Thankfully, I didn't sleep for another three days, instead, I woke up just in time for dinner. Sluggishly, I get up from the hospital bed and made my way towards the dining hall. I don't understand why everything must be so far apart! Literally, for ten
minutes I wander around the halls before I finally found the moving staircases. For Godric's sake, there better be some food still there when I get to the hall! I stop dead in my tracks when I memory came into my mind. The person who is after the
stone will try taking it tonight! A gasp escapes my lips as I quickly pick up my pace. I will not allow for this stunt to happen when this school has done so much for me without even trying. This school gave me friends, nice people, and the opportunity
to see my brother smile.
By the time I reach the dining hall people are finishing their dinner and moving on to desserts. Smiling at Draco for a split second, I walk over to the Gryffindor table and over to my brother. I smile at Hermione before focusing all my attention on my
brother.
"Are you going after the Sorcerer's Stone tonight?" I ask him through the link. He looks at me and nods his head. While he is still sitting down, he hugs me around my stomach and I smile as I hug him back. "I am alright, big brother. I just needed some
sleep that's all. I'm going with you to protect the Sorcerer's Stone." He goes to protest but I stop him with a glance and he sighs before nodding his head.
"Fine, but you are going to stay near me," my big brother says to me and I nod my head with a smile on my face. Hugging him one more time, I head over to the Slytherin table and sit next to my best friend. Unfortunately for the both of us, that Slytherin
girl that pushed me earlier, Pansy I think, is sitting on the other side of Draco. She keeps trying to talk to Draco, but he just ignores her and starts to talk to me. Smiling, I would write down my replies, but I also try to involve Pansy into the
conversations. I mean, yes, she pushed me and isn't very nice but, maybe, I could make her my friend. It is, of course, the nice thing to do as well and maybe she is mean because that is the only way she knows how to make friends. Sadly, she gives
me a glare before going back to her food and not even try talking to Draco again for the rest of the night.
For the rest of dinner, I debate internally if I should tell Draco about what I am going to do tonight, but I decided against it. I know that if I tell him about the Sorcerer's Stone then he would totally be against me going with everyone else. After
everyone turns in for the night, I wait until midnight before quietly getting out of my bed and head towards the dormitory door. Unfortunately, I can't go very far because a noise stops me in my tracks. The noise almost sounds like someone is getting
out of a creaky bed. Slowly turning around, I come face to face with the one and only Pansy.
"Where do you think you're going, mute?" she spits at me and I step back in shock at the amount of hatred in her voice. I shrug before heading out of the dormitory. Hopefully, she will just go back to bed and not care about what I'm doing. Unfortunately,
fate is against me at the moment and I hear her footsteps following behind me.
"Hey, don't ignore me, freak!" she shrieks, and I sigh as I try to stay polite to this fellow girl. Stopping in front of the couch in the commons, I turn around to find Pansy an arm's length away from me. Her face is contorted in anger while I keep a
friendly smile on my face.
"I bet you are going to see those stupid Gryffindors. How are you even in Slytherin? You are nothing but a mute who has no friends. I bet Draco is only your friend because he feels sorry for you," Pansy smirks and my smile slowly disappears as she says
each word. For some reason, I don't feel anything. No anger and no sadness. Nothing but the emptiness that is quickly devouring my thinking process and leaving only her words echoing in my head. She has no right to say any of those things. A spell
rises from the depths of my memories and without even thinking about it, I grab my wand from my wand holster. As if in a trance, my hand points my wand at this mean girl and say the spell in my head, "Obliviate!"
Walking out of the Slytherin house, I only take a few steps before falling to my knees. I can't believe I just erased her current memories and just left her in the commons. Why did I do that? Maybe, she pushed me to my breaking point with all those hateful
comments. Tears well up in my eyes, but I try to not focus on it. Oh! Who am I kidding?! That was a horrible thing to do and I did it without blinking an eye. I'm such a horrible person for doing that but she said such mean things! Before I can think
further about what just happened, I can hear three pairs of footsteps heading towards my area. Standing up from the floor, I wait until I hear the footsteps stop in front of me.
"Are you ready, sister?" I hear Harry whisper to me as he takes the invisibility cloak off himself, Ron, and Hermione. Nodding my head while putting on a fake smile, I walk next to my brother as he places the cloak around all of us.
"Sorry that we are a little bit late. Neville Longbottom tried stopping us as we were leaving," Hermione whispers to me as we walk throughout the halls of Hogwarts heading towards the third floor.
"Yeah, and she used a spell that made her scary for once," Ron adds as he looks around scared. I pull on her sleeve while giving her a questioning look. She must have seen my look because she smiles at me while answering my question.
"I used the Petrificus Totalus spell to stun him for a while," she says, and I nod my head while noting that spell for later use if needed. Honestly, after that spell that I did on Pansy, I am pretty tired, but I keep pinching myself awake.
A few minutes later we finally arrive at the right corridor on the third floor. Surprisingly, there is only one door in this corridor and I say surprisingly because there is usually either no doors or at least a handful of doors in one corridor. Trust
me when I say after spending almost an entire year here I would notice if there are any hallways with only one door. I notice that Hermione is pulling out her wand to most likely say the unlocking spell but that is unnecessary because Harry just pulls
the door open; the door isn't even locked.
As the door is opening inwards, the soft harmonious music of a harp floats across the entire room before hitting our ears. A sigh escapes my lips as I enter the room and head towards the musical instrument that is in the right-handed corner of the room.
"Anastasia. Anastasia! You are supposed to stay by my side not go wandering off!" Harry whisper-yells at me, and I look down in shame as I walk away from the harp. I stand next to my big brother as I finally look at the giant animal in the center of the
room that I surprisingly missed. I mean, how in Godric's name did I not notice the giant three-headed black dog. Another thing that is surprising is that the dog is asleep. This must be Fluffy that Hagrid was talking about.
"Snape has already been here. He placed a spell on the harp," my brother says, and I roll my eyes at his assumption. I still don't think that he is the one behind this and that thought is even more enforced with the way that Snape handled himself earlier
today. We walk towards the animal and unfortunately, its breath stinks to high heaven. I cover my nose with my hand as my friend comments on Fluffy's breath.
"We are going to have to move his paw," Harry says, and I look down to realize that Fluffy's paw is on top of the trap door. Nodding my head, I grab the paw with everyone else following suit. With a lot of grunting coming from all of us, we slide the
paw off the trap door. Harry yanks the trap door wide open and I look up to make sure that Fluffy is still asleep. Sighing in relief, I watch as Harry, Ron, and Hermione crouch in front of the drop.
"I'll go first but I don't want you guys to follow me until I give you a sign," my twin says and my heart catches in my throat. Clenching my hand into his shoulder as he continues his thought, "If something bad happens I want you to get yourselves out
of here. This goes for you as well, sister."
I shake my head as I hold onto his shoulder. Sighing, he looks at me with a stern look that should make me back down, but I don't. I will not leave my twin alone in a dangerous situation. Before he can scowl me, I interrupt him, "Big brother, you can
save your breath because I'm not changing my mind. You are my twin and that means we stick together no matter what." As I let those words sink in, a silence befalls us and for some reason that is strange. It takes me a minute to realize why that is
strange and my whole body stiffens up in fear. The harp has stopped playing music which means that Fluffy is going to wake up.
"Does it seem quiet to you?" Harry says as his face scrunches up in curiosity. I frantically nod my head while pointing towards the golden harp that is as still as a mummy's tomb. Ron and Hermione nodded their heads as well before also looking at the
harp. Right as I glance back at the group, I notice a giant drop of drool falls on Ron's shoulder. If it isn't for the dangerous situation that we are in right now, I would be laughing my butt off at the Weasel's misfortune. The Weasel's face drowns
in fear as he looks up towards the ceiling. Very slowly, I look up towards the now three-headed dog that is standing over us with its teeth bared. Gulping, I start to scream inside my head while my brother covers his ears from the screaming. He looks
over at me before looking up at Fluffy. Hermione is the last person to realize that there is no turning back now. As my brother screams for us to jump, the dog starts barking which is too loud for my sensitive ears. While everyone else jumps through
the trap entrance, I close my eyes and fall to my knees at the loud barking. Thankfully, before they could bite me I end up falling through the entrance as I continue to have my eyes close.
I scream in my head as I feel the air rush past me. At first, my eyes are closed because of the loud barking but now they are closed because of the fear that is coursing through me. After falling for a few feet, I land on a soft yet hard ground. I slowly
open my gold eyes as I feel around the ground with my hands. Let me just say that this is the weirdest floor that I have ever felt. Looking at the "floor'' that I've fallen on, I realize that it isn't a floor at all but really smooth black vines that
are covering the ground. As I start to move around the vines, I feel something slither around my legs and hold them down very tightly. What in Salazar's name is going on?! I continue to move around but with more frantic motions to the movement.
"Anastasia, Ron! You need to stop moving!" Hermione yells at us and I realize that she is no longer with us. I turn my head to realize that my brother is also gone. Of course, seeing this makes me more fearful but I trust my other best friend. Taking
a deep breath, I force my body to stay very still and relax my limbs. The vines slowly wrap around my body and I can feel myself being lowered through the vines. As I take a deep breath, I hear Ron become more frantic and I almost want to laugh at
him being scared. I know that laughing at other people is a mean thing to do but him being scared is hilarious. Before I can think further on Ron, I feel myself fall again and land on something hard.
"Are you okay, sister?" my brother asks me as he helps me up. I nod my head while giving him a smile and I realize that Ron is freaking out above the vines.
"He isn't going to relax, is he?" Hermione asks us, and I nod my head while looking through the vines.
"Come on, Hermione. You must know something to help him," Harry says, and I look over at my friend. I would help but I haven't been paying attention in Herbology class. In my opinion, Herbology is kind of boring and I prefer potions class or Defense Against
the Dark Arts.
"I remember reading in Herbology, 'Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. Its deadly fun…but will sulk in the sun! That's it! Devil's Snare hates sunlight!" Hermione shouts in excitement! Smiling at my friend's brilliance, I take out my wand and point it at the
Devil's Snare.
"Lumus Solem!" I shout in my mind and sunlight pours out of the tip of my wand. The plant shrieks out in pain and fear before retreating into dark corners of the room. In the process of retreating, the plant instantly lets go of the Weasel which makes
him fall flat on his face. "Is he okay, brother?" I ask through the link as I walk over to the groaning ginger.
"Are you alright, Ron?" my twin asks his friend. The Weasel says he is okay as I help him back to his feet. After he is standing on his own two feet, he tries to play it off like he wasn't just screaming his head off.
"We're lucky that we didn't panic," he says as he looks up at the leftover Devil's Snare. I give him a blank look as I smack the back of his head. He looks at me with hatred clearly evident on his face, but my brother pulls his attention away from me.
"We're lucky that Hermione pays attention in Herbology," he says with a deadpanned look. I nod my head while smiling at friend and giving her a hug for a job well done on her part. I can feel her smile as she hugs me back. Unfortunately, my brother breaks
the moment by telling us that we need to keep moving or Snape will get the Sorcerer's Stone. Sighing, I release my friend and we move onto the next room.
As we continue towards the next room, I start to think about who could possibly be behind this whole ordeal and is working for Voldemort. I know for a fact that it must be a teacher at the school because no student from the first year to the seventh year
could possibly have the knowledge and skill to get past all of these obstacles. Well, I mean we four are going through all of this and we are only in our first year. Except, we have Hermione, who is the smartest witch in this school, and there is
four of us. No student can do all of this by themselves, even us. This is another reason that it is a teacher, but which teacher is it.
"What is that sound?" Hermione's voice breaks me out of my contemplation and I instead focus on listening to my surroundings. If I didn't know any better, I would think that what we are hearing is the sound of hundreds of little wings flapping around
behind the door that is in front of us. I whisper what I think to my brother through the link and he nods his head.
"It definitely sounds like wings flapping," my brother says, and we slowly open the wooden door. We step into the cold cement room with the door slamming shut behind us. I jump at the loud noise and I feel my brother's arms wrap around my shoulders. The
flapping of the wings grows louder as odd-looking birds fly around the room.
"This is very curious! I've never seen any birds like these before," Hermione says, and I nod my head in agreement. My brother shakes his head and my curiosity rises even higher when he explains himself.
"Those are not birds," my brother says and my eyebrows furrow in confusion. Walking a little bit closer, I realize that indeed those are not birds but enchanted skeleton keys. Each key is in a different size and looks different than the last. Taking an
even closer look, I also notice that each key is either made out of brass, silver, or gold.
"They're keys, big brother," I exclaim to him in his mind. He nods his head while letting go of my shoulders. I kind of want to reach out and touch one of them, but I restrain myself because I know that it will not end well if I do.
"Exactly! They are keys and I'll bet that one of them fits that door," he says as he smiles at me but then turns serious as he continues to stare at the keys. At the same time that my brother notices it, I notice that there is a broom right in front of
us, which is below all of the flying keys. Ron takes out his wand and walks over to the wooden door with Hermione following behind him. My brother and I walk over to the old looking broom. He looks at me and whispers, "This is very strange, sister."
I nod my head in agreement while waving my hand over the broomstick to make sure that there aren't any traps connected to it.
"Alohomora!" the Weasel shouts but the door stays locked up tight. I can see his shoulders sag in disappointment before turning around and noticing that we are all staring at him. Most likely, Hermione is giving him an exasperated look because he gets
all defense at us, "Well, it was worth a try!"
"What are we going to do?! There must be a thousand keys!" Hermione almost shouts as she looks at all of us. I nod my head while looking up at all of the keys. "We want a big, old-fashioned one. Probably rusty." We all look up and start to hunt for the
correct key. After observing two different keys, I notice an odd key out. All of the keys are old looking, but this one is the largest key and it has slight rust on the silver metal body. What catches my eye is that one of the wings is broken. This
has to be the key that we need. It would only make sense that the key that everyone uses has it's wing broken because people actually use it. Pulling on Harry's sleeve, I point up at the key and he smiles at me while giving me a side hug.
"Good job, sister," he says while kissing my head. I smile up at him, but it quickly turns into a frown when I realize that he doesn't look happy. I nudge him in the side while giving him a frown of my own. He gives me a slight smile before saying, "I'm
sorry, sister, but this seems too simple."
"Oh, come on, Harry! If Snape can get that key using that old broomstick than so can you. You're the youngest seeker in a century!" Ron tries to encourage my brother. I eagerly nod my head at his words before giving Harry's hand a squeeze of encouragement.
He nods his head at us and pushes me towards Hermione. After making sure that I'm safe with the others, Harry looks down at the broomstick before grabbing the handle.
Right as my brother grabs the broom, the keys start to make an agitated noise that makes me cover my ears. Looking up, I watch as the keys start flying faster before diving towards my brother. They start trying to attack him and I cover my face in Hermione's
shoulder. I can't watch as my brother does something so dangerous just to get a key. After a minute of hiding, I can hear Hermione above all of the keys telling me to look up. With some hesitation, I look up to see my brother being chased by the keys
while at the same time trying to grab the key that we need. It almost looks like one of his Quidditch games where he tries grabbing the snitch. After chasing the key for a solid minute, he finally catches it and throws it towards us as he flies by.
Jumping up, I snatch the key up and rush towards the door. I can feel the others behind me and I quickly unlock the door. We hold the door open long enough for my brother to quickly fly through before we close the door on the keys. The loud thumping
of the keys hitting the door makes us all realize that things could have been a lot worse.
Rushing over to my brother, I start to look him over to make sure that he is alright and doesn't have any wounds. After realizing that he isn't injured, I quickly pull him into a hug just to confirm that he is actually alright. While we are hugging, I
can hear his chuckle and he pulls me closer.
"I'm alright, sister. After a few Quidditch matches, this is nothing compared to those," he says as a way of easing tension. I'll admit that he is right in that regard because that sport is a really dangerous game to play. Nodding my head, I finally release
him from the hug before looking at the other two people. Slightly embarrassed at my display of worry, I shuffle behind Harry and I can hear my best friend laugh at my actions. Not wanting to be even more embarrassed, I quickly grab my brothers hand
and start to drag him towards the next area.
There are no lights in the giant room that we enter. In the darkness, I can kind of make out some stone looking figures. My slip-on shoes start clicking against the smooth floor below us. Looking down at the ground, I notice that the floor is a smooth
marble, but as I continue to stare at the floor I realize that the floor is checkered.
"Are we in a graveyard?" Hermione asks as she notices the stone statues as well. I shake my head as Ron answers her.
"This is no graveyard," he tells her, and she gives him an annoyed look. The Weasel ignores her and surprisingly he walks in front of us. Ron looks around before he says something that makes a chill go up my spine, "It's a chessboard." Right as he finishes
that sentence, fires light up all around the chessboard. I hear a click behind us and I look back to see that the large double doors behind us have closed. Looking back at the chess pieces, I realize that the pieces closest to us are black while the
pieces on the other side of the room are white.
"Look there is the door!" my brother points out. I look through the pieces to realize that the door is right behind there. We start to walk towards the door, but right as we walk in front of the white pawns they pull out their swords and block our path
with a loud 'clang'. We slowly back away from them when we realize that they can hurt us.
"What are we going to do?" Hermione asks and Ron steps up before looking at us.
"Isn't it obvious? We are going to have to play our way across the room," he tells us and sweat start to appear on my forehead. I don't know about Hermione, but I absolutely have no clue how to play chess. I don't even know the name of the pieces other
than a pawn. Ron turns his attention on my brother, "Harry, I want you to take the empty bishop's square." The ginger skips me and looks at my brunette friend, "Hermione, you'll be the queen-side castle." Finally, he turns to me and looks like he
is thinking about it for a second. After a minute of thinking, he says to me, "Anastasia, you'll be on the queen's square." I nod my head while looking at the pieces, trying to figure out which one is the queen. "I'll be a knight." We all start to
head to our correct spots, but I stop my brother while asking him which one is the queen. He takes me to the spot and walks over to his bishop square.
Once we are all in our spots, I watch as one of the white pawns move a few squares forward.
"You don't think this is going to be like real wizard's chess, do you?" Hermione gulps at the end of her sentence. Ron looks at her for a second for telling one of the pawns to move in front of the white pawn. Right as our black pawn arrives at the center
of the board, the white pawn takes out its swords and destroys our pawn. My mouth drops open when I realize that this is going to be a real hazard to my health.
"Yes, Hermione. I think that this is going to be exactly like wizard's chess," Ron replies to Hermione's original question. I notice that she is as stiff as a board when she looks at the ginger.
What happens afterward, I honestly don't remember or understand. I just remember Ron shouting out orders to us and the pieces follow them. Then there was a lot of destruction and we only have a few pieces left. The white king destroys our last castle
which is right in front of my brother. I hold myself still as I watch my brother cover himself from the debris. I finally release the breath that I was holding, when my brother stands back up and looks at the white king. Slowly, the white king turns
around to stare at the Weasel on the black horse; He is the only knight left.
"Wait a minute…" my brother starts to say but he doesn't finish his sentence.
"You understand right, Harry," Ron says, and I realize that something is going on here. From looking over at Hermione, I notice that she looks as stumped as I most likely do. We look at the two boys until Ron continues explaining his plan, "Once, I make
my move, the queen will take me. Then you are free to check the king."
"No!" my brother shouts while us girls are looking on in confusion. Hermione finally asks my brother what is happening and looks at her briefly before answering her, "He's going to sacrifice himself!" I start to shake my head no frantically, while Hermione
voices our opinion out. Even though Ron has been mean to me and made my brother go against me for a little bit, but at the end of the day, he is my brother's best friend. He makes my brother laugh and gives him company. The Weasel isn't always mean
to me and he isn't anything like Pansy. I can truthfully say that I cannot wish for him to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. Well, I can never wish this upon anyone, but I definitely cannot wish this upon this ginger.
"Do you want to stop Snape from getting to the Stone or not? This is the only way that you can get past the chess pieces and on through the door. Harry, you are the only one that needs to go on. Not me, not Hermione, you," he shouts towards my older brother.
Slowly, Harry nods his head at his friend's words and I nod my head slowly as well. Ron is right for the most part, but he is wrong about one thing. I will be going with my brother. I've already told him that we are twins and we stick together no
matter the situation. Hopefully, he hasn't forgotten what I told him or I'm just going to climb onto his back and not let go. I've done it before to make sure that we stay together, and I'll just do it again.
"Knight to H-3," Ron's voice breaks out of my daydreaming. I notice that his eyes are closed very tightly and the horse piece that he is on is moving a couple squares forward then moves a couple squares to the right until he is right in front of the queen.
The king turns around and slides over to the Ron. I can hear my heart beating in my ears as I watch the piece get closer to the ginger on the horse. As the white piece stops in front of Ron's piece, I watch as the piece takes its sword and plunges
it into the horse's side making Ron fall off with a scream.
"Ron!" big brother shouts, and I start to walk towards the unconscious ginger, but my brother stops me before I can step out of the square, "Don't move! Remember that we are still playing a game." Sighing with worry, I watch as my brother steps up towards
the white king and looks at it with determination in his eyes, "Checkmate!" The sword falls out of the grasp of the royal piece and falls to the floor in front of my twin. After the sword stays still on the ground, we all run towards the unconscious
Weasel.
"I want you to take care of Ron. Then go to the owlery and send a message to Dumbledore. Ron's right, I have to go alone," my brother tells us. I frown at his last sentence. He is not going alone no matter how much he wants to, I'm not going to allow
it.
"You'll be okay, Harry. You're a great wizard! You really are," Hermione tells him.
"I'm not as good as you or my sister," he replies but we both shake our heads.
"Me? With my books and cleverness. There is more important things like friendship and bravery. Harry, be careful!" Hermione says to him. He nods his head before looking at me.
"Harry, big brother, you are a great wizard. Yes, I might be better at spells than you, but you have something that I don't. You have the courage of the Gryffindor lion while I only have the sneakiness of the Slytherin snake. If anyone can do this then
that's you, big brother," I tell him through the mind link before standing up with him by my side. I smile at him while giving him a hug, "If you think that I'm going to allow you to go off by yourself, big brother, then you have another thing coming."
"No, I cannot have you go with me," Harry says as he pulls away from the hug. I shake my head before putting my hands on my hips.
"Harry, remember what I said earlier? You are my twin and we have been together since the womb. I'm not going to let you go off on a dangerous mission without me by your side. We have been through so much together and this is going to add to it. I love
you, big brother and I'm coming along to protect you with all of the magic inside of me," I tell him, and I can feel angry tears falling down my face. This is one of those times where I don't need his protection but actually, need his support. He
continues to stare into my eyes before finally nodding his head.
"Alright, alright. Come on, Anastasia," he says while grabbing my hand. I nod my head while wiping away my tears with my sleeve that is covered with dust. We head off towards the person that is behind all of this. Who is the dangerous person waiting for
us down below?