Chương 21: 21
You know, I wasn't thinking clearly because of the danger to the girl, but I had to think about the consequences. But there wasn't much time to think.
Soon we were found and taken to the hospital, where I pretended to be a shocked teenager who had encountered a troll. I was unresponsive to all questions, just swaying from side to side with a halting gaze. I was clearly missing the actor of the world, because after fifteen minutes of trying to get me to talk, Pomfrey threw everyone out and, after giving me a few bottles of potions, tucked me into bed. I could have resisted the effects of the potions, but I didn't think it advisable. I also wanted to get a good night's sleep. And the clones would be able to cope with current events, and even that Dumbledore had a go at the clone impersonating the Headmaster, to which he reasonably remarked that he had not hired the staff, but the Headmaster. And the fact that Quirrell, who reeks of dark magic and necromancy and decay a mile away, was not vetted was a huge failure on the part of the Headmaster, who hired him to work with children and saw no problems. Don't make your slippers laugh, they're old enough as it is.
The headmaster, having received a total scolding in response, shouted a few more times, got a reasonable answer and, puffing, retired to his office.
Although, you know, I still felt guilty. I had not brought any magical creatures to the party, and Troll would have been faced with such powerful magical fields at the entrance that even his vaunted imperviousness to magic would have been useless.
He stopped thinking too much and fell into a dreamless sleep, which was the best way to rest.
****
I woke and stared at the chestnut head on the pillow beside me, thinking hard about the meaning of existence and how to sneak away so that my hand, used as a pillow, wouldn't wake Granger. And there she was. The child who'd had a huge shock, waking up in a quiet hospital, frightened by the memory of the troll attack. And the girl who, behind a nearby screen, had found a boy who had been there for her in such a frightening moment, even sleeping to help her not be so frightened. And that's why she went to sleep next to him, so she wouldn't be so afraid. What did you think? Look, you should see a psychologist, she's only twelve!
Sighing, I gently ran my hand over the girl and interlocked my fingers with my left hand, on the fingers of my clasped right hand, carefully folding the gestures of the replacement technique. With the slightest of noises, I found myself standing beside the bed, free, and the girl just grimaced in her sleep and fell silent again.
I called a free fire elf and asked him to watch the girl and help her with her rehabilitation after the attack, to which the elf nodded meaningfully and transformed into a grown nineteen year old boy in a wizard's robe, sitting on the transfigured chair next to the bed and watching the girl, simultaneously whispering something and making passes over her head. Working with her mind, he calmed the girl and gave her mind a chance to detach from the nightmare it had experienced.
Realising that the girl was in safe hands, I slipped back into my office where I was greeted with a raised eyebrow by a clone of the adult Naruto at my desk.
- How did you sleep, Your Lordship? - he asked grinning, but I don't fall for teasing, especially from myself.
- Wonderful, your principal's office!
- I get it, I get it, you're rested, so let's get to work! - He waved his hand and sent me a spell I wasn't expecting, and then I was blown away by a puff of whitish smoke. A moment later, I was lying on the floor with a terrible headache, my memory of the clone gone. And he had cast a time-spanning healing spell on me before giving me the memory. And it was a bloody brilliant idea, because otherwise I might as well have been reborn. And I don't have that many things hidden away in my soul!
After absorbing the clone's memory, it took me a long time to get away, casting healing spells and fighting a migraine. I remembered the battle with the White and Great, and I felt the urge to use the old Doom of Shamash on the goat.
Just to see if it survived.
When I left, the children were still having fun and didn't suspect a thing, which was good. And the entrances were magically sealed, which would have prevented the troll from entering the hall until after it had been eliminated. The troll itself would have been crushed by the lock or thrown out far and wide, but a girl would have had time to get hurt.
I sighed, finally ridding myself of the headache, and sat down at my desk to continue reading the many documents that had accumulated during my absence. Ohhhh, my lot in life is hard...
****
Retreat
There was a monastery in the mountains of Tibet where not many people lived. The abbot, five monks and seven novices.
The abbot was sitting in his tower, meditating, when a huge troll carcass collapsed onto the balcony of the tower in front of him. However, due to its incredible survivability and powerful regeneration, the troll did not die.
The abbot of the monastery, taking this omen as a test of the higher realms, set himself an incredibly difficult task: heal the troll, beat up the attacking troll, heal it again, repeat the process several times, and begin to train the troll for life in the monastery.
Within a year, the troll learned hygiene, monastery chores, herding cattle on the slopes of the mountains, and began to train for the development of his spirit and intellect, sometimes being beaten for his temper by a frail and incredibly thin-looking old man, which did not prevent this old man from turning rocks into rubble with blows from his seemingly weak arms.
Troll learned with a lot of fiddling, and the abbot had to beat the science into him with fists and kicks, but Troll progressed and became smarter, cleaner, calmer.
Ten years later, not many people were surprised to see the abbot and Troll sitting on the rocks in meditation. They were used to seeing the two of them and often hearing a deafening slap in Troll's face. And the soft words: If you fall asleep again, I'll make you read the encyclopaedia of the world's flora and fauna.
The troll shuddered with all his body, remembered the thick tome and tried hard to understand the meditation...
End of the retreat
****
Retraction Two
Lucius Malfoy sat in the smart leather armchair in his office, reading with astonishment his son's enthusiastic letter, full of colourful descriptions of Halloween at Hogwarts, a few collographs of him stroking the nose of a very real dragon, listening to tales of a huge, fluffy, grey cat broadcasting from its perch on the branches of a huge oak tree in the middle of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. How he sat on a gryphon and laughed, and how the gryphon nonchalantly devoured a large fish served to him by the children.
In the letter, Draco thanked the new Headmaster for giving them the best Halloween ever. And he included a colloquial picture of himself standing next to a strange blond man, about twenty-five years old, who was gleefully rubbing Draco's perfect hair in a disconcerting manner.
The blond man was noticeable for his strange uniform, with a waistcoat over which the wizard's robes were carelessly thrown, and the complete absence of his wand and its scabbard in plain sight. The Headmaster also had astonishingly blue eyes and strange pigmented patches on his cheeks in the form of a moustache.
Malfoy Senior sighed and looked at his wife, who sat across from him, staring into the fireplace, sipping red wine from her glass and nibbling at a pickle that made Lucius himself cringe. But what could you expect from a wife who was pregnant again.
Yes, a strange and unknown new player on the political map of Magical Britain had fulfilled his promise.
Lucius had helped this strange and unknown messenger boy with a few cases, and now they were trying to calm the public outcry over the changes at Hogwarts, which was extremely difficult, but the media and huge amounts of money and help from the Ministry and many pure-blood clans were helping, and the heat was being reduced, and soon it would be possible to calm the wizards completely. Although the most recalcitrant went abroad, this was more than compensated for by the sheer number of magical clans coming in and out, of which there were a surprisingly large number. And the sheer number of applications for citizenship and study at the revamped Hogwarts had put Magical Britain at an all-time high in the country rankings.
Smiling at his wife, Lucius picked up his quill and began to write a reply to his son, informing him that he would have a baby sister in eight months' time...
End of digression
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