❝"I want to save them."
"You're just saying things that I already know, Nellie."
"You're not going to try and stop me?"
"On the contrary, my little Witch. I'm going to try and help you."❞
***
Viatorem Atramento: Ink Travellers. That was what Noell...
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"There is a loophole," Amira began dramatically, jumping to her feet and procuring a wand from who knew where. She flicked her wand and conjured a flip-chart, pointing to the pre-drawn diagram of what Noelle belatedly recognised as Quidditch hoops. "Let's take next years Quidditch World Cup as an example. So, we know that Viktor Krum will catch the Snitch but Ireland will win. This is something we would call a Key or Major Event." As Amira tapped her wand on the flip-chart, a crudely drawn Quidditch player on a broom flew in and chased after a little ball with wings, followed by shamrocks falling from the top of the paper. The Quidditch player frowned.
Noelle squinted. "Is that supposed to be Viktor Krum?"
Amira flapped her hand as if to say 'hush' and continued. "Now, if I were to hijack the Bulgarian team and impersonate one of it's players with the intention to make them win," another Quidditch player flew on to the paper and threw a ball in the hoops consecutively, tallying the score well above Ireland's, "sure, I could rack up some points, but this is where the magic happens."
Noelle resisted the urge to say 'obviously' in her best Snape impression and pressed her lips together.
"Ink is conscious. It's as sentient and tangible as you and I, and as creepy as that sounds, it does some pretty darn amazing things when people try to change these Key Events. The magic in the ink will manipulate the world to make sure nothing happens to the important plot points, and so," she tapped her wand on the paper and immediately another player whizzed in, knocking the Quaffle-throwing Bulgarian player off their broom and scoring themselves several points in a row. Ireland's score shot up to the two-hundreds, shamrocks rained down and stickman-Viktor frowned again. "Bulgaria will always lose, Ireland will always win."
"Poor Viktor," Noelle muttered. Soon she composed herself, propelling questions as fast as she could think them. "So what you're saying is, if there are Key or Major Events, there must be Minor events, too? And these are the ones we can change as long as they don't force the ending to change?"
"Precisely. It's a bit difficult to predict what will happen next once we've changed something, though," said Amira, dismissing the flip-chart with a wave and settling back down on to the ottoman. "By the way, Ireland versus Bulgaria isn't actually one of those Key Events, so technically if we did stun and Polyjuice one of their players to help them win, the ink would be none the wiser," she finished innocently.
"That's oddly specific, Amira."
"You have your desires to save people, I want Viktor Krum be happy," Amira shrugged, "It's a win-win situation."
"But I'm confused," Noelle said suddenly, sitting up and crossing her legs in a way which made her feel she was in Primary School again. "What's so different between us and the Erinyes if we change the Minor Events to suit our desires? And what's stopping the ink from fixing everything up if they do succeed? You said it's pretty powerful."
"First of all, the Erinyes are dark creatures and we're technically on the side of the light so I can't believe you just asked that," said Amira with a dramatic widening of her eyes. "Secondly, they change events with the intention to drain the magic from the ink. If they steal that, the ink would have very little power left to fix things. That's why we ㅡ or rather, you ㅡ exist. We protect the ink, but are able to manipulate it so long as the Major Events don't become convoluted."
So it's kind of like a mutual relationship, Noelle mused, the magic in the ink lends us power, but in return we protect it.
Then came another problem. "I'm assuming stopping deaths isn't going to be so easy," she remarked with wince, thinking about all the people that died to 'push the plot forward' in terms of Harry's own growth.
"You're not wrong. Key events will always happen one way or another, the ink will make sure of it. This is where the line becomes a bit blurry; what are and what are we not allowed to change? For example, it could be argued that Cedric needs to die in order to hit home that Voldemort is still out thereㅡ"
"I'm saving him." Noelle interrupted, grey eyes hardening with determination. "And Sirius, Dumbledore, Tonks, Remus, Fred, Dobby, Hedwig ㅡ I'm going to save them no matter what."
"Well, I would hope so," Amira's eyes flashed at the list of names, smile soft before she continued. "But as I was saying, Cedric might need to die ㅡ or become injured or incapacitated enough to convince the rest of the Wizarding World of what truly happened." Noelle chewed her lips in thought, brows furrowing as she thought of ways to compensate the ink.
"What if we showed his and Harry's memories to everyone? Or found a way to record the events in Little Hangleton and broadcast it live to everyone at the final task?"
Amira's lips quirked upwards in a smile, "Good thinking, but we still need to think about how we save them in the first place." At Noelle's open mouth she added, "We'll get to that in due time, don't worry. Let's focus on everything on a year by year basis."
Noelle nodded. "Okay. I already have an idea to clear Sirius' name."
Amira grinned and leaned forward, looking every bit the wicked Daemon she was proud of. "Now you're talking."
