, lame talking portraits of your ancestors from the beginning of your childhood, you would have realized it just like I did without being taught." Sirius said grimly, "Hogwarts Headmaster Portraits are more realistic at best, but they still can't react beyond their initial setting ..."
"Just like my mother," he said sullenly, "she really did leave a lot of resentment in that portrait."
That's the sad thing about Portraits.
They are like a carefully written piece of programming that mobilizes pre-stored memories before reacting - they are not living beings, but objects that give feedback according to the established rules. Moreover, it is difficult for them to change their own inherited perceptions; Sirius will always be the same 'unworthy son who disgraced his family' in Mrs. Black's mind, and will never be forgiven.
But, on the other hand, their reaction is also most genuine, if Phineas Black's portrait had shown adequate regard for Sirius's life, the odds of it being the same even when he was alive in person is great.
Perhaps to Sirius, despite being just a portrait, it might be one of the very few things related to the Black family that could still be properly communicated with now.
...
The wizard grading exams would last for two weeks.
If you ask Felix what's different about this year's exams from the past three years, he would say that him being appointed as a non-staff examiner is one - during his free time, he would join the examiners of the Wizard Examination Authority to maintain discipline during the Written Examinations.
In previous years such duties would have only gone to the Heads of the four Houses. But this year they made an exception and added him together.
Felix had the opportunity to invigilate the first and last day of the exams, and he had a strong sense of anticipation, but of course, the last day carried a lot of weight - it would be the day that Dumbledore and Voldemort would duel.
He is accompanied by Professor Tofty. As Felix led the fifth years from the entrance hall to the great hall, many of them were surprised to find that the four long tables had disappeared and had been replaced by lots of small single tables.
"This exam is on the theory of charms. The sheets, quill, and ink are on the tables. All right, you may begin."
Professor Tofty finished in an old man's slow tone and nodded towards Felix, who turned a giant hourglass upside down.
The students turned over their test sheets and began to answer.
Felix stood on the podium, and to him, the exam was like a highly condensed miniature representation of real society, and the students' expressions were astonishingly varied and their reactions were very amusing.
There were sad faces - Felix guessed that this group of students must not have been prepared well.
Of course, there were also those with relaxed expressions. As time passed, the moods of these groups of students gone to two extremes, with the second group becoming more and more gloomy, with their brows forming a knot, while the first group remains consistent from start to end.
Ron Weasley's performance here was good enough to be included in the case study, and it was still N.E.W.Ts difficulty - if Felix intended to carry out a study in that area - as his expression shifted back and forth, switching between excitement and hesitation at high speed. For a short time, Felix could only assume that he might know a little bit of each question, but only a little ...
There were also some students who displayed a look of surprise, the kind of reaction you only get when you 'come across something you're good at in an exam'. Harry, for example, swore he would never forget the incantation of the Levitation Charm in his whole life, and he had no doubt Ron would too, after all, not everyone had the chance to knock out a frenzied troll with a clean shot.
The second question was about the counter for the Conjunctivitis Curse, and Harry was able to answer it with ease.
The third question was a little more difficult, which involved a detailed description of the Repairing Charm.
Harry had read Hermione's spell notebook carefully before the test, so what appeared in his mind at the moment was not the slate font of the textbook, but Hermione's handwriting.
He began by writing the definition of a Repairing Charm, "A ... spell that can be used to ... fix ... broken things... " Why is there such a thing as a definition? Harry thought as he wrote, the memory of what followed was a little fuzzy, and he could only sum it up in his own words.
After checking it over he added an extra description after 'repair', with 'mostly'.
And then what? Harry thought as he looked up and saw Hermione head, who was seated a few seats ahead, and her head never raised even once, her quill spinning like a spinning top. He stared at Hermione's dishevelled hair in wonder… what would happen if he used a Repairing Charm on them? Inspiration came to him all at once, and he lowered his head and quickly wrote, "Taboo ... cannot be used on people ... does not work on liquids in vessels either."
Good, Harry thought, that's all the groundwork needed.
He was just about to write out the specific incantation when another point of knowledge came to his mind that he could write about - the inventor of the spell. So he lifted his quill, "This spell was created by the witch working in Ministries-"
Harry paused.
All he could remember about the spell is that it was invented by a witch in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but he couldn't remember exactly which office she was in, and he tried the elimination method; it was unlikely to be the office where Mr. Weasley is working because Harry couldn't figure out how this spell could be associated with muggles, maybe because wizards couldn't figure out those increasingly complicated muggle tools?
He didn't end up using that line of argument because he hadn't heard a similar kind of story from Hermione.
So he crossed out those words and simply summarized them as "This spell was invented by a witch at work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." After writing it down, Harry stared at the two words 'at work', he wasn't really sure, but he thought it was something worth the risk.
Next, he wrote out the incantation and casting action for the Repairing Charm in rapid motion, and described his feelings as he cast the spell at no small length.
Harry continued to answer the questions, he particularly liked questions seven, twelve, and fifteen as they were all about Summoning Charm, and Harry had had some successful experiences of summoning a broom, like when he had summoned it from his dorm room in the castle to the Forbidden Forest when dealing with a vicious Hungarian Horntail.
The twentieth question was about the Patronus Charm, and Harry wrote a large volume about it, eventually filling in all the space he could.
By the time he came out of the exam room, Harry was slightly more relaxed, he felt he would at least get a 'Exceeds Expectations', and from the look on Ron's face he had answered well too, but neither of them was interested in comparing their answers with Hermione.
"I know we made mistakes and missed a lot of points, but let's embrace some sense of satisfaction for the moment when the results are yet to be issued." Ron told her firmly, and Harry thought Ron sounded like a convict awaiting the outcome of his trial.
Even Death Eaters, I'm sure, wouldn't discuss their crimes with their fellow convicts before being judged. Harry thought.
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