Walls & Windows
January thawed into a gray that meant business. Icicles resigned; gutters remembered work; the lake wore tin. Hogwarts liked a season with elbows.
Ravenclaw's eagle asked, "What can be cracked, made, told, and played?"
"A joke," Corvus said. "Preferably with documentation." The door liked that.
In the Hall, porridge steamed like common sense. A short note in McGonagall's hand waited under his spoon:
> Mr. Black—
Detention guidelines have drifted toward the medieval. Modernize safety without coddling consequence. Coordinate with Sprout and Hagrid.
—M. McG.
Errand with edges. Perfect.
> 90. Brief: night outings, poor weather, small feet, large woods.
Goal: build lanes & lamps, not leashes & legends.
---
Controlled Variables — "Field Kit" Session
Behind the fourth gargoyle, the room-that-listens was warm and ready. Fred, George, Susan, and Daphne gathered; chairs arranged themselves like staff.
Corvus chalked:
CV-019 — Lost & Found Chorus
CV-020 — Detention Lanterns
CV-021 — Forest Edge Lullaby
CV-019 — Lost & Found Chorus: A cabinet that hums the owner's initial rhythm when they pass, returning gloves, scarves, dignity without shame. (Tag by tap; no tattling; nightly amnesty.)
CV-020 — Detention Lanterns: Teacher-carried field lamps keyed to Hold the children. Brighten on fear density, dim on calm. Project knee-high Night Lines ten paces ahead; whisper Home back toward the castle if anyone bolts. No names. No trails. Decay in fifteen minutes.
CV-021 — Forest Edge Lullaby: At the treeline: a gentle misdirection for students after dusk—boots turn back the way tea lives. Opt-out for staff, Gamekeeper, and non-hostile residents.
Daphne's mouth tilted. "You're teaching the woods etiquette."
"I'm asking it to respect bedtime," Corvus said. "There's a difference."
> 91. Ethics: No tracking, no shaming, no traps. Lanes & lamps only.
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Sprout's Sanity Check
Greenhouse Three smelled like earth with opinions. Professor Sprout listened, then tried a Detention Lantern herself. The glass warmed as if approving her cardigan; light rose when a nervous second-year approached, then settled when his shoulders did.
"Kind," Sprout said. "Not soft." She clipped the lamp to her belt. "Bring three to Hagrid; he'll call them handsome and use them forever."
> 92. CV-020 (pilot): faculty uptake high; fear → light; calm → hush. No drama.
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Hagrid's Weather
The hut's chimney had learned the Chimney Accord; smoke behaved. Hagrid set down two mugs the size of small ambitions and said, "Forest's been funny."
"Funny how?" Corvus asked, like an engineer filing a change request.
"Quiet where it shouldn't. Paths you know go wrong for a bit, then right again. Unicorns… spooked."
The coin cooled against Corvus's sternum, that hollow absence temperature.
"I've built lanterns," he said, and placed three on Hagrid's table. "And a lullaby for the edge—just enough to turn daft boots around if they're not meant to be there."
Hagrid's beard attempted to hide a smile and failed. "Good lad."
They stood a moment in the door. The treeline wore dusk like a warning that had learned manners. Corvus didn't step closer. He let the wrong harmony graze his teeth and kept his hands at his sides.
> 93. Forest status: amplitude ↓, intent ≠ zero. Witnesses later. Walls, not thresholds.
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Lost & Found, Sung Back
By lunch the Lost & Found Chorus had swallowed half a corridor's worth of scarves. It hummed a three-note signature when Hannah walked by; her glove hopped to the front like a repentant cat. No detentions, maximal gratitude.
Fred tried to game it with five hats. The box emitted a prim ahem and returned only the one with his initial tucked under the brim. Daphne watched, entertained. "Civilization by cupboard," she said.
"Cupboards carry empires," Corvus replied, and wrote it down.
> 94. CV-019: petty theft ↓; hallway delays ↓; Pince scowls ↓ by one molecule.
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Lantern Drill (Unannounced)
McGonagall scheduled a surprise drill with Sprout at dusk: five students, two lanterns, sleet with opinions. Corvus shadowed as weather, not thunder.
"Hold the children," Sprout said before step-off; the lamps breathed brighter; the stair held, pleased to be included. As the wind knifed, the lanterns cast knee-high lines that curved naturally around slick and bottleneck both. A nervous first-year whispered Home out of habit; the rear lamp pulsed and showed him the way back to the nearest prefect without making a spectacle of it.
McGonagall walked the line once, wordless, hands in sleeves. On return, she nodded—one precise degree. "Modern," she said. "Keep it."
> 95. Field kit live: exits kept; panic amortized; dignity intact.
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Peeves Attempts Lantern Ballet
Ten minutes later, Peeves swooped to nick a lamp and juggle it with two candlesticks and a sickle moon.
"Peeves," Corvus called up, "the trophies say your luminal phrasing lacks thesis."
"LUMINAL—" Peeves shrieked, and streaked toward brass and glory. The lamp refused poltergeist hands on principle and drifted back to Sprout with the injured dignity of a swan.
> 96. Poltergeist mgmt: insult his vocabulary; lamps unionized.
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Snape's Two-Sentence Weather
In the dungeon corridor, Snape paused by a lantern on Sprout's belt. His gaze measured, weighed, filed.
"Black."
"Professor."
"If you insist on civilizing the school's bad habits, do leave me a few. Some foolishness is instructional."
"I'll spare your sarcasm," Corvus said.
A pause that might have been almost-humor. "Imagine more slowly," Snape added, like an oath, and moved on.
---
Forest Edge Lullaby — Switch-On
At curfew, with Sprout's sign-off and Hagrid's grunt, Corvus laced the treeline with CV-021. No net, no wall—just the gentlest nudge in the grain of bark and path: tea is that way; teeth are not for you.
The woods accepted manners the way giants accept umbrellas: skeptically, then with relief.
The coin cooled once—noted—and then warmed—enough.
> 97. Edge Lullaby: installed; staff opt-out confirmed; centaur lanes undisturbed (by design).
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Tower, Windows—Then Frost
Ravenclaw's knocker asked, "What is always in front of you but can't be seen?"
"The future," Corvus said, and felt the forest breathe, distant and wrong, but politely wrong—for now.
On the sill: coin and locket, twin moons harmonized. He didn't open the locket. Kept doors hold roofs up.
Frost wrote, small and neat:
Windows raised.
Then, after a pause that sounded like hoofbeats a long way off:
Soon: witness.
He tapped the glass—acknowledgment, not invitation—and logged the day until it fit.
> 98. Deliverables:
– CV-019 Lost & Found Chorus live; corridor grumpiness ↓.
– CV-020 Detention Lanterns live; drills passed; stair treaty integrated.
– CV-021 Forest Edge Lullaby live; turn-back without shame; staff bypass clean.
– Hagrid briefed; Sprout co-owner; McGonagall—modernized/approved; Snape—sarcasm ≈ consent.
98a. Doctrine: Build walls that behave like windows: they keep the weather out and let the light in. Lanes & lamps beat leashes & legends.
He doused the lamp. The castle, pleased to be managed like a partner, settled its old bones. Out at the trees, something unpleasant paced and found its route slightly less convenient; it chose to wait.
"Steady," Corvus told the room.
The coin warmed—yes—and Hogwarts, civilized and watchful, kept the night.
Evening folded itself into the stone, neat as a ledger. Snow said: behave. The castle agreed.
Warm Quarters held the hearths to a civilized glow; Owl Lane kept the sky from being silly. Corvus did his rounds with hands in pockets and mind on railings—the world runs better when the edges do.
---
1) Detention, Modern
Sprout and Hagrid ran the first Detention Lanterns outing at dusk: four students, two teachers, an itinerary of storm-fall cleanup along the edge—not the inside—of the Forest. Corvus trailed at the corridor mouth, the role he's made a vocation: weather, not thunder.
Sprout clipped a lamp to her belt. "Hold the children."
—The stair steadied, pleased to be consulted.
—The lamps breathed up, casting knee-high Night Lines ahead like polite moonlight.
Sleet tried to be a personality trait; the lanterns declined to be impressed.
Halfway down the grounds a nervous kid whispered Home without even thinking. The rear lamp pulsed and quietly painted a path back to the nearest prefect. No names. No noise. Dignity intact.
Hagrid pointed with a hand the size of a friendly door. "We stop at the line, an' no farther."
The Edge Lullaby thrummed through bark and root—boots that meant mischief found themselves remembering cocoa; boots that meant work reached the fallen branches just fine. From beyond the treeline came a hollow hush—the not-sound of something unpleasant choosing patience.
Corvus didn't step closer. He put his palm to stone and counted breath like hardware.
> 99. Field kit (live): lamps ↑ when fear ↑, lamps ↓ when calm ↑; Night Lines prevent splay; Edge Lullaby turns foolishness into tea. Zero theatrics, three armloads of branches, one shy thanks.
McGonagall met them at the steps on the return, wind in her scarf and approval disguised as brevity. "Modern," she said. "Keep it."
"Classic cut," Corvus said. "No ruffles."
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2) Chorus, Approved
Back inside, the Lost & Found Chorus sang three notes at Hannah; a scarf popped forward like a repentant cat. Pince allowed herself one molecule of smirk, then stamped an RRA form so hard the ink sat up straight.
Fred tried to tag five hats again. The cabinet emitted a prim ahem and surrendered only the one monogrammed under the brim. Daphne, spectating, murmured, "Civilization by cupboard," as if she'd coined it.
> 100. CV-019 audit: amnesty works; petty theft ↓; hallway delays ↓; gratitude measurable.
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3) Snape's Lantern Theology
In a dungeon corridor that had learned to be temperate, Snape paused at Sprout's lamp with the air of a man forced to respect a spoon.
"This thing brightens on fear density?"
"It prefers sane routes to dramatic ones," Corvus said.
"My least favorite virtue," he replied, which was Slytherin for not terrible.
A beat. "If you must soothe the building, Black, leave me irony and injured pride as pedagogical materials."
"I will never optimize those," Corvus promised.
Snape's mouth made a ghost of a smirk, then remembered itself. "Imagine more slowly," he said, out of habit and—just possibly—hope.
---
4) Peeves, Deflected (Seasonal Edition)
Peeves attempted a lantern ballet—candlesticks, lamp, and a moon stolen from someone else's weather report. Corvus didn't look up.
"Peeves," he said, "the trophies say your luminal phrasing lacks thesis."
"LUMINAL—" Peeves howled, and cannoned off toward brass and outrage. The lamp drifted back to Sprout under its own union rules.
> 100a. Poltergeist management: vocabulary insults > gravity.
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5) Forest Weather, Witness Pending
On his last loop, the coin cooled—absence temperature, same as the Quidditch day—then warmed with a small, polite enough. Hoofbeats far in the trees like punctuation: not invitation, not quite threat. The Edge Lullaby held.
Hagrid, in the doorway of the hut, lifted a hand: later. Corvus returned the same: witness, not threshold.
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6) Paperwork, the Highest Magic
Back in the library, Pince presided over two new Restricted Reading Appointments, stamped to within an inch of the parchment's self-respect. Hermione, cheeks winter-pink, slid a biography stack to Harry with the vibe of a general who has found the correct hill. Ron's quill behaved when not glared at.
Index Thread hummed only when asked. The room did not need a choir; it had rules.
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7) Tower, Frost, and a Sentence with Windows
Ravenclaw's knocker: "What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks?"
"A river," Corvus said. "Today it's rules."
On the sill: coin and locket, twin moons of different weather. He didn't open the locket; kept doors hold roofs up.
Frost wrote, crisp and small:
LANES HELD.
Then, underneath, the thing he'd been expecting and choosing toward:
Tomorrow: witness.
He tapped the glass once—agreement, not bravado—and wrote until the day fit in its box.
> 101. Deliverables:
– Detention Lanterns proven in sleet; "Hold the children" integrated; Night Lines kept feet honest.
– Edge Lullaby effective; forest chose patience; staff bypass clean.
– Lost & Found Chorus continued penitence parade; Pince's scowl elasticity ↑.
– Snape: sarcasm ≈ consent; McG: "Modern." Hagrid: later.
101a. Doctrine (Walls & Windows): Build lanes the brave can use and the frightened can trust. Teach lamps to tell the truth about weather. Keep doors as promises, mirrors under rules, forests at the edge—with a witness.
He doused the lamp. The castle—pleased to be managed like a partner, not solved like a riddle—settled its old bones. Out at the treeline, something unpleasant paced two steps and reconsidered three. Paradox muttered one approving syllable that pretended to be a snore.
"Steady," Corvus told the dark.
The coin warmed: yes. The locket kept its star like a pilot light. And Hogwarts, civilized and watchful, held the night.