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Last of The Fae Chapter 108: Soul 101
🕑 Added 2025-01-27 22:18:49 +0000 UTC"Fascinating," Thane muttered as his eyes roamed over Hermione's, fur-covered face, "I've never heard of something like this happening before."
"Could you stop staring at me like I'm some attraction at a freak show," Hermione grumbled glaring dagger at Thane, "And I certainly can't be the first person to mistake the catalyst for a polyjuice transfiguration."
Thane smirked, "Well considering that the polyjuice potion was primarily utilized by highly trained assassins who would have taken every safety precaution....you very well might be."
Hermione groaned and hung her head in defeat, "I feel so bloody stupid! Please tell me you can fix this."
"...I can think of a few potential solutions, but I'll need something in return," Thane replied making Hermione flinch.
"Of course, you wouldn't do it for free," Ron scoffed from behind Thane, where he and Harry had been watching Thane intensely clearly not trusting him.
Thane rolled his eyes with a sigh, "Don't you and Harry have somewhere to be Weasley? Your disguises will wear off within the next two hours, so if you don't want to wait another month I strongly suggest you get moving."
"And you leave you here alone with Hermione? Fat chance," Ron spat back staring at Thane with a look that could kill.
"Ron don't be stupid, "Hermione spoke up chastising her friend, "This is the only shot we have. Don't waste it for my sake."
"She right Ron, now come on we're wasting time," Harry nodded before grabbing his friend's robes and forcefully pulling him out of the bathroom.
"H-hey!" Ron protested to no avail and Thane watched the two of them disappear out the door.
Shaking his head Thane turned his attention back to Hermione who fidgeted restlessly, "Pray tell why do you hang out with them? Do you actually enjoy their company?"
"Of course I do they're my friends!" Hermione exclaimed, "Why is that so hard for you to understand, you emotionally repressed brute."
Thane raised an eyebrow at Hermione's scathing retort, "Well I think that was rather uncalled for. As for why it's hard for me to understand it's because Ron is a man-child with a dangerous combination of ego and lack of self-worth. Meanwhile, Harry seems oblivious to the fact that his childhood trauma has warped his sense of morals into black and white and anyone who doesn't agree with his ways is inherently evil."
As Thane answered Hermione's question he summoned his storage chest which flipped open and started to pour out a slew of items. One of which was a padded table the perfect length for a person to lay down on, along with a bevy of medical instruments that one would find in a doctor's office.
"w-what are you doing?" Hermione asked as she nervously stared at the medical tools, "I thought you said you could fix my condition?!"
"Yes, but for my payment I want to document your current condition for magical research," Thane replied before patting the table, "So if you would be so kind..."
Hermione glared at him, "Why would you possibly want to research a cat-human hybrid?"
"Is that a genuine question or hostile banter?" Thane asked while tilting his head to the side.
"Please enlighten me," Hermione insisted and after a second Thane shrugged and waved his hand summoning a chalkboard that he began to write on, "Many people don't realize this but Polyjuice is actually a form of soul magic....well technically most magic that can affect living beings are but in this particular case, it's even more prominent."
Hermione watched as Thane drew a human outline on the board with a perfect circle centered in the chest which he pointed to, "You see, the soul is the only thing that matters, it contains everything you are and everything you aren't. So anytime you use magic to change your appearance, or that of another living creature the soul is involved in some way or form."
"So...transfiguration is soul magic?" Hermione asked only for Thane to shake his head as he turned back to the board and started to draw a hazy ring around the circle, "Technically yes, but factually it's not. You see the soul consists of two parts, you have the horizon and the core. The soul horizon is the part that transfiguration interacts with, it can be shaped and influenced but ultimately it's an echo of the soul core. Meaning that whatever is done to it is temporary as long as the soul core remains untouched. True Soul Magic is reserved for a very specific, branch of magic that bypasses the horizon and directly influences the core."
"That sounds dangerous," Hermione thought out loud and Thane was quick to nod in agreement.
"Dangerous and difficult. Practicing soul magic is banned in most wizarding communities because it almost always leads to great tragedy." Thane informed.
Hermione blink, "Why?"
"Because the soul is a sedentary thing, it's not meant to be changed, and to defy that nature is an agonizing experience that causes irrevocable damage if performed correctly and almost always results in the practitioner losing their magic forever. Unfortunately Soul Magic doesn't have to be cast on the self...there are countless examples of wizards and witches with morally reprehensible ethics performing unspeakable experiments on innocent victims in the name of magical advancement or personal power," Thane muttered solemnly and for a moment Hermione was quiet.
"B-but you're not going to do that to me right?" Hermione asked meekly.
Thane blinked as he stared at her, "What?! No! What kind of person do you think I am?"
Hermione blushed, flustered, "I-I don't know but you said Polyjuice was related to soul magic and I thought...."
Hermione trailed off as Thane stared her down, "IF, you would listen instead of jumping to conclusions I would have told you that the Polyjuice potions work by taking an imprint of the catalyst's soul echo and replacing it with yours allowing you to change appearances. However, since you aren't fully cat or fully human I'm assuming that you've managed to overlap the two of them."
"Oh," Hermione said lamely, "So why is that so special?"
"It probably isn't to most, but this is a rather auspicious situation for me to gather some valuable information," Thane replied making Hermione smirk, "Don't tell me you want to turn into a cat as well?"
"No I prefer scales over fur," Thane replied before he patted the table once more, "Now would you please hurry up, the faster I examine you the sooner we can put this whole ordeal behind us."
Hermione stared at Thane before sighing and jumping onto the table with her legs swinging off the floor, "This is humiliating."
"No, turning yourself into an animal hybrid after mistaking cat hair for human hair is humiliating. Who were you even trying to impersonate?" Thane chided as he started to examine Hermione's body inspecting her teeth, eyes, nose, and both sets of ears which Thane extremely disconcerting.
"Millicent Bulstrode," Hermione replied in a barely audible whisper that froze Thane on the spot before he broke out into laughter, "The Slytherin girl, the one with long brown hair?"
Hermione blushed, "I didn't know she had a cat!"
"Yeah but did you even look at it?" Thane asked still laughing, "Judging from your appearance I assume she has a calico."
Hermione didn't respond only crossing her arms and looking away, "Just hurry up and get me back to normal. "
