Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

Albus was man who prided himself on his consummate self-control, but he couldn't help but to pace backwards and forwards across the wooden floor of the Shrieking Shack, anxiously waiting for the ward alarms to trigger, alerting him to Tom's agent finally making his move to steal the fake philosopher's stone. He was apprehensive for good reason, as every detail of his plan had to work out just perfectly for it to be successful in the end.

As such, he had taken the extra precaution of ordering a house elf to watch Neville and his friends throughout the whole evening, as a backup plan of sorts. The house elf had been ordered to report to him the very moment it was sure the boy had started making his way towards the forbidden 3rd floor corridor.

He privately suspected that it was Professor Quirrell who was currently being used as a host for Lord Voldemort's disembodied soul, and had been since his return after Christmas break, mainly due to the number of unnatural unicorn deaths in the forest and Quirrell's absence from the school halls for unexplained periods of time in the evenings after lessons were finished for the day as the professor left the halls on 'personal' business.

He hadn't been able to prove it definitively, of course, since the spells needed were far too complex and time consuming to cast discreetly in a staff meeting, nor could he assign a watcher to observe the professor without risking alerting Professor Quirrell/Voldemort to his suspicions, which would jeopardize his carefully calculated trap. And furthermore, he had little doubt that at the first sign of a trap that the shade of Voldemort would bolt the castle faster than he could say the word 'quidditch.'

He could possibly be wrong and an outsider was involved, somehow finding a way to get past the school's numerous security wards without being detected, and the deaths of unicorns in the forbidden were an unfortunate consequence of a desperate, misguided wizard trying to delay death, but he considered it the far lesser of probabilities, but not outright impossible. Few things were truly impossible when it concerned magic.

It was clear the knowledge that the real philosopher's stone had been stolen months earlier had not spread to the wider magical community. Besides the thief or thieves themselves, only he, his assistants, and his personal friend Severus knew that the real stone had been stolen over the Christmas Holidays.

It had quickly become clear that the successful thief was keeping his triumph quiet rather than drawing attention to it, which suggested the master thief had some wisdom and foresight, otherwise they risked having their throat slit in the night and the stone being stolen from the robber in turn, which caused him to subconsciously stroke his elder wand.

This reprieve worked to his advantage, allowing him to keep his planned trap active, but it also meant that the stone would be supremely difficult to recover, or likely near impossible; in fact he lacked any leads for his people to investigate. The whole situation had turned into a major annoyance. After all, unlimited gold would have proven extremely useful in his plans and practically ensured the order's success in the upcoming war effort. For all he knew the stone could be on the other side of the world right now, hidden away in some backwater of a magical community.

Frankly, with no leads turned up by his followers and agents in all this time, he doubted the stone would ever be found in his lifetime, which rubbed his ego the wrong way. So many opportunities were lost with that setback.

Turning his mind back to the unfolding events, to help better monitor the situation he had discreetly moved several animated portraits around the surrounding corridors and placed a reliable portrait to watch over the third floor door specifically. This portrait was out of his private collection, hidden judiciously under a good number of disillusionment charms and powerful notice-me-not charms.

The portrait's enchanted counterpart was currently placed on the wall besides his desk, ready to report if anyone approached the door.

He wasn't taking any chances this time, especially after the mirror and consequently the real stone had been stolen right from under his nose. Frankly there was anything valuable left to steal this time. Everything had to go as planned tonight; this Merlin forsaken plan finally needed to come together and produce results.

Unfortunately, things had gotten far more complicated thanks to his staff's efforts, no matter how well-meaning. From the reports he had overheard from within the school's walls, Filius had ordered another house elf to watch the door as well and report back to him if anyone attempted to open it.

He had even added his own spells to the door. From Severus he had even learned that several members of the staff were active and waiting in the staff room ready to respond immediately if the elf reported anything afoot.

This most certainly wasn't the way he had planned it, in fact it meant that there was an even better chance that the knowledge of Voldemort's continued survival would leak before everything was ready, before all of his pieces were in place, more than likely triggering the remaining loyal Death Eaters to seek out their master and thus hasten his return to full power, triggering the renewal of the war prematurely.

He quickly thought over the problem; his mind racing with ideas and scenarios, before eventually creating a quick, on the spot plan to work around these recent unexpected developments that threatened his current and future plans.

He would have to get Fawkes to take him there, ahead of the responding staff and intercept them, then send them away to secure the rest of the castle and protect the students or some other excuse. He would then head off alone to confront the intruder, perhaps with Severus accompanying him to provide an additional witness.

At the same time, even though inconvenient, he felt better knowing that his staff had recognized the possible danger and taken countermeasures, and were making at least some token efforts to guard the fake stone in his 'absence,' even if it was only having a couple of elves watching the door over the course of the evening. It was better than their combined efforts at Christmas, which had cost him so dearly, that was for certain.

All he could do now was wait and see, and hope that everything went in his favour.

...

Making his way through the hidden passageways liberally distributed throughout the entirety of the school, he used a faint, rather underpowered lumos charm to light the way for him and Penny, whilst he guided them towards the caretaker's office/storage room.

Eventually they reached the caretaker's office. It didn't take them nearly as long as it would normally to reach the isolated office since, surprisingly, there were no prefect patrols to avoid, nor teachers walking the school's halls.

Thinking about his family's invisibility cloak, he focused his mind on becoming visible again so that Penny could see him. With his cloak's powers deactivated, it would appear to be just like any other old fashioned hooded cloak to any casual observer.

He had discovered purely by chance, after some extensive experimenting, that the cloak could turn itself on and off based on his will and desire alone. With its invisibility powers deactivated it appeared to be a standard midnight black cloak unworthy of much attention. The ability to keep a powerful invisibility cloak on all the time, capable of being activated in a moment's notice, he knew, would serve him well throughout his life.

Looking in Penny's direction, where she was standing besides the door, he gave her some instructions. "Keep watch while I charge these rune stones," he instructed, bringing out the same rune stones he had used on the 3rd floor corridor over Christmas.

He promptly began to charge them with far more power than he normally would, in order to take into account the extra person on this adventure, before unlocking the door with the standard unlocking charm. He idly wondered if the charm would work on all styles of muggle locks, including electronic ones.

Entering the office quickly and quietly, he did a quick check for any sign of the caretaker's presence, before he realized his own amateur mistake. He should have found a way to check for the caretaker's presence long before opening the door; fortunately for him, luck was on his side tonight.

Seeing no sign of the bitter old caretaker, he gestured with a flick of his head for Penny to follow him into the room before quickly relocking the office door behind them. He did a quick visual scan of the backside of the door, but found no sign of any runes being used to anchor any security wards. He noted this lack of security for the future; in case he fancied revisiting this place by himself.

The room was pretty much like any other office he had encountered over the year, with personal belongings scattered around the room, such as photos of friends and family. The caretaker's desk was positioned to one side, facing the door and corridor. Another door lead to a separate storage room behind him, with a series of black iron keys hanging on the wall behind the desk, besides the door. There was a second door, which he guessed likely led to the caretaker's personal living quarters.

Penny removed the disillusionment charm from herself before gesturing to the door on the left, speaking quietly. "You'll need a key from the rack," she offered, pointing to the set of keys hanging up behind the desk. "I still can't believe you talked me into this."

"You can leave anytime you know, just don't rat me out," he replied in a firm tone, not wanting to force his friend to continue if she didn't want to. Making his way quickly over to the key rack, he examined the keys before finding the one with a label underneath identifying it as the key for the 'lockup room.'

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