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Obstacle Course
After the last exams, Harry and his friends were planning a kind of celebratory prank. They had already discussed doing one and it would hit all students and the teachers this time. The group of four was sitting in an abandoned classroom fine-tuning their ideas. Fred and George would take care of placing the potion they would use into the food. The house elves normally didn't hinder them at all, as long as the prank was harmless. And they made sure to not hurt anybody. Harry and Cedric would place the trigger charms on all the seats in the Great Hall. It would take a long time to get everything done, but they would manage. Thanks to their planning, they returned late to their common rooms. Harry wanted to finish a letter to his parents, so the twins went up to their dorm alone. Harry didn't really notice that his brother and his friends were subdued and sitting in a corner. They also didn't notice him for that matter. He had chosen a table in a far corner of the room where he wouldn't be easily spotted.
The one thing he noticed was the sound of the portrait opening at half past eleven, way past curfew for all students, even the seventh years. He looked up and saw it close. He decided to investigate and followed the ones that had left. Something wasn't right here. Normally, the only ones out of beds after curfew were he and his friends and that only with the assistance of the invisibility cloak or disillusionment charms, which they had managed to perfect just this year. He took the cloak out of his pocket and put it on. A few charms to mask his scent and silence his feet and he was on his way. Thankfully he was the one keeping the Marauder's Map tonight. Normally, the twins had it, but he had wanted to look up a few passages for him and Cedric to use for their prank. He activated it and growled lowly seeing that the ones outside the common room were his brother and his group of friends.
How stupid were they? They were clearly on their way to the third-floor corridor. He thought he had made it abundantly clear that they shouldn't get close there. He was sure that Dumbledore had set it up as a test for Aaron. Why did they do that? Something was fishy. Aaron would normally have come to him with any problem or information he was worried about. Harry quickly used a few secret passages to get to the third floor. He watched as the group opened the door. He heard music play. So, whoever was after the stone had used the dragon egg and a drunk Hagrid to get the information how to get past Fluffy. Harry knew the dog, had actually played with it when it had been a puppy. He heard soft voices and a heavy door being opened.
Then the music suddenly stopped and after some seconds he heard barks. He quickly went forward. Fluffy was seemingly snapping at somebody who had jumped through the trap-door. Well, only one way to go after them. Harry started singing. Not many knew it, but Harry had inherited the gift of voice magic from his great-grandmother Undine Potter nee Zukis, a Greek witch whom his great-grandfather Hadrian had fallen in love with during an expedition for rare plants. His great-grandfather had been a Herbology and Potions master and had travelled the world to find high quality ingredients for his potions. He had developed at least fifteen new potions in his time. Harry's great-grandmother had been the great-granddaughter of a full-blooded siren and inherited her ability to charm people and creatures with her beautiful voice.
Now Harry lulled Fluffy to sleep and went after his brother and his friends down the trap door. He levitated himself down to not be caught in whatever trap there might be. He quickly saw what the matter was. He heard Neville say something about Devil's Snare. Really, while the plant was dangerous, there were easy counters and Neville was already performing one of them by conjuring fire using the incendio charm. He landed near the door of the room. He had one look at the three and noticed that they had an absent look on their faces. That looked like a confundus charm. He took off his invisibility cloak and hit them all with a finite incantatem charm.
They blinked and looked at him confused.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" Aaron asked.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that, Aaron? I thought we had agreed upon you not going anywhere near this corridor. It is clearly a set-up, probably by Professor Dumbledore to test you. The first two obstacles were way too easy to get past. Really, Devil's Snare and Fluffy? Every idiot can look up that a Cerberus is weak to music and the plant is part of the first-year curriculum," Harry commented.
"Uh, I don't really know why, but it seemed really important that we came here. We tried telling Professor McGonagall that the Stone was in danger, but she didn't believe us. And after Ron told us what he and Malfoy had seen in the Forbidden Forest during their detention with Hagrid, we were worried that Voldemort was trying to get the stone to come back," Aaron explained.
"That's right. Aaron realised that Hagrid had slipped up while being drunk on how you could get past Fluffy using music, when he thought how strange it was that somebody baited Hagrid with a dragon egg while they are illegal to have," Hermione added.
"We think that Snape is using the fact that Professor Dumbledore is away tonight to have a go at the stone," Neville finished.
"Urgh. You have really been hit hard with the confundus charm. First, Snape isn't the culprit, it's probably Quirrell," Harry stated to the complete disbelief of the three first-years, "Sure, Snape is an arse, no question there, and a bully on top, but he was a spy for the light in the last war. Snape's whole freedom depends on staying under Dumbledore's protection. And face it; he would probably be capable enough to create his own Philosopher's Stone if he invested a few years into learning Alchemy, as it is based on Potions. Snape is a genius on par with Mum; he only is a miserable git that has no patience to teach properly. That train of thought is a dead end. With him having 'betrayed' Voldemort, he wouldn't be the one he would approach, not to mention that Snape is under constant watch and couldn't have managed to help him, even if all of his actions were a trick," Harry explained.
His parents had explained Snape's role in the war to him last summer to be aware of things when Aaron went to Hogwarts.
"Quirrell is as fake as he can be. You couldn't notice that, as you haven't seen him before, but his stutter is made up. It just disguises his threat level. He looks different than when he was still the Muggle Studies teacher. Why he would help Voldemort I don't know, but Uncle Sirius is already investigating that part," He explained.
"Uncle Sirius is involved?" Aaron asked surprised.
"I keep Mum and Dad informed on what goes on at school regularly and they forward all relevant parts to Uncle Sirius. As head auror he has way more possibilities to investigate things than we have. They have known that something is up since the first day of school, when Dumbledore gave that warning," Harry informed the three.
"So, what are we going to do now? The harp proves that somebody is after the stone," Hermione asked.
Harry pondered the argument. It was valid, but he wouldn't want three first-years to be in that much danger.
"We can't allow anybody to get the stone and give it to Voldemort!" Aaron insisted.
"I know that. But we are in over our heads here. Especially you three. You have only one year of real magical training. I wonder why Professor McGonagall didn't act on your warning, but I will bring that up later with Uncle Sirius. What we need here is backup," Harry concentrated and then whispered into his wand, "Expecto Patronum."
From the tip of his wand a silver-white owl appeared that looked a lot like Hedwig. It soared upwards and back through the trapdoor.
"Alright, that patronus will alarm Uncle Sirius to send a group of aurors to help with the threat. What we will do is see what the next obstacle is and then I will decide how we proceed. It's not the smartest idea to stay in a room with Devil's Snare," Harry told them, "You will listen to my instructions without hesitation. This is no game, this is very serious. I don't know why you thought you had a chance against an adult wizard, least of all Snape, but I will blame the confundus charm for that. The most we will probably be able to do is stalling Quirrell until help arrives. I will leave notes for those coming after us to know what to do for whatever obstacle we face."
Harry proceeded making a small note, which he formed into a paper plane, for Fluffy, which he sent up through the trapdoor. Then he left another paper plane hovering above the Devil's Snare. His uncle would know to simply summon them to get the information. There was no need to hide their trail after all.
"The next part is that I will disillusion you all. That way you aren't as easy a target as you are now. The charm will let you blend in with your surroundings, so as long as you don't make too much noise you will not be noticed," Harry told them and tapped each onto the head with his wand while saying the incantation.
"Alright, I will go through the door first and you will slowly follow me when I give you the all clear," Harry instructed and opened the door.
So far there didn't seem to anything dangerous in there. He walked forward and looked around. He waved the three first-years inside. Over them something was fluttering. Harry quickly identified it as keys with wings. He saw that there was another door in the room, for which he would probably need one of the keys. He walked a few steps forward, but the keys didn't react. So they weren't charmed to go after intruders. That helped. He inspected the lock and got an idea how the key had to look like.
"Really, that's far too easy. If I hadn't been convinced that this was a test for you, Aaron, I would be now," Harry commented.
"Why?" Aaron asked.
"Because you only have to hunt down a very distinctive key to fit into this lock. There is no charm on the brooms over there to hinder you, the keys aren't attacking automatically and any fourth-year could solve this even easier than that," Harry answered, "Accio old bronze key."
A certain key struggled in the air, but was forced down towards Harry. The key had a bended wing already. Harry caught it and put it into the lock. He turned it and opened the door. He pinned the key to the wall with a sticking charm and left another note. At this rate, they would be at the stone before the backup could be here.
The next room was revealed to be a giant chess board. Harry had to shake his head. This whole set-up screamed test and manipulation. Fluffy could be bypassed by getting Hagrid to slip up, which wasn't difficult at all, then the Devil's Snare, which was easy for a Herbology prodigy like Neville, the flying keys, the Potters had always been great flyers and now a chess set, which indicated why Ron Weasley had constantly annoyed Aaron to become his friend. Chess was about the only thing Ron was good at. And it wasn't even necessary to solve this part. Harry simply levitated one of the younger ones after the other over the chess set and then repeated the process on himself. Really, these tasks were too easy for somebody who had only a few years of magical education.
Harry left another paper plane, hoping that his uncle would come soon. If they continued at this rate, the stone would be in Quirrell's hands before they could stall him any. What the hell was Dumbledore thinking, making the obstacles this easy?
The next room held a knocked-out troll, this one even larger than the one on Halloween, Hermione seemed to remember that one as well.
"There you have your proof that Quirrell is our culprit. This is his obstacle, so it is easy to deduct that he let the troll in on Halloween to cause a distraction to be able to get the stone," Harry said shaking his head.
The younger ones were silent. They hadn't really believed Harry before, but this was hard to deny. The next room was interesting. As soon as they entered, purple fire erupted behind them and black fire in front of them, blocking both exits of the room. In the middle stood a row of bottles on a table with a piece of parchment lying next to them. Harry walked over and read what was written on it. He grinned. This would surely stump a lot of wizards, but not him. It paid off to have a genius muggleborn mother. He quickly puzzled the clues out.
"Hm, the smallest bottle lets you go through the black flames, this one," he pointed at it, "lets you go through the purple flames and back to the room with the troll. I think it is safe to say that this room is the safest we can get for now. I will take the poison bottles, in case I can use them in a fight. I may be able to poison Quirrell to weaken him. Now the content of the bottle isn't enough for all of us to go forward and we still have no sign from the back-up I called. That is troubling. We have been here for about fifteen minutes now and with my instructions Uncle Sirius should at least already be past the devil's snare, but we can't hear anything," Harry pondered. If only he knew what was going on at the surface.
Sirius was furiously arguing with McGonagall about the call for help that Harry had sent. They were wasting time with her arguing that the stone was well-protected and that it had to be a mistake.
"Now listen to me, Minerva. Harry doesn't send off patronus messengers without a damn good reason. He is mature enough to not play pranks on things this serious. I have known that Dumbledore keeps a Philosopher's Stone here at the school as bait for months, but I didn't act, because Harry promised to keep the students safe. And, so far, that worked, but somebody put a bloody confundus charm on Aaron and his friends to make them go down there. I will go and help my godson and if I need to stun you to do so, I will," Sirius promised glaring at her.
"You don't want me to believe that ridiculous tale, Sirius? Even during your time at school your excuses for making trouble were better," McGonagall scoffed, only to be hit with a stunner.
"Dawlish, make sure she is comfortable. Levitate her to her office or the hospital wing, I don't care. The rest follow me, we are going to help the kids," Sirius commanded with all the authority coming from his position. He only hoped that they would be in time.
Harry stared down Quirrell. He had dodged a charm that would have bound him with ropes. Quirrell was busy gloating that Voldemort would come back with his help and that he would be rewarded beyond all imagination. Brainwashed, Harry deduced.
Aaron, who had come with him into the room, was trying to keep hidden as well as he could, edging closer to the mirror that stood in the middle of the room. The stone was inside the mirror, but so far Quirrell hadn't managed to get it out. Perhaps if he was faster, he could get the stone and keep it safe. After all, Quirrell was concentrating on Harry and didn't know that he was there. Aaron looked into the mirror. The one thing that was on his mind was finding the stone and protecting it from Quirrell. To his surprise his reflection winked at him and pulled the stone out of his pocket. Then he placed it inside again and Aaron could feel the weight in his pocket.
Harry was now duelling Quirrell seriously. If the bastard thought it would be easy to defeat him, he had another thing coming. Harry wasn't at the level most other fourth-years were. He had got excellent training in duelling from the best teachers his parents could find, Uncle Sirius, Uncle Remus, Mad-Eye Moody and his parents themselves. After all, they had faced Voldemort himself several times and had lived to tell the tale. And if you thought about the level the fourth-years were at, thanks to lousy teachers, Harry was more like a NEWT graduate. He could go toe-to-toe with rookie aurors already and win, because he was better than them. Only the personal apprentices of veteran aurors would be a challenge for him.
Each summer, Christmas and Easter break he would train four hours each day learning advanced magic far beyond what his classmates would learn at Hogwarts. His parents knew that Voldemort wasn't truly gone. Hence why, they did all they could to ensure that their children wouldn't be easy targets.
Spell over spell Harry threw at Quirrell, not giving him any reprieve. Harry would never let him help Voldemort getting a body back. Suddenly Quirrell grabbed his head and Harry used that to stun him and bind him in ropes. Something was wrong. That had been too easy. And Harry was proven right. A black cloud-like wraith emerged from the fallen form of Quirrell.
"Again, you stop me, Harry Potter. Like your pesky grandmother nearly eleven years ago," Voldemort sneered, "I will not forget your continued interference with my plans."
"I will do all I can to protect my family and friends from the likes of you, Voldemort," Harry declared.
Aaron wondered what Voldemort meant with saying Harry had interfered before.
"You are a danger, Harry Potter, and I will deal with you soon. While you aren't the one who banished me from my body, it was your power that enabled your little brother to survive my curse. Don't think I forgot it!" Voldemort exclaimed hatefully.
"And I will do so again and again until you are truly dead and believe me, I will find a way!" Harry promised fiercely.
Aaron was shocked seeing the power surrounding his brother. He knew that Harry was powerful, but not this much. And Harry's power had been what had ensured that he survived the killing curse? What was going on? He saw that Voldemort's wraith was trying to attack Harry, but something stopped him, a kind of shield of pure white energy.
"You couldn't get past my shield when I was four, what makes you think you could do so once I was fourteen?" Harry asked his eyes glowing with power.
"The last word hasn't been spoken, Harry Potter, I will be back!" Voldemort promised and shot through the door, and finally Aaron heard the aurors arriving, shouting and shooting spells at the wraith probably.
"Harry? What did you talk about?" Aaron asked confused.
Harry sighed. It was probably time to confess a few things to his brother.
"The story you know about that Halloween night in 1981 isn't complete, Aaron. I knew the moment that Dumbledore asked me what exactly happened, when I awoke the next day, that I couldn't trust him, so I kept some things for me until I could tell Mum and Dad, when we were alone with them again. That was when we moved to Potter Manor. Grandma gave both of us a certain protection. Though each of us got a different one. You got the pure protection of her sacrifice that she willingly died to protect your life, refusing to step out of harms' way. I got the power of the protector. While I have a small part of the protection against Voldemort that you have, I also got something else.
"Grandma made me your guardian angel in a way. She said she was sure that Voldemort would one day find a way to overcome what she did for you and then you would need somebody who could protect you. She knew that the prophecy meant you; she could see things others couldn't. I think Jasmine has inherited a bit of that ability with how she often looks at me. To make sure that you could one day fulfil the burden that destiny placed on your shoulders, you needed to have someone who could help you and protect you until you were ready. That someone is me. It was easy to give me that position, as I already had always looked out for you.
"You are my little brother and our parents always stressed that family needed to hold together. 'Family over all' is the Potter family motto. Grandma, in the time that Grandpa bought with his furious fight against Voldemort, placed runes on both of us and used an ancient spell that Mum and Dad couldn't figure out to this day. When Voldemort fired his killing curse at you, because he wanted to see me suffer over your death, I called upon all my power and it created a powerful white shield around you. Your own magic reacted and joined mine and you returned the curse to Voldemort.
"There was a small cloud of black smoke that tried to get close to you, but my shield prevented it. It also stopped the smoke from going into me, which it tried next. It then dissolved into nothing when it didn't find a living host. I don't know anything after that, because I fell unconscious from magical exhaustion. Next thing I knew was Dumbledore trying to pry information from me. He clearly didn't care for my state of mind, that I had just seen Voldemort kill grandma in front of me and his attempt to kill you. That's why I immediately disliked him back then. It didn't change any since I started Hogwarts. I don't think he is truly evil, but he has his own agenda and it isn't to my advantage. Neither to yours, which is why Mum and Dad kept you from him while you grew up," Harry ended his lengthy explanation and saw that his Uncle Sirius finally had arrived.
"Harry, Aaron, I'm so glad that you two are okay," Sirius exclaimed.
"Hi, Uncle Sirius. Glad to see you came, though you are really late," Harry commented.
"Blasted Professor McGonagall didn't want to let us through. I had to stun her to get here at all. The notes were good thinking, they saved us a lot of time. But now tell me what you were doing here," Sirius ordered, looking at Quirrell.
"Well, it started with me noticing that somebody had left Gryffindor tower after curfew," Harry started the story and with a few additions from Aaron Sirius got the whole story.
He was furious hearing that four students had gone through the obstacles that easily and even more that Aaron had managed to get the Philosopher's Stone from the mirror that easily. He was livid when he found out what the mirror really was.
"What the hell is a dark artefact like that doing under a school full of children? The Mirror of Erised has killed dozens of witches and wizards in its history!" Sirius ranted.
"That's the Mirror of Erised?" Harry asked shocked, "I thought it had been destroyed in 1899 in that fire."
"I thought so too, but the inscription is clear. I will have some serious words with Dumbledore about this. We sadly won't be able to tell who put Aaron and his friends under the confundus charm, it's been too long, but I will also mention it in my discussion about security here at school. Though I think calling your parents for that would be even better," Sirius said grinning.
"You only want to see Mum laying into the headmaster again," Harry stated smirking.
"Can you think of anybody who would scare him more?" Sirius asked back.
"Not really and he definitely deserves it, but you should invite the other four teachers that helped with the defences. Flitwick, Snape, Sprout and McGonagall. The obstacles were way too easy to overcome. Not to mention that three first-years could have got through this mess easily with investing a bit of time," Harry pointed out.
"Good idea, Harry. I will do so. Get the three others back to Gryffindor Tower. I will tell you in the morning how it went," Sirius promised and Harry nodded, leading Aaron out of the room with the mirror.
They met Neville and Hermione in the room with the potions, the fires had been dealt with by the aurors already, and they went back to the tower to get some sleep.
Okay, only one chapter more to go. Till tomorrow.