Blasting through the Trials and Hurdles

After jumping through the trapdoor, Oz casted a quick 'Arresto Momentum' on himself, allowing himself to slowly fall down towards the devil's snare below. Looking down Oz could spot Harry squirming around desperately as the devil snare had him entangled.

"Oz! What the hell is this stuff?!".

Looking down at the desperation on the boys face Oz gave Harry a hurried response.

"Its Devil's snare Harry, If you relax yourself you'll naturally fall through it, flailing around will just cause you to get more and more strangled and entangled".

During this back and forth Oz himself was still slowly floating down at a minuscule speed, enough to make anyone think that he's just straight up levitating.

"Okay, calm down Harry... Breath..."

As Harry calmed himself his body slowly lowered into the devils snare releasing him underneath. Oz smiled seeing this. Whilst bringing Harry along on this endeavour would make the job of dealing with Quirrell a lot easier considering he's Quirrell's bane essentially, Oz also wanted to get a good look at this new 'boy who lived' birthed from his own miss-happenings in the plot. You could even consider it as Oz evaluating Harry, seeing how much he'd changed in this first year since joining Slytherin and hanging around a different crowd.

Oz was still descending very slowly, looking around at the devil snare's tendrils that filled the room he called out to Harry.

"Good job Harry, while your method is the cleanest method of getting through this obstacle I like to opt for a more... direct approach".

Pointing his wand down, Oz casted an extremely powerful 'Lumos Maxima', Causing the devil's snare below him to part like the red sea. When enough room was made for him, he released his 'Arresto Momentum' spell allowing him to fall quicker down into where Harry was waiting. As soon as Oz fell underneath the devil's snare, the plant itself reformed closing the gap he came through just after him.

Harry stood looking at Oz with a slightly irritated face.

"Why didn't you just do that for me...?".

Letting out a little chuckled, Oz remarked.

"As that wouldn't be as fun would it? I've got to make this trip down into the unknown somewhat light-hearted right?"

Harry rolled his eyes at Oz as he walked on ahead towards the next room. Oz allowed the boy to go on ahead as he looked up at the Devil's snare.

'I'm unsure whether or not this plant will be useful to me in the long run... but it may be worth bringing along some just in case'.

After that thought, Oz used 'Diffindo' to cut himself off a few pieces of Devil's snare, almost as if he was carving a steak. Oz himself didn't know what compelled him to take some pieces of Devil's snare, however his intuition was screaming that he might find it useful down the road.

After serving himself up a piece of Devil's snare, Oz immediately headed off after Harry and into the next room.

.

Walking into the next room Oz and Harry both looked around as they saw hundreds of keys flying around. Across from them a door with a lock.

Looking to his right, Oz saw some broomsticks that were to be used to fetch the key.

"It seems as though we need to fly and grab the key Harry".

Harry still enamoured by the sight of flying keys darted his eyes over to Oz.

"Surely not Oz...".

Looking at Harry who seemed reluctant and expectant of Oz to rectify this situation, Oz snickered to himself.

'This lad... His talent for flying is incredible yet since he's not on the quidditch team at all this time around he has no confidence to do this?'.

Oz heaved a sigh as he pondered the best way through this. Looking at the door itself he could see the aura of a charm on it, he guessed this charms purpose was to stop any witch or wizard trying to enter with unscrupulous means.

'Damn... I really wanted to do a simple alohomora as well, looks like ill have to put in some elbow grease'.

Just as Oz was about to make his move he turned to Harry and spoke.

"You do know Harry that you are fully capable of getting on that broom and getting that key right? I know that you know this yourself as well, you know you have talent, you must have felt it in flying lessons".

Harry flinched slightly at Oz's profiling telling Oz all he needed to know about the boys abilities.

"Never mind though... let me show you the simple way of getting this done".

Finishing his last sentence, Oz focused his purple eyes onto the key he sensed was connected to the door and its ward. Focused solely on that key Oz snapped his fingers causing that singular key to stop in mid-air. The key itself tremble around, trying to break free however Oz's magical grip on it was tight, lowering it down to himself as he finally took hold of the key with his physical hand.

"See? Much easier than flying right?".

While Oz does indeed have accomplishments, some astronomical compared to how old he is whether it be core progression or his Animagus ritual being as powerful as it was he always would keep himself level-headed, trying not to let the power get to his head. However, in times like these he really did like to gloat, especially to someone like Harry who had such colourful expressions. While pride was a deadly sin, all sins are necessary in moderation.

Oz walked over to Harry and handed him the key.

"Surely you'll be able to open a door?".

Harry sighed as he muttered back.

"Why do I feel like you didn't need me here at all Oz?".

Oz stared back at Harry who seemed to be feeling inferior after all this power play from Oz, Smiling gently Oz uttered back.

"You'll be needed soon Harry, don't worry".

Hearing this from Oz confused Harry even more as he walked on ahead and unlocked the door leading towards the next room. As Oz was following in behind Harry he had a single thought stuck in his mind.

'This labyrinth down to the stone... the trials that are here... To an experienced wizard such things are child's play. This doesn't feel at all like a security system down here besides the dog guarding the door... this feels more like a specially designed trial for someone to gro...w'.

Finishing that thought Oz had one name in his mind, someone who might want a certain other someone to grow, going through some trials while at Hogwarts.

'That old man really is twisted if thats the case...'.

.

After a bit of walking, Oz and Harry found themselves walking into a giant room. As the flames in the room ignited, the contents of the room were shown fully to Oz and Harry.

"A chess board?!" Harry yelled out looking around at the bizarre sight before him. Oz surveyed the room with his eyes trying to sense any abnormalities. The only thing he could sense was a few wards and spells put in place to allow this game of chess to work. The chess pieces themselves however weren't protected at all.

"Oz ive always wanted to play real life wizards chess after playing against Daphne! Is there any chance we could give this a...".

While Oz would love to humour Harry here, he felt the need to quicken this adventure and after diagnosing the chess pieces strewn around the room he came up with a simple way to end this chess game. Oz took out both of his wands and started to fire away at all the chess pieces, blowing all of them to bits. While shooting with both of his wands he again remarked in his head the importance of eventually fusing these wands into one when possible...

As the oversized chess pieces debris flew around the room, Harry stood gobsmacked remarking in his own head that this must have been the 4/5th time he'd been shocked on this night with Oz.

As the smoke from all the debris cleared, a completely decimated chess board sat in front of Oz and Harry now. Oz wore a relaxed and satisfied smile on his face.

'That definitely blew off some steam... I didn't even knew I had that in me'.

Harry looked around the chessboard with a frown on his face.

"This was the one thing I could have helped with as well...".

Oz turned towards Harry and gave him a pat on the shoulder, showing him a calm grin.

"No, no. The next part is what you need to help with. You should go on ahead here, alone".

Harry's eyes pricked wide open hearing Oz's words.

"Alone?! You're not coming Oz?! You came all this way just to make me go and finish the job?!".

Oz pinched his nose as he looked up at the ceiling.

"You're making this sound a lot worse than it actually is... All the trials and tasks beforehand I took into my hands as I was the best fit right? Well, it turns out you're the best fit for this next task Harry so you can go and knock em' dead".

Hearing Oz's words still didn't bring any confidence to Harry's eyes as he seemed reluctant to move on. Seeing this Oz sighed and looked the boy directly in the eyes.

"Do you trust me Harry Potter".

Hearing this, Harry gave a slow nod.

"Then understand that I wouldn't send you off to get killed or something, I trust that you can do this next part so go do it".

Hearing that he had Oz's confidence, Harry's eyes lit with determination as he charged ahead towards Quirrell. Looking at the boy run ahead Oz found himself a nice piece of debris to rest his back on as he chilled out.

'I could have gone and just sorted it all on my own but... on this little trip down here I've realised that I need the people around me to grow as well to some extent. While I can help Harry with the heavy lifting in most cases, he needs to get some action in at points else he could become a liability in the future... Taking out Quirrell will be easy for him anyway...'.

As Oz was mulling over his thoughts, His eyes suddenly came down from the roof of the big chess room towards the door they entered from. His purple eyes gleamed as he could sense an aura within the darkness.

'I had a feeling you'd show up...'.

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A/N - The plan right now for me is to get to the end of year 1 (canon) so I can then read back and give myself time to take the story in the right direction I want. Thankfully on here I had notes about what I wanted to do in these chapters leading to the end of philosophers so im basically following along while adding some details here and there.

As always, let me know if anything's wrong or seems off and ill correct as best I can :).