Chapter 320: The Non-Magical Canopy and The Paranoia of Wizards

Orion forced his racing pulse to steady, actively suppressing the jolt of paranoia that had spiked through his nervous system.

She sensed two minds, Orion thought, staring at the blonde girl skipping beside him through the snow. She doesn’t know about the System, and she doesn’t know about Parallel Processing. But her intuition is terrifyingly sharp. She perceives the ripples.

He quickly masked his unease behind his usual, cool aristocratic composure. He tilted his head, carefully calculating how to frame the single greatest logistical impasse of his upcoming bank heist without raising suspicion.

"I suppose I could use a fresh perspective," Orion said, his tone casual and conversational. "It is an environmental puzzle, really. Purely theoretical."

Luna turned her wide, silvery eyes toward him, listening intently.

"Imagine a scenario," Orion began, choosing his words with surgical precision. "Imagine there is a specific, enchanted downpour. A curtain of rain that, the absolute microsecond it touches anything magical, instantly cancels, unravels, and washes away all active spells. Charms, transfigurations, glamours, sensory cloaks... gone on contact."

He spread his hands helplessly.

"I have spent hours running the scenario through my head, Luna. If you attempt to cast a protective shield, the magical shield itself is dispelled the moment the water strikes it. If you drink a potion to protect your skin, the rain washes the potion’s enchantment away. Every magical countermeasure I formulate is rendered completely useless by the very nature of the hazard."

He looked at her, his brow furrowed in genuine, intellectual frustration. "How would you traverse that rain without losing your magic?"

Luna didn’t stop skipping. She lightly kicked a small mound of snow with the toe of her boot, humming a few notes of a disjointed tune before looking up at the starry sky.

"Oh, a rain that washes away magic?" Luna asked airily, as if discussing the migratory habits of the common garden gnome. "Well, I suppose... if that is the case... I might just carry an umbrella with me."

She continued walking forward, her radish earrings bobbing against her neck.

Behind her, Orion Malfoy froze.

He didn’t just stop walking; his entire physical body went completely, utterly rigid, locked in place like an ice sculpture in the middle of the snowy path.

His jaw went slack. His breath caught in his throat. His dark indigo eyes dilated until they were practically black, staring at the back of her plum-colored coat in sheer, mind-shattering bewilderment.

What... the... actual... fuck.

DING.

The sound inside his skull was deafening.

Before Orion could even begin to reboot his paralyzed cognitive functions, Sparkle’s blue interface materialized, expanding into a frantic, looping animation of a digital stick figure rolling on the floor and gasping for breath.

"OH MY GOD!" Sparkle shrieked in his mind, her digital laughter echoing so loudly it practically rattled his teeth. "OH MY ABSOLUTE GOD! THAT IS GENIUS! THAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE EVER WITNESSED IN ANY TIMELINE!"

The interface zoomed around Orion’s head in rapid, mocking circles.

"I can’t believe you didn’t think of that!" Sparkle wheezed, her waveform spiking with pure, hysterical delight. "You are dumb, Orion! You are officially dumber than a sack of wet dragon dung! You literally spent thirty minutes this afternoon lecturing Hermione Granger about having a rigid, one-track mind... and look at you! You are the absolute, undisputed, textbook definition of a one-track magical mind!"

Orion completely ignored the digital assault. He didn’t hear a single word of Sparkle’s mockery.

His entire consciousness had snapped into a laser-focused, desperate clarity.

A non-magical umbrella.

The realization crashed over him like a tidal wave.

Wizards were inherently, pathologically incapable of thinking outside the framework of a wand. If a magical hazard existed, a wizard searched for a magical counter-spell. The ancient goblins who forged the Thief’s Downfall had enchanted the water to purge enchantments, charms, and curses.

The waterfall didn’t destroy physical matter. It was just water! It washed away magic because magic was vulnerable to its specific frequency.

A mundane, non-magical physical barrier—a simple canopy that possessed zero magical core, zero enchantments, and zero transfigured properties—would not be dispelled by the Thief’s Downfall! The enchanted water would simply splash off the surface like normal rain! Damn it, was he getting infected by wizarding sense of logic?

Luna paused three paces ahead, turning around to find Orion standing completely frozen in the snow, looking like a man who had just watched the sky fall.

She tilted her head, curious.

Orion broke his paralysis. He lunged forward, closing the distance in a single stride, his hands reaching out and grabbing her shoulders, his eyes blazing with an intense, manic energy.

"Luna!" Orion demanded, his voice trembling with frantic urgency. "What about a high-velocity scenario?! What if this rain is falling inside a dark tunnel, and you are traveling on a moving train that has to pass through the waterfall at fifty miles an hour?!"

He shook her gently, his analytical mind testing the aerodynamic stress parameters.

"If you open a normal umbrella at that speed, the wind pressure will instantly rip the fabric apart, turn the ribs inside out, and the water will soak you anyway! How do you solve the velocity?!"

Luna blinked at his sudden, fierce intensity, but she didn’t pull away. She tapped her chin thoughtfully, rocking back on her heels.

"Well," Luna mused calmly, "normal umbrellas are made of thin cloth or paper, which is very silly in a storm. But Daddy once showed me a picture of an umbrella used by foreign guards. It was made of much harder material. Stiff, like a solid board, curved like a shield so the wind glides right over it."

She smiled up at him, entirely unbothered.

"You could just use one of those. I suppose a heavy raincoat might work too, but the wind could blow droplets onto your face. A wide, rigid board held over your head... nothing would touch you at all. It would just slide off the sides."

Orion stared down at her face.

A rigid, aerodynamic, carbon-fiber or titanium umbrella shield.

A physical, non-magical, curved canopy held over the top of the Gringotts cart. The enchanted water would cascade over the hard surface, never touching a single thread of his clothes, never making physical contact with his skin. The Polyjuice would hold. The disguise would survive.

The impossible, insurmountable barrier of the Thief’s Downfall had just been dismantled by a twelve-year-old girl who believed in Nargles.

Orion let out a sudden, loud, utterly breathless laugh that echoed across the quiet grounds.

He didn’t care about pureblood decorum. He didn’t care about his aristocratic mask.

He reached down, wrapped his arms around Luna’s waist, hoisted her clean off the snow, and twirled her around in a dizzying, joyous circle beneath the stars.

"You are an absolute genius, Luna Lovegood!" Orion laughed, spinning her through the air. "A pure, unadulterated, magnificent genius! That is perfect!"

He set her back down gently. Luna stumbled slightly, blinking against the dizzying spin, before a wide, serene, deeply delighted smile spread across her face.

"I am very glad your puzzle was solved, Orion," Luna said softly, smoothing down the front of her plum coat. "I really do love puzzles."

"HEY!"

The harsh, commanding roar shattered the quiet of the night like a whip crack.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING OUT HERE AT THIS HOUR?!"

Down the snowy path, emerging from the dark perimeter near the greenhouse archway, a figure strode aggressively toward them. A heavy crimson cloak billowed in the wind, a drawn wand held high, the glowing tip illuminating the grim, weathered face of an on-duty Ministry Auror.

The wand snapped down, leveling directly at them.

Orion’s celebratory euphoria evaporated in a microsecond.

Before the Auror could take another step, Orion moved with blinding, instinctual speed. He stepped smoothly sideways, planting his boots firmly in the snow, placing his entire body squarely in front of Luna, shielding her completely behind his back as his right hand dropped down ready to draw wand instantly, if required.