Paragraph 4 - 60 : The Darklog

A few days later, at dinnertime, Professor Dumbledore made an announcement :

The Ministry has acquired an object that is supposed to measure dark wizardry or witchcraft in any person. I do not believe such a thing exists, and I have voiced my concerns to the Ministry when the Minister himself has requested this object to be used on all Hogwarts students, purportedly in order to detect future dark wizards and witches, and prevent the recurrence of cases like that of Lord Voldemort. Aurors will therefore come to the school and subject to this object's measurement every student. I nevertheless want you to rest assured, I will never allow any student to be expelled on the basis of this practice. If the Ministry dared requesting such a thing, I would resign. Should even one of you actually possess demonstrable traces of disturbing abilities to perform dark magic, I must say to those asking for their removal from the school : beware. Magic is one thing, what one does with it something completely different

It soon emerged that this effort by the Ministry at Hogwarts was an offshoot of a wider campaign. The Aurors had received at the beginning of January the object, and used it successfully in many cases. Thanks to it, they had been able to disprove false accusations, and to catch authors of a number of crimes in a swift way. Initially, they had been suspicious of the object, but they had crossed its results with their own independent investigation, and the match had always been perfect : whenever their research indicated that someone had been guilty of a felony, their dark magic readings had been significant, and whenever the Aurors had concluded somebody was innocent the object would yield low levels of dark magic. At first, the object had no name, but the Aurors nicknamed it 'Darklog', and the expression stuck. The four friends also found out an analysis by Cathar Schuttoff in the Daily Prophet :

The Darklog, Future Of The Efficient Organisation. As I wrote in 1979 in my seminal book '2000 Is Next Door', the emergence of more and more spells and objects allowing anyone to take decisions without any deep analysis nor extensive resources will help streamline the organisations' processes. The Darklog, with its scientifically proven performances, heralds the advent of an era where progress makes it possible to hire only people whose actions will always benefit the public, and never hurt the reputation of the organisation. Having the right people is of course an immense asset, but knowing that one can trust their coworker is almost as big an advantage. Is is indisputable, and almost all people, from every walk of life, are now cognizant of this, that the more recent a product, a service, or even a finding, as the precursor of products and services, the more efficient and trustworthy it is. The apparent simplicity of these modern applications of magic actually betrays their sophistication and their usefulness. The time long gone when one had to understand the effect of every cog of an object to assess its qualities or defects will not be regretted. We have reached a point where the ordinary wizard or witch can immediately feel, when looking at a product's, a service's, or a theory's features whether it is an advance or a regress. The Ministry has, and it is rare enough to be noted, made the right call when deciding to widen the use of the Darklog to every organisation over which it has authority. With the elimination of the damaging effects of the actions by people objectively prone to using dark magic, we are closing in on a harmonious society, in which modernity will allow everybody, when fighting for their own interest, to be at the same time aligned with the general interest

Following this, the testing at Hogwarts by the Aurors through the Darklog began. The students were called in a room, one by one. There, the Auror in charge of the evaluation, seated behind a desk on which a box made of wood for its lower part and metal for its upper part lied, would ask the student to press their hand on the top of the Darklog's surface, and he would look down at the readings. Then, the Auror would tell the student the process was over, and allow them to leave, before calling the next one. As had been the case with the Yearbook, the Gryffindor first-years were at the top of the list, and the Slytherin seventh-years at the bottom, last to be tested. This prompted once more the school to cancel classes for the two days that the assessments lasted. Some students were anxious, because nobody exactly knew what the Darklog was measuring. Would lying, cheating, dating or dueling people after hours, practicing spells that didn't belong to one's class' syllabus because they sounded cool count as units of dark magic ? The four friends were of course worried, since they had been doing lots of extracurricular activities, leaving their dormitories after hours, and overall chasing a book about dark magic that most likely contained instructions on how to perform it. Therefore they weren't surprised to be summoned to Professor Dumbledore's office, soon after the testing. The summon had been delivered in a very cautious way, though, and no other student had learned about this : each of the four friends had received their imposed invitation through owl-post, and nothing on the envelope had been printed that might have allowed an onlooker to guess that Hogwarts' administration itself had sent it. The note in the envelope was from Professor Dumbledore himself :

Please come to my office tomorrow, at 9pm. You have dispensation for being out of your lodgings after hours

The four friends had communicated through embroidery : that was why they knew they all had been summoned. What they ignored, however, was if there would be other students. Eleanor remembered perfectly where Professor Dumbledore's office was, and acted as a guidance system for the three others, who had forgotten how to get to the desired location. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them at the bottom of the spiral staircase. She had already opened the entrance to it. Ann, Eleanor, Judith and Sigismond, one by one, ascended thanks to the magical flight of steps. When Sigismond reached the level where the door to Professor Dumbledore's office stood, he saw that said door was open, and the three girls were waiting, standing in a little group near Professor Dumbledore's desk. The Headmaster was seated. Sigismond joined the three girls, the former teacher closed the door shut, and addressed them :

As you may have guessed, you are the only four students who tested with allegedly high levels of dark magic. This actually made me distrust still more this so-called Darklog. I negotiated with the Ministry a lenient sanction, and the only consequence for you will be the following : you will not be allowed any longer to assemble. I am sure this is a very disturbing situation for you, but do not let this distract you. We will come to the bottom of this. Off you go. Good luck

Ann made the trip back down first, followed by Sigismond, Judith and Eleanor. When Eleanor reached the entrance to the staircase, she saw that none of the three others were there anymore. Only Professor McGonagall was waiting for her. Eleanor thought :

Of course, we can't convene any longer, so they all have departed to their Common Room

Eleanor wished a good night to Professor McGonagall, in a less cheerful voice than usual, then directed her steps towards the Ravenclaw dormitories. The evaluation's result caused the four friends to perform introspection, each in their own way. Ann mostly wondered whether her sorting in Slytherin had been a forewarning, and if she was therefore exerting a bad influence over the three others. Sigismond was questioning his lack of connection with reality, that might make him forget about essential elements of humanity. Eleanor, on her part, was worried that her own belief and confidence in the fact she was doing things for the best could be her downfall, or an unconsciously treacherous way of hiding evil tendencies. As for Judith, she envisioned that her adventures during the latest summer holidays had turned her into a rash person that would soon evolve in a brazen creature, unable to take into account good and evil. All of them suspected the Darklog's readings to be erroneous, yet there was one recent instance during which they had used magic that was potentially dark : for they had not checked whether their exploitation of Akinori Milpense's wristwatch-like object was ethical. Chaining people in their personal Azkaban had possibly been exaggerated, far too harsh. Teenagers weren't supposed to dispense justice, especially without any kind of control, even under the supervision of a grown-up. All of this might mean that the Darklog was at least partially reliable, and that they would have to be very cautious not to develop a penchant for obscure magic. And perhaps it was already too late.