Researching was something Aurora was very good at, and she already knew a lot about Alchemy, so she had something to work off there. She knew the properties of the philosopher's stone off by heart, of course, but now she had to figure out what sort of enchantments were protecting it. Presumably the answer lay in the third floor corridor, though she wasn't quite ready to go there. It wasn't necessarily the power the stone offered her that was tempting, but the fact that if she could get it and study it, she might be able to do what Nicholas Flamel had not, in his complacency after creating the stone. There was more to Alchemy than only the stone, and the prolonging of life. Alchemy was like Transfiguration and Potions; it was about change and transformation. But it was also about life and death, and Aurora couldn't help but be intrigued by that, especially after what Death had said to her at the funeral.
She still got chills thinking about that. Death comes for everyone in the end. It was true, she couldn't argue with that, but she still didn't like it. The Philosopher's Stone would let her stay alive forever if she used it to make the Elixir of Life, but what she really wanted to do was what no wizard had ever done before. She wanted to bring someone back to life.
But there was another issue with the Philosopher's Stone. Which was that she was becoming rapidly certain someone else was trying to steal it, which put her on a deadline. Potter and his friends seemed to be trying to stop whoever was trying to steal it — and they certainly seemed to think it was Snape, a rational conclusion to come to — which meant they would also try to stop her. They wouldn't stand a chance against Snape if it came to it, but while Aurora was confident in her magical abilities, three on one weren't great odds for her. She'd have to be sneaky. Thankfully, she was a Slytherin.
The first task she had to complete on her list was to find out what was guarding the stone. She knew already that Hagrid had put some animal there, and Quirrel had done some enchantments. Presumably the other teachers had too, and Dumbledore. That would be tricky to manage, but if she could find out what she was up against and prepare, she would stand a chance.
She only wanted to study the stone, she kept telling herself. Not use it. She wanted to make her own, or something similar, and then it would be her name that was famous, and not for reasons it already was. Better reasons than those.
"Robin," she said curiously one night in the common room, when she was sat with him and Gwen rather than Draco and Pansy. "You know how you said you got into Filch's office? What exactly did you do?"
"Oh, I just asked Peeves to throw a filing cabinet down the stairs," he said. "Worked like a charm, and no one suspected a thing because Peeves is always doing things like that. Why, what are you trying to do?"
"Nothing," she said, with a smile that said everything. Maybe she wouldn't use Peeves, he was dreadfully unreliable, but maybe Moaning Myrtle, the ghost that haunted the girls' bathrooms. She cried a lot and flooded the bathroom entirely of her own accord.
Gwen shook her head, watching Aurora's thoughts. "As long as it's not a plot to get Potter expelled."
"No," she scoffed. "We're not quite at that point yet."
A letter came at the end of the month detailing her inheritance as outlined in the respective wills of Lucretia and Ignatius Prewett, Cygnus Black, and Cassiopeia Black. All in all she had access to five different vaults at Gringotts, which she had decided she was going to keep separate but all in her name, as a security measure. Their total monetary holdings came to around ten million galleons, which was an awful lot for Aurora, who hadn't the faintest idea how to use any of it. For now it would remain in the vaults until she had a use for it, and she was going to establish a smaller personal vault of her own with everyday access. She also seemed to have an awful lot of jewellery which hadn't been priced but that she imagined would be very expensive. Once she got to the Summer she was going to go through it all and determine what she wanted to keep with her and what would remain in the vaults for the time being.
In addition, she had inherited seven properties across Britain — 12 Grimmauld Place in London, Black Manor which was Ignatius' home, in Cornwall, The Carrick Estate in Anglesey, Silver House in Edinburgh, 17 Thywell Lane in Cardiff, Arbrus Hill in Norwich and 13 Ludon Road in Kensington — as well as two in France, one in Italy and, to her surprise, one in Russia. With this also came a total of three house elves, none of whom she had any use for. She called them to her and told them to remain together at Grimmauld Place, as she didn't think Kreacher would stand moving anywhere else, but the other two house elves — Timmy and Dippy —were younger and seemed less... Insane.
It was a lot to take in and a lot to deal with, so Aurora found herself putting off much of the paperwork and formalities. Since there was only one other living, free Black — Narcissa — all of Aurora's assets had been put into her own name and the age restrictions taken off. Now she had a lot to handle, as Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House in all of Magical Britain.
She set her mind to the Philosopher's Stone instead, because being the last of the Blacks felt like far too much responsibility that she hadn't been properly prepared for. Before she went any further she would have to find out what was in the third floor corridor.
Persuading Moaning Myrtle to cry and flood the bathroom was not hard at all. All Aurora had to do was throw a book — the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Four, that she had snuck off of a Hufflepuff and couldn't feasibly be traced back to her without a lot of lucky guess work — at Myrtle's head and she went wild. Filch hurried in five minutes later with his cat and Aurora was free to explore as she saw fit for a little while.
She made a beeline for the third floor of course. There was no one about, seeing as it was against the rules, and so there was also no one to stop Aurora. It was rather a flaw in Dumbledore's plan, she thought. He had been very unsubtle about the third floor, and that made her confused. Why had he pointed it out? Unless he wanted someone to go there. But why?
All of this confused her as she crept along the corridor, and whispered, "Alohomora," to unlock a cupboard door. It sprang open, to her delight, and Aurora slipped silently inside. She was greeted immediately by a blast of hot, disgusting breath. Dog breath.
Trying not to gag, she looked up, and her heart tumbled into the pit of her stomach. There was a giant, black, drooling, three headed dog standing right on top of her. "Bleeding Merlin," she whispered, just as the dog roared at her. She bit back a shriek and dodged to the side, hand going to her wand. She didn't see anything that was like the Philosopher's Stone here, nor any other door that might take her elsewhere.
The dog bent down as if to try and bite her head off and she lunged out of the way just in time, scrambling against the wall. Her keen eyes scanned the room. There — the dog was standing atop a small trapdoor. That must take her to wherever the stone was. She made an attempt at running closer, but the dog raised a giant paw and slammed her into the wall. Gasping for air, she felt the world spin for a moment as the dog came closer, breath hot against her skin. Her heart hammered as she forced her eyes open, and in a split second, made a run for the door. She slammed it open and shut, whispering an urgent "Colloportus," as she did so. The dog's cries of frustration were muffled against the thick stone walls as Aurora darted back along the corridor, downstairs and towards the common room.
At least she knew what the beast was now. She just had to find out how to get past it, and then what the other safeguards were.
Draco, Pansy and Gwendolyn were all very interested to know what Aurora was working on when she disappeared to the library every night, but she didn't tell them. She wanted to keep her work to herself until such time as it was complete, or at least suitably successful that she could brag about it. Draco appeared highly affronted by Aurora's silence, and begged her on multiple occasions to just tell him what she was up to.
"I'll tell Snape you're up to something," he threatened.
"No you won't," she said, quite calmly. "Because if you do, I'll tell your mother what mark you got on your History of Magic Essay last week."
It was a sufficiently bad mark that Draco indeed kept his mouth shut about Aurora's shady activities. After combing through the library's substantial collection of books on magical creatures, Aurora remembered a certain myth of a three headed dog, and turned urgently to the Greek Legend section. It was rather small, but she picked out the word 'Kerberos' and immediately grabbed the book, hurrying to a table to read.
Her position was regrettable. At the table just opposite, Potter was sitting with Weasley and Granger, the two boys grumbling about revision while Granger appeared to be drawing up study schedules for them. Aurora had to laugh. First year marks didn't account for anything really, so long as you didn't fail, and Aurora wasn't too worried. She would do some reading over and organisation of her notes starting a fortnight or so before the exams, and she knew she had practical work handled for everything except perhaps Herbology, so it was of little concern. Besides, Alchemy was much more interesting than any of her subjects — except perhaps Transfiguration. Potions was quickly falling to last place in her mind.
She found the answer to subduing the Kerberos quickly. All she had to do was play a nice tune, and thankfully, she had been taught violin to a relatively high standard for her age. She hadn't played in months, what with one thing and another, but she was fairly certain that the violin was at Black Manor. When the time came she would merely have to ask one of the House elves to fetch it for her.
Now she had to find out what the other professors had set up. Professor Sprout, she imagined, had put in place something with plants, perhaps something that might trap someone. She jotted this down in her notes, and considered Professor McGonagall. She knew she was an Animagus, but doubted she would be guarding the stone as a tiny cat. Perhaps some form of riddle or puzzle, then. Transfiguration was an awful lot of puzzlework when it came down to it, and had to be very precise, especially when considering its theory. With Flitwick she considered similar challenges, though it occurred to her that perhaps the teachers had enchanted a form of guard, rather than making whoever tried to get through perform their own enchantment. Maybe Aurora would have to unpick the enchantments rather than fight them; she made a note to work on counter spells.
Perhaps Quirrel would have similar enchantments. Or maybe even dealing with a dark creature. He was a rather rubbish teacher, and as a result Aurora had had little experience of fighting dark creatures or of duelling. She'd have to teach herself then. Maybe she'd bring along some poisons, too, if she could find somewhere to brew them. It certainly couldn't hurt.
Now, Snape. He would be the worst, she was sure, and so she was determined that she would get past his enchantment, if no other. Even though she had no intentions of bragging of her achievements, outwitting her most hated professor would certainly give her a sense of satisfaction.
In the middle of April, while Aurora was no further forward in her work, Draco presented a piece of information that Aurora thought could prove deeply helpful. He came back in the early evening looking quite delighted with himself. "Well," he said, dropping into a seat next to Aurora and shooing Gwen and Robin out of the way. "He's done it now."
"Who?" Aurora asked, surprised as she glanced up from her book; Moste Potente Potions, hidden within the cover of Thirteenth Century Magical Agriculture.
"Potter, of course," Draco said. "And Weasley and the Mudblood—"
"Her name is Granger," Aurora corrected, and Draco nodded.
"Yes, yes, I know. Anyway, Granger. And that oaf they're friends with, Hagrid. They've got a dragon."
"No!" Aurora stared at him, quite aghast. Was Potter really so arrogant as to think he could flout such a major rule as not breeding dragons? Or that he could manage one? "What an idiot!"
"I know," Draco said breathlessly. "He's an arrogant prat, But we know what they're doing, and they saw me. They know I know. We've got this over them. Any little move they make, we can go to Dumbledore." Aurora found herself smiling. Wouldn't this be the perfect way to get all the information she could out of Potter and his friends. "Are you with me?"
She smirked at Draco, feeling a quiet, sneaky excitement grow in her chest. "Of course I'm with you."
She made sure over the next few days that her quiet face was taunting them just enough that they knew she was onto them. On Monday evening, she managed to catch Potter returning from a Quidditch practice, slipping into step beside him. "So, what do you know about the Philosopher's Stone then?"
He went completely white and she smirked in satisfaction. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm not an idiot, Potter. That's why you were asking about Nicholas Flamel, that's what you three keep whispering about in class. I know you think Snape's after it, that's why you followed him. And after hearing that conversation, you're probably right."
"You heard it too?" Potter looked indignant. "Wait, did you follow me?"
"Yes. Don't look so annoyed about it, I did you a favour telling you where to look for information on Flamel." She raised her eyebrows, smirking, and leaned a little closer, looking down her nose at him at just the right angle for it to be intimidating. "So. What do you know?"
"Why do you care?" Potter asked angrily.
"Why shouldn't I care? It's one of the most famous and powerful artefacts in the world."
He narrowed his eyes. "You're working with him."
She almost laughed. "Him? Snape?" Potter nodded. "I never knew Gryffindors could be quite this stupid. Haven't you seen how he treats me in class?" His eyes told her that he had. "No, I'm not working with Snape. We Slytherins aren't all in cahoots together to destroy your perfect Gryffindor world."
"You and Malfoy are pretty chummy."
"Draco is my oldest friend," she said tightly, ignoring how strained that friendship seemed to have become at times. "And he's hardly trying to destroy your world."
"He's horrid. He treats Neville—"
"I know how he treats Neville," Aurora said, voice deliberately and dangerously quiet as she cut him off. "I've told him not to, and did Neville tell you who took the Leg-Locker Curse off him?" Potter didn't say anything but she knew the answer was yes. "This isn't the point here, Potter. I asked you what you know about the stone, and about what's guarding it."
"You do want the stone!" Potter said furiously, recoiling from her.
"I won't lie. I want to see it, and study it. I don't want to use it, though. And even I did, that wouldn't make me a bad person." She looked intently at him. If anyone could understand her desires to do with life and death, it was him. But she wasn't going to start telling Potter her darkest intentions. "You know," she said, "I do wonder about that mirror. How it shows you what you want. Do you know anyone who, perhaps, really, really wanted a dragon?"
Potter froze. She knew she'd scared him. She had no intention of telling tales or getting Hagrid in trouble, seeing as he had only ever even nice to her, and she didn't really want Potter and his friends in trouble for breaking the law, but he didn't have to know that. And she was sure that he didn't. "We don't know anything," he told her heavily at last. "That's the truth."
"I don't believe you."
"Well then I don't know what you want me to say." He turned on her with his massive, pleading green eyes, and she was momentarily shocked. "Please, please don't get Hagrid into trouble."
She didn't want to get Hagrid in trouble, nor did she want to outright lie and say that she was going to, but she also couldn't lose her leverage. She considered Potter carefully. "I won't," she told him. "But I won't have such reservations about you, Potter. Hagrid could be entirely innocent and ignorant in this. You, however, seem to get yourself into trouble an awful lot. You're always in the limelight. Wouldn't a dragon fit your imagine perfectly?" She grinned at him. "Who would be surprised if you were caught with a dragon?"
"You wouldn't," he said, rather boldly for someone who looked like they were about to pass out.
"Wouldn't I? What do you know about me, Potter?" She almost regretted asking.
"I know your dad's a murderer," he said and her stomach dropped. Stupid, reckless, murderous, lunatic, Death Eater, Blood Traitor, scum of the blood, disgrace to the Black name, foolish boy. "And a Death Eater, and that he went to Azkaban. Your family's full of Dark wizards and you're the last of them now. I bet there are things you're hiding that are far worse than a dragon."
Her mind went instantly to Death, his words, and his promise. She glared at Potter and asked him softly, "Do you really want to take that risk?"
Potter looked alarmed. "You can't tell anyone anything. If you tell Snape—"
"There's more chance of me waltzing with McGonagall."
Potter swallowed. "There's a three headed dog, and that's all we know. We don't even know how to get past it. Just... Please don't get Hagrid in trouble."
She knew he was telling the truth, but she wouldn't let him off the hook entirely. "Alright," she said eventually. "But if you find out anything more, you tell me, Potter. And if I find out you aren't completely honest with me, I promise you, Hagrid's dragon will be the least of your problems." She made to leave, then stopped herself, turning around. "Oh, and don't tell Granger and Weasley about this, will you? I'll know if you do." To her delight, he looked like he believed her. "The details of this conversation are strictly between us. Potter and Black."