"This still does not make it mutually exclusive with ambition."

"I didn't say it was mutually exclusive, I said 'mainly altruistic'. Granted it is not a relevant trait for House sorting. I don't think any House has a specific claim to it?"

"You said 'instead of,' though, that implies it's an either-or thing."

"It is an either-or thing for which motivation is more relevant, but doesn't exclude multiple motivations being relevant. Meaning, you could be motivated by altruism and ambition, but one would still win out over the other."

"I never said ambition was the main drive behind this goal."

"Fair enough. I still think you should've done the not-necessarily-evil-but-still-dramatic laughter."

"Doesn't give the correct impression, you grimaced about it even without the laughter."

"Did I? Well, personally I think acting like a cartoon villain makes it less likely people are going to think you are real-world villain."

"Enh. Anyway, I don't think there are main drives behind this goal, or a proper rank. The ambition and the altruism work as motivations for different aspects of it: being ambitious determines the scale, being altruistic determines the project."

"That makes sense, although I can't see the appeal of like, actually taking over the world, sounds like too much work even if I would like to help with the immortality and no scarcity parts."

"That's why you're a Ravenclaw."

"Nope. I'm a Ravenclaw because I am curious about experiencing everything there is to experience including inventing new experiences. But I won't complain about helping with immortality research."

"I mean you're a Ravenclaw-and-not-a-Slytherin because you do not understand the appeal of taking over the world."

"I can see the appeal, it is just not enough given the time and effort of ruling the world even if you are non-interventionist despot."

"No I'm a very interventionist despot and it is very much enough. You can be my researcher-in-chief or something."

"Works for me!" Temple rubs his hands gleefully.

No sign of other magical people yet?

Nope! And his spell runs out.

He tells Sadde as much and would he like to cast the magic detection this time around.

"You know, I almost want to go around conspicuously using scrolls, but what you said about a magical conspiracy sounds plausible."

"Chesterton's Fence, man," he says, then casts.

"Who?"

"It's the name for the thing where, like, you shouldn't change the state of things until you understand why they are the way they are."

"I am not sure how it applies?"

"We don't know why magic is not common knowledge, and until we do it might be a terrible idea to make it so."

"Ah, I didn't mean like that. I was thinking about coming up with some story about being a magic trick - the stage kind - that we are practicing or whatever, except anyone who knows would be able to identify it." Temple shrugs. "I mean, still not a good idea because there might be Aurors that would take exception to us doing something so flagrant."

"Well, yes, that falls under the thing, too."