Chapter 13
Like looking for a stone in a quarry
The next day, we find Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren down at the lake, talking and relaxing. When Halios took out the stone, and told Neville and Hermione that they had found it in the forbidden corridor on the third floor. When hearing that, Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
"So, let me get this straight…" she said. "You found that stone at the end of the corridor we were told not to go into, unless we wished to die, correct?"
"Yes..?"
"And what did you have to do in order to get the stone?"
"Oh, just clear some tasks, nothing hard."
Hermione throws her an irritated glare.
"Fine… First it was a Cerberus, which we put to sleep. Second was a plant of some sort, which we burned. After that came a room with a locked door, some brooms, and a lot of keys flying around. I picked the lock on the door for that one. Then, it was a giant chess-set. We went back, got the brooms, and flew around it. Next, was a room with a dead troll inside. It looked like it had died some months ago.
The room stank so much we rushed through that one. After that, there was a riddle. The doors in the room with the riddle was blocked by flames, but solving the riddle let us move forward. In the last room there was a mirror. The frame of the mirror was engraved with the words 'I show not your face but your heart's desire'. But I think the mirror also showed some part of the future, for when we looked in it, not only did we see our heart's desires, but there were also two figures we couldn't make out who they were. And since we couldn't see who they were, they must be people we haven't met yet. And it was there I got the stone. My mirror image picked it up out of her pocket, and when she put it back, the stone appeared in my pocket. Since there was nothing left to do after that, we returned to our dorm in order to sleep."
Taking a deep breath in order to calm herself down, Hermione counts to ten before saying anything.
"Well, what is done is done, and there is nothing we can do about it now. But we still need to figure out what that stone is."
She stands up. "To the library!" she exclaims, and sets off. Laughing to themselves, the other three quickly follows her.
A few hours later
Hermione was agitated. No, scratch that, she was livid. How hard should it be to find information about a stone? Well, apparently quite hard it seemed.
"Argh! I know there are information about the stone somewhere in here, but why can't we find it!?" Hermione ranted quietly.
"Well, at least we know what stone it isn't." Seren answered with a dry tone.
"Oh, and what stone have you concluded that it isn't?" came the snarky reply from Hermione.
Ignoring the tone, Seren continued. "Clearly, it is not the Llech Ronw, as it isn't big enough, nor does it have the tell-tale hole. Nor is it the Lia Fáil, since that stone is in Ireland. And the Gjöll is completely out, since there is no way you could chain the Fenrisúlfr to that little thing. And since we have all touched it, it can't be the Sessho-Seki from Japan, for if it had been, we would all be dead."
Calming down, Hermione sighed. "Ok, let's go through what we know about the stone again. One, it is about as big as a fist and amber-like in colour. Two, while it is most likely magical in origin, we have no idea what it does. And three, it is not a legendary stone, but still well-known enough for it to need some protective measures. So, based on that, which stone is it?"
It was Neville who spoke up, apparently having remembered something. "Uhm, since it was Professor Dumbledore that placed the stone there, perhaps it has some connection to him?"
Hermione just stared out into the air for a moment, before giving him a giant hug. "Of course! How could I have forgot it! Albus Dumbledore, famous for defeating Gellert Grindewald in 1945 and the discovery of the twelve different uses for dragon's blood, which he made while being the apprentice to Nicholas Flamel, the creator of the Philosopher's Stone!"
The other three blinked, and then looked at the stone that was lying innocently on the table.
"Ok… so, now we know what it is," Seren began. "The question now is, what shall we do with it?"
"Well, we can always send a letter to Flamel and ask him." Halios quipped. "I mean, it is his stone."
Looking at each other, the other three shrugged before Hermione spoke up.
"It's not like there's anything else to do…"
"Yes, I doubt that Dumbledore would be happy if we took the stone to him." Was Seren's opinion.
"Uhm, contacting Flamel might be the best thing to do." Neville said.
"Ok, then. So, we send a letter to Flamel, telling him that we have found something that we believe belongs to him, describes the stone and asks if it is his. If he confirms it, we can try and set a meeting with him in order to return the stone. The problem is, when and where should that meeting take place?"
"Well… it has to be someplace that's agreeable to Flamel, and where there are few to no magicals can spy on us and discover that we have the stone, so… Gringotts or someplace in the mundane world?" Hermione injected.
"Somewhere in the mundane world, I think… It's the least likely place to find a magical being, and even though Gringotts is said to be the safest place in the world, unless it's concerns something locked in one of their vaults, the Goblin would most likely sell the information to anyone that could pay."
Neville and Seren nodded at this, knowing full well of the greedy and shifty nature of the Goblins. Hermione seemed a bit hesitant at first, but after they had told her of the Goblins lust for gold and willingness to do anything for it, she agreed that the mundane world was a better bet.
So, the four friends set of in order to write the letter to Flamel, none of them thinking of using the stone for their own gain. They didn't know that returning the stone to its rightful owner without asking for something in return would earn them the gratitude of a powerful man. Gratitude that would prove to be useful in a few years' time.
Scene change
Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office. The last week had been taxing in the extreme, to say the least. When professor Quirrell had disappeared, his first reaction had been to check of the Philosopher's Stone, but that thought had quickly disappeared when he heard from Hagrid what had happened in the Forest the night before.
That was why he had called in the Aurors' and the Unspeakable in order to find out what had happened that night. While the Aurors' had interviewed the student body and the faculty, the Unspeakable had investigated the scene of the light that had appeared that night in the Forbidden Forest. So far, the Aurors' had concluded that no foul play had been the cause of Quirrells' disappearance, and there was nothing more for them to do. The Unspeakable's, on the other hand, had found out that the light was magical in origin, and that something foul had been destroyed in that clearing. They had also found traces of unicorn blood on the ground, but dismissed it after Hagrid had told them of the injured unicorn that had been found and healed on that spot.
So imagine his surprise, when he earlier that morning had gone to check on the stone, only to find it gone. Fluffy, the Cerberus he had borrowed from Hagrid, had been asleep when he got there. This wasn't that unusual, so he had dismissed it. But the Devil's Snare that professor Sprout had placed there to guard the way forward had been burnt down with some powerful fire spell. A spell powerful enough to be beyond most of the students capabilities.
This raised alarms in his mind, and he hurried on. In the next room, there were no signs of magic on either the door or the correct key, but the door was still unlocked, and some of the brooms were gone. Moving on, he found that the chess-set was untouched, which eased his fears until he saw the missing brooms on the other side of it. Quickly moving to the next room, he was almost floored by the stench in that room. Seeing the corpse of the troll that had been places there, he realized that they had forgotten to feed it, and it had starved to death quite a long time ago.
After putting a Bubble Head charm on himself, he moved on to the next room. Finding nothing out of place there either, he came to the conclusion that whoever had come for the stone was probably trapped in the next room. Readying himself for what he believed he would face, he slammed open the last door, only to find an empty room with the Mirror of Erised standing in the middle of it. He had quickly approached the mirror and had attempted to retrieve the stone from it, only to find the stone gone, and no indications on who had taken it, or how the person had left the room.
So, here he was, down one professor and having lost the Philosopher's Stone he had attempted to guard. What to do? What to do…
Scene change
About a week later, a letter came with answers from Flamel. He confirmed that it was the Philosopher's Stone, and he thanked them for letting him know they had it. He continued on writing that he would be in London the day after school ended, and that they could meet him at the British Museum, 12 o'clock noon that day.
Sending a letter back, stating that they would meet him there, the four soon put all thoughts about the stone aside, as they began to study for the end term exams. And so, time went on and the four entered into a relaxing pattern. They went to their classes, did their homework, spent time with each other, just having fun and simply acted like kids their age should.
It was a week before the end of the school year, when a letter came from Gringotts. They had apparently had a breakthrough in researching the breaking of magical contracts, and were calling in all concerned parties for a meeting on the evening the day school ended.
Halios sent a message to her parents, as it was impossible for the Goblins to reach them in any way, shape or form. Meridia sent a mental message back, telling her that she and Sheogorath would be waiting for her on platform 9 ¾ before going to Gringotts.
The exams came and went, and they all thought that they did well in all subjects. On the last day of the term, there was organized chaos as hundreds of kids and teens ran around, trying to finish packing for the journey home before the train left. Halios, Neville, Seren and Hermione had all packed the night before, and were now just making sure they hadn't forgotten anything and that their trunks were placed so that they could easily be taken to the train. Well, Seren, Hermione and Neville did that, Halios just sent her stuff home via a portal.
After breakfast, they all went down to the station and got on the train. At 10 o'clock exactly, the Hogwarts Express took off, starting the journey back to Kings Cross. Time went by quickly, and they soon reached their destination. On the platform they met up with their families. As Sirius was the head of the Black family, and would join them for the meeting at Gringotts, they said hello to Hermione's parents, Emma and Dan Granger and greeted Neville's grandmother, the Dowager Longbottom before saying that they would see each other the next day for the meeting at the London Eye. They agreed to meet at the Leaky Cauldron at 11, before going to the meeting with Flamel. Hermione's parents agreed to chaperone, as they were the only ones who knew how to get to the British Museum, since Neville, Seren and Halios had never been in the mundane part of London before, and neither had their parents/guardians. So after saying goodbye, Neville and his grandmother left by apparition, and the Granger family went through the barrier in order to drive home.
Halios and her parents joined the Black-Weiss family when they returned to their home. There, Halios said goodbye to Seren, and she, Meridia, Sheogorath and Sirius all travelled to Gringotts, Sirius by apparating, and the other three by portal.
When they got there, they met up with the Tonks family before announcing their presence to one of the Goblin tellers. Soon, they were led to a room where they met with the Account Managers of the Black and Potter accounts, plus an older looking Goblin who introduced himself as Breakback, a lore-keeper of the Goblin race.
Once everyone had sat down, Boneclaw, the Potter Account Manager began speaking.
"Welcome. We called for this meeting as Breakback here has found references of an artefact that, if it still exist, could help terminate the marriage contract."
At this point, Breakback took over. "In some of the earliest records of our race, I found mentions of a dagger once held by a witch known as Medea of Colchis. Said dagger was rumoured to be enchanted with the ability to sever any types of contracts. While we have been able to confirm that Medea and the dagger did exist, but we have as of yet been unable to determine of the dagger has survived into the modern age. Though if it has, it has most likely not been discovered yet, as such a thing would have been well known amongst those who deal in contracts of all types."
While Meridia and Sheogorath was indifferent, Sirius and the Tonks family looked very intrigued by this. Sirius was the first one to speak.
"So if we can find this dagger, the contract could be cancelled?"
"Correct." Breakback said, nodding. "But that is if the dagger can be found. The area where the dagger could be is the entirety of Greece, and most of the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. And that is only if it hasn't been taken from said area by raiders or looters who didn't know what they had. If it has been taken from that area, it could be anywhere in the world now. For all we know, the dagger could be at a museum here in London right now, or even laying forgotten somewhere in Hogwarts. We just don't know."
"So, while the dagger might exist, there is nothing we can do to get it?" Sirius says with a frown.
"Oh, we wouldn't say that." Boneclaw said, the three Goblins grinning bloodthirsty. "There exist a ritual that could tell us where the dagger is, but said ritual is very costly, and it takes time to prepare it."
"…How costly?" Sirius asks with trepidation.
"Well, about 10000 Galleons and two years of preparation, minimum. The more you pay, the better ingredients we can get and the more exact the ritual becomes."
There were no mistake, the Goblins were seriously enjoying themselves now. Being paid to find an artefact that could break any type of contract without penalties? It was like a dream come true for most Goblins. If they could get their hands on the dagger after it was used on the marriage contract, they would never again have to bend for a contract that was unfavourably to them. Plus, they would be able to rent the use of the dagger out for a large amount of gold to anyone desperate enough to pay the price.
"How exact would the ritual be with just the ingredients for 10000 galleons?" Asked Tonks.
"For 10000, we would be able to narrow it down to within a mile. Double it, and we can get it down to a few hundred feet. At 30000, we would be able to get its location within a few inches."
"Hmm… 30000 is out, since that amount would cripple the Black's economy to the point of it taking decades to recover. 10000 is not accurate enough, so 20000 it will be." Sirius decided.
"Do not worry, Sirius Black." Meridia injected. "Money hold no value amongst us, and gold is gold, no matter what form it takes. We have more than enough gold to be able to pay any price they would want, so fear not for the monetary future of your family, we have it all in hand."
With a wave of her hand, a large pile of gold coins and bars appeared next to her on the floor, startling the Goblins with its arrival. Turning to the Goblins, she continues.
"Take what is needed for the best result, and if it's not enough, more can be summoned."
The Goblins quickly used their magic to remove 30000 galleons worth of gold from the pile. Once they were done, only a few hundred coins and one or two bars remained in the pile, so Meridia waved her hand again and the remaining gold disappeared back to where it came from.
"There. Now, how long before the ritual can be used?"
"To make sure the ingredients are the best possible, a year, and then two more to prepare the ritual, so three years from now, at midsummers eve for the most powerful magic possible." Breakback answered.
"Good" Meridia nods. "So unless there is something more to discuss, I think we're done here?"
The Goblins agreed, and said that they would contact them if something came up, or they discovered anything concerning the dagger.
Leaving Gringotts, each group said goodbye to the others. Halios got a hug from Tonks, who said she would keep in touch during the summer. Once they were done, they all left for their own homes.
Stepping foot in her realm for the first time in 9 months, Halios felt herself invigorated, and unconsciously switched to her male form. It felt good to be back home.
So, that's another chapter done. It became shorter than I had planned, but I found that I couldn't make it longer without adding a lot of unnecessary stuff to it. The next chapter will most likely be just as short, or even shorter, as it will only contain the meeting with Flamel and a summer montage. After that, the second book will begin.
Next chapter to be published will be for Hollow Magic, hopefully before the middle of August.
So until then. Enjoy.
Baleygr
