Reporting on Transfiguration

Grayson Wright

October 29, 2021 1:44 AM

Reporting by Grayson Wright

For a long time - relatively speaking, anyway - after Xavier Lundstrom had left his office, Professor Wright had simply sat in place with his hands folded on his desk, lost in thought. He was quite unaware of how fortunate it was that no students came by then, as they'd have found him glaring a hole through the door, a most atypical expression that might have alarmed them. When he finally stopped doing that, though, all he did was write a terse note and send it to Selina's office.

Met with Xavier Lundstrom. I believe it was productive. Annotated notes to follow as discussed. G.W.

He was not known for having particularly neat handwriting, so when he showed up in person to produce the report he'd compiled about what research he'd done in recent years and what he'd deemed suitable to relate about how it had worked with "previous student" and his ideas about what might be good places to start with Xavier, the contrast to the norm was notable. He'd taken the time to be both unusually tidy and unusually thorough, all while using uncharacteristically short, straightforward sentences. He handed the file over, and started there.

"There's a summary of what worked well with Evelyn, though I took out any, anything about her...as a person from it, and - how I'd - suggest proceeding. At least, based on what I know now - I tried to, to not work too much with speculation. I couldn't avoid doing some, though, off the record."

His immediate instinct was to back away from what he'd just said before he even finished saying it. He was not an assertive sort of person. He didn't ask awkward questions, at least not unless there was literally no other possible option. But it was...an unusual circumstance, and so he continued.

"I find it - No. I don't believe that being afraid of not, not seeing his mother again is the only problem Xavier has now that he didn't have three months ago," he said, going for the flat denial instead of couching it in statements that implied he could, if he tried really hard, make the effort to believe it in theory. "I'll eat all of Mary's hats if someone can prove to me that Xavier didn't think there was a chance he was in, in actual danger in my office. What did they do to that boy, Selina?"

16 Grayson Wright Reporting 113 1 5

Selina Skies

November 03, 2021 7:16 PM

Let's go to war by Selina Skies

Detailed, annotated notes. Those were well within the expected range of behaviour from Grayson Wright, even if the handwriting was a little more careful than usual. Agitation, verging on outright anger, was not. Not that Selina was going to call it unfounded. She felt her stomach twisting as Grayson confirmed that he was worried about many of the same things she had been, or was increasingly becoming.

"When I picked him up, he was very agitated," she confirmed. "But he'd just been taken away from his family, and given this horrible diagnosis... I kept asking myself if it was more than that but it just felt like paranoia or judgement. I didn't like the people I met at the facility but I couldn't pin point why.

"But I was going to call you in today anyway. Their recommended program of exercise came in today," she said, her lip actually curling as she said the words. "It reads quite differently to yours," she said, sliding the folder over.

Structured Provocation Exercises

Self-defence and self-preaervation are amongst the most inate powers a wizard displays. Many instances of accidental magic fall into this category, so much so that it may be considered a basic reflex.

Whilst controlled magic is the ultimate goal, triggering these automatic responses can be of benefit in treating obscurialism or other cases of reluctant magic. This practise serves both to demonstrate to the individual their magic is present and can be called upon, and that it is useful to them, removing as it does a threatening or unpleasant stimulus.

Gradually, the provocation can be scaled back, so that it is a mere reminder of the situation to act as a prompt for channeling magic in a more deliberate fashion.

There followed a chart, depicting different levels of provocation from fear to discomfort to wants, and an indicator of where they felt Xavier fell, and just how badly they should uspet him to startle the magic out.

"Fell free to shout or swear," she invited. "Though please know that if they want to come within ten feet of him again, it will need to be over my dead body."

13 Selina Skies Let's go to war 26 0 5

Grayson Wright

November 04, 2021 6:36 PM

Excellent plan. by Grayson Wright

It was bizarre, not to mention unprecedented, for Gray to sit in front of the Current Money-Giver and to almost hope that she would say something sharp, something clearly meant to put him in his place, but he did. He thought he could live with being told to mind his own business because Selina knew for a fact that the government's intentions and methods were all good and how dare he slander his betters on a suspicion. But then, he thought, this whole situation was at best unusual, so what the hell? Might as well gamble, at least when the alternative was being denied information he actually needed if he was going to do what the Selina wanted him to do either correctly or with minimal danger to himself and others.

Unfortunately, though, the almost-hope was promptly dashed. Selina did not put him in his place, and as for vindications of the government....

He was tempted to take her up on that offer of shouting and swearing while reading over the suggested program, but elected not to. For one thing, Selina wasn't the source of the offending material, only the intermediary. For another, he wasn't sure how well he could do shouting without sounding ridiculous - it seemed like the kind of thing that would throw that accursed habit he still had of repeating words and over-extending pauses into brutal relief - most of the time he didn't think it was much more noticeable than the degree of disorganization most people had speaking for more than a sentence or two at a time, but it definitely had a tendency to get worse under stress. Instead, then, he chose sarcasm.

"Why would I, I ever want to do - either of those?" he asked. "Of course it's just a - brilliant idea to, to, to take someone who already has - some strong negative feelings about magic and teach him to associate it with fear and anger!" So sarcasm didn't quite work either - maybe it would just be taken for the mild incoherence of outrage. Which might not even be wrong. "And surely nothing could go wrong if we teach him that the main purpose of magic is to defend himself from other wizards. Definitely no chance that, that instead of fearing and hating magic, he'd just end up fearing and hating everyone else who uses it," he added.

Really, though - what idiot had ever gotten as far as writing this down and then still thought this was a good idea? Yes, the children were taught to defend themselves magically, because that was a useful skill, but he was fairly sure that Tabitha and Isis didn't routinely, as adults, attack students who weren't picking it up fast enough. Maybe there were people who'd respond well to that kind of thing - for himself, well, he knew he didn't remember being a child perfectly because virtually no-one in his mid-forties was going to do so, but he remembered it well enough to form an approximation of his past self and then imagine it undergoing such treatment. The only realistic outcomes he could construct from there involved first just mentally withdrawing into a fantasy world he could control entirely to get away from the problem, and eventually drifting into daydreaming about having the offender's head on a pike. That was when the character in this scenario was past-him, someone who had always flinched in Defense Against the Dark Arts when they had to cast spells at each other, someone who had been affably disposed to most of the world because he hadn't found it interesting enough to get angry with very often. He knew and had known a lot of people over the years who he had trouble imagining being passive enough to just daydream - it seemed plausible enough to picture several of them just attacking with fists and feet the moment the offender's back was turned in such a scenario, if magic wasn't cooperative. But yes, definitely a good idea to create a strong link in the mind of a borderline Obscurial between magic and fear and 'discomfort,' whatever that was supposed to mean....

"I made notes after I talked to Xavier," he remarked. "One of them was that the only way I could get him to - to engage at all was to remind him that I knew he'd tried his best last year, that it wasn't his fault. He also specifically asked me whether we were going to be anything like the people at the center, and asked if I thought he was a danger to others. A good kid, basically. He wants to please - I noticed that, that last year - and doesn't want to, to hurt anyone. Even if this were guaranteed to work, which I'm not sure it would - Evelyn could freeze under stress - still. Even if. What kind of person might you end up with at the end? Or - " Gray struggled to find the words he wanted; a few incantations could have a similar effect to the complicated sort of thought he was trying to articulate, at least if performed by someone with a knack for that kind of thing, but he didn't know if he'd make any sense if he just started rattling off a family of related, rather advanced Charms. "That bit about reminders. Maybe I was already angry when I started reading it, maybe I didn't read it quite right, but it sounded to me like the way you'd train a dog, or a kneazle or something. What sort of person do they want to end up with?"

16 Grayson Wright Excellent plan. 113 0 5

Selina Skies

November 09, 2021 6:47 PM

Planning and Plotting by Selina Skies

OOC: Timehop

Also, Xavier is mine so the summaries about his progress are not god-modding. BIC:

There were hard lines and suggestions. There were loopholes and wiggleroom. Selina had become an expert at reading them all. The ministry had not been supportive of her and Grayson's plans, and had stated that they should alter their course and/or allow a specialist in to implement the plan. But the papers she'd signed to get Xavier released to her gave her a certain amount of weight. She had agreed to take responsibility for him, and the only rule was that she implement a suitable plan to aid his recovery.

'Suitable' was one of those unfortunately (or fortunately, in this case) fuzzy words that ought to have been avoided in a legally binding document. Unless they wanted to take her to court to argue its definition, they could neither force her to follow their plan nor take Xavier away from her. She had asked Doctor Greene's opinion on the treatment plans (anonymised, as she didn't feel it was fair to disclose Xavier's identity unless she became officially involved - something that might not be a bad idea but which was not the point right now), both for her own peace of mind, and in case she needed an expert witness. She had also filled in Xavier's mother, not on the ministry's plans, which would likely alienate her further, but on what they were doing. Her word would probably be given very little weight in court, but that wasn't the only thing at stake, and she appeared to approve.

Xavier had been making progress. It wasn't in leaps and bounds, and she was still halfway sure that the 'progress' they were seeing was actually just the gradual undoing of the damage done at the hands of the ministry. He was less closed off. He tried consistently. He asked intelligent questions. He got inconsistent results with his wand, but he got some. Then it all started going downhill again. The pinch point was obvious enough. About the same time the Christmas trees went up, he collapsed in on himself. He was angry and withdrawn. And in the calls she had with his mother, there was a very obvious elephant in the room.

In her usual meeting with Grayson, she listened to his feedback, and then slid the ministry's notes across the desk, one section highlighted.

The patient shall not be removed from the care of party b unless it is to be returned to party a for more intensive care. The patient may not go on home leave unless sanctioned by a ministry official. They may leave campus only for the purposes of school trips or medical emergencies.

It was a firm rule, but it had loopholes.

"Tell me if I've gone completely mad," she said to Grayson, "but what do you think of inviting the Lundstroms here for Christmas?"

13 Selina Skies Planning and Plotting 26 0 5

Grayson Wright

November 11, 2021 5:32 PM

Contemplating tactics. by Grayson Wright

The latest report was not one to inspire confidence, which was why Gray was momentarily concerned when Selina showed him a highlighted portion of her agreement with the Conspiracy of Utter Idiots. Then she inquired about his opinion on her sanity and he smiled slowly and a little grimly.

"I don't think you've gone mad," he said. "Honestly, I think you're onto a good idea, as far as Xavier's well-being - and breaking this setback of his - goes - not to mention it's a clever workaround," he acknowledged. "Though of course it'd have to be done carefully...."

He thought about what he knew about the transport system, and how accurately (or otherwise) anyone keeping an eye on things could determine who'd used this or that. Unfortunately, he didn't know that much. Portkeys and Apparition - Transfiguration and adjacent stuff there, Selina would know better than him, plus Portkeys were official as a rule. Fire...if you knew how, you could tell who'd cast the fire charm, and there was probably a way to tell if floo powder had touched a person, but as for passage through...Fire travel was complicated, a bit cross-disciplinary, but he thought that someone would have to be watching to catch someone else in the act of movement. He was pretty sure it was the same for Apparition, too, only probably even harder to trace since someone could start anywhere and end anywhere without permanent entrances and exits.

"I suppose one thing to consider is...exactly how much They know about how we've deviated from their...system, and how annoyed they are about it. If they'd predict you'd do something like that and look out for it. Er - assuming people do that kind of thing in real life?" Having, well, him as a conspirator was another problem in some ways. "And I was just thinking about how little I know about the mechanics of the transport system, or its monitoring. I think that most of the time, they'd need to monitor any given position on purpose to know exactly who was using it and when, but aside from schools being pretty controlled-access in general - there's also the question of, er, how Muggles can move, or are willing to move. Do you know how to use motorcars?" He didn't, and assumed the question made that obvious.

16 Grayson Wright Contemplating tactics. 113 0 5