Lucas was in Snape's office, working through the Hospital Wing's supply order.

He stirred the fusing materials in the cauldron. A clean single-helix spiral of steam drifted up from the surface.

"Dealing with the Ministry of Magic long enough does that to a person," Lucas explained to Argos. "Makes them think everyone else is an idiot."

Argos half-followed. The one thing that came through clearly was that Lucas was about to set someone up again.

---

The shopkeeper produced a pair of dragonhide gloves and activated a set of defensive spells on the counter with practiced ease.

"Are you here for an appraisal, or considering selling?" The flame inside the goat skull flickered once. The shopkeeper lifted away all the dragonhide wrapping.

A black-covered notebook lay quietly in the center of the counter.

The shopkeeper picked it up and turned it over. "A diary? Muggle-made..." One of the diagrams on the counter lit up briefly. "This object has had dangerous magic placed on it by a powerful Dark wizard."

"Tell me something I don't know," Malfoy said, impatience sharpening the words. "Like what kind of harm it can actually cause."

The goat skull asked back, unhurried, "You haven't tried it on a Muggle? My appraisal fee is quite expensive."

CRACK. Malfoy's dragonhide-gloved fist clenched and came down hard on the counter.

"Listen. Whatever your fee is, I can pay it. Stop talking in circles. I know this thing is dangerous. I won't give it any life force. But if you have a way to test it, do it. I want one result."

Ah. A generous client.

The goat skull's expression shifted to something like pleasure. It had no vocal cords, yet it could produce sound, some manner of illusion, presumably.

"This object absorbs life force and uses it to resurrect. Some wizards who pursue immortality leave behind things like this. It has existed since ancient times. It is not an original invention."

The dragonhide-gloved hand began tapping the counter in a leisurely, intermittent rhythm. Time to discuss price.

"If you require a more detailed result, you may also leave the item in my keeping..."

Malfoy hadn't yet had time to absorb the fragments he'd just heard. But the single word, immortality, was enough to convince him the shopkeeper wasn't speaking idly.

He had never been this close to the truth before.

The shop took a violent impact. A glaring crack split across the clear floor-to-ceiling window.

The goat skull snapped its gaze upward.

Whatever it did was unclear, but the lights went out.

Malfoy gripped his wand and rushed to the notebook, rewrapping it in dragonhide and securing it against his body.

Yes.

Throwing the diary away right now would be a good idea. But this was not the right moment.

He needed to think it over more carefully.

The goat skull gave him one glance, wholly accustomed to clients protecting their valuables.

The moment the shop went dark, the black fog outside dispersed.

They were enclosed inside a transparent rectangular box, able to see everything happening around them.

Lucius held his breath. Outside the shop stood a powerfully built figure, massive, unmistakable.

THUD. Another violent tremor shook through the walls.

"Who did you lead here?" The goat skull's voice went cold. In the darkness of the unlit shop, it looked thoroughly ghastly.

"It wasn't me!" Malfoy snapped back on instinct. "Does this shop even have an operating license from the Ministry of Magic?"

"Knockturn Alley has its own rules. This shop is well hidden — it has never had trouble before." The goat skull's tone turned mocking. "It's what you brought with you that drew him here. That former Auror is scanning the area with that magical eye of his, but hasn't found us yet."

Malfoy felt some of the tension ease.

Then Moody's enlarged, disfigured face swam into view through the display glass, and the reassurance dissolved almost immediately.

Malfoy lowered his tone. "This isn't the time to assign blame. Are we stuck here until he breaks in?"

The mysterious client paid a substantial sum in Galleons and purchased a single-use Portkey from the shopkeeper.

Malfoy left the shop.

---

"Professor, the Hospital Wing order is complete." Lucas levitated a batch of potions onto Snape's desk.

Controlling multiple cauldrons to brew in bulk had become second nature by now.

A considerable quantity of potions covered the desk. Snape took several bottles, tested the quality, then nodded with a neutral expression. "Leave them here. Curfew is nearly upon us — head back to your dormitory. I'll deliver them to Madam Pomfrey tomorrow."

They held each other's gaze for a moment, and Snape began to suspect Lucas was angling for a verbal commendation.

Young wizards were truly troublesome. When they had first met, answering questions was enough. Now praise was expected too.

Indulge it once and it would only get worse later, especially with Lucas's habit of pushing for more the moment anything was given...

Snape let more weight settle into his stare.

Lucas tilted his head. "Professor — that question Catherine asked me to pass along. You said you'd write out a reference reading list for her and have me bring it back?"

Snape narrowed his eyes. Lucas wasn't going to wriggle past that so easily.

He would wager Gryffindor's house gems on it: whatever Lucas had been staring at him for just now had absolutely nothing to do with fetching notes for an upperclassman.

Snape kept his gaze on Lucas and retrieved Catherine's question set from the drawer.

Lucas reached for it. Snape pressed down on it.

"It just occurred to me, if Catherine has questions, why didn't Catherine come to me directly?"

Lucas immediately knew this was bad. "The senior student had to go to Pomona Sprout for extra tutoring. Said I happened to be going that way anyway."

Lucas placed a hand on the notebook. Snape held it down firmly.

"The Slytherin common room and my office are separated by one corridor." Snape saw through it cleanly. "I'll give you one chance to try again."

Lucas read the situation and lowered his head. "It was Catherine who said, Catherine didn't want to take up the time you'd set aside for answering my questions."

Only when Snape saw that Lucas was genuinely embarrassed did the matter get dropped.

"This once only. Next time Catherine has questions, tell Catherine to come ask me directly." Snape pushed the notebook across to Lucas, having neatly avoided the crisis of having to praise an apprentice.

As for why Catherine hadn't come in person, Snape had his own understanding of that.

At the seventh-year career guidance event, Catherine had already announced an internship placement at an institution in Germany.

There was no need to cultivate goodwill with the school governors here in England. And no need to be seen walking closely alongside a former Death Eater.

---

Back in the dormitory, Lucas found Lucius Malfoy's latest letter waiting.

It had arrived in urgent haste. All the customary pleasantries had been stripped away.

The letter came down to a single question: could the manor's magical defenses still be activated, and exactly how had Ravenclaw's Diadem been destroyed?

Lucius Malfoy was willing to offer counsel and assistance in helping Lucas reclaim the family estate. In exchange, Malfoy wished to borrow the manor's defenses to eliminate something dangerous.

➤ Next: Setting the Net

Chapter 249 - Setting the Net

Like all conspiracies conceived in shadow and never intended to honor their promises, this letter was to be burned after reading.

Marcus was startled by the flame that leapt up.

Lucas didn't usually make that kind of magical commotion.

"It's nothing — I'm just studying a spell." Lucas turned and offered the explanation.

Marcus wanted to point out that the newly revised school rules explicitly prohibited high-intensity magic in the dormitory.

But then he thought about it. How would you even define high-intensity? And Lucas had been involved in drafting that very rule, so there was really no point in saying anything.

Marcus settled back into bed with a clear conscience.

Lucas picked up a quill and began composing his reply to Malfoy's letter.

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

Thank you for your late-night correspondence. Given the urgency of your inquiry, I have hastily set down the circumstances as they occurred and arranged for an owl to carry this reply back to you at once.

If there are any discourtesies in the description that follows, I ask for your forgiveness.

As we discussed at the Christmas banquet, once the manor's protective magic was activated, several dark artifacts brought by the vampire Walter were burned and destroyed.

Ravenclaw's Diadem, however, was not among them. This legendary treasure of Ravenclaw was rescued at the critical moment by the Headmaster. Following negotiations between the Headmaster and the portrait, it was confirmed that dangerous Dark Magic adheres to the Diadem, and it will be returned to the manor after the Headmaster has purified it.

Once again, I thank you for your willingness to advocate for the rights of a young wizard such as myself. I would like to present the purified Diadem to you as an expression of my gratitude.

Yours faithfully,

Lucas Graham

With the letter finished, Lucas sealed it and applied the burn-after-reading charm to the paper.

The owl that had been working day and night in Lucas's service pecked up a strip of dried meat with the air of someone who had given up on life entirely.

"Go on, deliver this for me — it's important." Lucas stroked the owl's head. His fingers scratched in exactly the right spot, and the owl leaned into his hand, feathers fanning out in pleasure, head tilting to follow his fingers wherever they moved.

This wretched little wizard always had an endless stream of letters. The dried meat was nothing special, but his technique was something else.

Not quite ready to leave, the owl gave Lucas's finger one light peck, cast a lingering look back at his hand, and then flew off to fulfill its duty.

Lucas sat at the desk a while longer, leaning back in his chair. Everything he needed to do for now was done.

What came next was up to Lucius Malfoy.

A clever wizard doesn't necessarily choose the right path.

The owl carried the urgent letter to Malfoy.

At the sight of that shabby owl Graham kept for correspondence, Malfoy, who had been waiting, let out a slow breath of relief.

The back-and-forth with Lucas over these past weeks had worn away every expectation he'd once held for the young wizard.

Malfoy suspected nothing. He only wanted Lucas to answer his question as quickly as possible.

Narcissa rarely saw the husband this restless and uneasy. No immediate question was asked, but there was no getting up to retire to the bedroom either.

Malfoy had no time to explain. The letter was torn open and skimmed in fast, sweeping passes, the writing so agitated it had come out nearly a scrawl.

After only a few lines, the colour drained from his face.

Ravenclaw's Diadem had been taken by Albus Dumbledore.

Dark magic was on it.

Albus Dumbledore would purify the Dark Magic and return it.

One thought and one thought only: Albus Dumbledore already knew the secret Lord Voldemort had left behind. The diary had to go. Now.

"Lucius!" Narcissa moved to the husband's side, eyes dark with worry.

"It's nothing, Cissy." The letter in Malfoy's hand burned after reading, but whoever had cast the charm was clearly an amateur, the flame shot up rather high and nearly caught his fingers.

"Just a petty little secret from school." Malfoy had never told the wife about the diary, and so everything connected to it was equally unnecessary to elaborate on.

Mr. Malfoy had made his decision.

After sending the letter, Lucas tasked Argos with keeping close watch on Malfoy's movements and directed most of his attention toward crafting the stone statues.

He took Professor Snape's written authorization and asked Argus Filch to find him an empty classroom.

The imported stone materials he had ordered from Diagon Alley began arriving in successive deliveries.

A spectacular column of twelve owls, each carrying large parcels reduced in weight by Shrinking and Lightening Charms, flew in through the wide window one after another.

All twelve lined up in a row on the desks. Mrs. Norris rubbed against Lucas's feet and meowed in displeasure at the lot of them.

The owls were even more displeased than the cat. Was it really appropriate to make owls haul oversized cargo like this?

A dozen raptors fixed their gaze on the cat at Lucas's feet.

Lucas was busy unwrapping the packaging. Mrs. Norris spotted the binding twine just pulled free, pounced after it, and went skidding across the floor.

The owls' attention tracked the movement. One of them shifted its wings.

"Ahem." Lucas signed for the materials. The raptors held themselves in check.

"I'll write a letter of commendation to your post office — you've all been extremely professional." With complete sincerity, the young wizard praised the owls, distributed strips of dried meat among them, and finally scooped up Mrs. Norris, who had managed to tangle around his legs.

The owls cast one last reluctant look at the cat.

Then, one by one, they flapped their wings and flew away.

Lucas planned three days in total to complete the sculptures. Today was for the initial carving; over the following two days, he would inlay the various magical runes from the blueprints into the interior of the statues.

Dumbledore's guidance had given him some new perspectives.

The Headmaster had mentioned that Muggles used a technique for carving giant sculptures called the "grid enlargement method."

In America, there was a famous work where four presidents' likenesses had been carved into a mountainside, the faces stood 18 metres tall, and the noses alone measured over 6 metres.

The principle was simple: first create a small-scale model, then plan a matching grid over corresponding areas of both the model and the original stone, and use the grid cells to reproduce the fine details at the enlarged scale.

In the wizarding world, sculptors typically used carving charms that worked along similar lines to Transfiguration.

A wizard would first thoroughly familiarise himself with the texture of the stone, then repeatedly transfigure objects of comparable size, then transfigure the stone itself, and finally swap the Transfiguration spell out for a sculpting charm.

That was enough to shape the stone directly into the desired form.

No wizard had ever carved an entire mountain. Not once.

Lucas had been captivated by the Muggle landscape the Headmaster described, and more to the point, the grid technique was genuinely workable.

For the present job, of course, only two guardian statues each roughly 1.7 metres tall were needed, nothing approaching the scale of a Muggle nose, so there was no immediate call for innovative magic.

Lucas drew his wand and levitated the stones into position.

The materials ordered were dense; the two largest blocks were granite, high in hardness, resistant to both wind and the erosion of running water.

Two large blocks of obsidian had been additionally commissioned, to be smelted down and used as the core of each sculpture.

Preparatory work concluded, Lucas sent Mrs. Norris on the way and shut the classroom's doors and windows.

He stood alone with the two irregularly shaped stones, circled around them a few times, and raised his wand.

The elderwood wand pressed against the rough surface of the granite, and as Lucas incanted, the stone began to melt. It lost the quality of stone entirely, shifting toward something closer to cooled candle wax, thick and waxy, dissolving in slow, continuous flows.

Its height didn't change, but the overall form grew much more slender. After another 30 minutes, it began to take on the outline of a snake.

Lucas set his wand down and stepped back to look at the granite's preliminary state.

Someone knocked at the classroom door.

"Come in."

The white-bearded Headmaster peered inside, caught sight of the statue already taking shape, and stepped in entirely.

"I told you that you could manage this perfectly well on your own." Dumbledore walked a few steps in and moved aside to reveal the dark-robed Potions professor standing behind. "Severus, you see — nothing to worry about."

Snape's expression had already gone dark. "I was not worried!"

The Headmaster only blinked and said to Lucas in an indulgent tone, "Then I must have misread Severus — he just happened to be wandering in the corridor nearby..."

Lucas helpfully completed the sentence. "The Professor was catching students breaking rules."

The old one and the young one reached a mutual understanding.

Snape looked as though he could bore a hole straight through Lucas with his stare.

Ever since Lucas had started working with Dumbledore on the statue problem, he'd grown increasingly bold.

Making jabs at the Professor.

But Snape had no good grounds to refute them. A furious glare went to Lucas, then an even darker look went to the Headmaster, who had started the whole thing.

Dumbledore turned naturally toward the statue. "You're progressing very well." A hand reached out and touched the stone, which had re-hardened.

"You want to reduce the stone's volume first — that increases the success rate of the sculpting charms. Is that the thinking?"

The progress was explained to Snape. "Lucas has put a great deal of thought into these two statues. Quite a lot of material was consulted, and he proposed embedding obsidian as the core of each one."

"The day after tomorrow is the completion stage. He'll need moonlight for illumination, and I'll provide a quantity of dragon's blood to complete the fusion of the stone."

Dumbledore gave Snape a small wink.

Snape recalled almost immediately that Dumbledore had a widely known paper enumerating twelve uses of dragon's blood.

"You've developed a new one." Snape stated it as fact.

"That paper was published many years ago. I may be old, but I have never stopped exploring magic." Dumbledore kept talking while carefully examining the statue with a spell, checking that Lucas's work had left no cracks in the stone.

The early stages had to be done with care. Add materials to a flawed foundation and something would go wrong later.

"Alchemy is a rigorous discipline." Dumbledore ran a hand along the stone's surface, voice dropping to something close to a murmur. "Your talent is remarkable."

The praise stopped quickly. "This stage is complete. I'll ward the classroom so no uninformed students wander in."

The old Headmaster waved a generous hand. "I believe your Potions class is next, I won't hold up your coursework."

The following evening brought a full moon.

Many Sneakoscopes were moved into the empty classroom, teaching tools that hadn't been used in years, polished beforehand until they shone like new. Their alarm function had been temporarily disabled; they were requisitioned simply because they were more durable than ordinary mirrors.

The Sneakoscopes were arranged in a specific sequence. Some were positioned so that only a thin crescent of moonlight reached them; others caught half the moon, the arrangement forming the precise rise and fall of a complete lunar phase cycle.

The classroom window stood open. This particular room received the best moonlight in the building.

On the floor, a special design had been drawn in dragon's blood. A vessel placed between the two stones held roughly half a litre more.

Lucas stood outside the design and raised his wand. A tongue of flame ignited at one point on the dragon's blood. The fire didn't touch the floor, it spread along the lines of the pre-drawn pattern, following each curve until it reached the vessel in the centre.

WHOOSH. The flame leapt higher than the statues.

The surging fire grazed the moonlight refracted by the Sneakoscopes. Something happened at that intersection, a wondrous reaction between the moonlight and the flame. The fire collapsed in an instant, coiled into a vortex shape, and then burned outward past the boundary of the pattern, wrapping around both stones.

Lucas swept his wand in rhythm with the fire's rise and fall and cast the obsidian into the flames.

And at that moment, he spoke the sculpting charm for the final stage.

The grey-white of the granite and the dark grey of the obsidian began to merge and wind together. As the flames danced, fine scales seemed to grow from the smooth surface of the statues.

At first the scales were no larger than a fingernail. Then they grew rapidly under the moonlight.

Strictly speaking, this was still a sculpting charm. But wondrous magic had a way of making it feel as though something were being born.

The moonlight that night was beautiful.

By the latter half of the night, the flames finally died.

Two stone statues stood quietly in the classroom. They looked not greatly different from the statues at Hogwarts, newly made as they were, they already bore the characteristic granular texture of natural stone. The finished forms had taken on the weathered grey-white of rock worn by wind and sun, two serpents with tongues flickering, coiled and ready to strike.

Lucas tapped them with his wand. The statues stirred to life. The two great snakes twisted and adjusted their positions, moving with the speed of real serpents.

Their heads turned toward Lucas, then lowered in a posture of submission and went still.

It was done.

Lucas opened the classroom door and let the corridor wind carry away the smell of burning.

A dark shape moved slowly along the far end of the corridor, a small warm flame wrapped within it.

Snape held a lantern in one hand, though the hand was mostly hidden by the sleeve. The entire form was black, from a distance it looked rather as though a disembodied head were drifting through the dark.

Lucas blinked and looked up with a smile.

"Professor. I finished, everything went smoothly." The young wizard's voice was bright with cheer. Behind him, the classroom door stood open, and the two lifelike giant serpents were clearly visible within.

Not bad.

Snape made the assessment privately. Lucas's practical abilities had been on display back in first year, but the best expectation before the finished product existed had been two elongated earthworms.

He had underestimated Lucas's talent for alchemy. Again.

But Snape had no intention of saying so. Instead: "How exactly will this thing carry out its role as a guardian?"

Lucas had just drawn breath to explain when something like a cannonball shot past the two of them at speed.

➤ Next: School Property