The location of the third trial is in Hogwarts. Professor Niamh had hoped she could negotiate with the current headmaster for me to have access to his office, but Black is uncooperative. I must find another way to get in there. I ask Fig for ideas.
He’s been brewing a polyjuice potion ever since we arrived at school. He will distract the real Black, and I will access his office. First, though, I need the password to get past the stone gargoyle that guards the entrance. Black’s house elf, Scrope, will know it. I’ll need to find him and persuade him to tell it to me. (If I were playing as a Slytherin, I would already know Scrope. He helps with the mystery of Richard Jackdaw.)
Fig suggests I start with Madam Kogawa. She pesters Scrope often, trying to restart quidditch practice.
I drink the juice and nervously stride through Hogwarts, disguised as Headmaster Black. Fast travel is disabled.
Professor Sharp corners me. He wants to quietly discuss the pimple potion he’s brewed for me.
I have the option to talk with students I know. With Kogawa, I encourage her to report me to the quidditch governing board.
When I find Scrope I must convince him to tell me my own password. It’s no surprise: “Always pure.” In French.
Belching, I dash behind a screen as the potion wears off. Now to go to the headmaster’s office.
Niamh’s portrait awaits me. She instructs me to read a magical book on a pedestal. When I do, I’m sucked into the fable, with its bare illustrative style.
I must find Niamh in this world. First I must locate the Invisibility Cloak by sneaking past Death and his minions. (I abhor this quest, lol. I got caught and had to restart from a checkpoint.)
Now that I’m invisible I can easily acquire the next Hallow, the wand. It leads to a brutal fight with only four spells I can use and a group of shadowy trolls.
The mysterious stone, the final Hallow, leads me through a group of mourners in a graveyard. Niamh lies dead on the sarcophagus, and I resurrect her. But she’s only a shadow; death cannot be defeated. Light cannot exist without dark.
She leads me to her pensieve. In color I see her memory.
Niamh and Isidora walk together outside of Hogwarts. Isidora, face alight, is so excited to use this magic. She’s conferred with a goblin (Bragbor, we learn later) to make silver containers to hold the emotions she’s pulling from people. Niamh is surprised she’s still practicing this. Without Niamh’s permission, Isidora raises her wand and pulls an emotion from Niamh’s chest. Niamh strikes the wand away, but something’s been taken. Isidora lifts her wand with the swirling emotion on its tip and breathes it in — consumes it — as if it’s an elixir. She accuses the Keepers of fearing this great power. She exalts in it. As Isidora walks away, Niamh presses on her chest. She’s been violated.
I return to the Map Chamber.
San Bakar, the fourth Keeper, steps into his portrait.
I ask him what Isidora was doing in the memory; how did she breathe in emotion and how did it give her power? Bakar thinks I’m too curious. He’s reluctant to share his final memory with me. (This is a railroad option. My character will always be made to look greedy to him.)
Wait and hone your magic, in other words.