As soon as he stepped in he closed the door and put up a door sealing charm on it, just in case.
Turning around, he then saw both girls casting detection charms over the sinks. Where the sink was that contained the tap that spun glowed a dark green, for a moment, the two girls hesitated.
"That may have been detecting the spell that allows the entrance to open," Harry pointed out.
Daphne glanced at him for a moment before she gave him a small nod, and moved on.
Then there were a couple of other colours flashing up and fading away before both girls finished and stepped away.
"The verdict?" he asked.
"The Headmaster clearly doesn't think much of your skills, Harry," said Daphne. "There's a simple alert charm based on motion over the whole lot. Under that is a second one, that's far older. They were put up by different people.
"There's also a wizard-repelling charm based on the Confundus charm that's triggered when the recent alert charm is triggered. It looks like, as soon as you or Ron... but he doesn't know that... or Riddle, if he enters the school, opens the entrance, Dumbledore is immediately notified and the repelling charm activates making you want to just leave again.
Hermione then said, "It looks like he's waiting for you to open the entrance and, instead of going down, just leaving again. Does he even know about the door to the actual chamber, itself?"
Harry frowned in thought for a few moments before he replied, "No, I don't think so. I seem to remember just telling him where the entrance was, and that we went down into the Chamber to rescue Ginny. But, I think I also told him about the ceiling collapse in the passage, which is when I was separated from Ron and a recently self-Obliviated Flophart. I think I only told you and Ron about the inner door. And, of course, Ginny saw it coming back out."
Nodding, Daphne said, "This all looks like he's aware of just how valuable the carcass is likely to be, and wants to claim it for either himself or the school."
With a sigh, Harry leaned back against the recently sealed door. "As if I don't already have enough to worry about; Dumbledore wants to steal from me, too."
"Yes," replied Daphne. "However, if he'd succeeded, you'd have never known. As far as he would know, no one would have. A somewhat perfect crime."
Banging his head back on the door as he looked up towards the ceiling, he said, "Yet another crime against me from the Great Manipulator." Standing back up straight again, he looked at both girls and asked, "Can you get both of Dumbledore's charms off without alerting him?"
The two girls looked at each other for a moment before Daphne replied, "We can; but, it's going to take some work."
"We'll need to transfer the alert charm to something else without setting it off. Then we can simply strip away the Confundus charm," said Hermione. "I then recommend we put the exact same alert charm back, but have it keyed to one of us instead of Dumbledore.
"That way, if Dumbledore comes to check, he'll see the alert charm and think all is well. If it's Ron who comes down, we'll know straight away as soon as he sets it off; and Dumbledore won't. We can then confront him with his actions."
"And possibly force him to admit he's a parselmouth," mused Harry. "I like it. That just leaves actually getting it done. So, what do you need?"
"We'll need to research the arithmantic equations for both charms," replied Daphne. "That'll give us the key to removing them. Transferring the first one, however, is going to take a bit of research on ward breaking."
"Fair enough," said Harry. "And I'm not trying to push. But, I do have one suggestion."
"What's that?" asked Hermione.
"Can you put your own alert charm over the top of Dumbledore's?" Harry asked. "Would Dumbledore see it if you do?"
Hermione just grinned, turned and cast. A moment later there was a soft shimmer effect surrounding the grating at the back of the sinks before it faded away. "There. Done," she said. "I've cast it onto the grate because Dumbledore will not come all the way around the sinks to check for new enchantments. And, as the grate moves when the entrance opens, it'll activate the charm. We'll now know if Ron comes down and opens the entrance before we get a chance to harvest the carcass ourselves."
"Perfect," grinned Harry.
They stayed in the toilet for a little while longer as Daphne and Hermione wrote down the formulae for both spells that needed to be either moved or removed. And, once done, they made their way up to their apartment.
They'd been gone for almost the extra hour after their last class, so the other classes were expected to be released within the next few minutes. Indeed, that is exactly what happened as they climbed the last flight of stairs to the seventh floor.
Homework had been pulled out and placed on the coffee table, rather than the study carrels. As they were all in the same classes it was easier, that way, to share materials. They had thought about transfiguring one of the carrel pairs into a large desk they could all sit around, but did not want to risk someone coming in who wasn't 'in the know'; especially the Headmaster. They would have no explanation for it, as it would be 'beyond' their current year ability; and they couldn't use the excuse they asked a seventh year 'Claw to do it, as they weren't friends with anyone in their new House yet.
They'd only just pulled out their books, parchment, ink and quills when there was a somewhat slow and heavy triple-knock on the door.
Harry rose to answer it, and found Luna standing there beaming back at him.
Pulling the door wider open and stepping out of the way, Harry said, "Come on in, Luna."
Luna looked up at the statue and said, "Thank you, Professor."
And the statue replied, "You are most welcome, young Miss Lovegood." And Luna entered.
Just as she walked in, Hermione called her over. "Come on in and have a seat, Luna. We were just about to start our homework, but it can wait." The young girl happily crossed the room before then plunking her bum on the couch next to Hermione.
Harry closed the door and followed her across, taking seat next to Daphne on the other couch.
.
.
.
🍀Visit my site at tiendup for more advanced content...🍀
🍀Read the complete novel in PDF, available at my Store!🍀
https://sunflowersfic.tiendup.com/