He held his wand in his hand and twirled it around as he watched the fire dance.
He sighed and leaned back in the chair as he whispered, "I'll make you guys proud, I swear."
I made myself visible and walked over to him, "Hey."
He turned around startled, "Hey Jessica. I didn't see you."
I smiled, "I'm pretty quiet. What's up?"
He shrugged, "I couldn't sleep so I came down here. I like watching the fire, it's mesmerizing calming even."
I nodded, "I know what you mean. I'm just waiting for Harry, Ron and Hermione, they're going to do something tonight but I don't know what so I'm just going to do some friendly stalking."
He smiled, "Alrighty then."
I heard a noise on the girl's staircase, "I bet that's Hermione," there was some shuffling on the boy's staircase, "And Harry and Ron."
"Do you want me to try to stop them?" asked Neville.
My face lit up, "That's perfect! Sure can you? Just say something like I know you're going to sneak out again and I won't let you."
I didn't care what Dumbledore thought. Harry was going to get himself hurt if he went down that trapdoor and if Neville was the one that stopped him it would look less suspicious then if I stopped him. He might think I was in on a plan with Severus or something.
He nodded then sat back down as I turned myself invisible again. Harry, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs at the same time and met up.
In a low voice Hermione said, "Okay let's go. I packed a couple of supplies, just in case."
They made their way to the door as Neville stood up, "Where are you guys going?"
Hermione looked the most surprised, "Hi Neville. We are just going to the library, to look at some other books."
"That's a lie. I know you're sneaking out again and I won't let you."
"Neville go back to bed," Ron said.
He put he hands up, "I'll fight you if I have to, but you can't sneak out again. Gryffindor is doing really well in the house cup, we might finally win it back from the Slytherins."
Hermione took out her wand and said, "I'm really sorry about this Neville," she waved her wand as Neville took out his.
She cast the spell but I made it look like Neville cast the countercurse.
Ron looked the most shocked, "Neville I don't know what you just did but we need to leave."
As he was focused on Ron, Hermione cast the body-binding curse on him and there was no way for me to make it look like he deflected it.
They walked past him and out the portal hole. I cast the countercurse on Neville and helped him up.
"Sorry about that, thanks for trying. I should go follow them," I gave him a quick hug, "Thanks."
He smiled, "No problem. Be careful Jessica, I'll see you when you get back."
I nodded then went out the portal hole and easily caught up to Harry Ron and Hermione on their way to the trapdoor. I followed them into the door Fluffy was in silently. In the corner there was a harp playing. Fluffy was out cold on the floor sleeping.
Ron said, "Lucky thing that harp is already playing. We didn't have to do anything to get past Fluffy."
"That's not a good thing," hissed Hermione, "It means Snape is already down there."
Ron mouthed an "o"
"Let's go then," Harry said.
They opened the trapdoor and one by one jumped down. Once I was sure they were out of my way I followed suit. I landed in a pile of plants and I knew this must be the part with Professor Sprout.
I saw Hermione look at me, "Jessica what are you doing here?"
I was confused, "You can see me?"
She nodded and I looked up. At the top of the trapdoor there was a small shimmed. An anti-invisibility charm I guessed.
I cursed under my breath, "I knew you guys were being all shady so I followed you. There is someone down here, but it's not Severus. He's upstairs, I just came from his office. He thinks it's Quirell that is down here."
Ron yelled, "That's lovely but if you haven't noticed this plant is strangling us, we won't be able to do anything if we're dead."
I rolled my eyes, "It's Devil's Snare, you have to stop moving."
I relaxed my body and fell to the floor beneath. I knew Hermione had done the same when I saw her come down.
"Where did you go!" yelled Harry.
"It killed them," replied Ron.
Hermione sighed, "Guys we're right here. Stop moving and you'll be fine."
Harry said, "I'm going to try it Ron."
He dropped to the ground but I could still hear Ron struggling. With a groan and I shot fire up to the plant around him and he dropped to the ground as it released him.
"Nice going Ron, I didn't want to kill any of it."
"Whatever, now we have to keep going and quickly."
No one mentioned how I got there after that moment and I was fine with it. I could tell they didn't really want to talk about how they thought my father was stealing the Socerer's Stone.
We got to the next room and all four of us ducked. There were tiny birds flying all around. There was a door on the other side and we all raced towards it. Hermione pulled on it but it didn't move. I looked at the bird closer and realized that they were really flying keys.
"Guys we have to catch the right key. I bet anything that it's a large brass key."
"There's a broom," said Harry pointing, "Just go catch it."
I shook my head, "No, there's an easier way. Immobulous."
All the keys froze and I said, "Spread out and look for the right one then we can fly up and get it."
Harry shouted, "I found it, the wing is bent, it's right there."
He climbed on the broom and snatched it out of the air. We went over to the door and unlocked it. Once we walked through the door my eyes widened. It looked like a giant chess board. The pieces were as tall as a grown adult. I tried to walk across the board but two knights shielded my way and made it impossible to get across.
"We have to play our way across," Ron said.
"Okay, you tell us where to go," I said.
"Hermione you be a bishop, Harry be the other bishop, Jessica you can be the right hand side rook and as for me, I'll be a knight."
The piece that he called moved off the board and we went to stand where they used to be. Ron got up on a horse as a knight. For the next half an hour he expertly moved us around the board taking out pieces and moving us to the other team's king.
Finally he said, "I have a way to win, but I don't know how to do it without anyone getting hurt."
I looked at the board closely and saw that if I moved two spaces to the left the king would be in check and the bishop would have to take me then Hermione could move to where I was and put the king in checkmate.
"I got it, don't worry about it. I'll be fine, just do it."
"But," he started but I held up a hand, "Fine. Right rook move two spaces left. Check."
The bishop on the other team came towards me and dealt me a blow to the stomach that made me fly back against the back wall.
"Jessica!" yelled Hermione who started to run.
"Stop!" yelled Ron, "We have to finish the game before we do anything. Left bishop move three spaces to the right forward, checkmate."
The king's sword fell to the ground then Hermione ran towards me, "Jessica are you okay?"
I laughed, "Nope my stomach hurts something awful, but it's okay. I'll get a potion for it once we get back, let's go."
I stood up and grimaced. I looked down at my now red shirt. I wiped away some of the blood then wiped some sweat off my forehead.
"Jessica you're bleeding. Just wait here," said Harry.
I shook my head, "I'm fine, really. Let's go."
I walked forward giving them no choice but to follow. I walked through to the next room. There was a large troll knocked out on the ground. It looked like it was the same kind of troll that was in the bathroom a few months ago.
"Come on guys, it's already knocked out," said Harry.
We got to another room where I saw a thin red veil. Through the veil was a table of potions. I grinned as I walked through the veil, this was going to be easy.
On the table there was a piece of parchment with my father's handwriting.
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 hold 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.
One of the potions was the one to get through the veil on the other side. One of the potions would let the drinker go back the way we came. Two were Nettle Wine, and harmless. But three of them were poisonous.
I groaned and said sarcastically, "Couldn't he have made this harder."
Hermione was already reading over the poem trying to solve the puzzle logically. But I had another idea.
I conjured a Snake Patronus and sent it to Severus saying, we are at your puzzle, which is which?
As I waited for a reply I let Hermione, Harry and Ron read over the poem. I walked over to the table and uncorked all the bottles. I smelled each one and arranged them by smell in my head. I didn't want to move any of them in case Hermione figured out the poem. Two of them were obviously Nettle Wine because of the smell. Four of them smelled very similar and led me to believe that three of those were the posion. One smelled like none of the others.
I pointed at two of the flasks, "These are Nettle Wine."
"How do you know?" asked Ron, "We can't just guess."
I said, "I'm very sure."
He didn't look convinced so I held up one of the bottles I pointed to and took a sip. Then I took the other one I pointed to and took a sip. When nothing happened I smirked.
"Okay well that was stupid of you to do," he muttered.
I shrugged and threw the bottle onto the floor, "Okay well now we have it narrowed down, any luck Hermione? Did that help?"
She shook her head, "I'm working on it."
A doe Patronus came towards me and I raised an eyebrow. When it spoke with Severus's voice I was put at ease a little more.
"You aren't even supposed to be back that far Jessica. And by now I'm sure you've decided to be stupid and drink the Nettle Wine to eliminate them. The one to get to the other side is the second from the end and the one to go back is the 3rd in. Albus got my owl and is coming back right now so don't go through to the other side. Just get everyone out and we'll deal with whoever is in there later."
"That's likely," I muttered.
"Come on guys, we have to split the potion second from the end four ways. Unless some of you want to go back and tell Dumbledore and Severus where we are."
Hermione said, "I'll go back and get Dumbledore and I'll tell Professor Snape where you are. If he kills me, I want you to know it's your fault," I laughed, "Ron's coming with me."
Ron perked up, "What am I doing?"
Hermione scowled, "You're coming with me, come on we have to hurry. Oh be careful guys."
They each took a sip of the third potion in and went back the way we came in. I saw them run through the room and through the door.
"You can go with them if you want," I told Harry, "You don't have to play hero, I'd be fine alone."
He took a deep breath, "Nope I'm fine. Let's go."
We split the potion and walked through the flames. On the other side of the barrier there were several steps with a mirror in the middle. It read Erised, or desire backwards. This was the mirror of Erised, it showed the viewer nothing but the deepest desire of their hearts. I had only ever read about it and didn't know that it was at Hogwarts. In front of the mirror there was a man wearing a purple turban.