We went to the third floor to inspect it the next day after all classes had ended. There was a Cerberus inside, a Cerberus that took up the entire space between the ceiling and the floor. It was completely still, with all six of its eyes fixed on us. It had not attacked us solely because of our unexpected appearance. One of the heads suddenly lunged. I took Lou's hand in mine, and Shadow traveled her to the corner near the fat lady's portrait.
“What in Hades is a Cerberus doing in a school?” I gave a snarl. “It’s an outrage. Cerberus isn’t supposed to be in this world. How in Olympus did they even find one? These wizards shouldn’t even be able to see them."
"But, Cerebus isn't... Anyway, it's not a concern right now. It's an insult honestly. Putting a cerebus in such a small space and turning it into a watchdog of all things. But what was it protecting there? It had to be there for security, right? Otherwise, why would they bring a Cerberus into a school?"
“It must be something valuable, that wraith wants for himself.”
“What will be so valuable for the wraith to come here. The wraiths are very weak in power, that nothing more than a permanent body would be worth the effort.“What will be so valuable for the wraith to come here.” My eyes widened “ It’s not good Lou whatever is here it’s probably a very powerful substance that could probably... well only thing I can think of... Well, it’s supposed to be with some French wizard. Well, it’s supposed to be with some French wizard.”
"So, what exactly is it?"
"The philosopher's stone. It is the goal of all alchemists around the world. So far, only one person has been successful, and He has refused to reveal how. It converts all base metals to gold and creates the elixir of life."
"Elixir of life? like the one that grants immortality?"
“Well, it’s not exactly immortality. It halts aging for a while depending on the dose taken and increases your healing prowess. So you won’t die except in some extreme cases. You won’t get old as long as you keep drinking the elixir, you won’t catch disease easily and that too is healed easily.”
“And it may be able to provide body to the wraith. How come gods have allowed it to exist?”
"Yes, because it's about death or lack thereof and wealth, it falls under my father's domain, but he can't interfere with the mortal world, and he hadn't done anything wrong with it. If he had been abusing it, father would have assigned a quest or dispatched the kindly ones to find it. It's like allowing potions to exist; aren't there potions that can bring the recipient back from the brink of death? Looking at it from a different angle, it's also like cheating death. Father does not intervene in the mortal world as long as mortals achieve it without divine intervention and keep it to themselves. Nicholas... Flamel... I believe he made it all by himself, so he gets to keep it."
“So what is it doing here? Shouldn’t it be with him?”
“Of course, it should. I am not even sure if it’s really here. Well, I will ask father next time I visit the underworld.”
“Okay. You do that.” She said.“ It's weird you know how you talk about the underworld like this, like a home.”
"Because it's my home," I snapped.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Everyone is terrified of the underworld. So it's strange to hear it mentioned with such fondness."
I shrugged. "Well, it's home for me. And it's most likely due to my heritage. It's also the first place I've felt accepted. Even if it creeped me out at first, I would have liked it there."
"I guess." She replied hesitantly.
The following Sunday, I went to the underworld. Father was probably busy now, so I went to Alecto and did my underworld training. I've gotten pretty good at them now. When I went to eat lunch, Father was already there.
“Father!” I bowed. “ I had a question.”
“Well, the answer is yes. He and his wife have died or rather chose to die, one can only tolerate so many assassinations and robbery attempts you know. It can’t be destroyed by mortal methods. Well, it can, but powerful things like this tend to release a huge amount of energy when destroyed. So he left it with his apprentice to safeguard. Your job is to retrieve it. Sacrifice it in the fire. It should come here to me. Your friend can help. ” He said simply.
It's probably a godly thing but he always knows what I am about to ask and answers them without being asked. I should have been used to it by now, but it still weirds me out.
“Okay, father.”
I wandered the underworld for a while, flying around here on Skotos. Then I returned to Hogwarts.
Lou was already waiting for me. "What did he say?"
"Yes, it's the philosopher's stone, and he's given me the task of retrieving it. Since, it has changed hands, it cannot be allowed to remain in the mortal world any longer."
“Okay! But how exactly? Cerberus can't be the only form of defense."
"we'll see, I guess. Cerberus, on the other hand, can be talked to, and she may listen to me. I can always use music if that isn't an option. Then I'll send the clone first."
It was simple to talk with Cerberus. She didn't attack me as I was Hades' son. Even though she has never visited the underworld, she is still a creature of the underworld. And since father has recognized me as his son and prince, she had respect for me. It was more difficult to persuade her to let us through the trap door though. She seemed to respect Hagrid for looking after her even though she didn't like being here, so she took the job he assigned her very seriously. But I was able to persuade her by promising to take her to the underworld as well when I visited.
We had to monitor the corridor for a week to see when and who visited so that fluffy's (its the name of cerberus by the way. I know it doesn't seem fitting for a Cerberus, but Hagrid had already named her and she had accepted it, so I can't do anything about it.) journey to the underworld could be planned around it. It wasn't a difficult task either. Only Hagrid visited her, and he is easily distracted.
I had also stopped spying on Quirrell for a while. We don't know what safeguards are in place around the stone, and I can't risk going there when I'm not at full strength.
Fluffy let us through only after her third trip to the underworld. So we went to the corridor late at night and then sent a clone through the trapdoor to inspect it. Its memory came about a minute later. I grimaced.
There is a deadly vine down there where you land. It suffocates everything that touches it. I can shadow travel right next to it.” Then I Shadow traveled me and Lou right next to the deadly vine. We then walked through a stone passageway. I could hear the gentle drip of water trickling through the walls. It looked as if we were underground but I couldn’t sense anything like I normally do when I am underground. It was very confusing like my eyes and my godly sense were saying two different things. We weren’t actually underground but some kind of magical space between the third and second floor. Wait a minute! If it’s a magical space-
“Oi Lou! I think we are in some magical space. Maybe, you can sense something here as I can underground.” “Maybe. I will give it a shot.” Lou frowned and then closed her eyes as if trying to concentrate. "I can definitely sense something. It’s hard to make sense of, though. It’s like we are in different another dimension. Wait a minute. I think there is a total of seven chambers here including the Cerberus and that vine one. Other than that I can’t say anything clearly. I can’t really interpret it. There are other weird places like this through the castle. They are interconnected someway. This place I can say was added recently and is separate from that connection.”
" Okay, good job on the first try. I understand where you're coming from. It was the same for me on the first try as well. This is something you can practice later. You'll get plenty of exercises if this castle is anything like that." I stated.
"And seven chambers you say. We've already left two behind. Then we'll probably have to face five more challenges like this. Let's get started."
We arrived in a brightly lit chamber, the ceiling arching high above us. It was full of small, jewel-colored birds fluttering and tumbling all around the room – no keys, our ADHD makes spotting things like this easier. A heavy wooden door stood on the opposite side of the chamber.
I sent a clone first to check if these keys attack. It didn't, so we went across the room and tried to open the door, but no matter what we tried, it wouldn't budge.
“Can’t you shadow travel across the wall like you usually do?”
“ I don’t know. I need a proper image of my destination for the shadow to guide me through. I can travel across walls without an image because both sides have the shadow of the same wall. So I can just jump from its one shadow to another. But I don’t know if this door leads right next to it or some faraway room connected through the door. If I enter travel through shadow blindly without a destination in mind it could spit me out anywhere. I landed on mt. Everest once. I would have frozen to death if Alecto didn't come after me. So I can’t risk it.”
"OK, I get it. "We have to go through this door," she said. "Well, it's locked, so the key must be one of them, right?" she said, pointing to where the keys were flying. "Look! "There are also broomsticks."
"But there are hundreds of them." "How will we find the real one?"
Lou looked at the door's lock. "I wish we had a Hermes child here." They could probably open it without keys."
"Hey, you said you could call dead people with that stone, didn't you?" "Can't you call a dead Hermes kid?"
"Sure, I can. But they won't be present here physically and can not interact with the mortal world. They're only good for answering questions."
“Well, that's disappointing. What use is it to be a prince of the feared underworld if you can’t even do that?” “Well excuse me if I didn’t inherit the death powers, if I knew I would have inherited it instead of shadow ones.” I snarked.
“Sorry, sorry just kidding.” She said laughing. “Well anyway, we are looking for a big, old-fashioned one- probably silver like the handle. We need to catch it.” she said gesturing to the broomstick.
" But, I don’t know how to fly in a broomstick.” I complained.
“Just take one, mount it, kick the ground and you will know what to do next.” “If I don’t and fall off it, I am killing you.” I said. I hoped she was right and snatched one, mounted it, and soared up into the midst of the cloud of keys. It was really easy! It’s a shame really I can’t fly in it up in the air. We grabbed and snatched, but keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch on.
Well, we weren’t demigods for nothing. Due to ADHD spotting the correct key was easy. Catching it was the problem. I made three clones and made them fly too. “ Lou, it’s too fast. We need to corner it. We will surround it and block it from escaping. You try and catch it.” My clones and I closed in it from all four directions, but it dodged all of us. Before it could escape, Lou dived straight for it and pinned it against the stone. “Excellent Lou!” I cheered. We landed quickly, ran to the door, the key struggling in her hand, and Lou rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again.
“Ready?” Lou asked her hand on the doorknob.
I gave a nod. She yanked open the door.
The next chamber was dark, but as soon as we stepped inside, light flooded the room, revealing an incredible sight.
We were standing on the edge of a massive chessboard, behind the black chessmen, who were all taller than us and carved from what appeared to be black stone. The white pieces were facing them across the chamber. A door could be seen behind the white pieces.
I made another clone. Its shadow traveled across the room and attempted to open the door, which opened!
“Well, this one is easy.” I said. “Yeah? We probably would have needed to win the match, but you cheated your way.” “Well, it's the designer’s fault isn’t it.” I grinned. Then I took her hand, and Shadow traveled her across the room and stepped through the door. A disgusting smell filled our nostrils, making both of us pull our robes up over our noses. Standing in front of us was a troll, larger than the one on Halloween.
“Troll again?” I sighed.
I did the same as I had done on Halloween. I drew my scepter, slammed it to the ground, and forced it to hit itself with its club. I pulled open the next door and entered in, there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.
“Snape’s,” I said. “What do we have to do?”
We stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind us in the doorway. It wasn’t ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. We were trapped.
“Look!” Lou seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles.
I looked over her shoulder to read it:
Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, which ever you would find, One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead.
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine’s left side; Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend; Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; fourth, the second left and the second on the right Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.
Great! a riddle to solve. I am a child of Hades, not Athena’s. Wait a minute Athena’s child.
“ Lou, do you know the name of any dead Athena’s children?”
“Why do you need the name for? Just IM the camp. You can get help from livings to you know.” She said.
I shrugged "Okay okay, I get it. Can you call the camp?”
She took her wand and murmured a spell. A rainbow came out from the end of it. “Good that I learned a spell to create a rainbow, isn’t it. Way better than using water.”
She started mumbling the hints and pointing at different bottles. At last, she clapped her hands.
“Got it.” She said. “Smallest one will help you get forward.”
“Thanks, Annabeth,” said Lou and ended the rainbow.
“well, there is enough for only one of us.” Lou said.
“I will take it. After I see the room, I can come back to take you.”
“Okay take it.” She said handing me the bottle. I took the bottle, took a long drink from it, and walked through the black fire.
The next chamber was a medium-sized room with only a mirror in it.
I took a look around and Shadow traveled back to Lou and brought her here.
“A mirror? What do we need to do?”
I took a deep look at it. It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. I didn’t understand what that meant. When I tried to look at my reflection, I nearly screamed. There were whole crowds of people standing behind me. I was in the underworld. Father was looking proudly at me. Other gods and camp members were there too, smiling. They seemed to have accepted me. I was grinning as if nothing bad could happen to me. Then the reflection looked at me and smiled It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket — and as it did so, I felt something heavy drop into his real pocket.
Whatever this mirror was, it has granted me the stone.
“The mirror has given me the stone.” I said taking it out. “I don’t know why, though.”
"Maybe it’s because you are a son of Hades.” Lou suggested.
“Perhaps.” I replied. I then created a fire and dropped the stone into it.
“Father, I have retrieved the stone and I present it to you.”
The fire flared and died out taking stone with it. In place of stone, there was a bottle with red blood liquid in it with a note saying 'use it well.'
I took one of the bottles and handed it to Lou.
" What is it?" She asked.
"It's the elixir. Father sent it for completing the task."
"So what we are immortal now?" She asked.
"Of course not. You need the king's approval for that. Father will likely destroy the stone. You can't have a source of immortality around you know. It's only enough for three years or rather to survive three death-causing injuries or illnesses. You have to be careful in using it though. You should drink it in three shots, one each year or one after each injury. You should consider if you want to drink it before or after injury. If you drink it before the injury and you don't get any death-causing injury within three years, it will be wasted. You can use it for healing too, drink it slowly dropwise till you are completely healed. But you have ambrosia for that."
"Oh! " she said and pocketed it. " it's useful anyway."
We then returned to our dormitory and went straight to bed.
I always found it odd that Flamel gave the stone to Dumbledore to safeguard. He may be powerful but Flamel is 600 years old and kept it safe for the same time. He has likely forgotten more magic than Dumbledore remembers.