Harry Potter and the Memories of a Sociopath, Ch 7, Disregard for Social Norms

Here's how it is:

At the end of the summer following the events of HPMOR, Harry is still concerned about the fate of the world, but has made significant progress: Hermione obtaining a phoenix and destroying Azkaban's dementors, and Bones apparently grudgingly willing to take his cues on national policy. Progress toward a functional Philosopher's Stone based hospital at Hogwarts has stalled due to ward incompatibilities and a temporary solution is being set up in the now-abandoned Azkaban tower. Harry has built up a relatively long list of things he needs to investigate, including big picture items like Merlin's Interdict, prophecy, magic-technology interactions, and helping Dumbledore, as well as smaller scale things like revisiting his conclusions about comed-tea, looking into Ravenclaw's Diadem, and looking into whether the potion liquid luck is a real thing or a cover story. Magical interferences with technology are proving more difficult to pin down than he had hoped.

Sprout has mysteriously received a gift: the long-lost and apparently cursed Hufflepuff Cup and is now displaying uncharacteristically aggressive behavior. She has requested Hermione's help with research of a vaguely defined nature. Draco, after finding Tom Riddle's diary, is showing some very Voldemort-like thought patterns. He is working to amass power for himself and is using the Silvery Slytherins to recruit new students. He has started traveling the castle alone at night, and displays the ability to out-duel upperclassmen with relative ease.

Luna demonstrates uncanny knowledge. Hermione, while still upset that Harry manipulated her into attacking Azkaban, is at least speaking to him again. She's confused about Harry's interest in Luna's apparent knowledge, especially because she's obviously not a real seer. Moody has hypothesized that Defense professor Gilderoy Lockhart is an incompetent relying on liquid luck for his accomplishments. Bellatrix is still at large and able to appear in public despite being Magical Britain's most wanted. The inmate assumed to be Pettigrew has disappeared, leaving questions about his true identity and possible crimes.

Acting Headmistress McGonagall paced back and forth behind the desk in the headmaster's office. Finally, she stopped and faced the individual seated in front of the desk, "I'm disappointed. And confused. I was at the meeting last year where the Headmaster lectured you on the approved Hogwarts policy for dealing with infractions of hallway discipline. As I recall, you were explicitly told not to interfere with disciplinary matters in Slytherin House."

Professor Sprout shrugged casually, "I was not impressed with Hogwarts' old policies for enforcing hallway discipline. I know you felt the same way so obviously this year will be different."

"I do not feel that your actions were in any way appropriate for a Hogwarts professor."

"Why?", Sprout watched McGonagall's face intently but emotionlessly.

McGonagall had never mastered occlumency, but had taken some of the basic training for it. In reaction to Sprout's stare, she automatically checked the surfaces of her mind, even as she realized it was a silly reaction. Of course she sensed nothing, Sprout would never do that, even if she could. "Do I really have to explain the problem with a professor holding a student at wand-point or attacking them with magic?"

"Why are you still enforcing Dumbledore's rules? At some point, are you going to demonstrate real leadership or just cargo-cult leadership?"

"What?"

"Copying the behavior of a role model, whether or not you've understood the purpose of their actions and their applicability to current circumstances. Unless you can articulate reasons for the old rules, enforcing them is just blind adherence to the cult of Dumbledore."

McGonagall hadn't known quite what to expect from this conversation, but this certainly wasn't it. As she struggled to form a response, she was interrupted by a request to see Madame Pomfrey in the infirmary as soon as possible.

Shortly after, she had dismissed Sprout and arrived in the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey, who had been handling student injuries for decades, was in as close to a state of shock as McGonagall had ever seen. "What is it?", she asked gently.

"I had to rush two students to St. Mungo's. I believe they arrived promptly enough to prevent any permanent injury."

"Who? And what happened?"

"About half an hour ago, two students, Robert Jugson and Carl Sloper, I believe, came running in here, screaming incoherently; something about crawling under their skin. I almost stunned them. At that point, I could see what looked like a few bruises on them, but nothing to explain their panic. Eventually I got them to take calming draughts and sit down... They didn't know much; claimed they woke up laying in a hallway, like they'd been obliviated...

"They said they felt their skin crawling and when it started to get painful, they rushed here.

"And that's about when I saw the first spider. Struggling to crawl out of one of those bruises...

"Some time around then, I did have to stun them. Calming draughts can only do so much...

"Anyway, I started investigating and discovered the spider was transfigured from a sliver of wood. Apparently someone stuck splinters through their skin and then transfigured them into spiders. When the spiders awoke, they started trying to free themselves, biting anything they could and releasing digestive juices...

"There were dozens in each of them. Someone must have spent hours doing that to them...

"So the bruises were really dermal lesions, filled with blood and partially digested tissue- a fluid containing transfigured material in direct contact with their bloodstreams..."

"And you sent them to St. Mungo's so the transfiguration sickness specialists could treat them", McGonagall finished for her. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'll start an investigation. Let me know when you get an update on their conditions."

Charity Burbage walked into her classroom before breakfast and sat at her desk, intending to go over her plans for her first muggle studies lesson. At first she ignored the sounds; they were relatively quiet and she'd learned to ignore lots of strange sounds at Hogwarts.

The sounds gradually got louder, as if approaching slowly. Eventually, she looked up and listened. Stick. Plop. Stick. Plop.

Once she determined a direction, she stood up and walked to the window, then jumped back in surprise as someone climbed through.

"Mr. Potter? What in the name of Merlin's beard are you doing?"

"Uh... giving you a present and/or testing an hypothesis."

She resisted the urge to sigh or shake her head, "Explain."

"Well, as you know, most modern muggle technology doesn't work at Hogwarts. In the process of investigating that phenomenon, I found that some electronic circuits appear to work normally. I observed that it was as if someone were deliberately interfering with electronics that serve a practical purpose while ignoring circuits that merely demonstrate the underlying physics. I later decided that it was necessary to test that hypothesis, so I made a crystal radio. I stuck the inductor, diode, and earphone to the outside of the window, and I had to climb out to stick an antenna to the side of the castle and run another wire to a stake in the ground. Now, whenever you cast a sonorus charm at the window, your class should hear a live muggle AM radio broadcast. Or not. But either way we'll learn something important about magic."

"I have no idea how to respond to that."

Harry shrugged, "No need to thank me. Science is its own reward." He waved his wand at the window, "sonorus."

The room filled with the sound of static, but a voice came through clearly enough, "... lower temperatures and rain through the weekend. And in the news, today in London..."

Padma looked up from her breakfast, "So there's one thing I don't understand... Actually there're lots of things I don't understand, but for one, you applied sticking charms directly to muggle technology? I thought using magic on that stuff breaks it?"

"That's a common belief, but it's wrong. If a circuit works around magic at all, it seems to be totally insensitive to magic. Like, it doesn't matter if you hit it with a stunner or levitate it or anything. I even tested some circuits made entirely with transfigured circuit elements. It was probably a placebo effect, but it actually sounded like there was less static with a few cooling charms applied to the radio. Proximity to magic doesn't seem to be a variable."

"So, bottom line, there are some kinds of muggle technology that work fine around magic, while others don't work around magic at all, even though you believe they do pretty much the same things?"

"Exactly."

"Weird. What's the next step?"

"There are two main things I want to try: one is to take some affected electronics, and see how far away from Hogwarts they have to get to work again, and the other is to find schematics for some of the affected electronics, and make my own copies of them. One difference between the things that worked and the things that didn't is that I personally assembled the ones that worked. It's possible that when a wizard builds an electronic circuit, it becomes immune to magic."

At this point, Headmistress McGonagall interrupted breakfast to inform everyone that two students had been hospitalized, and ask anyone with information about the attack to inform a professor or prefect as soon as possible.

"Jugson would've been my first suspect if that had happened to anyone else", someone commented.

"If anyone deserves that, it's him. So it could have been anyone", someone else added.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "No, it couldn't. If the headmistress is asking for information, it means they couldn't identify their attackers, which implies some form of memory charm. The wards would have reported any obliviation performed on school grounds unless it was performed by-", Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what she was saying, "-a professor recognized by the wards!"

Harry added, "I suspect Headmistress McGonagall. She threatened me with fire-beetle-torture once so she's the only person I know for sure has thought about using scaphism as a punishment for students."

The other students stared at him for a second, then shook there heads and went back to their conversations. The consensus was that it was about damn time something like this happened, and that no one who wasn't a terrible person had anything to worry about.

Lisa Turpin smirked, "I suspect Luna. She sneaked out of the dorms last night. What exactly were you doing anyway?"

Luna looked up at the ceiling, "I went to the astronomy tower."

Harry inquired, "You like watching the stars?"

Luna nodded, "Very much. I'm not used to seeing them quite like that. It's fascinating."

Terry Boot faked a shudder, "Ugh, you don't have to get up in the middle of the night like a crazy person. At least not on your own; Professor Sinistra will force you all to do that soon enough."

Harry frowned, "Just because she has interests you think are unusual-"

Terry interrupted, "The word you're looking for is 'crazy'."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I think she has a surprising amount in common with me, actually."

"That's what I said: crazy."

Then Luna added, "There's no point worrying about spiders, anyway. Snakes will chase them away soon enough."

Harry nudged Hermione, "Make a note: that's a falsifiable prediction. A large enough number of snakes in the castle to eat all the spiders. Do small snakes even eat spiders? That's also a falsifiable assertion."

Terry shook his head, "Are you playing off of each other's crazy deliberately, or do your minds just naturally reflect each other like that?"

Professor Lockhart looked out over the classroom, containing the second year students of all four houses. He took a deep breath and began his lecture. "I was planning to give each class a quiz to see what you've learned so far, but after the first few classes, it became obviously unnecessary. Your previous professors haven't taught you much at all about the dark arts, so we'll pretty much start at the beginning. Even your Quirrell-Monroe professor last year, despite being so well regarded, basically just taught you a little dueling. Your fellow students seem to be convinced that they can handle any dark creature with only two or three spells. I can't imagine how such sloppy teaching was permitted, though given the alleged Defense Against the Dark Arts curse, it's not surprising the best teachers don't apply often. Luckily for all of you, I'm here now, and will be remedying that deficiency starting this year."

"For one, apparently last year's introductory lecture taught that, once you are adults, you will be able to handle any dark creature with a killing curse. This is wrong for several reasons: firstly and most obviously, most wizards can't cast a killing curse. Not a single time as long as they live. Secondly, though wizards who have cast it successfully report finding it easier to cast afterwards, no one can cast it reliably enough to depend on it. It's a spell that depends on one's mental state, so the exact circumstances affect whether or not someone can use it. In a self defense situation, the killing curse will only work if one hates the attacker enough that it truly wouldn't matter whether or not it was self defense. So depending on it in an emergency is dangerously bad planning.

"At this point, you may be thinking about certain individuals known to have used the killing curse frequently, sometimes almost exclusively, when fighting. These examples are, without exception, dark wizards; deeply damaged individuals who simply hate everyone all the time and are using the spell offensively rather than defensively.

"And the final reason why it's wrong to plan to use killing curses against any dark creature you encounter is because nothing stops a killing curse. If you miss, who knows what that curse will hit? Imagine how you would feel if you tried to be hero, but accidentally killed a bystander instead. They certainly don't hand out Orders of Merlin for that.

"One of the most bizarre errors in that lecture was the omission of the nundu from the list of 'most dangerous things in the world' or whatever, and this example serves my point quite well. I have no doubt that a hit from a single killing curse would kill a nundu, if anyone in history had ever managed it... Anyone know why?"

Hermione raised her hand and answered, "Nundus have toxic breath which could kill anyone close enough to aim at them."

"That is the popular opinion, though personally, I'm highly skeptical of the reports suggesting that they have toxic breath. For one, it would be... let's say counterproductive for a top predator to kill all of the prey in its territory. Secondly, that would make them fairly easy to track by following a trail of dead animals through the jungle. No, it's more likely that those disasters are actually the result of magical accidents or outbreaks of some undiagnosed disease, followed by scavenging by hyenas or leopards, but blamed on nundus by sensationalist newspapers.

"Nundus are known to be fast and well camouflaged, and therefore difficult to hit with any spell before they ambush. But it's likely that no one has ever even tried to fire a killing curse at a nundu. Artists typically depicted them as fierce, angry, and dangerous looking animals, but people who have actually seen them and lived typically describe them as giant kittens. There are credible reports that they have a unicorn-like aura; that people who encounter them feel, not terror, but a desire to go over and play with them (which, by the way, is a much more useful tool for a top predator to have). I suspect one would have to be either extremely ignorant or totally dead inside to believe they could use a killing curse on a nundu.

"In case anyone was wondering how they are defeated, the only successful method I've heard is to arrange for many wizards to apparate into the aftermath of an attack, form a line, and march after it, blindly firing stunners. If they see unexpected motion, everyone concentrates fire in that area, and hopefully stuns a nundu. It takes almost a hundred wizards to form a line wide enough to prevent the animal from getting around them and attacking from behind.

"One of the few animals that might be considered more dangerous than a nundu is a basilisk. They're extremely rare, so we won't cover them in detail in this course, but it's relevant to mention that looking into their eyes kills humans (and nearly any other animal). Good luck hitting something with a killing curse when you can't even look at it to focus your hate at it."

Lockhart shook his head in exasperation, "At least your former professor didn't recommend using fiendfyre. That's another brute-force spell that even fewer people can cast, where it would be even more difficult to achieve the required emotional control in an emergency, and with an even higher chance of collateral damage.

"So bottom line, you can't just count on being able to brute-force your way out of a dangerous situation with a few general-use spells. It's important to know the specific abilities, behaviors, and weaknesses of the many magical threats you might face. So we're going to start this year by going through the standard textbook. But don't worry; you didn't but my books for nothing because there will be plenty of time to cover some of the more unusual and interesting situations that came up in the adventures I've written about."

Harry groans and turns to a few former Chaotics, "I predict this class is going to be annoyingly tedious. This is going to be a long year."

The fourth year Gryffindor-Slytherin Potions class filed into the underground classroom. Fred and George had decided to show up on time for the first class.

"Harry? Hermione?", Fred asked.

"Did you forget what time it is?", George added.

"Or decide you were really sorted into Slytherin about three years ago?"

Harry smiled and shrugged, "Scheduling difficulties."

A Slytherin nudged George, "Speaking of people who forgot what year it is, shouldn't she have graduated by now?"

Their reply was interrupted, "Sit down. Now. For those of you who don't know, last summer Professor Snape left Hogwarts to pursue other opportunities. My name is Rianne Felthorne and I will be teaching Potions this year."

Hermione raised her hand, "Excuse me, Professor, aren't you a little young to be teaching this class?"

Felthorne raised her eyebrows, "Aren't you a little young to be taking this class?"

Fred and Lee snickered while George raised his hand, "Excuse me, Professor, as someone slightly older, I'd like to repeat the question."

She sighed, "Are there more experienced potions masters? Sure. But most wizards who work with potions professionally quickly become very specialized. I know someone who started out brewing a couple of potions to sell to shops around Britain, but some of the commercially available ingredients weren't potent enough, so he started preparing everything himself. Now, he almost never even brews potions, but makes a fortune preparing most of the asphodel and flobberworm available in potions shops in Europe. So very few people have recent experience preparing the wide variety of potions required for a Potions professor.

"Some of the best potions masters prepare custom orders of rare potions. But Hogwarts doesn't pay enough to be competitive with what an experienced potions master would make on their own. We were really lucky to have Professor Snape here as long as we did. Lots of people used to gossip about how Snape had some secret influence over Dumbledore, but really, Dumbledore must have had more influence over Snape to keep him here. I probably shouldn't say this, but I kind of suspect they were secret lovers. And Snape just couldn't stay at Hogwarts after Dumbledore disappeared."

She paused, then started again, "Anyway, at the start of each class, you will turn in homework, which will be include two essays. One will be about what you learned in the previous class, including any problems you had or anything that was difficult to interpret from the instructions and what, if anything, you believe you should have done differently. The other will be about how to prepare that day's potion, including the steps in the book and additional details on the steps involved as appropriate."

Fred grimaced, "So, you basically want us to copy pages from the book for every class?"

"I'm not going to pretend to be as skilled as Professor Snape was at stopping dangerous incidents from occurring. I doubt that anyone matches his combination of magical strength and potions expertise. So it's more important for me to stop you from making mistakes. I would just tell you to read the book to prepare for each lesson, but I know most of you wouldn't bother. This way, if you don't prepare, or don't show up to class, you fail. And you get to spend detentions cleaning this place up. If you screw around in class, assuming you survive, you will be expelled. Any other questions?"

After the introductory lecture, which took the rest of the class period, Hermione whispered, "Who thought it was a good idea to hire an 18 year old with no teaching experience to be a high school teacher?"

Harry whispered back, "Seriously. This is going to be a long year. I can't wait for summer when the professors are available for independent study again."

Professor Vector walked into the Arithmancy classroom. While her gaze quickly swept across the students, Harry thought he saw a smirk when she looked at him. This was probably not a good sign.

She began, "This will probably be the only class where you're specifically told not to read ahead in the textbook."

Harry and Hermione frowned simultaneously.

Vector continued, "If you read ahead, you'll generally just see gibberish with math occasionally thrown in. That's because this is the only course at Hogwarts that teaches material protected by Merlin's Interdict. Unless you happen to get a competent but renegade Defense teacher... The material taught here isn't particularly dangerous, so no one really knows why it's protected. And it's important enough to magical society that the ministry wants to prevent it from being lost. But, the assumption is that there's a very good reason for protecting this material, therefore only certified arithmancy teachers allowed to teach it. If anyone else even tells someone about the real course content, ministry obliviators will resolve the situation, and that individual will no longer be in this class.

"It shouldn't be surprising that we only want to teach this to the best students, therefore we ensure that everyone believes this is the most difficult course taught at Hogwarts. And of course, the easiest method to achieve that is to make this actually be the most difficult course at Hogwarts. Everyone will frequently see you working on Arithmancy homework because you will frequently be working on Arithmancy homework. If anyone has a problem with secrecy or hard work, it is perfectly acceptable for you to leave now."

She gestured toward the door and paused for a few seconds. The students looked around the room, but no one stood.

"Okay, then. So what does the field of arithmancy really cover? Two main topics: one is finding variants of common spells that serve specific purposes." She pointed her wand at a block of wood on her desk, closed her eyes for a second, then cast diffindo. She then pushed a the block, showing the students that it had been cut evenly into four pieces. "The most commonly known spell variants are shielding charms, which can be cast in practically countless ways that use more or less power to block specific combinations of spells and objects, though students in Defense courses are typically taught how to use a variety of shield charms without knowing how it all works.

"The other main topic involves charming objects interacting analytical charms and active charms. Can anyone think of an example of such a thing?"

Someone in the front row raised a hand, "I have a pouch that ejects whatever object I ask for. That has to have a charm that analyzes when someone requests something and then accio it or something."

"It's more complicated than that, but yes, that's a good example."

Harry raised his hand, "Will you be teaching how to apply flying broomstick charms?"

"Yes, there are a few basic sets of broomstick charms in the textbook. Obviously, brand name brooms have more complex sets of charms that aren't public knowledge."

After responding to a few more examples, Vector continued, "So, two things before getting down to the real material: first, be extremely careful doing anything with confundus charms after you learn them. There are a lot of applications that will get you a free vacation in Azkaban tower. Basically, if you're thinking about putting a confundus on an object, think hard about whether there's an alternative way to get the effect you're looking for, and if you can't, ask me, Headmistress McGonagall, or Professor Flitwick whether it's acceptable."

A student asked, "Then why isn't confundus an unforgivable curse?"

"There are lots of benign or extremely useful applications for confundus charms that can't be accomplished any other way. For example, muggle-repelling charms, or the Fidelius charm, which I expect many of you have heard of, are basically a series of confundus charms that prevent certain people from investigating or even perceiving a specific area or its contents."

"Then why does the Fidelius charm require a secret keeper?" Hermione asked.

"Basically, applying multiple confundus charms to an object becomes increasingly difficult because each charm alters one's perception of that object. In order to cast the Fidelius spell, it's necessary to exempt everyone casting it from the effects. There's also an interaction between the charms and those who are exempt, such that it's considered to be impossible for all of them to enter the affected area simultaneously without canceling the effect.

"Now, the last thing for today: we're going to spend the rest of this period going over the fake-divination nonsense that the ignorant will read in an arithmancy textbook so you can sound knowledgeable and boring whenever anyone asks you about the subject. For homework, read the first chapter before next week, write answers to the questions, and be prepared to demonstrate at least one modified version of a standard spell."

As soon as the class ended, Harry jumped up, "Hurry up, let's get to the library and start working on the first chapter. This year is going to be fun!"

Headmistress McGonagall entered the library and walked over to Harry, "Mr. Potter, I have to ask this: were you responsible for what happened to Jugson and Sloper?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny-" At this point, Hermione elbowed him hard enough for him to yell. "I had nothing to do with it", he said, rubbing his arm. "And I have to ask, were you responsible? As has pointed out, only a professor could have avoided both leaving their memories intact and triggering the wards. It also occurred to me that they may have tried to get Professor Lockhart fired, and last year you threatened me..."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, "No Mr. Potter..." Her eyes snapped open and she exclaimed, "Professor Sprout!"

"What?"

"She was acting very strange this morning. I'll have to call Alastor and ask him to check on her."