The island was, without a doubt, a magical settlement; he was certain that no muggle had ever been there. The beach was quartz and the trees on the land were ash; in the middle there was what looked like an ivory tower. He looked around at the others.

"Why have I never heard of this place before?"

"Place is abandoned, mate," Ron said. "Someone set it up about a hundred years ago; raised it right out of the water. I think the Ministry decided it caused more Secrecy problems than it solved, and they ordered that all the coming and going had to stop so they could put it right back down. Can't imagine why they never did."

"At one point, we were using it as a less intensive prison," Susan said. "That was before the war started. The ones who wanted to keep it up said that it would only be around temporarily until they could fix Azkaban. I think they didn't realize what people don't really say out loud, which is that Azkaban isn't meant to be fixed. We don't exactly like it, but if you deal with criminal justice policy long enough, you realize we're just feeding people to the wraiths."

Everyone else seemed to fill in the gaps in the story in their own heads. It was an abandoned project; a headless conspiracy, what was left after something got canceled after something else got canceled, and no one really wanted to deal with it since then. Evidently, the fake Dumbledore knew about it, and was trying to use it as a meeting place, either for muggles, or for Ministry personnel, and it was hard to see why the former would help anything. The thirteen of them, all still alive even after all they had suffered, proceeded up the beach in formation while casting detection spells.

Under the cover of the thin forest, a single stunner went out at the first sign of movement and they went over to it, all thankful for Luna's quick reaction time. The victim was a man in a black robe, but there was no mark on his arm, like he had seen on Snape's. Obviously, there were unmarked Death Eaters like Pettigrew, but none of them had seen him before, and he looked somewhat Spanish; all the families serving Voldemort had been on the island for millennia and they were not aware of any exceptions.

"We'll keep him tied up somewhere until he talks," Michael suggested as Harry went through the robe.

"It's really not necessary. He doesn't even have a wand."

"What? Could he have dropped it somewhere?"

"Accio wand." No wooden instrument came flying to him. "The man's a muggle who somehow evaded the Ministry and either swam here or took a boat. I don't know why he's wearing a robe, but we're wasting time here. Let's keep moving."

He looked over at Hermione, who shook her head as they were walking. Either she had not thought to get inside of the strange man's head, or she thought it was inappropriate, because he was not necessarily an enemy of theirs. It was probably for the best that she could put aside whatever problem she had with him for the sake of the mission, but, having had to deal with people more in the apparently inglorious position of the organizer, he was already certain that putting it off would only worsen things.

As they approached the ivory tower, there were several witches and wizards standing around in what looked like white robes. Could it be some other interest in the war? Could they have stumbled upon something more interesting than a trap for one side or another? With all their wands, it was easy to stun the eight targets in their field of vision, and then get closer. None of the detection spells were registering defensive warding or charms.

"What's going on here?" he muttered. "-worst trap I've ever seen."

They entered the tower through a low, empty window and immediately it seemed to close behind them with a burning white light. Per procedure, they had only gone in three at a time, through three windows adjacent to each other, giving them nine within and four without. He looked back to see Blaise, Hannah, Neville, and Luna, the latter tapping at the wall of light with her wand and then frowning.

"Get out of here, all four of you. That's an order. If we don't survive this, we'll need someone to keep up recruitment."

It looked like none of them relished following the directive, but they took it in stride, or that was how it appeared. There was no way, though, that Neville was going to take it lying down. As soon as he thought of something, he would be back trying to save the rest of them. It meant, of course, that he would have to make sure the nine of them made it out. Right as they turned to the center of the circular room, however, they were met with the fake Dumbledore. Anyone who had been holding out hope that he was real lost it at the sight of his expression; it was a frown of condescension.

"Really, Potter? Was this all it took?"

"Malfoy."

"I changed my tactics," he said. "This was meant to be a trap either for some Obliviators or underground resistance. I had not expected their children, and yet, somehow, I had expected more of you. No matter. Should the... what is it, nine of you? - survive all the way to the top floor, I may at least explain the rest of my plans before killing you. I had hoped to properly torture someone with connections, but perhaps your group will be valuable anyway."

He turned and walked off. The diagnostic spells Hermione was casting confirmed his fears. There was no effective security around the whole building, but that was to lead them into the trap of the first floor. Someone sent a fire charm at the enemy's back, but it fizzled out in the air.

"There are advanced protection charms here," Susan said. "I should have figured it would be another Ministry brat."

"It was just as good of a guess that it was the parents," he muttered. "That doesn't matter now, though." Already, the tiles of the floor raised, revealing creatures rather like centipedes holding them up. A stunner failed.

"These are Omukade-" Hermione started. "They're arcanomaniacs- every spell that hits them only makes them angrier."

"Avada Kedavra!" Ginny incanted. Unsurprisingly, the giant arthropod went back down into the floor, bringing the floor tile with it. "Damn. That might have actually worked."

Right as she spoke, Ron was listing from the group, perhaps trying to see some other detail of the battlefield, when they were all surprised to see him get launched off a tile as soon as he stepped on it. The creature tried to bring the tile down on him by swinging its entire body like a hammer, but he rolled out of the way. Immediately, they could tell that the monsters were only under certain tiles, and that their basic task was to go around them.

"We can't get too close, though," Daphne warned. "It seems these disgusting things have it out for us."

"They're far from home," Michael said from behind them. "They're lashing out."

Harry thought it was a thin thread, but it hardly mattered. To avoid the creatures was probably much faster than trying to fight them, and they could take advantage of the large group they had. If a few of them reached the staircase on the other end of the room, getting to the next level of the tower, the rest could follow.

"Stay put for a moment. We'll need a healer- might as well start with Ron. Everyone else, fan out. Get ready to cast a cushioning charm where you land."

"He's right," Hermione said. "Just because we can't seem to do anything to them doesn't mean we can't do anything to the world around them."

They were quick to obey his order, though it seemed that Daphne had a special aversion to the Omukade, and it was rewarded by her getting launched through the air. She groaned for everyone to keep going, if for no other reason than so she could follow after, or so that someone else could make the same mistake at least once. Ernie was particularly unlucky, getting hit into the ceiling before he could react. Michael rushed over to him and Terry killed the creature before it could retract. Susan managed to save herself with a shield once, though no one asked her how. As soon as Harry got to the staircase, and he was lucky enough to be first, he advanced. Even if he needed the others to proceed, he could at least go ahead and get intelligence on the next level. Crouching in the staircase, wishing he had his invisibility cloak, he got to a decent vantage point and saw that the room looked completely dark. The only light was the white of the barrier through the windows.

"Are we waiting for the others?" Terry asked.

"They'll catch up." It was not exactly an answer, but it appeared it would suffice. The room in front of them seemed to resist the use of the light charm; it hardly accomplished anything except the sound of an arrow getting loosed in his direction, which he had to block. He had a vague memory of many years ago when he was in a shop in Knockturn Alley- there was advertised a Hand of Glory, that would provide light to only its user.

"What just shot at us?" Ginny asked. Hermione was right behind her.

"Are there any spells that respond to light? Is there a way to conjure an arrow whenever someone shines a light?"

"I don't know. I've never read anything about that."

"Then we should assume there's someone there with a bow."

It was a particularly uncomfortable thought because they were probably all thinking of centaurs, whom they had helped, or rather, tried to help. From what Ron told them about his short time at Hogwarts, the school had mostly forgotten they ever existed, but that could easily be forgiven with all else that had gone wrong there. The school had only existed as they had known it because of a carefully cultivated culture, with each of the teachers playing a part in it. They were not replaced lightly, and when they were, the new arrivals were selected to maintain what was already there. Perhaps he had not been in the position as long as Dippet, but Dumbledore had certainly taken advantage of his long tenure in creating an environment for the students that would be conducive to their learning without removing all risk.

They pressed forward, using the light charms and the shield charms at the same time. There was no sense trying to fight whatever was attacking them, and while a solo challenger to the trials of the tower might have wandered through the darkness, they had a large group, and it made sense to take advantage of it. As opposed to the previous level, they all made it through at once, though since they had a moment to see what kind of strategy they would use, Harry could not say that their lead was necessarily lost.

The next floor featured a chained up Welsh Green. It seemed to regard them cautiously as long as they were on the steps.

"Well, mate, you've dealt with one of these before."

"We should go around. I'd hate to find out that the killing curse works just to kill it while it's chained up like this." As it was his suggestion, he took the lead. It seemed better to go around in front rather than to make the creature suspicious of them; it would hardly be a challenge for such a long-necked creature to reposition its head. Rather than fire, the species that stared them down as they passed in front of it was said to breathe a toxic fume which would condense into a liquid. The spray itself could be blocked, to be sure, but it was better not to anger the beast and it was a commonly understood reality that it was hard to block fumes with a solid shield.

Rather than risking changing the game with a cheering charm or something of that nature, they made it past the dragon on sheer patience and politeness, effectively. He knew they were proud creatures, and even though he was dealing with a juvenile, most likely, the stereotype was likely enough to hold true. If it surprised everyone and attacked, they could always just kill it, assuming there was not something else in the room getting in the way of that. If it was supposed to be a reusable obstacle course, though, he would think that killing the obstacles would not be an intended solution, and would, possibly, come with dire consequences. What would he do if as soon as something, anything died, the whole place collapsed?

"Precisely what is that?" Terry asked on the next level. "Magical creatures were never my strong suit."

"I'm not sure that's what it is," Ron said. They were looking at a collection of chests that were chained to the floor. It almost looked like there was movement coming from one of them. "It seems simple to just avoid them, but they can't be thinking that we'll do that the whole time."

"What if we're meant to collect whatever's in them?" Ginny asked. "What if it's something that will help us, and we only need to walk up and claim it?"

"Why would they be chained to the floor unless they could move?"

"Well, maybe it's so you wouldn't walk off with the chest. I would think it would be easy to toss it out the window-"

"There's no time for this. We've used up too much already," Hermione said. "If we can just avoid them, that's what we should do."

Stepping out in front of everyone, it was trivial for Harry to go past them as the chests were not moving in any way, but when he got to the other end of the circular room, it seemed there was an invisible wall. It was not like Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where a visible wall was not real for anyone who could do magic, but it was unlikely that someone had come up with something else that was just the opposite. Silently, he was grateful that he had not been running, as he had been in second year.

He turned back to the chests and the others joined him, seeing there was no apparent danger in the room and the only way through was forward. In one of them, there had to be something that would allow him to pass through the barrier. What, though, was in the others? Terry shook his head after a moment of casting detection charms.

"Aberto," he then incanted, pointing at one at random. It was hard to see what the test was, if it was so easy as guessing correctly. It was also somewhat hard to see why his comrade would learn such a spell; he would have just opened it manually himself.

Both of those irregularities, however, were addressed as a tentacle whipped out of the first chest. Ginny's killing curse hit the chest right as it closed.

"Damn. The wood isn't part of its body."

Silently, he supposed he could see why she would not have ruled that out. Everyone backed away slightly from the next chest right as Terry pointed at another chest. Hermione joined him, pointing at a third, and everyone seemed to realize that they were both trying to go quickly. The fact that the chests were chained to the floor was most likely for their safety, so if they simply stood far enough away from the chest, nothing would happen to them, though that thought was challenged by the next chest, which released a burst of flame, setting another on fire, which they had to put out with a jet of water. Another opened to reveal a large snake, which was killed with a severing charm.

His every conscious thought seemed to say to slow down, but there was no way to be more judicious about it; there was no outward difference between the chests. The two of them who knew an opening charm had been correct when they figured it was sensible to just open them and let everyone else deal with the consequences; there were seven of them. If he was supposed to be learning a lesson, he no longer cared what it was.

"Stop," Michael said in a loud, clear voice, drawing everyone's attention. "Accio key." A brass key flew towards him and he caught it.

"Did you see it?" Harry asked.

"No. I just figured we didn't think to look for it after stuff came out of the chests. If we opened all of them at once, there could have been some real trouble. There could have been some problems that would be worsened by other problems."

Without belaboring the point or wasting any more time, he held the key to the barrier and it seemed, however the magic worked, that they were allowed to pass through, though it seemed Terry was especially interested in the runes of the floor, hastily copying them down with a quill that worked on his skin. In mere moments they were all on the next level, and they were greeted by the sight of a crawling wraith, probably suffering from being forced to exist in captivity. It was harder to blame Ginny when she killed it. The problem came when another wraith crawled out of its corpse, though it sort of looked like a corpse to begin with, so it might have just been giving birth. She killed it again, but it responded with a weirdly emotionally draining shriek, causing everyone to back off.

"It's related to a dementor," Hermione posited. "I can't say exactly what it is, but we should assume that it isn't exactly alive and can't exactly-"

"Obliviate," he incanted, pointing his wand at it. The monster seemed less than bothered.

"Okay, that was a good thought, but it is possible you're not practiced enough with that at the moment," Ernie said. It was in times like those it seemed he was especially sensitive to the struggles of the leader. "Perhaps we simply need to move it out of the way." Someone conjured a gust of wind and it hit the wall with an unsettling snapping sound. "Excellent. Thanks to whoever brought that particular expertise to the table." Sure enough, they got past it, and there were no other obstacles in that room, but it made him wonder. Was each level supposed to be different? Was it really that he was meant to learn a lesson on each one?

"This looks like the last one, Mate," Ron said, looking around as they got to the next floor. "They really pulled out all the stops, though. Can't bloody well say it's the least."

Chained to the floor in the center of the room, oddly like the chests, there were apparently human hostages. Terry was the first to step forward.

"Obviously, this is the whole test. We're meant to release them unharmed, but we might have fallen into the trap of thinking of them as an obstacle, or something that couldn't be trusted." He was rarely so confident as to decide something for the group, but it was easy to see where he got it, and why it was important to speak up before anyone else made a decision. It seemed a fair few of them agreed.

"Fine," Harry said. "Alohamora." A chain fell to the floor and a hostage managed to stand up, uncertain. He was almost ready to be attacked, but none of that happened. "It's not safe for you to just go straight downstairs if you haven't got a wand on you. It's better to stay with us for now."

If the earlier decision had been met with a noncommittal approval from the majority, the present reaction was even less certain. It was much easier to just turn people loose and have them wander off, and another to look after them. As chains fell to the ground, it seemed some of the hostages were not sure what to do themselves. They regarded everything that went on with fear.

"They're muggles," Daphne said after a moment. To her credit, her lip did not curl.

"Well, now we know what happened to the man outside," he muttered. "They just didn't need that many for their thought experiment."