Kaguya ignored Hermione's bad face, and soon discovered they were not birds, but winged keys.
By pure chance and convenience, there were brooms there, three of them exactly. Since they didn't know which one was key, so decided to look for one that stood out more than others.
Harry and Ron had already set off on a broom each.
Kaguya was looking at the keys, observing each movement and looking for something different.
And she found it, or so she thought, very, very high up, almost in a corner.
Harry, being a Seeker, could detect things that others couldn't.
But Kaguya belonged to the house that calculates every move before attacking.
"I don't think it'll be easy to catch," Kaguya grabbed the last broom and climbed on it, "I can reach it, but I don't think I can grab it without falling or it running away..."
She didn't start and looked at Hermione with disdain, "Don't you take hints? Get on."
"Don't treat me like a dog!" Hermione protested. Kaguya rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of despair.
"What a bit..." she murmured, exhausted.
Hermione climbed up behind her.
Kaguya immediately shot up vertically, forcing Hermione to hold on to her stomach, "Don't hold on so hard, I have to breathe."
"You won't die, Black!"
Kaguya reached for a larger, brighter key, but with crushed feathers, than the others.
She tried to go after it but key moved, preventing her from being caught.
"We have to go around it!" Harry shouted, and swooped down, while Ron sped up.
"Take it when it's close, and prepare for a possible crash," Kaguya warned in such a casual manner, it made Hermione question her life.
"What?!" She almost freaked out.
But Kaguya didn't answer and went straight to the key. She leaned forward, increasing her speed as she turned so that Hermione could take it.
The bushy-haired girl stretched out her right hand, while her left arm was holding on to Kaguya. She took the key and quickly hugged Black again.
Kaguya spun like a screw and landed on the ground without crashing by just a few centimeters.
"You almost killed me!"
"Oh, shut your hole Granger."
They both breathed heavily on their brooms. Harry and Ron descended a little more calmly.
"That was great! I knew I had to be the one to make the team!" Kaguya celebrated, pointing at Harry's empty hands.
"You almost killed us! You wouldn't be celebrating if we were crushed to the ground!"
There is an annoying voice like that.
"Are you always so bitter?"
"Are you always so irritating?" Hermione was just moments away from punching her shoulder with her pink fist.
"Girls," Harry called them, before they started to roll on ground, and hurt each other, "now is not the time."
"Mpmph!" Hermione pouted, she got off her broom and gave the key to Harry.
He immediately put in the lock and... it worked, opened the door, on the other side it was dark and he couldn't see anything.
As they entered, a light flooded the place revealing what appeared to be a huge chess board, with black pieces as big as them and white pieces that had no face.
Ron knew they had to play in order to get to the other side, but he seemed to think it through very carefully.
"No offense, but neither of you are very good at chess."
"We don't take offense," Harry said in a cool manner, "just tell us what we have to do and we'll do it."
"Harry, you take that bishop's place, Hermione that rook and Kaguya," Ron looked at the queen and then looked at Black.
"Nope, Weasley," She quickly refused, "If this is real, they will kill me."
Kaguya retracted her footsteps, she doesn't want to die for such things, when had more important stuff to do.
"Please," The redhead asked, clasping his hands together, and looked extremely pitiful.
It made Kaguya gulp and walked over to the queen.
"I'll be the horse." The game started with Ron as the leader.
Kaguya was a bit nervous on her piece, especially if at some point one landed next to her, or she had to move.
She never thought that her possible death would be at age of twelve, in a giant chess game, alongside a couple of people she did not like at all, for looking for something that did not suit her.
"I'll see you soon, Mum," she whispered as a black piece fell to her side, "Thank Merlin."
Ron noticed and managed to move it before the piece fell on top of her.
The game continued its course, until Ron realized that with a single, very risky move, he could win, "I have to let them catch me."
"Of course not!" Kaguya, Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time.
"....." xN
"How could you say that? If it's me, you would have sacrificed me without a doubt!"
"It doesn't matter! Ron can die!" Kaguya is completely opposed to his plan, "There must be another way"
Snort!
Hermione seemed more hurt, she decided not to talk to Black anymore.
"I'll step forward and she'll catch me. That will leave Harry to checkmate the king," Before others could protest further, Ron moved forward, white queen jumped and hit Ron with her stone arm.
"Ow! That seemed like it hurts," Kaguya covered her mouth in horror, and seemed to have flinched terribly, but she wasn't as far gone to interfere with the game.
Hermione didn't respond to her words, but she too looked worried.
"• •" Right, Harry quickly moved three spaces to the left. The king took off his crown and threw it at his feet, proclaiming them winners.
Kaguya now ran to Ron to make sure he was alive. And he was, but a little unconscious, "Just out of it."
"Hmph!" Brunette's face looked ugly, but also a little shaken, "Next one must be of either Snape or Quirrell, why don't you go and try Black? Isn't he your head of house? I am sure you can help more than me."
She gave her a taunt.
"Fine!"
In the next room there was a horrible, putrid smell, coming from a Troll, much larger than one they had to face, it was unconscious or dead on the floor with a bleeding lump on its head.
"It's too much of a coincidence that Quirrell's test is dying on the floor," Harry ignored Kaguya's words. He was still convinced that thief was Snape.
xxxxxx
As they entered the next door, they saw a table with seven bottles on it.
This was obviously Snape's test.
As they passed door, purple flames ignited behind them and black flames in front.
Kaguya picked up a scroll that was on side of the table.
'Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two want to help you, Whoever you find, One among us seven will let you go ahead, Another will lead the drinker back, Two contain only nettle wine, Three are deadly, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you want to stay forever, to help you in your choice, we give you four keys:
First, no matter how clever the poison is at hiding itself, you will always find one on the left side of the nettle wine;
Second, the ones at the ends are different, but if you want to move forward, none of them are your friends;
Third, as you clearly see, we all have different sizes: neither the dwarf nor the giant keep death inside them;
Fourth, the second on the left and the second on the right are twins once you try them, even if at first glance they are different.'
"Hermione should have come," Harry sighed as he read the parchment.
'Why didn't people believe I was capable of doing certain things?'
"Wizards like you are the ones who should study a lot more," Kaguya crumpled the parchment in her hands a little, "You can't just wait for someone to tell you how to do a spell so you can do it. A good wizard knows about spells, but also about theory. A good wizard is able to see all possible futures without looking into a crystal ball. A good wizard can't just go and fight, he has to study his opponent in order to defeat him. A good wizard is more than just a wizard, he's a good human being. And let me tell you, Harry Potter, if you don't trust me to solve this, you shouldn't have invited me here in the first place, and, if you trust Hermione more than yourself, you won't achieve anything."
Harry trembled slightly in place, but didn't say anything, just bowed his head.
Kaguya felt a little hypocritical saying that, because she spoke as if she were a good witch but she wasn't, and didn't even trust herself.
"I'll look for the potion," She took the parchment again and with her hand she pointed at each potion, trying to find out which one would let them advance.
Black took the smallest one, looked at it closely and showed it to Harry, "This one will let us advance."
Kaguya opened it, seeing the little liquid that was inside. It was obvious there wasn't enough for both of them.
She could go on, defeat Quirrell and become the heroine of Hogwarts.
But she was not the chosen one, she had never seen Voldemort, much less defeated.
It was a blow to her pride, but she was not the savior.
"Drink," Kaguya handed small bottle to Harry, "You are the only one who has defeated Voldemort, and if he is waiting for you on the other side... Only you can defeat him again."
She looked at the round bottle on far right of the table.
That was the one which would let her go back, she knew, but there was another one.
A thin, purple bottle, one that would keep her from going back to her uncle, that could even take her to her mother.
That idea was stupid, but if Lucius would never love her, if everyone was disappointed in her, if she would never see her father...
Kaguya took a bottle, and looked at Harry with unexpected care behind her eyes, "I'm sure you won't find what you expect, but it would be stupid of you to die in your first year at Hogwarts."
Harry gave her a small smile, when he understood that Kaguya meant to take care of himself.
"With the brooms, you can get out of the trapdoor, go to owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. Maybe I can slow down Snape a little but I can't match him...."
Kaguya trembled a little in her place and looked at the bottles on table again, "...I'm not going to a funeral."
In one gulp she drank entire contents of the bottle in hand and walked through purple fire.
She took her own advice. Because it was stupid to die in her first year at Hogwarts.
And because she wasn't about to leave Draco alone.
Harry took the contents of his bottle and stepped through the black flames.
But as Kaguya said, he didn't find what he expected.
xxxxxx
1 Extra Chapter - 70 Power Stone's! 😉
Do you think conservations between them are interesting? There seems to be so much tension....😈