By sleepwalking the students and using pixies to herd them (which the pixies loved as it seemed like the greatest prank to them, and they were under magical control anyway so errors were less) it was possible to get them there unawares. Keeping them or moving them from one device to another was simplicity itself using those same methods.
But how to return them so no one knew you'd stolen three quarters of the school for about thirty two hours? Ah, now that was more difficult.
On deciding she had to do this, Nodoka had prepared a giant magic circle in one of those abandoned rooms in the sealed sections of the castle. It was just large enough for what they'd intended to do. So they'd gathered their stolen students (and Hagrid, Shampoo was not the only one with a soft spot for him among their group) onto the circle, divided the flock into five equal groups, took out the five Time Turners they had acquired and spread the chains over every throat. Cologne and Nodoka cast the most powerful boosting charms they could manage, then they gave the magical hourglasses thirty six backward turns.
It worked. The combination of those boosting charms and the magic circle made it work, the once. But all of their Time Turners exploded in harmless displays of glass and dust after the crowd arrived. Still, they got the students back to bed quickly. Just as their previous selves were walking out one end of the castle, they led them back in another, got them back to their rooms and tucked in with no one the wiser.
Then they had leisure to worry about it.
Leaving the others to put their pixies away, Cologne got dressed up in stealth attire and went off on a mission to the Ministry to break into the Department of Mysteries to acquire replacements for their Time Turners, and perhaps a few extras just in case of future accident. Once the pixies were packed away, Nodoka sent the other girls off to bed for a well earned rest and set off to lead a slumbering Hagrid back off to his hut.
Arriving without incident, she eyed the extension to his cottage fondly, then tucked the big man in, couldn't resist giving the big infant a kiss goodnight on his cheek, then slipped out. As she did so, however, she spotted a unicorn that had come to the edge of the forest. Using a quick summoning spell and then a placement charm she put a golden bridle on the animal and led the now docile creature back to her lab, humming merrily under her breath.
Nodoka sighed in relief as she brought the unicorn around, using the golden reigns, to where the magnificent animal could breathe heavily on her racks of silver weapons. Then she heard the tower door open and her blood ran chill as she recognized the Headmaster' jovial tone.
"Aha! I thought I'd detected a major ritual of the Dark Arts taking place this evening. But this was the first time that I could get away from McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley." Dumbledore walked spryly down her steps, his phoenix on his shoulder as he took in everything. "And I see that you have acted quite responsibly in erasing all traces. Very good of you, Nodoka, we would not wish to alarm the students or excite certain members of our staff. And you are purifying the taint out of this room and those weapons with unicorn breath, a most excellent idea. But if I might offer Fawkes here? One might get suitable results out of a magic device purified by unicorn breath or phoenix tears, but I've found the combination to be far more effective, and in the end the devices are more potent."
Nodoka released the reins to step back, away from the silver implements of death, and waved a wand to spell them all down to the counter top. Dumbledore gladly lifted his arm and Fawkes flew over to begin crying over the armaments while the unicorn breathed on them. As they did so, the implements glowed softly white, levitating a couple of inches.
Dumbledore smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. "Indeed, I do not believe that I have ever seen a more potent weapon. To behold seven sets of three at once is most disquieting, as it would have required an echo circle I am not sure that our dear Professor Vector could have inscribed properly. I do not suppose you would do me the courtesy of informing me who died in your little ritual? Especially as anyone so powerful is bound to be missed soon and questions raised?"
Nodoka lifted her chin. "I see no reason to conceal it from you, Headmaster. When you told me Voldemort was not dead I went looking for Nagini, knowing full well that a certain residual magic exists in the familiar of a powerful wizard, and intending to steal that."
"No one could begrudge it to you." Dumbledore was nodding. "But these were not created using the power flash out of a mere familiar, even Voldemort's."
"Of course," she admitted freely. "However, upon successfully capturing the snake I learned that it had a soul fragment of Voldemort's bound to it. I brain burned it to avoid contamination and that is what died tonight."
Albus' face had gone grave indeed, and did not lift in the slightest as she showed him the Dark Arts Detector still showing that no personality transfer was made. Soon he explained, "Nodoka, I happened to glance at one of my monitoring devices before excusing myself to come down, and Voldemort still lives. Yet you say that you have just destroyed what could only have been a Horcrux. I suspected he might have used one, but to learn that was true, yet its loss did not destroy him as it should, puzzles me greatly. And I do not like the line of conjecture this puzzle has called up. Indeed, I find it most disturbing."
Still riding on the boost from her liquid luck, after all she had drunk a cauldron full, Ms Malfoy suddenly asked him, "If you fear him so why have you done so little about it?"
Dumbledore shook himself out of his daze. "I have already put countless days into research on Voldemort, Professor Malfoy. Yet new puzzles are forming all of the time. I would enjoy describing them to you, but now is not the appropriate moment. I do not have a great deal of time before I must return to instructing Molly on how to be a teacher, and wish to check to see if Severus has returned." He moved back toward the door. "Do try to refrain from major dark rituals in the future, Professor Malfoy. It would be a pity to lose our twentieth Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in a row."
The door slammed before his face. Nodoka cracked her knuckles while she innocently asked him, "Would you care to elaborate on that statement, Dumbledore?"
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(Posted Sun, 07 Aug 2005 23:10)
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