Chapter Text
Mary
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Mary asked her brother, “I heard Fiona would be there.”
“But she likes watching quidditch”, Ian replied, “I don’t.” In fact, Ian was probably one of the few Irish wizards who didn’t care whether Ireland or Bulgaria would win the world championship. “Apart from Fiona, the only thing there I would even be remotely interested in, would be the wards”, Ian continued, “of which the only real difference with the wards around our property, would be the fact that ours are less extensive.”
The fact that the wards were similar had a lot to do with the person hired by the Ministry to supervise the warding of the Stadium, which would be Ian and Mary’s father. To Mary’s delight, father had also insisted to ask for a seat in the top box for himself and his daughter, which the Ministry had granted.
The Finnigan family arrived, as Mary’s father had already been on site for several weeks, and Ian and mother wouldn’t go, it had been arranged for Mary to travel with the nearby Finnigans. “Do you want something to drink before you go?” mother asked the Finnigans.
“Our portkey leaves in 30 minutes”, mrs Finnigan replied apologetically, “and we still have quite a walk ahead of you, is Mary ready?”
“I am”, Mary replied, since her tent and other camping gear was already present at the camping ground, she didn’t have that much packing to do. In fact, Mary didn’t bring anything apart from her beater bat (which she wanted the Irish beaters to sign) and her wand.
About twenty minutes later, Mary, the Finnigans and a few other nearby magical families all grouped around the portkey (a rusty cooking pot). mrs Finnigan kept a good look at her watch, before eventually telling everyone to take hold of the portkey.
The feeling wasn’t exactly pleasant, but eventually they did reach a secluded spot near the camping grounds. Mary’s father was the one awaiting them. “you’re all in the Irish compound”, Michael O’Connor, Mary’s father, saw on his list, “it’s probably the easiest if you wait here for a few minutes, my replacement can arrive any minute now. When he arrives, I will walk you there.” While mr O’Connor wasn’t in fact an employee at the Ministry, he was still the person who knew the wards best, which was why he had been asked to continue helping the Ministry personel (to which he had agreed).
A few minutes later, a Ministry official arrived to take over portkey watch from Mary’s father and the group left towards ‘the Irish Compound’, basically a camping ground completely filled with Irish fans. “I told a few of the others that I would be quite willing to ward their tents”, Mary’s father told the group, “but they refused, even though the ward in question would only ensure that the muggle owner of this camping ground will only see regular tents instead of what you are about to see, while everyone else would still see the tents as they are.”
“You can do that?” Seamus Finnigan asked in surprise.
“It’s not as if that’s all too difficult, for a warder that is”, Mary replied instead, “such wards are also placed over Hogwarts itself, in the unlikely chance that a muggle would be able to get past the muggle repelling wards, they wouldn’t see the castle as it is, but would see castle ruins. With warning signs about falling stonework at that.”
“I don’t think I would be able to ward anything that size”, Mary’s father added, “but the principal would be the same indeed.”
“Do you see the man over there?” mr O’Connor asked the group with him, “he’s the owner of this camping ground. He’s a squib so you can pay in either pounds or wizarding money. The other camping grounds are owned by muggles, so try not to use magic around them, the Ministry doesn’t like that.”
After the others had approached the campground owner, Mary’s father showed Mary their tent. “I’m afraid you will have to share your room this time”, father told Mary, “I’ve stocked the third room with warding supplies.”
“Share?” Mary asked, “with who?”
“See for yourself”, father replied. Mary entered the three bedroom tent, and quickly headed towards her room, where she saw cousin Eoife reading one of her books.
“Eoife”, Mary exclaimed surprised, “I didn’t know you were going to be here.” Eoife was the only daughter of Siobhan, who was the sister of Mary’s mother. Eoife was also a squib.
“I decided that I could work on my Doctorate here as good as anywhere else”, Eoife replied, “and I want to see Ireland win.” Eoife was currently trying to get a PHD in informatics. As she would often say, if you can’t use magic, then use muggle technology. Eoife was actually one of the reasons why Mary had chosen to follow muggle studies at Hogwarts.
“Is that you competer?” Mary suddenly asked, seeing a big metal box and a screen standing in a corner.
“That’s my computer indeed”, Eoife replied, “uncle Michael has made sure it works inside this tent and he has even charmed a small generator to provide the necessary electricity.
Mary took a closer look, “why are there runes on the competer?”
“It’s computer actually”, Eoife corrected, “but to answer your question, I’m not sure how it works, but according to uncle Michael, they power a charm which makes sure the computer won’t overheat. He also added a charm to make sure muggles can’t see the runes and a self repair charm.”
“Won’t muggles notice that last feature?” Mary wondered, “I mean, I doubt anyone wouldn’t notice a computer repairing itself.”
“Not really”, Eoife replied, “as your father told me, he made sure that if the self repair would be activated, a muggle repelling charm would be activated first, which would only be deactivated once reparations are complete. The coolest part is something entirely different though.”
Eoife opened the computer and pointed at the hard drives, “all the data on my computer are stored on these things. As you can see, these are also protected by charms.”
“I don’t see what’s so cool about that”, Mary observed.
Eoife grinned, “the third hard drive is in between the two currently visible ones.”
A third hard drive appeared.
“Your father has added a Fidelius charm on that one”, Eoife explained, “basically, I can write whatever I want on the magical world on that hard drive, and no one would be able to find it, unless I allow them to.”
“That is cool”, Mary admitted.
Eoife now sat down on her bed and turned towards Mary, “I heard someone wanted to become an animagus.”
“How do you know that?” Mary wanted to know.
“The owner of this campground is your transfiguration professor’s nephew”, Eoife replied, “his aunt Minerva had brought up the subject during a family dinner, your professor is actually rooting for you to succeed, but you haven’t heard that from me.”
Mary thought it a bit weird to hear Eoife refer to McGonagall by her first name, but then again, Eoife had never been to Hogwarts. “According to the Native American vision potion”, Mary told her cousin, “I should be able to become an animagus. As it turns out, my inner animal is a peregrine falcon.”
“Cool”, Eoife replied, “I can certainly use that. Tell me, would you be prepared to impersonate a tamed peregrine falcon and thereby allow me to impress the guys at the university?”
“You do know that I can’t actually register until I have a N.E.W.T. in Transfiguration”, Mary remarked, “which will take at least 2 years.”
“It also takes years to become an actual falconeer”, Eoife countered, “having the falcon being my own cousin makes sure I can simply skip all that.”
“Fine”, Mary supposed, “if I succeed, and you still want me to, I’ll do it. But I choose the name you use when I’m a falcon.”
A few days later, the match would take place. “You are not in the top box with us?” Mary asked Eoife in surprise.
“I’m lucky the Ministry even allowed me in the stadium”, Eoife replied, “that blonde bigot Lucius Malfoy had almost convinced the Minister to ban all squibs from the stadium all together. If your father hadn’t threatened not to continue warding the place, Malfoy would have succeeded. I will be sitting near the Irish hoops, next to the Finnigan family.”
“Then I suppose I’ll see you after the match”, Mary told her cousin.
When they arrived at the top box, Mary’s father had somewhat mixed feelings about Arthur Weasley’s presence (his improvements to Eoife’s computer were after all not entirely legal), but he did eventually greet the man.
“I didn’t expect to see you here”, Mary told the Weasley twins (she didn’t know the others half that well after all, apart from Percy, but that was mostly due to getting detentions from him), “how did you get tickets for the top box? I know we only got in because father was the one who warded the place.”
“Ludo Bagman”, Fred or George replied, “he and our father go way back, which was why he was able to get us tickets.”
“I for one am glad for that”, Mary decided, “I almost feared that Malfoy over there would be the only one I know in here. And as his father had almost succeeded in banning my cousin from the stadium ...”
“Why would he do that?” Hermione Granger interrupted.
“Let’s just say”, Mary replied, “if my father hadn’t threatened not to ward this place, the Minister would have agreed to Malfoy’s “request” not to allow squibs entry into the stadium. At least, that’s what cousin Eoife told me. You’re Hermione Granger aren’t you?”
“I am”, Hermione confirmed.
“I thought so”, Mary grinned, “you are infamous at some places in Hogwarts. But let’s see, who’s with you.” Mary immediately recognized Harry Potter, “Harry Potter, I still think that you wouldn’t have been able to dodge my bludger on a Nimbus, your firebolt is quite impressive.” Then she turned to Ginny, “you are Luna’s friend Ginny aren’t you?” After ignoring former headboy Percy, Mary turned towards Bill, “you must be Bill, the cursebreaker, father speaks fondly of you.”
“Coming from him that’s quite a compliment”, Bill replied.
“At least the beaters are still in a majority in here”, Mary grinned as she turned towards Charlie Weasley before continuing just loud enough for Malfoy to hear, “seekers who can’t catch a snitch don’t count.”
“I don’t think anyone would disagree with you on that”, one of the twins replied, “especially while you are carrying that beater bat.”
After Mary had also been introduced to Ron (actually the only Weasley she didn’t know by name before), she remembered something she had to ask Potter. “Almost forgotten”, Mary addressed Potter, “Ellen told me to ask you whether you had been contacted by that Belgian auror, I suppose she had known you would be in the top box as well.”
“Why would a Belgian auror be contacting Harry?” Ron wanted to know.
“How should I know?” Mary replied, “I only know Ellen asked me to pass on the message.”
“She’s a parselmouth”, Harry told Ron (not that the others couldn’t hear it), “the auror I mean, that Ellen thought it would be good for me to speak with another parselmouth about what it all means.”
The mascottes entered the stadium, upon recognizing veela, Mary’s father immediately invoked a small ward to protect himself from their allure. After the veela had finished dancing, a troupe of leprechauns entered the stadium as well. Being Irish as well, Mary was quite aware of the vanishing nature of leprechaun gold, making sure she didn’t bother collecting it.
“He’s so good”, Mary couldn’t help remarking (not that she would ever admit it, but she had somewhat of a crush on the player she referred to).
“Krum?” Ron asked overhearing this.
“Hell no”, Mary replied, “I’m Irish if you haven’t noticed, Finbar Quigley, he’s even a better beater than Gwenog Jones.”
When one of Quigley’s bludgers literally broke Krum’s nose, Mary stood up cheering. It was a shame that right afterwards, Krum still managed to grab the snitch. Then again, Ireland still won, so there was no reason to stop cheering.
When the Irish team entered the top box, Mary couldn’t help herself and approached Quigley and Connolly, who agreed to sign her beater bat. “I especially liked how you smashed that bludger right at Krum”, Mary told Quigley, “hitting seekers is always the best part of being a beater.”
“I won’t argue with that lass”, Quigley replied, “use your bat well.”
After the Irish team, the Bulgarian team passed through as well, they were obviously less cheerful.
Ian
“I know they told you two what was going to happen”, David argued, knowing something would be happening at Hogwarts, but not what would happen.
“I’m sure professor Dumbledore will explain everything in a moment”, Ellen Geerts, the new headgirl, answered, “and I don’t think you would believe me if I would tell you anyhow.”
“I thought they were joking at first”, Ian added, who as prefect had been informed as well.
“... The Triwizard Tournament”, still resounded through the Great Hall after Dumbledore had explained it.
It was silent for a while, until one of the Weasley twins exclaimed, “you’re joking.”
“I’m not joking mister Weasley”, Dumbledore corrected, “although I did hear an interesting one about a troll, a hag ...” McGonagall coughed. “But maybe know isn’t the time”, Dumbledore continued.
“For safety reasons”, Dumbledore informed everyone, “we won’t allow anyone under 17 to enter their name.”
“How will they enforce that?” David wondered?
“An age line I presume”, Ian replied, before taking the Family Warding Tome, “I mean, it’s quite a straightforward ward. I could probably create one if I wanted, so we can be sure professor Dumbledore would have no problem whatsoever with it.”
“Is there anything in there on breaking one?” David wondered, “not that I would need it, I’m just curious.”
“An aging potion could work”, Ian replied, “but I think professor Dumbledore would have thought of that. Maybe writing your name on a piece of parchment and using magic to get it in the Goblet?”
“I think he will have thought of that as well”, Ellen remarked.
“Probably”, Ian admitted, “then again, we are all 17, so we won’t have a problem anyhow.”
Mary
A similar conversation was ongoing at the Ravenclaw table, where most of the Ravenclaw quidditch team was still pissed that the quidditch cup had been cancelled and they were too young to participate in the Triwizard Tournament.
“What if we let a 17 year old student enter our names?” Mary eventually suggested after the other ideas had been rejected.
“They would probably have made sure you can’t enter more than one piece of parchment in the Goblet”, Melia McKinnon replied, “and which 17 year old will you convince to put one of our names in the goblet instead of his or her own? And of course I would have to report you to professor Flitwick as I’m still a prefect.”
Not really sure whether her friend was joking or not, Mary decided to change the topic, “do you remember that conversation about animagi I had with professor McGonagall last year? At the end of the year, she made sure I had the potion she told us about. Probably because she knew I would have tried making it myself otherwise and she didn’t want me to poison myself accidentally.”
Her brother might have been very good in potioneering, Mary wasn’t, in fact she had barely managed to get an Exceeds Expectations for her Potions O.W.L. which meant she couldn’t go for a N.E.W.T. on the subject.
“Did it show you anything?” Melia wanted to know.
“According to the potion”, Mary replied, “I can become an animagus, specifically, a peregrine falcon animagus.”
“That’s cool”, Melia had to admit, “I guess that means you’ll be continuing transfiguration?”
“I will”, Mary confirmed, “I’ll be following Charms, Defense, Transfiguration, Herbology, Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures.”
“I follow most of them as well”, Melia replied, “but I will follow Ancient Runes and Arithmancy instead of Muggle Studies and Magical Creatures. And I’m still going to follow Potions.”
“I would have as well if Snape didn’t insist on only accepting students with an Outstanding on their N.E.W.T.”, Mary admitted, “not that I’m complaining, I’m actually glad to be rid of Snape. And it’s not as if I won’t have more than enough work with these lessons and my extra transfiguration lessons with professor McGonagall, she wants to help me prepare the animagus groundwork.”
Ian
“Professor Lupin has informed me you are all capable of producing at least a mistform Patronus”, professor Moody began his first lesson, “Primrose, O’Connor and Dragonheart, I believe you were even able to conjure a corporeal patronus?”
“We are sir”, Tamara Primrose replied.
“While I won’t deny that to be quite an accomplishment”, Moody continued, “I’m afraid that you are behind on dealing with curses. Let’s begin with the worst three curses, the Unforgivables. Those which, when cast upon another human being, will lead to a lifelong incarceration in Azkaban. Yes O’Connor?”
“I was wondering something”, Ian explained, “wouldn’t it make more sense to punish the effect of the curses instead of the curses themselves? I mean, most spells can be used to kill if one really tries, not? It’s not as if Avada Kedavra is the only lethal spell, a Reducto for example.”
“The difference is that a Reducto aimed at your face can be blocked with a simple shield charm, there is no known defense to the killing curse.” Moody took a spider out of a pot and let it walk across the table, “Avada Kedavra!” a green beam hit the spider, which died instantly.
“Still”, Ian insisted, “a shield charm only blocks direct magic, it wouldn’t help you if someone would banish pebbles at high speed towards you, which can kill you as well.”
“There are specific shield charms which deal with exactly that kind of attacks”, Moody answered after a while, “but I suggest we will return to them in a later lesson. Does anyone know another Unforgivable?”
Fiona raised her hand. “Yes, miss Dragonheart?”
“There is the Imperius charm”, Fiona knew.
“I would have hoped you to know it”, Moody replied, “your mother told you didn’t she?”
“She did”, Fiona confirmed.
“She’s a good auror”, Moody remarked, “she was my intern actually. The Imperius curse now, the Ministry had a lot of problems with that one.” Moody took a second spider out of a jar. “Imperio”, he yelled at the spider, after which he had it perform pirouettes across the classroom. “When under the influence of an Imperius curse”, Moody explained, “people can be forced to perform whatever the caster wants. One advantage we have though, is that this curse can be thrown off by the victim, unlike with the other two Unforgivables. Can someone tell me the last one?”
“The Cruciatus curse”, Ellen answered, “the torture curse.”
“I need a bigger spider for this demonstration”, Moody replied, “Engorgio!” The last spider swoll up. “Crucio!” It was immediately clear that the spider was suffering under the curse. After he had lifted the curse, the spider was returned to its former size and put back into its jar. “This curse leaves no traces, no wounds”, Moody explained, “it solely creates excruciating pain.”
After the lesson, Moody asked both Ian and Fiona to linger for a while. Curious about what Moody wanted, they decided to comply. “I heard from my contacts in the auror department that the two of you are thinking about joining the aurors yourselves”, he remarked, “which is why I want to offer you two extra lessons should you want them.”
Ian and Fiona looked at each other for a while, before accepting. “Are Saturday afternoons acceptable for the two of you?” Moody asked.
“As the quidditch cup has been cancelled this year”, Fiona replied, “Saturday afternoon is good for me.”
“Saturday afternoon is good for me as well”, Ian added.
Mary
Professor McGonagall proved to have quite an unorthodox approach to learning about animagi, as she had Mary flying at 200 feet above the ground. “You aren’t ready yet for a full transformation”, McGonagall told her on the ground, “but I believe you could manage a partial one.” McGonagall had conjured a small bird which was flying low over the grass in the quidditch stadium.
“What I want you to do”, McGonagall had told her, “is to transfigure your eyes into peregrine falcon eyes using only the internal magic we have been practicing, you have succeeded in the classroom, now I want you to do it while flying. Once you succeed, you are to dive down, catch the bird and turn your eyes back to normal.” Mary suspected that if her animal was a cat, McGonagall would have chosen a different approach.
It took a lot more effort than in the quiet classroom, but eventually Mary successfully transfigured her eyes. First she flew a bit around trying to get use to the difference in eyesight. When she was confident she had the grasp, she turned to the grass, where she quickly spotted the bird. Her first attempt at catching the bird failed. “Again”, McGonagall ordered.
At the fourth time, Mary successfully grasped the conjured bird. She missed again the fifth time, but after that she took it every time. “Excellent O’Connor”, McGonagall told her, “I want you to keep on practicing on transfiguring your eyes during the following week. Next week, we will start by repeating this exercise, after which we will be start trying to transfigure your entire head back and forth. Don’t forget, transfigurations aren’t allowed in quidditch matches.”
Ian
“Here goes it”, Ian decided, as he put his name in the Goblet of Fire, he had almost decided not to. But he had changed his mind at the last moment. David had put his name in as well, Ellen had decided not to. Fiona hadn’t put her name in either, Fiona’s Gryffindor friend, Tamara had though.
“I guess we’ll know tonight”, Ian supposed.
That evening, the tensions were quite high in the Great Hall, as the 3 Champions would be chosen at the end of the Feast. Finally, Dumbledore stood up and approached the Goblet of Fire, which had now been placed where the Sorting Hat would be during the Sorting ceremony.
A first piece of parchment flew out. “For Durmstrang Institute”, professor Dumbledore announced, “I give you Victor Krum!” A loud applause resounded as Krum approached Dumbledore, who send him inside a small chamber where he was to await the other champions.
“For Beauxbatons Academy of Magic”, Dumbledore continued as a next piece of parchment came out, “I give you Fleur Delacour.” Several of the other Beauxbatons students almost cried after hearing this.
“For Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”, Dumbledore concluded, “I give you Cedric Diggory!” A polite applause came from most of the tables, but the largest applause came from Diggory’s own Hufflepuff.
Dumbledore had almost turned away to follow the three champions, when a 4th piece of Parchment came out. Dumbledore hesitated a while before saying, “Harry Potter.” The Great Hall remained silent.
Mary
With the First Task behind them, the students were now looking forward to the Yule Ball, which would take place during Christmas night. Having given up the hope that he would ask her himself, Mary had decided to approach Roger Davies and ask him herself. Which was what she was about to do when Roger Davies suddenly went to his knees and asked Fleur Delacour. Mary ran back to the Ravenclaw Common Room, muttering, “Stupid veela.”
“I thought you said you didn’t like him”, Melia reasoned after finally having heard why Mary was upset, “so what is the problem with Roger Davies going with Delacour to the Yule Ball?”
“Of course I don’t like him like that”, Mary replied, clearly lying through her teeth.
“Of course you don’t”, Melia decided not to argue the point, “anyway, just be yourself and you will be asked by someone, I know you will.”
“Just try to remember not to knock them into the hospital wing”, Fiona Dragonheart added grinning and absolutely not helpful.
“It’s easy for you”, Mary retorted, “my brother probably asked you the moment he knew there even was a Yule Ball.”
Fiona could hardly deny that (even if it was just because of the fact that half Ravenclaw had seen Ian’s Patronus coming in, after which Fiona had left the Ravenclaw tower and had been approached by Ian who had been waiting there to ask her).
“You could always use the partially transform as you have been learning with McGonagall”, Melia even less helpfully added, “and then use you falcon beak to drive Delacour away.”
Eventually, Melia was proven correct, as it didn’t take all too long for one of the Durmstrang boys to ask Mary. Piotr Ivanovich seemed nice enough at that, so Mary had chosen to accept.
Ian
As the year continued, Ian kept on creating excellent potions during Snape’s N.E.W.T. classes. To be fair, Fiona did almost as well. Not that you could hear that from Snape’s remarks, then again, Snape did have a bias against non Slytherins.
“Damn”, Ian suddenly swore, as he noticed he had stirred too many times (they were brewing Felix Felicis, in which small mistakes as that could ruin the entire potion). The effect of the lacewings can be modified by adding a few unicorn hairs, Ian remembered. As he rushed to the ingredients storage.
“O’Connor”, Snape asked as he noticed Ian adding an ingredient not listed on the recipe, “what in Merlin’s name are you doing?”
“I over stirred”, Ian replied, “which has made sure the lacewings would have too much of an effect, by adding the unicorn hairs in this particular amount, I am trying to save the potion.”
“Good thinking”, Snape grudgingly agreed (if Ian wasn’t a Slytherin, he would probably have let him start over from scratch), “to counteract the unicorn hair’s effect on the rest of the potion, I suggest to stir two times clockwise, one time counterclockwise and two more times clockwise instead of what’s written on the recipe. The rest should work out if you stick to the recipe from then on.”
Ian wasn’t sure whether he should be happy to have Snape helping him like that, but then again, the others in the classroom had heard it anyhow.
At the end of the lesson, Ian handed in his potion, while it wouldn’t be as potent as it could have been, Ian was at least reasonably certain it would work. Snape noticed that everyone with a working potion had scooped up quite a bit before emptying their cauldron.
“I’m not going to stop you from taking the potion with you”, Snape remarked, “but unless you want to poison yourself, it would be safest to wait until I’ve checked your potions before using them. You are not allowed to use them during sport matches or examinations. Class dismissed.”
Mary
The Yule ball was about to begin, Mary had already dressed in her light green dressrobe and finished her hair. To be fair, Mary had cheated somewhat by using her transfiguration skills to increase her hair length from shoulder length to half a feet longer. Then again, she was hardly the only one. Her mother had loaned Mary an old pendant, in fact an heirloom from her own family (Mary and Ian were descended from two old Irish families, the O’Connor family by their father and the Ó hEachthairn by their mother. While father’s family was the older one, their mother’s family still possessed two seats in the Wizengamot). All by all, Mary’s friend Melia assured her she looked beautiful.
Several boys were already waiting outside the tower when Mary came out, Mary recognized the youngest Weasley boy and obviously her brother Ian, Diggory and last but not least her own date, the Durmstrang student Piotr Ivanovich.
“Impressive enchanting”, Piotr remarked immediately noticing the family heirloom Mary was wearing.
“Is that seriously the first thing you noticed?” Mary asked a bit indignated.
“I vas simply unable not to notice the craftsmanship”, Piotr replied, before explaining that his family made his living creating and enchanting jewellery.
“It’s an old family heirloom”, Mary replied, a bit mollified after hearing Piotr’s explanation, “I believe it glows when in close proximity to poison. Mother loaned it to me for the ball.”
Mary and the others had been waiting quite a while for the champions to arrive (even if it was only because of the fact that the champions would open the ball). But eventually they came. Of the four champions, Delacour and Diggory proved to be quite a bit better in dancing than the other two. Not that Mary would ever admit Delacour to be a good dancer, as she was still nurturing a grudge due to Delacour having Roger Davies as a partner.
“He’s a good seeker”, Mary admitted when later on her conversation with Ivanovich had turned to quidditch and therefore touched upon the subject of Krum, “I suppose that if I had seen him playing against any other team but Ireland, I might have supported his team, although I didn’t like the Bulgarian beaters very much. They didn’t cooperate that much with each other for one.”
“Russia’s beaters vere much better”, Piotr remarked after hearing that, “but it vas still only six minutes before he caught the snitch.” Piotr clearly meant Krum.
Later in the evening, the subject had turned to the differences between Durmstrang and Hogwarts. “I heard that Durmstrang has an entire course on warding and cursebreaking”, Mary remarked, “while we only have an Ancient Runes course, which only touches on the basics.”
“Vile that is true”, Piotr replied, “I’m not sure ours is the better option. Ve learn wards, yes, but ve don’t really learn the basics behind it.”
“I suppose that in both ways”, Mary supposed, “you still need quite a bit of training if you actually want to do something in the field. Father did spend 7 years interning under my great uncle for example.”
“Your father is a cursebreaker then?” Piotr assumed.
“A warder in fact”, Mary replied, “although he is a decent cursebreaker as well.” Both fields were after all complementary. “Our family has been dabbling in warding for generations”, Mary continued, “which is probably the reason why father is about the only independent warder of note in the isles.”
As most pureblood families (even those who didn’t care as much as most about blood purity as the O’Connors), the O’Connor family kept a close lid on several family magical traditions (spell tomes which had been blood warded to keep out non relatives were quite common). In case of the O’Connors that would be warding. Mary’s maternal family had long been known to bring forth excellent healers (which they shared outside the family more than most families, given the nature of the spells), not that either Mary or Ian planned to follow in either tradition. Ian’s study of warding was mostly because he considered it a good skill for an auror to possess. Mary on the other hand didn’t see the need to have more than a basic knowledge in either field.
Ian
Ian was satisfied with the written portion of his Defense against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. examination, now he only had to successfully complete the practical portion and his N.E.W.T.s would be completed.
“Mr O’Connor”, the old man Tofty from the Wizarding Examinations Authority said, “come with me please.”
Ian followed the old man into a small classroom.
“I heard you were planning to become an auror?” Tofty remarked, after Ian nodded in agreement, Tofty continued, “then I won’t let you wait any longer, as you can see, I have several cards on this table. I need you to take ten cards, depending on which ones you take, you will have to demonstrate different techniques. Understood?”
“I do sir”, Ian replied as he pulled out his first card.
“You start out with a difficult one young man”, Tofty remarked, “I need you to demonstrate the patronus charm. It won’t be necessary for it to be a corporeal patronus, but you would get bonus points for one.”
Ian thought for a while and settled on a memory, “Expecto Patronum!” A silver fox came out of Ian’s wand.
“Impressive young man”, Tofty admitted, “your patronus is fully formed.”
“Fiona and I”, Ian admitted, “have been using our patronuses to communicate with each other throughout this and the second part of the previous year.”
“That explains a lot”, Tofty replied with a smile, “but let’s continue, take the next card.”
Half an hour later, Ian had finished, he had been able to properly execute all the required spells. “Fiona”, Ian saw his girlfriend, “how did it go with you?”
“I think I passed”, Fiona replied, “it’s a shame my patronus wasn’t asked, but then again, I successfully cast all the spells I had to cast.”
“Me too”, Ian replied, “they did ask for my patronus, mister Tofty said he was impressed.”
“I wouldn’t have expected any less”, Fiona replied, “but I must be going.”
“Of course”, Ian realized, “good luck with your History exam tomorrow.”
“Thanks Ian”, Fiona answered before kissing her boyfriend and leaving towards the library.
Mary
“Really?” Melia wanted to know, “you actually succeeded in changing completely into a peregrine falcon.” The friends were waiting for the third challenge to begin, not that they would be able to see that much, the champions would be disappearing into a maze after all.
“I still can’t change myself back”, Mary admitted, “at least not when I have transfigured my head as well, but professor McGonagall said that is the most difficult part. She advised me to only train when someone able to force myself back into human form is present.”
Mary had just turned 17 which made sure she was now allowed to use magic outside of school. Given the protections around the O’Connor mansion, it was nearly impossible for the uninvited to enter their grounds (there was a reason Ian and Mary’s father was considered one of the best warders in Europe), which made sure no muggle would notice her training herself on their grounds. As long as Mary would remain at home while transfiguring herself, she would break no law.
The first champions entered the maze.
“I’m going back inside”, Melia remarked after the last champion had entered the maze, “I mean, it’s not as if we can actually see anything.”
“You’re right”, Mary replied, “I don’t feel like watching a hedge for a few hours either. Let’s go swimming.”
“In the lake?” Melia remarked a bit surprised, “I thought you didn’t like going in the lake.”
“I don’t”, Mary continued, “but I do know that the Room of Requirements is probably unused at the moment, our quidditch team had decided to spend the time we would otherwise have used to train quidditch swimming in there. The best part is, you can ask the Room of Requirements which form you want the pool to have, you can even have it conjure swimsuits.”
“Why not”, Melia supposed, “it would be more interesting than this.”
A bit later, the friends arrived at the Room of Requirements and changed it into a swimming pool.
Ian
During the ride back to King’s Cross, most former 7th year students were sitting together. “I believe Potter”, Ian replied, “his explanation is the only one makings any sense after all. Unless anyone would believe Potter used the killing curse on Diggory.”
“He didn’t”, Fiona added, “I saw professor Flitwick using priori incantatem on his wand, the last spells he used were stupefy and expelliarmus.”
“If you really want to work in the auror department”, Ellen remarked, “I wouldn’t say that out loud. According to father the British Minister has just instigated the procedure to depose Dumbledore as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Potter is right as well, but you could do more to prepare the world from inside the Ministry than outside of it.”
“That’s quite a Slytherin answer”, the Gryffindor Tamara replied, “but you are probably correct.”
“I am a Slytherin”, Ellen replied, “anyhow, my father is doing what he can to block Fudge’s proposal, he saved my grandfather from Grindelwald after all, so father owes at least that to Dumbledore. But I don’t think it will stop Fudge. Most of the African and South American representatives in the Confederation are quite happy to depose Dumbledore simply because he is a European wizard. The Commonwealth representatives mostly follow Great Britain’s lead.”
“My family has two Wizengamot seats”, Ian added, “our current representatives are unfortunately Fudge’s supporters, but I’ll try to convince my family they aren’t acting in the family’s best interests. If necessary, the Irish representatives can use the 1922 treaty of Cork, ending the IRW uprising.”
“I R Double U?” Tamara asked.
“The Irish Republican Wizards”, Ian replied, “parallel to the muggle uprisings against the UK in Ireland, many Irish wizards rose up against the British Ministry. I won’t go over the entire history, but at the end, it was agreed in treaty that the IRW would end its uprising. In exchange, several seats in the Wizengamot would be Irish seats. If enough Irish representatives support it, and they can claim that Ministry officials have acted directly against Irish interests. Then the Irish Wizengamot members can issue arrest warrant against these officials, apart from the Minister himself, no one is exempt. The same action can be taken against regular British citizens, such as Lucius Malfoy.”
“The Minister can't block it?” Ellen wondered, not having heard this before.
“He can't", Ian replied, "unless he would want to break the Treaty, which would mean that magical Ireland is no longer ruled by the British Ministry.”
“How exactly would that help us here?” David wanted to know.
“I wouldn’t”, Ian replied, “threatening with it though, should be able to keep Fudge in check.”