Chapter 13
The Ultimate Invisibility Spell
An hour later
Still Tuesday, July 30, morning
At Antonia the angel's Apparation coordinates in the Forbidden Forest
Using Parseltongue, John opened the crossbars-gate. He and Paulina stepped into the stone tunnel. With a hissed word, John closed the crossbars-gate. No bearded headmaster, or anyone else from Hogwarts, came to investigate.
Somewhere inside the basilisk tunnel, John and Paulina crossed through the Hogwarts wards. The Spirit of Hogwarts (which was the castle's magical operating system), and perhaps Acting Headmistress McGonagall, knew that two people were in the tunnel. But nobody came to investigate.
At the other end of the tunnel was a smooth, flat wall, with a hole in the center, sized such that John's hand could fit through when he pulled his thumb in. The shape of the hole was almost round. Actually, the shape of the hole could better be described as a curved hexagon.
"§Open§," John hissed.
The surface of the smooth wall melted away. Now the wall looked like a six-foot-diameter camera shutter, made of stone; and the hole in the middle now became the gap between the six stone leaves of the shutter. With a grinding noise, the stone shutter-leaves rotated, making the hole in the center enlarge itself till it was as big as the tunnel.
John and Paulina stepped through the open shutter-door, entering the Chamber of Secrets. "§Close§," John hissed.
Again with a grinding noise, the stone shutter-leaves rotated the other way, till there was again a hand-size gap between the shutter-leaves. Next, the shutter-leaves grew a smooth, stony skin. The result: at the end of the tunnel was a smooth, round, stone wall with a hole in the center.
Since John had much more magical power than Paulina, it was he who cast the Lumos spell so the soulmates could see clearly in the Chamber of Secrets. With John casting the Lumos spell, the light that his wand made was as white and as bright as the sun. Everything in the Chamber of Secrets was easy to see.
John showed Paulina the places where, almost two years from now in his previous life, the basilisk had died and where Ginny and Harry almost had died. After Paulina heard the story and was given the "Fighting-the-Basilisk Mini-Tour," Paulina gave John a super-strength Paulina-hug.
Except for this bit of warped nostalgia, John and Paulina spent their time in the Chamber of Secrets seeking out whatever it was that Antonia wanted John to find.
Under the bright Lumos light, John and Paulina discovered that the stone statues of scary cobras, with their hoods spread and their fangs visible, were impressively sculpted. The couple likewise discovered that the beard in the stone head of Salazar Slytherin was carved in detail.
John and Paulina also discovered that there were many, many animal bones in the Chamber of Secrets.
With John's wand-light so bright, if there had been an ant-sized rune carved on a wall anywhere inside the Chamber of Secrets, either John or Paulina would have spotted this rune. But the couple found nothing of the sort.
After an hour passed with the young couple eyeballing every inch of surface in the Chamber of Secrets, John sighed. He said to Paulina, "We've looked almost everywhere, and found nothing. The only searching we haven't done is I speaking that Parseltongue passphrase, Slytherin's mouth opening, then we going to explore whatever is behind Slytherin's face."
Paulina asked, "And we haven't done this before now because...?"
"Because the one thing that I know is behind Slytherin's face is a sleeping sixty-foot basilisk."
Paulina said, "I think we need to go in there, in order to find whatever it is that Antonia wants you to find."
"Fine. But if I get eaten, you get eaten, or either of us dies by basilisk-stare, I shall have sharp words with Antonia."
John and Paulina by now were facing stone-Slytherin's face. John conjured a blindfold over Paulina's eyes—which she loudly told John she did not appreciate, but she did not remove the blindfold either.
John squeezed his own eyes shut, then hissed, "§Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.§"
The stone mouth opened and—judging by the sounds that John heard—a sixty-foot basilisk came out. And came out, and came out.
"§Fear not, Speaker. I will not show my yellow eyes to you, nor to your mate§."
John was not clear whether this was basilisk courtesy in action, or a magical limitation that Salazar Slytherin had put on the basilisk, but John would gladly accept it.
The basilisk told eyes-still-closed John that she had two sets of eyelids. The regular eyelids, when covering the basilisk's eyes, kept onlookers alive but made the basilisk willfully blind. The second set of eyelids were transparent red—with only those eyelids shut, the basilisk could see, but the basilisk's gaze no longer was an instant, statuefying death sentence for other creatures.
When the basilisk told John that now she was looking at him and his mate through her red-tinted eyelids, John murmured "Gryffindors charge ahead," then opened his eyes.
John now clearly could see the basilisk's eyes—which looked orange.
John did not die and he did not turn into a stone statue; he breathed a sigh of relief.
Just like in the other timeline, now the scales of the basilisk were a dark but vivid green—the color of a rain forest.
John said to Paulina, "It's okay to remove the blindfold now."
Paulina gasped when she saw the gigantic creature that she and her husband were sharing the Chamber of Secrets with.
The basilisk hissed at John; surprised John translated for Paulina—
The basilisk somehow could smell that John was an Heir of Slytherin—the Heir Secondary, to be exact. (Eventually Paulina's research uncovered that Lily Evans Potter was a descendant, through a Squib son, of Cobrana Gaunt Yaxley, who was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin.) But the basilisk also smelled that John was Lord Slytherin By Right Of Conquest. What this meant was that, from this day forward, the basilisk would obey only John (and John's descendants); orders from possessed redheads would be ignored.
The basilisk did not act angry or murderous, so John struck up small talk with the sixty-foot-long creature. John asked her what her name was.
The basilisk replied that Salazar Slytherin had named her §Toadchild§.
John replied that to him, the name sounded insulting; so would she mind if John gave her a new name?
No, she would not mind.
Was there a name she would like to be called?
Yes, §Gazer§.
So for the rest of the Potters' visit to the Chamber of Secrets, John called the basilisk §Gazer§.
Behind Slytherin's stone face, the newlyweds discovered, was a big and high-ceilinged room. This big room was where Gazer stayed when she was magically asleep.
To the left of Gazer's room, through a doorway-cutout, was Slytherin's suite. Everything in the suite that could be given a color other than wood-brown, was colored green. As soon as John and Paulina walked in, a painting of a hooded cobra in grass hissed a rude challenge. (John hissed a reply that was just as rude.)
Besides the aforementioned cobra painting, the suite had a bookcase with about a hundred books in it, a fireplace, a couch, two chairs, and a bedchamber. Paulina pointed out that the fireplace was a regular fireplace, not a Floo fireplace—though the fireplace was magical enough to light itself as soon as Paulina and John walked into the suite.
Paulina told John she was annoyed to find that every book in the bookcase was written in Parseltext.
John did not tell Paulina that one of the Parseltext books he "casually" was flipping through, was titled §The Wizard and the Muggle Farmer's Daughter§—
.
§Ladbrock Longwand wanted to see what Rustica's nubile young body looked like, starkers.§
§This problem was easily solved when Ladbrock pointed his wand at Rustica. "Accio Rustica's clothes."§
§Seconds later, the farmer's daughter's simple homespun clothing lay in a pile by the wizard's left foot.§
§"Fair is fair," Rustica said as she sashayed up to Ladbrock, her hips swaying. "If I'm undressed now, so should you be."§
§Rustica grabbed Ladbrock's robes with both hands and pulled those robes over the wizard's head.§
.
John was strongly tempted to drag willing Paulina into Slytherin's bedchamber and to put the room to its intended use. But John stopped himself when he remembered that back at Potter Manor, Harry was waiting for John and Paulina to finish their treasure hunt and to come home. So now John behaved responsibly, though his hormones screamed at him.
Back in the big basilisk-room, there were three rooms that were just off of the big basilisk-room. The first, Slytherin's suite, was behind no door, hidden or otherwise.
After trial and error, John found a second door, which was magically hidden; this door opened to a combination potions lab and ritual room.
Soon afterward, John and Paulina discovered a third door, that also was hidden, that led off of the basilisk-room. This second hidden door opened to a library of one or two thousand Parseltext books. Each of those Parseltext books had a green cover.
Slytherin's Library had a thousand years of dust covering everything, with no footprints or handprints visible anywhere. Fortunately, John's call to Greyclay soon got rid of the dust.
Paulina did not wait for Greyclay, or for John. By the time that every speck of dust was gone from the room, so that John could breathe freely, and John had dismissed Greyclay, Paulina had rushed into Slytherin's Library (even while she was choking on dust).
An enormous rectangular table, big enough for twelve chairs, covered a big part of the open floor. By the time John was stepping into the Library, Paulina had approached the bookshelves, had huffed loudly, and now was standing by the Library's enormous table, her hands on her hips.
"I declare, John, I am so frustrated. Every green-covered book in Slytherin's Library has a title I can't read! Every book's title is SSSS"—Paulina hissed then, but her hiss had no Parseltongue meaning to it. Paulina whinged, "I want to help you, but I can't!"
Placed at the center of the enormous table was a book with a green cover. Paulina eyed this book and said thoughtfully, "Or maybe I can help you? John honey, this book at the center of the table, what does its title say?"
As John walked over to the enormous table, his eyes were on the book that, hundreds of years ago, had been placed at the center of that table. More to the point, John's eyes were not on where he was walking.
To get where he could read the title of the book on the table, John had to walk from the doorway to the table, then had to walk around the table to the side of the table that was nearest to the bookshelves and was farthest from the doorway.
While John was walking that path, with his eyes on the book and not where he was walking, John's foot caught on a chair leg.
One foot stumbled over the chair leg, then the other foot stumbled over the stumbling foot. John's efforts to regain his balance only made the stumbles worse.
The result of all this was that John crashed into the row of bookshelves that was closest to the table. BLAM!
One slim volume fell off a bookshelf and onto the floor.
As John picked up the book, he noticed its title: §Spells I Never Will Tell My Friends About§. The thin book was written by Salazar Slytherin.
This entire slapstick comedy had happened because Paulina had asked about the book that had been placed at the center of the enormous table. When John walked over to look at that book, he carried §Spells I Never Will Tell My Friends About§ to the table with him.
The book that Paulina was curious about? Its title was §Read This First§.
John did exactly this—and discovered in the book a Parselmouth spell to conjure English-translation copies of Parseltext books in a stack.
Paulina did a silly dance when John told her about the translation-spell, she was so happy.
Just to practice the §Conjure translations§ spell, John cast the spell on §Spells I Never Will Tell My Friends About§. The result was a slim, blue-covered book appearing on the table—
A slim, blue-covered book that Paulina immediately snatched off the table.
John spent the next five minutes or thereabouts, leafing through his green copy. Then Paulina, who systematically was working her way through her blue copy, suddenly blurted, "Oh. My. God. John, page 43, hurry, read it!"
Page 43 described the "Not sensed within all the world" spell, which Salazar described as "the Disillusionment Charm after it drank four booster potions."
The Not-Sensed spell, the book claimed, made you be such that all magical creatures (wizards, witches, goblins, "Rowena's elves," etc.) could not see you, hear you, feel you, smell you—or presumably taste you. There was no blurring or distortion at the edges when someone looked in your direction, unlike the regular Disillusionment Charm.
But the thing that got Paulina so excited, when she read about the spell, was that after you cast this Parseltongue spell on yourself, wards could not sense you either. You could apparate into a house through the deadliest wards possible, without anyone inside the house being alerted, while you did not even get your hair mussed.
(Salazar Slytherin noted that if anyone other than a Founder learned this spell, Castle Hogwarts would be defenseless. To further protect the school, Slytherin wrote down the spell only in this one book, and in Parseltext.)
Slytherin's write-up of the Not-Sensed spell had one throwaway comment that also got Paulina excited. Apparently one job of the Spirit of Hogwarts was to disrupt Apparation, when the Apparation spell was attempted within Hogwarts by anyone except a Founder or headmaster. Somehow the Spirit of Hogwarts used the castle wards to inform her when Apparation was being attempted. Anyway, Slytherin theorized that anyone under the effects of the Not-Sensed spell could apparate within Hogwarts, not only a Founder or headmaster.
John grinned at Paulina. "If Slytherin is right, they'll have to rewrite Hogwarts: A History."
Paulina slapped John's arm. "Turkey."
There in Slytherin's Library, John stood in front of Paulina and cast the Not-Sensed spell on himself, in Parseltongue: "§Non sentitur in omni mundo§."
John's wanded right hand shot a pale-green beam at his left hand. John saw his left hand turn transparent green.
John looked down. All of him was transparent green; he could see the floor a yard behind his shoes.
Paulina said, "John, I can't see you at all. But the Disillusionment Charm likewise works well when you don't move around. So wave your hand in a circle, in front of my face; let's see if this new spell can handle that."
John did so. Paulina did not react, or say anything. John asked Paulina, "Can you hear me?"
Paulina did not react, or answer.
Now John touched the places on Paulina's exposed skin where she was ticklish, or that were erogenous zones. Paulina said nothing, her expression did not change, and no goosebumps formed.
Next, John conjured a full-length mirror.
"I declare, John!" Paulina exclaimed. John belatedly figured out that to Paulina, the mirror had appeared out of nowhere, without warning.
John was shocked when he looked in the mirror. He did not see the reflection of his transparent-green self; in fact, he did not see himself at all. The mirror showed John a clear view of what was behind him.
John had one more experiment to try: he tried to apparate to the far corner of the library while under the effects of the Not-Sensed spell. He succeeded.
John cancelled the spell on himself then, hissing "§Sentiri§" (be sensed). After John explained to his young wife that yes, someone can apparate within Hogwarts with this spell, Paulina ran over to John and kissed him like she meant it.
John told Paulina that he had waved his hand in front of her face, had spoken to her, and had tried to tickle her, but she had sensed none of those things. Paulina looked amazed when John said this.
Now it was Paulina's turn.
Before John cast the spell on Paulina, the couple had to figure out a way for John to know where Paulina was when it was time to cast the counterspell on Paulina, since John could not see Paulina to know where to point his wand. The couple eventually decided on doing a sixty-second countdown; at zero, John would point his wand forward and would cast the counterspell in front of himself.
Just before John cast on Paulina, he made a request: "Sometime in the first fifteen seconds, put your hair up close to my nose. I want to know if I can smell your shampoo."
Paulina agreed.
"§Non sentitur in omni mundo§," John hissed. Paulina was hit with a pale-green beam, then silently disappeared.
John spoke the countdown. At seconds 60 through 45, John inhaled deeply through his nose, trying to smell Paulina's shampoo. He smelled nothing.
Abruptly John's left hand (his non-wand hand) was forced upwards, as though moved by a Summoning or Banishing spell. His skin's nerve endings reported no touching being felt.
John said to the seemingly empty room, "If you moved my hand by grabbing me and flexing your muscles, I didn't feel you grabbing me."
John lost the count then, but resumed the countdown at 35.
When John said "Zero," he pointed his wand forward and hissed "§Sentiri§."
Two feet in front of John, Paulina reappeared. She was grinning.
Paulina threw herself at John and, for the second time in minutes, kissed her husband like she meant it.
For the next experiment, Paulina's husband cast the Not-Sensed spell on both himself and Paulina.
The newlyweds turned transparent green. They heard each other's words, and felt each other's touches. John told Paulina that he loved the smell of her shampoo. When John and Paulina stood in front of the full-length-mirror, neither of them reflected.
They individually apparated to different places on the Library floor, and tried to side-along apparate each other. They had no problems.
Then transparent-green John looked at transparent-green Paulina with a mischievous grin. "You remember that I'm the son of a Marauder and the godson of a Marauder, right?"
Paulina said cautiously, "Yes...?"
"Wait here," John said. "I'll be back." He apparated to somewhere outside of the Slytherin Library.
Five minutes later, transparent-green John apparated back into Slytherin's Library. Clutched to his chest was a silvery cloak.
Paulina's jaw dropped. "You stole the Potter-family True Cloak of Invisibility from Dumbledore?"
John grinned. "The idiot had it in the headmaster's suite, in a drawer in a wardrobe. No Fidelius Charm, no locking spell beyond Colloportus—the hardest part of the job was finding the Cloak, whereas stealing it was easy. The point is, now Dumbledore can't 'gift' the Cloak to Harry and claim, 'I did you a favor. Now you owe me.' "
John was grinning as he cast "§Sentiri§" on both himself and Paulina.
§Read This First§ had another spell in it that transfigured a book that the spellcaster was willing to sacrifice, into a permanent copy of a conjured book. Paulina supplied the book to be sacrificed (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald), John made a permanent copy of Spells I Never Will Tell My Friends About, then Paulina put the blue-cover, English-language book into her beaded handbag.
Now John and Paulina walked out of Slytherin's Library. In the basilisk-room, John again hid the Library's door, using the counterspell to the Parseltongue spell he had used an hour ago.
The young couple walked out of Slytherin's stone face; John then told §Gazer§ that she could have her bedchamber back. After friendly Parseltongue goodbyes with §Gazer§, John and Paulina walked through the stone camera-shutter wall and into the tunnel. As soon as the newlyweds walked beyond the Hogwarts wards, John and Paulina apparated back to Potter Manor.
From the time that John and Paulina had left Potter Manor, to the time that they had returned to Potter Manor—with John clutching the True Cloak of Invisibility when the couple returned—only two hours had passed.
One experiment remained, before John and Paulina invaded Malfoy Manor. They had to try to apparate to someplace that was behind wards and to apparate back out again. The purpose of the experiment was to see if John and Paulina could do this One, without being detected; and Two, without getting killed, either by the wards themselves or by the defenders of the house.
What the newlyweds wound up doing, in order to safely carry out the experiment, was that John struck Paulina's name from the Wards Ledger (thus making the Potter Manor wards consider Paulina to be somewhere between a stranger and an intruder), then John downgraded the Potter Manor wards to their mildest setting.
Now, when Paulina would try to "invade" Potter Manor, if the Not-Sensed experiment failed, the Potter Manor wards would hit her with ten Stinging Hexes—which was much better than the Potter Manor wards ripping Paulina's arms and legs off, one limb at a time (under the wards' harshest setting).
Once transparent-green John had all the setup done, transparent-green Paulina tried to apparate into Potter Manor.
She succeeded. The Potter Manor wards never noticed.
Paulina apparated out of Potter Manor again, then tried to apparate back in again. Again she succeeded; again the Potter Manor wards did not notice her passing through them.
All in all, Paulina "invaded" Potter Manor seven times before John cancelled the Not-Sensed spell on Paulina and on himself, again wrote Paulina's name in the Wards Ledger, and restored the Potter Manor wards to their previous setting. (That setting was only one step below "We're at war; if the person trying to enter ain't family, kill 'im painfully.")
That evening, at dinner
Potter Manor
The three Potters were enjoying an elf-cooked meal of steak and kidney pie. Harry finally had stopped offering to "help" the Potter house-elves cook.
John smiled at Harry. "Tomorrow you go to Gringotts and replace your Potter Protection ring with the Potter Heir ring. Tomorrow you go to Ollivanders and get your own magic wand. Tomorrow you shop for robes, books, and supplies for magical school. Are you ready for all these things?"
Harry replied thoughtfully, "I've done nothing like this before. It's all going to be strange for me."
Paulina said, "More so when everyone treats you like the Boy Who Lived. But John and I will be with you every step of the way."
Harry smiled a megawatt smile. "I can't wait!"
That evening
As John and Paulina cuddled in bed, John said, "Tomorrow morning, as soon as the three of us step into the Gringotts lobby, Dumbledore will be shoved out of his pocket dimension and into the Gringotts lobby. The goblins will arrest him, then they'll put the bearded idiot on trial."
Paulina asked, "Is there a reason you're mentioning this before it happens?"
John replied, "I have a plan about what to do then. I want your suggestions how to make the plan better."
