DISCLAIMER
I do not own Harry Potter ... but this chapter officially makes this fanfic the longest one I've ever written and I'm not even done with the first year of eight ... lord help me
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Harry would be lying if he wasn't nervous going on alone.
The comfort of having his friends with him was essential.
He wouldn't have gotten this far without them.
And so how could he continue without them?
But they all had a job to do.
Hermione needed to get Dumbledores attention.
Ron needed taking care of.
And Bel needed to be the one to do that.
That left him to go on.
But what he didn't know is that he wouldn't exactly be alone.
As Harry walked down a long set of stone steps, he arrived at a much smaller room compared to the other ones.
Dead in the centre stood two things.
One was an object. A mirror.
The other was a person. They were standing in front of the mirror.
Harry immediately identified the mirror as the Mirror of Erised.
But the person standing in front of the mirror was not the person he thought it would be. It wasn't Professor Snape.
It was Professor Quirrell. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.
"You?" Harry asked, as he came to a stop on the stone stairs leading into the room.
Professor Quirrell turned around to face him.
"No. It ... it can't be. Snape ... he was the –", Harry started as he walked down a few more steps.
"Yes, he does seem the type, doesn't he? Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-t-tuttering Professor Quirrell?" Quirrell cut Harry off.
His entire demeanour in this room was vastly different to the one Harry had seen on the professor all year.
Conniving, calculating, eery.
"But ... but that day, during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill me", Harry remembered.
If it hadn't been for Bel, he would've fallen off his broom.
"No, dear boy. I tried to kill you. And trust me, if Snape's cloak hadn't caught fire and broken my eye contact, I would have succeeded. Even with Snape muttering his little countercurse", Professor Quirrell spat.
"Snape was trying to save me?" Harry thought out loud.
"I knew you were a danger to me right from the off. Well, you and your little friends. Especially after that business with the troll", Quirrell continued.
"So you let the troll in!" Harry exclaimed.
"Very good, Potter, yes. Snape, unfortunately, wasn't fooled. Whilst everyone else was running about the dungeon, he went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again. He rarely left me alone", Quirrell said as he turned back to face the mirror.
Harry felt his scar begin to burn once more.
"But he doesn't understand. I'm never alone. Never", Quirrell added in a mutter.
"Now, what does this mirror do? I see what I desire. I see myself holding the stone. But how do I get it?" the man raised his voice again.
"Use the boy".
A voice that didn't belong to either individual sounded out in the room.
Harry immediately glanced around to try and locate who was speaking.
But he saw no one else.
"Come here, Potter! Now!" Quirrell yelled and turned back to face Harry.
The boy found himself walking towards the professor, stopping in front of the mirror.
It would be unwise to disobey his orders at this stage.
He didn't quite know what exactly was going on.
Or the true danger he was in.
"Tell me, what do you see?" Quirrell asked.
Harry looked into the mirror.
He waited for the figures of his parents to appear above him, just as they had done the last time he was in the mirrors presence.
But something else happened.
The reflection of himself reached into his pocket and pulled out a red stone.
The Philosopher's stone.
Harry felt his eyes go wide as he watched the powerful object being in his possession.
His reflection winked at him before reaching down and placing the stone back in his left pocket.
Harry then reached down just as his reflection did, and when his hand touched his left pocket, he felt something in there that wasn't there before.
The stone was actually there.
He actually had it.
"What is it? What do you see?" Quirrell demanded upon seeing the boy's reaction to finding the stone in his possession.
"I'm shaking hands with Dumbledore. I've won the house cup", Harry chose to reply.
Perhaps he could keep the professor from knowing the truth.
Only he could see what the mirror showed him.
Bel and Ron proved that to him at Christmas when they couldn't see his parents, but instead saw something else that he himself couldn't see.
"He lies".
The mysterious voice called out into the room again.
"Tell the truth! What do you see?" Quirrell yelled at Harry who kept his mouth firmly shut.
"Let me speak to him".
That voice again.
"Master, you are not strong enough", Quirrell spoke as he glanced away from Harry.
"I have strength enough for this", the voice replied.
Professor Quirrell reached up and started to unwrap his purple turban from his head.
Harry chose this moment to start backing away from the man.
With each step he debated calling out to Bel.
But he found himself staying silent.
Ron needed her more than he did right now.
And he didn't want to put his friends in more danger than he already had done.
Friendship and bravery.
That's what she had told him.
Think about keeping your friends safe.
Be brave.
Harry focused on doing both of those things as Professor Quirrell finished unwrapping his turban.
When he finally removed it, Harry looked into the mirror.
What he saw made his heart stop.
There was a face on the back of Quirrell's head.
It was grey and its eyes were red.
"Harry Potter ... we meet again", the face spoke, it's voice matching the one that had called out earlier.
Immediately, Harry knew who he was in the presence of.
"Voldemort", he breathed out, now standing back on the stone steps.
"Yes. You see what I've become? See what I must do to survive? Live off another. A mere parasite. Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body of my own. But there is something that can. Something that, conveniently enough, lies in your pocket", Voldemort said.
Harry immediately glanced down at his pocket.
The truth was out.
And he couldn't let Voldemort get his hands on the stone.
So, he did the only thing he thought of to do.
Run.
"Stop him!" Voldemort called out as Harry ran up the stone steps.
With a snap of Quirrell's fingers, a wall of fire appeared in between Harry and his exit, trapping him in the room.
"Don't be a fool. Why suffer an horrific death ... when you can join me and live", Voldemort bargained.
"Never!" Harry yelled back immediately.
Voldemort let out a strained laugh.
"Bravery. Your parents had it too. Tell me, Harry, would you like to see your mother and father again?" the dark wizard asked.
Harry glanced back to the mirror, and beside the reflection of Voldemort's face appeared his parents once again.
"Together we can bring them back", Voldemort stated.
Harry stared at his parents, hoping they would give him a sign of what to do.
But they stared at him blankly.
Voldemort took notice that it wasn't provoking the reaction he needed.
"How wonderful would it be for your friends to finally be able to meet them. But it doesn't just need to be your parents that could return. How about that girl ... Bel? Imagine how delighted she would be to reunite with her family. One that she lost, just as you did", Voldemort sneered.
Harry's parents were suddenly joined by two different adults in the mirror.
The man had raven black hair and two distinctly different coloured eyes. The left being a dark brown, almost black, with the right being a shade of forest green. There was a certain mystery to him, as if he was harbouring a world of secrets.
The women was the spitting image of Bel. Wild blonde curls and blue eyes. Absolutely, undeniably beautiful and letting off an aura of purity and kindness.
Harry watched as the women smiled softly at him, reminding him of Bel's own smile.
He could see her parents.
Something that she herself had never done.
It was what he wanted for her.
It was why he bought her to the mirror in the first place.
And it was one thing for him to give up the possibility of seeing his parents again, but how could he answer for her?
"Yes. I can see you don't wish to let her down. She would be so upset if she were to find out that you denied her her heart's desire. To finally know her family", Voldemort continued, noticing Harry's expression softening.
At his words, something clicked inside of Harry.
Her heart's truest desire.
That's what the mirror showed them.
Bel hadn't seen her parents.
She had seen herself being normal. Without her wand and the danger that came with it.
A danger that would only increase if Voldemort was around.
So, if Harry were to give his best friend her heart's desire, he would have to stop Voldemort from returning to power.
"All I ask is for something in return", Voldemort added.
Harry tried his best to conceal his thoughts.
There was no way that he was giving Voldemort the stone.
Friendship and bravery.
Those would be the weapons that would help him fight.
Harry slowly took the stone out of his pocket and held it in his hand.
"That's it, Harry. There is no good and evil. There is only power ... and those too weak to seek it", Voldemort said.
Unearned power and relentless training. There are more important things.
Bel's voice sounded out in his head.
She was living proof that Voldemort's words were lies.
There is good and evil.
Bel is good and she battles the evil.
And she is the most powerful person he knows.
"Together, we'll do extraordinary things. Bel can join us, too. Just give me the stone!" Voldemort concluded, getting more and more aggravated with each passing second.
Harry saw his and Bel's parents disappear in the mirror.
That's when he knew Voldemort's words were all false.
"You liar!" Harry yelled.
"Kill him!" Voldemort commanded.
Professor Quirrell jumped forward and flew across the room, colliding with Harry and forcing him down.
Harry dropped the stone and tried to reach over to grab it, however he was being held down by the professor, who had his hands around Harry's neck, slowly applying more and more pressure.
The boy was struggling to breath, and knew that he couldn't reach the stone if he was dead.
And so he bought his right hand up to the professor's hand around his neck to try and prise it off him.
What happened next wasn't exactly what he thought would occur.
Smoke started to spill out underneath Harry's hand and he watched the man on top of him start screaming in pain.
Professor Quirrell removed his hand from Harry's throat and took a step back.
Harry watched as the hand he had touched started crumbling away to ash.
"What is this magic?" Professor Quirrell yelled as he watched his hand dissolve into thin air.
"You fool, get the stone!" Voldemort called out.
Harry glanced backwards at the stone and knew what he had to do.
Rather than grab it, he stepped towards Quirrell just as the man lunged forward to pick up the magical object.
Harry placed both of his hands on Quirrell's face, holding them in place as he watched the man recoil in pain.
Once he took his hands back, Quirrell stepped backwards, and Harry watched in horror as his entire body turned into crumbly pieces of burnt ash.
The figure held up its hand in his direction and took a step forward before crashing to the floor and completely vanishing.
Harry stared at the abandoned pieces of clothing lying on the steps in front of him as he regained his breath.
He had no idea what had just happened, or how he did what he did, but all that mattered was that it worked.
After glancing down at his hands, Harry quickly spun around and saw the stone still sat on the steps.
He let out a sigh of relief and leaned down to pick it up.
As he turned it in his hand, he glanced at the wall of fire that was still keeping him in the room.
He needed to get out somehow, and just so happened to know a girl who could help him.
But just as he was about to call out for Bel, the sound of a collecting breeze came from behind him.
Harry turned to see a cloud of dark smoke had formed in the air.
The face of Voldemort appeared and yelled as it charged directly at him.
Harry only managed to take one step back before the cloud hit him in the chest, flying straight through him.
And then, everything went black.
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The second Harry was out of Bel's sight, she turned her attention back to Ron.
He appeared to be sleeping soundly.
But no matter how many times Bel shouted his name or tried to shake him awake, he didn't open his eyes.
Bel knew he needed to be taken to the nurse, but she refused to leave until she knew Harry was safe.
Her ears were at full alert for even the faintest yell that signalled he needed help.
But she heard nothing.
That made her both relaxed and uneasy at the same time.
She had no idea what Harry was currently facing, but if the past rooms had been any indication, it wasn't something pleasant.
To pass the time, and to try and distract herself, Bel tried to clean herself up slightly.
She wiped as much dirt off her face and hands as she could, but considering they were both covered in dust she ended up spreading it around more.
The blood on her face and hands had dried up now. As had the blood on Ron.
Every small noise she heard made her snap her attention to each door.
The one Harry left through first, the one they entered through second.
She hoped that Dumbledore would come running in with Hermione and relieve her of her stress.
His presence would mean they were safe.
That they had made it.
But each noise would eventually turn back into silence.
I want to understand something.
Bel heard the familiar voice that had plagued her mind since the day she left Ollivanders.
"What would that be?" Bel asked.
How did you find the strength to cut the spell?
"What you wanted me to do was wrong. There is always another way to achieve what you want. A better way. One that doesn't involve dark magic", Bel explained.
Dark magic, light magic. It doesn't matter what you label it.
It is power.
"What I did was show you that whilst it may all fall under the same word, it's how you use it that matters. I will always use my power for good. And now I'm strong enough to get on just fine without you, if you want to be used at all, you have to listen to me. To compromise", Bel replied.
She was in the position of wielding great amounts of power.
That power can be dark or light. But whatever it could be didn't matter.
It didn't matter because it totally depended on the person channelling it.
Bel had known that since her first day of training.
If she didn't use her wand at all, it wouldn't have the option of displaying its power at all. No matter what kind it produced.
Bel's nature, reinforced and kept strong by her friends, meant that whatever power she had would be used for good.
Call it light magic if you will, but she would fight against the type of magic her wand was infused with.
And now her wand finally understood that.
It understood that she was its equal, but not in the way it initially thought.
She wasn't its equal in terms of matching its power that happened to be dark.
She was its equal in terms of counteracting that darkness.
So it had no choice but to compromise with her.
She had the strength to keep it at bay, or to not let it fulfil its basic purpose at all.
And it had failed in getting through to her before she came to that realization.
The credits for that go to her mentors and her friends.
Making them the very things that have helped her the most.
Bel felt a weight lift off her shoulders knowing that she was finally in the next step of her battle.
It was going to be a series of small fights, but this one had been a victory like no other.
She felt in control.
And she intended to grasp onto that control and never let go.
As Bel was allowing herself to feel relief for the first time all year, she heard a yell coming from behind the door Harry had left through.
Immediately, she stood up and ran forward towards it.
But she stopped herself short and turned back to face Ron.
She couldn't leave him here unprotected.
Bel raised her wand and pointed it at the ground just in front of her unconscious friend.
"Protego Totalum. Repello Monstrum. Fianto Duri", she repeated three times over.
A small bubble of protection formed over her friend, sealing him into safety.
Bel then turned on her heel to head through the door, but she was stopped still by a small dark cloud hovering in her path.
She furrowed her eyebrows and clutched her wand tightly in her right hand as she analysed the mysterious cloud.
"It's good to finally see you again", a voice called out from the floating dust.
Its tone was eerily genuine.
"Who are you?" Bel demanded as she took a small step forward, eager to show she was not afraid.
"Someone you will come to know very well", the voice replied before immediately flying past her and out the entrance door.
Bel didn't have time to process what had just happened as she quickly ran through the door and down a long set of stone stairs.
At the bottom was a wall of raging fire.
"Harry!" Bel yelled out over the sound of the roaring flames.
No reply.
Bel felt herself begin to panic and raised her wand to point at the fire.
"Reducio", she called out and the flames parted to form a small gap in the centre.
Bel ran through and laid eyes on Harry lying unconscious on the steps.
She looked around expecting to see Professor Snape standing in the room, but saw that there was no one else there, only a familiar mirror standing in the centre.
The Mirror of Erised.
In the split-second Bel looked into the mirror, what she saw wasn't herself.
Standing in the reflection was Harry, Ron, and Hermione, smiling and unharmed.
Another thing Bel didn't have time to process.
Instead, she quickly knelt down beside Harry and checked his pulse.
He was alive.
She let out a sigh of relief and tried to wake him.
Nothing.
As she shook Harry by his shoulders, she noticed a small red stone lying just outside of his hand on one of the steps.
Bel reached forward and picked up the red stone that seemed to be glowing in the light of the fire.
"The Philosopher's Stone", she whispered to herself.
Harry had done it.
He had stopped whatever that dark cloud was from getting the stone.
He had stopped Voldemort from coming back to power.
She only wished that he was awake and safe so that she could tell him how proud she was.
Instead, Bel placed the stone safely in the waistband of her leggings before standing up.
She raised her right hand and thought of the levitating charm.
Harry's unconscious body slowly raised off the floor and floated in mid-air.
It was a rather odd sight to see, but Bel wasn't strong enough to carry him up the flight of stone steps.
This would have to do.
Bel took the lead and carefully walked through middle gap in the wall of flames, bringing Harry with her.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she placed Harry down gently next to Ron and in the protective circle she had cast.
Seeing her first two found friends in this world lying unconscious on the ground in front of her finally made her snap.
Her adrenaline had worn off, and now it hit her that her two friends were hurt.
She had failed to do her job.
She had failed to keep them safe.
"Harry, Ron. Please wake up", Bel begged as tears slowly fell from her eyes.
Neither one of them stirred.
"I'm so sorry", Bel whispered.
Her tears were uncontrollable now.
The dirt on her face clearing in the places they ran down her cheeks.
"I never wanted you to get hurt. I shouldn't have let you go off on your own, I should never have let you sacrifice yourself", Bel blurted out through her cries.
That moment was one that would place itself in the front of Bel's mind for years to come.
It would appear every time someone she cared for was in danger.
It would give her strength to fight.
To make sure it wouldn't be repeated.
As Bel was sat helpless, the entrance door to the room swung open.
The small girl snapped her head around to see Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Spout, and Flitwick all run into the room.
"Please help them", Bel found herself saying as she looked back down to her two friends.
She tuned out the shocked words of the staff members as they walked across the chess board towards her.
"It's alright, little one. You're safe now. You're all safe now", Dumbledore spoke gently as he stood beside her.
"I'm so sorry", Bel cried in a whisper.
"You have nothing to apologise for", Dumbledore whispered back.
Bel looked up at her mentor and reached into her waistband.
The staff all looked at her with wide eyes as she pulled out the Philosopher's stone.
The girl then silently held it out in the headmasters direction, who took it from her with a smile.
"Minerva, Pomana, please escort Miss Whitlock here back to the school", Dumbledore instructed.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout both stepped forward and gently lifted Bel off the ground where she knelt.
"There, there, my dear. Shushhh, shushhh", McGonagall soothed as she walked back across the chess board.
"You're okay now", Professor Sprout added.
Bel looked behind her to see Dumbledore, Snape, and Flitwick tending to Harry and Ron.
"Will they be okay?" Bel said as her voice shook.
"They'll be okay", McGonagall replied gently.
Bel kept her eyes on her friends until she walked into the next room and could no longer see them.
Walking through each of the rooms bought back the memories of herself, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all barely escaping with their lives.
It was then she remembered Hermione.
But her concern for her friend was quickly melted away when she was wrapped in a tight hug the second she climbed out of the trap door.
"Bel! You're okay! Thank God!" Hermione cried out.
Bel hugged her back tightly, not wanting to let go and face what had to happen next.
"How's Ron? How's Harry? Are they okay too?" Hermione asked as she pulled away.
All Bel could do was remember their unconscious bodies in front of her.
And how helpless she had felt.
So all she did was nod knowing they were now in safer hands and try to control her tears.
"Let's get you to the nurse", Professor Sprout chimed in.
Bel turned around to glimpse at the trapdoor one final time before she was led out of the room.
She thought to herself that it was bad luck.
That experiencing such danger in her first year was an anomaly.
But she would soon come to discover that three-headed dogs, deadly plants, violent flying keys, enchanted professors, and giant chess statues would one day be seen as a walk in the park.
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Imagining Bel crying over Harry and Ron, not being able to wake them up, makes me so upset haha
Bless her heart
Also I keep changing my wording in this chapter because I don't think the point I'm making is coming across ... like Bel has made her wand notice that it doesn't matter whether its power is good or bad, it is Bel's nature that dictates what it will be in the end
Because the owner is in a more powerful position than the wand, and now she knows about magic and Dumbledore has trained her well, it can't manipulate her as easily
This will be important wayyyyy in future chapters ... just saying
We are nearly done with the first year now y'all <3