Chapter 46: Year four: Spanners

The second weekend of term Aileen escaped from the castle at the crack of dawn to sink into the lake. In the last two years she hadn't managed to get to the lake very often, and never before the Christmas holidays. She was hoping, that like in first year, she would be able to escape during the weekend in order to get to the lake, even if only for a few hours.

Aileen didn't have a purpose or a destination in mind for this visit, she simple allowed her body to flow, pulled via the currents. The currents weren't strong, and it wouldn't take much to resist them, but she didn't have a reason to resist them. She had nowhere to be and nothing to do.

And then she did. She felt a very strong presence approaching her in the same way that she felt her father approaching, but this wasn't her father. It was similar, it was someone related to him and had a domain in the ocean.

She pulled herself up right and to attention. Although the approaching god was of her father's domain, there was no guarantee that they didn't mean her any harm. Aileen pulled her celestial sword and stood ready to fight.

The Being that appeared before her was tall, easily six feet but probably closer to six feet two inches. Like his father, and half-brother, Triton had messy black hair, but he had grown it out and pulled the majority of it back into a ponytail. What wasn't held back in the ponytail escaped around his face, making his strong chin and piercing eyes stand out because of the dark back drop.

Unlike Poseidon, Triton was wearing a skintight, yet see through, mail shirt proudly displaying his muscular physic. Poseidon had once told Aileen that he had a mer-form, but he preferred his human form. Clearly, his son was more comfortable in his mer-form when in the water because from the hips down he had a beautiful green tail.

"Prince Triton?" Aileen greeted, lowering her sword to an at ease stance instead of holding it defensively before her.

"Princesses Aileen." Triton returned the greeting. "I assume father told you I would be coming?"

"He said you wanted to meet me, but he never said when you would turn up. Probably because I struggle to get to the lake during the school year." Aileen explained.

"As he mentioned. But I kept an eye out, just encase you turned up while father wasn't paying attention." Triton explained. "He mentioned that you needed some training?"

"If you're willing. I've never had a training partner and you're an exceptional warrior according to father's stories." Aileen complimented. But she told the truth. Triton was the most skilled warrior in Atlantis outside of Poseidon.

"Show me what you've got." Triton summoned his sword to his hand.

"As you wish." Aileen raised her own sword.

Fighting in water was nothing like fighting on land. She had experience from when she used to train with the mer-people, but not even their warriors were up to the standards of a god. Triton was faster and stronger than the mer warriors and was infinitely better with his sword. She was immediately put on the defensive, deflecting blows and trying to put up some resistance. Aileen tried using the fact that she could attack from below and above, and even push back with the water, but Triton was used to fighting in such a way and so was able to defend himself and push back. The fact that he was a god of a domain within the ocean also meant that he could countermand any attempt at using the water to actually fight him instead of aid her own movements. In time, Aileen might increase her own strength and control to put up a fight against him in that manner, but for now it was just a waste of her concentration.

Triton could have easily disabled her in the first minute of the fight, but he was clearly testing her to see how much she knew. Finally, Triton disarmed her and then used the water to subdue her.

"Well done." Triton released the pressure, allowing Aileen to stand and regain her sword. "For someone with such limited training, you did very well."

"Thank you. I've trained against the mer-warriors and practise every day. Sword and dagger." Aileen allowed her sword to take on its natural state of a neckless before drawing her dagger so Triton could see it.

"Can you fight with both at the same time?" Triton asked curiously, handing the dagger back.

"A little, but not as well as I would like." Aileen admitted.

"How often do you think you'll be able to come to the lake?" Triton asked, banishing his sword.

"I don't know. I'm hoping every other weekend. But with my life, you never know." Aileen smiled sheepishly. "I'll let you know if something comes up and that changes."

"Then I shall see you every other weekend until then." Triton smirked before disappearing with a swirl of water.

The following Friday Aileen left transfiguration class, and instead of heading to the common room or the library with her friends, she went to the headmaster's office. It was the first day that the entire warding team would be at Hogwarts, and Aileen was about to throw a spanner in the works.

She had spent every night since finding the portraits walking the halls with them and completing the marauder's map. Every time she came across an area which had been 'locked out', as Rowena put it, she had to open it back up. This added that area back into the widest set of wards and meant that the house elves could clean it. But the warding team would need to know the dimensions of the place they were warding since it impacted the power and calculations used. Their previous calculations had been based on a map she had given them which was literally just the outline of the school and all the known corridors – an outline which was now out of date.

"Aileen, thank you for joining us. Please take a seat. Would you like a cup of tea?" the headmaster offered with a benevolent smile. Although he was very knowledgeable about many areas – including warding – he was allowing William Weasley to take charge since he had far more knowledge and experience in this area. This was probably the first time in decades that he was not the leader of a group or project that he'd been included in, and he was enjoying it greatly.

"Please." Aileen accepted. "I think you're all going to want to refill your cups. I'm about to give you all a headache."

"What's happened?" Bill asked, sharply slicing his hand through the air to silence the rest of the team. Yansen Greengrass, Juliet Parkinson, Peter Trevor and Lucas Dragonfire. Bill knew that they had issues with Aileen being such an important part of this re-warding process since she was a child, but as the leader he had the authority to overrule them all and the power to silence or replace them.

"This warding process is going to get more complicated. All the Arithmancy you've been doing for the last few months can't be applied." Aileen informed them bluntly.

"How could you possibly know that? You're a fourth year, you've only had one year of education in ancient runes and nothing in warding." Peter said skavingly. He was the one most against her being part of the team.

"What I say next, doesn't leave this room. It doesn't leave this group. If you can't give an oath of silence, then you can't work on the warding of Hogwarts." Aileen knew technically only the headmaster and Bill had that authority, but she was acting with the complete backing of the Founders and therefore Hogwarts herself. She was also the one funding this project which gave her a lot of leeway. And the headmaster would be able to feel the truth of what she was saying through the wards.

"I'm not giving you an oath kid. You…" Peter began angrily but was cut off by Bill.

"I William Arthur Weasley vow to not reveal the knowledge imparted to me by Aileen Alessa Lakshmi Potter-Black until, or unless, given leave to do so by the one to whom I pledge this oath. In part, or in full. So I swear, so mote it be." Bill had placed his wand across his chest to give the oath. Aileen was surprised that he had remembered her full name since she had only mentioned it once in one of their letters.

"So mote it be." Aileen accepted the oath, causing a flash of light that signified a complete oath.

"I Albus Percival Wilfric Brian Dumbledore vow to not reveal the knowledge imparted to me by Aileen Alessa Lakshmi Potter-Black until, or unless, given leave to do so by the one to whom I pledge this oath. In part, or in full. So I swear, so mote it be." The headmaster gave his own oath.

"So mote it be." Aileen accepted the oath. She didn't actually need one from the headmaster, but she was glad to get one anyway. This was for the safety of the school after all.

"If you don't take the oath, I'm kicking you off the team. This is Hogwarts, and we are only here because of Headmaster Dumbledore and Aileen Potter. If Aileen Potter says she has sensitive information which is vital to ward Hogwarts, and she wants an oath, then we give her an oath." Bill glared at his team, excluding an authority she had only seen from him when he was ordering the goblins around when they went to excavate the Chamber. "This is not a normal building, and this is not a normal project. And you are well aware that many clients require a second secrecy oath on top of what our Gringotts Contract ensures."

"I Yansen Greengrass…" Yansen drew his wand and gave his vow. Once one had given their vow, Juliet and then Lucas vowed. Leaving only Peter who hadn't vowed to silence.

"I'm not giving this child my oath." Peter crossed his arms.

"Then you can go back to Gringotts. You're no longer on this team." Bill said sternly. "And I will give a detailed report to your supervisor saying why you will never work on my team again. Now leave."

Peter hesitated, but he took one look at Bill's stern visage before he headed straight for the fireplace and floo'd out without looking back.

"Are we going to be able to do this without him?" Yansen asked.

"Yes, between me, the headmaster and Aileen we don't actually need anyone else. But it just makes it easier to have a few more people on hand." Bill answered, relaxing back into his chair and dropping his stern visage. "Now, Aileen what did you find?"

"I found the portraits of the founders, and they in turn showed me that Hogwarts is a lot bigger than we've calculated for. Areas that had been sectioned off and put out of the wards, I've now put them back into the wards. But only the outer wards." Aileen informed them, pulling the marauder's map out. "The map I gave you at the start of summer was based on all the then known areas of the school. This map includes the rest of the information. I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Aileen tapped the map with her finger.

"Wait, back up. You've found the lost paintings of the founders?" Yansen demanded.

"Yep. And they've asked to remain hidden until they feel ready. But that wasn't the important bit. The important bit, was that your maths is off." Aileen pushed the map towards Bill who leaned forward pulling out his own map to compare.

"Wow, there are hundreds of square feet more on your map. And not just down, but up and left and right." Bill said before he started muttering to himself. "Blimey, our maths was off by more than a little bit. That's why we couldn't find the key stones. We were looking in the wrong place."

"Before we get bogged down with redoing our Arithmancy, we need to see the ward stone. That way we can do it properly, by knowing which wards we're going to be keeping, which ones we're taking down and which ones we're adding." The Headmaster cut back into the conversation. "Aileen dear, did the founders tell you where the ward stone is? Since its exact location has been lost for centuries. I know it's on the seventh floor. Presumable somewhere near the middle of the building."

"Wait, I thought you knew where it was?" Lucas was the one to interrupt the conversation this time.

"I rather gave that impression, didn't I?" the headmaster smiled serenely at them.

"Sometimes, giving that impression isn't the best idea. What if I hadn't known the location of the ward stone?" Aileen challenged.

"I had every faith. Would you care to lead the way?"

Aileen rolled her eyes but led the group from the headmaster's office and then up to the seventh floor. The headmaster was correct in his assumption about where it was. She came to the blank stretch of wall where the Room of Requirement was located. Instead of facing that wall, she turned to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barney.

"Headmaster, could you put an aversion ward up please?" Aileen asked.

"Of course, my dear." The Headmaster turned away from the group and started casting spells. Bill turned so he was facing the other side of the corridor and started casting spells in tandem with the headmaster. It took them only a minute to finish. "No one can enter the corridor until we're finished."

"Okay." Aileen took a deep breath before doing something which was considered illegal in Britain and could see her sent to jail. Fortunately, the headmaster understood the importance of blood wards, and the curse breakers existed under contract with Gringotts and had likely used or encountered blood wards before and knew that the illegality of Britain was subjective in their field. After all, to counter and disable a blood ward, one needed to use blood magic. She sliced her hand with her dagger before placing it on the wall beside the tapestry.

"Grant me entrance to your mind." Aileen whispered softly in the tongue of snakes. She could have spoken Gallic – the language shared by the founders but not all their students – but only the headmaster was to know the password even if the others knew the location.

The tapestry rolled up, from left to right, to reveal a blank wall. Aileen moved her hand from the wall next to the tapestry to the heart of the section which had been revealed.

"Grant me entrance to your heart," Aileen whispered the request while drawing a particular rune with her blood – the heart rune as Rowena had called it. From the point where her hand was touching the wall, it began to fade until there was nothing left in the doorway. When Aileen lowered her hand, it was completely healed since the school didn't harm that which she protected.

"Did you just use blood magic?" Juliet asked, there wasn't any judgement in her tone. "I didn't think a student would be brave enough to do so."

"It wasn't illegal in the time of the founders. A lot of passages were secured in the same way." Aileen walked into the room with the others following behind. Once they were all inside the room the door closed them.

"Welcome to the heart of Hogwarts." Aileen motioned to the large stone covered in runes.

"Amazing. Juliet you're on notes. Lucas connections." Bill issued orders as he moved forward and started reading from the stone.

Since the headmaster wasn't necessary at this moment in time, he conjured a pair of comfy seats for himself and Aileen.

"Do you have to state the password in parseltongue?" The headmaster asked curiously.

"No, but I've been sworn to tell only you the access phrase. Technically this is a secret given to only the headmaster, but the founders gave me the information when they realised how much had been lost." Aileen explained. "Which was also why my blood opened the door."

"You've been added to the castle wards, I thought something felt different." The headmaster nodded sagely.

"Yes. I had to be while I was finding the lost areas of the school. Only someone added to the wards could unlock them. Rowena thinks that, should you die after I turn fifteen, there is a high chance that the wards will default to me. Especially once I've helped reconstruct the wards." Aileen admitted.

"I'd best keep that from Minerva. She'll be most annoyed that the school puts her below a student." The headmaster smiled mischievously.

"I'm more than just a student though. I'm an heir, I unlocked lost parts of the school and I'm about to reform the wards. And Rowena said…" Aileen frowned slightly trying to remember the meaning behind what had been explained to her. "Rowena called it a perfect storm. I hold a strong magical core, a connection to the founders and with all this ward building and powering means that the wards would recognise me as a strong holder capable of supporting the wards without the support of four or five others."

"Ah, like I can hold the wards, but the strain is easier with the heads of house acting as my anchors." The headmaster nodded sagely.

"Precisely." Aileen agreed. "Although the heads being keyed to the wards are more than anchors. By being tied to the wards, it's meant to prevent them from being able to turn against Hogwarts or her students. Of course, with the weaker wards that insurance isn't as strong as it should be. It also means that they can activate the school's defences if necessary."

"Ah, I hadn't realised that it prevents treachery from the heads." The headmaster frowned. "I think we're going to have to go over procedure to see what has change. Perhaps the change in the oath of office is one of the contributing factors to the weakening in the wards." The headmaster theorised.

"I'll write everything down and we can meet up. Perhaps tomorrow? Before the warding team returns to go other their findings." Aileen suggested.

"That sounds marvellous. Shall we say nine o'clock?"

"Nine sounds fine." Aileen agreed, pulling an empty notebook from her pocket to begin writing what the headmaster would need to know. She would have to conferee with the founders that night, but it would be better to get as much down as she could before then.

Aileen's meeting with the headmaster was very enlightening. The founders had designed several fail safes into Hogwarts wards which had been lost over time.

When the last founder – Helga – left Hogwarts she gave the wards onto the headmaster of the time. He became the primary holder of the wards. Because of this, the headmaster of Hogwarts had to be strong, otherwise they would be rejected by the wards since they wouldn't be able to function under the strain. The Headmaster's Oath was designed and worded in such a way that the headmaster could never knowingly or intentionally cause harm to the students of Hogwarts, and they must always strive to ensure that the students under their care reach their fullest potential. However, the oath of the headmaster which was now taken had been changed in wording, it was subtly but enough that they could cause harm to the students and the school.

Since the wards of Hogwarts were so vast and powerful, the headmaster needed anchors. These anchors were the heads of houses. They had to be powerful in their own right, so that they could take on the mantel of headship if it became necessary, however they didn't have to be powerful enough to hold the wards on their own. If the headmaster should die, and their replacement not be considered suitable, then the wards would be placed on the shoulders of the most acceptable head of houses, which could be two of them or all four of them. Acting as the anchors to the school meant they also had the authority to activate the defences, and in the past, they would also have been able to sense any alerts or dangers in the school. The Head's Oath, used to bind the heads to the school so that they would not be able to betray her, nor course harm to the students and do everything they could to support the students and staff to achieve their fullest. You could not be a head of house and be sworn to another – the bond to Hogwarts would take precedence. However, the oath of the head of house had changed to such a point that they are only sworn as anchors, and nothing more.

With both the Head's Oath and the Headmaster's Oath having been changed it created the crack in the wards which then led to them failing. They could have stay strong and supported under the excess, but not with the Oath's having changed so that Hogwarts didn't have the support needed to stay attached to the ambient power.

The only way to fix this, was for the headmaster and the heads of houses to take the truth oath when they recast the wards. Since this required the shedding of their blood (which keyed them into the blood guarded areas of the school) they would need to have an anchor in someone who was already fully added to the wards. Under the guidance of the four founders Aileen performed the ritual which made her heir and guardian of Hogwarts, giving her complete access to the wards which meant that she could oversee the oaths given by heads and headmaster.

To ensure that such a failing of knowledge never happens again, the headmaster was compiling a complete book on the warding of Hogwarts, and the oaths of office which would be hidden behind the portraits of the founders when they get placed in his office. The founders had decided, once the wards had been settled, that they would have their group frame placed in the headmaster's office. This meant they could offer advice to the man, and yet their primary portraits would remain hidden with Aileen.

Following on from their meeting, Aileen and the Headmaster met with Bill and his team to discuss how they were going to go about warding and which wards were essential. This included a discussion about which ones they would be completely removing, which ones would be added back on, and which wards would have to remain in place during the process even though they needed to be powered up. They also worked out the location of the key stones, which they would have to raise from the ground during the warding ceremony since that would be where the four anchors stood (the four heads of houses).

Since they had so much to work out still, and Aileen needed to be completely up to date on the process, the warding team would meet every other Saturday. However, Bill and his team were given lodgings inside the walls while they worked since they needed to work on the ward stone (the students didn't need to be evacuated to unclog the ward stone slightly).

Friday and Saturday nights, on the opposing weeks to which she worked with the warding team, Aileen spent in the lake training with Triton. Fighting a swordsman who was stronger than her, faster than her and more experienced than her, was good for Aileen. It pushed her and challenged her to dodge that little bit faster, to use the water as her weapon and her shield. Things that she had never really done before; not to the extent that Triton was teaching her to do.

Triton didn't just teach her sword play though. One of the most important things about being in a fight, is the ability to be aware of one's surroundings and to think. The knowledge of one's surroundings was generally achieved by the unexpected use of water in an attack, or the change of environment (by pushing the water away from them and making it so they were fighting on dry sand bed); Triton had even recruited the mer-people to join their fights, so she had to be aware of multiple opponents. To encourage her mental capacity while fighting, Triton would engage her in conversation. Updating her on the news and politics of Atlantis and Olympus, challenging her with questions about the stories and monsters and beings she would encounter if she entered that world completely.

Outside of the weekends, Aileen still had to return to her normal role as a student. After the incident in defence, Moody hadn't dared to continue his lessons on unforgivable curses outside of the seventh years (the only class in which he was authorised to talk about and demonstrate the curse in), but his lessons were still the most loved out of all the classes since he taught them curses and their counters.

Aileen tried to spend as much time with her friends as possible, doing homework with Hermione, talking potions and Herbology with Neville, chess and duelling with Ron and pranks and business with the twins. Just because she was so busy didn't mean that she wanted to lose the close friendship she had with her friends. Especially since Hermione had started a campaign on house elf welfare and the Quidditch team was taking up a lot of training hours with their compressed schedule.

Hermione's house elf campaign, at first had been about freeing house elves from their bond, but when Aileen's book arrived it had become about proving the information in the book false. When she couldn't do that, and after Aileen had talked with her, Hermione decided to focus the campaign on giving the elves protection against abuse and misuse.

On October 12th a notice went up announcing that the other schools would be arriving on the 30th of October, however the students had their minds set on something that happened before then – the first two Quidditch matches of the term.

Lots of people had been placing bets since this was the first time there was going to be an even playing field in terms of amount of time spent training and the types of brooms being played on. Even the teams were mostly even with mostly returning members which meant that the teams didn't have to train up any new members. Gryffindor had to find a knew keeper in order to replace Wood, and Ron had been picked after doing the best in tri-outs, while the Slytherins had to replace one of their chasers. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were going into the games with the same teams as the year before, but some of their numbers had been new to the team the year before.

For the first game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, the betting pool favoured Gryffindor. Aileen's inside men (Fred and George), informed her this was because she had proven herself to be a superior seeker to Malfoy and with states on the other members of the Gryffindor team were also vastly better than those of the Slytherin team who favoured brute force over skill. For the second game, the betting pool seemed to favour Hufflepuff because their seeker, Cedric Diggory, had proven himself to be very skilled on the pitch while the rest of the team was on par with Ravenclaw.

Flying in October came with an unexpected weather advantage – the skies were warm, and the sun wasn't the low bright and blinding winter sun. This meant they could fly in the warmth without being blinded. And the winds weren't very strong yet, which meant they wouldn't have to take this into account when turning or diving. Overall, they had perfect flying conditions when they took to the skies on the Saturday.

Knowing that Malfoy had the habit of tailing and trying to distract her, Aileen went high and began circling and weaving across the pitch. She knew that if she hovered in one place while looking for the snitch, the Slytherin beaters would take the opportunity to try and target her, but if she kept moving then they wouldn't have the time to try and target her because that would then leave the chaser free to traverse the pitch.

For the first time since she had been added to the team, Aileen flew a first game without her life being placed in peril. No possessed teachers trying to curse her broom, no cursed Bludger trying to take her head and no Dementors. Just a pleasant, safe game. Since the Chasers were able to keep control of the Quaffle, and the twins were able to maintain procession of the Bludgers, Aileen didn't rush to find the snitch. Several times she saw it, but she didn't make to catch it. Instead, she distracted Malfoy. Until they were a hundred points up on the Slytherins. With such a large margin the Slytherins would have to absolutely demolish the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in their game in order to be in for a chance at the cup. But with the Ravenclaw's strategies and the Hufflepuff's seeker, Aileen had faith that they would be able to hold their own and end the game before the Slytherins could get the margin they needed.

The following Saturday Aileen wasn't able to watch the Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff game since she was leading the warding team through the forest to the ward line which she then had to walk with them. When she returned to the castle it was to find that the Hufflepuffs had won the game, but only by sixty points since the Ravenclaw's had been winning until Cedric caught the snitch.

With the games over, talk in the school turned to the tri-wizard tournament and what the other two schools would be like.

Edited: 11/01/2024

A/N: I've re-upload chapters 44-47 and the annoying coding should now be gone. I double checked for that coding before uploading, and yet it still appeared. I'm not very happy about that. But thank you for letting me know.