*****
The information I received about Potter's gender unsettled me quite a bit. After all, everyone in Magical England (except for interested parties like Sirius, Dumbledore, Peter and Voldemort (although this is not certain, it is quite possible that at that moment the madness from the split of the soul took possession of him so much that he simply did not pay attention to this fact )) are firmly convinced that Harry is a guy. And she herself is not going to dissuade anyone from this. Plus, her disguise is worth mentioning.
What is this? Metamorphism? Or an artifact? If the latter, then where did she get it from? And if the former, then there are two options. Either someone taught her how to master this gift at an incredible level for her age, or she is a pure genius in this field. After all, not knowing about magic and living with ordinary people, Harriet was able to master a rather complex science (gift, ability).
True, if you add up all the oddities in her behavior, as well as the way she presents herself, then the second option disappears. Too specific upbringing, too much information she would otherwise have to study and use in practice. But she "learned" about the world of magic on her eleventh birthday.
Who can be behind her? Dumbledore? Perhaps, but then why? Moreover, the actions of the hero (in our case, the heroine) at the end of the second course do not fit into the image of the Messiah of Light.
At that moment, a hunch dawned on me so obvious that I even stood up in place (as I usually thought on the way to the living room. It's night now, and I'm walking around the castle in visa). That attack in the hospital wing. The scream of my opponent after I threw him against the wall. It was definitely her! But what is this silver sphere? Definitely not a charm. So it must be something material. Exactly! In the original, the invisibility cloak had a silvery color. Could it be her? Quite. But where do these properties come from? What had the youngest of the three brothers screwed up in her (well, or death itself, although I have a hard time believing it) that this piece of fabric became capable of such a thing?
Questions, questions, questions and more questions. Some of them have been answered, but even more unknown variables have emerged.
Okay, let's continue where we left off. If Harriet (here it's more likely not if, but definitely) attacked Hermione, trying to eliminate the witness, then it becomes clear why she became so obviously interested in my cryokinesis magic. That night my identity was hidden and I fought mainly with ice. These facts were clearly imprinted on the girl's mind. And then there was an attack by a small house-elf, where I so imprudently (this is true for me today, but then my actions were completely justified) used ice magic.
It's good that at least she had a picture in her head that someone taught me this magic. Harriet herself emphasized this during the conversation. Great, then we will act out this play according to exactly this scenario. I will insist that I learned it from books, but I will not deny the "mysterious teacher" either. Let's see how long I can lead the Heroine by the nose, with someone standing behind her.
And yes, this is now a confirmed fact. The skills that Harriet showed during the attack cannot be mastered in a year. This means that a knowledgeable magician, and a rather powerful one, participated in her upbringing. The flame she used at the end was incredibly strong. By the way, the versions about the artifact and metamorphism are now balanced. It is quite possible to do both.
Now it remains to understand who is behind it. And I have one option in mind, I just need to find out more about it. I think Astoria will help me with this, I just need to carefully lead her to this.
Although it is quite possible that everything I was thinking about is one big misconception and everything is not at all as it seems.
Well, okay, all this will happen tomorrow, but for now you need to get to the room and rest a little.
- What do people desire so passionately, but once they get it, they don't know what to do with it?
Who would doubt that. The statue once again discovered me, despite any disguise I was using. The founders were very skilled, that's for sure.
- Freedom.
- Once again true.
The passage opened, allowing me to enter the living room of our house. Without waiting for another invitation, I entered the doorway.
*****
-How long will you continue to stand like a pillar? Did you really like it that much? — the teacher's malicious voice brought me out of contemplation, once again, of the completed work.
"Teacher, you yourself told me that double-checking the result of the operation is no less important than its progress," I answered Poppy in an instructive tone, not paying attention to her next nudge, turning to face her. - Check.
— Is Little Calder shy? — despite her tone, the teacher duly began checking my next patient.
On the ritual "bed" lay another girl of about twenty-five. Red hair lay slightly curling like a fiery carpet, her face was adorned (that is, it was adorned) by barely visible freckles. She is athletically built, which only emphasizes her beauty. She had everything with her: an hourglass figure, rather wide hips, and long legs. True, the chest is a little small for me, but this did not spoil it.
Okay, stop. Where do you get these thoughts from? Are hormones really starting to affect me (let me remind you, I have the body of a sixteen-year-old)? If before I didn't have much control over them, now it looks like I will have to (fortunately, metamorphism is my best helper in this). Is it worth it though? Maybe this can help me with my emotions. (Although I don't want to return the full range of emotions to myself. In general, recently I began to notice that I like being a semi-robot more and more... this is not good. Another problem. Or maybe not)
A slight fluctuation in mana (which occurs during the teleportation of a patient) brought me out of my thoughts. Great, that means the teacher examined her and didn't find any problems.
- Excellent as always. However, if it were otherwise, I would be surprised," the teacher told me, smiling proudly (either for herself or for me).
Nodding to her words, I sat down in my usual chair. Okay, now it's worth starting the conversation for which I was in a hurry to treat an unknown (although I now know more about her body than her, haha. Damn, again) girl (of course, not to the detriment of the patient himself. I don't need deaths on the operating table ).
"Teacher, if I may, I have an off-topic question," I decided to ask her head-on. All the same, I don't have any tactics, the main thing is not to lie, but not to tell the whole truth. As practice shows, this is an ideal option.
- M? "She hummed, raising an eyebrow in surprise. At the moment, this person was lounging imposingly on the sofa, holding another book in her hands. — You don't often ask questions. Well, come on, I even became interested myself," the elf even put the book aside to confirm her own words.
"While studying the myths of magicians, because they do not arise out of nowhere, especially among magicians, I came across one detail that has been haunting me for a week now," I began a little from afar. And I didn't lie, I actually tried to find the answers myself, but the information seemed to be purposefully erased. "One of the fairy tales mentions that they "received" gifts," with intonation depicting everything that I think about it. - From death itself. The fairy tale itself sounds like this - after all, I decided to retell it from memory (P.A. Attention, those who know it, you can scroll through it. I added it here especially for those who have not read it. Thank you.)
*****
Once upon a time there lived three brothers, and one day they set out to travel. They walked along a long road at dusk and came to a river. It was deep - impossible to wade, and so fast that it was impossible to swim across. But the brothers were versed in the magical arts. They waved their magic wands - and a bridge grew over the river. The brothers were already in the middle of the bridge, when suddenly they saw someone standing in the middle of the road, wrapped in a cloak.
And Death spoke to them. She was very angry that three victims escaped her, because usually travelers drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. She pretended to admire the brothers' skill and invited each of them to choose a reward for outwitting her.
And so the elder brother, a warlike man, asked for a magic wand, the most powerful in the world, so that its owner would always win a duel. Such a magic wand is worthy of a man who defeated Death itself! Then Death broke off a branch from an elderberry bush that grew nearby, made a magic wand out of it and gave it to his elder brother.
The second brother was proud. He wanted to humiliate Death even more and demanded from her the power to summon the dead. Death picked up a pebble that was lying on the shore and gave it to the middle brother. This stone, she said, has the power to bring back the dead.
Death asked her younger brother what he wanted. The youngest was the most modest and wisest of the three and he did not trust Death, and therefore asked to give him such a thing so that he could leave from there and Death would not catch up with him. Death was unhappy, but there was nothing to be done - she gave him her invisibility cloak.
Then Death retreated and let the three brothers cross the bridge. They went on their way and talked among themselves about this adventure and admired the wonderful things that Death had given.
Whether long or short, the brothers each went their separate ways.
The first brother wandered for a week, or maybe more, and came to a distant village.
He found there the wizard with whom he had been in a quarrel. They had a duel, and, of course, the elder brother won - and how could it be otherwise when he had an elder wand in his hands? The enemy remained lying dead on the ground, and the elder brother went to the inn and there let him brag about what a miracle wand he got from Death himself - with it no one would defeat him in battle.
That same night, one wizard made his way to his older brother as he lay and snored, completely drunk, on his bed. The thief stole the magic wand and at the same time cut his older brother's throat.
So Death took the first brother.
Meanwhile, the middle brother returned to his home, and he lived alone. He took a stone that could call the dead, and turned it three times in his hand. What a miracle - standing in front of him is the girl he dreamed of marrying, but she died an early death.
But she was sad and cold, as if some kind of curtain separated her from her middle brother. Although she returned to the sublunary world, there was no place for her here, and she suffered bitterly. In the end, the middle brother went crazy from hopeless melancholy and killed himself just to be with his beloved.
So Death took the second brother too.
Death searched for the third brother for many years, but never found him. And when the younger brother grew old, he himself took off the invisibility cloak and gave it to his son. He met Death as an old friend and went with her in his hunt, and as equals they left this world
*****
I fell silent for a bit to catch my breath.
-Wand, stone and robe. And I had two questions. First, can a creature, like death, give artifacts to mortals? And the second is what they are capable of.
The seed has been planted, all that remains is to wait to see if it will sprout. You may also need to fire for this.
There was silence. Hearing the topic of the conversation, Poppy looked at me very carefully, although there was no wariness or anything like that. I was able to surprise her.
"You ask interesting questions, Calder," she said, sitting on the sofa. - Usually people are interested in them much later, and not everyone. I wonder if she is talking about the questions themselves or the general topic? - Although, why am I surprised? It was logical to assume that you would be much more interested in this than before. But why do you need this? - another look at me. - Anyway. First, it's better for you to tell yourself what you managed to find out, and from what you heard, I will draw conclusions and decide what to tell you and what not, and that malicious smile at the end. You can't just answer like that...
So you need to water it first, okay.
"Over the last week, I've been through the entire library, a public one. — And I read almost all the books on this topic that were in a regular library. , - Surprisingly, there are sadly few books on this issue - in fact, it is precisely because of this that I have not yet gone into the library of the founders. This fact alarmed me very much, and it's not for nothing. - And this is what I managed to find out:
The first is that aspects, which is what the strongest spirits of the planes are called (Lords, Kings - there are many names), can actually bestow their gifts on the intelligent. Such as: Ax of Perun, Gandiva (Hindu bow), Excalibur and so on. But for owning them you will have to bring something in return. Either in life or in afterlife.
Second, the existence of divine artifacts is a generally accepted fact. They managed to make their mark in the history of magical society.
Third, it is not known for sure (at least I did not find confirmation in the sources that I read) whether those three artifacts are divine.
Fourth, those three brothers belonged to the Peverell family, which actually existed in what is now England. This family was known for two reasons: incredible necromancers, as well as equally outstanding artifacts. Alas, this line was interrupted a long time ago.
And fifth, it is reliably known that at least the invisibility cloak actually existed. One of the descendants of the younger brother became related to the then young family and brought into it, as a gift, the mantle of his ancestor. By the way, the name of this genus is Potter. True, they themselves have been claiming for several centuries that the gift has been lost.
There was silence. I took a slight breath and looked at the teacher expectantly, waiting for an answer. She didn't plan to give it yet, she just looked at me thoughtfully and thought about something.
— The most interesting thing is that such a global topic has not been covered much. And while searching for information, I had a clear feeling that someone had purposefully erased traces confirming the existence of the Three Deathly Hallows, although there was plenty of information on other artifacts. For example, the Ax of Perun is currently in the hands of a Russian family, dating back to Ivan the Terrible. They are called Terrible. Also, this clan is the ruling one on the territory of the USSR.
There was silence. It was so thick that you could even cut and lay it out with a knife right now.
"Well," the teacher suddenly began, and I already thought that she would not answer. - You surprised me. It's quite difficult to find so much information in such a short time, even with your capabilities," she said, and then fell silent again.
I wonder what new things she will tell me. Anyway, after talking with her, I will go to the Room of Rescue and look for information in it. And I will use this conversation as evidence if any questions arise for me.
- Okay Calder. You've convinced me. Listen…
*****