Chapter Sixty-One
To Delay the Inevitable
Sunset absently listened to the professors' idle banter as she focused her attention on the room and the magic within. The room itself appeared to be a long hall, maybe sixty meters on its own. That being said, there was a spatial expansion spell at work. One she recognized as a modified version of her own work. Specifically it had been combined with the ancient enchantment that made the main staircase of Hogwarts loop.
All in all, after accounting for the magic in place, the room was a hollow cylinder, maybe a kilometer and a half in circumference at the center, and, of course, slightly more on the outer edge and slightly less on the inner. Where the main staircase had illusions placed on it to hide the fact that it looped, the illusions on this room, or some of them at least, were clearly designed for the opposite purpose. To make the room appear as a miniaturized ring of asteroids around an equally miniaturized star, maybe two hundred meters across.
The 'star' of course, didn't exist. It was an illusion placed upon the room's walls to fill in the space in the hollow center of the room. She suspected that Dumbledore and Sinistra had heavily worked together and relied on the castle's ability to reconfigure itself to pull off this trick. The illusions even showed 'asteroids' that were behind the walls. It took some squinting to find the edge where the illusion ended and she could see the asteroids themselves.
Still, she had come no closer to actually figuring out the puzzle. Returning her gaze to the star charts, she noticed something odd. She could have sworn they looked different a minute ago. Utilizing her spell, she found that they were indeed magical. Specifically, the magic was meant to change what they showed.
Looking closely, she realized that the dots marking the asteroids were, in fact, slowly crawling across the charts. She looked back out across the asteroid field. Given that the rock they were on was slowly spinning around its own axis, she had to use the room itself as a reference, but, after a few moments of observation, she was able to confirm her suspicion.
The asteroid field was changing.
Each of the floating rocks was gradually moving across the room, causing the layout of the room to change over time. A solution once found would not work a second time.
Analyzing the charts in more detail, she found what she was looking for. A clue. Specifically, that five of the asteroids on the chart corresponding to her current perspective were circled. Looking around at those she could see from her position, she realized they seemed to be very close. She picked up the chart and walked around the floating rock, realizing that she had been correct.
The marked asteroids were the five closest ones.
Furthermore, there was something on the floor beneath each of them. A golden ring on the floor that slowly moved to remain beneath the asteroids. After confirming its function, she stepped into the ring, and was catapulted across the void to the adjacent asteroid, landing lightly. The map, she realized, was gone.
It was a trial of memory and spatial reasoning. She would have to try and maneuver her way across the field using these magical catapults.
She realized that the ring she had landed in was a silver in color. Once she stepped out of it, it returned to gold, ready to launch her back. Still, for the moment, she would explore the asteroid she had landed on.
It took her less than half a minute to find all there was to find. Namely four more golden circles and another door. Cracking it open, she found it lead to another asteroid. She recognized the table. This was where she had started. Stepping through, she met back up with the two professors.
"Okay, I think I get what I need to do now."
"Then do enlighten us." Dumbledore was clearly enjoying himself.
"There is a door on each of these asteroids. This one leads to the path back to the castle. One of these has a door that leads on towards the stone. The doors on all others simply lead back here. I'm guessing the charts on the five other marked asteroids, assuming there are charts there as well, of course, will have clues towards where the right asteroid is.
"I'm guessing I have to find my way to all of them, collate the clues and find the correct asteroid, then make my way there and go through the door onward. Correct?"
"Exactly, Miss Shimmer," Professor Sinistra replied.
"I like it. Alright. I'll be going asteroid hopping then."
It was an enjoyable experience and Sunset had a suspicion why. The other trials were likely designed to deter or stop anyone trying to obtain the stone. This one had been designed after they had found out just who Voldemort's agent was. And just who he carried with him. None of their trials had much of a chance of actually stopping him, so this one, with that in mind, had been designed to instead delay him as much as possible and buy time to react.
It took her about five or so minutes to reach the first of the marked asteroids. Mainly because she forgot which one it was as it had moved since she had looked at the chart. Once there, she found another set of charts, identical to the first, and a golden ring with a pane of glass inside it and two metal tubes on it's sides that seemed to be slightly narrower on one end than on the other. Raising an eyebrow slightly, she picked it up and peered through it.
She immediately understood what its purpose was, as about half the asteroids in the room lit up golden. Not immediately helpful. There was one more thing she needed to do. She checked the charts and looked up the location of the next asteroid with maps on it.
She found the next catapult in that approximate direction and continued her journey. Once she landed she looked down and found that the lens was still in her hand. Unlike the maps, she could take it along.
From there, she made her way across the asteroid field to pick up the other lenses. The moment she picked up the second one, she picked it up and found that, once again, about half of the asteroids were lit up golden. She was confused for a few seconds, before she tried looking through both of them at once. Maybe a fifth of the asteroids lit up this time. Suddenly the purpose of the small tubes became clear to her as she used them to attach the second lens to the first.
After that last revelation, it was only a matter of finding the remaining three lenses and completing the puzzle. With every lens she added to her little array, fewer asteroids lit up. First about a dozen. Then five. And, finally, only one. Satisfied, she made her way there, walked up to the door and pressed down the handle.
The door didn't open.
However, a panel on the frame did. Looking inside it, she found five circular depressions with small holes at the top and bottom. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was supposed to do. She disassembled her little lens array and placed the five lenses into the depressions and closed the panel. There was a quiet click.
She pressed down the handle and the door opened, revealing a familiar corridor leading to a room with bottles in it.
"Good work, Miss Shimmer. What did you think of my trial?"
"Well it was certainly fun. And I can't see anyone taking less than fifteen minutes to solve it."
"I was asked to design a trial to delay."
"I figured. I take it magical flight won't work in here?"
Dumbledore nodded. "I made sure to block that. Not to mention the chaotic gravity would make it a lot harder."
"And it wouldn't help finding the way either," Sunset agreed. "Looks pretty good to me then."
"Very well. Thank you Aurora."
"My pleasure, Albus."
"Fawkes, if you could take her back to her office please?"
Once the professor was gone, Sunset and Dumbledore let themselves be catapulted to an adjacent asteroid and used the door there to get back to the start. Once the door was shut and reopened, they stepped through it into ta short hallway that led to another room.
"Taking a wild guess here," Sunset started with a smirk, "but I suspect the trial here has something to do with the giant chess board. Professor McGonagall's work?"
"Indeed. Fawkes, if you could take this to Minerva."
Sunset used the time until Fawkes returned with the transfiguration professor to study the giant chessboard. Most of the spells weren't too difficult to figure out. To pass the trial, one would have to play their way past the white figures and win the game. If one tried to simply get past without doing so, both colors would become hostile and the door would fail to unlock.
Beyond that, the figures and door alike were quite heavily fortified and had charms to self repair. Fighting one's way past them would, theoretically, be possible, but very difficult and risky. It was quite impressive work.
"Ah, good morning, Miss Shimmer."
Sunset turned around. "Good morning, Professor."
"I take it you have already studied my work here?"
"Of course. Quite impressive all things considered. I take it one needs to replace one of the black figures to play?"
"Indeed."
Sunset stroked her chin for a moment. "Is it possible to replace the king?"
McGonagall looked at the figures for a moment. "Hmm, yes, it is. I should probably change that, shouldn't I?"
"Probably, yes."
"One moment."
Another flash of flames heralded the arrival of Professor Flitwick in the chamber of his trial. Once Professor McGonagall had finished modifying her chessboard, Sunset and Dumbledore had left the room and found themselves in a room full of small flying things, looking like birds and streaking through the air.
The light that came on once they entered, however, made it clear that these were no birds. They were keys. Winged Keys. Clearly, one of them was the one that opened the door.
"Good morning. How are our defenses holding up?"
"Ah, good morning Filius. Quite well so far. Miss Shimmer pointed out a few minor issues that should make them more resilient and buy us some time should an attempt to steal the stone be made."
"Good, good." Flitwick turned to look at Sunset who was still studying the swarm of keys in the air above them. "Your verdict, Miss Shimmer?"
"Well let's see here. The basic concept is simple, but sound. Can the keys be summoned?"
"I made sure that they can't."
"Good. Since a simple unlocking charm won't work, I take it that there is an enchantment on the lock that needs to interact with magic on the key?"
"Indeed."
"And do all of those keys have magic that might do that?"
"Yes. All of them do."
"Good, good. Then I can really only think of one way to improve upon this."
"And what would that be?"
"Well, since we're essentially trying to stall for time here, give the door multiple locks. If He needs to catch more than one key, it will take Him longer."
Dumbledore nodded. "A sound strategy. If each of us adds one lock that should buy us a good amount of time."
Half an hour later, the door had four locks and three more keys had joined the swarm above.
Finally, Dumbledore and Sunset found their way into a dark chamber with a tall ceiling. Sunset quickly activated the sight charm she had created for astronomy, recognizing the chamber as the one beneath the trap door on the third floor.
Set into the ground right beneath the drop, was a flower bed with an expansive, writhing mass of vines and thorns. "Ahh, Devil's Snare. Professor Sprout's contribution?"
"Indeed. There is a spell on this chamber that automatically creates light and heat to subdue the plant and locks all the doors if it manages to choke somebody unconscious. Just in case a student does manage to get this far."
"Reasonable. With Fluffy up there to deter and this thing to take out anyone stubborn enough to get past him anyway, that should stop most of the students."
"So, what do you think of our defenses overall?"
"All together, they should give us a decent amount of time to act. And with Fawkes and Philomena, we can be there to react in moments. We just need to make sure not to interfere until the trap is sprung."
"Good, good. Any further ideas to improve our protections. Maybe one you could contribute."
"Well, a series of detection wards to monitor his progress would probably help. As for something I can add, hmm." She stroked her chin thoughtfully, then smiled.
"I think I might have something."