Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 2 - 5

Beta: Cloudy

Translator (English to Latin): Sam

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

I spent a few more hours on Sunday night guessing different phrases. Then again on Monday night. Then Tuesday. Then Wednesday. It went on and on until Halloween finally arrived and I still couldn't get the damn sink to open up.

I didn't understand. If I remembered correctly Ron was able to open the sink by repeating Open in Parseltongue during the Hogwarts battle. He didn't know Parsletongue so he couldn't have stood there guessing words. What changed? What happened? Did I remember it incorrectly, or was there something else at play?

"'Bout ready to Reducto that sink," I sourly thought.

"How Gryffindor of you."

"Never mind then. I'll figure it out!"

"Your tenacity is amusing. I'll throw you a bone if you bark nicely enough."

"Oh magnificent Tom, the wonderful wizard whom I so adore, would you please kindly throw me a bone? Woof-woof."

His magic recoiled in surprise, and I shared with him an echo of how much I enjoyed listening to him comment on my day-to-day life. I hadn't hidden my affection for him prior, but I hadn't gone out of my way to share it either. Threat level aside he has some great commentary that made daily life more amusing.

Not that I felt particularly threatened by the boy anymore. Considering how well my mind palace was working I felt confident I could forcefully expel him if he ever tried to take over.

I did have a few more failsafes in place of course. I wrote to Kreacher every week and if that ever stopped or if my hidden code in the letters stopped appearing Kreacher knew to go straight to Dumbledore. Iris was warned beforehand to alert Kreacher if I acted out of character, and if I ever made a move to hurt my brother she'd restrain me.

I had more, those were only a couple.

It made it easier to relax. Not to the point of dropping suspicion, but enough to give him as sincere a chance as possible.

I was going to be a doctor in my previous life. I was trained to look at each patient with the least amount of prejudice as possible. Admittedly, there were certain types of people I would have a strong bias against—I was only human, after all—but that didn't mean my actions had to convey that bias. Initials thoughts did not have to be acted upon, but rather, I could choose how I behaved and treated others no matter how I feel about them.

Tom looking so young and different than the monster I had seen on that horrible night helped differentiate him from Voldemort. Compartmentalizing emotions came as second nature to me, so my initial bias was easy to shove down. I wanted to look at him as I would any other teenaged boy who would come into my office with a troubled past.

From that mindset, it was actually pretty easy to come to like Tom. He was quick-witted, silver-tongued, and his befuddlement for my generation was rather endearing.

I wondered if my ability to empathize with supposed villains would have made me a good or bad doctor.

Oh well. I'd never know.

"That—That is acceptable. Do you know when Hogwarts was founded?"

"990 a.d."

"What language was spoken around then?"

"L-Latin?"

"You're off a couple of centuries. British Latin died out in 700 a.d."