Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 31, 2008 22:58:28 GMT -5
"I said a bit, not entirely," Drew answered with a crooked smile, though the fact that Henry's information came off as an ancient book just made the Ravenclaw even more suspicious about its validity. Of course there was overlap, things that had drifted one way or another, but the farther back in time you went, the less you found it.
Drew shrugged back, disagreeing, but not wanting to argue it. He knew a lot of people who thought there spells and potions were more powerful than they actually were. In his experience, it all came down to know-how, innate power, and most of all, practice. Even so, they all had their limitations and there was very little you could do about it. The Ravenclaw doubted that even Merlin himself could brew a Polyjuice that could last more than a couple of hours.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 31, 2008 23:20:16 GMT -5
"Well, in any case, I didn't think there was much to it." said Henry, every book he had ever picked up had had pros, and cons, he suspected the idea that a potion's effects could be drawn out indefinitely to be of the later nature. "Some things are interesting in their theory though, and I'd say that if there was a way to do it, it'd take a lot more than simply enchanting the potion."
Henry had always felt that anything was possible, given a strong belief that it actually was possible; Knowledge, confidence, and practice were, in his experience, the most essential parts of any attempt. Henry had always hated the idea that one wizard would have a greater power born into them than others, he felt it invited the purist thinking, the belief that one was greater, and therefore more worthy. He had always shunned the idea that one could not learn, or develop the skill to do, anything.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 1, 2008 2:17:14 GMT -5
"Even works of fiction have some bit of truth to them," Drew answered. Even if events weren't realistic, names and characters were often based on real people. Heck, even Lockhart's books had moments of clarity in them. Apparently some of those tips in his pest book actually worked.
"Theory is always good to think about," Drew agreed. It was the theoretcial that got people thinking, coming up with a what if and trying to see if it actually worked. What if you could zip-line the lake? What if you needed to skate between classes? What if you wanted to scale the castle towers? What if you placed stink bombs all over the school, or stuck everyone's shoes on the Great Hall ceiling? Yep... what-ifs were pretty cool. "Nothing would ever get figured out if people didn't consider the theories behind stuff."
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 1, 2008 11:33:31 GMT -5
"Indeed." said Henry thoughtfully, he was regarding the rune covered front to the ancient book on potions, which he had pulled out of his bag. "I have a theory, as a matter of fact. I think that, if you really believe it possible, you can do just about anything with magic. Wizards often put things into blacks and whites, but I think that magic as we know it is one of magic's weakest forms."
Henry couldn't quite think what had made him say this, but it rang true in his mind. He had always felt that the improvised magics of legend were closer to the true heart of what magic was. He felt that the knowledge of magic had been diluted by the centuries, whittled down by one loss of magical knowledge stores after another. He felt that the world would be an extremely odd place if magic was still in it's full element in the hands of wizards. Trinkets such as unforgivable curses, invisibility cloaks, and wands were, Henry suspected, as nothing compared to true magic.
Theories abounded on what magic was, how it worked, and where it came from, and they didn't mean spells and wands. The heart of the matter of what exactly magic is had been attacked by every great wizard from Merlin to Dumbledore and back again, and none of them had proof of it's nature, likely because it is and impossible thing to prove. Henry, however, felt that magic was something like the life force of the world, the very thing that gifts souls upon man, the very heart, and pulse of the world itself; This lead Henry to the conclusion that, if magic was the controlling force in the universe, then how, and why would it have limitations?
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 1, 2008 12:14:56 GMT -5
Drew bit his lip nervously, not sure what to think of Henry's musings. It was true that with Magic, they had advantages that Muggles did not, but there were still limitations. You could create an Inferi or conjure an image of a person who had passed on, but no one could truly raise the dead. You could brew a potion that created a false infatuation, but it was impossible to magically make a person fall in love with you for real. It concerned the Ravenclaw to hear that Henry thought anything was possible. The boy's words echoed faintly of Magical Supremacy and the desire to venture towards theories that only Dark magic could answer.
No, Magic wasn't black and white. Drew had grown up with that knowledge and it had been Raynor's very first lesson with the first years. Wizards were born with a power that Muggles were not and with that power, that gift, came great responsibility.
"It may be," Drew answered quietly, still not sure what to think about Henry's ideas, "But there are some things a responsible Wizard just doesn't try. There are some areas we just don't venture into."
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 1, 2008 13:35:00 GMT -5
"You mean there are some things that wizards are generally too noble to delve into." said Henry rhetorically "No, I quite agree. The truth of the matter is, just because it isn't possible at the moment, doesn't mean it's impossible altogether; But I must confess, I do not desire the day when wizards truly are masters of magic."
Henry regarded his own words for a moment, then flipped idly through the book in his hands. He felt that it was, perhaps, a good thing that wizards did not truly understand magic's more dangerous side, he was glad of the fact that only a few wizards could ever have been considered true masters of magic, and that they were far between.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 4, 2008 19:13:11 GMT -5
Drew nodded, understanding a little more where Henry was coming from. The Ravenclaw supposed that in the theoretical sense, anything could be possible with magic... if you were willing to take it that far. While the more powerful of the Dark Lords might say that Wizarding kind was too weak to explore that kind of power, Drew prefered Henry's assessment. He hoped that the majority of people were too noble to try and go there.
"Magic is pretty vast," Drew answered. "I doubt Wizarding kind will ever fully understand it, even if we wanted to."
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 4, 2008 20:30:21 GMT -5
"I'd say there would be a day. A day when there was nothing else to discover. Nothing else to find." said Henry, still thumbing through the book he was holding absently. "It's a matter of time; Just a matter of time."
Indeed, everything, even the expansion of wizarding knowledge, had it's end; The point where nothing else can be gleaned was as sure to occur as magic would be there tomorrow; But some part of Henry told him that that day would mean not just the ending of the expansion of knowledge, but also, and he couldn't explain why he thought this was, but some part of him said that on that day, all would end, the sudden frivolity of continued life would, on that day, cause the world of magic to collapse upon itself...or maybe it was just a fiction his mind invented to make sense of all of this insanity. The idea that one day wizards would know all was singularly more enticing and more terrifying than anything Henry had ever heard; Deciding not to follow his odd train of philosophy any longer, Henry looked up at Drew.
"Hopefully, we'll be long gone when that time comes." said Henry "But in the meantime, we've got plenty of learning to keep us company. Hogwarts is not, after all, the end of our studies."
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 4, 2008 20:45:49 GMT -5
Drew shrugged back, knowing that there were a number of things that had no end, but figuring it was pointless to debate it if Henry really believed it. Like the universe itself, the Ravenclaw had always been told that Magic was not something that could be contained by boundries. It was an infinite power that Wizarding kind had only begun to understand. Even in the Muggle world, there would always be something to learn, something to discover, something to improve. There was never any end to the possibilities for learning.
"We still have a lot to learn," Drew answered, echoing his own thoughts more than agreeing with Henry.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 4, 2008 22:47:07 GMT -5
"If only some people understood that point." said Henry, Drew's words were singularly profoundly enlightened, and immensely commonplace. If he understood the deepest meanings of those seven simple words, then Drew was a wise man indeed. "If you get my meaning."
An image of a massive green symbol flashed before Henry's mind, a great skull with a snake slithering from it's mouth, it flooded from the darkest corners of Henry's mind, a corner he had never before explored, never before probed. The massive skull and snake, so brightly green before it's darkened background, he flared before his minds eye, and, like a firework, faded into nothingness as he fell back into the here and now.
"Some people have a way of believing they know everything." said Henry bitterly "Some people have a way of thinking that they, and they alone know what's best for the rest of us."
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 5, 2008 0:18:04 GMT -5
Drew knew what he had meant, but still wasn't sure what Henry meant. There were moments where the Gryffindor sounded a little bit like a Purist, but then he'd say something that would make the Ravenclaw wonder if they were actually on the same side of things. And then, of course, there was that grey area in the middle full of people who thought they were against all of those ideas the Deva spouted, yet they said and did things that only forwarded their agenda.
Unfortunately, there was no way to just ask. Like religion and politics, it wasn't polite to speak of such things unless you were certain which side your conversation partners were on. There were round about ways to find those things out and while it took longer than the blunt approach, it was the way things were done in polite society.
On the other hand, Drew had no problem making it clear on which side he stood.
"People like the Deva," he said clearly but quietly, leaving it at that. If he got into another fight over his beliefs, he'd deal with it. It wouldn't be the last time, he was sure.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 5, 2008 0:44:15 GMT -5
"Self-absorbed, disgusting, mislead, and hopeless people like the Deva." said Henry, his harshness surprised even him. "I personally find their beliefs despicable; Their ideas akin to Voldemort's, and Grindelwald's before him. Both foolish, heartless men who earned the deaths they got."
Henry had never, in his life, suffered an outburst like that. His words were cruel, hateful, but he almost didn't care, the only image that crossed his mind, the one vision that justified his feelings; Three men, arm and arm, laughing without shame, though the image was silent, as though he was peering upon a photograph. Henry, Peter, and James Lordings' faces swam before him and vanished; His father and uncles, muggles, all of them; Greater men than any Deva could ever be. Henry, embarrassed at his sudden loss of control, busied himself once more thumbing through the pages of the book in his hands.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 5, 2008 1:59:08 GMT -5
Well, that answered that question pretty clearly. Drew raised an eyebrow at the other boy, a little surprised at the venom that had come out. Not that the Deva didn't deserve it... Drew was just surprised to hear it so soon after meeting the Gryffindor. Conversations like that were usually held exclusively between him and Hiro in quiet corners of the castle, where they planned what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it.
"I take it there's some history there," Drew said calmly. There were a number of people who had their own problems with the Deva and the Death Eaters before them. While the anger never really left, the anger seemed to intensify with recency.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Aug 5, 2008 2:53:56 GMT -5
"Yes, you could say that." said Henry, looking up at Drew.
He was cast back; Back to a place where not but silence reigned; Back to the garden, and the cottage to which it belonged, and the floating, green skull, with it's serpent tongue, staring down at the house below it from it's perch in the heavens. A sign to all that passed that a man who opposed Lord Voldemort had perished there. He was cast back; Back to the small study in that most ancient house where the shallow stone basin had sat, it's rune engraved visage, it's pearly, silvery white contents shimmering in the dark. Henry was wrenched back to his true surroundings, his true place, and time, and his thoughts slipped away with every passing moment.
"They're scum. The lot of them." said Henry; Now that he had let loose these fiendish thoughts, it was little use trying to reign them back in. "Each and every Deva deserves to go the way of Voldemort. Of Grindelwald. Of..."
He broke off there; He could not bring himself to say what, in his resurfacing rage, he so longed to say, and yet was so fearful of saying.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Aug 5, 2008 20:28:01 GMT -5
Drew fell silent for a moment, not sure how to deal with Henry's seething anger. Drew was pissed at the Deva too, determined to make Shaw pay for what he had done, set on stopping the orginization from terrorizing anyone else. But the venomous rage that Henry was showing tended to blind people, make them act rashly, and in that way succumb to mistakes. It had been the downfall of Anakin Skywalker and while Drew knew Star Wars wasn't real, the message made total sense.
I was eleven years old. When I was strong enough, I dedicated my life to the study of fencing. So the next time we meet, I will not fail. I will go up to the six fingered man and say: Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
In control and with a plan. The next time Drew came face to face with Shaw, he would be calm and he would be ready.
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