[HP] The magic thieves #12 (Patreon)

Chapter #12: Source code.

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“That was great, thank you Kreacher,” Harry said to the old elf who looked at him with disgust.

Harry couldn’t help but find the situation funny for some reason, he knew how much almost everyone in the house (including his godfather) hated Kreacher but after tasting such delicious food he would happily listen to the elf’s comments but not for too long, though.

Hermione told him that the elf couldn’t be blamed, after all, he had lived for centuries, hell, the guy probably witnessed what the inquisition did to wizards, witches, and muggles who were believed to be heretics, that’s how old the elf was and if you add the kind of family he has been serving for centuries then it’s no surprise for the creature to have some very old fashioned mentality, to say the least.

And speaking about the bushy-haired witch, Harry soon found himself going back upstairs, after his belly was filled he was more than motivated to work on their project, he hated to say this but the attack on Arthur had helped him and Hermione as the lack of Weasleys in the house gave them more time to work on the project.

“Hey Mione, what are—” Harry was about to ask but he quickly realized that his girlfriend didn't waste her time.

Not only there were still many parchments everywhere but it seemed like now she was writing on her own, she was using one of those quills Rita Skeeter used for dictation and it seemed like Hermione was more motivated than usual as the parchment she was writing was big.

“Hey Harry,” Hermione greeted him.

“Hey love, it seems like you’ve been busy even though I didn’t disappear for too long,” Harry’s words suddenly made her get back to reality.

“Did you finish already?” Suddenly she looked at her watch. “I thought only five minutes had passed and it's been almost thirty since you went downstairs, it seems like time truly goes slowly when you’re having fun!” Hermione said happily.

“What did you find?” He couldn’t wait any longer.

“Oh right, we were talking about how this thing sucks the magic out of a person by meeting certain conditions,” Hermione said and Harry nodded. “It also takes the magic out of people who die in the tournament,” Hermione sighed sadly as she remembered Cedric.

Harry did the same, he didn’t know how to feel about that information.

“But how does it work?” He asked trying to change the subject of the conversation and she looked at her notes for a few moments.

“You know videogames, right Harry?” She asked and he slowly nodded a bit confused by her words.

“You see, videogames, you could say that they are realities or universes in their own, however, all of them are limited by the language they’re written,” Hermione’s words were a bit confusing for the dark-haired wizard.

“I’m a bit lost here Hermione, and…Videogames are written in languages like English?” He couldn’t help but wonder.

“No Harry, I’m not talking about human languages, I’m talking about machine languages, but that’s not the point, however, I only know the basics because I watched a documentary,” Hermione paused. “As far as I know, computer languages have commands with different functions that joined together can make programs work, have you ever used a computer, Harry?” Asked the brown-haired witch and Harry nodded.

He managed to play some games on his cousin's computer when he was left alone in the house.

“As you know on a computer you can browse the internet, write, make calculations, play games…We’re able to do those things thanks to the languages the programs are written of,” Hermione explained and Harry nodded even though he didn’t know where this was going.

“Yeah I think I’m getting it, a language is like the gears of a watch, right? Without them, it doesn’t work or if they aren’t placed in the perfect position it will mark the hour wrongly,” Harry tried to find a logic in his girlfriend’s words.

“Yes, something like that, the gears and all the other parts of the watch are the source code of the programs, and Harry…The goblet of fire functions like that, there’s a source code with hundreds of pages, and there’s a ritual to turn that source code into a spell, I found out that the goblet of fire is actually a spell trapped in the goblet!” Hermione cheered happily.

“That’s great…Thanks to that information we can create a spell that could help us take magic from the wizards and witches that don't deserve it!” Harry cheered happily.

But then Hermione’s expression changed for a more troubled one.

“That’s the tricky part, Harry, I’ve been analyzing the source code and there are runes, arithmancy, written charms, spells, and more things, it’s going to take me a while to analyze the source code and find the part that causes the goblet to suck a person’s magic and for now I think that before using it as a spell, we should create an artifact that sucks the magic, it will be our test subject because I'm sure we're not going to succeed in the first try, programs need a lot of testing that’s something I learned from the documentary,” Hermione clarified and Harry nodded.

He was expecting something like that so, he wasn’t too worried about it, he knew this wasn’t going to be easy but they were getting closer, creating an artifact to kill their enemies would be good too and probably easier, however, Harry wanted to make a statement.

He wanted to make those people live their worst nightmare and that losing their loved ones or their lives is tragic but not so bad for them, non-muggle raised wizards and witches have different priorities compared to people like him and Hermione.

Most purebloods indeed love their families but considering that arranged marriages still exist, it clearly means that they don't see their families like muggles and muggle-borns do, the thing they love the most is their magic, and the fewer people they share their magic with, the better.

That’s why Harry knows that there's something worse for them than dying and losing their loved ones, losing their magic would be a greater punishment, not only it would make them useless in their world but it would also cause them to live LIKE muggles and the worst of all, live WITH muggles.

Harry knows that those ‘light wizards and witches” even if they don’t discriminate against muggle-borns and muggles, it still would be a nightmare for them to wake up one day without their magic and live like muggles, after all, that’s part of their lives, their personalities, magic is part of themselves, stripping them from magic is like taking one vital organ from a muggle.

As for Harry, as long as he defeats Voldemort he doesn’t care too much about his magic, after all, he went from living in the Dursley hell for years with the knowledge of magic to living in a world with more dangerous bigots, at least with the Dursleys the moment he turned eighteen he was going to be free to do whatever he wanted.

He’s eighteen right now and even though he doesn’t have to come back with them now he’s hiding from a psychopath who can kill with just a few words, without magic Voldemort would have ended up as the cranky racist old man of the street that no one likes, he’s a coward by nature, if you take his magic from him he’s not a real threat and it's going to be fun once that happens.

Harry can’t wait for the day when he and Hermione finally reach their goal of turning into squibs their enemies, once they achieve that they will be able to finally live their lives in peace, this year is the OWLS year, that's the minimum requirement to not get your wand snapped and to leave Hogwarts.

Harry has been so disappointed with this world that he knows this is his last year as a Hogwarts student, he’s going to try to finish his muggle studies and go to university, these past few weeks have given Harry a different perspective of what he wants to do with his life, being an engineer doesn't sound bad.

His thoughts were interrupted the moment someone knocked on the door, Hermione quickly saved all the papers in her bottomless bag with a spell and Harry opened the door just to find Albus Dumbledore standing outside with a serious expression, it seemed like the time for questioning had come.