Padma believed you could learn a lot about a person from watching them think. It was always gratifying when a person thought before speaking, at least about important subjects. But, watching the way their eyes shifted, the tiny expressions that flitted across their face chasing one thought after the next, told as much about a person as the words that eventually followed the thoughts.
Take Theo, for example. She could tell he was pleased with her assessment of him from the little light in his eyes. But, then his thoughts turned serious as she mentioned the others whose skills she would very much like to put to task with aiding in their research and she couldn't help but wonder what those thoughts were that could bring such an expression. Was it something about those names in particular? Or had her words trigger some unrelated thought that could plague him?
People were puzzles as much as the magic they undertook to explain.
"You could try asking her about them," Padma replied to the words he spoke aloud, setting her own musings on his musings aside. She had no particular affinity for or inclination toward the prophetic arts herself. But, she could understand where some, like Theo, might find it fascinating. As long as they didn't treat her sister like a test subject.
Harry's lack of leadership ability, however, was a moot point and one she was happy to let drop in favour of listening to Theo discuss his theories. It was interesting to see how his thoughts intersected with hers in some places and diverged in others. "I would be very interested in seeing your thoughts on the connectivity. I had begun to think along those same lines myself while considering the question of who and why, both for those brought here and those sent back. It will interesting to see if our ideas line up or if we each picked up different threads of the web." She smiled. "Any good researcher's notes are disjointed to begin with, I believe. Organization comes later when you're able to review what came to you in that first rush and frenzy of tracking information. I understand that apart from the inventory goings on, another part of the fourth floor was set aside for research. I intend to take control of as much of that space as I can for us to work. This office is nice for meetings and an official base, but hardly adequate for our needs, I think. Not even enough room for me on this table with all my books," she added with a laugh. Unlike Peter, she was fairly certain Theo would have encountered that sight at least once or twice during their shared school days.
Nodding, she leaned back in her chair to let the rest of his hypotheses tumble around in her head along with her own. "I agree that it's not just time magic and not everything is related to time magic. I think the actual mechanics of bring us here or sending us back will find roots in both time and death magic. But, that doesn't explain things like the memory swap are more likely outside both realms." She smirked softly. "I don't have to sell it to Harry, now. We let Ron do that for us after Peter spoke with him. Harry says we can study the castle's magic to prepare for future arrivals and mischief like the memory swap. I think we start there and see where it takes us." The department's agenda had never been one hundred percent in sync with the Ministry's, although they did research on the Ministry's behalf. So much was kept secret even within the Ministry and for good reason. She would need to look into what she needed to do in order to get some of those policies and procedures back into place moving forward. She knew there were some old spells and oaths involved in almost every aspect of secrecy and disclosure for the department. But, a lot of them had been the purview of the Head and Deputy Head. She'd need to see what had survived.