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The Starks' place is much more interesting than Charlie's house. For one thing, the backyard is secluded enough that they can fly in it.
They do a lot of flying in it.
Zoom!
occluminous
It is pretty great.
Mrs. Stark decides to take pictures.
Mrs. Stark decides to take pictures.
occluminous
Bella smiles for the camera!
Later, she wants to see the photos.
Later, she wants to see the photos.
Mrs. Stark tucks them into a nice little photo album and displays them to the children.
occluminous
Bella watches them move.
Then, slowly, she frowns.
"That," she says, suddenly, pointing at herself as she turns around midair. "I didn't do that."
Then, slowly, she frowns.
"That," she says, suddenly, pointing at herself as she turns around midair. "I didn't do that."
sparksflying
"Course not," says Tony. "It's a wizard photograph, not a video."
occluminous
"...I thought wizard photographs just did video."
She is starting to scrunch in uncomfortably towards herself.
She is starting to scrunch in uncomfortably towards herself.
sparksflying
"No?" says Tony. "They do - that." She waves illustratively at the photo album. "What's wrong?"
occluminous
"How does it do that? It's not something I did but it's the sort of thing I'd do, how does it know what I'd do?"
occluminous
"But the mad scientists found that magic that looks into people's heads doesn't work on me, so is this doing something else, or...?"
sparksflying
"It's not looking into your head," says Tony, "it's just - I don't know, actually, I never thought about it."
occluminous
"Mrs. Stark? How does it work?" asks Bella, looking at the photos with deepest suspicion. When it turns out that Mrs. Stark has left the room she hops up and goes looking for her.
She hasn't gone far; she's sitting in a comfortable chair in another room, typing on a laptop.
occluminous
"How do wizard photographs know what I would do when I didn't do it?"
Maria looks up from her computer.
"They guess."
"They guess."
"With magic," she says dryly. "I don't know any more off the top of my head, but someone might have written a book about it that I could find with a little digging."
Maria shrugs. "All right."
"If they could read minds, they would guess a lot more accurately," she says. "Now, portraits, portraits are a different story. A magical painting with the right infusions can preserve a more or less accurate copy of someone's personality, and they can talk and remember things. I don't know how it's done, but I don't think Legilimency is involved. There might be some of the same magic that goes into Pensieves... do you want me to look that up, too?"
occluminous
"Yes please. Are there any portraits I can talk to around here?"
"Not any you'd want to meet," says Maria. "The last Lalonde to get her portrait done before she died was a nasty old lady with strong opinions about blood purity; I've had her frozen in an attic since my wedding. And then there's Grandma Antoinette, but she only speaks French."