章 36: Mind Ring
In the morning, they ate Aurelius's standard meal.
"Aurelius, you say you eat this regularly?" asked my mother Martha
"Yeah, wotcha, Mom?" I asked
"Well, it seems rather plain. Couldn't you have the elves travel around and steal a copy of recipes here and there?" said Martha.
"I mean, I suppose, but wouldn't that be improper? Besides, shouldn't I foster the elves' ability by giving them recipe books instead?" I said incredulously that my mother would outright say to steal.
"While I am somewhat reluctant, given my profession, I can see your mother's point regarding the theft of intellectual property, such as a recipe. It is only frowned upon and illegal when it is taken to sell rather than make. After all, when someone goes to a restaurant and finds they are quite fond of what they've eaten, it's quite common for them to make something similar at home," said my mother, Ann.
"Well, I suppose." I sit up straighter. "Sammy, Tilly, Billy, Ronny, and Jossy," I called them.
"How may we help the young master?" said the excited but professional elves.
"I want you all to go to various muggle restaurants meant to feed muggles of various wealth levels that make entirely different things and make copies of their recipe books. You will use the duplication spell and later write down the contents into a book not made of magic. You will observe their cooking techniques and preparation methods. I will temporarily give you access to a spell that my family made for their friends to be able to communicate with other countries. You will record everything. All elves will be expected to watch through a pensieve housed in the Galegold dorm's room of truth. I will take a memory strand from each of you to make this possible. You are not to be seen, heard, or known. You will make sure there are no cameras or evidence of your existence. The use of magic to hide yourselves from view must be learned before you take upon this task. Am I understood?" I said loud and clear.
"Yes sir," said the house elves, standing straighter like soldiers on a line. It was rather cute watching these creatures, who weren't much taller than a small child, with their large, pointed ears and big, round eyes, stand at attention.
"You have until the end of this summer to complete this task. Only those who have successfully learned the spells disillusionment, self-levitation, confundus, sticking, silencing charm, and duplication charm will be allowed to go. You will alternate with every elf in the castle that has met those requirements to avoid suspicion of your absence. And you, including the other house elves, will absorb 20% more magic than you have been taking until now. That is an order; is that understood?" said Aurelius with a stricter tone.
"But young master, we shouldn't take any more than we have been. We are good house elves," said a startled Tilly.
"Well, it is in my best interest to ensure you thrive and remain hidden to improve my life. Is that understood?" I said trying to align with their sense of logic.
"But," she said.
"I said, is that understood?" I said with a harsher tone, interrupting her.
"Yes sir," said the bewildered house elves.
"You are dismissed. Inform all the house elves. And you may return to your duties." I said, maintaining my serious tone.
They all elf apparate their way out.
My totem guardian whistled in surprise and chuffed.
"Didn't think you had it in you to be so firm with them. You're usually much more gentle with them," she said.
"Sometimes a firm guiding hand is necessary," I said while sighing, feeling bad that I had to be so harsh to them.
"They probably feel like they're all being turned into criminals of house elf kind, but it is for the best." said Martha.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were watching movies again involving drill sergeants," said a surprised Ann with an eyebrow raised.
"Well, I suppose I subconsciously got inspiration from that, but I haven't seen anything like that since I was eight," I said, trying to hide my thoughts of movies with boot camps from my memories of my last life using partial occlumency to avoid making it obvious that I am using it.
"Well, now that's done, shall we begin after we finish eating?" asked Martha.
"Certainly," I said.
We move the forge room, and I bring out only a few ingots of both metals for the test run.
"Alright, we're working with the mind ring. The enchantments that need to be placed will likely need to be done by me since my natural ability with occlumency will benefit the enchantment. Nagini, you may not be as good as me regarding lightning magic, but you will be fine. I will hand off the rest of the heat near the last few minutes. We will need to do all the prep work of making the mold, preparing the oil for quenching, and the equipment, such as the crucible, tongs, insulated clothing and footwear, and motorized equipment." I explained.
"Wait, do you have rotary equipment here? Like a blacksmith's hydraulic press and grinders? Don't those types of things need power like electricity?" asked my mother, Ann.
"No, just energy that is given a direction. Magic works fine to accomplish the same thing. The machines that use electricity, like a motor, function on a simple system of rotating one thing using electricity and then attaching that rotating thing to another item that needs to rotate using a belt. The switch functions as the connecter for the circuit." I informed her.
"So, you're saying it isn't necessary to know a bunch of enchantments to accomplish the same thing; you can replace the basic fundamental elements with something else. Granted, it appears your family was truly above their peers in simplifying things that most would think only in magical means." Ann said.
"Exactly, all they need to know is how to make one thing rotate and how to turn it on and off and at varying strengths," I told her confidently.
"Is all of that equipment operational?" asked Martha
"Don't worry about it. Nagini and I replaced any old parts soon after Christmas. Surprisingly, most of it wasn't too bad." I said.
"I was just surprised there wasn't any rust." Said Nagini.
"Well, that's a principle called oxidation. It's where a mixture of exposure of an electron or a fundamental piece holding it together moves from one metal to another when exposed to moisture or oxygen. When placed into a vacuum or gasless place such as air, the only thing that could wear down is physical grinding of weight." I said
"If that's the case, wouldn't it collapse from its own weight over time?" asked Martha
"That's what I thought too, but apparently, the entire room and equipment had a weightless enchantment that the school was sustaining. This room was only accessible even by me until everything wasn't going to collapse on itself when taken out of its storage state." I said.
"Well, let's get back to the process; we finish all the prep work. I will keep applying the lightning and then hand it off to you. I will get ready for you to hand off the metal to me to pour and make the ring. While it is semi-crystalized, I will start putting on the enchantments without the stone. Nagini and I have tried using enchantments with the stone, but not enchanting something then using the stone to solidify the effects afterward. So, this ring will serve as the test run. While I'm working on the metal with lightning, Nagini, I want you to prep the area as best you can." I said
"On it," she said in response.
"You two can watch or do something else since this part is pretty boring for spectators," I said.
"I think we'll take you up on that; let's go, Ann. Just knock on our door when you need us for the test run," Said Martha.
Ann, having an idea of what they were about to do, just nodded and smiled at us while leaving.
They leave.
"Do you think they're going to get intimate?" I asked my totem guardian.
"It would seem so if I remember correctly. You hadn't given them the massage suit back, so they likely needed some other way of relieving their stress," she said with a shrug.
They get back to work and go through breaking pieces using lightning and hydraulic chop saws. After throwing around lightning like there's no tomorrow. He then cleaned it up to fit it on his mother's finger even though he would enchant it with an autofitting charm later. They then enchant it with anti-confundus, anti-legilimency, anti-love potion, anti-imperius, and anti-mind-altering potions, anti-obliviate, self-identification resonance charm, and an auto sizing charm. Finally, they prepared their first ring for testing. This took 40 minutes, but they were confident they'd get it down to 30 minutes by the next one.
"Alright, Nagini, I'll lock up for now. Please contact Gringotts on my behalf and notify my mothers that we have finished. We can at least test the confundus spell, and I have some calming draught and dreamless sleep potions to help test the ant-mind-altering potions enchantment while we wait for a response." I said.
"While I'm not exactly proud of it, I am familiar with the imperius curse enough for the test." She said.
"Define familiar in that context," I said on edge.
"Well, I did use it a lot when I was in a dark place trying to find a cure for my curse. I didn't kill anyone, but I did use the imperius to infiltrate places to get information or items." She said.
"Well, I can't exactly criticize you for that. If it gets what people need in times of extreme desperation, they will go just about any length." I said with my eyes closed.
"Thank you for understanding. I hope your mothers see it the same way; after all, I will have to use the imperius curse. Explaining why I know how to cast such a spell does look rather dubious as my position as your guardian." She said.
"If they ask, then explain, but if they don't. You do not have to unless they are unnerved. We wouldn't want multiple forms of scrutiny focused on that could escalate another." Aurelius told her.
"Ah, the saying, don't let the flames of one fire feed another, if I'm not mistaken. And that is a reasonable request," She said in agreement.
"Okay, let's get to our tasks then," I say while snapping my fingers and cleaning up everything we've done. This takes eight minutes. Nagini is waiting for me with my mothers while I decide to give my mother Martha the ring to wear.
"While I don't mean to be rude, your mind is likely the least protected out of all of ours, considering your easier-going nature, so it's best to use you as the test subject," I said, trying not to offend her.
"Makes sense. Let's get to it, I suppose. What exactly can we do for testing, then?" asked Martha.
"We will be using the confundus, calming draught, dreamless sleep potion, and the imperius," I said continuously without pause so as not to alarm my parents more than necessary.
"Imperius?!? Aurelius, that spell was banned for over a decade and can land you in Azkaban. Where the bloody hell did you learn that spell?" asked an incredulous Ann.
"I didn't," I said.
My mother looks at Nagini in a new, dimmer light.
"Alright, you have two minutes to explain; she may be your totem guardian, Aurelius, and have our protection in mind. And having someone willing to go that far for you is rather tempting; however, that doesn't let her off scot-free." said Martha
"Well, as you know, my maledictus was a curse that would guarantee that I'd be trapped in the form of a large snake for the rest of my days. My family had already cast me out, so I was more or less entirely on my own. I had no past or future with how things were going, so I decided to take my fate into my own hands. If I was going down regardless, I might as well go down fighting, so I did. I used just about everything in my arsenal, no matter how dark, to find a cure through study or stealing. The only thing is that I didn't kill anyone, but I have crippled a lot of people. Imperius-ed quite a few, too." She said with remorse near the end.
My mother, Martha, lets out a heavy breath and says, "Fine, I accept you fully despite such a past. I can't say that if I were in your situation, I'd be any better. Ann, I know you're conflicted, but morality is complicated to gauge or maintain when someone's truly backed into a corner. You've seen your fair share of legal cases where someone did something horrible but for all the right reasons. I think this is one of those cases."
My mother, Ann, sighs in exasperation. "Damn it, Martha, I know that already. I get that desperation does crazy things to people and that she did it for the right reasons, but still… I'll need time to accept that. I know that Nagini has no desire, will, or ability to harm us, but I can't help but feel unnerved. Just… give me time." Said Ann.
We receive a letter from Gringotts twenty minutes later.
<I have notified an auror, and he has agreed to your conditions so long as you both are willing to make and follow the oath. His price is 40 galleons per test. Please send a house elf to apparate them to your location to commence your test. Your elf has already given us the appropriate payment of 10 galleons for contacting the individual. The individual's name is Grant Pedley. Cordially, Grashnak, head teller>
"That's rather steep for a single test and getting us connected," I said while everyone else had a similar thought, but it's not like we have to be concerned.
I place the galleons and call over one of the many elves of Hogwarts.
"I want you to apparate my family and me to our home," I told the elf.
Nagini gives him the location.
"Then I want you to go to Gringotts and get this individual named Grant Pedley. I want you to say his first name without letting him see you. If he reacts, you will approach and let him know who you are and your relation to his client, which is us. And if he truthfully confirms who he is. Take him to us. Am I understood?" said Aurelius to the house elf.
"Yes, young master." Said the house elf.
A brunette, cleanly shaved man of average height who couldn't have been more than thirty-three had appeared with the assistance of the house elf.
"Hi there, the name is Grant Pedley. I hear you've been looking to test your mettle against legilimency at the expert level. So, who's the one I'll be testing, and do you have the payment for the number of people?" Said the auror.
"Yes, my mother, Martha, the physically tough-looking woman. And as for the payment." I said."
Aurelius gives the man his coins in a medium-sized pouch. Grant takes a look to count the coins and confirms that they are real and of the correct quantity. He hands the bag back to Aurelius.
"Alright, shall we start? Let's get the contract out of the way." He says.
"Do you, Grant Pedley, promise to test my mother's occlumency and will not attempt to pry deeper into her secrets?"
"I do." Said Pedley.
"And do you, the house of Galegold, promise to obliviate only the memories obtained from Martha Galegold through legilimency?" the man asked.
"We do." Every family member present said.
"Lumos," we both cast, finalizing the agreement through magic.
I hand him the pouch of galleons, and we begin.
"This may be disorienting, but please strengthen your mind to prevent me from accessing your mind. Are you prepared?" He said.
"I am," my mother responds, trying to avoid using too much effort to test how little effort is needed to use our ring effectively.
The man cast the spell.
"Legilimens. Huh, where am I? What's up with this wall?"
He taps it to hear a deep bass. "What the bloody hell is with the thickness of this wall? Is this really her mind?"
He attempts to rip and attack the wall to enter her mind, but not only does it bar him from entry, but it repairs itself.
A few more minutes of effort continue, and then suddenly, the man gets a horrible feeling of something lurking in the shadows.
"What the bloody hell was that? I've seen some people's defenses attack, but this is just creepy. I think it's safe to say she passed."
He tries to exit but can't. The beasts attack him while in her mind.
In the real world, the man starts bleeding from the nose.
"Mom, stop!!!" I told her in panic.
She gets surprised and relaxes entirely.
"Sorry dear, is something wrong?" asked Martha
The man suddenly gasps for air, realizing that he's safe back in the real world.
"Bloody hell, woman!!! Your mind is more dangerous than any I've seen in a while. The only place more dangerous is Mad Eye's mind when I had to go to test for my mastery in legilimency." Said the legilimency expert.
"So I guess it's a safe bet to say that she passes," I said with a chuckle.
"Bloody hell, mate. Give a bloke a warning next time. Legilimency against a counterattack can be nearly as dangerous as in the real world. If you can't get out, you might actually die in the damn place." He said, tensed, and he began to raise his voice slightly in exasperation.
"Wait, are you saying anti-legilimency attacks can be lethal?" said Nagini in surprise.
"Well, yes and no. Your mind is trapped within their mind and possibly destroyed. There is no mind to return to the body after the spell is concluded. While the body remains, so your body would essentially remain as a living husk, or what muggles call a vegetable for those patients who are completely brain dead and unresponsive," he said with a shiver.
"Sorry, mate. Here's an extra 200 galleons for your troubles. Didn't realize we'd risk turning you into a vegetable." said Aurelius apologetically.
He sighs. "It's fine. Well, you don't have to obliviate me since I only saw an impenetrable wall and some creatures unseeable but constantly lurking. Gave me the absolute creeps. Honestly, I will probably be on edge for a couple of weeks."
I dropped another hundred into the pouch I handed him.
"What's the extra hundred for?" he asked, confused.
"For the mental healers, those expenses can get rather steep if you need extensive help." He said.
"Yeah, thanks, and call me again if you need any more tests, but seriously, warn me if that is likely to happen again. And if it is, let me out if my body gets even a little twitchy." He said in all seriousness.
"Do you swear on your magic that is all you saw in her mind?" I said in all seriousness.
"I do, lumos." he casts the spell, putting me at ease.
"By the way, I was curious, but I've never heard of your last name. Are you a muggleborn by chance?" I asked.
"Yeah, so what?" he said, a bit on edge.
"Just curious. I have nothing against muggleborns. It's rather refreshing, to be honest. Nobles and politicians are rather troublesome, so it's nice to see muggleborns in regular wizard society." I said with a soft smile.
The man's body significantly relaxed, but he still felt a certain tension from his recent mental battle that left him on edge.
"Well, the same goes for a noble who isn't a stuck-up jerk or brat in your case." He says with a chuckle.
They shake hands, and the man approaches the elf to apparate away. The house elf looks at Aurelius. Aurelius nods to the house elf to take him away to Gringotts. They disappear, and everyone relaxes. And I relax, falling on my rear.
"Well, I guess we have a new weapon that we didn't expect to be a weapon," I said with a chuckle.
"Certainly, by the way, Martha, how much effort did you put in?" asked Ann.
"None when it came to defense, but when I felt him kept pushing, I got a little annoyed, and I think my subconscious mind kind of took over from there because soon before he started bleeding, I think my mind started attacking him. I have no clue why he was stuck, though," She said, unsure.
"Makes sense since you don't have a more innate feeling of how your mind reacts without regularly using magic, but I'd say it was an absolute success. No one will be able to access your mind, and it appears that those who try that cause you to get defensive results in your mind, attempting to remove them permanently in a very violent fashion with no escape." I said aloud while in thought.
"That is actually kind of terrifying. I pity the fool who attempts to enter our minds when we're actively pissed off by them. Would they even survive more than a minute?" asked Nagini.
"That's a good question, and honestly, I'd say no. From what I can tell, it took Mom a few minutes to fully realize that her mind was being attacked or, rather, where he was in her mind. And once she found him, it was already over." I said, being more familiar with how mind magic functions as a natural occlumens.
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