Chapter 116: The Talk, and The Events That Built Upto It (1/2)

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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”What were you doing at the Shrieking Shack, Mr. West?” asked Dumbledore to the student sitting in front of him.

”I was returning from Hogsmeade, Headmaster,” answered Quinn to the question. ”And Shrieking Shack is the route that I used to travel back-and-forth from the castle and village.”

Today's situation had revealed that Quinn went out of the castle, so there was no reason for him to hide the fact that he went out to Hogsmeade.

”What were you doing in the village?” questioned Dumbledore. ”What prompted you to leave the castle?”

Quinn raised his right hand and snapped his fingers for a playing card - a joker - with a royal blue back appear in his hands.

”I was out at the village to confirm the new design on my business cards.”

He then, with a flick of his wrist, threw the playing card from his right to left at a snapping speed, making a faint noise as the card jumped hands.

Dumbledore's eyes from Quinn's right to left, following the card, and they widened a fraction when instead of the throwing card, Quinn's left was holding a black card with golden lettering.

”These cards are my main source of advertisement, Headmaster,” said Quinn as he leaned forward and gracefully placed the card on Dumbledore's desk and the black business card glided on top of the polished surface of the table towards Dumbledore.

Dumbledore removed his surprised eyes from the business card on his desk and looked at Quinn's hand, which had returned to resting on his lap.

”And you couldn't do it from within the castle? Communicating via owls, perhaps,” asked Dumbledore as he continued to stare at the card on the table.

”Somethings come out better when you discuss them face-to-face, sir. As I said, these cards are my primary source of advertisement. I need for them to be perfect.”

Other than the slight widening of his eyes, the old Headmaster didn't show any signs of surprise and picked up the card from the table to observe it.

His experienced hands and knowledgeable eyes looked for magic laid into the cards. Dumbledore found that hidden under a layer of bogus charms laid animation charms and a Protean charm, but other than that, no other magic was woven into the card.

Dumbledore looked for how Quinn transformed a playing card into a business card, searching for a transfiguration charm or a simple cantrip, but there was nothing like that on the card. Which told Dumbledore that Quinn had accomplished it without magic, surprising him further.

”That was an impressive show of sleight-of-hand, Mr. West,” complimented Dumbledore as he gently shook the card in his hand. ”I've heard that muggle magicians do tricks like these, but this is my first time seeing something like this.”

”Thank you for the praise,” smiled Quinn. ”Sleight-of-hand seems like magic, a skill that requires pure skill and dexterity to fool people.” The smile widened into a wide grin. ”And I have found that it does wonder when I show it to magicals. I can get individuals to look at me with funny and, quite frankly, dumb faces.”

”Did I make the same expression that you see on others?”

Quinn shook his head with a shallow smile, ”You barely made an expression, Headmaster. It made me think that I should've done something more... wilder.”

”Oh no, Mr. West. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was surprised,” answered Dumbledore. ”I'm an old dog, who was a little slow on the uptake, that's all.”

”Oh, please, Headmaster. You aren't that old. You are what? A little over a hundred years old. You still have a full life ahead of you,” chuckled Quinn and then gave a glance over to Dumbledore's face. ”You have the dressing sense; if you trim that beard off, you would immediately shave decades off your appearance.”

Dumbledore stroked his long beard and smiled, ”Is that so? I will give it a thought. I'm a little attached to my beard: it has been with me for a long time.”

”Follow your heart, sire. It will take you ways.”

Dumbledore was about to laugh in agreement, but then he realized that Quinn had taken him off the tangent and blinked a bit at the smiling student in front of him.

There was a slight pause after Quinn's statement, and Dumbledore directly brought the conversation back on track.

”James tells me that you -.” Dumbledore started to speak, but Quinn cut him off.

”James?” question Quinn, despite knowing who Dumbledore was talking about.

The conversation a few seconds, even if it was off-topic, was going smoothly, and Quinn wanted to break the rhythm, so he asked the question to which he already knew the answer.

”... James Potter, the person who escorted you to the castle,” said Dumbledore, who indeed was slightly thrown off his rhythm.

He wasn't used to being interrupted or being pulled out of topic. It had been years, even decades, since Dumbledore had experienced close to what he was doing with Quinn.

”Ah, Auror Potter. I wasn't able to attribute the first name to him. Please do continue,” gestured Quinn.

”Yes... as I was saying, James tells me that you knew that Professor Lupin is a Werewolf. My question to you, Mr. West, is that if you understood what Professor Snape was trying to tell you, why didn't you reveal to anyone,” asked Dumbledore, and his eyes shined with curiosity.

Dumbledore was shocked that Snape had tried to reveal Remus's identity despite his insistence and order to not disclose the condition. But to think that the childish feuds would carry over to adulthood and Snape would try to circumvent the rules he had set and attempt to point the students towards the answers.

”I understand that Lycanthropy or the more funny word, Werewolfry, is a disease. As long as people with Lycanthropy take proper precautions, I wouldn't treat them negatively. Professor Lupin, from my view, took those proper precautions and made sure that the surrounding people wouldn't be affected,” answered Quinn, speaking things from his heart. ”I don't think that just because Professor Lupin was something he can't do anything about, he should be segregated. As for why I didn't reveal his identity? He and the faculty were clearly trying to keep it a secret. I can read the room, so I kept quiet. Of course, if he had been a danger to the students. I would've revealed his identity to the entire school and have him kicked out of the school.”

Quinn had already spoken these things at the Shrieking Shack, so he didn't mind repeating them. Anything to keep the conversation where and how Quinn wanted to go.

”Let's talk about the fact that you intercepted the terrorist.”

But, Dumbledore was an experienced old goat. Even with Quinn's little tactics to keep the conversation moving in the direction he wanted, Dumbledore simply used blunt questions and his position as the Headmaster to force the conversation back where he wanted.

'Hmm... I wanted a little more time before we got here, but things are still within my expectations,' thought Quinn and once again waited for Dumbledore to front a question.

”From what James described, the man that held Harry hostage got out of the room, the door suddenly shut close, and when the others got out, you were on top of the man and beating his face red with your fists,” recalled Dumbledore.

The Headmaster took a conscious pause in which he stared at Quinn before asking.

”You didn't have your wand in your hands, Mr. West. How were you able to shut the door that was clearly shut with magic?”

Quinn stared at Dumbledore for a good few moments before raising his hand and pointing it at the folder of parchments that Dumbledore was previously reading from.

His face scrunched up in concentration as one... two... five seconds went by before the folder flew up from the table and zoomed into Quinn's hand.

Quinn breathed out a heavy breathe and lightly smiled. ”I-I can do a little wandless magic, Headmasters. At that moment, I thought it was the best option for everyone if I separated the man from his associates.”

'There, I established my limit,' internally smiled Quinn.

He looked down at the folder and opened it to read what Dumbledore had on him, but the speed at which he turned the pages made it seem like he was simply turning pages.

”I can't do any more than that. And that man had a wand pointed at Harry Potter, so I chose the physical route and forced him away from Harry, and then to make sure that he didn't have any other moment, I punched him.” Quinn looked up from the parchments and continued. ”I've been told that you can't stop after an initial blow. You've to keep going until the hostile is no longer, well.... hostile.”

Quinn rubbed his upper arm with his opposite hand and whispered, ”I was scared and just followed what came to me instinctually.”

Feeling frightened in that situation was natural, and Quinn, on some level, was scared. Even if he had planned things to ensure that he was safe, Quinn still felt the fear that the situation could go wrong. So, right now, Quinn was simply using that slight feeling of fear to portray a dread that brought out his instincts.

”... I understand, Mr. West. Things must've been terrifying for you at that moment. I will tell you something that I've heard from several Aurors and Hit Wizards I have met. Most of them told me that even after doing what they do for years, they still fear afraid before going into a dangerous situation. They tell me that fear is what keeps them on their toes and keeps their mind cautious.”

Quinn nodded, whole-heartedly agreeing with the fact that a healthy dose of fear helped in dangerous situations.

...

Dumbledore observed Quinn with an inspecting gaze.

There was something about Quinn that was bothering him. Ever since Quinn had entered the room, there was something that had been bothering Dumbledore. Something that he couldn't put his finger on.

Quinn didn't show any signs of nervousness or worry about being in his office. And while Dumbledore wasn't trying to make anyone nervous, he understood that his position and reputation did bring that something in people when they met him.

Then there was the fact that Quinn had shown that even though he wasn't reluctant to talk, his answers told him that Quinn wasn't going to completely open up.

Dumbledore wasn't dense or a greenhorn; he understood what Quinn was trying to do. Short and vague answers... going off topics... trying to interrupt the conversations... not providing anything new that he didn't already know.

He had deduced that Quinn used wandless magic to close the door. There was no other reasoning for the door suddenly closing. And Quinn had simply confirmed the clear fact by showcasing that he had wandless capabilities just enough to shut a door.

Quinn simply confirmed that he punched the man to stop him. Dumbledore already knew that. Other than a few additional background facts, Quinn hadn't told him anything that would add to the narrative.

Even before the two started to talk about the incident, Quinn had simply agreed with statements that he had put forward.

Lockhart gave him an all-access pass to the Restricted Section for an entire year.

Quinn's answer? Yes. Short and simply confirming a recorded fact.

Why? I don't know, maybe he liked me. Vague conjecture and nothing definitive.

What did he study? Advance concepts. Everything in Restricted Section was advance. Once again, too broad of an answer.

He provided similar answers when asked about his Healing lesson with Poppy.

Dumbledore thought about it what didn't fit into place.

'He is prepared, a bit too prepared. He is too relaxed,' noticed Dumbledore.

But when he thought about Quinn's background and what he had learned from his faculty. It was just barely within an acceptable behavior from Quinn.

'He is too accepting,' thought Dumbledore. 'Yes, that's it. He transitioned a bit too quickly.'

When Quinn spoke about fear, he showed some emotion that would be normal given the situation he had been through.

'But when I told him about Aurors and Hit Wizards. He accepted it too easily,' recalled Dumbledore and reflected on it. 'The look in his eyes wasn't relief at not being judged. It was as if he already knew it and was showing his agreement.'

This tipped the scales in Dumbledore's head. He wanted to know what Quinn West was thinking.

Here in front of him was George West's grandson. The grandson of the person with immense wealth and resources, who he had tried to bring to his side.

Dumbledore had failed to persuade George West to join his side and his cause. Fortunately for him, George West had also refused to go to the other side and join Voldemort. If George West had joined Voldemort, then Malfoy's financial support would have seemed like pocket money allowance.

Dumbledore's bubbling curiosity about Quinn, along with his family background, made Dumbledore decide his next course of action. He was going to use some magic to see what was going inside Quinn's head.