Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

Professor Sprout just nodded in agreement at his explanation and gave him 20 points for his excellent knowledge.

So that was his first Christmas Day at Hogwarts. It was far better than any other he had had in his life.

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So now he was staring out of his window in reflection, thinking about how much his life had changed since he had found out that he was a wizard; going from rags to riches, from friendless to friends, going from being controlled to being in control, to a point. It was so much better than he had imagined it would be.

It was almost like a dream come true being in a magical castle lazily watching snow gently falling on its expansive grounds. It was hard to believe his life had changed so completely.

He then opened the window to feel the wind on his face; the contrast of the quite warm common room to the brisk and refreshing winter air was delightful, since the common rooms were kept very warm by default.

The temperatures in the professors' classrooms were chosen by them. Snape's potion classroom, for instance, was more like a freezer, just like most of the corridors, but that was nothing that a basic heating charm couldn't fix; it was more of an annoyance really since the charms kept fading fast, since they were only first and second year versions.

One thing he noticed while looking over the grounds was a beautiful snow white owl, with silver wing tips. He didn't know what type of owl it was, but it was indeed a beautiful sight to see flying around the grounds.

He just kept watching it slowly circle in the air, riding the wind currents. He had the feeling that the owl had seen him, since owls had superior vision; both of them seemingly just watching the scene below them unfold.

Over the next couple of nights he often watched the owl circling around, and the owl in turn seemed to watch him. One night he even put out some owl snacks and water. From a bit of reading he had done, he determined that it was a Luna Owl or Moon Owl. It was pretty much like any other owl, just was smarter, and had a sixth scene, that couldn't be described properly by the author.

The reason why they were call Luna or Moon Owls was because their eggs only hatched on full moons, and their feathers had magical properties, glowing in unearthly silver tones during the full moons. They primarily nested in cool environments since their eggs didn't require heat like their non-magical counterparts.

Simply put, it was a rare magical bird that had a connection with winter and the cycles of the moon.

Standing outside the 3rd floor corridor, he slowly and carefully set up the charged rune stones to temporarily disable the door's alarm ward and allow him to gain access unnoticed.

He put in more energy than was strictly needed; he was forced to experiment at random with the power required to ensure he had access before he was committed. After all, if he didn't put in enough power there was a chance that he would fail to disrupt the ward and the Headmaster would be warned and come running like before. Too much was energy wasted though, and who knew what else was down there waiting for him.

Once again the Cerberus eyed the door seemingly opening on its own, but made no move to counter him, since Harry had taken measures to ensure his stealth using a combination of basic charms he'd learned to go on his night time adventures around the school. They were all simple in execution, but made an effective combination when used together.

Carefully he threw a large steak he'd gotten from the kitchens imbued with three doses of the Draught of Living Death across the floor towards Fluffy, betting that if this Cerberus was anything like its cousins described in the magical creature books, it would have an unnatural hunger to feed, and therefore would investigate the steak and eat it like any other food source.

Fortune favoured him and after a few moments of sniffing the three-headed dog did what it did naturally and ate the steak whole with a minimum of chewing.

Several minutes passed before the dog fell to light snoring, confirming his guess that three full doses in the steak would be enough. The dog wasn't exactly in a near-death state, like a human would be, but he figured that since the potion was designed for use on humans, this was the best that he could hope for.

He used a simple levitation charm to remove its huge paw from the trapdoor, before charging the same rune stones in case this door was also warded. Opening the trapdoor revealed a straight drop into near total darkness. Casting a simple lumos charm revealed a massive plant at the bottom, which looked similar to the devil's snare that they had covered in first year herbology lessons recently... it was awfully convenient he thought.

Checking the back of the trapdoor to see that there were no engraved runes, he made careful note of this for the next time, so as to not waste any unnecessary magical energy. Thinking over everything he'd seen so far, he wondered what the next series of defences would be.

Considering everything had been so simple, surely there would be more dangerous plants in place that weren't common knowledge or taught in school. Besides, he knew he could counter the plant below with a simple charm aimed at producing light and heat. He cast a bluebell flame down at the plant to see it slink away from the temporary flame, confirming that his theory was correct.

If he dropped down the shaft now he would have to find a way to get back up again. A full grown wizard could just float themselves down and then up again using the levitation charm without much difficulty, but he doubted he would have the magical strength yet to do two trips, as well as overcome other possible defences. The very last thing he wanted to do was get stuck down there.

So the best and smartest thing he could do was retreat and regroup and next time bring a means to get back up. Maybe he could borrow a broomstick from the school training equipment he thought before closing the trapdoor and casting a locking charm on it.

He then carefully recharged the rune stones to open the door in order to get back out without setting off the alarm ward and then recast the simple locking charm on the outer door.

He then carefully made his way back to the nest; it was pretty easy since the school was all but empty during Christmas break with no caretaker to dodge, no prefects to avoid, and no teachers walking about, it was near effortless.

As soon as he was back in his room, he brought out one of the notepads he'd gotten for Christmas. He could just rely on his Occlumency skills and his ability to recall things with perfect clarity, but at times like this you could still miss little bits and how they all fit together.

Sometimes it was quicker just to have what you needed written down, plus it allows you to air thoughts and develop them. Like many things he had realized that while the mind arts gave the practitioner a wonderful memory, you still needed to be able to remember what memory you needed to recall, and like everything nothing was perfect.

He noted down each trap encountered carefully and his own countermeasures.

Locked door + alarm wards = Runestones + unlocking charm

Cerberus = guard dog protecting trapdoor + standard locking charm – No wards = sleeping potion, steak with 3 doses of draught of death + unlocking charm

Devil's snare + steep drop = bluebell charm + possibly broomstick?

Looking over his careful notes, he couldn't help but think he had missed something important, before remembering his observation about the devil's snare.

Making the notes

Devil's snare easy to overcome with just first year knowledge; surely rarer, more obscure dangerous plants available for defence? Surely the headmaster would consult with Professor Sprout on dangerous plant life that could be used effectively for defences?

It all just seemed too easy... after all, whatever was being guarded on the 3rd floor had to be very valuable, but at the same time the defences were rather easy to overcome if a first year could do it. So that meant either it was a trap of some kind, or a test for another first year to overcome. The only thing that was not a part of first year knowledge were the wards themselves, and since they were only keyed to alert someone when entrance was gained, rather than killing or injuring the intruders, he was leaning towards a test of some sort.

If he had to guess the defences were designed so that students who had decided not to listen to the headmaster's warning would not be outright killed before the headmaster or staff could intervene, but at the same time slow down a real thief or dark wizard long enough for the staff to rally and confront the intruder.

Still, it was an interesting idea, and he wouldn't know for sure until he got further into the defences; the first ones may have been designed to be deceptively simple before the main ones were encountered. If it was a test, however, the question was who was being tested? He could only think of one candidate that anyone would be interested in testing: Neville Longbottom, the Boy-Who-Lived.

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