Chapter 33
“Well, look at that. Presents,” Harry muttered. He certainly hadn’t been expecting this large of a pile; it was Christmas morning, but he only had two friends, and there were at least five packages.
Though, he supposed, Hagrid- the gamekeeper, who absolutely loved Silver’s willingness to help with anything- could be one of them.
That was still only three for five.
An unwelcome voice cut in suddenly. “What were you expecting, turnips?”
Harry closed his eyes, groaned, and flopped back down on his bed. Ron had figured out that he slept in the same room about a week before the holidays had started- he’d been sorely tempted to ask Silver and Hermione if he could sleep in their dorm, but had decided against it. It’d only invite even more ‘threesome jokes’, as Silver had rather elegantly described them.
He almost grinned at the memory. That had been the time when just a few too many such jokes had been uttered just a little too loudly near the girl while she was trying to study. She’d exploded to her feet, started yelling… and gone for her wand.
Silver had made a red-faced apology that Lyra- who had not been affected by the blast by virtue of not having teased them about it- had waved off. “Making jokes about that is not okay in Equestria either. And besides, it’ll wear off in a few hours.”
Harry and Hermione, however, had almost fallen over laughing at how all the ones that had teased them for being a ‘threesome’ had been suddenly stuck to each other at the hip, side-by-side, in groups of anywhere from three to fifteen.
Ron wasn’t finished talking. “... you a Weasley sweater.”
Harry, still staring at the ceiling, ignored him, as per usual. He put one hand out to touch his nightstand, and muttered an incantation.
He didn’t touch his wand. He didn’t need to. He was an Etrah.
And it was a marble countertop.
Then he sat back up again, pushed the curtains closed on Ron’s side, and hoisted all his presents up onto his bed. He didn’t need Ron ogling them, whether he could hear him doing that or not.
Oh, and his initial estimate had been wrong. There were six packages; the last looked like a postcard, and had been tucked between the others. He shrugged, and opened that one first.
It was… a note, from the Dursleys, with a fifty pence piece.
“Huh,” he muttered.
“What the-?”
Harry looked up, towards where Ron’s exclamation had penetrated his selective sound barrier, and opened a gap in the curtain to look through.
Ron was staring at a box of…
He recognized them.
“What were you expecting, turnips?” Ron had said.
Ron was staring into a large box of turnips. The extra-large ‘FROM’ sticker on the side read ‘Discord’.
He closed the curtains and burst out laughing, secure in his knowledge that his selective barrier would keep Ron from suspecting a thing.
After a minute or so, though, he got back to unwrapping. Before long, Hermione and Silver would be waiting for him in the Common Room.
… Huh. One package had a mass of silvery, water-like fabric in it, with a note that said it had once been his father’s, but no signature. The very next package he opened had robes that seemed to be made of the same material, complete with hood. It also had a note- but it was from Silversong… and said only to hide it, and ask her about it later, in private.
He looked between the two different, oddly similar gifts, before stuffing them both out of sight and resuming his gift-opening operation. In the remaining packages, he found a handmade flute from Hagrid, a rather tastelessly green knitted sweater with an H embroidered on the front of it (like he needed a reminder on who he was), and… Oh, that was sweet. Hermione apparently hadn’t been able to think of anything else to get him, so had given him a large bag of candy.
He wished he’d had the forethought to do that. He’d spent weeks trying to come up with something, and failed… so their piles didn’t have anything in them from him at all.
… In hindsight, it was obvious what he should have done. Though… it wasn’t like he had money to throw around, nor the knowledge of where to go to get stuff to give them. He was fairly sure the one address that all the delivery services he was aware of would fail to deliver to was ‘4172 Gryffindor Ladies’ Dorms, Bed 2, Hogwarts, Britain’. Or Bed 1, for Silver.
Exactly why they had told him which beds they slept in, he had no idea.
It wasn’t like the Castle would ever let him climb that staircase, as Crabbe and Goyle had demonstrated for the Slytherins so many times- and if he wanted to give them a gift, he knew the house-elves would deliver it for him… and didn’t need him to tell them which dorm they slept in to deliver it accurately.
There was a sudden thunk as the dormitory door flew open. Harry looked up, but couldn’t see anything- the curtains around his bed were closed.
He didn’t need to see, though. He could tell who was entering by using his…
He still didn’t know what to call it. Lyra had called it ‘a function of the love envelope his mother gave him when she died’, but that was a bit of a long (and unspecific) name. Whatever it was, it gave him the ability to ‘see’, without using his eyes, where and who nearby people were. Lyra had said something about ‘auras’ that he hadn’t understood.
“Good mooorning, Ron,” Fred greeted dramatically.
“Why don’t you put on your Weasley Sweater? Even Harry’s got one!” George asked. There was a pause, while Fred made his way around Harry’s bubble of silence, to the side Ron couldn’t see. “Come on, they’re lovely and warm.”
Harry saw Fred raise his hand and attempt to knock on his visible spell bubble, but his hand went right through it. Fred seemed taken aback for a second, before he stepped through it. “Uh, Harry?” He spoke quietly.
Harry reached over and swept the curtains out of the way on that side. “Yes, Fred?” Then he blinked. “Wait… why does your sweater have a G on it?”
George’s voice wafted in from Ron’s direction. “Yours hasn’t got a letter on it. Mum must not think you forget your name. But we’re not stupid- we know we’re called Gred and Forge.”
Fred nodded. “That. Wasn’t our idea, I’m afraid- Lyra came up with it a few months back.” He then scowled. “How… How does your barrier work? I’m not hearing Ron at all.”
Harry shrugged. “It’s a selective barrier. I put it up explicitly to block Ron, so we won’t hear anything he says. And it’s also containing everything we say as well, so he can’t hear us.”
“What if he, you know… walks through it?”
Harry shook his head. “He can’t. It also functions as a physical barrier, albeit not a very strong one- and similarly selective. He could probably get through it if he threw his weight against it, but…” He shrugged. “It’d hurt. A lot. The thing resists like a brick wall until you manage to overload it.”
Fred nodded. “And if he did, the only thing he could be sure of would be that you would point your wand at him, right?”
Harry nodded as well. “Yep.”
“Anyways. How do you like the Weasley sweater?”
Harry blinked. “How… How did…?”
“How did he know you got one?” Fred sighed. “Remember Dumbledore’s plan?”
Harry groaned. “He’s still trying to push it, isn’t he?”
Fred nodded sagely. “Mom knows about the plan as well- but she’s a little bit of a blind follower, if you get my meaning.” He gestured at the sweater. “That was on the plan, and was supposed to look like a gesture of goodwill.”
Harry looked down at it. “I mean… it’s a really nice sweater. It’d just be… Well, I know it’s a bit unfair for me to complain about a gift, but I kinda wish she’d put more effort into finding out what my favorite color is before she made it.”
Fred chuckled. “And to think, I was supposed to comment- loudly- about how she ‘must make more of an effort if you’re not family’.”
Harry laughed. “How true is it?”
He shrugged. “No idea. Dumbledore told her what color to make it, from what I hear. Wanted it to match your eyes.”
Harry wrinkled his nose. “Then Dumbledore should have put more effort into finding what colors I do or don’t like. Because…” He tapped the sweater. “It’s a nice sweater, but I don’t particularly like the color.”
“Well,” Fred grinned, drawing his wand. “If the color is a problem, there’s a charm for that.” Then he scowled. “I only know the temporary version, though- should last about a day. Didn’t have a reason to study the permanent one- it’s not on the required curriculum.”
Harry shrugged. “Hermione might have.”
“It’s an advanced spell.”
“She’s good with those.” He lifted the bag of candy Hermione had given him. “Bertie Bott’s?”
Percy stuck his head in the door, invisible from Harry’s position. “What’s going on in here?”
“Oooh, this should be fun,” Fred grinned, running around to where his brother was snatching something from Percy’s shoulder. “I’ll be back!” He passed outside the sound barrier.
Harry grinned, and started getting dressed for the day.
Hermione was distracted about halfway through her morning yawn by the pile of presents at the foot of her bed.
“Huh,” she muttered. “I suppose that makes sense.”
Silversong woke up in her bed. Silver was also a light sleeper, though didn’t seem to have awoken quite as early as she did today. “Hmm?” she mumbled sleepily.
“We’ve got presents,” she answered.
“Wha…?” Silver muttered. The curtains were drawn on this side of Silver’s bed, so she couldn’t see what she was doing, but it sounded like she was sitting up or something.
Hermione waited patiently. It usually took a few seconds for Silver to become fully awake.
“... Oh! Yeah, presents, I guess. Um… I don’t know about you, but I feel like getting dressed before I start opening them.”
Hermione blinked, glancing sideways at her bedside cabinet. “Good idea.”
It took Hermione only a couple minutes to get dressed, but Silver was still done before she was… just like she still wasn’t a fan of how literally all of the students’ uniform clothes were flat black. She would have still worn jeans under her robes, except that Lyra had informed her during the instructor crash course that her jeans were visible, making it fairly easy for anyone not completely ignorant to tell that she hadn’t been following the dress code completely. Ever since, she had followed it, to the letter.
At least the uniform skirt went most of the way down her shins, just a couple inches shy of the hem of her ankle-length robes.
She blinked a couple times, reprocessing her train of thought. Perhaps she wasn’t fully awake yet either- she didn’t usually switch topics out of the blue like that.
But anyways, Silver was still done before she was, despite having only been a girl for a couple of months.
“Alright then,” she grinned, sitting on the end of her bed as Silver pushed her curtain out of the way to do the same. “Presents.” She paused, and lifted the first one from the pile. “Oh hey, this one’s from you.”
Silver grinned, glancing up. “Yep! And you wouldn’t believe how easy it was to get that.”
She looked up at her. “Easy?”
Silver nodded. “For most, it would range from incredibly difficult to flat-out impossible. I happen to have the right contacts to pull it off, though, so it didn’t take me much effort at all.” She scowled. “I agree, it didn’t feel like I put enough work into it to warrant it being the only gift to someone like you or Harry, but I couldn’t think of anything else.” She paused. “... And is it just me, or was I just completely tactless for a minute?”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Maybe.” She opened the package, and got… it looked like a cloak, made out of some silvery, water-like fabric. She lifted it up in her hands. “This was… I mean, I like the fabric, but it’s almost certainly not in the dress code.” She looked at Silver. “And what would make it so impossible to acquire…?”
Silver only grinned at her.
She scowled, then unfolded the note that had been lying on it in the package- she’d ignored it a second before. She raised an eyebrow, and looked up at Silver again.
Silver only grinned again.
She scowled. “It’s not dangerous, is it?”
“Oh, no, it’s not dangerous. But it is very valuable, and you don’t want just anyone to know you have it.”
She tilted her head. “Why? What is it?”
Her answer was a grin.
She scowled, stood up, and slipped it on, right overtop her Hogwarts robes. “Does it amplify magic?” she asked.
Silver chuckled. “Nope.”
“Defense?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
She scowled. “Is it bulletpr-!” She froze, looking down at it.
Her body, including all four limbs, was simply gone. She could still see them in her mind, with too much precision for it to be her kinesthetic sense, but they were gone. She dashed over to the mirror by the door, and looked into it.
Her head was floating in midair.
She could hear Silver’s chuckling. “Put your hood up,” Silver suggested.
She stared into the mirror, reached back, and flicked her hood up.
Her reflection disappeared entirely.
“It’s…” she began. “It’s an invisibility cloak.”
Silver’s answer came straight into her mind, prompting her to let out a scream of fright and fall on the floor. “Yep!”
“S-Sorry,” Silver said aloud, running towards her. “I… I wanted to test that out.”
She looked up at Silver… and saw nothing. But, she could somehow feel where Silver was, fill her in with her mind’s eye. Just like how she knew where her own body was. “What in the world…?”
Silver shrugged. “Just any invisibility cloak wouldn’t be all that hard for someone of my means. Sure, they’re expensive, but that’s about it- most people could acquire one, provided they saved up enough. Problem is, regular invisibility cloaks will get holes burned in them by spells that hit or pass through them, and they also wear out over time, and stop working.
“So I climbed the ladder. Told Diamond what I wanted. She then told Bonbon, who told Princess Twilight, who told one of her friends, and Princess Luna. Twilight helped Luna convert some of her magic into a solid fabric, which Twilight’s friend Rarity then made into cloaks. At that point, they were already invisibility cloaks, because of the nature of the magic they converted- but Twilight went on to add a couple of enchantments, before passing them back down the line. That’s why we can see ourselves, and each other. And why they have that telepathic function. Only works between people wearing them, and they’re linked, so we can’t just get more and expect it to work.”
“Wait. You mean they’re enchanted magic?”
Silver shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t understand the details either, but I’m told they should last for thousands of years. But they’re basically one-of-a-kind, so virtually impossible for most to acquire… or even know where to start. And they gave me six of them, so you got one, Harry got one, I got one, Diamond got one… and the last two are for when someone else gets added to the herd.”
Hermione blushed. “Not you too!”
Silver sighed. “You know, I wish. Thing is, I realized a couple weeks ago, I can feel it. Some kind of… powerful attraction, between the four of us. It’s very unambiguous- with the way it feels, there’s nothing else it could be. Still feels like there’s something missing, though- like we’re destined for a herd of more than four.”
Hermione sighed as well. “All… Alright, I’ll give you that much. Just don’t tell anyone but… uh, the herd, okay?”
Silver grinned. “That was already my plan. I don’t get the idea Diamond realizes she’s, uh, ‘part of the herd’, but she still counts in my book. I had to tell her to get her to help me get the cloaks, but I swore her to absolute secrecy first- even against Bonbon. I’m pretty sure she was only able to get me the cloaks thanks to her ‘unique talent’ for leadership- or, more directly, getting people to do what she wants them to. Anyways.” She flicked her hood back, and her head reappeared. “Shall we finish opening our presents?
Dumbledore breathed a sigh, staring across the room at the Mirror of Erised, arms folded across his chest.
This was one thing that had gone according to his plan: The Mirror had been placed in this room, and Harry’s invisibility cloak delivered to him, right on schedule.
Unfortunately, that was the only thing that had. It was now the third night after Christmas, and he had yet to confirm that Harry had found it.
Interestingly enough, though, he had heard the scream from the library that he’d planned, even though the events necessary to make that happen had never happened. And on both of the prior two nights, especially the first one, he’d heard footsteps and breathing in the room with him, even a touch of whispering.
During the long hours of the night, his plan had called for him to wait on the tables in the back, and do… basically nothing. Instead, he’d found himself spending those long hours glaring into the mirror from across the room, wishing it would show him how to get his plan back on track- rather than just showing him his current plan working perfectly… which it most certainly was not.
The whispers returned, eventually- after the door shifted slightly. In contrast to his plan, he’d shifted it to be just far enough closed that Potter would have to shift it, just a little bit, to get in. As a signal.
Fortunately, that little plan seemed to have worked flawlessly, and not interfered at all with his master plan.
He listened carefully. He heard what he thought was Harry’s voice, but he cautioned himself against confirmation bias; he didn’t actually know what the boy sounded like.
He also heard what sounded like a girl. Harry wasn’t supposed to come here with any girls in tow- only Ron, and then only on the second visit.
He then made out one of the voices.
“Oh, there it is! Mirror of Erised. It’s…” It trailed off.
Possibly-Harry answered a minute later, and Dumbledore was only barely able to make it out. “Well, that’s disappointing.”
A minute later, the door squeaked slightly, and the whispers were gone.
He waited another few hours, until about three in the morning, before he cancelled his own invisibility spell and stood up. His plan had failed him again- but perhaps Harry didn’t need to know how to work the mirror to hold Voldemort off the stone long enough for him to arrive. All he would have to do would be to distract Voldemort… in theory.
But he wouldn’t be able to count on Harry to be the true final layer of defense. He had to hope the Mirror and his have-it-use-it spell was enough, or that Harry figured out how it worked fast enough.
He needed to take it down to the Stone’s resting place, and emplace his spell.
Dumbledore sighed.
Exactly as he had expected, it had been a challenge for even him to get past all the barriers he and his staff had put down here with the Mirror of Erised in tow- particularly the first one. Well… second, technically. He was able to pacify Fluffy by whistling a tune, so that was no challenge.
Sprout’s Devil’s Snare… he had to, very carefully, hang the Mirror from his broomstick- which he’d brought from his office- before climbing through the trapdoor and onto the broom, from whence he simply flew down.
For Flitwick’s keys, he simply drew the spare key that was kept in a drawer in his desk and opened the door. McGonagall’s chess pieces parted instantly when he stepped into the room, having recognized his magic.
He did notice one potential problem, though, that might be worth investigating.
The white queen had a spiderweb of cracks up her left arm, as if something had struck her very hard. They didn’t look deep enough to cause the piece to start coming apart, but the fact that they were there at all was worrying. He would have to bring Minerva down sometime soon for repairs- and to determine exactly what had caused the damage.
The troll had been the biggest sticking point, but it was fairly easy in comparison to the first obstacles: He simply left the Mirror in the chess room, hit the troll with a stunner from the Elder Wand, and retrieved the Mirror to walk past the unconscious troll.
Snape’s trap room had also detected his magic signature, and elected not to ignite the flames.
Finally, he stepped through the darkened doorway that would hold black flames for anyone other than himself or Minerva.
Then, he froze.
There was the table.
There was the pad.
There was no Stone.
It had been stolen already.
He set the Mirror in the room, drew his wand, and started scanning everything he could see.
When had it been stolen? Who had taken it? Where was it now?
He didn’t know.
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Another great chapter, I liked the addition of personal invisibility cloaks. I wonder if Harry's already revealed both his cloaks to the girls...as for Dumbledore's questions on where the Stone went, I'd say nosy Equestrians. More specifically, either SMILE or the CMCs.
Mate, you've got a bloody vault full of gold, and an in with a network of alien spooks that are more than capable of leaving Hogwarts whenever they feel like it.
Honestly, why not simply put the thing in the mirror from the moment you get ahold of it?
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And I'd say you're... Not wrong, per se.
There's actually a pretty significant clue earlier in the story, if you care to look for it. Both the Who and the When are definite, from that clue.
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Ooh. Okay. Maybe I'll look, maybe I'll stay surprised. A great chapter, can't wait to see the next one.
My bet is on the CMCs. Thought there are a couple of others that can pull it off. Discord can do anything. Lyra and Starlight should have no problem getting there and back unnoticed, just to name a few. The four of them who got invisibility cloak are also prime suspects - given Harry also equipped with good soundproof spell.
It was probably lyra, what with her fondness for getting into vaults.
Who took the stone? My money is in Gred and Feorge.
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Warmer. From different angles.
But not hot yet...
Later, in Dumbledore's office...
The Stone is sitting on his desk, and a few ladies are standing in the room, angrily glaring at him.
Princess Twilight: You, sir, are an idiot. You should not be in charge of a school at all. HAGRID would be a better Headmaster than you.
(Who else is in the room?)
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Mmm... Not quite. They don't want to upset the system quite that hard.
Oh the delicious chaos this will cause.
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Considering what the Equestrians do to Dumbledore in another timeline... yeah, they are a bit calmer here.
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Yes, definitely.
... Unfortunately, much of it ends up being offscreen. Sorry, I really wanted to put it onscreen, but I couldn't figure out how to write enough of it in an interesting enough manner.
i can think of harry and friends when thry went exploring in thier invisibility cloaks
Hmm...probably not Harry and co with their...honestly, what sounds like Dream Cloaks, a step above standard invisibility cloaks, that's for sure.
Discord's stuck his oar in, but it doesn't really sound like something he'd do...
Actually, given who is present and various views on things, I'm betting Twilight and Co, specifically to make a point.
As for when, while he was unconscious.
As for where it is now, the safest place it could possibly be from Voldemort and his ilk...Equestria. In all likelihood either in the Element Vault or in the hollowed out portion of a tome on alchemy written by Zecora and stored in Ponyville's library.
was it a stray Changeling? maybe a early cameo by Thorax?
Welp, Draco go gay on n us XD, a d I hope the Draco arc is over, it was long and derailed, but still, he should be playing a good part in the near future.
PLEASE, stop the Ron bashing. Dumbledore bashing is bad enough.
And, Equestrian ponies can just make something at the power of the deathly hallows? The one-of-a-kind cloak of true invisibility, and it's just trivially replicated by Twilight and Luna? Please tell me you're giving it SOME flaw that only Harry's cloak somehow avoids. And, why is it always 6? Why does everything from Equestria about friendship always bring the count up to 6 initially? It's a 5 man band. The trope is "the 6th ranger". It's the oddball extra.
Alright, I really think your "chess-mastering" of Dumbledore is crazy. No, I don't think he was manipulating Harry as much as you said.
And the stone ... It should have been on Dumbledore's person, or in his office, all the time until it went into the mirror. Left alone in a room?
You say that the clues are already here. Ok, lets look at them:
1. Damaged chess queen.
2. Lyra can get into any vault.
Anyone else see any clues? Lets solve this as a group.
6 presents:
Discord: Turnips. (Why? Why would Discord care about Harry at this point?)
Dursleys: Postcard with coin
Dumbledore: Dad's cloak
Silversong: Equestrian cloak
Weasleys: Sweater
Hagrid: Flute
Hermione: Candy
That's 7?
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But that's just the clues in this chapter. (Yes, there's more elsewhere. One more, to be exact.)
... Sorry about the Ron bashing. The good news is, he fades into the background (even disappears) before long, and I'm planning on bringing him back in much less bash-able form at a later point in the story.
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... No, that's 6 presents. Discord's present was for Ron, not Harry. And it was for situational irony, not because Discord did or didn't particularly care.
I mean, I am not against it. Is Harry being hostile to Ron anti-Dumbledore thing? He seems to tolerate Fred and George. Their mother is not on his burn a witch list, I think she isn't.
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1. I don't know if anyone noticed but if the Barty Crouch's eye can see the cloak of the true invisibility, then it's not really a good cloak is it?
2. I've read the stories where Dumbledore was truly evil. That version had been manipulating Tom from the start to become wannabe Dark Lord. So then he manipulated James into marrying Lily (Tom's granddaughter) so that they could give birth to their savior Harry. And then Tom can't technically kill Harry because of the blood descendant protection. He manipulated Severus into becoming his spy as well.
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You mean the person who introduced deadly spiders into the local forest? Yeah sure.
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The hostility towards Ron isn't an anti-Dumbledore thing, no. Instead, it's an anti-Ron thing, because I've painted Ron in a much less pleasant light than the books & movies do. This is the "Ron-bashing".
That said, Ron does get better. He fades into the background, then disappears completely... and I'm planning on bringing him back at a later point in time.
It seems to me that Harry is building up an array of powerful -- but entirely redundant -- tools. Two invisibility cloaks -- one alicorn-made, and one a Hallow -- and a powerful privacy spell? If he needs stealth, he's covered. Anything else? Not so much.
If things went well, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Dumbledore to come to some important realizations, and rethink the plan. He had plenty of time to think, with the Mirror of Erised there to remind him of the ultimate goal.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to happen. Dumbledore was so set on his plan that when he looked in the Mirror and saw victory, he automatically interpreted that as meaning his plan had worked. Either that, or after having spent so much effort on it, the plan had become his goal, so that was what he saw in the Mirror. Either way, it seems no realizations were had.
Now will he rethink things?
Now?
Why would he change his plans now?
This Dumbledore, assuming he ever makes it to Equestria, would be a donkey/mule.
Stubborn.
One more clue?
You’re going to make me re-read 35 chapters to try to find one more clue?
I almost forgot. What’s going on in the girls bedroom? Both of them have been under some sort of thought process alteration charm.
10357088
First step: grep for "stone" in the text.
...
No luck. The only explicit mention of the Stone is in Chapter 15, and I don't see the clue in that section of that chapter. Looks like it won't be that easy.
On the bright side, I don't see how the clue could possibly be earlier than that. If I'm correct, this observation cuts the work in half.
Depends. When did we find out that Lyra can get into the royal equestrian vault?
Pretty sure that was before the stone.
In any case, the "who" is Lyra as she is the only one shown to have the "get into places she should not be" ability.
Why, when, and how did she find out about it, those are still open questions.
Damaged chess piece ... that would mean an earth pony. Lyra's a unicorn, right? So this means that two of them went in together.
Oh no ... is this a straight Lyra + BonBon ("SweetieDrops") and a S.M.I.L.E. operation?
You mean ... just like how he disappears in book 7 (the movie did not do that scene justice, the director really liked to feature the actress playing Hermione), and comes back later to save the day?
Do not give up
Be there when you are needed
Fight for those you care for.
Ron is Gryffindor. He might be late in showing it, but he does. I really think he's got "overwhelming family" syndrome :-).
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Hotter.
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That might be in the freezer... If it was Lyra/Bonbon going in as a team, why would Bonbon need to strike the chesspiece? Lyra would just subjugate them and/or hide Bonbon from them as well, as she did (well, technically it was Moondancer, but close enough) in The Gate. Plus, if they went in as a pair, the only clue would be their absence for fifteen minutes... which could happen anytime.
And the Ron thing? Probably not just like in Book 7... but yeah, something similar. The Sorting Hat saw through his negligible self-esteem to who he truly was... it remains only for his true self to be brought out. Which will happen slowly, and offscreen, unfortunately.
OK, so, BonBon, as a SMILE earth pony, would not have gone in alone. Lyra, using her "get into things" ability would have just been a 15 minute no-one-noticed, no clues anywhere.
So we've got some other clue, some other pony.
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and would twilight notice a stone like that at a glance
Welp, time to draw up the usual suspects. Bring me Lyra Hearstrings.
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I would hide it in the one place Tom would never think to look. Quirrel's office.
10368378
... Nope. Lyra wouldn't have needed to damage the marble Queen- and if she was with somepony that might've needed to, she would've voided that need.
10359525
This was in chapter 15. So starting from chapter 15, right after the stone, we see this.
Bonbon enters into a time lock. Then Lyra vanishes for a few minutes.
Didn’t you say the only clue would be Lyra vanishing for a few minutes?
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Yes, I did, if it were Lyra doing it. Note the other clue in that sentence: Bonbon entered an hour in... and gave something to Lyra. (It wasn't a time lock, so much as a time compression, such that time was simply running 3 or 4 times faster in the Great Hall than it was elsewhere)
... Yeah. McGonagall had no idea what she was witnessing.
I can't really overstate how much that amused me.
Wow, they made what's either a modern recreation of the Peverell cloak, or just one-upped it. This also amuses me.
That's interestingly meta. So the mirror shows Harry looking into the mirror, and all the rest of the stuff from the story? :D
What would the point of the signature detection in the gauntlet be? If it lets someone through if they have the right signature, then couldn't Quirrel just bypass the whole thing since I assume he's whitelisted? Or was it that they'd need to be with Dumbledore specifically to pass?
The part that always bothered me (and any assumptions you may make about him not being a mastermind) is that Quirrel had nearly the last room, so one'd think he'd already know how to get past most of it (including the "difficult" cerberus) just to feed his own trap's caretaker.
The fact that Dumbledore tries to make things follow the books is very strange and illogical.