The Race for the Stone
No one listened to them. McGonagall told them the stone was completely safe, and that Dumbledore was in London until the following day.
But in fact; he wasn’t. He was in his office waiting for the right moment to ‘rescue’ Harry.
So, when the time came for it, Harry, Ron, and Hermione snuck down to the common room. They had a confrontation with Neville. Brave really. Hermione cast the body bind curse;and they walked quickly and quietly to the third-floor corridor.
Harry had no idea what or how they were going to pass all the things that protected the stone. They entered the room where Fluffy was being kept. Only to hear a harp playing in the corner, Fluffy was snoring. Well, that took care of that problem. But one of his paws was over the trap door.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione pushed with all their strength and managed to move the paw and open the trap door.
Then there was silence. The harp stopped playing. The next thing he knew he jumped into the darkness below, with snapping teeth behind them; and landed on something. He was a little dazed; when he looked down he realized it was some sort of plant. Hermione was scrambling as far away as possible. “ Get up! Both of you! Don’t you realize what plant this is?” she screeches.
Harry felt his body being constricted by the plant. Ron was panicking and the plant grew and constricted him even more. Hermione was going over what she read in the herbology books, “ This is Devil’s Snare, you have to remain absolutely still for it to release you.” And with that Hermione disappeared beneath the floor.
Both boys screamed. It took a while for Harry to calm down and he too sank beneath the floor. “ Hermione, how else do you take care of Devil’s Snare?” asked Harry, snapping her out of her panic. Again, muttering to herself she finally whispered we need to light a fire. But we don’t have any wood”
“For Merlin’s Sake aren’t you a witch or not?!” screamed Ron as a vine covered his mouth.
“Oh, right. Incarnem inflamalde” Hermione cast the spell she used to set Snapes cloaks. The overgrowth gave a yell and released Ron from its clutches.
“About bloody time!” blasted the redhead as he landed with a thud on the pavement.
They walked the dark corridor when they heard a fluttering sound. Upon entering the cavern, the saw hundreds of flying things. “ Are they bats?” asked Hermione, as they noticed a broom in the center of the room. “No, they’re keys.” Awed Harry, Ron went to the opposite door ahead and told them they needed a really old key. Harry scanned the room of keys, one of the keys had a broken wing and was struggling with the rest of the flock.
Then he looked at the broom. No, it couldn’t be that easy. As soon as he touched the broom the keys swarmed and attacked. He swung himself onto the broom and took off! The keys darted and danced around Harry ducked and weaved trying to get to the needed key.
It took him less than two minutes to finally catch the key. He tosses it to Ron who opens the door, as He and Hermione rushed to the other side as Harry flew past them. They slammed the door shut and you could hear the pins of the keys hitting the door. That’s when a stench hit them, and the next room they came across held a troll! They all gasped, this troll was three times as big as the one on Halloween. Luckily, Snape or, someone had already knocked it out. They quietly scampered as far away from the troll and went through the next door.
The next room held statues; one side held white the other black. The floor was tiled in a checkered style. They walked precociously to the door but the white statues sprang to life and blocked their exit with various weapons.
“It’s Wizards’ Chess!” exclaimed Ron excitedly.
“So, we’re supposed to play across then?” asked Harry. Looking back at the black pieces, seeing that three pieces were missing among the ranks. Ron shoved to get to the knight, he then dictated that Hermione will be a rook or the queen’s side castle. Harry was left with the Bishop position. White went first. “ This isn’t going to be like real wizards’ chess is it? Whimpered Hermione. To answer her question Ron called out for a pawn to move. The white pawn smashed theirs’ to smitherings. “ Yes, Hermione. This is going to be exactly. like . Wizards’ Chess.” chided Ron.
For every piece white took Ron countered. Soon they were down to the final moves of the game. Ron decided to ‘sacrifice’ himself and moved; he was taken by the white queen. Hermione wanted to go help as Ron fell to the floor. But Harry stopped her stating that they were still playing. He made his move and check-mated the king. After which after checking Ron and seeing he was just unconscious. Both went on to the next obstacle.
What they didn’t see was that Dumbledore disillusioned himself and walked up to the Weasley who sat up once he heard the door closed.
“ Ow, that really hurt! I sure hope I get a raise from bringing that bastard this far Dumbledore” complained Ron. Dumbledore gave the boy a stern look, “I’ll see to it, though I would appreciate you keep a civil tongue. Now head up to the hospital wing then spread the word of what Potter has done tonight.” Ron got up and headed up to the hospital wing.
During that time Hermione and Harry were trapped by two sides of fire. The only thing in the room was a table with different bottles and a parchment with writing.
“I think this is Snape’s protection for the stone Harry; and, it looks like we need to find the right potion to get through the fire.”
“So, what potion will get us safely through the flames?” asked Harry as he stared blankly at the table. Hermione grabs the parchment and reads it over. Twice.
“It’s a logic puzzle” she smiles, and goes through the table while reading the parchment; until she grabbed two vials and handed one to Harry. “That one will get you to the other side where Snape is.”
Harry uncorks the vial and noticed there was only enough for one more person. “Hermione, there’s not enough.”
Hermione gave a sad smile, “ You don’t need to worry about me, books and cleverness don’t seem to get you far in the wizarding world. But, Harry, you have something special.”
“Hermione…”
“ I... I need to go check on Ron” she stammered, and took the vial that she had and downed it; turned and disappeared back to the chess room. Harry downed his potion, and he felt cold to the bone. Colder even, and stepped through the flames.
What happened next was a bit of a blur. First it was Quirrell who tried to kill him during the quidditch match. He was responsible for the troll, and framed Snape while trying to get to the Stone. It turned out that Voldemort ( or more like his face) had taken-up residence on the back of the professor’s head; hence the turban and decaying smell. He was forced to stand in front of the mirror again; but this time his reflection placed the stone in his empty pocket.
Quirrell tried to attack him, but when Harry placed his hands in front of him in order to protect himself, Quirrell staggered back his hands turning to ash. Whatever was possessing Quirrell was now in wrath form, and fled; but first passed through Harry. Harry fell backwards hitting his head. He saw something glinting in the firelight, thinking it was a snitch; but, in fact was Albus Dumbledore. The last thing the boy remembered was a murmur “Potter, you idiot boy what have you done”, and he blacked out.
Albus stood at the foot of Potter’s bed; after heavily confounding Pomfery into not reporting the boy’s injuries from the medical scan. Angry at the fact that the boy got as far as he did; even if it was with help. He was supposed to save Harry, and have the boy worship his as a savior. His head was spinning trying to come up with a way to use these past events to his advantage when the boy began to stir. When he woke up, Harry noticed it was in a hospital bed.
Albus of course started with a compliment, that he had done well in protecting the stone; and that since it was the next day the whole school knows, gesturing to all the ‘Get Well’ cards and sweets. He then scolded Harry for killing a teacher; smirking when the boy looked guilty saying that he didn’t mean to and that it just happened. Dumbledore immediately explained the reason why Voldemort couldn’t touch him was because of his mother’s sacrifice.
Hours later was the leaving feast. Students were packed, and murmuring with excitement. Slytherin was in the lead for house points. Dumbledore sat on the throne that was the headmasters’ chair, looking down at his pawns. He rose up and gave the last announcements; waiting for the cheers to subside he began giving out “last-minute points”. He awarded points to Potter, Granger and Weasley; and the welp Longbottom. He needed the rift between houses to divide even more, or else his carefully laid plans won’t work. Thus, Gryffindor won for the first time in over twelve years.
Harry was slowly loading his trunk and Hedwig’s cage onto the train; he was not looking forward to going back to the Dursley’s. He even tried begging Dumbledore into letting him stay, but the headmaster said that it was necessary for him to go back. He was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard Hermione talk about going home, “I’m not going home” he stated, “ not really” and he went to find a compartment.
Hermione looked confused and worried about Harry’s statement. Ron just shrugged and both followed him to the compartment.