Chapter 77 — A Conversation
I was on the verge of leaving when the wall opened and Dumbledore stepped out.
"You're Draco."
He looked me over with an assessing eye.
"Come to speak with the Founder?"
"I was invited."
I nodded towards Helena, who was still hovering nearby.
"So I came."
"Good. I won't keep you. Only, please take care in the corridors. I would rather the cat remain the sole casualty."
I gave a quiet snort.
"Headmaster, I would actually have a better chance alone. Some spells simply can't be cast with bystanders nearby, if only because you don't have to worry about a stray curse hitting an ally."
"Yes, yes, of course."
Dumbledore nodded, said his farewells, and made his way down the corridor while I stepped inside the Room of Requirement and found myself standing before Rowena's portrait.
"Lady Ravenclaw."
I gave a brief but respectful nod. The Founder returned it in kind.
"Mr. Black, to begin with, and even though my beloved but foolish daughter ought to have done this herself, I would also ask you not to hold a grudge against her."
"I hold no grudge."
I shook my head.
"But you are hurt."
"Yes."
I didn't try to deny it.
"And for more than one reason."
"Beyond her failure to tell you the diadem had gone, the diadem that had become a Horcrux?"
"Yes."
I nodded.
"It goes further than that, though it does stem from the same act."
"How so?"
"On the day I had the portrait brought to the Headmaster's office, an attack took place. The caretaker's cat was Petrified, and a message was found nearby: 'Enemies of the Heir, beware.'"
The woman in the portrait raised an eyebrow.
Based on everything that is currently known about the Founders, a phrase like that could only come from someone who genuinely believes themselves to be the Heir of Salazar Slytherin.
"Enemy? After all this time? Salazar had very few enemies even in our day, though calling him pleasant company would have been something of a stretch. Still, attacking a cat..."
"I'll add something further. The last person to call himself the Heir of Slytherin was a wizard whose name is avoided due to a Taboo curse, the same wizard who shattered his soul."
"You're saying... that a fragment of that soul somehow attacked the cat?"
Rowena gave a dismissive snort.
"Well."
I shrugged, making it clear I had no intention of arguing the point.
"Time will tell. But this is most likely only the first strike, a warning shot, so to speak. In any case, I'd rather leave that topic for now. That isn't the reason you asked to see me, or not entirely."
"Not entirely."
I was now looking at a sharp, extremely experienced witch.
"I wanted to propose a bargain."
I raised an inquiring eyebrow, keeping the sardonic smile from my lips. Though Rowena had almost certainly caught my reaction anyway, because she sighed and gave a small, resigned shake of her head.
"I understand that after what my daughter did, you have little desire to agree to work that will only be paid for once it's finished. So I would like to pay you before you begin."
"Why don't you start by telling me what you want, and then we can decide whether I'm willing to take on the work at all."
"To begin with, I would like you to repeat the ritual for my brothers and sister. I want you to bring back Godric, Salazar, and Helga."
I sighed.
"Do you have any idea what that would cost?"
"I suspect a very great deal. But believe me, I set aside more than enough gold in the castle and in various other places to cover both the ingredients and your fee."
"Very well."
I closed my eyes.
"To avoid compounding the existing distrust, I propose doing the rituals one at a time. I'll reserve all the ingredients at once, then purchase them in stages. Before each purchase I'll provide you with an itemized estimate: the cost of the ingredients, plus ten percent for me as the ritual practitioner. Following each ritual, you pay an additional five percent of the ingredient cost. Then we repeat."
"Fifteen percent?"
She studied me closely.
"Yes. And that is a reduced rate, given that you are the Founder of my house. You, as a Master in numerous fields, will understand that any other Apprentice would ask for at least thirty percent, and a Master wouldn't even inquire what you needed for less than sixty."
"That is rather surprising."
"Not really. I am hurt by your daughter, not by you: that is one. I have genuine respect for you as one of Hogwarts' Founders and as the Founder of my own house: that is two. And for me personally, even a brief chance to speak with all four Founders would be extraordinarily interesting: that is three."
"Perhaps you could stretch to a larger discount?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"At another time I might have considered it. But..."
I shook my head again.
"...times are unsettled, and money will be needed, especially in the form of gold and other precious metals, or gemstones, rather than Gringotts Galleons."
"Unsettled times? What do you mean?"
"That is precisely the problem: I don't know what is happening. All across the world, rifts have been opening in space, and dark creatures are emerging from them. According to information passed to me by the French Department of Mysteries, the rifts will grow larger and the creatures stronger. But what is causing it, and how long it will last..."
I sighed.
"Be quiet."
Rowena had gone darker than the darkest storm cloud.
"Be quiet and let me think. Are you certain that what you're describing is a true spatial rift?"
"Yes, I saw one myself, before it closed."
"That is very bad. Very bad indeed."
"Do you know what this is?"
"The Convergence of Worlds."
I stared at her.
"The Convergence? That's an ancient... legend."
"You were going to say 'fairy tale,' weren't you?"
I gave a mildly sheepish shrug.
"It is not a fairy tale. Wizards came to exist in this world as a direct result of such a Convergence, though very few people remember that now. Our ancestors acquired this ability through exposure to a strange energy (what we now call magic) that entered our world along with certain magical creatures."
I looked at her in profound astonishment.
"And that was not the only Convergence. I know of three others beyond our own, and many of history's most catastrophic events were a consequence of them. No one knows how often they occur or why. But our world has been fortunate, and it has been a very long time since the last one. It seems our time has come again."
I listened carefully. The information Rowena was giving me... I wouldn't say I disbelieved her, but I was obliged to pass it to our mothers and to Jean so they could verify it. And if it proved to be true, things would be very much worse than anything I had imagined based on the information I already had.
"It seems that our world is somewhat stronger than the other, which is why the rifts are opening here. If the reverse were true, we wouldn't know about the Convergence until it was nearly over, until we found ourselves standing in the ruins of our cities, stripped of everything, in the middle of a world we didn't recognize."
"What can we do?"
Rowena had gone quiet, so I asked.
"Nothing."
She shook her head.
"We can do nothing except prepare, and hope that magic protects the magical districts. We can't even be certain it will. The weaker world will appear in fragments, here and there..."
She closed her eyes.
"...and we will be very fortunate if the inhabitants of that world are at a similar level of development to our own. In that case, we might establish a fragile equilibrium. Or if they are weaker, we may be able to bring them to heel. But if they are stronger..."
Fear entered her voice.
"Stronger? But our world appears to be the anchor..."
"That means very little. It's possible they simply drove their own world to the point of collapse, and the Convergence began at precisely that moment."
I pressed my lips together.
"This is all very bad. Tell me, how well prepared for a Convergence is the world, in your assessment?"
"That's hard to say."
I shrugged.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I mean it's difficult to answer. On one hand, magic is somewhat more sophisticated now than in your day: I expect a wizard who has completed their first year today probably knows more than your second or third years did. Wand-focuses were less refined in your time, and spells weren't as optimized. On the other hand, that very sophistication means wizards overall have grown less powerful."
"More skills, less raw strength?"
"Yes. In net terms it probably balances out to roughly where you were. That said, Masters and Apprentices are no small thing: they likely match your equivalents in raw power as well. But a great deal of knowledge has been forbidden, or is taught only in specialist institutions. Some of it has probably survived only in the old families."
"Well."
Rowena shrugged.
"Unpleasant as it is to admit, every era has had its prohibitions. In my time entire disciplines were forbidden too: the Sumerian school, the Atlantean..."
I blinked.
"As for ordinary people, they would fare considerably better than in your day. Their weapons are something like a Cutting Curse compressed to the size of a fingertip, but instead of slashing, they punch straight through."
"One shot and done, I suppose?"
Rowena gave a wry smile.
"No. Multi-shot, and quick to reload. Anywhere from six or ten shots to several thousand. Rate of fire varies enormously, and some weapons are comparable to a powerful bombarda. And there are some that combine the bombarda and a Firestorm."
"Extraordinary."
Rowena shook her head.
"There's nothing extraordinary about it. Ordinary people have been reaching into space, slowly, admittedly, but still."
I shrugged.
"So there is hope. Good. Then I need to accelerate my plans. You know, I spoke with the Headmaster, and I cannot say I find him satisfactory as Headmaster of my school. But right now I am nobody, just a portrait."
She gave a dry smile.
"Which means I need you to conduct the summoning and binding as quickly as possible, for all three of my brothers and sister."
"Unfortunately, I don't have portraits of them. This one Helena found, I suspect she knew where it was all along. But the others..."
"Don't worry about that. In one of my caches there are portraits, as well as vials of blood and hair from all four Founders. I thought ahead on a great many things. And I'll need the full working notes for the ritual."
"Hm?"
"Is that a problem?"
"No."
I shook my head; she had clearly interpreted my sound as reluctance.
"It's simply that, and forgive me if this is presumptuous, I'd like to understand what you're planning."
I raised a hand to stop her before she could deflect, because that was clearly what she'd been about to do.
"Please don't misunderstand. But the summoning and binding of your brothers and sister is plainly only the first stage. Something else follows, and based on what you've asked of me..."
I shook my head and opened my hands.
"It could be any number of things. I would simply rather not come to a quarrel with you once we're halfway through."
"I want to return to this world. As a ghost, if nothing better is possible, but to return. Hogwarts, if it is properly restored, will collect the surplus magical energy of its students, and that energy would be more than sufficient for my brothers, my sister, my daughter, and myself to acquire physical forms of a sort..."
I looked at her with very great interest.
"You want to restore Hogwarts' extraterritoriality."
"Yes."
"I can't say that displeases me. But as I understand it, what you'll be asking of me is a very great deal of work. The rituals themselves won't be the longest part; it's the procurement of the ingredients..."
I scratched my jaw thoughtfully.
"I think after the New Year I could conduct the first summoning. By the end of the year at the latest, all four Founders should be summoned and bound to their portraits. But that's only the beginning. Hogwarts will need to be restored, and my skills aren't sufficient for that."
"I will teach you."
My eyes lit with genuine eagerness, then dimmed.
"Time."
I sighed.
"I learn quickly thanks to the magic of the mind, but there still isn't enough of it for everything. With lessons under Flitwick, developing my Gift, teaching first through third years, acting as deputy Head Girl, and now studying under you and helping restore the castle, I simply can't carry all of that."
"Ah, but I have a rather useful spell. Hearing your schedule, I think you will appreciate it more than most."
"And what spell is that?"
I looked at her with a flicker of curiosity.
"Ho, ho, ho. Projection."
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