Chapter 11
A ring of flame surrounds Professor Dumbledore just moments after he lands, wand in hand. He’d been just about ready to change into his pajamas for the night when he’d suddenly gotten… Well, he could only call it a call, through the wards. Even though it hadn’t come from anyone that’s tied into the wards, only directly from the wards themselves- and none of the alert sequences had gone off. The message had been simple- hardly four words. The Stone isn’t safe.
There had been no tone in the message, no voice, to tell who it had come from. No style. It had almost been like someone had done what the occasional muggleborn would do after returning to the muggle world: Crisp, regular letters, far too regular to be handwritten or even typewritten; typewriters aren’t that regular either. Written in large, perfect letters on that impeccably rectangular paper of measured size and absolutely no flaws. Then… left on his nightstand or something, with no trace as to how it got there.
His long strides carry him to the key room very quickly; he passes it instantly by using the spare key, kept in his desk in his office.
He has to make sure the Stone is safe.
Professor McGonagall’s chessmen part instantly when he enters the room, allowing him to stride easily across it.
He checks behind him to make sure noone is following in his wake. The Stone must be safe. All the defenses are intact; even the door had still been locked. The ward alert sequences tied to the brooms in the key room had not gone off.
He raises his wand as he opens the door to the troll room, having already given himself the bubblehead charm to take care of the smell.
The troll is out cold.
He blinks; even he has trouble taking one of these down quickly. He’d expected it to be the only real choke point on his hurrying down here.
But it’s out cold.
He rushes forwards.
He also sends for Professor McGonagall again with the wards.
He enters the potion room.
The spellwork recognizes him; neither fire appears.
He rushes forwards, into the final room.
There is a table.
There is the Stone.
It’s safe.
He moves closer, looks closer. Verifies it really is the Stone, not some mockup.
It is the Stone. It is safe. He straightens up again, looking around the room. Must have been a false alarm. Though where it could have come from, he hasn’t a clue.
Then he spots someone in his peripheral vision, and looks. It’s a Slytherin girl, one of the English ones- no, a second year, he recognizes her. Lucy Clearwater. Only, she’s leaning out of his midsection.
“Have you any clue how weird that feels?” Lucy asks.
The world skews sideways and disappears.
Professor McGonagall, having set out as soon as Professor Dumbledore had alerted her before he'd set out himself, pauses in the potion room. Like her chessboard, the spellwork here recognizes her, and is letting her past.
But, she can feel in the wards, Professor Dumbledore just went unconscious.
“Feels like shock,” she mutters to herself, before proceeding slowly through the doorway into the final room, wand drawn, but in a lowered position.
She stops as soon as she gets through the flame, looking around.
There’s the table, with the Stone on it. There’s Dumbledore, lying unconscious on the floor.
The room is otherwise empty.
She raises an eyebrow. “Alright, Lyra, Bonbon,” she states aloud. “Or whoever else. You’ve made your point, and can appear now.”
Lyra suddenly appears out of nowhere in front of her. “Nice guess!” she announces, as Bonbon appears next to her.
She raises the other eyebrow. “Classes haven’t even started yet and you’re already looking for trouble?”
“Nah.” Another Equestrian, very suddenly standing behind Lyra- a Ravenclaw, with red-and-two-tone-purple hair. “We just happen to know the Crusaders landed in Gryffindor- and if we didn’t come here tonight to scout it, we’d stand a good chance of finding their bodies here tomorrow morning.”
Lyra raises an eyebrow at the Ravenclaw. “Nah, their survival instincts are actually pretty good. They’d probably make it as far as the chessboard, and lose.” She looks back at McGonagall. “But yeah, they’d do that tomorrow mornin- Hold on.” She looks down for a second, then lets out a snort of laughter. “Nevermind. The guards we left by the door up top just turned them back.”
“You left guards?” she asks, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah,” Lyra states- and suddenly, the room is full of Equestrian first-years. “Same kind of stealth spell. After we realized that warning of Dumbledore’s will have acted like a shouted invitation to come check it out to certain parties, the Crusaders included… Well, we had to get some experience in here to scout it before anyone had a chance to blunder in and get killed. And yeah, we left guards. They’ve been instructed to let staff pass, but stop anyone else.”
She nods slowly. “Ahh… How many other groups might go at it?”
Shrug. “Just about anyone in Gryffindor, plus a good smattering from the other houses, is our current expectation. As such, we’ll have to keep it guarded twenty-four seven, unless we want to allow at least someone to get hurt. As much as I like pranking, danger is a big nono.”
“You’re telling her that now?” Bonbon asks.
“What? It’ll only be so long before she sees me with the twins. And, if the twins do something overblown, that little bit of knowledge can help with damage control.”
McGonagall raises her eyebrow again. “The Weasley twins?”
“That’s the one,” Lyra states readily. “I call ‘em Gred and Forge, and I hope to serve somewhat of a moderating influence on their pranks. Keep ‘em on the safe side.” She sighs. “I will not be able to restrain them, and for that matter, I really don’t plan on trying. A good, safe prank is good fun all around- and, if well-executed, leaves little to no cleanup, either.”
Very suddenly, Professor Dumbledore jumps awake, sitting up sharply. “What-!” Then he scrambles to his feet, looking around at all the students.
“Good morning,” a Slytherin- second year, it looks like- greets him. McGonagall pauses briefly, squinting; yes, that’s Lucy Clearwater.
Dumbledore quickly calms himself down, after spotting McGonagall’s level expression. “What… What was going on, again?” he asks confusedly.
“Lucy was demonstrating one of the more interesting quirks of our stealth spell,” Lyra informs him. “And now that you’re awake, we can probably inform you of exactly how these defenses of yours measured up for the protection of that lump of very dark-enchantable rock.”
Dumbledore raises an eyebrow. “Dark-enchantable?”
“Yeah. Dark magic will stick to Philosopher’s Stones like glue. This one hasn’t seen any- thank Celestia- but if it does… there’s really no saving it.”
Slow nod. “Alright. What was your evaluation, then?”
“Totally inadequate. Moondancer?” She turns to the red-and-two-tone-purple-haired Ravenclaw.
The girl nods. “Let’s start at the top, shall we? Assume a particularly brave, but otherwise average, first-year Ravenclaw decides they want the Stone, towards the end of the year. Alohomora was enough to open the door to the third floor corridor- but as far as initial barriers go, it’s excellent. Enough to stop an accident, but not so overblown as to drive curiosity through the roof.
“Getting past the Cerberus would be harder. Those things can’t be knocked out by blunt force trauma, and our average Ravenclaw won’t have the magical might to push it out of the way. An illusion spell or two would probably suffice to distract it, though; if she’s lucky, or if she got someone that knows about its musical weakness to talk, or if she’s not afraid to kill him, she’ll get past him.” She grins. “We only know about that weakness because Lyra here is an amazing musician- to the point where most really good ones never reach. It is, conceivably, not something anyone but Lyra would think of. A decent second stage- stops those that are just curious.
“So she jumps down the trapdoor, lands on the Devil’s Snare. Ravenclaws are smart, though- and Devil’s Snare is in our first-year books, just like Alohomora. She’ll have a fire out in no time, and it’ll be out of her way. Anyone slower on the uptake, however, would face mortal peril.
“So she continues to that key room. A simple Accio was enough to summon the correct key; while that spell isn’t in our first-year coursebooks, it might as well be, and it is in plenty of very accessible books. Completely aside from that, while Alohomora wasn’t enough to unlock that door, Lock Pick was able to open it without magic, key, or resistance- and we didn’t test it, but a well-placed Wingardium Leviosa could probably turn the cylinder and open the door. Again, without the key, and this time with a spell in the first year books.
“Past that, she hits the chessboard. We spoofed the staff bypass to get through it, but I analyzed the spellwork- she’d have to play a pretty impressive game of chess to get past it, and not be one of the pieces she had to sacrifice. Give her a fifty-fifty chance, because again, Ravenclaws are smart.
“The troll comes next. That thing was even easier than the Cerberus- sure, direct magic on it didn’t work- I tried stunning it- but its club is another thing entirely. Wingardium Leviosa on that did to it what you no doubt saw on your way in. One blow, I even did it from the door. No doubt she wouldn’t know what she was getting into quite as fast as us, but getting its weapon away from it would be one of her priorities, and that’s a great way to do that. Expelliarmus doesn’t work with that massive of weapons, nor that resistant of wielders.
“Potion room. Ravenclaws are smart- she might have to start over a few times if she’s on the lower end of the spectrum, but our puzzle expert informs us that was one of middling difficulty. Great for stopping anyone dumber than a Ravenclaw, I expect, but not for one at that level. Make it a muggle-born and all bets are off no matter the house.
“After that… Well, the stone’s hers. If she managed to get both you and McGonagall distracted somewhere beyond the castle before she went in- I wouldn’t put that past a Ravenclaw that’d been studying for a few months- she could be long gone by the time anyone got anywhere near this chamber to stop her.
“Which, overall, gives our single, average Ravenclaw first-year about an even chance of capturing the Stone. Make it a team of Ravenclaws that go through the chess room one at a time, and they’d be virtually guaranteed to get it.
“In the end, if your goal is to protect this stone, you need something truly undefeatable. Something, perhaps, based on knowledge- or intent. If our intruder is instead a particularly smart Gryffindor, they’d stand a chance of losing to the Devil’s Snare and a lower chance of passing the chessboard, but they could be coming on pure curiosity- so something contingent on them knowing what’s down here would be enough to protect it. If they’re a particularly smart- and brave- Slytherin, no offense to Lucy here, they’d most likely make it down this far because they knew it was here, and wanted to use it. Make them a particularly smart and brave Hufflepuff, and they might be coming for it because they know of someone else that knows its here and are trying to protect it. The Ravenclaw… would probably just be coming to look at it.
“Really, the more the merrier, with those additional layers- knowing it’s here, wanting to have it but not use it, etcetera- even though those two alone wouldn’t stop our Hufflepuff… who would then take it straight to you, McGonagall, Flitwick, or the nearest professor they could trust, as soon as they deemed it safe to do so. Or too dangerous to hold onto.”
McGonagall allows a small smile to decorate her features as she shifts her gaze to Dumbledore, once the Ravenclaw finishes her speech. It was her section, after all, that stood the best chance to stop intruders. And she couldn’t do much better than that; Dumbledore had insisted it be possible to get past without the staff override. “Well?”
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
764 users online
1,052,046 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I can't really imagine Dumbledore fainting mostly because he's not one to give in to shock. Then of course there is the problem that the Elder Wand would probably count it as being defeated.
I really hope the mirror idea didn't come from the ponies cause that means you are really dumbing Dumbledore down for this story which would be disappointing to say the least.
Bigger problem is that the challenges can be completed by first years. Meaning that for most adults, the challenges would be child's play. The staff are going to have to do a lot better than that. Either that or give the stone to the Equestrians and put it with the others in the Royal Vault while hinting to the staff that the stone is still in the corridor for misdirection.
I always thought that the "traps" were more of an obstacle course.
None of the traps were really fatal in the books. The target of the course, was of course, Tom and his desire to have the stone -- which was stopped by the mirror.
I am convinced that the Mirror was the only real guard, and everything else was just to keep the generic crowd out. And yes, the typical fanfic idea of half the school treating it as a challenge just to say that they could.
After everything Dumbledore went through fighting Grindelwald and Voldemort, I find it hard to believe that he'd startle so badly at what appeared to be a hokey bit of illusion magic. And honestly, you really oughtn't startle an archmage after keying him up so badly vis-a-vis the priceless magical artefact he's guarding.
They're lucky he didn't just blast the entire room with a high-powered stunner instead of fainting.
The idea that ponyland has had several philosopher stones is interesting and can be used to explain several oddities and abuses of dark magic we've seen canonically.
Everything from Sombra destroying one to vanish the Crystal Empire to unusually long lived ponies to the alicorn amulet to the reason gold is so common.
9629955
Yes, she does. But with everything else that happened, she may not be thinking about it... or even remember it at all. I donno, I'll have to decide once the first-night mini-arc completes.
9630008
She doesn't have to be obsessed to be an anthropologist. Look at Daring Do. Her only obsession involved with her job is keeping the artifacts from Ahuizotl. I like the stories where she is an anthropologist just because it fascinates her. My point still stands. Had they had trouble Twilight would have not only figured it out but made the system 20% more efficient.
9630042
I agree.
In my worlds, humanity is always completely unheardof to Equestria- including Lyra- until and unless they collide... Which they have, in a few cases (here, The Equestrian Starliner, and more literally in Crashland: Equestria; the cancelled From Pouch to Pockets doesn't count, The Sphinxian Equine hasn't reached Equestria, and I'm not counting stories like Delivery Express or Prime Delivery where transformed humans landed in Equestria). As such, I usually make her fascinated by technology- which may or may not have been left behind by humans (see really any other one of my crossover stories...)
Then of course, there's the near-humanity of the EqG world, which is canon to a couple of my stories (including The Equestrian Brigade, but I can't remember any more off the top of my head).
Which of course means, while Lyra may not be an anthropologist, she's about as close to a computer nerd as an Equestrian can get. Give her a computer (as happened here), and... Well... Yeah.
9630072
My point still stands. Put any problem before them and they will come up with at least a dozen solutions before you even leave the room.
9630092
Yes, yes it does. I am not disputing that- especially with my (unusual, I understand) depiction of Lyra as a graduate from Celestia's school.
9630269
As an explanation: in some fandoms it is accepted that if something unusual happens it is statistically on a Tuesday ("Is it Tuesday already?") And Thursday is the day when nothing interesting or strange ever happens so Discord driving everyone insane would be a normal Thursday for Ponyville. Also, and I'm only relatively certain this is canon, me calling Luna Guardian of Foals wasn't a joke or anything. That is her actual job.
9630311
I don't know if it's canon either, but Luna strikes me as that kind of personality, yes.
... Huh. Yeah, I suppose it would be Tuesday... Actually, quite literally, too- chap. 4 (and 5) happens on July 30th, 1991, the day before Harry comes to get his Hogwarts stuff (in chap. 6)... and July 30th, 1991 was a Tuesday.
9629834
No. You eating your laptop.
9629836
Oh. That makes sense.
9630744
Ahh.
Yeah, that would be a sight to behold... Bit expensive, though- it cost $600, plus a $200 memory upgrade.
9631167
That it would.
And yes, that was misspelled... Expelliarmus. Think expel-li-arm-us.
Something like that might happen anyways, to boot...
9631170
Wizards are at their most vulnerable when their wand is out of their hand by keeping his in his walking stick Lucius ensures his wand never has to leave his hand. So yes I'd say that's pretty clever.
9631170
9631196
Not to mention, it would so happen that noone would think to look in a walking stick for a weapon/wand... even if it's an everyone-uses-it hiding spot.
9631196
Oh, you misunderstand. Yes the concept is clever. I am not arguing that. I just don't consider him clever for copying thousands of gentlemen who did it before him. Many of whom were the no-majs he incorrectly considers himself superior to. So, in conclusion, the action clever, him doing it when he has obviously been observed drawing it in the past thus everyone knows it's there, not so much.
9631271
That's not the point, the reason that you don't carry a wand in your hands at all times is that it draws attention and makes people nervous. The cane lets him have his wand without those drawbacks. It doesn't matter if people already know his wand is in the cane that just tells them they need to be careful around him at all times which is still beneficial for him.
9631327
First, I like my explanation better so that is my headcanon. Second, two people don't make a pattern, so while I could see Twilight and Hermione figuring it out that quickly I could not see enough realizing it to be that noticeable among that many students so I'm gonna stick with my "every pony being a good pony" theory.
9631393
Ahh... In this case, two people was enough, because it wasn't even a majority of them that grasped it- it was the Agents... from the moment the very first one realized those two names were also the very first two alphabetically-organized names, and announced it on the walkies... they chose to work on that assumption until proven false. It never was.
Yes. No doubt, as soon as they saw the scroll, they started guessing at what ordering it had, if any.
Edit: It was after the third name was called, not the second, that they started reorganizing. Random order can give two sequential names; I've had it do that before (with numbers). Three is vanishingly rare.
9631403
Still like my headcanon better, no offense.
9631474
None taken.
Good thing it was Moondancer who went with the explanation. If it was Twilight, the whole week will be gone before she finish.