168)Philosopher's Stone (Part 3)

After a few seconds to recover from the Devil's Snare attack, we continued down the only path available, which continued obliquely downward. After descending for a while, in addition to the sound of falling drops that we heard, something else became audible.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" (Harry)

"I don't know… sounds like wings to me."(Ron)

The passageway ended, and in front of us was a quite illuminated room, at least compared to the path so far. It was tall, and several flying objects were moving around the room, which could easily be confused with birds. On the other side, a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Ron asked.

"Probably. They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once… well, there's no other choice… I'll run." said Harry before running out covering his head with his arms.

We saw him running desperately, possibly expecting the birds to attack him, but nothing happened, and we followed him. I already knew about this, but I didn't say anything and played along, although I won't deny having my doubts if this had changed due to my existence.

We were in front of the wooden door, but it was closed. Each of the kids tried to open it, although it was useless; not even with unlocking spells could it be opened, well, at least not with the ones they knew.

Although I found it interesting to see how this play would unfold, I was somewhat anxious to finish this. Many important things were tied to how this ending would play out; it wasn't for nothing that I had an army of invisible clones following us. I wouldn't do anything to interfere directly; this was the adventure of these three, and I didn't care, only the final zone was of my interest, but slightly speeding up things wasn't a problem.

"Guys, the door needs a key, and I see many," I mentioned, looking at the 'bright birds.'

"They're keys! Winged keys!" Harry exclaimed upon noticing.

"Yes, and that one over there seems to be the one we're looking for, the one with the damaged wing that doesn't fly well," I pointed out, and the only person who easily caught it was Harry; Ron and Hermione struggled more... amusingly, considering he was the only one wearing glasses.

"How are we going to...?" Ron asked.

"Look, broomsticks," Hermione pointed to some broomsticks in the room.

"We have to get the key," Harry nodded.

Harry and Ron ran to grab the broomsticks and start hunting the keys. Hermione had also intended to go with them, but I held her back and didn't let her move forward, making her stay here with me while the pair went.

"What?" She questioned why I stopped her.

"You're not the best flyer in the group, or do you want me to remind you of our first flying class?" I gave her a slightly teasing expression while still holding her hand.

"Hmm..." She grumbled, blushing a bit as she recalled it, starting to wonder if I already liked her back then and if that's why I acted that way. "But we should all help; it'll be faster," she tried to move forward again, but I still didn't release her arm, so she couldn't advance.

"Yes and no. Harry is a good Seeker; he'll probably get it easily," I looked at Harry, who had already started his search. "It would be a waste to try when we would barely contribute anything, if at all. Do you know why I didn't use fire magic on the Devil's Snare? Or why I didn't try to open the door? I have methods to do it, but I didn't."

"Why?" she asked, listening more attentively and no longer trying to move forward.

"Well," I pulled her towards me, embracing her lightly, which startled her. "I'm saving my energy for what's coming. We're going to do something that not even some of our professors could. It would be stupid to exhaust myself here and then die when we're just in front of our goal."

Hermione stayed silent and stopped struggling against me. She looked at me, and in my eyes, she noticed that despite seeming calm, I was tense, or at least that's what she perceived.

"Let Harry and Ron handle this; they are more of the physical type. You're intellectual; surely there will be something where you'll have to do your part. I'm the powerful type; let me handle the battle to the death." I looked into her eyes while caressing her hair with one hand and still hugging her with the other. "It's not to belittle anyone, but everyone has their strengths, and among all of us, I'm the one with the best chances against... whoever we have to face."

"...Is it really that dangerous?" she asked somewhat hesitantly, also hugging me for comfort, no longer so embarrassed, but rather contemplative and somewhat between scared and nervous. "Do you really think we'll...?"

"Yes and no... but don't worry, nothing will happen to you as long as I'm here, I swear it, even if I have to do the worst thing a person can do, even if I have to leave Harry and my brother behind... even myself... I'll keep you safe." There was no hesitation in my words.

My gaze became more affectionate with each word I said, and Hermione was also caught up in it, both of us staring at each other. My embrace slowly strengthened, and consequently, so did hers. Her heart was beating strongly, but so was mine, which she could feel, along with my scent that managed to relax her from the tense situation she had gotten into. We stayed close to each other, trapped in that feeling that seemed to become more tangible around us. My face began to approach very slowly, almost involuntarily, millimeter by millimeter, something she noticed. Instead of feeling the slightest discomfort, she began to move hers closer as well, closing her eyes and letting herself be carried away by the comforting warmth of my body, my reassuring scent, and the comfortable atmosphere that was created despite the situation... but at that moment...

"I got it!" Harry shouted after catching the key and descending towards us with Ron.

Hermione reacted to Harry's shout and quickly moved away from me, breaking our embrace. With warmth on her face and an emptiness in her heart, she felt ashamed of being observed but also a great disappointment and anguish. She felt like she had missed out on a very pleasant sensation.

I was disappointed too; I felt like a beautiful moment had been cut short. That natural feeling of love that I had only felt on occasions, like with Tonks and... so beautiful... wasted... I wanted to get angry, but I forced myself to calm down and watched as Harry, completely ignoring my romantic moment with Hermione just like Ron, opened the door, completely focused on his mission.

"Ready?" Harry asked with his hand on the door handle.

"Let's finish this," I said with dissatisfaction as I pushed the door directly to pass, regardless of the others.

I entered a dark room, followed by the three lions, which suddenly lit up, revealing the giant chessboard with the door behind the white pieces.

"Now what do we do?" (Harry)

"It's obvious, isn't it? We've got to play our way across the room."(Ron)

"How?" Hermione asked nervously, looking at the imposing chessboard.

"I think we're going to have to be chessmen" he replied, then approached a black knight to get its attention. The stone came to life, and the knight lifted the visor of the helmet to look at Ron. "Do we have to... join you to get cross?" he asked, and the black knight nodded. Ron turned to us. "We need to think about this..." Ron supported his hand on his chin.

"It's not true, it's easy," I interrupted, placing my hands on his shoulders. "Ron, there are many things where you don't shine as much as others, but magical chess isn't one of them. This one is for you." I patted my brother on the shoulder and then showed the other two the brooms from the previous room that one of my invisible clones brought me.

"What...?" Ron asked, confused, partly because it seemed as if I was showing confidence and respect towards him, something he had never witnessed.

"But..." Hermione was about to say something, but I interrupted her.

"Hermione, I know you're a queen, but as I said, everyone has their moment. Ron, we can't pass this room without completing the chess game, but we can't waste time. Only if you stay to finish the game, we can move forward, and if you win, you'll also secure us a way to retreat. If something happens, we're counting on you so that if something goes wrong, we can escape without the white pieces stopping us and causing our death. We'll proceed while you achieve victory. I know you can do it; we're counting on you... have your well-deserved moment of glory and get ready to save us." (Red)

"... Y-You're right..." Ron seemed caught by my words, and I think he even puffed out his chest with pride. He approached one of the horses, and as if understanding what Ron wanted, the stone knight dismounted and stepped off the board, allowing Ron to mount. "You guys go, I'll try to finish as quickly as possible to help you."

I had already mounted my broom, and Harry and Hermione, understanding my idea of gaining time and how determined Ron looked, also didn't take long to mount theirs. The brooms floated and passed over the white pieces, which turned to look at us.

"You have your opponent over there," I shouted. "You are chess pieces; don't think about stopping us if you can't even fight against my brother and beat him"

The pieces seemed angry with me but didn't leave the board; instead, they turned their gaze forward, clearly with intentions of fighting. On the other hand, we descended in front of the door, which was attempted to be opened but was equally closed as the previous one.

"We can't open it," Harry said, looking at the chess game that had already begun, thinking that we would have to wait.

"Leave that to me," I moved him away from the door just like Hermione and pulled out a large hammer while my clones began devouring food stored in my inventory.

I took out a chisel, and with the help of a clone that held it against one of the door hinges, I raised the hammer with my strength now enhanced by the snacks and struck forcefully. There was a loud sound that made all the pieces turn to see how I destroyed one of the door hinges with brute force. Interestingly, these doors are enchanted not to be easily passable, but they didn't seem to have thought about this method. Anyway, I even had a complete set of tools to dismantle the door and a ram in my inventory just in case. The upper hinges were more challenging to deal with due to the position, but still nothing complicated with my resources.

The door was easily solved after losing its hinges; in truth, I worked quite quickly, and Ron was still in the middle of the game as we moved on to the next room. We advanced without almost being knocked down by a foul smell. The smell was so strong that Hermione and Harry's eyes were tearing up, and they covered their noses with their robes. I was better, but not by much.

In the middle of the room, an unconscious troll on the ground, with a bleeding lump on its head. Harry and Hermione were relieved not to have to fight the troll, and we continued to the next area. However, I had left one of my clones to take care of the troll, killing it and absorbing its blood and vitality to restore myself for the next fight.

We passed through the door, and shortly after reaching the center of the room, blazing flames covered both the door we passed through and the threshold to the next area. The flames blocking our progress were black, while those blocking our retreat were purple. We were trapped in the room that only had a table with 7 bottles of different sizes next to each other.

"This is from Snape," Harry said, looking at the contents of the room.