After a very nice dinner laid out by the Greengrass house elves, Matthias took them and Astoria down to the basement of the main house.
"What we've done is taken your idea and expanded on it, Harry," he explained, leading them over to the wall at one end of the basement.
He reached out and tapped three bricks at about hip height, only for all the bricks in the shape of an archway to quickly fade out as if they weren't there. Behind it was a long, straight tunnel, wide enough for two people to pass one another. If Harry had his bearings right, it headed directly under the outlier house at that end of the main house.
"This is similar to the magic the goblins use for some of the lower-risk vaults," explained Matthias. He then pointed through the arch to where a brick jutted out a little. It was also about hip height off the ground. "From within the tunnel, you just need to lightly press on that brick to open it from that side.
"Here's where we expanded on your idea, Harry. This tunnel runs from this basement, to the basement of the east house. In case of attack, we can travel from one house to the other without going above ground."
He then pressed a brick jutting out slightly at hip height on the inner wall of the basement and waited until the bricks faded back into existence, again. He then pointed to the bricks he pressed to open it. "To open it, you press this one... then, this one... and back to the first one; once each. The first one always has this little engraving on it; and the second one is always two to the right."
The four nodded back so Matthias knew they understood.
"Alright. Let's go see the tunnel to the west house..."
After showing them the same idea was used to get through to the basement of the west house, he then moved to the back wall of the basement where stood a large set of stacks of storage boxes.
"This one's a little different as it should only ever be used when all is lost for Greengrass Farms and we need to evacuate," he said firmly, looking at each of them. Once he was satisfied they all understood, he continued by pulling a small slip of parchment out of his pocket. Handing it to each of them in turn, Harry saw it had written on it, 'The escape tunnel entrances are on the south wall of the basement of the main house and the back wall of the storeroom in the stables'.
Harry felt the knowledge slip into his consciousness. Looking up he saw a blank section of wall suddenly appear between two sets of stacks of boxes against the wall where, before, he only saw one set of stacks.
Once Hermione, who was the last to read the note and look up, was ready Matthias moved forward and pressed on a single brick at hip height between the stacks. Again, bricks faded away to leave an archway.
Turning back to them, he said, "This is quite a hike. Follow me."
He then turned back and walked through the arch, and kept walking.
Astoria and Daphne were quick to follow, and Harry and Hermione brought up the rear. As they walked in a set of magical candles affixed to the wall in sconces began to burn.
The passageway went in about five feet before it 'jinked' to the right and continued in a straight line. Harry did some calculations and determined they were heading direct for the stables.
After about five minutes of walking they came to a ladder affixed to the left hand wall going up. Matthias turned to them and said, "This is the ladder leading down from the storeroom in the stables. Directly above us is a trapdoor you're now able to see when you go into the stables. You are not to use this tunnel as a way to get from the stables to the house or vice versa."
"Linked Fidelius charms?" asked Hermione.
"Yes," he replied. "Don't ask me how they did it because I have no idea."
With a nod back from Hermione, Matthias again turned and headed deeper into the tunnel, which again took a kink to the right before continuing on in a straight line. This time they went for quite a distance; almost double the distance it was to the stables. Eventually they came to a dead end.
Matthias then backed up the passageway about twenty feet and looked at the wall. Eventually, he spotted what he was looking for, and pressed three bricks in sequence centre, left and right. And, this time, a heavy door appeared.
He pulled it open and held it open for everyone to enter.
Inside, it was a reasonably large room. On one wall appeared four large mirrors with the smokiness Harry related to his communications mirror. At the end of the room was a shelf with about a dozen children's rope quoits; each with a little tag hanging from it. And, opposite the mirrors was a long bench. "Alright," said Matthias, making sure he had the attention of the four. "Right here we're somewhere under the wooded area out the other side of the stables. Even I don't know the exact location. However, it is outside our house wards but inside our Muggle Repelling wards.
"Anyone know why this room is not at the end of the outside tunnel?" he suddenly asked.
Hermione was the first to respond. "It's so, if someone out to do harm managed to get past the Fidelius and run down the tunnel, they'd end up looking at the end of the tunnel for where everyone went."
"Precisely," said Matthias. He then turned and indicated the quoits. "Those are emergency portkeys. I will not tell you where they take you, but it is to a secure location. Your not knowing where they go is part of the security. They are voice activated and the activation phrase is written on each of the tags you see attached to them."
He then turned to the mirrors and firmly said, "Activate mirrors."
All four mirrors appeared to come online like a CCTV system. One was showing the front of the house from a distance, but not too far away you couldn't see anything. The second showed a similar view of the back of the house. The third showed the stables and the area around it. And the fourth showed the area outside the entrance to the tunnel in the basement.
"This is an idea I got from Hermione's father, Ant, and Harry's godfather, Sirius," explained Matthias. "He called it... See See Teevy..." 'Close enough,' thought Harry.
"As you can see on the mirrors it shows what's going on around the outside of the house and stables. It is not here for you to use it to spy on our guests. It is here to monitor enemy movements if or when we're attacked. If you ever have to come to this room, I expect you to immediately portkey out of here. Understood?"
Once he received agreements from the four, he continued, "This room also has other features related to the security of the Farm. There are specialised war wards you do not need to know about. If necessary Jelly can tell you, but he's been instructed not to tell you unless you are in this room and the Farm is under attack; so, please, do not ask.
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