Chapter 15. The influence of the past.
I had to share with Carlos a simplified formula for the animaga potion, which, by the way, was invented by one of the Blacks. Carlos himself was going to leave the academy after this year, but because of Madame Maxime's request and because of me, he decided to stay for another year of training. For him, a delay of another year was not very critical, moreover, given that he wanted to try himself in teaching in five years, the delay was rather useful. Therefore, Cortez was very sensitive to the requests of Madame Maxime.
The amount of mandrake leaves to be carried in the mouth was much less than in the original potion. You could fit these leaves under your upper lip. There was no need to collect your own saliva, which flows profusely when your mouth is full of mandrake. Yes, and the wear time was reduced from a month to one week, while there was no reference to the lunar cycle. Yes, some plants were added to the potion that are not present in the original composition, such as: kupena officinalis and motherwort root; but the cost of them was affordable for everyone, the total cost of the potion increased by just a little.
As I determined for myself, all the supplements were aimed at reducing the pain from the first transformation and calming the wizard, who at the first transformation experiences an indescribable feeling of pain mixed with fear. In my opinion, the alternative potion was precisely an improved one, although for some reason I did not understand, it was considered worse than the original one, and it was classified as an alternative. That is, it is another potion with a similar result.
Another feature of the alternative potion was the encounter with his animal spirit. You had to fight him and lose. At the same time, it was impossible to give in. If the spirit felt that you were yielding to it, it could have killed you. If you defeat the beast spirit, there will be no transformation. Therefore, the "patient" was usually not informed about the fight with the spirit of the beast, so that it would be a surprise for him, and that he would fight for real, without fools. After the capture of the body by the spirit of the beast, the transformation took place by itself. The faster it happened, the better, the person experienced the pain for less time, and the fear did not penetrate so deeply into the feelings. After the transformation, the spirit of the beast seemed to recede, calm down, the wizard could quite consciously control his body in a new form and turn back into a human.
With me, of course, the case is special, I knew all the nuances from the very beginning, so I was afraid. I convinced Carlos that there was no danger when she was actually present. But for me, everything went very well, the beast spirit just did not give me a chance, I lost the fight with him before I even had time to realize its beginning. Spirit I strongly promarinovali waiting, I was sure that he wasn't coming. The reason could be an improperly prepared potion or the absence of the spirit of the beast, this also happened, and I have too strong a rational side. With the obscurus inside me, it felt like it had replaced my animal spirit. Obscurus is a little-studied phenomenon, what changes in magic occur there, what features can be observed-no one knows.
Carlos made his potion in two weeks, and this time I covered for him. For some reason, he did not entrust such a responsible task to the older guys, probably because we were already tied to this little secret with him.
Even before he performed the ritual and took the potion, Cortez kept trying to get me to tell him about my animagus form, but I didn't say anything.
"Blair, tell me, what have you become?" Carlos asked.
"No, no, buddy," I said, smiling enigmatically — " first you turn into your beast and tell me about your animagus form, and then I'll tell you about my animagus form."
— Why such secrets?" Cortez wondered.
"Secrets?" What secrets? I wondered delano. — It's all about your animagus form.
— What's wrong with my animagus form?" Cortez asked with real interest.
— You know that the animagus form reflects the inner essence of the wizard, right?" So far, I've only got my suspicions. I won't tell you what you'll turn into, but I think it might affect your first transformation. But then, after the transformation, when you tell me about your form, I'll tell you about mine. Everything is fair.
As much as Carlos tried to get the secret out of me, I didn't give in.
I had to wait even longer for the end of the experience of Carlos ' first transformation than he had for me in his time. The next day, I was completely sleepy and nodded off all the time in all classes, even received a couple of comments from the teachers. But then, a day later, I thoroughly questioned Carlos, and I told him about myself.
"Well, are you a snake?" I asked my friend. Yes, yes, already a friend, common secrets unite. And you could rely on Carlos for almost anything, of course, with caution.
- Yes. What do you mean?"
"It's simple, — I said," it's my personal magic gift, I see the basic features of people. You look a lot like a snake.
"At Hogwarts, snakes are considered vile..." said Cortez suspiciously.
"Ah, don't take it so one — sided," I waved my hand, " snakes are a sign of wisdom and treachery, life and death, prudence and coolness. You can't judge everyone by the same standard here. Specifically, you correspond to the wisdom and coolness, atypical for your Spanish roots, I'm talking about coolness.
"All right, then, I'm not offended," Cortez smiled, accepting the explanation. — What's your pet?" my friend asked me.
"The dog! I said simply. - A loyal friend, a loyal companion, a sympathetic assistant in a responsible and dangerous business — these are the main qualities of this animal.
I didn't expect this from myself. It seemed to me that I was like a cat that walks by itself or a wolf, a kind of wolf alone, looking for his wolf, and then his pack.
"A dog?" Cortez asked. — I thought you were supposed to be a raven." Just as gloomy all the time, a little unsociable. I only saw you cheerful during the Chanticleer trial, I didn't even think that you could be like another person.
That day, we talked about a lot more with Carlos about the characters, suggesting which animal is more suitable for whom. Carlos and his snake opened up to themselves in a new way. That day our friendship really began. Cortez became my oldest friend, a friend as good as Cedric at Hogwarts.
My second friend was Fleur. Well, as a friend? Our friendship was strange. Fleur constantly challenged me to a duel, finding some excuse. The reason could be anything.
"Monsieur Blair, I see that you did not eat a croissant at breakfast today," Fleur said defiantly. This time you will lie down and I will stay standing.
"I accept your challenge, Miss Delacour —" I would say.
Everyone took this challenge as a game, even as a joke. It was already obvious to everyone that Fleur had chosen me as a permanent training partner. But she couldn't just come up and ask, so the challenges to the duel took on an increasingly symbolic and grotesque appearance. Everyone was already laughing and waiting to see what Fleur would come up with next.
In a strange way, I began to think of Fleur as a friend. I also liked these constant duels, and her teasing before each fight, sometimes they were more interesting than the fight itself.
As I entered the dueling circle, I waved my wand several times in the same dramatic manner as before.
— I see, Monsieur Blair, that you have not abandoned your habit of waving your wand before every duel, pretending to be a windmill?" Fleur urged.
"You remind me of Don Quixote in your tenacity and fearlessness, Miss Delacour," I said. — I'm just trying to fit in."
"No, no, I don't look like a Cervantes character at all," Fleur smiled, " your friend Cortez is more likely to pass for a Spanish knight." You will become a squire with him, complementing the image.
— I don't agree with that, " I said. — I've already been cast in a role from Stevenson's work, I'm Prince Florizel, let Sancho Panza be someone else. Defend yourself!
Our duels, which took place with enviable regularity, still attracted a lot of people. Even if the duels themselves were not particularly interesting, nothing serious can be used. I wouldn't want to hurt Fleur myself. Unlike the fights, our bickering was always new. Sometimes I had nothing to say, no words to say, and sometimes Fleur found it difficult to answer and attacked first without warning. Sometimes, the fight would move on to the next duel without changing the topic, like the second series.
It was considered not shameful to take a book and read, to find information on the topic that the opponent touched on, if you are not versed in this topic. We dealt with literature, painting, history and historical figures, great discoveries, geography, traditions, and not only the magical world, but also the Muggle world.
But still, then the main friend was still Cortez, with him I spent more free time. We learned animagus together. After the first transformation, the task of "becoming an animagus" was not solved. Then it took quite a long time to master the transformation at a new level, at will, and not under the influence of a potion and ritual.
Besides settling Animagi I tried to look into the possibility of creating a magical drives. The fact is that there were no magic storage devices in this world, almost none. Magic was so fluid and mobile that it was held inside objects, in runes or on surfaces, only in the form of enchantments, that is, magic was held when it acquired any functionality and form. While in living beings, magic could accumulate, whether it was people, wizards, representatives of magical races, magical animals or plants. And magic could accumulate not only in wizards, but also in Muggles, even if much less.
There were exceptions to the rule of not accumulating raw mana in inanimate objects. Such an exception was the existence of the altars of the family and the little-known gems with a soul in the masses. Soul stones were so rare that the oldest and noblest Black family, for example, did not have any such stones. What can we say about the others? Altars were much more common.
What can I say, stones with a soul or, as they were also called: living stones; their name hinted at their exclusivity and peculiarity. From the name, it could be understood that there is something similar to the soul and life in these stones. Accordingly, the same should apply to the altars. Yes, it turned out that the spirit of the genus, this is not some abstract concept, but a pseudo-personality living in the stone of the genus. If you wanted, you could draw some parallels between the artificial souls created by the magic of the wizards in the altars, and the dark formation that stood out as a pinhole from my magic, inside me. The stone of the genus is initially created with a certain functionality and limitations, it has control parts, it has something similar to the will, but it acts within the framework of the original functionality. The stone of the genus can not cast magic by itself, it can only affect the wizard directly during the ritual, the rest of the time it affects only the mana transmitted to the wizard.
Gradually, the functionality and capabilities of altars can expand. If you believe the fanfiction, the spirit in the altar can go to hell, make the head of the family possessed. It is difficult to say how true this assumption is, but there is something in it.
Speaking about obscura, I will say that the situation is reversed here. Dark education initially has no specific restrictions and functionality. Yes, initially, the obscurus can only destroy, it would seem, but at the same time, with good control, it can replace the flight spell that the death eaters used, the tactical movement that Snape used in a duel with McGonagall, light armor, equal to the protection of dragon skin clothing, which protects against light spells. Also, the obscurus may be the last chance to escape, if you believe how in the film, Creedens, having fallen under a barrage of spells of American wizards, he was able to escape from the scene in his half-obscurus form, and then fully recover.
To control my obscurus, I had to go through rituals that turned to my own magic, to my inner self. I was only afraid of the irreversibility of magical influences in this world. How should I put it more precisely? Obscurus, this is not some individual person, this is my own magic, the reverse side of the beautiful girl I saw during the trial from the Chanticleer club. To be an obscura, you must somehow cancel all my actions, feelings, and desires in relation to my magic and to myself at the time when I was trying to suppress my magic within myself. But "minced meat can't be turned back" and "gin in a bottle can't be turned back", it remains only to make changes, trying to make the darkness inside more manageable.
Returning to the subject of drives, the best drive in the absence of a "living" stone, a Horcrux is, who will have to carry, a kind of "ring". Although, if you think about it better, you can try to create a semblance of a living stone, or a kind of stone. Altars were created exactly. Yes, I liked this idea, but to implement this idea, I will have to go very deep into the memory of my ancestors… I can't find such knowledge about creating altars in books.
While delving into the memory of my ancestors, I learned something new from the history of my family. My understanding of this world has not been turned upside down, the picture of the world has remained the same, but the remaining gilding from the frame of this picture has peeled off.
The conversation took place at Hogwarts, I recognized this corridor, the look was from Selena, my grandmother.
"Oh, Blair, I like you, but how are we going to live?" Selena was saying. — This school didn't give us any knowledge or skills for living among Muggles. In a world of simpletons, we will be known as cranks at best, and at worst we will be considered savages and complete incompetents.
"Don't worry," Adrian told her, " I'll think of something." You went to Hufflepuff, and you have a lot of friends. I was a student at Ravenclaw, and I might be called to the Department of Mysteries.
There was no confidence in Adrian's voice at all. Rather, he tried to convince himself of the words he had said, so that later this conviction would "infect" Selena.
— All my school friends will remain school friends, - Selena answered with sadness in her voice. "Unfortunately, the school will be a thing of the past once we leave its walls, and the friends, along with the school, will also be a thing of the past. I've already asked some of our people, made various hints. Some pretended not to understand what they were talking about, while others bluntly said that they had a family business and that strangers would be allowed only under strict oaths.
"No, no, vows are not our option," Adrian said, dismissing the suggestion.
"Yes, you have already said that you want to create your own kind, but we will not have any opportunities. To the wizards of the old bloodlines, we're just mudbloods.
"We're not mudbloods," my grandfather said firmly, " we're foundlings, there's a big difference between the two.
"I understand, but they don't care..." my grandmother's voice sank even deeper into her sadness.
— We'll figure something out!" - my grandfather tried to cheer up my grandmother. — I'll try to get a loan from Gringotts. We will have money for housing and for living for the first time. Perhaps our relatives will help us.
The vision changed. I was looking from Adrian's side now. The conversation took place in the Gringotts Bank in the office of an old respected goblin. The interior was not chic, but it made a certain impression. Most of the items that filled the cabinet were very old, but it was clear that they were constantly used, they were not museum exhibits. Perhaps all goblins are very careful with their possessions, and this representative is no exception, but the situation spoke specifically about this goblin. Unlike the common room, where you could see the places where you applied fresh polish or replaced the upholstery, everything here was not repaired, original.
An old, wrinkled goblin with a slightly yellowish rather than greenish skin sat opposite him and spoke in a calm voice with hints of superiority in its intonation about the impossibility of lending.
"Our bank doesn't lend to wizards," he said, with a very poor show of regret. — The agreements that the bank has made with the Ministry of Magic and confirmed with oaths only allow you to store money and other valuables in the safe deposit boxes at Gringotts. Of the other services, the bank provides only intermediary services.
- Intermediary services? Adrian caught on to the old goblin's last word. — But it opens up almost every possible service."
"You're right to a certain extent, Mr. Blair, but you're right to a certain extent," the goblin managed a smile. - Financial transactions between goblins and wizards are only possible when the goblins hire wizards, then the bank or a goblin pays the contract to the wizard. There are several other permitted operations with money. It is possible to hire employees for different purposes through the bank. But this does not open up the possibility of issuing loans. Usury is forbidden to goblins.
— And nothing can be done?" -hoping for some loophole, Adrian asked, because he was invited to this office for a reason.
"Why don't you try getting a loan from a Muggle bank," the old goblin suggested. "Gringotts can exchange your pounds for galleons.
"I can't get a loan from a Muggle bank," Adrian said, dismissing the idea. - Lending takes place under the security of property or under the salary. You need to have a stable job with good incomes and buy housing from Muggles. I don't have a job that would give me a certificate of income. I was going to buy a house in the magical part of Britain, or at least nearby.
"As far as I know, you don't have a full — time job in the wizarding world right now," the goblin said.
— I hope they'll give me a place in the Department of Mysteries." There was a hint of pride in Adrian's voice. - So far, we have to survive on one-time part-time jobs.
"Hmm ... magical ingredients, possibly contraband," the old goblin began to refer to Adrian Blair's alleged activities as he read from a piece of paper he had taken from a thin folder. "Well, well… Two short contracts as a mercenary. You are a lucky man to be alive and not injured.
"There was no danger there," Blair told the goblin, " more to create the appearance of a guard than to actually guard it.
"The bank itself can't give you a loan," the old goblin said, slapping the folder on the table with his palm and immediately changing the dot to a comma, " but we can help you find a lender, absolutely free of charge. Just because I liked you, Mr. Blair.
The picture changed again, and now I was looking through Iris ' eyes. The conversation was between her parents, Adrian and Selena. It was in a house I already knew. Iris was eavesdropping.
"Oh, you shouldn't have agreed to take that loan," Selena wailed. — After all, it was immediately clear that these were some bandits.
"Come on," Adrian said, annoyed, " we had no other choice. What else could we do? Yes, the percentage is predatory. At first, I had to disappear in raids for ingredients for a week, just to make payments on time. But now that I have a good job in the Department of Mysteries, I have time for my family.
"You had time, you had time," Selena said resignedly. — We're all in danger right now.
"If Iris hadn't been sick," Adrian said bitterly, " we would have paid off the loan, with only six months left. Spending on the magic medicine and potions was too much.
— Perhaps you can ask for a postponement of the payment deadline? - Selena suggested the option.
"These thugs don't want to wait," Adrian said, breaking the ghost of hope. — They demand an oath for the transfer of the loan fee. I will have to obey them. I have almost complete confidence that they will use me as soon as possible. First I'll have to tell them everything I can tell them about my work in the Department of Secrets, then they'll involve me in various dark affairs. What will happen next? Will they demand you or Iris as a gift?
— Maybe they won't demand something like that." Selena said without conviction.
"If... I was trying to negotiate a one-time job with them, or limit the vow." But, as they say: I found a scythe on a stone. Perhaps the goblins have decided to make my case show, or it is very important for them to get their man in the Department of Mysteries.
— You still think they're goblins?" There was a hint of anger in Selena's voice.
"The bank doesn't lend..." said Adrian. - Ugh. Of course, they are goblins. They have abandoned the use of force, but they must continue to act, at least for the sake of preserving their current situation. To be able to win for itself new privileges and permissions they are ready for everything. They are ready to sacrifice their relatives and even their family, what do they need some wizards?
- Maybe we should try to negotiate again? To make concessions? — continued to offer the impossible odds of Selenium.
"No!" They won't make any concessions — "Adrian said again," which means there's no point in me making any concessions.
— But what about it?" Maybe we should report it to the ministry.
— I tried to find a solution through the Department of Mysteries. I was refused, not directly, but I realized that no one would help us.
— What's going to happen to Iris?" Selena sobbed. — We'll be thrown out of the house and into the street.
"They don't want our house," Adrian said resignedly. He began to walk around the room, trying to calm down or find new ideas, a way out of the current situation, it was his habit to start walking in moments of emotional excitement. — We'll either be forced to swear an oath, or we'll be killed, making an example of how not to behave."
The dream ended, and I woke up immediately. It was still night, but I could not sleep again, and I was lost in thought until morning. Good goblins are always happy to help Muggle-born wizards, to provide exclusive services. They themselves do not engage in usury, but this does not prevent them from protecting usurers among squibs or werewolves, in fact making them employees. At the same time, the goblins protect different gangs in the magical world from time to time, strengthening them with mercenaries from wizards for various one-time operations. Everything is clearly within the framework of oaths and vows, all according to the laws of the ministry and the rules of the bank, in the letter of the law.
The mood was very bad for the rest of the week. Even the thought of the casino's impending encirclement in the future could not straighten it out.
If before I had thought of finding out who was responsible for the deaths of my relatives, of punishing those who had made my mother a squib, now I didn't even know what to do. The destruction of Gringotts Bank is beyond my power, and even if it were possible, it would threaten chaos in the financial world of magical Britain. There was an option to appoint those responsible: the director of the bank, the old goblin my grandfather had talked to, perhaps some other officials who had decided to push through Adrian Blair, the loan shark who had issued the loan, the collectors who had come to collect the debt; but inwardly I understood-nothing personal, just business. The problem is not with the goblins, but with the system and the "traditions" of Britain. Although, I am wrong to translate everything to the "traditions" of Britain, such views and ways of doing things are characteristic of all where capitalist principles are at the core. Soon they will be characteristic of everyone in general, the Union has already collapsed.
Revenge? And to whom?
I decided not to throw a tantrum, but if I get a chance to take revenge selectively, then do it. I'd never liked goblins, and now I had a reason to dislike them even more. There was still an open question with Iris herself. Who killed her? Whether it was the Death Eaters or other bandits, I'll probably never know.