Jennifer Craw and the Smugglers Medallion 30

by Doublequill

Harry has his hands full thanks to a pair of old Defense professors teaming up to search for an ancient artifact. Will the Smuggler's Medallion lead them to glory, or will their egos lead them to ruin? Quintin and his friends have a mystery of their own to uncover, but this time they have competition... and Jennifer finds that giving advice is easier than getting folks to listen.

41. The Chancellor's Trial

Chapter Forty-One

The Chancellor's Trial

Stephen went straight to Bonnibel with the news, more than a little afraid that Zelda was going to return from dinner early and overhear their conversation.

"There can be little doubt that they will set off to look for this secret room at once," Bonnibel said in the same quiet tone that he was using. "Time for a bit of deduction... the Chancellor's Room was originally in the Monk's Quarter because one of the responsibilities was supervising the production of instructional tomes for the students. But by the time that office was officially moved, they had moved to printing tomes and the position was starting to evolve into what we now know as the Deputy Headmaster's position."

"Right," Stephen said.

"Well, if I were second in charge of a school, I would want an office more suitable to my station... a full study just a bit smaller than the Headmaster's and close to his so that day to day administration is simpler, as well as to distinguish oneself above the rest of the common Professors. Therefore, I conclude that the Chancellor's Room probably connects to the fourteenth floor," Bonnibel said.

"The fourteenth floor is little more than a corridor connecting the two staircases, though. There isn't much up there other than old paintings," Stephen said.

"All the more reason to suspect it was there once," Bonnibel said.

"Olivia was speculating that it might be connected to the secret passage that has connections to all of the floors," Stephen said.

"Grab Broc. I'll grab Moira and we'll go look at once... preferably before Zelda gets back," Bonnibel said.

"I totally agree," Stephen said, hurrying towards the wizard rooms while Bonnibel went across to Conspiracies to fetch Moira.

Armed with the old hand-written map, Olivia and Quintin found the nearest connection to the secret passage. Olivia took a moment when they went inside to find out where they were in relation to the map.

"It'd be easier from here to start at the low end and work our way up," Olivia decided.

"Shouldn't we get the others first? Or at least step out the library door long enough to let Jeremy know we have a lead," Quintin suggested.

"Reporting a lead is good, but reporting that we found the door would be much better. Besides, we're trying to get there before those Maxens, and we spent a lot of time tracking Andrew down for information before we even got here," Olivia pointed out.

"Sure, but I hope you're not planning on searching it without letting our friends know about it," Quintin said.

"We'll just find out where it is," Olivia said.

Quintin was quite unconvinced that Olivia would leave well enough alone at this point, but then even if he decided to run off and get Jeremy, she might find it on her own. But then, what were the chances, he mused to himself. Before, they thought they were looking for an item in a room everyone knew about. Now that they've realized that the problem is they were missing an entire room, it was likely to be found in a flash; lost rooms tended to be found much more quickly than lost items in Hogwarts.

"Have you ever noticed that there are more doors to the left on this map than the right?" Olivia commented.

"Assuming we're walking in this direction, yes, of course there are. Those rooms are on higher floors, and there aren't as many to connect to. Most of those simply lead to passages that make it more convenient for faculty to get to their rooms," Quintin explained.

"Then that's where it will be!" Olivia declared, holding up a finger.

"You know, my father is always complaining about me being overconfident, but I think you have me beat in spades," Quintin said dryly.

"It's not overconfidence. It's family instinct coupled with a bit of logic," Olivia informed him. "Faculty members aren't spending their time in secret passages looking for secret rooms, you know. They're only interested in going from Point A to Point B. So the best place to put a secret door is somewhere students don't normally go to. Furthermore, it's likely to be near one of the furthest doors where less people travel in general. What's the furthest door?" she asked, looking at the map, then pointed to one.

"That one goes to a broom closet on the fifteenth floor. That one definitely doesn't get used," Quintin admitted, "I've used it a time or two when I was playing as a kid, but my parents have much better ways of getting around."

"That sounds like it has potential! Let's go there," Olivia said, then followed the map to the very end of the corridor and took a right.

But halfway down the dimly lit passage, she suddenly stopped and put an arm out so that Quintin wouldn't go past her.

"Wait!" she insisted.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She pointed to the lanterns and brought up the light. That's when he saw it; a large number of footprints disturbing the dust. Only one set reached all the way to the last door before turning around; most were focused around and empty spot in the middle.

"Someone beat us to it... I knew we were taking too long. It's those Maxens," Quintin realized.

"At least it won't be hard to find now... let's figure out how to open this thing and confront them," Olivia said with determination, keeping her wand firmly gripped in hand as they approached the area with the most footprints and inspected them again. "They look to be going this way. There must be something noticeable in this area to have made them pause here in the first place," she added.

Quintin stared at the wall with a frown. Then he glanced down both sides of the passage thoughtfully while Olivia was still squinting at the wall, looking for something out of place.

"I think I know what they might have noticed," Quintin said, and Olivia looked at him questioningly. "The lantern sconces are evenly spaced down the length of the passage, but for some reason, there's a big gap on this end. There should have been a sconce here, but there's not."

"I see that now. So what we're looking for doesn't have to be that obvious. Well, all I see are bricks, so it might be a matter of tapping the right one, like in Diagon Alley."

"It would be a pretty common way to hide a room during the time period... but why hide the room at all?" Quintin questioned again.

"There's no time to speculate! We will have to see for ourselves!" Olivia said, tapping different bricks with the tip of her wand.

Finally she must have hit the right combination, because the bricks began to rearrange themselves and pulled back to form an archway into a dark room with a faint blue light at the far end.

"Excellent," Olivia said, pleased with herself, stepped in before Quintin could suggest a more cautious approach. Instead, she stopped right inside the door, casting a light spell before going any further.

Instead of the room they had expected, they discovered they were standing at the far end of what appeared to be the start of a new secret passage. Less than three meters away from them was another archway made of similar brick but filled with a curtain of magic of swirling blue particles so bright that it prevented them from seeing past it.

"Well! This is unexpected. Did they go through that?" Quintin asked.

"Hard to tell... the floor is polished here and seems to be enchanted to keep the dust off of it," Olivia said, and ran some checks on the doorway. "It appears to be Ancient Magic, so I can't get a full reading on it."

Quintin peered outside again, inspecting the passage.

"None of the footprints lead back down the corridor. They must have gone through," Quintin said. "Do you suppose it's safe?"

Olivia tested the magic field with the tip of her wand, meeting no resistance. Then she tested it with a tip of her finger, pulling it back quickly when she felt a tingle. Inspecting her finger, she did it again, until she had her whole hand in, the pulled it back out.

"It's not preventing us from going through, but I really don't want to go in there until I've had more information on what that magic is actually doing," Olivia admitted.

"It's good to know that you do have some limits, at least," Quintin said. Olivia turned with a grin and was about to reply when Quintin suddenly pointed above her head. "Look, there are runes up there!"

"Runes! Let's see if we can work them out," Olivia said.

"The first rune is likely the number one," Quintin pointed out.

"Yes... it seems to be an old druid script," Olivia agreed. "Can you read it?"

"One connecting word All... exists... say all... or maybe tell all," Quintin murmured out loud. "One of all will tell all."

"One of each will tell each? One of each will tell all? Really, runes can be very general can't they?" Olivia mused.

"Considering this is blocking the way into the Chancellor's Room, do you suppose it's reference to members of houses?" Quintin suggested. "Maybe if we had a member of every house with us, something will happen."

"Well, considering that one rune means say or all, I expect we'll get another clue if we meet its conditions," Olivia decided. "It's time to go tell the others about what we found!"

"What about the Maxens?" Quintin said.

"Do you honestly think they had someone of each house go with them? Sorry, it can't be helped! I don't think it's worth the risk. Besides, we can get to the library in a flash and let Jeremy know what's going on. If we invite Dawn, she can quickly grab Jay and Elmira. That'll give us two Defense Experts and two Items Experts between us!"

"And me," Quintin protested, hurrying next to her.

"Would we even need you, though? I doubt whoever set that door up knew there'd be a fifth house by now."

"It doesn't matter. I'm going," Quintin said firmly, and the two of them picked up the pace.

Despite the fact that Boulderdash was sitting behind his desk working on the tome repair he had started a week before, he seemed entirely disinterested when Olivia and Quintin came bursting in with their excited report about finding the missing room.

"One of each house? Then I should go so I can document it!" Jeremy immediately said.

"Quintin and I found the room so of course we're going. Dawn, I need you to go along for your items knowledge and a quick exit if we get stuck. Can you get Jay and Elmira for us, please?" Olivia requested.

"On it!" Dawn said, hurrying out.

"You know, I don't get this," Joey said, folding his arms. "A hidden room, fine... I can see the point of hiding the room if it's not being used and has a bunch of school relics in it or something. But a passage with some sort of magic shield over it seems a bit overkill. What could be the reason for it?"

"The most obvious reason, of course," Jeremy interrupted. "The Silver Box must be in there. Bedivere himself said it contained was one of the most powerful magics he had."

"Weasley said that Professor McGonagall used her office as Deputy Headmaster because it was more convenient, but what if it was to keep Voldemort from getting a hold of it or something?" Olivia conjectured.

"I got the impression the deputies had been using teacher offices for longer than that," Quintin pointed out.

"Well maybe it was Dumbledore or someone else then?" Olivia said.

"Feel free to ask him if you like. I believe he's having dinner with the Headmaster this evening," Boulderdash suggested, not looking up from his work.

"There's no time for all of that! The Maxens are already in there! For all we know, they might have already opened it!" Quintin said.

"Calm down! We're going straight away - " she was interrupted by Dawn pushing the door open.

"I'm back!" Dawn announced, and Jay came in with her.

"What are you two standing around for? If we're doing this, we need to do it now," Jay said firmly.

"Don't run in the library, please! I'd also remind you about curfew, but I don't see the point," Boulderdash said unconcernedly, returning to his work as they hurried out the door.

Few of the students in the library gave the crew a second glance as they ignored Boulderdash's order and ran through the library anyway, darting into the secret passage outside and quickly making the connection over to the right one.

"It's this way," Olivia said once they got in there, leading them to the end. "Near the door connected to the fifteen floor."

"Of course! That makes perfect sense," Dawn decided between breaths. "The Chancellor's Room was probably just a flight down the stairs from the Headmaster's Room. I didn't think anything was on the fourteenth floor except for that wide corridor connecting the two staircases."

"We also managed to get a description of the box," Jay offered. "Sissy and Pete found out from some of the paintings between the fourteenth and fifteenth floor that we're looking for a heavily etched box that looks just like a wider wand case, covered with astrology symbols on the top and bottom. Three of the sides are filled with wizards in different poses as if it's telling a story, and the fourth side has an inscription in Latin."

"An inscription in Latin? First I've heard of it," Olivia said.

"Hang on! Stephen Maxen spent some time looking up Latin and even borrowed Mum's dictionary! That must be why," Quintin said.

"They've known about it all along? Well, what did it say?" Olivia asked.

"The paintings didn't know," Jay said.

"Here's the door! I see you didn't bother to hide it again," Dawn said, stopping at the arch.

"I didn't even think of it because we were in a hurry to get you," Olivia panted, leaning against the other wall to catch her breath.

"Well, at least that means it won't close on its own. I don't fancy getting trapped in there," Elmira admitted.

"We won't get trapped. I brought a sketch," Dawn promised her.

"Let's take a look at those runes you found," Jay suggested and they all stepped through the arch.

As the last of them stepped through into the passage, the runes above the second arch sudden began to glow brightly, going through a series of colors from green to red to blue to yellow and lastly to purple. Suddenly turning white, a scroll appeared in the air, spinning wildly around for a moment until it suddenly stopped, unrolling itself in the process.

"Allow me," Jay volunteered. "Olivia, would you mind being my spotter?"

"No problem," Olivia agreed and slid her wand out of her sleeve. Jay reached out and took hold of the scroll, glancing over it before reading it.

"'To protect against any unlawful entry of the Chancellor's Room, the Committee of Artifacts and Particulars has commissioned a series of trials to discourage unsolicited entry by unauthorized parties,'" Jay read.

"A series of trials! Wicked! It's just like what my grandfather did getting the Stone!" Olivia said excitedly.

"He definitely wasn't authorized," Elmira informed her drolly.

"Hush! Jay, keep going," Dawn insisted.

"It looks like there are four trials all together. This scroll seems to be the key getting past them, although some of the instructions are a bit vague. More than likely, they expected Professors to be doing this who have more context of what is involved," Jay speculated. "Still, I think there's probably enough to go on. Shall we head through?"

"But what about that barrier?" Quintin asked.

"Well, it says here at the bottom that the barrier in the passage is a protective barrier to keep this passage's magic from being detected and to assure that the area is contained if any traps go off," Jay replied.

"Did you say traps?" Elmira asked ominously.

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course there are traps! Are you an Items Major or aren't you?" Olivia scolded her. "This should be right up your alley!"

"Well, I suppose, although I had no intention of getting into Curse Breaking or anything whether it's on the NEWT exam or not," Elmira said.

"Don't worry, we'll back up each other, because I am interested in getting into Curse Breaking," Dawn assured her, patting her on the back.

"The first trial doesn't seem hard at all. It is a tiled floor and it states that all we have to do is to pick a path other than the one we're currently on," Jay explained.

"What do you suppose that means?" Elmira asked.

"I'm sure we'll see soon enough," Jay said calmly and stepped through.

As the others began to step through, Elmira glanced behind her, wondering if she oughtn't try to make a break for it.

Unfortunately, the archway behind them had silently closed, leaving only a brick wall.

"Oh, no! Hey, wait up!" Elmira panicked and ran through.

Fortunately, Jay was quick enough to grab her and keep her from dashing out on the tiled floor, because the rest of them were staring at it in stunned silence.

Positioned on the tile floor on various tiles and in various positions were perfectly detailed stone statues of Bonnibel, Moira, Stephen, and Broc, who apparently had simply walked out on the floor without looking. Zelda, who must have come in after them, had taken a very deliberate step onto the Snake tile, and was stuck at the very beginning.

"They didn't last long, did they?" Jay observed.

"I'd say good riddance, but to be honest, Stephan and I were almost getting along and I don't like the idea of leaving them like that," Dawn said.

"I do have a cure for Stone Touch in my emergency potion kit, Dawn, as does Quintin," Jay assured her. "But to be perfectly blunt, I think we ought to leave them there until we've retrieved what we came for. They're not getting harmed just standing there."

"Good point," Dawn said.

While they were talking, the other three were busy inspecting the floors.

"They're all animal tiles... mascots of the original four houses," Olivia said. "Which does make it obvious what to do next. We must pick a different house for ourselves and stay on that tile until we get into the other side."

"At least the tiles are large enough to get a good footing on, and there doesn't appear to be any other traps except for the obvious one," Elmira reported, sweeping her wand around.

"Agreed," Dawn confirmed. "And the tiles are big enough, but those Villins and Maxens are taking up a lot of the floor."

"True... it might take a bit of maneuvering around them, but as long as we don't pick Slytherin, it shouldn't be a problem," Olivia said.

"I couldn't anyway. Shall I go first?" Jay suggested.

"Go ahead! I'll cover," Olivia said.

Jay pondered it thoughtfully. Did it really matter what his second choice would be, as long as it wasn't Slytherin? Shrugging to himself, Jay stepped on the Eagle, waiting for something to happen. When nothing happened he continued on, carefully working around Moira on the way.

The rest of the students watched anxiously, but Jay seemed to relax once he got past the stoned figures, watching his step but making it too the other side. Sparks crackle around him and he looked up.

"What was that?" Olivia demanded.

"There's another of those magic fields on this side of the trap... nearly invisible. It didn't seem to hurt or anything... it's probably another containment field," Jay decided, running some checks on it. "If it triggered something else, I have no idea what. Best to keep going. Who will be next?"

"I'll be last. Jay can cover for me on the other side," Olivia said. "Dawn, you next."

"I hate the idea of having to pick another house," Dawn admitted. "But if I had to pick, I suppose I'd go with my father's first house," she said, stepping onto the Lion. Getting around Stephen's outstretched hand proved to be a bit tricky, but once she ducked that, she realized the tiles were big enough to comfortably walk on and made it to the other side without much trouble. Elmira was next, choosing the Eagle, while Quintin had to crouch low to get past Stephan on the Lion route.

When he got to the other side, however, he felt a sudden dizzy spell and fell through the field rather than stepped through it.

"Are you all right?" Jay asked him, helping him up.

"I think so," Quintin said, chuckling with embarrassment. "I guess I must have been staring too hard at the tiles."

"You are an idiot, considering you really could have picked any path and made it work," Olivia shouted from the other side.

"What? Gryffindor just made the more sense to me..."

"It didn't matter which path you picked as long as was a different one. All of you made that much harder than it needed to be," Olivia said, stepping on a Badger. In fact, she walked through the trap so easily that the rest of them suddenly became aware that none of the stone students were anywhere near the path of the Badger tiles.

"Figures that my house would have had the easiest path," Elmira said.

"What matters is we're all going to get there in the end," Olivia replied and stepped through the barrier.

This time, however, it wasn't just the barrier itself that was sparkling. Dawn and Elmira both let out cries of surprise as magic flooded area above the tiles. The sparks turned into a bright flash of light and they heard even more exclamations.

When the light returned to normal, Bonnibel, Stephen and all of the others had been freed from their stony prisons.

"What just happened here?" Zelda demanded loudly.

"Your lot blundered straight into a trap and got turned into stone, that's what," Olivia informed her.

"Zelda! What are you doing here?" Bonnibel asked her in surprise.

"When I saw you lot attempting to sneak out without me, I told my escort to take a jog and went to follow you. How dare you try to leave me behind? You're all going to pay for that!

"If you do anything to me, I'll tell Mother. This was my assignment, not yours. You were told to stay out of it," Bonnibel told her.

"Um... Bonni -"

"You stay out of this, Stephen. Zelda, go back to Slytherin before you get us all into trouble," Bonnibel said.

"We were turned to stone. I think we were already in trouble," Broc said.

"Would you please stop fighting? Zelda or no Zelda, Quintin as his lot are getting ahead of us!" Moira snapped at them, and they all looked over to see that what she was saying was true. The five students had entered the next arch and was out of their view.

"Well, don't just stand there, move it!" Zelda ordered.

Stephen glanced between them, but he didn't have the luxury of standing up to Zelda like Bonnibel had, and pretty soon Moira was moving as well. Still annoyed about Zelda's presence, Bonnibel and Broc reluctantly caught up to them.

On the other side of the next arch, Quintin and the others all wore the same nonplussed expression.

In front of them was a passageway filled with Enchanted Mirrors on either side with a mirrored door at the other end.

Standing in front of one of the mirrors with a mesmerized expression was Antonio.

"Just how did he manage to get in here first?" Dawn exclaimed with frustration.

"I don't think it matters how he got here first. He'd never have gotten past this room," Jay decided.

"Why, what do the instructions say?" Olivia asked.

"You must confront and acknowledge your greatest flaw," Jay explained evenly.

"Oh. Huh. I wonder how you know when you've done it?" Olivia pondered.

"I'd rather not be the one to find out first this time. Any volunteers?" Jay suggested.

"What is going on in here?" shouted Zelda from behind them. "What is Antonio doing here? And what is that list in your hand?"

"Nothing that belongs to you," Jay said. "And what we're doing is obvious. We're trying to get past this trap. We need to acknowledge out greatest flaw. Care to try?"

"I don't have any flaws," Zelda said icily.

"I think your greatest flaw is not seeing that you have any flaws," Bonnibel said.

"Ten points for Bonnibel," Olivia said, impressed.

"Well, we can't all stand here all night. I'll give it a go," Elmira volunteered with a sigh.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked in surprise.

"Yeah. This sort of self reflection is something Hufflepuffs are good at... well... most Hufflepuffs, anyway," she added, glancing sideways at Antonio as she passed him to step in front of the next mirror.

"We're not going to let you be the only one getting past that door! Broc, you unlock it!" Zelda ordered.

"Wait, Zelda, let me do it," Stephen intervened with a sigh. "I might stand a better chance than Broc."

"Be my guest," Broc said, eagerly stepping back.

Suddenly, they heard a mirror crack, and whirled around as Elmira suddenly stepped back from her broken mirror and cussed as no one in the room had ever heard her done before.

"Are you alright?" Olivia asked, her wand still pointed at the cracked mirror in front of her.

"Yes! Yes! I am fine but that was most unpleasant! I hope I never have to do anything like it again!" Elmira declared. "I knew going in what my greatest flaws are, and even then, it's rough going!" Dawn and Stephen gazed at each other speculatively, while Jay wore an unusually worried expression.

"Hey, look at that!" Broc said, pointing at the end of the passage. They turned to see that a piece of glass had come off the mirror revealing part of the door behind it. Etched on the door was a Badger.

"Houses again," Olivia observed. "I guess that means I'm going to have to do it rain or shine, since I'm the only Gryffindor here." Jay's expression changed again and he focused in on Elmira.

"Did it help a great deal knowing what you were going to face beforehand, Elmira?" Jay asked.

"Not as much as I thought it would. It's rather like facing a Boggart for the first time... only worse," Elmira decided. "My advice is to approach it like a Boggart and to prepare yourself before facing the mirror. If you know what you're greatest flaws are, don't stand in front of it blindly until you've worked out how you feel about it first. I suspect that accepting it before confronting the mirror will make it easier."

"Do you know what your flaws are, Stephen?" Jay asked him fixedly.

"Yeah," Stephen said.

"I'll cover for you," Jay offered, taking out his wand.

"Wait, he's my brother! I'll cover for him," Moira protested.

"Jay is the top Defense student in Slytherin this year, Moira. No offense meant, but if he's willing to cover for me, I'd rather he do it," Stephen admitted.

Zelda's cold expression at hearing that her brother would allow anyone but a family member cover for him chilled him to the bone, and he could almost tell what she was thinking just by the harshness of her gaze.

But that only reminded him what his flaws truly were... a lack of conviction, caused by the terror he felt at making decisions... knowing that making the wrong one might cost him everything. He had already been trying to work through it every night when the rest of his room mates went to bed. Every night since he got back to Hogsmeade, he would pull out the cards until the fear of making another choice became too unbearable to continue. That fear never went away. He was always on the edge of a knife in danger of falling off, but staying meant he was in danger of getting cut as well. He was never out of danger, and the idea of having true conviction seemed impossibly out of reach. He needed to learn how to make his own choices...despite knowing the next one might be his last.

His sisters and cousins had kept talking, but his thoughts were intense enough that he had blocked it all out. He nodded to himself, completely unaware of how visibly he was shaking as he stepped up to the mirror. But the fierce gaze in faced in the reflection was already matching his own determination, and the mirror cracked within seconds. He glanced through the mirror at Jay's hollow expression, not making any attempt to hide the tears in the corners of his eyes.

"It's done," Stephen said, his voice quiet but strong. "Elmira's right. The best thing to do is have it all worked out beforehand. If you're prepared to acknowledge your flaws going in, it's less time that you have to endure it." Jay glanced back at the door and saw that the Snake was uncovered and relaxed slightly.

"Well done," Jay said sincerely.

"I'll go next," Dawn said solemnly. "I'll not be outdone by a Maxen like that."

"Good luck," Stephen told her sincerely.

"Are you stupid? She just insulted you," Broc told him critically.

But Stephen knew she hadn't meant it in the way Broc thought she had thought. Rather, she only meant it as a personal challenge. Stephen watched as she closed her eyes and tried to prepare herself.

"I think I'm going to start preparing," Olivia told Quintin quietly. "You?"

"Me? It's not like I need to worry about the thing," Quintin shrugged, watching Dawn intently despite the fact she had yet to open her eyes. Dawn seemed to be struggling with... preconceptions... he mused. And jumping in head first into things without thinking things through. Of course, he knew that about her already. How hard could it be for her to work through that, he thought, shrugging it off. He had completely missed just how solemn and sympathetic Stephen, Elmira, and even Jay had gotten towards those who still needed to face them. All he noticed was just how impatient Zelda and Bonnibel were getting.

"Can't the two of you do this at the same time to speed things up?" Bonnibel suggested.

"Shut up, Bonnibel," Elmira snapped in a way that made her blink in surprise. Zelda squinted dangerously at her, but Elmira was too focused on Dawn stepping up to care.

It took longer for Dawn's expression to match the mirror's than it had taken Stephen... twice as long, in fact. And although it was mere seconds in difference, Stephen and Elmira's tension increased until finally a crack formed. They sighed with relief when Dawn looked at her feet.

"I am soooo bored," Moira complained.

"You try it, then," Dawn snapped ferociously, defiantly wiping away her tears.

"No point. A Slytherin's already done it," Moira shrugged.

Stephen frowned, then realization set in. Maybe it had been a mistake volunteering. His siblings might have gotten more out of it, he acknowledged. But what was done was done, and he knew he had to live with that decision.

"I think I'm ready now," Olivia declared, her voice unusually grim.

She was also painfully aware that Quintin had been watching her curiously, sensing the different pressures she was under... not just at home, where she was expected to be the perfect sister and help out in the shop. Her parents were loving individuals who simply wanted her to excel. But that didn't make up for the fact that being the granddaughter of the Minister of Magic and the granddaughter of the famous Auror Harry Potter came with a unique blend of pressures. They were always on her and would be with her no matter what she decided to do with her life. She was proud of who she was, but even so, there were also times that she just wished she was someone else altogether; born with families so dull and common in background that she could do whatever the hell she liked with her life.

"I'm ready," Olivia said.

Quintin wondered if she really was. She seemed to be frustrated and tense and hadn't worked out anything about feeling like that she wasn't living up to her family's expectations. What he missed in the exchange was the fact that Olivia already knew that she never would. She already knew that she needed to learn to live up to her own expectations instead, and it was something she constantly struggled with.

It didn't take her anywhere near as long as Quintin thought it would for the mirror to crack. Olivia let out a very long exhale, but then gave them a tired smile.

"Excellent," Jay commented, watching as the last piece of glass fell revealing the lion.

"Let's get out of this room already," Elmira said.

"For once, I agree with the Hufflepuff," Broc said.

"Hang on, why is still Antonio stuck like that?" Stephen asked with a frown. "Isn't the spell going to break?"

Jay glanced over, realizing he had a point. Squinting suspiciously, Jay went over and tested the door handle, which simply rattled and didn't open.

"Is it stuck?" Dawn asked, but Jay simply sighed and shook his head.

"No, Dawn, it is still locked. Alright, Quintin! Your turn!" Jay said.

"What? This has nothing to do with me. There are no rabbits on that door," Quintin protested with a laugh.

"No, there aren't, because whoever made this probably didn't know about a fifth house. But considering the evidence, I'd say it's highly likely that the charm woven into that door requires "all" houses of Hogwarts to look in a mirror before unlocking that door, and "all" doesn't discriminate," Jay said. "You'll have to do it too."

"Fine. How bad can it be?" Quintin asked with a shrug. Several people looked over at Antonio and back at Quintin again.

"Quite bad if you don't know yourself well enough, or you don't want to acknowledge that flaw once you see it," Olivia warned. "The rest of us who've done it so far had some idea what that was going in. Do you?"

"It's probably the fact that he has a big fat head just like my brother," Broc said. "I bet he goes catatonic."

"If he does, we'll never get out of here. If you haven't noticed, those stupid shields are closing the passage behind us," Elmira snapped at them.

Moira and Broc both gasped and hurried over to the passage they had entered only to see it was a wall. Everyone else, it seemed, had already noticed.

"Well, get on with it, then. Tell the mirror all about how you know you have a big fat head," Zelda snapped.

"Look who's talking," Quintin said, but Dawn put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

"Don't worry. You can do this," Dawn told him an encouraging low voice. "Just dig deep to find out what you think your biggest flaw is, and reason with yourself about why your accept it. Just close your eyes and don't look into the mirror until you're absolutely positively sure you've got it."

"Fine," Quintin said.

"Do you know what it is?" Jay asked sharply.

"Of course. Isn't it obvious?" Quintin asked, but Jay frowned unsurely.

How could it not be his ego? How many times had his friends, his Professors, his Father, and even other family members warned him time and time again not to be so cocky or so sure of himself when the outcome of his success was not a guarantee. Of course, the fact that he really didn't fail much made it hard to listen to them. All of his life, everything always worked out for him. He had been famous from birth, the most popular kid in school from the first grade on, and it had only been since he came to Hogwarts that he began getting tired of being in change all the time and let Jeremy and Pete take over the whole sports thing. Not to mention letting Jeremy taking over the whole research thing this year... and wouldn't they have plenty to report when he got back? Okay, maybe he should have let Jeremy come, Quintin thought with a pain of regret. There, maybe that was it. Maybe his flaw is just not behind able to step aside when he needed to. He needed to get better at sharing the spotlight. Nodding in acknowledgment of that fact, Quintin confidently stepped up to the mirror and opened his eyes.

But what he thought was his flaw wasn't what he thought it was.

He hadn't looked deep enough.

And the pendulum swings again.

His Father's voice echoed in his head was confronted with the truth so harsh that it left him completely stunned. Because of the truth of the matter was that he had no confidence in himself at all.

His family had confidence in him; encouraging him from the start to be his best self, giving him a better start in life than any sibling before him. They let him explore and have enormous freedom... but never without an emergency teleport or an army of ghosts to keep him out of danger. His friends had confidence in him from the very first day of school, awed by his tales of the castle. They rallied around him at every opportunity, even when it infuriated his second year teacher enough to cause a problem. He won in the end; he always won. How could he fail when he had an army of supporters around him at all times? He was even able to influence his classmates into rebelling when they got to Hogwarts, disrupting the school and leading to the creation of a new house. When he faltered, someone was always there to speak in his defense. They all looked up to him for guidance, as a role model... as someone they wanted to be closer to... while those not in his personal entourage resented his presence and the influence he had. That was only natural, he had told himself, ignoring them. They were easy to ignore because most of the maliciousness never reached him; his friends shielded him from students who were critical, and his family always managed to whisk him somewhere safe and block out the thoughts of any who would harm him.

"You are pathetic," his image told him sternly. "You are absolutely nothing alone. Do you understand? No matter how many times you ace your Defense exams or how many Defense forms you learn, you don't stand a chance by yourself. You rely on others day and night for everything you do and your whole life is built on them building you up! Everyone thinks you are so perfect... perfect timing, perfect upbringing, the prodigal child who can do no wrong. That's all it is, though... their thoughts... because alone, you're absolutely nothing. One day they're all going to realize it and leave just like I'm going to, because the truth is that I can't stand the sight of you," the image declared, and stepped out of view.

Terror took over, and he found himself shouting for the image to come back, so fixed on the mirror that he truly believed he was utterly alone.

"Olivia help me!" he heard Jay shout from somewhere out of his view.

Suddenly Jay stood in front of the mirror to break his view, turning into a distinct blur when someone came up behind him and took off his glasses.

"I think that'll do it," Olivia said from next to his ear.

Quintin glanced around, and despite the blur could easily tell that he was completely surrounded by his friends. Conscientious of himself and ashamed, Quintin dropped to his knees, covering his face.

"Well, that was amusing!" Zelda commented.

"Fascinating. Quite fascinating," Moira added.

"Is he alright?" Stephen asked evenly.

"Why should we care?" Broc asked him critically.

"Because we need him to get us past that door," Stephen snapped back.

"He makes a good point," Bonnibel decided. "Is he alright?"
"Oh, shut your gobs! We told you already that this test isn't easy!" Dawn retorted.

"Are you alright, Quintin?" Elmira asked in a quieter voice. "Do you need help up?"

"No! No, please, just back up a bit," Quintin replied. They all took a small, reluctant step back. "Glasses?"

Olivia handed them back and he put them on with his eyes still firmly closed.

Shaking and unsteady, Quintin used his hands to push off the floor and forced himself to stand before slowly opening his eyes. Jay was still standing in front of the mirror, focused on Quintin out of concern.

"Would you like some water or something to drink to steady yourself?" Jay asked.

"Water? Where would you get water?" Quintin asked in confusion.

"My cloak, of course, where else?" Jay asked with exasperation. "I never go anywhere without it, especially nowhere as questionable as this. I always come prepared."

"I didn't even think to bring it," Quintin said, suddenly breaking down into tears. His other friends didn't know what to make of it, but Jay didn't give them time to question it.

"Come, Quintin, let's go over there to the corner and sort it all out. Everyone else give him some space," Jay said. "It's past dinner time by now, but I brought some snacks with me. Anyone else?"

"Of course I brought snacks, plenty for everyone," Olivia said.

"Even us?" Broc asked hopefully.

"Yes, everyone! I always make sure there's enough to go around regardless of who needs them," Olivia said, and began pulling full bags out of her cloak to a very appreciative crowd.

"Not that they deserve it, but at least she'll keep everyone distracted," Jay murmured to Quintin quietly, escorting him to the corner despite several attempts by Quintin to shrug Jay's hand off his arm.

"Now sit down and take this. Don't bat it away. I know you want it despite all of your refusals, I won't take no for an answer. You need to recover from what you saw so you can get a handle on it for everyone's sake, not just yours," Jay said firmly. "Take the water pouch."

Quintin took it reluctantly, and while no longer visible, he could tell Quintin was still trembling when he handed it off.

"Steady, now. A few sips of water should do the trick, and if not I have a potion that might help," Jay assured him. Quintin took a sip but stared at the wall, disinterested in looking in Jay's direction.

"We're not alike, you and me," Quintin said after a moment.

"There's a shocking statement," Jay said sarcastically.

"You truly understand what it's like to be alone," Quintin added quietly.

"So that's it, then?" Jay asked, pondering it for a moment before shrugging. "Honestly, it's really not that much of a surprise, really, but you seemed surprised enough. Had you never realized it before?" Quintin shook his head.

"Father seemed to know about it," Quintin said. "He's often pointed out all of the times I felt the need to get reassurance, telling me that my reactions were too extreme. He thought that being a Truth Seeker had something to do with it."

"Of course it does," Jay replied, sitting down beside him and offering him a candy bar next. "Truth Seeking is all about reading off other people for information, so of course you're going to be dependent on people. There's only so much you can learn from looking in the mirror all of the time."

"A few minutes ago, I learned a lot," Quintin said icily.

"A normal mirror, you know what I mean," Jay said. "My brother is just as dependent on other people as you are, and so is Grandmother for that matter."

"And yet despite that, Rus is off in America and Mum is often gone traveling by herself all of the time..."

"By herself? Now that really is funny," Jay said with a chuckle. "Yes, fine, she knows how to take care of herself and can handle acting alone when she has to. But if she's anything like Rus, which I'm sure she is, the first thing she does when being in a new place by herself is make connections with people. She makes as many friends as she possibly can so that she can have positive reinforcement for the more vicious thoughts she has to deal with on a daily basis. Thoughts weren't designed to be communication devices; they're untethered to any sense of morality or good manners. If you can't block them out, you have to find other ways of protecting yourself, and that's by accentuating the positive ones and feeding off of them in any way you can. I don't doubt that my brother's first course of action at that school was to build relationships he could rely on, and I'm quite certain that's what Grandmother does as well."

"Even so... even if they are like that, they can take care of themselves when they're alone. But I don't even think about it. I didn't even bother enough to bring my cloak because I knew others were going with me," Quintin said, angry at himself. "No wonder my father has been putting so much pressure on me to work on my self-defense. There wasn't any self in it. My heart wasn't in it."

"And what about now?" Jay inquired.

"Now I have to fix it. As terrifying as it is to think of being alone... I can't go on like this," Quintin said.

"Good," Jay said solemnly. "Then you have what knowledge you need to face the mirror again." Quintin frowned. "No, not yet. When you're good and ready, we can wait. Here, have some Bertibotts... and don't try to sort out the bad ones. Life's the whole bag, you know... whether you like it or not."

"Okay," Quintin replied evenly.

"By the way... I wouldn't have done so great facing that mirror either," Jay admitted to him softly. "Just don't let the Maxens know that."

"No way," Quintin replied with a weak smile, and Jay nodded to him and stood back up. He walked over to Olivia, who had finished emptying one of her bags and came alert the moment he stood up, distancing herself from the others.

"Is he alright?" Olivia whispered.

"He'll be fine. He just needs a few minutes to prepare for another go at it now that he realizes what the flaw is. He didn't know it before," Jay explained softly.

"I thought that's what happened. Are you sure he'll be able to a handle it?" Olivia murmured.

"He's a Snape," Jay replied evenly. "If there's one thing we're good at, it's battling our personal flaws, no matter how egregious they are."

"There are good and bad sides to every family. No one knows that better than I do," Olivia dryly.

"Well, right now everyone's benefiting from your Weasley tendency to pack enough food for everyone. I'm sure that by the time everyone's done, Quintin will be ready to try again," Jay said, and Olivia nodded with a smile.

"Bonnibel," Stephen spoke up halfway through his pumpkin butter sandwich. "Shouldn't we release your brother from his mesmerized position now that we know all we need to do is stand in front of the mirror to release him?"

"Why? It's not like he can help open the door. Hufflepuff's already been done," Bonnibel replied.

"Leave him! I don't know if I can stand his whining right now with everything else going on!" Zelda ordered.

"Yeah, okay," Stephen said, and shrugged it off. "It isn't like he seems to be in any pain or anything, just entranced by the mirror."

"So what else is new?" Broc snorted, turning his attention back to his food.

"What's Quintin's problem, anyway?" Moira asked curiously.

"None of your business," Jay snapped.

"Don't get angry, we're simply used to knowing," Bonnibel explained. "Not being able to read you makes it difficult to figure out your motivations."

"Good," Jay said curtly, then glanced around as Quintin pulled himself up and brushed the crumbs away. "Are you ready, then?" he asked expressionlessly.

"I know what my flaw is and how I need to deal with it. I doubt I'll get any readier if I wait any longer, so I'd rather just get it over with," Quintin replied, walking over to the mirror. "Give me some space, please."

"Very well," Jay said, and backed up, glancing around to make certain everyone else had done the same.

The Maxens and Villins, already being separated from the others, watched Quintin with intense gazes, hoping for more insight as to what weakness had caused such an open display during his first attempt.

Quintin, however, ignored them. In fact, he was attempting to block out the fact that anyone else was standing in the room. This was, after all, his battle alone. No one else had anything to do with it. So what if his confidence was built upon others? It didn't mean it wasn't real in and of itself, it simply wasn't solely of his own making. But wasn't that true of all young children? Confidence was a product of good nurturing and a healthy dose of monitored trial and achievement. True, his relationship with his friends had been different from the start; most kids didn't have famous parents or live in a famous castle, and his mother's genetics helped his appearance. He had a privileged life, but he had also tried to help people succeed as well. He had tried to make friends with everyone and to make sure they all had a seat at the table.

But that really wasn't enough any longer.

Under the surface... he was terrified of not living up to the person everyone else thought he was, because deep down, he knew he wasn't really that person. His popularity had almost become a trap for how he was expected to behave and who he was expected to be, when deep down... when left alone with his own thoughts... he had no idea who he was past the fact that he didn't want to be left alone long enough to find out.

But there were only so many times a person can pull a blanket over their heads before they finally get up, whether they felt ready for it or not. He wasn't a little kid anymore, and he could no longer shut out the dangers looming around him that had been easy to block off when he was too young to understand them. He was naive for his age, and prone to let his personal responsibilities fall on others because he was terrified of taking them on himself. It was deeper than just his fear of failure, or even his fear of not being able to take care of himself... it was a fear of himself in general, and not knowing who he was when there was no one around to tell him.

He knew that he was terrified. He knew he was vulnerable. And he knew it couldn't stay that way.

I may not know who I am when I'm alone, but I do know one thing. I need to be able to defend myself while I'm trying to figure that out, or someone is going to take advantage of it, Quintin thought to himself. So my first step is clear. I must confront my fear head on by taking my Defense more seriously. I can still be myself and take advice, because I can choose to listen or not, or to follow it or not. But I have to take responsibility for looking after myself and not taking for granted that someone else is going to do it if I don't. I am afraid of being alone, but I can improve things by being more independent. I will be more independent!

Quintin opened up his eyes and stepped over to the mirror, meeting his critical gaze and understanding why it was so critical. The gaze shifted slightly to match his own and the mirror cracked, taking the image with it. There was a cheer, but it wasn't for him. Instead, it was because the door had opened. But Quintin was actually quite glad that the focus was on the door instead of his win. This time he could be satisfied with himself even without the praise.

"Are you alright now?" Dawn asked him, and he gave her a weak smile.

"Alright," Quintin agreed, and then another ruckus broke out when the rest of the mirrors cracked of their own accord and Antonio looked around.

"What are all of you doing here? Where did you come from?" he asked in confusion.

"From the door, you nit," Zelda snapped at him.

"How did you get in here? What happened to you?" Bonnibel asked.

"And how did you get in here before we did?" Zelda asked for good measure.

"I heard from one of my informants that they were looking for a secret Chancellor's Room, and I thought such a room if it existed was surely close to the Headmaster's Study, and everyone knows there is little on the fourteenth floor. I found it in no time after that," Antonio said.

"How did you get past the first room?" Broc asked.

"Well, the corridor reminded me so much of the Chambers of Secrets, that I guessed the key must be stepping on all of the Snakes. It wasn't hard," Antonio said, and Zelda smacked her head at his dumb luck. "Then I came in here and saw all of these lovely mirrors and couldn't help but stop to make sure my hair was still straight, and... do you know what? That mirror confirmed that I'm the most handsome student in my class, not that I didn't already know that... and I thought well of myself... which I knew too. It was a very truthful mirror."

"You are such an idiot!" Zelda informed him.

"Never mind all of that! Stop arguing and pay attention! Everyone else is going in the next room already!" Broc informed them, pointing to where everyone was filing in. Stephen and Moira had already joined them, having no interest in berating Antonio for being there, and upon seeing that, the rest of them stopped arguing hurried over so they could see the next corridor.

The only thing was that the didn't seem to be standing in a corridor at all.

Instead they seemed to be standing at the bottom of a very narrow tower, perhaps eight feet in diameter, and it was filled with books and bookshelves that encircled them.

"This is amazing! What does the scroll say about this room, Jay?" Olivia asked, awestruck.

"It says that, 'The Key to this Trial is to Judge Books by their Covers,'" Jay read.

"Does that mean the key is hidden in one of these books somewhere? Even if we do only have to look at the covers, going through them will take forever!" Elmira protested.

Dawn suddenly gasped and pointed.

"Look up there near the top!" she pointed out. "It's a door!"

Everyone looked up at where she was pointing. Sure enough, there was a wooden door nestled among the books opposite the door they came in there.

"I'll just broom up there and take a look," Jay said, taking out a miniaturized broom out of his cloak.

"What good will that do if we haven't even found the key yet?" Moira pointed out.

But Jay soon learned there was more than one problem with his plan. Because the moment he returned its broom to its regular size, a book entitled, "How to Be Assertive" knocked the broom out of his hand, while another called,"Axes for All Ages" flew out and chopped up the broom in front of their very eyes, leaving it in pieces in the middle of the floor. As the other two books flew back into their categorized places, a giant Tome entitled, "NO CHEATING!" dropped from a very high shelf and onto what was left of his broom.

"Wow," Moira said in a monotone voice. "I hope you had a new broom on your Christmas list this year."

"All of these books are enchanted," Elmira realized.

"Really? What was your first clue?" Broc said sarcastically.

"Okay, then, we know what we need to do now, right? We need to find a book that'll help us get up to the top, and then we need to find a book that's the key," Olivia said. "There are a lot of books here, so we should all pitch in and start looking."

"What about this one?" Stephen said, pulling one out right next to the door they came in. "It's called, 'The First Step'."

"Only the first step?" Olivia said with a frown. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Stephen shrugged at her and pulled it out, setting it on the floor.

Sure enough, the book transformed, forming a single step that fastened against the wall and curved as if it were going to go into a spiral.

"Judging it by height of the step alone, I say we have a long way to go," Moira observed.

"Agreed. Let's get to work. Everyone begin searching for books that have to do with steps and stairs," Jay said.

"And keys," Olivia added.

"Aren't you going to help, Zelda?" Dawn asked when she stood near the door with her arms folded.

"Helping isn't what I do. That's what the rest of them are for. I'll just wait," Zelda said evenly.

"Just ignore her, Dawn. We don't need her to help to get this done anyway," Bonnibel suggested, and they began going through them, pulling out each step one by one.

It didn't take long to figure out that all they had to do was to toss the found books over their shoulder for the enchantment to take hold, zooming over to where the staircase had begun and adding itself to the bottom of the mix. The first dozen steps went up very quickly; but the closer they got to the second dozen, the slower and slower it the progress got.

"I can't find any more! There are absolutely no more books in this section even remotely related to staircases," Moira declared.

"Mine either," Olivia admitted.

"Same here," Quintin said.

Dawn took a few steps up from the bottom, inspecting the shelves.

"There are more up here," she announced. "I think we're going to have to work our way up from now on."

"Right, then let's spread out and look through the areas we've done so far," Jay said. "Dawn, you're the best with heights, so why don't you do the top end?"

"I'll do the lower," Quintin immediately volunteered.

"Your choice, of course, but that'll put you close to her," Stephen warned, pointing at Zelda who had already moved to sit down on the bottom step.

"Just why are you so nervous about heights, anyway?" Elmira asked him curiously. Much to Jay's surprise, Quintin decided to answer despite the audience.

"I have been told that I once fell off the Hogwarts Clock Tower as a baby when I was trying to fix the clock," Quintin replied. "I was too young to remember it, but it left a lasting impact. I have been slowly getting over my fear of heights over time."

"Then why insist on doing the bottom section?" Zelda challenged him.

"Just because I handle heights better doesn't mean I like them," Quintin said. "Since there are so many of us, I don't feel the need to push myself any more than you feel the need to help out."

"There is no need to help when others are doing it for me," Zelda pointed out. Quintin stared at her with a frown, thinking of his experience with the mirror. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"You can help without meaning to help," Jay said calmly from halfway up, interrupting his thoughts. "Right now, you are helping by being out of the way."

"I could spite you by getting in the way, but I won't. I'm quite comfortable here," Zelda said. Deciding that the best way to deal with it was to ignore her, Quintin got back to work, but he couldn't help but feel a bit disturbed by the realization that they were more alike than he would have thought. Hell, he was even more alike than Antonio than he would have guessed, always surrounding himself with people who would boost his ego to lofty heights so that he could soak it all in. A hand appeared in front of his face and he blinked when Broc stepped in.

"You missed one," he said, putting the "Stairs to the Stars" title right in his face. "Do you need better glasses? You're going to have to be the one to pick out any that we miss being last in line, you know..."

"Right... you're right. Sorry, I'll pay attention," Quintin apologized. Jay and Olivia glanced at one another but didn't say a word, despite the fact that it was obvious that Quintin hadn't recovered from his experience with the mirror yet.

"Put in your best effort! We're almost halfway now," Dawn coaxed them, tossing a couple more books onto the end.

"This is so boring!" Bonnibel complained.

"While I don't mind a good book search, this is getting a bit tedious. The sooner we're done, the better it will be for all of us," Moira agreed.

"Don't forget to look out for that key book too," Olivia reminded them as she and Dawn stepped up past the halfway point.

While the process was going on, it seemed to take forever.

But when they finally up to where the door was, they were rather surprised it was over.

"Eagle Landing... I see the word 'landing' here," Dawn said, throwing it out and stepping up to the door.

"Look, there are several that also say 'balcony'," Olivia pointed out.

A few throws later, they not only had a landing but a railed balcony that encompassed the room, giving them access to all of the books in the circle.

"They didn't give us a balcony just to spread out. The key book must be here," Elmira said.

"It isn't up there," Zelda called up. The others leaned over the balcony to stare down at her. "A book appeared down here near the doorway the moment you had the balcony done.

"You mean this balcony was set up for us to search for is up here needlessly?" Bonnibel said, unimpressed.

"And for us to have to go back down and try to start over," Stephen agreed.

"Well done, Zelda! Could you please bring it up?" Olivia asked.

"Fine, I'll do it only because I'm the only one down here," Zelda said with a sigh of reluctance. "But I get to be the one to unlock the door."

"It's only fair, since you found the key," Jay agreed, and they stepped out of the way of the landing as Zelda came up the stairs with the book under her arm, opening up, "The Key to Success" and taking out an iron key. She opened the door, and beyond it was nothing but a partly cloudy sky.

"What in Craters?" Broc swore as they stared out into seemingly nothing. Off in the distance, they saw an archway that seemed to lead back into the corridor they had started in.

"I see. This must be an illusion," Olivia said.

"Are you going to be the first to take a step out, then?" Bonnibel challenged her.

It was Dawn who stepped to the edge and leaned out a bit, looking down.

"We seem to be high above the lake," she noted, glancing down and back at the corridor, looking for any signs of something being not right. "Hang on... I see it now. There's a shadow of the archway hitting a surface at the other end. There must be an invisible walkway here," Dawn said, crouching down low and putting a hand out to feel.

"Careful," Jay warned.

"It's okay, there's a surface there. Anyone got anything they can put across the path?"

"I have all the snack wrappers I gathered from earlier," Olivia offered, bringing them out and dropping them. Sure enough, they stopped at floor height and spread out in front of them.

"So this is the test? Walk down an invisible walkway to get to the other side?" Moira scoffed. "Not much of a test, if you ask me."

"What does the scroll about this trial, Jay?" Olivia asked.

"Don't look down, more than likely," Broc guessed.

"No, it says, 'Stay Positive. Your life might depend on it,'" Jay read.

The students took turns looking at each other. Then they took turns looking down at the lake.

"So in other words, if we try to cross that thing without being positive..." Elmira began, not wanting to finish.

"We're doomed to fall to our deaths," Moira finished for her.

"There's no reason to be dramatic, Moira. Are we wizards or witches, or aren't we?" Jay chided her. "There are plenty of spells out there to make things light or slow our descent."

"All of which have the same problem of not lasting long and needing time to cast them," Moira pointed out.

"Then have one prepared just in case. If we keep our minds focused and keep moving, we should cross to the corridor in no time," Jay said.

"But if anyone gets worried about not making it across, it could escalate quickly," Moira replied seriously.

"Look, I know being positive isn't exactly your thing, being Maxens, but can't you at least fake it for a few minutes? I know you Villins can," Jay said bluntly.

"I am always positive," Antonio said indignantly.

"Very well, I concur that you are the exception. Just think of how fabulous you are and you'll be over the bridge in no time," Jay said. Antonio nodded in agreement, oblivious to the fact that the rest of his family were rolling their eyes behind his back. "Look, other than Dawn who's confident by nature, none of the rest of us are going to have an easy time of it. But two people who can stay positive when there are ten of us isn't going to cut it. I suggest those of us who are generally negative use the meditation techniques we learned in basic Divination to clear and calm our minds. If anyone wants to say anything while we're out there, make sure it's something positive to keep everything stable while we're out there."

"Just think of how wonderful I am, and we'll be over it in no time!" Antonio suggested.

"I am positive that I want to soak my brother's head in the lake when this is all said and done," Broc said dryly.

Jay pulled Olivia aside.

"This isn't going to work," Jay murmured.

"If you go out there thinking like that, we've already lost," Olivia pointed out. "Maybe the key is being positive from the start? I'm sure that once we get out there without anything bad happening, the positivity will get better rather than worse."

"Maybe," Jay said unsurely. "You're probably right, but considering my thoughts, I'm probably not best person to lead this thing, even if they are more likely to listen to the Slytherin Prefect than anyone else here. Have your wand ready, though... just in case."

"Always," Olivia said, and Jay turned back around.

"Dawn and Antonio, I think you'll need to lead. I know trust you both to stay positive in this situation and that should help keep the rest of us on even keel," Jay said.

"Of course!" Antonio agreed.

"Sure," Dawn said with a shrug. "I don't think they would have made a trial like this if it can't be passed, even by students. If anything, I bet it'd be harder on the adults to pass than us."

"You've got a point," Jay agreed. "Alright, everyone! Clear your thoughts and let's go get that Silver Box!"

"Shall we hold hands?" Antonio suggested to Dawn.

"Call me the next time you need to cross the street, little boy," Dawn replied, causing Stephen to hold his nose to keep himself from laughing outright.

"We don't have to get along, we just have to get across," Olivia chided them. "I think it's best if I go next. Bonnibel?"

"I think putting all of our gloomiest personalities at the end is a mistake. Perhaps we should be at the end instead," Bonnibel suggested.

"Great idea, Bonnibel! Let's do that," Olivia agreed cheerfully. "We'll be over there in no time.

"Quintin, since you're still not good with heights, let's put you near the center," Jay suggested. "Elmira, you can follow me."

"Zelda and Broc really ought to be near the middle as well," Bonnibell said. "Stephen, perhaps you should follow Antonio. And Moira, you should probably back me up since you can reason your way out of anything."

"True," Moira agreed. "Shall we?"

"I'm still meditating," Zelda said irritably.

"We'll give you all the time you need," Jay said.

"Anyone want a biscuit?" Olivia offered, passing around a tin.

"I think I'll hold onto mine and eat it on the way... assuming they're good biscuits."

"They are. I got them from my Gran... my great grandmother, that is. She always sends us boxes... even before Christmas these days," Olivia said.

"We'll get ours at Christmas," Dawn said. "We always go over to the Burrow at least once."

"Don't forget, Dawn. We're going to be having Christmas at Villa Hexen this year," Jay said.

"That's right! The wedding! Do you know how to ski, Jay?" Dawn asked.

"A little. Mage has promised to teach us more while we're there, though. He's an expert," Jay explained.

"Really? I wonder if he'd teach me too?" Dawn asked.

"I'm sure he would if you asked," Jay said. "Is anyone going to Viorica's wedding?"

"We are going, but only for the reception," Bonnibel said. "My mother heard there will be a lot of diplomats going from other countries. In fact, it's one of a large list of events that my mother has us attending this year. Quite a busy schedule this season."

"Are all of those parties fun for you? Or is there something else about the holidays you enjoy?" Olivia asked.

"Oh... usually I like parties alright, but this year my Mother will likely use the holidays for meet and greets so she can set up Moira and my Debutante Ball, and I expect that will get pretty tedious," Bonnibel admitted. "To be honest, I'd rather go skiing than go to the reception just to get a break for it all."

"Very well, then let me offer a proposal to get us both out of the reception... a business proposal of sorts," Jay said. "I shall invite you to join our ski lessons with the Assistant Minister of Mysteries as my date. Surely the opportunity of spending time with Minister Wilder as well as my mother's own status in the Ministry elevates me to what your mother would consider an acceptable date."

"More than likely," Bonnibel said with a smile.

"But what about me?" Moira blurted out in a panic.

"Well, my brother's a bit young for you and I don't know if he'd agree to it, but I give my word as a Slytherin Prefect to find you a date your father would accept so that you may come along too," Jay said. Moira beamed at that.

"You aren't really interested in Bonnibel! You're just trying to get them in a positive mood so they can cross that bridge!" Zelda accused him critically.

"I made no pretense that this was anything other than a friendly gesture to make sure they had a good holiday," Jay replied. "What better way of staying positive when we have two weeks before the holiday than to anticipate what is to come? Isn't there anything that you especially look forward to during the holidays, Zelda?"

"Yes. I like the fact that I can make my siblings and cousins do whatever I like without having to worry about getting thrown out of school," Zelda said primly.

"I can see how having less rules would be relaxing," Jay replied, but didn't miss the fact that Stephen and Broc frowned deeply at her. "What about you, Stephen?"

"Well, I guess I like the days between Christmas and Hogmanay when Eben invites the boys in our family over to relax and get away from the girls for a while. He's invited my younger brother Wallace this year now that he's older. Are you going, Broc?" Stephen asked.

"I hadn't made up my mind until a few moments ago. I rather like Mum's events; she always knows which girls I fancy and goes out of her way to introduce us," Broc admitted. "But my favorite event is the Traditionalist Meeting that Uncle Worley has on Boxing Day, because I get treated like an adult there and get to stay and chat in the wizard's room."

"It's to help us establish good connections before we graduate," Stephen explained.

"My parents make me do that sort of thing too," Elmira said. "I find it a bore, but I'll put up with it because I know whatever's under the tree will more than make up for it."

"Well, I'm like Zelda!" Dawn declared in a way that made everyone stare. "I'm ready to get away from rules for awhile! Once we get back from the wedding, my parents won't really care how I spend the rest of my holiday. I prefer to live in the moment! Maybe I'll run around Hogsmeade or spend it at one of our cousin's houses. Or maybe I'll be lazy and spend it curled up near the fireplace the whole time."

"That is not as relaxing as walking on the beach, which is what I plan to do the moment I get back to Italy," Antonio said. "Well, maybe not the very first moment. I am sure that my Grandfather will want to hear about all of our adventures, so let us make certain this one is successful!"

"Then let's get on with it!" Dawn said, and skipped out onto the invisible path. Then she stopped, stared at it, and jumped up and down.

"Is something wrong?" Jay said, and then bit his tongue, realizing that could have prompted a negative answer.

"It's bouncy," Dawn explained, jumping up and down.

"Like a rope bridge?" Olivia asked.

"Not exactly. It's more firm than that," Dawn decided.

"Let me try," Jay said, stepping out onto it. At first he didn't notice a difference, but then jumped slightly and noticed it give. "I see now. It's more of a platform than a bridge... rather like in a video game or something."

Antonio stepped out and it barely moved, pondering it only a moment before stepping next to Dawn and scanning the horizon.

"What a marvelous view! And it doesn't seem cold, does it? Do you suppose it's all an illusion after all?" Antonio suggested.

"What makes you think it might be?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Well, there's still a bit of light left, but shouldn't it have been past dinner by now? My stomach sure thinks so," Antonio said.

"Wait, Antonio's right. Its close to the solstice, so the sun should already be down," Moira said.

"Good! If it's an illusion, it means there's nothing to worry about! Best carry on!" Olivia said, despite the fact that she had some doubts that it was as simple as that. Even if it was some sort of illusion placed on that part of the corridor, there still very well could be a trap they weren't seeing. "Don't forget to think positive!"

"Are you sure we still need to worry about that?" Broc asked.

"Positively!" Olivia said. "So let's keep those good moods going!" she said, stepping onto the platform.

As the rest of last of them stepped onto the invisible platform, they suddenly froze when it sank down for a second and then floated back in place again.

"That was rather like stepping into a boat," Bonnibel commented.

"Only if you mean a very small boat," Quintin said. "It actually reminds me a lot more of the Floating Gazebos at Whitebridge."

"Floating Gazebos?" Stephen asked curiously.

"They're really just large circular lifts with fancy wooden domes," Jay explained.

"Do those try to force you to be positive as well?" Broc asked dryly.

They paused again as it took another dip and slowly came back up again.

"No, but I'll remind you that we need to take the thinking positive advice seriously. Those dips seem to be responding to our emotions just like the scroll warned it would. Olivia, why don't you tell us something about your holiday while we walk?"

"Alright," Olivia said, and Dawn and Antonio focused on the corridor in the distance. "Although the first part of my holiday always ends up spending all of my time working in my parents' shop because it's always busy with people getting last minute gifts or picking up their Christmas orders.

Afterwards, we spend the night at home just the family by ourselves, and then on Christmas day, we take turns. Used to be, Mum and Dad used to try to visit everyone on Christmas, but finally they said that 'enough was enough' and now we only visit one so my sister Kelsea and I don't have to get 'paraded around all day,' as Father puts it. This year we're going to the Weasleys' Burrow."

"That sounds dreadful, hanging around with Weasleys all day," Zelda said. Several people cringed when the platform trembled in apparent protest.

"I actually prefer it the best, really," Olivia admitted. "It's warm and inviting, and there are always plenty of people around if you want to organize a game or something. And it isn't just Weasleys, either. A lot of people drop by on Christmas. Other years we go to Granddad Draco's house, but he prefers a much quieter sort of holiday. But he is very attentive and always wants to know how I'm doing and hear all about how things are going at school, typically while Grandmother serves tea and cakes and we play a game with Kelsea and Uncle Bodhi. Sometimes she'll bring out Pachisi and I'll play too, or sometimes they play and I play cards with Grandfather."

"Does you ever play Trial and Error?" Dawn asked daringly.

"Last time I went a couple of years back, he didn't have a set. But I have heard that Minister Craw gave him one for his birthday, so perhaps we shall next Christmas," Olivia said with a smile.

"You'll have graduated by then, and free of those sorts of childhood obligations," Jay pointed out. "Are you still going over there?"

"Yes, I think I shall," Olivia agreed. "Besides, since I'll be apprenticing in one of the counselor's offices that rents space at the Ministry, how could I possibly get out of it?"

"Still, it's nice to have a choice whether or not to go, isn't it? I'm sure I'll be stationed too far away from home to come back," Jay said, and Dawn cleared her throat.

"There's always a way to come back for Christmas if you want."

"True, but I don't want to. The best part of becoming an adult is being able to make your own choices about what you want to do with your life," Jay said, turning back around. That was when he noticed there was something very odd about where the archway was.

"Is the platform sinking?" Elmira asked flatly.

"It seems to be. Positive thoughts, everyone!" Jay reminded them. "Who's having trouble? Maybe we can help."

"Maybe we should just run the rest of the way," Quintin said worriedly.

"I think that might be construed as panic," Bonnibel said.

"Perhaps we should just walk faster, then?" Quintin suggested.

"This whole thing is stupid! Who couldn't keep it together for just a few minutes more? We're nearly across!" Zelda said.

"Please, Zelda, don't say it like that! You'll only make it worse," Olivia said.

"Don't you tell me what to do, Gryffindor!" Zelda snapped back.

"Come on! We can't do this!" Quintin snapped.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Dawn shouted at them. "We're falling faster now!"

"We're all going to die," Moira observed. "Told you so."

"Olivia! Help me!" Jay ordered, pulling out his wand and aiming it at the platform. Olivia stumbled over, the platform sinking so fast now that it was hard to walk as she met him in the center and pointed her wand down at the platform.

All of the others began to scream in sheer terror as the platform plummeted towards the lake. Quintin closed his eyes, bracing himself.

But just before they reached the surface of the lake, the platform finally began to slow down. Sensing the shift in momentum, it was enough to bring Bonnibel out of her panic. She brought her wand out to help the other two... so did Dawn... then Stephen... until finally they noticed that the platform had stopped a few feet above the water.

"Wow! That was close!" Dawn said, staring down at the water. "Alright, Quintin?" she asked, seeing he was flat against his back.

"I'm just very, very dizzy," Quintin replied.

"Great job, everyone!" Jay said, panting.

"I'm not sure any of you did it. I think it stopped on its own," Moira conjectured.

"I don't care what stopped it. How about someone transfigure us a boat and we can get out of here?" Broc said.

"What? We can't leave now!" Dawn protested.

"Don't be stupid, Broc. We need to get back up there," Zelda snapped. "But I am done with all of this positive thinking silliness, there must be another way."

"Wingardium Leviosa. If it can move a whole train, it can move this," Olivia suggested.

"Olivia's right. If we all grab hands and cast the Synchronious Spell first, I think we can manage it if we all work together," Jay said.

"Work together?" Zelda repeated in distaste.

"I don't know if the even the Synchronious spell can get you lot and us to work together," Moira agreed.

"It worked with Slytherin and the other founders, even at the point they weren't getting along," Quintin pointed out. "If it worked with them, it'll work with anyone."

"Join hands, everyone," Jay said.

"I'm not joining hands with you lot. We'll form our own group and work together ourselves," Zelda said.

"You can try that, but I'm sure it'd work much better if we were all in this together," Olivia said.

"Thanks, but no thanks. We've got this," Moira said. Stephen glanced over at Dawn only to see she was already looking back at him. Deciding they must have been thinking the same thing, Stephen nodded slightly.

"Let's do this then! I want to be at this end near the middle this time," Dawn declared.

"It really doesn't matter who is where," Jay said. "Spread out as much as you can and still hold hands comfortably."

"Perhaps we should at least attempt to cast the Syncrhonious Spell at the same time?" Stephen suggested. "It might put us in better alignment."

"Oh very well! I'll count us down," Bonnibel said at the far end near Zelda. Stephen waited until the other four had gotten into place before taking Broc's hand near the middle of the platform.

"We're ready," Jay informed her, listening for the count to cast his.

Stephen and Dawn listened intently as Bonnibel counted from five to one.

At the last possible second, the two of them reached out and joined hands, a tingle going through them as the Synchronius spell took hold, dropping their hands as if nothing had happened and getting out their wands.

"There we are! All set here!" Jay informed them.

"As are we," Bonnibel said.

"We will now cast Windgardium Leviosa," Jay declared, counting down from three. Between the countdowns, no one thought twice about the fact that all ten of them were moving to Jay's movements.

"Windgardium Leviosa!" they all cast, pointing down at the platform.

Despite its size, there was barely any hesitation as the platform began to slowly lift.

"It's working! We're doing it!" Dawn declared.

"Keep it up, everyone! We'll be back to the top in no time!" Olivia encouraged them.

"She's right. We seem to be moving fast now," Moira said.

"Halfway there," Broc decided, glancing over at the castle, encouraged by how fast the windows were moving past them.

"Even closer now! We'll need to hold steady until everyone's off," Jay said. "Don't worry, you can do it! If we can cause this sort of momentum, it should be quite easy to maintain when we get there."

"With any luck, the platform will settle into place on its own when it gets to the right height," Olivia said.

"Ease off a bit... almost there," Jay said.

The platform settled into place. It didn't seem interested in going up any further.

"I think Olivia's guess was right. I think the platform became reattached to the corridor," Jay said. "But let's not take any chances... queue on over to the corridor with the furthest away from that side being first... Bonnibel and Zelda, that's your end."

"I'll be first," Zelda declared, stepping out and walking towards the corridor. Bonnibel the followed, then Broc, Moira, and Stephen. Dawn and Quintin were next, both disliking the idea of leaving that group by themselves, followed by Elmira, Olivia and Jay. As they all piled into the corridor, the arch faded away behind Jay, leaving them in a castle corridor with a door at each end. Jay took a moment to relax his shoulders and breathe while the students stared at the door in front of them. It was a tall wooden door that reminded Jay of the doors to the Headmaster's Study, but in this case, there was only one of them. Chiseled in the panelling was a series of symbols interspaced with a single rune.

"So what does the scroll say about this door?" Moira asked, studying it.

"Nothing at all, actually. There aren't any notes past that last trial," Jay said.

"Can anyone read these?" Moira wanted to know.

"Let me look," Quintin offered, making his way past them to study the door, and Jay pulled a lantern out of his cloak for extra light. "I know these symbols, they were at the beginning of that Augury book I read. The rune next to each symbol simply means to become something. This one means, 'Be wise, or be thoughtful. The next is simply to be humble. That symbol represents being curious, and the last one is a symbol for teamwork, or in context, be cooperative.' It's sort of like his mantra... the advice he gives to all of his students, and I'm pretty sure it's probably at the front of all of his books."

"Then this is it. The Chancellor's Room," Olivia said in awe, then noticed that Jay was running a series of magic tests. "Is it safe?"

"It does seem to be. Quintin, stand in front of the door and say those words again." Jay suggested. "Leave out the extras and keep it all together."

"Alright," Quintin replied, then faced the door.

"Be thoughtful. Be humble. Be curious. Be cooperative," he said.

A moment later, they heard a latch release and the door crept open.

"Brilliant!" Olivia said.

"Me first!" Zelda snapped and pushed her way through.

"Oh, no you don't..." Quintin said and followed her inside.

"Don't be foolish! There still might be traps!" Jay warned them as they pushed towards the door.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any traps at all.

Instead they stepped into a rather large wizard's study. It was long but much narrower than the Headmaster's Study, and while hardly the size of the Potion's Office, it was much, much larger than Professor Weasley's office. The front of the office was mostly covered by a Persian carpet, and small stools and even a miniaturized table were hung on the wall on wooden pegs, too covered with dust to tell what sort of wood they were made of.

Past the open floor, there was an oak desk that must have been charmed to keep such things off, surrounded by several bookshelves and a pair of glass cases similar to the ones in the Headmaster's office but smaller in size to a lower yet still impressively tall vaulted ceiling. Between every other rafter was a window, caked over with dust.

"Someone light all of those torches so I can see!" Zelda snapped.

"With all this dust in here? I don't want to be choking. Let's clear the windows instead," Olivia suggested.

"Moira, help her," Zelda said impatiently.

"Very well," Moira said calmly, bringing up her wand.

The two of them got to work, using a glass cleaning spell several times to get one set of them clean. Much to their amazement, the windows were actually stained glass, making faint colored patterns on the ground.

"There's not enough light left outside to get much from this. We'll need lanterns as well," Moira observed.

"Oh, what a waste of time!" Zelda snapped.

"I don't know about a waste of time. The windows are beautiful," Dawn said.

"Here, I'll put my lantern on the desk and cast a spell on it to brighten it. Really, it would have been nice if more of you had been more prepared on this outing!" Jay said with exasperation.

"Hang on, I have an emergency lantern too," Olivia bristled, pulling one out of her cloak as Jay cast a spell to brighten his.

"Look!" Bonnibel said and pointed, and everyone stared at the case she was pointing at. "I saw something shiny when you brightened the lamp just then! It's near the top next to all of those crystal inkwells."

"Be careful! We don't want to all turn into monkeys or anything," Antonio said when Zelda ran over to it.

"There's a turnkey already in the lock. Stephen, you open it," Zelda ordered.

"Nobody's opening anything until we've done a full range of tests..."

"I'm not waiting around a minute longer!" Zelda snapped. Seeing that Broc was closest, she grabbed his arm and pulled him over. "Turn it!"

"Everyone sees she's making me do this, right?" Broc asked, turning the key. Fortunately, it opened easily, apparently having no traps on it either. Ignoring the warnings being shouted at her, Zelda levitated down the long silver box. It was indeed shiny and untarnished, and was covered with engravings.

"This is it! This is it!" Zelda said with glee.

"It's more like a case than a box," Moira mused.

"It matches the description entirely... long like a wand case but wider," Quintin said. "Let me see it, Zelda! I'm the only one here good at reading his symbols."

"There aren't symbols on it like there were on the door. There are only astrology markings on the top and bottom and I can read those, and the sides all have figures on them except the side with the engraving," Zelda said.

"Figures can be symbols too, Zelda, anything can," Quintin said. "You're not trying to open that, are you? Father told us not to."

"Shut up! He's not in the room," Zelda said, attempting to lift it off.

"Zelda, as Slytherin Prefect, I order you to stop what you're doing and hand over that box," Jay said firmly.

"And I order you to do so as Head Girl," Olivia said.

"Do you really think you're in charge? I'll show you what being in charge looks like," Zelda said, glancing at her family.

Almost as one, they took out their wands and pointed them at the five students across from them. Their expressions were cold and unreadable... including Stephen's, Dawn realized with a frown.

Had she been wrong about him? She had come to believe he wasn't like the others, and yet here he was pointing... the wrong end of his wand at her. She blinked at that, realizing what must have happened.

"Did you just compel them to do that? You did, didn't you? You're controlling them somehow. That's completely against the rules!" Dawn shouted at Zelda.

"I have their permission to compel them," Zelda said unconcernedly.

"Their permission or your father's?" Jay asked.

"Tell me how to open this box," Zelda ordered.

"You're asking me? I have no idea," Jay said.

"Quintin, tell me or I'll order them to cast," Zelda snapped.

"I don't know any more than Jay does! My team was only trying to find the box, we weren't ever intending on opening it. We had no reason to waste time trying to figure it out," Quintin snapped.

"Seriously? Despite knowing that this box contained the most powerful magic that the first Chancellor of Hogwarts ever owned? You're even stupider than I thought you were. How do I open this, Stephen?"

"It's a type of Puzzle Box, and the key to opening it has to do with the inscription," Stephen replied reluctantly. "The closest modern translation would be, 'Rejoice in your mistakes, they are the key to learning humility and wisdom.' In other words, only someone who truly understands the value in making mistakes and accepting that they're not perfect can open it. And yes, that does involve some level of humility."

"In other words, Zelda doesn't have a chance in hell of opening that box," Dawn concluded.

"Unlikely," Stephen agreed.

"Humility! Humility is a concept for the weak, who have no choice but to accept it. The entire idea that it holds virtue in any way is simply for them to find comfort that they aren't completely worthless as long as they know they're worthless," Zelda said, handing it to Antonio.

"Too right your are, cousin," Antonio said, immediately passing it to Broc.

"Maybe it's something more literal having to do with the box itself. Maybe there's a mistake in the star chart or something," Broc said, turning it around in his hands. "I don't recognize one of these charts, but I don't see any mistakes on where the stars are placed."

"Maybe you're the one making a mistake," Moira said.

"I did have two years of Astrology, you know," Broc pointed out.

"And it's my major. Hand it over," Moira said, gazing at them. "Hm. Even accounting for star migration over a period of a thousand years, this one constellation is actually one half of two different asterims, namely Orion and Taurus. More than likely, it is important in a local context, as mentioned in the Astrology book we found. Given that, I see no problems with its accuracy," she concluded.

"Perhaps the mistake has to do with the figures around the edges?" Bonnibel suggested.

"What sort of figures are they? I'd like a closer look," Quintin insisted, but found Broc's wand pointed at his nose again.

"They are similar to the miniatures we saw in Bedivere's books," Bonnibel reported as she took the box. "They seem to be a visual representation of Bedviere's life... showing him as a boy with his hand being pulled by a wizard with a floppy hat who could only be Gryffindor... leading to a scene with him kneeling before a knight as he's taken on as a squire... and then to a battle scene with giants... and finally him as a teacher and then sitting at a scribe's desk writing a book and looking out the window. The box is quite beautiful, in fact... flawless, really." She turned it around to the last side. "I don't see any miss-strikes in the lettering either. If there is a mistake, I can't find it."

"It sounds to me like none of you were really listening to what Stephen was attempting to tell you. It has nothing to do with what's on the surface of the box," Olivia said impatiently. "It's about what you lack on the inside. This box is like the mirrors in the other room. You're not going to be able to open it unless you understand the value of making mistakes. Do any of you truly understand that?"

"Quintin just got done admitting that your lot didn't even bother to research how to open the box at all, so I don't see that you're entitled to any sort of opinion to what my cousin said when he spent weeks on it. Here, Stephen. You did the work, so you should do the honors," Bonnibel said, handing them the box.

Stephen took the time to gaze at it and admire its craftsmanship, careful about how he handled it as he took the time to look it over and feel what it was like actually holding it in his hands.

"Well? Don't just sit there and gawk at it! Open it!" Zelda ordered. But Stephen had expected her to try and compel him again. Much to her surprise, it bounced back as if he had deflected it.

"No, I won't. Thanks for letting me see the box in person," Stephen said. He handed it over to Dawn, who immediately handed it over to Quintin.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?" Zelda shouted at him.

But the moment the box was in Quintin's hands, Jay and Olivia unsleeved their wands and pointed it back at them, soon followed by Elmira and Dawn.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Elmira asked nervously.

"They pulled their wands first," Jay reminded her. "By both school rules and Ministry law, we do have the right to defend ourselves. And considering that Olivia and I are at the top of Auror Club and our Defense class, it would be wiser if all of you stand down so that we can present this to the Headmaster as was intended from the start of this silly treasure hunt."

"Before all of you turn on me... do you honestly think that we could have gotten out of here without the Headmaster knowing about it?" Stephen snapped at his family. "You really are daft if you think he wouldn't know we'd opened it, especially in front of all of these witnesses. I am not taking the rap for that, no matter how angry you are. The only possible way you could have gotten whatever is in there and keep it without anyone finding out is if you had found it alone, Zelda, and as we all quickly learned, none of us would have ever gotten past all of those traps if we had been alone. It required all five houses to participate, and that means we lost this game before we even stepped foot on that first tile."

"He's right. It never would have worked, Zelda, even if you had the humility to open that box," Olivia agreed solemnly. "And since we all know better, if you had come in here alone, you wouldn't have gotten it open, and you would have had to have taken the whole box with you. Eventually, it'd have been found out. Personally, I think the best thing to do at this point is for everyone to put down their wands and present the box to the Headmaster as one whole group so that we're all accredited with finding the box together."

"A fair offer indeed. We will even give our word that we won't tell anybody about this nasty bit of aggression as long as you don't," Jay said seriously. "Let's agree to do this without getting anyone in trouble."

Bonnibel and Moira glanced at each other and back at them.

"As head of our research project, I agree," Bonnibel replied and sleeved her wand, ignoring Zelda's aghast expression as Moira and Broc did the same. "Anyone who cares to stay at my mother's until Zelda cools off during the holiday is more than welcome, but Stephen and the others are right. We would not have gotten the Silver Box without their help and without the Headmaster finding out about it. I am prepared to call it a draw."

"As are we," Jay said, and they sleeved their wands as well. "So let's go to that other door and see where it leads us next, shall we?"

"Hopefully it just leads back to the secret passage. I'm starved after all of this excitement," Broc grumbled.

"Me too," Quintin agreed.

Olivia and Jay grabbed their lanterns, and one by one, the students went back out to the corridor.