Chapter 14: The problems with violence

"First, let me ask you a couple of questions," Dumbledore said, stroking his beard. "Today, this is the second time you've been involved in an, let us say, incident. Tell me, Dan, what led you to decide to grab the Weasleys and lock them up with you?"

Dan thought about it, turning the question over in his head. "They saw my name, Albus. They knew that there was someone new at Hogwarts, even if they weren't sure who it was – they don't know Russian, lucky me. But I don't need rumors about my own existence, two information leaks during one day is enough. So I dragged them into my room, knowing that there was probably some kind of alarm ward on the door. Someone would come sooner or later, and that someone was you."

Although Dan was confident in his words, he was beginning to see mistakes in his actions. With every second, he had a new idea about how he could deal with the twins. 'Hindsight 20/20.'

Dumbledore nodded. "Interesting, but why didn't you call one of the professors to help you? A little earlier, you alerted Filius about a similar problem, which prevented you from doing the same now?"

"Filius was already busy with problems with the clean-up," the half-goblin grimaced, but said nothing in denial, "I have no idea where Snape's, Filch's, or the rest of the professors' offices are, Minerva gets tired enough dealing with the problems of the head of the House and Deputy Headmistress. Pomona is usually asleep by the time the sun sets. And you, Albus… I think I've already said the reasons why I don't want to take your time."

Albus mumbled thoughtfully in response.  On the one hand, Dan's words were logical and made sense. No one could expect a student in his position to know the castle, or trust in teachers already, for that matter. Some of the professors were still frightened and upset by his appearance – Argus, Bathsheda and Sybill were not particularly fond of the new student.

But on the other hand, he still had people who supported him. Pomona and Hagrid both adored the monstrous boy, even if he didn't know it– didn't believe it.

'Well, Dan is right on one occasion, breaking into Minerva's room at night is not the brightest idea.' Dumbledore thought. 'All the same, he shouldn't solve problems with violence, it's always better to choose a creative solution.'

The old man folded his hands in front of him and looked towards the Sorting Hat, an idea popped into his mind.

"Let me tell you something about your new friends," he began. "The Weasley twins are the most inventive pranksters in the school for the last ten years. Everyone knows that where there is chaos, there are red-haired twins, but no one can prove their direct communion with a prank until they themselves want to be caught. Smart lads, they would make good additions to Ravenclaw or even Slytherin."

Unbeknownst to everyone, the Hat nodded in agreement.

"I'll be honest, we're lucky they went to Gryffindor, I'm afraid to imagine how incredible Hogwarts would be if they were more secretive." Dumbledore smiled, thinking of something else. "Ah, but I digress. Tell me, what did you think of the Weasley brothers when you first saw them?"

Dan answered almost immediately. "Secretive, overconfident, inseparable, paranoid. Pretty smart, like you said, but their world view is too narrow. Sure, they have creative ideas, but some of them are far too flat."

"While tough, it's true. Now, tell me, what do you think they would have done once they got out of your room if I hadn't intervened?"

And wasn't that the real question? Dan had no idea what the twins would do with the information about his existence. There were an infinite number of options, but now that he had learned the twins a little closer, this list only increased. 

About three times. 

Maybe four...

"... not enough information." Dan finally said it. "I don't know them well enough to predict their actions. But I think that if I was a danger in their eyes, they would've told one of the professors about my skinny hide. They don't look like people who'd run to the Ministry, so it's out. Maybe they'd try to make my life very hard. I can continue with this, or you can finally make your point."

Albus laughed, he was not often spoken to without a healthy portion of empty speeches and sucking up. He could count the people who were so blunt in his presence on Kettleburn's fingers – the man had one hand with only three fingers – so the list was short.

"Sometimes, a boring talk is necessary, my b– Dan," the skin on Dumbledore's knuckles turned white for a moment. "The twin Weasleys would've gained a silver of your trust, forced you to lower your defenses, and they'd ran as fast as they could at the first opportunity. After that, as they knew your location, they'd have filled out a counterattack plan as retaliation. So, you weren't so far off on your hunch about pranks."

After this golden piece of information from Dumbledore, Dan discussed a couple more important things with the professors, namely his schooling. Starting Monday next week, Flitwick will teach him the first two years of Charms. No matter how good Dan was with wandless magic – especially with charms – he still needed theory and direction from the professors.

After that, on Tuesday, his training will be handled by Remus, with Defense Against the Dark Arts. Not that Dan needed any help in this direction. He was 40 percent sure that he himself was considered a Dark Creature. Who would know better how to fight against the darkness, if not a terrible monster?

Astronomy will be on Wednesday, along with Herbology. Aurora Sinistra and Pomona Sprout respectfully decided to take up his training at the same time. Moreover, it is in these numbers that Pomona needs the most help. Moreover, on Wednesday he will have more chances to find and pet a toad.

Snape agreed to teach him potions on Thursday. Only the professor himself knew what he could do in one fucking week with such a huge information block as potions, but according to Flitwick, Snape smiled when he talked about the future lesson.

Dan felt that he would be in a lot of pain during the lessons.

There was only one subject that Dan would have to deal with himself – the History of Magic. Here he had no protests, just hearing the name Binns, almost put him to sleep. 

They were all able to leave the Headmaster's office only after three hours, completely forgetting about the offer of the Distributing Hat.

Luna was sitting at the Gryffindor's table next to Ginny, listening to Finnigan's story about how he spent the summer. The silver-haired girl looked around with interest, sometimes stopping her gaze on one or another student, but eventually moving on.

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"Luna, are you okay?" Ginny asked, fishing her friend out of her thoughts.

"I like to think I'm fine. I'm just thinking now, so you don't have to worry." Luna smiled dreamily and returned to her food with a sigh. Her beans were slowly but surely taking the shape of Buckingham Palace, she couldn't stop now.

Ginny bit her lower lip in excitement and glanced at Ravenclaw's desk. More than ten people from the Smart house did not bother to come to breakfast, which would not be so unusual if it were not for the fact that absolutely everyone came to breakfast to receive morning mail. She wasn't comforted by the fact that many of the disappeared students were familiar to her as Luna's bullies.

"Is it me, or does Ravenclaw's desk look a little empty?" Harry, who was sitting opposite, asked himself, but many people heard him.

"Yes, you're right." Hermione frowned. "Too many people have disappeared for this to be a coincidence. Dumbledore is not in his place either…"

"Huh, wonderin' wa' goin' o'?"

"Holy Merlin, Ron, chew the food first, please."

Luna blinked and looked at the "golden trio" of friends opposite her. Harry asked something, didn't he?

"Oh, the missing students? They were scared last night when they met Umgubular Slashkilter. Flitwick said he'd take care of them, so you don't have to worry." She said and went back to her food.

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny gave her strange looks, but only the boy-who-lived dared to ask the second question.

"Luna, do you know something?" 

Harry had known Luna Lovegood for a long time, his foster mother decided that it would be useful for him to know "some children of pure-blooded families. Oh, don't look at me like that, young man, I just want you to have some friends before school."

Of course, Bellatrix wanted more than ordinary friends for her son, but no one had the balls to call her out.

"I know a lot of things, Harry Potter. It was an interesting example of the interaction of humans and representatives of another intelligent humanoid race. I've never been a participant in such an event before, to be honest. I want to write about this to daddy, but the Umgubular Slashkilter has not yet agreed to an interview, and without this the article will be dull and boring."

Harry blinked a couple of times, ridding his mind of the web of delirium that Luna had thrown at him. He realized that he had not asked the question he was interested in, so he did not receive an answer.

"Luna, what happened?" He asked and that made Luna talk.

As it turned out, last night Luna's roommates decided to bully the silver-haired girl and shove her into the broom cupboard completely naked. Fortunately, nothing happened, because Professor Flitwick managed to intervene and stop the girls before they could do anything. But Luna claimed that one of her imaginary creatures also helped her. How exactly it could help, Harry didn't know, but he was interested.

Luna had a habit of replacing real things with made-up ones, take at least the Nargles who stole her clothes. It was obvious that the thieves were not Nargles at all.

Most likely, Slashkilter didn't even exist and Flitwick was in the right place at the right time. But…

"And what does he look like?" "We have to thank the Savior of the Moon!" Fred and George said.

Hermione, who usually spoke just how delusional Luna's fictional creatures were, just sat there with a frown on her face. She didn't like that Luna believed in such nonsense, but she didn't like the way others treated her friend more. 

Luckily, she has the perfect device to get a little revenge and have an alibi along with it. Besides, it might relieve some of the stress.

"Well, he was the same height as Hagrid, dressed entirely in black and with strange glasses on his head. Slashkilters really folk clothes, but I would like to know where he got such glasses. They would be suitable for my next– ah!" She covered her mouth with a pale palm. "I almost gave away the secret of the next product before its release."

Fred and George looked at each other and were quiet during the rest of the break. Silently discussing the character of his new friend.

No one paid any attention to it. No one except one Luna Lovegood.

In the end, Harry forgot about this imaginary creature, but decided to find out the names of all those who were absent from breakfast today and why. Purely out of interest…

The culprit of the next conspiracy theory in Quibbler, at this time was building a huge stone phallos right in front of the abandoned toilet on the second floor. He resisted the urge long enough.