Trials and Tribulations

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Liam stood Infront of the door housing the giant three-headed dog mentally preparing himself, he then took out a flute and started playing it, it was barely music, he had practiced for the last couple of weeks, but it seemed like music was not his calling, the sound was a continuous shift between three notes and with after a minute or two of this, he opened the door still blowing the flute, not willing to risk having to be quick enough.

Inside he found Fluffy, two heads on the floor eyes closed seemingly sleeping with the third head swaying left and right gently slowly also making its way to the floor, he continued playing until the dog was completely still and even then he made his way to the hatch still playing his flute.

Luckily the three heads had precariously landed around the hatch but not above it, he awkwardly pulled it up with one hand while using the other to hold the flute while playing it still, once the hatch door was up he took the flute off his mouth long enough to cast a bluebell flames spell down the hatch three times and then he quickly went back to his song, fluffy stirred in his sleep, and Liam unable to hold his breath because he was using it at the moment griped the hatch door that he was holding even stronger instead, as he stared at the giant head an arm's reach away from him and knowing there was another one right behind him.

After Fluffy settled, Liam once again cast bluebell flames down the hatch, only twice this time before jumping in and letting the hatch close behind him, He knew he wasn't getting out the same way anyway, which drove him to think how did Hermione get out in the canon to get Dumbledore, then after remembering that he was busy at the moment he refocused, landing between the retreating scorched Devil's Snare, after finding the path forward represented by a door across the room, he kept casting bluebell flames all the way to the door and once he finally reached it he quickly opened it and walked through closing it behind him and finally relaxed for a moment, the most dangerous part was over, in his opinion that is.

Now looking around him he could see the expansive room where the keys hundreds if not more keys were flying in the air, he walked through the room to the other side where he saw another door noticing that the keys were giving him a wide berth, trying to avoid the area he was in, but he paid them no mind and kept going in the direction of the other door.

Once he reached the door he opened it a took a long rectangular looking stone out of his pocket, kneeling in front of the door he cast Lumos and started inspecting the lock and transfiguring the stone bit by bit to fit the lock, and after about 20 minutes of trial and error he finally managed to get the key to fit exactly into the keyhole but it still wouldn't budge, so he took it out and then once again studied the lock, trying to see if there was a tumbler or spring that needed to be engaged by the key to making it work and after another 30 minutes he finally succeeded in making the key start rotating in the lock, he very slowly turned the key afraid it might snap inside even knowing it was made of stone, and after hearing a click the door opened clearing his way to the next room, he walked in and closed the door behind him.

Now walking in he found himself in a very cube-like room, in the middle of it and preventing him from simply walking through was a very large chessboard, and it was decorated with pieces bigger than the size of an average human, and this time there weren't any pieces missing, which made him wonder if the missing pieces were because of Quirrell coming through before the trio, the idea of Voldemort having to play chess amused him but he banished the thought and got to work, he wasn't planning on playing chess, he had played with Ron a couple of times but he was hardly a master of the game, so he planned to cheat his way through, he took two more stones from his pockets, these were smaller then his makeshift key though.

He laid them down on the ground and start casting the old Portus spell that he had learned, unlike the normal one this one required two portkeys instead of one, making one portkey that teleports with the user upon first touch he called it the active, and the other portkey being the target of the teleportation, the second one was inert as in if it was touched nothing would happen and it had almost no magical trace on it he called it the ground because it reminded him of the ground when you conduct an electrical charge, after finishing the casting process, he threw the ground portkey over the chessboard and saw it landing on the other side, rolling a bit before settling on the floor, he then bent down and held the active stone and voila, he was on the other side above the ground portkey.

He stood there dazed for a second before kneeling on the ground holding in his vomit, this teleportation method while convenient was unlike any else that he studied and came with a very annoying side effect, and no matter how much he tested it he wasn't getting used to it, at least now he was better about holding in his vomit.

Unlike other descriptions from spells he had come across while researching like modern Portkeys or apparition, he saw nothing and felt nothing during the teleport, it was like he blinked in one place and when he opened his eyes he was in another, but the physical exaction that came after arriving at the destination was like the gravity affecting his body was affecting different parts of him at different rates, he felt like he was heavy some places and light in others and to try to keep his balance and constitution through that was no easy feat, it was a very distinct feeling that he had never felt before except maybe once during the very end of his first life, and that made the experience all the more disturbing to him.

What was even stranger was that the description of the side-effects of the spell he was using right now was similar to the modern portkey spell if not a tad worse, yet he didn't feel a tugging or see the world swirl around.

Once he started feeling normal again he stood up slowly, Putting both portkeys inside an empty pocket each so as not to mix them up, not neglecting to wrap the active portkey in some fabric so he could handle it without teleporting, putting himself together and getting prepared to delve further on, in this mission he was on, now on the other side he could see there was no door on this side but an empty archway that led to a dimly lit corridor that couldn't possibly fit a troll, Liam kept walking while trying to think of how they got the troll inside before settling on magic and moving on.

The corridor opened up to reveal a giant room that looked comparable in size to the great hall, and by the far end he could see the troll, it was slightly bigger than the one he already faced, hunched over the ground looking at something that seemed to fascinate it to no end, holding its giant club in its hand and resting it over its shoulders, He decided that there was no reason to complicate this situation more then he had to so he cast the Levitation Charm on troll's club and after it rose in the air to the amazement of its owner, Liam sent it down on his head without holding back, and luckily this time the troll went down with the first hit like a sack of tomatoes, meaning there was a bit of sauce that leaked to the ground.

Walking on to the next room he saw that the exit on the other side was blocked by this dark fire with gray licks of flames that flashed every now and then, after he walked a bit in the room the doorway behind him also caught fire but this one was purple instead of black, Liam looked at hypnotized for a minute amazed by the beauty of the purple flames and the ominous look of the black one, in the middle of the room there laid a table with seven potions on it, and parchment to the side.

Liam confidently walked up to the parchment and read it

"

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever 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 hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,

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 onwards 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

"

He ignored the first four lines as it was information he already knew, and in the next four lines he reasoned that there were two wine bottles, three poisons, and two potions in total, he focused and read the next eight deducing that since the third from the left is the dwarf and the second from the right was the giant, and neither are poisons and since the second left and the second on the right are both the same, then the giant is not poison or a potion since there are no potions that are the same, that only leaves the wine, then the second left and the second on the right are both wine, and knowing that poison is on its left side we can also eliminate first from the left and third from the right, and since the ones on the end are different and don't lead forward that means the first on the left has to be the potion that allows you to go back, which leaves only the potion that goes forward and one bottle of poison, but since we know that the dwarf doesn't hold poison and it one of the two remaining then it must be the one that leads forward.

Liam grabbed the dwarf and uncapped it but before he drank it he stopped thinking to himself

'Wait is someone going to refill this, so far I haven't made any lasting marks, Fluffy will wake up and so will the troll, there is still plenty Devil's Snare and I didn't even touch the chessboard or the key but if I drink this whoever comes next won't be able to go forward unless it's refilled'

Liam started pacing back and forth trying to think of a different method to go through the fire before saying in frustration

'Well Voldemort made it through before Harry and Hermione, and they found the potion full, so maybe it refills on its own?'

'No that's stupid, what then it can refill itself whenever it's used, and what is the limit of something like that...no maybe that is true there is something called magic after all, but Voldemort probably forced his way in somehow, dammit, there is still half a year I am sure Snape will make his way here to make sure everything is in its place at some point, but I can't rely on that can I ........ wait I am so stupid my letter is going to take care of this anyways, it's not like nobody is going to know I didn't come through, there will be one person who knows, let them handle the grunt work for once'

He said before chugging down the potion, he felt his temperature rise and his throat being very worm, like he had just drank hot coffee, he put his arm in the fire first to test it, and sure as it was he wasn't hurt in the slightest if anything he felt like his arm was being licked by a bunch of excited dogs, so he renewed his determination and walked straight through, he still closed his eyes right before he delved in, an understandable reaction to walking into a fire.

Once on the other side, he was looking at a mordantly sized champers with the mirror of Erised standing in the middle, he walked up to it triumphantly feeling proud to have conquered the Trials that the teachers had set and getting ready for the final step.

He stood in front of the mirror waiting to retrieve the philosopher's stone but what appeared in front of him was not what he was expecting at all, in front of him was the answer to the question he was forcing into the back of his head, in the mirror he saw over his shoulder his first mother standing there holding a baby, his brother Harry and to the other shoulder he saw his foster family, Clair, Jhon his parents and Madison, Trent, Laura, Ashley, Travis, and even Matt, his brothers, and sisters, and they were all exchanging greetings and shaking the hands of each other.