[Dumbledore POV]
Nothing seems to be going according to my plans. Harry didn't meet the troll, he has no interest in quidditch, and he only looked at the Erised mirror once before leaving never to return.
Christmas came and as planned I returned to him his father's possession, a worn down invisibility cloak should give him more confidence in sneaking at night. Of course I returned it with a little something that yours truly decided to be... necessary. A tracking rune perhaps? Hahaha what can I say, this old bones still got it.
Alright... Let's see... Oooh a rendezvous with a maiden ehh... This boy has good taste, I must say. What could they be talking about? Aist... I forgot to add a remote listening rune... How stupid. It doesn't matter, I'll just sneak around a little. Ahhh it's been a long time for this old man.
*scree*
*scree*
Oh? What bird is that again? I remember it being granted permission as a pet for miss Romanovich, what is it doing?
"What's the problem Adarna?"
Miss Natasha can converse with animals? Hmmm how peculiar. What could they be talking about...
"Come out! Lest spells fly!"
She was pointing the wand in my direction, did the bird just... What a great pet to have... I will look into it later. I have to appease these kids for now.
The kids are sharp in their questions, I felt like a jury of judges are staring at me when they asked those questions, too bad that this old man is an adept of the mind and that they are hundreds of years too early to try and oust me in a battle of the tongue.
"Alright headmaster. I apologise for pointing my wand at you as well."
The child knew courtesy even when she came from humble origins. Ahhh very adorable, she is quite adept in spellcraft as well if memory serves right.
"No problem at all miss Romanovich, your sharpness only makes this old man more proud of our students... Well then, it's time to move, miss Romanovich, heir Potter, I bid adieu."
Hahaha Albus the great wins once again my friends. Haaah what a relief children gives to the soul, unlike some old man who is always asking for his wand to be returned.
""Goodbye headmaster.""
What good children...
"What a creep."
Huh!? Mr. Potter? What are you...
"Right? You should be careful...
Miss Romanovich??? What has these children been learning at home nowadays?! This is absurd!!!
*sigh*
This old man needs rest now.
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[Harry Potter POV]
What is happening?
Why is the headmaster eavesdropping on us?
Wha... What the what?
Natasha sure is quick! That bird informed her about someone watching us! She can talk to birds?!
What the...
I thought speaking to animals is my thing...
Natasha seems to be really wary about the headmaster, I don't know about their history but I think I can understand Natasha. This pervert should be sneaking around all day ditching his work and letting professor McGonagall do everything for him.
What a dink.
"What a creep."
"Right?...."
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[Natasha POV]
Why is this old man walking really slowly?
"What a creep."
Harry said quietly but I was sure that the headmaster would have heard it from this distance. Hahaha he even stopped momentarily when Harry said it.
"Right? You should be careful..."
The guy literally chased after me for the whole day until I relented to tell him about Dumbledore and Dark Lord Grindelwald's 'relationship' in the past. Which made him want to puke? Maybe say ewww or something. Dude don't imagine these things. It's a thing amongst the muggles nowadays.
At dinner all I could ever think about is my mission. How should I go about it in stealing that cloak of Harry...
Let's see...
*scree*
*fwoosh*
*thud*
Adarna perched herself on a wooden platform close to my table after dropping something wrapped up in colorful paper. I of course wondered about what the thing is and opened it up.
When it was fully uncovered, much to my shock, it is a replica of Harry's cloak with similar effects, an untrained eye surely wouldn't even see a difference between the materials used for making these two, it almost seemed as if...
[Mission Update]
[Replace Harry Potter's cloak with this replica.]
... Milord is asking me to switch the two of them.
Shayt... Daymn... Those at HQ sure take their jobs very seriously. I mean, how fast can an invisibility cloak be made? Production has even been banned... And it hasn't even been half a day since Harry showed me the real stuff. Piracy sure is terrifying.
[Please confirm your mission update and report accordingly.]
[Do your best, Good luck intern!]
"Intern no. 1235314 reconfirms changes to the mission and will deliver accordingly. Thank you for the support HQ."
.........,.,.......
"Harry! Where have you been!? I sent the signal ages ago, let's move, hurry up. Someone tripped the alarm spell we set up in the third floor dungeon's trapdoor, we can't have anyone else get there before us or our plans are going to go to waste."
Harry was shocked after Natasha suddenly appeared, grabbed his arm, and yanked him towards the third floor of the castle. She sent him an emergency signal from an enchanted coin that the two of them engraved together which meant that the two definitely had to meet right that moment.
"What? But we just set that up a couple of days ago? Are you sure that your spell didn't just misfire or something?"
Harry pulled back with resistance, clearly to make up excuses to bail.
"What are you talking about? Are you having cold feet right now mister boy who lived, saviour of the magical Britain? Voldemort is the most likely person to go after that stone, and if he did have the courage to steal it, then we are all going to be in deep trouble. Grindelwald is already messing things up outside the schools, we can't have another one roaming around. Especially a homicidal maniac like dark lord Voldemort."
Natasha asked with a little sarcasm and provocation.
"I... Umm... I'm just afraid to lose all this and fail in my task. You wouldn't understand..."
Harry is clearly having second thoughts about their plans. The two knew it might be a trap insinuated by Dumbledore himself in order to catch the dark lord but neither of them cared.
"On the contrary, I believe I understand you perfectly Harry. You are just afraid to fail because you never have failed before. Fear binds us all down and not everyone is brave enough to face it. So I am asking you now, please be brave for the both of us. We can't have voldemort ruining our perfect plans...
Besides, you defeated the guy when you are a baby. What can he do to you now?"
Harry seemed to have regained his resolution from being reminded by his friend that he himself convinced her to make the plans for him in accomplishing his goal to steal the stone albeit for a different purpose from the one she told her. He nodded to himself to reaffirm his decision before he spoke.
"Alright let's go."
The two run-walked in the dark corridors of the castle and soon reached the room where the three headed dog is kept.
'alohamora'
*clack*
*clack*
*creak*
The metallic lock of the old wooden door opened, with a creaking sound the two entered the room where an already asleep three headed dog is being serenaded by a harp.
The two nodded to each other and moved the paw that was blocking the way to the trap door. The two opened it and looked down only to be met with darkness.
"Something is weird."
*grrrrrrr*
"Yeah, I don't hear the music anymore. Blimey!!! Jump!!!"
*bam*
*bam*
Both of them managed to jump leaving the now rampaging three headed dog chewing on the trap door he was guarding.
""Aaaaaaaaaah""
*thud*
*thud*
Thankfully, the two of them landed on a rubbery-soft black root-like things. Moments later and the root-like things are already slithering and wrapped up the two of them in a tight embrace.
"Devil's snare! Natasha, don't move!"
Harry sunk from his position leaving Natasha to fend for herself.
"Harry! Nooo!"
"Natasha, listen to me and don't move... Those are devil's snare, you have to relax."
'Ahhh shit. Girls and tentacles, here we go...'
'Lumos solaris'
Light flashed from the tip of his wand and blinding light which the devil's snare hated appeared, causing the devil's snare to squirm around violently and releasing Natasha in the process. (this evil lass!!)
"Dear God! Thanks Harry!"
Natasha hugged Harry as she 'thanked' him.
"What is that? Can you hear that as well???"
Natasha frowned as she listened to the sounds of something like a swarm of bugs fluttering their wings in a grossly bizarre way that will induce goosebumps on many entomophobic people.
The two opened a door to a room filled with winged keys of all kinds, flapping about in their ways as if they were real insects. In the middle of it is a broomstick floating on its own in defiance to gravity.
"This door is locked, it won't open with magic as well, I guess we need the key."
Natasha suddenly spoke with disappointment making Harry look at her and then to the place beside him where she should have just been a few moments ago.
'Just how is she moving like that?'
He thought in his head. Once again surprised at his friends peculiar ability.
"What kind of key are we looking for? There's plenty of them flying around, it should be one of those..."
Harry asked as he looked around at the flying keys.
"A big old fashioned one, but doesn't it seem a bit too easy?"
She spoke from beside him startling Harry once again, it almost made him want to scream or jump if not for the familiarity of the voice.
"There, up there look! Look! The slow fat one with a broken wing."
Harry walked forward to grab the floating broom and as soon as his hand touched it, all the flying keys changed their course and chased after him like a swarm of bees.
Unfortunately for them, an advance level protego barrier is surrounding Harry making them unable to do anything about the offender.
"Catch the key!"
It took only a few seconds for Harry to catch the slow moving key but his barrier is already cracking due to the quantity of the attacks so there was urgency to his voice. He flew over and threw the key to Natasha who easily caught it and opened the door where Harry quickly entered as well, leaving the keys to pierce the old wooden door.
"Where are we?"
The two of them walked forward in the dark narrow pathway through automatic doors that opened and closed on their own.
"I don't know... Maybe some kind graveyard or something?"
Harry proposed an idea seeing the clutter around the place they are heading into. They eventually reached a dimly lit clearing where many tall figures are standing on a platform.
"Wait... Look over there! Isn't that..."
""a giant chess board!!!""
The two of them spoke at the same time, playing wizard's chess was one of their favorite activities for passing the time.
The two examined the place and found that the only way to get through the other side where the entrance is, is by winning the game.
"Alright, who should play this game?"
Natasha asked.
"I'll do it. Stand there at the empty position of the queen's side castle. I'll take the empty bishop square."
The two are of the same level in playing according to Harry's evaluation, and if under pressure then he believed he'd be the one at an advantage so he decided to take command.
The white made the first move, Harry easily countered and defended each of the attack attempts from the white side. It was almost a one sided match, like a monkey playing against an AI. Harry could only tut his teeth in dissatisfaction.
"Checkmate!"
Finally, he ended the game with a checkmate from a queen's gambit. The white king dropped his sword and the two of them passed the third obstacle without much difficulty.