Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Diamonds of Time
Alex opened her eyes to find herself in the cave she had remembered being in once before. It was damp and miserable, and yet there was energy in the air that Alex couldn't quite understand. How the cave was lit, Alex wasn't quite certain… probably magic, since no normal source seemed present. Moldy books in bookshelves that looked to be ripped out of house walls stood on one side, each one in complete disarray.
But what her captured her attention the most was the crystal Hourglass, nearly twice her height, standing in the center of the room. It was there that Ciardoth stood, the diamonds she had taken back removed from their settings. They hovered in air for a moment before they faded away and reappeared inside, enlarging as they dropped to the bottom of the crystal where hundreds of diamonds identical to them lay glistening. Perhaps pulsing would be a better word, Alex thought, for once every second they brightened and dimmed in complete unison, and they appeared to be a great deal larger in size than they had been outside of the Hourglass.
"Now there's truly only one set left," Ciardoth said with satisfaction. She turned to Alex then, gracefully raising one hand, giving her a cruel smile. The rock wall behind Alex began to move, but before Alex had time to scream, stone shackles had formed around her ankles and wrists, pinning her back to the wall. "You've chosen to defy me, and therefore will meet your fate knowing exactly how pathetically you failed your attempt. But don't worry, you will not be the only witness, Girl with a Question." Ciardoth said, touching her cheek with a cold finger. There was a flash of light, and Alex found herself in the dark.
Alex sighed, wondering what to do now, and wondering what her friends were doing. She was sure the entire school was in an uproar by now, especially her parents. If only she could find a way to contact her brothers and sisters, she thought. They would know what to do. But without even having her wand, which was lying somewhere on the ground and nowhere within reach, she had little hope of getting out of her bindings, no matter how much she pulled or squeezed.
Just then there was a sound like loose pebbles. Alex stopped struggling to listen. Had Ciardoth returned already? No, that'd been too undramatic an entrance for her, Alex decided.
"Hullo? Is someone there?" Alex whispered.
"It's all right Alex," a woman's voice said, sounding very close. "Everything's going to be all right. I got you and everyone into this mess, and I am going to get you out of it," she said, calling up a wisp light. Alex stared at her speechless for a moment.
"Aunt Tony? You were Blithers' assistant? But…"
"Yes, Alex, I was," Tony sighed. "My real name is Rigatona, if you remember, and I'm surprised no one put it together when they heard the name Rigs. But I have no intention of letting this go any further. I realized after I blew up my house trying to destroy my set that I wasn't going to be able to get rid of them unless all of them were together, and I had also found out by then that the person working against me was anything but human. I knew if I came forward, it would only put more people in danger. She would have gone after my relatives and people I care about to make me suffer for trying to stop her. I swear, Alex, if I had known that giving out those diamonds would have caused the deaths that it did, I never would have done it," she said, her voice quivering a bit. She shook herself out of it, grabbing her wand and crumbling the stone around Alex's wrists and ankles.
"Now, let's right this wrong and get out of here," she said, walking over to the hourglass, taking seven diamonds out of her pocket.
"What are you going to do?" Alex asked.
"I'm going to put this last set of diamonds in there so I can destroy it," Tony said. "You'd best stand back a bit, Alex."
With a wave of her wand in a movement not unlike the one Ciardoth had made, the diamonds lifted from Tony's hand and into the air, reappearing again in the bottom of the hourglass, causing the diamonds to flash even brighter.
"There! It's done! Now for the finale!" she said joyously.
"Yes, it is time, isn't it?" Ciardoth said, fading into view just behind her. Alex screamed out a warning and Tony turned with her wand ready, casting a spell that propelled Ciardoth backwards. But in midair Ciardoth somehow stopped and righted herself, shrieking a high pitched, unearthly note that made Tony clasp her ears, her wand jerking out of her hand. "I had a feeling you would come to me in the end, Rigatona. Thank you for offering me your assistance," she said delightedly.
"Don't do it, Ciardoth! This isn't even your own world!" Alex shouted.
"Yes, which is precisely why it will work," Ciardoth said delightedly, pinning Alex to the wall again and flinging Tony beside her and doing the same. "You shall both witness it for trying to stop me. Be so honored!" she laughed, turning over the Hourglass with a gentle touch of the swinging arm.
"It's over now," Tony whispered. "It can't be stopped once it's going."
"We can't give up yet!" Alex said, struggling against her bonds.
It was then that she felt something crawling around her leg and bit her lip to keep from crying out. It was a snake, looking at her with such bright eyes that it took her by surprise. It hissed at her then darted across the floor towards where Ciardoth eagerly counted the diamonds that dropped to the bottom. The small snake then slipped under her robe, sinking its teeth into her leg.
Ciardoth jumped and turned her attention to the pest, shrieking and promising a thousand different tortures for the poor beast. Alex felt the spell on her begin to weaken and quickly slipped out of shackles, grabbing Tony's elbow as she too was released, making her follow her towards the tunnel.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ciardoth screamed when she noticed them.
"I think you have other problems to worry about," Severus said as he tossed off his cloak and Jennifer came around the corner, their wands out.
"Fools! You are too late! Did I not warn you I would succeed?" Ciardoth laughed. "You cannot escape! Within ten minutes everything will stop. Nothing will survive!"
"My fate has still not come about, Ciardoth!" Severus reminded her.
"And it will not, Snape! But hers shall!" Ciardoth swore, pointing to Jennifer. Jennifer dove out of the way as the cave on that side started to give way, casting a blinding flash of light at Ciardoth, distracting her while Severus hurried over and stood in front of the Hourglass. His voice took on a strange echoing tone as he spoke, his eyes growing dark as he concentrated on the glass.
"I Wish for the diamonds to stop," he said ominously, his skin prickling as a surge of energy from the wish hit the crystal. But it did not stop, continuing on without even a flutter.
"Fool! You can not change what is fated!" Ciardoth said turning on him. Severus quickly cast a shield on himself as he prepared another spell which she turned easily, preparing another herself. Jennifer quickly hurried to Tony.
"Please! There must be some way we can stop it! We have to try and break it!" Jennifer told her.
"There is no way!" Tony said back, following her over to the Hourglass. "Not while it's turning! We fail-safed it so that no one could!"
"Every crystal has a sound resonance that can destroy it!" Jennifer snapped. "Help me try to find it!"
"Father!" Alex screamed, and Jennifer looked over to see Severus was on the ground.
Forgetting what she was doing, Jennifer ran to his side, blocking Ciardoth's finishing blow a mere instant before it reached its target.
"No!" Jennifer shouted at Alex when she came over to them, but Jennifer was hardly in a position to stop her, too busy defending off one spell and another.
Suddenly the ground began to shake as a loud, almost inaudible note rippled in the air. Ciardoth turned again on Tony, casting a spell that caused her to instantly buckle in pain as if a heavy weight was crushing her on all sides.
"It's too late! Too late!" Ciardoth laughed maniacally. "The last minute has already begun to fall! There is nothing any of you can do now!"
Sitting up weakly, Severus pulled Jennifer and Alex into the time arc he had created, but Jennifer knew from his expression that wouldn't be enough to protect them from what was about to happen.
"I love you," Severus said quietly to Jennifer before turning to Alex. "And you."
"I love you both too," Jennifer said, hugging Alex close and gazed up at the Hourglass as the last handful of diamonds sifted through. With every second another fell, and Jennifer watched as if in slow motion as the very last diamond dropped, landing at the top of the pile.
Jennifer blinked at it, and then looked up with wonder to find the rest of them doing the same. Only Ciardoth stood staring at it then, until finally she began to scream with pure rage.
"NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" Ciardoth shouted in a booming voice, full of unleashed anguish and fury. "Why am I still here? It should be over now. OVER!"
"It is over now, Ciardoth," Tony said shakily, grabbing, her wand and standing up, pointing it at the enraged creature. Soon Jennifer, Severus and Alex were doing the same. "Your quest for destruction has led you only to your own defeat!"
"I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" Ciardoth screamed, turning on her. But the moment her back was to the Snapes, a trio of spells blasted her from behind, causing her to turn again, only for Tony to cast a spell of her own. The four of them persistently continued the onslaught without stopping, confusing her on who to attack.
At last Ciardoth let out one last scream of outrage before a flash of light took her away. As the quiet set in, Jennifer turned and hugged her daughter in pure relief, while Tony slumped to the floor and burst into tears. Severus, picking up the snake he had found in the cave and putting it in his pocket, allowed himself a moment to exhale before turning the Hourglass over to fix the slow down of time.
"I am so glad you're all right," Jennifer said, finally letting her daughter go. "But that doesn't mean you aren't grounded for the rest of your life!"
"What's going to happen to Aunt Tony?" Alex asked, looking worriedly over the sobbing woman. Jennifer went over to her then, putting a comforting arm around her and helping her up.
"I'm sure Dumbledore will help sort this all out," Jennifer said reassuringly, walking her over to them. "We had better be getting back."
"As soon as the Hourglass is done and we can seal the arm in place," Severus said. "I don't want any accidents before we get this thing back to Dumbledore as he requested."
"How are we going to get out of here?" Alex asked after a few moments as the Hourglass began to wind down.
"The same way we got in," Severus said curtly, taking a piece of sketch paper out of his pocket. It was a self-portrait of Alicia.
Quite a few hugs and tears were passed around when they walked back in Dumbledore's study, for Alex's other siblings as well as Rose and Mandria were waiting there when they returned. Chairs appeared out of nowhere to seat Severus, Jennifer, Minerva, and the three Aurors. Audi especially was kicking herself for not guessing. No one spoke of exactly how they got there and back, but Tony was prepared to step up and confess her part in it, sitting directly in front of the Headmaster's desk as she did so.
"I should have known something was up after your house blowing up and then how you avoided the holidays like you did. Not to mention how skittish you got," Audi said. "You did give some of the diamonds out at the Craw wedding, didn't you?"
"I was only trying to spread them out so that there was little chance that Voldemort would get them," Tony said. "You see, it all started when Marcus and I were trying to convince Blithers that the diamonds were too dangerous and ought to be destroyed. There was a big argument and the Hourglass was struck, and the whole lab went up in flames. It was after that they came for Blithers. I adored the old man, so I went along. When I came back, it was all gone, the crystal and the diamonds. I later learned that instead of destroying them, Marcus turned them into pieces to be sold for a profit, figuring that there was no way anyone would ever be able to place them all together. I didn't find out what he was up to until I heard he had disappeared and did a bit of snooping."
"So you began to buy up the diamonds?" Jennifer asked.
"Well, by the time they began resurfacing again, years had passed, but I was very worried about what might happen if Voldemort managed to get a hold of one of the sets and found out what it did. So, knowing that my likelihood of finding out where all of them were after so many years was remote, I began to gather what I could and give them to people I knew and trusted to hold onto until things cooled down again. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to reclaim them myself. The year after Voldemort died for good, I sensed a strange presence that didn't seem to belong in this world. It was not long after that that I learned that the Hourglass… standing as a piece in a Muggle museum and harmless by itself… had been stolen. I wondered if perhaps someone had found out, but I was unsure. Nothing else happened for a while until one by one there were Disappearances… along with reports of stolen jewels. I don't think she sensed that there was someone deliberately trying to hide them until a year or two ago. That's when the public deaths started happening," Tony murmured.
"Professor Dumbledore, believe me when I say that I wanted to come forward, but I was afraid to, even more so when Vallid's secretary died. If Ciardoth had known who I was, she would have had no qualms at seeking revenge on my family as well. I was even more afraid that if she found me, she would also have the last set of diamonds that she needed to complete that thing. So, I attempted to find a way to destroy the set I had, and I nearly killed myself in the process. But things had changed by then… I'd been reading the papers fairly regularly. People were onto her, and although she seemed to still be getting a hold of the diamonds, but the deaths had stopped. At that point I decided that the best course of action was to take the chance of letting her get all but my set and then wait for her to come looking for me so I could try to destroy the Hourglass myself when all of the diamonds were put together."
"What I don't understand is why you'd help make such a monstrosity in the first place," Alastor said critically.
"Goodness, Alastor, that was nearly a hundred years ago. I was young then! Blithers was so emphatic about helping with the war effort, and he was a father figure to me. In fact, I was the one who did the research on gathering the Time Stream," Tony said, sounding distant. "I wonder why it didn't work?"
"Thank goodness that it didn't," Minerva said.
"Well, didn't Ciardoth herself say that you can't use magic to change something that's fated to happen?" Alex said. "She said so when father couldn't stop the diamonds from falling. But she'd also said all sorts of other things were fated afterwards, didn't she?"
"Yes, that is true," Severus agreed. "She contradicted herself by attempting to stop things she thought would happen, and it failed."
"Well that explains why you stayed so calm about all of this, Albus," Harry chuckled at him.
"Perhaps," Dumbledore smiled. "All that matters now is that the diamonds are destroyed, and it's one less option she will have in causing trouble. However, this will not be the last we see of her, I am certain of that."
"Don't worry, Albus, we're not about to give up yet," Audi said. "If the centaurs are right and she doesn't belong here, Alastor and I have every intention of tracking her down and putting her back where she belongs."
"Do you mind if I help?" Tony asked. Audi and Alastor glanced at each other. "I do have some family knowledge about fairy magic that I can offer up. It's the least I can do considering the mess you both went through this year because of me."
"It's about time we all started working on the same side," Alastor agreed, offering his hand to Tony.
"Well, we'd better get going then. We've got a report to write, and Tony, you can help us fill in some more blanks," Audi suggested, getting up.
"If you want, I can take these three back to the Weasleys, Jennifer. I need to pick up my two before I head home anyhow," Harry offered, the three Snape children saying goodbye to Alex and following him out.
"Yes, and I'm sure these three have some homework to catch up on," Dumbledore smiled at Alex, Rose, and Mandria. The three of them said good night and they walked out of the study, Alex in the center while the other two crowded close to her so that they could hear the whole story, friends once again.
"Speaking of which, don't you have OWLS to put together?" Severus reminded Jennifer.
"Just a moment, Severus. There's something that you need to hear first," Jennifer said in such an odd tone that Severus paused, pondering the door which had gently closed on its own. "Where's your ring, Albus? The new one you've had since Halloween?"
"Oh that?" Dumbledore said, glancing at his ringless finger and back at Jennifer with a sparkle in his eye. "Well, I decided that I didn't care for it very much and got rid of it."
"So you did," Jennifer said, standing up. "And I realize you have your reasons for not wanting what really happened in that cave to be known by everyone, but I want to personally thank you for saving us all." Severus stared at his wife in complete bewilderment.
"Excuse me if I missed part of the conversation, Jennifer, but what are you talking about?" Severus asked.
"You did miss a conversation, but it wasn't this one that gave it away," Jennifer said, glancing at Minerva. After a moment, Minerva nodded with a thin but amused smile, allowing Jennifer to continue.
"During one of our walks home from Coven Night, Minerva mentioned that you had once been working on an experiment to change the forms of inorganic magic items without losing any of its magical properties. I think you must have actually succeeded in finding a way to do so. When the lone diamond came into the school's possession, you sent us all to guard it, but in reality the one we were guarding wasn't the real diamond at all. It was a duplicate, designed to mimic the diamond.
"I don't think you were certain that it would fool her, but a couple of events ended up working in your favor. The night it was taken, Alex, Rose and Mandria were in the Chamber of Secrets, and it was Rose's diamonds… not the lone diamond… that Ciardoth was sensing. But once she was down there, she found the lone one. She was fooled, but not because it could be duplicated so flawlessly, but because of the diamonds Rose had on. The second time was when my daughter decided to steal some of them back, so when Ciardoth came to the castle this last time she sensed only that set and not the single one that you had hidden because her sensation of the seven diamonds together was stronger. Because of it, she still didn't realize there was another, which would have also ruined the plan. But the truth of the matter is that the whole reason that the Hourglass didn't work properly wasn't because of fate or because the diamonds weren't working properly. It was because the real diamond the school was protecting was the one you were wearing on your finger, as the Phoenix ring, while the fake one was put in the hourglass."
"So that's the real reason he was so calm during all of this," Severus said with a look of mixed awe and accusation.
"Ah, it seems you have caught me this time," Dumbledore said with a warm smile. "You are correct of course, Jennifer, and I must say, considering the all of the circumstances that had to happen for my plan to work, it all went rather splendidly, didn't it?"
"Perhaps it was Fate," Minerva said dryly.