Готовый перевод Тейлор Поттер и философский виал / Taylor Potter and the Philosophical Vial: Глава 10. Рождественские каникулы

Chapter 10. Christmas Holydays
* * *

"That's much better," Lisa said with a grin, taking the bracelet off her wrist. "Time to get down to the case!"

"What case?" Taylor asked, surprised, peering into Lisa's shower stall.

"The case of the giant three-headed dog!" Granger exclaimed pompously and winked. "Come on, wash up and we'll discuss it all in the living room!"

"We all saw the dog, and Amy even touched it and determined that it was not alive," said Lisa, walking around the living room, waving her arms and combing her hair at the same time.

“Uh-huh,” Amy responded, not taking her eyes off the tablet.

Her fingers were flickering as she typed something on the screen.

"We didn't see any traces of the contamination Headmistress Dumbledore told us about at the beginning of the year!" Lisa continued. "But we did see a dog!"

"And Snape went there too!" Taylor added.

"Exactly," Lisa nodded. "Let's assume the dog was resistant to manipulation, rumors, information, and hacking, unlike the other systems and students of Wormwarts!"

"Then why didn't Headmistress Dumbledore eliminate him?" Amy asked, still looking at her tablet.

"What are you typing there?" Taylor asked.

"An essay on the history of the Capes," Weasley responded dejectedly. "Imagine what would have happened if the Hero had intervened in the First World War, wanting to bring peace to everyone?" It needs two thousand words, I've only got five hundred, and I'm already tired... Lisa, you're a Thinker, aren't you?"

"You know the price.” Granger’s smile seemed ready to crawl beyond the back of her head.

Amy snorted grimly and looked back at her tablet.

"So," said Lisa, "we don't know Headmistress Dumbledore's motives, but! We have the three-headed key, and we'll start solving this mystery with it, since I'm no longer restricted in my movements!"

"When?"

"In three days, the Christmas holidays begin, the students will leave, but we will remain."

Taylor nodded rapidly in response, having absolutely no desire to go home to the Dursleys. Amy waved her hand listlessly and mumbled something.

"And Hagrid will stay," Lisa continued to outline her "insidious" plan. "We'll go to her, talk, bring gifts, drink for her, and meat for the dogs. And we'll find out everything about this three-headed dog, thus getting a direction for our search, since Hagrid alone is simply incapable of organizing what we saw."

"Aren't you going home?" Taylor asked with some hidden fear.

"Of course not," Granger smirked. "I just took off my bracelet! The mysteries of Wormwarts won't solve themselves!"

Taylor hadn't expected any presents for Christmas, or any other day, even her birthday, but suddenly she realized she'd been wrong. Amy had given her a wonderful beetle painted in Herofindor's colors, and Lisa a wonderful reference book, "Genetically Modified Insects: A to Z." Among the gifts was a whistle from Hagrid, some candy, and even a gift from the Dursleys: a brand-new tampon in its wrapper, which made Taylor blush and Lisa laugh long and loud.

Taylor also received a tight sweater from Victoria Weasley, with something on it: a six-legged, winged creature with horns and a heart. While Amy scribbled an angry letter to her little sister and Taylor struggled to fit into the sweater without taking off the rest of her clothes, Lisa fiddled with the last gift: a small box.

“What’s there?” Taylor asked. “Open up!”

"Touch it with your finger," Granger said thoughtfully.

The friends gathered around the box, and Taylor touched the surface with her finger. It rippled, and an image appeared: a faceless mask in the void, and the caption:

Your father left it to me before he died.

It's time to give it back to you.

Use it wisely.

Merry Christmas to you.

"What's this?" Taylor asked.

“I think if I’m right…,” Lisa said, opening the box, “and I’m right, yeah!”

"It can't be!" Amy exclaimed admiringly. "This is a very rare and valuable thing!"

Taylor blinked, peering into the box.

There lay a red bandage, rolled into a ball. Two buttons on the bandage had a symbol engraved on the surface: a triangle containing a circle, intersected by a line.

"It's an invisibility bandage," Lisa whispered, "and not some kind of homemade, new-fangled thing, no!"

She had already grabbed the token, was turning it over in her hands, sniffing it, even licking it, and for a second, Taylor thought that an image of some famous cape would appear on the surface of the token.

"This is a Dragon-made headband!" Granger proclaimed. "One of those she personally crafted, with her own metal hands, to aid the Founders."

"So what? What does the invisibility have to do with it?"

"As long as you wear this bandage, you'll be invisible to any tracking devices, whether they were created by humans or the Tinkers," Lisa smiled. "Do you know what that means?"

"No," Taylor replied, puzzled.

"You can wander anywhere in Wormwarts, and the castle won't even notice! Right, I need to visit the library immediately!"

Granger quickly tied a red ribbon around her wrist and poked at the buttons. She thought for a second.

"Press two buttons and identify yourself," she told Taylor.

"Taylor Potter."

"System activated," a voice came from the headband. "Owner identified. User not identified. User identified: Lisa Granger. Authorization and use denied."

"I think I misunderstood something again," Taylor replied.

"It's all good," Lisa grinned. "How would you like to stroll through Wormwarts handholding?"

"What are we doing here?" Taylor asked quietly, looking around.

The library, as it was called in the old days, or simply the information room, with terminals and the ability to access various reference books and sources online, was one of Lisa's regular haunts. Unfortunately, her attempts to hack the terminal and download the entire Wormwarts archive had so far been unsuccessful, but she didn't give up.

"Admin terminal," Lisa responded. "And you don't have to whisper. While our hands are bandaged, the castle's systems won't register us. No sound, no video, nothing."

"It's still kind of… awkward," Taylor said.

Lisa looked at the bandage and grinned.

"It's okay, the main thing is that my right hand is free. We need the terminal Madam Pince uses. They say old Aurora worked under the Legend himself in her youth, but they're probably lying!"

"So," Taylor started looking around again, "is she well-versed in information security?"

"She doesn’t understand a damn thing about it," Lisa chuckled, "that’s exactly why we’re here!"

"Somehow I still didn’t understand anything!"

"It's simple. The castle itself handles the security, and we'll bypass its systems thanks to the band," Lisa explained with a sigh. "We need the Pins terminal because it has elevated privileges by default, which means it'll be easier to penetrate the system. And at the same time..."

"What at the same time?"

"Let's order something for the future!"

She practically ran deeper into the hall, Taylor barely keeping up. Lisa, seemingly weak and soft, held Potter's hand with a steely grip, making it impossible to escape. To get the bandage to the scanner at the entrance to the Restricted Section, she had to raise her arm, or rather, her arms, high. Taylor and Lisa stood face to face, practically embracing, and Granger seemed to be enjoying the situation.

Taylor was desperately trying to think of something to say when Lisa beat her to it.

“Let’s go,” she whispered, opening the door.

This time, Potter realized that the bandage had overridden the door's security system, making it just a door — a push and it would open. Lisa rushed forward again, almost running, practically dragging Taylor along with her.

"Aha, aha, not that, right here, and like that, aha, aha," Granger muttered as she walked. "Yes! That's it!"

Terminal, activation, and this time Lisa pulled her left hand back as far as she could, almost pressing Taylor into the wall.

"I hope you're comfortable," Potter muttered.

"Yeah, it's comfortable, I can do a lot even with one hand!" Lisa grinned.

But less than two minutes had passed when something shining, reminiscent of a she-bear, burst into the room, through which the exit was visible. Mrs. Norris's howling could also be heard through the open door, and Filch's screams, rapidly approaching.

"Run!" Lisa commanded, tugging at the knot of the bandage, and Taylor ran.

As she rushed out of the library, Taylor felt her heart pounding in her chest, as if it were trying to burst out. She hadn't been this scared, not even when she'd fought the troll. But Quirrell's lessons and Quidditch were taking their toll, and even as she fled in fear, Taylor didn't forget to create false scents. There weren't many insects in the library, but Taylor still managed to create a single silhouette decoy. Ants rustled the pages, a hundred cockroaches dropped a mug on the floor — basically, false scents and sounds. Taylor didn't know where Lisa had disappeared to, but she did everything she could to draw Filch's full attention to herself.

"There she is! In the hallway!" Filch's voice.

The clicking of Mrs. Norris's claws. Taylor suddenly realized there was nowhere to hide in the hallway. She ran, not trying to block out the sounds, calling her subjects to her aid. As soon as the robo-cat burst out of the library, a moth began smashing into her "eyes" at full speed, covering the lenses with its bodies and pollen. This gave Taylor a second to turn the corner and escape.

"Chase!" Filch shouted.

Taylor ran, and behind Filch and Norris, the cockroaches were quickly destroying all evidence, dragging away the bodies of their fellows and other insects. If you don't get caught, it's not your fault. Taylor had learned that, especially after the incident when several Eidolorins ambushed them after training, leading to a battle that left fifty meters of the castle in ruins.

Taylor had only run a short distance, but was already out of breath.

“I need to run more during training,” she muttered, finally losing her breath.

Something else was needed; she couldn't outrun the robo-cat on foot, and a solution was found. Remembering the events of Halloween and the recent ones in the library, Taylor darted for the nearest door, practically driving the bandage into the sensor plate.

"Come on!" she begged through her teeth.

The sensor flickered for a moment, then went out. Taylor almost stumbled into the room, hearing screams and stomping behind her. Then everything cut off, and the door closed on its own. The light flickered on, and Taylor even squinted at first.

"Taylor Potter, identity confirmed," a voice from the ceiling announced. "Master 5, date of birth: July 31, 2010, currently a first-year student at Wormwarts, Herofindor."

Taylor darted for the door, but found it gone. Just walls of mirrors, light, and nothing else. Dozens, hundreds of Taylors in the mirrors were groping, punching, kicking, and raising arms.

Parents, Danny Potter, Contact - 5, and Annette Potter, Thinker - 4.

Taylor stopped, stepping back from the wall. The mirrors had transformed into a huge screen showing a film. A skinny guy in glasses approached a girl clutching books and said something. The two of them were dancing in the Great Hall. They were loading some enormous beams somewhere in the forest.

Taylor froze, unable to breathe.

Graduation from Wormwarts. Headlines on the forums: Masterful blow by Potter's Tactitian! Awarded some kind of medal, and immediately, new headlines: Annette Potter single-handedly destroys the Fallen gang with a staged car accident! A huge scene, bodies, cars, smoke, and smog, and on top of this pyramid, a girl in a costume, holding some scary guy with her left hand and hitting him with her right.

Taylor didn't even notice how she'd moved right up to the screen, caressing the mirror as if hoping to touch her mother. It was clear Taylor had inherited her mother's features, except for her chin, which she inherited from Danny.

"Mom, Dad," Taylor muttered in a trance.

The image changed, Annette and Denny holding a bundle. Headlines, messages, Taylor stared and stared, oblivious to everything. Then darkness closed in on Taylor, who lost consciousness.

A sharp, irritating smell brought her to her senses.

"Headmistress!" Potter exclaimed, frightened and stunned.

"Yes, Miss Potter," Fortuna Dumbledore smiled back.

Taylor glanced around quickly. She was still in the room with the mirrors, but the lights were out, and the movies were no longer playing.

"My parents," she said timidly.

"Taylor," Dumbledore said, making a dismissive gesture. "What you were shown was partly a lie, created by the ERISED trap to keep you immobilized. If it weren't for your invisibility band, you wouldn't have been able to enter here, but the system will be moved to a more secure location anyway, so don't bother coming here. Better ask your friend Granger to look up information for you. You're lucky my path led me here."

Taylor sat there, thinking, and then asked cautiously.

"What is ERISED, Headmistress? How do you know about the bandage? Did your path lead you to help me?"

"ERISED," Dumbledore replied with a smile. "The Unified Information Analysis Wish Trap. It identifies whoever enters, gathers information about them from across the global network of capes, not hesitating to penetrate even the most secure corners. Hundreds of sensors monitor, track, and weigh reactions; a sophisticated algorithm and analysis programs react and offer the user information they won't be able to tear themselves away from. You probably experienced the trap's effects yourself; your brain was overloaded, and you lost consciousness. If you were a criminal plotting evil, all I could do would be to come and restrain you."
T.N.

"Ah," Taylor was about to ask a ton more questions, but suddenly hung up.

She came to her senses in Herofindor's bedroom, after which she spent a long time telling Amy and Lisa everything.

"Very interesting," Granger said. "The headmistress of Wormwarts gives you an invisibility bandage that allows you to wander around Wormwarts, and then suddenly you find yourself trapped and seeing your parents."

"What makes you think it was the headmistress's doing?" Amy asked.

"Is it complicated?" Taylor added hesitantly.

"Oh, that's the headmistress's signature style," Lisa grinned. "Fifty-move games, where a glass of tea with milk instead of cream suddenly brings victory three years later. Yes, yes. But it's clear you were given a hint. There's a criminal against whom Fortuna's plans are powerless, and since you're Potter, the simplest deduction..."

"Dark Cape!" Taylor gasped, and Amy paled. "Here, in Wormwarts?!"

“Yeah, and he came for something that is hidden on the third floor,” Lisa nodded, “which means where are we going?”

"Where?"

"To Rachel Hagrid! I've ordered drinks and meat. Thank her for the gift, we'll chat... and see what happens next."

"Lisa, this is a dirty trick!" Taylor exclaimed angrily.

"A dirty trick to hide information from Thinker," Granger muttered, looking away.

"Oh, so you saw Fluffy," muttered a drunken Rachel.

"Fluffy," Amy laughed, pretending to be drunk.

"Three Flu... Fluffy!" Taylor said importantly, lifting her head from the table.

All of them, including Lisa, pretended to be drunk, although in reality, only Rachel Hagrid had been drinking, while her friends were drinking colored water. Amy, pretending to be drunk, kept poking Lisa as a form of mild revenge for the “performance.” Once, Amy poked Lisa in the belly button, then in the teeth, and almost knocked out her eye. Granger stoically endured it, for the sake of the cause.

"He's miserable there, poor thing," Hagrid sighed, pouring another drink. "At least he holds his power for so long, otherwise he'd have gone berserk long ago. Well, for the Headmistress!"

The girls had had a few drinks, and Amy, trying to poke Lisa in the shoulder, missed and slammed her head into Granger's stomach. She pretended to giggle drunkenly and fell silent, snoring. Lisa realized she had to force the conversation, otherwise she, too, would have to pretend to be out of it.

"It was the headmistress who asked you to put it there, right?"

"Yeah," Rachel nodded, "she said it was needed for the case. He's a mutant, you see, he never sleeps, so he guards."

"What does it guard?"

"Something that needs to be guarded," Hagrid glanced over. "Something important."

"What thing?"

"It's none of your business," Rachel snapped.

"And whose?"

"Headmistress and Professor Manton. Drink up!"

Lisa, mentally sighing, deftly switched the glasses and began to sip the colored water.

The supposedly drunken trio climbed up to the castle singing "Stranger in the Night" so that Rachel wouldn't suspect anything even now.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” Lisa said with a hint of malice.

Amy moaned and groaned, pressing her hands to her head. Alas, she had quickly cured her friends, but she couldn't cure herself — the limitations of superpowers.

"If your head hurts like that every time, it's better to die," Amy suddenly said clearly and hung up.

"So," Taylor looked up from her water bottle, "was it worth breathing in all those alcohol fumes from drunk Rachel?"

Even though they didn't drink, the hangover was almost real.

"It was worth it." Lisa smiled predatorily. "The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Dark Cape, traps, the Headmistress's power, and Wormwarts."

"And?"

"Remember the headmistress's card? Working with Professor Manton?"

"Vague," Taylor frowned.

"The answer is somewhere out there, I know it," Lisa nodded.

Unfortunately, Rachel wouldn't let her take a couple of photos, so the idea of ​​gently blackmailing Amy was out of the question. But Lisa wasn't putting everything on one level; no, she knew the Thinker's Holy Grail — easy pain relief with a single touch — wouldn't be easily attained.

"What do we do now?" Taylor asked.

"We'll have a rest!" Lisa laughed. "We're on Christmas break, after all!"
* * *

Внимание! Этот перевод, возможно, ещё не готов.
Его статус: идёт перевод

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/88456/593986

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP