Location: Director’s Office, Department of Mysteries. Present: J. Crane, A. Dumbledore. Crane and Dumbledore drinking eggnog. Dumbledore keeps one eye on a Hogwarts security map, spread across a coffee table.
CRANE: 1992, eh?
DUMBLEDORE: A long fifty years it’s been.
CRANE: Fifty, eh? Hard to believe it.
DUMBLEDORE: Well. Forty seven, I suppose.
[They sip their nogs in silence, contemplating the fire.]
CRANE: I wonder. I wonder. These curricular plans – I wonder, Albus, if you’ve considered including a certain German wizard in your considerations.
[Dumbledore starts visibly, but does not turn away from the fire.]
DUMBLEDORE: Grindelwald? That matter, Judas, was settled some years ago.
CRANE: Yes, yes, and the right decision for the time. I happen to agree. But I wonder – perhaps now – this new – threat. Perhaps it is time once again to – re-educate.
[Pause. Dumbledore turns to the security map.]
DUMBLEDORE: There are things best left forgotten.
CRANE: Forgotten by your pupils, Albus? Or forgotten by you?
DUMBLEDORE: [Turned away from Crane] Your tongue moves too freely. You forgot to whom you speak.
CRANE: My apologies. I only suggest – these are extraordinary times. Soon to be extraordinary, at least. A reminder to your young people of the why of the matter – perhaps it could be to their benefit.
DUMBLEDORE: I do not follow. Is the why not already in place?
CRANE: I wonder, I wonder. The danger of integration. Of muggle experimentation. Of – cybernetics. I’m not sure they understand –
DUMBLEDORE: [raising his voice] They are not meant to understand! They are not meant to wonder! Put away these concerns of old men, Judas. We are men of a different age. We have bred out that danger. It is no longer our concern.
CRANE: So long as we forget.
DUMBLEDORE: [shouting] We have forgotten!
CRANE: Well. You are the schoolmaster. I shan’t interfere.
DUMBLEDORE: It’s no matter. No matter.
[A long pause.]
DUMBLEDORE: Concerns have reached my ears.
CRANE: Concerns?
DUMBLEDORE: Your man in Yugoslavia. He’s been asking questions.
CRANE: Ah. As he should be, yes? A natural curiosity comes with the job.
DUMBLEDORE: My understanding is that he was placed there as an overseer. Does he not understand his role?
CRANE: He understands. I’ve allowed him the leeway to wonder – he’s too sharp, I fear – too sharp to simply accept orders.
DUMBLEDORE: Too sharp, eh?
CRANE: You requested my best man. Greengrass is my very best.
DUMBLEDORE: Hmm. Funny that your best man is the only one I have not had the ability to mould. Strange that a role that might inspire some suspicions of me would fall to the only employable wizard in England without scholastic loyalty.
CRANE: Well, I find that I myself am quite sharp too.
[Pause. Then, laughter.]
DUMBLEDORE: Aha! Good play, Judas. Good play.
CRANE: I wouldn’t fear Greengrass’s suspicions. His reports to me have been quite perfunctory. He’s determined the ramifications of his duties, nothing more. He will continue to serve as our overseer for quite some time, I hope. He will need eventually to know.
DUMBLEDORE: Yes, yes, I suppose that’s true. I worry, perhaps, as he reports to you, that you might end up knowing more than you’d like.
CRANE: I have the dossier.
DUMBLEDORE: But you have not read it.
CRANE: I have not.
DUMBLEDORE: [sips his nog, contemplates the fire] Do Greengrass’s reports – disturb you?
CRANE: [Pause.] I have seen Hiroshima. I have seen this new weapon. I understand the threat. There is very little that would disturb me.
[Pause.]
DUMBLEDORE: Have there been developments? Has – the weapon – developed?
CRANE: Small developments, yes. I do not understand their – I do not understand these devices the way you do. There is a new automaton within the box. Something named Viola. The Finns are up to something too. There are other things, reports of other things, from the Orient. Have you heard of the nintendo? There’s a new one. A super. Yoshi.
DUMBLEDORE: I’m afraid I haven’t the foggiest idea what you are talking about.
CRANE: No matter. We are monitoring the growth of the weapon. We have seen the advances it has taken, even in these few months. I am confident that it will explode. I only fear that our – precautions – are not enough. [Pause.] Is your plan working, Dumbledore?
DUMBLEDORE: There have been hitches. The boy has much to learn.
CRANE: A lot of hope you’ve placed in James Potters’ brat.
[Dumbledore looks over the Hogwarts security map and strokes his beard, his eyes following a dot walking pacing back in forth in a classroom in the north-east corner of the fourth floor.]
DUMBLEDORE: Ah. All brats grow. They must.
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THE PENSIEVE PAPERS 