The Stonehenge Solution
02 - Harry's Secret
By Brian N. Johnson
A free fan fiction
(Edited 10/28/23)
Chapter 2 - Harry's Secret
Long before Harry's sixtieth birthday, when he was just shy of his seventeenth birthday. Harry realized that the conflict between the mundane and magical worlds, and also within the magical world about the mundanes, would never end well for the magical people of the world. And far more rarely did even a few magical people have the smallest interest in the massive threat that loomed over their heads.
After the death of Hermione, Harry started studying and researching the world's "magical people vs nonmagical people" problems in depth when he was not studying some branch of magic.
In the end, he had decided that no fix would, or even could, make both groups happy. Thus he felt every magical person was doomed. He wanted to believe otherwise, but he knew his belief would never change.
Another conclusion that Harry made many years ago was that someday the Statute of Secrecy would fail. Somehow, someway, it would be no more. Once that happened the mundane people would learn the truth. They would then learn that they had been lied to, manipulated, abused, and slaughtered by witches and wizards all over the world. For centuries!
There was just no way that once the mundane population realized this they would allow the situation to continue. As the saying goes, once the powder keg was lit, it was way too late to stop it. Such a massive powder keg would destroy the magical world.
For years Harry considered thousands of possible solutions. At best many would only be temporary. Just like the Statute of Secrecy will fail, so will all plans fail because at the heart of the problem you had two separate worlds where each would always be harmful to the other. Leaving them both always jealous and angry.
Even if there were greatly draconian laws to ensure that the magical people never harmed a mundane, or normal person if you wish. Some magical person or group would do something inexcusable and fail to cover it up completely and the worst would happen. It may be a slow or fast destruction of the magical people, but it would still be destruction in the end. An end where the vastly smaller population of magical people would lose badly.
The only option that Harry was not loathe to consider was to truly separate the two worlds. Move one group to another planet a very great distance from the other. An insurmountable distance. Because if it was not insurmountable then it would just be another temporary solution. How could both sides be at a distance that could never be reached? They can't.
Bringing the solution ideas back to the realm of possibilities what would the solution be? When does "What is the least worst solution?" become an acceptable solution? Or as it was said long ago:
"For the lesser evil can be seen in comparison with the greater evil as a good, since this lesser evil is preferable to the greater one, and whatever preferable is good"
- Aristotle
The preferable solution may be more acceptable, it was, and always would be evil, never good.
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(scene break)
It had to be the coldest day of Harry's forty-fifth year when he came up with his "most acceptable" bad solution. The callousness of his solution shocked him so badly that he had to step away from the idea for some time.
It took Harry quite a while to be willing to think about the idea more than a little bit and he wondered why. He eventually remembered his primary school days when the administrators thought his problems at school might be related to being an orphan. They had given him an in-depth lesson about the seven stages of death to be precise.
1. Shock
2. Denial
3. Anger
4. Bargaining
5. Depression
6. Testing
7. Acceptance
Thinking back, he could recognize many of those steps that he had taken recently regarding this idea.
He had reached 'Acceptance.' He may fail in the attempt, but he worried more if he could keep his solution entirely to himself so that he would be the only guilty one. The only one to be directly responsible for the great crime he was considering.
After Harry's delay of about seven months of reflection, Harry finally began to work on a real plan. A plan that took years and years to work out how to make it work.
Harry's solution was simple in a way but very difficult to execute properly.
The first issue was having enough magical power to accomplish the task. That turned out to be much easier than expected. Even the non-magical people knew that fourteen major lay lines converged at Stonehenge.
Then the question was, "Where could the work be done?" Stonehenge was very popular in both worlds with over a million visitors to the site each year. Not even a Fidelius Charm would work there. However, that answer turned out to be simple too. Go below Stonehenge. Harry discovered at about a half-kilometer down, the earth's temperature should be a bit too cool for comfort but warmer than closer to the surface would be. This is nearly perfect when heat is added by activities making the site comfortable. This also meant the chances were very low of normal people discovering the work going on there.
Harry, with help from the goblins, proceeded to buy six safe houses around the country, including a small farm near Stonehenge oddly enough. All six properties were remodeled and warded. A pair of elves were brought on for each property and sworn to House Black. The twelve elves soon had the six retreats prepared to the highest standards and stocked with everything that might be needed if ever used.
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(scene break)
By the time Harry was forty-seven the real work had finally begun.
The farm's barn is where the house elves were truly employed. First, they built a very comfortable home in the barn's loft for all of them. Mainly it was the new dozen working there, but the two from London assisted when they could.
After building a concealed basement under the barn, the elves dug a one-meter diameter shaft straight down, vanishing the material not transformed as they went. They installed waterproofing. Lined the shaft with rebar, installed a ladder, and set it all in cement. Lastly, they installed a fresh air duct, electricity, lights, drain piping, and a communication cable down the entire length. Mainly these items were for appearances in case of a mundane inspection but it all would serve as a backup too.
Once they reached the half-kilometer depth, the elves dug out a five-meter-high domed room. A new three-meter diameter shaft was dug toward Stonehenge from it at a slight up angle to drain any leaks back to the heavy-duty sump pump sitting near the ladder. On the bottom of the horizontal shaft, a half-meter-wide walkway was installed. The utilities ran overhead.
Even with pairs of elves working four-hour shifts, all day, every day, it took them nearly two years just to reach the point directly underneath Stonehenge.
There the elves constructed a heavily reinforced, ten-meter high, twenty-meter diameter, domed chamber with a flat, heavily reinforced meter-thick cement floor.
Finally, the elves installed a layer of two-inch thick black marble on the heavily reinforced floor. They used their magic to join the pieces so there were no seams.
A small, solid gold pin was inserted into the very center of the floor to use to make flawless circles and other measurements as needed.
From that center point the fourteen Stonehenge lay lines were artfully displayed in proper alignment. Created with arrows in the style of the four main cardinal points on a compass. These arrows extended outward for one meter and were laid down with two shades of red gold foil, made with alloys of copper and gold.
Over the top of the lay line artwork, a standard compass rose image with sixteen arrows was created using four shades of white gold foil, made with alloys of silver and gold.
In total the artwork displayed the thirty relevant points to the primary ritual planned for this chamber.
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(scene break)
Harry had just had his fiftieth birthday when he entered the new ritual chamber under Stonehenge for the first time.
The elves proceed to set up several tables around the outer edge of the round room. Then they began placing a great number of needed items on the tables in an order they already knew.
One table held dozens of small and oddly shaped rock-cutting chisels, wooden mallets, small brushes, and scoops.
Another table held blocks of gold alloys next to many new and clean crucibles.
The remaining tables were covered in what looked like dozens of potion ingredients, a fortune in gems and crystals, and many pieces of odd jewelry of many designs for who knows what purposes.
One additional table had buckets of chalk in a wide variety of colors plus dozens of tools and stencils for precision work.
A chair was unpacked for Harry to sit down out of the way and to resume checking his notes and plans yet again.
Occasionally Harry watched the teams of house elves proceed to carefully measure and mark the floor in dozens of places with very thin colorful sticks of neon-bright chalk according to the hundreds of drawings they followed.
Multiple hours later the elves had finished the markings and drawings on the ritual floor. Harry thanked them and sent the tired elves home for a well-deserved rest.
The completed chalk markings consisted of hundreds of runes drawn in and around dozens of geometric shapes connected with lines both straight, curved, and broken.
With his wand and book in hand, Harry began double-checking every mark with various measuring spells.
The next day Harry returned to double-check it all again. Once he was satisfied he began casting spells on the tools. Soon several were moving on their own, carving specific colors in different ways. Some were creating square channels. Another tool was carving out round holes. Some circles were being carved with a "v" shaped tool. For hours Harry conducted a symphony with the hammers and chisels. Brushes and small scoops were collecting rock chips and dust ensuring nothing was left to interfere. A second day of etching the marble floor with the many ritual marks allowed Harry to nearly complete this step. Many chalk marks remained still, there for some other purpose.
The following morning was spent checking everything one more time. Harry had months until the next spring equinox would occur, but there was still lots to do and a schedule to keep.
Two days later with the full moon shining down brightly on Stonehenge Harry began a long spell with many complicated wand movements and an unforgiving chant. Just as the moon reached its peak silver began to flow from four different crucibles into the "v" shaped lines. Twenty minutes later Harry slumped into a chair with sweat dripping from him.
When the sun rose that morning, the silver began to glow brightly. It smoothed out and every silver line was perfectly shaped and polished. The glow faded until it was just noticeable if you were looking for it.
Such preparations and complex castings became routine for Harry during the next several months. Each of these small rituals was completed for another step indirectly or directly contributing to the main ritual.
Slowly the primary ritual was coming together and building up vast stores of magical energy from the lay lines and Harry's manipulations.
As winter approached spring, the stored power continued to grow. Harry knew that if there was a mistake Stonehenge would no longer exist. Instead, a very sizable crater would. That would be the good news.
The chaotic spell storm that would follow and ravish the world for at least a year would be the true disaster.
Three days before the spring equinox the ritual was finally and fully prepared. Every scrap of material outside of the waiting ritual components was cleared away.
Behind Harry, as he stared at the ritual again, a great round door was set to close. The last spell he would cast upon this chamber would pull that giant plug closed so nothing could interfere or leak out unexpectedly.
Everything was set, but could he do it? Could he be Albus for his damned "greater good" and truly begin the ritual?
Harry cursed himself for falling into that trap and asking the wrong question.
Damn his foolish thoughts, he would do this.
No, he could not be Albus, he would never claim what he was doing was "good," greater or otherwise. He would rather die before making such a claim.
Harry sighed and drew his wand to cast a simple spell. The great diamond idly floating directly above the center pin began to spin slowly. Less than one revolution per minute for now.
When the equinox began the diamond would begin to turn much faster until the zenith was reached by the sun in the sky above Stonehenge. Then the diamond would shatter into the finest dust to rain down upon the entire ritual area. If he had not screwed anything up by that point the diamond dust would float above the floor in great circling bands. Like the ice rings around Saturn.
The millions, maybe even billions, of diamond flakes would wait for as long as needed until reacting to a specific event happening somewhere around the world. At that moment that bit of diamond would burn away into literally nothing. Each dim flash linked to a child that would never be.
Harry's tears did not stop him from pulling the door closed with a tap of his wand. After watching the door's seam disappear as the door fussed forever into place, he turned and walked away.