Down the Cerberus Hole

After getting admonished by McGonagall, twice, Harry and Ron went back to the common room with heavy hearts. Harry had just said, "At least Hermione's on Snape's tail," when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in.

"I'm sorry, Harry!" she wailed. "Snape saw me and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.

The other two stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.

"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

"You're mad!" said Ron.

"But Harry, you can't just go out there and try to get it yourself! You heard McGonagall - you'll be expelled!" gasped Hermione.

"SO WHAT" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me!"

He glared at them.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It's just lucky I got it back."

"Lucky? Dumbledore planned this and gave it to you, remember what Ben sai-", Hermione said.

"I don't care what he said, and I don't care if Dumbledore has planned this," Harry spat, his frustration boiling over. "All I know is that I have to get the Stone before Snape does. Voldemort killed my parents, remember? I won't let him win again."

There was a heavy silence in the room for a moment, as the gravity of Harry's words settled in. Then, to Harry's surprise, Ron spoke up.

"Will the cloak cover all three of us?" he asked, his voice low but firm.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, "A-All three of us?" He said.

"Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you go alone?"

"Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful…."

--

After Dinner, the trio sneaked out of the common room, leaving a frozen Neville behind in a full-body bind. Their excursion was almost cut short when they came face to face with Peeves the Poltergeist but Harry managed to scare him away, pretending to be an Invisible Bloody Barron.

They went down the trapdoor, putting Fluffy to sleep using the flute Hagrid had gifted only to be ensnared by the Devil's snare.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them, "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!" She was the last one to jump down and had managed to escape its clutches in time.

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," Ron snarled, trying to stop the plant from snaring around his neck.

"Shut up, will you?" said Hermione, trying to focus on what to do, suddenly something kicked in her brain and she remembered.

'You will journey beyond the slumbering protector, down the flaming flora, past the winged keys and a shattered battlefield, yet the path of wisdom dictates a return at the enigma of elixirs'

"Well, Hurry up, it's going to shut us up, Permanently!" Harry screamed, wrestling the plant as it curled around his chest.

A bright jet of blue flames escaped from Hermione's wand and the creeper cringed away from the light and warmth, flailing and wailing it released its grip on Ron and Harry.

"That, that was bloody brilliant," said Ron, wiping the sweat off his face.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," said Harry.

"That I do, but I also remembered something else," She said.

'You will journey beyond the slumbering protector, down the flaming flora, past the winged keys and a shattered battlefield, yet the path of wisdom dictates a return at the enigma of elixirs'

"Merlin's beard! Hermione, did you fall into a cauldron of Stupid Potion?" Ron said, looking astounded at Hermione's words. He was getting sick of prophecies and omens, especially it all coming from Hermione's mouth.

But Hermione didn't seem dissuaded at all, "If there's any truth to Divination and Prophecies, the next room must have flying keys," she said, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

"Yeah, and I'll eat my wand if there is even a key or a wing," Ron said to Harry as they followed Hermione through the dark passage.

And keys there were, with wings no less; the chamber at the end of the passage was filled with shining keys with fluttering wings, flying around in a huge swarm.

"Bloody Hell! I'm never doubting her again," said Ron, with his jaw wide open.

At the end of the room was a huge wooden door with a silver lock, it was clear that they have to find the correct key out of the hundreds flying above their heads, but it was going to be as difficult as finding a bowtruckle in a pile of twigs.

Or, it would have been, if they didn't have one of the best seekers in Hogwarts with them. Harry hopped on the broom and did what he does best; they rushed off to the next room with a giant chess set.

Ron still made the sacrifice play and Hermione and Harry marched ahead to the next room, where they found an awful-smelling troll, unconscious. Relieved at not having to fight that disgusting thing again, they hurried to the next room, praying that it wasn't too late already. Only to be trapped in a room with a table with seven vials of different sizes, with purple and black flames blocking their way back and forwards respectively.

"Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?"

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it, it was some sort of a logic puzzle.

"Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn't magic, it's logic, a puzzle, the enigma of elixirs. 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."

"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."

They looked at each other.

'the path of wisdom dictates a return at the enigma of elixirs' they both remembered.

"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" said Harry.

Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," said Harry. "No, listen, get back and get Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy-go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

Well, that's what they should have done in the first place, but let us ignore that.

"But Harry, what if You-Know-Who's with him?"

"Well, I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

Harry raised a deep red flag right there and drained the little bottle in one gulp. A deep chill flooded his body as the potion did its job. He braced himself and walked straight into the wall of black flames; the flames licked his body but he didn't feel any pain on his skin.

He soon crossed the field of black fire and was greeted with a view that shook his whole worldview.

"You!"

--Dreamscape--

I didn't enjoy writing this chapter but still managed to do it somehow. The end is near now.

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