He gave the pretty girl a lopsided smile. "Do I have to answer that?" An undertone of something not quite pleading. "The people I thought had written that document, that application, would have known what I meant. I wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise."
A fall from a great height. The desert fortress.
"I'm not what I once was. It's harder to kill me in such a way that I stay dead." Not as hard as killing a gray cap, though.
Hermione read the application with a small frown. "Why should I want mushrooms?" she asked. "Are they the halucenogenic variety? Because, as a member of the school's faculty, I cannot in good conscience endorse drug use." Clearly, Hermione had not talked very much to Professor Kusuriyuri.
"Congratulations on such an early rise to success in academia. On your way to a long and prosperous tenure, I hope." Duncan could be very polite. "I don't happen to be seeking anyone's endorsement, but your point is well taken."
"Thank you." Hermione always enjoyed recognition of her academic abilities, and so she stopped frowning, allowing herself a quick, pleased smile. "Thank you," she said. "I certainly hope my career is long." The smile faded. "So... what do the mushrooms do, exactly? You never answered the question."
"That's a different question than the one you asked," Duncan pointed out. "You asked why you should want them and whether they were hallucinogenic. Those are easier questions to answer than the question of what the mushrooms actually do." He pulled a wry face. "The mushrooms I offered in the application, I offered because I can't think why anyone would want any of the others I have. Are they hallucinogenic? Well, yes. The effect of those particular mushrooms could be described as mildly hallucinogenic, but I think that term has associations that would be misleading. They're not the kind of thing a person might take to expand the horizons of consciousness or liven up a party. More a sedative than a hallucinogen. There are other kinds of mushrooms that serve other purposes, and it'd be highly unfortunate if anyone ate them. Some are weapons. It's a mistake to think of fungus as food or drug and nothing more."
The hat perched jauntily on Duncan's head as a house elf entered, bearing a large slice of cheese and mushroom pizza on a plate.
"Pizza?" the hat inquired politely. "It's all right if you eat in front of me. Bringing happiness to all of my little minions at Hogwarts warms the very cockles of my heart."
Actually, Duncan had no qualms about eating mushrooms. They made for excellent sustenance.
"So many mushrooms for so many purposes," he observed as he helped himself to the oddly messy slice of foodstuff. "Er, is there a kind of utensil for this kind of flatbread?" The cheese was sliding off.
"Oh, yes, mushrooms are quite versatile," the hat said, adopting a knowledgeable air. At Duncan's request for eating utinsels, the house elves thoughtfully provided him a small plastic-wrapped package containing a napkin and a spork.
"So..." drawled the hat presently, "Can mushrooms be used in biological warfare?"
Duncan's beard appeared to be absorbing a stray clot of pizza sauce. His beard was, perhaps, not entirely human hair, nor entirely inert.
"Biological warfare, certainly, much to my city's detriment. Drugs as well, to keep the population docile, or to inflame them into riots if the gray caps find that useful, as at the Festival of the Freshwater Squid. There're few things some fungus or other can't do. I understand I'm supposed to bribe you."
He'd fumbled with the plastic package as he spoke, and finally managed to rip a hole in the end with one jagged fingernail. The napkin thereby extracted he used not on his face but on his hands. His care was pointless, given the grimy state of his coat, but he seemed to want no tomato sauce in the inward pockets of said coat, and it was from one of those pockets that he extracted a packet of mushrooms for the Hat.
"Would this do? If hats don't partake of hallucinogens, I imagine it'd fetch a good price from people who do."
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A fall from a great height. The desert fortress.
"I'm not what I once was. It's harder to kill me in such a way that I stay dead." Not as hard as killing a gray cap, though.
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"Pardon, mein herr, but has du seen Vinston? He iss vhite pigeon. Is needing of me to find him!"
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"No?"
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"Pizza?" the hat inquired politely. "It's all right if you eat in front of me. Bringing happiness to all of my little minions at Hogwarts warms the very cockles of my heart."
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"So many mushrooms for so many purposes," he observed as he helped himself to the oddly messy slice of foodstuff. "Er, is there a kind of utensil for this kind of flatbread?" The cheese was sliding off.
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"So..." drawled the hat presently, "Can mushrooms be used in biological warfare?"
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"Biological warfare, certainly, much to my city's detriment. Drugs as well, to keep the population docile, or to inflame them into riots if the gray caps find that useful, as at the Festival of the Freshwater Squid. There're few things some fungus or other can't do. I understand I'm supposed to bribe you."
He'd fumbled with the plastic package as he spoke, and finally managed to rip a hole in the end with one jagged fingernail. The napkin thereby extracted he used not on his face but on his hands. His care was pointless, given the grimy state of his coat, but he seemed to want no tomato sauce in the inward pockets of said coat, and it was from one of those pockets that he extracted a packet of mushrooms for the Hat.
"Would this do? If hats don't partake of hallucinogens, I imagine it'd fetch a good price from people who do."
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Welcome to Ravenclaw!
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