Готовый перевод Тейлор Поттер и философский виал / Taylor Potter and the Philosophical Vial: Глава 4. Новый преподаватель ЗОТС

Chapter 4. New teacher of the DADP

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The start-of-school celebrations began sluggishly. The Dementor raid on the train shocked everyone.

"What did you expect?" Amy Weasley said gloomily, suddenly surpassing even Granger in knowledge as a hereditary Cape. "They're Cape hunters, after all, the most feared villains. Of course, they must have ways to deal with superpowers."

The shock was mainly due to the fact that many, like Taylor, tried to fight back but were unable to. Her insects were insects; some lost their minds, and others simply slipped on the ice.

"Cold doesn't just freeze your thought processes; it also drains your energy," Amy said grimly. "I've had to treat victims of Dementor encounters several times, and it was terrifying. They don't just attack and drain your power; they also suppress you psychologically."

"And they spray gas,” Lisa added, chomping on her potatoes.

"And they spray gas," Amy agreed. "And you can't wear a gas mask forever. Increased durability, built-in devices, detectors, and sensors—it's not for nothing that they say the ideal Tinker can imitate any force. And Dragon was the best of the Tinkerers; her creations still haven't been replicated."

Oh yes, Taylor thought, remembering her "invisibility band," a device from Dragon that made her invisible to any electronics. That's what she should have worn when facing Dementors, it occurred to Taylor. And as for the cold, well, maybe she should bring a thermos of hot liquid chocolate?

"Furthermore, rumor has it that somewhere beneath the Cage, among the generators and defense systems, there are workshops where robots continue to create new Dementors. And when the villains manage to destroy these robots, new ones rush in pursuit. New ones, but they know and can do everything the others know and can do, having learned from the mistakes of the other robots!"

“So they’re even learning,” someone muttered in shock.

"Of course, otherwise the capes would have long ago discovered some weakness in them and the dementors would have become no more scary than the robot turtles!"

There was a burst of laughter.

"According to rumors, their design is also being improved to better catch villains, but they seem to have long since reached their ideal and have not been improved."

"Wait, wait, how do they know who the villains are?"

"What do you need the Ministry for?" Amy looked at him condescendingly. "Convicted, sentenced, off to the Cage! The Dementors receive files with complete information on criminals, and what's more, even in the Cage, the filming never stops! To better understand how the villain speaks and moves, what he prefers, how he behaves in different situations, so he can't escape, even in disguise!"

"So how do you defeat them then?"

"The best way would be with a Ministry employee with a special device!" Amy said pointedly, raising a finger, and then laughed. "No, really, there's no better way!"

"Patronus?" Taylor asked.

"A method of protection against Dementors. The name comes from an old joke about a universal remedy for all problems: 'Cartridge Enchanted Special,'" Lisa replied quietly. "Short for Patronus."

"A moment of attention!" said Fortuna Dumbledore, headmistress of Wormwarts, rising from her seat. "Allow me to introduce the new Defense Against the Dark Powers teacher: Brian Lupin!"

Brian stood up, and only now did Taylor notice that his face seemed to have absorbed a particle of superpower, an impenetrable darkness. The jokes about turning Eidolorin into Blackerin suddenly seemed out of place.

"Also, you all encountered Dementors. If I had known about them, I would have taken action beforehand, but I didn't."

Now the young capes had quieted down. Headmistress Fortuna Dumbledore was considered the strongest cape, the one who always won. Taylor, however, could have cited a few examples of how a Dark Cape had deceived Dumbledore, but Dark Cape was an exception.

In the ensuing silence, Fortuna dropped words like stones into water.

"Dementors cannot be reasoned with, bribed, or softened. If you encounter them, surrender immediately. The best you'll get is a shower of deterrent foam and solvent."

Probably the Youth Guard, Taylor thought. She didn't know who exactly belonged to them at the Ministry, but she already hated them all.

After this, the feast resumed, but the former merriment was still absent. After the feast ended, everyone went to their bedrooms, and the three friends gathered again, joining hands and tying them with an "invisibility band" to prevent the surveillance systems from detecting any abnormal activity. Lisa's intuition told her that Wormwarts' systems had indeed been put on high alert.

"It’s just not clear whether it’s against the villains or against the dementors,” she added.

Taylor nodded grimly. She knew she was mistaken, but she now imagined the Cage as some infernal place, where capes sat huddled within gloomy, cold stone walls, shaking with cold and terror. Dementors flew through the corridors, plunging syringes into heads at the slightest provocation, reveling in the suffering of their victims. A sinister laughter echoed in the background, and the capes gradually went mad.

If you think about it, prison guards in a world where everyone has superpowers would be exactly like this. Invulnerable, ruthless, capable of dealing with any superpower. But still, encountering this underbelly of the cape world—the happy, cheerful, sunny world to which she had escaped from the Dursleys two years ago—had a depressing, oppressive effect on Taylor.

It was as if she had suddenly found herself in that very dark alley with vile supervillains with vile mugs.

"And those words of Brian's," Taylor frowned, "I can't get them out of my head. About the Dark One detectors."

Lisa remained sullenly silent, but Amy touched Taylor's cheek.

"I don't sense any new superpowers in you! You said that everything has gone!"

But Lisa remained sullenly silent, filling Taylor's soul with anxiety.

"We need a way to defeat the Dementors!" Amy exclaimed. "I'll ask the others and write to my parents!"

"If there was a publicly known way to defeat Dementors, everyone would know about it, including the villains," Lisa said reluctantly. "The whole point is that Dementors are getting better and better."

She paused, then added very quietly.

"The Ministry can give them orders."

"So?" Amy didn't understand. "That's good, they order them to catch villains, that's how it should be!"

"Invulnerable robots, capable of defeating any cape," Lisa said quietly. "What if some radicals gain control of the Ministry? Or the Youth Guard, ready to strangle young capes with their tutelage? Or will the defenses be breached, not in the Dementors and the Cage, but in the Ministry itself, in the parts responsible for giving orders to the Dementors? What if the Dark One appoints himself the one giving orders, and then sets the Dementors on the capes?"

"Well-l-l-l," Amy said uncertainly, "will the capes defeat them? Will they all get together and..."

"They'll start fighting right away," Lisa finished for her. "Have you forgotten what they teach us here? Conflicts and releasing aggression?"

"Even Dumbledore?"

"Even Dumbledore. Or didn't you hear her words about the Thinkers? And our headmistress is a Thinker. The very best, but still.

Silence reigned. Taylor kept imagining howling dementors somewhere far away, and a chill wafting off the walls. It was silly, of course, but that dementor had burst into their compartment so purposefully! It even seemed to have given the train's systems some commands to open the window!

"So what now?" Taylor asked.

"You should be the one asking, you're the Tactician," Lisa snapped. "Sorry. We'll keep looking. You said the Minister said Marquis was a friend of your parents?"

"Okay," Taylor said reluctantly. "You can. You're my best friend."

"Okay, look," Lisa began listing, her green eyes flashing in the darkness. "First, we need to hack into Wormwarts' systems and get permission to enter Wormsmeade for you, right? Right. Second, we need to know who's where within Wormwarts itself, which we'll find out by completing step one. Third, it would be nice to fulfill my dream from the first year and, by hacking into the systems, remove ourselves from the surveillance systems. Basically, the same thing as your band does... by the way."

Lisa broke into a wide, almost maniacal smile. Taylor frowned.

"Okay, we'll figure it out. Step three still needs to be completed so those criminals who hacked the Cage don't find us."

"Taylor! You can't spend all your time just training and fighting! Dinah Trelawney, the teacher of Divination, which you chose as one of your two optional subjects!"

"I'll ask Professor Lupin," Taylor agreed meekly.

"Hey, my friend, you're in love," Lisa stated and added mercilessly. "Again."

For which Granger got a fly in her mouth and a pillow to the head.

“No, he can’t be a servant of the Dark One,” Amy doubted.

Fortuna Dumbledore had promised that this year's Defense Against the Dark Powers teacher wouldn't be involved with Jack or the Dark One, but a worm of doubt gnawed at Taylor from within, convinced more than once that the headmistress of Wormwarts wasn't all-powerful.

"Yes?" Granger asked quietly from under the pillow. "What do you think of this theory? The Dementor flew in not because of Taylor, but because it sensed the darkness in Lupin!"

"Oh, yes, he is very dark," Taylor giggled. "But isn't Dumbledore... a-a-a-ah."

The playful mood was gone.

"Yeah," Lisa responded. "That's exactly it. Don't they say the DADP teacher is cursed from the start?"

"Then we need to keep an eye on him," Taylor decided. "Constantly."

"Especially in the shower and bedroom, and definitely in person!" Lisa couldn't resist again.

For which she received another hit on the head with a pillow.
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