Tracey was feeling absolutely amazing. She had three friends, the chance to spread unbridled mayhem, and the opportunity to steal the Philosopher's Stone from under the noses of the teachers. What more could a twelve-year-old girl want?
The perfect chance to go after the stone was almost upon her, too. Today had presented her with the perfect opportunity, and all she had to do was grab it. But first, she had to let her co-conspirators in on the plan.
They were (predictably) in the library, even though exams were over. Daphne was reading a book on finance (boring), Hermione was reading Hogwarts, A History (again), and Harry was reading a book on blood magic the he was keeping concealed with the dust jacket from Hogwarts, A History.
"How's it going, Harry?" She asked, sliding onto the bench next to him.
"Not great." He answered quietly. "Most blood magic is based on more advanced spells than those taught to us in first year. I think I'm going to need to know some more advanced spells to expand my blood magic repertoire beyond the Lumos and Incendio charms."
Tracey peeked over at the book. "What about that one?" She said, pointing at one of the spells on the list. "The banishing charm. That one's pretty basic, isn't it?"
"It is, but it's still not taught until second year."
"So? Neither are bluebell flames, and Hermione's already learned those."
Harry gave a noncommittal hum. "I suppose I haven't been as good about studying ahead as she has. I guess I really should be, though, since blood magic is principally based on regular magic."
"Sounds like a plan." Tracey replied. "Just focus on learning the ones that you know can be turned into a blood spell without blowing up."
Harry winced. "Yeah, blowing up would be… bad."
"So guys," Tracey said, addressing the group, "do you know what today is?"
"The twenty-first of June." Hermione said without looking up from her book. "And the first day after exams
"The summer solstice." Daphne added. "The day when the light energies of the world are strongest."
"Sure, all of that mumbo jumbo," Tracey said dismissively, "but the important thing is that it's the solstice. Do you know what happens on the solstice?"
"A large number of people will perform illegal ceremonial rituals that were banned by the ministry for no good reason." Daphne replied with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"No!" Tracey bit back, frustration leaking into her voice. "The important thing that happens today!"
Daphne thought it over for a minute before ressponsing. "I don't think that Florean Fortescue offering a solstice discount on his ice cream is an important event, but I know you disagree."
"Hey, discount ice cream is totally important!" Tracey said defensively. "I wish we weren't struck in Hogwarts so we could go get some… But no! The important thing I'm talking about is that today is the summer solstice, and is thus one of the few days where the Wizengamot has a scheduled meeting."
Everyone stared at her blankly. Honestly, didn't they get it?
Tracey let out a long sigh. "Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of our school, is also the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. As such, he is going to be indisposed for the entire day and possibly most of the night. Those meetings go on for hours, and as such, we'll have our prime opportunity to steal the Philosopher's Stone once the Wizengamot session is underway."
They clearly weren't as excited by the news as she was. Hermione looked downright skeptical.
"Tracey… Are you sure this is a good idea?" Hermione asked slowly.
What kind of question was that? "Of course I'm sure. It's a Philosopher's Stone, Hermione! Why wouldn't we grab the opportunity to obtain one? Sure, there's the infinite money and immortality stuff that it grants, but it's also an extremely powerful alchemical catalyst. It would make my study of the field that much easier, as the Stone is basically the world's only no-downsides magical amplifier, even if it only applies to alchemical magic."
"Tracey… we're first years. Do you really think we can manage to steal such a powerful artefact? Not only would it be extremely well-protected, but we'd have to avoid getting caught."
"It's actually not that big of a deal if we get caught." Harry added. "I have plenty of experience talking my way out of situations from both my time in primary school and dealing with my uncle, and both of those were situations where the odds were stacked against me from the start. Here in Hogwarts, the only one we really have to worry about is Filch, and he'll probably be more focused on punishing us than finding out what we were doing."
Hermione's lips were pursed, but she didn't seem to have any counters to Harry's proposal. Instead, her attention was turned back on Tracey. "Please tell me you at least have a plan, Tracey."
Tracey scoffed. "Of course I don't have a plan. The first step to having your plan foiled is having a plan in the first place. Your enemy can't come up with a way to counter your next move if no one, not even you, knows what your next move will be."
"And that's why you're bad at chess." Daphne commented.
"As if you're any better!" Tracey countered.
"I'm better than you."
"And you just established that that's a low bar! Now, be ready. We'll leave at a time that I will pick randomly based on a gut instinct. Then, we perform the heist."
"Most heists have a plan…" Hermione grumbled.
"Shut it, Granger! Now, who's in?"
Harry lazily waved his hand in the air and Daphne did the same, albeit more stiffly. That left Hermione, who was glaring heavily at the rest of them.
"Well, Hermione?" Tracey said teasingly. "You can say no if you want to…"
"…Fine. I'll go. If only to keep you idiots from killing yourselves."
"Yes! Heist crew assembled! Now we just have to wait for the right moment. I'll round you all up when the time is right."
"What about Quirrell?" Harry asked. "I mean, when we overheard him talking to Snape, didn't it sound like he was after the Stone, too?"
"Oh please, you think we can't handle Quirrell? The guy may be a decent defence teacher, but there's no way someone that skittish can handle themselves in a fight. All it would take to bring him down is one good sneak attack. After all, it's not like he has eyes on the back of his head."
Neville was focusing on the Exploding Snap cards in his hand, trying not to lose his focus. He was so close to beating Ernie, he just had to last a few more turns…
"Guys! You'll never guess what I found out!"
Neville jumped at the sound of Draco's voice, the sudden movement jostling the cards in his hand enough that they blew up in his face.
"What's up, Draco?" Ernie asked.
"I was wandering around in the library-"
Neville knew by this point that when Draco said he was "wandering around", what he was really doing was "stalking Harry Potter".
"-and I found out that he's planning to steal the Philosopher's Stone! Today!"
What.
"He's going to steal the Philosopher's Stone!? How is he planning to manage that while we're still at school? Doesn't Flamel live in France or something?" Nevile asked.
"That's the thing! It's hidden here! On the third floor corridor!"
"The Philosopher's Stone? Here, in the Scottish Highlands, at a boarding school, during the school year, surrounded by children!?" Ernie asked with increasing incredulity.
"Yes." Draco replied with unflappable confidence.
"…Have you seen it?"
Draco faltered. "…No."
"So you don't actually know it's there, then."
"But I heard them plotting!" Draco protested. "Even if the stone isn't actually there, then they're still trying to steal it! I thought it over for a few hours, and I decided that we should wait until they've started their theft before telling McGonagall so she can catch them in the act!"
Neville was kind of appalled that it took Draco a few hours to come up with that plan. "Shouldn't… shouldn't we have McGonagall stop them as soon as possible?" He asked, speaking up for the first time since Draco's arrival. "I mean, Dumbledore said that the third floor corridor was dangerous. Lethally dangerous. I wouldn't want to see them hurt."
"But if they get caught in the act, they'll get in more trouble!" Draco pouted. "I could finally see Potter expelled for trying to pull off something like this!"
Neville didn't really understand why Draco was so obsessed with trying to get Potter expelled. Sure, Harry Potter was not what anyone expected. He was solitary and reclusive. It wasn't even just preferring solitude; he was actively hostile to most people who tried to interact with him, Granger, Greengrass, and Davis aside. He especially hated any reference to him being the "Boy-who-lived", though Neville was able to understand that, given that he lost his parents around the same time.
There was also the fact that Harry Potter was sorted into Slytherin, though given that Neville was currently sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Draco Malfoy, he supposed weirder things had happened. The Sorting Hat was completely off its rocker if it thought that either of them belonged in Gryffindor.
"I think… I think we should tell McGonagall now." Neville said. "Whatever's down there is obviously dangerous, and we should make sure that they don't get hurt."
Draco huffed. "Fine. But if they don't get in any trouble because they get caught before actually breaking any rules, then I'm blaming you for making us tell early. Now come on! McGonagall should still be in her office. It's time to get Potter expelled!"
Neville found himself wondering what Draco would do with himself if Potter was actually expelled. He sure would find himself with a lot more spare time if he succeeded.
Hermione was sitting in the Slytherin common room, doing her best to focus on her reading. Her parents sent an Hercule Poirot book with a letter congratulating her on finishing her exams, and she had been pacing herself with it over the past day. Now, she was finally near the end, at the part where Hercule was explaining how the murder was actually committed to all of the suspects in the case before revealing the true culprit. He was just explaining what the actual murder weapon was and how it revealed the true murderer was…
Hermione jumped in her chair as a loud slam echoed from nearby. She looked up to see Tracey leaned over, hands planted on the table in front of her.
"It's go time, everyone." Tracey said with a grin.
Harry and Daphne put their things away and began getting up. Hermione was less eager.
"Now? Really? I just got to the good part. Can't I at least finish this chapter before we go?"
Tracey gave Hermione what she could only assume was supposed to be a condescending look. Probably. Tracey didn't do condescension well.
"Hermione." Tracey said with her hands on her hips. "We are performing a heist. There isn't time for you to 'finish this chapter' when we have a limited timeframe in which to move."
"You waited until two hours after the Wizengamot session started to come get us!"
"That was probably a good idea, actually." Daphne said with a stretch. "The Wizengamot meetings are so wrapped up in red tape that the first two hours are usually solely devoted to establishing the terms of the meeting before starting the actual meeting."
"That sounds inefficient." Harry commented.
"Governments are usually inefficient. Magic may improve many things, but bureaucracy isn't one of them." Daphne replied.
"Look, you guys can wait outside the common room door. I swear, I'll be out as soon as I finish this chapter." Hermione said, trying not to beg. She really didn't want to stop now, but she also didn't want to seem too desperate about it. She knew she took books far more seriously than most people did, but she tried not to advertise the true extent of her obsession.
"How have you not finished that book, anyways?" Tracey asked. "I mean, you've been reading it for over twenty-four hours. I've seen you go through several books in less time than that."
"Sometimes I like to pace myself so I can savour something." Hermione replied tersely. "Something I suspect you're incapable of understanding."
Tracey let out a cackling laugh. "You've got that right! Fine, you have five minutes! I'm sure you can manage the rest of the chapter in that time given your reading speed. We'll be outside waiting for you."
Hermione curled up with her book for a few more minutes before she gave up on the chapter. She'd been able to read on her own for years, but after just a few moments, she became acutely aware of the lack of company.
It was funny how after spending most of her life alone, it took less than a year for her to come to prefer the company of the odd assortment of people she now called her friends.
Hermione put the book back in her dorm and left the common room. She could read another time.
It was time to see what Tracey's "heist" had in store for them.
Albus was sitting in the Wizengamot chambers, listening to Lord Ogden ramble about some piece of legislation that was designed to seem like common sense while mostly benefitting one person: himself. It was designed to make it harder for citizens of magical Britain to obtain a license to sell aged consumable goods. Tiberius Ogden would have to pay a slightly higher price to maintain his license in the short term, but in the long term, he would have better business because less competition would be able to obtain the necessary paperwork to legally produce alcohol. Of course, Tiberius was framing it as an issue of disreputable people in the agriculture business selling outdated goods — which was not illegal at the moment — by repeatedly citing a single case of someone running a stall that sold food thrown out by other vendors.
In short, it was politics as usual.
Frankly, Albus couldn't care less about Ogden's attempts to corner the liquor market. It was the same level of petty, self-serving legislation that he'd come to expect in the many years he had served on the Wizengamot, and was the premier downfall of having a hereditary legislative body. Lots of people who were more interested in serving their own interests rather than the interests of their fellow citizens.
Albus took a look around the room. If there was any thin silver lining to be found from the aftermath of Tom's war, it was that it pushed the Wizengamot closer to democracy. Any time a family with a Wizengamot seat went extinct, then their seat became an elected one that was voted on by the general public. Of course, most of the extinct families were traditionally light families, what with Tom's ruthlessness against all he viewed as opposing him.
If only the cost of such a shift wasn't so horribly high.
Frankly, Albus wished he could find a bloodless way to bring greater representation to the Ministry of Magic. Alas, even if he was able to trust himself to do so without falling to the Trappings of Power, so long as Tom still persisted, his focus was better put elsewhere. He would love to reform the government, but if Tom were to regain his full strength, then the Ministry needed to be strong enough to resist him, not re-establishing itself after a paradigm shift.
Granted, as Ogden began sidestepping a question in the exact same way for the third time in a row, he began to wonder if the Ministry was even strong enough to do that.
Amelia was apparently as bored as he was, as the gruff woman leaned over and began whispering at him.
"Was it really necessary to delay the session, Albus?"
"I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Amelia."
"You came here by broom, Albus. The Ministry has a perfectly serviceable floo and apparition point, and you decided to come here by broom, arriving half an hour late in the process." She hissed.
Albus suppressed a grin. "Well, you see, Amelia, when you get to be my age, you learn to appreciate the small things. Things like the sublime taste of muggle hard candies, or the wisdom that can be imparted to one's juniors, or the nice feeling of the air in an early summer afternoon. Sure, flooing and apparating have their uses, but, as the muggles say, sometimes it's nice to stop and smell the roses."
"You know, most people wouldn't go out of their way to antagonise the combined legislative and judicial body of a government."
"Antagonise people? Me? Surely you jest, Amelia. I can't imagine what would possibly lead you to believe that I would antagonise people." Albus deadpanned. "Besides, even if I was the sort to antagonise others, I'm sure that it does these people good to be reminded that they are not the centre of the world."
"Some of us have jobs, Albus."
"I know. I have two others outside our current company."
"I hate you, Albus." Amelia growled.
"I'm afraid that I can't return your feelings. Besides, you know I don't swing that way."
Amelia went back to pretending to pay attention to the discussion over Tiberius's bill, and Albus was about to do likewise when he a slight flashing in the corner of his glasses signalled that someone had just entered the third floor corridor. The timing of it made sense, he supposed. If anyone was going to make a move on the corridor, then they would obviously do so when he was disposed in some way. It was a pity nonetheless. He would have liked to be there when the would-be "intruder" made it to the end.
Well, maybe if they were still there when the session ended, he could congratulate them in person.
"So… How are we going to go about doing this?" Daphne asked as they approached the locked door at the end of the third floor corridor.
"Simple. We barge right in." Tracey replied with a grin.
"…Just once, I would like to see you come up with a plan that doesn't involve charging right in."
"Oh, come on! Just think of this as being like the time we tried to sneak into your mom's personal library."
"Tracey…" Daphne said slowly, "we got caught when we did that."
"And this time we won't. Easy as that!"
"Guys, focus!" Harry snapped. "We're already out of bounds and need to get started before we get caught."
Daphne let the issue drop as Harry began an impromptu briefing.
"Behind this door is the cerberus. We need to hit each head with a sleeping spell at around the same time to put it to sleep long enough to get past it. In addition, the room is dark, so we'll need a source of light. Daphne, since you have the worst aim and the most skill at generic charms, you'll have to be our light source so we can aim. Are there any spells you can cast while maintaining a decently powered lumos?"
Daphne shook her head. "Probably not. I might be able to manage casting a levitation charm or knockback jinx, but neither of those are able to affect living beings, let alone XXXX beasts."
Harry nodded. "Right, in that case, try and keep an eye on things. Let us know if there's something in our blind spot or something like that. Now then, the rest of us will be working to put it to sleep. The heads on the side will have the widest range and will therefore be the hardest to hit. Since Hermione and I have the best aim, we'll be taking those — me on the left and Hermione on the right. Tracey will take the centre head. Any questions?"
"Yes." Hermione stated. "How are we going to get through this door?"
"The door? The door is the easy part." Tracey levelled her wand at the door. "Alohomora."
Daphne scoffed. "Please, there is no way that could possibly-"
The bright blue bolt hit the door, which opened with a click.
"-work."
"Daphne! We need light now!" Harry shouted as the growling from within the room grew louder.
Daphne whipped her wand up and cast the light spell, channelling as much power into the spell as she could manage. As she stepped into the cerberus's domain with her friends flanking her, the light from her wand spilled out into all the nooks and corners of the room.
"Somnium!" Three voices cried in unison. Harry's and Tracey's shots struck true, though Hermione's went wide as the cerberus's head swept down to bite at her. She cast a second spell to put it to sleep mid-lunge, but by that point the other two heads had already reawoken, with the third head reawakening mere seconds after Hermione's spell hit it.
Daphne was realising just how durable these things were. It was one thing to learn that a single alert cerberus head could reawaken the other two. It was another thing altogether to watching it do so in person. The thing must be able to shrug off whole volleys of nonlethal spells this way, even in amounts that more resilient creatures would begin to succumb to.
"Somnium!" They shouted again. This time, it sidestepped most of the volley, with only Tracey's shot hitting a target, though not the one she intended.
Daphne took a quick look around the room. A large trapdoor could be seen in the centre of the room, which was likely their path forward. The cerberus was moving around the room to dodge the incoming spells, but never strayed too far from the trapdoor, reinforcing their need to take it down to progress. The only other object of note was a harp in the near corner of the room. Its mere existence gave her pause.
Cries of "Somnium!" echoed through the room again, but Daphne's mind was elsewhere. Why the hell was there a harp in here? Weren't cerberi weak to music? Why would someone leave a harp sitting around in a cerberus's room, unless…?
…Unless they didn't have a chance to pick it up yet.
There was one obvious conclusion: they weren't the first ones to come down the corridor. Someone got here before them and left the harp sitting around after they were finished. Daphne knew that there were spells to get instruments to automatically play a simple melody. Someone else, likely Quirrell, must have gotten here before them, left the harp playing a song to put the cerberus to sleep, then planned to pick it up later once he'd made away with his quarry.
Which meant that they had competition.
She supposed that it made sense. After all, Tracey had pointed out that this was an ideal time for them to steal the stone, so surely the other interested party — or parties, possibly — would realise that as well.
Still, the fact that the harp was still here meant that they still had a chance. Quirrell hadn't made it back yet, which meant that he was still somewhere deeper along the gauntlet. They just had to best him.
A shriek in Tracey's voice made Daphne's attention snap back to the ongoing fight. Tracey was splayed out on the floor, likely from tripping, and the cerberus was barrelling down on her. Thinking as quickly as she could manage, Daphne whirled around and pointed her wand at the harp.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
She saw the light from her wand flicker and dim and could feel the strain of trying to maintain two spells at once. She moved the harp until it was in between her and the cerberus before cutting the levitation charm and casting her next spell.
"Flipendo!"
The bright orange burst of light from her wand sent the harp flying toward the cerberus where it smashed into the side of the central head that was lunging at Tracey's prone form. The collision left the cerberus dazed for just long enough for Harry to take control of the situation.
"Now! Somnium!" He shouted.
Hermione and Tracey were on Harry's order from the get-go, casting their spells in almost perfect synchronicity. As all three heads fell asleep, the cerberus shuddered for a second before slumping over to the side.
"Success!" Tracey said with far too much pep as she jumped up from the floor. "Let's move on to the next one!"
"Not so fast." Daphne said. "Someone's already here ahead of us, and we need to be prepared to fight them."
Daphne did her best to explain her reasoning as Tracey pulled open the enormous trapdoor, but she wasn't sure how much of an effect her explanation had.
"Look, we just have to beat him, right?" Tracey said as the trap door opened against the floor with a muffled thud. "Besides, the dude looks like he's on his deathbed. He shouldn't pose any real threat."
Daphne groaned. "Can't you take anything seriously? We're trying to steal something — on your insistence — and you refuse to take the rival thief seriously. We don't even know if he's the only one after the stone!"
Tracey whirled around, her expression unusually serious. "You didn't see Quirrell earlier today. I passed him in the hallway while you guys were in the library and he looks terrible. His skin was grey with blue veins visible underneath it. With how bad he looks, I consider it a miracle that he hasn't keeled over already. The man is clearly horribly ill and on his deathbed."
"Well no wonder he wants the Philosopher's Stone." Hermione commented. "He wants to heal himself. If he's already obtained the stone and used the elixir by the time we catch up to him, wouldn't he be a threat then?"
Tracey shook her head. "The Elixir of Life requires six to eight hours to properly create. He wouldn't have enough time to make a dose before we could fight him, and that's assuming he's even able to get to the stone before us, which I doubt will happen."
"Really?" Daphne asked incredulously. "You don't think he'll get to the stone before us? The security measures we've found so far aren't exactly amazing." Seriously, a door that can be opened with a basic unlocking charm and a magical beast with a simple weakness? Sure, it wasn't a weakness that they were able to exploit due to a lack of musical talent, but still.
Tracey, meanwhile, was laughing. "You think this is the real protection? No, this is obviously a setup. This paltry level of protection is obviously just to make it seem underprotected so everyone lets their guard down, then they stick the real security measures after that." All the mirth left Tracey's face is an instant. "This is a setup, and we are not going to fall for it, got it? Do not let your guard down. Now, are we ready to progress?"
Daphne was annoyed that one of the few times Tracey was ever visibly serious was when she was trying to steal a magical artefact. Then again, what else could she expect? It was Tracey, after all. Daphne's mother did affectionately refer to Tracey as "mayhem incarnate" on several occasions.
Tracey cast a Lumos and tried to shine some light down the trapdoor entrance. "I can't see anything down there. Well, into the abyss we go!" she said as she jumped down the entrance.
Daphne sighed, and after Harry and Hermione had jumped down, Daphne too leapt into the darkness.
Minerva stared at the students in front of her. Of all the unlikely friendships that she had seen happen due to this year's odd sorting, Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, and Ernie Macmillan was by and large the strangest. Of course, as bizarre as their friendship was, the accusations Malfoy was currently levelling at her were even more outlandish.
"Let me get this straight, Mister Malfoy. You mean to tell me that you overheard Harry Potter in the library going over a plan to steal the Philosopher's Stone?"
He nodded enthusiastically.
Minerva struggled to hold in a sigh. "And your solution to overhearing this was to come and tell me several hours after the fact so that Mister Potter and his friends could be expelled for being caught in the act?"
His face dropped and a hint of panic could be seen in his expression. "N-no, I was just… worried. Yes, I was worried about what he would do to me if he found out that I was the one who told!"
"…I see. You were that scared of him relatiating?"
He nodded again.
"But not so scared that you weren't willing to call him an 'attention-seeking arse' who would 'get what's coming to him' as you did several times when explaining the situation to me?"
The smile was gone from his face in an instant and he just gaped at her. "Well, um, I… that is…"
"Is that not what you said earlier? I believe your exact wording you used was 'Potter, being the attention seeking arse that he is, is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He should already be in the process of stealing it, so you need to catch him so he can get what's coming to him and be expelled'. Is that not what you said to me mere moments ago?"
Malfoy blushed and looked ashamed at that. Well, at least he had enough decency to do that. Maybe the little chit wasn't hopeless yet, in spite of his upbringing.
"Now then, Mister Malfoy, I am not going to deduct house points or give you any detentions for this incident. That would not be fair to you, nor to your housemates. Instead, I am going to encourage you to drop whatever childish grudge you have against Mister Potter. It seems entirely unreasonable given that I have never once seen him antagonising you the way you try to antagonise him. Am I clear?"
He blushed further at that, but still protested further. "But Professor! They really are trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone! Davis was talking about her plan to steal it"
Ah, so it was Miss Davis who was behind this plan, then. Taking after her mother's ability to cause chaos, it seemed.
Minerva stood up from her desk and began leading Malfoy out of the room. "I don't know how Miss Davis would be able to accomplish that given that students are forbidden from leaving the grounds and she's only a first year. Now, I have exams I need to finish grading."
"But Professor-!" He said before she cut him off.
"No buts, Mister Malfoy. Keep pushing the issue and I will reconsider my earlier decision to not give you a detention. I'm sure Filch would be very displeased to have to tend to a student this close to the end of the year."
Malfoy paled at that, so she knew her words had the desired effect. No one enjoyed detentions with Filch, not even Filch himself. It was the most effective deterrent Minerva had at her disposal, and all save the Weasleys twins were at least partially cowed by such threats.
"Now then, it's a bright summer day, so why don't you go and enjoy it with Mister Longbottom and Mister Macmillan, alright? The Philosopher's Stone is safe."
As she shut the door behind him, she let out a sigh. She'd have to speak to Albus about his plans for the Philosopher's Stone. As the only person besides him and Flamel who knew the entirety of the plan, she felt it her duty to point out issues as she came across them.
The plan was risky, of course. When Albus had first proposed the idea of using the Stone as live bait in a trap the capture and study Voldemort's… remnants, she was horrified. After all, the mere chance of that monster obtaining an artefact as powerful as the stone was frankly horrifying. It was only after the true extent of the hidden traps and safeguards were explained to her that she relented to the virtues of such a plan. It was still a risk, but such a marginally small one. From there, the plan was to subtly spread rumours that Flamel had relocated his Philosopher's Stone to a new location because he was concerned about its theft, and this was the issue that Minerva had just run into.
Clearly, the rumours were being spread either too much or to the wrong people if the likes of Miss Davis and Mister Malfoy were aware of the Stone's location. Minerva would have to pop up to his office and mention this to him before she went down to the Great Hall for dinner.
Minerva stilled. Albus wasn't here. Albus was overseeing the Wizengamot session.
If someone was going to steal the stone, they would likely make a move today, while Albus was distracted.
She was fairly certain that Flamel was also remotely monitoring the traps, but still…
She'd best make sure that the traps and protections were still being monitored.
Minerva opened the secret passage at the back of her classroom and began making her way towards Albus's office. She could firecall Flamel from there to make sure that every part of the plan was still intact. Better to be safe than sorry.
"How'd it go?" Neville asked as soon as Draco left McGonagall's office.
"She didn't take me seriously at all!" Draco pouted.
"Look, it's… it's alright, Draco." Ernie said in an awkward attempt to comfort him. "There's always the next time?"
"No." Draco said, gently pushing the other boy away from him. "There won't be a next time. If the teachers won't stop him, then we need to stop him ourselves."
"Draco, what are you…?" Neville trailed off.
"Come on." Draco said, his voice filled with determination. "We need to stop Harry Potter from stealing the Philosopher's Stone."
Harry wasn't sure what he expected when he landed. Some sort of cushion, perhaps. Maybe even just a solid stone floor that would leave all of them with some broken bones. That would probably put an end to their heist, and Harry would have to talk them out of whatever trouble they would be in when they got caught.
Fortunately, they landed on something soft. It wasn't a cushion — the surface was far too slimy and uneven, but it was enough to break their fall with nothing more than a few bruises.
Daphne came down last, her wand still lit as she tried to keep it in her grip. She at least managed to land on her feet, though given how soft the ground was, that meant that she sank up to her waist as she landed. Harry failed to suppress a giggle at the sight. Daphne just glared at him.
"Laugh all you want. At least I landed somewhat elegantly, instead of sprawled out like you all are."
Harry managed to contain his peals of laughter and looked around the room. "So, where are we? And what is this stuff?"
Under the light of Daphne's Lumos charm, hundreds, no, thousands of cold, slimy tendrils were visible, slowly shifting over each other. It almost reminded him of a tub of hagfish, but they were too long, and he could some cracks in the wall that it appeared to be growing out of.
"…Vines?" He said slowly.
No sooner did he say that did the vines start grabbing at him, trying to grasp at his extremities and pin him down.
"Oh no… This is devil's snare!" Hermione shouted as she lashed out at the vines attempting to grab her with several cutting charms.
Right, Harry remembered when Sprout gave that lecture. Granted, his memory of the lecture was vague since it occurred during the last section of the day on a Friday, and his mind was preoccupied with the thought of being able to go flying the next day. Still, it was a plant, so Harry quickly lashed out with several incendio charms. Much to his dismay, the effect was a lot weaker than he would have liked. The vines winced every time they were hit, but their natural dampness prevented the spells from igniting them.
"Light!" Hermione shouted. "Use light spells!"
Harry switched to a lumos and tried to ward off the encroaching vines, but he couldn't produce enough light to fully ward them off of him. The tendrils kept lashing at him in the blind spots cast by his own shadow. "It's not enough!" Harry shouted.
Though he wasn't sure that needed to be said when he looked up from his own struggle. Hermione was lashing out with cutting charms while trying to keep her lumos at maximum power. Tracey had forgone the light charm altogether in favour of a fire stream charm, which actually seemed to be a fairly effective deterrent, though she was still getting smacked around on occasion. Daphne was fighting at a severe disadvantage, as she was still mostly buried in the vines and had much more limited movement. It didn't take long for one of them to pull on her wrist in such a way that she lost her grip on her wand, the lumos charm flickering out and plunging her area of the room into darkness.
"Use your blood lumos!" She shouted before her voice was muffled by the constricting vines.
Harry didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed the needle he'd taken to keeping with him out of the pocket of his robes, but with the constant grasping of the vines, he managed to lose his grip and fumble it into the writhing mass beneath him.
Shit.
Well, Harry needed blood. He didn't have the time to be picky about it. He turned his wand at his other palm and cast a cutting charm with as little power as he could muster.
The resulting cut was still painfully deep.
Compartmentalising the pain to deal with later, He smeared some of his blood on the handle of the wand and willed it through the wood to connect with the magical core of the wand. Once he was sure that it had been absorbed, he closed his eyes and shouted "Lumos!"
As he tried not to wince from the sheer brightness of the spell — because even with his eyes closed it was just so damn bright — he heard screeching and slithering noises as he felt the devil's snare relinquish its grip on him. When the light finally dimmed back down to acceptable levels, he opened his eyes and gave them a moment to adjust. By the time he could actually make out colours and shapes in the now much darker room, he was able to see that Hermione and Tracey needed more time to adapt, presumably because they didn't have their eyes closed when he cast the spell. Daphne was picking up her wand and using it to try to remove the wrinkles and slime from her outfit.
"Right, so, uh, we did it?" Harry said cautiously.
Hermione glared at him. "A bit of warning would be nice next time, if you don't mind."
"I'm sorry," he replied sarcastically, "I was too busy trying to save us from the deadly, groping vines. Excuse me for not giving a warning before saving all of our skins."
Tracey snapped in between their eyes. "Not the time for this, people. We need to get a move on, pronto. Everyone ready?"
Harry shone his light around the room until his eye caught the glint of metal on the smooth stone floor. He picked up his needle from where it had fallen before nodding at Tracey. She nodded back and began casting spells at the door to the next room. She was obviously unfamiliar with some of them, as it took her a few tries to cast them.
Harry clenched his fists in agitation and winced as he felt the cut in his palm, giving a small grunt as he did so. Hermione noticed and sighed.
"Give me your hand." She she said resignedly. "We can't very well keep going if you're in pain the whole way."
Harry held out his palm and Hermione swished her wand a few times and muttered "Episkey." The sudden lack of pain as the wound closed up was palpable.
"Thanks." He said, flexing his hand. "I should learn that one in case I ever need it."
"Ideally, you won't. It's always good to be prepared."
Tracey finished casting her spells at the door and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Huh," she said flatly, "there aren't any signs of traps of wards on this door or the hallway behind it. We'll need to be cautious as we proceed. Everyone ready to go?"
Harry, Hermione, and Daphne all nodded at her.
"Great, then let's go."
A/N (Tendra): Whoo! Another new chapter! Sorry for the lack of published content, but I have been very busy lately (lots of illness, lots of shit to be done, lots of sleep deprivation, and lots of time spent settling into my relationship with my new girlfriend).
I'd always planned to split up the climax of year one into two chapters, but I didn't realise just how vital that would be until I wrote it. This chapter was originally going to include the key room, too, but I was pushing 7000 words just with this.
One thing I always wanted to do at the end of year one was to have Draco mirroring canon!Harry's actions, hence why he tries to tell McGonagall that the stone is being stolen and decides to "protect" it himself when that fails. And yes, that is a Steamed Hams reference in the exchange between Ernie and Draco, which I'm sure will be very dated in a few years if it isn't already.
I also made the devil's snare tougher than in canon. Fire is more limited in its effectiveness due to devil's snare having a mucous coating. Extremely high heat or extremely bright light is the only effective deterrent.
Some people have criticised Tracey for being too pushy and a bad friend, and I imagine that the way I portrayed her in this chapter will add to that. I just want to say that Tracey is very heavily based on my irl best friend of fifteen years. Sure, they both act like assholes, but they really do care deep down. Do you know how rare it is for someone you met at the age of ten to still be your best friend fifteen years later, even after you changed schools in high school and later entered adulthood?
E/N (Xgenje): As the aforementioned IRL friend, and also as the asshole aforementioned, I love Tracey. She is now my literary waifu. Right next to my animated waifu Ruby Rose.
But enough about waifus, let's talk more about how Ten decided to put Steamed Hams into this Fandom, in this story, during 2020, localized entirely within this chapter.
E/N (Felix): Tracy's too young for you, Xgenje.
Also, you can pry my italics from my cold, dead hands.
E/N (Xgenje): Wait, Oh god. She was born in 1980. She's 15 years older than me. Fight me.
E/N (Felix): I will not.