After Ancient Runes

[Kerridon Paradox]

When Kerridon left the Ancient Runes classroom to head for the lirary, he noticed D'rorah Philosophy apparently with the same destination in mind. It seemed as good an opportunity as any to show the older Ravenclaw his research into an alternative to the patronus. He made a quick detour into the Ravenclaw common room to retrieve his notes from his dormitory before continuing on his way. He owned one of thoe marvellous trunks with several compartments, and one of these was devoted to his research. That was where he held the book he had found in the library about a week ago, when he had met D'rorah. If someone found that lying about, far too many questions would be asked even if they couldn't trace it back to himself.

He entered the library at a brisk pace, relishing the peacefulness. Every time he had been in there it had been like a secret haven where no one could destroy his temporary happiness. Excepting, of course, that occasion a few days ago when he had discovered Quin Woods planning a trick involving green goo in there. Another student, albeit only a 3rd year, had caught him persuading Quin not to pull any more pranks in this particular location, and only a lot of fast thinking and spellwork had stopped him from being completely found out. That incident could have turned out a lot worse than it had; as it was, neither Quin nor Alexis trusted him.

Kerridon soon located D'rorah at a table near the Restricted Section, surrounded by the apparently requisite stack of tomes. He approached her slowly, not wanting to startle her.

"D'rorah? May I join you? I have with me the research you said you would be interested in seeing."

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah had left Ancient Runes, her extracurricular research ready as always in her satchel. Making her way to the back of the library, she debated seating herself in the restricted section, but decided to remain in the main part of the library, figuring that she would only be using her own texts today anyway. Besides, the light was much better in the main section, making her reading a bit easier.

She had been working away steadily when a voice intruded into her concentration. She looked up, recognizing the voice as belonging to Kerridon. Her eyes took an extra second to refocus after having grown accustomed to the close focus of reading. She looked rather tired, as though she had not slept much lately. In truth, she had not. Ever since returning from her journey to Alconbury with Dylan to attend the funeral of his foster father, and the disastrous events which had delayed their return, she had been pushing herself relentlessly to catch up. It might have been a trick of her own imagination, but it seemed that even her robes had already begun to fit a bit more loosely, as she had begun to neglect mealtimes while attending to her research and the upkeep of her physical training.

Having been asked if he could address her by her first name, she appreciated his formality and reciprocated by using his first name in address. "Of course, Kerridon. You appear to have your choice of seating. There is currently no competition for the seats at this table." Her comment, in addition to being an invitation to join her at the table, was a somewhat satirical remark regarding the overall absence of students from the library, an affirmation of her observation that very few seemed as dedicated to their academics as she and Kerridon.

She closed her own notes and texts, clearing a space to make room for Kerridon's research. She was always intrigued by new ideas, especially anything that might prove helpful in the fight against the Mage and the creatures from the Shadow Realm.

[Kerridon Paradox]

Kerridon gave a small smile at D'rorah's comment on the spare seats, settling himself in a chair to her right and reaching into his bag to retrieve the research.

"Yes, it seems that not everyone is as committed as we are to academia. I would have thought that there is no excuse for all those students who get bad or even average marks, when they are living in a castle containing such a wonderful source of research material."

Finally he found the sheafs of parchment he was looking for; a supposedly concise summary of his research so far. He was suddenly grateful that he hadn't gotten around to writing down the results of one of the spells he had used on Quin. Somehow he doubted she would approve of the usage. It had been based on his research and had involved drawing up Quin's worst memories, but then not performing the charm to block them. In layman's terms, he had forced her to relive her worst memories. He remembered the satisfaction within him when she finally broke, although that was due to him threatening Heno, her pet pine marten, rather than any of the spells he performed. He made a mental note to file that particular experiment write-up with his more private collection of curses and other dark arts research.

Returning to the present, he handed D'rorah the overview of his research, glancing surreptitiously to see what books she was studying today.

"That is what I have done so far," he explained, hoping that she would find most of his spidery-scrawls to be self-explanatory.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah accepted the sheaf of papers and skimmed over the first page immediately. "Thank you, Mister Paradox. I truly do appreciate it." She noted him glancing over her reading materials and turned a curious eye upon him. "So then, just how many languages do you speak?" she asked finally. "I see that you do not limit yourself to mediocre English translations of the works you wish to study. I find very few who are willing to put forth the effort to learn other languages for the purpose of research. Though, they are quite enthralling in their own right... they have their own cadences and subtleties." A small flicker appeared in her eyes, betraying her own passion for languages. She had been raised to appreciate languages, her father putting her to the study of different languages even before her hands could hold a quill to write.

"The ability to communicate ideas effectively is essential to developing and spreading knowledge," she remarked, a quote she had often heard from her father. She was so side-tracked by thoughts of languages, it seemed she had somewhat forgotten about the research she had been handed.

After a moment, she returned her attention to the sheaves of parchment and began reading through, going more slowly than usual to make certain she digested the material and caught anything that might be written between the lines. After a few moments, she was completely absorbed and spared little attention for anything else that might be happening in the room.

[Kerridon Paradox]

Kerridon nodded in reply to her thanks and retrieved his Ancient Runes homework, beginning to work on it immediately. It wasn't particularly difficult, but couldn't be classed as easy either. Nevertheless, he found that his theory on working outside the classroom was true - he was working much quicker than he had been half an hour ago when surrounded by murmuring voices and other humanly distractions.

"So then, just how many languages do you speak?"

"I am fluent in four, not including English," he replied. "French, Latin, Ancient Greek and Hebrew. I also know others but am not perfect in them - German, Hieroglyphics, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and there are still more which I only know the basics of. And you? I have heard talk that you know every language on the planet, but forgive me if I believe that is a slight embellishment of the truth."

"I see that you do not limit yourself to mediocre English translations of the works you wish to study. I find very few who are willing to put forth the effort to learn other languages for the purpose of research. Though, they are quite enthralling in their own right... they have their own cadences and subtleties."

He saw the spark in her eyes as she spoke of the knowledge of languages and privately agreed with her apparent fascination with them.

"I have found while doing my research that many versions of texts are mistranslated. Certain words do not have a direct translation, so the attempts of previous linguists often lead to misunderstanding. It is much easier and more accurate, in my view, to research using the original document than to trust the translator's interpretation."

As she became absorbed in his own research, Kerridon bent over the Ancient Runes translations. After about ten minutes, he looked up to check on her.

"Do you understand what it is I am attempting?" he asked. "To draw up the bad memories and crush them together into a protected space where dementors cannot sense nor leech onto them. I'm still having slight problems with drawing up the memories though - upon experimentation, I have found that it causes one to relive some of one's worst memories before they can be shielded, making it even more difficult to escape from them to perform the shielding spell."

He had had to watch many bad things over and over, and was still no closer to overcoming that problem. He would get stuck in a loop upon performing the memory charm, with each bad memory drawing him deeper until he was stuck in his own personal hell. Quin was lucky she hadn't had any worse memories, or it could have been difficult to end the charm.

((I kind of presumed you weren't going to say or do much while reading Kerridon's research, but if not then let me know and I'll alter the post.))

[D'rorah Philosophy]

"I am fluent in four, not including English," he replied. "French, Latin, Ancient Greek and Hebrew. I also know others but am not perfect in them - German, Hieroglyphics, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and there are still more which I only know the basics of. And you? I have heard talk that you know every language on the planet, but forgive me if I believe that is a slight embellishment of the truth."

"You are correct. That would certainly be an embellishment, considering that there are over seven thousand documented languages on this planet." She paused, no one ever believed when she revealed how many she actually spoke... but then, once you had fluency in several of the basic languages, adding anything else on was almost like learning different dialects. "In the years I have studied, I have gained fluency in approximately three hundred fifty languages," she replied simply. "My father was quite adamant regarding my study of different languages. And many are remarkably similar, really."

She simply nodded as he agreed with her on the logic of studying from original texts, rather than relying on the translations of others. She was deeply absorbed in her reading when he spoke again.

"Do you understand what it is I am attempting?" he asked. "To draw up the bad memories and crush them together into a protected space where dementors cannot sense nor leech onto them. I'm still having slight problems with drawing up the memories though - upon experimentation, I have found that it causes one to relive some of one's worst memories before they can be shielded, making it even more difficult to escape from them to perform the shielding spell."

"Yes, I see what your intention is," she replied thoughtfully. "The difficulty is that actually doing this would be nearly impossible, even for someone with a lifetime of strict mental conditioning and control." Reading over his notes, she doubted whether she herself would be able to perform such a thing adequately enough to actually use it when defending against dementors. Luckily, as a Shadow Warrior, that concern wasn't really relevant to her. She could defend against such things quite effectively, and in fact was one of the few with the power to actually destroy creatures of the Shadow Realm.

"This would have to be done by group effort, I believe. Perhaps..." she trailed of for a moment, thinking. "If an outside person could place a barrier of sorts around the negative thoughts as the other person was working to lock them away, it could perhaps provide enough assistance to carry out the spell. Of course, that third party would have to be either a telepath or a superb occlumens, able to project the spell onto others..."

[Kerridon Paradox]

Kerridon raised his eyebrows at her reply. Three hundred and fifty? She must have been completely immersed in them from since she was born to have that knowledge while still at school.

"That is... very impressive." He didn't disbelieve her - what would be the point in lying? He could find out easily enough whether it was true - but that didn't mean that he wasn't surprised.

"Yes, I see what your intention is. The difficulty is that actually doing this would be nearly impossible, even for someone with a lifetime of strict mental conditioning and control. This would have to be done by group effort, I believe. Perhaps if an outside person could place a barrier of sorts around the negative thoughts as the other person was working to lock them away, it could perhaps provide enough assistance to carry out the spell. Of course, that third party would have to be either a telepath or a superb occlumens, able to project the spell onto others..."

Kerridon nodded, having come to that same conclusion himself only a few days ago but not gotten around to writing it down yet. He had also thought of the idea of partnerships just after his session with Quin, having found it much easier to control the memories he raised than when practicing by himself. He would have to be careful with what he said here; he didn't want to give away the fact that he was the one who had caused the mental disturbances in the History of Magic class by revealing he knew and frequently used legilimency and occlumency.

"Maybe if they had access to their partner's mind before the spells, or if the person attempting to block their memories destroyed all occlumency barriers beforehand to make the process easier. It is difficult to find others willing to help though, as it effectively involves revealing your darkest memories to another. You would have to trust your partner immensely, or be in such a situation that you just wanted to live with your soul intact. Which, incidently, is not the best opportunity to first attempt it."

The difficulties he faced in his research didn't put him off; on the contrary, they just made him all the more determined to succeed. He would have to find a suject for experimentation; Quin again, perhaps, or maybe the French boy who had been rude to him in Ancient Runes. Yes, that was a good idea. Either of them would do, he just needed to find a place where he could experiment and take notes in peace.

"I aim to work out the spells for my theory, then perfect it so it is much easier to perform than it is in its current state," he explained.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

"That is... very impressive."

D'rorah simply nodded in response. She didn't see it as being particularly impressive, it was simply another part of how she had been raised. Isaac Philosophy had been, even at his most lenient moments, unforgivably strict concerning D'rorah's education. Not that he had been unkind or cruel, he had simply worked to wring every bit of talent from his daughter that he could to be certain she was living up to her fullest potential. In the process, far from resenting his driven attitude, she had adopted it herself... she was an even more exacting task master than her father because she did not spare any pity for herself. She did not share her father's paternal love of herself.

"Maybe if they had access to their partner's mind before the spells, or if the person attempting to block their memories destroyed all occlumency barriers beforehand to make the process easier. It is difficult to find others willing to help though, as it effectively involves revealing your darkest memories to another. You would have to trust your partner immensely, or be in such a situation that you just wanted to live with your soul intact. Which, incidently, is not the best opportunity to first attempt it."

"You are correct, I cannot think of anyone who would be willing to share such a connection except in the most dire of circumstances, myself included." Of course, she did share such a connection with her own Elemental Master, the one who anchored her emotions for her, but that certainly wasn't information she intended to share with Kerridon, whom she barely knew. "How would one ever trust another enough to share such a connection?" she mused aloud. She, of course, had no need of it. A Shadow Warrior had her own abilities which, used properly, could destroy Shadows, Wraiths, and the like... but it was time to begin building an army for the lightfighters and such a weapon could be the beginning of something useful as an aid.

"I aim to work out the spells for my theory, then perfect it so it is much easier to perform than it is in its current state,"

"Yes, that is exactly as I would proceed as well," she agreed with a slight nod. "If you would care for any assistance, I would be more than willing to assist you. The safety of the students and staff here should be our foremost concern.

[Kerridon Paradox]

“I would appreciate the help, D’rorah. With your assistance in translating certain documents, I could progress much more quickly than if I was relying on only books in one of the languages I speak, as I am doing now.”

Kerridon much disliked studying and taking evidence from books he wasn’t completely confident in the language of, as it was far too easy to make an unintentional translation error. With D’rorah helping, the limit to which books he could use would increase vastly. His other research, though, would have to stay in the realms of English, French, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. For some reason he doubted D’rorah would approve of studying for dark curses.

Digging through the folder he kept his research in, he found what he was looking for and emerged, slightly ruffled-looking, to hand another sheaf of pages to her.

“Would you be kind enough to go through these translations? It was from a very intriguing document which was unfortunately written in Italian, so I am not entirely sure how well I have translated it. A copy of the original is underneath.

Glancing down at his Ancient Runes homework, he saw with surprise that he was almost done. Scribbling down a few more notes, he put the quill down and left it there to dry before packing it away. Once this was done, he stood.

“I will be right back.”

He entered the restricted section, searching intently as soon as he was out of her sight, for the pair to the book he had found on his last trip in there. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to find or D’rorah would start to become suspicious…

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D’rorah accepted the sheaf of papers Kerridon handed to her and began checking his translation. It didn’t appear to be anything particularly groundbreaking, merely another in a string of Patronus charm theories. Of course, she knew well enough that anything could harbor important information, given a careful reading.

“I will be right back.”

D’rorah simply nodded as she continued working through the translation, making a few minor corrections. There were no glaring errors, of course, she did to find anything truly glaring. However, she did find a few small errors which influenced the overall gist of the document.

As she finished, she looked up from her paper, recalling what she had been doing before Kerridon had handed her the Italian translation. She looked at her runes homework and decided to finish it that night when she could spread out a lexicon or two… she didn’t intend on having another incorrect verb conjugation again. Her work would be perfect; she would accept nothing less from herself than perfection. Realizing that he had not yet returned from his sojourn to the restricted section, D’rorah rose from her seat and made her way over. She was certain she would find something which might help her own research there anyway. Spying Kerridon searching feverishly for something, she arched her eyebrow. “Are you having difficulty finding something, Mister Paradox?”

[Kerridon Paradox]

Kerridon paused in his search when he heard her voice. Brilliant. She could easily see which section of books he was combing through; those containing very dark magic. He needed to come up with something convincing yet plausible. He turned to face her, his expression calm and showing no hint of the turmoil going on inside his head as he thought of a credible lie. Or perhaps he should play his game of telling the truth, aimed at misinterpretation?

“Well, I am not entirely sure that the book I seek is even in this library, as big as it is. I don’t know of its title but I have seen it, and if it is here I shall be able to recognise it.” All of that was true, but now time to send suspicion in another direction than at him. “It contains some valuable information which I believe would be helpful to my research.” Just not the research you think I’m talking about. “It has some fairly graphic material, though, which is I believe why it is contained in this particular section of the library.”

Would she believe him? There was no reason she would not that he could think of, but human beings can be very irrational at times. He kept his face passive and his hands behind his back so that she wouldn’t see any subconscious movements as a reaction to his half-truths. He was well practiced in finding lies in others, which in turn helped to hide his own.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

"It is little wonder you are having difficulty finding it, when you are so vague as to exactly what it is. Is it for your patronus research? I know there are several books in this library on Unforgivable Curse theory which are quite graphic, and there are numerous tomes on the Dark Arts which are also quite graphic... but I have seen nothing at all having to do with Patronus Charms which I would consider graphic in the least."

It wasn't really that she didn't believe him. Rather, she was confused by the fact that he was looking for a book which he couldn't describe with more specificity. The description he had given her was not helpful in the least for locating the book he sought, particularly considering that she was certain no such book existed here or anywhere else which contained graphic information that had anything to do with Patronus Charms. She had spent numerous hours with her father crawling through rooms and rooms of books on dark magic, as she had with her mentor at Falstaff's. She was surprised that she couldn't detect even a hint of something she had heard of previously.

Of course, she was not so ignorant as to assume she had heard of every book ever written; however, something so unusual was bound to have come up even in conversation at some point. No matter, she waited for an answer to her question, certain more information must surely be forthcoming. "I could assist you with locating it. I would be nice to allow my limbs a bit of movement during a brief abstention from my research."

[Kerridon Paradox]

At D’rorah’s words, Kerridon realised he would not be able to play his half-truth game on this occasion. Time for some outright lying.

“Yes, it is for my patronus research, in a way. It does not surprise me that you have not heard of the book I describe; there were only a few dozen copies ever made, and it is only the one chapter in it which I would like to refer to. That chapter in question is on a dark wizard’s attempt to create the opposite of the spell I am attempting to create; he wanted to draw dementors in the vicinity to him when he performed the spell. I was interested to see his theory.”

Hopefully that would assuage her curiosity for now, but as for her offer of help in finding it... She might find it rude or suspicious if he refused, but if she did find it... A thought came to the forefront of his mind and he could have kicked himself for being so stupid. Of course she wouldn’t find it. She was a lightfighter, and the book, like its prequel, was only visible to those capable of pure evil. Of course, he would have to be careful in his description in case she recognised it. It wasn’t likely, but still a possibility.

“Thank you for the offer, D’rorah, it is most kind of you. I have come to the conclusion that it is almost certainly not in this library if I haven’t come across it so far in this section, but I will continue searching just to be sure. It is a medium sized tome, about so large,” he elaborated, gesturing with his hands the size, “with black leather as the cover. The title, although I cannot bring it to mind now, is in gold lettering.”

Surely she wouldn’t suspect that he was sending her on a wild goose chase, when he had just said that there were minimal copies and that he didn’t believe one of these was contained in the school library. He would have to continue his search another time.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D’rorah nodded at the description and made to begin helping Kerridon with his search for the text in question. She sometimes enjoyed a good intrigue and thought that this particular one would be good for getting her mind onto another task for a few moments.

She found the thought of the book he described intriguing anyway. It sounded like the sort of thing which might prove helpful, even with a direct application… if one could use a charm to lure dementors to an area, that would also be helpful in luring them away from another area. “I shall be happy to point it out to you if I happen to run across it, Kerridon,” she replied thoughtfully. “It sounds like the sort of reading which would be helpful to me as well.” With that, she turned toward the nearest shelf and began looking through the texts. Luckily, black seemed to be a relatively unpopular color for book bindings. Despite this, there were still several tomes she pulled from the shelf to examine more closely, but none seemed to fit the bill of what he had described.

After a while she straightened. “Yes, unless it has been mis-shelved, it is certainly not here. I should return to my own research. She glanced at the window, estimating the time from the way the light fell on the floor around the shelves. “Actually, I should return to the common room. I have a preliminary walk-through to in ten minutes to ensure the younger students are obeying their curfews.” Taking a deep breath, as though irritated with the prospect of such a trivial job taking time from her research, she turned to head back to the table to begin gathering her things.

[Kerridon Paradox]

Luckily, D’rorah seemed to accept his description and did not recognise the actual book Kerridon was searching for, but he couldn’t find it either. It wasn’t near where he had found its pair, but nor was it in the main dark arts section.

He sighed, as if disappointed at not finding the ‘research book’. “No matter. I’m sure I will be able to find a copy somewhere, as it would be extremely useful”.

The content of the book he had described to D’rorah was actually the content of a series of scrolls he had seen in a bookshop in Knockturn Alley in the summer, but had not had the time to pick up. He would have to return there some time to retrieve them, as they would indeed be useful to his research, from what he had gathered from a quick glance through the papers. Come to think of it, the other book he was searching for may be there also. A trip would have to be arranged for the next time he had a relatively free weekend.

“Actually, I should return to the common room. I have a preliminary walk-through to do in ten minutes to ensure the younger students are obeying their curfews.”

D’rorah didn’t seem too happy about the task awaiting her, and Kerridon honestly couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t like to have to watch over unruly children who thought it clever to break the rules. Then again, it would be a ripe opportunity to pick out new people to experiment on. Likely children would not have the same reaction as adults or teenagers of his age, but they were also less likely to fight back or make things difficult for him.

He followed her and paused at the edge of the table they had been sat at.

“Would you allow me to accompany you?” he inquired politely. “I have been wanting to explore the castle for some time now, but with all the other students bustling about I did not feel particularly inclined to be knocked around while doing so. The classrooms were easy enough to find, but there are other places I have not been yet.”