(Y/n)'s Pov
The next days, the exams came, and I for one was pretty nervous, I guess it was because, aside from Voldemort possibly coming back, I got really anxious at tests in general, if I got anxious at asking questions, imagine how I got with tests, although it wasn't as bad as I thought so in the beginning.
We had written and practical exams, on the written ones, they told us the quills have been enchanted to have an Anti-Cheating spell – whatever that meant – although, I couldn't even dream of cheating, the thought alone made me sweat a lot.
In the practical side I believe I did better than the written one, Professor Flitwick made us make a pineapple dance, which was weird, Professor McGonagall made us turn a mouse into a snuff box, and Professor Snape made us do a Forgetfulness Potion, we shall not speak how I did on Herbology....
The eventual threat of Voldemort coming back kept me awake at nights, and I wasn't the only one, Harry looked the same if not worse, touching his scar and wincing in pain, I tried talking to him, but there wasn't anything I could do to make the pain go away, so I tried distracting him.
Ron and Hermione seemed unaffected by it, maybe because they didn't see or hear what we did, but still, it managed to give me a sense of normality that sometimes made me even more nervous.
The final exam was History of Magic, a subject so boring I almost always fell asleep. After Professor Binns told us to drop our quills, the cheering the class made woke me up from my sleep, but it meant we were finally free.
Hermione had a habit of talking about the exams after we did them, this didn't make Ron happy, but I liked it. It helped me be more assured of what questions I got right or wrong.
I had to keep Hermoine distracted too, so that she wouldn't get too wrapped up around studying and such. I did my best at that, it didn't help that she actually liked studying, but anyways, we walked to a tree near the lake, and sat there. It was a sunny day, so Blaze was having fun at least.
"That was far easier than I thought it would be, I needn't have learnt about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager" She said, I just stared at her with sleepy eyes, and said.
"....Who? And there's a code of conduct?" I was surprised she could fit so much on her head and not blow up.
"No more revision" Said Ron, he looked at Harry and I, and saw that we were deep in thought, paired with Harry having a pulsating pain on his scar.
"You two could look more cheerful, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet." Said Ron.
"I wish I knew what this means! My scar keeps burning, it's happened before, but never as often as this." Said Harry, I just again, looked at Ron with sleepy eyes, and said.
"I wish I could be, but with Voldemort "Ron squeaked Hermione let out a small eep at the sound of the name "threatening to come back any day now, it's hard for me to even sleep, I keep thinking about it."
"Go to Madam Pomfrey" Said Hermione to what Harry said, "And don't worry (Y/n), as long as Dumbledore is around the stone will be safe." She said to me, trying to ease my nervousness, but what if, by chance, Dumbledore had to leave Hogwarts? A day, or even a few hours was all that hooded creature needed.
"Relax, (Y/n), Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as he's here. Anyways, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy, he nearly had his head ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid let's Dumbledore down." Said Ron, in a very coherent speech.
At the mention of Hagrid, thoughts kept flooding my head. If Hagrid leaked that much information to students, couldn't he also do the same with anyone? He wasn't the most.... careful or subtle guy around, although my thoughts on the matter were stopped because Harry suddenly stood up.
Him doing that woke me almost immediately, because when I saw him, he was paler than before, I stood up too, and asked.
"Harry, what's wrong?" He didn't answer at first, and just started to walk, really fast, we followed him, and he finally answered.
"We've got to see Hagrid, now." He said, and I just listened to him, if he had the same thought process I had, then maybe he remembered something I didn't.
"Why?" Asked Hermione, struggling to keep up, I had to tell them to slow the pace a bit.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have a dragon egg in his pocket?" Said Harry, and I saw what he was getting at, so I said.
"Y-You're saying that the one who gave Hagrid the egg was-" I got interrupted, as we got to Hagrid's hut, and Harry hurriedly knocked on the door.
"Hullo" Said Hagrid, we looked at where the voice came and he was sitting in an armchair outside of his house, "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?" He asked with a smile, Ron was about to answer, but I interrupted him.
"Sorry, Hagrid, perhaps another time, now we wanted to ask you something." from there on, Harry took the lead, and asked.
"You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with looked like?"
"Dunno, he wouldn't take his cloak off." Harry looked stunned, so did the others. I had to grab onto something to not fall on my butt, that dreadful sensation filling me again, just like when we were in the forest.
Thankfully, Blaze got out of my hand-made pocket, and rushed to my shoulder, where she started to make some squeaking sounds, to keep me on my feet. Hermione also noticed and helped me a bit, Hagrid kept on, raising his eyebrows.
"It's not unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Hea-" I had to get it out of my system.
"Hagrid, what did you talk with him about?" I asked, with fear in my body and voice, and I think it showed, because Hagrid looked concerned for a moment, before he talked.
"He asked what I did... about the creatures I look after, I told him an' said I always wanted a dragon... I can't remember too well, 'cause he kept buying me drinks'' My sweat turned cold at that last sentence, "Yeah, he said he had a dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had to 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..." I always thought Hagrid was careless, but this much? My face went pale, I couldn't find any words, so Harry asked.
"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" I could hear in his voice the despair, even if he wanted to hide it.
"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 slee-" As soon as Hagrid said that, I knew this was an emergence, so I walked to Hogwarts fast.
The others followed me, as I kept climbing the stairs and finally they talked. At least Harry, Hermione recognized where we were going.
"Where are we going?"
"Dumbledore, we-we've got to tell him, we should've told him from the beginning," I said, fearing that we were too late, "I know where his office is, I know the password too jus-" And as if I just jinxed us again, Professor McGonagall appeared when we almost reached Dumbledore's office, with a bunch of books in her arms.
"What are you four doing inside? And here of all places?" She asked.
"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," Said Hermione, and I could see she wasn't trembling as much as before, which made me a bit happy.
"See Professor Dumbledore? Why?" She asked, in a 'why would you need him' kind of manner.
"It's sort of a sec-" Harry was saying, but I had to interrupt him, it was no place for secrets, not when things were this bad.
"It's about the Philosopher's Stone" I said, Professor McGonagall opened her eyes wide, dropped the books she was carrying, told us to hush, and said.
"How do you-" This time, it was Harry's turn to interrupt her.
"Professor, we think someone's going to try and steal the Stone, we've got to talk with Professor Dumbledore"
"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago, he received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew to London at once, 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" Said Professor McGonagall.
"But Professor-" Tried to say Harry.
"Potter, I know what I'm talking about, I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." I don't know why, but this annoyed me, so even surprising myself, I said.
"P-Professor, with all due respect, don't you think that if four first year students found out about the Stone, someone with more experience could get past the defences the staff made?" She looked at me with a mix of surprise and anger, and said.
"Are you calling us incompetent, Mr (L/n)?" I got worried, but still said.
"N-No, Professor, of cour-" Again, she interrupted me.
"Then enough of this nonsense! If I hear this topic again, I will take points, so you better go outside." And with that, she left, I know it was hard to believe, but if us four could get a bit of info on what's been guarded, what could someone far more experienced do?
When Professor McGonagall was out of sight, Harry started to talk, to scheme about what to do.
"It's tonight, 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 Ministr-" I put my arm in front of Harry, as Blaze started to growl, we turned, and Snape was standing there, he looked at us, and said.
"Good afternoon, you shouldn't be inside on a day like this" With a smile that... unsettled me.
"We were-" Tried to say Harry, but everyone loved to interrupt us.
"You want to be more careful. Hanging around on a day like this? People will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can they?" Every word he said made me feel worried.
We turned to leave, until he called out on us again, clearly not having enough.
"Be warned, Potter, any more night-time wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you." We kept on walking, until we were far enough.
"He really hates your guts, Harry." I said.
"No kidding." Harry said, with an exasperated sigh, "Here's what we've got to do, one of us has got to keep an eye on Snape, wait outside the staff room, and follow him if he leaves it. (Y/n), Hermione, you better do that."
"Why us?" She asked.
"It's obvious, you two have your weird extra Charms lessons, and besides, you can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, 'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong...'" Said Ron, and I'm not going to lie, I laughed a bit at that.
"Oh, shut up" Said Hermione, as she smacked my arm to stop me from laughing, as we went to the staff room.
"It's obvious I will be thinking a lot about the exams, if we don't pass them we won't get to second year!" Said Hermione.
"I know Hermione, Ron means nothing ill from that, if it works for something, I like it, it helps me feel more assured with questions in general, I don't like waiting for exams..."
"I know, but it's still infuriating that-" I placed Blaze on her hands and said.
"Here, have Blaze for a bit, she likes being with you, besides, it could help you get your mind off things, I think it's going to be a long day."
Hermione played with Blaze for a bit, as we pretended to wait for Professor Flitwick, Snape appeared, and started to ask us questions.
"What are you two doing?" He asked.
"U-uh, we're waiting for Professor Flitwick." I said, nervous, Hermione, however, seemed more composed, at least a bit more than me.
"Yes, we want to ask him questions about the Charms exam." She said,
"Ah, excellent, I will get him." He said, with a snarky smile, similar to the one Malfoy has, as he left, I looked at Hermione, and said.
"W-What do we do now?"
"We pretend, there's not much else we can do." She said, and as Professor Flitwick arrived and was happy to see us, we started to ask him questions. It was surprisingly hard to come up with questions, and it looked like he was excited about it too, as he had us there for a bit.
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After some time we arrived at the common room, and there was Harry and Ron, sadly, we lost sight of Snape, as we had to stick with Professor Flitwick.
"I'm sorry, Harry!" Said Hermione, "Snape came out and asked us what we were doing, when (Y/n) said we were waiting for Professor Flitwick, Snape went to get him, and we've only got away."
"Yeah mate, sorry, we lost him." I said, looking down.
"Well, that's it, isn't it?" We all looked at him, and I had a feeling of what he was going to say.
"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get the Stone first."
"W-What?!" I said, and I wasn't the only one surprised, obviously.
"You're mad!" Exclaimed Ron
"You can't! After what McGonagall and Snape said? You'll be expelled?" Said Hermione, now, I know she was trying to deescalate the situation, but I don't think that was the priority now.
"SO WHAT? 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 any more, can't you see?.
D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win 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 done, 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?" After that whole speech, I just looked my eyes full of determination, and said.
"You're right, that's why I'm coming with you." He looked at me shocked and said.
"No! if you get caught, you'll be expel-" I interrupted him.
"I don't care, Harry, I've been scared for too much time, I can't just let you go on your own, Voldemort... he killed my grandma, I never met her, you're not the only one who's had things taken from them at his hands, I can't let him take my friends too." Ron and Hermione looked at me surprised, and with reason, I never told them that, but Harry looked at me differently.
He looked at me like he understood, of course, what I felt could never even begin to compare to what he has felt his whole life, a grandmother isn't the same as a mom or a dad, but still, he knew that I meant it, and in some level, I think he felt more connected to me.
"Okay, I won't stop you, we'll use the invisibility cloa-" Harry tried to say.
"But will it cover the four of us?" Asked Ron, Harry looked shocked again, I don't know why, I thought it was a given that they were also coming.
"Al- What?" Asked Harry.
"Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you two go alone?"
"Of course not, how do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful..."
"Yeah Harry, I thought it was obvious, that's what friends are for, right? I'll help you, Hermione, I want to check some things too before we go." I said, she nodded, and added, to try and make Harry feel better.
"Besides, Flitwick told me in secret I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam, they're not throwing me out after that."
"H-How is that even possible?!" I asked, kind of bummed that she won me in that one, even if just for a bit.
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At night, we were preparing to go out, until an owl came with a letter of my dad, I've been sending them letters, almost everyday actually, but mom as the one who mostly answered them, dad was too busy with work, but it seems that now he's got a bit more of free time.
Hi little man, I'm glad to hear you're doing good in classes, all that stuff with the troll does sound
worrisome, but what's Hogwarts without a little danger? Also, I'm glad Harry Potter's your
friend, not because of his fame, but because I was also friends with the Potters, as I told you before.
There was this guy named Snape, who was also my friend, but he despised James and his group,
and they hated his guts too, too many times they fought, and too many times I had to split them up,
I thought ill of Severus too, but I knew he wasn't all that bad, he had a rough upbringing.
Snape was always hard to approach, but beyond all that rough exterior, there's someone who
cares about Hogwarts, so don't be too hard on him, he saved my life countless times as so have I,
so he's not all that bad. I'll try to send you another letter soon champ, there's too many cases in the ministry,
but I promise I'll try my best, keep me updated on your progress.
I love you.
Dad.
When I read it, I did so out loud – obviously skipping past the 'I love you' part – because it was important, if what Dad said was true, and he really saw him as a friend, then I don't think Snape would be a part of this, and I told them what I thought.
"It doesn't matter if it's Snape or not, (Y/n), the thing is they're going to steal the Stone today, we have to stop them" Said Harry, Ron looked a bit more sceptical, and said.
"Yeah, besides, it's been years since your dad was in school with that greasy git, things change."
Hermione looked more deep in thought, as if thinking on who else might be, but eventually gave up and said.
"Harry's right, (Y/n), there's more evidence showing that Snape's the one who plans on stealing it than the contrary, and even so, we have to go."
I put the thoughts of Snape maybe being good outside of my mind for the night, we had to prepare for what was to come, I helped Hermione with her notes, as I practised the pronunciation of certain spells, and as Lee Jordan left, Ron reminded Harry about his cloak.
He came back running, and said.
"We'd better put the Cloak here, and make sure it covers all four of us, if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on it's own-" I tried to tell Harry that if the cloak could fit two students and a crate with a dragon then it would be alright, but a voice interrupted us.
"What are you doing?" We all snapped our necks to the voice, that came from the corner of the room, and there was Neville, coming from behind an armchair, with trevor in hand, Blaze at the voice was surprised as well, as if she knew we wanted to be sneaky, and stood on my shoulder.
"Nothing, Neville, nothing" Said Harry. I nodded at it too.
"You're going out again," Said Neville, and I was getting a bad feeling about it.
"No, no, no. No we're not, why don't you get back to bed, Neville?" Said Hermione.
"You can't go out, you'll be caught again, Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."
"N-Neville, come on mate, we wouldn't go out if it wasn't import-" I tried to say.
"I won't let you do it, I'll fight you!" He said, sweating a lot while doing it, I could tell it hurt him to do this too.
"Neville, get away from that hole and don't be an idiot -" Ron said, but I think using the word idiot triggered something in Neville.
"Don't you call me an idiot! I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the ones who told me to stand up to people!"
"C-come on, mate, you don't have to do this." I took a step forward, to which Neville raised his fists. Blaze probably felt threatened, and flared up a bit, but I told her to calm down.
"You know we wouldn't do this unless we had to, I know this makes you anxious, it makes me anxious too, but we can't let you stop us, at least not tonight, mate" I said, trying to convince him, obviously it didn't work, as he raised his fists even more and said.
"Go on then, try and hit me!" I tried to take one more step, but Harry muttered something to Hermione, and she said.
"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand, and said.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Neville got his arms to his sides, and got paralyzed. I saw him starting to fall, and I moved to grab him, and tried to put him on the armchair he came out of.
"You were going to let him fall?" I asked the two of them, with a bit of sadness in my voice, Hermione looked at me and said.
"I knew you were going to catch him. Oh Neville, I'm so sorry."
"You'll understand later, Neville." Ron said, as we put the Cloak over us, thankfully, we all were able to fit, and after carefully sneaking around Mrs Norris, we came across our second obstacle of the night, Peeves.
I never really liked Peeves, he made me anxious as he was very unpredictable, besides, falling victim to one of his pranks wasn't very pleasant....
Thankfully, before he could cause more trouble, Harry had an idea.
"Peeves, the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible." SaId Harry, in a very low and hoarse voice, I was kind of surprised he could do something like that and not damage his throat.
Peeves immediately got scared, and ran away, to which Ron said.
"Brilliant, Harry!"
"Not just brilliant, it was amazing! I didn't know you could do that with your voice" I said, and a few moments later, we arrived, the door was open, so whoever was the one behind the attempt of stealing the Stone, already went through here, Harry turned to us, and I had a feeling of what he was going to say.
"If you want to go ba-"
"Mate, don't even finish that sentence, we're with you to the end of this." I said, Ron and Hermione just nodded to what I said, and Harry just looked at the door again, and we went through.
And in all of his glory, Fluffy was there, sniffing around. I guess animals do have strong senses, even if he couldn't see us, he still felt someone was there.
Harry took out a flute from his pocket, and started to play it, or at least tried, and gave my ears a pain so bad I'll remember it from days.
But it worked, the dog slowly fell asleep, and to be honest? He was kind of cute, if you count out the size. I would've pet him if we weren't in such a hurry.
"I think we'll be able to pull the door open, want to go first, Hermione?" Asked Ron.
"No, I don't!" She said, I took a big breath, and said.
"I'll go" As I started to make my way over the dog's legs, I pulled the ring of the trapdoor, and all I could see was black, which didn't help my anxiety at all.
"U-uh, I think we'll just have to drop..." I said, Harry tried to get attention to himself, and gestured that he wanted to go first, I didn't pay much attention to him, I nodded to Ron and Hermione, and jumped, I heard them gasp before I couldn't see anything.
I regretted it immediately, but I wasn't thinking straight, at least I had Blaze with me, she illuminated a bit of the path, and seemed a bit annoyed at me jumping, but what can you do?
I thought the landing was going to be hard, but it wasn't, it was like a pillow, so I called the others.
"It's a soft landing, come on!" I didn't realise Blaze was trying to get my attention, and even then, I couldn't really understand what she was saying. Harry fell after me, and so did Ron, who asked.
"What's this stuff?"
"Dunno, sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!" Said Harry, as I moved, I felt as if my legs were starting to get squeezed by something, and when I put Blaze to sort of see, I realised some black vine was wrapping around my leg, which was... alarming to say the least.
"G-G-Guys...!?" They looked at me, and Hermione landed next to me, she shrieked, and said.
"Look at you!"
"T-This w-would be a good moment to have paid attention in Herbology... stupid plants!" I exclaimed, of course it was plants.... this was what Blaze must have tried to tell me, Hermione got free from the plants, as I approached Blaze to what was wrapping around my legs, and she threw some fire.
The moment Blaze threw her fire to where the vines were, as if the plant got scared, it made a hole below me, and I fell to where Hermione was, knocking her without meaning to.
"S-Sorry Hermione, the fire must've scared it." I helped her get up, and as if her mind cleared, she said.
"Devil's snare! It doesn't like fire-"
"So light a fire!" Harry choked.
"Yes, of course, but there's no wood! And Blaze's still a baby, her flames aren't-" Hermione tried to say, but Ron snapped at her.
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?" He yelled, we had a moment of realisation, as we both went to take out our wands, and performed the blue fire spell Hermione usually does, which caused the Devil's snare to retreat.
"Phew... thank god Hermione actually pays attention in Herbology, maybe I should pay more attention too...." I said.
"There's no wood, honestly..." Said Ron, as we kept on walking, and we got into a room, we heard something that sounded like birds flying, we looked up, and we saw some jewellery looking birds, and a door on the other side of the room.
Harry ran to the door and tried to open it, to no avail, I tried Alohomora on it, and it didn't work either.
"Now what?" Asked Ron, I was running out of ideas, the idea I had of Blaze burning down the door was rejected, so I had to keep thinking.
"These birds... they can't be here just for decoration" Said Hermione, I was honestly not paying attention, I was thinking on how to get through the door, until Harry said.
"They're not birds, they're keys! Winged keys, so that must mean... Yes, look! Broomsticks!"
The whole thing made me pay attention to them, and I said.
"Um... maybe look for a key that matches the looks of the door? It may be silly, but..." Harry looked at me and nodded, they all got to a Broomstick, as I looked at them doing it.
"(Y/n)? You're not riding one?" Asked Hermione, I just looked at her, and said, with nervousness.
"I-I, um, I'm fine, I don't like heights, and I'm not that good with a broomstick anyways"
"Are you bloody serious?" Asked Ron, and I just smiled nervously, to which Hermione got out of hers, grabbed my arm, and dragged me to a broomstick, to which I reluctantly got in.
"Fine... but don't expect me to be good at it..." I pouted.
We all kicked off to the air, me a bit closer to the ground, but still, it was something, we all looked for the right key, until Harry, being the youngest seeker, finally spotted the right one, and directed us to it, we tried catching it, but after seeing Ron nearly falling from the ceiling, something in me started to burn.
I was only slowing them down, I was already feeling bad, this made me feel worse, so... I stopped thinking about what would happen if I fell down, and stopped looking below me. I followed them to the end, Harry gave us directions, Ron went upwards, Hermione from below, Harry straight at it, and me?
I thought that maybe the key would hit the wall, and fall down, because we we're chasing it to one, and thankfully, the key followed the logic I had, and just when Harry was about to catch it, the key dived down, inches from touching the wall, which made Harry to high five a wall.
But as the key fell down in a straight line, I was there, and I caught it, that was the good part, the bad part? I attempted what Harry did on his first Quidditch game, jumping from my broom to catch it, which... led me to me falling from a high altitude.
I screamed for a while, until I noticed I didn't feel the wind in my face as one normally does when falling. I saw that Hermione grabbed me, I don't know how she did it, but I looked at her, and without any breath said "Thank you..."
We went down, and Harry said.
"Good job, (Y/n), at least you don't fear the heights anymore." I just looked at him, and handed him the key.
"I think I've had enough sky adventures for a lifetime..."
Harry opened the door, and suddenly, we were in Ron's biggest dreams, as we found ourselves in a huge chessboard, with real life sized chess pieces, I just patted Ron on the back and said.
"Go on mate, you're the leader on this one." He looked determined, and said.
"All right, we've got to play our way across the room"
He approached the black knight, put his hand on it, and the statue came to life.
"Now, don't be offended, but none of you are that good at chess, so Harry, you take the place of the Bishop, Hermione, you go there instead of the Castle, (Y/n), you move to where the King is" Said Ron, and as if the pieces could listen, the named pieces went out of the board.
Ron was really good at chess, and even if it looked like we were losing at the beginning, we were nearly winning, until we reached a breaking point, in which Ron said the words I didn't want to hear as I examined the chess board.
"I've got to be taken" We all screamed "No!" but Ron said,
"That's chess! You've got to make sacrifices! I'll make my move and she'll take me, that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"
After some bickering, we reluctantly agreed, and Ron advanced. I almost wanted to close my eyes, but had to see it. We were going to face worse things in these tests, and as Ron positioned himself in front of the Queen, the piece struck him hard on the head, knocking him out.
Harry, obviously disturbed, moved three spaces to the left, and we were able to win the chess game, at a terrible cost, but we made it.
We had to keep moving, and with Harry reassuring us that he'll be alright, Hermione talked.
"We've had Sprout's, Flitwick, McGonagall... that leaves Snape's and Quirrel's spells."
And just as she said it, we opened the next door. We were expecting something horrible, but it was a plain table, with seven differently shaped bottles on a line.
We approached the table, and purple fire began to sprung from the entrance, and behind the table, on the door that led to the next test, black fire erupted.
"Uh, now what?" I asked, as I noticed a paper next to the bottles, as I read it out loud.
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 for evermore,
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 onwards, 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.
"Oh, great, puzzles, again another test where I'm useless..." Hermione caught up to what I said, and she added.
"Brilliant! This isn't magic... it's logic. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever" She said.
"Well... thank god we have the brightest witch of our year, right?" I said.
She seemed to blush a bit at the words, which was strange to me, but said.
"Give me a minute" It wasn't a minute, in fact, it was several minutes, but I guess you get the point, she muttered to herself while watching the bottles, and finally, after what felt like forever, said.
"Got it, the smallest bottle will get us through the black fire" I think Harry and I had similar thinking, because we looked at the small bottle, then at each other, and he said.
"There's hardly enough for one of us, that's hardly one swallow"
"Which one'll get you through the purple one?" I asked, and Hermione pointed to a rounded bottle, immediately, Harry said.
"You two drink that one, listen, get back to Ron, grab brooms from the flying key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor, past fluffy, go straight to the owlery, get Hedwig, and send a letter to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold whoever it is for some wh-"
"No way Harry, you're not going alone!" I exclaimed
"What if You-Know-Who is with him?" Asked Hermione.
"I was lucky once, wasn't I?" Said Harry, I was pissed, and said.
"Harry, no, you... I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not"
"And do you have a plan of getting through the black fire?" I was left speechless, even if I wanted to feel useful, I wasn't able to, again, I was useless.
Hermione was scared, as it was obvious, and hugged Harry.
"You're a great wizard, Harry"
"I'm not as good as you or (Y/n)." Answered back Harry
"There are more important things, friendship and bravery, oh Harry, be careful!" Exclaimed Hermione
"Drink it, Harry, we'll go after we see it worked..." I said, feeling down.
And so he did, and then he shuddered, as if he was cold, I nodded to him, he did the same, and he went through the fire, we turned, and tried to make Hermione feel better, I said.
"Don't worry, Hermione, he'll be fine, he's Harry Potter, he'll find a wa-" Again, apparently I jinxed us every time, as we heard him scream, we turned around and looked at the black fire, as Hermione said.
"Quirrell's test!" I looked at the fire, as we kept hearing Harry scream, Hermione looked at me with a 'what do we do?!' face, and I remembered, as I facepalmed myself.
"How could I be so stupid?! It's fire!" Hermione looked at me like I was crazy, until I pulled something from my shoulder, someone who was standing there the whole time, and I didn't realise until I took her in my hand that she was salivating from seeing the black fire.
I threw her from my hand as if I threw a ball, and Blaze went off flying, ready to fight – or eat – the black fire, and apparently she was hungry, it didn't take her long to almost vanish the whole black fire, I started to run, and said to Hermione.
"Go! Do what Harry said, I'll help him!" She didn't get to say much, she just nodded and drank the bottle, or at least that's the last thing I saw.
I got into the room, and a familiar yet disgusting smell hit my nose, and I saw Harry running from a troll, bigger than the one we fought on the bathroom, with a bloody lump in his head, and with an even bigger club, Harry was barely dodging it's attacks, so I ran towards him, grabbed a rock that was laying on the ground, and threw it at the troll.
"Harry! Go! Get the Stone! I'll handle this... green brute!" I yelled at Harry, he looked scared and hesitant, but I was determined, I wasn't going to be scared anymore, Voldemort or not, this guy made the mistake of trying to kill my friend, and messing with a version of me that was tired of being useless.
And Harry must have seen it in my eyes, as he nodded at me, and went through the door, leaving me with the troll who as of now, was staring at me, as if seizing me up, I got startled as Blaze ran up to me, and perched herself on my shoulder, she looked at me, and nodded, and we both stared down the disgusting troll.
"Alright... let's do this"
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