Don't be a silent reader
Hermione leaped up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for the others, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.
Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as the others fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.
"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!" "Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck."Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.
"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest. Aishi screamed as her mouth was covered by a tendril.
"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare . . . what did Professor Sprout say? — it likes the dark and the damp —" "So light a fire!" Draco choked. "Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of bluebell flame. In a matter of seconds, The kids felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free. Harry had to help Aishi free for she was the most tied up.
"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," said Aishi as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off her face. "Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis — 'there's no wood,' honestly." "This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.
All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon — Norberta had been bad enough . . ."Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.
Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead."Do you think it's a ghost?" "I don't know . . . sounds like wings to me." "There's light ahead — I can see something moving," Draco said. They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.
"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron."Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once . . . well, there's no other
choice . . . I'll run." He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.
The others followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora Charm and Aishi kicked the door and fell backward. "Now what?" said Ron as Draco and Harry help Aishi up."These birds . . . they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione.
They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering — glittering? "They're not birds!" Aishi said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean . . ." she looked around the chamber while the others squinted up at the flock of keys.
". . . yes — look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!" Harry said "But there are hundreds of them!" Draco examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver, like the handle."
They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air with Aishi on the ground for there were only four brooms, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.
Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.
"That one!" he called to the others. "That big one — there — no, there — with bright blue wings — the feathers are all crumpled on one side." Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.
"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above. Hermione ...Draco, stay below and stop it from going down — and I'll try and catch it...Right, NOW!" Ron dived, Hermione and Draco rocketed upward, the key dodged them both as Aishi covered her eyes in fear, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand.
The gang's cheers echoed around the high chamber. They landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned — it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key retook flight, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice. "Ready?" Harry asked the others, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled the door open. The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, the light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. They shivered slightly — the towering white chessmen had no faces.
"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered."It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room." Behind the white pieces, they could see another door. "How?" said Hermione nervously. "I think," said Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen." He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.
"Do we — er — have to join you to get across?"The black knight nodded. Ron turned to the others.
"This needs thinking about. . . ." he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of three of the black pieces. . . ." The group stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally, he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you is that good at chess —" "We're not offended," said Harry quickly. "Just tell us what to do." "Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go there instead of that castle. Aishi took the queen and Draco took the other bishop"
"What about you?" Aishi said "I'm going to be a knight," said Ron. The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, two bishops, the queen, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving five empty squares that they took. "White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes . . . look . . ."A white pawn had moved forward two squares. Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's knees were trembling. What if they
lost?
"Harry — move diagonally four squares to the right." Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the
board, where he lay quite still, facedown. "Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped
along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that one of them was in danger. He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black
ones.
"We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think — let me think . . ." The white queen turned her blank face toward him. "Yes . . ." said Ron softly, "it's the only way . . . I've got to be
taken." "NO!" they all shouted. "That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I make my move and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Aishi!"
"But —"
"Do you want to stop Quirell or not?"
"Ron —" Draco said
"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative. "Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go — now, don't hang around once you've won."He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor — Hermione screamed but stayed on her square — the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.
Shaking, Aishi moved three spaces to the left. The white king took off his crown and threw it at her feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at turned to heroine. "Take him back and use the brooms if possible get help" Hermoine nodded and went to ron side as Harry, Aishi, and Draco charged through the door and up the next passageway.
"What if he's — ?" Aishi said
"He'll be all right," said Harry, trying to convince himself.
"What do you reckon's next?"
"We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's . . ." Draco said but stopped as they had reached another door. "All right?" Harry whispered.
"Go on." Harry pushed it open. A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull
their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head."I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."He pulled open the next door, none of them hardly daring to
look at what came next — but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.
"Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?" They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them 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. They were trapped. "Look!" Aishi seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and Draco looked over her shoulders to read it:
Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever 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 hidden 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.
Aishi let out a great sigh. "Brilliant," said Aishi. "This isn't magic — it's logic — a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever." "But so will we, won't we?" Draco said "Of course not," said Aishi. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple." "But how do we know which to drink?" Harry said
"Give me a minute. Draco help me you're a master at potions" Aishi and Draco read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them as Draco picked up each one and carefully looked at them. At last, they got it.
"Got it," Draco said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire — toward the Stone."
Harry looked at the tiny bottle. "There's only enough there for two of us," he said. They looked at each other. "Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" Aishi pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line. " One of You drink that," said Harry. "No, listen, get back and get Ron and Hermione. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy — go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to my mom, we need her and maybe Snape. I might be able to hold quirell myself off for a while"
"But Harry — what if You-Know-Who's with him?" Draco said. "Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again." Draco sighed and looked at him
"Harry — you're a great wizard, you know." He "I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed "Me!" said Draco. "Books! rich, good looks, And cleverness! There are more
important things you have taught me— friendship, bravery, and loyalty. Harry be careful!"
"I will drink first," said Harry taking the bottle. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"
"Positive," said Draco. He took a long drink from the bottle and shuddered before passing the bottle back to Draco. "Taste like ice." He said as he turned and walked through the black fire safely.
Both aishi and Draco saw him walk away. Then suddenly Aishi stole the small bottle from Draco who was surprised and drinked up the remaining potion. " HUFFLEPUFFS STICK TOGETHER!!!!!" "AISHI WAIT!" Bust she already ran through the fire and Draco groaned. "I swear that girl makes me worry so much that I might think I am her brother. Looks like I have to help Hermoine with Ron" He said
In the last chamber. There was already someone there ....someone they knew was bad from the beginning
Bonus
"WHY IS THE KIDS HEADING TOWARDS DANGER!!!!" KARAN SAID "AISHI LEAVE THE PLACE LET PERCY HANDLE IT"
"YOU TOO HARRY COME ON!" James said
"Relax Percy Jackson went on her adventures unprepared at 12. Your kids are both prepared in one way or another so there is going to be a fight...and they will win!" Hades said
"but my little lotussssss" Karan was on the floor crying as his wife patted his head while James bit his nails nervously
'plus if it gets too dangerous...many gods both Greek and Indian will jump in to save the soulbonds.' Hades said already preparing to protect the young ones.