The Large and the Little

"Ron, wake up!"

Ron slowly opened his eyes and saw Harry standing over him. The boy's invisibility cloak was under one arm.

"I want to make a run for the Stone," Harry said.

"What?" Ron whispered. "Are you mad?!"

"Listen, with Professor Dumbledore gone, I just know Voldemort's going to try to take it tonight."

"That… does make sense, I guess," Ron said, flinching at the name. "Why don't we talk to the girls about this first?"

"You heard them," Harry hissed, unfolding his cloak. "They're just going to tell us to drop it."

"But why us?"

"Because no one else will listen!"

"Alright," Ron said hesitantly. "I guess we go."

The two of them walked carefully down the stairs, where they found Rose reading a book in the common room.

Harry held up his finger to his lips, then threw the cloak over he and Ron.

Quietly, they snuck past the crimson-haired girl while she was absorbed by her book.

After the portal closed behind the boys, Rose sighed.

"PCs," she muttered to herself, getting up from the couch. "Can't stay out of trouble to save their lives. Literally. It's like they try to get themselves killed!"

Rose ran up the stairs to her room and found Hermione just waking up.

"Rose?"

"They're gone," Rose said. "The boys are going to the third-floor corridor."

"What?!" Hermione shouted as Rose roused Sally-Anne.

The dirty-blonde girl drearily looked around her, taking in her surroundings the best she could.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Is it morning?"

"The boys are getting themselves killed," Rose said. "Harry's got it in his head that it's up to him to stop Quirrell, so he took his trusty cohort and is now on his way to the third-floor corridor."

"We've got to stop them!" Sally-Anne exclaimed, waking up immediately. "They could get themselves killed!"

"'Could'?!" Hermione hissed, trying not to wake up Lavender and Parvati. "Try will!"

Hermione and Sally-Anne quickly threw on some clothes, moving as fast as they could.

"We should tell a teacher," Sally-Anne said, tying her ribbon in her hair.

"Agreed."

"Nah, this is too important for NPCs," Rose said as the girls began to run down the stairs.

All three of them were in a full sprint, taking the steps two at a time.

"Rose, don't start!" Hermione said.

"Let's go talk to Alex," Sally-Anne said. "She'll know what to do!"

"First Question: How do we explain what we know to someone who doesn't know what the Package is?" Rose asked.

"Erm," Hermione said.

Sally-Anne thought quickly. The boys were breaking the rules; shouldn't that be enough?

"We don't need to explain the Package," Sally-Anne said. "We just need to tell them that the boys are running off to an area that's forbidden!"

"Second Question: How can we tell Alex with her out making her rounds?"

That was perfect! If Alex was out in the castle, the boys would run into her, then there wouldn't be a problem. Everything would be okay, and they didn't have to leave.

"Maybe she'll find them and bring them back," suggested Sally-Anne as the girls reached the common room. "Then we'll all be okay!"

"They've got Harry's invisibility cloak on," Rose said. "I saw through it with true seeing, but even if I hadn't, they tripped my blindsight."

"You just let them walk away?!" shouted Hermione.

"The only thought in Harry's head was that he had to stop Voldemort. If I had stopped him, he would've kept on trying until we locked him up."

"So why not just sedate him for his own good?" Hermione asked. "I'm sure he's not the first student that would've required it."

"I hadn't thought of that," Rose said.

"What's he think he's going to do, anyway?" asked Sally-Anne.

"He's going to try to steal the Stone before Quirrell," Rose replied.

"What good will that do?!" shouted Hermione. "If Professor Dumbledore can't keep it safe, how is he going to?!"

"Hermione, please stop shouting," Sally-Anne pleaded with her. "If we wake someone else up, we'll all get in trouble."

"Harry's a scared, 11-year-old boy," Rose said. "Rational thought isn't exactly at the top of his list of priorities right now."

"Why are we all just standing here?" Hermione asked. "We need to do something!"

"We should really tell a teacher before running after them," Sally-Anne said worriedly. While she was scared for the safety of her friends, she was also scared of going in after them, especially with a giant, three-headed dog in there with them.

"I've got an idea," Rose said.

For a few moments, nothing happened. Sally-Anne began to panic. Why wasn't she doing anything? What was Rose's idea?

A few seconds later, a house-elf appeared in front of the girls.

"What is being the problem, Miss Rose?" he asked.

"You know how no one's allowed on the third floor corridor on the right hand side?" Rose asked. "Well, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley are on their way there now."

"No!" exclaimed the now panic-stricken elf. "It is being dangerous! They will be getting themselves killed! All of the house-elves is being forbidden from entering the corridor!"

"That's why we need your help, Dripty," Rose said. "I need you to wake up Atrien and tell her to alert Professors McGonagall and Snape. Then I want you to personally inform Professor Vector. And… Hold on a swift."

"What's a swift?" Sally-Anne whispered to Hermione.

"Swift action," Hermione replied. "I'm not sure how long it is. Time functions differently in Rose Land."

"Oh, crab apples," Rose said.

That one Sally-Anne knew. It was one of Rose's various curse words, although it was the only one she knew that was in English.

"They were right. Quirrell's going after the Stone."

"What?!" the other two girls shouted.

"What is being the stone?" asked Dripty.

"I'm sorry, Dripty, but I can't tell you that," Rose said. "Quirrell's range from here puts him below the castle. Specifically, below the third-floor corridor on the right hand side; as if he's gone through the trapdoor."

"Professor Quirrell?" asked Dripty.

"Professor Quirrell is evil," Rose said. "Keep that in mind. Tell those three professors that I marked him, and he's going after the Stone."

"Professors McGonagall, Snape, and… Vector?"

"Those three will listen to us. Professor McGonagall is our head of house, Professor Snape is suspicious of Professor Quirrell, and Hermione is Professor Vector's favorite student. Tell them that we're going in after them."

"What?!" all three other people shouted.

"Don't argue with me!" she scolded. "Dripty, just do it."

"Consider it being done, Miss Rose!"

Dripty saluted her and vanished with a crack.

Rose grinned. "I love that little elf."

"Why ask him? Why not just send Intelligencer?" asked Hermione.

"Which one's Intelligencer?" asked Sally-Anne.

"The blue ferret thing that fetched Professor Dumbledore on Hallowe'en," replied Hermione.

"Oh, right."

"House-elves have got a certain respectability," replied Rose, turning to her friends. "If I send Intelligencer, it's less likely that the staff will listen. But if a house-elf informs them, especially the Head Elf, then they're more likely to listen."

She started for the portal to the common room.

"Don't you dare," Hermione said.

"We're going after them."

"No, we're not!" Hermione shouted.

"Rose, is that really–" Sally-Anne began to ask.

"Nothing they can do can kill me," Rose said. "You girls may not believe me, but right now, I don't care. Two of my friends are in danger, and I'm stronger than most of the professors. You saw how easily I took care of the troll and dragon, and I've dealt with Fluffy just as easily." She turned to Sally-Anne. "Sally-Anne, you are one of the kindest people I've met." She faced Hermione. "And you, Hermione, are one of the smartest. Between my skill, your kindness, and your cleverness, we make a great team. As I said before, two of our friends are in danger. Now are we going to stand around scared like a bunch of Slytherins, or are we going to go save them like a bunch of Gryffindors?!"

Rose wasn't quite sure from where her small motivational speech had come, but she didn't care so long as it did the trick. She was going in with or without Hermione and Sally-Anne, but she wanted to have the rest of the party with her. Rose didn't know what was down there, but she had confidence that she would be able to conquer anything lethal. It was everything else that currently had her concerned. Were it her world with her magic, she wouldn't have given it a second thought, but she could only do so much here.

Sally-Anne looked from Rose to Hermione. She wasn't just scared, she was terrified. She didn't want to go in there with a giant dog and Merlin knew what else, but she also didn't want Harry and Ron to die. Sally-Anne liked her two male friends. Ron was a little rude at times, but she was sure he meant well, and Harry was just scared. She knew full well what that was like and knew that fear could make you do bad things. That sort of thing happened in fairy tales all the time. But she had to remind herself that this wasn't a fairy tale; this was real life, and there weren't always happy endings in real life. She was frightened, but right now, she needed to push past that fear for the sake of her friends, just like she had with the troll.

"Alright," Sally-Anne said.

Hermione turned to Sally-Anne.

"This is madness," she urged her friends. "They'll be lucky if they make it past Fluffy."

"Then we've got to get going," Rose shot back.

Hermione looked at both of her friends. Why did this have to happen to her? She had just begun to enjoy being at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy had finally started leaving them alone, she was all but actually taking Arithmancy two years early, and she was able to learn better than ever. But now it was all going wrong. Now one of the teachers had gone evil, and two of her best friends had gone in to try to stop him from possibly resurrecting the most evil wizard to walk the earth in decades. A wizard so evil that people were scared even to mention his name.

All Hermione wanted was a normal life, but that wasn't going to happen. She turned to Rose. Rose had always kept Hermione safe, and she hoped that this wouldn't be any different.

Whatever it is, Rose can handle it, she thought. And if not, then we're all going to die.

"Rose, if we die," Hermione said. "I'm going to kill you."

"Duly noted," Rose replied, grinning.

Unlike the other two girls, Rose was excited about this. Enough of this sitting around and waiting for something to happen, this was a dungeon crawl. Rose lived for dungeon crawls; and crafting; and puzzle boxes; and books; and Shadow; and a bunch of other things. Okay, Rose didn't just live for dungeon crawls, but they were really fun! The point was that they finally got to do one, and Rose was thrilled.

"How do we get there?" asked Sally-Anne. "The boys have got a huge lead on us."

"No problem," Rose said as her grin widened.

She grabbed onto both of her friends and activated her cloak.

Ron and Harry reached the room with Fluffy and pulled off the invisibility cloak. Harry folded up the cloak and tucked it under his arm.

Ron still wasn't sure about this; he agreed that it would be best to go in and stop Quirrell before he got the Philosopher's Stone and killed Harry. Harry was his best mate, after all, but he still wasn't sure why it was them that were doing this. None of the teachers would listen to them, so the boys couldn't count on them, and the girls had already said "no", but there had to be someone else that wasn't him that could do this.

"Ready?" asked Harry.

This is what Bill and Charlie would do, Ron told himself. They'd go in and stop Quirrell. They wouldn't be afraid and neither will I.

Of course, Bill was a curse breaker for Gringotts and Charlie worked with dragons, so they probably had a bit more experience with this sort of thing.

"Sure," Ron said. There's no turning back now.

The ginger tried to concentrate on what would happen if they succeeded. If they did, then they would be famous! Well, Harry was already famous, but then so would he! Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, the Boys who Stopped Voldemort's Horrific Return!

The two of them opened the door and were immediately met with the Cerberus. He began to growl at the boys, then all three heads began to bark loudly.

"What do we do?!" shouted Ron.

"Remember what Sally-Anne said?!" replied Harry, shouting to be heard over the dog. "Music puts him to sleep! Do you know any songs?!"

"Erm," Ron said. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with any song he could. His family wasn't exactly musically inclined. Fred and George occasionally invented songs to annoy Percy, but Ron didn't know any songs. He began to think back to all the books he had been reading over the past few months with his bracelet.

Speaking of books, Hogwarts: A History popped into his head, and he recalled a song to which he knew the tune and the lyrics.

"Wait! I think I've got one!"

"Sing it! Quickly!"

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts," Ron began. The school song was the only song that was popping into his head at that moment, but despite how ridiculous it was, it was actually starting to work.

"Teach us something please; whether we be old and bald, or young with scabby knees," he continued, as the dog slowly stopped barking. "Our heads could do with filling; with some interesting stuff."

Fluffy stepped back a few paces and collapsed on the ground. Harry slowly crept over to where the trapdoor was in the floor.

"For now they're bare and full of air; dead flies and bits of fluff," Ron continued, growing quieter as all six of the dog's eyes began to close. "So teach us things worth knowing; bring back what we've forgot."

Harry flung the trapdoor open, and looked down into the black below. It could be only five feet, or fifty; Harry had no way of knowing. He could survive five feet, couldn't he? Wait! He could!

"I can't see a thing," he whispered. "But I'll be protected by the ring Rose gave me. I'll go first and let you know if it's safe."

Ron nodded to him, not taking his eyes off the giant, carnivorous dog lying on the floor.

Harry jumped through the trapdoor. He fell for a few seconds, then landed on something soft and squishy.

"It's alright!" he shouted up. "There's some sort of padding down here! It's safe!"

Ron began to edge over to the trapdoor, still watching the enormous dog.

"Just do your best, we'll do the rest," Ron sang as he reached the trapdoor. "And learn until our brains all rot."

Ron jumped down the trapdoor after his friend as Fluffy began to awaken.

He fell through the darkness, unable to see his hand in front of his face. Ron pulled out his wand, and flicked it in his hand.

"Lumos!"

A light appeared on the end of his wand as he landed. The ginger felt something soft break his fall. Harry had been right; there was some sort of padding down there to catch them.

"What is this?" Harry called.

Ron waved his wand around him, illuminating the squishy padding upon which both of the boys had landed.

It was green and looked like a bunch of leaves or vines; in fact, the word "tendrils" came to mind. The plant reminded Ron of something, but he couldn't think of what.

"I think I saw something move!" Harry exclaimed.

Ron looked around and saw that the vines were indeed beginning to move. It was then that Ron remembered what it was.

"It's Devil's Snare!"

"What's that?"

"It was in our Herbology book," Ron exclaimed. "Actually, we learned about it in Herbology last month."

"Since when do you pay attention in class?"

"Since I can keep up with it after reading the book a couple of times," Ron replied. "I'm lazy, not stupid. I just need to remember what to do about it."

"Well, you had better hurry up," Harry said as the vines began to coil around him. He tried to struggle against them, but it was no use. The plant was too strong for the young boy to break free.

If Harry was having difficulties, then Ron was having serious problems. Not only was the Devil's Snare entrapping the ginger, but while this was happening, he had to try to pull information out of his head.

Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare, he thought.

It hates sunlight, and therefore only grows in dark areas. Could he produce sunlight using magic? No, he couldn't remember the spell for it, and besides which, he probably wouldn't be able to cast it even if he did remember it.

There was something else that they had learned, some simple way of getting around it. Something about the way it hunted.

"Right!" he exclaimed. Ron relaxed his entire body and felt himself slide through the plant. He landed on the ground below and climbed to his feet.

"Just relax!" he shouted up to his friend. "It responds to movement! The more you struggle, the tighter it will grab you!"

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me!"

Harry closed his eyes, and tried to relax, a task that would've been easier had there not been a giant plant trying to crush him. Nevertheless, the Devil's Snare slowly released its grip on the boy, and he fell through to the floor.

"Are you alright?" Ron asked, helping Harry to his feet.

"Yeah," he replied. "Thanks. That was good thinking."

"No problem, mate," Ron replied. "It's just a good thing we didn't panic. Let's go."

As Harry was falling through the plant, the girls appeared in the chamber with Fluffy, who was now wide awake. He began barking at the three of them, and Hermione and Sally-Anne began to go for the door.

"I've got dozens of ways of stopping him," Rose said, producing her wand. "I can conflagrate him, I can turn him to stone, I can–"

"Just sing!" Hermione shouted.

Rose looked over at her friend and pouted. "Fine. We'll do it the boring way."

Rose turned back to the large dog.

"Red like roses; gold like the sun."

So those are the words, Sally-Anne thought. She had heard Rose humming that tune many times before, but had never heard the crimson-haired girl sing the lyrics.

Sure enough, one of the heads yawned, and all six eyes began to close. Fluffy lied back down as Hermione and Sally-Anne looked down the trapdoor.

"It goes down to let us know; that now the day is done."

"I don't see anything down there," Hermione said.

"Red like roses; silver, how it gleams," Rose sang as she walked over to the trapdoor and looked down. "Don't worry, little one; you're sure to have sweet dreams."

"Do you see anything?" whispered Sally-Anne.

"Something soft and squishy," Rose said quickly. "Red like roses; black as the night."

"Alright then," Sally-Anne said. She felt as if she should say something clever, but she was still too panicked by the fact that they were actually doing this to think of anything to say. So, instead of something clever, she just went with something simple. "Allons-y."

"What?" whispered Hermione.

"It's French for 'Let's go'," Sally-Anne said.

"I know what it means," Hermione snapped. "Why are you saying it?"

"Erm… I felt like I… Never mind," Sally-Anne said.

She jumped down the trapdoor, followed shortly by Hermione.

"Lumos!" shouted Hermione as she fell down, causing the tip of her wand to glow.

"And now, it's time, my dear; for us to say good night."

Rose finished the lullaby and jumped down the trapdoor with her friends.

As the three girls descended towards the Devil's Snare, Fluffy woke up and looked around the now empty room.

"We should really do something about that," one of the heads said.

"Yeah, that's the third time tonight," agreed another.

"I'm hungry," the final one concluded.

"Miss Atrien! Miss Atrien!"

Atrien turned to face the young house-elf. Whatever it was that he had to tell the Head Elf, it had the small one in a panic.

"What is you needing, Dripty?"

"Miss Rose is needing help! Professor Quirrell is being evil!"

Many of the other house-elves in the common room gasped.

"How is you knowing this?" asked Atrien.

"Miss Rose is telling Dripty! She is telling Dripty to tell Miss Atrien, and then to tell Miss Atrien to tell Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape! Then Dripty is to be telling Professor Vector!"

"Atrien is needing more than that to awaken the professors during the night, Dripty."

"Mister Harry Potter and Mister Ronald Wheezy is going to the third-floor corridor to stop Professor Quirrell from getting the Stone! And Miss Rose and Miss Sally-Anne and Miss Hermione is going to stop them!"

Atrien took all of this into consideration. Accusations of an evil professor aside, they had to save the students. It was part of their job, after all, and Professor Dumbledore entrusted Atrien with the responsibility.

"Alright, Atrien will be telling Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape," Atrien said. "They is trusting Atrien and will be believing her if Atrien is telling them this."

"Thank you, Miss Atrien, thank you!" exclaimed Dripty. "Dripty is being a good house-elf!"

"Dripty, you can be telling Professor Vector like Miss Rose is saying," Atrien said.

Had it been any other student, Atrien would've assumed it was a prank or a joke intended to mock the house-elves; but Miss Rose was kind to the house-elves, and didn't treat them differently than she treated anyone else. The girl was… odd, but in a society that saw them as inferior, she was something special.

Both Atrien and Dripty vanished from the House-elf Common Room with a pair of cracking sounds.

Ahead of the girls, Harry and Ron had found themselves in a room filled with keys. Winged, flying keys. There was a single broomstick leaning against the far wall, and a door ahead of them.

"I'm going with one of those opens the door," Ron said. He turned to Harry. "You're up, mate."

"Me?!"

"Yeah," Ron said. "You're the youngest Seeker in a century, and this is just like Quidditch! You're amazing at it! It's got to be you!"

"Okay," Harry said, looking up at what must have been a hundred keys. "Which key do I take?"

"I'm not sure," Ron said. "They all look the same to me."

"It's that one," Harry said suddenly, pointing at one of the keys. "Look! See the wing's bent, like someone already handled it!"

Ron followed the gaze of his friend, and saw a large, silver key with blue wings. As the key flew around, he noticed that one of its wings had been damaged. It was still flying around, but it seemed to be having difficulty with its bent wing, like someone with a bad leg limping.

"Alright," Ron said. "See? It's not so bad. That shouldn't be that hard to get."

"I think I can manage that," Harry said.

Harry took a hold of the broom, and the second he did, the keys reacted against him. All of them, save the silver key, darted toward him.

The Gryffindor hopped onto the broom quickly and began to fly after the silver key, dodging around the other keys as he did. Below him, Ron was cheering him on.

"You almost got it, mate!"

Harry reached out his right hand, flexing his fingers as far as they would go. The silver key was almost within reach, but kept zigzagging away from him whenever he got close. He stayed on it, slowly gaining on the flying key. He brought his hand back in, then quickly lashed out at the key, snatching it up before it could dodge out of the way again.

The young Seeker hopped off the broom, then quickly jammed the key into the lock of the door. He and Ron ran out of the room and slammed the door behind them as several keys stuck themselves in the door in an attempt to stab the boys.

After the door was shut, the silver key and its companions dislodged themselves from the door and continued to flutter around the room.

"What is this stuff?" asked Sally-Anne. "Is it some sort of plant?"

"Devil's Snare!" shouted Hermione. "It senses movement, so if you just stay still, you should be fine!"

"Wee!" shouted Rose as she slid through the large plant. "That was fun!"

One of the several dozen spells Rose had on her person was freedom of movement, which prevented her from being grappled. This meant that she didn't need to hold still, since the Devil's Snare couldn't keep a hold of the pale girl, so the Artificer had simply slid through the vines.

Hermione closed her eyes and relaxed. The vines loosened their grip on the girl, and she too slid through them.

Sally-Anne took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

It's alright, she thought. Hermione knows what she's talking about.

She slowly slid down between the vines and landed on her feet below.

"That wasn't so bad," Sally-Anne said.

"What's the point of it?" asked Hermione. "It doesn't seem that effective at stopping people."

"Probably meant to cushion the fall from the trapdoor, and stop anyone that comes through," Rose said. "You'd think more people would recognize Devil's Snare, though."

"Can we get going?" asked Hermione. "The sooner we find the boys, the better."

Her companions nodded, and the three of them walked through into the next room.

"What do we do?" Sally-Anne asked, looking around at the keys flying all over the room.

Rose walked up to the door.

"Door," she said. "Which one is the right key?"

"That one."

"Thanks," Rose said sardonically. "So helpful."

"What'd it say?" Sally-Anne asked.

"'That one'," Rose grumbled, rolling her eyes. She turned to the keys. "Keys, which one of you opens that door?"

"One of us."

"Just as helpful," Rose sighed.

"Look for one that looks used," Hermione said. "It's been used twice tonight, so it must be in bad shape."

"Good thinking!" Rose replied. Succeeding on her Perception Check, she spotted a silver key with damaged blue wings. "Smithy! Grab that key, please!"

<Right away, Ma'am.>

Normally, the key could exert more force than Smithy would have been able to handle, but it was already injured from being handled by two other people. So, Smithy was able to gingerly move the key into Rose's hand without much effort. Since no one touched the broom, the key wasn't startled by the fact that it was being handled.

"Thank you, Smithy."

<Of course, Ma'am.>

"Smithy's her imaginary friend that tilts all the paintings she passes, right?" Sally-Anne asked Hermione.

"Yes."

Rose unlocked the door to the next room, and all three Gryffindor girls walked through it.

Sally-Anne looked around at this new room. At first, it was just an empty room, not much different from the others. The only real difference was that this room was covered in runes. They were all etched into the stone walls of the room, arranged in a specific pattern. Something about it struck Sally-Anne as familiar, but she couldn't think where she had seen it before.

All at once, the runes disappeared, and a pale, pink glow covered the walls. It was then that Hermione was able to see the other two occupants of the room: Harry and Ron stood looking around the room.

"Oh no," Ron said. "It got you, too!"

"What did?" Sally-Anne asked, hoping someone else remembered what it was.

Where would she have learned about this? After the seminar on Ancient Runes back in February, she had started reading about wards and protective magic, since runes were the basis for most, if not all wards. Had she read about it in one of the books Rose had shown her in the Library?

"It's a ward, I think," Hermione said. "We're stuck here unless we can figure out how–"

"No problem!" Rose exclaimed. She walked up to the edge of the ward, right near where the door had been a second ago, and vanished from sight. A few seconds later (Hermione counted six. What was it with Rose and six second intervals?), Rose reappeared. She flew backwards, landing hard on the ground.

"That's different," she said, picking herself up. "I was shunted. I'm never shunted! The only reason I'd be shunted is if that wall is at least 60 feet thick!"

"That wall can't be 60 feet thick," Hermione reasoned. "There's no point to making a wall 60 feet thick, and we know that's where the door is."

"Then there's nothing on the other side of it," Rose said.

"What's that mean?" Ron asked.

"We're stuck," Rose said, turning to face her friends. "I can't get past it. We're trapped until we can figure out how to get out of this."