A Race Against Time

"How did it go?" Hermione asked as soon as they stepped through the main gates of the fortress Nair'i'caix, where their portkey had dropped them off.

"We need the old man's help," Harry growled. "There's some wards we've never seen before. Is the headquarters still at Number 12, Grimmauld?"

The brunette girl nodded as they headed for the fireplace, Snape, Bella, Neville, and Luna behind them. "Did you find it?"

"We found it, all right," Snape replied. "Behind some kind of shield, shaped like a three-dimensional cross made up of cubes. I've never seen something like that - it won't allow us to touch the damn rod, but it'll let through inanimate objects. And it's exhibiting the strangest behavior I've ever seen." The potions master frowned. The fact that the strange ward completely baffled his magical senses completely frustrated him. The only consolation was that Bella had no idea what to do about it, either.

"Behaved strangely? How so?"

It was Bella who answered, cutting Snape off with a sidelong glance. "A rock thrown in on the side would come out on top - a rock dropped in from on top would come out the side. Things like that. An object inside would 'fall' from one cube to the next, bouncing around and disappearing and reappearing at completely random points."

Hermione blinked at the odd description. "Can you draw it, or something?"

"It won't do much good," Snape grumbled. "Most wards are independent of shape. You of all people should know that, Granger." Despite his protest, though, he projected an image of the ward from his wand.

The sharp intake of breath from Hermione caused the little group to stop. "What is it?" Harry asked.

"It's a tesseract!" The brunette girl exclaimed. "They're supposed to exist in theory only, I mean, this is-"

"What in Merlin's name is a tesseract?" Bella blinked in confusion.

"It's a three-dimensional construct that isn't really three-dimensional at all," Hermione explained. At the looks of incomprehension she received from the others, though, she drew her wand and trailed it through the air, forming a square. "It's a muggle concept in physics. A square is two-dimensional. Now, if we extend a square into three dimensions, we get a cube." She added a few lines and a parallel square. The image floated there for a moment, before resolving itself into a cube.

"If we unfold the three-dimensional cube into two dimensions, we get an array of squares," she continued, and with a flick of her wand, the glowing cube hovering in mid-air unfurled into a flat cross of six squares. "A tesseract is basically the same thing taken to the next level - if we push a three-dimensional cube into four-dimensional space, we get a hypercube. Because we can't visualize a hypercube, much like a two-dimensional being could not visualize a three-dimensional cube, we can only see its projection. A tesseract is what you get when you unfurl a hypercube into three-dimensional space, it's the equivalent of flattening a cube into squares!"

The looks she was getting let Hermione know that she'd lost the others through her explanation. With a sigh, she simplified it yet again. "Somehow, the rod's been shifted into four-dimensional space. All that you're seeing right now is its projection on three-dimensional space."

"So, how do we get to it?" Bella asked.

"Not a clue." Hermione shrugged. "It's been theorized that four-dimensional space can be accessed via something called exotic matter, but then again, it's only been a theory in physics so far. I don't know about anything magical that would allow travel to higher-dimensional space. In fact, it seems wizards aren't even aware of it."

Before Snape could reply to that, Tess came running up to them, three familiar redheads in tow. "Milord!" the urgency in her tone was unmistakable, even as she and the three Weasleys skidded to a halt in front of Harry's party.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, shocked at the disheveled appearance of the twins. His eyes widened in shock when he realized Ginny was with them, her robes covered in dirt and scorch marks all over the three of them. Fred was dragging one leg, while George was letting one arm hang limply at his side - whether it was broken or not, Harry couldn't tell.

"Order headquarters… under attack," Fred managed to gasp out.

"Voldemort's troops came out of nowhere, just started pouring out of the fireplace. The old man's holed up there, but they can't hold out for long," George added as he cradled his injured arm with a grimace. "Dunno how they found the place, but Harry - it's bad."

"We took the emergency portkey you gave us. Took her with us, no other choice," Fred said apologetically.

Harry barely spared a glance at Ginny. She was silent, and right now that was fine by him - he had more important things to worry about than sorting out their relationship. "General!" he hollered, and an instant later, both Rotan and Hiscophney came rushing into the room. "Get your strike teams ready," Harry ordered. "We need to move, and fast. Five minutes, prepare portkeys to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Voldemort made his move."

The two old soldiers nodded and returned a few minutes later with a dozen men each, fully armed and armored and ready to fight. In the meantime, Harry had managed to put on his armor with some help from Bella, and Snape had been similarly outfitted with a plate mail that Tess had brought up from the castle's armory. Neville, Luna, and Bella would be remaining in the castle for this fight, and even though Bella understood the reasoning, she didn't exactly like letting Harry go off to fight the dark lord alone.

When everyone was ready, Harry nodded at Tess. "Get them to a healer, and be prepared to receive wounded." He turned to the complement of soldiers that had been assembled, and said, "Let's go."

Half of the men grabbed a hold of quickly charmed portkeys, while the rest dove into the fireplace.

...

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