Boobytrapping Lord V

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 54912

I was just rereading the last part of PS/SS, and an evil idea occured to me.

We know that Lord V. is after immortality.  Hence, he wants the
Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone---or at least the elixir one can make with
it.

What if it was kept secret that the Stone had been destroyed, and a
deliberately-flawed substitute was substituted for it?  One that _looked_ a
lot like the real Stone, and even passed some of the tests, but had
something Deeply Wrong with it---something that ensured that the Elixir of
Life made with it wasn't really the real thing?

I'd bet that Nicholas Flamel _did_ keep his research notes around; I would,
had I been him.  Going through those and finding some of the last "nearly
made it, but not quite" versions, and re-creating one of those, or even
several, would be an obvious sneaky move.  Then, "hide" it somewhere that
Lord V can get at it, and ensure the word gets out.  "Now, not a word about
this, Gilderoy!  This is really, really important!"

So, Lord V comes after the "Stone," and is either captured, or isn't.  If he
is captured, well, hello, snogging-session-with-Dementors.  If not, he's got
a false Stone that doesn't really make Elixir of Life, and at worst, the
good guys are no worse off than before.  At best, the "Elixir" the false
Stone makes has things so wrong with it that death starts looking really
attractive to Lord V.

Matter o'fact---having about four or five flawed "Stones" hidden in
different places might also be a way to smoke out the DE moles or
blabbermouths in the MoM---tell everybody you suspect is Wrong about _one_
real Stone, but give each of them a separate fake hiding place as its
location, and see which ones Lord V tries for.  When he goes for, say,
Hiding Place A, which only a few people know about, you know that one of
those few people is not to be trusted.

--Eric, who reads too much real-life espionage stories for his own good.