Chương 22: The Heist

Returning to the common room that evening, I sought out Whittaker, the prefect. I had a few more things I needed to confirm before I could follow through on my plan. He was sitting alone behind a small fortress of books. I couldn't help but notice the odd way he'd arranged them, with each book's spine angled outward toward the rest of the common room. Moreover, each book actually had a title on those spines, which wasn't a common courtesy in the wizarding world.

They were all books on very impressive-sounding topics too. No doubt curated to showcase how brilliant the reader must be to be so well read. Of all the prefects in Ravenclaw, he gave off the most exploitable openings.

"Excuse me, Mr Prefect." Whittaker straightened haughtily, adjusting his robes in a way that made the shiny badge all the more prominent.

"Yes, of course. What do you require, first-year?"

"I overheard some other students discussing magical defenses of the mind, and would like to know a bit about the subject."

"Defence of the mind? That would probably be Occlumency. That's quite advanced. Rather beyond a first-year. Higher end of N. E. W. T. studies."

"But a Prefect like you knows all about it, right?" He puffed up even more. I hope he was enjoying his position. Remembering the difficulties Ron had with the role—and the way Percy became alienated from the rest of his family—I wondered if that would last.

"Of course. I've taken a cursory look at all N. E. W. T. subjects. It's vitally important to familiarize oneself with such material once you get to the fifth year and begin preparing for your future." He adjusted his glasses in what he probably assumed was a cool manner.

"That's amazing," I simpered.

"If I wanted to research Occlumency, where should I look?" He frowned.

"You shouldn't research a subject like that. Like I said, it's way too advanced for a first-year, and the only books I know that teach it are in the restricted section." Did I move too fast? Nothing for it but doubling down.

"A thirst for knowledge should never be doused!" I declared, as if it were some sage quote instead of something I just made up on the spot.

"I don't plan on actually learning the magic," I lied.

"I just want to know more about it for the future. The mind is very important, and learning the basics of what I can do, and what I need to watch out for, is only logical."

"I suppose that's true… but I really can't help you. Only teachers can give permission to retrieve books from the restricted section, and none of them are going to give it to a first-year."

"Oh…" I said sadly.

"But you do know the name of the book, right? Could you tell me? For my future notes?" From my earlier check-in at the library, I knew Madam Pince would only hand over restricted books that were named in permission slips. A minor but effective security measure for those that don't know the titles of the books in there.

"Of course. There are two I know about. Mastery of the Mind Arts by Arthur Pickering and Guide to Advanced Occlumency by Maxwell Barnett."

"Thank you. Oh, one last thing. I overheard some older students saying they wanted to just fly up to Ravenclaw Tower to avoid the stairs. Is that possible once we can bring brooms?"

"No, it isn't," he said, exasperated.

"The inside of Ravenclaw Tower is heavily warded against all outside intrusion. No bugs, rain, or snow will come in through any of our windows—and absolutely no people or broomsticks. Do you know who said that?" I shook my head, and he sighed in annoyance. So, likely no access into Gryffindor Tower by flight either. Something I already assumed due to Sirius having the ability to buy broomsticks in the third book, but still having difficulty accessing Harry's dorm.

However, while the sleeping areas of the castle may be heavily warded, I knew from the third book—when Harry rescued Sirius on the back of Buckbeak—that those wards didn't cover the whole castle. An important distinction I was counting on.

"Temperature still gets through though?" I gestured to the fireplace.

"Yes, it does." He grimaced.

"Winter gets very cold up here."

"Okay, thanks." I climbed the stairs to my dorm and packed my bag with what I'd need for tonight. Then set my silencing slippers next to my bed. I spent the rest of the evening behaving normally—studying, practicing spells, doing homework—nothing that indicated rulebreaking. Eventually I used Cordelia regaling Adam and Matthew about all the places she supposedly travelled to as an excuse to turn in early. I had no idea if the boys actually believed her or if they just thought she was cute.

Regardless, they'd both been gravitating towards her a lot over the last few days, so it wasn't just an idle connection. Before going to sleep, I pulled out my 'alarm', wrapped it around my elbow with my winter robes over it, and set it to go off in five hours. Our schedules typically had us asleep by 11: 00pm. Since this was the first night where we didn't have school in the morning, I was fully expecting the others to stay up a bit later.

I was setting the alarm at a little before 10: 00, so this should wake me at 3: 00am. Every time Harry almost got caught, he had waited until his dorm mates fell asleep, then snuck out before midnight. Sleeping first and rising early should hopefully make me the only human awake at that time. Even the teachers needed sleep. So long as I avoided important, warded places—offices, classrooms, or known secret passages out of Hogwarts—I should go completely unnoticed.

v^v^V^v^v I woke suddenly to vibrations running up my arm. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I shook myself. It was dark. Time to begin. I blinked and tried to force my eyes to adjust further; it almost looked like there was a figure standing over my bed. If anything, the more I tried to parse it, the clearer the shadow person became. My heart began to hammer.

It's just a figment of my imagination—random shapes combined with the human mind's pattern recognition and tendency to humanize everything. There's nothing actually there. Ghosts don't– wait… Ghosts did exist, and they were usually friendly. The figure moved slightly, pale strands of what looked like hair flaring out erratically. It looked solid. It wasn't going away, and it was way too big to be a house-elf. Bigger than me. My wand was with my bag on the bedside table, nearer the thing.

I was too concerned about turning over in my sleep and snapping it to keep it on me. There was nothing behind or to the sides of me except the wall of the tower. No escape route with the beds being recessed into the stone like they were. I risked getting closer. Moving slowly to not set it off. My heart beat faster as I realized it was very person-shaped, and very solid. A person. A person towering over my bed at 3: 00am. I shook as my eyes met their comically massive ones, staring back down at me. It was– Luna?

The figure suddenly fit a recognizable shape. Luna, in pajamas and a blackout sleep mask that had large printed eyes where her own were covered. I stared at her for several seconds, then raised my hand and waved it in front of her. She didn't react. The tension left my body. She was just sleepwalking. Cool. Not disturbing at all. The experience had at least woken me more thoroughly than anything else I could have hoped for. I need to work on becoming friends with her.

I'd been preoccupied with all my tasks and lost the chance to break into her aloof demeanor by virtue of proximity. Most friendships are originally formed via that act of just being near each other for extended periods of time. I didn't regret hanging out with Riley, her reaching out to me first wasn't something I'd been expecting, and she wasn't bad company. However, Luna was a named character in the plot and had the ability to influence things more directly in the future.

I needed to keep an eye on my long term goals and plans. Maybe start with sitting near her during Potions, then invite her to visit Hagrid? I crawled out of bed, and carefully avoided Luna. I'd heard it could be dangerous to wake a sleepwalker and a magical one was no doubt worse. It took a minute to silently locate my bag and sneak to the door, but my slippers helped considerably.

Instead of pajamas, I had dressed for sleep in my heavier winter school robes—entirely black and blue, with fewer adornments and a deep-seated hood. No hat tonight. Sleeping in the robes was a bit uncomfortable—and risked suspicion if noticed—but it saved time fumbling in the dark. The less time I was up and moving in the dorm the better. The common room was empty, nothing to delay my leaving. My slippers kept me silent and I raised the hood over my head as I stepped out onto the spiral stairs.

I pulled the small broom from my expanded bag and mounted it. There was a small window across from the Ravenclaw door, above the spiral stairs, that I flew over to. It was a tight fit, but soon enough I was out of the castle and floating in the night sky. Once I'm bigger, I might have to scout a larger window for this. I hovered in place outside the castle and drank the Essence of Midnight. A chill ran through my veins. My skin darkened, turning a deep unnatural black. Vantablack.

I was an unnatural cutout of voidspace in the shape of a person. My clothing was also affected to a lesser degree, but they didn't quite look like school robes at least. The effect petered out about a foot away from me, so my broom would still be somewhat visible unless I laid flat against the handle. I decided to try and keep the pose. If nothing else it meant a more even distribution of weight across the stick of enchanted wood keeping me from falling to my death. I had one hour.

I berated myself again for the lack of a watch. I took off towards the lake. Flying at night was definitely worse than during the day. I was already far higher than I was during the flying lesson, but I angled further up anyway. If anyone was awake, they would be patrolling the castle for students, not scanning the sky. If they glanced out the windows, they'd be watching the grounds. And if all else failed and they looked up, the potion should make it next to impossible to spot me in the darkness.

Multiple layers of stealth. Redundant backups on critical systems. I clutched the broom far tighter than I needed to. I wasn't afraid of heights. I was just very conscious of the fact that falling would kill me. … Well, there were those stories of skydivers who survived when their parachutes didn't open. The fall might only break all the bones in my body. I could survive for at least a few minutes while I bled to death in agony. Much better. How the hell does anyone enjoy this?

Identifying Hagrid's cabin on the grounds took longer than I thought it would. I was expecting some lights, but the cabin lay beyond the paltry illumination that the castle windows shed, and Hagrid apparently didn't keep anything lit at night. It made sense. He was bad at magic so he'd need to rely on fire—in his wooden hut. It was also cloudy, great for stealth, not great for visibility. I managed to eventually find it by following the border of the Forbidden Forest. The trees looked menacing.

I kept an eye on them, and stayed flying over the open castle grounds. Very conscious of the danger any magical creature in there could pose. I didn't know of anything in the forest that could fly and would attack a human, but I really needed to ask Hagrid for more information on magical creatures to be sure something like the acromantula couldn't shoot webs out to ensnare flyers. I hovered over the area, hesitating to land. Footprints hadn't occurred to me.

A failure of planning born from my general inexperience with the outdoors. There was a spell in the thief book that specifically hid tracks, but I didn't view it as that important at the time. Too late now. I'd need to stay on the broom. Hagrid was huge, bad at magic, and placed too much trust in any creature under his care; the chicken coop was large enough to accommodate Hagrid, and the roosters had their own oversized shelter complete with perches and easy access for the birds to get in and out.

It was basically defenseless. I glided over to a dark lump on the hay. As I was readying the expanded bag on my hip, it began to stir. It must have heard me. I lunged, wrestling with the feathery, violent shadow. Fear started to rise in me along with the surrounding noise level. Everything was waking up. Sharp pain lanced through my hands and arms as the rooster pecked and scratched, but I managed to shove it into the shoulder bag and seal the flap.

I wrapped one of the bag's straps around a silencing bunny slipper to mute the noises from within. Light flickered to life in Hagrid's hut, illuminating a coop full of panicking chickens. Fear turned to panic. I thought I'd have more time, but Hagrid apparently wasn't a light sleeper. I was still on the broom, so I pulled up, gaining height. A moment later, a massive form erupted from the hut. I veered sideways over the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

I didn't want to, but staying in the open was an easy way to be followed. Maybe even recognized. Hagrid shouted something, but I couldn't make out the words through the pounding of blood in my ears. The trees shook as he charged in below me. I tried to make evasive maneuvers. The execution was less than I hoped for. On top of being slow, my broom simply wasn't built for turning. The canopy served its purpose though, and Hagrid quickly lost track of me, barreling deeper into the forest.

After maybe thirty seconds, I paused, taking a moment to breathe. A large form erupted from a tree close to Hagrid's warpath. It was clearly focused on getting out of the half-giant's path and began flying at a much more impressive pace away from the castle. Away from me. After a few seconds of tense study, I managed to make out enough of the dark blob to say that it was shaped like a horse. A horse with skeletal wings. A thestral. I let out a sigh of relief.

The trees shook in the direction it was flying, Hagrid changing the target of his pursuit. Fang was with Hagrid, as evidenced by all the barking. The Midnight potion was still in effect. Despite how tense and drawn out everything felt, I doubted more than thirty minutes had passed. Did Hagrid recognize I was a student? Some sort of monster out for a snack? Main objective secured. Now I just needed to get back with the prize. I could learn Reparo before winter and mend the cuts the bird had caused to my robes.

I'd have to make up a good lie to get Madam Pomfrey to heal the scratches to my hands though.

"I'm calling you Richard," I muttered to the captured rooster. It was the only appropriate name for the ornery bird.