I want to thank Dan for beta-ing this chapter.

Chapter 60.

Space Travel, Part XVII: Interdicts

9:35 pm, August 4th, 1993

Daytime was still long in Wales in early August, which meant that there was still twilight at dusk after 9:30 pm. The Moon had risen before sunset, and the half-moon became more apparent to the naked eye after sunlight dimmed.

By the Star Lake in Malfoy Grange, Lord Slytherin sat on a transparent flying carpet with his invisibility and protection charms raised, and watched the final preparation for the first test launch for the Moon.

After the painful realization that Baikonur Cosmodrome was built mostly by muggles without much magic, Lord Slytherin had pondered why wizards had not thought of space travel for such a long time. Then, he remembered: wizards have indeed made an effort in this regard. According to stories, it was Merlin's great-great-granddaughter Celestria Relevo who invented the flying broomstick. She probably knew something about how her great-grandfather's Interdict worked, and tried to bypass it. Oh, her name was "Celestria Relevo", which literally meant "rise to the space", so her parents definitely knew something, and they, or some ancestor of theirs but after Merlin, might have chosen the last name "Relevo" as a family motto. Celestria was the first one to make a significant breakthrough in their quest. However, the true meaning of the family name was lost during the years after her and before me.

A shocking realization hit Lord Slytherin at that moment: Merlin created his Interdict not as a hindrance for magic, but as a safe cradle for wizardkind, for the same reason that you do not put knives into hands of babies. Truly great and dangerous magic can only be learnt by those clever enough and powerful enough to escape the cradle.

-Well, considering the fact that there was a phoenix owner during Merlin's time, Merlin must have known the easiest way to go beyond his Interdict. Therefore, he probably wanted the ones to bypass his Interdict to be cunning, powerful, good, and brave.

-And if Merlin had gone outside the circle of the Interdict, why, the most obvious target would be the Moon. I am wondering what he might have hidden on the Moon.

-As for the lack of air and low temperature on the Moon, well, stupid, reckless, and weak phoenix owners would better die before they could inflict danger upon everyone.

-Oh, there are stories that Merlin could turn into any animagus form as he pleased, so he probably didn't even need to borrow one to go to the Moon.

-Merlin was very cunning indeed.

Lord Slytherin had seriously considered becoming a phoenix animagus, yet the idea irked him as he had observed the unfortunate side-effects of owning one from Godric and Severus, such as unwillingness to kill and being too soft.

-And becoming one would definitely be worse than owning one.

-In this regard, inventing space capsules is a rare good thing that the muggles did, so that wizards can go to the Moon without becoming a phoenix animagus.

Lord Slytherin began to consider how to effectively search the Moon in a space capsule with a borrowed phoenix as he observed his descendants check the status of the test rats, magical visual and sound recording devices, the space capsule, and various muggle stuff.

The most powerful wizard in the world watched his descendant who owned a phoenix. After hearing what Severus told his crazy descendant Tom Riddle this morning, he found that he was a bit unwilling to face the apprentice that he had grown quite some soft feelings for.

Yesterday afternoon, Lord Slytherin learnt the unfortunate news that he had multiple powerful yet deranged descendants. The one who took on the fake identity as Rasputin was clever and powerful enough to rule the largest nation in the world, talented enough to be a true seer, yet crazy enough to curse his own bloodline to incest to increase the chances for his own revival.

After the initial shock, disgust, and sympathy for Severus, Lord Slytherin realized that Severus should avoid getting anywhere near the former USSR. And considering the fact that Rasputin was fond of any breathing female, and there were an exodus of wizarding and muggle nobility shortly after his death, nowhere in the world was safe for Severus to travel. Luckily, it wasn't that easy for powerful wizards to have children, so hopefully Rasputin didn't have many female descendants in the world. Still, they shouldn't risk the chance. However, that would seriously hinder the current preparation, which was going to areas that became harder and harder for Lord Slytherin to understand. For example, the day before yesterday, the young Tom Riddle wanted to know if phoenixes could absorb energies from "nuclear fusion reactions" by inhaling something named "helium-3". When Severus was applying memory charms on muggles in a health research institute, Lord Slytherin had asked how the so-called "isotope of helium" would help in the Moon mission. Severus sighed, and replied that he didn't think Stella needed energy from nuclear fusion to fly, and he was sure that the muggles just used energy from chemical reactions to go to the Moon, but he was afraid that if he didn't do this, the Boy-Who-Lived might ask Mad-Eye Moody to obtain it; and being much more ignorant about muggle things, the Auror might try to steal it from muggle nuclear weapon centers, therefore starting World War III. Severus also explained that since muggles let patients with lung disease inhale this helium-3 thing for diagnostics, it was likely to be safe for Stella. Back then, Lord Slytherin pointed out that the Boy-Who-Lived was committing a classical error for Ravenclaws, that he was distracted by minutia while missing the bigger picture and wasting valuable time.

After knowing Severus should no longer run around the world, Lord Slytherin realized what was actually happening: Rasputin, a weak point for Time pressure, probably acted on Prophecies while he cursed his own bloodline. Now, the Prophecies that prompted Severus' birth have resurfaced themselves again even after the Hall of Prophecies was destroyed. Time doesn't like to be distracted by minutia, and it is exerting its pressure.

Lord Slytherin had no other choice but to leave indications in poor Severus' mind that the space mission needed to speed up.

Then, there came another blow as Lord Slytherin heard Severus tell the younger Tom Riddle and the holder of the Eye of Vance that cursing your own bloodline could be a 1.5 version for horcruxes, and the man called Mad-Eye should check the marriage choices of all descendants of powerful dead dark wizards and witches, to which Mad-Eye replied that he was already checking, and the mother's side of Lord Voldemort, the Gaunts, were famous for their incest tendencies.

The no-longer old Lord was completely speechless. When he made up the rumor that horcruxes would bring bad luck to one's offsprings, and Godric spread the rumor, not even Rowena had thought of the possibility that some clever idiot would consider this rumor as a level-up for horcruxes. And the first clever imbecile might be no other than his own granddaughter, Circe Gaunt nee Slytherin, or one of her husbands.

And now, it seemed that Time had worked in such a peculiar fashion that all the clever idiocies and craziness had led to the greatest magical endeavor since Merlin.

-Oh, Time itself might not be so peculiar. All the Holders of Line of Merlin before Tom Riddle had access to all Prophecies ever made in the world, and one after another, these Holders directed the path of Time into our current reality.

Lord Slytherin sighed, wondered why Godric did not lose his mind, and realized that Albus Dumbledore, his reckless muggle-loving descendant, might have become insane because of all the accumulated Prophecies.

After a pat from Severus, Stella vanished into the space capsule. Following a larger flame, the space capsule disappeared.

Then, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Girl-Who-Revived, Mad-Eye, Draco, and Severus all cast their Patronus, and told the light balls to find Stella after its first jump.

A while later, all five balls came back reporting that they had all reached Stella, and mimicked the replying sound from Stella. According to Severus, that sound meant that she had not reached the Moon yet. Then Severus sent out his Patronus again, telling Stella to make another jump toward the Moon.

After a replicate of the previous process, Draco's face was rather white, and it seemed that the boy was pushing the limit of his magic.

Then, Stella was ordered to jump again.

This time, Mad-Eye's Patronus took several more seconds than Severus' to report back; and Draco's was visibly dimmer, almost back to the color of a regular Patronus. Severus put his hand on Draco's shoulder, and told his white-faced godson to take a rest.

The level of magic exhibited by Draco was satisfactory for Lord Slytherin, yet the fact that the mudblood unicorn's bright Patronus came back at the same time as Severus' still annoyed the no-longer ancient wizard. However, the so-called Boy-Who-Lived and Girl-Who-Revived could cast the Patronus charm with the deranged idea that they wanted all sapient being to live forever, therefore efficiency in this charm must be a factor as well.

As the process repeated another two times, the Boy-Who-Lived's, the Girl-Who-Revived's, and Severus' Patronus reported back a happy bird call, which meant that Stella had reached the Moon. Mad-Eye's wandered back almost fifteen seconds later.

When everyone on the ground began to celebrate, Lord Slytherin let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding. He looked proudly at his black-haired descendant, and began to consider him the best apprentice he had ever had.

True, Severus' magic was much weaker than even the first Draco, who was known for his shrewdness in gold but not strength in magic, but Lord Slytherin had realized recently that it wasn't really Severus' fault.

Lord Slytherin had observed the change in physiques in Godric's apprentices after they were taught to lift heavy stones with their arms, and to fight the muggle way. Although Lord Slytherin considered the hours spent at working on muscles mostly wasted, he had instructed his apprentices to avoid getting within sword's reach of any of Godric's apprentices when they practiced dueling.

After learning how much powerful magic had been lost during the past eight hundred years, Lord Slytherin realized that Severus and most other aspiring wizards of this fading age were just trying to build muscles by lifting and throwing one pound rocks. People could get tired for lifting and throwing one pound pebbles for a whole morning, but you would never expect to see the same change in physiques as in Godric's apprentice. Over time, people could develop amazing techniques with the throwing of little pebbles, or exerting your magic with incredible precision, yet that wouldn't compensate for the lack of larger challenges to practise with.

The dedication in magical refinement had lead to some very neat developments, such as Polyjuice Potions that could turn wizards to most sapient beings and last for several days, which could only turn wizards into another human being for one hour in the years of Hogwarts Four. And alchemists today could draw circles to the fineness of a child's hair, Lord Slytherin wasn't sure even Rowena could do that. In the case of Severus, the level of precision the ex-Head of Slytherin exhibited at overlayering a dozen charms, potions, and muggle things over the magic of somebody else could surpass Lord Slytherin while he was in his thirties, and Rowena was probably the only one in Hogwarts Four that could beat Severus at magical precision at his age.

However, this kind of technique probably meant nothing if wizards today were required to conjure Hogwarts, let alone raising the Most Ancient Hall.

Now, with greater magic available, Severus was building his magical muscles fast. And with the help of Stella, Severus didn't even get torn muscles from practising too hard. Lord Slytherin estimated that his favorite apprentice could probably beat "powerful Lords and Ladies" of this fading day within three to five years. And since the Stone could prevent old-age from slowing Severus' magic growth, he could probably rival Helga before the age of eighty.

-Oh, wait, after recovering lost magic, we might have much greater magic to exercise with. In that case, well, how long would it take for me to reach the level of Merlin? And as for Severus and little Draco, they would probably reach Helga's level by fifty.

-Did Merlin fail to foresee that his Interdict might eventually constrain later wizards so much, that even the way to become powerful was lost?

-Or did he actual predict this, and he considered being cunning was more important than raw power?

Lord Slytherin pondered on Merlin's intent as Severus ordered Stella to come back.

A few minutes later, the space capsule appeared in the Star Lake. With another flame, the space capsule was on the lakeshore.

Everyone on the ground rushed to the space capsule, and began to examine everything, except Severus, who patted his proud bird of fire affectionately, and fed her with grilled frogs and guinea pigs.

"Yes!" The Boy-Who-Lived held one of the recording crystals as if it was the whole world, his smile was as broad as it was physically and magically possible, and his sound was beyond exaltation as he yelled: "The sound from the walkman became clear after two flames! One Interdict bypassed!"