Mist

Chapter 7. Mist

The trio were in the Room of Requirement.

Tracey and Daphne were duelling each other.

The Room had been very beneficial for them. It had provided almost anything except food.

Though Harry had given them the necklace, they still wanted to be able to defend themselves. Harry had no problem with that. He was happy that his friends were trying to become powerful.

Daphne had a knack for duelling. She was quick and graceful. She had an immense latent magical power. Her power combined with her natural quick movements made her a deadly opponent. She was nowhere near Harry's level, but she could probably defeat any first year in the matter of seconds.

Daphne stepped aside as a stunner passed by her head. She didn't show any emotion, sending back a disarming charm.

Tracey on the other hand was only decently powerful. Her movements were jerky. She wasn't really made for fighting.

She jumped to the side as the disarming charm missed her by a wide margin.

Daphne smirked, casting three stunners at an inhumane speed.

One was directed to Tracey's right side, the other on her left side and the last at her chest.

Tracey panicked, not having anywhere to dodge. At the last second, she dived to the right but was directly in the spell's path.

She fell with a thump.

Harry walked over and kneeled beside her, rennervating her.

Daphne too came to them. It'd been two weeks since they began practising duelling. The room was brilliant in providing them with any necessary texts for that.

"Nice, Daph." Tracey smiled genially.

Harry nodded his head in agreement and gave her a thumbs up.

Daphne brimmed with pride, hearing praises from her best friends.

"You did well, Tracey." The blonde complimented back in an encouraging tone.

Tracey rolled her eyes.

"I sucked. You don't need to sugarcoat it."

"Yes, you sucked." Harry agreed, slipping his arm around her shoulder and helping her up on her feet.

"Harry!" Daphne glared at him while Tracey laughed at his honesty.

"What? It's true. That doesn't mean it is that bad. Not everyone is suited for fighting. And you've to agree, Tracey is the last person who'll ever start a fight. Although I think she's already a decent duellist. She'll be well able to defend herself. It's just that you're a greater dueller, so it looked like she sucked, but she didn't. She can defeat most students in our year. What I really meant was that she sucked in this particular fight against you, but overall, she is a decent duelist." Harry said defensively.

"Is it true that I can beat any first year?" Tracey asked sceptically.

Harry squeezed her shoulders with an encouraging smile.

"Yep. You're not the strongest, but you are not weak either. Now, let's go back to the common room. Curfew is in 30 minutes." he smiled, presenting his other hand to Daphne.

They left the room of requirement hand in hand and started their descent from the seventh floor.

"Have you heard that Jasmine, Hermione and Ron helped Hagrid in smuggling a baby dragon to Ron's brother who works in a dragon reserve?" Tracey asked as they reached the sixth floor.

Harry and Daphne looked at Tracey to see if she was kidding.

She wasn't.

"How was a dragon in Hogwarts in the first place?" Daphne was baffled.

"Don't know. I heard in the common room that Malfoy was aware of the Gryffindors' plan to bring the dragon to the astronomy tower in the night where Ron's brother would be waiting to take the dragon to the reserve. Draco wanted to cause trouble for the Gryffindors so he told Professor McGonagall about them wandering in the castle after curfew. The best part was that he too was punished for roaming the castle in the night. That was a stupid move." she giggled.

Harry shook his head at Draco's foolishness.

The rest of the walk was filled with comfortable silence. Each of them were thinking about the dragon incident.

Harry was relieved that Jasmine wasn't hurt. Hermione too. Though he knew he wouldn't care if Ron was injured. While Jasmine and Hermione weren't his friends, he knew there was a chance that it might change in the future.

He would have made an effort in trying to befriend them if he wasn't so busy with Tracey and Daphne. The three of them were together all the time. He woke up to see their faces first and went to bed seeing them last. He wasn't complaining about that. He was happy how things were going, he was content with how things were.

He didn't need any change. Daphne and Tracey were enough to fulfil his desire of having friends.

They reached their common room's entrance. They stepped inside to find very few Slytherins still up. The trio ignored them all and turned to each other.

"Goodnight, girls." he smiled, embracing them both in turn.

"Goodnight, Harry." Daphne waved.

"Goodnight, Harry. Sleep tight." Tracey smiled lovingly.

With a last parting wave, he entered his room.

~xXxXx~

Tracey was first of the trio to wake up early that day. She was sitting at their usual place in the corner, waiting for Harry and Daphne. She examined the beauty of the common room to pass the time.

The Slytherin common room was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. This dungeon extended part way under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge.

The common room had lots of low backed black and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas and dark wood cupboards. One of the wooden tables had a Wizard's Chess set on it. It was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous mediaeval Slytherins. It had quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one.

Her inspection was cut short when a third year Slytherin came and stood before her. The girl was glaring at her and was muttering to herself. She was a pretty witch with long dark hair and a beautiful oval face with cold grey eyes.

Tracey heard 'halfblood' and 'whore' in the girl's mutterings.

She tried her best not to look intimidated and asked. "Yes?"

"Get lost from here. I want to sit here." she sneered.

Tracey looked around herself uneasily.

"Sorry, but this is my, Harry's and Daphne's place, and there are many unoccupied sofas in the common room. You can sit there." she smiled nervously, pointing towards an empty couch.

"I'm Ella Rowle from the Noble House of Rowle, how can you, a mere half-blood whore, deny me my seat?" she yelled petulantly and took out her wand. She pointed it at Tracey.

"Calm down. If you want to sit then sit with me. I don't mind." Tracey compromised, but had her wand in her hand nonetheless. She wasn't going to go down without a fight even if she was scared of this older girl.

"Stupefy!" Ella growled maliciously.

Tracey quickly dived to her right. The spell faded once it hit the wall.

"Expelliarmus!" Ella yelled, her wand trained at the kneeling figure of Tracey.

"Protego!" she muttered, a blue transparent shield conjuring in front of her. Before Ella could fire another spell, Tracey shot a full body bind spell at her.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Ella Rowle's stiff body landed on the floor with a thump. The few Slytherins who were watching the impromptu duel gave her appraising looks.

Tracey sighed in relief, as she went to the downed Ella Rowle.

"Are you going to throw more spells at me? Blink twice if you won't." Tracey asked.

Ella just glared at her.

Tracey raised her eyebrow.

"Well, then I'll leave you right here." she stated. As she turned to go, Ella anxiously blinked twice. Tracey smiled and cancelled the spell.

Ella stood up and glowered at her.

"You will pay for that." she spat and turned her back on her.

Tracey shrugged and started for her seat. Just as she walked a few steps she heard a calm voice.

"Aqua Eructo."

She quickly turned on her heels and readied herself to erect a shield, but it wasn't needed.

Ella Rowle was again lying on the floor, but in the pool of water this time. She was drenched. Her clothes were wet, her hair was clinging to her face, and her wand was a foot away from her hand.

She was coughing water.

"Hmm, a third year Slytherin trying to hex a first year behind her back. Not even having the courage to do it from the front. How low the house of Rowle has fallen." Daphne droned in a mocking voice, stepping over the damp body of Ella and sitting beside Tracey.

Ella looked murderously at them and picked up her wand.

"Don't even try it, bitch. You don't want to make me your enemy. Do you, Ella Rowle, want to duel me, Daphne Greengrass of the Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass?" she asked, not hiding the amusement and challenge in her voice. Daphne didn't believe in pureblood supremacy, but was proud of her rich heritage. If that title helped her in scaring the brats in Slytherin then she would be glad to flaunt the prestige of her house on their faces.

Ella huffed and went away.

"You should always be on your guard when you are alone, Tracey. Especially when you're around fellow Slytherins." Daphne advised.

Tracey nodded, feeling a little embarrassed that she hadn't considered Ella hexing her from behind.

Just at that moment, Harry entered the room and sat beside her, his arm slung around her shoulder.

"Good morning, Tracey. Good morning, Daph." he greeted them in a cheerful voice. The girls greeted back with amused smiles as he tried to stretch his arm so it was around both Tracey and Daphne's shoulders.

He wasn't successful. His arm was only able to cover Tracey's shoulder and then halfway around Daphne's back.

He gave up, standing up. Then he changed his seat. He wiggled between the girls to make space and placed his arms around the girls' shoulders.

"So why is that spot on the floor wet?" He questioned them when all three were in a comfortable position with Daphne and Tracey both pressed to his sides.

"I just fired a water spell on a third year student who was going to curse Tracey who had her back turned." Daphne informed him in a nonchalant voice.

He looked at Daphne who was sporting a smug look and then he turned his head and looked at Tracey who was looking sheepish.

"So, do I need to plan another murder?" He asked them.

Daphne and Tracey both gave him exasperated looks.

"If we do that then we'll set a bad precedent. We'll have to kill half of the students just because they are rude to us." Tracey explained patiently.

Daphne agreed to her sentiment. They needn't start killing everybody who had a school yard fight with them.

"Jeez, I was just kidding." He smiled, trying to placate them.

"No, you weren't." Both the girl's said, giving him deadpan looks.

Harry grinned, squeezing their shoulders. "Maybe."

They both rolled their eyes at him and tried to suppress the upward quirk of their lips.

~xXxXx~

Harry and the girls were wandering in the castle after their duelling sessions when they came face to face with Jasmine, Hermione and Ron. The six of them stared at each other. Though there wasn't a curfew yet, it was pretty late at night. Only a few minutes were left before curfew began.

"Going somewhere?" Harry asked them almost politely.

He looked at them closely. The three of them seemed frantic and there was an air or urgency around them.

"None of your business, snake!" Ron hissed. Hermione groaned and hit him on his back while Jasmine heaved a long suffering sigh.

"Ron, what did we tell you about not all Slytherins being evil or all Slytherins being Malfoy?" Jasmine asked him with narrowed eyes.

"That they are not?" he said reluctantly.

Harry was amused at their antics. He wasn't really offended by being called a snake. They were interesting creatures. They possessed beauty, intelligence and ruthlessness. Hell! He had even read about a snake which could kill their targets by just looking at them and was the most venomous snake on the planet. Harry too could kill most weak creatures with just his thought, there were definite similarities between him and a basilisk.

He took that as a compliment. And the comment about him being evil wasn't that far-fetched. Harry knew he wasn't morally good, but still didn't consider himself evil. He knew that the others would or could consider him as an evil person.

Whatever, he didn't care that much about Ron's or anyone's opinion. If they thought he was evil then he was evil.

"This is entertaining to watch, but curfew is only a few minutes away. So, excuse us." Daphne said in an overly sweet tone and tugged at his arm to start walking.

Daphne had changed her attitude. Before she had an emotionless mask and never showed her true emotions. Now, she didn't let any chance of being sassy go to waste. She mocked anyone when she saw a chance.

Maybe she was finally confident in Harry's protection or maybe she was confident in her duelling, whatever the case, it made her so fun to be around.

Harry grinned and followed her, taking hold of Tracey's arm and dragging her along with them. Tracey sent an apologetic smile to the Gryffindors, not going unnoticed by him.

He was glad that he was there for Tracey otherwise she would have been destroyed in Slytherin. Tracey was just too good for Slytherin. She was a real sweetheart. She lacked the viciousness and the ruthlessness. Harry was pretty sure that Daphne was the only reason she was in the house of the snakes.

"Wait! We need your help." Jasmine yelled, stopping the trio in their tracks. The Slytherins turned around and stared at them.

Hermione and Ron were giving Jasmine disbelieving looks.

"You can't reveal the secret to them." Ron protested. Hermione for once was agreeing with him.

"We need them. They're some of the best students in the first year. We should get all the help we can." Jasmine tried to rationalise.

Harry shared glances with Tracey and Daphne.

"We'll help. We're pretty bored and have nothing else to do. But what are we helping you in?" Harry asked.

"We need to save the Philosopher's Stone and make sure it doesn't fall in Professor Snape's hand." Jasmine said hastily. Hermione and Ron groaned as the secret was out.

"The one which grants immortality and turns anything into gold?" Harry asked sceptically, ignoring the mention of Snape.

Harry knew Snape was one of the most unpleasant people to be around, but he had a gut feeling that the man wasn't after the stone.

"Yes. That is the one. Are you going to help us?" She asked. Harry looked at Daphne and Tracey who clearly didn't believe a word.

"You both go back to Slytherin dorms. I'll come after seeing what this fuss is about." He told them.

They both shook their heads.

"We're not leaving you alone." They both said at the same time.

"Do you doubt my capabilities? I'll be fine, but if you're both in danger then I won't be able to concentrate on the problem." He tried to reason with them.

They remained adamant and refused to leave him.

"Just take them. We don't have time to waste." Ron interrupted impatiently.

Harry glared at the ginger haired boy, but nodded to Daphne and Tracey, who both had victorious smiles on their faces.

"Lead us wherever this Stone is?" he said to the Gryffindors.

~xXxXx~

The six of them were standing in front of a wooden door on the third floor.

"Isn't this the place which'll grant painful death according to the Headmaster's warning?" Tracey asked.

"Yes." Jasmine said and opened the door with a spell.

There was a gigantic black three headed dog sleeping inside it. An enchanted harp was playing a melodic tune.

"Whoa!" The Slytherins were surprised.

They didn't have enough time to marvel at the huge cerberus though as the Gryffindors moved its paw to reveal a trapdoor.

"What's down there?" Daphne asked, peering at the darkness.

The Gryffindors shrugged.

"Don't know. We just have to jump down." Jasmine said, preparing to jump. Harry instantly grabbed her hand and shot her a glare.

"Stop! Let me see what is down here?" He spoke, kneeling on the floor and casting a lumos charm in the trapdoor. There was a bed of tangled vines halfway from the floor. They started converging around the edges to avoid the light.

He stopped his light charm and stood up.

"There's a devil snare halfway down from here. It's likely there to soften our landing. Now you can jump, but don't panic when the plant starts creeping around your body. If you remain still, the plant will let you go." he revealed to them.

Jasmine nodded and jumped down, followed by Hermione and Ron. Harry turned to look at his best friends. Daphne was looking eager while Tracey seemed nervous.

"It is the last chance. You can go back." He tried to see if they were having second thoughts. The girls disagreed and quickly went down the trapdoor. Harry sighed and also jumped.

He landed as expected on a soft plant. His legs and hands were quickly wrapped by tentacles. He remained stiff and didn't move. Slowly, the tentacles gave way and he landed on his feet in a dark chamber. His eyes roamed all over the room.

It wasn't totally dark but wasn't lit either. There was a door on the opposite wall. The Gryffindors were already walking towards it. Tracey and Daphne were waiting for him. He quickly joined them.

"Are you both alright?" He asked, he looked at them in concern.

They nodded and pointed at the door. The Gryffindors were already on the other side. He stepped in front of Tracey and Daphne and started walking, closely followed by the girls.

"Whatever happens, stay behind me." He said without looking back at them.

Tracey was fine with it while Daphne narrowed her eyes at his back.

Sure, he was the most powerful wizard, but Daphne was confident enough that she could take care of herself. She didn't voice her thoughts though. There was no need to start a silly quarrel at the moment.

They crossed the door.

A downwards sloping passage with stone walls, through which trickling water could be heard, led to a brilliantly lit chamber with a very high ceiling, full of glittering winged keys. On the opposite end of the chamber, from the stone passage was a large, old-fashioned wooden door with a silver lock. There was a broom hovering in one corner. The Gryffindors were already standing in front of the huge door.

The Slytherins went to them.

"So what is this?" Daphne asked.

Harry and Tracey were examining the huge room.

"We don't know. We're also here for the first time. I think we've to catch the right key to pass through that door. Maybe the alohomora charm would work instead?" Hermione said thoughtfully, applying the charm.

It didn't work.

"We have to catch the key." Jasmine said tiredly.

The Slytherins were exchanging smiles as they knew many ways to open the door.

"Let me try something?" Daphne spoke up, pointing her wand at the ceiling.

"Accio the correct key!" She yelled, but nothing happened. Daphne scowled at the keys.

"What was that?" Ron asked dubiously.

"Summoning charm." Tracey answered.

"Of course it wouldn't work. That charm is taught during fourth year." Hermione said condescendingly.

Daphne glared at her.

"Accio broom!" She said pointing at the broom. The broom shot towards them, she quickly grabbed it out of the air and smirked at the Gryffindors who were gaping at her.

"I know the charm, but the problem is that the keys are charmed against summoning."

"But, but, how?" Hermione sputtered.

"Practice." Daphne smirked again.

Harry and Tracey just shook their heads at her.

"If you're done showing off, let's break this door." Harry said.

"We will cast our strongest bludgeoning hex together." he ordered and pointed his wand at the door. Tracey and Daphne followed his example and pointed their wands at the wooden door.

"Destruam!" they yelled together, three yellow spells hit the door with a loud boom. There was a creaking voice and the door split in many parts.

The Gryffindors were looking at the huge hole in the door with awe. They looked back at the Slytherins who were going through that hole.

"They're insane." Ron mumbled.

"And scary." Hermione added.

Jasmine just nodded, doubting her decision to ask them for help. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake in trusting Harry.

They nodded at each other and passed through the hole. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were white pieces — the towering white chessmen had no faces. The Slytherins were looking at the human sized chess pieces.

"Do we have to play to go to the other side?" Tracey asked.

"It seems so." Harry replied.

"Who is good at chess?" he asked out loud.

"Ron's very good at chess. He hasn't been beaten yet by anyone in chess." Jasmine praised Ron who looked embarrassed and proud at the same time.

Hermione nodded.

Harry didn't say anything, but just stared at the chess pieces. His gaze was locked on the king on the other side.

"Take a step back. I'm going to do something stupid." He grinned, aiming at the white king.

"What're you doing?" Hermione yelled but stepped back. Ron and Jasmine wanted to stop him, but didn't want to be at his wand point.

"Destruam!" he mumbled.

The yellow jet of light struck the white king, destroying it completely. Suddenly, all the white chess pieces kneeled and gave way to the door which was open.

"We didn't need to play after all." Daphne laughed.

Ron was a little angry, he could have easily won the game, but the Slytherins just wanted to destroy everything. He thought Slytherins were supposed to use their brain and be cunning instead of being all brawn. It seemed he was wrong.

They passed through the chessboard and then through the door. The next chamber was filled with a foul odour.

"A dead troll. We need to be careful, now we at least know that our opponent is strong enough to kill a gigantic troll." Harry suggested.

Daphne was fuming. How she wished that the troll was alive so she could have her revenge.

Harry exchanged worried glances with Tracey. She took Daphne's hand and led her through the door on the opposite wall. The Gryffindors followed behind them nervously.

After nearing the chamber, the entrance was quickly blocked by purple flames, whilst the exit was covered by black flames.

A table holding seven unlabelled potion bottles of differing shapes and sizes sat in the centre of the room, with a logical riddle. Three were poison, two contained nettle wine, one contained a potion to safely traverse the black flame, and the last contained a potion that allowed passage back through the purple flames. The riddle, when properly worked out, revealed the contents of each bottle, and therefore which one was safe to drink to allow onward progress.

"A riddle? I can solve it in a minute." Hermione said brightly, picking up the parchment.

Harry rolled his eyes and cast a flame freezing charm and passed through the door. Daphne winked at Hermione and was fast on Harry's heels. Tracey shrugged apologetically and passed through the flames.

The Gryffindors looked at each other.

"I don't know why we're even here? They obviously don't need us." Hermione muttered angrily.

"Let's just go." Jasmine said and went through the flames followed by Hermione and Ron.

~xXxXx~

The six of them were looking down at Professor Quirrell who was standing beside a big ornate mirror. This chamber was circular with the mirror at its centre.

"Harry Potter! I was expecting you alone, not with all of your friends. I wanted to meet you for a long time." he said without his usual stutter.

"Why do I've a feeling that it's not about my autograph?" Harry said, descending down the stairs to meet the Professor. He glanced at his friends and then at the Gryffindors signalling them to be on their guard.

"No, my master just wanted to meet you." Quirrell said slyly, ignoring his joke. Harry narrowed his eyes as he stopped in front of him.

"And who is your master?" He asked.

"Worry not, you will meet him soon, but before that I want to ask you to step in front of the mirror and describe what you see." he said.

"What if I don't?" Harry smirked.

Quirrell's eyes hardened as he pointed his wand at Tracey and summoned her. Tracey yelped as she flew through the air and landed on her butt in front of them.

"I will kill her if you don't." he said back coldly.

"Right. I'll do as you say, but if a single scratch appears on her, I'll kill you and not quickly, it'll be a long arduous process." Harry grinned maniacally and stepped in front of the mirror.

The Gryffindors who were watching them with fear and confusion thought that he was bluffing, but Tracey and Daphne saw the rage in his eyes. They were witnessing his hungry vicious grin instead of his smile.

Harry could have killed Quirrell at any moment, but he was interested to see what all this was about. He stared at the mirror.

He instinctively took a step forward when he saw something amazing in the mirror.

There was a handsome man with dark hair falling on his forehead, his emerald eyes were glowing with power. He was sitting on a gorgeous black throne. Harry gasped as he realised who the man was, an older version of Harry himself.

Sitting on his thrones' armrests were two extremely beautiful women. One had beautiful brunette hair and warm hazel eyes, the other had long blonde curls and dark eyes filled with mischief.

They were definitely the older versions of Tracey and Daphne. A small genuine smile crept over his lips. Kneeling beside the throne was a woman with darkest eyes and onyx hair. She had the palest skin Harry had ever seen or imagined. Harry grinned when he understood what she/it was.

Death was kneeling beside him and his best friends. The mirror Harry grinned and took something out of his pocket, it was a fist sized red stone. Mirror Harry winked at the real Harry and pocketed back the red stone.

Harry felt a weight settling in his real pocket.

"What do you see?" Quirrell asked when he thought Harry had used enough time staring at the mirror.

Harry reluctantly moved away from the mirror and looked at Quirrell.

"I see my older version passionately making out with the Runes teacher, Professor Babbling." He said with a straight face.

There was a complete silence as the others digested his words.

The Gryffindors looked scandalised. Daphne was trying to suppress her laughter. Even Tracey was chuckling in front of him and Quirrell.

"What? She is so sexy. Don't look at me like I'm a creep or something." Harry smiled innocently.

"Enough! The boy is getting on my nerves. Let me deal with him." a raspy voice said from somewhere.

"But master, you are not strong yet." Quirrell said nervously.

"My strength is enough for these children" the voice roared with anger.

Harry was standing beside Tracey. He slipped his arm around her waist and helped her to her feet.

"Go." he whispered.

She nodded and ran up to where the others were standing. Harry peered at Quirrell who was removing his turban. When the turban was removed, Quirrell turned 180.

Harry stepped back as he saw a disfigured face sticking out from Quirrell's head.

"Harry Potter." it whispered.

"See what I have become?" The face said. "Mere shadow and vapour… I have form only when I can share another's body but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past few weeks faithful Quirrell drank it for me in the forest… And once I have the... Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own. Now… why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

"Nope." Harry said flippantly, trying to understand what this face was.

"Don't be a fool." the face snarled. "Better save your own life and join me... Or you'll meet the same end as your parents… They died begging me for mercy…"

Harry's eyes widened as he joined the dots and understood who the face was.

"Voldemort?" He asked.

"Yes, I am Lord Voldemort. Give me the Stone and I will not kill you." Voldemort said in a raspy voice.

Tracey and Daphne's loud gasp reached his ear. Ron was shrieking like a girl, Jasmine and Hermione were frozen with fear. Harry couldn't believe his luck.

He just stared at the ugly face and then he started laughing.

A full belly laugh.

"What is so funny?" Voldemort asked him in a cold tone.

After finished with his laugh, Harry removed the stone from his pocket and threw it on the floor where it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Voldemort screamed in fury as he saw the stone thrown at the floor.

"The Stone is fake. Did you really think that Dumbledore would bring the real Philosopher's Stone to school? It was a trap. Though I hope you return with a full functional body soon so I can have my revenge. Unfortunately we are both disappointed," Harry said in a faux sympathy. "until then goodbye."

Harry left the dumbstruck Voldemort and climbed the stairs and joined his friends. He suddenly turned on his heels and looked back at Voldemort.

"Hey! I forgot to give you something." Harry said in a cheerful voice and pointed his wand at Voldemort. "Reducto!"

Voldemort didn't have time to react and the spell hit his chest, leaving a gaping hole where his heart should have been.

The Gryffindors screamed, seeing blood and gore erupting from Voldemort's chest.

Quirrell's body spasmed for a few seconds and then stilled. There was a swirling of dark shadows above Quirrell's body which was screaming, it shot at Harry but he used the shield charm. The shadow bounced back from the shield and then disappeared.

Daphne and Tracey pulled Harry into a tight hug when they were sure everything was over.

"I'm okay." Harry smiled and squeezed their waists.

"You just killed a professor." Hermione yelled, hyperventilating.

Harry sighed and buried his face further in Daphne's neck, as he started releasing his purple mist.

"Start walking to the chamber from where we began." he commanded.

The Gryffindors backed away as they saw the purple mist suddenly filling the room. They couldn't do anything as the mist clung to their bodies. Their eyes became vacant.

They started walking back towards the door.

Harry led them back to the starting chamber. Harry put his arms around Jasmine and Hermione's waists. He released his magic. The golden mist. The mist covered their bodies. Slowly they started hovering and then shot past the trapdoor and landed in the room. Harry repeated this process with everybody. They all were standing in the room with the cerberus. The gigantic dog was still sleeping. Harry led them outside and locked the door.

"You'll go back to your common room and won't remember anything about tonight. Tomorrow morning the spell will be over. Go." he said. The Gryffindors followed his orders and walked away. He didn't notice Jasmine's eyes flickering to gold as she went away.

"Was that the right thing to do?" Tracey asked, staring solemnly at the retreating figure of Gryffindors.

"Nope, but I never said that I won't do bad things. Here, it was necessary for me to mess with their minds so I did. I didn't plan to do that, but hearing Hermione's angered voice made it necessary. She'd have directly gone to a professor and would have told them that I killed Quirrell." Harry replied and started walking.

Daphne shrugged at Tracey and followed him. She wasn't feeling bad for what happened. If Harry thought it was necessary then it was necessary.

Tracey sighed and went after her friends.

'It wasn't that bad. Harry could have killed them to save himself, but he didn't. I am just worrying too much.' she thought to herself.