The Last Horcrux/Hogwarts/Lessons/Transfigurations
Your first lesson of the day is Transfigurations, with Professor McGonagle. You literally know everything in the class, and are bored out of your mind. Your late night activities from the night before start to catch up with you, and soon you are struggling to keep awake.
You sit up and notice when the Potter boy and his Weasley friend arrive late, and are surprised by Professor McGonagle, a skilled Animagus, surprising them by transforming from a cat back into her human form, to chastise them for being late. When you realise she’s not talking to you, you rest your head on your desk for a little while.
“Miss Lestrange?” A woman’s voice with a Scottish accent calls across the classroom, “Is my lesson so boring that you’d rather sleep through it? Or do you already know all there is to know about Transfiguration charms?”
You suddenly look up. You had only laid your head on your arms for a few moments, but you must have fallen asleep for a little while in order to be noticed.
“Um… yes,” you say, surprised and groggy.
“Yes you find my class boring?” Asks Professor McGonagle, “Or yes you already know all there is to know about Transfiguration?”
“Er… both?” You answer.
The expression on McGonagle’s face tells you this was the wrong answer.
“Very well Miss Lestrange,” the teacher says, looking unimpressed, “if you already know Transfiguration, would you care to turn this flower into a stone?”
She places the flower on the desk in front of you. You realise that everyone in the class is looking at you. Tired as you are, you can’t remember the last time you transfigured life to matter. It’s a parlour trick, not proper magic. You search your mind for a petrification transfiguration and seize on the first spell that enters your mind.
“Petrificus Totalis,” you yell, pointing your wand at the flower. Sparks fly from your wand you hit the flowers with a perfect curse. They remain flowers though.
“Miss Lestrange,” McGonagle says, raising her voice and eyebrows in surprise, “I did not expect you to try and paralyse the flowers with a body petrification curse, nor to learn that kind of duelling magic at such a young age. Would you care to try again?”
Frustrated, you realise that you can’t actually remember the correct transmutation. You could turn the flowers into pool of blood easily enough, or you could turn McGonagle, irrevocably, into a larger pool of blood, but you simply haven’t used such trivial magic in decades.
Enraged, you point your wand at the flowers again.
“Incendio!” You cry, and a red arc of magic flies from your wand to the flowers, which instantly ignite, burning away in seconds.
“That was not the correct charm either Miss Lestrange,” the Professor says sternly.
“But I’ve transfigured them,” you point out, “into ashes.”
The class laughs at this, but McGonagle is not impressed.
“I do not appreciate your cheek Miss Lestrange,” she replies, “Five points from House Slytherin.”
The laughter of House Slytherin changes to silence and sullen faces.
This class is pointless. You contemplate storming out, or Transfiguring McGonagle for humiliating you, but in the end you decide to pull back a little to your hiding place and fall asleep. Being in such proximity to the damned Potter boy again is giving you a headache again. It’s his fault you couldn’t remember the spell. You hide yourself and sleep.
With the monster sleeping, you are able to try and learn some magic. As soon as the monster withdraws, to hide under his rock as you imagine it, your headache from being near Harry lifts. You find you can be near him, so long as the monster is sleeping or hiding. You try to concentrate on the lesson, but your mind and body is still tired from your late night activities.
As you try to learn the spells, you realise something strange. Even though the monster is sleeping, you are still able to find some of his memories. Some of the basic transfigurations just spring into your mind, almost as if you already knew them. You practice some and find it much more easily than many of your peers. The only person who seems to be doing better than you is that insufferable know-it-all named Hermione Granger.
Something even stranger happens. As you try to find a Transfiguration charm, it eludes your grasp. You have a hint of it though, almost like a scent, and you follow this back to its source. Once you find it, there is a lot more there; a room with a little bit named Tom Riddle, practicing charms in a Hogwarts class, many, many years ago. In the memory, you are Tom Riddle. It is so uncanny that you withdraw from the memory, just as if you were pulling your face from a Pensieve. The monster still seems to be sleeping, but you know he would be furious if you looked into his memories. You can’t help it if spells that he knows come into your mind though. You are sure you could cast some of the spells that he has, and on some occasions, you are not sure if it was him, or you, or both of you that cast a spell.
You spend the rest of the lesson helping Lily and Jiao-Jie with their magic. When McGonagle looks over at you she nods with approval.
At the end of the lesson, you start to fear what will happen if the monster finds out you were looking through his memories. Then you remember that he has used the charm Psyche Obfuscatus to hide both of your memories from outside snoopers. Is there a way to hide your memories from him you wonder?
As the monster is sleeping, you decide to ask McGonagle. It is a big risk, but if it works, you might be able to look at the monster’s memories, and keep it hidden from him.
You wait until the other students have left, then approach your Professor.
“Um, excuse me, Ms McGonagle,” you ask politely.
Professor McGonagle looks up from her books.
“Yes Miss Lestrange?” She says, “I’m afraid there’s no chance of me giving you your House Points back.”
“Oh, no, it’s not that,” you say, “although I am sorry about that.”
“Very well,” McGonagle says, giving you her full attention and closing her book, “what is it?”
“I was wondering. Is there a type of magic to stop people being able to read your mind?”
“There is,” McGonagle says, somewhat suspiciously, “but why would you need to know that?”
“Well, suppose someone was to try and read my mind. A Dark Wizard I mean. Is there any defence?”
McGonagle laughs at you kindly.
“Oh Miss Lestrange,” she chuckles, “you are far too young to be worrying about Dark Wizards at your age. Don’t worry about such things…”
“Please!” You interject, cutting her off from what she was saying, “I’m sorry Professor, but is there any magic about protection from mind reading? And if so what is it called?”
“Well there is Occlumency, the defence of the mind against Legimency, the ability to read the minds of others, but let me repeat Miss Lestrange,” McGonagle says, sounding a little annoyed with you again, “such magic is very advanced Defence against the Dark Arts, and not something a first year needs to be concerned with at all.”
“Thank you Professor,” you say, and turn to leave the class before you start to smile.
Now you have a plan. Any time you are close to Harry Potter, the monster will crawl under his rock, or suffer a blinding headache. Then you can look into his memories, and find what you need to find. You don’t need to read a book about Occlumency, because as soon as McGonagle said the word, you knew what it meant.
You don’t need to read a book on Occlumency because Voldemort knows everything you need to learn.
What do you do next?
Lessons:
Socialising:
Other Soul Fragment?
Inside Extended Luggage Suite
Books Life Magick of the Celts and ancient Britons, Wiccan Blood Rituals, A Primer of Magickes of Imperial China, The Fragmented Soul, Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts, Love Potions, Sexus, Serpentes et Magicae Voluptatis, The Daughters of Hecate, A Secret Guide to Hogwarts, Tom Riddle’s Diary (Horcrux).
Magic Items Sofia Lestrange’s Pensieve, Enchanted Tarot, Guardian Statue, Self-Writing Quill, Wizard’s Chess Set, Mother’s Broomstick, several sets of shirts, skirts and underwear with protection from minor charms, jinxes and hexes.
Other Items Clothes, text books, blankets, towels, food, medicines and various supplies
