Chapter 7 - Into the hole we go.

Dorian Olivander

It was a quiet winter night, and the stone corridors of Hogwarts were quite cold and silent as I moved through them under a disillusionment and silencing charm, I had done away with the dingy old invisibility cloak in favor of this method, it was far superior and allowed for much better mobility.

I had arrived at Hogwarts this morning and spent much of the day with Angelina, both of us doing the homework for the Christmas holidays, although it felt as though I had done as much of hers as I had my own, thankfully she made it worth my time.

Classes would begin tomorrow and I disliked wasting time or mysteries, which led me here.

It wasn't long before I arrived at my destination, the large metal locked door of the third floor corridor had been a mystery not even Voldemort's memories could shed light on, there existed no trap door during her stay in Hogwarts.

I drew my wand, Dumbledore had promised painful death was behind this door and I didn't believe him to be a lying this time, I felt soft cool feathers brush my ear, it was clear Ash, who was also disillusioned on my shoulder, didn't share my trepidation.

It wasn't a surprise, phoenix did not die, unlike me she risked no such painful death.

I tapped the keyhole with my wand, the soft click of the lock sounded before I pulled it open, I was raising my wand and preparing to stun the dog again when Ash let out a cry like a musical note and began to sing.

The sound was eerie like every other noise she made but it felt less unsettling and more peaceful, almost calming. The serenity of death, is what I would have called this particular piece.

The three headed dog, which had awoken the moment I opened the door and began to charge suddenly halted, its aggressiveness faded and its eyes began to droop, before it lightly rested its head upon the ground and began to snooze lightly.

Looking at Ash in gratitude I entered, carefully closing the door behind us I stopped maintaining the disengagement allowing it to fade as I made my way to the trap door.

I felt her hop of my shoulder but ignored her for the moment in favor of inspecting the wooden trap door, I pulled it open and observed carefully, Voldemort's memories informed me this place shouldn't exist, and yet, from seemingly nowhere there was a large cavern of untold proportions in the ground.

What I should be looking at was the second floor of Hogwarts, there simply wasn't space for the hundreds of meters of cavern in between the floors, and yet here it sat.

Now I was paying closer attention, I could detect the undetectable expansion charms, these were even more powerful than the ones in my case and seemed to be interwoven with the arrays of Hogwarts, powered by the ley lines beneath the castle.

There was bound to be something down here for the headmaster to go through so much effort to create it, something other than painful death presumably.

Turning to Ash my eyes widened in surprise as I said, "Oi! That isn't food, stop it."

She turned to me, part of the dog's paw still in her mouth, easily lifting its entire limb in her beak. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she relented, reluctantly dropping it and waddling sadly back to me like a petulant child.

I scooped her up and gave her a quick hug and put her on my shoulder, "Cheer up, after this I'll get you some more dragon's meat."

Ash became a little more cheery after that, apparently forgetting about her previous sadness.

Turning back to the trap door, I cast a lighting spell, a small ball of light shooting from the tip of my crystal lava wand down into the hole, illuminating the way.

What I didn't not expect to find were the thousands of writhing vines, slithering and twisting as though they were alive, cringing away from the light I sent down.

Devils snare was a rare and valuable plant, unfortunately I did not have all night to harvest it, nor did it have any uses that I could take advantage of.

Regardless it looked to be a soft landing so without further adieu I hopped in, I felt Ash grip my shoulder more tightly as we hurtled through the air, her little sharp claws digging into my skin so she wouldn't slip.

A moment later was landed softly on the devil's snare and it immediately began to constrict around me, I saw Ash burst into black and amethyst flames as the vines tried to touch her, causing them to wither, I felt the fire lick my ears but it did no damage, it's cool touch was rather soothing.

'Insensdo' I said inside my mind causing a jet of orange flames to shoot from my wand, almost instantly the vines cringed away, evidently eager to get rid of us I felt one literally push me down and through the devil's snare and onto the ground below.

Entering the nearby stone passage way I couldn't help but be reminded of Gringotts, last time I had been there I hadn't had the expertise to notice any undetectable expansion charms but it wouldn't surprise me if they were in place, it would certainly explain why muggles had never discovered the expansive tunnel network.

But if it was indeed created under undetectable expansion charms then what powered it? Gringots was built over a single layline, the major British layline was a significant one that travelled from London all the way up north through Scotland and then through the Atlantic and over to Greenland, it was one of seven laylines that Hogwarts sat on.

It was the only layline beneath Gringots however, a single layline was nowhere near enough to power such extensive expansion charms, there would have to be another power source.

I was pulled from my thoughts by the faint sounds rustling and clinking from up ahead reaching the end of the passage way there was a brightly lit chamber, hundreds of keys with wings flying about, fluttering and whizzing about at tremendous speed, their erratic movements made them hard to track, and I could see a door, presumably locked across the chamber.

An unlocking charm didn't work which left me with a couple options, I could try and pick the lock the muggle way, break the door, or catch the key. A well cast explosion curse would no doubt do the trick of opening the door, but I didn't know what I might find behind, and I don't want my potential treasures destroyed.

In the end I realised I was a better flyer than I was lockpick and decided to grab to broom and get the key myself, it wasn't particularly hard, every key was identical except for one, all of them the same ornate shiny gold except for the singular rusty old key, it was bigger and thicker than all the others and black rather than gold.

Pushing it into the lock I wasn't surprised to hear the other keys rushing towards me, at the speeds they were moving they'd be like mini knives piercing through my body.

I rushed through the door and slammed it behind me, dozens of little thuds and thunks sounded through the door as the key's collided with it.

Looking around I saw an enormous chess board and I realised with a sigh what had to be done, the white pieces refused to let me pass and while I could think of a half dozen spells to disable, destroy, or bypass them none were worth the level of exhaustion they would leave me with.

Truthfully this places seemed to be an obstacle course rather than security for any sort of treasure.

I took the place of the black king piece- the king was the one piece that was never destroyed in wizarding chess, and looked towards the faceless white pieces expectantly.

Sure enough they opened by moving forward a pawn by a single piece.

The game was laughably easy, whatever enchantment had been used on these pieces lacked all creativity and intellect, they played to a mathematical advantage and fell for any and every bait laid out for them, falling into traps even Weasly would have been able to spot.

It wasn't even an hour before their king was tossing his crown at my feet and bending to his knees, I stood over it for a moment before heading towards the door, the pawns parted and bowed as I passed.

Pushing open the door I was greeted by a truly foul smell I unfortunately recognised, this troll was even larger than the last, standing at 15 meters it looked far more battle ready, a fierce look on its small face.

Despite being larger it's head seemed even smaller than the pervious one.

Ash let out a cry from beside me, she didn't even have a nose and the smell still offended her, it was the first time in her short life I had ever seen her not looking hungry.

Despite the foul smell I couldn't help but grin, withdrawing my wand I pointed it at the charging troll, casting a spell I had been excited to try all year, "Pestis Incendium."

Instantly an inferno of golden black flames shot from my wand, it formed a massive roaring dragon in the air, I could feel its heat filling the chamber as the monstrous flame dragon roared, a typhoon of flames emerging from its mouth towards the troll.

The Fiendfyre curse, empowered further by my wand attacked the troll as though it were alive, ripping it apart with hits dragons claws, devouring its flesh and charring its bones, the troll didn't even have the time to make a sound.

By the time I had forced the fire under control a feat that required tremendous will power all that remained of the troll was a pile of blackened bones.

I approached, giving one of the left over ribs a little tap as it collapsed into a pile of ash, "At least the smell is gone."

Ash chirped happily in agreement.

Leaving the ashes of the troll behind and somewhat unsatisfied with our battle I headed to the next room, pulling open the next door, I could detect a tripwire enchantment on the doorway that would trigger when I entered, but I didn't let that stop me.

This was clearly an obstacle course set up by the teachers, likely for students to attempt considering how easy many of the tasks were, each room was clearly designed by a different teacher, sprout's devil's snare, Flitwick's charmed keys, and McGonagle's transfigured chess set were obvious enough.

I guessed the troll were Quirrell's obstacle, the man had obviously left his greatest fear to hold back intruders.

I could see an assortment of differently shaped bottles within the next room- Snape's potions if I had to guess.

Stepping inside I turned to watched as purple flames sprung up in the doorway, simultaneously black flames filled the doorway leading onwards.

Neither were as majestic or glorious as Ash's amethyst black flames, but I suppose Snape tried his best in their creation.

On the table was a carefully worded riddle and an assortment of seven bottles, according to the riddle three were death, two were wine, one would allow progress forward and another would allow me to turn back.

Ignoring the table of goods I raised my wand, pointing it at the black flames that blocked the path ahead and saying simply, "Finite."

Instantly the flames vanished from existence at though they had never been there, revealing the path ahead.

My wand was the king of flames, the king commands and those beneath obey.

Still, before heading forwards I lifted the smallest bottle and drank without hesitation, there was no need to take more unnecessary risk.

It felt like my blood was freezing in my veins as I walked through the doorway.

I appreciated Snape's riddle, even a muggle could have passed this test, a measure of intellect and logic and nothing more, it rather perfectly displayed which characteristics the grumpy old potions master valued.

I was quite surprised and rather disappointed to find the mirror of Erised at the end of this little journey, had all this been set up as some sort of test for those who wished to gaze upon the mirror?

I almost accepted the idea when I remembered the dog had been here even back when the mirror was in that random classroom, it must've been moved here sometime during Christmas.

As I approached the mirror I realized there was another tripwire enchantment, this one far better concealed than the previous, it had gone off the moment I entered the room, the way it was set up made it impossible to detect from the outside, it could only be seen after I had already tripped it.

I sighed, Dumbledore was probably going to show up in a few minutes with more sage advice about not looking at the mirror and reprimanding me for seeking it out again.

I stepped in front of the mirror ready to accept my stern talking to and decided that I might as well commit the crime I was about to be punished for.

Taking a good look I was satisfied to see the mirror had rectified its mistake, I was indeed now stood on a giant pile of gold, but it wasn't merely gold, there was all sorts of riches in that pile.

Beneath my feet the mountain of gold coins and bars were decorated sporadically with various other objects, magnificent looking scrolls and ancient looking books with jewels covered, I could recognize various valuable historical artefacts in the mix too, Slytherin's locket, Gryffindor's sword, a shield engraved with the characteristic M displayed on every order of merlin- Merlin's symbol, there were gems of all shapes and sizes, I could even see a fat majestic blood coloured stone I recognized as a philosopher's stone I had once seen in a book.

The pile contained every small trinket of monetary value I could think of.

There were other alterations to the Image too, I could see the beautiful visage of Lucia Malfoy standing behind alongside Angelina, she was clutching the shoulders of a little platinum hair girl who had a big joyful smile on her face, Ravenclaw's diadem sat soundly atop her head.

The castle in the background had gotten bigger, more spires and now it's walls were engraved with various intricate carvings similar to the sky above.

Ash was there too, perched proudly on my counterpart's shoulders, I heard her chirp softly, almost longingly on my own shoulder and looked up to see her gazing mesmerised at the mirror, I couldn't help but wonder what she herself saw in the mirrors depths- probably a lot of food if I had to guess.

Turing back to the mirror I was surprised to see myself moving, slowly and calmly walking down the pile of gold towards the bottom where the philosopher's stone rested, he bent down to reach for it, gingerly picking it up before looking at the small rock as though it were worthless.

He tossed it in the air once, catching it in one hand before giving me a mischievous grin and putting it in his pocket. At that exact moment I felt something heavy land in my own pocket.

Reaching in I pulled out a fat ruby nearly the size of my palm and stared at it, dumbstruck.

Oh fuck. My heart began to race, my fingers clenching and unclenching around the stone.

Dumbledore was on his way and I wasn't giving up my treasure so easily.

Thinking quickly I grasped my trunk and forced it to expand, opening it and summoning an old dingy muggle car tire which I probably toasted onto the ground at my feet.

There were 3 ways I knew of to teleport inside Hogwarts, the first was obviously a phoenix, the second a house elf, and the third was a port key. Everyone knew about my Pheonix so I was going to have to throw them off.

Focusing I forced my magic to obey my commands, casting one of the most difficult and magically draining spells known to wizard kind I said, "Portus."

The tire glowed electric blue for a moment before it returned to normal, starting the thirty second timer. My magic drained by more than three quarters in a single spell, the port key spell was designed to be cast by a team of wizards, not just one.

"Ash, it's time to go." I said quickly, nudging my pet to bring her out of the trance the mirror had left her in, "Back to the room of requirement, quickly!" A half whispered half shouted. I used legilimency to share the perfect location, outside the prying eyes of the nosy portraits.

She looked reluctant for a moment turning back to the mirror before she relented, she was an obedient pet and I was grateful for it as with a flash of black and purple flame we vanished, reappearing in a broom cupboard two corridors down from the room of requirement.

I couldn't help but thank every god I could think of for the blessing of a phoenix, portkeys could be traced and house elf were loyal to their masters, even an imperious'd elf would give me away in this situation.

I pulled the stone from my pocket, gazing at it, mesmerized, for a moment before I put it back, now wasn't the time.

I cast quickly disillusionment and silencing charms my magic nearly running out entirely before sprinting to the room of requirement and beginning the pace before the blank wall.

A door appeared moments later, invisible to all except me just as I had asked,

I pulled it open and was greeted with the familiar room, i entered closing the door behind me before taking a breath, using my occlumency to settle my mind and think clearly.

I had asked the room to make sure I, nor anything I carried could be tracked but I had no idea of it had actually worked, there was almost definitely some kind of tracking method or spell related to the stone.

Thinking quickly I opened up my trunk and entered, heading straight for the ritual room.

I pulled open the door revealing it's dark interior before tossing the stone inside and sealing the door shut, this was the only place I had where I could say with absolute confidence it would be untraceable, the most potently tracking spell in the world wouldn't make its way out of a room purposely designed to keep even the slightest trace of magic from entering or leaving.

Hearing a noise nearby I flicked my wand a summoned a small mirror, two way mirrors were exceptionally useful items and the one I had left in a corridor corner behind a tapestry with a hole in it were certainly paying off, through the small hole in the tapestry I could see the Hufflepuff students looking rather tired and disheveled entering the great hall, being let by a rather alarmed looking professor sprout.

The students were being assembled in the great hall.

***

(Oops my dumbass accidentally did it in first person. Well too late to change it now (that's a lie I'm just lazy), sorry lads, I'd like to say won't happen again but it probably will, I'll try to avoid first person for character aside from the mc in future.)

Albus Dumbledore

(minutes earlier)

It took a considerable amount of effort to undo Severus' purple flame array even with the power of the elder wand by my side, stepping through it was shocking to find the black fire had already been removed.

My eyes snapped to something I couldn't quite see though the doorway before there was the familiar blue flash of light- indicative of a port key being triggered.

I rushed inside, glaring at the spot I saw the flash of light before I turned to the mirror, gazing at the hauntingly familiar sight of gelert stood happily side my side with myself and my siblings Ariana smiled softly at me and even Aberforth looked happy, confirming it was a dream.

The problem was the lack of the stone, it was enchanted to appear in my hand in both the mirror and in reality, but it was as I worried- gone.

I shelved my questions as to why someone who had come seeking it but hadn't intended to use it had somehow entered the castle and taken it- they hasn't broken my enchantment after all, I returned to the spot of the portkey disapparating with the intent to pursue.

Pork key's made for poor getaways, too easily traced.

A moment later, after squeezing my way through space I opened my eyes and raised my wand.

I was in a junkyard.

Surrounded by mountains of muggle trash I was drawn up short, anything here could have been a portkey, I had no way to identify which one it was, and that didn't even rule out the possibility they had vanished it, or taken it with them.

There was no one here- the thief must have disapparated, they could be anywhere, glancing at the sky I could tell I was somewhere near the south of England, the stars told me as much.

If I was able to identify the portkey amidst all this rubbish I might have a chance to identify who had cast the spell, but that was near enough impossible, portkeys left no magical trace after their use, otherwise the muggle items that made them up would be illegal.

There were very few wizards capable of single-handedly creating a portkey, but there was simply no guarantee there was only a single perpetrator, the removal of the black flames certainly hinted at several, Severus had purposely left only enough potion for a single entree.

The incineration of the troll also suggested several wizards working in tandem, even I would struggle to so thoroughly incinerate such a magically resistant creature.

The junkyard too was a stroke of strategic genius, whoever had planned this was obviously a master, likely the same person who had made an attempt on Gringotts to take the stone during the summer, but who were they that they did not intend to use it? Or had they simply brought along a person with them who both desired it and did not intend to use it? And if they did, how could they have possibly known of the enchantment I had placed on the stone and mirror less than a week before?

This was a master at work.

Returning to the castle a frowned for a moment in thought before raising my wand and conjuring a few notes, "Fawks,"

My phoenix appeared instantly on command, "Bring these notes to the head of houses and ensure they're awake to receive them."

I couldn't trust all the staff and I had even higher suspicions about Quirrell, but I knew I could trust my heads of house.

The instructions on the notes were carried out quickly, with Pomona arriving in the great all first followed by Severus, Filius and soon after Minerva.

Their students followed behind them, all looking rather tired and ruffled save for Mr Olivander, who looked unruffled and untired, already dressed, with his own Phoenix perched happily on his shoulder.

It didn't surprise me, the time was five thirty in the morning, unlike the other students he was up every day at this time for his swim in the lake, completely unbothered by the icy water, he had an admirable drive for a boy his age.

I hadn't missed the two way mirror he had set up a few corridors from here, I couldn't help but be reminded of James Potter and his friends, they had used two way mirrors to a similar effect, though theirs had been in a girl's changing room, that one unlike Dorian's I had to remove. The memory brought a small smile to my face.

After observing the faces of the many students and staff for a moment, paying close attention to Quirrell I said, "Good morning students, I apologise for the early hour but there had been a slight, erm how should I say? Security breach, currently the ghosts and portraits are hard at work sweeping the castle to ensure your safety, I must ask you all stay warm in the great hall or otherwise spend the next few hours out of their way. Thank you."

With that I nodded, causing the house elves to sent up some delicious, piping hot food for the students to occupy their time with.

I didn't expect the perpetrator to be found within the castle, they (as they were likely plural) would be long gone by now, but that didn't mean there went any clues, they must of entered the castle somewhere and it certainly wasn't by portkey, the Hogwarts wards alerted me instantly to any portkeys- something they likely were aware of.

I was almost certain they had used one of the secret passage ways, I would have to visit the shrieking shack and honey dukes soon.

I made a note to keep an eye on the global gold market- both muggle and magical- it was unlikely but the thief's may begin to try and profit from the stone immediately.

The biggest problem lay in what I was going to have to tell Nickolas after his rather valuable possession was lost while under my care, I could almost feel his look of disappointment, he never had stopped viewing me as that rebellious foolish teenager I had been when we first met, I supposed when you were six hundred years old every one was a teenager before you.

***

Angelina Johnson

Handing a shirtless Dorian another bite sized piece of toast she tried and failed not to stare as little droplets of water slid down his rather attractive body, he put the entire thing into he mouth before he turned and dived back into the lake.

She shivered at the sight, clutching his jacket tighter around her and huddling close to the campfire he had conjoined, she had no idea how he did it, it was quite literally snowing right now, there was a thin layer resting atop the lake that he was swimming through, he actually had to use his wand to break the ice to clear a path for himself to swim through his first time around, that's how cold it was!

And yet he dived right in without the slightest bit of hesitation.

It wasn't even that he was somehow immune to the cold, she had seen him physically shaking from it as he stripped down and dived right in anyway.

She felt cold just watching him.

After his first length she had tried to ask him to give it a rest, what was the harm in taking a single day off? She could clearly see how tired he was, he obviously hadn't slept, and she didn't exactly enjoy watching him freeze.

'Heh. Women, Hahahahahaha.' Had been his only response before he dived straight back in without a second thought.

She was far more content to watch him freeze after that, satisfied with feeding him bits of toast she had brought from the great hall.

She wouldn't normally be up this early, there wouldn't be another Gryffindor quidditch match for months, she was glad Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were up next, she certainly didn't want to play in this weather.

If it weren't for Professor Dumbledore's 'security breach' she would probably still be in bed right now and Dorian would be here, alone.

Despite being forced to wake up so early she was grateful, she hadn't had much chance to speak with him over the holidays as he returned home for Christmas.

Her hand raised to her neck where a beautiful silver neckless embedded with sapphires rested on her collar, she had been wearing it proudly on display ever since he had sent it to her for Christmas.

It was entirely unnecessary, especially after he had given her a nimbus 2000, but she knew it would do nothing but offend him to turn it down, so she instead wore it with pride, enjoying the many looks she got at the beautiful jewelry.

There was a soft musical chirping from beside her, she turned to see his new pet, a baby phoenix staring up at her, big soulful eyes gazing adorably into her own before lowering to the plate of food in her lap.

The greedy creature was obviously asking for food, and she found herself unable to resist that look as she held out a piece of juicy bacon for the adorable thing.

It jumped at the offer, quickly scarfing it down before I chipped happily and hopped onto her shoulder, nuzzling her cheek softly with its fluffy feathers before crying gently in her ears.

Well, that was easy. And here she had been worried about if his new pet didn't like her.

She continued to sit quietly by the lake, campfire by her side and phoenix on her shoulder, watching the distant figure of Dorian as he emerged from the other side and began to do push ups.

"May I join you?" Came a soft voice, surprising her as she turned to see Lucia Malfoy standing there, wrapped in a thick woolen cloak to stave off the cold.