CHAPTER 134: Requirements

Harry Potter pased back and forth in the upper levels of Hogwarts. Lord Voldermort was out there, and could not be reasoned with. All the cards seemed to be in his hands, but Harry had one advantage, that of a fast action. But there was no way to find where Voldermort was. This seriously disappointed him. The words of Voldermort haunted him "Swiftly shall I return and take vengence", "a ring you have seen only once", "shall float free of my horcruxes". All these he considered. Muggle weapons would be pretty useless now he surmised, although Voldermort didn't know it. The power to float free would mean that he would be able to jump from body to body as it was struck down, and he saw how fortunate it was in the last battle that he was struck down by a killing curse and not by a hand grenade.

The stone. He needed to find the stone.

He came to a doorway on his right he was sure wasn't there the last two times he had gone round this hall. The castle had changed again, as far as he knew. It did that from time to time. But curiosity is ever the weakness of the Ravenclaw. He entered the new door.

There were shelves on every wall and tables in the middle of the room, and every shelf and every table surface and most of the floor was covered in junk. This wasn't normal. This seemed to him more like finding a magic shop before the final dungeon than what would make sense in a school. On inspecting some of the junk, there was no doubt about it. Most of the stuff here was magical. Time to start going through it and see what could be used.

He proceeded through the first row of tables. Most of the stuff was broken, some of it sputtered when handled, and the rest seemed either of no obvious use or failed to respond to his hand. Of this we should not be surprised. He would call for experienced help eventually, but first the curiosity of the Ravenclaw to solve the puzzle was upon him. This felt like a puzzle conjured up for him to solve, and therefore he would be able to solve it. The statue at the end of the table he bypassed, neglecting to check the tiara on it. Not three feet on the row of tables on his way back to the door he came upon the ring, transparent and bearing the same line in a circle in a triangle glyph that was drawn in therestial blood on his cloak. He rememberd "this you wrought with your finger on a teacup". Being entirely sensible, he didn't handle it, but retrieved a hankerchief from is pocket, wrapped it around the ring, tied it, and put it into his moleskin pouch. Then it was time to go. He would contact Minerva McGonagall first because for some reason he trusted her understaning more. Besides, she was close at hand.

No sooner had he got round the first corner on his way back did he see a red bolt hurtling down the wall at him. He leaped back behind the wall and cast "Tonare! Ravum calveria. Lucius gladius." using the Elder Wand. Immediately a red blade formed around his wand and extended past it. Then with his off hand he drew his own holly wand and cast "Protego." With the Elder Wand, this combination was almost unbeatable. Then he stepped around the corner again.

Whoever it was was either casting wordlessly or behind a quietus because he didn't hear a thing but saw the next red bolt hurtling at him. With his adereneline-fueled reaction time and the Elder Wand's precision he sent the bolt back down the hallway. He still hadn't seen his assalient but he saw the bolt impact on something unseen in the hallway and turn around and come back at him again. A second bolt like a streak of white lightning spiraling around followed it. He batted the red bolt back again and with surprising speed turned his hand and the breaking-drill hex slammed into his blade and was destroyed. "One of /those/ battles" he groaned inwardly even as there was a spark on his shield where an unseen bolt impacted upon it. He was invulnerable to everything save the killing curse, but his opponent was probably older and more experience and wasn't having to expend magic so quickly to sustain the Most Ancient Blade. He raised his wand and drew his blade across his chest and advanced, projecting confidence he didn't actually have. His opponent would have to withdraw or lose; however there was a lot of hallway up here.

The silence of the hallway was getting on his nerves. "Finite incantem!" "Lumios" he cast, hoping to reveal something of his opponent. He was so close now he could see the distortion lines from the disollution. Then the distortion wavered and retreated and ran down the hall and took a left. Harry ran down the hall and took a right.

After descending two flights of stairs, Harry dismessed the blade but kept running with his shield up until he had reached the entrance to Headmistress McGonagall's office. "Impermanence" he spoke to the gargoyles and they stepped aside. Up one flight of stairs, and there she was. Only then did he drop his shield.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

"I was attacked on the upper levels. I'm sorry." Harry panted for breath.

"Who was it?"

"Somebody who can cast a really good disollution. I couldn't see or hear a thing."

"Where is the person?"

"He ran away down a different set of stairs", Harry said. "But we've got a breakthrough. Resurrection stone." The last two words were to his pouch, which promptly produced his hankerchief again, which he placed on McGonagall's desk. "Careful, it's horcruxed."

Headmistress McGonagall said "Stand back!" and appeared to ready herself to cast some absurdly powerful spell.

"Wait", Harry said. "Call Mad-Eye. He can cast a killing curse."

"Will that even work?"

"It's easy to check, and we're none the worse off it fails. We want the stone intact if at all possible."

With a wave of her wand, Minerva lit the fireplace, then called up her patronous. "Tell Mad-Eye we've got one of Voldie's horcruxes and want his assistance immediately." The moonlit cat turned and disappeared with seemingly more urgency than usual.

Then Harry cast his own bright patronous, and only then started to explain, right as the floo fire lit up and Mad-Eye stepped out of it, "My patronous can block a killing curse, in case Mad-Eye misses."

"I don't miss, boy."

Harry undid the knot on the hankerchief, revealing the ring within. Harry's patronous moved opposite Mad-Eye from the ring. "The stone on that ring is the ressurection stone, but it's also one of Voldermort's horcruxes. I think a killing curse will destroy the horcrux and leave the stone operable. That is of course, if you can't think of a better use for a horcrux."

Mad-Eye Moody stepped up and pointed his wand right at it from an inch away and without even moving it cast "Avada Kedavra" even as Harry's patronous tried to slip under the desk. Nobody had time to see the bolt but there was a burst of magic and something like a ghost appeared and broke into two pieces, one of which shot away south-southeast and the other shot up through the ceiling.

They looked at the stone, which was intact though the ring mountings had melted.

"What was your patronous trying to do?"

"Protect the students. My patronous can block the killing curse, but I think we yet need to keep that ability secret for now."

"Where did you learn that, son?"

"I blocked one of Voldermort's curses a long time ago. He was quite surprised."

This slip-up ended up being far too clever. Mad-Eye Moody and Minerva McGonagall would think he was again referring to the time as an infant where everyone believed he had survived a killing curse rather than him being in Azkaban where this actually happened.

"Wouldn't that cause another explosion?"

"Only if Voldermort was the caster. Our magics are incompatible."

"Come on, son. How do you know the patronous blocked the curse rather than the incompatability?"

"You had to be there."

And there was nothing Alastor Moody could say to that.

AN: Of course Harry knows the password. McGonagall is nobody's fool.