"Yes!!!" Harry suddenly shouted with delight.
Richie and Ron spun around at once and stared at Harry with anticipation and excitement.
"I've got the Stone!"
Harry was positively glowing with triumph. Clutched in his right hand was a small red stone, its jagged edges making it appear as though it had been broken off from something much larger.
"How did you do that?" Ron asked in amazement.
"I'll second Ron's question," Richie said, his heart hammering wildly in his chest.
"I was thinking about saving the Stone so it wouldn't fall into a villain's hands," Harry explained with disarming simplicity.
"That's it?" Ron said, sounding slightly deflated.
"May I have a look?" Richard asked, unable to tear his covetous gaze away from the Stone.
"Yeah, of course."
Harry handed the Philosopher's Stone to Richard. Grosvenor accepted the greatest treasure in the world with barely concealed awe. He could not tear his eyes away from the precious stone.
"Lads," he said, drawing Ron and Harry's attention away from the Stone resting in his left hand. His right hand tightened around his wand. "Any ideas on the best way to get the mirror out of here?"
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley turned towards the Mirror of Erised.
Richard did not want to deceive his friends. He truly did not. The thought weighed heavily on him. Yet the rational mind of a businessman trapped in a child's body insisted that the Philosopher's Stone would bring no end of trouble in the future if anyone ever discovered who possessed it.
That was why, he had long ago devised a plan. If he succeeded in getting hold of the Stone during this operation, it would supposedly be destroyed by accident or stolen by unknown parties.
To put that plan into action, Richard had spent countless hours practising Transfiguration. He had trained himself to transfigure virtually anything into a convincing imitation of the Philosopher's Stone as quickly and discreetly as possible. His primary focus, however, had been dry ice—solid carbon dioxide.
Dry ice was perfectly suited for covering the traces of a crime. Once the Transfiguration expired, the imitation Philosopher's Stone would revert to carbon dioxide. It possessed a unique property: although it resembled ordinary ice, under normal conditions (atmospheric pressure and room temperature), it passed directly into a gaseous state without ever becoming liquid.
Richard had carefully timed the duration of his Transfigurations and, throughout his training, had worked to extend their longevity. Eventually, he reached a maximum duration of five hours. In other words, exactly five hours later, the counterfeit Philosopher's Stone would revert to dry ice.
Since the Transfiguration had been performed on a small piece weighing roughly the same as the Philosopher's Stone—about one hundred and fifty grams—the dry ice would sublimate very quickly, disappearing within a matter of minutes
The entire scheme relied on the assumption that whoever ended up with the Philosopher's Stone would hide it away somewhere for a time. By then, nothing would remain of the Stone at all.
Most likely, that would occur in the Gryffindor first-years' dormitory, because Richard intended to do something rather underhanded and pass the fake Stone to one of the boys. The unfortunate custodian would almost certainly assume that the Philosopher's Stone had been stolen.
Meanwhile, Richie would be sitting in the Hufflepuff dormitory in full view of dozens of witnesses. With an alibi that solid, very few people would think to suspect him.
Perfecting the ability to instantly transfigure dry ice into a convincing duplicate of the Philosopher's Stone had cost Grosvenor litres of sweat. Yet in the end, he had succeeded in refining the Transfiguration spell to the point where he could cast it non-verbally in a matter of moments.
While his companions were distracted by examining the mirror, Richie swiftly slipped the genuine Philosopher's Stone into his bag. He then retrieved the prepared piece of dry ice and silently transfigured it into a flawless copy of the Stone.
"I honestly don't know how we're supposed to carry this mirror," Ron said, turning to Richard. "Can I have a look?" He nodded towards the Stone.
"Sure, no problem," Richard replied calmly, handing the Stone over to Ronald.
"Maybe we could carry the mirror using one of the exosuits?" Harry suggested.
"That would be sensible if not for the manipulators," Richard said, shaking his head. "We'd crush it within five seconds."
"We could wrap the mirror in cushions," Ron suggested, curiously examining what he believed to be the Philosopher's Stone.
"Excellent idea, Ron!" Richard said. "As a last resort, we really could transfigure a lot of cushions or some other kind of padding, like bubble wrap. But I have a better idea."
Richie pointed his wand at the mirror and cast a Shrinking Charm. To his immense disappointment, nothing happened. Since he had cast the charm in his usual manner—that is, non-verbally—and the charm produced no visible effects, it appeared to the others as though Richie had simply pointed his wand at the mirror and then done absolutely nothing.
"Aaaand?" Weasley drawled questioningly. "Where's this brilliant idea of yours?"
Harry's expression suggested he wanted to ask exactly the same thing, but his natural modesty kept him silent.
"I honestly don't know what to say," Richard muttered with a frown. "The Shrinking Charm didn't work on the mirror."
"Oh, so it was a Shrinking Charm…" Ronald's lips curled into a mocking grin.
"A non-verbal one," Richard corrected.
"Right. Of course." Weasley's tone dripped with scepticism and irony. "A first-year casting advanced non-verbal charms from the upper years. Naturally. I believe you."
"We'll just assume spells don't work on the mirror," Harry cut in. "Er... does anyone know how to transfigure cushions?"
"I do, but..." Richard stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Transporting something this large would still be awkward. At the very least, we'd have to widen one of the openings, but..."
Grosvenor turned towards the doorway where the black flames still burned. The other boys followed his gaze.
"The fire," Ron said.
"Yeah, the fire," Harry agreed.
"Magical fire," Richie added with a mournful sigh.
"It could damage the artefact," Ron voiced Richard's worst concern.
"We'll have to cut a new hole through the wall," Potter concluded. "And we should do it quickly. I've got the feeling we've already spent too much time here."
"We'll have to," Richard agreed.
He pulled his lightsabre from his bag and secured his wand in the holder on his belt so it would not get in the way.
(End of Chapter)
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