Chapter 11

Thomas listened to the new ridiculous song of the Hat. The best entity to sort the children had so much free time that he came up with not one, nor two but a good hundred songs a year and it was the Headmaster that suggested which one would be better this time… or that was what Albus was saying.

Once the song was over, the children were called by their family name to the chair one after the other in alphabetical order. Susan, Hannah and Neville were sent to Hufflepuff as everyone expected. The only surprise to everyone that knew her was Hermione being sent to Griffindor. Draco went to Slytherin as was expected and Harry went to Gryffindor probably by choice.

The banquet began soon after the sorting, to be more exact after the eternal jab of Dumbledore onto the children that he helped make like that "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!", and everything was quite calm, all things considered. This year had twice the expected number of students, because barely known families came back to Hogwarts where they would go somewhere else entirely usually and foreign families sent their children to Hogwarts despite having a great school in their country or closer to their country than Hogwarts.

He had a discussion with Flitwick about what was happening at school this year. It is highly unusual for Dumbledore to put the school in any danger or use it to protect any artifact. This is suspicious, but Thomas can't do anything about it. Flitwick was also showing concern, as one of the most sensible teachers he hated even the possibility of real mortal danger coming to the school.

The school can be safe, sure, but it was impossible to make one fortress impregnable. It's impossible because the more safety measures you take and the more chances there are for one to fail. If the one safety measure that fails is a crucial one, then suddenly you have a huge flaw that may cause anyone to pass through. For example here in Hogwarts, if anyone knows the secret passages that lead outside, which numbers at the very least three, then they can get in the castle uncontested and easily.

So keeping an artifact, one as famous and which position is well documented as the philosopher's stone… let's just say that it's dangerous to say the very least. Thankfully, unlike the legend says, there isn't just one. Flamel didn't just discover the stone, he also discovered the recipe and it's the end goal of any uncultured alchemist and the starting point for a lot of the cultured ones.

The stone was actually easy to make, it needed crystallized blood from a phoenix plunged in dragon blood for a month and it needed to be entirely protected from the influence of the moon. The result is called a Nigredo solid, it'll be black. Then you'll have to put it through fire from a salamander to purify it, to be exact you have to put it in the nest for two years. The resulting stone will be a white one, it'll be the accomplishment of Albedo.

Then you expose it to the noon sun every day for a decade. The stone will become more and more yellow, when it gets a nice golden shine, it'll mean you completed the Citrinas. Finally you expose the stone to the lightning of a Thunderbird for two months, the process is called the Rubedo and when the stone has the color like a ruby created through blood, then it means you managed to make a philosopher's stone, one of the rare ways to extend your life. Be careful though as it does not extend your youth, only your life.

You can make the Nigredo to Albedo part faster by using a Basilisk poison, however you also risk destroying your work so far whereas being late with a salamander's fire is not as damaging to the stone. All of that is based on the book published by Flamel himself on alchemy whose only instance is kept at Beauxbatons. Unlike Hogwarts' library however, Beauxbatons' is freely accessible to the public.

The only value of Flamel's over the others is that Nicholas Flamel's is only one of those he made. He made three in total, one to see if he could do it, the second to make sure it wasn't luck and the third for his wife. This however wasn't well known, in fact it wasn't known at all as this information was under Fidelius thanks to Dumbledore's help. This information is kept under Fidelius thanks to the two concerned stones being under it with their owner being the secret keepers.

Thomas knew of such information thanks to the youth elixir and fertility elixir he made as his first alchemical potions, he was warmly thanked by the old bag of bones and they became occasional collaborators at first and over time friends. Of course the recipe for these two potions were sold to Ms Primpernelle for the youth one and St Mungo for the fertility one. Thanks to the fertility potion he received The Hohenheim medicinal award.

After the banquet Dumbledore finally did his speech for the start of the year, and it was alarming to put it mildly.

"Ahern -- just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Until then it was the usual, of course you warn where the dangerous places are on the ground and warn that they are off limits, it allows the school to deny responsibility in case the child decides to go there unsupervised and end up being hurt.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

Then again, this was both logic and also the usual. There is a classroom dedicated to duels and there are now permanence assured by the teachers in their own free time, so there was no reason to do magic unsupervised, especially since magic can be very dangerous.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

Once again, nothing really abnormal. The seventh years left the schools and thus places in the house team got freed and Hooch is the flight instructor as well as the arbiter in the matches. Still the standard speeches, but what began alarming Thomas was that it usually ended there and thus the fact it wasn't mentioned as the last announcement was worrying to say the least.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Thomas nearly shouted in outrage. But the nasty look he sent Dumbledore did not go unnoticed by the students nor the teachers. Thomas was the Disciplinary Director, he should have been made aware of that fact to make sure it actually was warded against meddling children and he wasn't.

This almost destroyed all the work he had done the three last years and it was done in a single speech. To say that Thomas was enraged would be an understatement, the understatement of the century to be quite clear. So he got up, and with a tone not so thinly veiled with burning rage, he said.

"Not to worry children, I'll go there this instant to put an age line. That way, none of you will be able to go there voluntarily or not. I'd like to remind everyone that while magic is able to do a lot of miracles, resurrecting the dead is not one of them nor is curing a lot of ailments caused by tainted magic, dark magic like your parents might have told you.

All of that put aside, if any of you have any trouble with anyone, my office is always open as is the ones of your head of houses. Remember that the job of the prefects is to make sure everything is going smoothly both inside your common rooms and outside of it, so don't hesitate to go and talk to them as well if you have any issue.

Now I'll leave the last words to the Headmaster."

Every teacher was bewildered, Thomas rarely showed his emotions, he was always in control of them and the fact that he still was despite having enough rage that it showed was a high testament to his talent in understanding and taming his own emotions. Of course it was well known that Thomas was a master Occlumens, but even them had their own limits.

Thomas did not stay any longer and directly went to the concerned floor of the concerned aisle and put every security possible. Which included an age line, a linked silver line that would break if the age line was broken, an illusory charm to hide the place to those who didn't know of it and finally a divination scry that would make one that shouldn't go there glow in red.

He was as thorough as he could without interfering with the already put in place wards and enchantments. He then went to his office to cool off and began preparing his first class. It would be a long year, especially since Dumbledore decided to start a plan to obviously lure someone to the third floor, Thomas was convinced of that.

Once in his office, he began writing a letter to the ministry as a report was necessary to at least make them aware that Flamel's stone was at Hogwarts. The main reason why someone would want to steal the stone is if they don't have the time to make it themselves. However the stone is not as miraculous as many believe.

It changes water boiled with the stone in it into the elixir of life, said elixir cures every ailment that prevents the body from functioning correctly, age does not prevent one from correctly living as it only alters the physical appearance if you remove the weakening part of it which is exactly what the elixir does. However, the elixir does not cure purely mind based ailments, insanity thus cannot be cured through it.

Only the elixir can be the target for such a theft because it takes time to turn lead into gold through the stone, a month for a mass of ten kilograms, and you also have to buy lead which is already supervised strictly by both muggles and wizards as it can be used as a very potent poison while also being used in muggle weaponry. Any grams bought by anyone or stolen will be recorded.

There weren't a lot of people that could use the stone and didn't have the time to make one despite easily being able to access the knowledge required. In fact there was only one such wizard and the irony of it all is that he already knew how to make a stone, he just didn't have enough power to make it himself and his loyal manpower didn't have a decade of freedom. Now his time was ticking.

Sure horcrux prevented you from dying… but it didn't make your soul indestructible, it only bound it to earth. Thus if you are not swift enough to find a new body : your soul will break and it'll also extinguish your horcruxes. No one can live as a wraith, for the simple reason that a wraith does not live.

Thomas sighed, Dumbledore was baiting Voldemort inside Hogwarts… and he was doing so while the boy-who-lived was at Hogwarts… and he was doing so without warning the Aurors. Well Thomas will not blame the Headmaster on that one, because the responsible for this is Fudge.

The Ritual teacher heard from Amelia that Fudge put an interdiction for the Aurors to go to Hogwarts if Dumbledore asked for it. The reason being that, and she quoted, "no wizard would be stupid or crazy enough to make a Horcrux by this time and age." which was complete nonsense. Fudge knew he was nominated because he was a tool, as such he feared already that Dumbledore would go and claim what should be rightfully his. Ignoring the fact that Dumbledore refused the post three times already.

Politics were getting into Hogwarts at the same time as Harry was, and the Ministry was already beginning to lose a lot of power over the Britanic families because of Fudge. Thomas knew that the school years of Harry would be a shit show, but he never would have guessed it would be that much of one.