The Pit was one of the less well-built places in the levels below Gringotts, from what he had seen. Lester Lichfield couldn't say anything for sure about the area known as Below, but from what Barchoke had said it was supposed to be very rough. The Pit was a dim echo of that. It had been built as a hand-to-hand fighting ring where duels and matters of vengeance could be settled in a communal, entertaining, and money-making way; where promotions could be earned with blood.
Thankfully it had fallen out of favor as generation after generation of bankers pushed the others lower and lower down and built a bulwark of guards between them. Lester didn't know what would happen if that bulwark ever failed, but right now it didn't matter. He would've preferred they take Harry through the process first, but Overseer Gutripper hadn't been too choosy, so Ginger got grabbed instead; he was just lucky to come along - even if it was only to stand to the side and not speak, though that was only very heavily implied.
Inquisitor Inkgotts fluttered around the chair the ginger kid was strapped to in the center of the former ring-of-death. Lester wanted to tell the kid not to panic and he was in the best of hands but truth of the matter was he'd never seen this done on a human before. It'd been done a time or two, but from what he'd heard it was really disorienting. Goblins might compartmentalize their memories as naturally as they do their vaults, but humans had a much harder time with it. Odds are everything would be all thrown together at the same time.
Lowering the rubbery plunger-thingy onto the kid's head and attaching the connected tube to a repurposed muggle moving picture projector, Inkgotts turned and raised his head to the Overseers in the stands above.
"We're ready," he said.
"Show us how you learned of the Sorcerer's Stone," Overseer Gutripper commanded before the others could say anything.
Instantly a silvery-gray filament threaded its way through the tube and whipped through the projector to be displayed high on the far wall for everyone in the small group to see.
"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term," the Dumbledore in the memory said, standing in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, presumably during the start-of-term notices. "Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. 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."
With a flicker the memory changed.
A lamp flared to life showing the wild-haired Hermione, who was wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown. She'd obviously been waiting for them in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"You!" Memory-Ginger said furiously. "Go back to bed!"
"I almost told your brother," Memory-Hermione snapped, "Percy - he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."
The memory flickered again; either the kid was scatter-brained or was suffering from nerves. Even squinting to make out what came next didn't help; it was very dark and the little glints of light off gold and crystal didn't tell him much.
"RUN!" Memory-Harry yelled before he, Ginger, the girl, and some pudgy kid sprinted down the sparkly dark room, swung around the doorpost and ran through the halls of Hogwarts - why, he didn't know, but he could only grin at remembering the mischief he and Charlus had gotten up to there.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves the poltergeist bellowed after yet another flicker, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
Flicker.
"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled as she knocked Ginger aside to stand in front of a random door at Hogwarts and grabbing Harry's wand.
Flicker.
Harry, Hermione, and several Weasleys were standing in Flourish and Blotts.
"I like my hair messy," she told the ginger kid before messing up Harry's hair, making Lester have to stifle a laugh.
Flicker.
Lester found himself looking up, both at the projected memory and in the projected memory as a three-headed dog played tricks with his eyes. Who'd build a scale model of a Hogwarts hallway for a doghouse? As a thunderous set of growls and rolling mad eyes sparked movement in the lower section of the memory suddenly the proportions changed dramatically to his eye. It wasn't a tiny hallway, it was a huge dog!
Flicker.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" the ginger kid said in his memory, echoing Lester's thoughts. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."
"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" the girl snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
With another flicker in the memory, Lichfield felt himself jump slightly as an adolescent black dragon snapped out at them. What in Merlin's name were a dragon and a giant dog doing at Hogwarts if the Stone wasn't there?
Flicker.
"Charlie!" Harry said, turning to look at the ginger kid.
"You're losing it, too," Ginger said. "I'm Ron, remember?"
'Oh, so that's what Ginger's name is,' Lester thought before dismissing it. 'I like Ginger better. '
The memory flickered again, sending a man in a purple turban to the floor in a dead faint and causing an uproar in the Great Hall.
Several purple firecrackers exploding from Dumbledore's wand stilled the rampaging gaggle of frightened kids as the old man rumbled, "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
The next flicker showed the two boys back in a Hogwarts hallway.
"Hermione!" they said together before wheeling around and running back to a door, fumbling with a key, and running inside.
The girl was cowering against the far wall of a bathroom, looking as if she was about to faint. A troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.
Flicker.
"Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled, throwing a metal pipe at it. The troll paused and turned its ugly snout toward him.
The next flicker put the three of them sitting in a classroom.
"You're saying it wrong," the girl snapped at Ron the Ginger. "It's Wing- gar -dium Levi- o -sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
The memory then flickered back to the troll as the ginger pulled out his wand must've cast the first thing that came to mind.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
.....
Want to read ahead. Then Join my Pa*treon 60+ exclusive chapters that are waiting for you.
Free members can get 5 advanced chapters FOR FREE.
Link: pa*treon.com/Lotus_Lover (Remove the *)
Join Right Now