Chapter Three - Arrival
July 2, 2001 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
She managed to keep her feet when they arrived. Deidre wasn't so lucky; she fell forward and landed on her hands and knees. "Whuff! Can I open my eyes now?" she asked.
"Um," Terri replied. She was looking up...and up...and up, at the representative sent by Professor Dumbledore. She didn't know whether to run away screaming or fall madly in love. He was easily the biggest man she'd ever seen in her life; a good eight-foot-six if he was an inch, and probably taller. She took in his stocky build, his long, thick hair and beard, and his beetle-black eyes, and all her butterflies froze in place. Her heart did a little flip-flop, though, that she knew had absolutely nothing to do with the interview. Please let him not be as wild as he looks, Terri thought.
The giant man gave her a smile that lit up his whole face. "Ye must be Terri Weasley!" he said to her in a booming voice. "I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts--" here his chest seemed to swell with pride "--and teacher for Care of Magical Creatures."
"Can I look?" Deidre asked again.
Rubeus Hagrid seemed to notice her for the first time. "Oh! Have a bit of a bumpy trip, did ye?" He bent down and gave her a hand up, nearly knocking her back off her feet as he did so. Terri suddenly wished she'd fallen down in transit, too. "Ye can look now," he said.
Deidre opened her eyes, and squeaked when she saw Hagrid. "Eh, it's not my ugly mug ye're supposed ta be lookin' at," he said, and pointed off in the distance. Deidre and Terri turned to where he was pointing. Both gasped.
Terri had seen pictures, of course, but no picture could do justice to the reality. The sky was a brilliant blue; the view was perfect. They stood at the edge of a deep blue lake. Perched atop
a mountain on the other side, its windows gleaming in the sun, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Atop one of the towers, Terri could clearly make out a flag.
But what did Deidre see? Terri risked a glance at her friend. She seemed just as awestruck.
"An' wot d'ye see?" prompted Hagrid.
Deidre shook herself. "I thought it was...a ruin at first, but...it must be magic, it formed itself into the biggest castle I've ever seen, right before my eyes!" She looked bewildered, and
began describing the towers and turrets. "Oh, and that tower over there...there's a flag on top!"
Hagrid showed some interest. "Can ye make out wot it is from 'ere?"
Deidre squinted. "Looks like a red flag with a big gold lion on it, standing like this..." She demonstrated, and nearly fell down again.
Hagrid grinned. "Good enough. Pick yerselves out a boat, ladies, we're goin' over."
The two women noticed several large rowboats on the shore. Hagrid took one to himself, while the two women took another. Hagrid indicated that they should load their luggage into a third, and gave them a hand. Terri noticed the boats had no oars, but said nothing. As soon as they were settled, Hagrid said "FORWARD!" And the boats moved by themselves.
"Ha! I can think of a camping trip or two I could have used that on!" Deidre laughed.
"'T on'y works on these boats, though," said Hagrid.
Terri had hardly been able to speak since they'd arrived; first Hagrid, then the wonder of the Hogwarts castle, then the fact that Deidre was able to see the castle--and the way she saw it,
forming itself from the ruins...what did that mean? But finally, Terri got up her nerve to ask a question.
"Er...Professor Hagrid?" she began.
Hagrid looked a bit taken aback. "Ah, call me `Hagrid;' everyone does."
"Er, okay...Hagrid," Terri agreed. She gave a quick glance to Deidre, who was soaking in the scenery and apparently not paying attention to the exchange. Lowering her voice, she said, "How
could you tell she wasn't lying?"
"Oh, I have me ways," he said with a smile. Then, with the tone of someone who just couldn't keep a good thing to himself, he added, "I've been leadin' firs' year students 'cross this lake fer longer 'n anyone; ye get ter know th' look when they firs' see it." He glanced again at the castle, lost in the moment, as if remembering the first time he'd seen Hogwarts. Leaning a bit towards Terri, he whispered, "'sides, we almos' never fly flags from th' towers; an' if Miss Freedman--Professor Dumbledore tol' me both yer names--anyway, if she saw it the way a Muggle'd see it and tried to lie, well, she wouldna described the flag, see?"
"I do," said Terri, awestruck at the simplicity of it.
"Whoa," said Hagrid, raising his voice a bit. "Duck yer heads, ladies--low crossin' coming up!"
Terri and Deidre bent their heads as the boats went under the cliff on which the castle sat. They sailed through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried
along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they climbed out of the boat onto rocks and pebbles.
"Just a mo'" said Hagrid. Terri heard a noise that sounded like metal on stone, then saw light. Hagrid had apparently just lit a lamp, which he held up. "Follow me." They climbed up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass near the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps to the huge, oak front doors.
Hagrid knocked. The doors opened, and out popped a man who was as short as Hagrid was tall. "Oh, good," he said, taking in the three arrivals. "Any problems, Hagrid?"
"None a'tall," Hagrid replied.
"You must be Miss Terri Weasley," said the little man, extending his hand. "I'm Professor Flitwick, teacher of Charms and head of House Ravenclaw."
"Got it in one," said Terri. She wondered for a moment why everyone was guessing correctly that she was Terri, but figured it had to do with how she was dressed. Then, remembering her manners, she reached down to shake his hand. "A pleasure, Professor. And this is Deidre Freedman," she said, indicating her friend.
"Very good," Professor Flitwick said with a nod. "If you'll follow me, please, the headmaster is most eager to meet you." Seeing the women glance back at the boats, he added, "Your luggage will be taken in and held until you need it." Turning to the giant of a man standing beside the women, he said, "Hagrid, would you escort Miss Freedman to the Great Hall, as we discussed earlier?"
Hagrid's brows raised. "So he made it here, then? Good." They walked into the entranceway and parted company shortly thereafter, as Deidre and Hagrid headed one direction and Professor Flitwick and Terri headed another. Terri found herself wondering more and more: who made it here? Why did he want to see Deidre? She looked back at her friend with some concern.
"I must admit, I'm rather eager to speak with you myself," said Professor Flitwick, pulling Terri out of her reverie. "You included a rather tantalizing paragraph about charms and the use
of your technique; I've read your proposal, you see," he admitted.
"Yes," said Terri, perking up. She was glad for the distraction. While Hogwarts, A History had mentioned the living pictures, seeing the reality of it--like seeing the reality of the Hogwarts
castle itself--was far more striking than reading about it. And noticing pictures that followed you not just with their eyes, but their whole bodies, sometimes into another picture...she forced herself to turn back to the little charms professor. "I wanted to be sure the technique would work, so I tried it out first with the earliest spells I learned," she explained.
"Professor Bones always did have a knack with charms," Professor Flitwick observed with a smile. "I had him in my class; only had to show him something once, and he understood it. I was glad to hear that he went into teaching."
Terri stopped dead. "How did you know that--oh." She looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it's been so long since I sent in my proposal, I'd almost forgotten--"
"Quite understandable," said Professor Flitwick, unperturbed. "He did say that you'd insisted on not seeing his letter of recommendation before he sent it to us."
They continued through the stairways and corridors, past more pictures and suits of armor, until they approached an oddly solid cloud, apparently made up of colorful, fist-sized globs, suspended in mid-air. Professor Flitwick crossed his arms in irritation.
"Peeves," he said in a commanding voice. "Manifest!"
A very silly-looking man in a bow tie appeared, holding the cloud in one arm. Terri suddenly realized it wasn't a cloud at all--and prepared to duck.
"Ickle newbie teacher, yes?" Peeves piped. "Oh boy! Welcome to the grounds of Hogwarts!" With that warning, the poltergeist began throwing the water balloons, which contained a fair share of mud, no doubt from "the grounds of Hogwarts." She saw Professor Flitwick draw his wand as one hit her on the right side of her chest, splattering her robes.
Lord and lady, one is more than enough, she thought, and raised her right first finger, pointing directly at Peeves. "Expelliarmus!" she exclaimed. The rest of the mud balloons went flying backwards, splatting against the ceiling, a wall, and a nearby suit of armor.
"Oh lovely," grumbled the armor, its visor clattering, "and I just got polished this morning."
"Hmph!" said Peeves, glaring at Terri. Then, with a raspberry, he popped out.
"Splendid!" cried Professor Flitwick, sounding as if he was praising one of his own students. "I couldn't have done better myself--and without a wand."
"Thanks," Terri mumbled. She looked down at her muddy robes with a sense of disgust. So much for looking spiffy, she thought. She was so unhappy she barely noticed a large cat looking at her before it darted away down a turning in the corridor.
"Oh please, allow me," said Professor Flitwick. He waved his slender black wand over her robes and spoke a couple of command words Terri had all but forgotten after several years of using a
washing machine. In two seconds, her robes were as clean as if Peeves had never attacked.
"Thank you," said Terri, much more emphatically. "In fact, thank you very much--you've jogged my memory." Drawing her own wand, she waved it through the air, pointing mainly at the muddy ceiling and wall, and spoke the appropriate variation on the spell her guide had just cast. In mere moments, the mud was gone.
"I say, what about me?" asked the armor, which still retained its coating of mud.
"Er, sorry," said Terri, "but the, um, the charm for cleaning metal is--"
"PEEVES!" came an angry shout. A thin, elderly man, followed by the cat Terri had barely noticed earlier, bounded over from around a bend in the corridor. "I'VE GOT YOU THIS TIME! PEEVES!" He stopped abruptly when he saw Terri and the professor. "He was here, wasn't he?" the man demanded of Professor Flitwick.
"Yes, he was," said the professor, pain in his voice. "Miss Terri Weasley, may I present to you Mr. Argus Filch, keeper of the Hogwarts buildings? Mr. Filch, this is..."
"A new teacher, eh?" asked Mr. Filch.
"That has yet to be decided," said Professor Flitwick pointedly.
"Oh." Mr. Filch nodded curtly. "Well, excuse me, I've got a nuisance to catch." He turned and again shouted "PEEVES!" The cat followed him as he turned back down the hall.
"I'm afraid Mr. Filch is a bit obsessive when it comes to maintaining these halls--quite commendable, really--but when it comes to Peeves--" Professor Flitwick explained apologetically.
Terri shrugged. "Well, everyone needs a hobby."
The rest of the walk to Professor Dumbledore's office went uneventfully. In addition to the pictures, Terri now noticed that the ghosts were also watching, some peering out from closed doors, others gliding along and glancing backwards as they passed, one even popping up halfway through the floor and then back down again before they walked by. She wasn't used to being the center of this much attention--certainly not the center of this much ghostly and pictorial attention! Despite her nerves over the interview, arriving at the imposing doors of Albus Dumbledore's office felt like a positive relief.
"Licorice," said Flitwick to the gargoyle on the door. The door opened. Terri followed the professor onto a spiral staircase, which startled her by moving upwards like an escalator.
Very shortly, they arrived in the most intriguing room Terri had ever seen. The circular office contained an assortment of objects on shelves, some glowing, some spinning, some just sitting there looking mysterious. She recognized a Sneakoscope (quiescent) and several other items, but the rest...? On the walls of the circular office hung pictures of previous Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses, all blissfully asleep in their frames. To her left, she noticed a perch, on which sat a large red swan-like bird with a matching peacock tail (oh my gosh a phoenix! she thought). To her right, on a chair near the desk, sat a cat--not the one she'd seen before, the color was all wrong, and this one had markings around the eyes (that's NOT an ordinary cat! she realized).
There were two other empty chairs in the room. Professor Flitwick gestured to the one set directly in front of the large oak desk while he himself took the other. Taking a deep breath, Terri sat down in what she hoped was a graceful manner, and looked at what was by far the most interesting thing in the room--Professor Albus Dumbledore.
He was the very image of what a wizard should look like. He wore deep blue robes decorated with white stars. A matching pointed hat sat on top of a head full of long white hair. His white beard, which went down apparently to his waist (Terri couldn't be sure, with the desk in the way), obscured his face--no, only most of his face. His lively blue eyes, twinkling behind a pair of half-moon glasses, contrasted sharply with his apparent age.
"Ah, Miss Weasley. Welcome to Hogwarts. I trust you had a safe trip?" he asked warmly.
Terri nodded, then, trying to shake off her awe, managed, "Y-yes, sir, I did." So much for being my own splendid self, she thought, feeling her cheeks grow warm.
"Very good." He smiled, and spared a glance at the papers on his desk--which included her dissertation proposal, she noticed. Of course it's on his desk, she thought, ordering the butterflies in her stomach to grab the Snitch and be done with it already.
"From your proposal, I'd say you've done a significant amount of research already," he noted, looking back up at Terri. He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, sir, I have--as much as I could, given my situation," Terri replied, finally gaining control of her voice and face again.
"Please--the last time someone tried to dub me with a sword, I ducked. Lucky thing, too--the lad had terrible aim." Terri couldn't suppress a chuckle. Dumbledore smiled and nodded, resting his
fingers lightly on her proposal. "I'm curious, though, why you wish to pursue your research at Hogwarts. Surely the institution at Salem would suit your needs?"
That's a trick question, Terri thought. He said in an earlier message that he had a counterproposal for me--this isn't it. "I'm afraid it doesn't," said Terri, "nor, in fact, does any other wizardly institution." She had explained this in her proposal, of course, but did not mind explaining it again--this, at least, was familiar ground. She raised her left hand and began ticking off reasons. "First, Hogwarts is, as far as I can tell, the oldest wizardly institution in continuous existence; Salem is far younger, and--pardon me--its library shows it. Second," here her cheeks grew slightly warm again, "languages are not my forte, which ruled out places such as Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Third," here she felt herself on much more solid ground, "Hogwarts has unparalleled access to magical materials, thanks to the proximity of the Forbidden Forest, Diagon Alley, and some of the finest greenhouses in the wizardly world." Risking an accusation of "brown nosing," Terri continued with, "Fourth, many of the professors at Hogwarts" here she nodded at Flitwick, and, daringly, the cat, "are acknowledged experts in their fields. Since I take a somewhat interdisciplinary approach to my project, this is an important consideration."
"In short," she finished, "there is literally no other place in the world that offers me such optimal conditions for continuing my research." She watched Professor Dumbledore expectantly.
"I see." The headmaster raised his eyebrows. "And if we had refused your proposal outright?"
Terri's heart skipped a beat, but she could have sworn she caught the hint of a smile. Ah, I see you now, she thought. "In that case," Terri said, managing a small smile of her own in return, "I
suppose I would have prepared myself to continue my research without Hogwarts--with stone knives and bearskins, if necessary." Out of the corner of her eye, Terri saw a bewildered look on
Flitwick's face, and noticed that even the cat cocked its head--but Professor Dumbledore's smile widened.
"I expected as much," he said. He looked back down at the papers on his desk with a thoughtful expression. It was then that Terri noticed just how many Muggle documents were on his desk--all with her name on them. Transcripts from college and high school (and grade school?! Lord and Lady!); letters from jobs held, both paying and volunteer (she could make out the letterheads); hospital records (?!); and others she could not make out with certainty. He didn't stint on HIS research, Terri thought, and reminded her rapidly beating heart that he had not found anything a good private detective in the Muggle world couldn't turn up in a day or so of investigation.
Professor Dumbledore picked up a small wooden tray which held what appeared to be crafts supplies, and passed it to Terri. "I wonder if you would be willing to demonstrate your technique to us?" He asked. "You gave an excellent description, and we were impressed with your samples--" he held up one of her colorful, football-shaped beads, which had been half-hidden under a piece of parchment "--but we'd really like to see how you do it." His glance took in Professor Flitwick, who leaned forward with interest.
"Yes," Flitwick added. "Forgive me, but it's hard to believe that such a simple technique..." he trailed off.
Terri grinned. This, at least, she'd been prepared for; it was the same reaction she got at flea markets and other places she displayed her jewelry. She quickly checked the tray: yes, one
ruler, one pencil, a piece of parchment, a pair of scissors (any other spell cast on the paper used interacted badly with the intended enchantment, she'd noted in her proposal), a small container of Gertrude's Glues-it-All, and a slender knitting needle. "Believe it," she said, and began to create.
She held the paper the long way, laying it flat on the tray. Using the ruler and pencil, she placed a mark one inch in from the bottom edge, and another one a half inch in from the top edge.
With the ruler to guide her lines, she connected the mark at the bottom to the mark at the top, and then the corner at the bottom to the mark at the top. This left her with an isosceles
triangle--one with two sides of the same length--drawn on the parchment. She picked up the scissors and began cutting it out. "The really annoying thing about this is spell spillover," she
explained as she cut. "I can't put my spell on the bead until I cut out the paper, or else it spills into the rest of the paper. Not a problem if I'm making a whole set of beads with the same
enchantment, of course, but otherwise..." Terri let the implication hang as she finished cutting out the triangle. Looking at the three pairs of eyes watching her, she asked, "Um, is there
any particular spell you'd like me to use?"
"Oh, I should think one of the Shield variations would do," Dumbledore replied, with a glance to Flitwick, who nodded his assent--and one at the cat. The feline promptly pretended disinterest. Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to change his mind. When he turned back to Terri, his expression displayed a mild interest that matched his tone of voice--but his eyes showed more than mere interest. They glittered with a--hope? Hunger? that Terri found a little frightening.
She shook herself. "Okay, Shields it is--I'll use my favorite variation," Terri said. She drew her wand from its slender bag at her side, and placed it on the tray. After a moment's thought to
jog her memory, she picked up the pencil and wrote the command word for the spell on the parchment triangle, mouthing each letter to herself as she did so. She then ran her finger over the word and spoke it softly, letting her mind become more tightly focused on the spell and what it did. Dropping the pencil, she picked up her wand, and traced over each letter again, this time saying them aloud. Finally, as she said the full name for the spell, she circled the word with her wand. The word itself, and the unpenciled circle around it, began to glow. With a smile, she
raised her head to face her audience.
"I've just put my `will,' if you will, into this paper," she explained.
"Oh, so the paper is like a wand now," said Professor Flitwick, pointing his finger at what she had done.
"Err...not exactly," said Terri hesitantly. "You'll see when I'm done." She picked up the knitting needle and began wrapping the paper around it, starting at the one inch base. As she rolled, she
daubed a bit of Gertrude's on the paper to secure it, careful not to glue the paper to the knitting needle. When she finished, she put a tiny drop on the point of the triangle, and held it in place
for several seconds. "Normally I'd put two coats of clear acrylic on this, for strength and water-resistance," she said, waiting for the glue to burp, which would indicate it had dried, "but since this is purely for demonstration purposes--" A soft burp came from between her fingers just then, and she grinned. Sliding the rolled-up paper off the knitting needle with a smooth flourish,
she pronounced, "Voila! A bead! Or, more precisely," she continued, "a portable spell."
Flitwick's eyes widened. "And anyone can use that spell--without a wand, mind you--simply by holding it and saying the word for the spell?"
Terri nodded. "Anyone." She hesitated a moment, not wanting to sound overly confident...but also not wanting to exclude any possibilities, either. "In theory, even Muggles can use
this--though I haven't tested that yet," she added hastily. Leaning a little closer to Flitwick and pointing at the bead, she added, "This is what I meant when I said--"
"Of course!" Flitwick cut in, slapping his head. "How foolish of me. Wands channel the magic of the user--but these beads are more like containers for the caster's magic, which can then be used by anyone." He reached for the bead; Terri handed it to him. He shook his head, then turned to Dumbledore. "You were right, Albus; I shouldn't have skimmed her section on theory as quickly as I did."
Dumbledore gestured at Terri's proposal. "You can always reread it."
Professor Flitwick nodded, then looked again at the inch-long football-shaped object he held in between his thumb and forefinger. "So if I merely speak the word for the spell, without using my wand, the spell will activate?"
"That's right," said Terri, sliding her own wand back into her wand bag. "In fact, you don't even need to think of the spell itself; just focus on the bead."
"Are you up for trying it out, old friend?" asked Dumbledore. Terri couldn't miss the eagerness in his voice.
"I most certainly am!" Flitwick exclaimed. "Especially if this works as well as the samples did!" He smiled, then asked, "You don't mind if I present you with a taller target, do you?"
"Not at all."
Professor Flitwick then stood up on his chair. Terri stood up too. Despite her relative casualness in preparing the bead, she was now so excited she felt that if she did not stand up, she would surely jump out of her skin. With a nod to Terri and Professor Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick distinctly pronounced the command word for the Shield spell--and was immediately enveloped in a yellow glow, the hallmark of the spell. "Oh, splendid!" he said, looking down at his hands and body.
Dumbledore stood up and drew a wand from a pocket in his robes. "Let's see if that really is more than just a glow. Do you still remember your tumbling from your dueling days?" he asked.
"Of course," Professor Flitwick replied. "Why do you ask?"
"For the same reason you learned it in the first place," Dumbledore explained. "It is always wise to be prepared with a Plan B." So saying, he waved his wand and cast a minor curse at
Professor Flitwick.
Terri immediately recognized the curse; it was Jelly-Legs. It did not get through the bead-made Shield. In fact, since it was her favorite variation of the spell she'd used, it bounced. That was
the good news. The bad news was where it landed when it rebounded off the Shield.
"MROW!"
Terri slowly looked over at the cat, dreading what she knew she would see. She had never seen a cat cursed with Jelly-Legs before, despite the number of times she'd been tempted to cast it on one or the other of the furry terrors she lived with. The spell caught all four legs, of course--and since the feline had just then been standing on the chair for a better view, it could not keep its
footing. Each time the poor creature managed to straighten one or even two legs, a ripple in one of its other legs threw it off balance again. The cat half-stepped, half-slid off the chair, just barely landing with its belly down; to say that, like all cats, it landed on its feet would have been seriously stretching the truth.
Terri covered her face. Once again, the part of her brain that didn't have to be involved was laughing hysterically--but she'd pinned the cat as an Animagi practically as soon as she entered
the room. They hadn't intended her to spot it, of course--but since she had, she knew it had to be someone important, someone whom Dumbledore trusted to give a non-biased, observer's-eye
opinion of the interviewee. And, thanks to Terri's choice of Shield spells, she'd just blown it. Dang, why couldn't Gavin teach me a turn-to-a-puddle-and-melt-through-the-woodwork spell?
she wondered, desperately wishing she could do just that.
Her worst fears were confirmed after Dumbledore cast the counter-curse, and the cat chose that moment to change back into her human form. She was standing--barely--and caught herself on
Dumbledore's desk. "Are you all right, Minerva?" asked Dumbledore, concern in his voice.
"Yes. Perfectly," replied Minerva, clipping each word. The bespectacled professor appeared to be in her mid-fifties; Terri knew, as a witch, that she might be quite a bit older. Minerva
patted her hair bun (which hardly had any hair out of place) and fixed Terri with a glare. Her lips seemed unnaturally thin just then; it reminded Terri of the way her gypsy witch Divination
teacher would look after explaining something to her for the fifth time.
"Miss Weasley," said Dumbledore, "may I present Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration," It figures, thought Terri, "head of House Gryffindor," uh-oh "and Deputy
Headmistress of Hogwarts." oh my Lord and Lady!
Well, when I mess up, at least I do it in a grand style, Terri thought resignedly. She bravely held out her hand and said "H-how do you do, Professor McGonagall?"
McGonagall hesitated, but took Terri's proffered hand, delivering a firm but quick handshake. "Miss Weasley," she began, in a tone that Terri was sure sent prickles up the spines of her students, "I would suggest that if you are going to attempt something as...different as these...beads are, you should give more careful consideration to the effects of the spells you cast into them."
"But I did!" Terri exclaimed. "I mean, I didn't plan--I mean, that wasn't what--I mean...I'm really sorry!" Terri stammered.
"Now, now, Minerva, there was no real harm done," said Dumbledore gently--at which point Minerva shot him a murderous look, and opened her mouth to speak. But Dumbledore held up his hand. "No real harm done," he emphasized, "and I'm quite certain Miss Weasley has a good explanation as to why she used that particular variation on the Shield spell." He turned his head to Terri, and raised his eyebrows expectantly.
My Goddess, he even read the examples in my proposal! Terri let out a breath and nodded her thanks to the professor. "Yes. If you'll look at Professor Flitwick--pardon me for using you as a
prop, Professor--"
"Quite all right," said Flitwick, with a look halfway between amusement and resignation on his face. Terri wondered briefly if his student's charms frequently managed to stray and hit him. If so, this would hardly be the first time he was used - accidently or intentionally - as a prop, and certainly not the last time, either.
"Ah, thank you." She coughed to cover herself while she recaptured her train of thought. "As you can see, Professor Flitwick's Shield has dimmed noticeably since he cast the spell out of the bead I made." Terri paused as the three professors examined the Shield; one glance at their faces told her that they had, indeed, just noticed this. "Do you still have the bead in your hand, Professor?" Terri asked.
"Yes I do." Flitwick held it up. Professor McGonagall's jaw dropped; when the smaller professor looked at the bead in his hand, his eyes widened in surprise. Dumbledore's eyes narrowed,
and he nodded, as if at something he had expected.
Good, this might be easier than I thought. "As you can see, the parchment has darkened. If you check it closely in some spots, you might even see some charring." Flitwick held out the bead between himself and McGonagall; from their reactions, the two of them did indeed see a char mark or two. Good. She took a deep breath.
"I'm not entirely certain myself what causes that," Terri continued, "though I have a theory or two. The important thing is, this is the effect from the Bounce variation of the Shield spell
used in a bead. I take it, Professor McGonagall, you were wondering why I had not used the variation that absorbs curses?"
It was practically a rhetorical question. "Yes, I was," answered McGonagall. Terri figured she must be imagining it, but she thought she heard her tone soften slightly.
"It's because I've tried it before--and I know what happens. For some reason the bead, or the spell cast into it, can't handle the energy." She pointed at the bead. "The spell is absorbed--but then the bead combusts. Rapidly."
Professor Flitwick dropped the bead as if he had just been burned. But Professor McGonagall looked at her again, eyebrows raised. "Are you telling me that you plan to practice unsafe--"
"Hardly unsafe, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore interrupted. "I think `unsafe' would be, oh, attempting to bleed a dragon before checking to make sure you've bound the dragon properly, don't you?" Dumbledore and McGonagall cast looks at each other that were totally undecipherable to Terri--until she remembered that one of Dumbledore's best known accomplishments was the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood.
"Be that as it may," McGonagall continued, "I do have some concerns about you conducting your research at Hogwarts."
Terri cowered inside, but said, "Then please ask. That's what I'm here for, after all."
For the next forty-five minutes, during which Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick sat back down, Professor McGonagall set about grilling Terri. It was clear that the professor was most
concerned about the safety of the experiments, especially if any students should become involved in the project. Thankfully, Terri had already thought that through. Professor McGonagall asked some other questions that indicated to Terri that she had also read the
proposal through completely -- and considered the implications as they applied to her own field.
"Transfiguration is so very different from the typical spells that are cast out of a wand -- the ones that use command words, I mean," Terri replied, in answer to one of her questions. "I honestly hadn't considered it, I'm sorry to say. And Professor Smith - you'll remember I mentioned him in my proposal as one of the wizards I consulted - told me it would be a good idea to keep the focus of this project fairly narrow, so I can cover the material comprehensively."
McGonagall nodded. "Yes, I can understand that," she said thoughtfully. She seemed to be remembering something -- her own doctoral project, perhaps? -- but the faraway look in her eyes
only lingered for a moment. "There are some similarities, though; the idea of applying your will to an object. I'd be interested in seeing you try it out, just to see if it's possible."
"Indeed," said Dumbledore, "but--forgive me, Minerva--it's not so relevant to the core of Miss Weasley's project."
"Ah, true." McGonagall nodded, gracefully conceding the point. She asked several more questions, which Terri fielded with a confident tone and a hammering heart, before turning back to Dumbledore. "I believe I'm satisfied for now," she said to him, and sat back down. Terri felt as if she'd just passed a major final.
"Good," Dumbledore said. Turning back to Terri, he said, "Please sit down. I'm afraid the next part of this interview will be rather difficult."
Terri sat, bewildered. What could be more difficult than the grilling I've just been put through? she wondered.
Professor Dumbledore put his fingertips together briefly, then rested his hands on his desk. He glanced down at them, and when he looked back up, he wore a worried frown, and the twinkle had gone out of his eyes. "I know that he was before your entry into the wizarding world, Miss Weasley, but I take it Professor Bones told you about Lord Voldemort?"
