Morning arrived and Harry, Ron, and Hermione woke up to see that Draco had left and Annie awake and feeling groggy. "Where am I?" said Annie confused, "Don't worry," said Harry, "You're at Hagrid's. How are you feeling?" "My head doesn't hurt as much as it did last night. It was like someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat." "Maybe we should take you to see Madame Pomfrey," said Harry. "No no no. Really. I'm fine," said Annie. "No you're not!" said Harry. "I saw the way you were holding head last night in the forest. I didn't know what was wrong with you." "Harry," said Annie, "I'm feeling much better now. You don't have to worry about me." Annie smiled at Harry, but Harry wasn't too convinced. "Huh, guys," said Hermione, "I don't mean to interrupt, but we got exams that start in a few minutes." "Oh no! Exams!!" said Annie, "I completely forgot!" "Don' worry, Annie," said Hagrid, "I'll tell them you weren' feeling well and need to miss today's exams." "Thanks, Hagrid," said Harry. "But what if they fail me for not showing up?" Annie said in a panic. "What if they don't allow me back next year?" "Relax!" said Hagrid, "The professors will understand. Now you three needa get goin'. You're gonna be late." Harry, Ron, and Hermione scrambled for the door and darted across the grass to the castle.
Later that afternoon, Annie went back to sleep to rest head since was hurting again. But, then, Annie was having a horrible nightmare. It was more than a nightmare; more like... a vision. She and Harry were coming down stone steps into a room similar to one where Harry and Annie found the mirror. Flames were surrounding the room. In front of her was the mirror Harry and Annie discovered and a person standing right in front of it. The person turned around to look at Annie and to her horror... It was Voldemort. He was slowly coming toward them reaching out his cold-stone hand to try and grab Harry. Then chills came down Annie's spine when she heard the bone-chilling voice of Voldemort. It was more like hissing than talking. "Give me the stone!!" said Voldemort. "Give... meeee.... the stone!!!" At the same this nightmare was unfolding, Annie's head started to hurt severely again. She gripped Hagrid's blanket that was covering her in pain and screamed in agony. "AAAAAHHHH!!!!" Annie yelled. "AAAAH!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!! Hagrid was outside doing some chores when he heard the screams and ran inside. "Annie!" said Hagrid, "Are you alright?" "NOOO!!!! NOOOOO!!!!" Annie yelled. "PLEASE!!! NOOOO!!! DON'T KILL HIM!! PLEASE!!!!" "ANNIE!!" yelled Hagrid, "Wake up!!! You're having a nightmare!!" Annie bolted upright grabbing her head. "Right," said Hagrid once Annie finally woke up, "I'm takin' you to Madame Pomfrey. No excuses!" "No!!" said Annie, "I have to go and warn Harry!! He's in danger!" Annie got up and ran out the door before Hagrid to reach her. She tripped down the steps of Hagrid's hut and got up on her feet quickly still feeling pretty dizzy and the pain subsided slightly and ran as fast as she could toward the castle.
Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had completed of their exams and were walking outside along the courtyard. "I've always heard Hogwarts' end of the year exams were frightful," said Hermione as they walked, "But I found that rather enjoyable." "Speak for yourself," said Ron. As the two were talking, Harry's scar started to hurt again. "All right there, Harry?" asked Ron concerned for Harry. "My scar," said Harry, "It keeps burning." "It's happened before," said Hermione. "Not like this," said Harry. "Perhaps you should see the nurse." "I think it's a warning," said Harry, "It means dangers coming. Uhh!!" "HARRY!!!" yelled Annie. "Annie?!" said Harry. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at Hagrid's resting." "Harry," said Annie trying to catch her breath. "I had a dream... Actually... it was more that a dream... it was like... a vision or something... "A vision?" said Ron. "Right. You definitely need to see Madame Pomfrey." "No!! I'm not gonna see Madame Pomfrey!" said Annie. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other confused. "What do you mean... a vision?" said Harry. "Look!" said Annie, "I can't explain what happened. But... I have to warn you. It's..." "What?" said Harry impatiently. "What is it?" "I don't know exactly what or who I saw in this 'dream'." said Annie. "I couldn't tell if it was Snape or Voldemort or who it really was. It was all a blur. But, whoever it was, it was coming after you and the stone." "It was most likely Snape that you saw. Where did you see him?" said Harry. "I don't know," Annie said trying to remember what she saw, "But, we were a pretty big room. The room that was kinda like the room where we found that giant mirror when we saw our parents for the first time in the mirror. This person was standing right in front of the mirror. And he turned around and... You were there, Harry. You were standing next to me. And I was telling the person to not kill you. And then... I heard him say... 'Give me the stone, Give me the stone'. Harry... someone's after the Sorcerer's stone and whoever it is wants it badly... We need to tell Dumbledore and stop this person from getting a hold of that stone before he kills you or me or both of us." "Okay, okay," said Harry hugging Annie who was the verge of tears. "Just calm down. We'll think of something."
"But there's a problem," said Ron. "How are we supposed to find this room you speak of? Hogwarts has thousands of rooms. It'll take us days to find it and we don't have much time." "Wait a minute," said Hermione. "You're forgetting one place that nobody's been to before except us... underneath the trapdoor." "Have you gone mad?" said Ron, "The last thing we want is to get our leg taken off by some three-headed man-eating monster." As Ron and Hermione were talking, Harry was completely ignoring them and staring off into the distance of Hagrid's hut. "Harry?" said Annie, "What is it?" "Of course," said Harry and darted for the hut with everyone followed after him. "Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and a stranger shows up and just happen to have one?" said Harry, "I mean, how many people wander around with dragon eggs in their pockets? Why didn't I see it before?" "Yeah, okay?" said Annie confused, "But what does this have to do with Voldemort?" But Harry couldn't stop to answer. "Hagrid," said Harry. "Why hello, Harry," said Hagrid. "Uh... We might have a slight problem. You see..." But Hagrid stopped himself when he noticed Annie was standing behind Harry. "Blimey me, Annie!!" said Hagrid astonished to see Annie. "Where do you get at runnin' off like tha'? You scared me half to death wit' your bloody screamin'." "Sorry, Hagrid," said Annie, "But it was urgent. I needed to see Harry right away." "Who gave you the dragon egg?" Harry continued. "What did he look like?" "I don't know," said Hagrid. "I never saw his face. He kept his hood up." "The stranger, though," said Harry. "You and he must have talked." "Well, he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after," said Hagrid. "I told him. I said, 'After Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem.'" "And did he seem interested in Fluffy?" said Harry. "Well, of course," said Hagrid. "He was interested in Fluffy! How often do you come across a three headed dog, even if you're in the trade? But I told him. I said, 'The trick with any beast is to know how to calm him. Take Fluffy, for example, just a play him a bit of music and he falls straight to sleep.'" Everyone's jaws dropped. "I shouldn't have told you that," said Hagrid. Then everyone ran off back to the castle. "Where you going?!?! Wait!!" said Hagrid.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie ran inside Professor McGonagall's classroom and down the aisles between the desks passing by a ghost and stopping directly in front of Professor McGonagall's desk. "We have to see Professor Dumbledore! Immediately!!" said Harry. "I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here," said McGonagall, "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left immediately for London." "He's gone?! Now? But this is important," said Harry. "What do you mean he left, Professor?" said Annie, "This is urgent! It's about..." Annie wasn't sure if she should be the one to tell Professor McGonagall. After all, they were in the enough trouble already for helping Hagrid release a dragon in the middle of the night. "It's about the Sorcerer's Stone," said Harry finishing for Annie. "How do you know?" said McGonagall completely shocked. "Someone's going to try and steal it!" said Harry. "I don't know how you four found out about the stone, but I can assure you it is perfectly well-protected. Now would you go back to your dormitories? Quietly." Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie were about to turned around when McGonagall said, "Also, Ms. Potter, you do realize you missed a whole day's worth of exams?" "Yes, Professor," said Annie, "I'll make it up. I promise." "I sure hope so," said McGonagall, "You have until the end of the day, Ms. Potter. I expect you'll be here before dinner. Otherwise, you will have to repeat year one." Annie gulped and said, "Yes, Professor." They left McGonagall's classroom feeling defeated; like they lost to Slytherin in a Quidditch game. Outside McGonagall's classroom and down the hallway, Harry stopped Hermione, Ron, and Annie and said, "That was no stranger Hagrid met in the village. It was Snape, which means he knows how to get past Fluffy." "And with Dumbledore gone..." said Hermione. "We're doomed," interrupted Annie. Suddenly, Professor Snape appeared behind them. "Good afternoon," said Snape. Everyone jumped from the sound of Snape's cold voice. "Now, what would four young Gryffindors such as yourselves be doing inside a day like this?" "Uh..." said Hermione tongue-tied. "We... We were just..." "You want to be careful," said Snape. "People will think you're... up to something." He glared down at Harry and Annie when he said this and walked off in the direction of the staff room. "Great," said Annie, "Any ideas as to what we should do now?" "We go down the trapdoor. Tonight," said Harry.
That night in the Gryffindor common room, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie crept down stairs and walked across the floor, when suddenly they were stopped dead in their tracks with the of croaking. "Trevor," said Harry. Neville's toad, Trevor was croaking on one of the armchairs staring at them. "Trevor, shoo!" said Ron trying to make the toad go away so they could go through the portrait hole. "Go! You shouldn't be here!" "Neither should you," said a voice from one of the armchairs. It was Neville Longbottom. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?" "Now, Neville," said Harry reassuringly, "We were..." "No!!" said Neville determined to stop them. "I won't let you!" "Neville, please," said Annie, "We'll explain later, but for now we need you to get out of the way and keep your voice down." "You'll get Gryffindor in trouble again!" said Neville completely ignoring Annie. "I-I'll fight you!" "Seriously?!" said Annie, "You'll fight us?" "I'll do it! I swear!" said Neville. "Neville," said Hermione, "I'm really, really sorry about this..." Hermione pulled out her wand and said, "Petrificus Totalus!" Suddenly Neville became frozen and fell backward onto the floor. Hermione put her wand back in her pocket. Ron gulped and said, "You're a little scary sometimes, you know that? Brilliant, but scary." "Petrificus Totalus," said Annie, "It's the full body-bind," said Hermione. "I'll have to remember that one the next time I see Malfoy," said Annie. "Let's go," said Harry. Everyone went around Neville and apologized as they went by, but Ron said, "It's for your own good, you know." "Ron!" said Annie finding it rather rude. "What I'm just saying," said Ron.
After leaving the common room, Harry slipped on the cloak over all four of them. He was surprised that the cloak could fit all of four of them at once. As they snuck along the corridor in their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like one of the ghosts swooping around the corridor to make sure no one was sneaking around after hours. They finally made it to the third floor corridor without a hitch. "Ow!" said Hermione, "You stood on my foot!" "Sorry," said Ron. "Now you know how I feel when I'm under this cloak with another person," said Annie. Right in front of them was the door they were all dreading to go in again. Hermione pulled out her wand and said, "Alohomora." The door unlocked and opened. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie crept inside the room quietly preparing to hear a growl or bark from the three headed dog, but they didn't hear it. They only heard... snoring. "Wait a minute...," said Ron. "He's... sleeping." As he said this, a rush of air came from the dog's large nose and the invisibility cloak blow off them. "Snape's already been here," said Harry. "He's put a spell on the harp." They approached the dog quietly and carefully. "Uh," said Ron. "It's got horrible breath!" The dog's breath came rushing over them nearly knocking them over as they walked. Then Harry looked down to see that dog's paw was covering up the trapdoor. "We have to move its paw," said Harry. "What?!" said Ron. "Are you insane?" said Annie, "What if he wakes up and starts devouring us?" "He won't!" said Harry, "Now come on!" Everyone crouched down looking terrified to even touch the dog's paw. "Okay," said Harry. "Push!" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie pushed with all their might and trying not to wake the sleeping beast. Every now and then the dog would make a grunting sound it would startle them. Harry bent down to pull open the trapdoor. "Help me," said Harry as tried to pull. Annie bent down to help and the door swung up and open. They looked down the pinch black hole. It didn't appear to have a bottom and there was no way of getting down without jumping in. "I'll go first," said Harry. "Don't follow until I give you a sign. If something bad happens, get yourselves out..." As Harry was talking, everyone didn't seem to notice that the three-headed dog was waking up from his slummer and suddenly noticed that the room became super quiet. "Does it seem a bit... quiet?" said Harry. "Yeah," said Annie becoming extremely worried. "Too quiet." "The harp," said Hermione, "It stopped playing." Then a massive string of drool came slowly down and landed on Ron's shoulder. "Ew! Yuck! Ugh!" said Ron. All of a sudden, the once sleeping three-headed dog was standing right over the four growling and barking and thrashing around until it broke the harp and ripped off the trapdoor by its hinges. "Jump!!! GO!!!" yelled Harry. Everyone dove in quickly one at a time before the dog could dive after them.
They were falling... falling... There was blackness all around them. And then... FLUMP!! They landed on something soft and plant-like. "Woah!" said Ron. "What is this?" Annie asked as she poked it to see if it will do anything. "Dunno," said Harry, "Some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall." "Lucky it's here, really," said Ron. But at that moment, the plant started moving toward them. "Woah!" said Harry. "Guys!" said Annie who started to panic, "What's happening??" The plant wrapped around everyone below the neck; their ankles, legs, arms, and torso were tied up by endless vines. It was like giant pythons straggling their prey. They struggled to free themselves, but it was no use. The more they struggled the worse it got. The plant gripped and wrapped them tighter and tighter faster to where they couldn't move or even breathe. "Stop moving!! All of you!" said Hermione, "This is Devil's Snare. You have to relax. If you don't, it will only kill you faster." "Oh that's reassuring!!!" said Annie. "Kill us faster?!" said Ron. "Oh, now I can relax!" Hermione gave a smirk and suddenly... she was sucked in down below. Ron, Harry, and Annie were shocked. "Hermione!!" they screamed. "Hermione! Are you okay?" said Annie. "Now what are we gonna do??" said Ron. Then they heard Hermione's voice coming from somewhere, but didn't know where. "Just relax!" said Hermione. "Hermione!" said Harry, "Where are you??" Then they heard Hermione's voice again. This time they heard it coming down below them. "Do what I say!" said Hermione, "Trust me!!" "Harry!" said Annie who becoming really scared, "I can't move!!" This was not the way she wanted to die. Not like this. Harry ignored everything around him and relaxed. Then he was sucked right through. "HARRY!!!!!" Annie and Ron screamed. Harry then fell right through and landed on the hard ground below. "Are you okay?" said Hermione. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," said Harry. "Harry!!" said Annie, "Please tell me you're alright!!" said Annie. "Yeah! I'm fine!!" said Harry, "But you need to relax!" "How am I supposed to relax if I don't know where you are?" said Annie trying to break free, "Help!!! I can't breathe!!!!" "Help!!!" Ron yelled. "Help me!!!" Harry looked frantically at Hermione. "We've got to do something!" said Hermione. "Like what?" said Harry. "It's killing them!" "Uh!" said Hermione trying to think quickly. "I remember reading something in Herbology." As Hermione was trying to come up with something to help them, Ron kept yelling for help, but Annie sounded muffled cause the vines were covering her mouth. Everything went blurry around her and on the verge of passing out any minute from hyperventilation. She tried to breathe through her nose, but every breath she took got harder and harder cause the vines were constricting her chest and crushing her ribs. "Um Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare," said Hermione. "It's deadly fun..." "Hurry Hermione!!" said Harry who noticed in the crack of the vines that Annie was about to go in unconsciousness. "But will sulk in the sun! That's it!!" said Hermione. "Devil's Snare hates sunlight!" Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed straight upwards and said "Lumus Solem!!!" A bright beam of light shot out and the Devil's Snare shrieked and recoiled. Annie and Ron fell right through to the ground below gasping and coughing for air. Harry went over to Annie to check to make sure she was okay. "Are you alright?" said Harry. "Yeah," Annie said as she coughed and gasped. "Easy. Try and breathe," said Harry hugging Annie and looked over at Ron. "Ron, are you okay?" "Yeah," said Ron. "Whew! Lucky we didn't panic!" "Lucky Hermione pays attention in Herbology," said Harry. "Right we need to get going. Annie, can you stand?" "Yeah. I think so," said Annie trying to get up and massaging her ribs with Harry helping her up.
Then, they heard a sound. it was a soft rustling and clinking sound. "Do you guys hear that?" said Annie. "What is it?" said Hermione. "I don't know. Sounds like wings," said Harry. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie continued toward toward the sound that was coming from behind a door down a stone corridor. They entered a room that had a ceiling arched high above them and was filled with something that looked like small golden birds fluttering around the room. On the opposite side of the room was a heavy wooden door and in the center of the room was a broomstick suspended a few feet off the ground. "Curious," said Hermione, "I've never seen birds like these." "They're not birds," said Harry. "They're keys. And I'll bet one of them fits that door." "What's this all about?" said Hermione after noticing the broomstick. "I don't know," said Harry. Ron walked over to the door and took out his wand. "Strange," said Harry as he hover his hand over the broom. Ron rattled the lock and the unlocking spell, "Alohomora!" said Ron. But it failed. "Well, it was worth a try," said Ron. " "What're we going to do?" said Hermione in frustration, "There must be a thousand keys up there!" "Yeah," Annie agreed, "How do we know which key we're looking for?" said Annie looking up at the thousands of keys fluttering around above them. "We're looking for a big old fashioned one," said Ron, "Probably rusty like the handle." Everyone looked up to find a key Ron described and Harry spotted it right away. "There!" Harry said as he pointed to a key that was fluttering around slower than the rest of the keys and looked like it had a broken wing, "I see it! The one with the broken wing!" "Well," said Annie, "There's only one broomstick. Who's going?" "I'll go," said Harry. But Harry stared at the broom being very hesitant. "What's wrong?" said Annie. Harry paused for a moment, looked over at Annie and said, "It's too simple," said Harry. "If you don't wanna do it...," said Annie. "No!" said Harry abruptly, "I'm not gonna risk you getting hurt." "Oh, go on, Harry!" said Ron impatiently. "If Snape can catch it on that old broomstick, you can! You and your sister are the youngest seekers in the century!"
Harry nodded and the second his fingers gripped the broomstick all the keys came darting toward him. "Look out!!" yelled Annie who saw the swarm of keys. Harry quickly climbed on the broomstick as the keys flew around him. He swatted at them to keep them out of his face so he could grab the rusty key. The higher Harry flew the more keys got in his face and gripped into his clothes and every time a key latched on he would have to rip it off. Annie could hear Ron in the distant, "This complicates things a bit!" Harry flew off after the rusty key while the rest of the golden keys flew behind him. Annie couldn't just stand there and watch Harry struggle. She had to do something, but what she didn't know. There wasn't another broomstick that she could see. It wasn't until Harry finally snatched the key that it was over. "Catch the key!" said Harry. He zoomed by and threw the key to Annie who caught it. She ran to the lock while Harry distract the other keys. With hands shaking, Annie struggled to the get the key into the lock. "Hurry!!" said Ron, "I'm trying!!" said Annie. And at that moment, Annie dropped the key on the floor. The rusty key was bouncing around trying to make every attempt to fly with the others. Ron, Hermione, and Annie went after it. Ron tried to leap and grab the key, but it slipped out of his grip once he landed on the floor. Then Hermione bent down and grabbed it with both hands and she and Ron ran to the locked door. "Come on! Hurry!" said Annie. Hermione put the key into the lock and the door opened. Hermione, Ron, and Annie rush inside followed by Harry who flew in on the broomstick. They shut the door behind them just as the keys slammed up against the door and bounced off the stone around it.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie entered another dark room. In this room were broken pieces scattered around the perimeter of the room that neither of them could make out what they were. "I don't like this," said Hermione, "I don't like this at all." "Where are we?" said Annie. "I don't know," said Harry. "It looks like a graveyard." "A graveyard?" said Annie nervously and gulped. "Well, that's nice to have under a castle." "This is no graveyard," said Ron. He then walked up to the middle of the room and said, "It's a chessboard." Suddenly the room was fully illuminated and revealed a marble board with flames spaced apart around the board. There was also giant black and white chess pieces all of which were towering over them. Harry, Hermione, and Annie joined up with Ron looking fascinated. "Woah!" said Annie. "It's wizard's chess!" "There's the door," said Harry pointing to the door. They walked across the board toward the door, but as they reached the line of pawns in front of them, they were suddenly met with pawns that came alive drawing their swords in the shape of an X to block them from passing. Annie yelped in fear and the four of them backed up slowly as the pawns drew their swords back in into their original stance. Everyone looked at each other in shock. "Great!" said Annie, "Now what? We can't get pass these pawns." "So, now what do we do?" said Hermione. "It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room." Ron walked up in front of them and told them the plan. "All right," said Ron. "Harry, you take the Bishop's square. Hermione and Annie you'll be on either side of the Queen's side castles." "But what about you, Ron?" said Annie, "Where are you gonna be?" Ron paused for a moment and said, "I'll be a knight." Everyone took their positions while Ron mounted on one of the knight chess pieces that was in the shape of a horse. "Are you sure about this?" said Annie. "Of course I'm sure," said Ron. "Why? Do you wanna be in charge since you beat me the last time?" "I'm just checking," said Annie, "No need for sarcasm." "That's actually not a bad idea," said Harry, "You two can work together get through the game faster." "Are you completely mental?" said Ron, "As might have not recalled the last time, she beat me!" "I know!" said Harry, "I just figure if you put your guys's heads together, we can finish the game faster so we can get to the stone." "Alright then," said Ron. It was quiet for a moment when Hermione said nervously, "What happens now?" "Well," said Ron, "White moves first, and then... we play."
Then, one of the white pawn pieces on the opposite side moved forward. Ron studied the game for a moment to come up with a proper strategy. As he was pondering, Hermione asked, "You don't suppose this is going to be like... real wizard's chess, do you?" "You there!" said Ron directing one of the black pawns, "D-5!" The pawn moved foward to D-5, but then diagonally from it came a white pawn. The white pawn came to life, raised its swords and smashed the black pawn in half. "Aaaahhh!!" Annie screamed. Everyone jumped in terror at what they just witness. "I think that answers your question, Hermione." said Annie. "She's right!" said Ron, "This is going to be exactly like wizard's chess!" As the game continued, each of the black chess pieces smashed one by one with loud BOOM and CRASH. Over the chaos, Ron and Annie could be heard making the commands for each black chess piece to take a square. "Castle to E-4!" yelled Ron. SMASH!!! "Pawn to C-3!" yelled Annie. SMASH!!! BOOM!!! The Queen turned and smashed a piece. Every chess piece were being smashed into smithereens and every time each piece got smashed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie winced and a piece would be swept aside by the other white chess piece. It was getting toward the end of the game and a couple chess pieces remained standing. The Queen turned again and smashed another chess piece. Ron, Harry, and Annie examined the game. "Wait a minute," said Harry. "You understand, right?" said Ron, "Once I make my move..." "Wait!" said Annie, "If you're doing what I think doing..." "Yes, we have no choice!" said Ron. "Once I make my move, the Queen will take me... then you'll be free to check the King." "No, Ron! No!!" said Harry. "Are you insane?" said Annie. "What do you think you're doing?" "What is it?" said Hermione confused. "He's going to sacrifice himself!" said Harry. "No, Ron, you can't!" said Hermione, "There must be another way!" "Yeah," Annie agreed. "There has to be another way. What if we..." "Do you want to stop Snape from getting that stone or not?" interrupted Ron. "Harry, it's you and Annie that has to go on. I know it. Not me, not Hermione, you and Annie. I know you two can stop Snape." Harry and Annie nodded in agreement. "I sure hope you know what you're doing," said Annie. "Trust me," said Ron. "I know what I doing." There was long paused and Ron gripped the reign of the horse nervously and said, "Knight... to H-3!" Ron's horse moved in position to H-3. "Check," said Ron. Everyone was looking nervous and feeling the tension as the Queen turned and advanced toward Ron. Ron was breathing quickly and clutching the steel reigns. The Queen stopped close by Ron and then... SMASH!! "Aaahhh!!" Ron yelled as he went flying off the horse. He landed on the floor hard and completely unconscious.
"RON!!!!" everyone screamed. Hermione started walking toward Ron's motionless body when Harry stopped her. "No!" said Harry, "Don't move! Don't forget. We're still playing." Hermione stepped back in her square and Harry walked diagonally in front of the King and said, "Checkmate!" Then, the King's sword falls onto the floor with a loud clang. It was over. Harry, Hermione, and Annie ran and bent beside Ron to check on him. "He's gonna be okay, right?" said Annie concerned. "Yeah," said Harry, "He'll be alright." Then Harry looked over at Hermione and said, "Take care of Ron. Then, go to the Owlery. Send a message to Dumbledore. Ron's right... We have to go on." As he said this, Harry looked over at Annie and grinned slightly. "You two will be okay," said Hermione, "You're a great wizard, Harry. And you're a great witch, Annie. You both really are." "Not as good as you," said Harry. Hermione smiled and said, "Me? Books and cleverness? There are more important things. Friendship and bravery. And just be careful you two." "We will," said Annie. "I got your back, Harry." Harry and Annie got up and walked over to the door and Harry pushed it open. It revealed the last room. The two of them walked down a long stone staircase to an empty room with pillars around it. The Mirrorr of Erised stood right in the middle of the room. "It's just like what I envisioned," Annie whispered. There was already someone there, a man was standing right in front of the mirror. But, it wasn't Snape... and to their surprise, it's wasn't even Voldemort.
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Hey guys! I apologize again for the delay. Chapter 16 is finally done. I'll get started on Chapter 17 in the morning. As always, leave a comment if you like, have recommendations, make changes, or left out important details. One more chapter!