66 - Chase
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chase
“There. The trap has closed.” Sunset fixed Hermione with a serious gaze. “You know what to do. Philomena?”
With a gust of flames, she was gone.
Hermione turned to the firebird on her shoulder. “Alright then. Gotta get these messages out first.” She levitated the five scrolls in her pale green aura, allowing Philomena to easily touch them with a feather one by one and whisk them away to their destinations.
The darkness slowly fled from his mind when he felt a wash of magic and heat not far from him.
“Ah, good morning Professor. How is your head feeling?”
He recognized the voice. One of the Gryffindor first-years. Sunset Shimmer.
“Ugh. What happened?”
“You failed.”
That gave him pause.
“What?”
“You failed to steal the stone. You ran right into our trap. I ask again, how is your head feeling?”
He managed to get to his feet and pick up his wand. He had been lying in front of that blasted mirror. The girl stood across the room, in front of the door. A silver shimmer covered it, indicating that it was once more sealed shut by the siege wards.
Mostly because he had little else to do, he humored her. His head hurt. But there was something else. Something different to what he had grown used to. A familiar presence that was now gone.
“Master? Master!”
“I’d be very surprised if he could hear you right now.”
His gaze snapped up to her. “What?! What did you do?”
“Personally? I didn’t do anything. Collectively? We trapped him.” She pointed a finger at a small object at his feet, made, seemingly, from brown glass. A faint, flickering light shimmered within. “Seriously, I didn’t think he had damaged his soul that far. It’s disgusting.”
Their gazes met once more. “What did you think of our upgraded defenses?”
“Tedious. It felt like you were just stalling.”
“We were. To make sure that we had enough time to react. Did you like my trial?”
“You contributed a trial?” She nodded. “Which one?” Before she could answer, his thoughts went back to the trials. He could assign each of them. His own had been removed. Snape had brought in the riddle. McGonagall had made the chess board. Flitwick had enchanted the keys. Hagrid had provided the dog and Sprout the devil’s snare. That only left two. The space room clearly was Sinistra’s contribution. That only left one. “The corridors with the beams.”
She smirked. “A classic, really.”
That was the last straw. This girl had helped in trapping his master in a device he couldn’t begin to understand. She had worked with Dumbledore against him. She had probably even helped with the other trials. Flitwick wasn’t the type to use multiple locks. He wasn’t one for simple solutions. And she had contributed that insufferably tedious beam trial. She had interfered with his master’s plans one too many times. “Avada Kedavra!”
The girls didn’t move. She made no efforts to dodge the lethal spell headed her way. He didn’t understand. He also didn’t understand why his spell simply vanished just before it hit her, leaving nothing but a slight wavering of the air.
Then he looked more closely. There was a shield surrounding her. A faint veil of golden energy. In the flickering yellowish-orange light of the torches he hadn’t seen it. He had also missed the golden glow around her left arm. But what shield could stop the killing curse?
“Oh, did I mention the side effects of having a parasitic soul fragment forcibly removed from you?”
His eyes widened. “Side effects?”
“Your magic is severely weakened right now. That spell was weak. I’m not sure it would have killed me even if I didn’t block it. That’s why I’m here alone.”
“You’re stalling.”
“Exactly.”
“You will not stop me.”
Her gentle smile faded. “That remains to be seen.”
Her wand jumped into her hand from a pocket in her robes, engulfed in a teal light. The moment she grabbed it, it’s tip lit up with the same teal light while the golden glow around her left hand grew into a shimmering flame that quickly spread up her arm and, from there, grew to cover her entirely. The shield around her faded only to be replaced by a far more powerful-looking teal barrier. “You will not escape.”
“They’ve had a minute now. That should be enough. Let’s get Snape first.” A flash of flame later, they were in the dungeons, next to the potions classroom.
“Ah, Miss Granger. It is time?”
“Yes, the trap has done its job. Sunset is stalling Quirrell.”
“Good. We should get Filius next.”
“Alright. Philomena, you heard the man.” With a majestic trill, the flames returned, delivering them to Professor Flitwick’s office.”
“Ah, Severus, Miss Granger. There you are. I believe we should give Pomona a moment longer to get some distance from the greenhouses. They are transparent after all.”
“A good point. Minerva next then?”
“Indeed.”
Hermione couldn’t help but smirk in excitement. “Philomena?” Another flash of fire delivered the growing group outside the transfiguration classroom.
“Ah there you are. Good. Shall we go get Pomona then?”
Another trill later, they were on the grounds a good distance from the greenhouses among a small group of trees.
“Ah good, I managed to get here just in time. And you’re all here already. Perfect. To Albus’ office then?”
With yet another gout of flame they were back in the castle. Hermione looked around in interest as this was her first opportunity to look around the headmaster’s office. They didn’t have to wait long.
Only moments after they arrived, another flash of flame heralded the arrival of Fawkes and Dumbledore. “Ah, everyone is here. Wonderful.” He sighed. “Politicians are remarkably hard to shake off. One would think the words ‘urgent matter’ wouldn’t be too hard to understand. Oh well. Let’s go then. I believe we have made Miss Shimmer wait more than enough.”
Quirrell kept firing spells at Sunset, yet her shield held easily. After another half dozen killing curses and other unforgivables had uselessly dispersed against the golden fire that was her specialty, he had given up on dark spells altogether. Unfortunately for him, his other spells weren’t much more effective.
The fact that the spells that didn’t impact her shield hadn’t left even a scratch on the room or anything in it was a testament to just how much his magic had been weakened. That the trials had left him mentally and physically exhausted didn’t help him much either. When he fired another spell that ineffectually bounced off her shield, she felt a tug on her bond with her familiar.
She chuckled. “Time’s up.”
“What?”
In a flash of flame, Professor Snape appeared behind Quirrell at the same time as a second flash delivered Professor McGonagall behind Sunset. Seconds later, two more gusts of golden fire delivered Professors Sprout and Flitwick to their left and right, closing the circle.
Finally, in two more gusts of flame, Dumbledore appeared in front of Sunset, Fawkes on his shoulder, while Hermione appeared beside Sunset who immediately extended her shields to protect her sister as well and Philomena appeared on her shoulder, receiving a stroke over her plumage.
Dumbledore looked at Quirrell with narrowed eyes. “It’s over, Quirinus. Give up.”
Desperation was clear in Quirrell’s eyes. He looked around for a way out and found none. His inability to even put a scratch on Sunset had made it clear to him just how much his magic had been weakened. And now, in the face of such overwhelming force, his anger made way to fear. Suddenly his eyes lit up with glee. “Not quite Albus. Not quite.”
His left hand reached into his pocket and he pulled out a small golden talisman. At the same time, his wand whipped forward.
The others watched, too stunned to move, as the soul trap flew the short distance into his hand.
“Contingency!”
The talisman flashed blue for a second and, in a whirl of colors, Quirrell was gone.
“What was that?” Hermione’s question broke through the stunned silence.
Dumbledore shook off his shock. “A portkey. He must have forgotten about it in the heat of the moment.” He looked over to Sunset. “Can you trace it?”
Sunset closed her eyes. She tried to follow the rather obvious signature of the portkey, but soon ran into a problem. “Not through the wards.”
“I see. Fawkes.”
With a trill, the phoenix spread his wings and they were whisked away out of the castle.
They found themselves in a small forest clearing. A small popping sound immediately attracted Sunset’s attention.
She felt the usual trace of apparition, and this time there was nothing to stop her from tracing it. In a flash of teal, she vanished.
By the time she arrived, all she could sense was a new wake. A second later, she was gone again.
In that fashion, she followed Quirrell, jump after jump. A windy cliff, an old ruin, a damp cellar, and dozens of other places flashed by. Several of the places were warded, likely for just such an occasion. The wards were simple and took little to no effort to bypass. But they did cost her valuable seconds.
With each jump she fell further and further behind until she couldn’t find the trace anymore. In a final effort, she mentally called out to Philomena. Her familiar appeared on her shoulder.
“Can you find him?” Philomena closed her eyes, then shook her head after a second. “Figures. Must have gone to some place warded against phoenixes. Could you bring the others here?” With a quiet trill, Philomena flamed away once again.
While she waited, Sunset looked around herself. She was standing on a field with many small plants. “Just where the hay is here anyway?”
“A very good question.” Dumbledore had faded in behind her. “I may have practiced the Equestrian style of teleportation from what I was able to glean by observing you and analyzing the new phasic wards, but I still can’t quite keep up with you.”
“I did have years of practice.”
“True enough, I suppose. Now, let’s see here.” He held out his wand and began casting a series of spells. “Interesting, we appear to be in northern France. Not particularly surprising, all things considered. Most British pureblood houses have also branched into France and many of their old manors are warded against phoenixes in some fashion. It is a pricey thing to do, but for many of them money hasn’t really been an issue in centuries.”
A flash of flame brought the rest of the group to their side. “Did we get him, Albus?”
“No, Filius. I’m afraid he escaped. He is likely hiding in one of the old pureblood manors here or back in Britain.”
“Here or back in Britain? Where exactly are we?”
Sunset walked over to her sister. “Northern France, apparently. A shame that Quirrell got away with the trap. Oh well, there is a reason the thing has a four vector spell matrix lock.”
“You expect he will not succeed in releasing Lord Voldemort once more?”
Sunset turned to Dumbledore, shaking her head. “No. The trap will only open with all four key spells. And any attempt to damage the trap or break it open, physically or with magic, is redirected against whatever may be inside. If he really does break it open, there won’t be anything left to release, but that would take an immense amount of power.”
Dumbledore sighed, but still managed a small smile. “A partial victory then. He may still be a threat in the future, but, at least for now, Tom is out of the equation. Shall we return to Hogwarts then?”
Seeing how three of the professors still had classes to teach, they quickly agreed and returned to the school.
Albus sat back in his chair with a sigh. Quirinus had managed to escape with the trap. By using a portkey. Why had he not thought to check whether the new wards blocked those? The old ones never did, but perhaps the new ones could be configured to do so. He would have to bring the matter up with Miss Shimmer.
On the positive, Tom was contained. They could worry about recovering the trap later. Tom was contained and he would stay that way. His followers they would still need to contend with, but he himself should not cause any further trouble. Albus wouldn’t count him out just yet, of course. Tom had a history of doing things others thought impossible.
Perhaps he could ask Miss Shimmer to provide training in the use of light magic. She had described her fight, if it could be called that, with Quirinus to him. Weakened magic or not, a killing curse would kill. That her shields were able to block it so completely was a clear indication that this light magic could prove a great boon.
For now, however, he had a more immediate matter to consider. It was only an hour or so until dinner and he had yet to find a way to explain to the students why they suddenly didn’t have a teacher for defense against the dark arts.
He would also have to find a new one. Again.
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Phew. I was really starting to be afraid that everything would go right for Sunset Sue.
Maybe this time they'll get rid of the position curse too.
9692033
Although I don't agree she's totally a Sue (all she truly did was get them in contact with one who had the ways to make the prison and stall for time against a weakened wizard), I've got to say this was indeed unexpected and welcome. It shows Sunset as competent, but not Space Battles competent. This little details help a lot in a story where her main strengths lie in knowledge and planning.
Definitely a nice conclusion to this whole proceeding.
I disagree that even with weakened magic the killing curse would kill. Its mentioned in the books it takes a lot of power to cast it and it can fail so its not guaranteed to kill under any circumstance.
9692117
I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you on that. I'm well familiar with the books and I don't recall them ever mentioning power requirements for any spell, this one included. The reason why, for example, Harry didn't manage to cast any of the unforgivables until the end of the last book was because he lacked the will, not the strength.
"My dear students, I'm afraid that Professor Quirrel has left us to pursue other employment opportunities. Specifically those of a wanted felon and terrorist. Which is a rather disappointing choice in career changes for such a respected man, but what can you do? In light of this revelation, I have chosen to support his lifestyle change by alerting the proper authorities so that they can assist Quirrel in fully appreciating the experience of a life on the run and in hiding, followed by an in depth interactive tour of the judicial processes of a trial. After which he shall most likely be enjoying several years of living on the State's dole in a nice and mostly tidy apartment in Azkaban."
9692148
fucking beautiful.
9692147
It's explained right in book 4.
9692166
True enough, but I suspect that is either him speaking in metaphor, or just something Rowling retconned in book five.
As Bellatrix puts it then:
9692182
All magic requires a certain amount of power along with will otherwise anyone would be able to take on Voldemort in a fight. Considering what the killing curse does it obviously requires a considerable amount of power to perform. In that particular moment Harry had the power but lacked the will.
Nice work
9692182
On the other hand, Crouch was specifying the Killing Curse, while Harry had just tried to torture curse.
And we can't start assuming retcons like that.
Okay… I've taken some time to calm down. But I am still a bit annoyed that he got away due to a supposed portkey shaped hole in the wards. Especially claiming that the original wards didn't block them either. If this is because he created that hole, with another confundus charm, then how did he know to place that charm in the first place, when the fact that the wards were being updated was kept secret from him? And why wouldn't the other professors see this obvious hole in the wards, when they went over it? If this world is based on canon, other than Sunset Shimmer showing up, then why did Draco have to resort to repairing a vanishing cabinet in the sixth book, if he could just use a portkey to smuggle in the Deatheaters? If he could use a portkey, he could use several, and make the destinations practically anywhere he wanted in the castle. And how is Hogwarts renowned as the safest place in the (UK's) magical world, if portkeys can get through the wards, and portkeys are a very common way for magicals to travel? If the answer is “The Triwizard Tournament's Cup was a portkey”, then I think I should inform you that it was supposed to be a portkey, and that's why it brought Harry back to Hogwarts; it had another portkey spell on it, which was keyed into the wards for the tournament. But you know what? If this is an alternate universe, then it's still mostly self consistent, because those later books haven't happened here.
Sorry for that. I'm not sure if this is a plot hole or what, so I felt that I had to say it.
9692227
It does make a small amount of sense for teachers to be able to make or have portkeys that are keyed to the wards, in the books and in the flims portkeys have been seen to go through them when created by those authorized to do so, for example with the triwizard cup, it was made into a portkey by a professor, and later on after the battle at the ministry Dumbledore sent Harry back to Hogwarts via portkey, not to mention the need for medical portkeys in case of emergencies, that being said it does seem sloppy for them to have not warded against that possibility, on the other hand it makes narrative sense in order to be continue the story without throwing away a primary villain
9692227
9692250
There is a bit of inconsistency in the books, isn't there? But, bear with me here, I think we can rationalize out a way that makes sense.
In the books, we see several ways port keys are used. We see a portkey out of Hogwarts. (Dumbledore uses it to get Harry, Hermione (I think) and the Weasleys to 12 Grimault Place for Christmas in book five) We see a portkey off Hogwarts' grounds. (The Triwizard Cup) And, we see a portkey onto Hogwarts' grounds. (Again, the cup) What we never see, however, is a portkey into the castle itself.
So, going from there, here is how portkey wards work. (Or my interpretation, at least.)
Portkey wards prevent a portkey from locking onto a destination in the warded area. (I.e.: Error! Destination not found.) That way, they cab prevent incoming portkeys, but not outgoing ones. Portkeys can only be blocked at the destination, not at the point of origin. Furthermore, Hogwarts' portkey wards, unlike the old apparition wards or, now, the new phasic wards, only extend to the castle itself, not the grounds. The reason Malfoy needed the vanishing cabinet was that he needed the Deatheaters in the castle. Not on the grounds.
9692274
So what you're saying is: “Sorry, Captain, but the transporters can't get a lock! There's simply too much interference.” Except that it's only inbound portkeys (My fingers keep trying to type “porkeys”—warning, warning: porkeys inbound; man your stations, this is not a drill, it's a grill! I repeat, this is a grill!) that are blocked.
I think that that implies that there is some kind of probe component to the enchantment, that travels to the set destination, to check that it can be traveled to, probably as a safety feature, in case the location has been changed since the portkey was enchanted, or in case the enchanter made a mistake, or simply because it's meant to be easy to enchant, and not require the most rigorous precision when being made. Which makes me wonder what Sunset can do with the portkey enchantment. But also makes me wonder about the mechanism of blocking the portkey, because it can't be kept inside, but can be kept out. So something about the presumed probe, while traveling, is unblockable, but become vulnerable to interference at the destination.
9692274
9692354
The simplest explanation is that just like with apparation the headmaster can choose to allow a portkey to function at Hogwarts. In all cases of portkeys working at Hogwarts, they almost certainly had Dumbledore's permission.
Something didn't go quite right, the damn book is next and best of all, Sunset gets to have fun with Lockhart!
Oh how I look forward to the snark that he is going to facilitate.
With a last name like Lockhart I wonder if he has a pony counter part? Maybe Jack Pot's brother or cousin? Because I really can see a Lockhart being related to Trixie.
9692710
For one thing wizards and witches live for a very very long time, to put things in the vague sense, since i am bad with figures, Dumbledore is not young at the beginning of world war 2, and is at least a hundred by the time of the books, waiting a few generations is harder when that means centuries, two while the Hogwarts teaches about the unforgivables, it does not teach how to use them, this is pointed out in the books as one of the changes made to the curriculum after the Carrows took over and in the flims where fake Moody had to ask special permission to show the class the spells ( though that could have just been due to the year of the class in quistion, been ages since i read them though so may be wrong), and finally the ones most likely to use the unforgivables are the purebloods who would have been taught them at their own homes by their families.
Just got caught up reading, I honestly thought you were going to derail the entire Series in the first book but I guess I'm wrong. One thing I am confident of though is that Sunset Shimmer maybe the star but Philomena is the MVP
9692794
Oh, absolutely. How could the heroes be heroes, if the can't get to the action in time?
9692908
It wasn't, actually. The fidelius charm was added by Dumbledore in between books four and five.
I’m not happy with this. That was a big Deus Ex Machina for Quirrel. He was made out to be foolish in the movies, and in this story it was the same. Foolish but backed by the wiles of Voldy. The problem is I can’t see either Quirrel or Voldy getting a portkey “contingency” plan.
But even if they did, the fact that Quirrel didn’t use it immediately, when Sunset was quite literally telling him she was stalling him, is just stupid. I mean, I really can’t see him forgetting that he has it. I guess it could be attributed to disorientation and mental exhaustion, but still.
But the biggest problem I have with it is that it feels like it was just thrown in there. That it was put there specifically so that Voldy would get a win. That Sunset would lose for once. I mean, there were multiple jumps that he made. I really can’t see that happening. Wizards have repeatedly been shown to lack common sense and be foolish when it comes to these things so I really can’t see any wizard or witch go through the efforts of making their tracks hard to follow. I can see them using a portkey to go to a heavily warded place, but I can’t see them using it to jump from place to place to place and finally a warded place.
So yeah, this really feels like it was thrown in there so Sunset would lose one. As if you were trying to adhere to the complaining commenters about how she was OP.
9693294
You need to stop generalizing, just because 11-year-old Hermione once said wizards lack logic it does not mean all wizards are idiots who are incapable of thinking on their feet or planning ahead.
I will agree that the portkey was a total asspull that makes no sense when you stop to think about it. There is no way that the old wards were incapable of blocking a portkey so saying the new wards couldn't do it because the old wards couldn't is a ridiculous explanation.
9693415
Im not generalising. Harry Potter running headlong into danger, being absolutely stupid alongside Ron and Hermione. Voldemort being stupid with his plans making little to no sense. Dumbledore being stupid with his reactions and not reacting to very real threats. The list goes on. It’s not limited to the children, it’s not limited to the good guys or bad guys, it’s not limited to Hogwarts, all of them are stupid and have no common sense.
I mean look at how they treat Goblins and Elves and shit! Common sense would say “we should treat them better they’re going to rebel or something” yet Malfoy’s father is surprised when Dobby refuses to listen to orders!
The entirety of Hogwarts itself is even a testament to their lack of common sense! It’s a death trap!
9693426
Without specific examples, I can only assume you don't know what you're talking about.
Look at real life, the threat of violence does not stop people from being assholes. Malfoy was surprised because House Elves are literally incapable of defying their masters and Dobby could only defy him because he had been freed thanks to Harry.
9693432
You’re being ignorant. I gave you examples, including one big example being Hogwarts. Common sense says Hogwarts shouldn’t be a school. Common sense says that the dark forest should be blocked off. Common sense says that anything dangerous within the halls should be removed. Common sense says that the stairway shouldn’t change at random. And yet Wizards and Witches in their lack of common sense decided that all of these things are a benefit and that it’s the best place for a school despite the fact that a student could die simply by walking down the wrong corridor.
Same thing with the stone. Common sense says Hogwarts is not, in fact, the best place for it. Common sense says putting dangerous traps and creatures in the school is stupid. Common sense says telling the students of such a thing makes them want to investigate.
Whenever I think about witches and wizards in HP I always wonder how the hell they are all still alive. They lack common sense, they’re idiots even the best of them, and they seem to lack self-preservation instincts to the extreme degree!
9693443
Wizards do non-sensical things because magic allows them to, what's considered horribly dangerous to us would be a minor inconvenience for wizards at worst. Why worry about injury when almost any injury can be instantly fixed. This does not make them idiots it just means magic allows them to do things that would normally seem crazy to us. Seems to me that if you wrote the Harry Potter books they would have been a lot less interesting.
9693453
What you’re forgetting is that it’s a school. Yes, magic let’s you do crazy things, but it doesn’t make you invincible. The students cannot defend themselves, even the prefects can’t reliably. Hell, some of the professors can’t defend themselves without backup. Any student wandering the wrong hall can easily get lost and die. Hell, Moaning Murtle is an unliving testament to that fact. She went to the wrong place at the wrong time, and died. (Though I think she was manipulated iirc it still proves my point).
Wizards and witches are still human, they can still die from a knife, the only difference is they have magic. But magic is of no use if you don’t know how to use it to defend yourself in the same way a gun is of no use if you don’t know how to use it to defend yourself. Your argument is invalid.
9693476
You're just nitpicking, it's a school and thus dangerous things don't normally happen. What occurs in the books isn't considered normal. The fact that dangerous things happen to our main characters is not an indication of how dangerous the school is. I guarantee all the students who had no affiliation with Harry Potter had a perfectly safe and normal time at school.
9693453
Addendum to my previous comment:
Add the fact that you can’t use magic outside of school, you’re not allowed to use it in view of muggles, and you’re just another human. If you use it, you’re a criminal. Their own restrictions restrict them from protecting themselves at times when they are the most vulnerable.
9693483
Moaning murtle had no affiliation and she died. Other characters had only just met him, they got petrified. He only just met the guy in the wizarding cup whose name I forget, he died.
Association with Harry Potter is not what’s causing it. I’m nit picking because you’re ignoring every point I make.
You say dangerous things don’t normally happen in the school but how do you know that? For all you know, 50 students die a year!
I’m going to bed now.
9693486
You're allowed to use magic to defend yourself and others in the event of life-threatening danger.
9693488
Yeah students were attacked 50 years ago and then nothing happened for 50 years, that's a better track record than most American Schools.
Yeah sure and it just never came up. At this point, you're just making shit up to prove your point.
9693493
It didn't just never come up, it didn't happen. It is explicitly stated that Myrtle's death was the first time a student died at Hogwarts (outside of a Triwizard Challenge)
9693628
In case it wasn't clear that was sarcasm on my part. Obviously if deaths were a common occurrence we'd have heard about it.
9694830
They're not OC's. They're canon. Introduced in season 7 episode 13 - The Perfect Pear.
Merlin's beard just knock him out already. Too late he is escaped.
9694836
Bright Mac and Pear Butter? I am sorry I thought you changed their names.
9694852
Bright Mac is just short for Bright Macintosh, which is what I called him. And, as Goldie Delicious said, no one called Pear Butter by her actual name. They all used the nickname Buttercup.
9695529
Well, normaly he would have. A side-effect of traveling between dimensions. But the animagus is the result of transformative magic. It is neither the effect of dimensional travel, nor his native shape. Thus, it breaks the rules that otherwise apply.
9693488
It seems that you are painting Hogwarts as this hyper-dangerous place.
The Forbidden Forest? Not only are there harsh punishments for going in, you actually have to get in pretty deep for the real dangerous stuff to be a problem. Not only that, but except for the rumored werewolves (which we never see), the acromantulas have an understanding with Hagrid, and the centaurs just don't like outsiders. Maybe there are more things in there, but they must be rare, with how many times the characters end up going in there.
Hardly a death trap, and proportionally dangerous to woods with bears in it for us, since we don't have any magic to defend ourselves.
It's forbidden because of the danger, but it's certainly no death sentence.
Wizards not having common sense, having prejudice against different magical races, and things like blood purity... have you even looked at real-life problems. People do not have common sense. Wizarding society actually is doing pretty well, considering how much more individual power each person has.
And quite a lot of people have normal, sane lives.
That original incident that killed Myrtle? The opening of the Chamber? People were outraged, and Hogwarts was almost closed. Closed. It is the only wizarding school in Britain. That's pretty big, and they took the threat seriously.
I mean, people get killed in schools today, and they don't close. It's just viewed as a tragedy. Hogwarts is viewed as a pinnacle of safety, and it actually deserves that designation, despite the interesting events that happen during the main series.
9696398
Side effect of copying in corrected versions whithout selecting what's already there. Both are fixed now. Let me know if you find any more.
9696127
I’m not really interested in continuing this argument, but I’d just like to say that while you did bring up valid points, I don’t see a lack of common sense in the real world. Sure, some people can be stupid at times, but I don’t see a lack of common sense that would make someone allow something dangerous into their school.
And before you say “people have snakes/spiders/dangerous animals as pets”, in those cases they’re caged, leashed, or otherwise dealt with in a way that makes them completely incapable of being a danger. Hogwarts has a ghost running around fully willing to harm students. A teacher brought in creatures that hung a student by their robe from a great height. There are various traps in certain rooms that, if not kill, would cripple a student.
And in general there’s a lack of common sense in the way that it’s rare to see them employ common sense. Real world? Uncommon to see a lack of it.
You get what I’m saying?
My previous comment, for reference:
9692354
I thought about it a little more, and had the idea that the presumed probe, after arriving at the set destination, needs to somehow check the environment for viability. But how does it check? I'm thinking of it like an immaterial, invisible, robot, or computer process given form by magic. So it needs to “look” at its surroundings somehow. Perhaps it emits an expanding bubble of practically imperceptible force, which sends feedback to the probe when it hits something, which gives the probe data to combine, and form a rough picture of the area, which it uses to determine if it's safe to trigger a transport. This would happen at the speed of magic, obviously.
The idea though, is that a ward that blocks portkeys, actually works by spoofing the probes senses, to tell it that the location is not a viable landing site. This is what I came up with to explain the one-way portkey warding.
9697784
Well, the idea isn't wrong, but its not just a probe. To target a portkey (or any kind of magical teleportation, really) the caster supplies the spell with all availiable information about the destination. (Aproximate location, appearance, structure, materials, inhabitants, (potential) current occupants, history, (expected) future, prophecies concerning it, etc. Anything they know about it, really) And the spell then basically checks reality as a whole (within a certain radius. not all of reallity, obviously) for a location that matches. All those wards really do it force that check to come back negative regardless.
It is a probe, kind of, but not an actual, physical entity that is somehow blocked or inhibited. It's far more aethereal than that.
Effectively, the purpose of the wards is to cause the magical equivalent of an http 404 Error. Destination not found.
I have the perfect candidate to teach the DADA class. His name is Salvador Dalí. He can be a bit temperamental though.
9697863
I think it's more analogous to a couple of different types of connection problem, rather than a 404 Not Found: "Connection Timed Out" (no response from target, which may or may not even exist) or "Connection Reset" (disconnected) which is also what happens if a network security device spots a connection that shouldn't be and "blocks" it. I rather suspect it'd be the latter- it successfully connects to the place and everything, but, before it can start pulling positional/safety data, it is forcibly disconnected and fails. A 404 occurs when an HTTP server checks the filesystem and finds nothing at the specified address (say, if the scan landed on deep space). I happen to know FimFiction is among the servers that spoof a 404 Not Found if you try loading a story that hasn't been published, unless you're the author or it has an "unpublished view password". As different from a 403 Forbidden code...
9699643
Perhaps I should clarify that the 'arts' in 'defense against the dark arts' do not mean actual art.
9700146
That was a joke. I did a stick in my own stuff where Discord shows up and turns the Defence Against the Dark Arts class into DADA art.
9700378
Wow ... I actually didn't spot the second layer to that pun ... right Dadaism is an artistic direction ... that was a thing ...
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