As to the even more complicated tampering with time, pendejos indeed. Hm, one hopes that Jacob will offer more choice Spanish insults in the future.
 
I'm not even quite sure what Jacob was trying to achieve with those last questions. Rather than having anything to do with the case, it seemed to devolve into Jacob failing to understand Lupins reasoning and mental state. Like Lupin had just turned into a puzzle himself, rather than a piece in the Sirius mystery.
Is why I think we need Empathy. Jacob thinks he can brute force his way into any answer, not realizing that no, he at times needs a gentler or more subtle approach.
 
You had thought about this very moment for days. You brainstormed with Megan how to best approach the topic. She had advised you to be sensitive and first talk about classes. She wanted you to say how much you appreciated the professor and thank him for his work this past year. Only then, should you slowly zoom in on the real topic.

Megan had proposed a good approach.

"Professor, was the Shrieking Shack build specifically for you or was it placed for other werewolf students as well?" You asked instead.
Damn it Jacob. Why are you like this?
Lupin looked a little hurt. "You think I am a bad teacher?" He asked.

Oh. You had said that part out loud, huh? You were not good with people when you were this annoyed and antagonistic.

"Yes, I do." You answered, without clarifying it further.
Damn it Jacob!
Jacob really not holding back. To think that one comment by Lupin said in an attempt to reassure a student could have such repercussions.

So the werewolf has the time turner and Jacob has to fight to get it so he can go back in time. But he only know where it is because his future self told him. Damn time loops. Can't help but think that Accio would have rendered this fight easy. Since we could have just summoned the time turner away from Lupin.

Hopefully we can get through this without anyone getting bit. Or without Sirius dying since it looks like he got hurt.

DC of 4000 to become an animagus?
I suppose that makes sense since Jacob seems set on setting up the whole ritual himself. Plus the whole process is a pain. Daily incantations and having to keep a mandrake leaf in your mouth for that month and then having to remove the leaf under the light of a full moon and immediately brew it into the transformation potion. If clouds cover the moon that month you have to repeat the process all over again.
 
Currently, for lack of better options, I'd vote for:

[ ] This could be a Tragedy

It's what the Mauraders, sans Peter of course, would want. Framed another way, it's not the responsibility of children to be mauled for the mistakes of their parents' generation.
 
The safety and welfare of the children must be the foremost priority. Anything else in this instant is secondary. As much as Jacob has grown, one would hardly think that he has grown to the point that he can afford to hold back against a werewolf.
 
You hit the corner; your eyes wide open your wand up in the air to defend yourself if necessary.

But there was nothing in front of you. The floor was desolated. You looked left and right, then back over your shoulder. Only a rat was running away from your place at the corner. So, you looked down the adjacent hallway again. The one where Pettigrew had been in just a second prior.

Still empty.

Your mind came to a halt as you took your map back into your hand. Was it a mistake you had built into the map? The name Pettigrew was now moving away from you. As you turned around again, your heart sank.

Had you been so obsessed with a new case that your magic had felt obliged to participate in it? Was this all just a wrong trail of misassumptions and wrong turns?

Your eyes followed the brown rat in the distance. As she went left into the direction you had passed by Tracey, you looked back at your map again.

"Oh," you finally said.

Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus.
Wow, this case is really getting to Jacob. Never seen him doubt himself so much. Though I wouldn't expect him to feel any other way. Once he sticks his teeth into something, he can't let it go.

New entry: Animagus Transformation Transfiguration. This may not be one of the most difficult pieces of magic, but it may be one of the hardest to achieve. An Animagus (pl. Animagi) is someone who can transform themselves into an animal and back again at will and without a wand. The ritual to start alone will take months, you will have to learn new skills that will be useful only for that and only then the actual learning part for the transformation can start. Now you start to understand why there are so few Animagi around. The time it takes to make your body and soul react to the change is completely out of proportion to the benefits it brings you. Acquiring the skill takes most people two to five years. Every Animagus is required to register with the Ministry of Magic at the Animagus Registry. This registration includes revealing one's animal form and one's distinguishing markings. The penalty for failing to register as an Animagus is a sentence in Azkaban. But you are not that worried about that last part. [Requires Transfiguration skill of at least A- & Potion skill of A+), DC: 4000.
Ooh boy, that is a huge time investment. I suppose it makes sense as to why there are so few Animagi now. If the only requirement was to be talented in Transifguration then more people would be capable of it. The real bottleneck is that it is just a time-lengthy process and most people have better things to do.

"I understand that you want to solve it yourself, and I understand that it is a complicated mess. But this isn't just a game. There could be serious consequences if you don't tell someone. People could die." The grip of her hand around your arm tightened.

You shook your head again. "I have already told you before that I don't do this to be good." You repeated something that had come up in your very first real conversation that you ever had with the person next to you. A person that by now … knew you probably the best out of all your friends.
At least he told Megan about it. That is some progress. Before he wouldn't have told anyone. If I had to guess, it is possible that Megan told Snape about what Jacob found? That would explain him coming down to the Shack. And alternate explanation would be that Snape checked in on Lupin and found him not in his room and then followed his trail from there. Lupin escaping the castle probably wasn't too discrete.

"Mr. Basques," he said, his voice a mere whisper. "Please leave my office."

Your eyes stayed on him for a moment longer. Then you nodded, letting the wand drop inside your pocket before standing up. The disgust for this man had left your heart. Now there was an emptiness as you saw him sitting there, looking like a broken husk.

You left his office without a next step in mind. But with an answer at least. Lupin was not doing this to hide anything. He was just a weak man, who had lost a lot, someone who had just given in and was dragged along by the tides.

And you had done your best to throw him deeper into the water.
Oof. About what I expected to be honest. Jacob isn't much of a people person. One of his flaws.

"Fucking Time Turners." You said. "Fucking pendejos!"
I didn't expect this for a end of year event. Though, it makes sense. If Pettigrew had the chance he would definitely go for the Time Turner. And him hanging around Ron all year would provide him plenty of opportunities to learn about it.

First Vote

We are here. The climax of year three. Two hundred thousand words brought you here, dear voices inside Jacob's head. Now, we go into the last round.

Please Allocate Time Echoes first. You have 15 available and can expect three main events. There will be a (1) fight against a werewolf first, (2) then some time travel for the event of saving Harry Potter and then (3) the resolution of everything that you don't know yet. Because in the end there will still be one version of Black, Pettigrew and Lupin to account for. And you don't know what to expect with any of them, because it has not happened yet.

I will only accept Plans like the following (Example, TE stands for Time Echo):


[X] Plan A – 1 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 0 TE for [Saving Potter], 1 TE for [Last Act]
I don't think we should be stingy here. Maybe put 6 for the Werewolf Fight, 4 for Saving Potter, and 3 for the Last Act? Leave 2 TE's in reserve?

[] Plan Not To Stingy – 6 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 4 TE for [Saving Potter], 3 TE for [Last Act]

Something like this? Either way, most of the TE's should probably go towards thew Werewolf Fight, because that is probably the most dangerous encounter.

Second Vote

Vote for only one of these additionally to your first vote:

[ ] Alive and well - Prioritize keeping Black, Pettigrew and Lupin alive. This will impact the rolls against you. When one tries to get it all … one might lose it all.

[ ] The lost wolf – Prioritize keeping Lupin alive. This will make your fights against him more difficult. But you can't have him dead. You hurt him enough, this would be punching down.

[ ] This could be a Tragedy – You still don't know if Black and Pettigrew are innocent or not. Maybe only one of them is a criminal, maybe its both of them. It's very simple. You don't care. Lupin would be a tragedy. But it is more important to save the students and keep both of yourselves without bites.
Not really in favor of the first one. If Jacob tries to keep all of them alive, he probably won't succeed. He can't hamper himself like that. I'm not sure handicapping himself against Lupin is a good idea either. You don't want to mess around with Werewolves, they are fast, mobile, and one bite and it's over.

Learning towards this one right now.

[ ] This could be a Tragedy – You still don't know if Black and Pettigrew are innocent or not. Maybe only one of them is a criminal, maybe its both of them. It's very simple. You don't care. Lupin would be a tragedy. But it is more important to save the students and keep both of yourselves without bites.

Also, I know that Lupin is depressed and all, but would it have killed him to take his potion to control the transformation. Like seriously, if a Werewolf takes a job at Hogwarts, you can't have this sort of negligence. When I first read this book I felt bad for him, but now that I'm older I'm just shaking my head. What were people thinking hiring him on. Can't believe I'm on Snape's side right now. All it takes is one mishap and you have a massacre on your hands.

Ok, guys? We seriously need to work on Empathy. Jacob just broke a guy because his idiotic ass doesn't comprehend how to get answers that isn't blunt force.
It was more the bad roll, but yeah, working on Empathy should probably be done.

I'm not even quite sure what Jacob was trying to achieve with those last questions. Rather than having anything to do with the case, it seemed to devolve into Jacob failing to understand Lupins reasoning and mental state. Like Lupin had just turned into a puzzle himself, rather than a piece in the Sirius mystery.
Jacob values his Case more than Lupin, which isn't surprising. He wanted answers from Lupin without explaining why he wanted those answers. If it was someone like Megan it would probably be different and Jacob would be more understanding.
 
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I wonder how much of Lupin was a persecution complex over his pool of sad man, with his emotional equilibrium buoyed up by students liking him.
[X] Plan As All Things Should Be – 5 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 5 TE for [Saving Potter], 5 TE for [Last Act]
[X] This could be a TragedyYou still don't know if Black and Pettigrew are innocent or not. Maybe only one of them is a criminal, maybe its both of them. It's very simple. You don't care. Lupin would be a tragedy. But it is more important to save the students and keep both of yourselves without bites.
 
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Is why I think we need Empathy. Jacob thinks he can brute force his way into any answer, not realizing that no, he at times needs a gentler or more subtle approach.
I'm not sure if this is the fault of our low empathy. I think its his obsessive trait instead. Whenever his mind latches on to something he doesn't know the answers to when he is in a fey mood he'll brute force his way to answers. Notice how his previous questions about Pettigrew were all forgotten in favor of finding out what made Lupin make his decisions regarding Sirius. Even when that wasn't relevant to the greater mystery at all, it was about sating his curiosity when he couldn't logically understand Lupin.
 
Yes, as noted, once again, Lupin neglected to take the crucial potion. Even if one were sympathetic to Lupin, and one is not, then or now, such gross negligence should rightfully be grounds for immediate dismissal, considering the great danger to the students.

Not just Lupin, the dear Headmaster should be under a stringent audit for hiring a werewolf and not taking far more rigorous measures and placing safeguards to ensure that the werewolf in question would not forget or refuse to take the critical medicine to prevent danger to the students.
 
I need to be off to bed, but I really want to vote, so apologies for ignoring the moratorium...

[X] This could be a Tragedy – You still don't know if Black and Pettigrew are innocent or not. Maybe only one of them is a criminal, maybe its both of them. It's very simple. You don't care. Lupin would be a tragedy. But it is more important to save the students and keep both of yourselves without bites.
 
Yes, as noted, once again, Lupin neglected to take the crucial potion. Even if one were sympathetic to Lupin, and one is not, then or now, such gross negligence should rightfully be grounds for immediate dismissal, considering the great danger to the students.

Not just Lupin, the dear Headmaster should be under a stringent audit for hiring a werewolf and not taking far more rigorous measures and placing safeguards to ensure that the werewolf in question would not forget or refuse to take the critical medicine to prevent danger to the students.
It'd be nice if Peter got some agency by having switched the potion for some flavored water.
 
Not just Lupin, the dear Headmaster should be under a stringent audit for hiring a werewolf and not taking far more rigorous measures and placing safeguards to ensure that the werewolf in question would not forget or refuse to take the critical medicine to prevent danger to the students.
Especially since Dumbledore knows about the curse Riddle put on the position might cause malarcky to happen. The fact that he hasn't taken extra steps to make sure that malarcky doesn't involve a wild werewolf on Hogwarts grounds (with a triple check system of some sort) shows that he's no longer fit to be Headmaster.
 
So in canon I think Lupin originally goes to the Shack because he sees Pettigrew on the map which he confiscated from Harry. He leaves so quickly he forgets to take his Wolfsbane potion or to erase the map. Snape then finds the map in Lupin's office and also heads to the Shack. The trio originally leave the castle to go to Buckbeak's execution but Ron (and Pettigrew) are kidnapped by Sirius in dog form who takes Ron to the Shack. Lupin shows up and Pettigrew is captured. Snape shows up and gets knocked out by the Trio. Lupin transforms into a werewolf allowing Pettigrew to escape. Sirius fights werewolf Lupin and drives him off. He and Harry are attacked by Dementors which are driven off by time travel Harry and Sirius ends up captured.

Here it seems canon events are happening later since Lupin is already transformed. Probably still reeling from that emotional barrage from Jacob, Lupin doesn't take his potion or perhaps isn't provided with one by Snape and doesn't look at the Map causing him to leave. Instead he is led toward the Shack by time travel Pettigrew. If the Map isn't available, Snape is probably here because he's tracking down Lupin after noticing the transformed werewolf has left his locked office during a full moon.

Also currently no time travel Harry and Hermione. Time will tell if that is still happening.

I'm not sure the whole Buckbeak situation is still happening but Jacob has been shown to be ignorant of such things before, though you'd think he'd pick up on it if it was happening since he's friends with Hagrid.
 
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Ok, this is my preliminary allocation of Time Echoes, we get a +35 bonus in the fight against Lupin and then a generous +20 on the other tasks...

[] Plan: A wise man knows when to pile up bonus – 7 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 4 TE for [Saving Potter], 4 TE for [Last Act]

And I feel like betting so let´s try this.

[ ] Alive and well - Prioritize keeping Black, Pettigrew and Lupin alive. This will impact the rolls against you. When one tries to get it all … one might lose it all.
 
[X] Alive and well - Prioritize keeping Black, Pettigrew and Lupin alive. This will impact the rolls against you. When one tries to get it all … one might lose it all.

Jacob seems like the type of guy to go for it all.

I don't care too much about the final act so I'mma go with

[X] Plan No bites allowed – 6 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 6 TE for [Saving Potter], 3 TE for [Last Act]
 
We should use our entire Echo stockpile, no holding back, all cannons loaded. This is the climax.

Jacob values his Case more than Lupin, which isn't surprising. He wanted answers from Lupin without explaining why he wanted those answers. If it was someone like Megan it would probably be different and Jacob would be more understanding.
But even then. Look at his question. "Why didn't you betray Sirius?" and then just goes of rambling in both directions. Giving reasons why he should or shouldn't have betrayed Sirius. There is no follow-up to that that ties into the main mystery. Aside from maybe hearing that Lupin thinks Sirius is innocent. The far more pressing question is "Why is Pettigrew hiding in his rat form?".

It's only relevant if you want to understand Lupin himself, to break him open like a puzzle.
 
[X] Alive and well - Prioritize keeping Black, Pettigrew and Lupin alive. This will impact the rolls against you. When one tries to get it all … one might lose it all.

Jacob seems like the type of guy to go for it all.

I don't care too much about the final act so I'mma go with

[X] Plan No bites allowed – 6 TE for [Werewolf Fight], 6 TE for [Saving Potter], 3 TE for [Last Act]
Voting still isn't open yet.
 
Damn time travel.

So Peter knew about the time turner due to Jacob solving the fourth case? I don't remember Peter's canon escape being so articulately planned.

Maybe if Jacob rested a bit, the meeting with Lupin would have been less brutal. But obsession takes its' course and there are no free meals with an action economy.

I never really expect to manage keeping Lupin's secret from the rest, or even a chance for him to continue teaching in this quest. But him dying here, like this, and after the awful confrontation with our boy? What a damn shame.
 
So Peter knew about the time turner due to Jacob solving the fourth case? I don't remember Peter's canon escape being so articulately planned.
Peter has been hanging around the Trio all year, he likely learned it from them. All he has to do is hang around Hermione a bit. It's extremely unlikely for Peter to somehow have learned it from Jacob.
 
One does rather wish that Jacob had learned Accio by now. It would have made the situation less perilous than it already is. Apparently, Jacob needs to retrieve the Time Turner, then do what his future self did to point himself in the right direction and close the stable time loop. As if such were not difficult enough, he must also ensure that he and his fellow students survive against a currently rampaging werewolf without being bitten. No pressure and all that.
 
One does rather wish that Jacob had learned Accio by now.
*shrugs* Not to brag (kidding, totally bragging), but I saw Accio as likely making a difference, and included it right after Immobolus on the plan I made. While I was thinking more 'secure wands' rather than 'secure timeturner', others didn't seem to see its huge utility for whatever reason. Oh well. Lesson hopefully learned—spell choice matters and is worthy of careful thought and debate.
 
If only Jacob had asked why Pettigrew is hiding as a rat. Things would probably have been much better. Basically, if we could, I would want to prioritize saving everyone if possible but students over adults.
 
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