Training Trials 1/2

It's a decent fall down the trapdoor, more than enough for me to prepare some natural magic in case it turns out anyone who comes down is supposed to use magic to not fall to their deaths. Thankfully for Harry, that's not the case!

Instead I land in some kind of plant, becoming  engulfed up to my chest. Now, normally I don't regret messing with people. But as the screams of falling children gets louder, I realize that in the case of taunting them I've ended up in an awkward situation.

I was facing them when I jumped, and apparently the trap door doesn't rest in the center of the pit's roof. So now I'm stuck staring at the wall as the others become embedded in the plants behind me. I try to turn around to look, but I'm stuck tightly, eventually giving up when they get tired of cursing my name.

"Did Weasley get eaten?" I ask with faint hope in my voice. Getting him eaten wasn't really planned, but I certainly wouldn't complain if that's the case.

Unfortunately, my hopes are dashed. "Sod off, nutter!" Said boy yells at me.

I sigh, ignoring how Draco starts arguing with him about something dumb when I realize that I haven't heard someone yet. Which is weird because I thought he would be the first one I'd hear cursing at me.

"Hey, guys? What happened to Harry?"

I hear a snort, then Tracy's amused voice. "He fell head first, so his head's stuck in the plants! It's pretty funny seeing his legs waving around."

I whine comes from my throat as I try to wiggle, foiled once again by how tightly I'm wrapped. Actually, is the plant getting tighter? "I wanna see!"

"This isn't the time for that!" Hermione's panicked voice silences all of us as it echoes across the chamber. "Don't you know what this is? It's Devil's Snare!"

That name has absolutely no place in my memory, but judging by the renewed cursing from the others, it does from them. I hear someone muttering before a voice from above grants me the wisdom to get us out of this.

"Use light or fire. If you don't, it will try to choke the life out of you." I nod, ignoring the claws that extend to keep her spot secured, and relay the information to the others. Almost immediately a light begins to shine, and the plant is quick to unwind itself from me. Turning, I see the same happening to the others, though Harry is clutching at his throat and heaving for air now that he's free.

He glares, but I ignore it. Not my fault the magical plant wanted to kill us. Though…

"Does anyone else think that was too easy?"

I get incredulous looks as they simply point at Harry slowly climbing to his feet. I shake my head. "I mean, yeah, but that's because he swan dived into a mysterious pit. I'm more talking about how both Lumos and Devil's Snare are things we learn in our first year. I mean, shouldn't something meant to protect an object of immense power supposed to be at least a fourth year thing?"

No one argues, instead looking like they're actually considering it. But there's going to be no answers just standing around, so we continue on to the next 'trial'.

Which is keys. Keys with wings. I just look at the room filled with fluttering glinting objects with a flat look. While the others discuss what the solution to the room is meant to be from the safety of the hallway, I march my way across and to the door at the opposite end. I examine it while the others step in much more cautiously than I did, nodding my head at what I find.

"Obviously," I turn to the others, "one of these keys opens this door." They nod since it actually is obvious, which is, again, a problem for seeming protection. More so given what I've seen of the door. "Now, we could use the helpfully provided brooms," again, suspicious. "Or we could just get rid of the door."

That gets a scoff from Weasley and an eye roll from everyone except Tracy, who takes a step back. The one who voices their discontent first is Hermione. "While I admit that the first protection was rather simple, I doubt that the teachers would allow any kind of circumspection of their protections. That door is likely heavily enchanted."

I nod. "Correct. But," I point at the edge of the door, "someone put the door on backwards. The hinges are on this side." So while the others watch with dropped jaws and Tracy cackles, I tear the paper fan Draco carries around for some reason into two pieces. Then after shaping them, I transfigure them to stone and use them to knock the pins out of their slots.

Taking a moment to think of how I want to do this, I nod after alighting on one. So I go a few feet away from the door, then run at it. When I'm close, I jump and dropkick it open! The door flies backwards as I thump to the floor, a happy smile on my face.

One that stiffens once I see the giant chess board filled with equally giant stone figures. Luckily the door didn't go far enough to get near the board. And drop kicking it didn't activate any of the protective enchantments layered on to it. If either had happened, I can imagine that neither of the results would have been pleasant.

Turning around, I make sure none of my relief seeps into my voice. "Well, it looks like we've got Professor McGonagall's test next."

Though Hermione and Draco give me suspicious looks, they don't call me out on the near miss of possibly horrible consequences. Instead, Harry decides to use his brain for one of the few times since we've gotten to Hogwarts.

"Since you could bypass the last protection, do you think we could bypass this one too?"

We all look at the chessboard with narrowed eyes, trying to think of what we could do to cheat it. I can already see from here though that the door is put up on the right side, so the last trick won't work. And given that this is Professor McGonagall we're talking about…

"We'll likely have to adhere to this challenge. Despite being the Gryffindor Head, or more likely because she's the Head, McGonagall would have thought of that."

I nod. "Just imagine if the twins got down here? They'd probably just blow up all the pieces."

I ignore the judging looks. I've got… sense. Maybe not common sense. But better! Yeah, I have, like… unique sense.  Way better than a lowly common!

Either way… "So are we supposed to yell at them what to do? Do we have to pick sides? Gryffindors versus Slytherins?"

Then to the embarrassment of all of us - at least I think we should all be embarrassed - Weasley, of all people, walks up to a Dark Knight and just asks what we're supposed to do. And he gets an answer!

*Cough* Well, I guess if you want to take the fun out of figuring it out you could do that. I mean, finding out how to solve a puzzle is half of the fun!

But now…