The information that Harry and Hermione had found from their night in detention had mad problems more troublesome, Lord Voldemort is essentially the one who wants the stone. He wants to be able to return to full strength so he can finish what he started ten years ago, killing Harry. As Harry sat and worried we tried to ease his mind by distracting him with the fact that the end of the year exams were coming up and as long as Dumbledore was in the castle he would not be able to come in and steal the stone. Dumbledore is the only man that Lord Voldemort is afraid of.
Things seemed to have calmed down after the dragon had been sent off, and we finished our end of term exams. Now we were one week away from ending our first year, and lounging by the school’s lake watching the resident squid lazily back-stroke itself across the inky black water. “I am so glad the teachers have let up on the homework, we can finally relax.” Ron said between bites of his sandwich he had stolen from George.
“Yes it is nice, but we still have to worry about Quirrel trying to get the Sorcerer’s stone. Do you think he will go for it while we are still at school or over the summer holiday?” I asked as more of a rhetorical question than one to be answered. We were finally getting a chance to relax and I did not want it spoiled by worrying about something beyond our control.
“I think he is stymied for now, he has to figure out how to get past Fluffy and I do not think that Hagrid is going to tell anyone how to do so.” Hermione said matter of factly.
Harry suddenly sat up from where he was laying and said, “That’s it!” Then got up and started briskly walking towards Hagrid’s hut.
The three of quickly followed him confused and asking what was it, but he would not answer our question until I reached out and grabbed his arm. “What is it Harry? Why are we rushing off to see Hagrid?”
“Isn’t it funny that the one thing Hagrid has wanted his whole life is a Dragon? Then one day a guy appears in a pub carrying one that he wager’s on a game that seems too coincidental to me. I bet it was Snape trying to get information out of him.” Harry turned around and started walking again.
“Crap I didn’t think about that. If Hagrid let it slip about how to get past him than we are in big trouble.” Hermione said picking up speed to match Harry.
When we reached the hut, Hagrid was around the back serenading his garden with a little penny whistle. “Hagrid, the guy at the pub with the dragon egg, what did he look like?”
“Blimey, ‘Arry you four are no’ still on abou’ tha’ are yah?” He asked as he set down the whistle, “Besides, he kept his hood up and I couln’ see his face.”
“What did you two talk about?” I asked hoping he would not say they discussed the three headed dog.
“He wan’ed to make sure I could handle a dragon. Na’urally I said after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy.”
Ron, becoming worried asked, “Did he ask anything about Fluffy? Did he seem interested in him?”
“Of course he was in’eres’ed in Fluffy, how of’en do you come across a three headed dog, even if you’re in the trade? I told him tha’ the best way to handle any creature is to know how to calm’em. In Fluffy’s case, just play him a bi’-of music and he falls right to sleep…I shoundn’ ha’ said that.”
After he said that, we knew we had to go to Dumbledore and explain what was going on. The only problem was, none of us knew right where his office was. Unsure of where to go, or where to look, we decided to go to Professor McGonagall’s office and demand to see him.
“I’m sorry but Professor Dumbledore left early this morning after receiving an urgent owl from the Ministry. Is there something I can help you with?”
Not thinking Harry just blurted out, “We know about the stone, and someone is going to try and steal it.”
Professor McGonagall gasped not believing him and looked to the three of us as if to confirm or deny what he had said. After we all nodded yes, she spoke, “I do not know how you found out about the stone, but I assure you no one is going to try and steal it. Now go on and leave this matter alone. I am sure Professor Dumbledore will want to have a talk with the four of you when he gets back.”
Disappointed that she didn’t believe us, we quietly walked out of her office and into the corridor. “We have to do something, with Dumbledore out of the castle Snape is going to be able to get the stone.”
“Harry go get your cloak, Hermione go trail Snape if he asks tell him you were looking for Flitwick, Ron go check that Fluffy is still awake and no-one has been there. I am going to check on Professor Quirrel.” I delegated everyone tasks and ran off to Quirrel’s office.
When I got there I had been too late, he had already left and I was not quite sure where he had gone. I ran to meet up with Hermione, but she wasn’t around Snape’s office nor was Snape. Not thinking that checking Ron would still be at his post, I headed for Gryffindor tower to try and meet Harry. Sure enough he was there with Hermione and Ron. “What happened? Quirrel was already gone when I got there.”
“Snape caught me and went to find Professor Flitwick. I panicked and came back here.” Hermione said looking flushed.
“Fluffy was still ok when I was there but I had to leave because Filch was poking around. What do we do now?” Ron said looking at Harry.
“You three stay here, I am going for the stone. If I can get to it before Snape or Quirrel it will give us an upper hand.” Harry said starting to put on his cloak.
“We are not letting you go alone. You do not know what you will face down there and may need help. I am going with you.” Hermione said firmly.
“Hermione is right, you are nuts if you think you were going alone. I am coming too.” Ron said standing up a bit straighter.
“I can’t leave the three of you to have all of the fun. Count me in, let’s make a plan and get to it.” I said putting my arms around Ron and Hermione, I was across from Harry and couldn’t reach him or else I would be wrapping him in the sort of hug as well.
“Loretta, you and I should hit the books there might be something useful in them. Ron and Harry you two should work on defensive spells in case we have to fight something down there.” Hermione said trying to think of all we needed to do.
“Right, there is no need to rush into things. They probably will not try for it until after everyone has gone to bed. We have about three hours to try and prepare for the unprepareable.” I walked upstairs to get my books to study and brought them down to Hermione.
We spent the next two hours studying and practicing everything we thought we could use, when we were sure everyone had gone to bed, we packed up our things and got ready to leave. “Hermione, I need you to take my wand until we get to the third floor corridor and I can change back. I haven’t figured out a shrinking spell that works for a wand yet.” I said as I handed over my wand to her.
“Don’t you need this to change?” She asked perplexed that I was giving it to her before I changed into a cat.
“Hopefully not. I am going to try for a minute without it.” I said, and then closed my eyes tight and concentrated really hard. After saying the spell nothing happened; I tried again and still nothing. “Maybe that is too advanced for me right now…or I am nervous.” I took my wand back, not wanting to waste any more of our precious time and transformed properly. Hermione picked up my wand, got under the cloak with the boys and we headed out on our mission.
Carefully and quietly we made our way down a few staircases, across the school and back up a set of stairs, before we had reached the door that housed Fluffy and the entrance to getting the stone. I looked around to make sure no one else was there before taking a few running steps and changing back, as Hermione opened the door with the unlocking spell. Once inside they removed the cloak and quickly stuffed it in a corner. “We are too late. Someone has been here.” I said looking at a slumbering Fluffy as a harp was playing by itself a few feet away.
“Ok while he’s asleep let’s get the trap door open.” Harry said in a low whisper. We walked closer to the sleeping dog, and carefully lifted its paw off the door; but then all went quiet. The door creaked as it opened and we heard growls emanating from one of the heads. “Jump!”
Quickly we each jumped into the hole, trying to avoid being eaten. We landed on some sort of soft plant after a short fall, unscathed except I had been scratched on my left shoulder. “Everyone ok?” Harry asked.
“We are alive, I think that is good for now.” I said holding my shoulder, unable to see it through the darkness.
“What is this thing?” Ron said presumably feeling his way around.
“I am not sure. Lumos.” I said as I lit the end of my wand so we could see better. I looked at Harry and saw that the plant we landed on was slowly wrapping itself around Harry’s body. The same was happening to Hermione, Ron and myself. “Not sure we are going to be ok for long.”
Everyone looked at themselves and started to panic. The more we struggled to get free the tighter the vines got. Until Hermione shouted, “Stay still! This is Devil’s Snare, the more we move the faster it will kill us. The trick is not to panic.”
I became totally still as I watched Hermione quickly sink farther down into the plant. I soon heard her hollering to trust her and remain still. I tried not to move and quickly joined her on the underside of the plant. Harry followed soon after but Ron continued to struggle. “What do we do now? He won’t quit moving.” Harry said looking up at the ceiling trying to find a place where we could pull Ron down.
“There was something we read…’Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare, its deadly….” I had started to remember but Hermione jumped to finish, “But will sulk in the sun!” She pulled out her wand, pointed it at the plant, and called out a powerful light spell that caused the Devil’s Snare to wither its vines and drop Ron on the floor.
Making sure he was all right, we helped him up and kept walking, until we came to another door that was locked and would not open with the “Alohamora” spell. We looked around for a key or a clue as to how we get through, and saw a broom floating off to the side. Just as Harry walked up to it we heard a rustle of wings above us. We looked up to see oddly shaped birds fly in from a window and flutter around. “Those are not birds…they are keys.” Harry said looking at one that had fluttered less than a foot above his head.
“How do we know which one is the right one? There must be thousands of them.” Hermione said anxiously.
Ron studied the door handle and key hole then said, “It should be old and rather rusty like the handle.” We started looking around and trying to examine the keys as they fluttered around.
Harry soon spotted it and pointed, “There look, that one has a broken wing. It must be the one we want.” He then hopped on the broom and kicked off.
No sooner was he in the air, then the bird/keys started attacking him and pelting him from every direction. Harry tried to fend them off while we tried to distract them, but it was no use. Harry gave up trying and started to focus on grabbing the right key. After a few minutes he had caught it and jumped off of the broom.
The birds were still attacking us so we quickly unlocked the door and went through closing it tightly behind us. “That was close. Who on earth would of thought that one up?” Hermione asked trying to calm her nerves.
“I am not sure, but if you think about it, it almost seems like they designed it for Harry. Is it coincidence that Harry is great at flying and the first test happens to involve flying to catch a key?” I said starting to wonder if it was a trap instead of a protection measure.
“It does seem odd, but let’s keep going and worry about it later.” Harry said as he started forward and lights started to come on, “What is this?”
As the lights came on, different statues came into view and we noticed a checkered pattern on the floor. “I think it’s a chessboard.” Hermione said as we all looked around.
“It is a chessboard. Do we need to play across or can we go on through?” Harry asked as he headed across the room, but was stopped short by the line of pawns that had pulled out swords ready to fight.
“I think that means we play our way across.” Ron said looking around almost like he was visualizing our moves.
“Ok Ron, I think this one is in your court.” I said. “You are the best chess player we have. Where do you want us?”
“Hermione, you take the queen. Loretta, you be her side castle and Harry take the Bishop. As for me, I’m going to be a knight.” We took our assigned positions and Ron began the game.
For every one of our players lost Ron would knockout two of theirs, it looked like we were going to win and come out unscathed. The closer to the end it got a bit dicey and we were starting to lose, but it came down to one move. “Harry, when I make my next move you will be free to check the king.”
Harry looked over the board to figure out what his next move was going to be. “Ron there has to be another way. You have seen what happens to the pieces they get blown up.”
“Ron what is he talking about? What are you going to do?” Hermione asked worried. I just stood there confused as ever, I still do not understand this game.
“Hermione, he wants to sacrifice himself!” Harry said filling in the blank. “There has to be another way Ron.”
“No there is no other way. I move, Harry goes on and stops Snape. That is how it is supposed to be. The three of us are just here for the ride, the one that has to go on is Harry.” Without further argument Ron made his move, and was pummeled by the Queen. We all watched in horror as Ron flew across the room and landed in a pile of broken chess pieces.
Hermione and I started to go to him but was stopped by Harry’s voice, “Stop! Don’t move, we are still in play.” Harry then moved to his next square and cried, “Check Mate!” The king dropped his sword and the remaining chess pieces bowed to him, formed a path to the door on the other side.
We ran to check on Ron, who thankfully was just knocked out. “Hermione, take Ron to the infirmary and send an owl to Dumbledore. Use Butterbean, and tell him it is urgent.” I said as Ron started coming to.
“What are you going to do?” She asked as Harry started to help Ron stand up.
“I am going to help Harry through as far as I can. Then do what I have to do in the aftermath.” I said steeling myself up for danger.
“Ok, get Dumbledore here as soon as possible.” Harry had turned around and started towards the other door.
“Hermione one more thing. I haven’t said anything to Harry, but on the off chance something goes wrong we need to have a plan to stop whoever is on the other side. I know we have no hope of stopping him but we can slow them down. On your way out, every door you come to put up a concealment charm. It will not stop them but it will hopefully make enough time to round up teachers and Dumbledore.” I said giving her instructions on how she could continue to help though she would not be at the frontline.
“Be careful and I hope it doesn’t come to what you are thinking.” She said, then carefully turned around and helped Ron back out the way we came.
I ran to catch up with Harry, who had waited at the door for me. “Here we go.” He said as he pushed open the door.
We entered a room that was completely dark, except for a dull light in the center, that shown on a table holding seven different vials of liquids. “This must be Snape’s doing. Crap!” I said as I quickly turned around. The door sealed itself shut, and black flames surrounded every edge without burning the door. “As Ron would say that complicates things a bit.”
“It does.” Harry said walking towards the other door that would lead us further down. Just before he reached it, it also burst into flames only these were purple. “This makes it worse.” He slowly backed away from the door.
“Harry read this.” I picked up a piece of paper that was sitting on the table. While he was reading it I was looking at the different bottles. Picking each one up, inspecting it and making sure to put it back in the exact spot I picked it up from.
“Ok it is a riddle. There are two potions that will help us, three will kill us and two are just wine. We need to figure out which ones are which.”
“One on either end are the same, though the bottles are different. They are the poisons, the one directly in the middle is the third poison. The solutions are on either side of the middle poison, because the nettle wine separates the poison from the solutions.” I said slowly thinking it over.
“Are you sure? Which potion will get me through the purple flames and you through the black?” Harry asked looking at the bottles.
“I am positive these are the right bottles, but I am not sure which will get you through the door. Which is why you are taking them both.” I said stunned that I was saying any of this.
“No, we need to figure out which one is which, you need to get back to safety I don’t want you to die if I fail.” Harry said rereading the paper to see if we had missed anything.
“Harry, I am not leaving you alone down here. If you win I will be here to help doctor you, should something…happen to you…I will be here to give it my best and slow them down.” Out of nowhere, I reached out and cupped my hand around his chin, “I will never leave you sweetheart.” Then I collapsed.