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For the most part, Quinn associated the vaults with quiet — except for a case or two, he had gotten used to spending hours after hours doing his work in utter silence. He had become comfortable in it. But after a very long time, Quinn felt that the silence was entirely uncomfortable — right now, he felt that the Architect's Vault's first room was more silent than Tehom's Delight.
"Quinn?" she said again.
He stared at her blankly. His brain ran at full speed, threatening to overheat, but at the same time, it was drawing blanks regarding the situation in front of him. At the same time, a small portion at the back of his head was screaming a screeching emergency signal right at him.
Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate!
But he knew that wasn't going to be an option — not for him.
Quinn stepped down from the silver disc, and his legs were very unhappy that they were being used. His entire body felt unhappy. For four years, he had kept this all to himself, but all that came crashing with just one person stepping through a wall.
'What the hell was the Architect thinking? Why doesn't she need a ring?' he thought. The shock and surprise of seeing her here gave way to anger about his carelessness — a detection ward at the start of the corridor outside was all it would've taken.
"Ivy," there was a good pause before he continued, "I'll be honest with you, but this reminds me of the time you broke into my office."
Ivy Potter, the repeat intruder, stilled in surprise, remembering the aftermath of the break-in.
"Don't worry," said Quinn, seeing the expression on Ivy's face, "this and that are two different situations.. . though I can't say I'm not feeling angry," he looked around the vault, "this isn't my property, though I'm the current challenger."
Ivy lowered her eyes. She had followed Quinn, her curiosity getting the best of her. With hindsight, she could've just asked Quinn about it at a later time, but thinking about that now was worthless.
Quinn sat down on the steps leading to the pedestal and patted the spot next to him. Ivy gingerly followed and sat beside him. Quinn didn't speak for a good time while Ivy sat beside him, feeling a tiny bit awkward.
He was angry and wanted to shout at Ivy about intruding on his privacy. But the shock of the vault's existence being found made him trigger his Occlumency out of panic.
In his first year, Recon was birthed in Hogwarts and became possibly the most significant breach of personal privacy that ever existed in the history of Hogwarts. Every morning Quinn had ever visited the Great Hall for breakfast, he had used Legilimency to spy on people. On multiple occasions, Quinn had used audio transmitting chips to listen in on conversations. Just this year, he had planted a recording device in a person's room (even though it was Umbridge) and broke into her office repeatedly using Recon to change the tapes.
'Damn Occlumency, dulling my hypocrisy!' he thought.
"I suppose you were curious?" said Quinn after calming himself down.
Ivy nodded her head.
"When did you find out about this?" he asked.
"Before Christmas. You suddenly disappeared between the seventh and fifth floor, and then almost every week, you vanished after the DA meetings ended," Ivy fiddled with her finger.
"Before Christmas?! For that long? Damn.. . no wonder you were so curious," said Quinn, "But, I'd say, Ivy, don't just barge into places you have no idea about with a care in the world — you might seriously get injured — Hogwarts, as you know, isn't as safe as it's said out to be."
Ivy once again nodded; she had her own share of experience with dangerous rooms — the Philosopher's Stone chambers, the Chamber of Secrets (though she was petrified), and an office occupied by a protective owner. Two of three times, she had actively entered the dangerous rooms on her own accord.
"What's this place?" she asked, seeing that Quinn wasn't exceedingly angry or at least wasn't showing it.
Quinn turned to Ivy and stared at her.
"W-What?" said Ivy, feeling conscious because of Quinn's intense gaze.
"You will have to promise not to tell anyone about it. If I am to tell you about this, you will have to promise me not to share this with anyone — not a single soul can know about the existence of this room. If you can't give me that, I will suggest that you exit this room and pretend that it never existed."
There was the option of kicking Ivy out without telling her anything. But curiosity killed the cat, and Ivy Potter was one curious cat.
"I promise you I won't tell anyone," said Ivy.
"Alright then, don't make me regret this," said Quinn before starting. "This is a special room, of course, as you have found through the situation, it's hidden from the general public of Hogwarts — the Professors, the students, the house-elve, no one knows about them.. . about the Cursed Vaults."
"Cursed Vaults?"
"Uh-huh, Cursed Vaults, forgotten through the annals of time, only know to a select few," Quinn sported a smile, feeling proud about being this part of history. "This vault that we are standing in is made by Stigweard Gragg."
"The Architect?" said Ivy, recalling the name instantly, "you were reading his biography — Luna brought it for you."
"You have a good memory. Yes, I did read that. I read it because of this vault — the Architect's Vault."
"How did you find this place?" asked Ivy, looking at the plain room; the only thing that stood out to her was the teal portal behind her and the pedestal in front.
"The Hufflepuff ghost, Friar, is the one who told me about it," said Quinn, "he dropped me off at a starting point for me to make my way to this room," Quinn showed Ivy his ring, "I found this ring — it's the Architect's ring — it led me to this room, and from October, I have been coming here to this place.. ."
"But why? I mean, what is in here for you?" asked Ivy, looking around.
"I don't know," said Quinn, "I don't know what awaits me, but I do think it will be worth the time. This was constructed by Stigweard Gragg, and he put in some effort to hide it, so I'm guessing there must be something worthwhile."
Quinn got up from the step he was sitting on. Took out his fake wand to conjure the same silver disc he had conjured before, but this time it was big enough for two people. He turned to Ivy and extended his hand towards her.
"Come on," he said.
Ivy got up, held Quinn's hand as he pulled her up on the silver disc.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to quench your curiosity," said Quinn. He turned to the pillar beside and put the wand tip on the stone to inject the magic to get the process started.
"What do you mea—"
The entire room started to shake like an earthquake was passing by. Quinn, of course, wasn't surprised, but the same couldn't be said for Ivy as she "eeked" when the room started trembling, setting off some dust from the ceiling, and even though she was off the ground and couldn't feel the quakes, the noise was enough to scare her and grabbed the nearest support she could — which happened to Quinn.
"Woah," exclaimed Quinn as he reflexively wrapped his free arm around Ivy as she grabbed onto him.
"What is happening?!" yelled Ivy loudly, her grip tightening, "Is the room going to collapse?! Are we going to die?!"
"What? No, of course not."
But Ivy seemed not to listen as she clutched into a death hold and showed no signs of leaving him. All Quinn could do was leave her be and continue solving the mechanism.
After the shaking stopped, the pedestal completely sunk in, and the archway staircase revealed that Quinn breathed out a sigh and looked at Ivy. She didn't seem cognizant of the fact that the shaking had stopped and was still holding on to him.
She's cute, a thought passed through Quinn's mind as he gazed at her.
"Ivy.. . Ivy, it's over," he said.
Prompted by her name being called, Ivy finally opened her eyes and cautiously/doubtfully looked around, and everything had indeed stopped shaking. Then realized her position, and her heart skipped a beat as she forced down the red from coming up on her face. Her finger loosened the hold on Quinn's shirt, but she didn't step away from him.. . or to be more accurate, she couldn't.
"Uhm.. . you hand," she said.
"My hand?" Quinn looked at his left arm, and to his surprise, his left arm was wrapped around Ivy's waist. "Oh! I'm sorry." Quinn immediately removed his hand from Ivy, and she took a small step away from him.
Quinn lowered the silver disc to the ground, and both stepped off.
Wanting to quickly move on, Quinn directed Ivy's attention to the changes in the room. "Well, what do you think?" he said.
Ivy took her eyes off the ground and too pushed the thoughts about the closeness to Quinn away for a later time and gazed around the room.
"That thing in the middle is gone," she said and then pointed at the revealed staircase. "That wasn't there before! What's in there?" She sounded like an excited child.
"How about we go and check it out."
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Both of them reached the staircase, and with a wave of Quinn's fake wand, the entire staircase lit up.
"Isn't this cool?" said Quinn.
"How did this appear?" asked Ivy. "Why did the room shake?"
"It would be better if I show you," said Quinn, "I'll be casting a little magic on you, alright?"
When he got the permission, Quinn cast illusion magic on Ivy and showed her what he could see through his Earth sense.
"W-Wow!" Ivy could suddenly see the entire mechanism that was inside the vault walls. "This is.. . wow — what magic you're using?"
"I'm using illusion magic. The entire vault room is a safe that needs to be solved to reveal this hidden doorway. All the shaking was the parts being moved around," said Quinn in explanation and then went into a bit of detail.
"Now, how about we go to the next room," said Quinn.
Maybe it was because Quinn finally had someone to share the vaults with that he was feeling more loose-lipped than usual and told Ivy about the bits and pieces of knowledge that he learned while learning Earth magic and things about the Architect he had read.
In the second room of the Architect's vault, Quinn once again sent out hundreds of light orbs into the air and to every corner to light up the enormous space.
"Welcome to what I like to call — Cuboidal Creation," said Quinn. He had also named the first room the "Hidden Lock."
"Cuboidal Creation?" asked Ivy.
"Yes, come on, let me show you what this room is all about."
Quinn led Ivy to the edge, looking down at the chasm.
"There are two ways we can do this," said Quinn, "we can go down slow on a silver-disc like before, or we can go down the fun way."
"The fun way," said Ivy immediately.
Quinn looked at Ivy approvingly. "Excellent, that's spirited. Life's all about having fun. I like your style, Ivy Potter.. . so don't blame me."
"Blame you, why? — Aaaaah!!!" Quinn grabbed Ivy by her hands and pulled her along as he stepped off the edge and down.
Both fell down, with Ivy screaming while her mind out while Quinn grinned as he watched her while falling. Near the end, Quinn used Arresto Momentum on himself and Ivy to land them neatly on the ground. Ivy's knees, though, weren't in agreement. She collapsed on the floor, heaving because of the shock.
The redhead glared up at Quinn, "That wasn't fun! You could've given me a warning or.. . or — ugh!" She stood up and hit Quinn on his shoulder as hard as she could.
"Sorry, sorry!" Quinn laughed.
After Ivy calmed down, she looked at the comparison apparatus in the middle of the chasm and a cube sticking out of the floor (he had already cleared out the wall cubes). Unlike the first room, the things in the second room didn't reset every time he exited.
"The objective of this room is to create replicas of the shape that the room asks for," said Quinn, "you see the cube sticking out of the wall, I need to take material out of it and.. . that strange shape on the small stand, yeah that one, I need to make an exact replica down to the smallest millimeter."
"Can I try?" asked Ivy.
"Sure, let's see.. ." Quinn looked around for a material cube with an easy-to-mold material. He pulled two lumps out of one of the cubes and shaped one into a simple cube before placing both the cube and the lump on the ground.
"Shape the lump into the cube," said Quinn while sitting next to the cube and the lump.
Ivy sat down on the ground and took out her wand. She observed the objects in front of her with intent, intelligence flashing in her eyes.
While Transmutation wasn't exclusively taught in Hogwarts, magic disciplines often intersected — Transfiguration had plenty of similarities with Transmutation, so the task to shape the lump of rock into a shape shouldn't be difficult for Ivy.
Quinn silently sighed. The replication task was easy enough, and anyone with decent skill could do it, but it wouldn't be a vault without a twist thrown in.
'The material cubes are getting tougher,' he thought.
Every cube in the room was made from a different stone. Every successive cube had something different from the previous one, and after going through dozens after dozens of cubes, the materials were becoming stranger, more difficult to mold, trickier to manipulate — Quinn had even started to suspect there was an alchemist behind the creation of these cubes.
Not only that, the shapes were getting tricker. There were multiple angles, oddly shaped faces, edges that suddenly flowed into curves.
'The latest one even had pockets of air inside. Internals are no longer going to be completely solid, aren't they?' If Quinn's prediction were to come true, then the task's difficulty would rocket up abruptly and keep on rising as the internal structure continued to change.
'Let's see who's better, eh, Architect,' thought Quinn, his competitive side raising its head against a dead man.
"I'm done."
Quinn left his thoughts behind. Sitting in front of him were two cubes.
"Hmm.. . let's see how you did." Quinn picked up the cubes and inserted his magic into the cubes — he could see what Ivy had done; it was methodical and both practically and theoretically sound.
"Ivy Potter.. . you know how to apply yourself.. . this is perfect," said Quinn, "there's not a single ounce of Transfiguration in here, nothing temporary, this cube is entirely in a stable state.. . well done."
Quinn smiled heartedly. The fact that she could eliminate Transfiguration out completely in a task that she was just given was proof of sound conceptual knowledge.
"So, can I help you here?" This was her chance to spend more time with Quinn. Hermione had told her about what Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Bebly thought about Quinn, and she knew Daphne liked Quinn — so if she was able to spend time with Quinn, here in a place that seemed to be a tightly held secret, it would allow her to become closer to Quinn.
"No." The answer was prompt, concise, and straightforward. "The reason I told you about this is that I wanted to satisfy your curiosity and make you leave — the Cursed Vaults are close to my hearts; they're special to me, and I don't want that to change — allowing you would change that.. .So I'm sorry, but you can't be here."
Ivy pursed her lips and sighed. At least, she tried.
"But how about this?" said Quinn; he was feeling generous. "If it's possible, then I'll bring you to the end of the Architect's Vault. I'm willing to share the end with you, and let me tell you, the end's the best."
The two gazed at each other.
"Alright, I'll take that. But you better show it to me," said Ivy with an appreciative smile.
Soon after that, Quinn led Ivy out of the vault and decided to leave for the night. It was late at night, and Ivy didn't have the Marauder's Map with her, so Quinn escorted her to the Gryffindor Tower.
"You said Cursed Vaults. Do you mean that there are more than one?"
"Yes, there are four more — five in total."
"Wait, don't tell me that all the late nights that you do are because of these vaults? What are the other vaults? Are they made by the Founders?"
They finally reached the hallway just outside the Fat Lady's portrait.
"That's a tale for another time, Ivy," said Quinn laughing, "maybe some other day, I'll tell you about them — maybe after I complete all of them.. . all five of them," his tone turning a tinge serious at the end.
"Deal!" said Ivy, half-dapping(slapping) Quinn's hand and then ran towards the Fat Lady's portrait without awaiting Quinn's reply.
".. . that wasn't a deal," said Quinn, having been left alone to stare at his hand.
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Quinn West - MC - Huh, sharing actually felt good.
Ivy Potter - Shot her shot - I got a deal; it's final, no takebacks.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Thinking about the future.
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