DISCLAIMER: I do not own Negima or Harry Potter. Negima is the property of Ken Akamatsu, and Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.
Italics text = character thinking to themselves.
Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy
Bold text = shouting
Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability
Chapter Twenty-nine
The Chamber of Rituals and the Chamber of Time
After they tested all of the rings, each of them cast the Geminio duplication spell on theirs with the assistance of the Room, thus obtaining permanent copies.
They then began trying out the features of the ring, such as the magic detection. What they found out left them slack-jawed. Every portrait, statue or suit of armour had surveillance charms on it, all the information being sent to the Headmaster' office. There were wards placed every five meters on each corridor and there were at least twenty per classroom. The only areas in Hogwarts with less surveillance charms were the Potions classroom and Snape' office, though the office had a particularly powerful set of wards.
They also noticed something that royally pissed them off: in order to have so many surveillance charms Dumbledore had to sacrifice the school's protection wards and most of the dark magic detection wards.
"No wonder he didn't notice Riddle's diary! The old bastard is more concern of what we gossip rather than our protection." Ginny fumed.
"What diary?" Astoria asked confused, prompting Harry to explain how the Tom Riddle in the diary possessed Ginny and opened the Chamber of Secrets.
At the end of the story Eva and Chao had narrowed their but chose to say nothing for the moment.
"Hold on, there are several surveillance and tracking spells active in this room!" Hermione, who already knew the story and chose to continue using her ring to look for the Headmaster's meddling, declared alarmed.
"Where?" Chisame asked.
"On some of us and our belongings. Mostly on wands, but Harry has quite a few on his Map and Invisibility Cloak." Negi said.
"Alright; Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Neville and Susan each have tracking spells on their wands cast by Dumbledore and Snape; Harry also has an inactive one from Bartemius Crouch Jr." Hermione said and Negi was about to remove them when he got an idea.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked when he stopped.
"Well, if he wants to track you, then let him track you. As long as you want to, anyway." Negi smiled evilly and conjured several rubber balls.
"Oh, I get it." Chao grinned. "Transfer the spells to those balls and leave them in the dormitories to avoid getting tracked."
"Yes. And if we want them to track something…" Negi picked up one of the balls and let it fall on the stone floor, making it bounce to the ceiling and back down several times before he caught it "we'll give them these."
"I'm beginning to see the resemblance between you and me, Negi-sensei." Chao grinned.
"Yes… Moving on from that apocalyptic train of thought, let me transfer those spells." Negi suggested and took the charmed wands.
"Alright, the only other belongings charmed belong to Harry, the Map and the Cloak." Eva stated before narrowing her eyes. "There is something else on the Cloak. It has been dipped… scratch that, soaked in malaclaw venom!" Eva said angrily.
"Malaclaw venom? What's that?" Neville asked.
"A substance that makes everyone who touches it very unlucky." Hermione said wide eyed.
"Huh, so there was a reason for or the crap I went through ever since I got it." Harry mumbled, half amused, half angry.
"Such as?" Asuna inquired.
"Dumbledore caught me after curfew, and then there was the time when Filch caught me and Hermione and we got detention in the Forbidden Forest where we I got attacked by Voldemort." Harry paused and was pleased nobody flinched "There was the time when Snape and Filch almost caught me when I dropped my Golden Egg in the dungeons and it started screaming."
"That was you? The entire Slytherin dorm woke up from the noise! What didn't you close it, it kept wailing for at least a minute?" Daphne asked annoyed.
"Sorry Daphne, my leg was stuck in that trap step on the stairway." Harry apologized sheepishly before turning towards Eva who was staring at the projection wide eyed. "Anything else on it?"
"No… but there is something I can tell you about the Cloak." Eva said hesitantly "You might want to keep this information for yourself though."
"Evangeline, please just tell me right now." Harry sighed "I have nothing to hide from the people here."
"This is no ordinary Invisibility Cloak. This it THEE Invisibility Cloak." Eva said, drawing some gasps from the purebloods.
"I have no idea what you mean by that, I grew up in a non-magical environment, remember?" Harry reminded her.
"Long story short, there is a legend saying that three brothers managed to escape an inescapable death, so Death itself came before them and offered them gifts, trying to trick them and take their lives. One asked for an undefeatable wand, the Elder Wand; one asked for something to bring back the dead, the Stone of Resurrection; the youngest asked for Death's cloak itself, so he can hide from death. That third one is the Cloak of Invisibility." Luna explained.
"What about the others?" Harry asked curiously.
"Well, first of all let me tell you what happened to the brothers. "The one that asked for the Wand started bragging after his first victory and was killed in his sleep, the wand getting stolen. The one that got the Stone found out that 'bringing back' the dead didn't mean bringing them back to life, but only the spirits on the dead. He went insane and killed himself eventually. The youngest used the Cloak to hide from death and passed it on to his son before he died of old age. So we can deduce that the Cloak got passed down in your family since you got it from your father and him from his. The Wand appeared several times in history in times of war, like during Grindelwald's rise. The Stone on the other hand has never been even mentioned outside the legend." Luna finished the story.
"These three items are known as the Deathly Hallows. And have this symbol." Eva said and drew with floating fire a triangle with a circle inside it and a vertical line cutting it down the middle.
"Um, I have a question about the story and the Stone." Hermione bit her lip.
"Yes?" Eva raised an eyebrow.
"How old is the legend?" Hermione asked.
"Hm, it's not recorded anywhere since most people think of it as a bedtime story, but it's over 1500 years old." Eva replied.
"Older then Hogwarts then." Hermione deduced. "About the Stone… would it happen to be hexagonal and have that symbol on it?" Hermione inquired.
"Maybe." Eva narrowed her eyes at her. "Have you seen something similar?"
"No. But I think Slytherin found a use for it in his Chamber." Hermione grinned.
"The key to the library and beast chamber!" Negi exclaimed.
"That's quite possible." Eva allowed "After all, Harry IS related to both Gryffindor and the initial holder of the Cloak. But if this is true we may never find it."
"Yeah, Voldemort sure didn't seem to have it. Otherwise he would have used it and cleaned up the whole library." Harry said.
"Still, how did Dumbledore put a tracking charm on the cloak, it should be immune to it." Luna said thoughtfully.
"Unless Dumbledore has the Elder Wand that is. He could have taken it from Grindelwald if he indeed have it back then." Chao reminded them.
"But how did he defeat Grindelwald if he had an undefeatable wand?" Neville asked.
"He didn't give Grindelwald a chance to use it. Contrary to the belief that he beat him in some great duel, the truth is Dumbledore killed Grindelwald in his sleep." Eva said, causing the eyes of the others to look at her in shock. "Also, he was Grindelwald's partner initially before the killings began. Her chose Grindelwald's motto: For the Greater Good. The reason they didn't continue to work together is that Ariana, Dumbledore's younger sister, died when she got caught up in an argument turned duel between Grindelwald, Dumbledore and Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother."
"Where did you get this kind of information?" Daphne asked in awe.
"A dark mage of my level has many ears in many places. I heard about this a week after Ariana died and then, when I spoke with my informant again after a month he had mysteriously forgotten." Eva chuckled darkly.
"So he was a manipulative bastard even then." Harry grimaced.
"At any rate, since you have this ring now, keep the Cloak locked up in your trunk. I know a way to get rig of the malaclaw venom on it as well as Dumbledore's charm, but I have to do some research first. By the way, the other charms he placed were wandless and I was able to transfer them." Negi said and handed them their wands and Map and their respective rubber ball, with their name on it.
"Okay people, we got WAY off subject here." Kazumi reminded them.
"Right, the Chamber of Rituals first." Harry nodded and made his rind show a hologram of the entire Hogwarts castle and grounds, including the Forbidden Forest. He then willed the location of the Chamber of Rituals to be shown and something under the Forbidden Forest was colored in green and the image zoomed to it.
It looked like a seven-storied tower, though six levels were underground. Each floor was made from a different material, all of them good as magical conductors. The reason was obvious once they ran a magic detection scan: the Chamber was positioned in a way that four magical ley lines converged there, thus making any magic done there all the more effective and powerful. And its exact location made Negi's eyes widen.
"Harry, zoom out and tell it to display the Chamber of Secrets and its entrances as well." he requested.
When Harry did so, everyone stared at the image in disbelief. The forest entrance to Slytherin's Chamber was merely a few meters away from the tower. Not only that, but a red door appeared on the seventh floor of the castle, in the same room they were standing and another appeared right behind the large pipe the Basilisk used to get in the school. When they looked closer they saw that there were two doors behind the pipe and, after a quick search, they found another green door underground near the edge of the Black Lake.
Without needing someone to tell him, Harry quickly had the ring display the Chamber of Needs and the Chamber of Time. He wasn't surprised at all when a blue appeared where they and one of the green doors were, while a yellow one appeared at the edge of the lake, where the other door was.
"And this is the Chamber of Time." Hermione whispered as the image zoomed to the yellow Chamber.
Like the Chamber of Secrets, the Chamber of Time was truly vast. At just ten meters under the surface, it occupied nearly a quarter of the grassy field around Hogwarts castle. It was sectioned in smaller rooms the size of the largest of the Hogwarts greenhouses, only one was different. It was particularly large, almost the size of the Great Hall, but it was perfectly round, and its ceiling made entirely of what the ring recognized as an enormous Transparency Crystal that apparently allowed those inside to see the sky through everything above it.
"Either Slytherin got along extremely well with the other founders or he was spying on them." Yue said bluntly.
"So? What are we waiting for? Let's go investigate!" Fred grinned.
"No, not now, we've been here for too long. Meet us here tomorrow during lunch. Make sure to leave your tracked balls in your dormitories and are invisible." Negi suggested a few minutes later and the group scattered.
The next day they barely concentrated during classes, their minds wandering towards the two ancient Chambers. Luckily for them, their classes that day didn't require any real concentration: History of Magic aka Nap Time and Divination.
When it was time for lunch they discretely separated from their classmates and went to the Room of Requirement and waited for Negi and the Ala Alba to arrive.
And arrive they did, in a rather surprising fashion: using the Cassiopeia.
"Professor, why are you using THAT?" Hermione asked sharply.
"In case you don't remember, the reason the Ala Alba is here is to guard this school. Which means we can't just take a break and go on a field trip." Mana replied sharply.
"But still, time-travel is dangerous and..." the bushy-haired girl began.
"Hermione, they've done it before, you've done it before, I've done it before. Please calm down." Harry pleaded as he put an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to distract her.
"F-Fine." Hermione turned away from him in what he took as a huff of anger, though in really she just wanted to hide her embarrassment and most of all that blush. "Since when did he become so physical in expressing himself?" she asked herself.
"Anyway, since none of us can afford to miss classes, we're going to use these" Chao said and took out from her pocket two more Cassiopeia and handed them to Harry.
"Hold on, time-travel?" Daphne asked suspiciously.
"Yes. This way we'll avoid the attention of all of us being missing for several hours." Negi said.
"But these aren't time turners." Susan pointed out.
"No these are infinitely better." Chao said smugly.
"How so?" Hannah asked.
"For starters, unlike time turners who can only travel for one day maximum, the Cassiopeia has no such limit. As long as you supply magic to it from either your own core or from the environment you could travel to the beginning of time. But since that amount of energy doesn't exist..." Chao shrugged be continuing "It also works differently."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Time turners accelerate time around the users either forwards or backwards. This is why they are considered dangerous. The uses partiality fades out of existence during that time and if they happen to 'appear' in the same place as something or someone from that time period... It wouldn't be pretty." Chao grimaced as Hermione palled, remembering how many times that had happened to her during her third year. "The Cassiopeia on the other hand simply moves the users and the space around him to the targeted time and location. You see, you can set to appear in a different location then where you left."
"And the best part is that it's made using muggle technology, so no Ministry could legally take it from us or forbid us from using it." Haruna smirked.
"It only uses magic as fuel in order to work. It's not magical itself." Chao explained in response to the many shocked looks.
After that the group split in four, making sure to be touching the Cassiopeia users - Chao, Negi, Eva and Konoka - before they jumped back in time to the previous night, about an hour after the group left the Room of Requirement. Then, they silently, invisibly and under their localized Fidelius, used the special door to the Chamber of Secrets.
They quickly passed through the front chamber and reached the crossroad of tunnels. Then, Hermione noticed a flaw in their plan.
"If we're going to fix the forest entrance, we should be doing it from the outside. If we try removing the debris from down here, what's above it will only fall to take its place." she pointed out.
"We know. But it would take far too long and I honestly don't have patience for such insignificant tasks." Eva said as she sunk into her shadow. "Let me know when you're ready" she told Negi before she disappeared completely.
"What did she mean?" Neville asked.
"Watch and learn." Negi grinned before he began chanting. A large barrier covered the entrance to the tunnel before a tube-like barrier shot from the edges into the wall, following the tunnel to the surface, surrounding about ten feet around it in every direction. The strain was obvious for Negi, a magical construct that large and powerful took a lot of power.
"It's ready." Negi announced as he held Evangeline' pactio card on his forehead.
A few seconds later water began pouring trough the tunnel within the barrier. It continued this way until the barrier was completely filled with water.
"Professor, what are you trying to do?" Hermione asked worried.
Before Negi could reply the air around them got cold. Very cold. For a few moments of panic Harry though that Dementors were nearby. His fears were crushed however when the water inside the barrier turned to ice and Negi dispelled the barrier with a smile.
"It would take too long to try fixing and reinforcing a tunnel all the way to the surface. So we'll simply reinforce it using ice, which makes a good replacement for rock in this case." Negi explained.
"But the tunnel is now blocked by both rocks and ice." Daphne pointed out.
"Let me take care of that. In the mean time you can look around the place. Things could get a little messy, so it's best if I'm the only one here." Haruna grinned as Negi activated her contract and she summoned her artefact.
Noticing the look in her eyes that screamed destruction, the group quickly dispersed and went looking at the other parts of the Chamber. Kaede and Chao decided to go to the former lair of the basilisk and collect the skin that the snake had shed in the past. And since that meant almost 1000 years, it was a LOT of skin. Good thing Kaede' artifact had such a large storing capability.
"Well, now that I think about it, there's a pretty good chance that the Stone of Resurrection IS the key to these locked gates." Eva mussed as she looked at the gate to the library, in particular at the triangle-like mark in the small hole.
"So much for new books." Yue frowned.
"I for one would have been more interested in the creatures I the other room. If Slytherin' runes on them are half as good as the ones on the basilisk, we would probably have the most powerful and exotic ingredients on our hands." Negi said.
"Yeah. I would have loved to have them as models for my drawings." Haruna added.
"Indeed." Chao nodded before she looked surprised at the mangaka. "Haruna, you're done already? That was fast, ne."
"Oh, I didn't have a lot to do. My golems are doing all the work. Still, I came to warn you not to go over there before…" Haruna began but a rather loud sound of crushing and breaking was heard as the ground beneath them trembled. "Oh, I guess it's already over." she shrugged and led the worried group back to the crossroads of tunnels.
When they got there they found numerous chunks of ice and stone of various sizes scattered all over the place.
"I had a few hundred snake golems that can shoot laser beams from their eyes cut us a tunnel through the ice and debris until they reach a height where there isn't anything but ice. Considering how far underground we are, it seems that little of the tunnel was actually collapsed." Haruna mused as she glanced at her surroundings.
"What about the rest of the way up?" Setsuna inquired.
"Well, they cut the ice all the way up, but we can't have that amount of ice down here, could we?" Haruna grinned and looked at Negi. "And it so happens that Eva cast a never melting charm on the remaining ice."
"In other words I have to melt the remaining ice." Negi sighed. "Okay, everyone stand back, I'm going to melt it in one single attack. I wanted to try this new spell of mine anyway," Negi said as he got in front of the opening og the tunnel. "Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Flammantes! Cum Flammatione Flet Tempestas Cinis! Mercurius Tempestas Igneus!" he called out and brought his hands upwards and unleashed a powerful tornado of orange fire. He maintained the spell for about twenty seconds before stopping as steam began to pour from the tunnel.
"Okay, I'm finished." Negi said breathing a little heavily. "Eva rolled me that she managed to prevent the fire fro being seen. And it looks like my spell melted the ice that was on these stairs too." he motioned to the stairs going up the tunnel. "Let's go."
As the climbed the stairs the occasionally had to stop and sculpt a steps where the stone was missing, but they eventually reached the surface. They didn't find Evangeline there, but they didn't really expect to, so they headed for Gryffindor' Chamber. There they found a grinning Shinso Vampire laughing maniacally in front of a glowing silver building with a round roof, similar to an Observatory', and with a single door with a lion head on it facing her.
"A very good way to hide something like this." Eva grinned when she noticed them. "The entire upper part of the Chamber of Rituals is made of Ithilium, a very rare metal of Elvin origin. While usually it's invisible, it naturally shines when under the light of the full moon or when certain enchantments are placed on it."
"I'm guessing you know some of those enchantments." Hermione grinned.
"I do, but I didn't know the one needed for this." Eva admitted. "I used the ring to find out the right spell. I modified the wards to only reveal the Chamber to those wearing our rings."
"Are there any other protections on the entrance, or can we go in?" Harry asked.
"It's safe. I also placed the same enchantment on the entrance to the tunnel you climbed out of, with an added repelling charm for everything else." Eva said as she opened the door and stepped inside.
When everyone was inside they used several long-lasting light spells and were amazed by their surroundings.
"Figures! First Ithilium, now Mithril!" Eva laughed.
Indeed, most of the room was covered by the legendary metal. There was a huge round platform in the also round room made of it. There were numerous shelves on the walls containing various items made from it. But what brought their attention was the ceiling. It wasn't there! Sure, there were several large rings made of Mithril floating there with what looked like glass inside them, but the ceiling itself wasn't there. And, after a few scans with their rings, they found out that unlike the ceiling of the Great Hall in the castle which had a transparency charm on it, the enchantments on this work of art were on an entirely different level.
It was what the rings called a spatial transference spell. Apparently, the inner part of the roof was placed in a pocket dimension in a way that left the outer part of it untouched. There were also a few spells that made sure only the sky was visible and none of the trees above the roof.
After a glance around and finding that the shape of the platform could be changed to have all kinds of runes and other symbols on it for various rituals, they headed for the small circular stairway and descended to the next level.
There they found out what the rings on the upper level were used for. A ring made of silver covered the entire ceiling with what looked like an exact copy of what looked like the ceiling from above inside it. Looking around them, they saw what looked like a silver version of the room above and headed for the stairway.
The next four levels were versions of Gold, Platinum, Orichalcum and Cadrium. According to Chao, each of the metals they encountered so far well famous for having exceptional effect in various rituals, with Cadrium being very resistant to extreme temperatures.
The seventh and final level was different though. For starters if was completely covered in one single substance.
"Kregora!" Eva whispered in awe.
"Incredible. To think that so much of it exists in on place..." Chao added.
"What is it?" Asuna asked.
"To put it simply, it's a metal extremely resistant to magic. My Thousand Bolts would barely damage this room." Negi said as he looked around.
"It's unbelievingly rare. There is only one place I've seen it before." Eva said.
"Where?" Hermione inquired.
"Asuna' artefact is made of it." Negi informed them. "It makes it the perfect weapon for her considering her Magic Cancel."
"This is clearly a storage room. I sense a lot of powerful magical artefacts i here. Still, Kregora weights a lot. Let's see here..." Eva took out her ring and scanned her surroundings. "I thought so. The outer layer of the entire underground building is coated with Gravanium, a metal with negative weight."
"Negative weight?" Konoka blinked in surprise.
"Yes. In other words it naturally levitates." Chao clarified.
"Okay, we can look through this place more thoughtfully some other time. We need to check the Chamber of time as well." Negi led the group outside then back to the Chamber of Secrets and then to the Room of Requirement.
"Next stop, the Chamber of Time." Eva smirked and stepped through the door to Hufflepuff' Chamber.
As soon as the others followed her they found themselves in a dark room. After a few more steps they felt something wrap around their ankles before finding themselves suspended upside down several feet above the ground.
"Nice of you to join me." Eva said sarcastically while the vines covered more and more of her body.
"Hermione, why does this feel awkwardly familiar?" Harry groaned.
"Because this is Devil' Snare. Same plant we fell on in our first year when we went to save the Philosopher's Stone." Hermione replied calmly as she tried to relax.
"How do we get out of this? It would be unwise to start throwing attacks in a place like this, not even seeing each other?" Setsuna asked.
"Well, normally we should relax an it would let us go and not consider us a threat, or we could drive it away with a powerful light or fire." Hermione said in a strained voice.
"Normally?" Nodoka squeaked.
"Well, this thing is around 1000 years old. Even a non-living stone castle like Hogwarts gain sentience in that time period thanks to all the magical energy in the area. For something alive and already somewhat sentient like Devi' Snare…" Chao trailed off.
"ACK! Get it out! The damn thing is getting under my clothes.!" Asuna panicked.
"I see…" Setsuna sweatdropped.
"Well, we just need to disable it, not kill it." Negi mussed. "Eva-san, I'll create a powerful flash of light to make it let us go, an then you'll freeze it."
"On the count of three. One…" Eva agreed.
"Everyone close your eyes." Harry suggested.
"Two…" the vampire counted.
"Ras tel ma scir magister!" Negi began.
"Three!"
"Lux!" Negi called out and a very powerful light engulfed the entire hallway, driving the large vines back inside a room which Eva immediately sealed shut with a thick layer of ice.
"Even better then what I planed." Negi grinned as he read the sign on the door that said that inside were only plants that grew away from any sun light.
Unlike with the Chambers of rituals where they could look around, here they were forced to contain their curiosity and leave all the doors closed, since all of the underground greenhouses were completely filled with plants that could try to escape if given the chance.
The only greenhouse they entered was one that had its door open. The ceiling was covered with small glass orbs that were partially black and part transparent, letting the light inside of them touch the ground in set intervals, since the orbs slowly, almost unnoticeably rotated.
"Ingenious." Neville said in awe. "A contained Lumos Solaris that only touches the plants when normal sunlight should."
After their tour they had seen 15 greenhouses with sunlight, five without, three for underwater plants, three for desert plants, two for fire-attuned plants, two for frost-attuned plants and one for dark plants, such as blood-draining roses.
To their immense satisfaction, the six potions lab, three ingredient storage rooms and two potions storage rooms were unlocked as well as the humongous library. True, they were rather reluctant at first regarding the ingredients and finished potions since they should have expired centuries ago, but after they saw the three control rooms all doubts died.
"So this is why it's called the Chamber of Time." Hermione said in awe as she looked over the runic control panel.
The control rooms, for a lack of a better word, "influenced" the flow of time in all the greenhouses, potion labs and storage rooms. They could speed up the growth of plants by a certain rate, regress them to a younger form, or simply freeze them in time. The storage rooms were constantly "frozen in time" and several potions that normally took long periods of time to complete could be done in mere days.
But the part of the Chamber that impressed them above all was the Observatory. Despite the fact that the sky was covered with rain clouds and they were underground, the clear night sky could be seen at any time of the day, and they even found some runes that could allow them to see any and all images of the sky since the Camber was built.
All in all, they were pleased. With a final look at the Chamber of Time, the group headed back to the Room of Requirement to sleep off the remaining hours till lunch next day.
A.N.: Finally done with this chapter, I hope you liked it. The next chapter will be near the Christmas break ... for Hogwarts, I mean.
Still, there will be at least 2-3 weeks until I can post the next chapter, since I started college two weeks ago and my free time… what am I saying, I have none! I'll only be able to write in the weekends so it will take a while.