alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, fired and then they died, she was pretty inconsolable at first. Eventually I got her to talk about her feelings, though."

[chanuphis]

"Was she better at it than Turvy?"

[mrwoods]

"She was sufficiently good," he shrugs. "From what I gather, she has a very very strong instinct about what a 'good elf' is supposed to do, no two ways about it, no possibility that something else might also be a good way to be an elf. The actual skills related to it, her mum taught her, but she said that there wasn't ever a time when she didn't know what it meant to be a good elf. Or that she didn't love her Mr. Crouch."

[chanuphis]

"That doesn't mean it wasn't acquired. I can't remember not knowing how to read, but that just means I wasn't forming episodic memories that young."

[mrwoods]

He nods. "That's true, I suppose. She also said something to the effect of it just... being obvious, or something. The 'what a good elf is' thing. She said that it was obvious, but she didn't know how it was obvious, were her words, I think. Anyway, the least horrifying hypothesis here is that they're in fact artificial. If they're domesticated then it's likely that there are terrible side effects to their psyche because of it, and if they're just brain washed that's terrible all by itself. She mentioned one elf who was a terrible elf and who tricked his master into freeing him but he died last year. I wonder if I could find elves that dislike their masters and get their opinion on the matter..."

[chanuphis]

"They must be vanishingly rare."

[pleating]

"And embarrassing. Nobody's going to tell you their elf is terrible."

[mrwoods]

"But it sounds pretty important? I mean, there's a pretty non-negligible probability that we have an entire species of brain washed creatures here. Except there's nothing I can do about it before I'm at least as famous and about five times as influential as Harry Ducking Potter."

[chanuphis]

"I mean," says Miranda, "yes, this is very creepy, but. House elf origins are really obscure; so probably wizards are not actively doing things to each new baby house elf. The house elves who actually exist in real life today prefer to be how they are. And it might be completely impossible to stop them-as-a-group from being that way without eradicating them as a species, which they would and should object to. It is extremely likely that you could spend a huge amount of time getting to the bottom of it and not having anything at the end other than a really good reason to think some dead wizard was a really bad person. Nothing actionable."

[mrwoods]

"I knoooow!" he groans. "Magic should fix all the things not make there be more things to be fixed." Sigh.

[msmaxwell]

Pat pat.

[chanuphis]

"There's lots of projects that you can get somewhere with. And if you want to make house elves your thing too you can, it's just probably lower priority than getting good at magic and politics."

[mrwoods]

He sighs again. "Yeah. I guess fixing Slytherin could be my training grounds for politics," he muses.

[chanuphis]

"It's... ambitious."

[mrwoods]

"Stop the presses, boy who chose to be Sorted into Slytherin is ambitious," he deadpans.

[chanuphis]

"The joke was intended."

[mrwoods]

"Am aware," he grins.

[pleating]

"The idea of politics even being a skill is sort of weird."

[mrwoods]

"Well, I think it's a thing you start out bad at, do a lot, duck up a lot, and if you're really persistent and also have some innate talent you get good at it. Sounds like a skill to me."

[pleating]

"I meant that it's weird that you can be good or bad at it, kind of? Instead of it just being about who agrees with your actual politics opinions."

[chanuphis]

"That'd be a lot simpler. People tend to change their politics opinions a lot, though, sometimes for silly reasons you can manipulate, and care about them different amounts so they'll trade things they don't care about much for things they care about more."

[mrwoods]

Sadde peers at her appreciatively. "Seriously, are you sure you're not a Slytherin? Maybe the Hat fell and hit its head before Sorting you?"

[chanuphis]

"It doesn't have a head, and you would've seen if it'd been dropped. What, are you saying I'm not smart enough to hack it in Ravenclaw or something?"

[mrwoods]

"No, I'm saying she is smart enough to hack it in Ravenclaw," gesturing at Karen, "and yet it was you who said it. In fact, it didn't even sound like it was something you hacked, or at least you didn't hack it just now. And," he smirks, "that's I think the third time in this conversation I've said this. Come on, just admit it, you're a little bit Slytherin."

[chanuphis]

Miranda sighs. And puts her face in her hands.

"It wasn't even close. I had to threaten the hat," she mumbles. "And yes I am aware that is a Slytherin thing to do."