"Right, I'd forgotten I was supposed to do that. Um. Well everyone's dicing was rather terrible, so make sure you practice that. And you should work on your eye removal techniques, they were rather sloppy."
"Where are we supposed to find a frog?" A student asked in horror.
"That's part of the fun of potion making. Gathering your own ingredients. Are you not surrounded by a lake and a forest? Go find one!" The students tittered at her recommendation to go search the Forbidden Forest for frogs. Hopefully, she prayed, some of the dumber ones would actually do it.
...
"How was Potions?" Luna asked. She'd already been sitting at the Gryffindor table waiting for them to join her for lunch.
"It was brilliant," Harry grinned. "I mean, it was a refresher for me, but mama is such a good teacher that it wasn't even boring."
Neville politely held back his shudder.
Humble Servants Of Death
They'd reconvened after dinner in mama's office and promptly whisked away to Grimmauld so Sirius could be a human for a bit. He cried about how much he'd missed having thumbs for a good while while mama made them all some tea.
"Right, we have a slight problem. Remus, the DADA professor, we used to be close friends and he totally knows what my animagus form looks like," Sirius said. "It's bad enough I have to be a dog all the time, but now I have to avoid him too, and you never bring me the good sausages from dinner."
"That's easily solved," mama said, handing a tray of snacks to Harry. "First, the big guy, what's his name? The Magical Creatures professor offered to let you stay with him if you get lonely. He has a dog and he offered to watch you two for a playdate, which I of course accepted on your behalf."
"What? No!"
While the adults discussed the politest way to give their professor a memory charm, the children divided up the snacks and meandered around the Black Library. The group discussed other exciting updates like the fact that Lupin was a werewolf, that he was another person likely to cry about how Harry looked like his dad, and that werewolves were particularly sensitive to dark magic and would likely be able to smell it on Harry. But mama would handle all of that and would still leave him with enough brains left to be a competent teacher.
Sirius was feeling a little guilty about the whole thing, but as much as he really, really wanted to talk to Remus, now was simply not the time and he wasn't sure to what extent Remus believed that Sirius had betrayed Lily and James. They weren't sure if he would turn in Sirius if he saw him, let alone Harry. So it would be dealt with.
In related news, Sirius was now officially wanted for questioning, not for an instant death, although he was not planning on going anywhere at least until Pettgrew's trial had been dealt with. As much as being trapped in his dog animagus for most of the year was going to be unpleasant, no one doubted it was better than returning to prison, even if he was lucky enough to get a cell within the Ministry this time. Sirius did not trust the Ministry a single bit, there was no fancy metaphor that could convey how pissed he was at their incompetence. All he could do was hope that with the evidence having been thrown at their feet, they would at least do something to get his name cleared. By next summer, he hoped, he should finally be done with all this nonsense. And then he could talk to Remus.
His inner disgust was somewhat tempered by them ironing out their necromancy schedules and horcrux hunting times. Alabasandria's first priority was Harry, but he also could not disappear from the castle for extended periods without notice. Sirius and Alabasandria would be able to sneak away most weekends, whereas Harry could come in the evenings. And then there were the other children.
"How about we just sit in on the lectures?" Ron begged. "You don't have to actually teach us anything, but Hermione can take notes and I'm sure we can figure the rest out on our own."
"Why do you assume I'm the one taking notes -!"
"I am already teaching way too many children." Alabasandria interrupted them, voice stern. Luna pouted, her lip quivered and she sniffled, looking extremely sad. Alabasandria did not budge. "Practicing necromancy is dangerous, practicing it at Hogwarts is even more dangerous and stupid. You will not attempt anything, or I will truly make you regret being born. Since you are so curious, I will explain some of the theory you won't find in any of my books, but otherwise, you will have to make do with reading. If you truly wish to continue the subject further, then perhaps we can arrange for some practice next summer."
"What about over Yule?" Harry suggested. "Yule is the best time for necromancy," he explained to the others. The children nodded in eagerness.
"Hmm. I suppose you may find a ritual to perform at Yule. Provided you can acquire all the materials and research yourselves, I would be willing to supervise the final portion." She sighed. She was pleased to have interested students for once, but she truly was rather busy and was already surrounded by children! She had her Potions position to oversee, plus Harry and Sirius, plus horcrux hunting on top of her usual necromantic hobbies. She'd just have to make sure her lecture thoroughly scared them off. "Anything in particular you want to know, then?"
Luna and Hermione began to shout over each other in earnest.
"I'll just start with the fundamentals then." She settled into a high-backed chair and pondered her words for a moment. Hermione pulled a sheet of parchment out of nowhere for notetaking and the others leaned in to listen. Even Ron was on the edge of his seat, and he usually protested the thought of extra learning.
"First of all, necromancy is in fact, a bit of a broader term than one would expect from the name - which is derived, of course, from its relation to the dead. But necromancy is just a subset of life and soul magic. Simply put, it is animancy: manipulation of life itself. Which does obviously include manipulation of death but need not do so exclusively. Further subsets of this include mind, bone, and blood magics, anything that uses human components may fall under this category.
When you cast something like a charm, it requires very little - a bit of your magical core so negligent you will not even notice its loss. But when dealing with magic as bending as animancy, it will always have a cost. The cost being, the lives and souls of yourself or others. Life itself requires payment. That being our eventual death, forever lingering on the edge of our horizon. Such is the circle of life, yin and yang or what have you. It must all remain in balance with each other. An equivalent exchange must be made."
The group pondered over this for a moment.
"You mentioned mind magic. Does that mean occlumency is considered in this as well?" Sirius asked. "That doesn't cost anything though, does it?"
"Occlumency is a bit of a gray area, yes. There is not always an obvious cost, like in necromancy. Mind and soul magics are clearly connected, but their intricacies are not yet fully understood. Oftentimes the cost of performing animancy is your mind's integrity or even just emotions. Such as the Unforgivable Curses requiring absolute desire to cast those curses, and the Killing Curse itself takes a small fraction of your soul every time you use it, which slowly turns you insane. Conversely, there is the Patronus Charm, which repels Dementors. They drain the soul through negative memory, and the Patronus reinvigorates the soul through positive memory." Sirius, the only one familiar with that spell, was surprised to hear that the Patronus was in the same category as necromancy! Of course, he'd always considered it a bit odd how the spell took the shape of your animal form, it seemed very important and personal for such a single-purpose spell. Did that mean it was a physical representation of your soul?
"I'm a little confused. Would you say that the mind and soul are the same thing?" Luna asked.
"Eh, sort of? That's some theory work that takes years to understand. Basically, for the purposes of today, yes. The mind is your personality which is your soul. Think of animancy as a broad subject like charms. There are thousands of charms. They are all very different, but they all require an incantation. If it requires something from you then that's animancy. If it requires death, it's necromancy." The children nodded in understanding.
.....
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