"This is a bad idea…" Daphne muttered as Tracey guided her, Harry, and Hermione to the end of the third floor corridor. Daphne glanced around the abandoned corridor, noting the eerie silence that pervaded the area. "This is a really bad idea…"
Tracey was, of course, unswayed by her hesitance. "Well, you didn't want to go to Parvati!"
"Of course I didn't." Daphne protested. "If we ask her what's in the third floor corridor, then she'll know that we're curious about the third floor corridor. I am not handing that girl easy blackmail material on us. Just because she's been helpful to us in the past doesn't mean that she won't turn against us given reason"
"That's very cynical of you, Daphne." Tracey commented.
"We're Slytherins, Tracey. We're supposed to be cynical." Daphne hissed before turning to Harry and Hermione. "Please back me up on this, you two."
Harry shrugged and Hermione was unresponsive. "I, uh, think we'll stay out of this argument." Harry said.
"You always stay out of our arguments." Daphne groaned. "I would really appreciate some backup sometimes."
"Call it self preservation." Hermione retorted.
"See, Tracey? She's cynical." Daphne said triumphantly.
Daphne couldn't see if Hermione rolled her eyes, but the sigh she gave made it seem like a pretty likely that she did.
It didn't take much longer for the group to arrive at the end of the corridor. A single door lay in the middle of the wall at the corridor's end.
"So… what do we do now?" Harry asked.
Before Daphne could voice her opinion, Tracey was loudly rattling the door. "It's locked." She said definitively.
"Of course it's locked!" Daphne groaned. "It's a forbidden corridor guarding a valuable object. It's not like we'll be able to get past this door without being smart about it. To start with, we should probably cast some detection charms to see what kind of security we'll be dealing with."
The group stared at Hermione.
Hermione gave them an ascance look. "Just because I know more spells than you guys doesn't mean I know every spell, you know. I don't know any detection charms."
"None at all?" Daphne asked. She had trouble believing that.
Hermione just shrugged. "Not unless you want me to recreate Harry's shoddy attempt at a humanoid revealing charm."
"Hey!" Harry protested. "It wasn't that bad!"
Daphne shot him a skeptical look, and she was sure that Tracey and Hermione were doing the same.
"…Okay, it was pretty bad…" Harry admitted.
"So what now?" Tracey asked.
"I'm not sure…" Hermione said. "I guess we should just see what information we can gather without using magic? Or at least without using detection charms…"
Daphne scoffed. "Please. There's no way an artefact like the Philosopher's Stone wouldn't have wards to block mundane scrying used in its protection."
"Wanna bet?" Tracey asked as she pressed her ear to the door.
"Sure. There's no way-"
"I hear growling." Tracey observed.
"…You're kidding me." Daphne replied as she pressed her ear up to the door.
Daphne continued to listen to the door in denial. There was no conceivable way that whoever set up the wards forgot to put up a sound cancellation one.
"Is this… an intimidation tactic or something?" She asked. "Or maybe fake noise generation to throw would-be thieves off?"
"Why don't we find out?" Hermione asked, pulling out her wand and pressing it against the door.
"You don't actually think you can open it, do you?" Daphne asked, aghast.
"Of course not." Hermione replied. "Even if I was able to open the door and was able to do so without tripping any alarms, then we'd still have to worry about what would be on the other side. I don't plan on facing the source of that growling in person, at least not without having a plan."
"So what are you…?" Daphne began to ask as Hermione closed her eyes in concentration.
Half a minute later, Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "Figures that that wouldn't work. On to plan B…" Hermione pressed her wand against the wall to the side of the door and closed her eyes again. Gradually, a small patch of the wall appeared to glisten before darkening and spreading across the stone. It was so bizarre that it took Daphne a moment to even realise what she was seeing.
"Hermione… Did you just… transfigure that brick into glass?" Daphne asked.
"Yes." She replied, wiping sweat from her brow. "The wall was less resistant to being transfigured than the door."
Daphne's first thought was that she couldn't believe she didn't think of that first. Her second thought was that Hermione had to be insanely powerful if she was able to overpower the wards to the extent that she could transfigure part of the wall. Either that, or the wall wasn't warded at all and this room was just here to mess with people. Daphne's bet was on the last one, if only because that seemed on par for the weirdness factor of her life at this point.
(Why was she surrounded by people who just drew in chaos?)
"It's too dark to see anything, though." Tracey said as she pressed her face up against the glass brick.
"Oh! I might be able to do something about that…" Harry said. He rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a small pin and pricking his thumb. It took her a moment to realise he was about to use his blood-boosted Lumos charm again.
"Get ready, guys. This is going to be bright…"
As if that needed to be stated. Daphne could still recall the searing brightness of the spell the first time he gave her and Hermione a demonstration.
Much to Daphne's surprise, Tracey actually listened to Harry and backed up from the wall. In all of the years that they had been friends, Tracey had rarely been one to heed warnings.
Harry then whispered "Lumos", and the hall was filled with light. Brilliant illumination shone out from the cracks around the door and the glass brick beside the doorway. Daphne watched him struggle as the light pouring through the glass dimmed to the point where they could see.
"It looks like… a three headed dog?" Tracey stated.
As if one cue, the growling coming through the door grew louder and quickly turned into barking.
Daphne stared at the door in disbelief. There was no way they had brought a cerberus into the school. They were class XXXX creatures, for the Morrigan's sake! Using one as a guard was sensible in an isolated area, but a school was not an isolated location, even if the wing of said school was forbidden.
"We are not opening that door without a very solid plan." Daphne stated. "Those things are very dangerous and very hard to take down."
Tracey pulled back from the wall as the brick's transfiguration ended and it reverted back to its usual stone state.
"So, uh, what now?" She asked.
"Now? Now… I'm not sure. We confirmed that something is being guarded there, especially if they brought in a cerberus. They're notoriously aggressive guardians." Daphne said.
"Do you know any of their weaknesses?" Harry asked as he pulled his wand out from under the door.
Daphne shook her head. "They're rare enough creatures that their weaknesses are not common knowledge. Even if we did know how to take one down, though, we shouldn't. There's no telling what other protections would lay past the dog."
"Time to do research!" Hermione said, her face brightening into a smile.
Tracey groaned. "Hermione, you spend almost all of your time in the library! We won't find out big secrets from reading published material! Secrets are going to be protected, not published!"
Hermione huffed indignantly. "Understanding existing knowledge is the foundation of discovering new knowledge. What better way to find out secret knowledge than discovering secrets of your own?"
"How can you be so interesting and so boring at the same time!?" Tracey whined.
Harry clearly sensed the oncoming argument and cut it off. "I think maybe we should do a bit more investigating first, so we can get all our research done at once. Hagrid knows a lot about rare and dangerous creatures, so why don't we ask him if he knows anything?"
Hermione and Tracey both look put out at someone preventing their debate, though Daphne was just glad it didn't happen. Her life was already too stressful for her taste. How did other people manage to have friends without exhausting themselves?
"Fine." Hermione sighed. "Let's go see Hagrid."
Parvati strode into the meeting place she had arranged with the Weasley twins, with two of her subordinates trailing behind her. Carmichael had to be left behind to run things in her stead, so she had two of her seventh-year subordinates, one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff, attending in his stead. Of course, she had her own reasons for picking these exact two seventh-years, but those reasons were not for the ears of pesky ginger twins, nor anyone else, for that matter.
After all, knowledge is power, and very few people are worthy of power.
She took several strides into the room before a large downpour of liquid fell from the ceiling above her. The Weasley twins looked to be holding in a giggle, at least until they noticed that once the liquid cleared, her robes were still dry and whatever latent prank they put in the liquid didn't trigger.
"Yes… what was that supposed to do?" She asked dryly.
The twins exchanged a brief glance but didn't say anything, shock still apparent on their faces.
"Right then," she said, ignoring their silence, "let's get down to business. We know that you have a way to access the wards of the castle. We want access to it so we can study it and try and reverse engineer it. We learn how to access your backdoor, and at the end of the week, you two get to walk away with your little artefact. We pay you for your trouble, and everyone wins."
Grins stretched across the twins faces at her demand. Parvati was almost certain that it wouldn't be that easy, but setting the stakes early on was vital.
The twins, of course, simply continued to grin back at her.
"You know, 'Dark Mistress', we may not want to part with our artefact at all." The twin on the left said.
"Indeed." The twin on the right replies. "After all, why should we give an edge to any potential competition?"
"We could be convinced to provide a service, though."
"For a fee, of course. Pranks don't grow on trees after all."
Parvati clenched her fists. The only money she currently had access to was the profits from her organisation, and most of those profits were about to be spent expanding her network. She could afford a one-time payment, but a per-use fee would be too much of a setback to be acceptable.
Time to make a power play.
She stretched her hand out shortly before a pulse of magic moving through the room, immobilising the pesky redheads. She then clenched her fist drew it towards her body as the twins' immobilised forms floated towards her.
"I do not find that to be an acceptable price. I am going to explain my terms to you before I release you. You are going to show us this artefact, explain how to operate it. We'll give it back to you with a nice sack of galleons when we're done as payment for 'services', and you are going to forget about our exchange and never retaliate against us. Deal?"
The twins, of course, did not reply, what with them being immobilised. Parvati unclenched her hand, at which point the immobilisation was cancelled and the twins dropped to the ground.
Parvati leaned down to whisper in their ears. "Do we have an understanding?"
The twins push themselves up from the ground. One of them was clearly angry about being outdone, while the other simply seemed intrigued. Parvati made a note of that for later. Being able to tell the twins apart was information that lots of people would pay for, simply to avoid the headache the duo tended to cause when in the same room.
The twins began whispering to each other, with the angry one shooting periodic glares at her as they discussed. They continued on like that for several minutes before the calm one spoke up.
"We want forty galleons upfront payment."
"And access to the map on request while you research it." The angry one added
Parvati held back any emotion from showing on her face. Forty galleons was… a lot of money. It would cut through all of her personal savings plus this month's miscellaneous budget.
"You two had best hope that your little trinket is worth it." She said with a scowl.
After handing over the specified number of galleons, the angry twin pulled out a piece of parchment.
One brief explanation later, Parvati was staring at the map in hunger.
It was the ultimate tool for tracking everything in Hogwarts. People were identified and located, every passage and how to open it was laid bare, and she was certain there were more secrets buried in its depths.
This was absolutely worth the price.
Parvati grabbed the map and tucked it into her robes. "Well, gentlemen, I believe our business here is concluded. I shall be in touch once we have an idea of how long the process will take."
As she strode out of the room, her minions in tow, one of the twins asked her a question.
"How did you do that wandless magic trick?"
"Knowledge is power," she replied, "and I have a lot of knowledge."
Once she was a decent distance from the meeting space, she turned around to address her minions.
"Cancel the illusions." She commanded.
All three of them shimmered. With the illusions dispelled, Parvati was visibly drenched in thick fluid that had stained her hair and robes with hideous streaks of bright colour. Dispelling the illusion around her minions made them appear unchanged, which was entirely the point. She never could have pulled off her "wandless magic" display without help.
Parvati was nowhere near skilled enough for wandless magic, especially not at her age, but she could certainly make unnecessarily dramatic gestures. Her minions were the ones doing the actual magic, and their illusions were just to hide their wand-waving. It was a truly ingenious display, if she said so herself.
"Never let your opponents realise the true extent of your power, be it weakness or strength." She was really starting to appreciate the value of those words.
Parvati glanced down at her hideously chromatic outfit.
"I have no idea how long this 'prank' will take to wear off." She told her bodyguards. "Tell Carmichael to handle the rest of the day's meetings until I call him off. In the meantime…" She pulled the map out of her robes. "Get this to the research division. Remember to tell them the exact password. 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'. No contractions, so it's 'I am', not 'I'm'."
They nodded affirmatively, so she took her leave.
"I need to take a shower…" She muttered to herself as she walked back to the common room. Being a Dark Lady was hard.
Hermione was full of conflicting emotions as she walked towards Hagrid's hut with her friends. On one hand, this "investigation" that they were doing was genuinely interesting, and it reminded Hermione of the mystery novels she read as a child (Mysteries were the one type of fiction she didn't consider a waste of time). On the other hand, they were blatantly breaking school rules to do so, which didn't sit well with her. At the same time, they were breaking rules set by people who thought keeping a dangerous creature in a castle was a good idea. If they were willing to do something like that, could they be trusted to make sensible rules? Above all else, though, Hermione simply wanted to know what was going on. She couldn't stand not knowing things.
And so, at Harry and Tracey's insistence, they were all visiting Hagrid to try and get some information about the man. Again, Hermione was of two minds about that. On the one hand, she didn't think it was fair that they were using the man's forthcoming tendencies to mine him for information. On the other hand, Hermione knew that he was their best bet for figuring out what the deal was with the third floor corridor, and getting information out of Hagrid was rarely more complicated than engaging the man in conversation and simply waiting for him to spill the beans.
In the end, Hermione's drive for information won out, hence why she was following her friends instead of staying back in the common room in an act of protest.
(A small part of her insisted that she would have gone with them even if she decided they were in the wrong. If her friends were going, with or without her, then she may as well ensure that they at least asked the right questions.)
Harry knocked on the door, only faintly flinching when Fang started barking. His slight reaction made Hermione realise that she still hadn't gotten around to pressing him on his past. While she didn't want to pressure him, she did make a note to at least get him to talk about it before the school year ended.
After his usual reprimands of his dog's behaviour, Hagrid opened the door and greeted them.
"Oh, well hello you four!" He greeted brusquely. "What brings you around here?"
"Just here for a visit, Hagrid" Daphne said sweetly.
After Hagrid had served them the usual inedible rock cakes and absurdly strong tea, Tracey began asking him questions. Hermione wondered just what he did to make the rock cakes so heavily resemble their namesake. On the few occasions she could see one that Hagrid had bitten through, it looked like a normal cake, just impossibly hard to the touch. There must have been magic involved, because Hermione refused to accept that it was possible to make a normal cake turn out so… rock-like.
"Say, Hagrid," Tracey began, "you like magical creatures, right?"
"Oh, of course!" Hagrid blustered. "Vastly misunderstood, most beasts are. I have this dream of taking over professor Kettleburn's Care of Magical Creatures class when he retires, which may be sooner rather than later, from what I've heard."
"What sorts of creatures do you deal with? I mean, you're the groundskeeper, so I'm sure you encounter lots of things in the forbidden forest or even around the castle." Tracey asked.
"Ah, well sure I do! Most of what I deal with are the centaurs, since I'm one of the few people they respect. I also keep watch over the forest's unicorns, just to make sure they're doing alright. And of course, I also help manage the thestral herd and tie them up to the carriages when Hogsmeade weekends come around."
"Hold on." Daphne butted in. "The carriages are pulled by thestrals? Aren't they highly aggressive and carnivorous?"
"Oh no, not at all!" Hagrid said, clearly taken aback by Daphne's question. "They're mighty docile, and they're actually scavengers, not hunters. Most people just think they're dangerous because of the whole 'death' thing they have going on."
"Death thing?" Hermione mouthed to Harry, who simply shrugged cluelessly at her.
"Anyways, what other creatures to you have to deal with?" Tracey asked, trying to steer Hagrid back towards giving them information.
"Ah, well, there's some hippogriffs out in the paddock, though they're mostly wild creatures that don't need much handling. And then there's also Aragog, though I'm not supposed to talk about him."
Well, that seemed promising. Hermione took over the conversation before Tracey had a chance to push him too hard.
"Surely you can trust us, Hagrid? We promise that we won't tell anyone without your permission." Hermione said, trying to ignore the fact that she didn't feel as guilty about sweet-talking him as she should.
"Ah, well, I suppose you may have a point there… Aragog is, well, he's an acromantula. I raised him myself, back when I was in school. He wound up fleeing into the forest in my third year, and I helped raise him ever since. I still go and visit him and help him get what he needs, which isn't much nowadays. The colony is pretty self-sufficient by this point."
"Acromantula?" Hermione whispered into Daphne's ear. "Aren't those the giant, man-eating spiders? And there's a whole colony of them in the forest!?"
Daphne nodded numbly in response.
While Hermione (along with everyone else) was absorbing the implications of an acromantula colony in the forest, Tracey abandoned any pretence of subtlety.
"What about cerberi?" She asked.
"Cerberi?" Hagrid counterqueried.
"Three-headed dogs." Daphne clarified.
"Oh, you mean like Fluffy. They're mighty rare creatures, you know. Certainly not in most books. I think they're only in the extended edition of Fantastic Beasts, come to think of it…"
"How did you come across such a rare creature?" Hermione asked.
"And how did you tame it?" Tracey added.
"Ah, I got him from a Greek fella I met in the Hog's Head a few years back. There's all kinds of strange fellows that come through there, I'll tell you what. Anyhow, Fluffy was mighty feisty when I got him but thankfully the fella I got him from gave me a few pointers."
"Like what?" Tracey asked, a grin appearing on her face as she asked.
"Well, how to calm him, for one. It's pretty simple, actually. All you have to do is…" Hagrid paused as he caught sight of Tracey's grin. "Oh no. Oh, you didn't." He sighed. "You lot have been snooping around the forbidden corridor, haven't you?"
"I'm shocked by your accusation!" Tracey said with far too much flourish. "I am the paragon of innocence!"
Hermione watched Daphne stifle a sigh at Tracey's melodramatics. Tracey was very bad at keeping a straight face when she was up to something, and this time, it cost them their opportunity to get relevant information about the corridor (such as why there was a cerberus in the school, or how to calm it).
"Professor Dumbledore told you all that it was dangerous!" Hagrid complained. "You shouldn't be snooping around there! Fluffy may be tame, but the other obstacles past him are anything but! I don't want any of you hurting yourselves tryna sneak past devil's snare or a troll!"
Well, perhaps this visit wouldn't be a total waste after all. They had learned that there were additional obstacles, and they included devil's snare and a troll. Hermione filed this information away, wondering what was valuable enough to bring such deadly things into the school for its protection. She had a bad enough experience dealing with the one troll on Halloween, and was in no rush to deal with another used to guard some treasure. She exchanged a glance with Harry, who'd been a silent observer throughout this whole conversation. When she caught his eye, he simply looked at her and shrugged.
Like Hermione, Harry had his reservations about using Hagrid for information. Unlike Hermione, he was not bothered enough to raise any protests. He did say he would be refraining from participating in the questioning, though he chalked that up to a lack of experience in the matter rather than any objection to doing so.
"But Hagrid, if you don't tell us what we'll be dealing with, then we'll be in all sorts of danger when we ignore you and investigate anyways! Imagine how guilty you'll feel about whatever harm comes to us!" Tracey protested with mock hurt.
Hagrid appeared to believe her for a second, but he then shook his head. "I'm not telling you anything, and that's final!" He all but shouted.
Tracey pouted, and Hermione decided to intervene before she made an even bigger mess out of things.
"I'm sorry about Tracey, Hagrid. You know how… excitable she gets when something draws her attention."
Hagrid let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I do. I met your mum a couple of times, and you're a lot like her, you know."
Tracey beamed with pride. Hermione wasn't honestly sure that Hagrid's remark was supposed to be a compliment, though Hermione had a very… incomplete picture of what Mrs. Davis was actually like. So far, all she'd been able to gleam was that people seemed kind of scared of her.
"We're all terribly sorry for bothering you, Hagrid." Hermione said as she started to push Tracey towards the door, with Daphne and Harry following close behind. "Aren't we, Tracey?" She asked forcefully.
Tracey looked like she wanted to protest, but then thought better of it. "Yes. Sorry Mister Hagrid."
Hagrid sighed again. "It's fine. Just… don't call me mister. And don't go sneaking around the forbidden corridor, you hear? It's forbidden for a reason, and you lot have no right to be sneaking around there, trying to uncover its secrets. Leave it be and trust Professor Dumbledore to handle it."
Hermione noted Hagrid's admission that Dumbledore was indeed involved in the third floor corridor, which said something about Dumbledore's mental state and/or priorities. She wasn't sure which was called into question more.
After Daphne had herded the group out of Hagrid's hut, she turned to Tracey. "You have got to work on your subtlety. Hagrid figured out you were mining him for information. Hagrid, the oblivious, if well-meaning, man who is known for handing out information like it's candy. You were being obvious enough that he caught on."
"Subtlety is boring." Tracey declared smugly.
Daphne groaned. "You are the worst Slytherin."
"Well, we did learn some new things." Hermione said. "We know that Dumbledore is responsible for… whatever is going on with the corridor, and we know that there are other obstacles past the cerberus, including devil's snare and a troll."
"I feel like we're missing something, though…" Daphne replied. "I mean, sure, we'd be hard-pressed to get past these obstacles, but we're only first years. I would think that the Philosopher's Stone would be better guarded. I'm honestly starting to doubt that it's here at all. I mean, you two only heard that 'the stone' was being stored there. We don't know what 'the stone' in question is."
"What other types of stones could it be?" Harry asked.
"The resurrection stone!" Tracey shouted with her usual enthusiasm.
Daphne shook her head. "Tracey, that's a fairy tale and you know it."
"I'm not familiar with this fairy tale." Hermione said. "What is it?"
"I'll give you a copy of The Tales of Beedle The Bard to look over, if you'd like."
"Sure, I suppose." Hermione replied. A book of fairy tales was bound an opportunity to learn the stories that the parents of the wizarding world told their children. That was supposed to be a great window into the morality of a culture.
"I still say we go after it. No matter what this 'stone' is, it'll be valuable and, more importantly, interesting." Tracey said before skipping off back towards the castle.
"We're never going to be wanting for excitement with her around, are we?" Harry asked.
"If my experience is anything to go by, then no, we aren't." Daphne replied.
"And remember," Albus said to the two students he caught trying to break into Professor Snape's quarters, "that at Hogwarts, help will always be given to those who ask for it."
The two upper year Hufflepuffs looked extremely confused and uncomfortable. "We'll keep that in mind, sir." One of them mumbled under her breath.
"Now then," Albus continued, eyes twinkling, "you two had best be off to your lessons. You wouldn't want to be late, after all."
It was Sunday. There were no lessons today.
"Yes, I suppose you're right, professor." She said, grabbing her companion and running off down the hallways.
Once the students had turned the corner, Albus turned around and dismantled the locking ward on Severus's quarters. Let the man fret in his paranoia that someone had tampered with his things. He smiled to himself as he began walking back towards his office.
The first term was absolutely terrible for Albus, but he was certainly making up for lost time. He made a point to find at least one group of rule-breaking students every week, and at the rate he was going, he was about to set a new record. He hadn't been this productive in years. He had almost no time to devote to fun in the years during and after the war, and after the hubbub following Voldemort's banishment had calmed down, his skills had lost their touch from over a decade of being unused. Now, he was finally starting to get back into his groove.
It was really a pity that he was only regaining his groove after Voldemort had supposedly re-emerged. Albus was really hoping that Britain's dark lord would be out of play for at least another decade. Long enough for Albus to finally start piecing together exactly how he had made himself immortal. Tom Riddle had covered his tracks far too well for Albus to be comfortable taking him on.
Indeed, it was his lack of progress on that front that led to his current gamble: a trap using the Philosopher's Stone as bait. Nicolas was hesitant, but agreed once Albus laid out the full extent of his plans and the potential trouble that they could save down the line. Nicolas had never been one to undertake unnecessary or unfavourable risks.
Despite how carefully he laid out his trap, though, he'd yet to hear anything about anyone getting close to it. He'd even carefully had rumours spread around Albania, the location that Voldemort's spirit was last rumoured to have been seen, but nothing had come of it. It was as though Voldemort had simply vanished. Albus knew that Voldemort actually disappearing was simply too good to be true, and not knowing his enemy's next move filled Albus with dread. If he wasn't careful, then Voldemort could strike him when he least expected it, and there was no way that could go well.
Albus pushed his worries to the side. While it was good to stay on his toes, he was not one for paranoia. There was no need for that when he could simply ask for Alastor Moody's opinion, after all.
He was about to enter his office when the wards let him know that some of the students were entering the forbidden forest unsupervised.
Albus smiled to himself as he prepared to stealthily ambush them. A headmaster's work is never done.
"I don't see why this was in the restricted section." Harry said as he watched Hermione and Daphne flip their way through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Extended Edition.
"Some of these creatures are kind of nightmarish." Daphne said as they turned another page. "The worst in the normal edition are Dementors and Lethifolds. Some of the things here, like obscurials and wendigos, are outright terrifying."
"It's annoying that the creatures are alphabetised by their formal name rather than their common one…" Hermione said as she turned another page. "It makes it hard to find out more information about something that we've only heard in passing…"
Harry saw Tracey bouncing on her heels in boredom, looking around as if hoping something would appear out of nowhere to keep her entertained. Harry was feeling a bit antsy himself, so he turned to Hermione and Daphne.
"Tracey and I are going to go to the alchemy section to try and research what kinds of stones might be hidden in the corridor." He said. "You two can keep the cloak, since this is a more open area. It wouldn't do for us to be caught in here, after all."
"Check the enchanting section, too." Daphne suggested. "I think I remember my mum mentioning that some stones are used as enchanting catalysts."
"Okay, we'll do that." Harry said as a bouncing Tracey grabbed his hand and started to pull him away.
"Thanks for that." Tracey said with a grin. "I get bored if I'm not doing anything."
"I've noticed." Harry said. "And I can relate. I hate standing around if I feel like I can be doing something."
"I suppose we're birds of a feather, then." Tracey said as she started pulling books off the shelves. "Now, then, I don't know exactly how fruitful this search will be, but it's worth looking. Here, check this book of common alchemical catalysts for anything that mentions a 'stone'."
Harry began looking through the book. As he turned through the pages, he realised his ignorance of the field.
"Tracey… What exactly is alchemy, anyways?"
Tracey looked up from her book. "It's, um… well, it's kind of hard to explain simply. You know how transfigurations are always temporary?"
Harry nodded. "That was one of the first things Professor McGonagall taught us."
"Right, well, alchemy is a sort of loophole to that. It's based heavily on 'material principles', which is the same reasoning behind why certain ingredients are used in various potions. Each ingredient has a specific list of principles that add certain traits to potions. Alchemy is based heavily on using the principles of materials to induce permanent change."
Harry barely followed that explanation. "Can you… give me an example?"
"Well, the easiest form of alchemy is simply causing an item to assume a new shape using magic. For example, a bar of metal could be formed into something like a sphere or, in the hands of a more talented alchemist, something more intricate like a cog."
Okay, Harry was able to follow that. "Okay, I think I get it now."
"Of course, alchemy is capable of doing a lot more than that. Some alchemical reactions use catalysts, like the philosopher's stone, which is used to induce the transmutation of one metal into another metal. Of course, the most common application of that transmutation process is turning things to gold, since gold runs the economy. That said, it's able to induce the change from any metal into any other metal."
Harry was still mostly following along.
"And then, there are more elaborate versions. For example, goblins use a type of alchemical enchantment when forging their weapons. This enchantment allows the weapons to absorb the effects of anything that would make the weapon stronger, like venom, or even the effects of certain spells. The weapon is able to fully contain the effects of what it absorbed, permanently."
Harry was starting to feel lost. What was enchanting? Also, goblins forged things?
"And then there are even more complicated forms of alchemy, like substance replication and concept extraction, but I'm still reading through the introductory books. It's a widely varied art, though."
"Right, I gathered that." Harry replied.
Harry's brain was still trying to understand Tracey's explanation when she spoke up.
"Any luck in that book?"
Harry had barely looked at the book. "No, none so far." He stared at the page, not reading any of the words. "So how are you able to understand all of this so easily?"
Tracey laughed. "'Easy'. This is not easy. I'm just really good at understanding material principles since it's the basis behind all potions, and I pride myself on that being my best subject. The leap to alchemy from potions is far easier than the one from transfiguration."
"Right." Harry continued to stare at the book, trying his best to scan the pages for the word 'stone'. "Alchemy sounds kind of like chemistry. The muggle science, that is. I'm sure if you ask Hermione, she could get you a book on it for your birthday."
"Sounds good to me. Just in case I forget to mention it to her, my birthday is March fifteenth."
"Alright, then." Most of the mentions of 'stones' in the book were talking about how alchemical catalysts affected stone materials. Very few of them were stones in their own right. Harry wasn't even a quarter of the way through the book and his vision was already starting to blur. How did Tracey manage to go at this for hours?
Just as Harry was about to suggest checking out the enchantments section, Hermione rushed in and slammed the book down on the table. Daphne entered the alchemy section as Hermione started to read.
"Found it." She said smugly. "'The Tricanis Hades, or Greek Cerberus, is a large and loyal three-headed beast often employed as a guard.' There are a lot of details in here that aren't relevant to us, but they tend to have a weakness for song and music. Simply playing music for a minute or so tends to put them to sleep."
"Oh, that's relatively simple." Harry said. "Do any of us know how to sing or play an instrument?"
No one said anything.
"Right then." Harry sighed. "Any weaknesses that we can exploit?"
"Simultaneous spells." Daphne said. "Because it has three brains, a single sleeping or stunning charm won't have an effect. But if we can each manage hit hit a head with a sleeping charm at the same time…"
"Then we can put it to sleep." Hermione finished.
"Looks like it's time for us to start getting in some spell practice." Harry said. "I doubt we're coordinated enough to do that right now, especially if it starts attacking us."
"Whoo! Teamwork!" Tracey shouted without looking up from her alchemy book.
A/N: I am so sorry for the delay getting this chapter out. I spent a week travelling through hell (read as Florida) and had inconsistent internet (which is sort of a necessity when one uses Google docs for all her writing), and after that, I came down with a nasty sickness (probably bronchitis, though I didn't go to the doctor, so idk)
Anyways, Daphne has very different security expectations for the third floor than the reality, Parvati makes a power play, Hermione watches Tracey be the most obvious person at mining for information, Dumbledore continues to mess with people, and I finally get to explain what alchemy is. I've been wanting to find a way to get that in for ages, and I finally got an opportunity. Also, I gave up on writing Hagrid's accent because I hate writing accents.
Also, I already mentioned this on my Twitter (not that most of you follow me there), but Scrambled Sorting is finally nearing the end of year one. Expect one or two more chapters before the climax starts (unless I get more ideas, which could happen, in which case there will be more chapters), then four chapters for the climax and wrap up. I'm excited to start year two, as I get to start introducing some of the ideas I've been sitting on for ages.
E/N (Xgenje): Ok, so while reading this chapter I had to write a list just to keep track of all the crazy crap happening in this story so far!
To start. Ten has confirmed that Brock (from Pokémon) is a Gargoyle from a single letter missing. (has been since removed, ten points to whoever finds it)
She also paraphrased a Tsun Zhu quote completely accidentally. I was completely confused as to how she managed that.
I honestly think sometimes Ten channels an inner version of me in their head for Tracey, at least for all those… Explosive Ides.
Parvati is metal. Full stop. Like seriously.
Also as the evil person I am there aren't any typos in my notes. Enjoy!