Preparations
She's just… staring at Umbridge in quiet rage. She already hadn't liked the woman after all of her anti-creature bull crap, but now here she was. Essentially trying to assertdominance or something with some ridiculous speech at the end of the start of term feast.
Like she has any real authority beyond that of a Ministry placed professor at Hogwarts. And at that only one that managed to take the position because Moody had resigned due to wanting to shift focus to the upcoming war.
Just from glancing around at all the angry expressions, she knows there's going to be a lot of complaints about her being tossed around tonight. The Student Council's Class Evaluators were probably going to be incredibly harsh on her.
She shakes her head. What on earth was the Ministry thinking, sending someone like her to the school?
She sighs a bit tiredly as she enters the common room, hands up on either side of her neck as she rolls it. That just seems to bring attention to her hands though, given that there are yelps and sharp intakes of breath all around even as Luna shoots to her feet, “Calanthe! What happened to your hand?!”
She blinks, then holds her hand out to glance down at the red marks left in the Blood Quills wake, “Umbridge's notion of acceptable student punishment apparently. You'd think a member of the Ministry would know how illegal it is to use a blood quill for anything but official documents, and even the times it's acceptable to use one there is limited.”
Luna catches her hand, tilting it this way and that as she examines it, “They aren't supposed to leave marks like this though.”
She shrugs, “Normally? No. When you're made to write multiple feet of parchment worth of lines? Apparently it absolutely can leave a mark.”
Luna lifts her head to stare at her, “She… made you write lines… with a blood quill?”
She nods, and off to the side Cho calls out, “But that's torture! Is she-?!”
She snorts, “You say that like it wasn't obvious from the sort of bills she kept trying to pass even before she came here that she is a cruel woman. Honestly, the only surprising part of it is that, again, it's illegal and you'd think she'd know better. Still, until something can be done, try to avoid detentions with her. I don't care about her doing it to me, I have a high enough pain tolerance it hardly registers, but wouldn't put it past her to do it to other students.”
She shakes her head and slips her hand out of Luna's, “She's probably already asleep, but I'm heading up to write to Amelia to report her, then I'm gonna get some sleep. Night.”
Luna steps out of her way, “Goodnight Calanthe.”
The common room is completely silent as she makes her way through and starts up the stairs. If she'd glanced back though, maybe she would've had some sort of warning of what was coming the next day, from the hard looks the people in the common room were sharing with each other, or Luna quickly pulling out the mail pouch she'd given her as she scampered over to start writing notes to their friends in other Houses.
She doesn't though, so other than mentally composing her letter to Amelia to send tomorrow and thinking about how she'll push her trial through despite inevitable attempts to interfere from Fudge and the like, she's blissfully unaware.
Hei looks down at his phone as a notification goes off, surprised and confused to see it's about a new livestream from Calanthe's channel. He shares a glance with Misaki and quickly connects his phone to the TV and pulls it up. Immediately seeing Calanthe looking off to the side at where her laptop was floating beside her, before she looks back at the camera as the frame shifts a bit, moving the laptop out of the picture, “So, it looks like the stream is up just fine. Hi! I know this is a really random stream, but that's because I know for a fact that cell phone signals can't get into the Ministry because of the magical saturation, which is contained and amplified due to the Ministry's underground nature, and there isn't really… time for an owl delivered letter, so I was hoping someone could report what's going on to Amelia Bones at the Ministry for me.”
“The shorthand version is that the Ministry placed professor, Delores Umbridge, has decided that she doesn't care about the laws and is willing to torture minors. Essentially there's an object known as a blood quill, which cuts whatever you write with it on the back of your hand as it draws blood for certain kinds of magical contracts. She decided, instead, that it was perfect for making students write lines with. Or well, I say students as though it's generalized, but given we just arrived at school a few days ago, to my knowledge she's only done it to me so far.”
She lifts her other hand, showing where there's a section of red irritated skin reading ‘I shall not tell lies’ on the back of it in Calanthe's own handwriting, “Considering she gave me the detention because I insisted in her class that Voldemort really is back and then she asked me if I stand by that before she started having me write lines, I assume it's her way of trying to force me to say he isn't back. And while I personally have a pretty good pain tolerance and don't care she did it to me, I will admit the idea of her doing it to other students pisses me off since blood quills do not keep you from feeling it carve the words you write into the back of your hand.”
Sheer murderous rage bubbles up in him at the audacity of that bitch to torture his Xiǎolóng. Beside him Misaki chokes, “That's torture! How could she be so cruel?! That-!”
She cuts off as Calanthe shakes her head and continues, “Anyway, when I got back from my detention last night, my Housemates noticed it and asked and I told them what it was. And uhhh. The students of Hogwarts are not taking kindly? To what she's willing to do?” She pulls her lips in briefly, then looks away, “Actually I woke up this morning to find that pretty much the entire student body had unanimously decided ‘...And now we riot.” She looks over at something, “And uhhh… mistakes have been made.”
She turns the camera to what he recognizes from other videos, namely the ‘first time at Hogwarts’ one, as the entrance hall, except the majority of the floor has somehow become a pool. A moment later she zooms in on one of the walls by the door, where a conversation seems to have been burned into it, reading:
Umbitch can fuck off!!
Tried to drown her. Why there's a pool in the entrance hall. It didn't work.
Of course not. Toads don't struggle with water. Should've lit her on fire instead.
Ehhh, burning her feels a little insensitive given the witch trials. Even if she'd totally deserve being burned at the stake.
Guillotine?
Guillotine works for me.
He stares at it with wide eyes and after a beat Calanthe's voice comes back as the camera is turned back around to her, “Seriously, I don't know how long it's gonna be before it becomes more than angry scrawls on the wall, so if someone could let Amelia Bones know that we… kinda need her to come deescalate the situation? That would be great. Thanks. Um. I'll update later, just so everyone knows what's going on, but bye for now!”
Then she turns her attention away as she leans over again, unintentionally bringing her laptop back into the shot, and the stream ends a moment later. He slowly turns to Misaki, who's staring at him with wide eyes, a moment later her voice comes out a bit faint, “I am so not going to be able to go to sleep until I know the situation has been resolved.”
He nods, “Yeah…. Me neither. And I… suppose there isn't much point texting Calanthe since she wouldn't be able to tell us much more until Amelia or someone responds, and she may be busy anyway.”
Misaki nods and they both taper into silence. Misaki eventually finds some work to do, what he isn't sure but she seems to be capable of finding work just about anywhere so he isn't very surprised, while he scrolls through the comments, constantly refreshing them and Calanthe's page in general or going to other social media sites to see if he can find anything more about what's going on. Except some people mentioning reporting it though, everyone seems to be just as in the dark as he is.
It's about an hour later that another notice for a livestream pops up, and almost immediately he has it pulled up on the TV as Misaki drops her work. Calanthe quickly finishes up with her laptop, then smiles a little tensely at the camera, “Hi! I'm back with an update and another request, I-” The laptop draws her attention, and she goes silent for a moment, then snorts, “Have that copied so you could paste and post it the moment I came back on stream Amelia?” She shakes her head, “Sorry for that everyone, Amelia Bones was just telling me she purposely left the Ministry so she'd be able to access any additional streams and the like. Which makes this easier since I don't have to ask internet strangers to get in touch with you.”
“Unfortunately I have bad news! Mistakes have continued to be made. I'm going to assume that you were not the one who assigned the Aurors responding to the situation at Hogwarts, and the Ministry in general did not take my advice on who to send.”
She turns the camera around to show a group of eighteen Aurors unconscious and hogtied, “Two were sent originally. Everything was fine with them and the group of students that gathered when they arrived… Right up until one of them decided that a sixth year girl that was just firing a stunner in anger at them implying that Umbridge did nothing wrong was a threat and fired a cutting curse back at her. She's fine thankfully, but the already riled up students were enraged, and uhhh… He and his partner were dropped in seconds. Then the Ministry sent a group of four, but they weren't really willing to hear the students' side of things. Then they sent a group of twelve and the students are… absolutely done with them! Not even willing to let them talk anymore. Or enter the school. Which brings us to our current situation!”
She turns towards a window, looking out of it at a group of Aurors on the grounds being absolutely pelted with spells, there are distant shouts of ‘vive la révolution’ in the background, “There's kind of a siege going on? I'm fucking serious, we really need you specifically Amelia, since obviously not all Aurors are the same or anything, but between the trigger happy one and the others not willing to listen… I don't think the students will be inclined to listen to anyone else with a badge right now, and I'm… pretty sure we're on a ticking clock before they decide to take matters into their own hands, since ummm…”
She turns the camera to a woman also unconscious and tied up a little off to the side, “They decided to catch Umbridge from where she's been running around trying to regain control of the rioting students. Luckily, the ones who brought her in are a bit more level headed, otherwise she probably wouldn't even still be alive, but considering I've been hearing more and more angry mutters along the lines of guillotine, head on pike, pike tossed like spear at Aurors… After being willing to torture minors she definitely needs to see justice, I agree with that, but… mob mentally justice is not a good idea in general, soooo….”
“Also, you might wanna hurry, since I've been hearing some suggestions on going old fashioned on the siege and using boiling oil, so. If you do go talk to the Minister, since from your message the only reason you haven't come yet is because he basically ordered you not to, then I'm… totally going to need you to record the interaction. Because after all of this nonsense, if nothing else, I wanna see his face when he realizes just how badly he's fucked up.”
Off to the side, Hermione's voice asks, “Where's Nev?”
She snorts as she turns back to the window, “Leading the proverbial troops. We're kinda like siblings I'll remind you, and he's pissed his sister in all but blood was tortured.”
Another voice off to the side pipes up, “His gran wil be so proud.”
Calanthe hums vaguely and there's a beat before she continues, “...Honestly? I can't decide if it's kind of pathetic that the students took the Aurors down and are holding them off, or impressive that they're managing it, since I can't decide who it says more about.”
Off to the side, the unknown voice snorts, and as Calanthe turns, one of her friends, Susan if he recalls correctly from the time he met some of them during her school supply shopping trip, gives her an amused look, and while he didn't recognize her from her voice alone, its swiftly obvious she was the one who commented on Neville's grandmother before, “It says more about the students. The defense education has been messed up and inconsistent for a while, so most aurors have to be given a crash course after graduating to make sure they're really up to snuff, whereas the students have a rock solid foundation and understanding of it. Which is entirely because you've been tutoring defense since your first year, and by your third you were tutoring the theory side at least up to sixth year, and by last year you were tutoring both theoretical and practical aspects all the way up to seventh. Not that you need to help as much with Professor Lupin at the post, but…”
Then she shakes her head, “And then Umbitc- sorry that name has really caught on, Umbridge decided to torture you of all people with that stupid blood quill. No one was gonna stand for that, not in general, not towards you, and not with the possibility of her turning that on them.”
Calanthe hums, “Still though, there's what, I think you said about a fourth of the Auror force out there? Still a bit surprising that they're managing to hold their own. Not sure how they've managed that.”
Hermione pipes up again from the background, “Because you taught them Defense!”
Calanthe coughs, “Anyway. Amelia. Now. Please. And preferably with a video of Fudge's reaction as maybe a peace offering. Not that it's strictly necessary. With how well they know we get along and all that, I'm confident that they respect and trust Amelia enough to at least negotiate with her. But there's not much else to say, other than the fact that other than the clock on Umbridge, you still may wanna hurry since I've also been hearing mutters about storming the Ministry for Fudge himself since Umbridge is his seniorundersecretary and honestly at this rate I'm not entirely sure they couldn't do it…”
She turns the camera back towards her, “Also! I was seeing some comments asking why the teachers weren't interfering earlier, and that's because right now they have something of an understanding with the students that they don't mess with each other, since the students actually respect them. Or most of them anyway, and are at least willing to leave the others alone as long as they don't interfere, and honestly after that.” She turns to point behind her out the window and the siege again, “Can you really blame them? Anyway, I guess I'll update everyone as the situation progresses.”
Another moment later the stream ends, and he finds his jaw dropped open, slowly looking at Misaki, she's just as astonished, “...And here I thought the situation couldn't get worse…”
He lets out a strained laugh, “Yeah. Hopefully that absolute moron will let Bones go deal with it before it escalates any more.” Then he gives a wry grin, “Here's a question though. How nervous do you think that'll make those Death Eater scum? I mean, an entire generation properly trained and not afraid to throw down like the previous generations? When they usually were taking advantage of the lacking in education in those regards and the terror of the masses.”
Misaki lets out a strained laugh of her own, “...They're probably shaking in their boots.”
He chuckles, and then they go back to quietly and tensely waiting. The internet is now blowing up at the revelations of the new stream, but once again no one really knows anything more. Thankfully, it's only about half an hour before Calanthe comes back on, “Hi. Just wanted to give you all an update so you weren't worried, and Amelia authorized it.” She turns to show a couple of adults standing over the unconscious group from the previous video, holding a finger up to point at each of them in order, “This is Auror Shacklebolt and Auror Tonks.” Shacklebolt nods towards the camera as she says his name and Tonks waves a little, “They've been assigned to watch over all these unconscious people out of a combination of the fact there's going to be a huge investigation into all of them, and also because Amelia doesn't want to even attempt to take them into Auror custody until the negotiations are done.”
“She's with the rest of the Student Council negotiating, with a nice chunk of the student body -though some have been left watching the windows until the negotiations are done and the siege is officially over- and basically all the professors watching for transparency. I'm with the Aurors though, just to make sure no one gets it into their head to slip in and take justice into their own hands while the majority of people are busy and also to be here for a witness as to how the Aurors handle things if someone does, just so the students know they won't have an inappropriate response.”
She glances back, “Not that I think they will. Amelia brought these two purely because I'm familiar with them and know they're solid. Auror Shacklebolt here actually handled Sirius and Peter's cases, he's a cool guy with a good head on his shoulders. And Tonks here is actually my cousin. Well, second cousin or something like that. My dad was cousins with her mom through his mom who married into my family. Anyway! Amelia is damngood at her job, so I'm sure everything will work out in the negotiations. In the meantime! I was, in fact, brought a video of Fudge's reaction to being shown the video of my last stream, and after everything he's pulled he absolutely deserves having that published, so I'll post it after this. I'll give you all an update just to let you know everything worked out, but I'll only make another steam if things go to hell again, and I seriously can't see that happening with Amelia handling it. So, all's well that ends well? Bye!”
The stream ends and he leans his head back against the couch. Then he pulls his phone up.
Mass text
I'm gonna assume you aren't too busy to respond now, but way to give Misaki and I heart attacks Xiǎolóng.
Calanthe
Yeah, it's pretty quiet now. I probably couldn't have responded earlier since I was keeping watch over Umbitch and the others. And oops? I was just doing what I could think of to get in touch with Amelia ASAP. 😅
Misaki
No, we get that. The situation was kind of critical and couldn't really wait for something like an owl letter. Though I'm surprised you don't have her linked to your mail pouch.
Calanthe
I'm surprised you're still up. Don't you have work in the morning? And we never saw a need for it before. Though that's undoubtedly going to change after today.
Like either of us could sleep after that first live stream. From what I know of her though, it's probably well in hand now that Amelia is taking care of things, so we'll be heading to bed now.
Calanthe
That's… fair. OK! Goodnight! Love you guys!
Misaki
Love you too.
Love you Xiǎolóng.
He sighs, rubbing at his face, then turns his head towards Misaki, “Bed?”
She stands, stretching as she does, “Yes please. I'm exhausted now.”
She holds a hand out to him and he accepts it, letting her help him up and slot their fingers in between each other as she turns towards their bedroom.
She laughs a bit at the plethora of edits online taking Fudge's expression after he found out about the siege and doing things like adding the ‘That's when he knew. He fucked up’ or the ‘Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no’ audios on over it.
Her personal favorite may be the one of his expression with the audio of Amelia ripping him a new one just before she showed him the video playing over it. Specifically using her scathing comment of, “Minister Fudge. You were so terrified that Dumbledore was building an army that you sent Umbridge of all people there after both him and Lady Potter-Black. She is highly respected, especially there. And you were blisteringlystupid enough to send your little toady after her. Congratulations. You successfully rallied an army around Lady Potter-Black.”
He absolutely deserves the way he's being ripped to shreds and the fact he's undoubtedly going to get booted out of office soon, since even those who want to bury their heads in the sand regarding Voldemort were horrified at the idea of minors being tortured, even if it was her and those particular people don't like her right at the moment. Well, he'll be out of office unless those who want a Minister denying Voldemort's return or just incompetent and those who don't want to look foolish or some other nonsense don't manage to stonewall the rest of them.
Regardless, it's been helpful overall since it's making those same people who've been burying their heads in the sand question what had the illustrious Minister Fudge they'd been listening to and following up until then was so adamant about hiding. Because if she really was lying, why would he care so much about silencing her?
Nevertheless, as brief as it was, she's glad the mess with Umbridge has been dealt with so she can shift her focus back to what final preparations she can fit in before Voldemort's public return and the reignition of the war that had started before her birth.
She pants heavily, then drags herself up, staring down the group of mannequins the Room of Requirements had made to fight her, “Again.”
At the command, they all start attacking her. One of them was imbued with her memories of Voldemort, though since she was currently focusing on working on fighting both it and the fake Death Eaters, it wasn't going at her as hard as the real man had in the graveyard, not just yet anyway. If she works up to that level, it absolutely will.
Voldemort was laying low to build power, but from what Lucius has slipped to her through Draco, he was aiming to perhaps come back publicly within a year or two, depending on how quickly things moved. That means she had a year to train and a year to prepare, which she was using every second she could of. Well, she's been training more seriously rather than just to keep her family traditions ever since she met Voldemort face to face in her first year, and that had ramped up both since that House Elf told her about the Room and Moody had started sending her memories, but this was her last real opportunity without the war actively happening. So she was making the most of this time to prepare, both in combat training, and when she physically could not continue without potentially straining herself, she immediately shifted to working on a couple projects she had rattling around in her head.
She had her sword in her off hand and her wand in the other as she throws herself back into the fray. Even as she does, she was doing her absolute best to maintain Patronus fire to catch the fake unforgivables it was throwing at her.
It still wasn't good enough. But she would get there before this year was out if she had her way. Even if it takes copious abuse of the time turner she'd been given oh so long ago. She supposes the only plus side was that it had the weird side effect that when you used it, your biological clock went back just as far, so she wasn't aging faster.
Well. Plus side beyond the fact it means it'll take even longer from her perspective for Hei and Misaki's block from the bond to break, but with people's lives on the line, it was a shallow price to pay.
She sighs in frustration as her Patronus fire from her practice to get better at it specifically peters out. It wasn't even the fire really, it was the frustration at the lack of any hints of Ravenclaw's diadem.
She straightens slowly as an… idea bubbles up in her head as she watches the last flickers of her Patronus fire. Slowly removing the magical isolation box with the locket inside, which the goblins had agreed to wave the deadline for its destruction off after she'd presented the locket for examination as well as the proof that she could destroy it with the cup and explained why she hadn't destroyed the locket. She opens it, staring at the locket as the memory of that moment in the graveyard replays in her head over and over.
She wandlessly and wordlessly levitates the box in place, then circles her wand above the locket inside, “Expecto Patronum Inventiones.”
With a jab at the end, the familiar silvery whisps wrap around it for a few moments before sinking in. After a moment, they come back out, showing the usual results, with everything but the locket itself, the diadem, and the vaguely humanoid figure for Voldemort himself in the jaws of the grim reaper.
Hesitantly, she reaches her hand out towards it, not touching it but curling around it until it was cupped above her hand. Holding onto it with magic coming off of her hand, she hesitantly brings it up to her face. She lets out a shaky breath, hoping beyond hope this doesn't do anything to her then brings it that little bit closer and breathes in deeply, sucking the silvery smoke into her lungs.
To her incredible surprise, the moment she breathes it in, her vision of the Room fades away and another takes over. She sees the diadem, the real diadem, not just the stone replica on the statue in the common room, resting on top of a pile of junk. For a moment her confusion lingers before a burning desire to know where it was takes over her. Almost as if in response, which makes sense in some ways, the vision starts to flash in and out, skipping backwards with each until she finds herself staring at a door. A familiar door across from a portrait of the crazy wizard trying to teach trolls ballet.
Then the vision cuts out and she finds herself observing Voldemort.
He's glaring at someone angrily, “Avery, you seem to have given me false information-”
It's only then that she notices the flashing of the scene as it zooms out, and she almost wants to shout desperately not to let it happen, remembering she's holding her breath for a reason at the last second. The view quickly withdraws to a manor, and for a few moments, her mind lingers on what little she'd overheard, wondering how she could use this new… development with the Patronus spell, but as her lungs start to burn she remembers what she'd been doing and snaps back to the moment. The Room of Requirements. Which she was inside right at that very moment.
Her eyes snap open -when had they closed?- and flick around the Room, but her body is starting to protest the breath she was still holding, so on her exhale, she focuses on ‘counsel’ and breathes out, “Expecto Patronum.”
Rather than a silvery form leaping from her wand, the silvery vapor she'd breathed in comes back out of her mouth with the breath, taking on the familiar form of her panther Patronus, though it's more… smokey like the Inventiones variant than the usual Patronus.
It circles around her, but even as it does, she concentrates on shifting the Room to the form it had been in, in the… vision from the locket.
Around her, everything disappears for a moment, leaving her in the somewhat… terrifying position of standing on a small piece of ground with the door behind her and her Panther Patronus at her side, but nothing but empty blackness around her.
Then the room from her vision appears. The Panther immediately starts forward, pausing and looking back at where she was still rooted in place. Taking a shaky breath, she hesitantly steps out onto the ground where there was nothing but void a few seconds ago, but it's as solid as normal ground. Reassured, she starts to move towards her Patronus, and it turns its head back forward and continues on.
She follows it, vaguely recognizing some of the things that had been captured in the scenes of the vision, but eventually, she finds herself before the diadem. Her Patronus lingers for a moment then starts to turn and walk, likely trying to lead her to Voldemort. Which… would be bad if she unintentionally tipped him off, which is exactly why she hurries to cancel the spell. Looking over at the locket, she makes the decision quickly, burning the Horcrux out of the diadem, since between the two, that one is more likely to be beneficial. She doesn't destroy the locket's Horcrux yet though, since if nothing else, it will let her monitor if he makes any more, but with those visions… It could be an incredible source of intelligence on Voldemort. She… just needs to figure out how to hold her breath longer and maybe see if she can't get the spell not to zoom out and show the location.
In the meantime though, she really wants to study the diadem to see if she can't figure out how to replicate it. After she grabs it and tucks it away into her mokeskin pouch along with the now closed magical isolation box holding the locket, she starts to look around in curiosity, her gaze almost immediately landing on the cabinet beside where the diadem had been. She recognizes it in an instant. How could she not with the fact she owns two sets of them.
A Vanishing Cabinet.
Her brows furrow, and a little hesitantly, unsure if it'll do what she's wanting, she casts another Patronus Inventiones spell on it, then mimics what she'd done with the spell for the locket and breathes its smoke in.
Her vision darkens again, though the scene looks the exact same, barring the fact everything around the cabinet has been plunged into darkness, like lights around the Room barring a spotlight on the cabinet have lost power. After a moment, the scene does that skipping flash again, but it moves forward instead of back this time, going into the cabinet then back out into a shop. With more of those flicker skips, she's quickly outside facing it, and able to read the name ‘Borgin and Burks’ above it. The scene continues to skip backwards through an alley until she finds herself exiting the entrance to Knockturn off of Diagon.
She exhales back to her body, then purses her lips.
Without hesitation, she pulls the two way mirror Sirius had given her before she left for school out of her mokeskin pouch, “Sirius Black.”
She waits a few beats before Sirius’ happy face appears, “Prongslette! What-” Then his smile fades, “Oh, I know that face. Something serious has come up?”
She blows out a breath, “Oh you know, just found a security breach that would let people circumvent the Hogwarts wards, that's all.”
Sirius chokes, his posture straightening quickly, and the things she vaguely catches in the background of the mirror as he does letting her know he'd been lounging in his room at Grimmauld place, “You found what?!”
She shrugs, them turns around and tilts the mirror so half of it shows her face with the other half is showing the cabinet in the background, “Found the other half of a Vanishing Cabinet set leading from Hogwarts to a place called Borgin and Burks on Knockturn. I need you to put on a disguise or something, since I don't want any dirt on your reputation given people are still trying to shift gears away from thinking of you as Voldemort's right hand man, and go there and purchase it. I'll reimburse you whatever the cost is, but I need you to secure it.”
She glances behind her, “This half of the Cabinet seems to be in poor form, but if it's already here and I'm purchasing the other half, you may as well have it at headquarters for emergency backup to use, assuming I can get this half fixed…” She frowns lightly for a moment, “Maybe send you this one so you can take them into a professional shop since that would still be cheaper than buying new ones, then just sneak one of them back in after they're fixed.”
Sirius nods slowly, “Sounds like a plan to me Prongslette. I need to go, because I don't care what the status of that one is, I need to get the other half secured asap, so I've got a disguise to put together and some shopping to do. Love you.”
She hums, “Thanks Sirius. Love you too. Let me know when you have the other half secured, since if you're heading out now, I may as well watch this one just to make sure nothing happens right at the last minute before you can.”
He nods and murmurs an agreement before the connection cuts out. She looks around in curiosity as she waits, careful not to stray too far. It was amazing what the Room was capable of. Not only could it become whatever you wanted, but it could even store all this while it was in use in another form? And all inside a space that is clearly space expanded since there's no way this would fit otherwise. Which makes her wonder if the same magic could be applied to a space expanded trunk.
It makes her start to wonder how it was made. Could the room itself tell her maybe?
She's frustrated with the Room being so… stubborn about how it was made, or maybe it just couldn't provide that information, but she really kind of needed it. It wasn't just her own curiosity or anything either. The Room clearly had a memory, and it had to be able to draw on knowledge and skill from people who had been inside, so even if she wasn't good at potions herself, while it feels a bit… bad to do it to him, if she could get Horace into the Room or rather a replica of it stored inside a trunk, then she could theoretically have it brew any potion she needed as long as she provided the ingredients and the like, because while anything the Room created would disappear, if it was just doing the work to reach the end result… And given she was going to need copious amounts of one in particular for one of her projects to protect as many people as possible, it wasn't really feasible to have Horace brew it all.
She shoves her hands through her hair, then decides to try something else. From what she can tell, anything that has entered the Room, it can replicate, and she has been in the Room and she does have a time turner. She wonders if maybe… maybe she could use Patronus Inventiones and the vision inducing use of it on the time turner the Room itself creates to maybe… target the vision into the past?
Maybe if she has it make the time turner large and embed it into the ground, and use it on the time turner as it's flipping back? It wouldn't function as an actual time turner from what she knows of them, but the symbolism of it could maybe target her spell to the past of the room.
It's worth a try anyway.
So she does exactly that. And as she breathes in the smoke from the spinning hourglass, she does indeed see the vision she's given start to rewind. She's wanting to go significantly further than a time turner actually can, but with the fact she wasn't actually using the time turner to go back in time but just to show her the past, perhaps…
It isn't too much longer, thankfully since her lungs are starting to burn, that she sees what seems to be Ravenclaw, given the visual similarities with the statue in the common room, performing some sort of ritual. She does her absolute best to look around and memorize it as thoroughly as possible with her Occlumency mental organization before the spell starts to zoom out, but with how brief her look was, she may have to use the spell to see it a few times.
When her breath rushes out of her when she's unable to hold it any longer, she immediately pulls out some parchment to start getting everything she'd seen down. If there was anything verbal about the ritual, she didn't manage to hear it before the spell started zooming out, having reached her destination based on her desire of what she wanted counsel on, and with the way it continues to zoom out, she's pretty sure she'll have to work backwards from the rest of the ritual to figure out what it should be if anything, but it was better than nothing.
It did mean that she could stop bugging the Room about how it was made and pivot to maybe examining a replica of the Sorting Hat or other such objects with an intelligence of their own.
She pulls the letter out of her delivery pouch and opens it almost desperately. For all that she had come to know Misaki pretty well, particularly during her school breaks, she had been drawing an absolute blank on what to get the woman for the upcoming Yule holiday. Knowing relationships were kind of her forte as a Veela, she had desperately turned to Fleur for advice, though she'd been careful to make it clear that it couldn't be a romantic present before she'd described Misaki's personality.
She opens the letter as quickly as she dares without risking ripping it, immediately beginning to read, "Dearest Calanthe, I am glad to hear you are doing well, particularly after that... issue with the Ministry assigned professor and how I saw things spiral out of control rather... quickly on that, sorry, the internet that you showed me how to use. As for your plea of desperation as to whether I have any ideas for a Yule present for your Muggle Auror soulmate because you are struggling to think of something suitable, as she is simultaneously a practical woman yet also sentimental, rejoice my young friend! That, at least, I believe I can help you with…”
She looks it over quickly, relaxing as she does, as Fleur's advice was… honestly kind of brilliant. She absolutely owed her friend something really nice for her own Yule present as thanks.
She ignores the dirty looks that more than a few people are giving her as she follows the Unspeakable. Through Amelia, she had made an appointment to listen to any prophecies about her, though to keep people from constantly bothering them, they had to know a prophecy about them existed. It had been a mild gamble given she didn't know with absolute certainty, but between the fact she keeps coming face to face with some form or another of Riddle, backed up by Moody's suspicions and combined with the fact that Dumbledore was trying to protect some sort of prophecy, it hadn't been too hard to come to the conclusion that there was one regarding herself and Voldemort, which had been enough for them.
The woman shakes her head when the people around take one look at her and either exit the lift or choose to wait for a new one, “Idiots. Burying their heads in the sand and refusing to accept the evidence won't make the problem go away.”
Calanthe hums, “It can't really be helped, with the sheep-like nature of the majority of the UK.”
The woman snorts, “I suppose there is that.”
The rest of the ride down to level nine was silent, and so was the trip down to the door to the Department of Mysteries. When they enter, they find themselves in a circular room with twelve doors. The moment the one behind them closes, they start to move, slowly at first but steadily picking up speed until there's a blurry blue line from the magical torches but it's impossible to make out anything else.
When they slow to a stop, the woman holds something up and calls out, “Hall of Prophecies.”
Immediately a door off to the back left opens, and she immediately leads Calanthe through. They pass by rows and rows of shelves until eventually reaching row ninety-seven. She leads her down it until she reaches a particular spot, pointing at a placard underneath one of the orbs full of swirling bluish gray mist. The placard reads, “S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?) Calanthe Potter.”
The Unspeakable turns to her, “You're given privacy while you listen to it, and you're also entitled, and even encouraged, to cast your own spells to ensure privacy. I'll be heading back down to the end of the aisle and ducking around it so I can't even read the lips of the person who spoke the prophecy in the record. You'll see two little divots in the prophecy orb, one above the seam, and one below it. Press in on them and twist and it'll let the prophecy out. When you're done, just put it back on the shelf and I'll come back for you, as while we don't have listening spells here, there are ones that detect when a prophecy is removed and placed so it'll signal me that you're done.”
She nods in understanding and the woman leaves. She casts every spell she knows to detect any spells listening in, and she also casts a Patronus Picturam to make sure there was no one on the other side of either of the shelves. When she's sure about that, she puts up every spell she can think of to keep the sound of the prophecy from traveling, and even double checks for spells listening in, just in case there were any who's activation was triggered by her putting up her privacy spells. As one last measure, she tosses up a spell she stumbled across while looking through the Potter family records that encases the caster in a one way orb that keeps anyone from seeing inside by making the outside look like a solid black ball.
Knowing that's the best she can do, she turns her actual attention to the orb and pulls it down off the shelf, checking for listening spells a third time just in case that triggered any, but once again not getting any results, she finally opens the orb.
The moment she does, the mist swirling around raises out and takes the form of a person, namely Professor Trelawney to her surprise. Her misty form opens her mouth and speaks in a deeper, rougher voice, “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark them as his equal, but they will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies….” She figures that's the end of it, but to her great surprise, it continues, “The one who will dethrone the False Light Lord(1) approaches… defying the Dark Lord three times, they will defeat him once and for all... and the False Light Lord will try to control and deceive them, but they are uncontrollable and undeceivable… and either must subdue the other for neither can thrive while the other has power... the one with the power to dethrone the False Light Lord will arrive to defeat the Dark Lord…”
She blinks rapidly as the mist retreats back into the orb which snaps shut. No wonder Dumbledore was so protective of the prophecy. The Unspeakables hadn't added his name to the label as to who it was between, she'd think it was because they were unsure, but they hadn't used the question mark to denote that like they had with her. Maybe it was because his name was already on it as the one who heard the prophecy?
She personally thinks it's beyond foolish that he tried to control and deceive her, as the prophecy put it, regardless of the fact the prophecy outright said he wouldn't be able to, but Dumbledore had always been rather arrogant, and from previous discussions she's had with Lady Longbottom, from when she spoke to her about her frustrations at Dumbledore risking people's lives to guard the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore didn't put much stock in them. She'd revealed that because she had been surprised he even bothered, but he may have been guarding it as more of a lure for Voldemort rather than actually believing it.
Then again, even if he does put stock in it, it's entirely possible that he's under the impression that the ‘False Light Lord’ refers to someone else. It feels incredibly obvious to her that it's about him, but it's not unbelievable that he may have interpreted it another way. Shaking her head, she dispells her magic as she returns the prophecy to the shelf, and it only takes a few moments for the Unspeakable to return, “Done then?” She nods, “Alright, then, since that's the only one we know is about you, I'll lead you back to the lobby.”
She glances back as she moves to follow the Unspeakable. The power he knows not… She's already got a vague idea in her head as to what that could be, but she wants some time to think about it, and maybe speak to Remus, Sirius, and Moody about it.
She laughs at Misaki's expression at the present she'd gotten Hei of another photo album, this one made with some help from Sirius to get memories from Hei during some crash course magic lessons and composed entirely of him and his sister, which Hei was very absorbed in slowly flipping through. She'd thought about giving him two, one for newer photos of them since they were reunited, but there was still space in the previous one she'd given him, “I give him so much useful stuff all the time that it's practically become a tradition between us at this point that my birthday and holiday presents to him are purely sentimental.”
Misaki shakes her head with a bemused expression, “In retrospect, that's totally fair, although it's still a little weird to see something so… normal when I know most of the ‘presents’ you've given him over the years were things like his new coat, mask, wires, harness, knives, medical kit, and stock of things like Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.”
She shrugs, “Yeah, but like I said, I'm constantly giving him that stuff, so actual presents are reserved for other things.”
Misaki hums in understanding, then shakes her head and accepts her own present with a smile, “My turn I suppose.”
She nods, feeling a flicker of nervousness as Misaki opens it. As much as she thinks Misaki will like it, she's still nervous even after Fleur's help. When she finishes unwrapping it, drawing Hei's attention away from his photo album since he didn't want to miss any of the gift exchange, they both look a little confused after Misaki opens the box inside, revealing a pretty, though also subtle and not flashy, necklace in the form of a European style dragon encased in a web of lightning, which was meant to symbolize both herself and Hei respectively.
Misaki pulls out the note in the box, tilting it towards Hei so they can both read. She'd written it in case she wasn't able to be here for Yule for some reason, but it's just something to explain the necklace even though she knows Misaki isn't a huge jewelry person. Given Misaki could also be incredibly practical, but she hadn't given her a lot of things like Hei with his practical gifts, the necklace was meant to be both practical as well as sentimental. The sentimental half was fairly obvious, but the practical half was something Fleur had helped her out with. Namely, it had enchantments on it that were not necessarily a Veela secret, but only known particularly well to them which they were taught in case someone fell a little too deeply into their Allure and tried to force themselves onto them, which had the purpose of physical defense.
With some experimenting, she'd concluded that it couldn't, say, stop a bullet, but there wasn't a whole lot below that physically that she'd thrown at it that it couldn't handle. Misaki smiles warmly as she looks back up at her, “Thank you Calanthe. It's a lovely gift.”
She smiles back as Misaki pulls the necklace out. Hei immediately sets his photo album down and holds his hand out. Misaki hands him the necklace and lets him help her put it on. Once it's hooked, she reaches down for the decoration, lifting it slightly as she smiles down at it.
She feels the last of the tension leave her at the fact Misaki really does like it. Which made Yule a success all around for all of them, since even without just enjoying the holiday together, they'd all liked their presents from one another.
Hei shakes his head in amusement, then looks over at the clock, “Well, we still have a few hours before we're supposed to head over to Sirius’ to see him and Remus and the like. What'd you guys wanna do?”
Misaki hums, “Do you guys wanna just play a game?”
She shrugs, “Sure, but which one? I mean, none of them are totally fair. Hei somehow pretty much always wins at monopoly, Janga, and Scrabble, Misaki tends to win at… pretty much all of the regular card games I can think of, and you guys aren't too fond of Uno.”
The other two shudder and Hei gives her a deadpan look, “That. Is because you're an absolute monster at Uno. Last time we played I swear by the end of it both Misaki and I had a quarter of the deck in our hands each.”
She laughs, “That's no different than you owning half the monopoly board you monster! Or Misaki demolishing us in rummy!”
He gives her a pouty look, “It is when you're so much younger than us.”
She laughs, though the mention of Uno strikes an… idea in her, one that she tucks away to examine later, “War then? It's entirely luck based.”
The other two murmur agreements and it doesn't take long for them to set up the altered variation for three players.
She checks over all her recording equipment before looking up at Amelia, “Everything is good to go on my end.”
The Daily Prophet group also indicates their readiness, so Amelia nods at them both, then turns to Calanthe's camera, just recording not live, “Hello. I've been mentioned before and I was in that stream of the final task of the Triwizard Tournament in the feed still at Hogwarts after things started going wrong, but I don't believe I've ever been properly introduced. My name is Amelia Bones, I am the current Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I'm here because Lady Potter-Black has developed something to help people escape sudden attacks on their home from…” She's careful about the next words she uses given the divide in the UK and the Daily Prophet people present, “law breakers that mean people harm, so myself and some Aurors,” She gestures behind her at the group, “are here to help Lady Potter-Black demonstrate the capabilities of such.”
She turns and one of them approaches with the mirror for the demonstration, “This is a ward breaker mirror. It's intention it to break through temporary wards such attackers may put up such as anti-apparation and anti-portkey to trap someone from escape.”
The Auror takes it over to the three sides of a portion of a mock house as a another follows him over, he heads up the stairs as she settles in the living room area with the dummy toddler, then he hangs the mirror on the wall and heads over to the fake nursery and over to the crib where the fake baby was resting. A couple of the Aurors step up and cast temporary wards as quickly as possible, though it still takes a solid minute, and the moment they're up the mirror immediately starts glowing and an alarm noise starts to ring out. Immediately, the Aurors in the ‘house’ shoot to their feet, quickly grabbing the ‘children’ and rushing to the ‘bedroom’ he'd placed the mirror in. He gets there before she does since he was already upstairs, but while he immediately snatches up a hairbrush, he waits while listening and watching the door into the room.
As soon as she enters and tells him she's ready, he turns with the hairbrush and smashes the mirror with it, and the moment he does, the temporary wards flare into visibility and shatter as well. Immediately, they both apparate away, though they just go to the rest of the aurors then set the fake children down.
Amelia turns to the camera, “As you can see, when temporary wards are erected, it will automatically connect to them and tie itself to them in such a way that breaking the mirror will break the wards too. Now, obviously if something like this becomes available, criminals will quickly attempt to modify their approach and try to be ready to create another temporary ward the moment the previous goes down. However, as long as breaking the mirror is the absolute last thing that's done, and the owner doesn't dally and immediately leaves after breaking it, the opening between breaking the mirror and the previous ward and when they can create a new one will be long enough to escape.”
She tilts her head to the side for a moment, “A more powerful ward from a more powerful caster will take more to break the mirror, since the way it connects makes it more durable the more powerful the ward is, but testing has shown that no matter how powerful we've made the ward, nothing stronger than a blasting curse has ever been required, though a shield against any glass will obviously be needed in such cases. Obviously this doesn't help non-magicals, but they wouldn't have much reason to use wards against them anyway. It is at this point I would like to assure people that the way it's been designed, it's not capable of connecting to a preexisting ward, so it cannot be used to break wards meant to defend someone's home. Furthermore, Lady Potter-Black has created a key to circumvent it so that select Aurors can still create wards that the mirror cannot connect to, so that such methods can still be used to prevent criminals from fleeing.”
She smiles, “That being said, those Aurors have all been obligated to swear magical oaths not to abuse the ability to do such for unlawful use and as it has been labeled as confidential, spreading it without authorization is also unlawful, and any who refused to do so have been detained and questioned since it's… rather revealing about the sort of lawbreaking they may get up to otherwise. Anyhow, we at the DMLE participated in this public safety demonstration because certain… indications are pointing to the possibility of a rise in crimes and attacks on people's homes, so we at the DMLE were more than happy to assist Lady Potter-Black in showing and explaining the utility of this new life saving invention, which Lady Potter-Black has done her absolute best to make as cheap as possible at a mere galleon, or fifty pounds in non-magical currency for ease of understanding for non-magical viewers. I believe this is the entirety of the current demonstration, yes?”
She nods, so the Daily Prophet group comes over to interview her, done in front of her camera, as since she owns the Prophet, the newspaper was, of course, more than okay with her recording their interview.
It's only one of her projects, and quite frankly the simplest of the ones she's been working on to mitigate what damage Voldemort and his Death Eaters can do in the upcoming conflict.
She'd done everything she could to make the mirrors as cheap and as easily available as possible, so all the she could do now was shift her focus back to other projects, but honestly most of those required her study in the Room, so she wouldn't be able to do that until she went back after the holidays.
Honestly, she'd been incredibly inclined to tell Hei and Misaki she wouldn't be able to come back for them because of that, but after she'd mentioned she was thinking about it to Remus, he, Sirius, Hei, Misaki, and even Moody had all teamed up on her about how she was working herself too hard and would burn herself out before the conflict even started if she kept going without breaks at the pace she was and she'd been all but strong-armed into going home rather than staying at the castle to take one.
She feels guilty as all hell about it, even if they'd all somewhat exasperatedly let her get away with doing things like meeting with the Unspeakables to hear the prophecy or with Amelia and some Aurors for this demonstration, but that was it.
Misaki and Hei had even confiscated anything she'd been using to make notes or work through the runework and the like on her projects when she got back. They were very firm that they wouldn't let her actually work like that while she was back for the holidays.
Even as guilty as she felt though, given the lives on the line if she didn't work them out in time, she also couldn't help but feel even more guiltily happy at how much they cared and the fact they'd go to such lengths to enforce her break.
It definitely left her as more than a little bit of a mess emotionally, but at the end of the day she knew they were both concerned and were inevitably correct about her risking burnout, so she'd done as they'd asked.
Doesn't help her self contradicting emotional mess, but if nothing else, at least she can let Hei and Misaki feel better about the situation by letting them force her to take a break. And they aren't wrong that she probably needed it.