23 Harry Potter : Chapter 23: Routine IV

"And we agree that it is somewhat of a... pity, or outright waste, to ruin the life of someone else without reason?" I needed them, refusing to let the topic die uselessly.

"What are you going on about now?" Riddle sighed, carefully exuding the right mixture of pandering and annoyance to push anyone into changing topics, lest they appear an idiot.

...

Unfortunately for him, I couldn't care less about how I appeared: "Well, following my logic: we want civilization, so someone must pay the price, if only because of the limited nature of the world. Then we also agree that killing off portions of the planet, which include but are not limited to other races, either muggles or creatures or simple plants, is a waste.

The next logical step would be to ensure that our civilization doesn't kill without need, and that when it does, only the less important things are killed."

"I don't think you can put the life of different beings on a scale and then decide which to sacrifice on the altar of your... how are you calling this philosophy of yours? Cheap Civilization?" Minerva sniped at my admittedly cold logic.

"The name of my half-drunk philosophy is meaningless for now, but focusing on your objection: if I were to kill a Hippogriff, you'd be sad, outraged, or something equally irritating.

If I were to kill a bush of roses, however, nobody would bat an eye."

"You can't seriously think..." the Gryffindor witch appeared incensed.

"I don't. But you've made my point: what makes it worse to kill a hippogriff instead of a bush of roses? Is it the complexity of the creature? Is it because the beast is magical and you can pet it, while the roses have no inherent magic of their own and you can just as well smell another kind of flower?" I looked at her expectantly.

"But it's obvious!"

"If it's obvious there shouldn't be any problem with putting it into words." Tom pointed out, his eyes now thoughtfully staring into the fire.

"Is it because the hippogriff would feel pain? I assure you that plants feel pain, in their own way, only because they cannot scream, it doesn't mean that they don't mind."

I insisted while taking another sip of my... Moonsilk. I decided, enjoying the smooth texture of the beverage. I'm calling this one Moonsilk.

"I hate when you get all philosophical." Minerva faux-huffed, but she seemed to enjoy the effort she had to put into our conversation. Talking about magic was always interesting, doing magic even more so, but I was the first one to breach the topic of 'philosophy'.

Not many people, least of all teenagers, were prone to question the mentality of those around them or even their own as long as they were part of a group with the same ideas.

And the conversation flows so easily too! I was honestly curious about history, but being able to blatantly poke the mentality of the future Dark Lord, while dragging Minerva around for the ride, maybe making her think about something not Transfiguration-related, was a nice bonus.

"Though." I shrugged uncaringly as an answer to Minerva's faux-indignation. Admittedly, the beverage that I had affectionally called Moonsilk seemed to be singularly efficient in pushing one's mind towards self-analysis and general reminiscing of 'What-ifs'.

"You were talking about sentience earlier. You want a criterium upon which you can measure the worth of a species?" Tom clarified, receiving a nod as an answer.

"I appreciate that you're using the term 'species' instead of race."

"I'm not categorizing wizardkind with the same box as muggles." Tom scowled at my implication, making me snort.

"Sub-race then?" I mocked him, "Grindelwald would love to chat with you. Or even Hitler, now that I think about it."

"Sapience." Minerva frowned, guessing where I was going with my tipsy analysis of the world and our place in it.

"Yes! The muggles have tracked the origin of mankind, you know? Our species is named as Homo Sapiens. They've tracked what mankind was before our first appearance: Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens, and finally Homo Sapiens Sapiens. But what is sapience?" I let the silence settle for a few seconds before straightening in my seat.

"Is it the ability to 'speak'? Parrots and Crows are capable of saying words, but that hardly qualifies them on the same plan of mankind, don't you think? Even an Acromantula, once it grows old enough, is capable of talking."

I spoke remembered Aragog from the books of Harry Potter, "But I don't know if I'd place them on the same plan of Veela or Merpeople. Or even Sphinxes for that matter."

I took a deep gulp of my drink, finally finishing it, "And yet, I'd guess that phoenixes understanding of the world around us outstrips our own, wouldn't you agree?"

"You were aggravating by mere virtue of your existence, now it seems that you've actually engaged in being consciously annoying." Tom snapped as he rose from his seat.

"I have... something to do."

As the Dark-lord to be fled from our verbal joust, I smiled in self-satisfaction. You gave cognitive dissonance to a 14 years old orphan, feel proud of yourself, yeah, just like that.

"You pushed him on purpose." Minerva pursed her lips with a reprimanding tone.

"I did." I admitted, "He needed to address the bombings of London sooner rather than later." I tried to justify myself.

"Bombings?"

"Who is now the one with curious lacunes in her knowledge?" I grinned at the Griffindor witch, before eyeing contemplatively my reserves of beverages.

"I think you've drunk enough." she stopped me before I could summon anything.

"Sorry," I smiled self-deprecatingly, "with all the extra potions that I'm brewing with Tom, the less time we spend this close to each other, the better. Luckily the Felix will need to rest for the entirety of December, so I'll be able to leave for Winter Break." 

I need to start traveling towards Albania, and it will be line-of-sight teleportation for now. I need to set up checkpoints to speed up my traveling in any case. Didn't Harry Potter side-apparate a dying Dumbledore across the country in his sixth year?

"I admit I am somewhat jealous at the thought of private advanced lessons with a professor." Minerva scrunched her nose while her eyes turned towards my carefully labeled brews.

"I can only imagine how would it be to do the same with professor Dumbledore..."

"Well, it's not exactly rainbows and unicorns, you know? We basically run around in order to shorten the time needed to brew stuff that Slughorn then sells to St.

Mungo, and many of those brews have to be completed at night under the open sky." I tried to deflect.

"By the way, how does it go with the Animagus thing?" I asked, deciding to address the wistful tone in my friend's voice instead of simply ignoring it.

"Tom and I helped set up the research, but then between my brews, the Rùnda, and whatever Tom does in his free time we kind of left you alone to punch through tome after tome."

"I'm done with the theory." she admitted with a thin smile, "and I'm comfortable enough with animal-to-animal transfiguration that I was going to get started soon with human to animal, but I'd prefer to have some solid ability with Transfiguration-Reversal before attempting stuff on myself."

That's fucking advanced. I thought with a whistle. As Dumbledore said: reversing a transfiguration wasn't something that your everyday joe could hope to master. I really have to read through N.E.W.T. Transfiguration Theory.

"That calls for a celebration then!" I rose from my seat with little to no wobbling due to the alcohol I had ingested, "You're a 15 years old Scottish witch! I say it's high time that you taste my whiskey-based brews!"

...

There was a problem with the fanfic so I had to republish it, it Would be a huge help if you guys ycan throw some Power Stone and give me a review.

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