Chapter 102

"This is just so backwards," Milo muttered after, upon reaching the end of the week, completing only his third Amulet of Protection From Evil. The problem was that an Imperius'd wizard or witch was more of a threat to those around them than to themselves, so Milo, in order to protect himself, had to equip anyone and everyone around him with expensive amulets. The problem, however, was that Magic Item crafting benefited from no economy of scale whatsoever: if it took two thousand gold pieces and two days to make one Amulet of Protection From Evil, it would take two hundred thousand gold pieces and two hundred days to make a hundred of them. While Harry was rich, Milo doubted he was quite that rich. At some point, Milo was going to have to start paying him back for the (rather enormous) loan.

"What's backwards?" a familiar voice said. Milo turned to the door to see Hermione standing there, a tray of steaming hot soup in her hands.

"Hey!" Milo said. "I was wondering when you'd drop by."

"Sorry," Hermione said apologetically. "I was going to come earlier, but, well, it's the first week back and I didn't want to get behind — I mean, I only had time over the break to reread A History of Magic, Magical Drafts and Potions, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, and Magical Theory! I'm dangerously behind in The Standard Book of Spells and A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration!" Hermione pulled herself together with visible effort. "But, my responsibility as a friend outweighs even academic concerns," she said officiously. "Well, at least, in an emergency. And except in exam period."

"Well, thanks," Milo said. "Just set the soup down on the bedside table."

"So," Hermione said after doing just that, "just how badly were you injured, anyway? I remember after the Troll you were on your feet in no time, and, well, you were in pretty bad shape that time, so... I mean, are you all right?"

"Yeah, totally fine," Milo shrugged. "But if Pomfrey asks, I need another day of complete bed rest to, and make sure you get this right, 'regenerate my recuperative and restorative healing abilities and realign my ki power pool or die.'"

"You could die?"

"Nope," Milo said. "I made all that stuff up."

"You're... you're skiving!" Hermione accused, aghast.

"Well, duh. But it's for a good cause — which reminds me..." Milo fished out the three Amulets of Protection From Evil from his magic belt. "Arcane Mark, Arcane Mark, Arcane Mark, Arcane Mark, Arcane Mark, Arcane Mark," he cast repeatedly, placing a pair of unique symbols on each amulet for later identification. One symbol on each amulet was a faintly glowing rune which was, using Milo's magic anyways, virtually impossible for anyone else to duplicate. The local magic was largely one giant unknown, however, so Milo also put an invisible version of the mark on each amulet as a backup — one that only Milo could see, and even then, only when he cast See Invisibility first. If someone out there (*cough* Snape *cough*) tried to switch the amulets for forgeries, and they somehow managed to duplicate the decoy mark, they wouldn't even know about the invisible one.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked.

"For later identification," Milo said. "I mark all my stuff that way, comes in handy more than you'd think. Here, put this on," Milo handed her one of the amulets.

"Er, it's, um, pretty?" Hermione tried, desperately, to sound delighted, but the fact was that the amulets were little more than small silver discs on a thin, but sturdy, steel chain.

"Is it?" Milo asked. "Aesthetics were never my strong suit, to be honest. Appearances aside, that right there's what we in the business call a Magic Item."

"What's magic about it?" Hermione asked, examining it curiously.

"Makes you immune to the Imperius Curse," Milo said nonchalantly.

"Sorry," Hermione said. "Could you say that again? See, here I thought you said that this little necklace is supposed to protect you against one of the darkest, most powerful Curses in existence."

"Yeah," Milo said. "And any other mind-affecting magic, also. Just make sure you keep it on at all times, and give this other one to Harry. I'll have Ron's done sometime tomorrow."

Hermione stared at Milo, evidently trying to decide if he was joking or not.

"You're serious, aren't you?" she asked. "I mean, I'd heard from Ron that you had a spell that did something like that temporarily, but this... This is big, do you understand? Really big."

"Well, I guess? I mean, it's pretty trivial magic where I'm from."

"Blocking the Imperius Curse is trivial?" Hermione exclaimed. "From what I've read, during the last war, the other side managed to infiltrate the Ministry at every level, and we're still not sure who was bewitched and who was a volunteer. It was utter chaos, and You-Know-Who nearly toppled the entire government that way. It takes exceptional willpower — as in, one person in hundreds — or years of training to resist. How could preventing something like that possibly be trivial?"

"I figure it's something like Transfiguration. Using Arcane magic — my magic, that is — turning a matchstick into a pin requires an extremely powerful spell. And healing injuries like Pomfrey can do with a wave and a word is nigh impossible. On the other hand, I can see right through Harry's super-rare and expensive Invisibility Cloak without much difficulty because, well, for us, mere Invisibility is an everyday sort of thing. Ironically, it's the inferior Disillusionment Charm that I can't beat. Which actually reminds me of something, Hermione, that I was going to ask you," Milo said.

"Oh?"

"Do you know of any spells that can change someone's heart's desire, if only temporarily?"

"What does that have to do with the Disillusionment Charm?" Hermione asked, perplexed.

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