"Just - don't mess around, okay?"

"Of course not."

"Has he wondered why his alt's not here?"

"I told him everything."

"Okay."

"He's -"

"Glad the war is over and it worked."

"And more malleable than yours."

"Yes, which isn't my fault."

"Okay. Fair enough."

A bit later Miranda asks if there is any reason not to fetch Karen before the school year ends.

"I can't think of one - she's not going to take any of the news too badly -"

"Course not, it's Karen."

"People can be very levelheaded and still freaked out by some of this. But I'm fine with it."

So Miranda goes and gets Karen.

Who is very impressed by everything.

There is, by now, a lot to be impressed by. They have drawn up country-specific plans for subtle magic aid until the Statute can be repealed, and less-subtle tech rollouts, and daeva plans if it turns out that's the pathway to an afterlife. There are annotated histories of how the Muggle slave trade was ended and some things that went wrong with industrialization and how all of the above can be avoided and a Mars-with-daeva plan and a Mars-sans-daeva-probably-run-by-Miranda plan and a few proposals for Elves making contact and pretending to come from elsewhere in the same dimension are being batted around; they have the advantage of setting a better posture for interactions with governments but, Maitimo writes in the notes, 'not sure how much we even gain from interacting with these human governments they are terrible'.

There are analyses of the Revelation rollout of summoning and its implications in the poorest countries in the world with the lowest literacy rates.

There are demon immunologists helping with a vaccination schedule for 1802 humans.

The Fëanáros think they can figure out portals but it might be a few decades. 

It is all kind of overwhelming and Karen appreciates being informed as a sort of courtesy but does not know how to be useful.

"There's a big file of how-does-magic-interact-with-this-or-that-other-thing tests that you could probably make a dent in if you're interested. You can also tell the Elves to make their briefings shorter because not all of us have a thousand years to waste and then they'll do nice little one-page factsheets."

"...if they'll do that why aren't they already?"

"I mean, there is some content lost in the shortening? I think if you are an Elf and can literally do fifteen things at once and have an enhanced memory and so on then the briefings are probably well optimised. But here we are not being Elves. - which has some advantages, I compared human to Elf technological progress and the only reason Elves are only twice as slow at everything is because they have a my father."

"Heh. I'll do magic interaction experiments if there's somewhere I can do the spells, it sounds fun."

"Thanks!!"

So she goes and casts various things on a piece of paper to see which spells make it unconjurable and so on down the list.

And he lobbies the Hogwarts administration for permission to stay over the summer for that important research project he got a corridor blocked off for, no, he's not explaining, yes, he's aware that these are dangerous and confusing times -

- this is a stretch but he's been hoarding favors for years for it -

- and also half the people involved are afraid of him -

- "think it'll go through," he says exhaustedly to Cam, coming home at the end of a day of hearings, "and also I should be careful no one decides to murder me that'd be sad."

"...yes, please don't get murdered. Should you acquire a daeva bodyguard or something?"

" - crossed my mind but we don't know that daeva're invulnerable to the Killing Curse either and you are stunnable, I'm not sure it'd do more than a regular bodyguard. I could ask Maitimo if he minds looking like me and then coach him on how to do the bits where I'm nervous about the position I'm putting myself in. But he might mind looking like me. Elves."

"Elves! If we had someone who knew the Killing Curse I'm sure we could get a Poppy Garden patient, and we don't stay stunned long, and a daeva'd be useful in any more obvious assault. But."

"I know who to ask but I'm just not sure I could cast it even if I knew it."

"Would it have to be you? Is there some reason it couldn't be whatever person you'd ask?"

"- he's not someone I would be thrilled to have knowing daeva exist?"

"I would bet there is somebody in the Poppy Gardens desperate enough to chop their wings off and promise to play dead even if it doesn't work, but I suppose they might dramatically vanish or something..."

"And 'would you kill this random person for me' is - I would need a very convincing explanation and insisting on the method would make it weirder."

"True."

"Could just make him forget it afterwards."

"Didn't think you'd approve."

"Not so much."

"Regrettably I have no acquaintances who can be trusted and will also murder a stranger for no reason."

"And 'they want to die' doesn't work because the spell is evil. Right."

"Yup. 'They're trying to kill me' would work but it's again rather few people who'd go straight to an Unforgivable - even with Azkaban now out of the picture - and even if you do go to an Unforgivable you might not kill them, you might tell them to stop and tell you why they're doing it -"

Sigh.

"Really inconvenient, evil spells."

"How does a spell even do that - I haven't been looking into magic theory because it wouldn't do me any good but if there's a lay introduction to spells comma evilness of..."

"Most spells are a combination of an intent and a focusing gesture and incantation. The focusing gestures and incantations are more developed than discovered but spell development's dangerous because minor variants of even very benign charms can do bizarre and occasionally fatal stuff. The intent for most spells can be partial - you can cast 'Lumos' knowing only 'it does something related to light' - but not incorrect - you can't cast Lumos believing it sends a blazing ball of light flying at your enemy. It's pretty rare for spells to require harmful intent - most lethal spells, for example, require that you intend to kill someone but not that you intend to in so doing commit a wrong against them - but that's just because spells that do simple things are much more common than spells that do complicated things, and spells that have simple attached intents are much more common than spells with complicated ones.

More powerful stuff usually has more complicated attached intent. Though, honestly, it could be that there're less powerful spells that have complicated attached intent and no one's stumbled on them, if there were a flower-growing spell that required you to passionately desire the death of your spouse it just never would have caught on. It's also harder - and more dangerous - to cast with partial information. Usually won't work at all, if it does work might have some kind of unexpected backlash... it is totally plausible you couldn't cast the Killing Curse on someone if you expected this would cause them to daevafy, and it might depend on whether you conceptualize that as death. You get better at spells with practice, and that's partially getting better at the focusing and it's also partially getting acclimated to the mental state for casting it from, so that it's easier to slip back into. The other two Unforgivables, inadequate intent just results in the spell failing, inadequate experience or power results in the spell not being very powerful - snaps without direct attention, in the case of the Imperius, and is easier to break, and requires more micromanagement while lending less fine control. I think the Cruciatus is just less painful if you're not very good at it. Avada Kadavra's all or nothing so I don't think there's a getting-better-at-it, just knowing how it's done and being in the right state of mind."

"Huh."

"If we can come up with a harmless explanation for indestructible people I could pull it off."

"...testing some kind of protective spell, could explain a variety of results but doesn't solve the evil intent part."

"No, that bit's straightforward - testing a protective spell, you can test it too if you like, need to know if it works against the Killing Curse but I've gotten attached to my pretty innocent Muggle test subject, will you do it for me -"

"Aha."

"But then why I am not indestructible becomes an interesting question."

"Spell has side effects you don't want to put up with unless it passes all your tests?"

"...sure, okay, I think I can sell that if we can find a volunteer who doesn't mind cutting off the wings and being Imperiused."

"I'll write to the Poppy Garden staff."

"Thanks."

"...if daeva can be Killing Cursed is there a good way to cover more than the one test subject?"

"I could probably figure out a way that doesn't require involvement of and significant concealment from actual murderers, not right away but I take it they're not really in a hurry..."

"They are not."

"Do they - usually have reasons for wanting to die that could be changed -"

"I haven't made a particular study of it but maybe some of them."

"Because we should probably see first if regular access to cheering charms and company does anything, I don't know what sorts of things make daeva want to die but wizards mostly want to die for transient reasons or illness ones -"

"Charms maybe but I doubt access to company per se is it? Hell has people. I suppose some of them might just be socially impaired enough not to get value from that."

"Well. We can try first, it's not like we're pressured for time."

Nod. "I'll mention in the letter that there might be non-death means of helping the folks in the gardens presented by wizarding magic."

"What've you been up to-"

"Elf-chipping basement dwellers - they spontaneously die, can't get them to not do that - and taking brain scans of magic people, which if they can be trusted suggest that Michael is not going to have problems with his experimental brain surgery."

"Oh, good. We have pretty much Muggle brains?"

"Looks like, or you're persistently fooling a variety of scanners into thinking so."

"I would not expect magic to do much fooling of Muggle scanners. Interfering with, maybe, but I assume that'd look different."

"Some of them did actually glitch some but when they worked they were consistent."

"It's going to be inconvenient if magic consistently glitches tech. Maybe my father'll find a solution."

"My next experiment was going to be wrapping electronics in live plants, see if being contained in something organic is protective. Wouldn't help with the chips naively because all they do is talk to stuff that is not likewise inside the body, but if you could put a computer in wood..."

"Ooooh, that'd be super convenient."

"You would have to water your computer. But otherwise yes."

"I would have to ask my elves to water my computer," he corrects him. "I am a wealthy slaveholding citizen of 1802."

"You did explain the house elves but that is still weird to think about."

"We should probably come to some kind of arrangement just to avoid charges of hypocrisy when we topple the human slave trade and to avoid everyone hating us when we open contact with more civilized societies, but it really would be cruel to let them go."

"I don't immediately have a way to present the story that doesn't sound like potentially a self-serving lie."

"And 'oh, no, our slaves are better off this way, trust us' is in fact a fairly popular such lie. Maybe I can sell the elves on some sort of annual reaffirmation of their commitment to a family, in which they are symbolically offered clothes and wages and reject them..."

"Only looks convincing if sometimes one takes 'em and goes off to prove that the other option isn't coercive amounts of horrible."

"I assume there exists at least one Elf somewhere who'd rather be free, but I cannot say I've met them."

"How would you find 'em?"

"Maybe find people who are colossally terrible to their elves? It'd be a minority even there but there's probably where you're likeliest to find some."

"...if it's responsive to quality of life considerations like that, if that actually makes them want freedom and not, like, to be given to a nicer family, I wonder if it's not as permanently entrenched as it looks?"

"I don't know if it'd produce wanting to be free instead of wanting to be given to a nicer family, I haven't met elves who've expressed any dissatisfaction with their current one, and there might be a range of responses anyway. But - yeah, it'd be valuable to try and find someone who is open to being freed, and see what the other elves think of that..."

Nod.

"Or maybe check what happens if we aggressively indoctrinate the kids, if that won't upset their parents too badly."

"How are house elves normally brought up?"

"- out of the way? It'd be embarrassing to them if we notice they've had children until the children are of an age to be working, and then they'll tell us 'dinner was cooked by Nipsy tonight! Nipsy is knowing enough to be a good elf now! If Mr. Timothy is wanting to meet Nipsy -' because they know it drives me nuts not meeting them sooner..."

"...okay that's kinda creepy."

"Yes. I can ask a couple of ours over if you think you might have an angle on it which we wouldn't have thought of..."

"...the only thing I can actually think of is if they might be more candid with a fellow magical creature."

"Worth a shot. - don't ask random elves a lot of questions, you'll panic them, but ours are used to my father and brothers so used to very extended mildly rude lines of questioning."

"Okay; what else do I need to know to talk to a house-elf?"

"They have really powerful magic - no wands, it's very very illegal for an elf to touch a wand, but they can Apparate into places normally protected against it and at longer ranges, and they can do do about as much as a wanded wizard though they mostly won't in front of us -"

"...that's weird. They were somehow made and came out like that? To do household chores?"

"If there was a more exciting conspiracy it was a very very long time ago and I doubt the participants were kind enough to put it to non-enchanted text, but you're welcome to try to figure something out."

"Sometime when there are fewer immediately useful things to do I may attempt forensics on house elves."

"Sure. Let me know when you want to talk to one, too."

"Are there notes on the results of your family's extensive questioning I could read?"