Chapter 68: A Darklord I

After chipping away at the runes for a good while, it was simplicity itself to open the strong boxes. In fact, all it took was a moderately powerful finite which cancelled out the most basic spells aimed at locking the box's lid, to remove most of the protective security magic. This was followed by the standard unlocking charm to shift the internal locking mechanism to 'open.'

If he was ever going to make a strong box like this, he would put the runes on the inside of the box, hidden under some fabric at the least, before putting any jewellery on top. Maybe even add some runes to siphon power from the environment to power itself and a few more to prevent the runes from being damaged with blunt force or otherwise modified/vanished in any way.

Like many things he'd seen since entering the magical world, the construction of these boxes, supposedly to protect valuables, was another example of just how lazy and unimaginative the current generation of wizards were in general. While logic was often trampled gleefully by the impossibilities magic made possible on a regular basis, logic still had value.

He cautiously opened the strong box with another flick of his wand, before looking inside for any additional runes that may have been hidden and missed earlier. Part of him was disappointed that he found none. Not yet wanting to put his hand inside the open box, in case of some still undetected security spell, he remembered the summoning spell Penny had just used, and her rather good explanation of how to cast it.

"Accio Silver Bracelet," he said aloud while visualizing the piece of jewellery that had been visible in the box's window leaping into his open hand. Thespell barely made the simple silver bracelet wobble. Perhaps expecting success the first time casting a spell he had just learned about was a little presumptuous on his part.

It took several failed attempts, but after the fifth failure the spell successful worked, the bracelet leaping into his open hand. He considered the spell for a moment; it had taken a considerable amount of magic to summon the silver bracelet, more than seemed normal, but then he remembered that silver was naturally magically resistant.

It was a simple silver bracelet, with a couple of small sapphires and some fine rune engravings on it. If he had to guess, it had probably belonged to some spoiled pureblood princess who didn't care a whit if she lost it, and probably just got daddy to replace it instead of taking the time to look for it.

He quickly put it in his sack, before repeating the process of checking over each item of untagged jewellery before putting it into his loot sack.

In the end he only left the ones with name tags on them. Most of the items were rings, earrings, necklaces, chokers, bracelets and several non-magical watches that had failed after prolonged exposure to magic. He simply discarded these since there was no point in taking something broken.

...

Casting a quick tempus charm to check the time, she saw that it was just past 1 in the morning. Sparing a quick glance over to where Harry had previously been standing, she found that he was gone. As far as she was concerned they really should be going back soon, since they both had lessons the next morning and the last thing she wanted to do was to fall asleep in the middle of her potions class.

Looking around for a bit, another book caught her interest. She quickly made her way over to it only for it to turn out to be someone's lost diary. She really didn't fancy nosing into someone's private thoughts, it just didn't seem right, so she left it where it was. Based on the handwriting alone, it had to be a girl's.

Continuing with her search, while occasionally openly yawning, she next found a small stack of non-magical sports equipment. Things like footballs, rugby balls, etc... She ignored that stuff; she had no real interest in sports and in fact disliked the idea of getting sweaty while playing.

One thing she did find of interest was a very decent looking crystal ball used for fortune telling. She herself had no interest in or intrinsic gift for that particular branch of magic, but she took it anyways as it would look quite nice in her room as a decoration at least, since it was made of a nice bluish crystal.

She also found some items of clothing, which she ignored as well, until she came across a rather stylish, but dust covered pair of black stiletto heels, which looked close to brand new. If she had to guess, they had probably been confiscated by one of the teachers as not meeting the school's dress code on footwear. In fact, the highest heels allowed at Hogwarts were like the ones she was wearing, 1 inch. This pair looked closer to three and a half inches, and revealed a good part of the toe, which was probably considered to be quite scandalous by conservative wizards.

Making a quick decision to try them on and see how they looked, she found that they were a rather good match, only just slightly too big. She would have to use a permanent shrinking charm to get a perfect fit, but they would look good on her. She could also use a cushioning charm to make them more comfortable, she decided, as she modelled the shoe.

They really did emphasize her long legs rather nicely, she noted, and surprisingly made her current outfit look kind of sexy, in a nasty school girl type of way admittedly. She slipped them off and added them to her bag of loot, and put on her own sensible shoes before she continued exploring this room's treasures.

Checking out the next couple of cupboards, she found that one had an actual padlock on it. Intrigued, she tried the unlocking charm. It failed. She decided to take a more forceful approach to opening it. Levelling her wand at it, she cast, reducto, and watched as her spell impacted the lock. However, the spell failed to break the lock on it. Sighing in defeat, she decided to move on and continue hunting for anything of interest or of obvious value.

Several minutes passed with nothing else rousing her interest, and she was nearing the end of the room. However, at the end of the room, she saw a series of heavy black iron crossbars barring her way. It actually reminded her of a jail cell, with several cupboards and wooden shelves locked on the other side of it.

Looking through the bars she saw a human skull, which had an unearthly glow about it, its eye sockets glowing abnormally in the darkness. This sight caused her to step back from the bars, leading her to conclude that this section might be where the confiscated dark arts items were stored.

She left the barred enclosure alone, having no desire to deal with dark arts objects, or accidentally curse herself by handling such dangerous items. And to be honest, after seeing a human skull with eerie glowing eye sockets, she was no longer interested in searching for anything more of interest. It had lost its attraction and excitement, but at the same time she wondered why such cursed items hadn't either been destroyed by the staff or turned over to the Ministry for study or destruction.

Once again checking the time, she decided to try and find Harry so that they could call it a night and get some sleep before tomorrow's lessons started. Making her way back to where she had last seen him, she heard a voice. "I know you're in here." This voice, she recognized, belonged to the often disgruntled and very creepy school caretaker.

Pulling out her wand quickly, she hastily tried to recast the disillusionment charm she had used earlier, but failed miserably due to her inability to focus and concentrate. She quickly gave it up and ducked behind one of the large storage shelves, and tried to calm herself down with breathing exercises she had practised when trying to reach her mind's codex.

Looking back towards the source of the voice, she saw the faint outline of the caretaker and his cat, holding the ever present lantern he was famed for using when patrolling the school's halls at night. "Come out, come out, wherever you are.

I promise I won't hurt you...much." The caretaker's voice reminded her of the villains out of a few Disney movies. His words were followed by a hiss from his demon spawn of a cat.

She silently cursed her bad fortune at being trapped like a rat. 'Well there goes being head girl,' she thought. 'Oh, and my perfect behaviour record.'

She wondered for a moment if Harry got caught, he was the reason she was here in the first place. She decided to hand herself in and hope that she got a lesser punishment for surrendering herself willingly.

...

Hey guys I really need some power stones to Elevate the ranking :)

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/loveran