AN: Now we will take a look at what is happening outside of the virtual magical device.
At Hogwarts
Albus Dumbledore had called his senior staff together before they went to get an update from Jennings and his crew. The four heads of house had joined the headmaster in his office, and everyone had been updated on the current situation with the Virtual Magical Simulator.
Minerva spoke up first, "When will we have an update on how the students are doing?"
Albus tilted his head from side to side before answering, "I expect that Mr. Jennings should be able to provide that information for us soon."
Pomona Sprout spoke up next, "But those six students, I worry for how they would be fairing, especially without their wands."
Flitwick picked up on her comment, "Considering that three of the students are Slytherins and the other three are Gryffindors, then it could be a difficult situation."
Snape scoffed at the comments. "Obviously Potter is probably up to his usual arrogant behaviour which lead to the entire situation in the first place. If he's not careful he will get the whole lot of them killed. Longbottom has probably already wet himself out of fear, and Granger has probably irritated everyone with her incessant prattling on about Merlin knows what. At least they have some from my house to protect them all. I fully expect that Malfoy and Greengrass will be leading the group to safety, with Miss Davis helping to keep the others in line."
Minerva huffed in indignation at Snape's assessment. "Harry Potter's the only one with any real leadership capability in that group, and you know it, Severus. Your continual berating of that young man is completely out of line, and it needs to stop!"
Snape sneered, "It's not my fault he takes after his father."
She narrowed his eyes at him, "He does no such thing and you know it." She then turned to the headmaster, "Do you have any way of determining how they are doing?"
Albus glanced over at the series of little devices on the shelf, and the one's linked to Harry's health and wellbeing seemed to be doing just fine. "I think that the students are doing just fine, perhaps we should put this argument to rest and see what we can learn from our American colleagues about the progress that have hopefully been making."
— — VMI — —
Work was ongoing trying to repair the device — the magitechs from the United States Department of Magical Technology were working hard at trying to repair the problems with the Virtual Magical Simulator. Jennings had been in frequent contact with others back in California about parts that might be needed as well as trouble shooting issues and conveying information back to the technicians who were actually performing the work on the large machine.
The latest update he had received from his men was that they were making progress, and that a new view screen should arrive within a few hours. Once they had the new view screen and connected it to the machine, then they could check on the progress of everyone within the virtual magical reality.
Alistor Moody was pacing back and forth as he was keeping an eye on the progress that was being made, and he was even more irritable than usual. "It's just not right, them being in there with no wands, with no way to do magic, no way to protect themselves. There is no safety net set up." He grunted once again before asking one more time, "Are you sure there is no way to send them their wands?"
Everyone gave him a wide berth as he continued to pace and grumble, the fact that he was involved with the safety check of all of the wands and he had everyone's wands when they were accidentally sent into the virtual magical reality particularly irked the grizzled old Auror. He felt responsible for the six students, and more so for Harry Potter who suffered at his expense just two years perviously. Moody never wanted to be indebted to anyone and he never wanted to be seen as the cause of trouble for anyone, unless of course it was causing trouble for a Death Eater or dark wizard, but these were just a group of kids. Okay, a group of five students and a Malfoy, he told himself, but if the other five were to come out of there safely, chances were pretty good then the Malfoy brat would probably make it okay with them.
"Isn't there some way to send them their wands?" asked Moody of no one in particular. "There has to be something we can do for them."
Jennings had been leaning over one of the technicians, keeping an eye on their progress as Moody started his louder than usual grumbling and repeating of his question. Jennings had lost count of how many times the old Auror had asked about the wands. He stood up and turned to face Moody, and he took a deep breath as the sight of the man was intimidating and he had heard plenty of stories about the old wizard. "As I have tried to make clear before, any previous attempts to send people into the matrix when someone is already in there have always ended disastrously. So I don't know what you would have us do. We are working on making sure those kids can get out of there safely."
Moody was still pacing as Jennings replied. Then he spun around and replied to the team leader for the Magi-technicians. "But a wand isn't a person, it's a thing. Can't you send a thing into that contraption to help them out?"
"It would still probably end badly," replied Jennings, "if it didn't injure those already in the virtual magical reality it would probably destroy the wands. It just can't be done. You just don't understand how this interaction between magic and technology works."
Dumbledore had been quietly standing off to one side at this point, and then he decided to add his own comments. "Besides my friend, we can't risk damaging or even worse, destroying the students wands like that. It would be too risky."
Moody wouldn't give up so easily, for he was determined to find some way to help Potter and the others. "What if we used trainer wands? A simple wand has got to be better than nothing."
"But the wands wouldn't be keyed into them," argued Jennings, "they wouldn't reinstate the fail safe mechanisms."
"Could we key the wands to the individuals some way," questioned Moody," by using something of theirs, one of their possessions? Having a wand is better than not having one for any witch or wizard, restoring the protections would simply be a bonus."
Professor McGonagall stood up from where she had been sitting and joined in the conversation. Three of her lions were stuck in there and she wanted them all to come out safe as much as anyone. "That sounds like you would need to invoke very dark magic indeed to make that happen, Alistor," she complained.
"And there is still no way of getting them wands in the first place," reiterated Jennings
One of the technicians spoke up. "Actually there might be a way to try. I have been reviewing some of the code that allows us to interface magic with the technology. I think I may have found a way to send items into the matrix after the individuals have already entered the matrix."
Jennings turned and stared at the technician. "I highly doubt that could possibly work, however, let's go have a look at it."
The two then disappeared into another room and reviewed the data and the possibility of sending wands or other objects into the matrix. Their meeting lasted about twenty minutes before they came back to the room with the others.
When they returned Jennings and the technician, Saresh, begin to explain to Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody that it is possible the plan may work, however due to the damage to the machine, they can't be sure how things would respond.
Moody was irritated by their comments and their vague explanation. "What do you mean? How can you not be sure how things would respond?"
Jennings tried to patiently explain a little more clearly. "We are not currently able to monitor what is going on with any of the six students. We do not know where they are or how they are faring. We do not know where to send the wands. Also, we are still trying to receive information about the database for the MagiWorld scenario, which may have been damaged as well when the fighting broke out."
Minerva McGonagall was also not happy with the lack of a clear answer. "What exactly are you saying?"
Jennings took a deep breath before he went on to explain some of the details that the technician had shared with him. "The scenario may not be playing out as we programmed it to play out."
Saresh then added, "It is possible that the data may be being dumped into the MagiWorld scenario randomly. In other words, anything that is in the program could happen to them at any time."
Albus Dumbledore lost the famous twinkle from his eyes. "You're telling us that you are not controlling the scenario."
Jennings shifted uneasily from one foot to the other as he placed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor in front of him, avoiding eye contact with everyone else in the room. "In a word, no."
Moody shook his head in disbelief. "But what does that have to do with the sending of the wands to the students?"
Jennings looked up at Moody as he tried to explain. "While in theory, the calculations made by Saresh here should work just fine, there are problems with the functioning parameters of the program, and a certain amount of unstable magic involved."
Minerva sighed as she admonished the young man, "Please explain this in plain English."
Albus tried to interpret the previous statement for him, "I do believe that he is saying that they cannot predict what will happen when they try to send the wands to the students."
Jennings now nodded in agreement. "Correct. Ideally I would like to wait until we have the view screen repaired so we can hopefully see what happens and see if they manage to obtain the wands."
Albus raised a hopeful eyebrow. The idea of being able to check on the students' progress was a good one, one that gave him hope and he was a wizard who always looked for hope in all situations. "How long until the view screen is repaired?"
Jennings shrugged, "Several hours at least. We're still waiting on a part from the states."
McGonagall then asked, "What about getting these wands? If everything is fine, would it still be possible to send them at least simple wands? Then they could at least do some magic."
Moody nodded, "We can contact the DMLE, they may be able to provide six trainer wands for us."
Jennings was feeling more hopeful. "That may be a good idea, so if someone would work on that, it would be helpful. In the mean time, I will have Saresh continue to work on the program to see what we can do about getting the wands sent to the students, although I am sure there is no way to sync the wands with the students."
Albus then posed a question, hoping to find some way to offer more protection and safety for his students. "Is it possible to sync the protections of the program with the wands, and have those protections then incorporate with the students once they have the wands?"
"While that might work theoretically," replied Jennings, "we could have a potential problem if they do not receive the wands. We are not sure right now if there are any functioning protections for them at all inside the matrix of the program."
Minerva McGonagall was frustrated with hearing too many excuses and not any reassurances that her students were safe. As it was she was angry enough that she had to work on controlling her emotions so as not to lash out against the young men in front of her.
— — VMI — —
Several hours later the team working on the Virtual Magical Reality Device had received the new video display and they were busy connecting it to the machine. Saresh was continuing to work on the programming parameters that would hopefully allow them to send the half dozen wands back into the proper place within the program, even though something of such an extent had never really been tried before.''
Jennings was elated to announce to the other professors that come the early evening that they finally had the view screen operational. At first the only information which they had was biographical on each of the six students. "Well, we do know that they are all alive and it looks as though they are all well. The machine has not yet been calibrated to give detailed information about their health," he added.
Professor McGonagall quickly asked when could they expect such a function.
Jennings frowned as he explained, "The problem we have here is that such details would require that the students have their own wand which would have already been calibrated with the machine. But seeing as that is part of our problem and is part of what brought us to here n the first place, I think we're just going to have to get a general reading on them, such as we have now."
Albus then perked up a little, "So, where exactly are the young men and women?"
Jennings turned to one of the techs who was sitting below the large view screen and then he started to speak to the professors who were present. "As you can see on the side of the panel that is open in front of thou, this view screen, we can look at individuals or we can track them and their progress."
Professor Snape had joined them at this time as three members of his house were also stuck within the virtual magical reality. "So, then, where exactly are they?" he drawled.
"Good question, professor," answered Jennings raising a hand as he turned to speak with the tech once again. The two of them started speaking softly but soon their conversation was growing louder and more animated.
Eventually everyone heard Jennings comment, "Perhaps they are hiding somewhere."
The tech simply pointed at one part of the view screen, "All I can tell you is that their vital signs are fine, they are all alive."
Moody snarled. "Wait, you really don't know where they are on this island?"
McGonagall was also upset, "And you still don't know what is going on with them!"
Jennings held up his hands trying to get the group to calm down. "I can tell you everything I do know. First of all, everyone relax. We just reviewed that the view screen simply shows us some information right now and it can help locate people at times. For instance, this display indicates that they have had some minor injuries, but nothing serious."
"That is not surprising," added Dumbledore. "Considering they don't have any wands," he went on to explain.
"At least they have made it this far," stated McGonagall with a sigh.
"But we're still not sure how far it is that they've mad it," commented Snape.
"Well, we can help them more by getting these wands to them," added Moody, still grumbling. "We should have those trainer wands shortly."
"It is possible that we cannot find them right now because they are in hiding," stated one of the technicians. "However, once we send in the wands, the matrix will be designed to hold onto the wands until such a time as the students are readily found and then the ward system can take over and begin protecting them better."
"And when will you be ready to send in the wands?" asked Moody, although it sounded more like a barking order.
Jennings conversed quietly with Saresh for a few moments before answering Mad-Eye's question. "If you all have the wands together we should be ready to send them into the matrix of the Virtual Magical Reality system in about five minutes.
Minerva McGonagall breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Snape seemed to be sneering less and Moody momentarily stopped his pacing, which was a relief to everyone as they were at least momentarily spared from the steady clomp-clomp of his wooden leg.
A young Auror trainee came running into the room with a small box and stopped abruptly in front of Moody and Dumbledore, momentarily confused as to who they should present the package they were told to bring to the school. The poor confused young man had no idea why he was being sent to Hogwarts in August nor why it was urgent nor why he was being sent to an unused classroom in the basement.
"Ahh, thank you, my boy," said Albus Dumbledore, recognising the young man as a fairly recent graduate from Hogwarts, "I'll take those, and I believe that Mr. Jennings has use of them right about now."
The young trainee just stared at everything in the room and shook his head in confusion. "I'll just show myself out," he said to no one in particular as he turned and left quickly.
Jennings took the box and opened it, and quickly examined the six wands which had been procured by the DMLE for the purposes of sending to the six students. He then handed the box to Saresh who examined the wands and made some sort of scan on each one of them while another technician entered more information into a keyboard on one side of the machine.
After a few minutes, Saresh gave a thumbs up to Jennings who then turned to the group of professors. "Well, thats it, we're ready to send them the wands."
Professor McGonagall stepped forward and looked up at the new view screen which seemed to have a map like picture similar to an aerial view on a muggle television. "Is that the island where they are?" she asked.
Jennings turned and looked at the screen, "Oh, yes. Let me show you some things." He moved next to the screen and nodded to Saresh who took control of a small device and then the map seemed to zoom in on an area on the south of the island. "This is the southern beach of the island, this is where they entered the virtual magical reality, which was just as we planned. From the review of our data, they were met by a group of pirates, and they did really well, although it seems that the six of them were divided into three groups of two."
"Who are in the groups of two? How did they pair off?" asked Snape.
"That we are not sure of," said Jennings, his frustration evident in his response. "As we are having a hard time pinpointing their exact location right now, we think one of the sensors is not working properly, and that may be due to their not having wands on their possession. We have been able to detect some magic use, which we have not been able to explain so far. But as of right now we think that four of them had been getting close to reuniting, and the other two had made significant progress northwards, but we have no idea how they had made it over half way across the island on their own. Nor do we have any idea why those two were separated from the others."
"That is all you have come up with upon reviewing the data?" asked a surprised McGonagall.
"It's not like we can watch video tapes of their every move," replied Jennings defensively, "we have to interpret digital data and make the most out of it and translate it into real time actions."
"All very interesting," commented Albus, "but perhaps we should get a move on with sending them the wands so they can be using magic to help them on their journey. That after all, was the main reason behind this whole situation, to have them practice using their magic in a group setting to help the others."
"Right," said Jennings, and then he turned to Saresh, "I presume we're ready."
"We're all set," replied the lead tech.
Saresh handed the wands to another technician who was now standing by the entrance to the virtual magical reality device. He then opened a small drawer that they had not noticed before. "Apparently the designers of the machine had an idea for such a contingency," commented Saresh as he began to enter more data into the terminal in front of him.
"That should just about do it," he said with a final key stroke.
Everyone stood there watching what was happening, hoping for some clear sign that the students would receive the wands. The machine made a loud whoosh sound. "That should be the wands being sent into the matrix," commented Saresh. "Now, in a few minutes, the students should find wands appearing near them."
Then there was a loud thud from the machine.
"Was that the machine delivering the wands?" asked Severus.
"I'm not sure what that was," commented Jennings, whose face started to betray his worries.
His next words were interrupted by the shattering of the new view screen. Then there was an even louder crash as the entire machine seemed to lurch in place. The shaking of the machine lasted for over thirty-seconds, with several large and distinct convulsions during that time. The group of technicians and professors watched in horror as the machine seemed to spasm for an eternity until the shaking and thudding stopped. The view screens went black and the virtual magical reality machine made a loud hiss which was followed by a large and final crashing noise.
"I don't suppose any of that was supposed to happen," commented Moody dryly.
Jennings mouth was agape and Saresh finally spoke up. "Holy shhhhh."
Snape turned on Jennings, "You better not have just killed my students, or you will pay dearly for what just happened."
Jennings was sweating in fear as he stared at the machine in front of him. "I have no idea what the hell just happened." Then he started barking orders at the technicians. "Get everything back online! Whatever it takes! Get any and all help from the guys in California, call Palo Alto if we have to, but make sure this is working properly and get those students out of there as quickly as possible!"
Jennings wiped his brow and then turned to the professors, "Well, that didn't go as planned."
Minerva McGonagall was usually not one for sarcasm, so when she simply responded, "You think?" her words caught everyone off guard.
Elsewhere
The large room was dimly lit, and several witches and wizards were gathered around. In the centre stood a tall and menacing appearing figure, whose red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness that surrounded him.
"Bring the young on forward," hissed Voldemort.
Bellatrix had a sneer on her face as she dragged the teen along side of her in front of the Dark Lord. Voldemort just looked at the young man, and his gaze caused the young man to fall to his knees.
Voldemort smiled as the teen collapsed and looked away from him. "So, young Mr. Nott understands his proper position before me. That is good, my young friend. But remember this, even though you will kneel in front of me, you shall soon be standing tall in front of the rest of our great house, and all the other students in Slytherin will be looking to you, because of me."
Theodore Nott continued to look at the floor in front of him, and after a moment of silence he responded, "Yes Lord Voldemort, it shall be as you wish."
Voldemort looked around the room at his followers who were present, and he locked eyes Bellatrix. "This will be a lesson to all of you, serve me well and you will be rewarded, fail me, and what you thought was once yours will be taken away." He then looked down at the Nott boy, and hissed, "Are you ready?"
Theodore took a deep breath before answering, "Yes, my lord, I am ready."
"Then give me your arm," stated Voldemort.
Theodore pulled the sleeve back on his left arm, and extended it to the Dark Lord standing in front of him. He braced himself so as not to flinch at the cold touch of the Dark Lord's hand grasping his forearm tightly.
Voldemort then asked, "You have already done the required ritual to prepare yourself?"
"Yes, my Lord," replied Theodore, still without looking up at Voldemort.
Bellatrix cackled as she also replied, "The remains of the muggle youth used in the sacrifice is down in the dungeons."
Voldemort looked over at Bellatrix and tilted his head slightly, which was enough to get her to quiet down. Then he squeezed Nott's arm a little harder with his left hand as he placed the tip of his wand on to Theodore's left wrist. "This will only hurt for a short time," he added with a sneer.
Voldemort began hissing words in parseltongue and the tip of his wand began to glow red, the same hue as his own eyes. Theodore groaned slightly, gritting his teeth as he felt the pain of the Dark Mark seeping into his skin. After two minutes of feeling the agony of the magical tattoo take hold and bury itself into his own nervous system, Theodore gasped as Voldemort withdrew the wand from his wrist.
Voldemort then looked around the room as he pulled Theodore up to his feet and twisted him around to face the others in the room. "Welcome your newest ally and our newest weapon against Dumbledore and his lot," declared the Dark Lord. "I present to you Theodore Nott."
The gathered Death Eaters cheered for the young teen as he had been fully welcomed as one of their own. Voldemort let the cheers die down before he spun Nott around once again to face him.
"You do understand what is expected of you," stated Voldemort, and it was clear he was not asking a question. "When you feel your mark burn, you will do your best to return to me, or contact one of my Inner Circle."
Theodore nodded silently.
Voldemort nodded back and he continued, "You will now swear an oath to accomplish the task I have for you. I expect you to kill Albus Dumbledore before the end of the school year."
Theodore nodded as he replied, "It will be done as you have commanded."
Voldemort smiled slightly, "I like a young man with confidence. Now, remember, you may enlist the help of others within your house, but they should not know the true nature of your mission. Make the most of your Slytherin guile and cunning. Some of those who are in your house may not have what it takes to truly follow a strong leader in the face of adversity. Although they may be weak, they will be dealt with if they do not show their worth to our cause."
He then released Theodore's arm and let him step back into the crowd of other Death Eaters who were present. "It may be wise to keep your mark hidden, as you don't want to draw too much attention to yourself. And your house mates, the ones that matter, will soon learn to follow your lead at school, for their fathers will make sure they know it will be as I have now ordained."
Theodore nodded silently in response to the final words from the Dark Lord. The group then began to disperse as they had all seen the event which they had been gathered to witness.
Theodore was then taken aside by his father once the official ceremony was concluded. "Your grandfather lost face with the Dark Lord when he was taken out by a blood traitor during the last war. You need to redeem the family name. You have the chance to get the prestige away from Malfoy, but do not let him know what you are up to, so he will not have the chance to upstage you in this. And do not mess up the chance to make the Nott family name great and feared once more."
Theodore nodded in response to his father, "I understand, and it shall be done." Theodore never had a lot of self confidence before this night, but having been chosen by the Dark Lord himself for this important task filled him with pride and the desire to make sure he proved himself better than his other classmates who were not as fortunate as he was so as to be chosen by the Dark Lord for such an honour.
The older Nott looked at his son, and added one final command, "Now go and prepare multiple plans for the coming year to be ready for any opportunity to take care of the problem that you have been assigned to deal with. And don't worry, we will find a way to supply you with whatever you might need. Be sure to communicate with myself or the contacts we have in Hogsmeade if there is anything you need supplied to you to finish this."
AN: And we will return to the virtual magical reality in the next chapter...