A/n: So I decided to keep it as one chapter. That means there's only one chapter left until we reach book two! (Sorry for slightly late update - I started watching Spiderman and kinda lost track of time...)

The rest of the way to the trapdoor was tense, but no real dangers were presented. Nobody walked the corridors so late at night, and even if they did, Harry had ample experience in midnight wandering to evade capture. The invisibility cloak did its job in helping to hide them too, though the few moments where it slipped were less than ideal.

Finally, the six reached the trapdoor. There was already a harp in place, charmed to play music.

"Snape's already here..." Harry realised grimly, walking over and opening the trapdoor.

There was no light down there, and no way to see where the bottom was. The harp's song slowed as it reached the end of the piece.

"This music won't be playing forever..." Ash said, turning his cap around with a determined look on his face. He picked Pikachu off his shoulder and jumped down while holding him.

The rest soon followed, each slipping through the door. Everyone landed safely, their fall cushioned by what was revealed to be a plant after Cilan cast a quick lumos.

"Wow, lucky this thing was here!" said Ron, looking at the plant gratefully. Hermione didn't seem so sure about that, looking intently at the green surrounding her. Suddenly she gasped, realising what exactly they'd all landed in.

"It's Devil's Snare!" she warned them. "This plant could kill you if you're not careful!"

Immediately the group began to panic, trying to get the plant off them. This only seemed to make it worse, as its leaves started to move, constricting them all. Pikachu jumped out of Ash's arms at his trainer's command, bouncing up to the relative safety of his cap.

Hermione was the only one that didn't react. She stayed perfectly still and sunk quickly through the plant. Harry and Ron called out to her as she disappeared, but relaxed once they saw her land unsteadily below them.

"You need to relax!" she advised, managing to stay upright and looking up to watch as they all struggled fruitlessly. She wracked her brain for a way to get them out.

"Easy for you to say!" snapped Ron, who was, if anything, fighting the restrictive tendrils with even more vigour now that Hermione had managed to escape.

"It hates sunlight! We need fire!" she realised. "How am I going to get fire - I haven't got any matches!" She started to panic, unable to think of a way to make fire down there.

"You want fire, you got fire!" Ash shouted, releasing Charizard, who promptly used flamethower on the plant. It set alight, burning away. The tendrils that once gripped them retreated, dropping the group to the floor.

"Great, genius. Now it's on fire!" Iris complained, looking as the burning leaves started to collapse in on themselves, "It'll land on us at this rate!"

Ash sighed, returning Charizard and calling out Oshawott. The pokemon dutifully put out the fire as soon as he noticed it, bowing as he finished putting out the last of the flames.

"Thanks, Oshawott. Return." Ash retracted the pokemon in a beam of red light and the group carried on moving forwards.

The next room they came across was much more spacious than the first. It was much lighter, illuminated by a glow that started so high up in the ceiling that its source wasn't visible. A few winged objects floated lazily around the arches above them, feathers fluttering every so often to keep them aloft.

"Hey, there's the door!" Ash noticed, bounding over to the exit excitedly. He grabbed the handle and was surprised to find that it was locked. He tried again, yielding the same results. Pikachu looked about ready to try an iron tail on the door to get it to open, but Ash managed to hold him back.

"Well now how are we going to get in?" Ron asked; after a fruitless search he was unable to see any keys. Hermione took that moment to step up to the door.

"Alohamora!" she said, using the unlocking spell she'd used to get them into the room with the trapdoor. She tugged on the handle, shocked when it didn't budge. She tried the spell a few more times, and like Ash she failed to open the door.

"Hey, guys!" Iris called. Her and Cilan were looking at the strange birds on the ceiling.

"They're not birds." Cilan realised, "They're keys!"

And sure enough, Cilan's words were true. It was still hard to tell, but the fluttering objects that been assumed as birds were in fact metal, glinting in the light just enough that their basic shape was warped.

"I think I know how we get it." Harry's words grabbed everyone else's attention and they rushed over towhere he stood, looking at a broom. It was hovering above the floor at waist height, obviously meant to be ridden. Now that all the pieces were put together, the way to get through the room was simple.

Too simple.

Naturally, the task couldn't be as easy as first thought; the correct key still had to be located, for starters. With the sea of hovering metal they had to work with, testing out random keys until they located the correct one could take ages, far too long for them to be able to successfully stop Snape.

"Hey, look!" Ash pointed upwards at the key Cilan had noticed earlier. "It must be that one!"

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, looking upwards. "It has a bent wing. Snape must've grabbed it when he came through!"

The correct key pinpointed, the only thing to do was fly up and grab it.

"Harry should do it," Cilan advised, "He's the seeker, after all."

Harry nodded, grasping the broom and sitting on it.

That was when the second problem kicked in.

The moment Harry touched the broom, the keys sprung into action. They swooped down upon the unsuspecting students, battering them with an onslaught of wings fluttering in their faces. Pikachu let off a small electric attack, forcing some of the keys to stop momentarily and leaving some time for everyone to move as the keys returned, more violent than the last time.

Everyone managed to fight their way out of the fray, and Harry mounted the broom. He took off, leading the keys with him as he flew around in the large space.

It took a few minutes of dodging errant keys and constantly turning so as to not let them catch him before Harry even got comfortable enough in the air to start looking for the broken key.

Luckily, the key was, once discovered, easily captured, as its handicap slowed it considerably. Harry got a firm grip on the struggling object before he descended, handing the key to Iris. She unlocked the door and everyone escaped, Harry getting through last and slamming the door behind him just before the keys pierced the wood.

The group took a few seconds to catch their breath after that escapade, sitting down for a minute before continuing.

The next room was mostly taken up by a slightly raised platform, decorated with a checked pattern painted on the floor. Various chess pieces were arranged on what was essentially a human sized game of chess. The black side was missing several pieces, and a quick count revealed that there were six spaces on the board.

It didn't come as so much of a surprise, then, when their path was blocked by the white pieces. Understanding instantly that this meant they were to play a game with themselves as the missing piece, Ron assigned one of the vacant positions to each person.

Harry became a bishop, Hermione a castle. Ash gave himself a spot as king and had Pikachu mock a crown shape on his head, while Cilan and Iris each took the place of a pawn. Ron took the empty space as a knight, and the game began.

The game was messy and barbaric as a normal game of wizard's chess. Pieces were smashed up when captured, rather than simply moved aside, and it led to a few cuts as people were hit by debris of varying sizes. There was nothing to be done though; while Ron - controlling the game due to his superiority over everyone else when it came to playing - was good, he wasn't good enough to make sure that nobody was caught in the way of the flying bits of chess pieces.

The game was relatively short, as Ron's skill meant that the white side was quickly running out of pieces. Soon it was reaching the point where the only thing left to do was get into the position for checkmate. Naturally this meant that the white side was getting close too; some of the pieces had been sacrificed in the effort to get so far into the game.

Ron, calculating the next move to work out how to win, suddenly realised that the black side was only two moves away from a checkmate. Only, there was a slight problem: he would have to sacrifice himself to manage it.

Perhaps more than a slight problem, then.

"There's a chance to get checkmate," Ron told the others, still slightly shocked that he was even considering doing what he was about to do.

"Great" Iris jumped in celebration, squeaking when she nearly hit one of the nearby pieces. She had to make sure to land in her box, controlling her joy. "What do we do?"

"I'm going to move forwards now." Ron said determinedly. "The queen will take -"

"No!" Hermione shouted; she had just realised what that meant. The others were quick to join in with their understanding, also protesting loudly.

"The queen will take me," Ron repeated, more forcefully this time. "That leaves Harry free to take the king."

"But, Ron! You've seen what they do to the pieces that -"

"Don't remind me..." Ron grimaced. "Look, you guys need to get on as quickly as possible. Someone needs to stop Snape."

"Fine." said Harry finally. "Ron's right, Hermione. We need to get going as soon as we can."

Hermione shook her head sadly, but didn't offer any further comment. Ron nodded again to steel his nerves, then called the move.

The horse he sat on slid into position. As Ron had said, he queen took the bait. She slid over from her position in defence of the king and prepared to strike.

The chess piece took a swing at the horse, smashing it to pieces as her sword embedded itself in the easily broken porcelain figure. Ron flew back, momentum carrying him over the middle of the board into a skidding stop. He lay, unconscious, on the floor.

Nobody moved.

"Go on," Cilan prompted, waving his hands at Harry. The boy jolted back into action, walking over to the king, but making sure to keep an eye on Ron as he did.

"Checkmate."

The king was still for a moment. Everyone stayed perfectly still, not wanting to ruin Ron's sacrifice. Finally, after seconds that spanned hours, the white king let go of his sword.

It hadn't even made its clanging contact with the floor before everyone rushed over to Ron.

"Ron!" Hermione shouted, shaking her friend in panic. The boy didn't stir, and Cilan placed a hand on the girl's shoulder to calm her.

"I'll stay with him. You lot go ahead while I get him to the Hospital Wing, okay?" Hermione nodded at Cilan's words, sniffing slightly as she stood up and joined the others in walking forwards.

After parting with Cilan, the group soldiered on. They walked a little more hurriedly now, spurred on by Ron's sacrifice.

"I hope Snape hasn't already got the stone," said Harry, who was starting to panic a bit now.

"Don't worry," Hermione, who looked anything but relaxed, instructed, "if he had the stone, we'd have seen him on his way back up by now."

"Assuming that this path leads to a dead-end..." Ash muttered. "Whoa!" he called, seeing a large lump up ahead. From what he could tell it was some sort of creature: alive but unconscious. "A troll?"

"Doesn't look like it's been out for long..." Iris observed, peering at the troll's ugly face. Axew peeped out from the cover of Iris's hair at the announcement, surprising Hermione slightly with his presence. Iris made her way back to the group and they walked round the troll with caution, taking great care to not accidentally rouse the beast.

The group surpassed that 'challenge' with ease. It wasn't much later that they arrived at the next obstacle.

A wall of flames. A literal wall of fire that popped up in front of them as unexpectedly as the second wall that trapped them in.

This appeared to have been set up by Snape himself, as the glow of the fire revealed a row of potions in bottles of different shapes and sizes.

Hermione approached the table holding the row of potions and saw a piece of paper on it. She read its contents aloud to the others:

"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 forevermore
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 onward, neither is your friend;
Third as you see clearly, all are different size
Neither dwarf nor giant hold 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."

Her and Iris immediately went about solving the riddle, while Ash and Harry stared at the two walls of fire. Neither were particularly good with this type of logic, and decided to stay away rather than hindering the girls by trying to help.

After a few minutes of deliberation, the two girls had solved it.

"I think..." Hermione didn't sound completely confident, but a reassuring look from Iris helped her continue, "This is the potion that makes you move back." She gestured to a bottle on the end of the row, which contained quite a bit of liquid.

"This is the one to move you forwards!" Iris announced, picking up a bottle from the middle. It was tiny, with only enough liquid for one, two if they were lucky, to drink.

"So..." Ash looked at the bottles. "Two of us have to turn back here..."

At the statement, everyone stared at each other. No one particularly wanted to go back, but the prospect of going forwards was a scary one.

"I... I'll go back." Hermione volunteered. "You won't need logic and cleverness to beat Snape. Besides, I'm... not too good under pressure."

Ash wanted to tell Hermione that she should have more faith in herself but stayed quiet. He could tell that she was scared even without using his aura, and someone had to go back, anyway.

Iris looked between Harry and Ash for a moment, then thrust the potion she was holding into Ash's hands. "I'll go with her." she told them. "I know you two need to be in there, I can tell with my sixth sense!"

Ash laughed slightly at the mention of Iris's 'ability', sensing with her aura that she too was scared, though her more about her pokemon's safety than her own. He nodded and turned to Harry expectantly. The boy looked about ready to protest, but sighed and accepted the arrangement.

"See you later!" Iris said brightly, taking a swig of the backwards potion and encouraging Axew to swallow some too. She handed it to Hermione, who did the same, then the two walked through the wall of flame hand in hand.

Harry and Ash were left behind, and now had to share their potion between them. Harry drank half and gave it to Ash, who took a few drops and then left the rest for Pikachu. There was no going back now. The two walked forwards with determination straight into the fire.

The two stepped through into the last room. Harry went through slightly before Ash, and gasped as he viewed the contents of the room. The room came into view for Ash too, and he found himself gasping in unison with Harry when he saw the person in the middle of the room.

"Y...you?" Harry looked at the person.

Harry had expected to see Professor Snape, crouched over the stone, perhaps laughing in the way villains tended to as they gloated over their victory.

What he hadn't expected was Professor Quirrel, stood in front of the Mirror of Erised.

"Yes, me." The man had been alerted to the two boy's presence by Harry's words, and he turned to face them. The two were even more confused to hear Quirrel's voice: he spoke without any hint of a stammer now.

Quirrel smirked at the confusion on his student's faces. "Ah, I suppose you imagined that it'd be Snape, then. I don't blame you. That man's a very suspicious character. It's why I used him as a cover, actually." The words were said casually, as if he was talking about the weather rather than revealing his year long evil scheme. "And of course, nobody would suspect p-p-poor, st-st-stammering Quirrel, would they?" For a few seconds he reverted to his faked voice, then snapped back to the confident tone.

"But... Snape tried to kill me at that Quidditch match!" Harry denied, staring at Quirrel in confusion.

"It may have looked like that, but he was actually trying to save you! Why do you think he wanted to referee the next match? Snape was innocent the entire time."

Harry's mouth opened involuntarily from the shock. He stood, gaping at the man, completely stumped by the revelation. Snape? On his side? It wasn't true, couldn't be true, Snape was clearly evil! All those glares, unnecessary punishments...

"Well, perhaps not innocent, exactly. But on your side," Quirrel continued explaining despite everyone's confusion. Smugness surrounded his aura entirely, making it very easy to read.

"You're..." said Ash, the boy realising that he recognised the aura he could feel. And it was a lot stronger than it had been the last time he'd sensed it. "You were in the forest! Where'd the other aura come from then?"

Quirrel's smug calm flipped to tense fear in a heartbeat, the man's aura spiking with panic. The professor started to back up slightly, edging away from Ash. He stopped after a few seconds, freezing in place so quickly he shook. He was even more scared now, Ash could tell, but he was acting on his previous confidence.

With a quick wave of his wand, Quirrel shot ropes at the two boys and tied each of them up. Pikachu was trapped next to Ash in the rope's bind, thrashing around against his trainer's chest in a desperate, unsuccessful bid for freedom.

"I brought the troll in too, at Halloween. I bet you blamed that on Snape too." he said, making his way over to the mirror. "Now, time to see how to get the stone out of the mirror..."

Harry thought desperately for a way to stall Quirrel, deciding to try asking about Snape. "But, why did Snape carry on confronting you, then?"

Quirrel stopped looking at the mirror to speak to Harry. "He was suspicious of me from the start, but he didn't have any real evidence. He was a massive pain, too, always stopping my schemes."

"But Snape hates me! Why would he have saved me like you said?" Harry blurted out before Quirrel could get back to the mirror.

"He hates you, sure, but would he really let you die because of it? Snape isn't evil. Though I suppose that depends on your definitions of good and bad. I myself have been taught the truth: that there is no good, no bad. Only power, and those too weak to seek it."

"Two types of people..." Ash murmured. "You remind me of that pirate..." Pikachu nodded, seeing an uncanny resemblance between the two people's ideals. He growled slightly when he remembered what the pirate had tried to do, and his escape efforts increased.

Quirrel turned back to Ash when he heard him talking. "I bet you'd love to know who taught me that. You asked me before where the other part was? Well, now you can meet him!"

A voice from behind Quirrel shouted out then. "No! Not yet..." Both Ash and Harry started looking around to find the source, "put the Potter boy in front of the mirror. Maybe he can get the stone..."

Quirrel flinched at the voice, but did as commanded willingly. Forcefully grabbing Harry and dragging him up to the mirror, Quirrel barked impatient orders at the boy. "Tell me what you see!"

Harry looked into the mirror. Strangely, the usual image of his parents wasn't present. Instead there was only his own reflection, just as tied up as he was. 'The mirror must've broken,' thought Harry, 'this situation is less than ideal - certainly not my deepest desire!'

Then, the reflection changed. The Harry in the mirror grinned confidently, then reached into his pocket. Harry watched on in wonder as the stone was produced. His reflection winked as he placed the stone back in his pocket, and Harry felt an unfamiliar weight drop into his pocket in time with the reflection's actions.

He was brought back to reality by Quirrel, who yanked him back and glared at him. "Well?" Quirrel snapped impatiently, "What do you see?"

"I... I see myself, winning the house cup!" Harry lied.

"He lies..." the voice was back, creepy as the last time, and with the surprising ability to see through lies with ease. Perhaps he could read minds? "Let me talk to him..."

With a quickly muttered "As you wish, my Lord", Quirrel began unwrapping his turban. Ash gasped as he felt the presence of the terrible aura, wincing as it started to leech off him again.

Harry stared in horror as a face was revealed to him. He recognised it from somewhere, but he wasn't sure where. Wherever it was from, it was terrifying. Harry found himself unable to speak, fear of the face paralysing him.

"Who's that?" Ash asked, but he went ignored.

"Hello, Harry." said the face. It didn't sound pleased. "So nice to see you again."

Ash looked to Harry, feeling his fear and wondering where his friend could have met this aura-sucking undead creature.

"It's your fault I'm like this..." the face continued, looking accusingly at Harry, "Having to drink unicorn blood to survive, using Quirrel as my body..."

Harry now had a mix of confusion and horror etched onto his face. 'What did I... who is this?'

The face recognised Harry's confusion and decided to take the opportunity to explain himself. "Years ago, when you were a baby, I tried to kill you."

Harry would've gasped in realisation had it not been for his inability to even open his mouth out of fear. Fear which, he noted dully, now had a reason. This was Voldemort, the wizard that had killed his parents, and tried to kill him.

"You know," Ash said, "That sounds awfully as though what happened was your fault, not Harry's."

That caught Voldemort's attention. He turned to face Ash, whispering instructions to Quirrel. "And you are?" he demanded.

"Ash Ketchum." The pokemon trainer spoke bravely.

Voldemort glared at him oddly for a few more seconds, staring straight into his eyes and making Ash feel very uncomfortable. He took control of Quirrel's actions again and forced the man to turn back to Harry.

"I need that stone, boy, and I know you have it." Voldemort said, "Now give it to me!"

Harry silently shook his head. He wriggled in his bindings and loosened them enough to free himself, backing away from Quirrel.

"Get him!" Voldemort ordered.

Quirrel complied, turning back round an advancing on Harry. With Pikachu's help, Ash struggled out of his rope and got rid of it. He stood up let Pikachu hop onto his shoulder before trying to make his way over to the two.

Quirrel noticed Ash's attempts in his peripheral vision, shooting a curse at the boy which sent him and his pokemon flying, landing with a thud next to the flame wall. Ash managed to struggle back upwards, but not before Quirrel reached Harry.

The professor reached out and touched Harry, causing the boy to screech in pain and curl up slightly. He only managed to touch the child lightly, as the contact with his skin had caused Quirrel pain too; it was burning him somehow.

Ash ran back in between the two, spreading his arms out and turning to face Quirrel. Pikachu still lay by the fire, letting out a few worried repeats of his name as he struggled to get up. Voldemort berated the his servant for stopping, forcing him to continue his assault. Ash held his ground, wavering slightly as he stood, panting, in front of his friend. The drain on his aura was only getting worse now that he had been weakened, and Voldemort seemed to be aware that his presence was affecting the boy.

Quirrel pushed Ash aside, preparing a curse to fire at Harry. Noticing that his friend was still recovering from the pain in his head, Ash shoved him out of the way of the incoming curse. A green light flashed out and struck Ash's back as he tried to get himself out of the way, and he collapsed instantly, crumpling on the floor before the spell's light faded. Pikachu arrived at his trainer's side seconds too late, letting out an anguished "Pikapi!" as he tried to shock his friend back to wakefulness.

Quirrel turned his attentions back to Harry now, readying the same attack again. Harry was quicker to react this time, fuelled by fear and anger at Ash being hurt. He grabbed Quirrel's face, wincing as the pain in his forehead came back. He grunted in satisfaction as he noticed the effect it was having on Quirrel, seeing the man flinch away from his strong grasp.

Harry could hear Voldemort shouting something, could see the electricity from yet another attack on his friend, but he didn't pay attention to it. He just held on to Quirrel, not stopping burning his face as his consciousness faded away and the world slipped from around him, being replaced by a sea of darkness.

*Cue dramatic music*

Though it ain't so much of a cliffhanger if you've already read the books... which I assume most will have...

Anyhow, see y'all next week!