Ok so we all know the common plot device in Manipulative!Dumbledore fics that Harry suddenly realises that 3 first years got past the traps infront the stone. He then goes off on a rant about how Dumbledore set it up to test him and mold him into a weapon...

But I was thinking. What else could Dumbledore do with it?

Whilst reading another generic indy fic I thought "What stupid defences to put on one of the most powerful magical items of all time" But then I thought what else could they do?

Using only canon magics and creatures what else could of the done to protect the stone?

We haven't really seen any really good defencive stuff. Wards are pretty much nothing in canon. They didn't stop Voldemort coming into Hogwarts in PS it didn't stop the DE's HBP the only thing they seem to do is stop apperating in the castle.

As for creatures... AK. I don't see why Voldemort/Quirrel didn't do that to fluffy (well I do... the story would have been a lot shorter if he did). Anything can be killed by the AK I think so that pretty much rules out any animal guard.

So we are left with magic to stop people.

The most I can think of is Animate a bunch of statues like in the atrium fight but they could be blasted apart by any decent Wizard.

So I set you the challenge of using Canon only magics, items and Creatures to defend the stone. Now sure Dumbledore could have put the stone in his pocket and it would have been plenty safe. But were is the fun in that.

So you have The corridoor infront of the trap door, The pit were the Devils snear was, the flying key room, the Chess room, the troll room, the potion room, the Stone room.

7 rooms to set your defence. 7 rooms to stop Voldmort. 7... a powerful magical number.

 

1. Scrap Fluffy, We're assuming Dumbledore has a pretty far reach in the magical world, and the wealth and resources to back it up. Empty room, nothing there, thick slabs of stone, unbreakable charms and the works on them, password protected.

2. If Fred and George can make Peruvian Darkness Powder, I'm assuming Dumbledore can do something to the same effect, completely dark hallway, smooth walls and floor, leading to a dead end, but having the actual exit somewhere in the middle of the hallway, involving you having to put your hand in the exact right spot.

3. I like the key idea, charmed against summoning etc. but have all the keys look exactly the same, and they attack should the command word not be spoken either, there will be no broom supplied, Dumbledore is smart enough to be able to come over his own protections and get past, him knowing the command word as well. Same kind of stone as in #1, with just a keyhole.

4. The next room is in the same mold as the spinning room in the ministry, except this room has thousands of doors, Again, Dumbledore would know the right one, but left himself a bit of space. 3 wrong doors and room closes on itself, or collapses, either way your dead, only so much you can levitate.

5. Poison gas room, Snapes finest, this will kill you in an instant, Only the person who made the passage to the stone would know to cast a bubblehead charm before proceeding to the next room.

6. Mirroring the same as in Cannon, having the flames, the potions and the logic puzzle. Except all the potions are poison, the table they're on is actually a switch to bring the flames down, has to be cut cleanly in half to bring them down.

7. Mirror of the Erised, having to see yourself have the stone but no using it, instead of this though, You have to see yourself receiving a nice pair of woolen socks for Christmas.

 

Meh, you don't even need one room. Dumbledore could have just put the stone in a box on his desk and then cast a Fidelius Charm on it, so only he could see it. In fact, that's probably more secure than a Gringotts vault.

Frankly, all the magical protections in the HP series are pretty fucking easy to get by. Dumbledore's protections in PS were a joke, and Voldemort's traps in HBP were laughable.

I understand that JKR needs to have the heros be able to bypass them, but that's not an excuse to turn other characters into fucking morons. I would have paid good money to see Dumbledore and Harry battle it out with a Leviathan or an Acromantula when they went after the Horcrux.

 

"Leviathans" aren't canon. Unless you're talking about the Ministry aparatus.

 

Why didn't Quirrel kill Fluffy? Probably because there was a charm which would activate when certain spells were used.

And all in all... I still doubt that the stone in the first book was real. I still believe it was all a plot to distract Voldemort from the Flamels.

@ Darius

You like passwords, what? I'm not so sure about them. We've only seen passwords on portkeys and the common rooms. With Legilimency, Veritaserum, the luck potion and special charms for such a case, it's probably easy to get a password.
Not to mention that the password has to be a part of the charm. And as such a part it's not too difficult to read/see it with the right spells.

And a room like the one in the ministry isn't that invincible. Oh yes, Harry and his friends had troubles, but the Deatheaters? They got trough it.

But I really like your poison gas idea... but they're wizard. Do they even think about something like this?

 

I like the way Rorschach's Blot explained the traps:

ex: Make a Wish, Ch. 42

Spoiler

“To continue your line of reasoning, why not leave a room full of fake keys, why leave a chess board that allows it's self to be played when a chess board that attacks any that come near would be just as easy to make?” Dumbledore gave a weak grin, “I would be happy to answer all of your questions but for two things.”

“And those are?”

“The first is a security issue, if you don't know then none can force you to reveal it by looking into your mind.”

“And if my mind was strong enough to protect the information?” Harry asked.

“Then I would tell you the second reason, and should you chose to persist.” Dumbledore exhaled, “then I would answer any question you had.”

"Then just this once, you may check my mind." Harry countered with a frown, "I'm willing to allow it just so I can get to the bottom of this."

"I shall be as quick as I can and I shall not look at anything," Dumbledore assured his young charge. "I . . . I can not seem to get in. It is as if your mind is filled with nothingness, I commend you on your technique . . . it is not something I have ever seen before."

"So then my mind is secure enough to know the truth?" Harry was starting to get impatient.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "I dare say that you have one of the most secure minds in Europe."

“The second reason?” Harry prompted.

“The second reason is that I don't believe you wish to know.” Dumbledore held up his hand stall argument. “Sometimes Ignorance is bliss, and I believe that you would be happier not knowing.”

“Tell me now,” Harry commanded as his temper began to rise.

“As you wish,” Dumbledore gave in. “It is my belief that you regard preventing Tom from retrieving the Philosopher's stone to be one of your greatest achievements, is that true.”

“Not entirely accurate but noteworthy,” Harry allowed. “Stop stalling.”

“What I am about to tell you must remain secret until the end of the war at the very least and I would suggest that you leave off telling until you are in your old age and it does not matter.”

“I'll take your suggestions under advisement.” Harry's eyes narrowed, “continue.”

“A friend of mine once said something to the effect that 'The Truth is so Precious that it must be surrounded at all times by a bodyguard of lies.' What I am about to tell you is something that was until now known only by two people and it in no way lessens your achievement. Harry.” Dumbledore licked his lips, “you did not save the Philosopher's Stone, it was never in any danger.”

“What?” Harry's eyebrows shot up, “what do you mean never in any danger?”

“The stone has never left the possession of its creator. I've never believed that Tom was destroyed that night at your parent's home, so what I did was lay a trap.” Dumbledore took a deep breath, “I told the Staff that I needed them to design a series of protections for unspecified object and they were happy to help, of course I would come to them, the finest minds in our world for aid in such an important undertaking.”

“It never occurred to them that generations of England's finest security experts have spent decades making Gringotts one of the most secure places on Earth?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Alas no,” Dumbledore admitted with a frown. “I'm afraid that their pride got in the way of their good sense.”

“So you set a trap for Moldyshorts?”

“Yes,” the aging Professor agreed. “If it had been too easy then Tom would have suspected a trap, as it was when he reached the last task . . .”

“He didn't suspect a thing.” Harry began to look at his school's Headmaster with grudging admiration, “I can't imagine what you felt when you returned to the school to find out your perfect little plan had been foiled by a trio of well meaning first years.”

“I will admit that I was not overcome with joy,” Albus admitted. “And I could not admit my plan for two reasons.”

“Because it would let the world know just how cunning and deceitful you can be, and because it would not be have been the best thing to tell a group of children that they had just risked their lives for nothing.” Harry shook his head, “you really are a piece of work aren't you.”

“There's also the fact that I didn't want Tom to know that the stone was still available. I'm sorry Harry, I had hoped that you would never know and I had planed to take the information to my grave.”

“Why?”

“Didn't it provide you some comfort to think that you had kept the Philosopher's Stone out of the hands of a madman?” Albus's shoulders dropped, “forgive me, but I did not wish to take that comfort away.”

“You.” Harry's face began to turn red, “you.” tears began to leak out his eyes, “you.”

Albus closed his eyes, waiting for the tirade he knew was coming.

“Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha,”

Dumbledore's eyes shot open as he watched his favorite student try to regain control himself.

“You crafty old bastard.” Harry wiped the tears from his eyes.

“You're not angry?” Dumbledore asked cautiously.

“Angry? Hell no, I haven't had such a good laugh since,” Harry scratched his chin, “well . . . no.”

And an omake by one of his fangirls to be found
Make a Wish, Ch. 43, last paragraphs

Spoiler

Omake by I)ark/-)ngel

"So, what would have happened if Voldemort got the fake stone?" Harry asked.
"If he attempted to use it, he would have been transmuted into something far more precious than gold." Dumbledore said with his twinkle working on overdrive.
"What?" asked Harry leaning in eagerly.
"That is a secret left for when you are older, my boy."
"Please tell me?"
"No."
"Please?" Harry, settling in to outwait the old mage.

six hours later

"Please?"
"Fine." the aging wizard replied in something vaguely resembling Trevor's speech.

"He would have turned into... a lemon drop." All signs of fatigue from his long argument vanished under the incredible smugness that can only build up after 150 plus years of life.

"HOW IS THAT USEFUL!" Harry yelled.

"After that I would defeat him by an ancient technique known as (dramatic pause for effect) ... (more dramatic pause that had less effect)... (small snore)" The old man gave all appearances of having fell asleep.

"DUMBLEDORE TELL ME!" Harry yelled, losing patience.

"...Oh, yes, where was I?" Dumbledore said, suspiciously awake all of the sudden.

"The ancient technique." Harry said, the current configuration of his mouth probably being more suited to mastication than speech.

"I will now reveal the ancient secret... an art known as ... digestion!" Dumbledore stared expectantly at Harry, preening in a manner to make Fawkes jealous as he waited for the admiration that would doubtless be involuntary after such a revelation of cleverness. Harry instead responded with a classic faceplant.

"Are you alright, my boy?" Dumbledore queried as said adolescent slowly rose, hands twitching around what anyone but Dumbledore could see was an imaginery neck.

"Want to see what's left of Grindlewald?" Dumbledore said in a severe misinterpretation of the expression. He then reached towards a Tupperware with a 'yuck' sticker on it.

Harry, seeing the sticker decided to leave while he was... well, he didn't know where he was, but he was positive where he was heading was worse.

"Poor boy, couldn't stand my brilliance - I should have used a longer dramatic pause." The old wizard said as he settled in to remember just how sweet victory could taste, not to mention a little sour.

 

You obviously missed the point of this thread, as did a couple of others.

 

Would it be cannabilism, eating Grindelwald like that?

If the plan is for NO ONE to be able to get at the stone, including Dumbledore, I'd suggest this:

As soon as you the first room a timer is started, counting down from an hour. What happens if you don't get to the seventh room before this counts down is described later.

Room 1 - Care of Magical Creatures - Enlarge the room to a huge size and turn it into a maze. Then put an acromantula in and place it under an engorgement charm. Sorted.

Room 2 - Herbology - If they get past the acromantula have them drop into a room full of Devil's Snare, and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

Room 3 - Animation/Transfiguration - After dropping down through the Devil's Snare, there would be several animated statues with big, heavy, metal swords... As soon as they dropped down the statues would attack... No time to prepare, no time to attack.

Room 4 - Charms - A chess board with the pieces lined up so they're parallel to the person, they'd have to work their way across the board without triggering any of the enchanted steps, which would set the statues on to you or inflict some kind of dibilitating charm on the victim. Any attempt at levitation/broom flying would make all the Area of Effect charms to go off at once, plus set the statues on to them. Think of it as the gatehouse of a castle, with statues instead of spear holes.

Room 5 - Defence Against the Dark Arts - A room with two portraits. You must answer the riddles they ask correctly, and then you must either wait for the portrait to confirm your access with Dumbledore (only if this isn't Dumbledore obviously) and enter the correct sequence of taps on the correct places on the portrait to open it.

Room 6 - Potions - Same riddle and as in the book, but the correct potion must be thrown on the flames, not drank, because its a fast acting poison to living creatures.

Room 7 - Dumbledore - The Mirror of Erised would be in the middle of the room, but the stone ain't in there. You must first look into the mirror and see yourself having but not using the stone. Then you must read the clue you find mysteriously in your pocket, which would lead to a Gringotts vault and a dragon to fight. After that you'd find another clue, which would lead you to Hagrid's hut and the words for a secret that's under the Fidelius charm (an address). If you don't get to this point by the time an hour is up, the parchment is destroyed and the secret lost to all but the keeper. At this address you would find a perfectly ordinary house, until you step into the garden, where there are loads of landmines (or the magical equivilent) and a set of anti-apparition wards. Inside the house are lots of portraits, which are told to immediately go to Dumbledore's office, Nicolas Flamel's house and other important places, to warn them. Then there's a series of traps, which would lead you to the hidden basement and two identical statues, holding identical stones. One of them is real, the other is fake. To know the answer you must have been told by either Dumbledore or Flamel.

Phew, that took a while. If anyone can get passed all those trials, including the time limit, I'd be surprised.

Aekiel

 

Um Aekiel... The only thing really different is that RIDICULOUS last step...

Anyway, personally I'd just do something along the lines of:

X kg of Peruvian blackpowder
X number of very hungry trained magical dogs (to recognise dumbledore ofc)
X fat little elves to stand guard on the bloody door, then run get help when big bad whizzy comes to eat them

 

Point taken.

My security system:

Room 1- A room with randomly placed stones that, when stepped on, turn the floor into water, which then refreezes after 3 seconds. A password-protected door guards the entrance to the next room.

Room 2- A room filled with thousands of cups. Each cup is filled with an identical liquid, all but one of which is poison. The cups that are poison are also portkeys, which transport the drinker to the dungeons of Hogwarts. The cup without poison is a potion that allows you to see the password-protected door that guards the entrance to the next room.

Room 3- A room, pitch black, filled with invisible poisonous snakes. A password-protected door leads to the next room.

Room 4- This room is a long, completely blank hallway, ending in wall covered with small buttons, hundreds in all. The wall will retract once the proper 10 button combination is entered.

Room 5- As soon as the door from the previous room opens, several bottles of potion fall from the ceiling, smashing open and releasing sprays of acid and poison gas. In order to pass you must immediately conjure a shield to protect yourself from the acid and a Bubble-Head charm to avoid inhaling the gas. The door to the next room is also password-protected.

Room 6- This room closely resembles a jungle at night. Lots of trees and whatnot, and infested with numerous Lethifolds. In order to get to the password-protected door, you must use the Patronus Charm several times (very tiring) to scare off the Lethifolds.

Room 7- If you somehow make it this far, you find a small chamber with a pedestal in the middle and stone warriors lining the walls. On the pedestal there is the stone. Surrounding the pedestal are circles of runes. The first circle activates the stone warriors that attack with no hesitation. If you manage to defeat them, the second set of runes causes the floor to suddenly drop away. If you manage to levitate yourself and keep from falling, the third set of runes causes the room to collapse in on itself. When this set of runes is activated, wards begin to sound and the stone is automatically portkeyed to a high-security vault in Gringotts, protected by blood wards and a quartet of pissed off Goblins.

 

I tried to keep it so that it used the skills of each teacher, just to show how they could have done it better, and apart from the potions one (cause my mind blanked on that one, and it would take a person with at least a basic knowledge of potions to know not to drink the poison), the traps were all different in key ways. Though I reckon the confirming with Dumbles is a bit stupid now that I think about it.

I admit the last step kinda got away from me but things kept popping into my head and I had to put them down.

Aekiel

EDIT: You do realise, Muttering Condolences, that these traps were designed primarily for keeping Voldemort out... Now why on Earth would you put hundreds of snakes in the way of a parselmouth?

EDIT 2: I like how you had the stone be a portkey to Gringotts, but wouldn't be even funnier to make it an illusion and have it portkey the person straight to the bottom of the ocean? Or into a poison gas room? Or into space? Or into the Sun? (Dunno if they can reach that far, but it could be possible ).

Would be hilarious to see their face light up in glee for that split second before they die .

 

Whoops. I figured the snakes being invisible they would be able to strike before Voldemort figured out they were snakes. Good point though, I'm sure the snakes could be swapped out with starving Acromantula or a couple of pissed off Blast-Ended Skrewts, whatever floats your boat.

 

*edit*

Nevermind just saw the bit about canon magic.

 

Room 1 -- Chuck Norris

Room 2 -- There is no longer any need.

Other then that, Darius seems to really, really have a good plan. Even for a Canadian! But, I think that is overkill. You made it way too hard, and that would limit Dumbledore himself. If there was a crisis in the school, he needs to be fast enough to get past on the traps. Even if he knows what to do, he still has to find the exact spot of the door in the hallway, and he has to cut the table cleanly in half to get past the last door.

 

lol @ that.
I had the finding the full answer of [FONT=Symbol,sans-serif]pi[/FONT] . Not that 3.14 crap.

That is why DD has Fawkes.

 

Shit, Ignorance is bliss

Room1: Nobody would have known that there was anything different, the third floor would have been used as normal, there would have been a large carpet over the Locked and 'impervious'ed trap door the key to which would be on a chain around Flamel's neck. Said door would also have Strong notice-me-not charms on it.

Room2: If someone actaully made it in, they would have dropped into a room full of Disillusioned spears, all point upward (Obviously). There would have been an age line around the top of the ceiling set to repel any wayward genius students back to saftey. anyone over graduation age would fall though said line without incident.

Room3: should someone have noticed and vanished the spears they would come to Mc Gonnagal's chessboard. The pawns would be archers instead of bladesmen. The pieces would remain dormant untill you were too far across the board to retreat, at which time they would ALL attack you. Password is required at three specific points, and you would have to be standing on the correct square when you said them

Room4: Fluffly's room while you were busy dealing with a cerbrus you probably wouldn't notice the disillusioned vipers behind you. Sphnyx gaurding the doorway.

Room5: Potion room All vials are poision, the room spins as you enter it (DOM) the real door would be 'Just pretending' to be a wall, and would be directly behind the potions table both of the flames would incinerate you.

Room6: Room would have a golden pedistal with 'the stone' mounted on it. stepping wrong releases a suit of armor with a longsword, and another with a excecutioners Axe. Door to the last room a portkey hidden in the base of the pillar

Room7: No lights, Mirror of Erised with a false stone inside. The real one disillusioned and sealed into the top of one of the pillars supporting the room.

 

Good idea.

A good blasting spell and AK sorts this out. This is Voldemort we are trying to stop. If all it took was a dozen chess pieces and two sets of armor to kill him he would be dead long ago.

Voldemort like Dumbledore can probably sence magic (As Dumbledore did while in the horcrux cave). He would seach out the hidden door.

 

There would be the normal door to Fluffy's Room, but a highly concealed door off to the side that's floor would be a portkey, to sidetrack anybody that can sense magic.
Room 1: There would be an age line in front of/on the door. Much stronger locking charms, as well. Fluffy would still be here, except he would be disillusioned and have a notice-me-not charm on him, and he would be closer to the door, and not chained down.
Room 2: More Devils-snare, and the room has a charm on it that prevents magical lights such as lumos, room is also filled with Lethifolds, and a flammable gas.
Room 3:A Sphinx that keeps asking you riddles until you give it the password, theres a listening charm hidden behind it, that would alert Dumbledore about it.
Room 4:A narrow corridor that has very dim lighting, there is an animated Nundu statue that looks very realistic at the other end, and there are animated guards in alcoves on the side that attack you as you go past, these are staggered randomly, and are enchanted to be fast, silent, and indestructible.
Room 5:There is a large group of trolls here. You guys seem to be forgetting to remember that Quirrel made this one.
Room 6:The same, except the riddle is much harder, and the correct potion is actually a flawed portkey that doesn't quite work.
Room 7:The Mirror with a grenade illusioned to look like the stone, Flamel actually just moved it to a higher security vault, in a room filled with a huge pile of look-alikes (think thousands).

 

Room 1) I would have an age line on the entrance of the room followed by something similar to the spinning room in the DOM, each of these doors however will either contain a nasty debilitating trap or portkey to solid rock. The actual door will be on level with two doors to the left and simply be a hole in the floor that has been bricked up without magic, no residue or magic means nothing to detect. Also, heavily alarmed.

Room 2) The next room would be dark and have something similar to Peruvian darkness powder centred on the middle of the room whilst the edge would be simple darkness so that only those who knew about the set up would be able to get past it (namely Dumbledore)

Room 3) Following this I would have a plain room with the door in the back but the keys would each be highly distinctive and sharp. Also, any key apart from the one used to open the door would be enchanted to explode if anything over a certain temperature touches it. This leaves them free to knock into each other or walls if needs be. With each key distinctive, only one who knew beforehand would be able to pick it out and no matter how immortal you are - having a hand blown off would probably hurt a bit, especially since most wizards seem to use the same hand for general use as they do for wand use. I imagine it would be a little difficult repeating something like the silver hand spell with your off hand, follow that with the door closing and vanishing behind you once you pass through it.

Room 4) I would keep the chess game on a specifically raised part of the floor but rather than winning you would have to lose your pieces in a certain order to get past. Whilst this is going on I would have the room slowly filling up with an acid or some form of weakening potion. If you don’t get it right then the statues will turn on you.

Room 5) The main grand door at the other end of the chess room will allow entrance to a room with a dragon in it and when you push the door open it will knock over one of her eggs unless you sneak in, possibly stick a few illusion spells to make it seem like there is more than one dragon as well just to make things interesting. The real entrance will just be a passageway high enough in the ceiling that it needs a broom to reach. With the door vanishing you would need to know in advance to bring one. The tunnel will also be rigged to collapse unless the password is spoken as soon as you enter it. This will allow you to bypass the dragon and make it through to the next room.

Room 6) Keep the same logic puzzle since Dumbledore notes that not many wizards understand logic, have a bezoar ‘hidden’ under the table that is enchanted to grow very large spikes whenever it is placed in someone’s mouth. The actual door would be a normal piece of wall next to the main one which would really be a portkey to the vault that the stone was originally removed from.

Room 7) The mirror trick worked very well, I would have the same thing. By now the alarms would have gone off and Dumbledore would be on his way but just for fun, let’s say the stone floor would be trying to eat you and there would be a poison gas inside the room that only someone who knows in advance would be able to deal with.

Not quite as lethal and dramatic as some of the others but then if there is an emergency then it allows someone to get to the stone quickly if they know what they’re doing, which would be useful. The teachers would all be memory wiped afterwards so only Dumbledore would know the traps.