The Wizarding Method PV Robert Toukmond Closed

As the other began to talk about his experiences with the lake, Leonard kept his eyes on the notebook while scribbling with a pen. Even if the project that had brought them together was about studying the wonders made by wands and potentially dangerous creatures of the wizarding world, the snake couldn't bear to take a glance at Robert while the other was on the topic of tentacles and musings about the squid's meals for the day.

"Yeah, someone always falls in during the ride here. I mean, it's a load of excited eleven-year-olds who just discovered magic floating along a gigantic lake, it's bound to happen," he said, continuing to note down the eagle's words with a mix of a humorous smile and an uneasy grimace. "I didn't see the person, and luckily I wasn't the person, but judging from the wet footprints that were scattered around during my Sorting, it's probably been a tradition to have someone take a swim."

"No need to feel embarrassed about being ahead in class, Robert," he said, setting the notebook and pen down to contemplate how exactly the portraits gained personality. It wasn't something he thought of much, the paintings being a daily presence. When classes consisted of things only seen in horror-comedy films, there was a lot more on most people's minds then figuring out how to make their own magical pictures. "I've always thought it was something more like a caricature, in a sense, exaggerating the traits of the subject even if they weren't exactly like that in real life. Maybe there's some special charm? I don't know, really. We could always a professor, or the paintings themselves."

Leonard wasn't much of an art connoisseur, but it did interest him now. It was apparent that intelligence was unable to be conjured for drawings, and most of his encounters with others in the castle proved that intelligence couldn't be conjured for actual people as well. The Ravenclaw was an apparent exception, an inquisitive mind. While the whole experiment recruitment had begun with little to no seriousness, with the discussion gaining more ground the dark-haired of the duo was beginning to think that he would gladly rent out a laboratory for them.

Robert was shocked to learn that what had happened on his boat ride was not so unusual as he had thought. It made him feel marginally better about his role in the whole fiasco, but not by much. The first-year laughed as Leonard painted the realistic picture of how terrible an idea the tradition of sending the youngest students across the lake to the castle really is. Although, then again, how would Leonard know how common it was for students to fall out of the boat? Even if it had happened both this year and last, you can't find a pattern with only two data points. And this was a school, after all, they wouldn't keep doing the boat ride year after year if every time they did it, someone almost got hypothermia. And so, the temporary relief flew out as the guilt came running back.

Pushing past it, he focused on the Slytherin's response to his other question about the paintings. "Hm, the only problem is that even if they are just caricatures, they would still need at least some form of intelligence to communicate, retain memories, stuff like that, right? It would make sense for there to be a special charm, though." The first-year's ears perked up when Leonard mentioned asking a professor for more information. "That's a great idea! I don't know any professors yet, but I would like to develop a relation with them. Who do you think we could go to?"

The more the two talked, the better Robert felt about this. It was obvious that Leonard was a fellow academic, and they had already proved to be a good team. With his new perspective on the world of magic, allowing him to be constantly amazed by everything and not take anything for granted, combined with Leonard's experience as a guide, the Ravenclaw was sure they could accomplish great things. Of course, he had been all in since the start, even despite the rather comical way the interaction had started. Discussions like this were what Robert lived for, taking the most mundane of objects, breaking them down, and realizing how complex the universe is, even the simplest ideas. With the addition of magic, one would be hard pressed to make the boy happier.

Discussing the sentience of oil paintings was not how Leonard anticipated he would be spending his first few hours back at the castle, but considering the other possible and much less tame surprises that could have happened, it was a welcome way to start off the year. Something else that was also welcome was that the conversation was safely being steered away from the topic of squids and the possible appetites of such creatures. And so, the older of the two took a moment to fully ponder the arguments presented by the boy across him, instead of waving it off because, really, art in the form of colors splattered to vaguely represent a historical figure never interested him much until then.

"Before I used to think they were sort of like characters in a video game," he gestured to one of the framed pictures at the end of the hall. "As in, they only had a certain number of responses for pre-programmed keywords and questions. I tested that theory out last year, though, and believe me, that is not the case. Unless, of course, that knight asked whoever was painting him to program in a death threat if anybody asked his painting where the toilets were. Wouldn't put it past him, or any wizard, having said that. Eccentric lot, these are. You know those people who set their tables on fire? They're just the tip of the iceberg here."

It was quite fun to introduce the new students to the chaos of the school, Leonard thought. Perhaps he could start a business of sorts with Robert, guiding other first-years through the labyrinth of corridors while gaining more test subjects for study and experimentation. Hitting two birds with one stone, as some said. However, he was fairly certain the Ravenclaw was too normal and considerate of others' emotions (a flaw, in the snake's perspective, but something they could work on) to consider using people in place of guinea pigs. That wouldn't last for long, though, he assured himself. The school would work its horrible magic, and nobody would get out without some form of self-preservation being a new goal.

"As for professors we can ask," the Slytherin wrote down the names while saying them, though he knew he probably wouldn't have gained the amount of initiative needed to talk to any sort of authority figure. "The obvious answer would be the Charms professor, Professor Vernatis. He's a relatively nice person, from what I know, so I think he'd be open to getting some questions about that. Since most portraits are of great inventors of spells or potions from history, maybe Professor Zahid, the bloke who teaches History of Magic, would also be someone we can ask."

Robert was happy to see the older boy taking his time to think through this topic, proving he was actually interested in the conversation instead of just humoring the first-year. As Leonard did begin to talk, Robert realized there was a lot to unpack. The Slytherin's comparison of the portraits to video game characters made the Ravenclaw realize that this was someone like him, who also didn't come from a wizarding family. Thinking back, Robert realized Leonard had alluded to this fact before, but the younger boy had been too worried about other things being said to pay much attention to it. Despite the muggle background, the second-year still seemed to have much more experience with the paintings than himself, which made sense. What made less sense was that someone would purposely program a painting in a school to threaten the students. Leonard kept hinting that people at Hogwarts were a bit crazy, but Robert still couldn't quite believe it without seeing an example of this firsthand.

"I remember learning about something called the Turing Test used on muggle artificial intelligence, maybe we could use something similar on the paintings?" Robert mused. "I honestly don't remember much about the test though, just that it's used to determine whether something has true intelligence, or just a close simulation of it. Does the library here have information on muggle things too?"

As the second-year started listing off names, Robert tried his hardest to remember them, but they all slipped away as soon as they were said. He'd always had trouble with names, especially without a face to attach to it, and this time was no different from others. "The History of Magic professor probably wouldn't be too much help with what we're trying to figure out, right? Since the thing we're curious about is how the portraits work, not what they’re supposed to be, I would think the Charms professor would be our better bet."

Should a given stranger manage to conjure up the misplaced confidence to approach Leonard Oaksworth and ask him exactly how surprised or shocked he was to see such a spectacle as a student sharing his fond sentiment for the sciences, the Slytherin in question wouldn’t have been able to summon a proper statement just yet. True, he hadn’t encountered any peers who had matched even half of his passion for logistics and logging data for an entire school year, being jostled around by suffocating, screeching hordes who could only think of the next set of Newton-stamping lessons to study and immediately forget after they were dismissed from the room of learning and half-listening. True, his doubt and dislike of himself had grown from sizes comparable to an atom to that so unignorable even Babbage’s engine would cower due to its sheer mass because of it, and he’d long begun to feel as though he’d flopped out of his natural habitat to be met with an unsought revelation rendering him to stupefaction about his intelligence. True, he had somewhat started falling victim to the horrors of prejudice, and though he knew it was a terrible, terrible thing, he felt as though he couldn’t help but start viewing everyone else as his enemy, or at least unconsciously obtuse and hindering his studies. True, he could barely wrap his head around the fact his instincts had finally worked in his favour, and that had he not been observant for even one second more this opportunity and conference would’ve completely passed him by with neither party’s awareness.

False, however, would be the term ‘totally, utterly, absolutely, other-adverb-ending-in-ly surprised’ being applied to him in relation to this serendipitous meeting, for even if virtually everything about his mental state and demeanour would suggest otherwise, the boy had hope for something just like this. Perhaps Toukmond would remain in the dark about it, but his very existence could’ve been truthfully considered a lifesaver.

Focusing back on the topic at scribbling hand, he turned to face the Ravenclaw with intention of marking down each and every word the other said. It was already apparent that there were many, many questions they would have to ask with the broad pitch Leonard had made, but they really did need to mark off some techniques and find what would work best. A large demand for two students, one of whom hadn’t even learned a single spell? Yes. Something he had faith in? Also yes.

“I think the Turing Test was used for figuring out whether a computer could pass for human, or rather, could think like a human would. Maybe not intelligence in its purest form, but something close to that. We might have to alter it a bit to suit our sort of experiment first, though, since in Turing’s system there was a judge who already knew that the computer was, well, a computer,” he speculated, letting the poor pen’s ink rest for a bit before being used once more to make some bullet points for their observing and analysing. “I’m not sure how much self-awareness a portrait has, if it varies between them, or if they’re self-aware at all, so that’s another thing we’ll need to figure out.”

“I’m not certain that there is, but I do know there’s got to be millennia’s worth of information there.” He shrugged inconclusively to the query about the library, and though he didn’t like admitting he wasn’t a perfect guide to Hogwarts and all its locations, he couldn’t possibly desecrate the sacred temple of knowledge that housed thousands of writing works. “It’s got to be one of the largest places here at the castle, there’s little chance that zero muggle concepts or objects are discussed in all of the books.”

“Got it,” he muttered to the next reply, trying to recall what methods of direct communication with professors were available to the students. The methods that weren’t either forbidden by the rules or just plain disregarding what boundaries were. “There’s a chance he could point us to some books about the topic, or at least the spell used to make these talking things.”

Resting his chin on the back of his hand, he pondered their next move for a moment. With the brief mention of the library had come more curiosity flooding the older boy’s mind. Even with his frequent visits to the resident athenaeum, though some more for the peace and quiet instead of seeking enlightenment on the progress of cures for several dragon diseases, he had far from explored all of the library, much less read all of the humongous tomes in dusty nooks and window-lighted crannies. There really was no limit to what they could learn together. For now, though, he’d try and narrow it down somewhat.

“I know we could also have a chat with the librarian, but I think there’s a closing time to her desk. How would you feel about meeting up there sometime soon to further our research? Preferably not after closing time, of course, but anything in the name of science goes for me.”