The start-of-term staff meeting at Hogwarts was an affair of unprecedented gravity. It was held not in the usual cheerful staff room, but in the Headmaster's office, and it included not just the professors, but a grim-faced Amelia Bones.
The meeting began with Snape. He stood before them, his face a pale, taut mask, his black eyes holding the deep, chilling echo of what he had witnessed.
"He is… unhinged," Snape reported, his voice a low, clipped monotone that did nothing to hide the undercurrent of tension. "The disappearance of the snake has pushed him to a new level of paranoia and rage. He trusts no one. He has killed two Death Eaters this past week simply for failing to notice the intrusion."
He looked directly at Dumbledore and Ariana. "He does not understand how it was done. The wards of the Lestrange estate were considered impenetrable. The fact that someone could enter, take his most precious possession from under his nose, and leave without a single trace has terrified him. He is lashing out, and his followers are bearing the brunt of his fear."
"His fear is our weapon," Amelia Bones stated, her voice hard. "While he is distracted, my Aurors have successfully rounded up another half-dozen of his known associates. The bounty has been a remarkable success; the information network of the underworld is now working for us."
"He will become more reckless," Ariana added, her voice calm and analytical, drawing the attention of the room. "His paranoia will force him to accelerate his plans. He will still be fixated on the prophecy, even if it is now out of his reach, perhaps even on his connection to Harry, as it is the one piece of the puzzle he believes he still controls. We must be prepared for a more direct, less subtle assault."
The meeting concluded with a new, shared sense of purpose. The war was on, but for the first time, the enemy was on the back foot, unnerved and afraid.
As the school year settled into its routine, a strange new dynamic emerged. Ariana Dumbledore was a figure of immense power and mystery. She held no official position, yet she moved through the castle with an authority that rivaled the professors'. She would be seen in deep conversation with Dumbledore in the corridors, observing advanced N.E.W.T. classes with a critical eye, or simply reading in the library, where a respectful silence would descend around her table.
Her primary residence, however, was the Room of Requirement.
With the Horcrux problem now largely a matter of waiting for the final confrontation, and her N.E.W.T.s behind her, she poured her formidable energy into Project Chimera. The Room transformed at her command into a vast, celestial workshop. One section was a design studio, with shimmering, three-dimensional blueprints of the spaceship hanging in the air. Another was a materials laboratory, where she, Hermione, and Daphne experimented with enchanting the Muggle alloys. A third was a power-core testing chamber, shielded by layers of magic.
Nagini, now looking healthier and more comfortable in her own skin, often joined them. She had little interest in the science, but she would sit and watch, her mind calm and slowly piecing itself back together. She found a strange peace in the quiet, focused ambition of the young grand-daughter who had saved her.
It was during one of these long work sessions that Ariana became aware of a persistent, annoying variable.
Through her unique connection to the Room, she could sense when others were trying to access it. And for several weeks now, on a near-daily basis, she felt a familiar, weak magical signature pacing back and forth in the seventh-floor corridor, his mind a turmoil of fear, desperation, and a resentful, murderous intent.
Draco Malfoy.
She watched him through the Room's subtle senses. She saw him trying every trick he could think of—pacing, pleading, kicking the wall—trying to get the Room to open and reveal the "place where things are hidden."
"He's back again," Daphne commented one afternoon, sensing the faint magical disturbance from the corridor. "What is he so desperate to find in here?"
"He has been given a task by Voldemort," Ariana stated calmly, not looking up from the power-conduit diagram she was perfecting. "A suicide mission, most likely. A test of his family's loyalty after his father's failures. My analysis of his emotional state suggests he is trying to find something, perhaps a lost broken object. Something that can bypass the castle's security."
"The Vanishing Cabinet," Hermione breathed, her eyes wide with horrified realization. "Of course. There's one in here, in the Room, I saw it when I was cataloguing the items, and its twin is at Borgin and Burkes, in knockturn alley. He's trying to create a secret passage into the castle for the Death Eaters."
Daphne looked alarmed. "Can he get in? Can he access the cabinet?"
Ariana finally looked up, a small, almost pitying smile on her lips. "No," she said simply.
"But what if you're not here?" Hermione pressed. "What if he paces when the Room is empty? It's supposed to appear for anyone who has a real need."
"That was the original protocol," Ariana explained. "I have since… upgraded the security. After the incident with Umbridge's 'Inquisitorial Squad', I determined that uncontrolled access to a room of this power was a tactical liability. I have integrated my own magical signature into the Room's foundational matrix. It is now, for all intents and purposes, keyed to me. It will not open for anyone, no matter how great their need, unless I am either physically present to grant them access or I have specifically designated them as an authorized user. Draco Malfoy could pace outside that wall until he graduates, and the door will never appear for him."
Hermione and Daphne stared at her, once again floored by the depth of her foresight. She had essentially claimed it, fortified it, and made it her own private fortress.
"His efforts are irrelevant," Ariana continued, turning her attention back to her blueprints. "His plan is doomed to failure before it has even begun." She paused, a thoughtful, colder look entering her eyes. "However, the existence of the Vanishing Cabinet itself is a loose end. It represents a potential future vulnerability, should my control of this room ever be compromised."
She made a mental note, a new task added to her long, complex checklist.
Objective: Neutralize Vanishing Cabinet. Method: Controlled, localized Fiendfyre incineration within a magically contained vacuum to prevent escape of cursed flames. Projected timeframe: Midwinter, when school security is focused on the holidays.
This was essentially a logically efficient moment for Ariana to test her magical control of volatile magic, Fiendfyre being the perfect one. But, she would deal with it later. For now, Draco Malfoy's pathetic, desperate attempts to fulfill his dark mission were nothing more than a faint, annoying buzz on the other side of a very thick, very powerful wall. She had more important things to build.