On the first evening meal after the end of the Easter break, Minerva sits at the top table serenely as Albus stands up, "Good evening everyone. I have a last minute announcement to make. This morning I was informed that Mr Hagrid has taken a leave of absence to pursue a unique opportunity at a Dragon Sanctuary in Norway as part of gaining his Mastery in Care of Magical Creatures. By all reports he should be back in time for next year, until then Professor's Kettleburn and Sprout have agreed to take on the management of the Forbidden Forest. For our NEWT students, I have been told this may mean you have a more hands on lesson occasionally."
As he's talking, Minerva uses her main chassis to scan all of the students in the school and upload their details to the small AI inside her redesigned trap, sorry defence of the stone, so that it won't kill any students brave enough to attempt to navigate it.
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Albus opens the door to the third floor corridor and stops in horror as he spots the empty room. Turning back to Minerva he growls, "Minerva, where's Fluffy?"
Minerva smiles sweetly, "He's back in the forest where he belongs, and maybe if he'd been there all the time we'd still have a herd of unicorns."
Albus flinches at that dig, as he's already started getting enquiries about when they're next going to have unicorn hairs in stock. "Fine, but he was also here to stop the students from being put in danger."
Minerva laughs, "You think that would stop them? Even I worked out that Fluffy wouldn't even slow them down if they did any sort of research. Especially given that I know for a fact that a couple of first year Gryffindor's were told directly by Hagrid, and now my entire house knows. I just added a more comprehensive locking charm to the trapdoor instead."
Albus sighs as he has to run through a few unlocking spells before he identifies the particular charm Minerva used. As the trapdoor lifts he sends a light into the darkness, followed by a softening charm. Jumping down he passes through the devils snare, the second deterrent against the students.
Marching forward, a quick conjuration and a switching spell gives him the key to the room of keys and allows him to pass into a small metal room with an 8 foot tall glass wall directly in front of him. Directly in front of the wall is a pillar that holds an illusion of some description, and past that he can see another room with a metal pillar rising from a 6 foot deep pit and up a shaft so tall he can't even see the top when he leans against the glass.
While he's looking around, Minerva touches the illusion and the ground lurches underneath them and his stomach feels like it's being pulled into the floor. A few seconds later the feeling stops as they rise up through the floor of another room.
Looking around Albus can't help but be impressed, especially when he sees the large window at other end of the room, "I suppose that was some form of lift, though I didn't see any ropes and pullys."
Minerva nods as she walks over to another pillar with a similar illusion, "Something like that, in the same way that the levitation charm is like a flying carpet. Come on, I'll show you the authorised route and demonstrate how the exit will be protected if an unauthorised person is detected."
Albus shakes his head and walks over to the large window, before gaping as he looks down at a large four story tall tower made from glass that stands in the middle of an open space that could easily double as a decent sized plot of land for a wizarding family. "Minerva, what in Merlin's name is that?"
Minerva smiles, "That, is a ventilation tower designed to prevent invaders from being able to enter the room at the bottom without a guard noticing them. It also allows for emergency ingress in the event of a power failure. I've got my chess pieces walking around as guards, and they will trigger a lockdown if they detect any unauthorised people."
"Unauthorised?"
Minerva touches the illusion and the floor of this half of the room starts to drop down, revealing that the glass wall is entirely seamless. "Yes, like introducing people to the portraits, except more sophisticated."
Back at the ground level Albus follows Minerva through two doors that are pretending to be metal walls and he frowns, "Minerva, this seems to be remarkably easy for something you said is supposed to be secure."
Minerva smiles, "That's because you're with me. The only other person in the school that's authorised to go through the security here is Aurora. I've added you to the student list so that the guards don't try to kill you."
Albus splutters, "But she's not in on the secret. And how's Quirrel supposed to feed the troll?"
Minerva shrugs, "I released it and replaced it with a reprogrammed Zanuka Hunter, you and I are the only people on it's authorisation list." She stops in front of a grid of light and points at it, "This is a laser detection grid, if anything breaks the beams then the alarms will go off and the exit to the next room will be sealed."
Before Albus can ask about it, Minerva walks towards the lights, and they wink out, so he quickly hurries after her. He's catches up just as she's touching another illusion and a door opens to reveal the room at the bottom of the tower with a set of stairs leading down a hole. As he walks around the hole he can see the wooden door that leads to the Troll's enclosure. Suddenly, the floor seems to slam together with a loud bang, before rising up to remove any indication that the stairs ever existed.
While Albus is recovering from the shock, Minerva calls over from an illusion that's attached to the wall, "That is what will happen if an unauthorised person is detected. The way out can be opened by myself or Aurora, otherwise you'll have to ensure that all living things have been removed from the entire area, and wait half an hour for the 'magic' to determine that everything has been repaired and reset."
Albus swallows hard, "What happens if someone's already on the stairs when the system goes off?"
Minerva sighs, "They die if they're between the bits of floor that are closing. For yourself and students, it's the only thing that's lethal in here. Oh, the Potters aren't registered as students for this trap, as they wouldn't forgive me if I made it too easy on them."
Albus stares at the floor in dismay as Minerva leaves. It's only after she's been gone for a few minutes that he realises he's alone. Drawing his wand he works through his rather extensive education on transfiguration, and removing transfigurations on both the floor and the glass wall. Eventually he sighs and moves on to more destructive spells, before finally admitting that Minerva has been thorough with her protections.
Then he tries to apparate back to his office, and amends that to very thorough.
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Harry looks up from her homework as Fred and George stagger into the common room in tattered robes while supporting each other.
"What happened to you?"
From the other side of the room, the chasers from the Quidditch team call out, "What she said! I thought you were going to challenge Professor McGonagall at chess."
Ron looks up from the chessboard he's staring at, "You hate chess!"
One of the twins shrugs, "She changed the game on us, and gave us a detention with Professor Sprout."
One of the sixth years chuckles, "How long did it take you to get caught?"
The other twin promptly says, "30 minutes."
Another sixth year asks, "How long after you figured out how the illusions work."
Both twins opt to walk up the stairs to their dorms rather than answer the question.
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Quirell sends a blasting curse against the glass wall in front of him as the lighting enchantments in the room turn red for the fifth time as his disillusioned transfigured creature proves that the disillusionment charm isn't good enough to get past the lights.
Turning on his heels he stalks out of the door and past the bypassed traps to the 3rd floor corridor.
When he gets back to his room he gives in to his need to curse. "Damn that stupid oaf. McGonagall must have found the egg."
"Even so, she has left a way through."
"What did you see my lord?"
"The top of the tower is open."
"But the guards."
"Were fooled by the disillusionment. A disillusioned broom or carpet would allow you to reach the top of the tower without detection."
"What if there are defenses in the tower?"
"That's what divination is for. Procure a black mirror and we will try again in a few days."
Quirell nods, "Yes Master."
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On Lua, Hermione's in her Harrow as she looks at Harry with a pained expression while Yana watches American cartoons on one of the data slates. "We're going to have to look out for the idiots aren't we."
Harry nods as he carefully forms a component for his latest project, "Probably, at least getting past the trapdoor is challenging now. Well, challenging for most students."
"Why did she put a Hunter past the tower?"
"Probably because it's designed to capture organics."
"I hadn't thought of that. Do you think we should keep watch from inside the tower or past it?"
"Past it, as I doubt anything in the tower is actually lethal."
Hermione nods, "Do you think Minerva thought the tower would be a challenge to us?"
Harry shrugs, "Possibly, we've both got frames that are well known to trivialise Corpus and Grineer defenses. Not as bad as Loki, Wukong or Ivara, but still better than most of them."
"It's being able to fly isn't it."
"In your case, yes. For Wisp, being invisible while airborne and a couple of seconds afterwards is what does it. That's ignoring the fact I can just transfer out and walk through the void."
"At least she closed all the obvious security holes the Corpus usually leave."
Harry shakes his head, "You're still working through the inner system where they train their rookies. They're not security holes, they're just poor maintenance. Once you get into the outer system, where just surviving requires better training and ability, they're much better at ensuring that everything is maintained."
"We've got exams starting in a few weeks, how do you want to handle it?"
"It's not like we need to sleep. Trade off alternate days?"
"Sure. Do you think you could smuggle a Helios into the restricted section of the library?"
Harry just gives Hermione a look before he goes back to his project.
Hermione throws her hands up, "Ok, fine. I'll rephrase it. Will you smuggle my Helios into the restricted section of the library and set it to scanning the books please?"
Harry laughs, "Sure."
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Kitty grumbles as she compares the name on the file to a name on her sheet. Finding the right name, she pulls a sticky back barcode off of the sheet and sticks it onto the file before putting it into the correct box and scanning the barcode on the container, tapping the add file button on the laptop she's using, and then scanning barcode on the box.
Why she thought that complaining about the files was a good idea, she has no idea. Oh, wait. She didn't, stupid accidental magic.
Anne calls from the reception, "I'm just going on my break, can you watch the desk?"
Kitty closes the laptop and puts it, the scanner, and the sheets of barcodes on a shelf in a flurry of activity, before she scampers out of the records room. "Sure."
Anne chuckles as Kitty takes the seat, "You prefer being bored out here than in there?"
Kitty nods, "At least I can get some studying in when it's quiet."
"There is that, but you also have to deal with customers."
"Customers are easy. Filing is hard."
"Well it won't be once you're finished."
"My big mouth and Me."
Anne pats Kitty on the shoulder, "You got the idiom the wrong way around. It's 'Me and my big mouth'. I'll be back in an hour."
Kitty groans as Anne grabs her bag and leaves the surgery.
