text: [Themes: Fan fiction, homosexual protagonist, magic, female protagonist, Harry Potter, fan fiction]
  
  > Go downward
  You step onto the spinning staircase and it delivers you, conveyor-belt style, to the corridor below. A gargoyle settles into place behind you, blocking the way you came.
  
  The walls and ceiling are painted a violent shade of purple. The floor seems to have turned green with envy. A gargoyle of curious mien stands on one wall, and on another hangs a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. A squirming staircase leads down; a narrow passage leads northwest; an ordinary door leads south; and a feather-strewn archway leads northeast.
  
  > go to the northwest
  An extremely tiny landing with a brass plaque affixed to the low ceiling. A narrow passageway leads southeast, and a silver ladder leads up through a trapdoor.
  
  > go upward
  This room doesn't look like a classroom at all; it's more like an unholy cross between an old-fashioned tea-shop and someone's attic. The air is stiflingly warm and scented with a heavy, sickening perfume. Various items necessary for divination are fitted into nooks in the circular walls. One high shelf runs around the walls, about a foot and a half from the ceiling. A fat little pouf and an ugly chintz armchair nestle around a low table. A silver ladder leads down.
  
  On the high shelf are a tourmaline ball and a china doll.
  
  > stand on the low table
  You get onto the low table.
  
  > take the BALL
  You try to knock the ball down with the broom, but only succeed in whacking the china doll a good one.
  
  The doll stands, crosses her arms, and stamps one cloth foot. Then, she laboriously lifts the tourmaline ball and throws it directly at your head. Through some act of God you manage to catch it, feeling its cold, heavy weight in your hand. It almost seems familiar--but you can't think why.
  
  > examine the BALL
  A perfectly round ball of schorl tourmaline. It is blue-black, and you can imagine a wizard scrying in it, drawing images up from its depths.
  
  > look in the BALL
  SEARCH doesn't work that way. You can SEARCH DESK, for instance-but you can't SEARCH ROOM, because that would ruin the fun of exploration. You idly caress the surface of the tourmaline ball, and then you remember why it seems so familiar. Sangita had a ball like this--exactly like this, actually. She used to juggle it, keeping it in contact with her skin, running it up and down her arms and over her chest. She was quite good.
  
  Well, you've got all the things that you seem to need now - one for each of the symbols in the notes. If you know the magic word, you should be able to reverse the spell and bring back the denizens of Hogwarts.
  
  > stand
  You get off the low table.
  
  This room doesn't look like a classroom at all; it's more like an unholy cross between an old-fashioned tea-shop and someone's attic. The air is stiflingly warm and scented with a heavy, sickening perfume. Various items necessary for divination are fitted into nooks in the circular walls. One high shelf runs around the walls, about a foot and a half from the ceiling. A fat little pouf and an ugly chintz armchair nestle around a low table. A silver ladder leads down.
  
  On the high shelf is a china doll.
  
  > Redite
  Nothing happens. Maybe you're missing something?
  
  > examine desk
  A heavy, claw-footed desk with a highly polished surface. It is covered in chalked designs, strange and geometric.
  
  > put the gold on the desk
  You put the golden toad on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the silver on the desk
  (the silver hoof on the claw-footed desk)
  You put the silver hoof on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > look at the designs
  A heavy, claw-footed desk with a highly polished surface. It is covered in chalked designs, strange and geometric.
  
  On the claw-footed desk are a silver hoof and a golden toad.
  
  > put the iron on the desk
  You put the iron bell on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the tin on the desk
  You put the tin cup on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the BALL on the desk
  You put the tourmaline ball on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the copper on the desk
  You put the copper cauldron on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > examine the parchment
  A piece of purple parchment with some strange scribbles on it.
  
  You read: INGREDIENTS. To be carried by spellcaster.
  
  gold;
  silver;
  copper;
  iron;
  tin;
  quicksilver;
  lead;
  base matter;
  eternity.
  
  > put the vial on the desk
  You put the vial of mercury on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the type on the desk
  You can't see any such thing.
  
  > put the piece of type on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put the BALL on desk
  (first taking the tourmaline ball)
  
  You put the tourmaline ball on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > put MEDALLION on the desk
  You put the medallion on the claw-footed desk.
  
  > look at the desk
  A heavy, claw-footed desk with a highly polished surface. It is covered in chalked designs, strange and geometric.
  
  On the claw-footed desk are a medallion, a tourmaline ball, a piece of type, a vial of mercury, a copper cauldron (empty), a tin cup, an iron bell, a silver hoof, and a golden toad.
  
  > Redite
  For a moment, nothing happens, and you think that you've screwed up. Then two people pop into existence. Albus Dumbledore is standing behind his desk. Standing next to you - somehow, for some strange reason - is Sangita.
  
  "Why, Miss Armstrong!" Dumbledore says. "I'd hoped you wouldn't be too nonplussed at our little mishap. I assume that you fixed things yourself? --Excellent, excellent!" While you are still gaping, he rushes out the door. "Many things to attend to!" he calls, airily, over his shoulder. "You've got things to talk about, I expect!" ...and you're alone with your ex-girlfriend.
  
  > talk to Sangita
  "What are you doing here?" you ask flatly.
  
  "I can explain," she says. "Ally--I'm a witch."
  
  > 1
  "Well fucking spotted," you say. "I didn't ask if you were a witch or not. I asked what you're doing here."
  
  "Albus only told me you were coming today," she says. "I wanted to be here so I could tell you about everything."
  
  > 2
  "Explain then," you say. "Explain why you couldn't tell me before."
  
  "I couldn't!" she says. "It's the law - our law, I couldn't tell you unless you were part of my family. Unless we were married. They would've snapped my wand, Ally, you have to understand that."
  
  > 1
  "Well I don't," you say. "You should've broken the law and gotten another wand."
  
  "I couldn't get another one," she says. "Breaking a wand means throwing us out of the wizarding world. Forever."
  
  > 2
  "Everything you'd ever known," you muse. "Although you can get along in the Muggle world well enough, else we'd never have met... what does it mean for you, otherwise? Being banished."
  
  "Legally speaking, you become like a Muggle," Sangita says. "It's like becoming a child again. All your rights--stripped."
  
  > 2
  "People like me are viewed as children in the eyes of the law, and you would lose your status too. So you couldn't change it, not ever, because you'd be out just like me."
  
  "Yes. And we hide the wizarding world from you. It isn't fair at all. I've been trying to change it. I swear I didn't want to lie to you, I never put a spell on you, nothing. But it wouldn't have done any good for me to have my wand snapped."
  
  > 2
  "I can respect that you were doing the best you could," you say, "but it's hard. You have to know it's hard. How can I ever trust you?--Is anyone else I know a witch?"
  
  But Sangita's face is closed and you know she's about to drop something heavy on you. "She wanted you to know," she says. "Your grandmother. Oh, surely you caught the hints! But she couldn't tell you either."
  
  > 2
  Somehow, you knew. You didn't want to admit it, but you really did know. "I suppose I knew that," you say. Suddenly grief crashes in on you. "Look, I think you ought to leave me alone for a bit," you say. "Just go."
  
  She goes. She can't even look at you. You are alone.
  
  "Hello, my dear," Dumbledore says, swooping in just as Sangita swoops out. "I take it that your conversation was not easy?--Well, it's only to be expected. But now I would imagine you have a great many questions to ask me."
  
  > 2
  "What spell were you trying to cast, when things went wrong?" you ask.
  
  "I was modifying the wards," he says.
  
  > 2
  "The wards keep people like me out?" you ask. You're not really doing a great job of hiding your emotions right now.
  
  "I was modifying them to allow you in," he replies. "It isn't just Muggles they keep out, either. There is evil in the world."
  
  > 1
  "Stop. Come on. This isn't The Lord of the Rings. You can't honestly think--Look, I don't care if magic is real, Sauron isn't."
  
  "Not Sauron," Dumbledore replies. "Much more banal than that. Ah well: ignorance is bliss! Perhaps an enterprising young wizard will sell the story to a Muggle movie studio someday, and you can see it all on the gold screen."
  
  "Silver screen," you correct automatically. Wizards are truly weird.
  
  > 2
  "How do you know Sangita?" you ask.
  
  "I know all the students who have attended Hogwarts during my tenure," he says. "In any case, our interests coincide quite often."
  
  > 1
  "Which interests? Printing?"
  
  "Yes, the magical qualities of the printed book--but our politics also align admirably," he says. "Miss Gopalan is, perhaps, an idealist on the issue of Muggle liberation; but I respect her with all my heart."
  
  > 1
  You consider this for a moment. "An idealist?"
  
  "Miss Gopalan is a good Hufflepuff, interested in following the rules and living her life in a rational and ordered way; but she deeply believes that Muggles have the right to know about the wizarding world, however inconvenient it might be for us." Dumbledore sighs. "I agree with her that far--but she does not consider the wider political climate, the lurking presence of Lord Voldemort and the danger he poses. That is far more immediate than any long-standing injustice."
  
  > 1
  You straighten up. "It seems pretty straightforward to me. There's what's wrong and what's right. You're talking about lying to most of the population. I can't tell you what betrayal -"
  
  "A natural Gryffindor," Dumbledore says. "Ah, well. My House is not without its follies." You refrain from asking what a Gryffindor's traits are. You probably wouldn't like the answer.
  
  > 2
  "So what exactly are the laws about Muggles?" you ask. "And how did you manage to make an exception for me?"
  
  "The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy is the main thing," he replies. "As for how you were excepted--Muggles with wizarding children are already excepted, of course, and Squibs. So you see, it wasn't all that difficult to convince them that you would be an excellent candidate for the Muggle Studies position, and that it was not a startling deviation from the Statute to inform you of our world."
  
  > 2
  "How is it enforced? I mean--mind-wiping, wand-snapping--"
  
  You've hit a nerve. Dumbledore does not look happy. "Enforcement is haphazard at best," he says. "Certainly Muggles are Obliviated. For wizards, however, the punishment can be as light as a warning or as severe as utter banishment. One never knows. All depends on influence and luck."
  
  > 1
  "Obliviated means mind-wiped. It was on the contract I signed," you say slowly. "Do you enjoy playing God? Muggles have laws against--against brain-washing, and kidnapping, and everything."
  
  "Muggle laws do not apply to wizards," Dumbledore says, "and Muggles have few rights under wizarding law. The law sees wizards as benevolent parents and Muggles as ignorant children."
  
  > 2
  "You might have Obliviated me, then? If I hadn't signed the contract?" you ask, even though you know it's true, that he would have. "It says something about 'hexing', too. Would you have hexed me?"
  
  "It was a risk," Dumbledore says, "but a worthwhile risk. It is only by more contact with Muggles that we will ever begin to grow closer to the Muggle world. We need someone like you at Hogwarts."
  
  > 1
  "Where did you go just now?" you ask.
  
  "Oh, there was a great deal to attend to," he says. "You did wreak some havoc, didn't you?"
  
  > 1
  "I don't think so? Not much anyway," you say sheepishly. He isn't fooled one bit, but he smiles indulgently and lets you save face.
  
  > 1
  "So what happens next?" you ask.
  
  "You have a choice before you, Alice," Dumbledore says. "I believe I speak for the entire staff of Hogwarts when I say that we would be honored if you choose to remain with us. Otherwise, I shall release you from your contract. You signed it, after all, in a rather impaired state." He touches his nose--and how did he know that? You never told him! "So--will you stay at Hogwarts?"
  
  > Yes
  "I am very glad, my dear girl," the Headmaster says. "I thought you must have had some of Gertrude's spirit in you. It won't be an easy row to hoe, you know, the Ministry of Magic will almost certainly wish to hold an inquiry--but what am I doing? I believe that Miss Gopalan will be waiting in the hallway, and she will be very eager to hear what you have chosen."
  
  You take a deep breath. "There wasn't really any other choice to make," you say. "I can't help Sangita fight if I can't remember what I'm fighting for."