55 The Third-Floor Corridor

Draco decided to abandon his thoughts about mysterious girls and their relations with Dark Lords for a while. Instead, he had to complete a more important task that day.

'POP'

Missy appeared in Draco's hotel room as soon as he returned to it after breakfast. The blond boy calmly closed the door behind himself and cast a quick privacy charm. If there was one thing that was good about participating in Dueling Competition, it was probably the fact that he was allowed to use magic outside the school during its duration.

"We will be relying on you to make us invisible," Draco said to his elf. "It's just too bad that we are unable to bring you along…"

The young Slytherin felt that it was a shame, however, Hogwarts' wards could detect all unfamiliar creatures that entered its premises, as such, there was no way he could risk it.

The castle's wards were very interesting – as long as one was a student or a staff member there, they would be acknowledged and protected by the school as its residents. However, as soon as they graduated the school or were fired from their job, the castle would no longer accept them but register them as strangers or threats. Those, who tried to enter the castle with bad intentions would be barred the entrance, and those who didn't have malicious thoughts were allowed to walk in, but their every step would be recorded.

One may think that these kinds of wards were very powerful, but actually, they could be defeated rather easily. If Headmaster invited a teacher or a staff member who had a questionable purpose, they would still be accepted. The same was with students – the castle didn't discriminate against anyone who wanted to learn or teach well. That was why people such as Barty Crouch Jr, who disguised himself as Mad-Eye Moody in Harry's fourth year, or even Quirrell were allowed inside and weren't discovered by others.

Aside from their identities as teachers, they actually tried to teach the students well. This was completely opposite from Umbridge, who came to school at Harry's fifth year to spread the Ministry's propaganda and watch Dumbledore. As her goal had never been to teach, but rather obstruct the students' learning progress, the castle also didn't protect her when she was met with difficulties.

"Missy also wants to help young master more," the small elf interrupted Draco's thoughts. "Missy will do what she can to be useful!"

The blond boy gently smiled at the little creature and patted her head.

"Thank you, we're ready now."

With a snap of the elf's fingers, Draco and Zosar, who had carefully landed on the boy's shoulder earlier, were turned invisible.

• We should go now. The breakfast at Hogwarts just ended, and most teachers left the castle to do their own things, • urged the phoenix worriedly. In this operation, he would be the one responsible for getting around most of the traps, so he was getting more anxious as time passed.

"Alright, alright," the blond boy consoled the bird as his fingers clumsily groped the invisible bird to stroke the feathers. Although it wasn't very comforting to the phoenix, the gesture was familiar so it did manage to calm him down a bit.

Taking a deep breath, Draco also settled his emotions and wiped his mind of stray thoughts.

"Let's go," he confidently commanded. If he wasn't invisible at that moment, the outsiders would've been able to see his stormy eyes flash with determination and desire to succeed.

With a gentle whooshing sound, one invisible boy and bird disappeared from the room, leaving only an elf behind.

---

Draco and Zosar appeared right outside the third-floor corridor at Hogwarts. The blond boy instantly took out his wand and cast a privacy spell around them – if the portraits heard their steps or voices, it wouldn't be good.

• So, what now? • asked the phoenix. He hopped off Draco's shoulder and walked towards the doors. There, just a few steps away, hid a dangerous and huge three-headed dog.

The young Slytherin didn't give a verbal reply. Instead, he dug around one of his enchanted pockets, trying to find something.

"Why is it such a mess inside?" he asked after five minutes of being unable to locate the items he needed.

• You should ask yourself that, • answered Zosar nonchalantly. • You keep throwing everything in there, so how do you expect to find the things that you will actually need later on? •

"Aha!" Draco exclaimed finally, and threw a triumphant look his familiar's way as though saying: 'See? I found it, so you were wrong!'

Zosar released a sound which sounded suspiciously like a snort.

Apparently, even birds could snort in the Magical World…

Draco quickly shook his head and concentrated on the task at hand. In his hands were two items – a small mirror and a small cube.

First, the blond boy raised the mirror and carefully looked at the third-floor corridor's door through it.

"It seems that no new wards or charms have been added – if anything, there's fewer protections," he voiced his opinion with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

• Yes, I feel the same, • agreed Zosar while staring at the door. • When I was here yesterday, I already felt that the wards were weaker. Today, it is even more noticeable. I wonder, what's happening? Can Headmaster no longer power them on? •

"No, it's something else…" Draco said thoughtfully. "Either Dumbledore is really luring out Voldemort now that the stone is hidden inside the Mirror of Erised, or the cause is more technical. Hogwarts is said to be slightly sentient and it was built as a school – it is probably gradually rejecting the magic cast with a purpose other than the safety of the students… Well, even if it's not that, this situation is advantageous to us!"

Even though Draco was curious and wanted to solve the mystery, he didn't forget his original purpose for coming here. The wards could wait until he came back for the new semester, but the Philosopher's Stone had many people eyeing it. The next opportunity to get it may not be so good.

The young Slytherin tucked the mirror away into a pocket, which wasn't enchanted.

• Do you really think that this will work? • the young bird asked doubtfully while eyeing the only item left in Draco's hands. • Are you sure it wasn't some sort of a joke that your employees decided to pull when you asked them to create this thing? •

"I am certain," answered Draco confidently, but his uncertain expression betrayed him.

The small cube, which was only slightly bigger than one of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour beans, looked very unassuming at first glance. Truthfully, it was so even on second or third glances…

However, this was the item that was created by Eugenius Billwick and Dirk Crowdling on Draco's request. The two men were always very responsible when it came to magic and inventions, and the blond boy didn't doubt their abilities – otherwise, they wouldn't be his Chief Enchanter and Arithmancer, respectively.

Over the last few months, Draco had been spending many of his nights in front of the third-floor corridor's door. He had been casting various detection spells and throwing different potions at it, trying to determine which wards protected the entrance to the corridor. Many of his sleepless nights were spent consulting the two of his best employees and the task of creating a method to pass the wards undetected was also handed off to them.

The result of their collective efforts was the device in Draco's hands.

The cube might be small, however, it was carved with many minuscule runes and inscriptions whose purpose was to temporarily disable the surrounding magic. This device had been repeatedly tested and improved on in Dragon Enterprises Headquarters, where Eugenius and Dirk constructed a space which was protected similarly to the third-floor corridor at Hogwarts.

Because the creation of the device was somewhat rushed, many of Draco's employees were involved in its creation. In the months leading to Yule, people even made it into a type of competition – they would add more wards to the protected space and challenge each other to enchant the cube to pass the new charms.

As such, the little cube that was carefully held in Draco's hand was actually very precious and reflected the collective efforts of everyone involved in its creation. The blond boy silently looked at it for a while. Finally, he confidently raised his chin and lightly touched the cube to the doors leading into the corridor.

The device flashed a bright blue light and slowly sunk into the door, seemingly being absorbed into it. Five seconds later, it looked as though nothing had happened and the cube was nowhere to be seen.

Draco once again took out the mirror which showed wards and carefully looked through it. A few seconds later he nodded and pushed the door open.

What greeted him, was the sight of a huge Cerberus lying down on the floor and lightly snoring in its sleep. Thankfully, all three heads were resting, which made the operation to get the Philosopher's Stone a lot easier.

Draco carefully closed the door behind himself and turned to look at his familiar.

• Alright, it's my turn now! • Zosar chirped. The sound that he made disturbed the huge dog and the eyes on one of its heads were dangerously close to opening. But, before that could happen, Zosar flew over to the creature and started singing.

Although Draco had the rare pleasure of being able to enjoy his familiar's songs quite often when compared to other people, every time still felt like the first. There were no words to describe a phoenix's song – it was truly something that had no right of existing outside the Heavens. So, it was no wonder that the Cerberus was also quickly lulled back to sleep - and this time it was a lot deeper.

Draco carefully walked over to the creature's body and nudged one of the paws that was obstructing the way into a dark tunnel. After making the way, he carefully moved the lid which was covering the hole and waited for the phoenix to finish the song.

A few minutes later, a boy and a bird were standing together and looking down into the dark hole in contemplative silence.

• I guess I have to carry you down, • finally commented Zosar.

Draco nodded – it wasn't like there was a better way. Before entering the tunnel, he looked at it through a ward-detecting mirror. Seeing that the hole wasn't warded, he finally allowed for his familiar to carry him.

Zosar carefully gripped Draco's collar in his beak and lifted the boy before carefully lowering him inside the dark hole.

This kind of sight was quite comical – a bird that barely reached Draco's knees in size was now carrying a human boy with its small body and didn't seem to feel any difficulty doing so.

The passage was rather scary as everything was quite dark. With his free hand, Draco quietly cast the 'Lumos' charm, but it only served to deepen the shadows around him. A few seconds later, the blond boy spotted something slithering on the ground. Logically, he knew that it should be the Devil's Snare, yet it looked like countless hungry snakes were gathered on the floor.

Draco may have been a Slytherin, but it didn't mean that he liked those creatures.

Zosar sensed the boy's discomfort and stopped to hover in the air. Draco quickly canceled the illuminating spell and in its place created a few small fireballs, which were directed downwards.

Devil's Snare, which was in the beginning stages of waking up after sensing another presence nearby, quickly retreated its vines when it was threatened with fire and cleared the way to another door.

Draco's feet reached the ground and he quickly walked towards the door, wishing to leave the creepy place sooner.

The next door was also carefully checked for wards and it was discovered that there was some magic cast over them. However, it was a lot weaker than at the entrance into the corridor.

Draco quickly took out another small cube and inserted it into the door, even if he felt it a waste to use it on such weak charms. If only he was a little older and knew more about magic…

The next room was full of flying keys, which Draco and Zosar completely ignored as they passed them only to stop in front of the next door. Another small cube was inserted and the door opened even without them catching the silver key.

When Draco asked for Eugenius and Dirk to make the cubes, he especially added one request – must be able to unlock all kinds of doors. The blond boy wanted to avoid trying to catch the key – not because it would take up time, but because they could also be charmed with various wards, such as a spell which could tell how many people touched the key, an alarm or something of that nature. And, since all of the keys were enchanted and full of magic, looking at them through the ward-detecting mirror and trying to analyze the spells would just induce a headache – especially since they all constantly moved.

The Chessboard room was also easily passed without taking time to play the game – Zosar just had to carry Draco above the board and ensure that he never stepped on the ground which could detect human presence. It wasn't like the young Slytherin couldn't win the chess game – he was actually quite proficient in it (unlike Zosar, who could still be easily confused by a slightly more difficult move).

Rather, Draco was afraid that the chess figures would be charmed to alarm their creator once one of them was destroyed. Even if not – just the presence of the destroyed figures at the side would indicate that someone had been inside and Draco wanted to avoid that. After all, to win in Wizarding Chess it was rather unavoidable that a few figures would be destroyed.

The next room had a troll sitting in it. The blond boy could only roll his eyes at this type of 'protection'. He carefully pulled the door open and threw a big steak of prepared raw meat inside, before once again closing the door and leaning in to listen. The meat was heavily drugged with sleeping potions – even a troll would be defeated by them in no time, as was soon proven by a loud thudding sound.

"All clear," Draco smiled with satisfaction and once again opened the door.

Zosar could also finally let the boy go to walk on his own.

• Why do I feel like I could do all of these things alone, only quicker? • the bird bitterly complained as he spat a few loose threads out of his beak.

Draco turned to look at his familiar with furrowed brows.

"I think I contributed a lot, actually," he protested.

• Contributed what? You just took out some cubes and inserted them into the doors – a lot of help that is! • Zosar immediately refuted.

Draco was speechless for a moment. Finally, he replied: "Well, it's not like you have pockets to carry them around or hands to insert them into the doors!"

Now it was the phoenix's turn to be silent.

'Should I request for Draco to make me an item with pockets?' the bird thought to himself as he followed the blond boy to the next room. 'But even then it will be a bit hard to take things out with wings…'

If Draco knew what his familiar was thinking about, he would have surely contemplated the problem of bird psychology and whether a therapist would agree to see one. However, the blond boy was blissfully ignorant when it came to this issue, so he was fully concentrated on what the next room contained.

As soon as they entered the last chamber, which stood between them and the Philosopher's Stone, two kinds of fire lit up where the doors were supposed to be. Draco carefully looked around – just like the books stated, there was a long table with potions and a riddle to solve.

The young Slytherin remembered that it should have been the smallest vial which held the elixir to pass the flames safely, but he hesitated to drink it. Instead, he once again took out the ward-detecting mirror and carefully tipped a few drops of one of the bottle's contents onto its surface.

The potion's drops quickly rearranged themselves into the following words: 'Nervorum Resolutione'. It was a potion that would cause whole-body paralysis in the victim. If left in the system for long enough, one may even die from it.

Aside from that potion, there was also a Draught of Living Death, which made the drinker fall into such a deep state of sleep that they seemed dead. Then there was the Baneberry Potion, which was a poison, though it smelled very sweet.

Draco carefully tested each bottle, yet he couldn't find the one which could take him through the fire into the remaining room. He couldn't even find the one which could take him back – all of the potions contained either poisons or something close to it!

Either he was in a different universe from the books - which was rather unlikely, or Dumbledore did construct this whole thing to pit Harry against Voldemort.

Draco thought that the second option was quite possible. Maybe the third-floor corridor wasn't initially designed as a challenge for Harry, and these wards and poisons were supposed to stop the intruders.

However, somewhere down the road, Dumbledore may have seen that Harry was strangely interested and connected with the Philosopher's Stone, so he could have decided to make the whole thing more child-safe and see whether the Prophecy could be fulfilled when the Dark Lord and Boy-Who-Lived met.

Or maybe this was a trap from the very start – only the main cast wasn't fully prepared yet so the stage also only had preliminary (if slightly more dangerous) decorations placed.

Draco honestly didn't understand Dumbledore's thought processes, so he couldn't be sure of what was true or wrong. The old man's motivations and goals may have been good-intentioned, yet the results were often less than desirable.

The young Slytherin shook his head – he has been thinking too much about unnecessary things.

Draco once again concentrated on the task at hand. Since all of these potions were poisons, there was no way he could drink any of them.

Thankfully, he came prepared.

The blond boy took out a small, intricately carved wooden box, which contained eight crystal vials of a sky-blue potion. Each dose of this elixir could allow one to withstand any type of flame for about fifteen minutes. Some rumors said that even Fiendfyre, one of the most powerful and scariest fire spells could be barely felt when this potion was taken (not that anyone risked to try it on themselves, and many were too cheap to test it on animals first).

Understandably, one such vial cost a considerable sum of money – much less a whole box of them! Draco had to spend a lot of effort to be able to even contact an authentic seller. The person who helped him the most to secure the deal was the appointed Senior Manager of the Dragon Enterprises – Deborah Aston.

The blond Slytherin found long ago that his company, which was created almost on the spur of the moment, was quickly turning into one of his most powerful secret weapons. Not only did it bring him money which he could use without concerning himself that his parents would find what he spends it on, but his employees were also able to help him in various business and magical exploits.

And the best part was – the employees were magically bound by their contracts, which explicitly stated that anything that they worked on – magical inventions, deals with other businesses or individuals, any secrets related to the employer that they heard at work – all of this, and more, was forbidden to be disclosed to outsiders.

In the Muggle World, this would have been close to signing a slavery contract – one couldn't even whistle-blow if they saw that the company or employer were doing something illegal! However, in the Magical World, it was the usual practice. If muggles could also make sure that their contracts were unable to be broken, Draco was sure that they would have also used them without hesitation.

The Slytherin boy took one of the vials out of the box and opened it. The liquid smelled just as pleasantly as it looked, which made his reluctance to drink it diminish.

Draco took a deep breath and gulped the contents of the vial down in one swift motion.

At first, there was no change but gradually he felt his body temperature going down. It wasn't cold or unpleasant – in fact, it was rather comfortable, as though submerging oneself into slightly cool water on a particularly hot day.

Taking a deep breath, Draco closed his eyes and entered into the burning black fire.