14

Madman's Thinking

Time: Just after exams

Place: Ravenclaw Common Room

It was now weeks later. After the dragon incident everything was pretty quiet, and everyone was studying for exams. Draco had talked to Susan twice more about things, and had promised to keep his eyes open a little more while around his father. Susan was about to make a necklace with Barrier Against Spells in it, activated with energy, using her last 10 XP. It's just too much to maintain myself, she reasoned, if I was going into a real fight. Then she remembered reading about a useful little ditty called Spell Symbol. She looked it up and mulled it over in her head. For 8XP she could learn a Neptune spell that allowed her to place a spell into a tiny marking on an object. That object would then allow her to activate the spell and have it going for a specific task, just as though she had cast it herself at the time. The kicker was she wouldn't have to maintain it! She read the description of the spell over and over to make sure she wasn't missing something, but it seemed fairly straightforward.

Step 1: Create a charm bracelet with tiny, removable charms. Out of stone, naturally. She really needed to learn a spell to allow her to reshape metal like that.

Step 0.5: Ask spellbook to research spell to reshape metal.

Step 2: Cast useful spells into Spell Symbol and put the symbol on the back of the charm.

Step 3: Activate charms when needed, effectively casting a variety of spells in a single action, and pay no maintenance penalty for doing so for the duration of the current task.

Step 4: Take over the world.

Okay, maybe not that last one, she thought, but creating an item like that in a few minutes is way better, and more flexible, then giving up 10 xp for an item that only does one thing, and takes my energy besides. Sure, I would have to "reload" it each time, a trivial bother, really. And as I learn more useful spells, I can just replace the less useful one on the charm, or make more charms.

It was a few minutes until she could breathe again, for laughing, and several of her classmates in the common room where she was reading were a little concerned. Not terribly concerned, mind you. It was Ravenclaw house, after all, and plans to take over the world were a common occurrence. (It wasn't Slytherin house, where they would actually be put into practice, or anything… All just a theoretical exorcise.)

So she did that instead, putting Barrier Against Spells, Flight, Detect Lies and Darksight on the four charms she made for the bracelet, and made the trigger for all of them touching the chain of the bracelet and saying "four spell."

This didn't work, and Susan made a pouty face.

She found she had to activate each one separately, which was still fine. They could all have the same trigger word, but she had to touch each one in turn. She still used stone though, no sense duplicating the effort, right?

Susan and Hermione sat chatting about how their exams went, and promising to keep in touch (using the Internet, *giggle*) over the break when a glowing phoenix swooped in between them.

"Susan," said the headmaster's voice, "I have just been summoned to the ministry of magic building. No doubt this will keep me away for hours, and the trap will close. I hope I can rely upon you and your friends to see to the matter."

It vanished.

"Crusty old goat," said Susan. "If you know that already, why leave?"

"Wait, what?" asked Hermione. "What's going on?"

"Professor Quirrell is making his move, apparently. I need to get down to the trapdoor and stop him."

"You? I mean, you stood up to him during your duel, so I guess that would be okay- did you just call Headmaster Dumbledore a crusty old goat?"

"You must have been hearing things. Wish me luck."

"Oh no, you're not going alone!"

"I won't be alone. Sparkle!"

"Coming," said Sparkle, stretching.

"You are not just leaving me here after that!"

"It'll be dangerous, are you sure you don't want to sit this one out?"

"I do know my share of magic, you know. Even if it is wanded."

"Okay, it's your choice. Thanks."

"Of course!"

"Do you want to find Ron and Harry?"

"Nah, they're useless."

"I agree. Let's go."

However, on the way, Harry ran up holding a sheet of paper.

"Thank goodness I found you! I had an idea that the stranger that gave Rubeus that dragon egg might have been after a way to get past Fluffy. But he seemed a bit insulted that I suspected him of just blabbing that sort of thing to just anyone, and I came back here. When I got back, I found this in the dorm."

He handed Susan the paper, and she unfolded it. She read:

I have taken your friend. I will trade his life for the stone.

"We were just on our way there- to come and get you," amended Hermione. "Headmaster Dumbledore sent a message that he would probably try something."

"What are we waiting for, then?"

As they approached the doorway hiding Fluffy, Susan activated her bracelet with a word: "Four Spell". They stood in front of the door.

"Want me to open it?" asked Sparkle. "I know the Unlock spell."

"I do too," said Hermione. "It's Alohomora."

"I don't actually think it's locked anymore," said Harry, giving it a light push. It opened. The sight of a dead three headed dog met their eyes.

"Yeah, I don't think he had any trouble getting past Fluffy," Susan sighed.

"Think it was that killing curse?"

"Probably. If you can cast that, why bother with anything else? Especially if you're evil. Which I guess Professor Quirrell is?"

"Good question. It might not have been him that stole Ron though. Come on."

After lifting the trapdoor, Susan cast Light and sent the glowing ball down, noting how deep it was.

"I'll cast Flight on you guys, we'll just float down, okay?"

The others nodded. Susan cast it on them, having already effectively cast it on herself, and they flew down the hole, hovering above a huge plant that stretched from all to wall. Sparkle she carried.

"Any ideas?" asked Harry.

"I'm trying to remember what kind of plant that is," replied Hermione.

"I could just set it on fire with Elemental Attack but the smoke might be a problem."

"Of course, Devil's Snare, that's what this is! I know a fire spell that won't burn it."

Hermione waved her wand about, and some pleasant blue flames were produced that made the plant cringe back.

"Through the hole, quick!" All three flew through and landed.

"Seems to be a noise coming from that way," said Susan, pointing. "Let's go."

They walked into a chamber full of what seemed to be birds, but which were, in fact, keys. It didn't matter, as the door at the other end of the room had just been busted down by force.

"Seems silly to have had these pointless traps, given how easily our mystery man bypassed them," said Harry. It's like they forgot the person after it would probably be pretty good with magic."

"I don't expect… no, actually I do expect Dumbledore knew how powerful someone would be to get in here. Strange. He called this a delaying tactic, but this does seem awfully weak. Come on."

The next room held the remains of a giant chess board. "What do you suppose this was supposed to be?" asked Susan.

"We probably would have had to play our way across. I don't know about you, but I'm rubbish at chess. Ron's good though, he could have done it," said Harry.

"Whoever did this didn't know a thing about subtlety," said Hermione, looking at the smashed chess pieces everywhere. "I mean, if they could do all this, couldn't they have just removed the enchantment on the pieces?"

"Maybe this is all a sort of bragging," said Harry. "You know, for us. To impress us how powerful he is?"

"You could be right."

The next room had a dead troll, which Hermione and Susan felt bad about.

"At least he didn't suffer, in the end," said Susan, half hugging Hermione.

"Why put a creature down here if you're just going to kill it?" she asked sadly.

Further on they were met with flames, and a logic puzzle.

"Huh," said Susan. "I now appreciate the difference between Barrier against Spells and Magic Immunity. This isn't a magic spell, it's a magic fire. I won't be able to resist it like I do with a spell cast directly on me."

"Can we just solve the puzzle and get through?" asked Harry.

"Already did," said Hermione. "There's not enough of the potion."

"Guess it's up to you, Sparkle," said Susan, picking her up again.

"What, does she know some kind of fire immunity spell?"

"No, something a little different. Look, I can explain later, just each of you take my arm and hang on. We're going to go into a rather weird place. When we're past the fire, we'll come back out of it again. Okay?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. "You're going to have to trust me on this."

"We do," said Harry, taking her left arm.

"Of course," said Hermione, taking the other.

"Okay," Susan said to Sparkle, who started casting.

"Dimension Step, Astral," said Sparkle, and the world around them shimmered and changed.

"This is really freaky," remarked Hermione.

"Just stay close, the fire isn't that deep."

They stepped through, and Sparkle stopped maintaining the spell, dropping them back into the real world.

"Your spells do some weird things," remarked Harry, as they stepped into the final chamber, drew their wands, and stood face to face with…

Some upper class kid they had never seen. His robes seemed a little out of date though.

"All three of you?" the kid remarked. "Odd, I'm sure I only left enough of the potion for one, which I hoped would be Harry. Facing all three of you, well, the mudblood is of no concern, but Susan… no, I must have you to open the pouch. This boy tells me you can't, but somehow I don't believe him. So it's good that you are all here. Boy!"

They looked, and hiding behind a large mirror in the center of the room was Ron, and professor Quirrell lay next to it, still. Ron came out, holding-

"That's the bag I made for the Headmaster!" blurted Susan. "You actually got past his protection?"

"It wasn't that hard, actually," said the boy. "I saw myself getting the stone and destroying it, and out popped this bag. I commanded this boy to open it for me, thinking he was your friend, so you must have told him the secret. But he maintains he knows nothing. So I brought him here with the headmaster gone, to lure you down so you could get it yourself."

"Wait, did you say destroy it? What it is?" asked Hermione.

"Ugh, a mudblood is talking to me, how tedious."

"Thrust!" yelled Susan, flinging the figure back. He crashed into the wall behind him, but it seemed professor Quirrell was the one who jerked like he was hurt, instead.

"Temper, temper," said the boy, brushing himself off. "You can't really hurt me, you know. Though I like that spirit of yours. Where was I? Oh yes, he didn't tell you what it was? A philosopher's stone. The road to immortality."

"And you want to smash it?" asked Harry, confused.

"Of course! Only I, who went through such trials, should be allowed the gift of eternal life. So, please open it so the stone can be destroyed, and then we can get on with our fight to the death."

"Like Ron said, only Headmaster Dumbledore can access his own pocket dimension. The bag isn't even where the stone is, technically. I could make him another Imbued object with Pocket Dimension on it, and a thousand miles from that bag, Dumbledore could take the stone out."

The boy shook his head. "Somehow I don't believe you. Ron here has told me about the wondrous magic he's seen you do, and your fight with Quirinus was inspired. I think that somewhere in that magical book of yours is a spell to open someone else's Pocket Dimension as you call it."

"Well I'm telling you there isn't."

"I see we must do this the hard way. Boy, Potter's wand."

"Ron, what-" Harry started to say, but Ron said "Expelliarmus" while the boy flicked Quirinus' wand, making Hermione lose hers.

"-are you doing?" Harry finished.

"Yes, faithful Ron," said the boy, shaking his head. "You never suspected him, did you? He's been a sort of double agent you might say. Quite useful to me, telling me of the things you did, and all about your magic. He's been with me from the beginning, haven't you boy?"

Ron nodded, sullenly.

"You see?"

"But who are you? Are you the one that tried to kill me those times? Obviously you were the one that took Quirinus' place when we fought."

"No, that wasn't me. I don't know who tried to kill you, and sadly not even I know who took our place in that match. I would love to get my hands on them, though."

Our place? thought Susan, looking over at Quirinus.

Suddenly she could tell she made a Perception check, with a 12 result, and saw two fingers moving like he was beckoning her over. She walked over, keeping her eyes on the boy.

"What have you done to him, anyway? I see you've stolen his wand, don't you have one of your own?"

"Enough questions! Crucio!" The spell splashed against her Barrier and splintered away. Susan crossed her arms. "Is that all you've got?"

"I figured you would be immune, I heard about your fight. The question is, did you make them immune? Crucio!" he yelled again, while Sparkle tried a "Barrier" spell but sadly, this spell wasn't something you could block with a shield. Hermione screamed, dropping to the floor.

"Stop it, I'll look, I'll look!"

The boy kept it going a moment, then sliced his wand, ending the spell. "See that you do." Hermione gasped and started crying, curled up into a ball on the floor. Harry edged towards her.

"Go ahead, Harry, you may go to her. I am not heartless, after all. Okay, maybe I am."

Susan got her book out of her Pocket Dimension and sat down next to Quirinus. She started paging through, knowing full well it was impossible but hoping to buy time. Quirinus croaked out a word: "Ring." She nodded a little bit and started to think. She glanced at the ring, it had a large black stone and seemed to be made of gold. Okay, so what about the ring?

Her thoughts went back to something Albus had told her, when she first started making her protection for the stone.

"What I fear is far more evil, actual possession by a piece of Voldemort's soul."

Of course! thought Susan. That would explain it.

"You're Voldemort, aren't you?" she asked, looking up.

He gave a little bow. "At your service."

Harry gaped, holding Hermione tightly. "You?"

"Don't look like much now, do I? Not to worry. With this new lease on life the dear professor has given me, I'll be back to my old self in no time."

"Let me ask you one thing," said Susan. "Why did you go bad? Why did you try to destroy the magical world?"

"Bad? Destroy?" he turned to her. "Is that what they tell you about me? Of course, the truth is a bit more painful, isn't it? Tell me, have they taught you about Azkaban?"

"I've never heard of the place," replied Susan.

"I have," said Ron.

"Tell them, then."

"Wizard prison. Full of creatures called Dementors."

"Yes, terrible creatures of death and insanity. And fully sanctioned by the ministry of magic!"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Don't you see, Susan? For them to allow such a place to exist is a thousand times worse then anything I could have done, in my time. Those creatures suck the happiness right out of you, leaving you a useless husk. Many have performed 'the kiss', sucking the soul of a person right out of them. The place must be brought down, and the Dementors destroyed. When I found out about that terrible place I knew I had to act. I knew that I had to take power, because they wouldn't listen otherwise. So I gathered followers, yes, men who could be controlled. Women who enjoyed power. We tried to overthrow the government because the ministry of magic is corrupt. No crime, no matter how serious, should result in the kind of torture the ministry has created. Kill those that use curses if you must, but to leave them to slowly rot, the joy and love of life ripped from their very minds? That I cannot, will not, allow for one more day if I can help it.

You, Susan, see the truth of my words, do you not? Together we could destroy that place, I'm sure of it! I can take you to see one of the creatures for yourself, and your book of magic can create a spell to destroy them. Look past the petty minded thinking of those that came before you. Know that my cause is just, and that the ends will justify the means. I swear that!"

"You… make a good argument," said Susan, slowly. Her spell of Detect Lies hadn't told her that what Voldemort was lying. "If there is such a place, with creatures like that…" she looked at Ron, who was nodding his head.

"Yes, yes! Now that you know, how can you not be called to action? How could you sleep at night, knowing that men and women cry out in agony each day, that they have not yet died in the night, as they so desperately wish?"

"Okay," said Susan.

"No!" shouted Harry. "Don't listen to him!"

"If he's telling the truth, no place like that should be allowed to exist!"

"Then forget the stone, Susan. Destroy the bag, and never allow Dumbledore access to that Pocket Dimension again. It shall be as good as destroyed in any case. Come, we shall leave this school behind and plot the destruction of Azkaban. You and I. We will punish those who allowed such a place to exist, and remake the magical world in our image." He held out a hand. "Come!"

"I guess I can use the Exorcise," Susan shouted, bringing her hand down on Quirinus. A magic circle appeared around him, and the spell of Exorcise went off, fueled by a meta-action of spending card 7, Success.

After all, why take chances?

"NOOOOOOOO," yelled Voldemort, as the ring was ripped off Quirinus' finger and went spinning away. He vanished, and Ron fell to the floor beside Quirinus.

"The thing is," said Susan, getting up and standing over the ring, "You were willing to let someone else die so you could come back yourself. Destroying a place like Azkaban is all well and good, but sacrificing even a single person to do it? No, I'll find another way."

"Well done," Quirinus weakly said.

"Is everyone all right?" Susan asked.

"I'll live," replied Hermione.

"What have I been doing?" asked Ron.

"Imperius Curse, I'm afraid," said Quirinus, struggling to get up on one elbow. "I may have just cast it on you before you got on the train for Hogwarts for the first time. I then, well, he then, commanded you to befriend Harry Potter and Susan, and report their secrets. It's a bit fuzzy, you know, when he took control of me."

"So our friendship was a lie?"

"Only time will reveal that. In any case, we both need to put our lives back together, I think. Thank you Susan. You've saved me, you know?"

"What exactly was that?" Susan looked over at the ring.

"A piece of dark magic, that's for sure. I went in search of Voldemort, thinking I could learn the magic that made him so powerful. I found that ring, and it offered me those secrets. I accepted, but little did I know that as I reached inside the ring for power, he was reaching inside me. I realized too late exactly what was going on, and couldn't take the ring off, myself. I was such a fool."

"Be that as it may, we need to get you out of here and back to the healer's office. You've been through a lot."

"Perhaps nothing I didn't deserve," he said quietly.

"Nonsense," a voice rang from the room with the fire. Albus, Minerva and Severus strode into the room, but Albus didn't have his wand out. "While I might fault your methods, losing knowledge is a terrible thing. And how Voldemort learned what he learned… well, that is possibly a story for another time. Everyone accounted for, then?"

"No problems here, Headmaster," replied Susan. "All in a days work, you might say."

"I should hope not, that would be quite tiring. I see my fears were correct," he said, stopping before the ring.

"That should probably be destroyed," said Susan.

"I fear my magic may be insufficient, I may need to call upon you to do so," he said, carefully not touching it as he whisked it into a bag he pulled from his sleeve.

"I don't think that will be a problem. For now, however, someone should look at Professor Quirrell, though if his soul has been damaged, I doubt even I could do anything."

"Not to worry, I'm sure that with a bit of rest, our Defense Professor will be up and about in no time. Minerva, if you please?"

She waved her wand and Quirinus began to levitate, and she walked back with him down the hallway. Harry helped Hermione up and Severus took her hand, steadying her as she walked out. He cast an odd glance back at Susan, and then was gone.

"My traps didn't give him too much trouble, and I was so proud of the mirror, too. I didn't expect him to actually get the bag out."

"Yeah, what was that all about? He seemed like it was no trouble at all," said Harry.

"My folly was to instruct the mirror to give the stone to any that wanted to find it. Find it, but not use it. Of course, we know now that he wanted to destroy the stone, not use it, so the mirror happily gave it up. Strange how these things work, don't you think?"

"Good thing another layer of protection was put on it," Susan said slyly.

Harry was frowning. "There are more pieces out there, aren't there?"

"Perhaps, Harry, perhaps. We can hope that this ring was one of a kind, but I think that is a faint hope."

"He looked so young, not much older then me."

"Yes, he began his terrible journey towards power fairly young in life, I'm afraid. But think no more of this, Harry. You were victorious, and you have saved a life. Tomorrow, yes, that will be the day of contemplation. But today, live knowing you have done well, Harry Potter."

"She was the one that did all the hard work."

"But did you not come down to rescue your friend, Ron?"

Everyone turned to look at him. "I'm not going to be punished, am I?"

"Whatever for?" Albus was shocked. "Because you were selected to be a tool of Voldemort's? I fear all he has are tools, not friends, young Ron."

"So tell me about that gash on your leg, how did you get that?" asked Susan.

"That? Oh he, you know who, he didn't know what else was guarding the stone, so he had me try to find out. Of course I didn't get past the first room, but I don't know why he bothered. You saw what he did out there." He shuddered. "I've never seen anything like it. I wanted to run but he told me to stay, so I had to."

"Even he knows that a lot of foreknowledge and a little magic goes much further then a little foreknowledge and a lot of magic. But come, this is no place to be. We shall return the stone to the rightful owners and allow them to decide what to do next. A few days of rest for all of you, and it's home for the summer."

"Is what he said true? Does a place as terrible as Azkaban exist?"

"Sadly, yes. The ministry gathered the Dementors there and put them to work, lest they wander the world causing havoc. This keeps them contained, and as long as they are fed, they are… satisfied to remain there."

"They can't be destroyed? Such creatures cannot be natural!"

"They can be protected against, but not destroyed."

We'll see about that.

"Fine. Let's get out of here."

"We're still okay, right?" Ron asked Harry and Susan.

"Course we are. You were still you when we became friends, he didn't change your personality, did he?"

"No. I'm just afraid I wouldn't have tried to be friends with you if he hadn't commanded it."

"Let's just take it one day at a time from here, and not worry too much about it. I'm sure things will work out," said Harry.

"We have surprisingly similar philosophies," said Albus as they went back through the chambers. All were empty, and they came to the hole they had "flown" down. "Lemon Drop?"