It took everything Neville had not to charge into the forbidden corridor right away. As desperate as he was to stop Lupin, he knew that going for the Stone in broad daylight was stupid. It would only attract the teachers' attention, and he and his friends would either be delayed at best, or eliminated by Lupin and the Dark Lord at worst. The best course of action, they decided, was to wait until dark.
Neville was a wreck. Theodore's betrayal had hit him hard, and Harry's rants about how stupid it was for them to have ever trusted a Slytherin in the first place weren't making it any easier. Through it all, through every crazy theory and mystery, Theodore was always there to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and follow up on Neville's ideas. Neville wasn't sure when or how, but he had come to trust Theodore and see him as a true friend. Now he felt ill, almost as if he had been forced to swallow a deadly poison.
The fact that he was probably going to die tonight didn't make him feel any better either. This is the sort of thing the Bow Who Live is supposed to do, he told himself, but that didn't make him feel any better. He knew, deep in his heart of hearts, that he was hopelessly outclassed by Lupin and the Dark Lord. Of that he had no doubt. He would most likely fail, and the Dark Lord would almost certainly return to full strength. Any sane person would just give up. But he also knew that if he did nothing, then the Dark Lord would most definitely return to full strength, and he couldn't just sit idly by and let that happen. He had to try to stop him, at the very least.
When the lights were all out and the clock read 10:30, the four friends snuck out of their dormitories and met in the common room. They knew that Harry's Invisibility Cloak wouldn't cover all four of them, so Harry decided to take it himself and scout ahead while the rest of them tried to make do without it. Progress was unbelievably slow, as Harry kept coming back to stop them from being spotted by both teachers and, incredibly, other students, who Neville supposed must have been Helena's spies. Once again, Neville was reminded of Theodore and fought the urge to cry or vomit.
The most direct route was blocked by Peeves, who was playing racquetball by himself with inappropriate objects that were almost certainly confiscated by the teachers in a scene that was embarrassing for everyone involved. Harry was forced to lead the others on a long, circuitous route that doubled back on itself twice in order to avoid being seen before they finally reached the door to the forbidden corridor two hours later.
"It's ajar," Neville whispered. "Lupin must already be inside." He turned to face the other three students. "Listen, you guys, you don't have to come with me. I'll be okay going in b-" Harry ignored Neville and shoved past him to enter the corridor, Ron following right behind him. Hermione put a reassuring hand on Neville's shoulder as he trailed off and smiled, and they followed behind Ron.
Neville's first thought upon entering the forbidden corridor was that "forbidden corridor" was a bit of a misnomer. This was less of a corridor and more of a small chamber. His second thought was that he might need a new pair of underpants after seeing Fluffy for the first time. The dog was huge, it must have been at least as tall as the troll that they had fought so many months ago. Each of its three heads featured long snouts, beady black eyes narrowed in territorial rage, and several rows of sharp, angry teeth. Fluffy's hind leg was manacled to the wall, Neville noticed, but the way it growled menacingly at the foursome made him wonder how effective it would be once the beast decided to pounce.
Neville dug his hand into his pocket as Fluffy lunged toward Harry, which had the reward of a yelp from Harry and a nice mouthful of air, and pulled out the harmonica that Theodore had given him for Christmas. Pushing his conflicted feelings about his former friend out of his mind, Neville brought the instrument to his mouth and blew. He didn't play a tune, he didn't know enough about music to do that, and he was sure that whatever he was playing sounded awful, as he was just changing notes on the fly, but Fluffy still seemed to consider the noise to be music anyway, and promptly fell asleep.
Amazed that Hagrid had found such a softie to be the guard dog for the Sorcerer's Stone, Neville kept playing awkwardly as Ron and Hermione covered their ears and made their way to the trapdoor behind Fluffy's sleeping body. When they pulled open the trapdoor, and looked down, Harry called over from the other side of the room and said, "Well, we know how Lupin got past Fluffy now, anyway. Must have used this harp."
"He also must have destroyed the ladder so nobody could have followed him down," Hermione answered. "I don't see a safe way to go after him."
"Maybe he jumped," Ron said, taking off his watch. "Hang on." He dropped it into the dark shaft, and he strained to hear it landing over the harmonica. After a minute or two, he shrugged and said, "Well, that's probably not good. Who's gonna go first?" He looked around at the others, who stared blankly at him for a minute before Harry stepped forward and said, "I'll do it." Hermione walked aside as Harry approached the trapdoor, took a deep breath, and jumped in.
Neville held his breath in anticipation and Fluffy's ears started to perk up before Hermione snatched the harmonica out of his hands and started playing herself, giving him a reproachful look. Neville laughed sheepishly as Harry called up "It's fine, you can jump, it's a soft landing!" Ron immediately followed him as Neville and Hermione backed toward the trapdoor. Neville glanced at Hermione, who nodded while playing, and sat at the lip of the shaft and slid in after Harry and Ron.
Neville tried not to scream as he fell for what seemed like an eternity. It was dark for several moments until he landed on a soft surface. There was a dim light from torches in a hallway on the opposite side of the circular chamber that he landed in. Harry and Ron were sitting in front of him, looking up, and that's when Neville noticed that the music had stopped. Neville looked up, and scrambled along the surface of a familiar-looking plant that was dominating the floor to avoid Hermione as she fell to the floor from up above.
"Phew," she panted, looking around. "That's quite a fall. I think we landed underground."
"Yeah," Ron said, patting the floor. "Lucky this plant was here to break our fall."
Neville gasped in horror, and rolled to avoid sentient vines that tried to attack him. "That's not lucky!" he shouted, glancing over his shoulder. The vines had already wrapped themselves around Harry and Ron's torsos and necks and were starting to tighten. Hermione shrieked and shook her legs violently struggling against the vines.
"What's happening?" Harry yelled, thrashing against the vines.
"It's Devil's Snare!" Neville yelled back, jumping back and forth from one foot to the other to avoid the vines.
"Oh, I'm really glad we know what it's called!" Ron snorted. "That's a big help!"
"Shut up, Ron!" Hermione screamed, taking out her wand. "Neville helped out a lot already." She pointed her wand at the floor and said, "INCENDIO!" Bright orange flames shot out of her wand tip and the Devil's Snare caught fire. The flame started out small, but quickly grew to encompass the whole room, as the vines released their hold on the students and retreated into the walls. They fell a short distance, only about six inches, onto a hard stone floor, and the group hurried into the hallway to avoid the flames. Neville reached the hallway last and shot a Freezing Charm behind him to extinguish the flames.
The hallway was dimly lit by evenly spaced torches from brackets in the walls. The hall stretched far for several feet to a sealed wooden door. The hall was actually quite wide, but the space was so dominated by giant potted shrubs that they could only walk two by two down the hallway. Harry and Ron led the group as Neville and Hermione followed. They all eyed the plants warily as they made their way to the other end, but none of them moved to stop them. The shrubs were a pale green color, dotted with bright red flowers.
"Do those bushes look familiar?" Hermione whispered as Neville stopped and examined the bush.
"Yeah," Neville said quietly. "They're Shiyi bushes."
"Is that bad?" Harry asked, stopping and turning to face Neville.
"That depends," Neville asked sarcastically. "Have you been breathing?"
"That bad, huh?" Harry responded.
"The longer we stay in here, the more we are infected by their spores," Neville explained. "And Shiyi spores can really mess with your head."
Hermione gave a gasp of recognition. "Wasn't that the plant you used on Malfoy?" Neville nodded. "So it's gonna mess with our memory?"
"Maybe," Neville answered. "The seeds are what usually affect the memory. The spores, however-" He turned around and saw that the room had changed. It was a wide oval shaped room, empty except for statues of Harry, Ron, and Hermione arranged in a triangle around him. "-can change your perception," he finished sadly. "Great."
Neville drew his wand and slowly rotated in place, eying the statues warily. This isn't good. He knew this wasn't real, but he didn't know how to put things back to normal. Where are the others? He saw a twitch out of the corner of his eye and whirled around to see Ron's statue shake violently and explode. "That can't be good," he muttered as he heard the other two statues explode behind him. The fragments of the statues whirled around the room and combined to form three stone golems. Neville rolled below the golem's legs and shot a Knockback Jinx over his shoulder.
The golem stumbled backward into another golem's fist. The golems were fighting each other as well as shooting rocks at Neville. Neville ducked and weaved and dodged around the rocks and shot spells back at the golems, but they didn't seem to hurt them that much. One particularly large stone embedded itself into the ground mere inches in front of Neville's face. Neville stumbled backward and ducked behind the stone. He coughed and spluttered as he tried to think up a plan. Those golems are tough! He peeked around the edge of the rock and saw the three golems shooting rocks out of their hands at each other and throwing punches. "Why are they fighting each other?" he asked himself, watching carefully for a sign of weakness.
The room shook as the smallest golem was thrown into the wall. Cracks formed in the ceiling and water started gushing from the ceiling. Neville's eyes followed the water as it pooled into a puddle at the golem's feet and saw Hermione in the reflection of the water. Neville gasped and looked up at Hermione, the golem completely gone. "Hermione!" Neville yelled as he ran toward her.
Hermione screamed and shot green lightning at Neville. Neville yelped and dropped to the floor, as the lightning hit one of the golems. He scrambled for her and grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. Hermione's eyes flicked to the water and she gasped. "Neville?" she said in horror.
"Yeah, it's me," Neville answered. "And we need to get the other two golems to look in this water before somebody dies." Hermione nodded and a few minutes later they managed to push the golems into position, and Harry and Ron saw the reflections in the water. As soon as they did so, the room contorted back into the shape of the hallway and the four friends picked themselves up off the ground.
"What the hell just happened?" Ron asked angrily.
"Shiyi spores cause hallucinations," Neville explained as he pushed Ron through the door at the end of the hall. "Let's get out of here before it happens again."
The next room was a large and cavernous square room. A large wooden door was on the other side of the room, and broomsticks, mops, and other cleaning supplies lined the walls. A large circular rug dominated the middle of the room, and the sound of fluttering wings sounded above them. The four of them looked up and saw strange birds flying above them.
"What do you think those are?" Neville asked the others, staring at them.
"Some sort of birds?" Ron said, suggesting the obvious. "Maybe they attack us if we cross?"
"Possibly," Hermione said, turning away from the birds to look at the door. "What do you thi – Harry?" she asked in surprise as Harry charged across the room, arms over his head. None of the birds moved to attack him and he was on the other side of the room in no time. He waved the others over and they crowded around the doorknob.
"Locked," Harry said, jiggling the doorknob. "Now what?"
"These birds," Hermione said, watching them flutter and glitter near the ceiling, "they can't just be here for decoration..."
"Those aren't birds," Harry interrupted. "Those are keys! Which means that those broomsticks on the wall-" He ran over to the broomsticks and took one off the wall. "Cleansweep Sixes!" He tossed brooms to the others and mounted his own. "It's probably gonna be near the top of the room," he said to them. "Look for a key with some wings crumpled, it'd mean that somebody else grabbed it."
Ron examined the handle and added, "We're looking for a large, old-fashioned key. Probably silver, like the handle." Harry nodded, and the four of them kicked hard on the ground and took off. Neville fought the urge to vomit as they flew in and out of the keys, which became a blur. He couldn't tell one key from the other, and he had to swerve at the last minute to avoid crashing into Ron and ended up crashing into the wall instead.
"I got it," Harry shouted, landing as Neville shook his head to clear his head after his crash. Neville followed the others back to the ground, grumbling about his possible concussion. Harry jammed the key into the door and undid the lock. They threw the door open and piled inside.
"What the hell...?" Ron asked in shock. The room they just entered was identical to the one they just left. The door on the other end was open as well, and they saw their own backs. Neville took a tentative step forward, and saw himself on the other side of the room take a step forward. He turned around and looked behind him, and saw his own body once again in the door on the other side of the room behind him.
"Is this another hallucination?" Neville asked.
"Possibly," Hermione said thoughtfully, walking to the center of the room. "It's weird, though. It's almost like the room is an infinite loop. I can't figure out how such an illusion would be possible..."
Neville and the others walked to the center of the room to meet Hermione. Harry and Ron were staring at the two doors looking at their doppelgangers in the other rooms, while Hermione was staring at the ceiling muttering about keys. Neville glanced down at the floor, kicking the rug in frustration. When the rug shifted, Neville saw a familiar flash of silver. "Guys," he said, dropping to his knees and pushing the rug aside, "there's a trapdoor here!" He pulled the silver ring upward and saw a ladder leading down several stories. "Shall we?" he asked the others, who nodded and followed him down the ladder.
Author's Note: So, this chapter was going to be longer and include all of the obstacles, but this was getting kind of long and it seemed like this was a good stopping point for now. Anyway, I hope this worked out. I kind of wanted to do a new spin on the obstacles guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, and I'm a huge fan of illusions, so why not throw some in? I always figured that the obstacles guarding the Stone were less about immediately killing you and more about trapping you and I wanted to expand upon that.
Anyway, hope you liked this, leave your reviews, and stay happy!