"…I'm insane,"
Vale sat back and surveyed his creation with a mixture of pride and apprehension. A gasp escaped his lips with a relieved,
"Hah…"
The parchment before him was filled with messy script, complex diagrams, and citations that would make even Hermione Granger raise an eyebrow. It was, without question, the most elaborate lie he had ever constructed.
"Beautiful nonsense," he whispered, tracing a finger along one particularly convoluted diagram showing the supposed intersection of Obscurial energy and conscious magic.
The lines and circles meant absolutely nothing, yet they looked impressively scientific. What Vale had used as a reference were mathematical fractals, utilising self-similarity as a base to create a theory of what a soul would look like when written onto a two-dimensional plane (paper).
"…Absolutely bonkers,"
His heart raced as he considered the shopkeeper's reaction. Would an adult wizard see through the charade immediately? The academic jargon was thick enough to choke on—terms Vale had invented wholesale alongside legitimate magical concepts he'd gleaned from Snape's books.
If little knowledge was dangerous, was his paper a nuke?
Vale gathered the pages, aligning their edges with precise movements. The physical act helped steady his trembling hands. He'd created something that existed in the narrow space between complete fabrication and plausible theory—much like his own existence as a consciousness fused with an Obscurus.
"I'm an eleven-year-old trying to sound like a magical researcher," he muttered, doubt creeping in. "This truly is madness."
But wasn't that the beauty of it?
No one expected brilliance from a child. If the shopkeeper dismissed his work, Vale could easily play the part of an overeager student with an active imagination. But if it worked—if this elaborate fiction earned him that book—
Vale stood, manuscript clutched to his chest. The weight of it felt significant, as if the lies had physical mass. He'd constructed an academic paper that danced around actual knowledge, peppered with just enough authentic magical theory to seem credible.
"Time to see if I can fool a wizard who'd been reading magical texts since before I was born," Vale said, squaring his shoulders.
The irony wasn't lost on him—he was, in essence, an impostor in every sense of the word, from his borrowed body to his fabricated research.
* * *
Vale approached madame Nook's desk, his steps measured despite the thundering in his chest. The manuscript trembled in his small hands—hands that looked far too young to have written such complex theories.
Adrenaline still coursed through his veins.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" His voice cracked, higher than he'd intended for his act.
Nook peered over her glasses, eyes sharp as she took in the sight of this child clutching a stack of parchment. "Yes, young man?"
"I've completed the research you requested." Vale placed the papers on her desk, careful not to scatter them. "About the theoretical intersection of conscious magic and Obscurial energy."
Her eyebrows rose as she picked up the first page. "This is... quite extensive for someone your age."
Vale's face lit up with genuine excitement—not entirely feigned, as the theories he'd crafted had taken on a life of their own in his mind.
"See this diagram here?" He pointed to a complex spiral pattern. "It represents how magical consciousness could theoretically fold in on itself, creating layers of awareness that might explain why Obscurials maintain some form of control even in their transformed state."
Nook's skeptical expression flickered. She adjusted her glasses, leaning closer to examine the intricate drawings. "These patterns... they're reminiscent of arithmantic principles I've seen in advanced magical theory texts."
"Really?" Vale bounced on his toes, letting his childish enthusiasm shine through while his mind calculated every reaction.
"I was thinking about how magic flows in nature—like how water spirals down a drain, or how shells grow in perfect mathematical sequences."
The shopkeeper's quill suddenly twitched to life, scratching notes on a nearby piece of parchment. Nook's eyes widened slightly at this response from her enchanted instrument.
"Fascinating," she murmured, flipping through more pages. "You've referenced Dumbledore's work on love as a magical force..."
"Because love is one of the most powerful forms of conscious magic we know of," Vale explained, his voice carrying both youthful wonder and keen analysis. "If we understand how it interacts with other magical phenomena..."
Vale's mind raced ahead of his words, calculating the perfect balance between revealing too much and perhaps too little.
In the meantime, the shopkeeper's enchanted quill danced across the parchment, recording his every word.
It was a stark contrast for the omniscient.
"…Let's consider what happened with The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter." Vale's voice dropped lower, more serious.
"The Killing Curse — a spell designed to sever consciousness from body — failed against pure, protective love. That's not just powerful magic, it's a fundamental principle about how magic interacts with consciousness."
The quill scratched faster. However, a flicker of doubt had spawned in the depths of Nook's gaze.
"My theory suggests that love didn't just shield Harry Potter, it created a sort of... magical echo. Like ripples in a pond, but with consciousness instead of water." Vale traced circles on the desk with his finger.
"That's why I referenced Professor Dumbledore's research. He understood that love wasn't just emotion—it was a force that could alter the very fabric of magic."
Nook's eyes narrowed behind her glasses. "And how does this connect to Obscurial energy?"
"What if an Obscurus isn't just raw magic turned destructive? What if it's consciousness itself trying to exist in two states at once?" Vale felt the dark whispers inside him stir at his words. "Like how Harry Potter's mother's love created a protection that existed beyond death — a conscious choice that transcended normal magical boundaries."
The quill paused mid-stroke, hovering expectantly.
"The parallel patterns in my diagrams show how this might work. An Obscurial's consciousness doesn't just fragment—it folds. Like origami made of pure magic." Vale pointed to the complex drawings.
"Each fold creates new surfaces where consciousness and magic intersect, just like how love created new pathways for magic to flow when it defeated the Killing Curse…"
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