Act Four
Containment
Chapter Sixty-Five
Trials
He was ecstatic. His master was more along the lines of smugly triumphant, not that Quirius Quirrell would ever have said so to his face. His master had questioned many things about him. His abilities. His power. His resolve. But never his loyalty. As such some parts of his mind were still his and only his. One of those he buried that thought in now. His master, thankfully, was too distracted to notice.
The plan had worked. He and his master alike had been sceptical when they had heard the three muggle women discussing the ancient legend of the cerberus based of the real magical creature. Could it really be so easy? Could the weakness of the mythical creature be as based in reality as the myth itself?
But sure enough. A few bars of conjured music and the beast dozed off. From there it was only a matter of levitating it out of the way and the way to the trapdoor was clear.
He had had a plan laid out. To coax Hagrid with a dragon egg that he had been working hard to covertly acquire. To get him drunk, get him talking. But all of that was unnecessary now.
Still, he didn’t dare go further.
Even at the height of his power, his master couldn’t beat Albus Dumbledore in a one-on-one duel. He was not his master, he could match neither his power nor his skill. And, here at Hogwarts, a straight duel wouldn’t happen. Not with this much hanging in the balance.
McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape were all formidable duelists in their own right. With them supporting Dumbledore, he wouldn’t stand a chance. With his master’s aid or without it.
He would have to wait until the old geezer was out in the next session of the Wizengamot. With him far away, the wards protecting the stone would have no one else to report to and by the time Dumbledore came back, he would be long gone. And the stone with him .
Until then, he would have to continue laying low.
For now, however, he would have to make his way back through the sleeping castle to his office without attracting attention. Snape had become suspicious, he could tell. His master was convinced of the man’s loyalty, but agreed that it was not a risk they could take at this juncture. If he became a greater problem, perhaps, but a little suspicion wouldn’t be a problem.
Just before he was about to go to bed, a small gout of golden fire delivered a message into Albus’ bedchambers. He recognized the handwriting.
He has taken the bait.
He couldn’t quite hide his smirk. And, he realized, alone as he was, he didn’t need to.
Everything was going to plan.
Over the next week and a half, Sunset was under a constant, slight tension. She knew when Quirrell was likely to make his move. The next session of the Wizengamot was the obvious candidate. Still, she had to keep up the charade until then.
After discussing the matter with Dumbledore and Princess Celestia, Sunset had let Hermione in on the secret. To account for the fact that her sister had a terrible poker face, she had left out certain details, such as the identity of Voldemort’s agent, but told her the general gist of the situation and the plan to deal with it.
Dumbledore and the heads of house would be needed to defeat Quirrell, Sunset didn’t know enough offensive magic to do so herself, even when accounting for him being weakened by the trap. But what she lacked in offensive ability, she more than made up for in defensive power. She couldn’t stop him, but she could buy time.
But with her being occupied, someone else would have to rally the professors. That someone was Hermione. To be able to do so at a moment’s notice, the two of them were sticking with one another as though they were glued together, but that wasn’t entirely new.
The only times they separated were when Sunset had her comparative magic session with Professor Flitwick and her trainings with Crabbe. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon the next week, she felt her spells go off once more.
She shared a glance with Hermione and they both got up to leave the common room and made for the roof of the tower.
With the dog out of the way, he could get through the trap door and make his way to the second challenge. He tried using a gravity spell to slow his descent, but found it blocked.
Fortunately, something soft broke his fall. Lighting his wand, he recognized the plant. A simple spell later, the offending weed shied back from the magical fire he had conjured, allowing him to make his way forward.
Sunset was glad that the princess had come up with the idea of placing detection spells in between the challenges, allowing her to track Quirrell’s progress while she filled Hermione in on the rest of the details.
After having already dealt with Hagrid’s and Sprout’s contributions to the Stone’s defence, the trial he now faced was clearly Flitwick’s work. He found the door sealed with four separate locks and reinforced by the same siege wards that had protected the Great Hall on Halloween. His summoning charm proved useless. He hadn’t expected anything different, but it was still wasting valuable time.
With a sigh, he called one of the brooms to his hand and got to work.
That a good portion of the keys started attacking him whenever he came close to one of the keys he suspected matched the door, didn’t make this trial any less frustrating.
Sunset noted with satisfaction that it took nearly fifteen minutes for Quirrell to beat the key room. Once Hermione was filled in, she got to writing notes for the heads of house. They would need to be warned.
The next trial turned out to be a gigantic chess game. He was very glad that Dumbledore was in London and would be occupied there for hours yet. If this trial and the previous one were anything to go by, this would take a while.
When she felt Quirrell leave the chess room, Sunset sent a note to Dumbledore. He needed confirmation that their expectations had been correct.
She couldn’t help her smirk. This was where they had added her trial. Something any muggle would call a classic, yet entirely unfamiliar to wizards.
He was confused to see that the door beyond the chessboard opened up onto a spiraling staircase. The path lead him up into a square room with a pedestal in the center. In the direction he suspected the stone to be there was another door. It was locked and, once again, sealed by the siege wards, but didn’t have any actual lock he could see.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the pedestal in the center of the room had something to do with opening the door.
He had no clue who’s test this could be, but turned to one of the other doors instead. Those weren’t sealed. He pushed open the first door and his eyes widened. Beyond it there was nothing but a corridor, maybe sixty feet in total, with another pedestal at the end. Hovering atop it was a fine metal ring.
When a summoning charm failed to retrieve the item, he made his way down the corridor waiting for the inevitable trap.
He almost missed the fine beam of magic and managed to catch himself just in time before he hit it. An aura-sight charm to analyze the spells confirmed what he had feared. The little beam was tied directly into the wards. Disrupting it in any way would alert Dumbledore. And, at this point, he would likely have enough time to come back and swoop in before he could reach the stone.
More worrying, however, was the fact that there were many more such beams, some stationary, some moving, and not all of them tied into the wards. Some of them were instead far more powerful and loaded with a powerful cutting charm. Touching those wouldn’t trip the wards but run the risk of seriously injuring him.
He was about to move on and try making his way through the mess of beams when something he could just barely see caused him to pause.
“Revelio!”
He stopped once again when his spell revealed a third again as many beams as before. Like with the others, three quarters of them were tied into the wards, the rest were meant to cut directly. Only these beams were also invisible.
This trial, he decided, was terrible. Not only did it waste valuable time, it also required near perfect concentration to avoid either an alarm through the wards or a dangerous injury that would only make the trial harder for him and cost more valuable time to heal.
He would have to remember this design.
It was a tricky bit of work to get past the trial. A few adhesive spells stopped his robes from tripping any of the beams, but that was about all he could really do to make the matter easier for him. He had to weave between the beams, occasionally mimicking poses from a muggle sport he had observed called ‘limbo’. A few times he had to jump through a gap in the grid.
The exhausting part was doing that six times. One each to get to through each corridor and one more to get back with the parts found at their end.
Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, he returned to the central room with the final piece. When he placed it on the pedestal, it came together with the other two parts, each ring fitting neatly into the next larger one. They began spinning above the pedestal, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. He only had eyes for one fact.
The door was finally open.
Sunset and Hermione were now chatting merrily atop Gryffindor tower. Sunset used her monitoring charms to give her sister a running commentary of Quirrell’s progress. All preparations were complete.
All the trials and defenses, they realized, had the unintended side effect of exhausting Quirrell both physically and mentally. That could only help them. All her messages were prepared.
The only thing left to do was to wait.
The next room was a surprise. This was where his trial was supposed to be located. Instead, he found a gigantic room designed to look like space. Filled with floating rocks.
Now that he thought about it, Dumbledore had mentioned something about the danger a troll in the castle represented. He had likely removed it and replaced it with another defense. Probably with the help of one of the other professors. Sinistra if he had to take a guess.
This test was decidedly more fun, but still time consuming to get through. At this rate, Dumbledore might actually finish up at the Wizengamot before he managed to reach the stone. It was fortunate that the old man was known to hobknob for a while after each meeting.
Finding the right door was a slog, but he managed it.
Hermione was still marveling at Sunset’s description of the star chamber, as she had dubbed Professor Sinistra’s trial, when Quirrell made his way to the last trial. The potion chamber.
Finally! A sensible trial. No ridiculous displays of magic. No tests of dexterity. Just a simple riddle. Now if only he wasn’t so terrible at logic.
After a good ten minutes, his master grew impatient and solved the riddle for him. Taking the smallest bottle he gulped down the potion and made his way first through the fire, then through the door.
“Alright. He’s reached the room with the stone. Time to get ready.” Sunset handed Hermione the five rolled-up scrolls before letting Philomena hop onto her sister’s shoulder, a wing on her back, ready to bring her in on her command.
The mirror surprised him. He had not expected this as the final defense. Then again, it was Dumbledore’s trial. Perhaps he should have expected something like this. He walked around the mirror, his wand drawn, but couldn’t find any indication where the stone might be located.
Finally, he looked into the mirror itself. He saw himself. Using the stone to produce the elixir of life and restore his master. But where was it? Inside the mirror? Beyond it? Was it perhaps-
A pulse of magic surged through the room, breaking his concentration. One moment his wand was raised, posed to fend off any attack that might come, the next it clattered uselessly to the floor.
A golden light filled the room and he was lifted off his feet.
Suddenly, his world erupted into infernal pain. A force unlike any he had ever known tore at his very essence. The pain wasn’t physical. It was simultaneously far less direct and far more real.
But he was in no state to think about such matters. He only dimly noticed when he fell to the ground. The pain let up.
Then, his world faded to black.
Nice work
Well that was disappointing, they say no plan survives first contact with the enemy well in a story if it all goes according to plan you're just left with a boring resolution.
Hopefully something happens next chapter.
Loved the chapter!
YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the "troll" that I wanted!
9690220
Pardon?
Yyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yes.
9690237
Basically, Sunset trolled Quirrell by using something any muggle would call a classic, yet entirely unfamiliar to wizards. You can say that Sunset's trial was a "troll" to wizards.
I honestly expected Harry to trigger the trap. He has a horcrux too as far as I know.
9690438
How would he have triggered it? He was never even near it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we got 'em.
9690446
Dunno, just seemed like something that would happen to move the story along, everything is just going really well and I was expecting something to go wrong.
Reeled in like a tiny trout on a treble hook.
I am pleasantly surprised at Quirrell falling for the trap.
That would be a good explanation, he lacks the common sense and/or logic to be able to realize based off the clues, that were right in front of him (his trial being gone as well as the change in designs to the trials), that he was not only compromised but also walking right into a trap. Basically he was a loyal but foolish lackey.
9690528
Yeah, but Voldemort was right there with him even if Quirrell was bad at logic Voldemort obviously wasn't (as seen by him solving the puzzle) so he should have noticed something was wrong.
9689012
Yep, I'm an editor.
The intelligence in the writing, combined with solid character writing was the main reason I offered to edit. Though I would like to point out that while really cool, it doesn't quite take the place of a main focus of the story.
9690536
I would like to point out that while Voldemort was quite intelligent, he was also quite singleminded and arrogant that he could not be harmed. He is not the type of wizard that thinks of possible traps - he is the type that only thinks of traps to lure others in.
9690695
That's ridiculous the whole reason he got as far as he did was that he was cautious. If he wasn't he would have constantly made appearances instead of staying hidden where no one could find him. Why wouldn't he consider the possibility of a trap in an area that's already filled with various protections?
Quirrell's chamber being replaced without his input should have been a massive red flag. I mean Dumbledore asked for his assistance the first time so what exactly changed that kept him from asking Quirrell to make a different trial? I was expecting them to start getting suspicious but they just brushed it off like they were complete idiots despite all the careful planning they had been doing up until now.
9690716
Because he isn't reading the story.
Really.
His room being removed he attributed to Dumbledore's worry about the troll attack earlier. And it wasn't like a new room was unprecedented. There were no other tip-offs that anyone was onto him.
After all, if they were wary, why would Dumbledore, the main protector, go off to that business at the Ministry? He has enough political power to cancel in an emergency like that.
There were too many green flags that he was safe, that the minor red ones were easily attributed to chance.
9689012
Huh… Turns out, it's hard to make connections between the knowledge of the hundreds of different fanfics I've read. I've actually read that one, but couldn't remember that detail, or I didn't assign enough importance to it at the time that it was filed away in my memory.
I actually enjoy reading that one quite a bit, by the way.
9690764
But that's a pretty big tip-off, Not only did Dumbledore not consult him in its removal he didn't even tell Quirrell about it despite the fact that it was his troll in the first place. The fact that it wasn't there and he wasn't told should have been a big enough tip off for them to start questioning if they are missing something.
That's all the more reason to be suspicious, in the books Quirrell had to lure Dumbledore away. The fact that Dumbledore left on his own while making no other precautions should have had them even more suspicious.
9690127
The reason for the expression “no plan survives contact with the enemy” is because people are unpredictable and that it’s impossible to account for every eventuality. If you know the person, however, that expression applies less. You know how that person thinks, you can more accurately predict how they’re going to react to the situation and plan around that.
As for this situation, they all knew he wanted the Stone. They all knew he’d go to great lengths to get it, but not expose himself. So they planned accordingly. They made a plan that would delay him without giving him too many red flags. They made a plan to keep him in place, without tipping him off to what was happening. And Sunset was making plans for if things didn’t go as expected - getting the Teachers involved.
“No plan survives contact with the enemy” can apply both in parts and fully. It also simply cannot apply at all. In this situation, it did apply a little. They didn’t account for him getting tired both physically and mentally. Just because that actually helps them, doesn’t mean it wasn’t something they accounted for, or expected.
9690780
The troll scene is indeed the most likely to make him suspicious. It's the weakest point in the chapter, in fact.
If I wrote it, it would indeed make him suspicious, and perhaps question other things, but in the end still push to the mirror for fear of Voldemort's wrath.
It seems that you are arguing reasons to make him suspicious, rather than just for "realistic reactions to situations" in general.
There are all sorts of things in play here. States of mind, both for Voldemort (who isn't very corporeal) and Quirrel (who lives in fear of death for his failure).
It seems more that you are disappointed at the plot development, and therefore coming up with reasons that it should have gone your way instead.
Would Quirrel getting suspicious and taking radically different actions be an interesting plotline and be extremely engaging? Yes. Would it have made sense? Yes. Would I rather have that? Yes. I would have loved some strife on our heroes' end, and possibly a more clever use of the Soul Trap later.
But the plot happened this way, and yes, the reactions made sense.
Gotcha!
9690804
Which is why I'm hoping Voldemort has something up his non-existent sleeve. He's not stupid enough to ignore the red flags so he must have some kind of exit strategy in the event something goes wrong. He wouldn't warn Quirrell of course because he's expendable.
Except they only make sense because the author gave him the idiot ball, that's the problem. If Quirrell had been suspicious, took extra precautions and still got caught because of something he couldn't possibly be aware of, such as the soul trap, then it would be fine. Instead, he just wanders through everything ignoring the warning signs like a careless idiot despite how careful he has been up until this point.
I mean come on why would they think Dumbledore would leave Hogwarts for any reason despite all the strange occurrences that have happened throughout the year (the troll attack, the attempt on Harry's life) there was a reason they had to lure Dumbledore away in the book it was because there was no way Dumbledore would travel so far from the stone when there was clearly someone after it unless he had a good reason. If he left because he had plans he would have taken extra precautions to keep the stone safe but if he was called away suddenly he wouldn't have had time to prepare anything else.
The fact that no extra precautions were made despite his departure being planned in advance should have immediately had them suspecting a trap.
9690830
Okay, I'm hitting my head against a brick wall here. Yes, your criticism has merit, but you absolutely refuse to consider anything but your own initial perceptions. I respect your ideas, but I'm tired of arguing with you.
9690848
I accept what you're saying I'm just saying it doesn't make it better. Just because you can justify why something turns out some way doesn't magically make it good.
9690857
I respect that.
9690127
Problem is, their is still the other scraps of Voldemort's soul that need to be trapped and Gathered in various ways.
As amusing it is too listen to your back and forth arguments about it or snake face being suspicious. There are far worse plot holes in the original Canon version.
I loved how Sunset's trail was the classic laser corridor, very common sight in a gauntlet of trails by muggle stanares something wizards wouldn't think of it. I can just imagine Quirrel's WTF face when he saw it
I'd have been especially cruel and as a extra trial just before Snapes had a door that can only be unlocked with a book from the library that you have to use to solve a code to progress. This would have forced anyone who wasn't supposed to be there to go back and have to pass all the challenges a second time further wearing them down.