Runes
They were starting over again. George had spat out his leaf by accident when a bludger had hit him during Quidditch practice and Fred wouldn’t do it without George and Harry really wanted someone to do this with. And so, they were starting over. Another month with this stupid leaf in their mouths.
His dad had laughed at Harry again and then told him, how he, Sirius and Peter had taken half a year to get that first step done, because anyone had always choked – sometimes literally. But with the exams quickly drawing closer, it became apparent to Harry, that he wouldn’t be able to master the Animagus transformation in time, much less wandless magic or Occlumency. It was a frightening thought, because he had no alternative on facing Voldemort in only a few meek days of time.
It told about his desperation, that he consulted Merlin on what to do.
“And you’re sure you can’t just let him go stale down there? I mean, you don’t go down there and get the stone, he can’t take it from you. Easy.”
“It would”, Harry said morosely. “If that didn’t mean Flamel doesn’t destroy the stone and Tom has a chance to try again. And again.”
Merlin hummed. “You can’t convince Flamel to destroy the stone anyway?” “I don’t know, I’ve never met him. But he wouldn’t have any reason to, would he?”
Merlin looked deeply in thought, mind reeling. Harry waited with halted breath.
“So… you don’t know Occlumency. But when Voldemort enters your mind, he’ll find out about everything that’s happened in the future and will probably destroy everything before you get all the Horcruxes. And you can’t do any magic, that gives away that you know more than a first-year…”
“Yes, thank you for summarizing all of that”, Harry spat. “Is there more you’d like to add?”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “I was just painting the picture. Because I’ve got an idea… Have you studied runes?” “Runes”, Harry echoed confused. “Yes. Is there any way to get down in the room before Voldemort does?”
««»»
It was risky, foolish, dangerous. All those good things Harry had already done before. But this time, it came not from the threat of Voldemort finding him, but Dumbledore.
There was no way he could lure him away, because it would be a free pass for Voldemort to try to get to the stone earlier, but if Dumbledore found out what he was doing, there would be a lot of explaining in order, that he wasn’t ready to give yet.
So the objective was as follows: Sneak into the third-floor-corridor, get past Fluffy and the obstacles, and set up the stone-room with enough runes, that Voldemort wouldn’t be able to use Legilimency on him.
A piece of cake, actually, considering he was going to do this right under Dumbledore’s nose. But at least he wasn’t alone.
And so, in the night of the Astronomy exam, he takes his invisibility cloak with him and sneaks off to the third floor in a moment of inattentiveness from his friends. It was laughingly easy to get to the room and get past Fluffy (although he didn’t think his father would ever let go of his horrible singing performance of “Hoggy Warty Hogwarts” in a slow, lullaby version). And once you knew what to do, the devil’s snare was easy to overcome as well.
With the key room, there was actually a dream coming true.
He was soaring through the air, chasing after the key for the door, with his father next to him, zooming on his own, and pointing out the goal, following it, and commenting on his flying skills.
“No no, pull it up, you need to be steady for the curve – faster, you almost got it – YES! Damn, my son is a hell of a flyer!”
Harry landed right in front of his mum, who had watched with a huge smile, and grinned. Before either could say anything, his dad landed right next to him and forcefully patted him on the back. “Hah! Now I know why Slytherin never had a chance! Must have been the best years of McGonagall’s life, you should send her an apology gift this time, tell her you’re sorry you can’t be on the team.”
Harry couldn’t help but smile. He felt warm all over and he really wanted to keep talking to them, but he knew this wasn’t the time. So he said his quick goodbyes and watched his parents fade away, then opened the next door with the wriggling key in his hand.
It was the chess room, which he was still unsure about. He would have to put his life in the hands of a man, who he… didn’t entirely trust, to put it mildly, but who was clearly the best person for the job, because he – to put it in his words – ‘was the first person to play chess in the entirety of Britain, of course he knows how it works’. Not that Harry wasn’t sure he didn’t exaggerate even slightly, but it was practically his only option and so ended up with Salazar Slytherin navigating him through McGonagall’s deadly chess game. A thought he never thought he would entertain even in his head.
It was a strange kind of déjà vu, even after everything that happened in the past months, to stand in this room and face the chess characters. It was even crazier to not do it together with Ron, his trusted friend, and expert at anything chess, but Salazar Slytherin, ancient bigot of pureblood supremacism. Not that that was all entirely correct… but it was weird.
He was the king, and it was definitely more reassuring than his position the last time. He was watching the game from the last rows, ducking and defending from exploding pieces of statue. It was too fast for him to follow, but his chess skills had always been pretty lacking, especially in comparison to Ron.
“Potter! G6!”
Harry blinked, as he took in the scene in front of him. The white Queen was looming threateningly behind the pawn, that had just moved forward. It would be two turns, maximum.
“Are you crazy? She’ll take me out!”
“I’m not an amateur, Potter. Move!”
Harry gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed on the queen, who seemed to smile mockingly at him. The pawns in front of him didn’t reassure him in the slightest. He closed his eyes. He really wished either of his parents had been any good at chess.
Slowly he walked across to G6 and waited what would happen. The queen moved to F6, watching him attentively. Then Slytherin directed him to place the black knight in position to take her out and her only way out was directly opposite Harry, placing him in check. Slytherin grinned. “Go on.”
Harry grinned as well. This was great. He looked up at the queen and whipped out his wand. It took only a well-aimed Expulso and the queen was blasted to pieces and Harry took her spot.
After that, it only took a few more turns, until the bishop checkmated the white king.
Harry and Slytherin high-fived in the high of spirits, but almost immediately Slytherin closed himself off again, his expression impassive. “Well, that went well. You will manage without me now, yes?” Harry swallowed a chuckle and nodded respectfully. “Of course.” Slytherin dispersed in the air almost immediately and Harry laughed for himself. Slytherin actually wasn’t that bad.
««»»
The troll was a joke. Harry simply wrapped himself tightly in his invisibility cloak and snuck past it. It was slightly confused by the door opening and closing without anyone seemingly steeping into the room, but it also wasn’t smart enough to actually understand what a door opening and closing by itself could possibly mean. So, that wasn’t a problem at all.
He didn’t so much worry about Snape’s puzzle either. First, he still remembered it was the smallest bottle that had the potion needed (which was kind of logical, considering the aim was to keep as many people out of the room as possible) and second, his mum was here to help him go over the riddle again, in case his actions here had changed it somehow.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case and Harry took the tiniest sip possible before stepping through the flames.
It was just like he remembered; the semicircular room, lighted by the torches on the walls, and at the bottom of the stairs, the Mirror of Erised.
By now, it barely took a thought and Merlin appeared next to him, looking around the room curiously. “Funny, this is used to be the armoury. Godric stored all his swords over there”, he said, pointing vaguely to a corner.
“Why did you have swords here? It’s a magic school.”
“Yes, and swords can be very useful in close combat. Plus, most of the blades were enchanted in one way or another. Very useful for young students, to be able to defend themselves from magical attacks when they don’t know that many spells yet.”
Harry hummed. “That does sound useful. Gryffindor’s sword definitely saved my life in second year.” Merlin grinned. “You should tell Godric. He’ll be ecstatic.”
Harry smiled faintly. “Sure.” The thought of talking to Godric Gryffindor was somewhat terrifying. “Well, since you know the room apparently, where should we write the runes?”
Merlin considered that, stepping back and forth, staring at the ceiling. “Well, the mirror is right there… I’m assuming you and Tom will stand about this general circle…”, he painted a faint line with a white, magical band lying on the floor around the Mirror of Erised, “So that is the minimal diameter we need. I’d expand it slightly, just to be sure, but we can’t make it too big. It will be too conspicuous.”
“Could we expand it to the entrance? Not the whole circle, but just in that spot. So he can’t catch me off guard”, Harry said.
Merlin stared at him unbelievingly. “You said you didn’t know anything about runes, I didn’t think it was this bad…”
“Charming.”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Shapes are very important with runes. I’d choose a circle for this, because it works best with what we’re trying to do. But if we change the shape, we change the magic. It’s also very much about Arithmacy at this point, but I guess that’s irrelevant for now.”
“Got it, so the entrance will be unprotected.” Merlin nodded. “Just try and walk into the circle as quickly as possible, it’s all I can do. We’re lucky he is weak right now, or it would be even more difficult to impair his mind magic.”
“Lucky me”, Harry said sarcastically and Merlin grinned, rubbing his hands together. “Come on now, it’s been far too long since I practiced rune magic. It’s exciting.”
Harry chuckled, but couldn’t deny the excitement grabbing him as well. This was a kind of magic he had never seen before and it would be performed by Merlin himself. Anyone would be excited.
««»»
Fascinating. There was no other word for it. Merlin was rushing over the floor, hopping from one place to the next, and drew runes there, that glowed faintly with residue magic. While he watched, Harry thought to himself, that he should have listened to Hermione and taken Ancient Runes in his third year. It certainly seemed to be of greater value than the countless hours he and Ron had spent inventing dreams to interpret.
His curiosity got the better of him and he crouched down to let his hand hover over the rune closest to him. He felt the magic imbued in it, tickling his hand. It felt warm and welcoming, almost like Hogwarts itself and it that moment, he also realized why.
“Hogwarts is build with runes.”
Merlin snorted. “Took you a while. I thought it was rather obvious.”
“Again, charming”, Harry said tiredly. “You know I’ve never had a single lesson on runes in my life.”
“Which is tragic”, Merlin said immediately. When we’re finished here I’ll show you how useful runes can be. I can’t believe they decided to make it an elective… Bloody basic, it is!”
“Maybe it was a thousand years ago. Are you sure you’re not just outdated?”
“Outdated!”, the offence in his tone was quite amusing. “I’ll show you outdated, my friend! Aren’t you the one who needs my help? Good luck fixing your problem without my outdated magic!” The dust around Merlin’s feet was rising slightly with his temper and Harry rolled his eyes. “Fine, Merlin, please do your outdated magic to save my sorry hide.”
Merlin grinned. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”
“You’re giving me a headache.”
««»»
The result was quite impressive. It was extraordinary charm work, Harry could tell as much even if he didn’t know much (anything) about runes in general; Merlin’s work were two sets of finely crafted, glowing runes swirling in circles. The one on the ground he had started with was mirrored on the high ceiling in the exact same spot, moving in the opposite direction. Both circles were practically radiating with magic and Harry felt comfortably warm in their proximity.
“So, what do you say?”, Merlin said, resting his hands on his hip and looking at his work proudly. “Not my finest, but acceptable for a thousand years out of practice.”
“It’s great. But there is no way Voldemort won’t notice it. Is there a way to conceal it? Or will charms react badly with it?”
“Thank you, Merlin. This is incredible, Merlin. I could never’ve done it without you, Merlin”, Merlin muttered for himself sarcastically. Harry actually felt bad. “Sorry. It really is incredible, you know I haven’t the foggiest about runes. But it looked complex for sure.”
Merlin sighed. “I guess that’s the best I can hope for. About your question… I’m not sure, honestly, I just improvised this. There shouldn’t be a problem to add a negate Ansuz rune, but I can’t be sure it won’t react with the rest of the spell. We wouldn’t want either of you unable to communicate by accident, that would probably give it away.”
Harry hummed. His head swam with what Merlin had just said, trying to decipher his words. “So, if you’re not sure, is there anyone who can help with this?”
Merlin squinted his eyes as he thought about that. “Plenty. But only one who can figure it out in time”, Harry looked at him expectantly and Merlin grinned mischievously, “Rowena Ravenclaw.”