Chapter 10
“That’s… a Devil’s Snare?” Lucy asks, as the magic blue platform everyone had ridden to the bottom disappears into the darkness.
“Yep,” Moondancer nods. “Don’t touch it- I’m not particularly interested in wasting the energy required to set it on fire.” Several of the girls chuckle.
“Anyways,” Lucy mutters, turning to the green-haired Gryffindor girl. “How did you see in this darkness from so far away?”
The girl chuckles, holding out her hand. “That’s my unique talent,” she states. “And the reason they call me Agent Hidden Light. Speaking of which… Yeah, I forgot to include you in the spell. Hold on a sec.”
Moments later, Lucy gasps as the darkness seems to scurry away in the wake of a gentle blue glow suffusing the air around the group. It’s a bit of a strange effect; noone seems to have a shadow. “Wow! That’s- wait. If someone happened across us with that- without Lyra’s stealth thing- they’d never see it?”
She nods. “Yep. This light is completely invisible to anyone I don’t specifically want to see it. And anything it shines upon, I can see, whether or not I’m looking.” She chuckles. “Gives a whole new meaning to my name, Glowing Blue.”
She blinks. “Your name is Glowing Blue.”
Nod again. “Yeah. Not the most common, even in Equestria. And I’ve tried teaching the spell to others- it’d be incredibly useful for some of the more experienced Agents to have- but none of ‘em can pull it off.” She heaves a sigh. “Makes sense, it is my unique talent. Anyways, we’d best get moving before Bonnie leaves us behind. I’m not seeing any traps in this passage- other than that plant, that is- but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, and I’d hate to get caught alone.”
“Right!” She trots after the group with Glowing, catching up fairly quickly.
“There’s something up ahead,” the brown-haired Ravenclaw boy states. “Can you see it, Derpy?”
The blonde Hufflepuff walking next to him looks forwards. “Yep,” she states. “Well-lit room full of… flying keys. First time I’ve seen those. Um… There’s a few brooms on a rack by the wall, not nearly enough for all of us.”
Bonbon nods. “Sounds like a classic catch-the-key to me.”
“Classic?” Derpy asks.
She nods again. “You’ve clearly never visited any of the nobles’ hidden vaults,” she states. “Every last one of them- save Blueblood- uses a catch-the-key like this. A huge pain for, ah, anyone that can’t fly.” She glances back at Lucy, walking just behind her. “Sorry, there’s… a few things we’re not allowed to mention about our home just yet.” Then she glances at Lyra, walking next to her. “Though, something tells me your execution of the papa tango is going to throw that out the airlock.”
Lucy tilts her head. “What is the papa tango?”
“Secret,” Lyra answers her.
“And… the ‘dodger’?”
“Ahh…” Lyra looks inquisitively at Bonbon.
“What?” Bonbon asks.
“You know her better than I do,” Lyra states.
“Oh, all right,” Bonbon mutters, and puts a hand to her chin. “Um… Yeah, I don’t know.” She glances back at Lucy. “Sorry, secrecy policies can be a bear to uphold sometimes. ‘Dodger’ is a nickname we came up with- but I don’t think I can tell you any more just yet.” She turns back to Lyra. “Speaking of which, how is the papa tango coming along?”
Lyra grins. “Well, I’ve already got the Weasley twins begging me for details.”
Bonbon lets out a laugh. “Oh boy. Something tells me he’s going to have the time of his life.”
Lyra chuckles again. “Yeah. So will the twins.” She glances back at Lucy. “Don’t worry, for as amusing as I expect the papa tango is going to be, you won’t need to worry about it happening to you. I haven’t perfected the spells necessary just yet- and besides, I’m going to be masking the matrices when I execute them, making them impossible to duplicate.” Then she grins. “And, it’s not something I’m going to be throwing around willy-nilly, either.” She giggles. “That’d get me in sooo much trouble.”
“Uhh…” Lucy mutters, eyes wide.
“Yeah,” Glowing mutters. “I kinda wish Moondancer was doing that; she’s the smartest one we got here at Hogwarts, discounting Twilight who’d probably kill someone with an incomplete spell. Only problem is, only Lyra has half a clue what she’s doing, or what she’s doing it with.”
“That sounds…” Lucy begins.
“Dangerous?” Glowing suggests, and Lucy nods. “Normally, I’d agree. In the hands of a mad scientist like Twilight, definitely. But Lyra’s always been one of the most careful agents, even though she’s a great example of Gryffindor bravery. Don’t ask me how she manages that. But with her doing it, as much as she may prank a couple people with it before she’s satisfied, you can be certain it’ll be completely safe before she starts doing anything with it.”
“... Oh.”
“Wow,” someone up front states. “Yeah, that’s keys all right. And there’s a door on the other side- just a sec.”
Lucy spots the Gryffindor dash underneath all the flying keys and reach the door, before pulling on it. “Yep, locked. Alohomora! … Nope, didn’t work.”
“Accio Key!” Moondancer calls, stepping into the room. A large, silver key falls out of the air into her waiting hand. She raises her eyebrow, and looks at it. “Huh. No spells at all, save the flight- and… Yep, it’s a match to the lock.” She glances up. “That summoning spell isn’t in the first-year charms book, but it’s about as hard as the unlocking spell, so anyone with access to the library could have learned it. Virtually no power cost at all.”
“Wait,” Lyra calls, trotting across the room to join her and the other Gryffindor by the door. “You said the key had no other spells on it at all?”
“Yeah.”
“Then… Yeah, nothing on the door either. Lock pick?”
The other Ravenclaw girl grins, flicking her steel-colored hair as she trots forwards, drawing something from a pocket. She reaches the door… and three seconds later, pulls it open without the key. “Old-fashioned lock,” she states. “No spells, no pins. Zero security value whatsoever. Wingardium Leviosa would be enough to turn the cylinder.”
Moondancer shrugs, tossing the silver key back into the air, over her shoulder, and turning to Glowing. “Alright, next room. What’re we getting into now?”
“A dark room, there’s a light spell though, set to wake as soon as we enter. Massive chessboard, on the black side.” Scowl. “There’s a lot of spell matrices in there.”
Everyone walks in, slowly, carefully.
“Good evening,” Lyra greets the black knight she’d just touched; the stone had come to life at her touch. “I don’t suppose we have to play our way across, do we?”
It nods.
“Ahh, thank you. So, who feels up to a game of chess?”
“Interesting,” Moondancer mutters. “The chess AI for the white pieces is pretty good, but… Yeah, that’s a staff override. Keyed to exactly two people, which would be… Yeah, I recognize those signatures. Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore. Hold on a sec.”
“Is she…?” Lucy begins.
“Yep,” Glowing states. “I’ve been trained to analyze matrices as well, but I haven’t a clue where to look for chess AI- let alone evaluate it. As we mentioned earlier, Moondancer is one of the best of the best. I’m not, I just have a good light spell that no one else can use.”
Suddenly, the pieces on both sides of the board split to the sides, making a pathway to the door on the far side.
“There,” Moondancer nods. “Would have been easier to crush the matrices altogether than to spoof Dumbledore’s signature; it’s safe to say that anyone other than the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress, save us, would have to play a pretty impressive game of chess to get across- and hope the piece they replaced didn’t have to be surrendered.” She glances back as she starts across the board. “The King can’t be substituted.”
“That’s actually pretty good,” Lyra states. “What happens when they’re taken?”
“Smashed to the ground, shoved to the side. There’s a spell on the room, though- no damage, but they’ll be held unconscious for as long as they’re in the room- and an alert will go onto the castle wards, as well. So, no real danger.” Chuckle. “I’d have been happier if this was what was behind the Cerberus, with the Devil’s Snare after this.” She glances to the side. “The door would prevent accidental entry, the Cerberus would deter anyone that isn’t serious. This would catch anyone that isn’t on the top of their game, then the Devil’s Snare would up the stakes and drive away anyone not dead serious. The key room… I donno. I wouldn’t want it in front of the Cerberus; people would start treating it like a game. But that’s really about all it’s worth. C’mon, staff override will only last five minutes.” She then leads the party across the board, glancing back at Glowing as she opens the door.
“Empty passage, no signatures,” she states simply, and everyone follows Moondancer through it.
“So, with everything we’ve gone through so far,” Lucy mutters.
Bonbon answers. “The locked door will have stopped anyone that wasn’t sure if it was their classroom or not; the Cerberus will have turned back any wimps. The Devil’s Snare will have dined on anyone that didn’t have the reaction time to catch the right key in the key room without a summoning spell; that giant chess set will have stoppered any idiots. What’s next?”
Moondancer opens the door at the end of the passage, allowing a truly terrible smell to waft into the tunnel. “Stupefy! Huh. Well, let’s try Wingardium Leviosa!” A sickening crack from the room brings a sudden end to the grunting, before a loud clattering of wood on stone comes back, and Moondancer opens the door all the way. “Troll,” she states. “Looks like a mountain troll. Pretty magic resistant itself- stunner did nothing- but anyone that thinks to try levitating its club is going to have him out cold in moments.” She glances back. “Even easier than the Cerberus- those can’t be knocked cold by blunt-force trauma. Thus, utterly pointless. Though, I suppose the stench may turn back the weak of heart, even if the Cerberus will have already turned them back. Here, there’s the next room.”
Moondancer has the door only half-open before Glowing lets out a gasp, and everyone freezes, looking at her.
“We’re safe now,” she mutters- and several students let out sudden breaths. “There’s a pair of barrier spells on a trigger in there- but the trigger also sends an alert to the castle wards.”
“Can you suppress it?”
She shakes her head. “No. My light spell should slip under its radar- Lyra, it’s watching for thaumic auras to enter the room. Can we hide that?”
Lyra blinks, then chuckles. “Yeah, actually, that’s intrinsic to my stealth spell. That light in the chess room only came on because I placed the stealth matrix on standby- the chessmen wouldn’t have realized we were there, otherwise.”
“So… Yeah, we should be okay.”
“But tread softly,” Lyra states. “And noone use magic. I know a few spells that’ll stay hidden by my stealth, but almost any standard spell will break free of it.”
“Got it,” several people state.
“What about the light spell?” Lucy asks.
“It’s already hidden,” Glowing states. “Even Lyra- master of disguise and detection- can’t find it unless I want her to.”
Lucy blinks. “I take it your light spell can also see spell matrices?”
Glowing chuckles. “When I said that I can see anything it shines upon, I do mean anything. I can see the dust motes floating in the air, the footprints on the floor, fingerprints on the bottles, and, of course, spell matrices stand out like a sore thumb. Not unlike the castle wards- which, by the way, we’re nearing the heart of.”
“We are?” Lyra asks, glancing back.
“Yeah. The ley lines are starting to converge up ahead.”
“And what bottles?” Lucy asks.
“Presumably, there’s some bottles in there,” Bonbon states. “Moondancer?”
“Yep,” Moondancer answers, swinging the door the rest of the way open. “A few different shapes and sizes. There’s a piece of paper here. Lemme see… Um… Oh, a logic puzzle. Three hold poison, two wine; one potion will penetrate the barrier onwards, another back.” She points at the bottles in what appears to Lucy to be a random order. “Doc, this is your department- how hard is it?”
The Ravenclaw boy steps over next to her, looking down at the page, then glances up at the bottles for a second. “Eh, middling. I’m more worried about the size of that bottle- that’s only one dose to go forwards.”
“There’s probably a staff override,” Lyra mutters, looking around. “Either that, or the potion is self-replenishing. In any case.” She glances back at Lucy. “Any idea how effective a logic puzzle will be against wizards? We haven’t had a chance to find out yet.”
Lucy closes her jaw. “Very effective,” she states. “A lot of the greatest witches and wizards haven’t got an ounce of logic.”
“So if it’s middling difficulty by Equestrian standards- Doctor Whooves, or Time Turner, makes and solves them for a living, he would know- then it’s gonna stump all but the smartest wizards.”
“He makes and solves logic puzzles for a living?”
Time Turner shrugs. “In a manner of speaking. I make and repair the gizmos and gadgets the locals need or use. You’d be amazed at how intricate some of them can be.” He chuckles. “I actually do make and sell puzzles of this format, among others, as a bit of a hobby.”
“Still, this would be an excellent follow-up to the devil’s snare, if it were placed after the chess set,” Moondancer states. “The door to stop accidentals, the Cerberus to keep out the curious, the chess set to stop the strong, the devil’s snare to escalate to life-threatening, and this- oh, this is a perfect trap. If you get it wrong and drink the wrong bottle, it could be one of the three poisons- and even if it’s not, if it’s not the right one, they’ll be trapped in this room- those barriers are mortal barriers- until Dumbledore or McGonagall stop by to find out who’s here! Honestly, if I were some imposter on that sequence, I’d stop after this and turn back; with each barrier being an escalation of the last, I’d only expect to find an even tougher escalation after.”
“Speaking of which, next room,” Lyra mutters. “Glowing, anything over there?”
“Mm?” Glowing walks over to the door. “Ah… There’s a table with a rock on it, and the heart of the wards is anchored to the ceiling, but there’s nothing else- no other doors, either. No matrices, no triggers for the wards.”
“Well, that’s convenient,” Moondancer chuckles, opening the door. “Does suggest whatever it is isn’t- Wait. That is not-!” She trots into the next room, everyone else following behind her, and bends over the table to look at something. Then she straightens up, planting a hand in her face. “Well, we now know what’s worth protecting with a bunch of ineffective and dangerous enchantments,” she states.
“What is it?” Lucy asks.
“That,” Moondancer states, stepping to the side to reveal a blood-red stone sitting on the table and pointing at it, “is a Philosopher's Stone. Probably the one that belongs to Nicholas Flamel, too- that is the only one in existence.”
“And for good reason, too,” Bonbon mutters, leaning in for a closer look.
“Oh?” Lucy asks.
“Yeah,” Lyra states. “They can turn any metal into gold, and produce the Elixir of Life, set to give anyone an indefinite lifespan. On the flip side of the coin, if you’re not careful, the things are deadly dangerous. Excellent anchors for dark magic, and not so much for light magic. And don’t even try scanning them. Nasty harmonic unless you know exactly what you’re doing.”
Bonbon looks up at her. “How do you know that?”
“Celestia has three of them locked in the Vault.”
Several people turn to stare. “What.”
Bonbon just facepalms. “I keep forgetting Lyra’s one of the elite few capable of penetrating that.”
“Elite few?” Lyra asks.
Bonbon clears her throat. “Right. Elite few, in that she’s one of a total of four people capable of gaining undetected, unauthorized access to the Royal Vault. And all three of the others are allowed entry!”
“Who are they?” Lucy asks.
Lyra chuckles. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence. Princess Twilight is allowed entry as well, but she’s not powerful enough- yet- to overwhelm the wards and break in.”
“And you are?”
Shake. “Nah- even Discord can’t break in, and he’s stronger than me. I’ve got the finesse- and strength- to fool the wards into thinking I’m not there.”
“And that’s, quite literally, the most powerful wards in the entire nation,” Moondancer states.
“Yeah.”
“And you call me one of the best of the best.”
“Yeah.”
“You know I can’t approach the Vault with a fifty-foot pole without being detected, right?”
“Yes, actually. All the other ‘best of the best’ can’t get within a hundred feet. Or more.”
She turns to Bonbon. “I think I finally understand how she has a clue how to do the papa tango.”
Bonbon nods solemnly. “Yeah. There are times I’d give a limb just to understand how her mind works. Anyways, now that we’re here, Lyra- was that defense anywhere close to adequate to protect something like this?”
Lyra shakes her head. “Not even close. Get a party of one Gryffindor and one Ravenclaw- or, if she’s brave, just a Ravenclaw- and she stands a fifty fifty chance of getting all the way down here. The only tricky part would be pacifying the Cerberus without knowing about the music weakness. Make it a particularly smart member of the house, and any house could produce someone capable of doing it all.” She glances back at the door to the room with the potions in it. “Send the Gryffindor through this door to fetch the Stone, rejoin back in that room, and return together. The chess pieces won’t bother anyone traveling in the other direction, and the brooms in the key room would more than suffice to get them past the devil’s snare. Surprise would keep the Cerberus from reacting to them until they were gone, if they were quick.
“The biggest obstruction would be the ward activation from entering that potion room- but if they managed to get Dumbledore, the only one with a direct receipt line of those notifications, away from the castle… They’d be long gone by the time anyone got around to opposing them.” She glances back at the door. “And yeah, those potions are self-refilling. I can see the cutouts for it in the ward matrix- the bottles reset as soon as the room is empty, and their contents every ten minutes when there’s someone there.”
“Well then,” Bonbon shrugs, pulling a large number of sweets out of her hair. “Who wants to send Dumbledore a message with the wards, and who wants some extra dessert?”
Lucy’s jaw drops again.
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I think they'll be somewhat more impressed with Dumbledore's mirror gambit. 'tis a pity he hadn't got it ready yet, but he has been somewhat busy lately.
9627402
Aye, but waiting until it actually breaks rather than performing maintenance and inspections is just sloppy.
9627417
I expect they will be too.
As a matter of fact, this penetration of theirs might even be why it's there... After all, THAT spell is truly difficult to penetrate!
9627418
I agree. They say, "don't fix it if it ain't broke"... Very true.
Unless you're a programmer, where fixing it before it's broke is called "idiot-proofing" (No really, that's the technical term). And yeah, this was a case where just a little bit of idiot-proofing would have prevented a huge amount of confusion.
Really like this story so far, I appreciate that it has yet to devolve into pointless bashing.
That said I had a hard time following what was going on in this chapter at times as the dialogue kept bouncing between different characters with new ones suddenly popping up as well as them constantly discussing things that only make sense to the characters themselves leaving the reader needlessly confused for several paragraphs.
As of this posting: 34 likes; 0 dislikes.
You need your own holiday.
9626722
You're a fanfic writer. Rowling was being paid to write, so she has no excuses.
9627757
That is true. Some of it was deliberately confusing; the chapter was told from Lucy's point of view... and the constant inter-conversation between Agents almost certainly didn't help. Don't worry, it gets better.
9627758
Ah... Unfortunately, I count 34 likes, one dislike. Said dislike was posted approximately three hours ago, well after the 34th like. But yeah, I very well might need my own holiday- that's only a third the like/dislike ratio of the flat-out highest-rated stories on this site!
... and if I want to be competitive (which I generally don't), it beats Magic School Days' and If Wishes Were Ponies' ratios (12.5 and 15.5 respectively) out of the water...
9627778
This is true.
9627778
Sure she does, when she started writing she just wanted to write a series of children's books which is why the first two are pretty simple and straight forward. She never planned for it to explode into some worldwide phenomenon and switch it into some fantasy epic. I don't think it's fair to hold the first two books against her (they being the ones who cause the most problems for continuity) because it's not like she could have predicted how popular the thing would become.
9627790
True, but it would be simple enough to explain away the issues in the earlier books.
9627794
Yeah but why? What happens in the first two books don't really affect what happens later so I don't think she really needed to go back and explain those inconsistencies. If people ask why Dumbledore didn't just apparate to London she would freely admit it was because she honestly hadn't thought up the idea of apparating when she wrote that book which is the same reason the Floo network wasn't an option either it just didn't exist yet (Although she did explain that the fireplaces at Hogwarts aren't normally connected to the Floo Network).
Yeah, we can nitpick these little problems but considering she had to adjust her story to capitalize on unexpected popularity, and did a pretty damn good job, I think we can ignore the fact that the first 2 books don't really take the larger universe into account.
9627805
The problem is, the first 2 books are REALLY significant.
Most other writers don't have that problem, or if they do they explain it away.
All Dumbledore needed to do was do things like throwing out a line such as 'I was in a delayed meeting with the minister'.
Problem solved.
9627811
But when would that come up? It would have been silly to shoehorn those explanations and it's not like she didn't try. Heck, she used a flashback in book 7 to explain that Dumbledore asked Snape to keep an eye on Quirrell and I believe Snape at one point even explains why Voldemort didn't reach out to him in book 1. Trying to fix all the inconsistencies though is just a pointless waste of time. If it really bothers you then just make up your own explanations or do what the bashers do and use them to fuel your own hatred.
Either way, I don't really think Rowling needed to waste time covering up those inconsistencies or minor plotholes when it's easier to just own up to her mistakes and move on. I don't believe the story every suffered for it.
9627805
Actually, aparition was invented for the 2nd book, not after it. Ron mentions Mr. Weasley knows how to disaparate when they go to take the car to Hogwarts- that's Chamber of Secrets. In the same book, they took the floo to Diagon Alley.
Personally, I think the travel time can be attributed to the danger that aparition is slated to have- and, perhaps Hogwarts' anti-aparition wards are very far-reaching... Pretty sure no one ever aparates anywhere near Hogwarts, save only in the great hall during aparition classes. That doesn't close up the plothole entirely, though. And, in the later book when Dumbledore's out Horcrux-Hunting with Harry, they use brooms to return to the castle, not aparition.
... but any story is going to have its discontinuity-based plotholes, unless it's written from a scientific perspective (like mine tend to be).
Edit much later: Oh, and Dumbles apparates in and out of Little Winging during the first chapter of the first book...
My issue with this chapter - it's a Philosopher's Stone, not a Sorcerer's stone. Literally been part of myth and folklore for hundreds of years. =D
9627843
I agree.
But it's a "sorcerer's stone" in the HP books... so that's how the Equestrians would have read up on it on earth, so that's the terminology they'd be using to avoid confusion. Some things, it's easier for them to change than for the wizards.
9627845
The thing is...It's not. It was changed in some early US editions only because the publishers thought American children were too stupid to understand what a Philosopher was (they ACTUALLY said that!).
9627845
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone
9627845
I'm pretty sure it was only called the sorcerer's stone when it was first brought to America. These days it's been changed back to the original name The Philosopher's Stone.
9627853
Wut.
... I can believe it, actually. I mean, I've seen motorcyclists with no gear whatsoever texting at 40mph at night. You don't get much stupider than that. Yeah, I'll flip it around- philosopher's stone.
... Interesting. All of one word in the entirety of the chapter.
9627857
Ever watched the Darwin Awards? You have gems like a man with a skin condition being treated with a flammable oil, being told NOT TO SMOKE. First thing he does? He does a Dark Souls and becomes a bonfire.
9627862
Yeah, I've seen Darwin Awards. And that motorcyclist doesn't even compare to some of the ones I've seen. (The ones that aren't snake-eats-self CGI gimmicks, that is). But that's the first time I've seen a Darwin Nominee in person!
An interesting story. But aren't people going to notice that most of these children are acting like adults? Especially when they start talking about their jobs and stuff? And I'm sure a few of them are parents who will talk about their foals.
lol. Parent and child in the same class could be funny.
9628178
Oh, certainly. Right now, though, day one- arrival day- hasn't ended yet. So no one's had time to notice any of that just yet.
And the Royal Equestrian Secret Service (Maybe I'll call it 'RESS' in-story at some point...) hasn't been exactly forthcoming with those kinds of details either, so...
With the whole "first 2 books vs the rest of the series" comments: Remember, that when Darths and Droids did an episode 50 spoof of Harry Potter, they used the 3rd movie for their spoof material.
9627418
Ah, but you seem to forget. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the wizarding world's policy on everything. Well that and "If it's broke but is tradition keep doing it anyway."
Pranking target? Primary Target? Pegasus Transformation? Pop Tart? Penetration Testing? (seems fitting with Lyra's skill)
Given that it's likely to blow the secret, perhaps the third one?
For some reason this does not surprise me at all.
Okay, that's a perfect ending to the scene.
9662975
It so happens that Lucy's statement you quoted... is a direct quote from the canon Hermione, in the same room.
So far, every reference to Twilight in this fic seems intent on turning her into a bumbling, inept, powerful but not very bright stooge. Was that the intent? Because it's really making me lose interest. I do NOT like character bashing, even if it's not one of my faves.
9742978
Well, any character bashing was unintended. In my headcannon, Twilight has book smarts- and unfortunately, book smarts are rarely used in the real world. She's quite lucky in Equestria, in that all the book-smart-requiring things come at her (or she knows where to smarten up to fight them), but that distinction is still there. She just... doesn't have the specific skills for what's going on here, and may be prone to more than a little tunnel vision. As for the "Twilight would probably kill someone in the attempt"... Have you seen her in a laboratory? She gets so tunnel-visioned the safety of her subject tends to take a second seat... and with something so powerful and dangerous, she'd almost certainly go off half-cocked in an effort to test a theory.
It's my way of not placing her on mary-sue level.
And don't worry, Lyra hits her limits as well before too long.
Okay, now I am curious to know who, in Equestria, made those. My guess is Starswirl. Then come another pressing question - where did the stone really originate from? Equestria? or Earth?