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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.
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occluminous
"She... lived in France?" says Maria.
occluminous
"Right, but if she's recorded and she can talk sense at all shouldn't she have been able to learn English?"
"No one's ever suggested it," says Maria. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard of a portrait learning a language. They probably can't."
"Oh, people's names, who's married who, that sort of thing," she says.
occluminous
"Hmmm." She produces her notebook and scribbles a note-to-self about portraiture. "What's a Pensieve?"
"A device for storing and examining memories," she says. "I have one upstairs I could show you, as long as you promise to be careful with it."
occluminous
"I will. How do you store and examine memories with it?" asks Bella. "Does it only work on your own? I wonder if mine even come out."
"There's a spell, but it might be a little beyond you," says Maria. "Did the mad scientists not try it already? Maybe they didn't have one on hand."
occluminous
"I guess they didn't. This is something people can do to you? There just keep being more horrible things."
"It's convenient for double-checking my math," shrugs Maria.
"When I'm working on something complicated, I pull out the memory of writing it all down, watch it again, and check for mistakes."
"Yes," she says, setting her laptop aside. "Yes it does."
occluminous
"So not thoughts, just - what was actually going on around you?"
"From a third-person perspective - you see yourself doing whatever you were doing at the time; you don't see it out of your own eyes."
"You can try looking at mine," says Maria. "Please don't experiment. There are easy wordless spells and tricky wordless spells; pulling out memories is one of the second kind."
"It's one of those things that's easy once you have the hang of it, but dangerous until you don't. Like Apparition."
occluminous
"Okay." Phoenix heads in the direction of the stairs to go have a look at the Pensieve.
Maria corrects her course; the Pensieve is up a different set of stairs, spiraling up the middle of a round stone tower near the kitchen. After two landings, on the floor below the top of the spiral, there is a door leading to a little workroom with a green chalkboard taking up most of one wall and a set of cabinets taking up most of the opposite one. Between those two and opposite the door, the curved outer wall of the tower supports a surprisingly large window with a nice view of the grounds.
Maria opens up one of the lower cabinets and pulls out a flat rolling tray just exactly the right size to support the grey stone basin on top of it. Silvery liquid swirls inside, under a gentle silver mist.
Maria opens up one of the lower cabinets and pulls out a flat rolling tray just exactly the right size to support the grey stone basin on top of it. Silvery liquid swirls inside, under a gentle silver mist.
occluminous
Bella crosses her arms carefully behinds her back and peers into the silver stuff. "It's pretty," she says.
"It is," she agrees. "See the little streaks? Pick one and watch it for a while."
There are indeed small blots of a slightly brighter silver chasing each other through the silver fluid, moving with the endless soothing swirls. Watch one for long enough, and it starts to take on colours - chalkboard green, in most cases. Watch it a little longer, and the colour spreads across the surface until the Pensieve is showing a snippet of memory.
There are indeed small blots of a slightly brighter silver chasing each other through the silver fluid, moving with the endless soothing swirls. Watch one for long enough, and it starts to take on colours - chalkboard green, in most cases. Watch it a little longer, and the colour spreads across the surface until the Pensieve is showing a snippet of memory.