HP: Spirit Talker

— Yeah, it's kind of dark in here... — I looked around the dungeons, raising my wand high with a ball of Lumos.

— I warned you it was dark and dank. — Potter muttered, moving cautiously forward.

Right now, he and I are walking through the dungeon towards the Chamber of Secrets — that's the real name, and the word 'chamber' isn't limited to a hospital room. It's been a long time, and it's not always pleasant, so it's getting harder and harder for me to remember my first life, sometimes whole layers of it fall into the blackness of oblivion, and it's only through meditation that I'm able to dig out another piece. I say this because I can't remember what the Secret Chamber and its entrances looked like in the movie.

Now I see very high vaults, mighty stone columns with lintels between them, with mighty magical structures inside. As far as I can see, there is damage here as well, but not as fatal as in the upper part of the castle. For example, I can see some holes in something that could be called a "switchboard," but these cracks didn't touch anything important. And the good thing is that the holes are quite small, and the channels and threads of the structures are quite thin, so there's a pretty good chance that ....

To call the most primitive security charms in memory, even more likely not security but signaling, but they are good with the possibility of scaling.

Draw a simple circle in the air, draw a straight line through its center, and "pierce" the construction in the direction where you want to install the signal charms. The charms lay neatly on top of one of the holes, connecting two of the four lines. The signal charms adhered to the more complex structure, trembled, grew in strength, expanded, and became a full part of the other charms. Great, the experience was a success! The homemade patch works.

For the next fifteen minutes I applied the patches, slowly and very carefully, or what if we "break" the whole system and the director's "settings" will be corrupted? I won't be able to install a new one, so let's take our time. Harry was characteristically silent. I felt his nervousness and impatience very well, he wanted to ask something already in the fifth minute, but at that time I was just connecting all the breaks of a certain energy line, which resulted in pale green lights on the floor, lighting the way.

The teenager decided to stay out of the way. But after a quarter of an hour, I realized that some of the patches could have been skipped, since the structures of the charms seemed to be free of magic, which meant that the main energy conduit was also damaged.

No, I tried to apply a patch, but it was immediately torn by the force of the current, it did not have enough time to "grow". I thought about it for a few minutes, and then I started teaching the Companion how to signal, and when we were done with that, which was another half hour later, we applied the last patch together.

— Listen, Harry, as soon as you do a spell, you throw a new one on top of it, got it?

— Yes, but why would you do that? — The teenager didn't look very suspicious, but not without reason, and he was also curious, really curious.

— You see, — I take a sip of water from the flask and hand it to my companion. — All around here, — I gesture around the room, which can already be seen a little in the eerie light. — There are many structures with different charms. I don't know what caused it, but in many places in Hogwarts, and not just here, but all over the castle, there are damages, cracks, so that most of the original functions either don't work at all, or work with malfunctions. Remember the stairs?

— Is that because of the "breaks"? — The guy frowned, receiving my nod of agreement. — Have you told Professor Dumbledore about this? Why should I?

— He's the headmaster, he should know, — I shrugged. — And I haven't had time to do it... ....

— Well, I have to tell him! — said the teenager stubbornly.

— No problem. — I will hide the bottle. — I'm afraid it won't do much good.

— Why? — I didn't look at his face anymore, I went back to the torn energy conduit, the thickness of my little finger, I remembered the torn conduit with my arm, if not my thigh.

— Because it's one of two things: either they can't do anything about the damage — they just don't know how, which I highly doubt, or modern Brits can't see these structures, which is another story entirely.

— Why? — he repeats himself.

— Because they'll try to use me, and I'm too busy to spend all my time fixing someone else's castle. — Hmm, interesting structure, I wonder what it's responsible for?

— Why won't you help, it's Hogwarts!

— If this castle were mine, I'd be up all night rebuilding it, but why bother? It's still standing, isn't it? It is. It's still standing? Well, not too much. It'll last me a lifetime at least, and then-— — and I'm not lying, I really think so, and the fact that the locals, I mean the English, are used to having outsiders do their work while they drink tea. No, I'm not an uneducated, poor Indian who can buy a kidney for a tent and a hundred dollars .... or just a tent. I've read the history of the English, so I know their favorite tricks.

— But, uh. But, uh. But...

— Look, kid, you can't leave it like that. I turn to him and look him in the eye. — You can't help everybody and you can't keep everybody warm if they don't help themselves. Have you ever heard the expression, "It's up to the drowning to save the drowning"? Have you not? The point is that something has to be done to change the situation, so not only should the rescuer row to shore, but at least the rescued should not interfere.

— I don't understand... — said the confused teenager quietly.

— I'm talking about the fact that Hogwarts is the only full-fledged wizarding school on the islands, ministerial courses don't count. All wizards in Britain should be involved in its upkeep and life in general, simply because Hogwarts is a national treasure. If it were your family home, then yes, make a personal effort, because the family nest, your home, will not be protected and organized by anyone but you. It's not a matter of one man taking care of the whole country. — I look meaningfully at the famous scar.

If he understands, good for him, and if he doesn't, the guy has a diagnosis. There was silence for a few minutes. Potter was thinking seriously about something, and I was looking at the unfamiliar structures, trying to figure out their meaning. The next question made me very happy.

— I'd heard several times about 'ancestral gifts' and 'ancestral magic'. What does that mean? — Dumbledore is not the heir's guardian, and no one is, since the boy doesn't know about it.

— That's what separates an ordinary wizard from a pureblood family, at least in the fifth or sixth generation. I think we should start with...