Asta hurried down a hallway, two Hogwarts' students trailing after her.
"What if you're wrong?" A girl with light red hair in a long braid held a stack of books to her chest as she hurried along.
"What if I'm right?" Asta said in a panicked voice.
"If you're right then we've cracked the pattern," the other girl said helpfully. She had narrow eyes, high cheekbones, and dusty brown hair in a pixie cut.
Asta pulled a door open and Snape's booming voice stopped lecturing his students faded. "May I help you?"
"You're about to do a Juniper Tonic?" Asta asked.
"You may sit in if you like," Severus said in a low growl.
"Are you using berries from the UK or the continent?" Asta asked quickly.
"The imported berries were reduced, but I hardly—"
"Everybody out!" Asta said in a panicked voice. "Move it!" She looked at Severus. "You too!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Severus thundered as the students fled the classroom.
"I need to search your classroom. Now," Asta said seriously.
"Have you found a pattern?" Severus frowned and tried to ignore the two lingering Hufflepuffs.
"It was in a book in the Restricted Section," the red-haired girl nodded furiously. "It doesn't tell you how to preform spells. It's why it was overlooked."
"What is it?" Severus' eyes narrowed.
"The Memoirs of Luken the Awful," the girl with the pixie cut piped up. "I was reading it for a Defense Against the Dark Arts project."
"And what did you find?" Severus asked, his voice low.
"The order the spells have been going off. They're in the same order as the ones that are listed in this book." The red-haired girl said quickly.
"I hardly think—"
"And the page numbers correspond with the rooms the traps are in. It doesn't count by level, it counts by columns. All the rooms are stacked perfectly on top of each other. You start with third level of the dungeons because that was as far down as the classrooms went in the seventies." Asta added. "It should be an Iotikos spell. The chemical characters from the berries from the continent are different than the ones from here. "It might not go off, but I'd really like to take a look before a poison gas kills us all."
Severus stared at the trio of Hufflepuffs before crossing his arms. "Fine. I'll be sure to let all the other students know who's responsible for all the extra work they'll have to do in order to catch up on lost class time."
"You can thank me later," Asta said sarcastically as he stormed from the room.
0
"What exactly are we looking at?" Dumbledore looked at Asta over his steepled fingers.
"There are thirty-two more spells listed in the book, but I don't think he got that far." Asta screwed up her face.
"How can you say that with any certainty?" McGonagall frowned, the brim of her hat dipping.
"Because the last spell would be in here and we've searched it top to bottom. Everything seems right." Asta tilted her head.
"He's got a whole cabinet of experimental doo-dads back there!" Flitwick squeaked. "He doesn't know what a fraction of them do!"
"In a cabinet so well guarded an atomic bomb could go off in it the worse that would happen is that it might creak quietly!" Asta seemed flustered.
"The next to the last is clear as well." The girl with the pixie cut said with a huff.
"You went looking at it without anyone else?" Asta squeaked. "Don't do that again!"
"There wasn't anything there. Literally. It was an empty classroom with a bunch of broken chairs piled up against one wall." The girl with the braid shrugged.
Dumbledore exchanged looks with his staff.
"Is there something I'm missing?" Asta asked.
"That would be the old Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom," Severus hissed. "We'd always blamed it on a scared pupil and wild magic. I told you something wasn't right, Dumbledore."
"Did the floor come alive to devour the children?" Asta asked huffily.
"No, it didn't," McGonagall said reassuringly.
"Then it wasn't trapped by this guy." Asta shook her head.
"Well, that's some relief, at least," said Professor Sprout, who had been quiet up until now. "I know my classrooms are fine. They were built about a decade ago."
"I'm glad to her we have one less thing to worry about." Dumbledore beamed. "We'll cancel classes for the rest of the day and ban the students from the classrooms. "I'll summon some Aurors and we can have everything sorted out by Monday. Good job, ladies! Fifty points to Hufflepuff! Each!"
The girls gasped before they squeaked with repressed joy. They thanked everyone profusely before making their way out, leaving the Heads of House alone in the office.
"Don't you think that was excessive, Headmaster?" Severus asked, visibly annoyed.
"Oh, stuff it, Severus!" Professor Sprout said happily. "The school will be safe by Monday. Hopefully this means the last remnant of the Death Eaters will be purged from the castle."
"I applaud your enthusiasm, Professor Sprout," Dumbledore said as he sat up straight before standing. "But I don't think it will be that easy to rid ourselves of nearly a hundred years of contamination."