>>5934243

HE IS HERE.
THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY STARS IN HEAVEN.
HE IS HERE.
HE IS THE END OF THE WORLD.

There are several seconds of silence as the prophecy echoes through the Hall of Prophecy. You brain refuses to find a way to react to what you've just heard.

Only people mentioned in a prophecy are able to make it sound off, as far as you understand. This means that either you’ll be the one to “tear apart the very stars in heaven” or you’ll be the “end of the world” personified. Or both.

You don't see how any of those could possibly be a good position to be in.

“Right,” Potter says, voice strained. “You might want to put that back.”

You do so, still blindfolded.

“Let’s go, Fawkes.”

The old phoenix brushes against you and your body is consumed in painless flames. You reform back at the Headmistress office, still in a daze, stumbling forward as if you had been hit over the head.

“Shhh. It’s fine, Fawkes,” you hear Potter say. You turn to see him cradling the great bird on his arms, feathers gray and black and scorched. He’s gently shaking it, as if it was a mewling baby. “It was enough. We’ll take it from here.”

The bird turns its head, pointing to an old, unused golden perch on a corner. He takes the phoenix there and it gingerly climbs atop it, wincing as if every step of its taloned feet hurt. Fawkes turns and leans forwards, Potter leaning too and rubbing his forehead against the bird’s.

“Tell Albus we all miss him down here,” he says, voice almost a whisper.

The phoenix lifts its head and gives a piercing caw. It is a wail of courage and defiance, but also of utter tiredness, like a warrior who has seen too much war and too much time pass between his fingers. Then it burns away and falls into ash, no small infant to be found among the dusty gray.

“Goodbye, Fawkes,” Potter says. “Until we meet again.”

--

You wait in a separate room for the hour to pass, both you and Potter in deep thought. You hear as the Headmistress arrives. You hear as you arrive and have the strange talk with her. Then she leaves and Potter appears and takes you to the past.

“We could have just walked in the room,” you say. “That would have broken the loop.”

“Indeed,” he nods. “But we didn’t, therefore we hadn’t, therefore we wouldn’t, therefore we didn’t.”

“That… raises some questions about free will, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, and feel free to ponder them at your own time. Now let us go to my office, there is much to discuss.”

You leave the Headmistress Office, him under the cloak, and once you get to his office you collapse on a chair by his desk as the door closes behind you and he goes somewhere deeper in his office. A few moments later, he appears sitting on the chair opposite to you, holding something silver in his hands with the certainty and stability of someone who knows exactly how to use a .44 Magnum.

[Cont.]

>>5934245

“Uh-ah P-professor?” You stammer out. “What- what are you doing?”

“Pondering if I me blowing your brains off would be the thing that triggers the apocalypse or if it is me not doing it.” He sounds deep in thought, but his eyes never stray from you. “I normally use spells to deal with dangers, but if there’s one thing Voldemort has taught me is to never use deadly spells to deal with prophecies. Do you like it? Uses contraband goblin blackpowder instead of gunpowder, so it doesn’t react spontaneously with magic at these quantities. The runes help stabilize it too.” He points to the several engraved runes all over the cylinder, barrel and grip. “One of a kind. Saved me a couple of times, but I never thought it would help me save the world.”

“Professor, it’s not what you’re thinking!”

“Really? Because from my perspective it sounds like you’re going to destroy everything that everyone holds dear. Help me make sense of that, Elliot.”

“I- I know as much as you, Professor!” You say, automatically raising your hands and knowing full well that there’s no chance Potter misses from this distance. You speak as fast as you can, struggling to put the words together. “I’m, I’m just a kid, how would I ever destroy the world!?”

“I don’t know. How would you ever make your presence disappear from my memory and from Hogwarts’ records? How would you ever put your hands on the Resurrection Stone? How would you ever make your best friend disappear? Many questions go unanswered with you, Elliot, and things have stopped looking good a long while ago. Fawkes vouched for you when she came to save you from that Dementor, but even if you are good-hearted, as muggles say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“Maybe you do find Atlantis and stumble upon a room you shouldn’t,” he says. “And erases us all from time. Maybe you get creative with your friend’s summoning rituals and accidentally summon the Unseelie upon the world. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Don’t get me wrong, Elliot. I’ve seen people foretold to cause great destruction. But to tear apart the stars? That goes beyond mere teenage folly.”

“The prophecy could be wrong!” you say, grasping at straws.

“I’ve seen prophecies be misinterpreted. I’ve seen fake prophecies. I’ve seen misheard or incomplete prophecies. I’ve seen prophecies cause themselves. But I’ve never known a prophecy to be utterly wrong. That means that you, Elliot Hallaster, are fated to destroy the world. You are fated to be the end of the world.”

He cocks the hammer of the gun.

“It- it could be a figure of speech!” You stammer out, sweating. “Could just be that I’m a revolutionary! That I change things so much it’s basically another world! Or that I stumble on a theater during a play with a night scene and break the scenario with the night sky!”

“It could be. It could be that fate’s last scream was about a random play. Or it also could not be. Are you willing to make that bet, Elliot?”

[Cont.]

>>5934247

“And if my death is what causes it?” You ask, knowing that with you dead… the Gate within you will open and the Beast from beyond time will burst through. “If you killing me sets off the chain reaction that ends the world? Maybe my ghost! Maybe the mark I left on my soldiers!”

“Always a possibility.”

“So, if you kill me now…” you hesitate, trying to find a single reason why he shouldn’t just shoot you. “Then you are locking us in that future! But if you keep me alive, then… You can always… kill me later! When you discover if and why I’m a danger to the world! But if you kill me now, well, there’s no reversing that!”

“True,” he says, standing up and pointing the gun at you. “But there’s also no reversing the end of the world. I think I’ll take my chances.”

There’s a loud noise, a blinding flash. You don't even have the reaction of jumping out of the way, just putting your arms in front of you as if they could stop a bullet and…

Nothing happens.

You slowly open your eyes again, hands shaking, wondering if you have magically gained the ability to be bulletproof. You stare at Potter, who is sitting down once again.

He taps his fingers on the table.

“And not even when I give every indication I’m going to kill you… You show no indication of being a world-ending threat. That makes it very, very hard to kill you.”

You’re too shocked to speak.

“I should shoot you,” he sighs, and there’s a intense look on his face. “I know I should. And with a real bullet instead of blanks. It is the most reasonable, most sensible course of action. If Alastor Moody was alive, he’d slap me for even hesitating. He’d have you dead before the prophecy was even finished speaking. But I can’t do that. I am here trying to convince myself that I’m not making a mistake, that I’m not dooming my wife and children by letting you leave, simply because I’m too weak to pull a damn trigger. Hoping you’ll reveal you’re a demon, Baba Yaga in disguise, Voldemort returned. Hoping you’ll give me any excuse for me to kill you and end your threat.”

“But I can’t. Because I can’t kill a child, no matter how many prophecies there are saying I should. Not when they have committed no sin I know of. So all hail Dark Lord Hallaster, or whatever it is you’ll become, while I do my damndest to stop fate from becoming reality. And you… will stay far, far away from any apocalypse machines. Otherwise me and my silver friend here will be visiting, and this time there won’t be any blanks.” He waves the gun and the door creaks open behind you. “You may go.”

You run.

--

[Cont.]

>>5934249

When you return to the Slytherin Common Room, Linda is sitting on a table, looking over plans from soldiers and school armies.

“There you are. Looks like I’ll have less trouble than I thought with Battle Class. Brighton is stepping down too, at least temporarily. Something about his family…” She finally looks up from her notes and sees the haunted look on your face. “What happened?”

You don’t have the words. You don’t think you’ll ever have the words.

“I think…” You finally say, forcing your voice out of your throat. “I think we may be in trouble.”

--

What will you do this week?

> Attend Crouch’s "tutoring" (+5 to Battle Magic, -30 to all rolls during the week)
> Skip tutoring this week

And with your free time… (Pick 2. If attending tutoring only the most voted will be selected. Otherwise, the top 2 will.)

> Prepare potions for a future journey
> Attempt to go to St. Mungus (How?)
> Study your Potion books (+2 to Potions)
> Study with Linda, Arty or Apollo (pick one, +2 to chosen person’s expertise)
> Study another subject (+1 to another subject)
> Other (Write in)

>>5934250
Fucking hell, potter. Fucking hell.
Anyway, to answer the question:

> Attend Crouch’s "tutoring" (Save girlfriend from fucking deatheather)
> Other (Figure out how to get St. Mungus)

>>5934250
> Skip tutoring this week
> Prepare potions for a future journey
> Attempt to go to St. Mungus (Thestrals)
Damn. The world did almost end right there

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>>5934250
I'll back >>5934298
Woof, that was tense.

How long do polyjuice potions take to brew? I'm thinking we teleport there from the three broomsticks wearing someone else's faces and snoop around. Unless Salazar specifically locks eyes with Elliot he won't have a clue we were ever there, right?

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>>5934250
holy fucking shit, Potter you absolute lunatic...
also, gald to have you back HeadQM, i havent been this excited for some 4chan text in years
also also, i finally started working on that fanart i was talking about last thread, progress is slow, but i feel like a quick WIP Sneak Peek should help me with some motivation, if you could provide me with some feedback on their looks, that would be awesome
now, back to our choices:
>Attend Crouch’s "tutoring"
> Other (Write in): Study St Mungus itself, anything history related to its creation or even some building schematics would be great to let us know what to do when we get there

>>5934250
>>5934352
+1

>>5934351
Three months i believe. And we cant teleport yet. We'd have to ask someone who can, and good luck figuring that out

reminder not to forget that the best possible thing we can do to try to get to st mungus would be to abuse the room of requirement to see if it can generate a quick and discrete way to get there and back.

>>5934351
One month. It takes some special ingredients to brew, but you bought them a while back.

>>5934352
It looks great! One thing is that in my mind Apollo is strong, but lean (More in the format of Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne than Ben Affleck's, though he's not even close to that level of buff, obviously). I mentioned who were my references for Linda, Taylor and Apollo here (https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5831320/#p5872712) though I still can't remember where I got my mental image for Arty. There are also descriptions on the character sheets, if you haven't checked those out.

--

>>5934282
>>5934352
>>5934387
Attend Crouch's tutoring

>>5934298
>>5934298
Skip tutoring

>>5934282
>>5934352
>>5934913
I'm going to bundle these as "Plan journey to St. Mungus" and lock in the votes.

>>5935156
>Apollo is strong, but lean (More in the format of Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne than Ben Affleck's, though he's not even close to that level of buff, obviously
ahhh i see, i´ll have to do some modifications then

my references for Linda, Taylor and Apollo here (https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5831320/#p5872712)
ooh thank you, i forgot what thread was this on when i asked that, thats gonna be very usefull

>character sheets
oh yeah, i got most of my references and mental images from there, but thanks to this new (old) info i´ll be able to get more stuff done, thanks a lot for the input! i´ll try to post more soon

“He pointed a gun at you!?” Arty shouts as you tell them what happened. “And pulled the trigger!?”

“Honestly, that’s probably the sanest thing Potter has done this year,” Linda says. “Only way he’d be saner is if he’d actually shot him.”

“I just told you there’s a prophecy about me ending the world and that’s the part you’re freaking out about?” You ask, stopping your pacing from one side of the Room of Requirement to the other.

“He shouldn’t have done that to you!”

“Well, yeah, but that’s just because I know that if he kills me, the Beast gets out and everyone dies. If not… You don’t play around with a prophecy about the end of the world. If it was about anyone else… I’d probably agree with the whole shooting part.”

“So what are we going to do?” Apollo asks.

“First, not die. That’s a good first step. Second, go to St. Mungus and find the Fifth Founder. Third, find a way of metaphorically, peacefully, gently, tearing apart the heavens and destroying the world.”

“Step one is in progress,” Linda nods. “What about step two? We need a way of getting out of Hogwarts, preferably undetected. Then a way from getting to St. Mungus.”

“I was thinking about that and came up with a few ideas. But first…” You close your eyes, thinking thrice about a way out of Hogwarts. Then you turn to a great painting hanging on the wall and pull it open like a door. On the other side, you find… a note. “A Warning from the Headmistress: This room was used as a point of resistance during the war, and so was this exit. It unfortunately also allows students to sneak out undetected, in a way that is not easily fixable. Sealing it, however, proved quite simple. If you require its use to escape the clutches of a Dark Lord, please say the password below and it will open for you, while also warning me that it has been opened. Expect to lose a few dozen house-points if I find your reason displeasing.”

And the password Suscrofa below.

“Well, that was a dud,” you say, putting the note back where you found it. A quick test also reveals a floo-capable fireplace is also beyond it's reach. “So, my other ideas. First we have Floo. Gets past both getting out of here and getting to St Mungus. The problem is, the only fireplaces connected to the Floo network are Potter’s and the Headmistress’. No way we’re getting to McGonagall’s office, so the alternative is… Going to the office of the guy who pointed a gun at me.”

“He’d catch us.”

“Not if he’s in class. Even he can’t apparate inside Hogwarts, not without preparation. We run in while he’s in class, throw in the floo powder and get out of there as fast as possible.”

"Couldn't he just time-turner and stop us?" Linda asks. Yes, you had promised Potter you wouldn’t tell anyone, but the apocalypse quickly overrode that promise.

[Cont.]

>>5935406

"It... doesn't quite work like that, from what I understand. Unless you plan ahead to create a loop, it seems things... aren't modifiable. He can still be caught by surprise. So he could use the timeturner to go back and see who it was, without interfering, but not to stop us."

"Still sounds risky."

“Option two is brooms. We’ll ping the security systems, and even though I won’t show up, you three will.”

“Thestrals.” Arty says. When everyone looks at her quizzically, she elaborates. “Thestrals are better than brooms for this. Most people can’t see them, and they don’t fall to an anti-anti-gravity jinx. Also, I have no idea what direction London is, but they know. They can take us there.”

“Good idea. We fly over the walls, possibly all the way to London if necessary. Third idea is… We get someone else involved. We pay off a seventh year, I don’t know, blindfold them, take them to the secret library, and get them to apparate us from there.”

“What? Elliot, that’s insane!” Linda says. “We can’t tell someone else that there’s a place in Hogwarts you can apparate from!”

“Look, apparition is the easiest, fastest way there! If any of us could do it, that would be grand, but we can’t and I don’t think we should wait two more months so we get the hang of it!”

“Still, that’s asking for trouble. Besides, who would we even ask?”

To your surprise, it’s Apollo who answers.

“Falere.”

“The Head Girl?” Linda asks, shocked.

“Riley’s sister. I think… if Riley asked, she’d do it. And for money.”

“Or we could ask literally anyone else. Aren’t you friends with some seventh year Hufflepuff?”

“No.”

“Arty?”

“Uh… I prefer animals and people my age. And you two.”

Linda buries her face in her hands. “Maybe we could use a Slytherin?”

“We are not using a Slytherin!” You say immediately. “They’d sell that info for a half-eaten candy bar.”

“Yeah, I know. Fine, we can figure who to use later, if we go with that option.”

“So, all those options assume we’re going at night, when there’s less people there and no one working on the basement's 'renovations'. But if we want to go when everybody is there, on normal hours… Then Floo and Apparition still stand. We go to Hogsmeade on the weekend, and ask someone to Apparate us or Floo there. The only problem is that for Floo, the only fireplace I know is the Three Broomsticks, and I don’t want half of Hogwarts to see us going.”

“The Hog’s Head has one. In a back room. Riley, uh, told me.” Apollo says.

“When did she tell you that?” Arty asks, narrowing her eyes.

“Uh, a couple days ago,” he says, sounding ever so slightly embarrassed.

“If we want to use that, we’ll have to get her at least partially involved too,” you nod.

“There’s also another option,” Linda says. “We’re having to jump through so many hoops because the wards will track when we enter or leave. But they won’t track you.”

“You’re suggesting I go alone?”

[Cont.]

>>5935408

“I’m saying it’s an option. We’re not going to get there and just pop Avalon open in a day. This is a reconnaissance mission more than anything. We don’t know what we’ll find there, or how far we’ll get before we find something we can’t deal with. Maybe we get there and there are ancient runes we’ll need to come back and research about. Or a beast we can’t kill, a barrier we can’t pass. Or who knows what. If you go alone… Potter will never know, and no one else needs to be involved. You go on a thestral, find what you can, and get back. Might even make it easier for all of us to go, when time comes to really get into Avalon, because Potter won't be watching.”

“Me, all alone, in the middle of the night?”

“Indeed.”

And though you’d never tell her that, you can’t help but think that if you went alone… Arty wouldn’t be in the blast radius if something went wrong.

--

You spend the hours researching St. Mungus while you let the ideas run through your head, pondering what you’re going to do. It had been built four hundred-ish years ago, in the middle of what was, at the time, a small lake, because that location was “particularly resistant to stray magical powers which could hinder the patients' recovery.” No one seemed to know why that was the case, but after it being attributed to the “natural patterns of the wind” by someone who was decades later discovered to be a charlatan, the hospital was built.

You’d bet a galleon Merlin had foreseen that exact chain of events.

St Mungus doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of security, at least not on the ground floor, where the reception and administration areas are. This includes the Floo fireplaces. First floor is for creature-related injuries, second for magical diseases, third for poisons and botched potion effects, and fourth for spell damage, where you’d met Gilderoy. Finally, the fifth floor is the visitors' tearoom and hospital shop. Those floors have some measure of security, usually to stop the patients from wandering where they shouldn’t.

But what you want is not on any of those floors. It is in the basement, used for storage of rarer materials and equipment. Exactly the place Malfoy’s foundation is working on. From what you can see, the workers are on normal working hours. Anything else would attract too much attention, and they had to maintain a certain amount of discretion.

So getting in the basement seems relatively straightforward and simple. What you’ll find there, however, there’s no book or newspaper that can tell you. And however it is you decide to go, you should decide now so you can plan and prepare properly.

> Break into Potter’s office and Floo from there (Night time)
> Ask Riley to Floo from the Hog’s Head Inn (Day time)
> Ask a seventh year to apparate you from the secret library (Night time)
> Ask a seventh year to apparate you from Hogsmeade (Day time)
> Fly away on thestrals with the others (Night time)
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)
> Other (Write in)

>>5935409
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)

>>5935409
>Other (Attempt to die).
We know potions and poisons. Can we *fake* into Mungus? Maybe not even poisons, can we get Arty to wound us by a good mauling?

>>5935431
>fake into mungus
potions and poisons?, nah Potter is too good to know we could fake that, and after how suspicious he is of us, he would immediately realize we are after something outside of school
now, a good mauling...thats a more belieaveble excuse...
surely Arty knows about a creature that could fuck us up "enough" to not be easily cured at Hogwarts but easily cured and Mungus, under the excuse of "needing to rest for a bit" im sure that should give us enough time to wander around and not mess us up so much that we arent in a completely incapacitated state...uugh decisions decisions...

then again, flying away by thestral sounds like the least complicated option yet sneaky enough for us, my main problem is, if we are going alone to Mungus, where Salazar is 100% going to be, thats gonna leave us EXTREMELY vulnerable without anyone even remotely close to help us, maybe if somebody else goes along with us, that would be a better plan, but who knows how easily it is to manage multiple thestrals...unless our companion rides along with us, but the only one remotely small enough to do that would be Arty and im NOT risking exposing her like that, not without more people

so i guess
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)
is my choice

>>5935409
I’ll vote
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)
As a recon mission, but maybe talk with arty about what >>5935442 said. Who knows, could be a good chance to get in there without ANY suspicion and a longer window of opportunity to sneak around.

>>5935409
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)
Yeah we need to do some recon before we head into the darkest dungeon and get everyone killed.

>>5935409
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)
I could easily figure out most of these options and you guys still wasted our slot, goddammit.

>>5935442
You know this is true but do you think if we poisoned someone else, or maybe worked on really obscure, old potions, could this work?

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>>5934250
>Something about his family

Oh fuck, my prediction might be right.

Last thread there was a half sentence about a "couple" disappearing from St. Mungos. We know of exactly one couple at the hospital. One related to Brighton.

A headline about muggles seeing thestrals as well.

On the train ride, Linda mentioned a ritual involving a sword which had slayed a woman and a rope which had hung a man. One she didn't know what did.

I would strongly suggest sending an owl to Agusta if we can. Asking Professor Longbottom if anything had happened, regarding his parents. That we knew his grandmother, at least a bit from our own stay there.

>>5934250
> Skip tutoring this week
> Attempt to go to St. Mungus (How?)

Ask the Room of Requirements for a place with a Floo-Place. See if Arty can help us with some Thestrals. If we absolutely have to, ask a person who has learned Apparition to give us and our friends a ride to somewhere near St. Mungus.

I am almost done with a Valentine fanfic. Yes I do have too much time on my hands.

>>5935701
>the Longottoms were sacrificed to open a gateway or something
Ah fuck.

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>>5935701
And I completely ignored the fact there was another update. Fuck me to tears.

> Ask a seventh year to apparate you from Hogsmeade (Day time)

Falere.

Apollo and Riley is fun. Because Falere is fun.

And because Riley already sucking Apollo's soul out is both amazing and something which which will make me rewrite a bit of the Valentines fanfic.

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>>5935701
To expound on the possible ritual Linda mentioned, which I could not quite place,

https://www.reddit.com/r/HPMOR/comments/2icve2/i_found_a_passage_that_describes_the_ritual_for/

https://ethshar.fandom.com/wiki/Seething_Death

>>5935752
Oh shit, it's a magical grey goo scenario? Or... A means to free the Beast within us? Fuuuuck.

didn't expect to come back to Potter fucking shooting us

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>>5935755
Yeah. Not great. Sub-optimal. Might just be an off reference because QM likes Easter Eggs, it seems. But, fuck. That is bad for our boy regardless. Best case? We just get a dementor summoned, our fucking Kryptonite.

And Salazar did want to un-chain the monster in Elliot's soul so he could collar it, make it do his bidding. Use it to reshape the world.

If he couldn't do so because we destroyed the giant source of Ancient magic he was after, what else he do?

I don't know if magical grey goo can manage to reach the stars. But it could be the end of the world.

Potter is at the end of his rope. As much help as he could offer, it is now to dangerous to give him more info, to let him find out more. He literally pointed a gun at our face. A miss fired blank killed Bruce Lee. A blank still can send bits of a round at you face. That is not okay. A person discharging a firearm in your face is not acceptable, even if you could survive. He got the flame chicken to use the last bit of his life to transport him and Elliot to the deepest part of the ministry. We might need to really kill him, assuming we live past the next week or so.

>>5935789
We should get that Draught of the Living Death made like I wanted months ago. The question is how to get it into Harry's bloodstream.

>>5935789
Here's a question for you lads.
What do you reckon a Boggart would do in our presence? It'd have to decide on what form to take between three different niggas.
I have no idea what the biggest fear of the nothingbeast could be.

>>5935789
*Brandon Lee
RIP

>>5935808
The boggart might well take the visage of Lily Potter II, to be desu.

>>5935701
>>5935706
>>5935752
>>5935755
fucking hell...this escalated beyond stupidly dangerous real fucking fast
>>5935789
>Might just be an off reference because QM likes Easter Eggs
no way in hell is JUST an easter egg, remember how we almost got completely fucked by the calendar thing when we went for the star thingy? this was HeadQM´s only hint about whats gonna happen, i think Elliot should be able to figure it out and connect the dots given how we went through the same thing last time, we need to warn the Longbottom's and try our best to prevent them from becoming ingredients in a summoning ritual
>>5935808
>>5935845
i have 3 theories/options to this
1. it straight up becomes Salazar
2. any of our friends dead, but most likely Arty
or 3. the boggart tries to become Lily, but since in this timeline she never existed, the boggart has no idea what to copy from, gets stuck and creates some sort of horrible amalgamation using the entire Potter family tree

>>5935928
Personally, I think it'd take an amalgamated form of our biggest fear, Helga's biggest fear (which is probably the nothingbeast, I would assume?), and the nothingbeast's biggest fear.

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>>5935845
>*Brandon Lee

My bad.

>>5935808
Explode? Elliot has been shown to be terrified of exactly 2 things I believe. Ice skating and dementors. The Reverse Mirror of Erised would probably show us starring in Dementors on Ice. Helga had been horrified before by Salazar, when she learned what he did to Lily II, but hasn't had anything paralyze her with fear that we know of. The Beast? Horror from beyond time. Might as well wonder what Cthulhu is frighted of. Relatively small early 20th century ships.

>>5935928
>the boggart tries to become Lily, but since in this timeline she never existed, the boggart has no idea what to copy from, gets stuck and creates some sort of horrible amalgamation using the entire Potter family tree

Ahhhhhhhhh.

>>5936135
Hang on a minute, I think I know what the nothingbeast fears most.
Going back.
The boggart takes the form of the Veil, beyond which a dementor reaches out.

>>5935414
>>5935442
>>5935456
>>5935470
>>5935560
> Go alone on a thestral (Night time)

Won't affect this next update, but marking it here to make it clear what option won. On with the update!

--

On Monday evening, you and Arty are standing at the door to Potter’s office. She’s glaring at it so intensely it would catch fire, if it was physically able to do so.

You still need him to get to your tutoring, after all.

“Hello, professor,” you say when the door opens and you step in.

“Hello, Elliot,” he nods from where he’s standing, watching the view from his window. “Glad to see you haven’t destroyed the world yet. Can I assume, from the way Ms. Pertinger is glaring at me, that you’ve told her what happened last time you were in this office?”

“Yes,” she hisses. “Very much so!”

“Then I must warn you, Ms. Pertinger, if he hasn’t told you yet, that Elliot has been named in a prophecy of vast destruction. As someone who has lost many, many people because of their prophecy, I recommend that you leave. Break up your relationship with him. Change schools if that’s what it takes for you to stay away. I can personally get you to Ilvermorny in America, if you desire. For your own sake.”

“Professor!” You and Arty say in outraged unison.

He turns to you and there’s a grim look on his face.

“Is she going to stay in Hogwarts every time you go on another adventure, like the one you had with Taylor?” He asks, voice cold, hard and sharp. “Because unless she is, she’s the one most likely to die next. Are you willing to risk that, boy of prophecy? Is she willing to stay behind for her own safety? I ask this out of concern, not only for her, but for the world. Grief can be a great catalyst for destruction, and we cannot afford you going on a rampage, can we?”

“That’s why we’re learning how to fight!”

“And in a year of hard training, she’ll still be less magically powerful than your average fourth year and her shields will be able to withstand a single stupefy before shattering. Why do you think Scorpius threatened her? Because she’s a weak-spot, and an easy one at that. And if you keep her close, she will die.” He is no longer looking at you, his piercing gaze on Arty. “Leave. Live. You’ll find someone else. Someone who will love you the same and who doesn’t have doom upon his head and a knife to his friends’ necks. Or don’t find anyone, and if he survives, he’ll find you afterwards.”

Arty is shaking, face red in anger, her grip on her wand so hard her knuckles are turning white.

“I’m not a coward!”

“I never said you were, and never will. And neither was Ginny. But she knew I couldn’t fight if I thought she was in danger, so she stayed away when I left to hunt for Voldemort’s horcruxes. And so should you.”

[Cont.]

>>5936393

She glares at him, eyes red and with tears.

“I’m not leaving!”

“Then I’ll put roses on your grave, and kill your boyfriend if his grief makes him break the world.” He throws a pinch of Floo powder into the fireplace and the flames glow green. “Now come, your tutor awaits.”

--

You appear on the rocky island, Arty stepping away from Potter as soon as he’s done with the apparition.

“Oh, look at that, girlie. Been crying? Has big Potter been mean to you?” Crouch asks, with the ever deranged look on his face. “I can give you something to really cry about.”

Potter tosses him the modified, gimped wand. “Do your worst today,” he says, before apparating away.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

The training is utterly brutal, with Crouch going all out with spells on you once more. You fight hard, and you can feel the improvements of his training. You tire less, your muscles are less sore, and you can react faster. He’s still an utter beast, however, and fights like one. But he isn’t the one you worry about.

Arty is fighting too, and she’s fighting with a fury you’ve never seen before. She’s not just mad, she’s completely enraged, taking out on Crouch her anger against Potter. For the past two weeks, she’d collapsed from exhaustion before you. Not today. Today she fights, and fights, and fights. As if her wand was her claws, she fights like a wounded animal, longer than ever before. When you still have the power to cast powerful spells, she fights. When you’re reduced to basic stunners and barely controlled bursts of energy, she fights. When all your magic runs out, she fights. When Crouch hits you with three stunners in a row and finally drops you because you’re too busy worrying about her to battle properly, she fights.

When you wake up, body sore, magic sore… She’s still fighting. Covered in scrapes and cuts and grime and sweat and blood. Fighting with tears in her eyes, and a fire that doesn’t end against Crouch who is laughing maniacally. And when you, still on the floor and with no one noticing you’re awake, use the opportunity to trip Crouch over, she’s there to bellow “Stupefy!” with a voice hoarse from shouting spells.

The red bolt hits him straight in the chest, and he finishes falling the fall you’d started.

She looks up in the air and shouts “And I quit your fucking Battle Class!” before collapsing on the floor.

> +4 to Battle Magic! New total: +42

[Cont.]

>>5936394

The infirmary is empty around you, now during lunch. You had been allowed to sleep on a chair by the side of her bed, and had skipped potions in the morning. She’s been asleep for a full sixteen hours.

“Madam Pomfrey says,” you say, as you notice she’s waking up. “That this was the single most severe case of magical exhaustion she’s ever seen, that you could have died if it went for longer, and that if it even comes close to happening again she’ll personally ban you from, and I quote, ‘whatever nonsense Potter is putting you through’, and that if he doesn’t agree, she’ll quit. So it is sufficient to say you’ve made an impression.”

“Sorry,” she says, sounding ashamed.

“She says you’ll probably won’t be able to use magic for the next week.” You gently caress her face. “But you did get him.”

“I did,” she says, grinning. “You helped.”

“Would be dumb not to use the opportunity. But Madam Pomfrey is right. You can’t push yourself like that.”

“I… I was just so mad with what Potter said that…” She bites her lips, looking down. “I know I don’t have as much power as everyone else. I know that. But I’m not a princess in distress.”

How do you respond?

> Say that she’s not, and that you’ll help her learn how to fight her own way
> Say that she’s your princess, and that if she wants to fight, she can fight. You can’t ask her not to fight with you, but she can’t risk her life carelessly like that either
> Say that she’s not, but that Potter had a point. You can’t fight properly while worrying she’s safe on the battlefield. Ask her to stay away from any future battles
> Other (Write in)

>>5936395
>>Other (Write in)
>She is a princess, a warrior and ours, she is Our Warrior Princess
>proceed with a soft kiss
>then continue with > Say that she’s your princess, and that if she wants to fight, she can fight. You can’t ask her not to fight with you, but she can’t risk her life carelessly like that either

>>5936395
> Say that she’s your princess, and that if she wants to fight, she can fight. You can’t ask her not to fight with you, but she can’t risk her life carelessly like that either

We need to get back into Potter’s good graces.

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>>5936302
>Hang on a minute, I think I know what the nothingbeast fears most.
Going back.

That is smart. It became something out of Nothing. It has intelligence. It knows where it came from. It probably can't return to Nothingness from a simple spell, like the Killing Curse. It can return if the concept of time is taken from it. The thing introduced by the ministry throwing hundreds of Time Turners into the void.

Time turner. Which there is only one left, apparently. A thing created by Merlin. The guy who, along with the founders, sealed a rift in reality.

Helga's worst memory was:

There is
Another memory
Not from you
From
Someone else
An old wizard
No
Not an old wizard
Merlin
And
Three others
Hogwarts in the distance
And a rift
Into darkness
An eternity
Of horror
An eternity
Of Nothing
And then

Her last memory. Before she was tossed into the place between Time and Timelessness. I am not sure if Salazar was tricked into sacrificing himselt or if he was still a dickhead back then but a good person deep down. If he was damaged so badly But I know Helga would toss herself into Hell if it was needed. I think maybe Salazar had his soul harmed when he ripped himself free. He was a dickhead but also befriended the other founders. I don't think someone who is so hideous he forced a young girl to sexual abuse herself for his enjoyment could have stayed friend with a person like Godrick. Couldn't have tricked Rowena. Or been close with Helga.

>>5936407
> I don't think someone who is so hideous he forced a young girl to sexual abuse herself for his enjoyment could have stayed friend with a person like Godrick. Couldn't have tricked Rowena. Or been close with Helga.
I mean, they did famously have a falling out, and he DID essentially become a Dark Lord in all but name, rigging the school they lovingly crafted with secret weapons t stage a future race-war against their wishes. If Salazar Slytherin was a good person at some point, he definitely wasn't by the end, not even by the standards of his peers in his own era. Salazar Slytherin BEFORE being traumatized by a veritable eternity of limbo was already the sort of guy who would have gleefully gassed most of our main cast.

>>5936395
Ugh, this hurts... But we both signed on for this, for maybe outliving our partner. Dumb, passionate, beautiful young love.
I back >>5936401

>>5936394
wait, it JUST hit me, she quit battle class while basically telling Potter to fuck off, i think she is finally growing (in a metaphorical sense).
is she becoming more like a snake than a badger now? thats not something she would have ever done by herself, are we changing her for the better?...worse? whatever it is, i love it

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>>5936458
A badger is exactly the sort of animal to fight fiercely against foes that can far outclass them in defence of what they care about.

A Slytherin would try to reason with Potter, or try to end his threat through subterfuge. A Hufflepuff would scream in a legendary Gryffindor's face for threatening or undermining her relationship, like a badger will scream at a lion.

>>5936404
I don’t think that’s happening. He pulled a gun on us. He then said he would kill us if we’re near any “apocalypse machines” while we have no idea for sure who or what is or isn’t one.
The only way we get back in his good graces is after we save the world and tear him a new one after telling him everything.
+1 to the vote though.

>>5936495
Elliot is the apocalypse machine.

>>5936395
>Say that she’s your princess, and that if she wants to fight, she can fight. You can’t ask her not to fight with you, but she can’t risk her life carelessly like that either

>Mine and mine alone. Till the end. But that end will be a long, long time from now. You are a princess, Arty, but one who isn't going to be saved. One who is saving me. With every single kiss. With every single glance, every single bump against my shoulder. Every single time we hold hands. But, I don't want to see you like this again. Please, promise me. Do what you can. Do what you must. But… please don’t don’t do something that will make me destroy the world. I love the world. The world gave me you.

>>5936395
> Say that she’s your princess, and that if she wants to fight, she can fight. You can’t ask her not to fight with you, but she can’t risk her life carelessly like that either
>Save that for when our lives are actually at risk
I seriously hope the penalty we are getting to our rolls doesn't bite us in the ass at St. Mungus!

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>>5936614
I love the interaction we got by the vote going towards training again this week. Arty telling Potter to eat a dick, standing up for us. Making the healer at Hogwarts for like forever threaten to walk out. But yeah, right now we have only like a +27, with a girding potion, to at least a couple of rolls in a fight I think.

Before asking Hufflepuff Prime for a hand. +25, there.

Maybe we can chug a Maxima potion and an Edurus Potion too, squeeze another few bonus points out. +10 and +5.

If we add an aging potion, probably get a bit more but when Arty had one of her soldier drink one, he had to go to the infirmary for like 2 days and it only lasted for a few minutes.

12+15+5+10+25

A max of +68, if we are knocking back potions like a fiend.

>>5936393
>she’ll still be less magically powerful than your average fourth year
>if you keep her close, she will die
>Then I’ll put roses on your grave, and kill your boyfriend

No one threatens the wife. No one hurts her like that. Potter is getting a black eye before the spring ends.

Also, since "princess" looks like it will win. Kiss her as well.

>>5936753
I'm thinking since we didn't vote to go this round (getting the anwers instead of thinking, ugh) we'll do it next after the penalty goes away, maybe. And he didn't threaten Arty but he sure doesn't have any confidence in either of them. Our hero mentor right there, thanks a bunch.

>>5936401
This, but possibly calling her Xena to her confusion.

>>5936514
Badass codename. 「APOCALYPSE MACHINE: Dark Lord Hallaster」

>>5936753
He didn't threaten her. He's saying Elliot will get her killed, and he'll be sad about it, and maybe kill Elliot depending what we do next.

i would like to know how does excrement waste disappearing from Hogswart too

“You’re wrong,” you say, cupping her face with your hand. “You are a princess. My princess. My warrior princess, who saves me with every kiss she gives me. And if my warrior princess wants to fight, she can fight, and there’s not a single person in the world who can stop her.” You kiss her. “But please don’t almost kill yourself just to tell Potter to fuck off. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing you do it, but… You make my world brighter. Please don’t take that light away.”

She kisses you back. “I won’t. And you too. I know you said that going alone to St Mungus is the best option, but… Be careful. You said we’d be together for a long time. I intend to collect for as long as I can.”

“I did not allow you to stay here just so you could transform my infirmary into an improvised snogging room!” Madam Pomfrey says, shocked, as she enters the room with a set of potions for Arty. “Your girlfriend will be fine! Now, out!”

--

The rest of the week is torturous. With Arty under rest, you have to face Crouch’s training alone, along with Potter’s gloom. Even during classes he seems darker, more stressed and more quick to snap at people goofing off. The Battle Classes return, and the challenges are harder than ever, pushing people much harder than before.

Most students don’t see it, or just shrug it off. Only you and your friends know what he’s dealing with. When Friday arrives after Apparition classes, you join Linda, no, you join Raven in the frontlines, where you battle through a grueling trial filled with painful traps against Apollo, Riley and Summer Nott, who has taken over Brighton’s Claws. She’s… less than spectacular, and gets eliminated quickly when she clumsily gets pinched between the Raiders and the Fours. Raven’s maneuvering gets you through them, but the last remnants of Apollo’s army get the attention of Riley, who comes in to sweep both of you.

It’s not a victory, but it is a very respectable performance for Raven’s first outing as general, and it is good to see your friend in her old form again. On the weekend, the Three Broomsticks is filled with Lions celebrating their victory, while the other armies watch them with sour looks.

“Elliot, how difficult would it be to make a deadly poison?” Linda asks, traces of Raven still showing.

“Depends,” you say as you watch Riley be thrown up and down by her army, something which Hannah quickly puts a stop to. “Do you want it to taste like pumpkin juice or butterbeer?”

“Is there an actual difference?” Talon asks with genuine curiosity.

“Of course,” you say, as if it was obvious. “Beer bottles are more expensive than the ones people use to store pumpkin juice.”

[Cont.]

>>5937290

“Plotting to kill someone is not nice,” Arty says, sliding by your table to drop off some food. She’s physically recovered, though casting spells is still painful, and had insisted on returning to work. “And Riley prefers drinking Gillywater, do you think you have anything that tastes like that?”

“I’m sure I can figure something out.”

“Are you two doing something this week?” Amalia asks. “Me and Elend wanted someone to go to Madam Puddifoot on a double date.”

Elend seems to be awfully embarrassed by that. As far as you’ve heard, the two of them had become much closer recently, though the boy didn’t seem to be ready for anything serious.

“I’m sure that they have other things to do,” Elend says, quickly.

Amalia, of course, doesn’t really seem to care that he doesn’t want it and looks determined to drag him into a relationship kicking and screaming.

“Uh, I…” plan to break into St Mungus in search of Avalon’s entrance “I’m busy this week, but,” you glance at Arty, to check her reaction, “But I think next week I may have some free time.”

“That’s lovely!”

“That’s… great to hear,” Elend says with a half-forced smile.

Though the ruckus is great, you, Linda and Apollo all stay until the end of Arty’s shift. Most of the people involved in the attack against you had been caught and locked up, but there had been one, the armless one, who had escaped. So you three wait. Riley celebrates until the late hours, and when she goes away with her army, soon it is time for you four to follow.

And, finally, the way back is peaceful and without threatening voices.

When you finally reach the dungeons, you say goodbye, kiss Arty and… she slips a note in your hand before waving and sauntering away.

--

“Are you sure Apollo won’t freak out?” you ask, not half an hour later.

“He knows I study late and skip breakfast sometimes. The other girls can cover for me.”

She’s wearing only her nighties, the same ones your mom had bought her. She’d changed into them right here, in the Room of Requirement, of course. The only other thing in the room, besides the divider behind which you’d both, separately, changed into your night clothes, was a comfortable looking bed.

The note had only said “Room of Requirement. I want to sleep.”

The only type of couple that had any luck in Hogwarts were same-sex couples of the same House and in the same year. Everyone else was split up either by gendered dormitories, year-based dormitories or which common room they had access to. Or, in your case, all three. But fortunately for you, the Room of Requirement didn’t care about any of that.

You couldn’t do it often, the risk of being caught by roaming prefects was real even if you were particularly proficient in avoiding them after so many years sneaking with Taylor to see the stars, but every now and then? For being together and sleeping in each other’s arms? Yeah, it was worth it.

[Cont.]

>>5937291

So you climb into bed and she snuggles her back against your chest.

“That training is paying off,” she says. “Your arms feel bigger around me.”

“You too,” you say, placing a finger on her belly and pressing gently. “I think I can feel a six-pack if I press hard enough.”

“At least I can eat twice as much. But this hand,” she says, taking it and placing it on her breast. “Can stay right here.”

“Are- are you sure?”

“You’ve done it once before, haven’t you?” She asks, biting her lower lip. “Did I get you to blush?”

“A bit.”

She shifts against you. Very much against you.

“Can you really sleep like this?”

“With… some difficulty.”

She giggles.

“Then consider that punishment for not getting that picture you promised to your warrior princess.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Then work harder.”

“It’s… going to be difficult to work any harder than this.”

And she laughs out loud.

--

Will you attempt to go to St Mungus this week?

> Yes (What preparations will you make?)
> No

If yes, the preparations will take all your free time and the excursion itself will take all of your free time. If not, what will you do with your free time? (Pick two)

> Attend Crouch’s tutoring (+3 to Battle Magic, -25 to all rolls during the week)
> Study your Potion books (+2 to Potions)
> Study with Linda, Arty or Apollo (pick one, +2 to chosen person’s expertise)
> Study another subject (+1 to another subject)
> Other (Write in)

>>5937294
> Study your Potion books (+2 to Potions)
> Study with Linda, Arty or Apollo (pick one, +2 to chosen person’s expertise)
Arty needs to get us up to speed, and potions remain our special sauce for any upcoming confrontations.

I'll leave preparations up to smarter anons with better understanding of the lore.

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>>5937294
first of all, i find it both hot and stupidly cute that we are sneaking out to sleep together, yes, stuff gets a bit steamy, but its still cute, love it, makes me sad i´ll never be able to experience this and lost all my chances when i was younger.

now, on to serious bussines:
>will you attempt to go to St Mungus this week
49% of me says we are 100% NOT ready for this and we will risk everything if even the smallest of things goes wrong...but the remaining 51% of me says that if we dont, we´ll miss whats probably our biggest chance of not only getting confirmation of our suspicions, but also any advantage of time and upperhand we could possibly have. so here is what i propose:
obviously, we skip the tutoring this time, we want as much of an advantage as we can, so we cant be sore and gimped by the negative rolls
we need to prepare an invisibility potion, maybe several (this, depending if we can take stuff from the games of course, as how its mentioned here: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Invisibility_Potion
this potion was never really shown in the movies or books, so i guess HeadQM would have to either allow or deny that
if we can brew it, then making a few of those would be ideal, plus study and practice all of our known concealment charms and spells
finally, all the other potions that could help us with our rolls, stamina, damage recovery, defense, everything. and keep at least one of each in case of emergencies or anything goes wrong
we do not HAVE to fight, its just a reconnaissance mission, but i think i speak for all of us when i say "its almost guaranteed shit WILL go down"

>>5937294
> Yes (What preparations will you make?)
Brew some potions of invisibility (for obvious reasons) and a potion of alchemist’s flashbang, in case we need a distraction/combat advantage. Also make sure that if we use a broomstick we take off any potential tracking charms on the thing.

>>5937294
>Yes (What preparations will you make?)
Invisibility, memory, strength, focus, wiggenweld, Shrinking, and Growing potions. A bezoar for antipoison purposes. DO NOT take the thingy that makes noise in response to treacherous presences. DO NOT take the resurrection stone, because although it'll probably be needed to actually do some fifth founder related shit, this is just a recon.

>>5937333
+1 Time for a stealth mission

I just noticed that for the past however many posts, including last thread, I’ve been saying “St Mungus” instead of “St Mungo’s” because I’m a idiot who can’t spellcheck his fucking location names. Hopefully this changes from now on. So strap in, because this is a big one.

--

You spend the rest of the week working on potions. You have a big supply of Girding Potions, but you brew some Eduro, your Alchemist's Flashbang, Garroting Gas, plenty of Wiggenweld, Slowfall, and one of each from Erumpent, Exstimulo and Strengthening Solution, as they are far too unstable to hold more of them together. You think about brewing some invisibility potion, but they’re not worth the effort for the four whole seconds they hide you. Finally, just to be sure, you break into the cabinet with more expensive ingredients and take a single bezoar with you, the cure for most poisons.

The difficult part is getting them into your pouch without them crashing against each other and breaking. Surely, someone had invented something for this? Aurors took potions with them on their missions, surely they didn’t all just go clinking away.

You store that thought away for further research when you get back.

And, of course, you send a note to Potter saying you won’t be going to the tutoring this week as Arty is still recovering. Wouldn’t want to leave the insane death eater waiting for you, after all.

Thursday, you ready yourself. On Fridays, you figure, there is a bigger chance of people staying with their loved ones in St Mungo’s since they didn’t need to work early on the next day. So Thursday it is. You wait in bed until everyone is asleep and mostly gone from the common room, then sneak out under Disillusionment, through the dungeons and out the front door of the castle. You wait until you see the shifting, semi-translucent form of Arty wobbling down the stairs, carrying something large.

“Let me carry that,” you say, reaching for the big chunk of meat she’s holding, but she pulls back.

“No, don’t want you smelling like blood while you’re sneaking around. Let’s just get to the forest and then you can float it.”

You run through the empty fields until you’re deep into the forbidden forest and can drop the charm, then begin heading even further in.

“Are you sure you need to do this alone?”

“Yeah. Otherwise, someone else would know, and with Potter in the mood he’s in… No, we can’t risk that.”

“You know that I love you, right?”

You stop, smile, then kiss her in the semi-darkness.

“I’m not going to die, Arty. And I love you too.”

“I know you’re not going to die, but… At the same time I want to cast petrificus totalus on you and drag you back to the castle.”

“Trust me, I want to go back to the castle myself,” you say, tapping the green insides of your robes. “Slytherin, not Gryffindor, remember? I am utterly terrified, but the prospect of finding the entrance to Avalon is fortunately overriding every single self-preservation instinct I have.”

[Cont.]

>>5938657

She laughs, which is what you want, and you go back to making your way through the forest. After several minutes of walking, you reach a clearing where you drop off the chunk of meat. Arty raises her hands to her mouth and lets out a weird, throaty thrill-whistle.

“The fuck was that?”

“Feeding call,” she says, simply. “It’s how they let their friends know there’s good food somewhere. I’d usually just wait until they smell it by themselves, but we should get you as much time as we can. Oh, look, there they are!”

Three huge dark-winged skeletal horses come flying down and land by the meat, then stop, looking at both of you. Arty nods and bows slightly, and the creatures gently approach, pulling the meat apart with its sharp beaks. You wait a bit, then approach, gently petting their backs while they eat.

“Hey, I recognize this one,” you say. “It’s-”

“The same one from last time,” Arty says, nodding. “And from our first date, too. I think she likes you. Always knew thestrals were smart.”

“Well, now that they’re here…”

You take a few steps away and start stripping.

“Wha- what are you doing?”

“Getting rid of my school robes. Can’t go on a stealth mission with a uniform saying where I’m from, can I?”

“You- you could have warned me!”

“I don’t see you looking away.”

She blushes, but keeps staring.

Once you’re down to only your pants and shoes, you reach into your pouch and pull out your camera. You raise it in the air, pointing downwards, and take a picture of yourself.

“Here,” you say, grinning like an idiot as you approach her shirtless. You give her the black square the camera produced. “Here’s your picture. I’ll get you some Developing Solution once I get back.”

“T-thanks.”

“Made you blush again.”

She doesn’t respond, just watching as you dress back up into plain black cold-weather robes, along with gloves on both hands. Once the thestrals are done with the food, you pet the one Arty said liked you, rubbing her neck.

“Hey, friend. Could you give me a ride?”

She gives an odd, but affirmative, whistle.

You turn to Arty. “You sure they won’t be tracked?”

“No. They’re always coming and going, and breeding. No way of keeping track of all of them.”

“Good.” You pat the thestral’s back and she kneels down. “Smart indeed.”

“Hey, when you come back…” Arty says, blushing harder than when you were shirtless.

“When I come back…?” You ask, mounting the thestral.

“When you come back… We’ll see.”

“Arty, that sentence made no sense!”

“That’s because I'm embarrassed to say it! Now go! Go before I drag you back to the castle!”

You gently tap the creature below you, and it rises up. You’ve never ridden a horse before, and now can see the reason saddles were created, as the creature’s bony back immediately starts poking the bottom of your column. The discomfort is the cost of greatness, you figure.

“Do you know where St Mungo’s is?”

[Cont.]

>>5938658

The creature gives a high-pitched thrill, then gallops away at full speed, flapping its enormous wings as it takes flight, its sound only outmatched by you screaming “I hope that means yeeeeees!” as you hold on for dear life.

--

Once the thestral is in the air, the journey becomes much smoother. You can only figure riding one of these without having seen someone die would be utterly terrifying, as you’d have nothingness below you. But the creature soars majestically through the air, in a way you’re pretty sure is completely ignoring all laws of physics because there’s no way a winged horse would be able to fly without magic to aid it.

You can feel as you pass the barriers of the school, and you’re soon gliding south-east, the general direction of London. You briefly wonder how in Merlin’s name this creature can know where St Mungo’s is, but quickly decide that if owls can find people just by damn name, there’s nothing wrong with thestrals knowing places.

The cooling air hits your face and you briefly regret not casting a couple of warming charms before leaving. Now that you’re out of Hogwarts, you can’t cast spells without being tracked until you’re back somewhere magical. But it’s no matter. Soon the cold turns into an overwhelming sense of freedom as you soar over Scotland at ridiculous speeds. You can see mountains and gullies below you. In the darkness, you see small collections of lights as you pass over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car is beetling its way home through the hills.

You hug your mount’s neck, gently rubbing it up and down, as if to say she’s doing a good job, and she appears to appreciate it. You don’t know how long it takes, losing yourself in the view and the desire Arty was here to share it with you. It is probably more than an hour, less than two, when you finally see the glow of London in the distance.

Not long after, your stomach gives a jolt. The thestral’s head is suddenly pointing toward the ground and you slide forward a few inches along its neck. You’re descending at last, and now bright orange lights are growing larger and rounder on all sides. You can see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that are windows. Quite suddenly, it seems, you’re hurtling toward the pavement. You grip the thestral with every last ounce of your strength, bracing for a sudden impact, but she touches the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and you slide from her back, looking around at the street where a condemned department store called “Purge and Dowse” has stood for the past many decades.

“Can you wait for me somewhere out of view, girl?” You ask, voice still slightly shaken from the experience. “Maybe on top of the tallest building around?”

She presses her head against your face, then flies away, hopefully not leaving you alone and heading back to Hogwarts.

[Cont.]

>>5938660

“Well… Whatever happens, happens.” Then, after a second thought, "I should think of a name for her."

This late in the night, fortunately - or more precisely, because of the many protection enchantments placed around the hospital - there are no muggles around, so you just take a quick glance around before leaning close to a mannequin on the window of the old department store.

It’s not exactly “inside” but… you point your wand at your face and whisper “Finite Incantatem”. Earlier in the day, you had shakily allowed Apollo to do the stupidly difficult feat of Human Transfiguration on you (through controlled and named spells, not free transfiguration, of course), and changed your face to that of a different boy entirely. Then, you had allowed him to do so again to change you back into yourself. While there were stories of wizards whose Transfiguration was good enough to basically duplicate the effects of Polyjuice, the only one you had confirmed evidence of such a feat was Grindelwald, and Apollo hadn’t gotten there yet. But transforming someone back into themselves was far easier than transforming them into someone else, so he’d done a good enough job.

You dismiss only the second set of transfigurations, the ones making you look like yourself, going back to being… no one in particular.

“Merlin, I hope I don’t have to come back here to be treated for transfiguration sickness once this is over,” you think, then step through the solid window and into St Mungo’s. The reception area still has some people, even this late at night, so it is fairly simple to mingle with the people there. Some have some obvious but non-urgent malady, others are there for a late visit. No one pays attention to you. Why should they, after all? It’s only a hospital.

So you walk around, pretending to go grab some water by a water spout, before quickly ducking under the “Do Not Cross - Renovations in Progress” sign, and tapping your wand on top of your head, the Disillusionment taking effect.

“Potter was right,” you think as you need to force the spell out. “Casting spells under a form that isn’t your own is more difficult than normal. I may need to drop the disguise if I get into a fight.”

[Cont.]

>>5938662

You stealth through the mostly empty corridors, searching for the basement’s entrance. The floor of the corridors of the area have been torn away, revealing the stone beneath, and in some rooms it has been replaced by new, anti-slipping floors. Some rooms are still under more severe renovations and-

You freeze as you take a turn. At the end of the corridor, a set of stairs leading down. Sitting by the stairs on a chair, mostly covered by shadow in the poorly lit corridor, is a man. You can’t see his face in the darkness, but clearly, whoever they are, they’re guarding the way down. He’s resting his head on the wall behind him, in a way that suggests that he could be sleeping, or simply leaning against the stone. No way to tell from where you stand, and no way of getting closer without exposing yourself.

You’re fairly far from the main areas of the hospital where other people are, but… you’re not sure if a full-blown battle would go unheard.

> Try to stun him from where you stand
> Throw a bottle of Garroting Gas to make sure he chokes, then get closer for a stun
> Cast Quietus on the corridor behind you to muffle the sounds, then toss an Erumpent to blast him against the wall
> Other (Write in)

>>5938664
> Throw a bottle of Garroting Gas to make sure he chokes, then get closer for a stun

>>5938664
>> Throw a bottle of Garroting Gas to make sure he chokes, then get closer for a stun

>>5938664
>Other (Write in)
>A combination of quietus on the corriror followed by the garroting gas
we dont want him coughing and giving us away to whoever is around

>>5938718
also, just to be clear, im the anon thats doing this >>5934352 im just posting from work

>>5938664
>Quietus, THEN try to stun him from where you stand.
I feel like an intruder charm is going to be in place. We need to make sure any sound from it going off is muffled before we do anything.
A simple stunner is the least likely to be noticed as amiss.

>>5938782
Quietus would weaken our stun on top of being nerfed while on a different form

we could try to just distract the guy somehow instead of directly attacking him

>>5938929
then we risk gettting caught on the way out (if it works)

>>5938932
matters significantly less on the way out than it does on the way in

>>5938927
it doesnt have to be the most powerful spell in the world, just enough to muffle the sounds, so even if nerfed i think it should do the work good enough, its a much better option that screaming "DEPULSO!" followed by the trashing sounds of his body being thrown to the wall without any form of sound reduction

>>5938933
Still a risk we could copletely avoid
>>5938939
Its not the Quietus I'm worried about, its the Stupefy. We've seen those getting tanked before and we are on a weakers state. If we have to do it nonverbally because the range of the Quietus affects us too then the guy will tank it for sure, and that'd get us into an actual fight. We are allegedly a bit far from other people, just get this one over quick without overthinking it.

>>5938946
no matter how we get in, we'd still likely have to do some fighting to get out even if things go to plan

>>5938947
If thats the case, better get a potential obstacle out of the way now and not then

>>5938950
we'd probably have dropped the disguise by the time we got back to this guy, if we get into a fight with him it'd be better to be at full strength than weakened by our cover

>>5938718
Supporting.

>>5938664
I'm >>5937217 on mobile.

>>5938952
Or get the drop on him and just not let him fight back at all

>>5938961
and if he gets backup...?

>>5938946
>we are on a weakers state
from what?, we specifically dropped the turoring this week specifically for this mission, we are at our peak right now

>>5938963
Do you see anyone else around
>>5938964
>"Potter was right,” you think as you need to force the spell out. “Casting spells under a form that isn’t your own is more difficult than normal. I may need to drop the disguise if I get into a fight.”

>>5938967
a guy who gets suddenly attacked isn't just going to not tell anyone, and they don't need to be within visual perception to get some kind of alert from him

>>5938970
He's not gonna alert anyone while unconscious

>>5938980
as already said, we can't confirm that he'd actually get unconscious because of being weakened by the disguise

>>5938985
Thats what the gas is for

>>5938993
how would we do this without the resulting gas cloud attracting unwanted attention?

>>5938927
Man, I wish the magic in this quest worked by actual harry potter rules instead of the weird ass shit we got goin on with limited magic pools and shit. Isn't it supposed to be that you can cast the vast majority of spells perfectly fine as long as you can repeat the motion and incantations correctly? Shit's only supposed to be limited by skill and physical stamina. Just an annoyance of mine that I see in a lot of HP fiction. The books never said shit about that all.

>>5938996
The gas cloud would disperse in the air with none the wiser
>>5938997
What rules, there's no fucking rules in HP.

>>5938997
I prefer this, especially since it forces us to think more tactically and enables plot points key to this quest like the whole deal with the Pertingers.

>>5938997
In the books it is implied to exist some form of energy requirement, otherwise everyone would be casting the most powerful spells all the time. In fact, on the fourth book Moody says:

"Avada Kedavra’s a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at
me and say the words, and I doubt I’d get so much as a nosebleed. "

Which implies that there is such thing as a reserve of magic people can access, or at least a magical maximum each person has. Also, fighting is physically draining. In any other quests with fighting, you'd be limited by your physical exhaustion, which recovers over time as you rest. The same is true here, but with a magical exhaustion. Most spells single spells are not specially draining, it is the continuous casting of them, repeatedly, over a short period of time which causes you to be tired.

Don't get me wrong, if you tried to cast the killing curse three times in a row you'd be exhausted, but most battle spells are made to be effective, because anything else would get you killed in the battlefield.

Also, this was one long ass discussion. Closing the vote on Garroting Gas + Quietus

>>5939094
>"Avada Kedavra’s a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at
me and say the words, and I doubt I’d get so much as a nosebleed. "
This is specifically referencing intent to kill. He means that they wouldn't be able to kill him, because they don't want to kill him. Avada Kedavara is absolutely spammable (and IS spammed throughout the series) without being any more exhausting than a stupefy, the efficacy of it just needs you to be a psychopath to actually kill your targets with it.

>>5939096
I want to be clear here: How you run your quest is up to you in the end, and it's definitely far too late to change any sort of mechanics right now. I'm not encouraging anyone to do that, and in fact discourage changing the already-established way of things work.
I just wanted to point out a gripe that I personally have with a lot of HP fiction, autistic as that may be. I'm in the camp that if you're going to do a [franchise] thing, do the mechanics of the setting as presented; otherwise, do your own thing. I still dig the quest.

>>5939015
did you forget gas moves?

You breathe deeply, reaching into your pouch with your left hand and feeling for the cork with the markings of a bottle of Garroting Gas. You turn and try casting quietus nonverbally. It takes three tries but you manage to get it done and the corridor falls into an even deeper silence than before.

You focus, envision you plan, then fling the bottle as hard as you can towards the man as you jump out of cover already casting. The bottle shatters on the floor and fills the corridor with gas as you use your stored breath to cast a Stupefy, chaining it with an Expelliarmus and following it with a Somnius, a combination you’ve practiced many, many times in your training for Battle Class.

All three spells hit the target, who simply jerks in his chair.

What?

Holding your breath, you approach the man. He is unconscious, yes, but… he’s also wandless. Worse, if you keep this choking gas here, he’ll suffocate to death. You point the wand away from the staircase and think “Ventus!“. The wind blows, dispersing the gas until you can breathe again a few moments later and you can turn your attention back to the man.

He’s wearing St Mungo’s uniform, head slumped on his chest. Alive. But he hadn’t reacted to your attack, not even to the bottle being thrown, or to the gas. So he had either been asleep or… Or someone had stunned him before you.

You feel your hair stand up on the back of your neck as a sense of fear envelops you. Had this been an employee of the hospital who had been stunned by one of Scorpius’ men or one of Scorpius men who had been stunned by someone else? Maybe people hired by Salazar himself, or maybe some group of Unspeakables, coming here under Granger’s orders. You don’t know, and you don’t fancy waking him up to find out.

You put him back in the position you found him, thanking Merlin for not having used anything more destructive, then slowly make your way back down into the basement. The renovations are mostly completed, with many shelves being shuffled into the completed parts, and an area at the back that is blocked off with a great tarp.

You cast a slew of detection spells, but they show nothing.

“Why?” You ask yourself. “They wouldn’t leave it unprotected, would they? Would alarm enchantments trigger any wards of St Mungo’s itself? Helga, any ideas?”

“Only that Arty would have already told you to turn back. This smells like a trap.”

“And if she’d been alone here, do you think she’d have turned back?”

“... No.”

“Then we keep going.”

You reach the tarp and pull it back, revealing a great hole in the ground with a ladder going downwards, disappearing into the darkness.

“Well, that’s why I made potions,” you say, chugging a Slowfall potion and jumping in, hand always in the ladder in case you need an abrupt stop. But you don’t, and reach the ground after a long way down, landing softly on the bedrock floor.

[Cont.]

>>5939216

You’re in what appears to be a laboratory of sorts. There are tables with notes, cauldrons, diagrams and books, all which seem to have been used in the last couple of days. Past the tables, there is a large, open area, clearly of a different time, one oozing Ancient Magic. It is a wide chamber, a dark marble floor, the center of which seems to be in a half-light even though there is no obvious light source anywhere, while the outer edges are covered in darkness. In the middle of the chamber, a great green stone, almost like a frozen emerald flame, as tall as three men and just as wide, only slightly translucent such that its edges are barely see-through but anything beyond the first few inches on each side are opaque.

It is not as Powerful as the Mirror of Impossibility, but you have no doubt it’s just as old.

“No,” Helga says. “There’s new magic here. Well, still Ancient but less old. As if it was renovated, or changed, long after it was originally built. How far after the original construction or how long ago, I cannot say.”

“Do you think-”

“This is useless!” A male voice comes from the other side of the great stone, echoing through the great hall, and you duck behind one of the tables. It sounds more frustrated than angry. “We’re never getting this thing open.”

“It’s been only a couple of weeks,” a feminine voice answers, calmer. “There’s more we can try.”

“Not like this. And you heard them. Their new machine should be able to break the stone. I’m no specialist in goblin metal, but they’d need to be wrong by a couple orders of magnitude for them to fail.”

“And it will be ready in four weeks. We have time.”

“Oh, sure. How much progress have we made so far? Zero. We’ve been at it for a week, so if we multiply the progress we’ve made now by four… I’m not a specialist in arithmancy so correct me if I’m wrong, but that still sounds like zero.”

“We are gathering knowledge,” the woman says.

“Knowledge that is taking us nowhere. You are aware of what happens if they get what is on the other side of this door, correct?”

“I have some idea.”

“Then you know we need to try something else.”

“That could prove problematic. The Longbottoms, they-”

“We can’t worry about them. If they die, they die. If their families must grieve… They are good people and have my condolences, but it is necessary. It is the right thing to do.”

The Longbottoms? How could they be involved in this? You had sent an owl to Augusta a while ago, asking if the couple who had disappeared from St Mungus was her son and his wife, but the letter had gone unanswered.

“You know what she would say to that,” the woman says, sounding bothered.

“She’ll have to deal with it whenever we meet her.” The man sounds deeply worried. “Four weeks to stop him like this… Are you sure you don’t know what the symbol means?”

[Cont.]

>>5939218

“Not off the top of my head. If I still had my books, maybe I could find something, but now...” The woman sighs. “Very well, then. Shall we go? The spell on the guard won’t last much longer, and I still need to reset their alarms.”

“Give me another hour, there are still things I want to try.”

You suddenly realize how exposed you are. You are hiding behind a table and they’re behind the great emerald rock, yes, but if they were to head in your direction you’d have nowhere to hide. The only way out is the completely exposed ladder upwards.

You want to see what they’re seeing, see who they are, learn more, listen to more of their conversation and study the notes and books on these tables. But staying here risks being found out and going away then back risks having to actually face the guard and, apparently, whatever alarms there were originally, not to mention spending even longer in this place with the chance of being caught. And you still have to get back to Hogwarts before breakfast. Two hours on the way here, two hours to get back… didn’t give you too much leeway to wait around.

> Retreat to one of the upper rooms and wait until they leave
> Try to sneak around the stone through the shadows and catch a glimpse of the two
> Leave. You have enough information for today
> Other (Write in)

>>5939219
> Retreat to one of the upper rooms and wait until they leave
Who they are is less important than seeing if we can be the first into Avalon.

>>5939219
>Retreat to one of the upper rooms and wait until they leave
why do their voices sound like Hermione and Ron inside my head....

>>5939219
> Try to sneak around the stone through the shadows and catch a glimpse of the two
If we’re rolling for stealth anyway, I want to find out what - and who - we really ARE dealing with, and quickly. After all, we’re on a timer here and we can’t afford to lose another hour.

>>5939219
>Head up and reenervate the guard. Tell him that you saw two suspicious people head down here and watched them stun him before heading further down, so you wanted to make sure he was alright.
Fuck the spooks, I bet this guard isn't a bad person. Apparently he's moral enough not to be in anyone's pocket and does his job well enough that he warrants being stunned. And we run little risk of him discovering our identity right now because of our altered looks.

actually, you know what? fuck it, im changing my vote to >>5939235
he right, we already here and we´ve sneaked before, getting info on WHO ELSE we fighting is worth it

>>5939235
>>5939219
>support

I bet they're talking about us.

>>5939236
the whole point of gassing him in the first place was so that they wouldn't know we're here

>>5939219
>> Try to sneak around the stone through the shadows and catch a glimpse of the two

>>5939219
You know, they might be talking about stopping Salazar. Wonder if this is the Rowena and Godric hosts.

>>5939619
there's also the "symbol"

>>5939619
I was thinking that too. Good thing we have Helga, who can scan for fellow mind people, AKA Rowena and Godric, right?

No, you refuse to back down now. This is Avalon you’re talking about! You’re not going to back away without at least seeing the damn door!

Making sure you have the strongest disillusionment you can cast on yourself, you make your way to the edge of the great black marble floor and squeeze yourself against the wall, gently, gently making your way around. One quiet step after the other, you slowly circle the great emerald flame, which proves to not be emerald after all. As you keep moving to get behind them, it changes. As if it was burning, it flickers and shifts, not only in movement, but in color too, yellow, blue, white and so on. All shades except black, in a mesmerizing spectacle.

You move until you can see one of them. The woman. Her face is thin and worn now, her eyes seem overlarge and her hair, white, is wispy and dead-looking. She’s dressed… she’s dressed like a patient.

“Maybe some plan to get inside St Mungo’s without anyone questioning?” You ask Helga.

“Easier than breaking in every night, unless they take your wand,” she says.

“In that case you’d have to take someone else’s,” you agree. “Like that poor guard up front, for example.”

You keep on walking and the man comes into view. He’s almost bald, also with gray hair and sunken eyes. Maybe he had once been handsome, but time had torn it from him without any kindness.

“They don’t look like they’re pretending to be ill.”

“More than one way to look frail. Don’t forget, they dropped that guard by themselves.”

--
Recommended Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_439qLQzHs
--

This side of the flame is flat, as if a flame that had been cut in half. Not only that, but it finally settles on a single color, red. Not ruby red, but blood red. This face of the flame is intricately decorated with flaming motifs coming out of a center door, covered in inscriptions in many, many languages. Phrases and names.

You can’t read most of them, but the one you can, you don’t need to remember your latin, because you know it by heart. You’ve read it many, many times.

“Without lies, this is the utter truth. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below.”

The first lines of the Emerald Tablet, the Tabula Smaragdina, widely considered to be the stone tablet with the instructions that gave birth to alchemy. Somewhere else, you read names which you recognize, even in their original language.

[Cont.]

>>5939972

“Amirita”, it’s sanskrit, if you’re not mistaken. “Kimia”, is greek. “Aab-i-Hayat”, persian. There are others, which you recognize only in passing, but that you know for certain the meaning, which is confirmed when you find the one you’re looking for.

“Lapis noster.”

Our Stone.

One of the many old names… for the Philosopher’s Stone. All others, different names of different cultures for the Elixir of Life.

You feel a chill run through your spine, your hands shaking.

The central door is framed by the same phrase, repeated in all of these different languages.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” it says, over and over. Within its center is the symbol of a Line, within a Circle, within a Triangle. Below it, three slots. One is thin, with several bumps in the middle, almost precisely the shape of the Elder Wand. One is small, the size of a thumb, in the shape of a four-sided pyramid, very similar to the Resurrection Stone. One is an indentation in the stone that forms a hook-like shape, on which something could be hung, like, for example, a Cloak of Invisibility.

And the puzzle finally fits. The reason why Salazar had picked Lily Potter, of all people. Why Lily had stolen the Stone. Why Scorpius wanted it back so badly.

Like keys to a lock, only opened by the Master of Death.

The final artifact to defeat it.

You had heard the stories of Avalon’s healing, yes. But there was something else known to be a source of great healing. Something else that promised life unending. You had heard both tales, over and over, in many different versions.

You just had never considered that they could be one and the same.

The thing Flamel had tried and failed to create.

The True Philosopher’s Stone.

“Avalon!” you shout inside your mind with a certainty strong as steel, a mad grin on your face. “Stone of Life Eternal! No matter how long it takes! No matter how! I promise! You will be mine!”

And your limbs move on their own as Helga yanks on them at the same time she shouts inside your head “Elliot, watch out!”

You fall to the floor as a bolt of light slams against the stone wall behind you.

“Oh, would you look at that,” the woman says, pointing her wand at you again. “The boy sent a late servant. Worry not, we shall deal with you quickly.”

Crap. “Stupefy!”

“Expelliarmus!” She shouts, firing the charm at you, and at the same time as the man points at you, “Petrificus Totalus!” and from his bare hands comes a red bolt aimed at exactly the spot you were going to jump to, and you need to push yourself off the wall to avoid getting hit. You fall in a roll, your battle instincts kicking in, raising wards and casting spells as you go.

> Roll a d100+38. Bo3

Rolled 4 + 38 (1d100 + 38)

>>5939973
fuck, lets see if all this training if finally paying off
please RNGesus, help us in our time of need!

File: aware-despair.gif (15 KB, 220x242)

15 KB GIF

>>5939976
...a-at least i got the l-low roll out of the way...
please anons...dont let it end like this

Rolled 81 + 38 (1d100 + 38)

>>5939973

>>5939980
YES! thank you!

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>5939973
Watch me roll a 1

>>5939996
I'm relieved and disappointed in equal measure.

Rolled 88 (1d100)

>>5939996
That's not how you do it

>>5940009
neither is that way...

>>5939976
So, at best, we survive to another round and are at an advantage. At worst, we die here and now.

File: 1700853820756714.gif (23 KB, 310x760)

23 KB GIF

I would very strongly recommend popping a Girding Potion, Exstimulo, Strengthening, what ever we have at first chance. Channel Helga. Then do what we can to get the hell out. I don't think we are beating a pair of full grown wizards, including one who can use wandless magic. We also still have Potter's portkey toe ring. Don't know if it will work down here but if we can make it back up, it probably should given we know the ground floor of the hospital allows for apparition.

I will also reread the past few updates, since I flew through them after getting back from being off for the last few days on a little vacation. I feel like I may have missed something important. I really hope we don't die here and make me have to delete the Valentine's lewdfic I was close to finishing.

>>5940034
supporting everything in this post, the moment we reach a critical point in this battle, pop-off the toe ring

>>5939973
> “Oh, would you look at that,” the woman says, pointing her wand at you again. “The boy sent a late servant. Worry not, we shall deal with you quickly.”

I’d bet these are definitely allies based on this line. The question is whether or not they have Rowena and/or Godric in their heads now. Helga can check that if/when we get them to ceasefire for a moment.

Also,
> “Avalon!” you shout inside your mind with a certainty strong as steel, a mad grin on your face. “Stone of Life Eternal! No matter how long it takes! No matter how! I promise! You will be mine!”

Am I the only one who feels this is a bit out of character for Elliot? Like I know one of our main motivations is to find the secret to immortality but I don’t think it’s ever been to the point of sounding like an actual Dark Lord.
Unless that line was a reference to something and I don’t know where it’s from. That’s possible too.

>>5940052
>bit out of character for Elliot?
not just you, given the scenario we are and the importance of being focused, that one line did felt a bit off, like, it would make sense in literally any other scenario, not when we are sneaking for our lives

File: FxLNRg3agAAdGUX.jpg (167 KB, 942x2048)

167 KB JPG

>>5940052
>>5940063

We found a means for us to live forever. To let our parents live forever. For Arty to not die in 20 years.

We were so crazy after figuring out that Avalon existed Linda had use the Petrifaction Hex on us, and we still had a stupid grin on our face. Elliot can get a bit nutty.

And Potter is probably right. We do have the potential to become a Dark Lord. We are that ambitious. But we are also a good person. We want that power to save the people we love. I think it fits his character okay. If you found the means to complete your life's dream you would probably get over excited, slip up even when you needed to be calm.

Rolled 43, 87, 2 + 20 = 152 (3d100 + 20)

>>5940052
>>5940063

Hum, maybe I didn't emphasize enough that awe he was feeling. The idea was that he was so stunned by what he was seeing that he momentarily forgot where he was (which was why he didn't see the woman casting at him until it was too late and Helga had to assume direct control for a moment) which is very much an Elliot thing to do when confronted with Ancient Things.

File: 1695715468409248.png (426 KB, 961x624)

426 KB PNG

>>5939619
>>5939774

From what we know the spirits need a relatively young host. Or that is what Elliot speculated, given Salazar's hosts and Helga popping up in himself.

But if they entered into someone who has had their mind completely shattered? Might be that that would work. At least for a while. And we know of two people in this place which would fit that condition, might be that these people are the Longbottem's themselves. That they disappeared because Rowena and Godric took over. That they are using the two but their bodies aren't going be able to last if they stay with them, which is where that comment came from.

The man just used wandless magic. According to the wiki, it takes someone of incredible skill to pull that off. Godric would fit that bill I think.

>Alice was a round-faced woman with short hair, and her son Neville resembled her quite strongly. By the mid-1990s, however, her face became thin and worn, and her hair had become white, wispy and dead-looking,[3] which was most likely due to her insanity from the Cruciatus Curse along with older age.

This is straight from the wiki. Sounds a lot like:

>The woman. Her face is thin and worn now, her eyes seem overlarge and her hair, white, is wispy and dead-looking. She’s dressed… she’s dressed like a patient.

A few possible options. She is the real Alice Longbottom. Either with a mind ghost piloting her or is under a curse like Imperio but more powerful, letting someone use her body. That this is someone impersonating her with Polyjuice, the reason she "disappeared" was so they could pull a Crouch and keep Neville's parents in a suitcase to use their hair.

>>5940426
For me that part was fine. I get that. It was more that Elliot kinda sounded like some kind of supervillain with that line.

>>5940457
Them needing to latch onto someone young might not be true.
With Helga, she just kind of latched onto us randomly, so there was no process behind that. With Salazar I wouldn’t put him above intentionally possessing children when he doesn’t need to because they’re easier to manipulate. I think he could have possessed Draco, for example, but as QM said, he is part of the house that had come to define Slytherin. I doubt he’d make much progress trying to manipulate Draco for his goals.

“Incendio!”

“Incarcerous!”

“Depulso!”

You fight, raising protegos and firing at the two, and though you know it takes incredible skill to do wandless magic, even more with specific spells rather than uncontrolled bursts of power, the two seem… Sluggish. Old. Weak. Their technique is precise, but also sloppy, as if their bodies couldn’t quite accompany the speed of their brain.

And they don’t seem evil. They cast spell after spell, but none that could actively kill you. No diffindo that could tear off a limb, no bombarda that could blow you to pieces. Stunners, disarming charms, leglocks and tickling curses, but nothing to truly hurt you. Not at first, at least. As the battle drags on, they notice their own frailty and start upping the ante, as you see them sweat and pant.

But the result of the battle, unless they decide to unleash some hidden power on you, is decided already. You’re young and spry, they’re old and tired.

And there’s something about them. Something almost… familiar. As if you had seen those faces before.

Because what sort of person would not recognize the symbol of the Deathly Hallows? Only someone who had lost the last twenty years, maybe more.

“Prismatis!” You shout when you finally get the opportunity. The bubble of magic shimmers into place, blocking you from them.

“Come on boy,” the man says with more bravado than confidence, pacing around you, looking for a way to get through the barrier. “You’re trapping yourself.”

“No,” you say. “I’m having a conversation.” You turn to the woman who has her wand still pointing at you, and lock eyes with her.

There is a moment of silence.

“Rae?” You hear Helga ask.

“Puffpuff?” The woman asks, eyes wide, voice shaken. “Puffpuff, is that you in there?”

“It is,” Helga Hufflepuff says, voice unsteady and brimming with happiness. “Good to see you again, old friend. Could you kindly get Godric off our backs?”

--

They feel thin as you hug them, bony, though not malnourished.

“Goddy, it’s good to see you!” Helga says as you sit down at one of the research tables.

“I can say the same to you!” The man says, smiling. “I see you found a host much healthier than ours!”

“He’s a good one indeed. Who are yours? What happened to you?”

“I don’t know. We woke up after… after the darkness… in these people. Longbottoms, they called them. I didn’t remember a thing about our lives, but Rowena did. She reminded me of who I was, and we spent some time getting our bearings. Even tried to escape, but we were caught. Then we saw him. A boy, not much older than you…?”

“Elliot, sir,” you say, stretching your hand and shaking his. “Elliot Hallaster. It's an honor to meet both of you.”

“Blond, arrogant. And Salazar was in him, Helga. And he had changed.”

“We know,” you say. “We fought him once already, that boy, Scorpius, isn’t his first host. He killed a friend of mine, and did unspeakable things to his host. And he wants what’s behind that door.”

[Cont.]

>>5940497

“Avalon. Merlin’s healing powers.” Rowena nods. “I think he wants to use it to create a body for himself, or empower his host. With the power in there… he should be able to create a body that can manipulate the… Other Magic. Sorry, this woman doesn't know the proper name for it.”

“We call it Ancient Magic,” Helga says. “I escaped about six months ago, or was torn out of… of that Darkness. But I didn’t come alone. I brought… I brought a passageway with me. An entrance. Or an exit. If Elliot dies, the passage will open and… and that thing on the other side, that awful Thing will cross.”

“And Salazar intends to let it do so, then tame it and break it, take its power for himself.”

And you tell them everything that happened the last six months.

“Salazar, you foul beast!” the woman in the body of Alice Longbottom says. “He’ll bring doom upon us all! He doesn’t know what he’s doing!”

“Why? Couldn’t he do it?”

She shakes her head.

“A thousand years ago, Merlin called the four of us. Salazar had already left us, but Merlin said it concerned the fate of the world, so he returned. We met with Merlin and he brought forth the Cup of Sorrows, and made a grand ritual. He used it to bind us all, sacrifice us all, to create what you now call the Interdict of Merlin. But something went in a way he didn’t expect.”

“The ritual failed?” You ask.

“No. The ritual took him along. But it didn’t just take him. It broke him. That Beast you mention, that foul thing that keeps trying to breach into our world, it isn’t just darkness made manifest. Because even Darkness needs something to build upon. That Beast within you, the thing which seeks to destroy everything in its path… That’s what’s left of Merlin, twisted beyond all recognition, but still just as cunning.”

“What?" You ask, wide-eyed. "How- how do you know that?”

“Because we each got splinters from him into us," Rowena says. "The Helga I knew didn’t have powers of prophecy. Godric, for all his prowess, couldn’t cast spells without a wand. And I didn’t know a single thing about the nature of this ritual before coming out of the darkness. But now they do. And I never thought being alive in this form the way we are would be possible, but now I understand it. I remember the grand power that flowed through him, as if it had coursed through me. I remember his horror as he understood what was happening. I remember him blasting all of his grand artifacts away from him, his Wand, his Stone, his Cloak and more, for they needed to remain in this world if it had any chance to undo what he’d done. And I remember my mind being torn in far too many pieces to ever be recovered, knowing that I had doomed the world.”

> Is there any topic you’d like to ask or talk about?

By the way, this was the moment you were supposed to discover who Faith was.

>>5940499
>That’s what’s left of Merlin, twisted beyond all recognition, but still just as cunning
FUCK, i should have said it! AGAIN! If he had fucking super clairvoyance then why did he create the Time Turners that made the damn thing in the first place?

>>5940499
>The Beast is Merlin
never expected that to be the reveal

>>5940499
You know, I was expecting Merlin to still be around. Maybe as a true immortal wizard who has some sort of convoluted goal to sticking around or something. At least I was half right.

ANYWAY, planning time.
So there are 3 things that make up the Beast:
-Merlin
-A bunch of Time Turners
-Darkness
As far as I understand it, Merlin is where the Beast gets it’s consciousness from, so if we kill the Merlin part we’d theoretically have a time manipulating beast that has no will. Of course, it’d still be “free” when we die, so even though we don’t know what that’d entail we should probably kill it entirely at some point. Knowing what to target first is good to know though.

For now, I have a couple of suggestions for things to talk about. For one, how mentally stable Alice and Frank are, since if mind spirits residing in their head can’t help them, nothing will.

Then we need to get them up to speed on who Alice and Frank are if they don’t know already, since if people know human vegetables mind-wise are suddenly competent people for the first time in 40 years then that’s a leak we have to fix. We might need to bring Brighton into the fold, for example, so he doesn’t go spreading that fact around and possibly alerting Salazar and/or Potter. He can tell Augusta the same.

Then we need to get all their research and whatever insight they have on this door so we can use it for study. Rowena doesn’t have her books, but we have a whole library from ancient times that includes one of her books, so if anyone has the best chance of finding out how to open the door, it’s us.

Finally, make a plan to come back in 2 weeks(maybe 3, but I don’t want to cut it TOO close to Salazar’s 4 week ETA in case they suddenly get it done earlier than expected) which gives us time to scour the library on how to open the door. Then we all get back in our proper places. Rowena and Godric as patients, and us as a student of Hogwarts.

>>5940515
too bad we don't have a way of bringing the two of them back with us

>>5940515
pretty sure the hallows are the key, which means... you already know
>>5940528
The portkey. Alice and Frank should know how to apparate too, maybe we could give them a reminder?

>>5940535
did you forget about the problem that people would notice they're missing?

>>5940544
Everything seems to point to people already noticing it right now. They've probably been hiding or something.

>>5940499
>Who was the fourth founder?
Let’s not forget why we came here.

>>5940608
*fifth

>>5940608
fifth*

>>5940575
we also don't really have anywhere to hide them

>>5940608
fif*th

>>5940497
>Helga and Rowena have gutsey girly nicknames for each other
cute!
>Is there any topic you’d like to ask or talk about?
yes, will all of us being together and maybe gangin up on Potter would be enough to make him understand we arent an evil olverlord in the making? is there a chance we could convince him that we are the good guys now that we have what could be described as the most important adition to our team in the form of the actual founders of Hogwarts? we dont need to tell him anything regarding any prophecy, but if we can convince him that we have the founders on our side, that could be enough to finally fully convince him to leave us alone and maybe actually properly help?...just a thought

>>5940633
>gutsey
i meant cutesy
also, maybe catch them up to speed to the "modern" world would be ideal, also explain the history of their bodies so that they can blend in a bit better in case they need to hide

>>5940633
don't see how it could make things worse, since he already knows the prophecy

>>5940625
They can crash in the secret library, its Rowena's after all.

>>5940724
wouldnt they be noticed by Harry´s map tho?

>>5940726
As long as they dont come out, Harry won't see them.

>>5940724
>>5940726
>>5940730
i thought it got sealed off

>>5940732
You thought wrong. Harry did find the path to the repository but the library is still there. Elliot said so earlier in the thread.

>>5940734
of course it still exists, i mean sealed off as in no longer accessible

>>5940745
Would Elliot have suggested apparating from there if it somehow got sealed off in the background?

>>5940746
forgot about the other entrance

>>5940511
I assume the Darkness fucked with his gift of prophecy, since as The Beast he's the death of time and fate.

>>5940499
>"What do you suspect Salazar got from Merlin?"
>"Do you have any advice for me regarding Potter?"
>"What was so important about creating the Interdict, why did we NEED to restrict magic in such a way?"
>"Is there anything hidden in Hogwarts that either of you know about that I could retrieve to help us?"
>"How can we subdue Salazar for good?"
>"Is there anything you know about Salazar that we could use against him, either to lure him into a trap he can't resist or to put him off-balance in the middle of a fight?"
All I can think of.

>>5940668
If we reveal what it is that killed them, how they came back, or what Salazar is doing, Pitter will probably deduce what was done to make mysterious girl appear in the Mirror of Erised, and why seeing her made him cry, and what that implies for the children he still remembers, and go berserk.

>>5940512
Yeah, did not see this one coming.

>>5939619
I will say this was a good spot.

>>5940499
Give each of them a Girding Potion, a Wiggenweld for one thing. We just fought two geriatric so hard the could have died.

Ask them more about Merlin. Find out what splinter, what BS is likely stuck in Salazar. Wandless magic, clairvoyance, the ability to create crap like the Deathly Hallows... or damn. The part of Merlin Salazar has might be artifact creation. What other powers did he have? I doubt that we can do the exact same shit they did 1000 years ago today but Scorpy boy pulling something out of his ass would be bad.

Our next goal is apparently to get the other two Deathly Hallows. Given the state Harry is in, the Cloak might be hard. If we didn't know the location of Dumbledore's body from when we set free the Ancient magic, it might be impossible. "Lily" had years and managed to get the cloak, at points, and the stone. We might have to really kill Potter at this point. I don't think we are convincing him to let us borrow the cloak, given he pointed a gun at our face.

We could also do some evil shit.

Get Neville and Brighton to visit Frank and Alice. Not Agusta, she would be able to tell if her child was really her child or just a ghost using his body, but those two never knew them before they were insane. Say we managed to bring them back, at least for a bit. Reverse Flowers for Algernon'd them. Get them on our side, at least for a while? That is horrible, to make them think their loved ones had come back, but our enemy is the greatest wizard in history combined with a Nothing Beast which will destroy the world if he gets out.

Rowena apparently has the skill to fuck with the security enchantments at the hospital, which is useful. Her and Godric have also been able to get to the entrance of Avalon a number of times. The will be useful when we have to come back here with in a month, before the goblin digging machine is completed.

>>5940813
Can't tell if this is the point we can feed Potter a little more information without him accidentallying everything.

>>5940813
Salazar knowing about Avalon is definitely something he got from Merlin, anything else is anyone's guess. Though he's had years to make an artifact and we never saw him use one so its likely he doesn't have a Time Turner in his pocket. Killing Harry though, yeah no dice. We do need to speedrun the Deathly Hallows, if we can get the founders their real bodies that's GG.

>>5940918
big problem: their real bodies likely no longer exist

>>5940921
They'd hypothesized that Salazar was trying to sue Avalon to rectify that by making a new one or transforming his current one.

>>5940901
At this point, I don't think we can tell Potter much of anything. Too big of a risk. Maybe tell him shit which will lead him in the wrong direction, at best. Use him if we have to ensure our survival. This entire thread has been a fucking ride, from bad to worse, to I want us to kick Harry in the dick for making Arty feel bad. At the very least we now have the 2 other Founders on our side, so that is a win even if their hosts are people to old and broken down to really fight well. We also learned Helga's nickname was Puffpuff which is adorable.

Also learned we have a 4 week timetable to get shit done or the goblins fuck everything by breaching Avalon for an evil Cocksucker. Found out there is a way to save Arty. Trying to look on the bright side here.

I wonder if getting Rowena some books from Fitzgerald's library could pay off. Getting them a couple of wands? Ones that more closely matched Frank and Alice's original ones. Godrick is working on wandless magic alone and can still knock out a mall cop so Rowena can borrow that guy's wand. Or fuck, if we could manage, getting Agusta to give them back their original wands, from back before they became mindless husks, assuming the ones who tortured them to insanity didn't just snap them in half when they caught the Longbottoms.

We just so happen to have a person who can confirm or deny that, one who kicks the shit out of us 4 nights a week.

>>5940921
The 5ths does, buried in Avalon along with King Arthur. Possible Salazar is trying to reconstruct his, as just a body with no mind so he can flee into a body capable of using Ancient magic. He was pretty confidant he could Lily to manipulate the power in the repository, but he had been with her for like 14 years and had completely taken over by that point. When Helga was as new to us as Salazar is to Scorpius, she said trying to use the repository would kill Elliot.

>>5940931
>or transforming his current one.

Could be. Turn Scorpius into a form able to use Ancient magic. But he also said at Last Light he would find the 5th to steal his power. We should ask Rowena if she knows what that means. What his power is. Fuck, even what his name was, since she had a kid with him and seems to have a lot of her memories. The ability to create a true Stone of Immortality is big, but the 5th was on the level of the other founders and helped build Hogwarts. If there is something we need to know about him, the best and likely only person to answer that is right in front of us.

>>5940499
QM, I will add asking Rowena about the 5th founder. What she can recall. Even if it is just a name since along with preparation, we need knowledge.

Helga said with enough time and effort she could probably migrate to a new person. We have Arty and Apollo. Just saying. Wonder if 4 weeks is enough?

The new information takes a while to settle in. Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor in the… uh, not flesh. Frank and Alice Longbottom, Brighton’s grandparents, were their hosts. Merlin had become a thing which now wished to devour all things, made of Darkness beyond Time.

It is quite a lot to take in, so you decide to start with questions closer to "normalcy".

“So… The two people whose bodies you’re in… They are my… colleague’s grandparents. In the last Wizard War, servants of the Dark Lord Voldemort tortured them into insanity.”

“We figured as much,” Rowena says. “This… form we’re in, this thing we became, it can only share the mind of someone who has space to share. We ‘fill in’ the space left in your soul. An adult already has too much clutter for us to be able to live there, so we can only live in children. Or… in people like this.”

“With their minds in the state they’re in,” Godric says, sighing. “We were able to take full control, but we’re straining them. If we stay for too long… they’ll die, and soon. If we leave, well, the process of extricating ourselves and the process of settling into someone else, they both take time. Time that we don’t have.”

“Salazar did it in a week,” you say.

“Salazar had a decade of experience in this form. We have weeks. We can’t afford to leave these bodies now. Besides, the more developed the mind, the more kinship there needs to be between us and our host.”

“Haven’t people noticed that you’re… you?”

“We try to maintain the facade, we try to pretend nothing has changed, but it’s difficult. The Longbottoms they-” there’s a grieving look on Rowena’s face, and a hint of tears in her eyes. “They think we’re getting better. Our stunt trying to escape didn’t help. Instead, these bodies are just dying faster. The look of hope in their faces… I held this woman’s son in my arms and… And he cried on my shoulders. I don’t remember much of my life, but I am sure I have never despised myself quite like I did that day.”

“What we’re doing to them is monstrous, but there is no other way,” Godric says. “I’ve seen the state of this time’s magic. I’ve seen the damage the Interdict has done. If Salazar gets access to Ancient Magic, to the power he had when we built Hogwarts… He’ll be unstoppable.”

“How long do they have?”

“A couple of months, at most. Hard to say.”

“Can’t you help them? Bring them back?”

“Help them? No. Bringing them back is possible but… it would be a last gasp of sanity that would break their body. They would be here, and then they would die.”

You sit in silence for a while, processing, before the lateness of the hour reminds you that you still need to gather information.

“You said before, something about four weeks?”

“Yes. To open the doors to Avalon, they need these three artifacts. They don’t have them, so they hired a goblin named Gortuk to build them a great drill to break it open.”

[Cont.]

>>5941048

“Could it even be done?”

“Perhaps. Goblin metal has always had… ‘interesting’ properties. I remember always meaning to study it in life, but never got around to it. According to their notes, they have found a way to empower it somehow. Once it is built, in four weeks, it should be able to break down the door.”

“So the only way to get in first-”

“Is to find Merlin’s Wand, Stone and Cloak,” Godric nods. “I remember him using the wand and the Cloak, though I have no memory of this Stone that Rae mentioned.”

“In this age we call them the Deathly Hallows, taken from Death Itself by the Peverell brothers in the 13th century. Clearly, they’re older than that. I have the Stone, though I have never used it, and I know the location of the other two.”

“That’s fantastic!”

“No, it isn't. Because Salazar knows it too. Everyone knows. The Cloak of Invisibility is with Harry James Potter, the one who defeated the last Dark Lord and one of, if not the most powerful wizard in the world, and at least one of the most influential. And the Elder Wand is in the hands of Albus Dumbledore’s corpse, who is buried at Hogwarts, in plain view of Potter’s office and covered in protection charms.”

“And, from what you’ve told us, this Potter fellow doesn’t like you very much.”

“Oh no, I think he likes me. But he also thinks I’ll be the one responsible for ending the world and tearing the very stars from the heavens because of a prophecy, so… He probably isn’t helping me get access to even more power.”

“I see. That is problematic. And Salazar considers him enough of an obstacle that he’d rather go through the trouble of taking over the scion of a great House and creating a machine of such proportions than facing him.”

“Exactly,” you nod. “What I don’t understand about all this is… why? If Merlin had the gift of prophecy then… how did he not foresee this?”

“It is difficult to say,” Helga answers through your mouth. “A thousand years is a long time to foresee. I had clarity because of the horrors that lied beyond Last Light lit fate with incandescent light, but the future is not clear cut, even to those who can see it.”

“Merlin once described it as standing atop a mountain and looking around,” Ravenclaw says. “You can see most of the things around, but the other mountains still block your view. There are still shadowy places, there are still lakes which reflect the sun too brightly to look at directly. Prophets can fail, even if their prophecies are true, and that becomes even more difficult when you yourself are involved in the future.”

“And Merlin was definitely involved in the future.” Helga agrees.

[Cont.]

>>5941050

“Why did he do it? Why create the Interdict?”

“He never told us what he was doing when he called us, so we had no idea of what was going to happen.” Godric says. “I can… I can only hope he had a good reason to cast us into the darkness. Not that I would not strangle him for doing so if I met him today, no matter the reason but… I hope he at least had a good one.”

“Do you have any idea what Salazar could have gotten from him?”

“The location of Avalon, at the very least,” Ravenclaw says. “I certainly didn’t know it and we only found out because we followed his men. Though Merlin was also an extremely proficient Legilimens. It is possible he could have used that to put his voice inside other people’s heads without their host knowing, as you hypothesized. Other than that, I do not know.”

You talk some more while you take pictures of, well, everything, and you ask about possible weaknesses Salazar could have, besides his arrogance, any secrets in Hogwarts that you could use and other such things, but it is for naught. They know nothing to help you on that front that doesn’t require their control of Ancient Magic, but say they'll try to remember more later.

“Any suggestions on how I could deal with Potter? Do you think that if I show that I have three of the four founders with me he’ll suddenly decide to help me?”

“And how are you going to do that?” Godric asks. “By the fact we say we are? With our memories jumbled as they are, we know little that isn’t in history books about us, little that these hosts of ours didn’t already know. And of the things that aren’t public knowledge… Even if we tell them as proof, how would this Potter of yours verify their truth if they aren’t in any book? Legillimency will not be able to access us, and a potion of truth will also only affect the bodies, not us, and the bodies are not aware when we are in full control like this. Besides… He has a messy prophecy that you will end the world. You have Helga’s visions saying that he would. You are in as much of a position to share information as he is. A race to see who causes the apocalypse first is… not recommended.”

“Right… One final question, because it is getting late and I need to get back to Hogwarts soon. When we fought Salazar in the shape of Lily Potter, he said he was going to find the Fifth Founder and take his power. It was searching for his grave that we found Avalon, so the regenerative powers of Avalon aren’t all he wanted. And everything I read points to him being your husband, Rowena, but I can’t find a single register of his damn name. So, please… who was he?”

[Cont.]

>>5941051

She gives a sad smile.

“He was… kind, in the beginning. Loving. And then the relationship slowly began to turn sour. Worse and worse, to the point that I hated him. Utterly despised him. He was never physically abusive, I would have killed him if he was, but I hated him in the way you can only hate someone you love deeply. We split up many times, and came together again many times more. I shall spare you the details, because they are both unimportant and also inadequate for someone your age.”

“But he was brilliant. He never showed us the true extent of his power, but I suspect he was more powerful than the four of us, though he never liked the spotlight. A great healer. Great at transfiguration, like no one I’ve ever seen, except for Merlin. He always said the spirit of Atlantis lived within him, within all of us. And when he died, I cried, and also felt relief, and then guilt for feeling relief. But he was dead, and no one could bring my dear and hated Lailoken back. Though what Salazar could want with his body, I do not know.”

The name hits you like a slap to the face.

Lailoken.

Lailoken.

A legendary madman and prophet who lived in Scotland in the 6th century.

Often identified with the name of Myrddin Wyllt.

Who was also known as Merlynum.

Also known as Merlin.

Oh you motherfucker.

“Really?” You say, voice strained. “Lailoken? How… interesting. Just out of curiosity, when Merlin got into Hogwarts, was your relationship already strained?”

“I think it was in the year after I found him with another woman for the first time, but it is hard to say. The memory of our lives are almost in complete shadow. Why?”

“Don’t you dare say it!” Helga chastises you in your head. “Not until we think properly about it and what it means!”

“Ah… No reason, just trying to put together a timeline of events, that is all. Well, it is late, and I need to go back. I’ll try to come back as soon as I can, and find some way of communicating with you. You two can… Please, for now, just try to stay out of trouble. I’ll talk to my friends, think about what we can do and…”

And gather all three Deathly Hallows so we can open the way to Avalon.

“And decide on a way forward. It was an honor to meet both of you. Truly an honor.”

They nod and bow slightly in your direction.

“Is there anything I can do to help you? Or ease your stay here?”

“We’re not at great comfort, but the healers treat us well,” Godric says. “And even if you brought us anything, the Healers would likely find it and take it. We are fine, young Elliot. Thank you for the offer.”

“Very well," you say. "Until next time.”

“Goodbye, Elliot.”

“See you then, Puffpuff.”

You turn to leave, but Helga stops you, forcing you to turn around.

“And Helga tells you two to ask the nurses for chocolate! She says it’s not like anything you ever had in your time!”

--

[Cont.]

>>5941053

When you land back in the Forbidden Forest a couple of hours and a Finite Incantatem to the face later, your head is still swirling with thoughts.

“Arty?” you ask the small bundle huddled by a tree. “What are you doing here?”

She shifts, barely opening her eyes, looking half zombified.

“I… I decided to wait… for you.”

She falls back asleep, snoring gently.

You pat the thestral on the back, giggling.

“Thank you for the trip, girl.”

She whistles, then rides off into the darkness of the forest. You approach Arty, just to see that she’s covered with… one of the many garish, self-warming blankets you had brought Arahuios. You look around, shrug… then snuggle beside her, to catch at least a couple hours of sleep before class starts.

--

And, to give me time to rest from writing this massive update and rewriting it several times to account for new questions, it seems you might have to use your thestral to get back there more often. It might be a good thing to name her (if only so the QM can stop using “the thestral” every time to refer to her)

> What would you like to name your thestral friend?

You may also ask any aditional questions from them (other than more info on Lailoken), and we'll just pretend you asked it while Elliot was there.

>>5941054
>What would you like to name your thestral friend?
well, its a flying bat-horse, we are gonna be riding HER mostly at night and has been pretty loyal so far...
i want to be cheeky and give her an edgy name that fits her aesthetic, but given how we have a vast knowledge of the muggle world and we are a certified gamer back at home...
...Epona...
>You may also ask any aditional questions from them (other than more info on Lailoken), and we'll just pretend you asked it while Elliot was there.
fuck, im drawing blanks here, i know there is important info to ask, but i´ll leave that for other anons with a more awake mind, im falling asleep at the moment and im not in the mindspace to ask important questions since i have no idea what the whole "Lailoken" thing is supposed to be right now or why is Elliot so peeved about it

>>5941062
Lailoken was just Merlin in disguise, I think. I guess Merlin was just a massive fucking asshole.

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>>5941098
It seems like he was. Merlin was quite likely the last of the Atlanteans, I think. That is why he had all his bullshit powers. That and, according to what Elliot, Taylor, and Linda found out researching the Last light in the 1st thread, was alive for so long "someone like him" was mentioned in ancient Hebrew scrolls. Fuck, was he Moses too? Lotta time to pick up some tricks. Was also speculated he only stopped by the Hogwarts to check up on the Founders. Could have used his access to Avalon to change his age. Or just his transfiguration prowess. Rowena's book called Merlin "our old student". Tricky fucker.

>There was also a late 15th-century story Lailoken and Kentigern which states: "...some say he was called Merlynum".[6]

>Lailoken may be a form of the name Llallogan, which occurs in the Welsh poem Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer (or "The Conversation of Merlin and his Sister Gwenddydd"), where Gwenddydd refers to Merlin as Llallawg and its diminutive, Llallwgan. The name is comparable to Modern Welsh *llallog “brother, friend, lord (as a form of address); honour, dignity”, also "a twin; twin(-like)".[7]

>also "a twin; twin(-like)".

Wonder if we know a pair of twins, one of which has a stupid amount of magic power, likes building shit, and is great at transfiguration? Is Apollo the second coming of Merlin? Has a tiny fragment of him inside? Maybe the decendent of The Grey Lady, who may have been Merlin's kid?

I wonder if dad knows anything useful, since he is a Welsh history professor?

If the theory I have about Merlin/Lailoken being Atlantean is true, fuck he might have been the one to cause them to be wiped out, lost to time itself, given we know he made Time Turners.

Lot to speculate on.

>>5941054
> What would you like to name your thestral friend?

Horse.

JK.

Thanny, after Thanatos for obvious reason. Or we could go for something cute and dumb like Oreo.

>>5941054
>Thanatos

>>5941054
> What would you like to name your thestral friend?
How about Morrigan

>>5941275
>>5941282
The thestral is female.

>>5941209
>Is Apollo the second coming of Merlin?
oh shit

>>5941062
this

>>5941054
I'll back "Thanny".

>>5941209
>Merlin as Moses
Damn, maybe... And wasn't Merlin said to be half-demon? I wonder if that's a colourful fabrication or if he was a fiend, in some fashion. We know human wizards can interbreed with magical creatures like goblins (Flitwick), giants (Hagrid) and veela (the Delacouers), and even vampires (Lorcan d'Eath and Qui LeBalnc).

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>>5941546
According to what Potter implied, the Unseelie Fey are real sooooo.

I am still putting money on him being Atlantean. Or half, perhaps? Might be why he could have escaped their destruction.

>>5941518
Rowena said according to Merlin's memories, he felt himself being ripped apart. Could be one or two of those fragments didn't go to a Founder but slipped out when the Beast cracked the gate and ended up in a living person. Not enough of him to have a consciousness but enough to bestow some power. I like Apollo so that might be cool.

On another note, did Merlin have the ability to speak to or befriend animals? Be cause Arty has Acromantulas bringing her fucking blankets while she is passed out in a forest filled with shit that will murder you and when we were at our house, a squirrel hoped up on her hand, Disney princess style. Looking back, seems that might go a tiny bit beyond just being good with creatures.

>>5941503
I was thinking Thanny would work as a feminine diminutive. Not sure about a name associated with one of the big villains in Arthurian myth.

>>5941622
>filename
right, almost forgot she is getting abs now...gonna draw that eventually after im done with the big piece

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>>5941629
Badass bro. Just maybe not to much? I know some will disagree but super ripped girls aren't that good looking.

I have been seeing alot of art with petite girls with slightly curly hair and blue-ish eyes recently, ones I think match Arty, aside from the fact like every fucking one is blonde vs. auburn. If I had any skill with it, I would try to photoshop the hair to the correct color.

I was going to try and sketch up Arty or at least SOMETHING from from the quest but I keep on writing a Valentines lewdfic instead, which is getting way more lewd than I intended. But the Merulafag will maybe enjoy it since it features the Snyde's, albeit in a not lewd way.

>>5941645
>spoiler
i havent really been paying attention, but i thought i was the only Merulafag in this thread, not sure if there is another, regardless, thats awesome!
>super ripped girls aren't that good looking.
i mean, speak for yourself, i love´em, but i know some people push it a bit too much, i´ll try not to push it too much and also make another super ripped version just because, hah!

Once you all gather once again, even Apollo looks shocked by the news.

“Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw!?”

“The Beast is Merlin!?”

“The Fifth Founder is also Merlin? And he cheated on Ravenclaw for how long?”

Merlin had “taken” Lailoken to Avalon when he died, and Rowena’s daughter had been born not too long before that. Assuming that Merlin had somehow gained a reputation as a healer and enough fame to convince Ravenclaw to allow him to take Lailoken away by his seventh year, which was unlikely, that still left at least five or six years of them being together after she caught him cheating on her for the first time.

The wording Ravenclaw had used implied it hadn’t been the only one, and her tone had implied it had been several.

Which, in turn, implied that Lailoken, and by extension Merlin, was a cheating sack of shit.

There was also the implication that Merlin, whoever his true name really was, was far older than you previously thought. You had read mentions of another Merlin, from ages far past, and you knew that using “Merlin” in expressions was older than Lailoken’s Merlin, but you had always sort of assumed one had been given the name as a reference to the other.

Now, however… It could just be the same person, living throughout the ages, reassuming an old name. You didn’t have enough evidence to be certain, but it was now a plausible possibility.

“And look at these pictures!” Linda says, staring at the several pictures from your journey spread out throughout the table. The ones he’s pointing at are all of the diagrams on the tables close to the entrance to Avalon, which showed plans for a massive drill named “The Ranrok”. “Look at the size of this thing!”

“That’s what they hired Gortuk to build,” you say. “And according to the library’s records, he’s a direct descendant from Bragbor the Boastful, who was also an ancestor of the same Ranrok who led the goblin rebellion from the 1880s.”

“The one who drilled to the repository? Who led the ones we fought during Last Light?”

“The same.”

“Ah crap.”

“There’s something else…” Arty says, looking like she’s deep in thought. “I heard that phrase before. ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’.”

“It’s from the bible, a muggle religious book,” you say.

[Cont.]

>>5941671

“No, not from that.” She stops, closes her eyes for a moment, then opens the nearest closet. “Ha! I knew someone would have lost a copy of it.” She plops a great tome on the table, the words “The Boy Who Lived: The Truth Exposed” written on the cover and opens it close to the end, reading. “The headstone was only two rooms behind Kendra and Ariana’s. It was made of white marble, just like Dumbledore’s tomb, and this made it easy to read, as it seemed to shine in the dark. Harry did not need to kneel or even approach very close to it to make out the words engraved upon it. James Potter. Lily Potter. And below the names and dates was the Peverell family motto, long ancestors of the Potters: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

You raise your eyebrows. “That’s the Peverell family motto?”

“Yep. Well, obviously the phrase came first and somehow became their motto but-”

“But that’s Merlin’s doing, no doubt about that. What do you think, Linda?”

“I think that if it turns out that Merlin was also Jesus I’m going to slap someone. But besides that, I think we need to decide what we’re going to do about the Hallows, because we’re going to need to pull not one, but the two heists of the century. And, whichever one we steal first, it’s only going to make the other one harder.”

“We need to find a way to put the blame on someone else,” you say. “Scorpius, preferably. Potter knows he tried to get the Resurrection Stone from us, so going for one of the other Hallows would make sense.”

[Cont.]

>>5941672

“So we need to choose three things, the way I see it,” Linda says. “First, what we’re going to do about Potter. He doesn’t trust you, but maybe Avalon can change his mind. Or maybe it can make him figure out something we don’t want him to and cause him to lose his mind.”

> Tell him everything, including about Lily, and ask him for the Hallows. It might work, but it also might backfire horribly.
> We tell him Scorpius is after Avalon, and we need the two other Hallows to stop him.
> Go behind his back, take them by force
> Other (Write in)

“Second, if Potter doesn’t want to gracefully loan us the Cloak and the Wand, we need to decide how we’re going to steal them. Because I can see us getting the Wand without Potter knowing, but the Cloak, that’s a whole different story. And the wand should still be loyal to Potter, so we won’t be able to use it against him.”

> We go for the Wand first. It is the farthest away from Potter, and even if we can’t use it against him, we can use it against other enchantments.
> We go for the Cloak first. It will be difficult, but the most useful, and we can use it to hide away once we get it.
> We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is complete.
> Other (Write in)

“Third, what we’re going to do about Godric and Rowena, because if we don’t do something about them, their bodies will die and we won't be ready for it.”

> Let them stay in the Longbottoms for now. Once this whole debacle is done we can take them away.
> Try to use them to manipulate the Longbottoms, get Brighton and Neville on our side
> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.
> Other (Write in)

“Whatever it is we decide to do… we can’t hesitate. Four weeks is not a lot of time when you’re trying to save the world.”

--

QM's Note: This is a little section called "What the fuck are you doing now?"

The questions Linda is posing are guidelines on possible ways to tackle the three main problems, but Elliot is in no way restricted in answering each of them with different plans or strategies. He can also simply decide to do something else instead, and he is free to change his mind later if the situation changes. This is just so the character (and the QM) has a unified vision and clear way forward on what the main group will do and can start planning accordingly.

Of course, options not listed above and write ins, or even some brilliant plan that manages to magically bypass all three questions entirely, are welcome. Feel free to ask any questions.

>>5941503
+1
>>5941622
>Not sure about a name associated with one of the big villains in Arthurian myth.
Well the big antagonist of the story is a bit of Merlin so i'd say it goes with the themes. Its a shame really, Merlin being a slytherin was the biggest compliment you could give to the house...

>>5941676
>> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.
definitely need their help for any chance of beating both Salazar and "Merlin"

>>5941676
> Go behind his back, take them by force

> We go for the Cloak first. It will be difficult, but the most useful, and we can use it to hide away once we get it.

I don't know about what to do with the third option.

>>5941676
> Go behind his back, take them by force
> We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is
A team without Elliot goes for his cloak, because even if he MIGHT kill Elliot, he won't kill some other kid.
> Let them stay in the Longbottoms for now. Once this whole debacle is done we can take them away.

>>5941677
>best Slytherin ever
That's us now, I guess!

>>5941676
> Go behind his back, steal them. He doesn't have the cloak when he's teaching.

> We go for the Wand first. It is the farthest away from Potter, and even if we can’t use it against him, we can use it against other enchantments.

Use it to break some enchantments if need be.

> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.

Linda?Arty?Apollo?

They told us kids are better than adults for taking their powers.

>>5941676
>> Go behind his back, take them by force
> We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is complete.
> Try to use them to manipulate the Longbottoms, get Brighton and Neville on our side
Hear me out, Neville is a teacher here, if anyone could get past the tomb's charms or in worst case scenario, fight Potter, we are not gonna get anyone better than him in short notice. And Brighton is smart, smarter than us even.
Or if we don't want the Hallows we could always go for Godric's Sword. Its made for killing and not for drilling but its still goblin silver. We could try stabbing a possessed Dementor with it to give it retcon powers?

>>5941715
were you not here the last time we encountered a Dementor?

>>5941676
> Go behind his back, take them by force

> We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is complete.

> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.

>>5941676
>This is a little section called "What the fuck are you doing now?"
yeah, no shit, i noticed, this is probably the most loaded update in terms of decision making so far
ok, bear with me for a second, i´ll try to make sense of this
>1st question
>Other (Write in)
> We tell him Scorpius is after Avalon, and we need the two other Hallows to stop him, BUT the moment he start doubting (and he will) and tries to call us on our "bullshit", thats when we mention Lily and how she looked in detail, she was mentioned to us by him, but i dont think he ever fully described her, so this should give us some credibility, if we tell him we are involved in some time traveling shenanigans shit and give him this "evidence" it should make him AT LEAST doubt himself even more and MAYBE help us out

>2nd question (IF the first method doesnt work and after we escape his wrath)
>We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is complete.
he will undoubtedly go after us first, as long as we stall him enough, the other team should be able to pull off their heist

>3rd question
this one is definitely the hardest, because IF we pull off the heist and get the Hallows, then we could use them to help us give them new hosts
but if we dont, then we lost a lot of time and run a VERY high risk of losing them
so, i´ll choose the biggest risk and say
>Go for the Hallows and once we get them, Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.
the power of the Hallows alone could help us speed up the process

thank you for coming to my TED talk

>>5941676
> Go behind his back, take them by force
> We strike both at once. A team goes for the Cloak, the other for the Wand. This way we give him no time to set up more defenses after the first theft is complete.
> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.

>>5941722
Read it again

So we definitely shouldn’t go this route until we figure out if Augusta knows anything, but maybe we can just tell Neville a barebones version of our little plot to get him on our side? Just for this heist?

Us actually telling him the truth instead of just straight up manipulating him relies on if Augusta knows, or at least suspects, Godric isn’t really Frank, since the man is her son. Since if we do try and manipulate him, Augusta would be a huge roadblock, and would probably end with failure.

Instead, if she DOES know/suspect, I think our best course of action would be to get Augusta on our side early, confirming her doubts on Frank and emphasizing that Godric and Rowena didn’t have any choice on who they possessed. Obviously don’t tell her everything, but focus on things relating to the what, the how, and the why relating to getting into Avalon.

Only after she’s on our side do we present our case to Neville. Emphasize a peaceful resolution first and foremost if Neville thinks he can attain it, but we may have to pull off a heist if it fails. We would have to tell him about the prophecy though, since Potter will definitely tell him it and if we hide it any trust we have with Neville fades instantly.

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>>5941676
> Go behind his back, take them by force

I think this is the only way he doesn't end up figuring out too much. He must not be allowed to raise his sword against this threat, what Faith said way back. Indirectly helping was one thing but there is no possible way he is letting the guy he thinks is an Apocalypse time bomb and possible secret Dark Lord anywhere near something like Avalon, if he even believed what we are telling him.

Near 2 items of massive magic power. Which, with the stone, are said to make one the Master of Death if brought together. Along with immortality, that phrase could imply us gaining the power to bring death unto the world.

> We go for the Cloak first. It will be difficult, but the most useful, and we can use it to hide away once we get it.

Potter was shown to not notice the cloak was gone for periods of time when Lily absconded with it. As long as we don't have to take too long for the other heist, as long as he isn't given a reason to need the Cloak, we have a window to get the Wand.

This is the one I am most iffy on. If we had a few more people with a more diverse set of skills, I think doing both would be ideal. Should something change, maybe we can bring in our lieutenants, maybe get Apollo to convince Riley to help. Not ideal but gotta work with what we have.

> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.

This is betting. While having Rowena and Godric at the helm all the time, especially considering Rowena's intellegence, could have its uses, a single 16 was able to out fight the pair together. Granted we are well trained and they weren't shooting to kill, we also had a handicap they are still to weak in Frank and Alice's forms to help directly. Their best use would be at that point recon at St.Mungo's, provide a distraction perhaps.

Them staying there also runs the risk of Brighton, Neville, or Agusta noticing something is off. Agusta especially, since she knew them before they were tortured into insanity. Great-grandma might even suspect something already since she didn't respond to our owl. Not like we were pen-pals but still.

Making those to pretend to be family members also seems cruel; Rowena had tears in her eyes, recalling Neville embracing her.

If we do go this route, Arty and Apollo are my vote for who attempt to host them. Apollo is brave and fair. Arty is actually quite clever since she gave us the idea for where Snape's old book was and just used the Room to fulfill her requirement of needing a copy of Potter's biography. A super smart headmate who can leand magic power to her also sounds good. Have Linda as a backup, since she is a fucking nerd.

>>5941656
Didn't realize you were Merulafag. Cassandra Vole is still hotter, but the Snydes have grown on me.

>>5941949
Just thought of this, if getting them to transfer hosts, we need to know how Rowena was fucking with the security enchantments before hand so we can do it if we need to.

Ok, so current voting stands as such:

> Go behind his back, take them by force
>>5941699
>>5941702
>>5941705
>>5941715
>>5941729
>>5941766
>>5941949

> We tell him Scorpius is after Avalon...
>>5941733

--

> We go for the Cloak first
>>5941699
>>5941949

> We go for the Wand first
>>5941705

> We strike both at once
>>5941702
>>5941715
>>5941729
>>5941733
>>5941766

--

> Let them stay in the Longbottoms for now
>>5941702

> Try to use them to manipulate the Longbottoms
>>5941715

> Find them new hosts as soon as possible.>>5941692
>>5941705
>>5941729
>>5941766
>>5941949

> Find them new hosts after getting the Hallows
>>5941733

--

I'll give it another 12h before closing the vote, as it is a big one. Let me know if you want to change your vote or if I miscounted it. Even if there is a clear preference, I'd still love to hear your vote if you've just been lurking until now!

>>5942367
You know... Potter already dragged us to the hall of prophecies

Why wouldn't we drag him to Avalon without explanation?

>>5942458
Would he ALLOW us to?

>>5942458
we'd still need to explain some of it to get him to actually come

>>5942367
>We tell him Scorpius is after Avalon.
>Get them new hosts as soon as possible.

>>5942540
Easy solution, he knows that arty waited all night in the forest. So he knows that we went somewhere. Tell him we went to the basement of St Mungus. Don't elaborate further. He will be compelled to know what we were up to, and investigate himself. We can explain why we need the hallows after he's seen the gate.

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>>5942458
>Why wouldn't we drag him to Avalon without explanation?

The possibility of the Ancient magic there reversing his memory loss regarding Lily. Giving him knowledge of an incredible powerful location, one of true power to use against us if we ever fully run the trust he has in us out. The fact Helga said if he knows too much we will probably have to kill him, something not happening with our current stats and load out. That he told us to stay away from apocalypse machines and Avalon could probably be classified as that. And, like
>>5942540
said.

>>5942548
Yeah, Arty doing that was kinda not smart of her. It was sweet and the fact giant man-eating spiders brought her blankets is amazing but, could be a liability.

If Potter asks about that, I suggest we said we went out to bang. She wanted to do it somewhere she was comfortable in, since it was her first time. Somewhere under the stars. And yes she is insane enough to feel like a dark forest filled with a million things that will kill you is more comfy than the school. Some girls want long walks on the beach. She likes dark strolls through the forest. Confirm the cover story with her first.

I re-watched a couple seasons of Symphogear recently and now can not imagine Arty looking different that an aged up Carol/Elfnein with the appropriate hair color and no braid. Picrel.

>>5942602
>"we were fucking" as an alibi
thats nuts...but also the most believable thing we could say...

>>5942602
HeadQM here from my phone to say this isn't the first time Arty has spent a night in the forest by herself. It is not something she does every day, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten in trouble for doing it.

>>5942626
so she has a background of getting in trouble for it, making it even more believable

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>>5942612
Hahaha. The best lies are the ones with a grain of truth. We did sleep together under the stars. Would be fun and given the fack we have been together for a while. Teens start to put plug A into port B pretty quick.

>>5942626
Damn you QM for not letting us tell him to screw off, we were blowing a tiny Hufflepuff's back out while unicorns, thestrals, graphorns and acromantulas watched in awe from the shadows, bending the knee. That there is a new mating call in the ecosystem, one which sounds like a snakeboy and a badgegirlr calling out "Fuck yes, fuck yes" again and again in alternating voices.

>>5938658
“Hey, when you come back…” Arty says, blushing harder than when you were shirtless.

“When I come back…?” You ask, mounting the thestral.

“When you come back… We’ll see.”

Heh heh.

>>5942678
>Teens start to put plug A into port B pretty quick.
Arty has evinced interest in a slow boil but, when we got shirtless before left for Saint Mungus, she was clearly fumbling to say she was considering sex, as you say. In other words, it doesn't NEED to be a lie for much longer.

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>>5942685
She has several times basically forced herself to not go full speed. Turned around and given us longing looks. She want's the journey and the destination just as much. She said as much when she let us feel her up then left us to jerk off in our room at our parents. She may have some... issues, give she was molested and abused as a child.

That is fine. We can wait. But she might not be able to, if she wants to see her child graduate. Assuming her life span is 35 or so with out us fixing her, would need to get knocked up at like 18. If she would even want to bring a kid into the world if they are going to bury her that soon.

Arty is a good girl. Best girl. Girl who we will give the power to live forever to. And I think will be an absolute freak in bed when she decides she is okay going that far. Valentine's is coming up after all, IC.

Like even Raven with her sex dungeon suitcase will be put to shame at the stuff Artemis Pertinger is capable of when she gets going.

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>Finally catch up
>Anons are voting to tell Potter jack shit and attempt to steal the 2 other most powerful magic objects in existence
>The potter who has already threatened to kill us if he even gets so much of a hint of us going dark
ANONS. STOP. THINK. There's a difference between refusing to speak to cops because it might get you in trouble, and grabbing their gun and acting surprised when they unload into you.

>>5942919
We're not stealing his gun. We're robbing his home and stealing his valuables while he and his gun are away and, hopefully, returning them later.

Also as a sidenote I suspect the condition for Potter dooming the world is obliterating Salazar (the man himself, not his host) out of existence over Lily, since it looks like all 4 founders are necessary for the reversal of whatever the fuck Merlin did. I can see him casually throwing the host through the the veil for revenge, consequences be damned. So if week keep a tight lid on that, theoretically getting Potter's help would be fine.

>>5942929
But HOW do we prevent Harry Goddamn Potter from using his training and chosen one superpowers from avenging his daughter against the man who molested, manipulated, mindbroke, and erased her?

>>5942932
By making sure he doesn't find out. So long as we and Linda don't squeal, he'll never know, and the only other person who can tell him is Salazar. Which, granted is a risk if they ever clash, but I feel like that's better than getting instantly fucked by Potter for trying to steal all 3 of the Deathly Hallows. Or we can tell him outright to lessen the blow if/when Salazar reveals it (it's probably when no matter what we do), but there's no telling how he'll react to that.

>>5942367
Anyway, my vote.
> We tell him Scorpius is after Avalon...
> We go for the Cloak first. It will be difficult, but the most useful, and we can use it to hide away once we get it.
The option least likely to invoke instant Potter DEATH upon us, since we can't use it offensively.
> Find them new hosts as soon as possible. We might lose their help for a while, but we’ll also get their powers back sooner.
Unless we talk to the Longbottoms about using the bodies I feel this is the most moral option.

>>5942919
One of the central cocietes of the quest, as stated by HeadQM himself, it that we can not just get the adults, Potter, to solve everything for us. We can use their assistance at risk, but this is Elliot and his friends adventure. Their fight. Kind of a "Why didn't the Eagles just fly the Fellowship to Mordor", thing. Is stealing the cloak from the most powerful living wizard nuts? Yes. Is stealing the wand from the grave of the greatest wizard of the prior century crazy? Yep.

But it creates stakes. Story.

>>5942937
>By making sure he doesn't find out. So long as we and Linda don't squeal, he'll never know, and the only other person who can tell him is Salazar.

If shit gets bad enough, he will mind read us and our friends. Use "other" tactics. He pulled a gun and fired it us already.

Harry is a good person, not a perfect one. If he knows the fate of the world IS at stake 100%, he will rip the knowledge from our, Linda, Apollo, or Arty's minds one way or another and learn about Lily. And he will tear the world to shreds, if not bring her back, then avenge her.

The only Hallows he needs to enter Avalon and do what Salazar probably plans for Scorpius, make him able to use Ancient magic by remodeling the body and soul, is the Stone which he knows we have. And Rowena said someone with powers like they had 1000 years ago would be unstoppable in the modern world.