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[credere]

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[credere]

Credence smiles back - a real smile, unpracticed, but one he can see.

"I - I want to do everything I can, to be a good friend."

[magician_king]

"You are." Promises Quentin, sitting up and scrubbing his hair back. Yes, good. "Thanks."

So;

"You want to become an animagus, then?"

[credere]

"I - "

He flushes.

"I liked being a fox. I want to be able to do that, whenever I want to."

[magician_king]

"You might not end up a fox. As I understand it, it comes from within you. So you'll probably be..." he thinks this over, looking him up and down, "like a meerkat. Or a barnswallow, or maybe a wolf or a panda. Or is that patronuses? I know one of them you don't pick."

[credere]

Credence does not know what a meerkat is, and he'd struggle to identify a panda from a line-up.

"What are patronuses?"

[magician_king]

"There are some magical creatures that feed on human emotions. They're black and ragged and wicked, and they come up to you and draw in a breath and take all the goodness out, leaving you only with misery, chill and despair. To protect yourself against them, you yell expecto patronum, and a literal embodiment of joy in quicksilver comes from the tip of your wand. It's an animal, one that kind of represents you. I think Luna's was- actually I don't remember."

He says, shaking his head.

[credere]

"Oh," he says, and looks - troubled, thoughtful. "Those magical creatures, are they - like me?"

Black, ragged, wicked, parasitic - he can't not ask.

[magician_king]

"No. They're called dementors. I think it's pretty different- but I'll research to see if there's any interaction between your obscurus and them."

He says, thinking about it too, brow creasing.

[credere]

Credence nods.

"I mean, I don't - I've never - breathed anything out of anybody," he says, then checks himself: "I don't think I have."

His command over the Obscurus is a very difficult thing to describe, and his recollection after the fact is imperfect.

[magician_king]

"Good." Says Quentin, and; "So if you're going to learn magic, you can ask Alec to ask the Admiral to build you in a failsafe. Something where if you say the right spell your magic shuts off until he turns it back on, in case you feel it getting out of hand, if you're worried about going off like a firecracker?"

[credere]

That summons a worried frown.

"But - people keep saying I should learn magic for when I'm in the real world," he says. "When I won't be able to just - switch it off."

And this, while tempting, runs directly counter to that.

[magician_king]

"Sure. But whenever you learn a skill, you start with precautions in place then take them away when you get confident. Tight rope walking with a net. Bicycling with training wheels. Fencing with a practice sword made of wood."

Reasons Quentin.

"You should end the arrangement before you leave the barge, but I think it wouldn't hurt for you to know you've got a bit of extra help, while you get used to it all."

[credere]

"I - I guess. I mean - you're right," he says, quickly, having clearly been told at some point that prevarication like I guess is deeply discourteous. "But - I don't know if I can be confident while I'm still - it'd be like - being on a tightrope, but never being able to fall."

Learning to cycle with training wheels only teaches you to cycle with training wheels, not that he knows that.

[magician_king]

"You know best. If it feels wrong to you, listen to that, and don't do it."

Is Quentin's faithful advice.

"Is that what you're feeling?"

[credere]

"I - I think so," he says quietly. "I already - it feels like it's - like it comes faster, now. Because I know I can't really hurt anybody. If I still feel like that when I really could hurt someone..."

He can see the rationale of an emergency brake, but if he just keeps pushing it, he'll never learn to drive. So to speak..

[magician_king]

"Okay."

Says Quentin, a little surprised, but in a pleasant way.

"You've got this, Credence. And I'm here for you."

If he ever needs.

[credere]

Quentin's confidence in him is so completely unfailing and so utterly unconditional that Credence has absolutely no idea what to do with it. It's just as well that he isn't playing a long game, because if he was to turn on a dime at this point and say that his friendship came with certain strings attached? Credence would bend over backwards. He'd kill himself - and several others - in the pursuit of Quentin's approval.

There's a practical matter, too.

"I just...could..."

He fidgets.

"The Obscurus. Could it - hurt you?"

[magician_king]

"Well-"

Says Quentin, whose first impulse is to say 'absolutely not,' but that feels like asking for trouble when he's never actually seen one in action.

"I don't think so. You know I took down Alice when she was a niffin. It's objectively very dangerous, so if it jumped on me in my sleep it'd be fucked- but if you turned right now I could probably take you."

And, who incidentally will never develop strings, or turn out to be Grindelwald or Voldemort or any other kind of dark lord. Just Quentin.

[credere]

For better or for worse.

"That's - good. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of other people who could, as well, but..."

But it's specifically important that he likely can't hurt Quentin.

[magician_king]

"Actually, I wouldn't think so. From what I can tell, you're top ten percent."

He says, because;

"You do have to be careful, which you don't need me to tell you- but when you can get your magic turned in the right direction, you're going to be one of those people we rely on to hold the barge during a fight, to keep the non-powered safe."

[credere]

Credence looks at him suddenly, right in the face - because he needs to, to know he's not lying.

"Do you - really think so?"

Every conversation so far about using his magic has boiled down to being about keeping people safe from him. Not from some external threat he might protect them from.

[magician_king]

"I told you once when we very first met that magic beats back the darkness. That a magician uses his power to break the rules of a world that has tried to break him. Magic can be the secret spring inside your chest-"

He says, looking him right in the eyes, and means this.

"You know I love it. There are so many reasons why."

[credere]

"Yes."

He's still reeling.

"Sorry, I just - nobody's said anything like that before? About saving people."

[magician_king]

"And I think you're going to be good at it. People who've been hurt make the best protectors."

In Quentin's gentle experience.

[credere]

"Oh."

Sometimes, when he's feeling particularly low, he goes back to the reassuring thought that Ma will never hurt Modesty again - but then he remembers he hurt her too, made her watch the Obscurus kill their family and tear apart their home.

"I - I'd like that. I'd like to do more than just...not hurt people?"