hisdarkmark | Thirty-Ninth Hex

Thirty-Ninth Hex - [Written]

[As usual, Draco has once again gone and made himself scarce from a majority of the village as he works out more of his inner dilemmas. First and foremost, there's Hermione. She's most definitely, definitely not the same Hermione and it's freaking him out.

Secondly, he's officially given up on searching for Caroline Forbes. After running into other vampires...it's safe to say the blonde will never show up again.

And thirdly...? Even with his power, even with his abilities to turn into a coyote or produce patronuses or blow things up, he's finding it isn't enough to make him happy.

Recently he's returned from a mission, but he couldn't help but constantly think about the last experiment. He'd been convinced he was someone else, and he had absolutely no memories of who he really was...and it was nice. He was able to function like a normal human being again. Normally, he would make an elaborate announcement about his return, but this time...well, he's already pieced together what's happened in the village, and he's not sorry he's missed the tornado. No, instead he's entirely focused on what he's determined to find out. When he opens his journal, he's only got one sentence he'd like to share.]

What do you reckon it takes to bargain with our captors to permanently erase memories? Just curious.

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[4. Thou shalt not enthrall another.]

Got it in one.

[She looked down.]

It's dark magic, Draco - messing with the free will of another sentient being. It leaves a stain.

What if it's something that I'm willingly asking for? Dark magic isn't exactly new to me, as I'm sure you've gathered by now.

The removal of memories isn't the same thing as enthrallment. And technically, if it's something you're willing to undergo, it's not an invasion of your mind.

[So it wouldn't be breaking any of the Laws.]

But it's still a bad idea.

[Her hot pot whistled, and she poured them both some tea.]

...did I ever really get an answer as to why you did it in the first place? The enthrallment. You certainly knew it was breaking one of the laws, didn't you?

[She jerks a little at that, momentarily thrown off the point she was building to.] No, I didn't. I'd never heard of the Laws. If I had, if I'd known, I never would have done it.

[Hmm. Give him a few moments of silence before then--]

Really. Even if it would have benefitted everyone, you still wouldn't have done it had you known it was illegal?

It's not about legality, although the death sentence that follows when caught is a pretty strong deterrent. [She has to drop her gaze.] It's about what it did to them.

[What it did to me.]

...suppose I should find myself lucky this isn't the same then and that I'm willing to face the consequences. [He waves a hand to gesture her back toward the kettle. Go on, keep going.] It was really that bad...no exaggeration?

...they said they might recover. Someday.

[She makes herself move, bring the tea over to him.]

I don't think anything will change what it did to me.

Edited 2012-11-18 06:47 (UTC)

...would you consider that something you'd want to erase from your memories? [A small nod once the tea's set down, but otherwise he's keeping close watch on her.]

[Molly shook her head and glanced back up at him.]

It wouldn't help. It might even hurt.

Why?

Because I'm good at what I do.

[Good enough to fool Fairy Queens.

She meets his eyes for a moment.]

And I'd figure out that someone had messed with my head. And I would want to know the reason why. Do you have any idea the kind of trauma that could cause to a mind, trying to remember, discover what had been erased?

No. [Leaning back, keeping this all totally casual really. This is good. These are the answers he was looking for.] Why don't you elaborate for me?

It depends on how the job was done in the first place, of course. Were fake memories implanted? Or are chunks just missing? Fake memories... that's really on the gray side. Not to mention, it's impractical. The kinds of details you'd have to recreate, the amount of time it would take to do properly, let alone aligning it into a the timeline of a person's life? Or it could be done really neatly, like Fairy Queen neatly, making it so that you don't even know you'd forgotten.

..."Fairy Queen"?

The queens of the Sidhe. [She tilted her head, exposing the snake tattoo on her neck.] You don't remember them? Thousands upon thousands of years old and with more supernatural power and skill than any wizard could hope to match?

[For once, he genuinely looks perplexed. Did he remember? It was hard to say whose memories were whose anymore. He had memories from conversations and an alternate life in Molly's world, he had memories from Luceti, he had alternate memories of how things from home should have been, and of course his own memories from his real time at home. He presses his forehead into the palm of his hand as he tries to sort everything out, to grasp some sort of information that would make sense of what she's saying.]

I...don't know. [And he sounds surprised when the words leave his mouth.] Vaguely, I suppose. It's information filed away for later use, I'm sure.

Well... they're not something you'd have had to deal with on a day-to-day basis... even most wizards rarely interact with them.

[Except if you're Harry.]

But anyway, the point is that Fairy Queens are on the level of like... archangels. Magically speaking, for the most part, they can do what they want, how they want.

Let's pretend they aren't even an option then. Let's talk about the possible trauma that could come if a person didn't have memories to replace the ones that were erased. What then?

That depends how it was done too, and on the kind of person, and what sort of Power they have at their disposal. If there were just gaps, or if it was sewn up neatly - time just missing from their mental timeline.

That doesn't sound terrible.

No, that would be the tidiest way of doing it. [She glanced away.] But it's not without its risks.

[And she looked back to him.] How much are you thinking you'd want gone?

Mm. It's hard to measure, considering I want memories from the last three and a half years erased. But only certain memories.

[Molly raised her eyebrows. This whole thing was still dubious as leftover jello, but she needed more information than that to go on.]

Related to events? To people?

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