chapter 25:Fans And Conclusions

"Harry?" Hermione called as she opened the classroom door. "It's almost curfew… what the…?"

Harry looked up from the letter that he was writing. On each side of the desk he was using sat a large bag half-filled with letters while a third bag was on the next desk over.

"Oh, hey." Harry waved, putting down his pen, then he put his hands against the back of his head and stretched. "How'd you find me? I chose this classroom because no-one ever seems to use this entire part of the school."

"The Weasley twins told us where you were." Neville answered. "Don't ask me how they knew, because I have no clue. What are you doing?"

"Answering fan mail." Harry sighed. "It's amazing how much free time all these witches and wizards have… and how many of the former want me to marry them. I swear, I've received almost as many marriage proposals as I had to deal with over Christmas!"

Neville's lips twitched in a suppressed smirk as Hermione gaped at him.

"M… marriage? B… but…"

"Calm down, Hermione." Harry said placatingly.

"But you're only eleven!" Hermione protested.

"But I'm emancipated." Harry countered with a sigh. "Did you know that for emancipated witches and wizards, the marriageable ages are twelve and ten respectively?"

Hermione opened and closed her mouth as she fought to assemble a sentence.

"I think the last time that either happened was over a century ago." Neville mused. "If I remember correctly, it was one of the now-ended families…"

"Well, I'm not interested in marriage or romance." Harry said firmly. "I have friends and that's all I need for now. Romance can wait until I start needing to shave."

"So, fan mail." Neville noted as he walked over to Harry's side. "Need any help?"

"I've got a system sorted, although it'll take me several evenings." Herry sighed, rubbing at his right hand. "Fortunately, I paid Gringotts to set up a Mail Ward and pre-sort the letters before forwarding them to me. While it costs seven knuts per letter, Gringotts are good at seperating out any letters with spells on them. And Howlers too. Every week, they send a list of what they found and who tried to send it. It makes for interesting reading and the DMLE gets a copy too. Apparently the resulting fines mean that I'm making a profit despite the ward costs."

"I bet that several people have had to answer some very pointed questions." Neville snorted. "I remember the last time that someone tried to send a cursed letter to Gran, she decided to go and reason with him. The next time I saw him at the Wizengamot, he was still walking funny and had no hair."

Hermione fought down a chuckle at the mental image, then pulled a chair over so that she could sit by Harry's side.

"Need any help?"

"Nah, I'm good." Harry said with a slight shake of his head. "I've got a good system going."

"Okay." Hermione agreed, then she sniffed. "Have you been burning things?"

Harry froze for a moment, then shrugged. "Erm, sure. Let's go with that."

"That's very irresponsible, burning things when there's all this paper around…" Hermione started to lecture, only to be interrupted by Neville's surprised yell. Harry glanced over to see a moving picture fall to the ground.

"Ah, those. Yeah… as I said, I'm not interested in marriage right now."

Hermione blinked, then picked up the picture. Turning it over, she stared at it, eyes wide.

"She… she's taking off her… why is she putting her feet behind…"

Harry snagged the picture out of her shaking hands and binned it. Hermione stared at the half-full bin as if it had turned into a Troll.

"So, any complaints about me burning things?" Harry chuckled and Hermione jerkily shook her head.

"Look, I've only got a few more letters to go before I'm done for the night." Harry said soothingly. "You two head off, I'll finish up here. Okay?"

Neville nodded in agreement and moved to the door. Hermione waited for a moment, then sighed with exasperation before stomping out. Harry watched them go, then opened another letter, one lacking the scent of the previous one.

To Harry Potter.

My friend Luna and I are going to become students at Hogwarts next year, but Luna doesn't have any siblings while I only have brothers. I am writing to ask if you know a witch who would be willing to write to us about what we can expect and how we should prepare for the day we come to Hogwarts…

"Huh." Harry said in surprise. "Well, I think Hermione might appreciate a Penpal…"

.

.

Harry placed the last response in the bag to go to the Post office and stood up, then he paused as a voice impinged on his awareness. Fingering the Pass he had asked Flitwick for in order to get enough time to finish his writing, he edged to the window, peeped out just long enough to see two cloaked figures near the border of the Forest, then he ducked below the windowsill, closed his eyes and listened.

"… you found out how to get past that beast of…"

"B-b-but Severus, I…"

"You don't want ..."

"…know what you…"

"…perfectly well what I mean…y our little bit of hocus pocus…"

"…d-don't…"

"…another little chat… where your loyalties…"

The fragments of conversation broke off and Harry frowned.

"Professor Snape and… was that Professor Quirrell?"

No asnwer came and Harry risked another glance out of the window, but there were no signs of anyone there.

"Could this be linked to the stone?" Harry mused. "But surely Quirrell would know how to get past Fluffy… unless they did the obstacles from the last to the first so each one doesn't know what the others have done unless they discuss it… means he probably only knows his own part… and Snape only knows his… and Hagrid's… hmmmm… okay. Let's think. Which professors did I overhear Filius and McGonogall talking about… McGonogall did something with a chess set, Uncle Fil charmed keys… Quirrel was a troll, that one should be easy enough. Fluffy'll let me past. Snape is doing something with potions… the vines below the trapdoor were probably Professor Sprout. I don't see Binns trying to do anything… no clue about Professor Vector…. maybe I'm over-thinking this."

Harry continued to stare at the far wall blankly, then he face-palmed.

"Dumbledore! The mirror! I wonder… is the mirror still there?"

.

The room was empty.

Harry carefully paced across the floor, passing through the place that had once been occupied by the Mirror of Erised to ensure that it hadn't simply been turned invisible or something similar. However, the area that the mirror had once occupied proved to be spectacularly unresisting to his progress through it.

"As Headmaster, Dumbledore's obstacle must be the last one." Harry mused quietly. "So, what did he say about the Mirror? Ah yes, to those unprepared or weak-willed, the Mirror of Erised is indeed a trap, causing them to stand before it and stare into it until they waste away. So, the mirror is almost certainly the last obstacle, Dumbledore's probably hidden the stone in it somehow. Wish I knew which one it was… although if it's someone wanting to bring Voldie back, it'll probably be the Resurrection Stone. So, Fluffy and vines are the first two. Keys, Troll, Chess and potions in some order or another, possibly with a few other obstacles thrown in, ending with a mirror created to trap the unwary. I suppose that by the time you've made your way through all the other obstacles, you would be rather tired and getting careless… huh?"

A mew echoed down the corridors and Harry winced.

"Shit! That's Filch's cat, meaning I need to get out of here since this area isn't covered by my pass! Let's see… aha!"

Harry opened the window and swung out onto the narrow ledge. Closing the window behind him, he moved across to the nearest drainpipe and used it to swarm up the wall to the roof, from where he had a clear run back to the Ravenclaw tower.

Back in the room he had just vacated, a cupboard in the corner wavered before vanishing, revealing Dumbledore standing where it had been, a proud smile on his face.

"Well done, young Harry." He whispered. "Your reasoning is almost flawless. Although I do wonder where you got the idea that it is the Resurrection Stone that I am protecting…"

"Gotcha, you little… ah. Um. Good evening, Headmaster."

"Ah, Filch, The stars are bright tonight, aren't they?"

"If you like that sort of thing." The School's Caretaker sniffed. "Come on, Mrs Norris. Let's see if we can't track down more of those errant brats."

Albus watched the caretaker leave, then turned to the window that was still ajar.

"Intriguing. I would have expected Harry to be using his father's Cloak to traverse the Halls of Hogwarts, not for him to be scrambling around the outer walls… perhaps I had better check the cushioning charms around the outside. He may yet need them…"

.

Neville slitted his eyes open as the window swung open, then Harry clambered into their room with barely a whisper of noise. As Harry latched the window closed again, Neville decided to speak up.

"So, found any… how did you do that?"

Harry rolled off the wooden top of the four-poster bed with an embarrassed chuckle. "Jeez, Nev. You scared several years growth out of me!"

"Says the boy who just climbed the outside of the tower and then jumped onto the canopy of his bed." Neville pointed out, plucking his wand from the stand on his bedside table and waving it to activate the lights, albeit at a low level. "So. What caused you to decide you needed to come in via the window rather than the door?"

"I was just checking something." Harry sighed as he pulled his pajamas out from underneath his pillow. "Dumbledore had a magic mirror in a room, the Mirror of Erised. It apparently shows you what you most desire, but something like that…"

Neville nodded slowly. "Yeah. If it doesn't show you how… So, why were you looking for it?"

"I heard Quirrell and Snape talking." Harry shrugged as he turned his back on Neville in order to get changed. "You remember back at the Feast, Dumbledore's warning about the third floor? Well, the first obstacle is a Cerberus named Fluffy. He's quite eager to please, once you show him who's boss. After that are some vines of some sort."

"Interesting." Neville mused. "Was the area well-lit or dark?"

"Pitch black." Harry supplied. "There were also puddles on the floor."

"If I was doing something to slow down people or stop them, I'd use Devil's Snare." Neville stated after a moment's thought. "It dislikes bright light, though, so a high-power lumos should be sufficient to get through. Anything else?"

"From what I overheard, a troll, chess, something with keys and something with potions, then the mirror used to hide the Stone, whichever one it is." Harry admitted and Neville leaned back, looking thoughtful.

"It sounds more like a series of tests than a proper security system." He finally admitted. "If Dumbledore wanted to hide something so that it couldn't be found, all he'd have to do is use a Fidelius with himself as the Secret Keeper."

Harry frowned as he followed Neville's thoughts. "So… Dumbledore mentioned that the mirror could be used as a trap… if someone's after the Stone, Dumbledore hints it's in the mirror behind all the traps and whoever wants it goes through all the obstacles and by the time they reach the mirror, they're tired enough that it traps them for Dumbledore to collect at leisure. Sneaky."

"Guess we don't have to do anything about it, then." Neville yawned as Harry shed his robe and donned his pajama top.

"That's the best news I've heard this week." Harry agreed as he tumbled into his own bed. "So, do you want to switch off the lanterns, or shall I?"

Neville waved his hand, causing the room to darken.

"Show-off." Harry chuckled and Neville laughed.

"I'm just awesome."

Harry looked at Neville, catching him replacing his wand in its stand despite the darkness.

"You were holding it in your left hand, weren't you?"

"Goodnight, Harry."