//------------------------------//
// 63 - Baiting the Snare 
// Story: A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone 
// by gerandakis 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Sixty-Three

Baiting the Snare






With the start of the second term, it became obvious that Dumbledore and Sinistra had made good on their promise to relay Sunset's offer to Professor Flitwick and the two of them spent a few weeks of their comparative magic sessions discussing gravity spells with the assistance and expertise of Madam Hooch and, once they were satisfied with the results, delved into other spells altering the fundamental properties of reality.

This was the first time they had been discussing purely theoretical magic. Both worlds had magical theory that suggested that a spell to alter an object's mass was possible, but neither had actually managed to create one. But, by relying on the magical knowledge of both worlds, they were able to turn the theories into reality.

For now, outside of a mass-independent, if far more complicated, levitation charm they hadn't found much in ways of applying their discoveries so far, but they were certain that they would think of something sooner or later.

Still in the first week of term, Sunset was also called to the medical wing where Madam Pomfrey showed her several books on medical spells and asked her to translate them and send them to Equestria. Upon further prompting, she revealed that the headmaster had gotten word from Sirius and learned that medical spellcraft was nowhere near as far advanced in Equestria that it was on Earth.

Sunset could understand why. Ponies were a lot more durable than humans were, even wizards and witches. Injuries occurred far less often, as such there was far less incentive to develop methods to heal them.

It was fascinating. Equestria had potions that could heal a simple fracture in days. More complicated ones, like wing injuries, could take a week or longer. There were spells that could lock the parts of a broken bone in position, but even those required a thorough knowledge of anatomy. From the books she had learned a spell that could heal simple fractures in seconds and even complicated ones in minutes. Regardless of anatomical knowledge.

It was an immensely complex spell, of course, but it was still a remarkable piece of magic and immensely useful for those willing to learn it. She had never actually given much thought to it, but now that she thought about it, it had seemed odd that Neville had been able to return to the flying lesson after half an hour as though his wrist had never been broken in the first place.

Once she had the translated copies, she returned to the common room where Ron seemed very interested in what she had gotten. Uncharacteristically so, considering she had brought back books of all things. She did remember, however, what Mr. Ollivander had said about Ron's wand and the accidental magic he had cast with it when they were matched.

Ron wasn't usually particularly diligent, but his brothers had set the bar high and if there was one thing he was truly willing to work for, save Quidditch, of course, it was distinguishing himself from them. In that light, she supposed, his sudden interest made a certain amount of sense.

She made copies of each of the books for him and then another set for herself, her bag had plenty of room, after all, before sending the stack off to Princess Celestia along with a message asking whether the princess had any idea what could have caused Sirius to inquire after human healing spells all of a sudden.

As the snow started to thaw and give way to rather heavy rain, Harry was once more busy many a morning and evening as Oliver Wood was roping him and the rest of the team into Quidditch training. Gryffindor wouldn't be playing in another match until March, but Wood seemed to have the same attitude concerning training Hermione and Twilight had to studying.

Sunset was careful to observe Malfoy and Goyle whenever they ran into them. She noted that they were slowly starting to look a bit put out rather than openly hostile more often than not. It seemed that the seeds of doubt Crabbe had planted were sprouting nicely.

Speaking of Crabbe, he and Sunset were continuing their training and he was quickly improving. At the same time they also often took the opportunity to discuss news or the general situation in wizarding Britain as a whole. It was remarkable how often he said something only to, moments later, reconsider and discover that he had come across yet another idea he only held because it had been told to him by his parents and their friends.

All in all, Sunset was quite happy with the way things were going. Even Quirrell hadn't made a move so far. Then, in the third week of February, on the evening after they had watched the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, Sunset got word from the princess. After some covert research hadn't uncovered anything, it seemed the Princess had paid Sirius as visit and simply asked him directly. That was how she had found out about his actions in defending the Apple Family and their orchard.

Her friends, especially Harry, quite enjoyed her retelling of the tale, especially since the Princess had apparently been interested in the story herself and gotten a full report from the guard in charge and Granny Smith. It also served well to distract her friends from the second part of the message.

The trap was ready.

She would have to inform the headmaster that the Princess would be coming by later that evening to set up the trap.





A knock on the door prompted the headmaster to turn to the door. "Come in," he called before his other guests could react. The newly upgraded wards had been correct and the door opened to reveal Miss Shimmer and Princess Celestia. "Welcome. I've been told your project is complete. Is it truly ready?"

"Yes Headmaster Dumbledore. I personally checked. It is ready."

"Albus, would you mind?"

"Oh, of course. My apologies, Minerva. May I introduce Princess Celestia of Equestria, the ruler of Miss Shimmer's homeland. Princess, allow me to introduce Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout and Severus Snape, our heads of house and professors for transfiguration, charms, herbology and potions. This struck me as the time to let the rest of the senior staff in on our plan. I assure you they all have my complete trust."

The princess looked at each of the Professors in turn, then nodded. "Very well, do you wish to inform them or shall I."

"Severus, would you like to inform your colleagues of what you've learned."

Snape nodded calmly. "Of course, director." He turned to the rest of the senior staff. "Quirinus has betrayed us. He is working for the Dark Lord."

Professor Sprout gasped. Professor Flitwick nearly fell of his much too large chair. Professor McGonagall managed to contain her reaction the best. Even so, she looked flabbergasted. "How?"

Albus leaned forward, clearing his throat quietly. "I did some research over the past months. It seems Quirinus' travels over the past year took him to Albania. The very country where Lord Voldemort was reportedly hiding after his downfall. I suspect that they met there."

"Months? Albus, you've known for that long and not told us? Why would you not act to remove him immediately?"

Snape's nod was barely noticeable, but his voice was as clear as ever. "That, director, is a very good question. One I've been asking myself for a while as well."

"The reason for that is in a discovery myself and Miss Shimmer here made independently not long after Halloween. It is also the reason for Princess Celestia's presence." He sighed. "Quirinus is not merely aiding or serving Lord Voldemort. He is hosting him. Willingly."

Once more the professors gasped in disbelief. Sprout was barely moving. Flitwick was barely holding onto his chair. McGonagall's reaction was the loudest this time. Snape, however, seemed outraged. "The dark lord has been in Hogwarts for months?!"

"I am afraid so, Severus. However, Princess Celestia suggested a superior method of dealing with our problem. Your highness, would you be so kind to explain?"

"Of course. Sunset?"

Miss Shimmer reached into her bag and pulled out an object, maybe the size of a bludger, that seemed to be a tetrahedron made of brown glass with golden trim. When she placed it on Albus' desk, a closer investigation revealed it to actually be made up four smaller tetrahedrons made of glass with complex pieces of metal inside them and connected by four hexagonal panes of brown glass, or at least some material resembling glass, he doubted it was actually glass, that connected the four.

The hexagonal panes each had three long sides, connecting to the three other panes and three short sides connecting to each of the smaller tetrahedral devices. Two sides of the trap had complex spell patterns inscribed on them. The patterns on one side were faintly glowing in the teal color he had come to connect with Miss Shimmer's magic. The second set of inscriptions was glowing a golden, sunny yellow. He didn't need to guess whose magic it was.

"This," the princess began to explain, "is a soul trap. A masterpiece of light magic that will free any living being caught within its grasp of any soul, or fragment thereof, that isn't their own. Each side of the trap is a spell matrix lock. Only when four key spells are cast upon the trap at the same time – each upon the correct face, of course – will it open and release whatever soul may be trapped within.

"As you can see, both Sunset and myself have already inscribed our key sequences. If two of you would do so as well, the trap would become operational."

"Thank you, your highness." Albus turned back to his professors. "Now, as you all know, the Philosopher's Stone is being kept at Hogwarts. Stealing it is, of course, his objective. The soul trap is our only chance of containing him so we intend to use the stone as bait to lure Him into it. Once the trap fulfills its purpose, we simply need to deal with Quirinus and recover it. I have personally ensured that neither Quirinus nor his new ... master will be able to recover the stone. I nearly prevented myself from recovering it in the process, but fortunately Miss Shimmer managed to catch  a detail I overlooked."

He gave his heads of house some time to discuss amongst themselves while he quietly spoke with the princess. "Does this spell matrix lock require a specific key?"

She nodded. "It has a predetermined form. Sunset?"

He hadn't seen Miss Shimmer walk over until she stepped out next to the princess and pulled a scroll of parchment out of her bag. Actually, it wasn't parchment at all, it was much smoother. The 'paper' material the muggles seemed to prefer. As she placed it on his desk, her hand lit up with her teal magic for a split second and a fine line of magic cut the ribbon holding it closed. She then unfurled it and used what he recognized as a weak, transient sticking charm to keep it from rolling back up. When she lifted her arm aside, he saw that the scroll held a complex spell scheme drawn partially in red ink and partially in blue ink. He noted that only some of the actual inscriptions were blue, all vital parts of the spell structure were red.

The princess confirmed his suspicions a moment later. "The red sections are integral components of the spell. The blue areas are placeholders. Feel free to change them as you see fit. Just make sure to memorize them well."

Albus looked at the spell for a good while, memorizing every detail first of the required portions, then of his own version of the spell. Finally, he lit his eyes with an aura sight charm and cast the spell. A bead of light red appeared at the tip of his wand. After confirming that each of the patterns of the spell had formed correctly, something only he was capable of as the spell cleverly used his own signature to mask its matrices, he tapped his wand against the center of one of the unoccupied sides of the trap.

When he lifted it away, he watched as the small bead of light that had jumped off of his wand slowly crept a few fractions of an inch over until it was perfectly centered. From there it extended into three lines, quickly running towards the three points of the triangular surface. From there, each turned to the right, running along the edge. Before they could reach the corner, however, they passed the middle and curved inwards, forming a circle that matched the central glass pane in size. At the point they touched the smaller triangles they turned outwards forming three smaller circles on them.

Once they had finished their smaller circles, they returned back onto the original circle and continued until they had finished a third of a turn and returned back to the outline, continuing on where the previous line had left off until they reached a point again. Once the basic framework had formed, further circles subdivided the large areas, filling with fanciful characters to quickly form a dizzying array of glowing symbols.

It remained there, glowing, for a few seconds before the symbols faded, leaving only the outline of the spell, now glowing much dimmer, just like on the other sides of the trap that were already keyed.

Once he had finished watching the spell matrix lock do its work, he turned to his professors. "So which of you want's to do the honours?"





After some back and forth, it was decided that Minerva should be the final key bearer. All seven of them were now in the chamber where the Mirror of Erised was kept, and, with it, the Stone.

Princess Celestia held out the trap in one hand, her own side facing down against her palm. When her hand lit up with her golden magic, the other three key bearers drew their wands and tapped them against their respective sides.

Within moments, the locks once more filled with symbols and lit up. The hexagonal panes vanished leaving only the smaller tetragons behind. The top one dropped into the princess' palm where another already lay. The other two were easily caught in her magic.

"Very well. Now we simply need to place them in the correct positions. Sunset."

Albus and his professors watched as Miss Shimmer and the princess walked around the room placing three of the small glass objects in a triangle pointing away from the entrance and centered around the spot in front of the mirror. When they were done, Miss Shimmer stepped in front of the mirror, looked into it for a moment, nodded, and threw the final piece into the air above her.

None of them were particularly surprised when it suddenly stopped in mid-air, twin lines matching the colors of magic keyed to the lock outlining a much larger tetrahedron momentarily flashing up before they vanished and the smaller objects vanished.

It took a quite impressive effort on Albus' and Filius' behalf to pierce through the extensive suite of concealment charms and momentarily render them visible. They would have never found them, had they not known to look for them.

Albus was beginning to understand why it had taken the Equestrians two months to make the artifact.