Chapter 14: Fight

After the event of the forbidden forest, the integration of Draco with their group was much smoother. Ron and Draco bickered less and Harry treated Draco better. They rarely discussed the Sorcerer's stone anymore now that exams were coming up. Edward relaxed in the common hall leisurely reading a history of magic textbook while Ron and Harry were helped by Hermione with her notes. He overheard Ron trying to buy some cheating quills, but was stopped by Hermione.

The day of the examination ame up. Edward was pretty confident he could ace the tests. Everything proved easy for him as he had an enhanced memory. Practical's was also done quickly. In the afternoon, seeing that Harry, Hermione, and Ron had run to professor Mcgondall, Edward decided to do some final preparations for the upcoming battle. Last time, without the wand, he was half useless because every spell needed too much mana. He decided to find some spells that could be used for the battle without a wand. Looking through the library he found a couple of spells, but all of them when exchanged needed a lot of mana. Just when he was about to give up, he looked through the Herbology section and found something interesting.

That night, Harry was sneaking out. Although he was scared, he was determined. Just when he went down to the common room, he saw Hermione, Ron, Edward, and Draco in the common room.

"Draco, how did you get in here."

Draco grinned and said,'' Edward sneaked me into the common room. Besides, you are not planning to go without leaving us, are you?"

　　 "You can choose not to go, anyway, you and the mysterious person have no hatred." Harry spread his hands and said, "I can't hide. The scar has been hurting recently. I guess he only needs to make a comeback and I will be the first to kill."

Edward chose to reply," On the contrary, if Voldy's making a comeback, he'll choose to hide in the Malfoy manor. Besided, I would rather not have that nose face in my house."

"It's a good thing if Draco doesn't come with us. I guess he can only hold back if he goes." said Ron, "Harry, I will fight with you to the end!"

　　 "Asshole! Weasley!" Draco angered: "Who do you think can only hold back? Look! I will definitely be the biggest contributor to this action, I want to win 100 points for Slytherin!"

Hermione smacked her head," We are wasting time like this.Lets go now."

Harry held out his hand helplessly," Aren't you forgetting something. My invisibility cloak can only cover 3 people."

Draco smiled,"I already bought a temporary invisibility cloak. Stop chatting. Lets go."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione came in one cloak while Draco and Edward came in the other.They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like a harp," said Ron. "Snape must have left it there. "

"Doesn't matter", said Harry, as he took a flute from his pocket and played it. Although it was tremendously out of tune, it did the job as Fluffy fell down asleep.

Everyone pushed Fluffy aside, and Edward jumped in the trapdoor first. At the Devil nets, Hermione used a simple Lumos spell to keep the plant away. Using a Broomstick, Harry grabbed the key and rushed to the next level. During the Chess game, Ron and Draco were knocked out. Harry, Hermione, and Edward advanced to the next level.

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, which ever 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 bidden 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 onward, 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 let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.

"Brilliant," 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 in here forever. "

"But so will we, won't we?"

"Of course not," said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple. "

"But how do we know which to drink?"

"Give me a minute. "

Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire -- toward the Stone. "

Harry looked at the tiny bottle.

"There's only enough there for one of us," he said. "That's hardly one swallow. "

While Harry and Hermione were arguing, Edward tested out the flames, it was definitely hot and burning, but Edward had a simple way. Using Phoenix flames on his body, he would be able to move through the wall of fire. He revealed this to Harry and Hermione. Hermione wanted to come along with them, but Edward lied and said that he could only cover himself. Thus Edward and Harry stepped through the wall of fire while Hermione rushed back.

Across the wall of flames, they saw Quirrel observing the mirror of Erised.

"You!" gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter. And of course you, my outlier Malfoy"

"But I thought -- Snape--"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Harry couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't.

"But Snape tried to kill me!"

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you.I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you. "

"Snape was trying to save me?"

"Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really. . . he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular. . . and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight. "

Edward wasted no time to start casting a spell, but Quirrel disarmed him again.

"Mr.Malfoy, you never really learn, do you?"

Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry and Edward. Edward checked his bondage. Luckily, Quirrel used regular rope rather than rope with a magic suppression effect because he believed that children did not have enough strength to break out of the rope. Edward muttered quietly," Null Magic: Modeling," and made his rope more brittle.

Once Quirrell was sure that they posed no threat, he went back to observing the mirror. Harry did his best to resist Quirrel, but it was futile. When Quirrel brought Harry back from the mirror, Edward noticed Harry's right pocket bulging. Thus, Edward knew that Harry had gotten the Philosopher's stone.

Quirrel was nervous. Just when he was about to give up, Voldemort ordered Quirrel to open up the Turbine. Once Voldemort was revealed, Edward began his counter-attack.

Edward broke free of his bondage and pulled out his wand. Taking out a pouch from his pockets, he threw them on the ground and said," Mu Dun: The World of tree's." Immediately, the seeds sprouted and turned this room into a jungle. Using modeling, the floor became spiky and each tree was thornier. Edward knew that his wand would definitely be taken away by Quirrell once he even showed any signs of attack, so he spent some time searching for different spells that could be used with less mana. This resulted in him realizing that magic cost can be reduced using catalysts, so he found a fast growing spell and exchanged it to receive Mu Dun. In the field of dense trees, it was his playing field.

"You Idiot stopped him," yelled Voldemort, but it was too late.

"Null Magic:Slip"

Voldemort's face was stabbed with hundreds of tiny thorns as Quirrell fell backward. Taking his wand back, he held Harry and said,"Harry, Trust me."

Harry didn't even have time to register what happened when Edward cast the Target Fruit spell. Harry went flying towards Voldemort. When Harry came in contact with Voldemort, he saw that Quirrel was smoking and screaming in pain. Harry held Quirrell even though his scar hurt for life. Quirrell was reduced to dust and from his ashes, Voldemort came out in a ball of smoke. He gave Harry and Edward one last glare of fury and passed through their bodies. Edward and Harry both fell unconscious and slumped down.