Chapter 101

"While I have lived for quite some time and accumulated no small amount of knowledge of magic, I do not know of this Enervation spell of which you speak — fittingly, since I presume it is from your world. Enervate, however, is a harmless, yet rather unfortunately named spell to wake up those rendered asleep or unconscious by magic."

"Then why did they call it a word that means to suck energy out of something?" Milo asked curiously.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Dumbledore said with the slightest of shrugs. "I'm led to believe that some people at the ministry are working on a functionally identical spell with a more appropriate name. But I digress. I don't suppose there's any chance that you can identify the culprit?"

"Sorry," Milo said. His vision had cleared to the point where he could clearly make out Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, and Professor McGongall's faces. "I was in the hallway near the Mirror when I thought I thought I noticed something, so I cast a spell that detects minds. It told me there were twelve sentient minds nearby, although I couldn't see any of them. Before I could find out more, I heard someone whisper 'Imperio', and then, well, you know the rest. Oh, speaking of," he said, unbuttoning the pouch that Mordy was trapped in. "Sorry, little guy," he said to his friend. "It's okay, now."

"The minds that the spell detected," Dumbledore pressed. "Are you quite sure they were sentient? As in, human-level intelligence?"

"Er," Milo said, trying to remember the spell description. "Anything living that's as smart or smarter than a newt."

"Could it have simply been the wall portraits?" Dumbledore asked. "I daresay, the one that guards Ravenclaw tower is a good deal smarter than a newt."

"No," Milo said. "Those are probably Constructs — er, magically animated objects — and therefore immune to the spell. So whatever they were, they were invisible."

"In fact, that is most unlikely," Dumbledore said. "The ability to become truly invisible, at least in our world, is extremely rare. It is more likely that these twelve persons or creatures unknown were hidden with, say, a remarkably good Disillusionment Charm." Oh, Milo thought. So that's why See Invisibility only worked on the Cloak. Go figure.

"One last question," Milo asked. "Actually, make that two questions."

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I will answer to within the confines of our earlier agreement."

"The first: how did you interrupt my spell? I'd assumed our different types of magic were basically incompatible."

"Oh, it was quite simple, really," Dumbledore admitted. "I simply used magic of a different sort. I reasoned that, since you once told me that you had worked and studied for your magic — rather than, say, being born into it — that it required a certain degree of mental fortitude and concentration to use, much like our magic."

"So you just..."

"Over the years, I've acquired something of a reputation for myself — most of it undeserved, of course — and I've found that a certain type of wizard, especially dark wizards, seem to believe me capable of almost anything. So, I simply commanded you to stop, and you, believing I actually had the power to do so, complied."

"What would you have done if that hadn't worked?" Milo asked.

"Ah," Dumbledore said with a slight twinkle in his eye. "In that case, I would have done nothing."

"Nothing?" Milo asked, shocked. "Then the Hippogriff would have torn you to pieces."

"I daresay not," Dumbledore said. "Minerva would have Stunned you well before you finished casting your spell. Now, as to your second question...?"

"Right," Milo said. "What the Hells was that Mirror?"

"Ah, the Mirror of Erised," Dumbledore said. "It shows the heart's deepest, and sometimes, unfortunately, darkest desire. Nothing more, and nothing less. I strongly urge you to put it out of your minds, for men have wasted away obsessing over it. Needless to say, it shall be moved to a more safe location as soon as possible."

"Good idea," Milo said, remembering the disturbing images the Mirror had shown him. "Now, if someone will help me to the hospital wing, I'm going to stay there until I've made an amulet of Protection From Evil for everyone and their cousin."

o—o—o—o—o—o—o

The remainder of the week was, for Milo, blissfully uneventful. Classes resumed, and with them the hustle and bustle of several hundred Hogwarts students returning from their vacation. Pleading illness (and who was qualified to disagree with him?), Milo, true to his word, sequestered himself in the hospital wing with Neville (Hannah, after a few days of rest and dozens of different healing Charms and potions, was deemed fit to return to school) frantically crafting Amulets of Protection From Evil and researching Kelgore's Fire Bolt.

It was here that Milo ran into a small problem of mathematics: it took two days, hundreds of Galleons of owl-ordered supplies (Milo found he could affray these costs somewhat by supplies nicked from Potions), and eighty Experience Points to make each amulet. Milo really didn't know much about the demographics of this plane (all he'd seen was a bit of Hogsmeade, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and, of course, Hogwarts) but there were probably several thousand wizards and witches out there. Even ruling out protecting the entire population and focussing on those who posed an imminent threat to Milo — anyone nearby who possessed a wand, had a drop of magical blood, could see lightning and hear thunder — the number of Amulets required was insanely unrealistic.

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