Being Different

As if the threat of Voldemort trying to take over the school wasn’t enough, the Ravenclaws had something even more important to worry about. Their exams!

“What if we don’t pass!” worried Padma.

“Then you’ll get thrown out!” replied Mandy brutally honest as usual.

“What!” screamed Persephone and Michael.

“Imagine the shame!” continued Padma.

“Calm down you lot!” said Anthony calmly, “we’ve been studying since January. Look if Crabbe and Goyle can pass these bloody exams, we’ve got no problem!”

The rest of his classmates nodded feeling slightly better. They were as prepared as they could possibly get.

The exams took place over the course of a week, they had their astronomy exam on Wednesday evening. Finally, it was Friday and they finally finished their last exam Charms.

“That went better than I thought it would!” sighed Terry in relief. The Ravenclaws were relaxing by the lake again, Padma and Lisa were dipping their feet into the cool water and Michael and Terry were skimming stones. They had done it, they had survived their First Year exams!

The only people not relaxing were Anne and Irwin. They had spent the whole week worrying about Voldemort just as much as their exams. And now the exams were actually over they knew that they would soon have to do something!

Irwin noticed a very nervous Harry, Ron and Hermione approaching from across the grounds, he nudged Anne who had been trying to read a book.

Harry began to gesture for Anne and Irwin, he clearly wanted to talk to them away from the others.

“Best get this over with!” sighed Irwin dreading for the worst. Irwin and Anne got up and headed over to the group of nervous Gryffindors.

“What is it Harry?” asked Anne.

“Has this got something to do with the stone?” asked Irwin.

Harry nodded. “We’re going tonight. We don’t know how much longer Quirrell can hold out.” Harry told them.

“We’re surprised Voldemort didn’t come charging into our exams!” said Hermione. Ron flinched “for goodness sake Ronald!”

“Anne, I want you to stay in the common room with Irwin!” Harry told them.

“What!” they both protested.

“Harry, they killed my parents too! If you’re going, I’m going with you!” Anne argued.

“I’m supposed to protect you!” Harry shouted, “I promised!”

“If you think that I am going to sit quietly in the Common Room reading a book whilst you’re facing mortal peril then you are wrong!” Anne told her brother firmly.

“But…” started Harry.

“But nothing Harry!” interrupted Irwin. “Your sister is terrified of what might be beneath that door! But she would be even more scared if you were there without her, wondering whether you are alive or dead!”

“Yeah I know but…”

“If it wasn’t for me and Anne you wouldn’t have got this far! Who told you about the Cerberus! Who knew about Nicholas Flamel! You need us down there tonight and you know it!” said Irwin.

“But…” Harry faltered again.

“No Harry! They are right!” Ron pointed out.

“They could be very useful,” Hermione explained, “we have no idea what’s down there!”

“Oh alright then!” Harry said grudgingly. “We’ll meet you outside your common room at ten-thirty. I’ll bring the map then we won’t need to worry about getting five people under the cloak, we’ll know when people are coming.”

Anne and Irwin went back to the other Ravenclaws by the lake. “You lot alright? Looked like you lot were fighting?” asked Terry.

“Oh, its nothing, just sibling stuff,” Anne told them.

“Fair enough!” said Michael lazily before shutting his eyes for a rest.

That evening Anne and Irwin tried to prepare for what might happen that night. Anne had used up the last of her supply of calming draught a few days earlier after one of her exams. Irwin grabbed a small flute from his dormitory for Fluffy. They spent several hours going back through books of advanced spells in case they needed any that night.

At ten o’clock they both ran upstairs to dress in something more practical than robes and came back downstairs a few minutes later in jumpers and jeans. Anne had also grabbed her mirror just in case they needed help so that they could ring Remus and Sirius.

At ten-thirty, Anne and Irwin went out of the common room door and found Harry Ron and Hermione waiting for them. “Come on” whispered Harry “there’s a prefect coming!”

The group slowly made their way to the third-floor corridor. They managed to avoid bumping into any teachers or ghosts by checking the map. Finally, they reached the locked door.

“Alohomora!” called Hermione.

There was a satisfying click and the door unlocked.

“Come on then!” whispered Harry.

The Cerberus was huge! Each of its heads was the same size as a small boulder! It could eat each of them in one small bite! How could Hagrid have called this thing Fluffy?

Irwin got out his flute, hoping that this would work. Fortunately, the second Irwin began to play, Fluffy began to fall asleep. Hermione and Ron went through the trap door first, then Anne and. Harry, Irwin managed to jump through the door somehow still playing the flute.

They fell for what felt like ages, but they, fortunately, had a soft landing. “What is this stuff?” asked Ron. Whatever it was had started to curl its way around them all. The boys began to struggle against the plant.

“Stop!” yelled Hermione “Stop moving you’ll strangle yourselves! I’m trying to think”

“Its Devils snare! We studied it in Herbology,” Anne said, “It usually thrives in the dark and the damp,” muttered Anne. “We need to light up our wands!” Anne told them.

The five students reached for their wands and cast Lumos. The five wands all shone brightly like torches in the darkness. Anne’s light again was nearly blinding, they directed their wands at the Devils Snare, and it released them immediately.

They found themselves in a dark corridor at the end of which they could see a door. “Well done Anne!” Harry told her.

“That was some quick thinking!” said Irwin patting her on the back.

“I think we should keep our wands out; in case we need them” Harry suggested. There were torches along the walls, so they no longer needed their wands lit but keeping their wands out seemed like a good idea.

They walked towards the door at the end of the corridor. Anne could hear a slight rustling and clinking coming from the next room. “Well it can’t be much worse that Fluffy whatever it is!”

They went through the next door where there were several broomsticks and hundreds of tiny objects flying around the room. The Alohomora spell didn’t work this time when Hermione tried it.

Anne had been watching the objects flying around the room. “That spell won't work Hermione,” said Anne quietly. Hermione stared at her confused Anne pointed up at the things flying around the room “those are keys!” Anne explained, “you need to catch that one Harry, the small one with the broken wing.”

“Right,” said Harry looking towards the key, “Thanks, Anne!”

Harry Ron Hermione and Irwin each grabbed a broomstick and managed to corner the key. Anne preferred to stay on the ground where she had always felt safer.

Harry thrust the key into the door and there was yet another satisfied ‘click’ and the door opened.

There was a large chessboard in the middle of the next room.

“Excellent! We have to play our way across the board!” exclaimed Ron.

Ron may have thought this was excellent, but Anne thought this was horrifying! She had seen Michael, Terry, and Anthony playing wizards chess enough times to know how violent the chess pieces were. She had seen the chess pieces crushing each other into pieces!

Ron told Anne to take the place of a bishop, Harry was a castle, Hermione the queen, and Irwin a pawn. Ron himself was playing a knight.

Anne started to panic; the white pieces were crushing their black into tiny fragments. The game was brutal, black pieces were getting crushed left right and center, but Ron had destroyed just as many pieces himself.

At one point, Anne was nearly taken, and Ron had to save her quickly.

It was reaching the end of the match. There were only a few pieces left on each side. The white queen was staring at Ron, he had been thinking about his next move for a long time muttering to himself. “I have no choice I’ve got to!” Ron muttered.

“No! Don’t do it Ron!” shouted Harry.

“Don’t do what?” screamed Hermione

“He’s going to sacrifice himself!” Harry told her.

“I’ve got no choice!” Ron announced. “If the queen takes me, then Harry is free to take the king! You four will have to go on without me!”

Ron moved into the Queens line of fire and she knocked him off the horse. Ron screamed in pain. “Now Harry! Take the king!” shouted Ron through the pain.

Harry moved forward and took the king “checkmate!” announced Harry. The king handed Harry his crown.

“You alright Ron?” asked Hermione running over to her friend.

“Yeah, I think so, you lot go on without me, we’ve made it this far!” Ron told them.

Ron and Hermione began to protest. “We’ll come back another day!”

“We can't leave you here!”

“No!” interrupted Irwin. “We have to go on, if we don’t stop him tonight, Voldemort could find the stone and take over.”

Harry and Hermione looked at Irwin. He was right, they had to go on.

The next room had a large troll that lay unconscious in the middle of the room. “If the trolls already been dealt with, then he’s ahead of us!” said Harry “we’ve got to get a move on!” he panicked.

The next room they went into had nothing but a table with an assortment of bottles and a piece of paper.

Anne screamed as a fire sprung up on the door they had just gone through the exit.

Irwin picked up the paper and read it aloud,

“Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever you will find,
One of us 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 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 on either end,
But if you would move forwards 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.

“What the….” Harry faltered.

“It's logic!” exclaimed Hermione “a puzzle”

Irwin was smiling over at Anne and Hermione “we’ve got this!” he laughed. The three of them began to solve the problem.

“Right so the wines in the second right and second left,” Anne muttered.

“And there is poison on the left of both of those” Hermione continued. They carefully moved the bottles of nettle wine and two of the poisons out of line.

“Ok,” said Irwin slowly “different are those who stand on either end, but if you would move forward neither are your friend” he considered this. “Well we have already moved the one on the far right which was poison, this one on the far left is not the bottle that we need to get through that fire” Irwin said picking up the largest of the bottles.

That left only two. “Its that one!” said Anne pointing to the smallest of the bottles. “The one you are holding will get you and Hermione back through the over fire!”

“Are you sure?” asked Harry.

The three of them nodded. “Well then you three need to take the other potion and go back for help,” she said pointing to the bottle in Irwin’s hand. “There’s only enough for one in that bottle!” he pointed out.

“No Harry!” Anne screamed, “You are not going through that door without me!”

“Anne please!” Harry pleaded, “go back with Irwin and Hermione, you’ll be safe, go get me some help!”

Harry looked at his sister who was still staring at him stubbornly. “Anne for Merlin’s sake there’s only enough for one!”

“But I don’t need any potion!” Anne pointed out.

“What?” the other three asked in shock.

“The Lovegood’s sent me a bracelet for Christmas for protection. One of the charms protects me from fire,” Anne explained pointing at the small ruby on her bracelet.

Harry still looked uncertain. He had promised to protect his sister. But then again tonight he was seeing a side of her he had never seen from her before. She was cool and collected, she had solved the riddle and gotten rid of the Devils Snare, she had pointed out the right key to Harry. Clearly Anne’s nervousness and anxiety were being overpowered by the need to help her friends.

“Are you sure you want to come?” Harry asked her. Anne nodded firmly.

“Right,” he said looking to Irwin and Hermione, “you two go back for Ron, find Professor Dumbledore and tell him whats happened.”

“Irwin,” said Anne reaching into her pocket “take this,” she said handing him her mirror, “once we’ve gone through the fire ring Sirius and Remus, they may be able to help us. Don’t ring them till we’ve gone through the fire though, they would try and stop us”

Irwin looked at her in shock, he merely nodded.

“You’re very brave Harry, good luck!” Hermione cried pulling him into a hug.

“Anne,” said Irwin nervously, “you are so strong, you’re brave like your parents, I always knew you would be!” Anne blushed as Irwin hugged her, ‘just promise me one thing!”

Anne looked up at her friend. “what?”

“Come back!” Irwin told her with tears in his eyes.

“I will!”

Harry swallowed the potion in one gulp and grabbed hold of his sisters’ hand. “Come on Sis!”

Anne and Harry walked together through the fire leading towards the next room. Anne didn’t feel a burning sensation, only a slight tingling.

When they reached the next room, however, they didn’t find Voldemort. They didn’t even find Snape, but Professor Quirrell!