In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.
It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anticheating spell.
They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tapdance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox, points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion.
Harry did the best he could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the forest. Neville thought Harry had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Harry kept being woken by his old nightmare, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded figure dripping blood in it.
Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry had seen in the forest, or because they didn't have scars burning on their foreheads, but Ron, Y/n and Hermione didn't seem as worried about the Stone as Harry. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.
Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented selfstirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Y/n couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh while the other students cheered.
"That was far easier than I thought it would be." said Hermione as the four joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."
Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers afterward, but Ron said this made him feel ill, so they wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows. "No more studying." Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."
Harry was rubbing his forehead.
"Is it hurting again?" Y/n asked him.
"I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar just keeps hurting it's happened before, but never as often as this."
"Go to Madam Pomfrey." Hermione suggested.
"I'm not ill." said Harry. "I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming."
Ron couldn't get worked up, it was too hot. "Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."
Harry nodded, but he couldn't shake off a lurking feeling that there was something he'd forgotten to do, something important. When he tried to explain this, Hermione said, "That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one." She explained.
Y/n who found this amusing started to laugh and Hermione skewed up her face in a pout at him before he finally apologized still chuckling.
Harry however suddenly jumped to his feet.
"Where're you going?" Ron asked sleepily.
"I've just thought of something," said Harry. He had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now." He began to hurry off.
"Hagrid?" Y/n asked as he Hermione and Ron all got up now and hurried to catch up with Harry.
"But why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope. "That what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"
"Oh...Now that is something I had never even considered." Y/n said suddenly seeing Harry's train of thought.
"What is he talking about?" asked Ron but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer.
Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.
"Hullo you four." he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"
"Yes, ple..." Ron started but Harry cut him off.
"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"
"Dunno." said Hagrid casually. "He wouldn' take his cloak off."
He saw the four of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows.
"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head, that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."
Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"
"Mighta come up." said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah...he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here. He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after so I told him, an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon an' then...I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks."
Y/n just shook his head. "Is there anything else at all you remember from that night Hagrid?"
"Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home. So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy."
"And did he... did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Well...yeah...how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep."
Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.
"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey...where're yeh goin'?"
Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.
"We've got to go to Dumbledore." said Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"
"I know where it is, I went to it the day after we saved Hermione on Halloween remember." Y/n reminded them.
"Right, then we'll just have to..." Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.
"What are you three doing inside?" It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.
"We want to see Professor Dumbledore." said Hermione, rather bravely.
"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"
Harry swallowed...now what? "It's sort of secret," he said, but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.
"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago." she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."
"He's gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?"
"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time..."
"But this is important." Harry urged.
"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?" McGonagall asked.
"Professor, this is about the Sorcerer's Stone..." Y/n told her now deciding to do away with secrecy.
Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.
"How do you know...?" she spluttered.
Y/n just bent down and began to pick up the books McGonagall had dropped for her.
"Professor, I think... We... know...that Sn... that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." Harry treaded carefully.
She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion. "Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."
"But Professor..." Y/n started as he held out her books to her.
"Grindelwald, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly taking back her books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."
But they didn't.
"It's tonight." said Harry, once he was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."
"So, what can we..." Y/n started but Hermione gasped causing Y/n, Harry and Ron to turn round.
Snape was standing there.
"Good afternoon." he said smoothly.
They stared at him.
"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this." he said, with an odd, twisted smile.
"We were.." Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say.
"You want to be more careful." said Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're... up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"
Harry flushed. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back.
"Be warned, Potter... any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."
He strode off in the direction of the staffroom.
"Alright. Let us do tonight." Y/n said in agreement with Harry now.
"Right." Harry nodded. "Here's what we've got to do." he whispered urgently. "Two of us have got to keep an eye on Snape, wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, Y/n, you'd two better do that."
"Why us?" Y/n asked curiously.
"It's obvious." said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, You're his favourite after all and you know Hermione. " He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong..."
"Oh, shut up." said Hermione, but she agreed to go with Y/n and watch out for Snape and the two left.
"We'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Harry told Ron. "Come on."
But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.
"I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"
Harry and Ron went back to the common room, Harry had just said, "At least Y/n and Hermione are on Snape's tail." when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and both Y/n and Hermione came in.
"I'm sorry, Harry!" Hermione wailed. "Snape came out and asked us what we were doing, so I said we were there waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, Y/n managed to keep Flitwick busy so I could sneak off after a while but I couldn't find where Snape went."
"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.
The three stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering. "I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."
Y/n nodded in agreement.
"You're both mad!" said Ron.
"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"
"SO WHAT" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?" He glared at them.
"No one is taking us seriously you two, We have tried to tell McGonagall and Dumbledore is gone. If Voldemort returns it will far worse then being expelled." Y/n said agreeing with Harry.
"You're right..." said Hermione in a small voice now as she listened to the pair of them.
"I will use the invisibility cloak." said Harry. "It's just lucky I got it back."
"But will it cover all four of us?" asked Ron.
"All...all four of us?" Hary asked suprised.
"You did not think we would just let you go alone did you?" Y/n said.
"Of course not." said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and took through my books, there might be something useful...Y/n you can help by telling me about charms Professor Flitwick has taught you."
Y/n just nodded.
"But if we get caught, you three will be expelled, too."
"Not if I can help it," said Hermione grimly. "Flitwick told us in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that. Actually what did you get on your exam Y/n?"
"Huh? Oh...well I never asked...I'm waiting till everyone else knows." Y/n lied.
After dinner the four of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to Harry any more, after all. This was the first night he hadn't been upset by it. Y/n sat with Hermione who was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try to break. Harry and Ron didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.
Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.
"Better get the cloak." Ron muttered, as Lee Jordan finally left, stretching and yawning. Harry ran upstairs to their dark dormitory. He pulled out the cloak and then his eyes fell on the flute Hagrid had given him for Christmas. He pocketed it to use on Fluffy, he didn't feel much like singing.
He ran back down to the common room.
"We'd better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all four of us, if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own..."
"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.
"Nothing, Neville, nothing." said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.
Neville stared at their guilty faces.
"You're going out again." he said.
"No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we're not."
"I think you should go to bed, Neville." Y/n tried to suggest to Neville.
Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.
"You can't go out." said Neville. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."
"You don't understand." said Harry. "This is important."
But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate. "I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll ...I'll fight you!"
"Neville." Ron exploded. "Get away from that hole and don't be an idiot."
"Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"
"Yes, but not to us!" said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."
He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.
"Go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"
Harry turned to Y/n and Hermione. "Do something," he said desperately.
Y/n whispered something into Hermione's ear, She nodded and stepped forward.
"Neville." she started. "I'm really, really sorry about this."
She raised her wand. "Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.
Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood. Y/n then rushed forward and caught Neville as he fell forward, stiff as a board.
Y/n then carried Neville and set him down on one of the vacant couches with a pillow under his head.
Hermione ran to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.
"What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.
"Y/n suggested the full Body-Bind." said Hermione miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."
"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," said Harry.
"You'll understand later, Neville." said Ron as they left him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.
But leaving Neville lying motionless didn't feel like a very good omen. In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them. At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.
"Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered in ear, but Y/n grabbed his shoulder.
"As someone who has a cat himself, I cannot let you do that..." Y/n whispered.
As they climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamplike eyes on them, but didn't do anything.
They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.
"Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"
He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."
Harry had a sudden idea. "Peeves." he said, in a hoarse whisper. "The Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."
Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs. "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake -- I didn't see you ...of course I didn't, you're invisible, forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."
"I have business here, Peeves." croaked Harry. "Stay away from this place tonight."
"I will, sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."
And he scooted off.
"Brilliant, Harry!" whispered Ron.
A few seconds later, they were there, outside the third-floor corridor and the door was already ajar.
"Well, there you are." Harry said quietly. "Snape's already got past Fluffy."
"We can still catch him." Y/n said to Harry.
Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all four of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to the other three.
"If you want to go back, I won't blame you." he said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."
"Don't be stupid." said Ron.
"We're coming." said Hermione.
"We are with you till the end." Y/n confirmed.
Harry nodded and pushed the door open.
As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.
"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.
"Looks like a harp." said Ron. "Snape must have left it there."
"It must wake up the moment you stop playing." Y/n said referring to Fluffy.
"Well, here goes..." Harry said and he put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased, it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.
"Keep playing." Ron warned Harry as they slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads. "I think we'll be able to pull the door open." said Ron, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermione?"
"No, I don't!" She said.
"I will go first... " Y/n said now as he stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.
"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"Not much..." Y/n said rubbing the back of his head. "It is pitch black and there is no way of climbing down, we will just have to drop." Y/n sighed and closed his eyes before stepping forward and falling down the hole as the three watched in shock.
Ron and Hermione looked at each other worried until...
"I am alright..." Y/n's voice sounded out and they sighed.
Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Ron to get his attention and pointed at himself.
"You want to go next? Are you sure?" said Ron and Harry nodded. "Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep."
Harry handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.
Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom.
He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to one of us, we go straight to the Owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"
"Right." said Ron.
"See you in a minute..." And Harry let go. Cold, damp air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down and FLUMP. With a funny, muffled sort of thump he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the gloom. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.
"Nice of you to drop in..." Harry heard Y/n say.
"Y/n?" Harry called out.
"Yeah." Y/n said.
"It's okay Y/n and I are fine!" Harry called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"
Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled next to Harry. "What's this stuff?" were his first words.
"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!"
The distant music stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermione had already jumped. She landed between Y/n and Harry.
"You okay?" Y/n asked her.
"Yes. Hermione answered before she looked around. "We must be miles under the school." she said.
"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." said Ron.
"Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you three!" She leapt 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 Harry, Y/n and Ron, 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 three boys 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, We can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.
"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare...what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp."
"So light a fire!" Harry 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?"
"Hermione use Lumos Solem!" Y/n shouted out to her.
"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered the words Lumos Solem, and it sent out a large beam of light. In a matter of seconds, the three boys 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.
"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione." said Harry as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.
"Yeah." said Ron. "And lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis...there's no wood,' honestly."
Y/n however grabbed Harry and Ron's shoulders firmly. "Hermione just saved out lives. Do you not think a 'Thank you' is in order?"
"But it was you who told her what spell to use." Ron said.
"I would not have know what spell to use if she had not correctly identified the plant and given us it's weaknesses." Y/n told him.
"Oh...Yeah...thanks." Ron muttered to Hermione now.
"Thank you." Harry then added.
"Thank you Hermione." Y/n then finally said himself.
Hermione just smiled in the dark.
"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. Norbert had been bad enough...
"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.
They listened to hear a soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.
"Do you think it's a ghost?" Ron asked.
"I do not think so..." Y/n said not sure what it was.
"It sounds like wings to me." Harry commented. "There's light ahead...I can see something moving."
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 other three followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm.
"Now what?" said Ron.
"These birds...they can't be here just for decoration." said Hermione.
They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering... glittering ?
"These are not birds." Y/n realized.
"You're right...they're keys!" Harry said suddenly. "Winged keys, look carefully. So that must mean. . . " he looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. "...yes, look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"
"But there are hundreds of them!" Hermione said.
Ron examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one ...probably silver, like the handle."
"We had better get started." Y/n said.
They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, 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.
Y/n had managed to catch a few keys but none were the correct 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.
"This is not working!" Y/n called out to Harry.
"We've got to close in on it!" Harry said back.
"Hold on! Maybe this will help." Y/n said as he steadied his broom and took out his wand. He narrowed his eyes as soon he spotted they key had been talking about. "Impedimenta!" Y/n cried and waved his wand.
The key itself immediately began to slow down when hit with Y/n's spell and Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Y/n, Ron and Hermione's cheers echoed around the high chamber.
"Nice one Y/n!" Harry called out to him.
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 took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.
"Ready?" Harry asked the other three, 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, 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. Harry, Y/n, Ron and Hermione shivered slightly the towering white chessmen had no faces.
"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron.
Y/n nodded. "We will have 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 other three.
"This needs thinking about..." he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of four of the black pieces..."
Harry and Hermione stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but other than Y/n neither of you are that good at chess..."
"We're not offended," said Harry quickly.
"Just tell us what to do." Hermione then added.
"Ron... you have played more games out of the the two of us so you take charge." Y/n compromised.
"Alright." Ron nodded.
"We are going to have to assume that this will just like wizards chess. So only use us if there is no other choice." Y/n then advised.
Ron looked around. "Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you next to him instead of that castle. Y/n you can take the other castle spot."
"What about you?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to be a knight." said Ron.
The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, and the two castles turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving four empty squares that Harry, Y/n, Ron, and Hermione 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." Ron instructed and he moved as told.
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 Harry and Hermione were 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..."
"Ron...Do not dare to do that!" Y/n called out to him.
Ron turned to face white queen as her blank face looked toward him. "It's the only way... I've got to be taken." said Ron softly.
"NO!" Harry, Y/n and Hermione shouted.
"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me, that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"
"But..." Harry started to protest.
"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"
"Ron..."
"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!"
They all wanted to argue and Y/n spent a full two minutes looking at the board be even he knew 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 and made to move.
"Stop!" Y/n called out and she froze but looked to see Y/n had his hand clenched into a fist.
The white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.
"Harry hurry and make your move!" Y/n said urgently now.
Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron. Harry, Y/n and Hermione charged through the door and up the next passageway.
"What if he's..." Hermione began.
"He'll be all right." said Harry, trying to convince himself mostly.
"What do you reckon's next?" Hermione asked the two.
Y/n had to calm himself down now as he tried to agree with Harry that Ron would be alright. "We have had Professor Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare. Flitwick would've have been the one to put charms on the keys. McGonagall must have transfigured the chessmen to make them alive. So that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's." Y/n worked out.
They had reached another door.
"All right?" Harry whispered.
"Go on." Hermione nodded.
"Let's just do this." Y/n said.
Harry pushed it open.
A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making the three 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 encountered on Halloween, 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, The three 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.
"This must be Snape's..." said Y/n looking at the bottles and being reminded of potions class.
"What do we have to do?" Harry asked.
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!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Y/n looked over her shoulder to read it.
'Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, which ever 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 bidden 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.'
Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.
"Brilliant..." said Hermione. "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?" Harry said.
"Of course not." said Y/n. "We have Hermione, one of the brightest witches of our age."
Hermione just smiled. "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." She explained.
"But how do we know which to drink?" Harry asked.
"Give me a minute." Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.
"Got it," she 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 one of us," he said. "That's hardly one swallow."
The three looked at each other.
"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?"
Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.
"You two drink that." said Harry and Y/n went to protest. "No, listen, get back and get Ron. 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 Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."
"But Harry..." Hermione started.
"What if Voldemort is with him?" Y/n asked knowing what Hermione was going to say.
"Well... I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."
Y/n didn't look convinced and Hermione's lip trembled when she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him and Y/n put his hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Hermione! Y/n!" Harry said surprised
"You're a great wizard, you know." Hermione then said.
"And an even better friend." Y/n added.
"I'm not as good as you two." said Harry, very embarrassed, as they let go of him.
"Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things friendship and bravery and oh Harry be careful!" She said worried for her friend.
"You both drink first." said Harry. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"
"Positive," said Hermione. She then drank half the contents from the round bottle at the end, and shuddered passing it to Y/n.
"It's not poison?" said Harry anxiously.
Y/n brought the bottle to his lips now and downed the rest of the liquid and like Hermione he shuddered. "It's safe, But it feels like drinking ice."
"Quick, go, before it wears off." Harry said.
"Good luck...take care." Hermione said hesitant.
"You better come back to us in one piece." Y/n told him.
"GO!" Harry urged them.
Y/n and Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple fire now before both breaking into a sprint.
Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames. "Here I come." he said, and he drained the little bottle in one gulp.
It was indeed as though ice was flooding his body. He put the bottle down and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn't feel them, for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire, then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.
There was already someone there...but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort...
Y/n and Hermione had rushed back to the room containing the large chess set, both being careful not to wake the large troll. As they reached it they could see Ron was still passed out on the floor and they hurried towards him.
"Ron!" Y/n called out as he dropped to his knees and shook him to try get a response out of him.
"Ronald!" Hermione cried trying the same as Y/n.
Y/n took out his wand now.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked him.
"Trying something Professor Flitwick told me about." Y/n answered.
"But have you learned the spell properly?" She asked.
Y/n however pointed his wand at Ron and uttered. "Renervate."
Ron suddenly began to cough as he groaned and sat up. "Did we win?" He asked sounding tired.
Y/n just hugged his friend grateful he was alright. "Thanks to you, we did."
Ron looked around. "Wait, where's Harry?" He asked.
"We came across a room full of potions but there was only enough for one of us to go forward. Harry sent us back so we can get you some help and send an owl to Dumbledore." Hermione told him.
"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Ron said trying to get up but Y/n supported him with his shoulder.
The three made their way back to the room filled with brooms and Ron shared a broom with Y/n as they rode their way back up the trapdoor and past Fluffy out the door to the corridor.
"I hate that dog..." Ron said as they were rushing to the Owlery.
Y/n however came to a stop as they reached the Entrance Hall. "Professor Dumbledore, Sir..." Y/n began getting Ron and Hermione's attention as well but Dumbledore held up his hand and stopped him.
"Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?" He asked and Y/n quickly nodded. Dumbledore said nothing more as he hurtled off towards the third floor.
"What now?" Ron asked them.
"We're going to get expelled..." Hermione said close to crying.
"You!" gasped Harry.
Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all. "Me." he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."
"But I thought... Snape..." Harry said in shock.
"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"
Harry couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't. "But Snape tried to kill me!"
"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friends Grindelwald and Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."
"Snape was trying to save me?" Harry said even more surprised.
"Of course." said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really... he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular, and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."
Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.
"You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."
"You let the troll in?"
"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls. You must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off , and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death thanks to the Grindelwald boy's meddling, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly.
"Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."
It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.
"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone." Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London. I'll be far away by the time he gets back."
All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the mirror. "I saw you and Snape in the forest!" he blurted out.
"Yes." said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me, as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side..."
Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it.
"I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but where is it?"
Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. He had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror. "But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."
"Oh, he does." said Quirrell casually. "Heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."
"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing...I thought Snape was threatening you."
For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face. "Sometimes..." he said, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions, he is a great wizard and I am weak..."
"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.
"He is with me wherever I go." said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it! Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me...decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me."
Quirrell's voice trailed away. Harry was remembering his trip to Diagon Alley, how could he have been so stupid? He'd seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron.
Quirrell cursed under his breath. "I don't understand, is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"
Harry's mind was racing as he remembered what Dumbledore had told him about the mirror.
'What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment.' he thought. 'Is to find the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myself finding it, which means I'll see where it's hidden! But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I'm up to?'
He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself. "What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"
And to Harry's horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.
"Use the boy... Use the boy."
Quirrell rounded on Harry. "Yes...Potter come here!" He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet.
"Come here..." Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."
Harry walked toward him. 'I must lie, he thought desperately. I must look and lie about what I see, that's all.' Harry thought.
Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban. He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again.
He saw his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow, incredibly, he'd gotten the Stone.
"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"
Harry screwed up his courage. "I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore." he invented. "I...I've won the house cup for Gryffindor."
Quirrell cursed again.
"Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer's Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it?
But he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips. "He lies...He lies... "
"Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"
The high voice spoke again. "Let me speak to him...face-to-face... "
"Master, you are not strong enough!"
"I have strength enough... for this..."
Harry felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle. Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.
Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.
"Harry Potter..." it whispered.
Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.
"See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor. . . I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks. You saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own. Now. Why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"
So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.
"Don't be a fool." snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me...or you'll meet the same end as your parents. They died begging me for mercy... "
"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.
Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.
"How touching." it hissed. "I always value bravery. Yes, boy, your parents were brave. I killed your father first and he put up a courageous fight, but your mother needn't have died. She was trying to protect you. Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."
"NEVER!" Harry sprang toward the flame door.
Voldemort just screamed "SEIZE HIM!" and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell's hand close on his wrist. At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry's scar; his head felt as though it was about to split in two; he yelled, struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of him. The pain in his head lessened , he looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers, they were blistering before his eyes.
"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck. Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.
"Master, I cannot hold him.. my hands... my hands!" And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms. Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.
"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.
Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face.
"AAAARGH!" Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew. Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse.
Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off , the pain in Harry's head was building he couldn't see, he could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" and other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, "Harry! Harry!"
He felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down...down...down...