68 Dumbledore's little test part 3

What appeared was a much smaller room with a table and 7 potions laid out. As soon as we stepped in though, a fire spread around the room cutting off all possible routes of escape. We were trapped.

"Look!" said Hermione as she seized the roll of paper lying next to the bottles. She spread it open on the table so that it could be read by everyone present.

It read the following,

"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 onwards 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."

Hermione sighed but had an excited look while Harry and Ron looked on with furrowed brows.

"Extraordinary!" said Hermione. "This isn't magic -- it's logic! – a puzzle!. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck here forever." She said with sparkling eyes. I couldn't help but think about her words, she was right, most did lack logic, they were eccentric beings. You can see just how easily they are manipulated; how easy they are swayed by what the daily prophet says. They can't even understand what a god damn rubber duck is for. It was baffling.

"So, you can figure it out, right?" asked Ron worriedly.

"Of course!" she said patting her chest proudly. "Everything we need is here on this sheet of paper.

From the fourth clue, we know the contents of the red and black bottles are the same. Since the potions that allow the drinker to go forward or backward are unique, and from the third clue the biggest one could not be poison, red and black bottles must contain nettle wine!" she said pointing at specific bottles from the seven.

"From the first clue, white and green bottles, to the left of nettle wine, must contain poison." She said moving her hand to point to the respective bottles.

"From the second clue, white and purple bottles had different contents but neither allowed the drinker to move forward, and since the white bottle contained poison, and the two bottles containing nettle wine were known, the purple bottle must contain the potion to go back." She said while once again pointing at the bottle she was talking about.

"From the third clue, the blue bottle, the smallest, could not be the poison, so it must contain the potion to go ahead while the yellow bottle was the third bottle with poison." She concluded. Ron and Harry were shocked at her conclusion. Harry stared at the blue bottle intensely.

"The only problem is… there is only one potion to go back," I added while looking at the purple one with a soft smile. Everyone was enlightened to this fact, and everyone had grim faces.

"don't worry, Hermione, you go back and alert the Professors of what is happening, me and Ron will stay here and wait for help," I said. I looked at everyone to see if there were any objections. Seeing that there were none, Hermione Reluctantly took the potion and walked towards me.

"Be careful, I'll try to come back as soon as possible," she said seriously before walking into the flames. Instead of burning her, they parted and let her pass. Harry, Ron and I turned towards each other. I smiled at the sight.

"Well, Harry, off you go, seeing that you're in such a rush to do the hero work, you can take the potion to advance forward," I said simply. Harry didn't argue and took the potion before walking through.

"Well, it seems you and me will be staying here for a while," said Ron sadly.

"HA! Sure, like I'm going to stay here mate! See you in a jiffy," I said before walking towards the wall of fire that was stopping me from walking through. Ron jumped up, "What are you doing?! You can't go forwards or you'll be burned!" he said quickly.

"Well, there are always spells for every occasion, right?" I asked while stretching my hand into the fire. It didn't burn but instead felt nice and refreshing, 'Drak, I assume this is because of you?' I asked while walking into the fire.

[correct, since I am a dragon of fire, you are naturally immune to any fire damage, spell or anything of the sort,] he said proudly. 'very convenient, I can't complain that it came in hand right now,' I though before continuing it walk forward and through the open door that Harry had rushed in from. Ron's gasps and shouts were soon drowned out by the sound of fire crackling around me. I soon came upon a wide room with many pillars, a flight of stairs leading downwards into a depression where the mirror of erised was sitting. In front of it was Quirrell who was talking to Potter.

I made sure to use the concealing spells I learned to hide my presence and leaned behind a pillar and listened in to their conversation.