The End

Chapter 28: Hang on to Me and I'll Hang on to You

"How far away is this place?" Michael asked as they rounded yet another corner. He and Sydney had managed to convince the CIA that their services would be needed at Hogwarts for a few days longer and they were using the time to continue their search for Rambaldi's artifacts.

"We're almost there," Sydney assured him, consulting the Marauder's Map. "Here it is." She pointed at the door Sir Cadogan had shown her.

"Where?" Michael asked.

"Here," Sydney said, finding it difficult to believe that Michael couldn't see a door that was right in front of him.

"It's just wall here," Michael replied, giving her a strange look.

Sydney sighed. "The picture that led me here said that only the Chosen One could open it, maybe no one else can even see it."

"But you're not the Chosen One," Michael stammered. "We proved it."

Sydney pulled the door open. "It seems like we didn't."

"Guess not," Michael breathed as the open door appeared in front of him and they stepped into the puzzle room.

"I think we're supposed to build a steam engine," Sydney said, gesturing at the materials in front of them. It had taken her several hours of careful thought over the past few days to reach that conclusion, but she was delighted when she did, for they knew how to build an engine and it would only take them a few hours to do.

"A steam engine with wheels," Michael agreed after studying the pieces for a minute. "Let's go."

They pulled out the tools they'd brought and got to work. Building the engine was simple enough, but when it was completed and nothing happened they knew that they'd have to make the thing run. This begged the question of a power source. Water was waiting in a tub at the edge of the room, but there was no wood or coal or any other device obviously intended to heat it.

Sydney and Michael sat down with the remaining materials between them, wishing that Marshall, the CIA's technology expert, had come with them because he'd probably already developed the same technology a year ago. Some experimentation yielded promising results; when two of the materials touched they started sparking, and if one of those sparks touched a third substance it would instantly glow red hot. However, no amount of trial and error gave any hints about how to cool off the heating material, so they had to wait until its temperature dropped naturally, and then loaded everything they needed into the appropriate parts of the engine.

Finally, Michael momentarily touched the two sparking materials together and then they both retreated to the farthest corner of the room while the engine whirled into life. It raced forward and crashed into the wall, denting its own front end and rattling the barricade. It recoiled and shot off in another direction then repeated the process. When it hit a third wall the impact ruptured the water tank and the engine could no longer move even though it was still hot. However, Sydney and Michael weren't horrified at their engine's suicide, but awestruck at what it had done to the wall. Bricks had been knocked free in several places, the most being from where the engine had impacted the wall, beyond which a small crawl space was visible. Investigations of the other gaps revealed sturdy ropes, wedges, and loops which looked like they could function as carabineers.

"Looks like we're going climbing," Michael said as they organized the equipment.

"Spelunking, maybe," Sydney replied, gazing into the empty cavern.

They tied their longest rope loosely around the engine so they could yank it free if they needed to, then climbed into the crawl space, letting the rope trail out behind them.

The tunnel was pitch black, reminding Michael unpleasantly of their air ducts in Malfoy Manor, and making them both wish their supplies had included a flashlight. Nevertheless, they thought that they were making progress until they ran into a length of their own rope stretching out along a hallway perpendicular to theirs. Up until that point they hadn't realized they'd even changed directions. Sydney had to double back to conserve the rope, then they continued on in the same direction that they'd been going.

Soon they were so confused that they could never have found their way out without the rope, but they were quickly running out of slack. If they didn't end up where they were supposed to be soon they would have to sacrifice one of their climbing ropes, go back, or abandon their lead rope. Finally, they rounded a corner and found that the next stretch of tunnel was dimly illuminated and got brighter as they progressed down it. They reached the end of the rope and let it go just before the tunnel ended abruptly in a steep drop off. Sydney poked her head out and discovered the sky above and a platform about five meters below, surrounded by tall walls on each side.

A sturdy looking gargoyle extended from the wall on one side of the tunnel, so Sydney tied the last rope to it then repelled down to the platform. Michael followed as soon as she reached the floor. Even though it was only just past midday, the surrounding walls were so high that the entire platform was cast into shadows.

Michael looked around but didn't see anything particularly noteworthy, not that he'd expected to. Sydney, however, seemed highly interested in something.

"What can you see that I can't?"

"Another door," Sydney replied.

"Lead the way," Michael said with a shrug.

Sydney stepped forward and opened up the door. As soon as they were inside the next room it was clear that this was the place they'd been searching for all along.

The torches that lined the walls ignited of their own accord, illuminating an immense machine in the middle of the room. Piles of Rambali's manuscripts were scattered around and Sydney went to the nearest one and sifted through it until she found a page covered in illustrations. All of Rambaldi's writing was in code, but she gathered from the pictures that the device was designed to take in raw materials and create anything. Several other pages seemed to confirm this hypothesis.

Curious, Sydney located a likely looking parchment and showed it to Michael, who looked at it dismissively at first, then paid it much more attention as soon as the purpose of the substance depicted became clear.

"There are no coincidences," Michael whispered, awestruck.

"What?" Sydney asked.

"Something Ron said once," Michael explained. "This looks like a healing potion to you, right?"

"Yes," Sydney agreed cautiously.

"Then try it out!" Michael commanded.

Sydney would have liked to argue that a bit more experimentation might have been in order before they actually turned the thing on, but it was clear that Michael was not to be dissuaded. She slid the parchment into a likely looking slot in the side of the machine and it whirled into life. After much smoking and spinning, a large liquid filled vial was deposited down a chute.

"Can you imagine the applications of this?" Michael asked as he picked up the vial and examined it. "This could put an end to assembly lines and increase the quality of life around the world. Engineers could just put their designs into this and have a working product instantly!"

Sydney, however, imagined that the use of this device would be quite different. She could almost see thousands of weapons streaming out of it.

"We have to destroy this," Sydney said. "I didn't bring any C-4, did you?"

"Destroy it?" Michael stammered. "But what about..."

"We have to make sure that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands," Sydney interrupted. "We've both broken into enough high security lockups to know that nowhere is impenetrable."

"Nobody but us knows this exists," Michael said. "It's hard to find what you're not looking for."

"We found it," Sydney reminded him. "Do you have any C-4 or not?"

"I don't," Michael replied.

"Then we can use it to make some," Sydney said, grabbing paper and a quill and sketching out the atomic makeup of her preferred explosive.

"I don't think that's the way to do this," Michael sighed.

"Do you want Sloane to find it?" Sydney demanded.

"Of course not."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Sydney, we're in a school!" Michael exclaimed. "For all we know there could be a classroom next door. We don't know what makes this thing work. It could cause a secondary explosion big enough to vaporize the entire castle!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Sydney asked.

"Leave it here," Michael replied, "put all the clues back but hide them a little better..."

"What!"

"Sydney, you've been so obsessed with finding this thing that you forgot what it took to get here," Michael said. "Wizards aren't interested in Rambaldi, Harry and Ron proved that, and even if they were, they don't need this thing to create what they want. Hogwarts is one of the most well protected places on the entire planet, especially against Muggles. Sloane wouldn't be able to get more than ten feet inside the castle. You had to be in the right place to hear the Morse code, then we had to figure out how to work that room on the seventh floor. It was a fluke that we found the brick with the poem and even more of one that you found that crazy knight, not to mention the two doors that only you could see. This has been hidden here for five hundred years, and if we don't say anything about it then maybe no one will ever find it again."

Sydney looked for a moment like she wanted to argue the point, to say that Rambaldi made it so she was the only person who could find this place, so he must have thought she'd know what to do with it, but she loathed using Rambaldi's prophecies as an argument in this debate, and Michael's words made a lot of sense.

"Alright," she sighed, "but we're going to be really thorough about hiding the clues again."

To Michael's surprise, instead of insisting that he leave behind the potion the machine had created, Sydney allowed him to pocket it, saying, "For Ron, maybe it can help him. We owe them that much."

They checked to make sure that Michael couldn't see the door from the outside then climbed back up to the tunnel and followed the rope back to the puzzle room where they replaced all the bricks in the wall and disassembled the already ruined steam engine.

They started making their way back to the mysterious room on the seventh floor, intending to replace the box that Sydney had discovered in the lost and found room. Their first attempt to seal the box with the eye of Rambaldi on the inside had just failed when Harry caught up with them.

"Sydney!" he panted, showing signs that he'd been running for some time. "We need your help."

"What's wrong?" Sydney asked. Something must have gone very bad for Harry to not only search the entire castle for her but do it at a run.

"We figured out why Hermione erased her memory," Harry explained. "Lucius Malfoy got her alone and started controlling and humiliating her during the battle against the Voldemort..."

"What!" Sydney demanded.

"Yeah," Harry said with a shudder. "Ron and I got there just in time to stop him from doing anything terrible. We didn't even realize what we rescued her from. Anyway, Ron managed to calm her down, but she's in rough shape and we don't really know what to do. We were hoping you might."

"I don't really know either," Sydney admitted, but she broke into a sprint. Harry followed her, explaining exactly what had happened as they went.

Harry, Sydney, and Michael entered the substitute teacher's common room to find Ron, and Ginny sitting on the sofa in front of the fire with Hermione between them. The two Weasleys looked happy to see the newcomers.

Hermione looked somehow diminished, as though she had put on robes that were a few sizes too big for her. She appeared to be asleep, her legs curled into her chest and her head on Ron's shoulder, but her actual state of consciousness was betrayed whenever she tensed up suddenly and squeezed her eyes shut, causing a few more tears to leak out.

Sydney kneeled in front of Hermione. The witch tried to cringe away but had nowhere to go.

"Hermione, are you alright?" Sydney asked. It was a stupid question, but she had to start somewhere.

Hermione tried to nod, but a second later she was shaking her head.

"This isn't your fault, you know," Sydney continued. "This should never happen to anyone, but especially not you."

Sydney paused to allow Hermione time to respond, but she didn't, so Sydney kept talking.

"I know you're probably scared and angry right now, but no one is going to hurt you here, we all just want to help."

Again Hermione didn't answer.

"What Malfoy did to you is despicable," Sydney tried, "but that doesn't change who you are."

"It does," Hermione said quietly. Her voice was shaky and hoarse. "I couldn't do anything. I tried to fight back, but he was too strong. He took my wand. Nothing I knew helped. I don't want to feel like that again."

"I can teach you if you'd like," Sydney offered. "There are ways to fight back without magic, maybe it could have helped."

"I've seen a few," Hermione replied. She looked like she was trying to smile, but a few more tears leaked out instead.

"Would you like to learn them?" Sydney asked.

"Yes, please," Hermione said, finally sitting up and using her sleeves to wipe the tears off her cheeks.

"Why did you do it?" Ron ventured. "We could have helped you, just like we're doing now. You didn't need to wipe your memories."

"Yes I did," Hermione whispered. "You were hurt, Harry had just killed Voldemort. The two of you couldn't have helped me any more than I could have helped you if I'd kept my memories. One of us needed to stay the same more than I needed to remember."

A stunned silence followed Hermione's words. Harry wasn't sure if he'd ever heard of a more selfless act.