Chương 61: ITW,H - Chapter 61 - Through the Trapdoor

(Word Count: 2, 833) Later that night, the four of them gathered in the common room. It was late in the evening, curfew had been called a while ago now.

"Are we really doing this?" Neville said nervously. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Neville, we're going! We can't just let Harry do this all on his own." Neville swallowed, "I-I know that, it's just… nerves." Ron yawned tiredly.

"Let's just get this over with so we can go back to bed!" Hermione looked at Ron in disbelief, "How can you be so relaxed at a time like this?" Ron shrugged.

"I mean, Dumbledore will handle the danger, right? Besides, we're only doing this to complete Harry's vision thing. It doesn't really feel like an adventure, you know? More like a chore we have to get done with." Harry gave a wry smile.' He's not exactly wrong there,' he thought. With Quirrell gone, this really was just a formality. The most dangerous thing was the troll, since Quirrell hadn't gone ahead of them to take care of it before them. However, Harry was much more powerful than he was on Halloween.

He could take care of it without issue. He unfolded his invisibility cloak.

"Come on, let's go." Hermione frowned at it.

"Will all four of us fit under it?"

"Maybe not in another year or two, but for now we're small enough," Harry said. Everyone huddled under the cloak and they made their way out of the common room. As they pushed the portrait open, the Fat Lady jerked awake.

"Huh? Who's there? A disillusionment charm? Whoever you are, you better not get caught, you hear me? Oh, and tell me all the details when you come back!" Hermione groaned and complained quietly to Harry, "even the portrait doesn't follow the school rules."

"I imagine she's quite used to Gryffindor students sneaking out at night," Harry whispered back. They made their way to the third floor corridor. The dusty hall was lined with several gargoyle sconces, and ended at the forbidden door that held Fluffy behind it. A quick homenum revelio showed that Dumbledore was invisible behind one of the gargoyles already waiting for them to arrive. Filch and his cat Norris were nowhere to be seen, so Harry whipped the cloak off of them.

Dumbledore stepped out of his hiding spot and dispelled his own invisibility.

"Putting the cloak to good use I see, Harry," he said.

"It would be a waste not to," Harry said back. Dumbledore chuckled and stroked his beard, eyeing all four of them.

"I do apologize for putting you four through this. Fate can be a tricky thing, so it's best not to tempt it. Do you all know the obstacles? Do you have a plan?" Harry nodded, "Yes, we've gone over each room's obstacle."

"And if someone truly is down there, you'll all retreat and allow me to handle things," Dumbledore said, more of a statement than a question. They all nodded. Dumbledore beamed at them, "Good. You won't see me, but I'll be right behind you. Good luck!" With that, he waved his wand over his head and he vanished. Hermione, Neville, and Ron all audibly gulp as they turn to look at the locked door. Harry goes and unlocks it with a quick alohomora, and cracks it open to peak inside.

Without Quirrell going in first, there was no harp playing peaceful music already. Fluffy was lying there, his three heads on his paws, but his eyes were open and watching the door. When Harry made eye contact with him, all three heads growled in warning, showing a bit of teeth. He closed the door.

"Well?" Hermione asked, "Is it already asleep?" He shook his head.

"No. Fluffy's still awake." Harry reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out Hagrid's christmas present to him, a hand carved wooden flute. He wrenched the door open, tossed the flute inside, and quickly casted an animating charm to get it to play some music." Locomotor Melodium!" He had been practicing that, and all of the other "locomotor" spells, since he got the memory infusion perk. He quickly shut the door before Fluffy could get too angry.

From behind the door, a soft lullaby began playing from the flute. A few moments later, they heard Fluffy yawn deeply. They cracked open the door again and found Fluffy snoring peacefully. One of his paws was resting on the trapdoor.

"Great job, Harry!" Ron cheered quietly, shaking Harry's shoulder proudly. They all shuffled into the room.

"Come on, help me move this paw!" Harry said, and they all heaved the paw off the trapdoor. He opened the trapdoor to reveal pitch blackness below.

"Lumos!" Harry sent down four balls of light, sending one into each corner of the room, to reveal a mass of black vines beneath them. Since he wasn't using the sunlight version of the charm, the devil's snare was unaffected.

"Alright, Neville," Harry patted Neville on the shoulder, "You're up, what do we do next?" Nevilled peaked down the trapdoor, and gulped.

"So this is what you meant, Harry," he whispered in shock.

"I've never seen a devil's snare so big before."

"Yes, but how do we get past it?" Hermione pressed.

"Right, um…" Neville closed his eyes to concentrate.

"Devil's snare hates sunlight and fire. So we should use Lumos Solem!" Harry gestured towards the trapdoor, "By all means, Neville."

"What? You want me to cast it? Me?" Neville was gobsmacked.

"Why not? You got your new wand, didn't you? You shouldn't have any issues with casting now," Harry said. As it turned out, Madam Longbottom had taken his advice to heart and got him his own wand from Ollivanders over the Easter break. It took her that long to finally make up her mind about it. Neville pulled out his new wand. It was Cherry wood and unicorn hair. Harry held out his hand to stop him.

"Wait a second. Actually, how's your wandless casting coming along? Do that instead."

"Now? You want me to try now?"

"What! Since when could Neville cast wandlessly?" Ron interjected.

"He's been practicing since Christmas," Harry said. It was Ron's turn to be gobsmacked. He stared at Neville like he was betrayed. Wasn't it supposed to be Harry and Hermione that were the capable ones? Now all of a sudden Neville of all people could cast wandlessly? Where did that leave him? The odd one out? The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Harry focused back on Neville, and gave him a nudge.

"Go ahead and try, if it fails you can always try it with your wand." Neville nervously extended his hand, without a wand, and casted, " Lumos solem!" His hand lit up rays of sunlight. The black vines below them writhed as if in pain and retreated back into the far corners of the room, revealing the actual floor that was another 10 feet down.

"Great job Neville! Keep it up!" Harry clapped him on the shoulder again and hopped down into the trapdoor. He casted a quick Arresto Momentum to catch himself and he landed softly. Now on the floor of the next room, he looked around. On one end of the room, was the passageway leading further down. On the other, a set of stairs leading back up. There must have been a hidden doorway to exit from back in Fluffy's room. The room was damp and dark, with some water trickling down the walls.

"Come on down! I'll catch you!" He called back up. Hermione was the first to follow after him, jumping down holding her skirts in place with her hands.

"Ah!" She shrieked.

'Arresto Momentum!' Her fall slowed to stop and Harry took her hands to gently guide her to the floor. She braced a hand on his shoulder, a hand over her heart as she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Phew! Thank you," She breathed.

"No problem, Mione," Harry said, giving her a smirk. She smacked his arm, face red, and stepped away. Harry looked back up.

"Ready for the next one!"

"Oh, blast it all!" He heard Ron mutter nervously.

"Here I come, Harry! You better catch me!" Ron called down, then jumped down.

"Ah!" Ron cried out.' Arresto Momentum!' Ron's fall came to a stop a few feet above the ground, and unlike what he did for Hermione, he just let him drop the rest of the way.

"Oof!" Ron tumbled to the floor, laying sprawled out. Hermione snorted a laugh, so Harry shot her a wink. She cleared her throat, suppressing her laughter and turned away to hide her amused smile.

"Oi! Why'd you drop me?" Ron groaned. Harry ignored him and called up to Neville.

"Okay, Neville! Your turn!"

"U-um, I've already done my part, haven't I? Can't I go back to the common room now?" Neville called back, voice shaky.

"Come on, Neville! You've got this!" Harry called encouragingly. Eventually Neville screwed up the courage and lept.

"Ah!" He screamed in terror, flailing his arms out wide.

'Arresto Momentum!' He caught Neville, this time just a foot or two off the ground, and turned him around so Neville could land on his feet.

"Alright, next room!" Harry said cheerfully. He made his way to the passageway. This passageway sloped downward. From up ahead, they could hear some rustling and clinking of metal. It was the keys next.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

"Yeah, up ahead are the Daedalian keys. They're occasionally let loose to roam freely around the castle, but some headmasters store them away. They've been around for a very long time," Harry said. Hermione perked up.

"Yes, I've read about them in Hogwarts: A History. No one knows for sure who created them, but sources point to Eupraxia Mole. Apparently, they used to open cabinets that were placed around the school, but Headmaster Dippet got rid of all of those." They reached the end of the corridor. Unlike the previous room, this one was brightly lit with a high arching ceiling. In the air above them were the keys. They flitted around like jeweled dragonflies. On the opposite end of the room was the doorway leading on.

In the middle were several broomsticks.

"You don't think they'll attack us, do you?" Ron asked.

"No Ron. Remember? We have to find the large silver one with a bent wing," Hermione said.

"Alright, everyone, grab a broom. These keys move fast so we have to work together to herd them," Harry said, grabbing the nearest broom. The keys were heavily enchanted, so there was no point in trying to summon the key to them. They were too quick to try and snag it with other spells either. Ron happily grabbed a broom, while Hermione and Neville groaned.

"I hate flying," Neville muttered pitifully. Hermione nodded in agreement. Still, between the four of them, they were eventually able to snag the silver key and they made it to the next room. It was pitch black at first, but as they entered it lit up to reveal a large life-sized chessboard.

"We'll have to play across the room, with us replacing some of the black pieces. Ron, you're in charge! Just tell us what to do," Harry said. Ron stepped up thoughtfully.

"Okay, this needs thinking about… let's see. Harry, you take the place of that bishop. Neville, you take the place of the rook next to him. Hermione, you take the place of the queen. I'll be a knight." The chess pieces were listening, and when Ron finished speaking, the mentioned pieces turned away and walked off the board, leaving their squares empty for them to take. The game played out much the same way as in canon.

Each piece claimed was brutally beaten and dragged off the side of the board, where they lay limply against the wall. Eventually, it came to the point where Ron had to sacrifice himself to checkmate the king.

"Yes, this is the only way, I've got to be taken," Ron said softly, face pale. He looked at Harry with a mix of emotion.

"Harry… you saw this, didn't you?" Harry looked back sadly, and nodded.

"You'll be okay, Ron. You'll only be knocked out… I'm sorry." Ron looked down angrily, hands clenched.

"... Fine," he said. He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced on him. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone fist and he crashed to the floor unconscious. The white queen dragged Ron off the board, and returned to her square. Harry sighed. He felt guilty. Pushing that feeling down, he moved to checkmate the king. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They had won. The rest of the chess pieces on the board all separated and bowed, leaving the way forward free and clear.

"Neville, you stay with Ron. Can you take him back up and get him to Madam Pompfrey's?" Harry asked. Neville nodded vigorously, grateful to finally be done with this adventure.

"Yeah, you two go on ahead. I've got him." With that, Harry and Hermione rushed ahead through the next passageway. Hermione was quiet.

"You all right?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded, but she looked tense.

"You knew he would have to sacrifice himself." Harry sighed guiltily.

"Yeah, I did. I would have warned him, but… then Ron would have tried playing more defensively… I couldn't be sure if we would still be able to win and get through if he did that."

"I guess I can understand, it just feels…"

"Scummy, I know. I feel terrible about it," Harry said.

"I imagine Ron will be cross with me when he wakes up." Hermione remained quiet, and they entered into the next room. As they entered, they were hit with a disgusting, eye-watering smell. The smell of troll. This one was even larger than the one they had faced on Halloween, and it stared at them stupidly before it decided to attack. Luckily, this one didn't have the usual log to wield as a club. Feeling a bit angry at the situation, Harry channeled that into a single spell." Percutio!"

The single piercing hex screamed forward and pierced straight through the troll's head. It exploded from the force of the spell, splattering it across the wall behind it. The troll flopped bonelessly to the floor.

"Eep!" Hermione grimaced and covered her face with her robe's sleeve in disgust.

"Come on, let's move on quickly. This room's disgusting, I can't breathe." They entered the next room. It was Snape's potion puzzle, with a line of seven differently shaped bottles of potions. When they crossed the threshold into the room, a line of purple fire sprang to life behind them, trapping them in. At the same time, a black flame sprang to life in the doorway leading onwards.

"This one's on you, Hermione," Harry said.

"Don't you already know the answer?" Harry shrugged, "I've never been good with logic puzzles." Hermione huffed in annoyance and picked up the roll of paper lying beside the potions. She read aloud, "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." She read it several more times, walking up and down the bottles.

"Give me a moment," she muttered. A few moments later, she clapped her hands.

"I've got it! The smallest bottle leads onwards, through the black fire," She then pointed to the roundest bottle at the end.

"That one will take us back through the purple fire." Harry took up the small bottle.

"There's only enough for one of us. Hermione, you take the round one, and head on back. Go and check on Ron and Neville."

"Wait, Harry!" Hermione looked at him, eyes glistening with worry.

"What if Quirrell really came back? What if You-Know-Who somehow got inside the castle?"

"Dumbledore's right behind us, remember? I'll be okay. It's okay, Hermione," He said soothingly. She dashed forward and threw her arms around him.

"Be careful!"

"I will," Harry said. When they parted, Harry drank the potion. It felt like ice flowing down throughout his body. He stepped through the black flame, and into the last chamber.