꧁☬⋆ᵞᴼᵁᴿ ᴾᴼᵛ⋆☬꧂

He lowered himself through the hole "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right," said Ron.

"See you in a minute, I hope. . . "

"Y/N, keep playing," Hermione whispered, "I know what I'm supposed to do Hermione, no need to remind me."

"Come on jump already," I added.

"It's okay!" We heard Harry called up "it's a soft landing; you can jump!"

Ron followed right away. He landed, and so on, Hermione.

Once they were gone, I stopped playing. I hum some lullaby as I stroke Fluffy.

Then slowly back again and jump to the trapdoor. I landed on Harry's other side.

"We must be miles under the school," she said.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.

"Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you both!"

I leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. I had to resist because the moment I had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around my ankles. As for Harry and Ron, but Hermione already noticed their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.

Hermione and I had managed to free ourself before the plant got a firm grip on us. Now we watched in horror as the two boys fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" I ordered them. "I know what this is -- it's Devil's Snare! If you keep moving, it will kill you much faster."

"Killer us faster?! Oh, now I can relax." snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck, I smiled sarcastically. "I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. . . what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp."

"So light a fire!" Harry choked.

"Yes -- of course -- but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, please." I groan, and I whipped out my wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell flames Hermione had used on uncle Severus at the plant.

In a matter of seconds, the two boys and girl felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unravelled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.

"Lucky, the girls, pay attention in Herbology," said Harry as he joined me by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"I pay attention to everything." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis -- 'there's no wood,' honestly. "

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All we could hear apart from our footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts.

With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, I remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. If we met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon... It will be bloody awesome!

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered. I listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. . . sounds like wings to me." Harry said.

"There's light ahead -- I can see something moving," I said.

Once we reached the end of the passageway and saw before us a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above us. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.

"Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once. . . well, there's no other choice. . . I'll run. "

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.

The three of us looked at each other, then followed him. We tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm.

"Now what?" said Ron.

"These birds. . . they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione.

They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering -- glittering?

"They're not birds!" I said "They're keys! Winged keys -- look carefully. So that must mean. . . " I looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. ". . . yes -- look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

But there are hundreds of them!" Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one -- probably silver, like the handle," I explained.

We each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. We grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.

Not for nothing, though, was I, the youngest Seeker in a century along with Harry. I had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, I noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.

"That one!" I called to the others. "That big one -- there -- no, there -- with bright blue wings -- the feathers are all crumpled on one side. "

Ron went speeding in the direction that I was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.

"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above -- Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down and Y/N and I will try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, the key dodged them both, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, as I leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Ron, Hermione and Harry's cheers echoed around the high chamber.

We landed quickly, and I ran to the door, the key struggling in my hand. I rammed it into the lock and turned - it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key retook flight, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Ready?" I asked the other three, my hand on the door handle. They nodded, I pulled the door open.

The next chamber was so dark we couldn't see anything at all. But as we stepped into it, a light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than we were and carved from what looked like a black stone. Facing us, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I shivered slightly - the towering white chessmen had no faces.

"Now, what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room. "

Behind the white pieces, we could see another door. "How?" said Hermione nervously.

"I think," I said, "we're going to have to be chessmen. "

Ron walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground, and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

"Do we -- er -- have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded. Ron turned to us.

"This needs thinking about. . . " he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of three of the black pieces. . . "

Harry and Hermione stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally, he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you is that good at chess--"

"We're not offended," said Harry quickly, as I chuckled "Just tell us what to do. "

"Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you next to him instead of that castle. "

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.

"How about me?" I asked, Ron, looked at me for the moment and smiled "you'll be the Queen."

Awe, bloody hell. I wanted to be the king, but being the Queen is not bad "Alright." I smiled at him.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, a castle and a Queen turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving three empty squares that Harry, Ron, Hermione and I took.

"White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes. . . look. . . "

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's knees were trembling. What if they lost?

"Harry -- move diagonally four squares to the right. "

Our first real shock came when our other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"I always wanted to do that.", I said Hermione looked at me with widened eyes "smash someone like that?" She asked as I nodded my head.

"You're crazy."

"Yup but I don't normally show it." I grinned.

"Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

"I want you Y/N to stay still; I do not want you to risk your life here." Ron stared at my eyes.

I nodded slowly; every time one of our men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall.

Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and Hermione were in danger. He darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as we had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think -- let me think. . . "

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes. . . " said Ron softly, "It's the only way. . . I've got to be taken. "

"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted.

"Ronald Weasley! Don't you dare!" I cried out.

Is he stupid or what?

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward, and she'll take me -- that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But--"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"Ron--"

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative.

"Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go -- now, don't hang around once you've won. "

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor "Ron!!" I screamed and was about to run to him, but Hermione stopped me by telling me to stay on my square, the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.

I sighed "Harry, go three spaces to the left." I informed him, and he did.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. We had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry, Hermione and I charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"What if he's-- ?" But Harry cut me off.

"He'll be all right," said Harry, trying to convince himself. "What do you reckon's next?"

"We've had aunt Pom's, that was the Devil's Snare; uncle Flit must've put charms on the keys; aunt Minnie transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Uncle Severus's."

We had reached another door. "All right?" Harry whispered.

"Go on. " Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled our nostrils, making the three of us pull our house robes up over our noses "Did one of you farted?" I asked, I earn a smack in the arm by Hermione.

Eyes watering, we saw, flat on the floor in front of us, a troll even more massive than the one I killed, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"Bloody hell."