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Professor Potter Ch. 32 (Harry Potter)
🕑 Added 2022-08-03 14:23:48 +0000 UTCA/N: Cirilla explains~
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After a moment, Harry accepts that he’s going to have to hear her out. He’d already promised himself he wouldn’t go around with his head stuck up his ass anymore. A little bit of stubbornness might have had its place, but when it came to information, even potentially false information, it was better to have it than not.
That said, there was no reason Harry had to stand here and listen to Ciri lie to him. If she wanted this conversation, it would be on his terms.
“I’ll hear you out. If you’re willing to submit to a Zone of Truth.”
Her eyes flicker down to his wand at that, the Protego Charm still covering him even now. For a moment, Ciri hesitates, but in the end she nods. To be fair, it’s not as though the Zone of Truth is anything TOO dangerous. In fact, it’s a much nicer version of Veritaserum. Creating an area with magic where no deception can take root, it doesn’t force anyone to tell the truth, but rather prevents them from speaking any deliberate lies while within its area.
It's much easier to resist than Veritaserum, but the best part is that the caster knows when those who enter the Zone are resisting it, or when they’re letting it work as intended. Meanwhile, those who enter the Zone are immediately aware of the spell and can be as evasive in their answers as they want. It doesn’t force anything… it only wards against deception.
Of course, by demanding this, Harry has also taken on the responsibility of casting the Zone in the first place. Truthfully, he’s as much offering to trust Ciri here, as she’s being forced to trust him. While that sword of hers is currently lowered, he WILL have to drop the Protego in order to cast a new spell… while SHE will have to trust that the spell he’s casting actually IS a Zone of Truth and not something more underhanded.
Harry won’t lie, he’s sorely tempted to ambush her for a second, knock her out, and get her somewhere more private so he can use actual Veritaserum on her, or even just have a position of power from which to ask many, MANY burning questions. But… no. That was something a villain would do, and Harry, while much more paranoid these days, was no villain.
Trust was a two-way street but had to start somewhere… so it might as well start here, between the two of them.
Dropping the Protego, Harry swishes and flicks his wand, casting the Zone of Truth in its place. The spell washes over both of them, and Harry doesn’t fight its effects. Thankfully, Ciri neither uses his moment of weakness against him, nor tries to fight the effects herself. For all intents and purposes, the Truth Spell has taken hold and neither of them can flat out lie to the other anymore. They are… bound by magic itself in this case.
“You said I need your help. What do you mean?”
Ciri’s own green eyes flicker to the side for a moment, before she lets out an explosive sigh.
“We should start at the beginning… but first, my own question. Can I trust you to keep this under wraps, Professor Potter? What we’re about to discuss… people are in danger. People I care about.”
Harry narrows his eyes at that. All he knows about Cirilla is that she has a connection to Yennefer, who is in turn one of the more powerful members of the Lodge of Sorceresses. The implications of her statement are therefore not exactly lost on him. That said… he answers honestly.
“No, you cannot. In the event that any of what you have to say endangers those I care about, I will not be able to keep quiet. But if you’re asking if I intend to go shouting whatever you tell me from the Castle Parapets, or publishing the information you have from me in the Daily Prophet… I can promise I have no intentions of doing either of those things.”
For a moment, Ciri bristles again. But then, the moment passes and her shoulders slump as the fight seems to go out of her, temporarily at least. In the end, she nods her head in resigned acceptance.
“That will have to do. Look… I’ve been watching you for a little while now. I get the impression that you understand the Lodge of Sorceresses is after you, that they want to bring you under their control.”
Well now, if she was going to just come out and say it like that, Harry couldn’t very well deny it, could he? Though, the implication that she’d been watching him for a while and he hadn’t noticed… tch, how irritating to be so on the back foot.
“Yes.”
Ciri nods, licking her lips and smiling a wan smile.
“What I suspect you don’t know is WHY the Lodge wants to control you. I believe you do not know this, because they themselves do not truly agree on the Why.”
Wait, what? Harry frowns at this new information. It sounded like the Lodge was even more prone to infighting then Andromeda believed. That was… very helpful to know. Agreeing to this meeting was proving to be quite beneficial already.
“I was given to understand that the ‘Why’ of all of this was simply because they want power. They tried to back Grindelwald, it didn’t work out for them because Dumbledore kicked his ass, and they’ve been laying low ever since. Now Dumbledore is dead and I’m a tasty piece of meat, all because of my magical power.”
Ciri nods, her green eyes flashing as the corner of her mouth quirks up a little bit.
“Yes. That, and your status as a Chosen of Prophecy.”
The Zone detects no lie, and Harry stiffens as his jaw clenches. He’s never been a fan of his ‘Chosen One’ status. He did what he had to do, what was ultimately expected of him, but that didn’t mean he was HAPPY about it.
“Look, I get it. I’m a Chosen of Prophecy too.”
Now that gets Harry’s eyes wide again. Not only in surprise at Ciri’s status, but also at her willingness to tell him that. He wants to ask more… but they’re getting off track.
“Why do the Lodge want me? Or rather, why do they all think they want me?”
For a moment, Ciri pauses, collecting her thoughts. Finally, she speaks. Despite feeling like he’s already met his quota for surprise today, Harry is nevertheless shocked by the words that come out of Ciri’s mouth, as well as her belief in them to be true.
“My mother… is an idiot.”
Pausing, Harry raises an eyebrow.
“… I was given to believe that Yennefer was not only a highly skilled Potions Mistress, but also one of the true pillars of power and influence within the Lodge of Sorceresses.”
Ciri nods her head in easy agreement, before scrunching her admittedly cute features up in irritation.
“She’s all of that, yes. She’s also an idiot.”
Harry just stays silent, willing the young woman to explain. Thankfully, she does so.
“You already know that the Lodge backed the wrong horse when it came to Grindelwald versus Dumbledore. They got burnt for that and hard. In the ensuing century, they stayed away from Britain and Dumbledore entirely. But that didn’t mean they just laid low and avoided expanding their influence elsewhere.”
… That made sense, admittedly. Harry didn’t know why he’d naturally assumed they HAD lain low. Maybe because Dumbledore was heavily involved in the International Confederation of Wizards as well? But even then, the old man couldn’t be everywhere all at once. Which begged the question… what had ultimately escaped Dumbledore’s notice?
“The Lodge turned their attentions towards America. Its there, I believe, that Philippa Eilhart was fully subverted.”
Ciri has a way with words, Harry notes, as his eyebrows climb up his forehead AGAIN at that declaration. A declaration the Zone of Truth tells him is the truth, so far as Ciri believes it anyways.
“Mother, of course, doesn’t believe me. She doesn’t think we have enough evidence to act either. But I know the truth. This whole ploy by the Lodge to get to you here at Hogwarts… Mother thinks that it’s for their gain, like usual. She thinks they’re going to bring you under their control and use you to further cement their place in the Magical World. However, I believe Philippa Eilhart, Mother’s peer within the Lodge, wants you for her TRUE Master… an American Dark Lord who seeks to not just build his influence, nor even build a kingdom to rule over, but to fully conquer the planet.”
That’s a lot. For a moment, Harry can admit that he feels like he’s in over his head. Voldemort might have had the ambition to do that as well, but he’d never gotten far enough for them to see if he did. Harry had defeated the Dark Lord before he could even get off of the British Isles, really.
But…
“Who is this Dark Lord? What other resources does he have at his disposal? What are his immediate plans?”
Each question Harry asks causes Ciri’s expression to further scrunch up in distaste and irritation, until finally, she lets out a quiet admission that the Zone rings as true.
“… I don’t know. Yet! I don’t know yet! Look, this is why my mother doesn’t believe me. Yennefer refuses to move against her fellow Lodge members when she thinks they’re all still working for the same goal… that is, bringing you under their thumb. Until I can prove that she’s being hoodwinked, she’s not going to do anything. But at the same time, she’s ordered me to stand down and stay out of it! How am I supposed to prove anything when she’s trying to bench me like this?!”
Harry could see how that would be frustrating, and he feels a pang of sympathy towards Cirilla as she rants for a moment. Still…
“We need more information. Obviously, we can’t just walk up to Philippa with our accusations and expect that to ever go over well. I know you believe all you’ve said so far, but without proof, it sounds like we can’t get Yennefer on our side.”
At that, Harry himself pauses and frowns, pinning Ciri with an emerald glare as the ashen-haired young woman looks back at him curiously. With the Zone backing him up, Harry doesn’t hesitate to lay down the law, so to speak.
“Even if we can convince Yennefer to turn on Philippa, Ciri… if she’s not willing to back off of her efforts to control and ‘own’ me, then we’re going to have a problem. I refuse to be anyone’s pawn ever again. Do you understand?”
Ciri winces and shifts from foot to foot for a moment, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
“I’m sure we…”
She trails off for a moment, no doubt feeling the Zone of Truth plying at her tongue. Whatever she was about to say, she now realizes would have been a deliberate lie. After a moment, Ciri tries again.
“I think… if we can show her that she was tricked into coming here, into coming after you for another’s cause… then we can convince her to… to keep her attempts at manipulation to a minimum.”
… Wow. That said a lot about Yennefer, or at least Ciri’s view of her own mother. Harry can’t help but cock an eyebrow at the clearly struggling girl, which in turn makes Ciri flush in embarrassment.
“My mother is a woman who knows what she wants and will do anything she has to in order to get it. She’s not a bad person though. I promise, if you help me with Philippa, then I’ll help you with… with Yen.”
Truth. Well then, that’s probably the best Harry can hope for, isn’t it? Nodding resolutely, he asks the next obvious question, moving things along.
“How can I help you with Philippa? We already established it would do us no good to approach her directly.”
Ciri swallows and nods.
“R-Right. Okay, so Philippa has… well, she has agents within the Castle. The school faculty is riddled with Lodge Sorceresses, but not all of them are equal within the Lodge itself, obviously. One of them, in fact, only joined the Lodge more recently, after the time period I believe Philippa would have been subverted took place. Fringilla Vigo, the Hogwarts Librarian… might also be in league with our mysterious Dark Lord.”
Of course. Honestly, what was with America anyways? First, he’d learned Zatanna and Raven were run out of the country because of Raven’s differences, then he found out Emma and Jean were being hunted for Jean’s abilities. How many Dark Lords did America produce on the regular? How were they not all killing each other over there in some sort of Dark Lord versus Dark Lord grudge match or something?
“The way I see it, we have a few options. You’ve been building a powerbase here at Hogwarts.”
Harry blinks at the blunt statement. It’s not an accusation, but it’s also not a question. It’s fact, and Ciri is presenting it as fact. Which is bad because it means…
“Yeah. I know because Mother knows. She used your… recalcitrance as one of the excuses for not looking into my claims any deeper. She’s concerned with how your moving through the Castle, how you’re ignoring every Lodge member and focusing on building relationships with the other witches in Hogwarts’ Faculty instead.”
In hindsight, it made sense that no matter how subtle he tried to be about things, he would set off some red flags. After all, he’d gone from keeping to himself and not even realizing that he was the only male Faculty Member left in the entire Castle, to suddenly spending entire weekends away with Zatanna and Raven and catching dinner with Emma and Jean. Okay, yeah, he might have been a little obvious.
“You could make them think you’re giving them what they want by approaching Fringilla Vigo, while at the same time trying to get as much information out of her as possible about our hidden Dark Lord.”
… He could do that. But at the same time, wasn’t he already moving in this direction by having Hermione make ‘friends’ with Professor Merigold, while he’d been intending to approach Fleur?
He almost tells Ciri as much, before second-guessing himself. Ultimately, they’re not friends. Allies of convenience for now, maybe. But the enemy of your enemy being your friend only tended to last so long as your shared enemy was still a threat.
“I will consider all that you have told me, Ciri. And I will act accordingly. In the meantime, you should keep prying on your end. If we find anything… we’ll get in touch with one another?”
Ciri purses her lips together, but ultimately nods, seeming to realize that was the best she was going to get from this admittedly tense first meeting. Bringing down the Zone of Truth spell, Harry watches as the ashen-haired young woman pulls her obfuscation magic back in so that it only covers her and not the whole room. He can sort of track her as she leaves, but as soon as she’s gone from his sight, she’s gone altogether.
Harry is left all alone… with a choice to be made.
Comments
Keeper
Would be kind of funny if the Dark LORD part is wrong and in reality its a Dark LADY like Maleficent, Sabrina, Flemeth or Morrigan from Dragon Age or DC’s Circe.
Marcus
I really don’t want there to be ANOTHER dark lord happening, I hope it’s just that Philippa has her own plan and everyone else is jumping to conclusions. I just find dark lords boring, EHH would you want to rule everything? Just imagine the work you would CONSTANTLY have to do.
R Brown
No sudden change in plans. He already is building relationships with other witches from America, as mentioned. Even if he doesn't tell them everything that Ciri told him, he should still ask them more about the situation in America from their perspective. It would help more if Ciri had given him a name, or group, or any kind of identifier for this dark lord. Whether there are multiple baddies, a co-op, a single overlord, or one man in several masks. There are such possibilities.
IAVL
Honestly, I think he and Ciri should talk a bit more of the cluster fucks they found. Also, sounds like the Dark Lord that subverted Philippa has a deft hand at mind control. That can't be happenstance
