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carewyncromwell · 1 year

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“And as you take that first step Upon a path that's all your own, You see it all so clearly -- The best way to survive is all alone.”

~“Open Up Your Eyes,” from My Little Pony: The Movie

x~x~x~x

It was a surprise to both the student body and the Wizarding World at large when the famous Cursebreaker Patricia Rakepick took the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the fall of 1988. There had been rumors for a long time that the job was cursed, with each teacher only lasting in the position for a year or less, so for such a well-regarded witch to leave her comfy job at Gringotts bank to take that unlucky teaching job in particular seemed very odd. Some theorized that she thought to break the curse on the job -- others, that she’d accepted the position to seek out the rest of Hogwarts’s mysterious Cursed Vaults.

Carewyn Cromwell herself suspected the latter of those options. From the moment she first collided with Rakepick, she found there was this dodgy feeling she couldn’t shake, looking at the Cursebreaker. Perhaps it was because like Dumbledore and Snape, Carewyn couldn’t get a good fix on what Rakepick was feeling like she could a lot of other people...but it also could’ve been how interested Rakepick herself had stated she was in the Cursed Vaults and “revealing their secrets,” when she first arrived, as well as her overall attitude in how she tried to coax Carewyn to help her with her goals. Carewyn had long since decided she’d do whatever she had to in order to save Jacob from the Cursed Vaults, and she was far too proud to accept being one of Rakepick’s "assistants” when she could more than handle things on her own, or with her friends, who she knew had far more selfless motives to help her.

The fifth years’ first class with Rakepick came at the end of the first week of term. All of the fifth years from all four houses were there, making it a very large class. Rakepick had been sitting at the desk at the back of the room when the students had first filed in -- her Niffler, Sickleworth, sat on top of it, and both he and his owner watched as the students all found their seats. Once everyone was seated, Rakepick rose from her seat and strutted around the desk to the front of the class out to address her students.

“Good morning,” she said crisply.

“I am aware that I’m your fifth instructor for this class, in just as many years...and that your previous instructors were just as questionable in their methods as in their characters. But rest assured, I intend to stand apart from my predecessors in at least one crucial way -- actually teaching you something. I am not only going to show you how to defend yourselves against the Dark Arts, but how to attack the Dark Arts head-on. You will receive the finest instruction from someone who has actually faced the worst that the Dark Arts has to offer.”

Carewyn noticed Merula at the table to the right of hers lean forward slightly, interested. Carewyn herself, however, merely crossed her arms -- Rakepick’s arrogance had always rubbed her the wrong way.

“Some say this position is cursed,” Rakepick said with a smirk. “Well, breaking curses is what I do best.”

I don’t recall you breaking the Sleepwalking Curse last year, Carewyn thought cynically. No, instead you left it for Bill, Charlie, Hagrid, Torvus, and me to take care of...

Rakepick flourished her cloak aside with her arm as she strode over toward the blackboard.

“Now, then,” she said in a more business-like tone, “let us begin.”

She raised a hand and abruptly slapped the blackboard.

SMACK.

It spun all the way around, rattling loudly. Seemingly in response, a loud, angry-sounding groan echoed from the front of the classroom, making all of the students jump.

“What was that?” Carewyn heard Diego Caplan’s voice at a desk behind her.

“Is there a ghost hidden from view?” Carewyn heard Andre ask.

“Unbeknownst to you,” Rakepick pronounced calmly as her eyes wandered over the class, “an ugly beast has been hiding among us from the moment we first entered this classroom.”

Carewyn shot a scathing look at Merula. Rakepick herself responded rather drolly.

Her dark blue eyes then flitted over to Carewyn, boring into her face with a bit more focus than before.

“Miss Cromwell -- would you care to reveal the true beast in the room?” she said, gesturing to the empty floor to her right. “I believe the spell you would’ve used on the Vanished Stairs would work nicely here.”

Carewyn’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed in suspicion. Who told Rakepick about the Vanished Stairs? Dumbledore? Or someone else?

Nonetheless, she took her hornbeam wand out of her robes and pointed it at the spot Rakepick had indicated.

“Revelio!”

In an instant, the illusion was stripped away, revealing a short, hunchbacked, sickly-looking creature with wrinkled grayish skin and pupilless lime green eyes.

Ben gave a loud gasp. His dormmate Charlie, who was sitting next to him, was quick to reassure him.

“It’s okay, Ben,” he said with a smile.

“He rattles the pipes and groans a lot, but he’s harmless.”

“Mr. Weasley is correct,” said Rakepick coolly. “While ghouls may appear horrifying, they are -- in fact -- relatively harmless. A nuisance, perhaps, but hardly a real threat. This makes them an ideal introductory subject, while providing a reminder that looks can be deceiving.”

Her gaze drifted back up onto the rest of the class, surveying them with a rather detached, yet all-seeing eye akin to a Wampus Cat.

“Ghouls are dim-witted creatures, most commonly found in the attics or barns of old houses and farms. They’re commonly seen as household pests, akin to gnomes and doxies, but their size and overall adaptability makes it so that wizards sometimes have to intervene, when a ghoul has taken up residence in a house owned by Muggles -- yes, Miss Khanna?”

Rowan had raised her hand. Upon being called on, she brightly added, “That’s why the Ministry of Magic founded the Ghoul Task Force, right, Professor?”

“Correct, Miss Khanna,” Rakepick said rather dryly. “The Ministry loves to bureaucratize, in response to just about any minor problem.”

She put aside her condescension as she pressed on.

“Despite their aforementioned lack of intelligence, ghouls are rarely hostile, and can actually become domesticated to a degree. You won’t be able to teach one of these creatures how to sit or fetch, but they can become a conversation piece in one’s home, at the very least.”

“Like fish in a fish tank?” asked Tonks.

“Precisely, Miss Tonks,” said Rakepick. “There are different breeds of ghouls, as outlined by Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. They all resemble this one, for the most part, but there is a special kind that can magically camouflage, disguising itself as an everyday object. I do believe you might be able to tell me what that kind of ghoul is called, Miss Tuttle?”

Liz gave a start. She hadn’t been expecting to be called on (she hardly ever raised her hand, outside of Care of Magical Creatures), and it made her incredibly uncomfortable.

“Ah -- well, uh...”

She glanced around awkwardly. Fortunately she managed to catch Carewyn’s eye -- her red-haired dormmate offered her a reassuring smile and nod.

“...That’d be ah...a Chameleon Ghoul,” Liz said meekly.

Ralepick inclined her head to Liz. “Indeed. Five points to Slytherin.”

Liz blushed, looking both very flustered and delighted, as Rakepick continued in her lecture.

“We won’t be covering Chameleon Ghouls specifically today, as they’re considered to be on the NEWT level...but should you ever have to face one, you can use the same technique Miss Cromwell demonstrated earlier, should you wish to make it visible.”

“I don’t know if I’d want to make it visible,” Carewyn heard Ben mumble to Charlie.

Rakepick shot a quick, sharp look at Ben, who immediately stiffened up. The professor then turned her gaze over to Carewyn sitting at the table one over from him.

“Now that we’ve discussed what this creature is, we should turn to how best to deal with it.”

Carewyn frowned deeply. ‘Rid ourselves of it?’ You just said it was harmless!

Her eyes drifted down to her desk absently as she considered this.

“...The Ghoul Task Force would probably be able to help,” Carewyn said quietly. “They’re supposed to relocate ghouls, if they’re somewhere they’re not supposed to be...”

Despite the politeness of the answer, Rakepick scoffed.

“I avoid interacting with the Ministry of Magic and its multitude of extraneous departments as much as possible,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Besides...I’m here to teach you how to defend yourselves, not to have others do it for you.”

She then returned her gaze to Carewyn a bit more sharply.

“So? What spell would you use, to remove this ghoul from my classroom?”

Carewyn stared Rakepick down, her eyes narrowing that bit more.

I could always paralyze it, she thought to herself. A full Body-Bind or Freezing Charm would stop it from getting away. Even Shrinking it would make it easier to pick up and carry out of here...

She then glanced at the ghoul beside Rakepick, which was currently creeping around under Rakepick’s desk, drool spilling out from between its crooked teeth as he peeked around at everyone.

But ghouls are supposed to be harmless. I don’t want to terrify the poor thing, just because it’s being a bit of a nuisance...

Carewyn straightened up, sticking her chin out a bit.

“...I’d use the Sleeping Charm,” she said. “Then it’d fall asleep, and I could Levitate it somewhere safer while it was sleeping.”

Rakepick raised her eyebrows, before her lips spread into another smirk.

“Very inventive,” she said quietly. “And quite advanced too, considering the Sleeping Charm isn’t typically taught until one’s sixth year.”

Her eyes went to Ben like a shot, and the Gryffindor once again tensed up.

“I do recall hearing that you’re supposed to be quite gifted at Charms, Mr. Copper,” Rakepick said very coolly. “Would you care to demonstrate Miss Cromwell’s choice of spell for us, on this ghoul?”

Ben looked incredibly reluctant. He glanced from Carewyn to Rakepick.

“Uh -- well, I -- ”

Rakepick’s eyes narrowed upon Ben’s face. It made Ben tense up that bit more, and he glanced at Carewyn again anxiously.

It’s okay, Ben, Carewyn tried to mentally urge him. You can do it.

Ben swallowed. Clenching his jaw, he shakily got to his feet, glancing from the ghoul to Carewyn to up at Rakepick and then back to the ghoul. He took several deep breaths as he pointed his wand at the ghoul.

“...Levisomnus!” he choked out at last.

The spell collided with the ghoul’s head. The creature seemed to sway -- then, with a stupid grin winding its way onto its face, it flumped down onto the ground, snoring peacefully.

Rakepick tapped the sleeping ghoul very lightly with the toe of her boot.

“Not bad,” she said lowly. “Not bad at all.”

Her eyes once again flitted to Ben critically, making the Gryffindor flinch. He tried in vain to put on a brave face as Rakepick turned back to the rest of her class.

“Now, of course, for those of you who haven’t sought out Filius Flitwick’s good graces by reading ahead, there are easier ways, to remove such creatures. A Full-Body-Bind, for instance, or perhaps a Freezing Charm. Even the Shrinking Charm would be a good way to ‘bring this beast down to size...’”

“What about Incendio?” Ismelda asked eagerly.

Liz looked horrified. “You don’t need to do that! Ghouls are gentle creatures -- you don’t need to attack them...”

“I didn’t mean burn the thing,” Ismelda said defensively, “I just meant to scare it out of wherever it is.”

“Contrary to what you might think, Ismelda, scaring people is never okay,” reproached Carewyn. “And neither is scaring innocent creatures.”

“I thought this was Defense Against the Dark Arts, not Moralizing 101,” Merula said scathingly. “Do I have to send yet another note to Snape asking to ship you off to Gryffindor, Cromwell?”

“We’d happily take her, Merula,” Charlie shot back with a mischievous grin. “Reckon it’s only ‘cause of Carey that you lot have won the House Cup the last four years...”

Rap-rap-rap-rap.

Rakepick had brought everyone in the class to complete silence simply by tapping her wand on her desk.

“As very entertaining as this discussion is,” she said dryly, “you can indulge in it after class time. For now, I would like you each to come up and take a turn with restraining this ghoul. You may use whatever method you would like, so long as it is effective and does not cause permanent damage. Miss Murk, as creative as I find your idea, I would politely discourage it for the interim -- there are quite a few flammable things in here that I would be greatly displeased to lose.”

And so one by one, all of the students -- aside from Ben, who’d already had his turn -- came up to overcome the ghoul. Some, like Tonks, used techniques Rakepick had suggested -- Merula in particular earned praise from Rakepick for her demonstration of the Full Body-Bind. Others got creative. Diego used Incarcerous to bind the ghoul with ropes he’d materialized from his wand. Liz materialized butterflies out of her wand and let the ghoul wander across the room in its attempt to catch and eat them. Barnaby actually disregarded his wand altogether and physically picked up the ghoul, hugging it so securely against his chest that the ghoul could only squirm like a toddler throwing a tantrum until the muscular Slytherin boy put it down again.

By the end of class, Rakepick looked quite pleased.

“Well done, class. It seems that despite your substandard instruction to this point, you’ve managed to learn quite a bit about how to defend yourselves. Now all that’s left to do is to give you more knowledge about the Dark Arts themselves, so that you can continue on that road toward self-sufficiency.”

Her eyes lingered on Merula in particular, whose face was spread into a big, eager grin. Then she turned her focus back to the rest of the class.

As the students all rose to leave, however, Rakepick added over her shoulder,

“Miss Cromwell, I’d like a word after class.”

Carewyn glanced at Charlie and Ben -- the second eldest Weasley looked surprised and a bit curious, while his dormmate looked incredibly uncertain.

Offering Ben a reassuring smile, Carewyn then fixed a much more stoic expression on her face as she faced Rakepick again. As the rest of the class filed out, the fifth year Slytherin walked over to Rakepick’s desk, behind which the professor had sat down.

Sickleworth gave a delighted little gurgle at the sight of Carewyn. He gave a running jump, and Carewyn had to open her hands quickly in order to catch the plump little Niffler.

“Aww,” Carewyn couldn’t help but smile indulgently as she rocked him, “hey, little guy -- it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Sickleworth cooed happily as he nuzzled the inside of Carewyn’s arm.

“It appears that Sickleworth’s missed you,” Rakepick said lightly. “A very unusual thing, as you might expect -- Sickleworth doesn’t become attached to just anyone.”

Carewyn’s smile left her face as she looked up at Rakepick, scratching Sickleworth’s neck absently.

“...You wanted to speak to me?” she asked lowly.

“Indeed,” said Rakepick. Her lips had curled up again in that arrogant smirk again. “I wanted to congratulate you, for earning the position of Slytherin Prefect. I daresay it will make your search for the Cursed Vaults easier, to now have the power to patrol the castle corridors after hours.”

Carewyn’s lips knit together tightly. Although it was true that yes, she may have thought this at the beginning, that being allowed to walk around the school at night would give her more time to find the next Vault, she sure as Hell wasn’t going to let Rakepick know that.

“I didn’t become a Prefect for my own sake,” she said sharply. “Professor Snape entrusted the position to me, and I intend to respect that trust.”

Rakepick’s expression only seemed more amused. “It is impressive that you were able to earn Severus Snape’s confidence. Especially considering just how many rules you’ve broken, while pursuing the Cursed Vaults.”

I didn’t want to break any rules. I wouldn’t have broken any of them at all, if it weren’t for Jacob -- if it weren’t for you and Dumbledore and everyone else somehow not being able to break the Vaults’ curses before I did --

Carewyn’s eyes narrowed that bit more, but she didn’t answer. Instead she turned her focus down to Sickleworth as she continued to pet him.

Rakepick’s gaze seemed to soften ever-so-slightly as soon as Carewyn was no longer looking at her. She watched Carewyn scratch under Sickleworth’s chin, her expression losing its smirk and becoming much more solemn.

“You seem to have forgiven Mr. Copper very quickly, after what happened last year,” said the professor.

Carewyn didn’t look up.

“What happened wasn’t Ben’s fault,” she said softly.

“So you believe his testimony?” Rakepick pressed her. “That he was controlled against his will?”

“Of course I do,” Carewyn said without skipping a beat. “Ben was just as scared as anyone, after what happened. He didn’t know who was controlling him.”

“Do not forget the lesson you just finished, Miss Cromwell,” Rakepick said grimly. “Appearances can often be deceiving. And as noble as trusting in your friends can seem...in the end, the only person you can truly rely on is yourself. Don’t let your affection for your friends blind you to that.”

Carewyn looked up at Rakepick, her narrowed blue eyes flashing.

“This isn’t about trust,” she shot back coldly. “This is about me knowing Ben’s character well enough that I know he wouldn’t do something like this out of his own choice. He’s not the sort of person who would seek out the Cursed Vaults on his own volition, nor is he the sort of person who would ever attack his friends.”

Ben’s always been an honest person. You can see it, just by looking in his eyes. He doesn’t hide who he is or how he feels -- not like you.

Rakepick’s lips came together tightly as Carewyn turned her focus back down to Sickleworth, rubbing his tummy in an attempt to distract him from his restless fidgeting.

“Ben Copper is fortunate to have earned your faith,” she said darkly. “One can only hope that he won’t foolishly dash it.”

She clicked her teeth twice. At once, Sickleworth straightened up in Carewyn’s arms, before jumping right out of them so he could scamper up Rakepick’s arm and curl up on her shoulder.

“The next Vault’s curse hasn’t activated yet,” Rakepick said brusquely, “but given the pattern set by the last four years, I don’t think it’s unlikely that it will, soon enough. When that happens, I would like your help to find the Vault and break its curse before anyone gets hurt.”

Carewyn raised her eyebrows.

“I thought you said the only person you can truly rely on is yourself,” she said very coolly.

“Indeed I did,” said Rakepick just as coolly. “But you and I will both need help, if we’re to find that Vault. You do want to find your brother, don’t you?”

“Of course,” said Carewyn. “I just don’t trust you to help me.”

Rakepick cocked her eyebrows.

“That’s disappointing to hear,” she said, “considering I saved your life not too long ago.”

There was a slight, passive-aggressive charge to the words -- like a chiding tap to the nose.

Carewyn’s red lips curled up in a completely humorless smile as she turned on her heel.

“Sorry, Professor -- but I’m afraid I’m not much for trusting anyone. Don’t take it personally.”

She glanced over her shoulder, gaging whether Rakepick was going to tell her not to leave. When she didn’t, she turned and walked off, right out of the classroom.

Rakepick watched Carewyn go, her lips twitching with the traces of a small, dark smile despite herself.

I’m afraid I’m not much for trusting anyone.

In the end, the only person you can truly rely on is yourself.

She and Carewyn Cromwell truly were very much alike.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #my writing #gameplay #patricia rakepick #carewyn cromwell #ben copper #merula snyde #ismelda murk #liz tuttle #nymphadora tonks #charlie weasley #aesthetic #fanfiction

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missnight0wl · 5 years

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So I have some problems with our conversation with Dumbledore in Y6Ch4.

First of all, it happened way too late. It’s pretty clear at this point that MC is building emotional boundaries to deal with their situation: by focusing on helping their friends and all kind of different activities. There was a point when those boundaries were thinner due to shock from the Portrait Vault, and this was when they should’ve broken. But now, after the fifth year’s ending, after two months of summer, and all the things that happened already in the sixth year? They have so much to cut themselves off with. I’m sorry, but the whole sentimental chit-chat with the Headmaster was totally meaningless at this point, in my opinion.

Another thing, it was painfully simplified. I know that it’s just a mobile game, and for most of the time, I really enjoy it despite its limitation. But MC’s emotional state is something deserving more attention and effort. At least let us talk about different aspects separately.

Finally, Dumbledore is really not the right person for that kind of conversation. Seriously. And two of his reactions are actually something I want to focus on.

First, the option “I’m angry” where Dumbledore in his reply said this:

Is Rakepick a manipulator? Yes. A master manipulator, though? Nah, not really. Let’s start from the beginning. Did she really manipulate anyone to get back to Hogwarts? Well, no. Unless you want to say that she became a world-famous Curse-Breaker with that goal in mind… I don’t even think we can suspect she was the one to tamper with the first Vault to put it all in motion. Because then, why she let Dumbledore search for her for such a long time? Whether she didn’t want to be found or it was something not depending on her, she didn’t put much effort into coming back.

She manipulated Dumbledore into hiring her as a DADA professor? Cool, maybe. But so what? She was already at Hogwarts in year 4. She had enough power from the Headmaster that she could give us house points. She needed that teacher position like a fish needs a bicycle. Heck, I still don’t understand why she took it as it was more of an inconvenience for her.

I’m sorry, but I also have a hard time saying MC followed her with the Portrait Vault. We were doing the same thing as in the previous years – Rakepick basically happened to be around. And while she kind of manipulated us into searching for the Marauder’s Map (still don’t know why), she was also the one to inform us about the vault portrait that we needed either way. If not for her, we’d probably spend the same time on figuring out the portrait thing as we wasted on the Map.

She didn’t even use the trust she had with Merula and Bill in her advantage. I don’t get why she didn’t try to use it in the Vault. For example, MC opens the door, they want to go inside, but Rakepick says it’s too dangerous and she’ll go alone first. MC protests, but Bill and Merula supports Rakepick. The quarrel ends with Patricia knocking out everyone. Anything. Merula threw some minor tantrum in Y5Ch29, but Bill? Rakepick could’ve easily used his admiration and told him something like: “MC doesn’t trust me, maybe you could talk to them?”. Yet, we didn’t get any hints something like that had happened. Sure, he was always open about trusting her, but he also didn’t try to change MC’s mind. And you know what? Neither did Rakepick. Until the very last private conversation, she was making sure we don’t trust her.

This screams: “Do not trust me!”. How is it manipulative? I mean, was she hoping for the effect of reverse psychology? Moreover, the game doesn’t even let us declare that we trust her (there were some situations like that, but I believe the last one was like in the first half of the fifth year). On the contrary, we got this in Y5Ch28, for example:

Sure, it’s said by Merula who is terrible at judging people, but still – we couldn’t disagree with her. The game basically forces MC - as a character - into not trusting Rakepick.

Really, they could’ve at least made MC give her something beneficial for her. I can’t count the Portkey here because we all used it. And the only thing that Patricia actually manipulated MC to get and that should be really important for her – the Gillyweed/Coral key – she left behind! She knew it’d be important in the last vault, she said she was looking for it for a long time! Why she didn’t take it with her? I don’t think she was planning to go back to the castle after killing us all. And if Sickleworth was supposed to bring it to her, it was an awfully risky decision. She knew the Niffler is fond of MC so of course he’d give us the key if we happened to encounter him earlier.

Oh, and there’s the Legilimency issue. It was the only reason Rakepick needed MC, right? Great, but then why we learnt about it from Dumbledore and Snape? Patricia didn’t even mention such skill around MC before. So what, I’m supposed to assume that she made someone else inform about it and teach us? All right, then I could maybe call her “a master manipulator”, but also – it’s only on you, Albus. Don’t say “We all were tricked”.

Honestly, at this point, I don’t know anymore if they failed miserably at making her a criminal mastermind, and they have to keep telling us that now, or they failed at it on purpose…

But I digressed. Let’s go back to Dumbledore.

If you choose the option “I’m afraid”, MC ends their answer with this:

To which Dumbledore replies:

And I have to say…

You old prick. HOW DARE YOU TELL A TERRIFIED CHILD THAT THEY SHARE MANY QUALITIES WITH A CRIMINAL WHO BETRAYED THEM?!

And no, the addition of “you can choose a different path” doesn’t change shit. You just can’t say that without elaboration, for fuck’s sake! Because MC and Rakepick are nothing alike! Every similarity they share only stress out how much different they are. They’re both ambitious? Sure. MC from the beginning is motivated by finding their brother. Rakepick though, who knows by what, but everything points out now that those are selfish reasons. They’re willing to break rules? Cool. MC does it to help their brother, Rakepick is an anarchist (or whatever). They’re powerful and talented? Check. Too bad MC is hella modest about that in comparison, usually pointing out they have the help of their friends and still much to learn. Rakepick is boastful and arrogant.

THIS IS what MC needed to hear. Not that they “share many qualities”! God… Also, I know I wrote the whole post saying that MC and Rakepick might be indeed more similar than it seems, but I really doubt that it’s what Dumbledore had in mind. And even if, MC couldn’t figure it out on their own.

Now, I see why MC might be afraid they’re like Rakepick. After all, she was comparing them herself. Although, it’s another weird thing about the whole resemblance issue. Patricia was insisting on that in year 4 on a few occasions, but then she sort of… just stop? Even before year 5, I think. To be honest, I’d say she accepted that MC is different than her, and maybe even encourage that.

Remember when Merula was supposed to teach us the Killing Curse?

Rakepick is not surprised here, she’s not annoyed. This situation was always about making Merula feel special, not about MC – because Patricia knows them. She didn’t just predict that because MC refused to learn Crucio. She wasn’t expecting them to want to learn that either. She’s a smart woman, she can judge her apprentices.

Now let’s take a look at Y5Ch29:

And sure, it’s followed by the ominous:

… but if you ask me, she also says here that MC is the only one capable of making reasonable and independent decisions. And considering how Rakepick is an independent woman herself, I can’t see how she wouldn’t see it as the advantage (no, I won’t accept she’s genuinely content or flattered by Merula blindly agreeing with her).

That being said, I don’t quite understand why she said in the Portrait Vault that MC is obsessed with the Cursed Vaults just like her (so not because of finding Jacob). MC stresses all the time that it’s all for their brother, the game doesn’t really give us a chance to hint there might be something more to that. Even if she wanted to mess with MC, it’s probably the worst possible argument as it couldn’t be more clear it’s not true. She could’ve mentioned MC using and manipulating their friends as the resemblance between them (which she kind of did back in year 4 in Filch’s office).

Anyway, Dumbledore is doing terribly at being supportive, and I have to laugh seeing lines like this:

Honestly, I’d rather have this conversation with Flitwick, for example. Not only he happens to be my Head of House, but even this aside, he helped us possibly the most from the faculty. MC goes to him for advice pretty often, and it’s usually at least a little helpful. In my opinion, talking about our emotional state with him would be a bit less meaningless than it was with Dumbledore.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #albus dumbledore #patricia rakepick #madam rakepick #merula snyde #bill weasley #year 6 #about characters #analysis post

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cynicaljapanophile · 5 years

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Hana Kim - HPHM Profile

G e n e r a l I n f o r m a t i o n

NAME : Hanaemi Elizabeth Theodosia Maria Evergarden

AGE : 16

FEMALE : Female

NICKNAMES : Hana, Theo, Pippa, Pip, Jag-eun Tokki, Curse Breaker

DATE OF BIRTH : August 23, 1973

ASTROLOGICAL/ ZODIAC SIGN : Virgo

ALIGNMENT : Chaotic Good

ETHNICITY : Japanese-Korean

NATIONALITY : British

SPECIES : Witch(Human)

BLOOD STATUS : Pureblood

M A I N F A M I L Y

FATHER : Mitsuhide Evergarden

Pureblood

Light Brown Hair, Light Blue Eyes

Slytherin

Has three siblings, one older sister and older brother and a younger sister

Is from a well known wealthy family

Married Esmeralda through their arranged marriage

Currently the patriarch of the House of Evergarden

Is a famous auror

MOTHER : Esmeralda Evergarden

Pureblood

Black Hair, Green Eyes

Ravenclaw

Originally from South Korea

From a wealthy family

The youngest of thirteen children and was adopted by the Harukaze family

A well known healer

Favored Jacob over Hana

Was a retired healer but after her son's disappearance she came out of retirement

BROTHER : Hirohito Jacob Thomas Alexander Evergarden

Pureblood

Born April 7, 1965

Hufflepuff

Was a hatstall between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff

Was favored by parents and was given all of their attention

Despite being his parents favorite his relationship with them is extremely strained

Became involved with the vaults after hearing about it from Duncan Ashe and due to his wish to be separate from his family he soon became obsessed with them

After Duncan died he shut down and continued looking for the vaults thinking that he has nothing left to lose

A f f i l i a t i o n s // O r g a n i z a t i o n s

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hufflepuff

Hufflepuff Quidditch Team

Order of the Phoenix

House of Evergarden

Kim Family

Harukaze Family

O c c u p a t i o n s

Hogwarts Student

Member of the Order of the Phoenix

Seeker

Curse Breaker

M a g i c a l C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s

FORM OF BOGGART :

Her great grandmother, Sheila Evergarden disowning and/ or calling her a blood traitor(Years 1-3)

Jacob casting the killing curse on her while under the Imperius Curse(Years 4-5)

Seeing Rowan or Ben get seriously hurt because of her

WHAT DO THEY SEE IN THE MIRROR OF ERISED : Her surrounded by her friends and family smiling together

1st WAND :

Cherry

11 ¾

Phoenix Feather

Unbending

2nd WAND :

Acacia

12 ½

White River Monster Spine

Unyielding

3rd WAND :

Willow

12 ¾

Thunderbird Tail Feather

Supple

4th Wand :

Beech

12 ½

Horned Serpent Horn

Surprisingly Springy

MAIN PET :

Asra(a Pygmy owl)

FORM OF PATRONUS : Holland Lop Bunny

PATRONUS MEMORY : The day where her family was together and happy

ANIMAGUS : Netherland Dwarf Rabbit

AMORTENTIA :

What she smells : Gardenia Flowers, Honey, Cherry Blossoms, Fresh Parchment

What she smells to others : Rain, Lavender, Old Books, Ink, Peppermint

A p p e a r a n c e

Height : 5'0"(152 cm)

Weight : 39 kg(87 lbs)

Complexion (skin tone/ conditions) :

Pale

Sunburns easily

HAIR COLOUR/ STYLE :

Long, straight black hair(year 1-5)

Shoulder length(year 6)

Blunt bangs(year 1 and 6)

See through bangs(year 2-5)

EYE COLOUR : Baby blue

H o g w a r t s I n f o r m a t i o n

WORST CLASS(ES) :

Herbology : She doesn't hate it, it's just that compared to classes like Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts it's not as interesting.

History of Magic : Again, she doesn't hate History of Magic in fact she was excited for History of Magic in her fourth year it's just that she finds Binns to be extremely boring.

BEST CLASS(ES) :

Charms : Mostly loves it because it's her best class but she loves it because of Professor Flitwick and how respectful and kind he is.

Muggle Studies : She has a weird fascination with Muggles and their lifestyle so an entire class dedicated to studying them is an amazing class for her.

LEAST FAVOURITE TEACHER(S) :

Patricia Rakepick : Rakepick was initially one of her favourite teachers but ever since her betrayal Rakepick has just left a bad taste in her mouth.

Cuthbert Binns : She doesn't hate him she just finds him to be boring and a bad teacher.

FAVOURITE TEACHER(S) :

Severus Snape : Jacob always spoke highly of Snape so when she first saw him she already thought he was cool. Despite Snape constantly insulting her she tends to look for the positives in what he says.

Example :

Snape : "You're almost as intolerable as your brother Kim"

Hana : "Wow! So does that mean you like me more than Jacob?"

Filius Flitwick : He was one of the only people at Hogwarts that treated her respectfully and talked about Jacob in a positive light.

CLOSEST HPHM FRIENDS :

Rowan Khanna : Hana's best friend and personal cheerleader, Rowan has been there for Hana since day one. Rowan can be rather overprotective and slightly clingy at times but she means well. Rowan is also one of the few people that Hana genuinely confides in.

Ben Copper : One of Hana's first and closest friends. Because of Merula's treatment of Ben she tends to be protective of him. She also has a rather weird interest in him for being a Muggleborn which tends to come off as her liking him.

Penny Haywood : She initially had her doubts about Penny due to her finding it difficult to believe that someone like Penny would help her of all people without getting anything in return. Despite her initial doubts about Penny as she got to know her the two became close friends with Hana considering Penny one of her closest friends.

Nymphadora Tonks : Initially she found Tonks to be a "interesting" person and was happily surprised when she realized they were roommates. Tonks is always the first person she goes to when she wants to laugh and she is always excited to take part in her pranks.

CLOSEST MC FRIENDS

David Denneth(@callmederok ) : She just thinks David is cool, she will randomly just follow him around to see what he does in his free time and she also thinks of him as an older bother despite the fact that they're basically the same age. She thinks he's rough around the edges but is sweet. She also thinks his and Penny's relationship is really cute.

Elliot Walker(@weasleywood ) : Hufflepuffs and Slytherins may not be known for always getting along but they do share an appreciation for their best friend. She also thinks he's aesthetically pleasing and she just likes pretty people.

FAVOURITE SPELL(S) :

Orchideous

Lapifors

Depulso

Fleur D'amour(original spell)

T r i v i a (random facts about them, future job, face claim, theme song, etc. ) :

I'd Rather Be Me is her theme song

The summer before her fourth year she dyed her hair platinum blonde but returned it back to her original hair color after realizing it didn't match her as much as she thought it would

She's ambidextrous

Went through a goth stage the beginning of her fourth year

IU(Lee Ji-Eun) is Hana's face claim

Has a odd obsession with The Little Prince

She tends to mix in Japanese when talking

She also has a habit of speaking in Japanese when excited, mad, or nervous

#harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #hana kim #hphm profile #hana writes #myposts #this took me forever #i'll probably make a better one later #also i really don't know a lot of mcs

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missnight0wl · 5 years

Text

Rakepick is not evil

And if she is, she’s the worst villain I’ve seen in a long time.

First of all, I’d like to thank @heleneplays for making it possible for me to get prepared for that. Also a big thank you to @wilhelminafujita for countless discussions on this topic. Many ideas mentioned below are inspired by her. Thank you so much!

To the point though. It’s no secret at this point that I’m Rakepick’s fan so you might say that I’m biased and move on. Still, I’ll be glad if you decide to read this post anyway. Perhaps, I’ll make you look at some things differently. Maybe you’ll change my mind. Either way, let’s talk.

I’ll start with some situations from the story that put Rakepick in a positive light, in my opinion, and I’ll try to explain how they would look for evil!Rakepick. I’ll comment on her behaviour in the recent Vault and give some of my interpretations for chapter 30. Oh yeah…

Warning: spoilers for the whole released content, including Y5Ch30. Also, a really long post, plus mild cursing here and there.

Not as black as it is painted

Let’s begin with Rakepick breaking our wand, because I believe it’s quite important, yet many people don’t really get it. Or they do, but I’ve already come up with a comparison I want to use, so you know…

Now, let’s imagine that magic skills are similar to drawing skills. You go to school, you get a pen, a pencil, maybe some crayons. You learn to make some simple patterns, to write, sometimes you draw. And every now and then, there will be a person who’s particularly good at drawing. They will practice, they will get better, and especially if they have talent, they’ll be able to create amazing art, even if only with a ballpen. And for most people, the basic school supplies will be enough. Even our artist can do well just with that. But they can also become better by getting better supplies, by learning new media etc. It will take more time at first for sure, but the end result will be more impressive.

The basic supplies are obviously MC’s first wand. It doesn’t mean there was something wrong with it, and it had to be changed. If you give just a simple pencil to an artist and to a “regular” person, the first one will still create something better. But then came Rakepick, and she recognised that MC can do more. That not only they went through a lot of changes and a different wand might be more suitable for their personality now, but most importantly that they have extra potential to improve. This was ultimately a good thing for MC.

You might say that it was also potentially a good thing for evil!Rakepick as it would weaken MC at first by using a wand they’re not familiar with. However, it doesn’t really work in our scenario. We can’t really tell when exactly the wand accident happens as the game doesn’t really give us the clear time frames, but let’s take a look where we were story-wise. It was chapter 16, we still didn’t know we’re a Legilimens, we didn’t spend time practising it, we still had no lead for the vault portrait, and all Peeves shenanigans were still ahead of us. With all of that in mind, I believe it’s safe to assume we were more or less in the middle of a school year. Meaning that we still have plenty of time to get used to the new wand before the final confrontation in the Vault. Moreover, it was MC’s fifth year – the year of O.W.L.s. Rakepick knew that because of that we’ll be spending particularly a lot of time preparing for our exams. So, how breaking our wand at this point could be beneficial for evil!Rakepick? How giving us a better weapon was good for her? If she’s such a scheming mastermind, couldn’t she provoke similar situation closer to the end of the year? Or at least when we were already in possession of the vault portrait?

Speaking of Rakepick noticing MC’s potential. You know, it’s really odd for a villain to assure a protagonist that they can be so much better and stronger. Why you build the confidence of someone who you just want to use? Rakepick let us know about it already in year 4 in our conversation after she had learnt we’re asking the faculty about her:

And later in year 5 when we were reporting to her that we’re searching for Scabbers:

It’s a good thing for evil!Rakepick to be able to recognise such things, but why she’s telling us about it?

Another thing that makes absolutely no sense if we’re to believe that Rakepick was evil all this time is her accepting DADA position. Seriously, why? She was already at Hogwarts, she had a very specific task: to take care of the Cursed Vaults. She didn’t need a cover or whatever. And don’t tell me Dumbledore made her do this. If she was such a manipulative bitch, she could easily refuse, explaining she needs to dedicate all the time on the Vaults. I’m not buying that it was to be closer to MC either. She was teaching them during year 4 anyway. Then in year 5, she created the whole Curse-Breakers team, so why the hell she needed to waste time on teaching THE WHOLE SCHOOL? Besides, she only needed MC to open the door with Legilimency. For a dragon, she got a bunch of our friends who were already pretty skilled without her mentoring. So what was the point, really?

The thing is, Patricia was good at being Professor and students liked her:

I write more about that in this post, but in general, I truly believe she was engaged in what she was doing, she wasn’t only focusing on MC. It’s been a while since my own school times, but if I remember correctly, students don’t appreciate teachers playing favourites.

Interestingly, we kind of got the answer to “Why?” at the beginning of year 5:

I can see Patricia wanting to prepare students on the future danger connected to the Cursed Vaults. Let’s remember that this puts pretty much everyone in danger, not only MC and their friends. And she knew that all DADA teachers before were crap. For evil!Rakepick though? I really can’t think of any explanation at all.

And speaking of teaching – don’t you have the impression that evil!Rakepick would be too engaged in mentoring MC for her own good? She basically taught us her way of thinking: always be aware of your surroundings, always take time to judge your opponent etc. Isn’t it quite a counterproductive thing to do for a villain?

Many people say Rakepick was too suspicious and shady, and it was obvious she’s evil. Acting suspicious is her thing, that’s true – but to be honest, that’s my problem with her being a bad guy. You see, she doesn’t seem to give a fuck whether or not MC trusts her. On the contrary, it’s more like she doesn’t want that to happen. The only time she told us to trust her was when she didn’t want to reveal to us the identity of Mundungus’s attacker. All the other times it’s: “I’m not gonna tell you more”, “I don’t have to explain myself to anyone”, “I know more, deal with it”. It’s not even like she’s using reverse psychology where she would tell us to not trust her. It’s more like: “I do my thing, and I don’t care what you think”. She’s barely trying to make MC like her. And in those rare moments when she shows her “softer” side, it’s rather like she’s worried that we could even think she cares.

MC: So, you care about me after all?

Rakepick: No, I’d be just disappointed I’ve wasted my time on someone not worth it.

MC: So, technically you wanted to do something nice for me?

Rakepick: No, I wanted to tell you to not fuck with me.

How does it make sense from the point of view of a villain? Shouldn’t evil!Rakepick be emphasizing how good she is, so it’d be easier to stab MC in the right moment?

And when it comes to trust, probably the most confusing for me is the last part of chapter 29. You know, the one where Patricia told us she might die etc.? It was just… pointless. At least from the point of view of evil!Rakepick. You might say it was just one of her manipulation games, but to that I ask – what was her goal? It was right before going to the Vault, we were on board with her already, no question asked. She didn’t have to work on convincing us or anything. Heck, the only thing she achieved was making MC more suspicious of her. She told us a very cryptic thing about thinking what to say to our brother, she said directly she knows things we don’t. How was it supposed to help her?

The Vault of No-Logic-Whatsoever

Let’s fast-forward a little, and here we are in the Vault at the great reveal of the betrayal. Even if we’d ignore the fact that Rakepick made a classic mistake of wasting time on explaining her evil plan, everything in that part was simply illogical, and nothing adds up at all. Take a look at what she said:

And I’ll stop you here, Patricia, because I have to ask: what the fuck are you talking about?

DUMBLEDORE WAS SEARCHING FOR YOU AT LEAST SINCE THE END OF YEAR 2.

He was absent for most of year 3 because of that:

I’m sorry, but if the most powerful wizard can’t find someone for a year, it means this someone doesn’t want to be found. Even if we assume that Dumbledore was lying about it for some weird reason, we know that the Cursed Vaults case was known to the public opinion after our year 2. This is what MC said after summer:

Explain to me, please, why Patricia Rakepick, world-famous Curse-Breaker, who wanted so badly to go back to Hogwarts and quickly put her hands on the treasure (let’s ignore even Jacob in all of that), couldn’t just, you know… go to the Headmaster and say: “Listen, Albus. I got a bit bored at Gringotts, you have the cursed school. How about we help each other?”. Seriously, returning to Hogwarts should be the easiest thing to do for her. But nope, she went to Brazil.

Moving on, I have another question: what kind of spell did she use to knock the kids down, and why the hell it wasn’t Petrificus Totalus? You know, just like Ben used it twice in the previous year (against MC, and then against Rowan and Charlie). It’s too basic, too plebeian for her or what? She’s clearly annoyed by them trying to get up, so why not immobilize them entirely? If I didn’t know that she’s oh-so-evil, I could think it’s almost like she wanted them to be able to stand at some point… And if we’re already talking about odd choices of spell – why she didn’t even try at any point to use the Killing Curse? We’re on the Unforgivable territory anyway, right? (Also, notice how she went from “I’ll kill you all now” to torturing Merula to “I have orders to kill one of your friends”. And I’m here like: “Make up your mind, woman”.)

All right, so let’s talk about the Cruciatus Curse. And one thing I don’t understand here in particular is why Merula? From the story’s point of view – from Rakepick’s point of view – it doesn’t really make much sense. You know what would be really brutal? Using Cruciatus on MC, as a reference to the moment when she showed it to us in Knockturn Alley. But let’s assume that MC is too valuable for R or something. Still, Merula is an odd choice. Remember when we were choosing between Charlie and Penny, and Patricia put the whole responsibility on us so we couldn’t blame anyone else?

It’d be a great moment for evil!Rakepick to use it against us. The problem is that Charlie is pretty much untouchable due to being a canon character, and therefore is Penny (as she simply takes his place in the other route). But Ben could definitely fill that role, as it was MC who agreed to bring him to the Vault, whether we told him it’s a good idea or not. He wasn’t supposed to be there at all, so imagine what impact it would have on MC. Yet, she chose Merula – seemingly because she tried to attack her, and to assault her verbally for being needy. The thing is, Rakepick was very actively trying to make Merula feel appreciated by her in the recent chapters… She really didn’t care much about Merula for most of year 5, to the point where Merula started to doubt in her. There was a time when she wasn’t idolizing her at all (I wrote more about it in this post). It’s like she invested all this time and efforts to achieve something, only to mock it later. Why a person who’s so obsessed with the Cursed Vaults, and Vaults only, would be even bothered with something like that? What gives? I’ll come back later to this one.

To the proper confrontation. Have you noticed how interesting skills Rakepick has? I mean, she first was attacked only by MC and easily defended herself. But then, Bill, Ben, and Charlie cast the spells simultaneously – and again, she had no problems. To the point though, because eventually, MC throws a vial on her which breaks on her feet. Like… I’m sorry, what? She didn’t notice that (even though she didn’t seem to be distracted by anything) or Protego doesn’t work on material objects? Funny thing, it’s getting better. So she started to choke, right? Technically, she should’ve suffocated on it. Then, she got hit by four very angry and quite powerful for their age wizards (MC just defeated a dragon on their own - here’s your need to bring more students, Patricia…), and all it does is… knocking her down. She’s not even particularly weakened as she can shout the warning about R’s glory AND DISAPPARATE. Look, I’m probably the last one to doubt that Rakepick is a powerful witch, but there are some limits…

Tell me, Severus, are you sure you didn’t give us an expired gas? Or an empty vial “by mistake”? After all, the Garrotting Gas is colourless. See, I still find it weird that Snape saw through her well enough to know she’ll try to kill us, yet he also told us some nonsense in year 4 like this:

Also, can I just say how unbelievable it feels to me that Patricia would even want to be a member of R? She hates authorities and rules, she doesn’t trust people, she thinks she’s the best and the most powerful – and she’d agree to work for some stupid mysterious organisation? And she’d believe they’ll share the vault treasure with her? Why would she want to share in the first place, if she could take it all for herself?

Finally, why the hell would evil!Rakepick betrayed us right now at all? We know R wanted Jacob to continue his research after Duncan’s death – why not use MC in a similar way and reach the final vault maybe faster, getting rid of us later? Why she didn’t keep her cover? Yes, there was Jacob trapped in the portrait (assuming that it was the real Jacob…), but as far as we know, the reason why he thinks Rakepick is evil is because she left him in the Vault. MC assumed themselves that he trusted her, and she didn’t deny it. However, according to Patricia’s words, she was basically thrown out from the Vault, she didn’t have much choice in that. And she couldn’t come back because she didn’t have a Portkey. Couldn’t she just… explain that to Jacob? Plus, add the argument that she looked after his little sibling, saving their life and all? I’m sorry, but no matter how I look at this, Rakepick’s plan was simply dumb. Perhaps if she didn’t take DADA position, she had more time to think of something better…

So what the hell actually happened?

Honestly, I have no idea. Well, I do have some ideas, but I can’t say I’m sure of any of them. The version that makes the most sense for me at the moment is this:

Rakepick joined R as a spy and/or to prevent R from killing one of our friends. The Cruciatus Curse was used to prove her obedience (and Merula possibly agree to that).

Yeah, I know how it sounds. But stick with me.

In my opinion, there was something that happened with Rakepick in chapter 20. This is the chapter which ends with finding Pettigrew, and interestingly, Patricia is missing for most of it. When we’re looking for her with Badeea in DADA classroom, MC notices that it looks like she left in a hurry, that her desk is unusually messy etc. We also learn that she was discussing the issue of getting rid of rats with Kettleburn. We know it probably had to do with Scabbers, but it’s never really explained why Rakepick was absent, only to appear at the very end and find Obliviated MC.

Then, the whole portrait hunt began, and it’s also when something changed in Rakepick’s behaviour. We basically stopped seeing her, she’s sending us messages through Bill and Merula. She suddenly doesn’t keep an eye on MC when we’re doing our stupid tasks for Peeves. She does nothing to stop us from going to Knockturn Alley alone for the first time since our first visit there, and she lets Mundungus (from all people) to trick us into duelling a Dark Wizard. This change doesn’t make sense, even if you want to believe that she was evil all that time. She should keep protecting her key until they’re useful.

In my theory, it was time when Patricia contacted R to join them. It was also after Rowan’s attack so she might’ve realised that R’s threats are more serious than she thought. She took the task of killing MC’s friend, but the point of that is to not kill. She also can’t do anything at all. So she has to pick a victim. There’s no way for her to choose MC as she cares about them, and as I mentioned before – R possibly sees them as too valuable. Bill? If he knew about the plan, he’d probably agree, but it’s a similar situation like with MC – Patricia is fond of him (Side note: notice that evil!Rakepick didn’t really get any benefits from helping Bill with his N.E.W.T.s etc. He trusted her, yes, but… so what?). There’s no one else she had an opportunity to get closer to… except for Merula. But there’s a problem – Rakepick neglected Merula, she wasn’t giving her recognition basically at all in year 5, as she thought that accepting her to the apprentice group is enough to make her not disturbing MC. But now she needs her to actually agree to something…

You see, Patricia just suddenly put so much effort and attention to Merula that I see no explanation for that other than that she wanted something for her. She stressed all the time how loyal she is, she let Merula teach MC the Killing Curse to make her feel special (even though she knew MC won’t want to learn it), even in the Vault she asked her first for opinion what to do next (and she actually followed that decision). Almost like a reminder – “I trust in you, and I’m counting on you”. But seemingly, it led to nowhere, really. She didn’t use Merula to distract the others when she would enter the inner chamber or anything like that. So what was the point of that… if not reassurance that Merula will stick to the plan?

And while Merula seems to be totally infatuated with Rakepick, there was one scene in chapter 29 that really confused me. After Binns’s lecture about Potkeys, if you choose to praise Rakepick for making us bring more people, Merula snaps only on Bill with this line:

Interestingly, she had a quite similar line way earlier in Y5Ch12:

The thing is, I believe it had a very different meaning back then. Merula is aware that her mum and dad weren’t the best people and definitely not the best parents. This line to me DOESN’T say: “Rakepick cares about me”. It says: “The last person who said that left me because her ideology was more important than me”. It’s just so odd that she used the very same phrase right now, in a very different context. As if she was expecting, more or less consciously, that it all will end painfully for her.

I also mentioned before how the last part of chapter 29 was peculiar, but one part especially:

Rakepick knew at that point she’ll attack Merula. It wasn’t an impulsive act. And even though she allegedly despises Merula so much… she was concerned enough to tell MC to look out for her…?

All right, but if that’s all was “staged” why Rakepick was so cruel? Why involve the Unforgivable Curse? Why the verbal assaults? She could’ve just knocked the kids down and laugh maliciously. Unless… she was being watched by R. But it’s not possible, right? There was no one besides us, and you apparently need a Portkey to get to the Vault at all. Well, let’s see.

The outer chamber in this Vault was very different compared to the previous ones which were minimalistic, almost empty. But here we had not only portraits but also some books, tables, the board, the mortar and the pastle, some jars (potions ingredients, perhaps?), candles… Ben even asked at some point who lit them. I can’t help but think that someone was spending there some time. Could they still be there during our visit, hiding…? Also, during searching, Patricia had this line:

Why she’s so bothered about time if they’re already in the Vault? I understand before, because the Portkey was set for a specific moment, but after that? Evil!Rakepick wouldn’t care about the time of return on the Portkey (if there was any) as she apparently wanted to kill us all anyway, and she can Disapparate anytime. So was she informed that R will be watching at a certain moment? It might sound as another stretching, but when you think about it, R is always oddly accurate when it comes to contacting us and aware of what MC is doing. Remember when we found the note in the Patronus SQ about passing the test right after banishing a Dementor?

Could that someone watching be Jacob from the portrait? Notice how he didn’t even ask if a dragon was defeated. Either he didn’t care (which would be odd), or he knew it by then. But wait, why would Patricia be worried about our brother watching her though? Well, I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that I don’t believe that Jacob we found is even the real one. But even if he is, he’s likely working for R. So, why would he go after Rakepick who allegedly is a member of the same organisation? I’m pretty sure it’s to lure MC to the final vault where we’ll be also somehow needed to open it. Like, c’mon, there’s no way anyone would expect MC to not continue their search for their brother. Not after we were left like that without any explanation.

To sum up

As I said, I’m not insisting it’s the only possible explanation for the events of chapter 30. However, it still makes much more sense to me than Rakepick being simply evil all that time. I understand that not everybody will like her. She’s a bitch. She’s not a typical likeable character, and she’s not trying to be. But if you really look at her actions, she did more good than she’d like to admit, and she wasted time on things that weren’t beneficial for her at all. So either she joined R and became a spy (or something along these lines). Or Jam City doesn’t care about a single thing they wrote - in which case I don’t see why I should care about their grand reveal which is full of contradictions.

#long post #hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm spoilers #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #patricia rakepick #madam rakepick #pro rakepick #merula snyde #bill weasley #albus dumbledore #severus snape #hphm jacob #hphm r #about characters #analysis post #theory #hphm theory

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missnight0wl · 5 years

Text

Snape was the third person

Spoilers up to Y5Ch21. Also, a long post ahead.

Which person, you ask? You know, the one mentioned here:

I’ve seen some speculations that this line is about Duncan, however, it doesn’t really make much sense to me. First of all, there is a possibility that it was written after Duncan’s death. The timeline of Jacob’s actions is really fuzzy, we know that they were working on two vaults at some point, but it’s hard to say anything for sure. Nevertheless, even if Duncan was alive, it’d be still odd. With the way Jacob put it in words, it sounds like he’s surprised by the choice of that particular person, maybe even displeased. Yet, he was working with Duncan for R for some time already. Wouldn’t he be an obvious pick to be involved also into partnership with Rakepick? At least from Jacob’s point of view? Well, I think the requirements for that third person were more specific, and that’s why I believe Duncan is an unlikely candidate. More on that a bit later.

(Btw, don’t you think that MC should at least think of asking Duncan whether Jacob was working with Rakepick and if he knows anything more about it? Sure, in Y5Ch21, MC mentions that they’re Rakepick’s apprentices, and Duncan doesn’t seem to react on this name, but perhaps he simply didn’t know it? Maybe MC should try asking if Jacob mentioned at any point a bitchy redhead Curse-Breaker, or a vixen trying to save his life? No? Too much thinking? All right then.)

I’ve also discussed once a possibility of that person being MC’s father, HOWEVER, the father’s absence issue really irks me lately, and I don’t want to go too deep into that - especially that Snape simply makes more sense if you ask me. So let’s discuss that.

At first, it doesn’t look like a probable situation. I mean, Snape hates Rakepick - why would he agree to work with her on the Cursed Vaults? Patricia could possibly be willing to cooperate, but she’s not very fond of him either. As for Jacob though... Well, truth be told, we can’t actually tell much about his relationship with Snape. In fact, we can’t even be certain that he was taught by Severus or they just went to school at the same time. I suppose that everything Snape tells us about our brother could be as well told by another student. But then, there was that one mention:

It’s from Y3Ch5 when we finally got back Jacob’s notebook. I do think it strongly suggests that Snape was a teacher at that point, someone with the authority over our brother. And since he was avoiding him, he probably didn’t like him much.

But how did it look on Snape’s side? Sure, now he apparently hates Jacob (I think it’s rather anger and/or disappointment), although, in my opinion, it wasn’t always the case. Do you remember our conversation from Y5Ch4 about Penny?

I believe it’s not a coincidence that Jacob was also mentioned in that sentence. We’re told all the time that he was a talented student, brilliant at basically everything. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he was also good at Potions, and if Snape sees his Vaults obsession as wasting a potential. I’d even say he might’ve liked him before all of that. And let’s be honest, does Snape working with someone he hates in order to PROTECT A CHILD sounds like something unlikely to happen? Moreover, the fact that Jacob went missing/turned into madness might be another reason why Snape despises Rakepick even more - he can blame her, think that she manipulated Jacob. Oh, and when we spy for him in year 4, he’s got this line:

... so, was Jacob among that eliminated competition?

Still, in the end, all of that above is mostly conjecture. That was until we got THAT ONE FREAKING LINE in Y5Ch17 which is driving me crazy:

WHY THE HELL WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT?! LIKE...?! *internally screaming*

I mean, it takes place one chapter after Rakepick was swearing she never met our brother, and now Snape basically tells us that she CHOSE him? I’m sorry, but what?! Am I looking too deep into this or he’s simply admitting that Rakepick was working with Jacob? Because if that’s the case, we have three options:

Snape is assuming that because he hates Rakepick and all evil in the world is her fault,

Snape knows she chose Jacob because he was working with them too,

Snape found out about their partnership through spying OR research.

Now, I want to add more to that last option. One thing about Rakepick that I feel is not being stressed enough during the story is the fact that she is quite famous in the wizarding world. There was at least one book written about her (MC gave it to Bill when they met in year 2), but that’s not all. Let’s go back to year 4 again. In the chapter about Bowtruckles, there’s a part where we write an essay and Rowan joins us. We get three options for them:

If we choose “Madam Rakepick”, this is what we learn:

Hm, I wonder what are chances that this assistant’s name was Jacob... The question is, why it seems like the article doesn’t mention any name at all. Either way, it’s very possible that Snape did similar research and found the same information. And here again, he could’ve just assumed that it’s about Jacob, or he dug deeper (more likely) and actually discovered their identity.

Anyway, no matter which option is true, I find it beyond annoying that MC DOESN’T EVEN ASK why Snape said that. Seriously, it’s not the first time when they make MC ignore things that obviously should get their interest: why they didn’t know about Duncan, who is Olivia Green, who Jacob was working with in Knockturn Alley, why there are random Gryffindor robes in Jacob’s room, WHY DON’T WE TAKE CARE OF THE MESS IN THERE FOR ONCE? I understand that they don’t want to reveal too much of the plot too fast, but simply let us ask. Let characters avoid answering or lie to us. Otherwise, MC just looks stupid, and it’s starting to piss me off.

Back to the topic though. I’ve mentioned the specific requirements for the third person at the beginning. And what rare skill Snape and Jacob have in common? They’re Legilimens. I assume that Legilimency might be somehow needed for the buried vault. Maybe they need combined powers or something. It’d also explain why it HAD to be Snape - because there’s not a lot of people to choose from. Although, now that I think about it, it might be rather about Occlumency. Perhaps the vault messes with your mind (which actually goes well with my idea for the final vault)... In both cases, Severus fits the bill and he’s a better solution than bringing another new character with such unique abilities.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #hphm jacob #patricia rakepick #madam rakepick #severus snape #legilimency #duncan ashe #cursed vaults #analysis post #theory #hphm theory

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