4th June 1992
The Forbidden Corridor
Finding the door open, we took it to mean that the professor had already gotten past Fluffy. As we entered, the cerberus stirred but Harry started playing a flute he had received on Christmas from Hagrid. It wasn't really a tune but it did its job and the three-headed dog went back to sleep.
"Alright, this is it." I said, using the levitation spell to move Fluffy's paw off the trap door. "I'll take point," At this, Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved and pointed to himself. "I don't think so, Harry. I know a lot more magic than you. If there is something unexpected at the bottom of this, I am far more likely to be able to deal with it. I'll go first, then Neville followed by Hermione and Harry will bring up the rear."
I mentally prepared myself to jump into the dark hole. Even if the Devil's Snare was completed destroyed by Quirrel, I can still safely descend and make sure none of them are hurt. I turned towards them and gave an encouraging smile. "See you in a minute."
Then I jumped. Cold, damp air rushed past me as I fell down and soon with a muffled thump, I landed on something soft and plant-like. I looked up and the trap door was about the size of a postage stamp from down here. "I'm okay. It's a soft landing, you can jump."
The others soon followed. "What's this stuff?" asked Harry. I could see recognition dawning in Neville's eyes. "It's Devil's Snare," I replied conversationally. Everyone looked at me, horrified. "Oh relax, it's fine," I said, pulling out my wand.
"LUMOS SOLEM"
Warm sunlight flooded the dark gloomy room. The Devil's Snare that was starting to surround us, cringed away from the source of the light. We stood up and made our way to the only exit, a stone passageway.
"We must be miles under the school," said Hermione.
"That or we're in a pocket dimension," I hypothesized.
"What?" both Harry and Neville asked simultaneously.
"Think about it. The trapdoor was on the 3rd floor, so if we went through it, shouldn't we have passed the second as well as the first floor? But as we've seen all year, there is nothing on those floors." I said, as we started to see light from the room up ahead. "So, either the trapdoor was a portal to the dungeons, or we are in a magically expanded space, possibly even outside the school."
We reached the end of the passageway and entered a brightly lit, high-ceilinged room, full of small bright-winged objects fluttering around the room.
"Are those birds?" asked Hermione.
"Look closely," I said. "They're not birds, they're keys."
"Charmed keys," said Neville, "this must be Flitwick's bit."
We cautiously crossed the room and tried to open the door with an 'Alohomora'. Of course it didn't work.
"I guess the door's key must be up there. We're looking for a big, old fashioned one...probably silver, like the handle." I said, examining the lock. "Can you spot it, Harry?"
Harry took a moment to examine the keys before he pointed, "There, that one. The one with the bright blue wings crumpled on one side."
"But how are we gonna get it?" asked Neville
"Simple," I answered, pointing to the four broomsticks lined up against the wall.
After a year of flying lessons, both Hermione and Neville were decent flyers. I myself, was above average and Harry, of course was one of the best. So it was no surprise that we managed to snag the key without any difficulty and open the door.
As they were about to leave, I said, "Wait, let's take these boomsticks with us. They might come in handy." Everyone agreed and we each took one and entered the next room.
It was dark as we entered but as soon as we stepped up, torches lit up along the walls to reveal a giant human-sized chessboard. Okay, so this means that the gauntlet wasn't prepared by Dumbledore to test Harry. The Headmaster must've known by now that none of us were particularly interested in wizard chess, and Ron wasn't a part of our entourage. Slightly relieved, I turned to the others, "Lucky we brought these,eh?" I said, pointing to the brooms.
Once again we took flight, and went directly over the motionless chessmen to the door on the other side of the room. Yeah, screw hurting one of my friends over a dumb challenge. As they say think smarter, not harder.
Past a small passageway we came to the next room. As soon as we opened the door, a disgusting smell hit us. Inside was a troll even larger than the one I had faced on Halloween. Thankfully it was knocked out with a bloody lump on its head.
The next room contained nothing frightening, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles in a line. "Snape's," said Harry.
As we stepped over the threshold, purple and black fire sprang up, blocking the doors of the room, leaving us trapped.
"Look," Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. We looked over her shoulders to read it:
Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,
One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end,
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.
"It's a puzzle," said Hermione. "Clever, really. 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?" said Neville.
"Of course not." replied Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles, three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."
"But how do we know which to drink?" asked Harry.
"Give me a minute," she said.
Hermione read the paper several times, walked up and down the line of bottles, pointing at them. Finally, she clapped her hands.
"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire...towards the stone."
We looked at the tiny bottle which looked like it had only one dose left.
"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" asked Harry, at which Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.
"You guys drink that," said Harry. "No listen, get back, grab the brooms, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy...go to McGonagall tell her Snape's about to get the stone. I might be able to hold him off for a while, but I am no match for him, really."
"Harry, it's too dangerous," said Hermione.
"It's our only chance, Hermione. If Snape gets the stone, I bet we'll never find him again. We have to stop him now." said Harry.
Hermione looked extremely conflicted and then she dashed at Harry and gave him a tight hug. "Be careful, Harry...please." she said.
As she released Harry, Neville took her place. "We'll be back as soon as we can," he said. "We'll drag McGonagall here if we have to."
Finally, it was my turn. I came forward and gave him a short hug. "Everything's gonna be alright, Harry." I assured him. "You'll be fine."
Harry nodded at us and picked up the bottle. He drained it all in one gulp, took one last look at us and walked straight through the black fire.
Neville and Hermione watched their friend march off to stop Snape all on his own. But now was not the time to wallow in sadness. It was up to them to bring back someone who could help Harry and stop Snape. As they turned around however, they were faced with a new problem. Their other friend had disappeared.
"Ben, where are you?" called out Hermione, looking everywhere.
"Did he go back already?" asked Neville.
Hermione checked the rounded bottle at the end. "No, it's full." she said. "He didn't take the potion"
"So where did he go?" said Neville.
////////////////////////
As for where I went, well I was following Harry, of course. While my friends were busy saying their goodbyes, I took out a 'Fire Protection Potion', a potion taught to 2nd year students, out of my pocket. I had brewed it for this precise moment. Quickly drinking the potion, I applied the strongest Disillusionment Charm I could muster on myself. Not taking any chances, I also cast 'Invisibility' from the Grimoire. This was followed by a noise-muffling charm.
As Hermione and Neville turned back to look for me, I quickly went through the black fire. Coming out on the other side, I saw Harry walking down another set of stairs and followed him into a large open room. As Quirrel started delightfully telling Harry about his attempts to murder the boy and how Snape had been trying to save him, I made my way to one of the columns on the blindside of both Quirrel's and Voldemort's faces.
Harry seem to have realised that the stone was inside the mirror, so he kept trying to distract Quirrel. But soon the man ran out of patience.
"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, master!"
A voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrel himself.
"Use the boy...Use the boy..."
Soon, Harry was standing in front of the mirror. I could see the exact moment he received the stone, as a bulge appeared in his pocket. He made a silly lie of seeing himself receiving the House Cup from Dumbledore, and Quirrel seemed to buy it. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't deceive a far more experienced legilimens like Voldemort.
"He lies...He lies..."
"Potter, come back here!" Quirrel 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're not strong enough." Quirrel murmured.
"I have strength enough...for this..."
It was at that moment when Quirrel began to unwrap the turban and Voldemort was focused on Harry, that I choose to strike. I quickly cast 'Fluctuation', which doubled the gravity around Quirrel. He was caught off-guard by the increased pull of gravity and turned to look towards me.
But all he saw was my rapidly cast next spell 'Thunderbolt', a bolt of white lightning that caught him straight in the face. He didn't even get the chance to scream as tremendous amounts of destructive energies passed through his body burning his insides, destroying his organs and exploding his flesh, bone and nervous system. One second, Quirrel was standing there, the next, there was a smoking pile of robes on the floor.
Harry stared at me with a dumbfounded look. He had stood paralyzed with terror as Quirrel was about to introduce him to Voldemort. Just as he was about to face his nemesis, I appeared out of nowhere and blasted Quirrel and his master to kingdom come. His shock was understandable.
"Hello, Harry," I said, walking over to him, "I told you everything will be fine, didn't I?"
He opened his mouth to fire a barrage of questions at me, but then he was transfixed in horror looking behind me. I turned around and saw the spectral form of Voldemort, literally rising from Quirrel's ashes. He gave a scream of rage and started flying towards me.
He probably wanted to injure my spirit by passing through me, but he never got the chance. I reached inside my jacket pocket and took out the object I had specifically prepared for tonight. An ugly black Russian doll that from this day onward, shall be called 'The Grimhold'.
Ideally, I would've liked to finish off Voldemort once and for all. Unfortunately because of those pesky horcruxes, I can't do that right now. So, I decided to seal him. I took inspiration from the movie 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', and using my newly created super alloy, I built a vessel into which I inscribed the spell 'Soul Bind' using Runic Enchantment.
Voldemort's spirit was almost in front of me when I opened the doll. I could feel it vibrating in my hands as the wraith made a confused sound, which quickly gave way to a howl of shock and rage. In his weakened state, the Dark Lord had no choice but to get sucked into the doll. I closed it and looked as it's completely black surface changed. Now, there was a hooded image of a snake-like face portrayed on the doll.
I took out a stone from my pocket and transmutated it to form an airtight cover on the doll, so that Voldemort wouldn't get free by the doll getting accidentally knocked open. All in all, a job well done, I'd say. Turning around, I was surprised to see not just Harry but also the Headmaster, standing frozen with his wand outstretched.
"Good morning, professor. Did you enjoy the show?" I asked with a cheeky smile.
"Indeed, I did Mr. Carter," said Dumbledore, finally collecting himself as Harry whirled round to see him. "Although I do believe some explanations are in order."
"Of course, sir. Although I hope you don't mind if we move this discussion to a more comfortable place. Your office, perhaps?" I said, opening a portal near the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the Headmaster's office. Boy, I am loving the open-mouthed expressions I'm getting today. Makes me wish I had my camera on me.
I took the lead and went through the glowing blue portal. A moment later, I was joined by a thoroughly confused Harry, and a curious headmaster who was looking at the portal he had just come through with an intrigued expression.
"Any more surprises, Mr. Carter?" Dumbledore said with a measuring gaze.
"Quite a few, Professor. We will get to them soon. For now, I'd like you to call Hermione and Neville. I am sure they're still awake and anxious to know of our fates." I said, looking at Harry.
Dumbledore raised his wand and a beautiful silver phoenix shot off towards the dormitories. "Your friends will be with us momentarily. In the meantime, please follow me," he said, moving towards the stone gargoyle. At his approach, even without a password, the gargoyle moved aside and the wall behind split in two, revealing a spiral staircase that was moving upward like an escalator. The wall closed behind us as the staircase carried us upward. Eventually we came in front of an Oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. The door swung open to admit the Headmaster, as Harry and I followed in his wake.