AUTHORS NOTE

Hey! I didn't get a lot of reviews in the last chapter, so please review on this one, and the last chapter!

Enjoy the chapter, and if it's crap, i am sorry.

-Rach ;)

Max's POV

I fell for what felt like an eternity. I considered pulling out my wings and flying down the rest of way, but just as I began to unfold them, I landed on something soft. It felt like a plant. "Harry?" I whispered. "Max? Are you ok?"

"Yeah..."

One by one the other boys began to drop down, landing sprawled around me and Harry. I let my eyes adjust to the gloom, and saw Hermione wasn't down yet.

"Hermione? You have to jump!" I shouted, and I heard the flute stop and Fluffy started growling. Hermione landed next to me, looking around the room. She frowned, looking at the plant thing under our feet. Then, she shrieked and struggled over to the wall. She had to struggle because the plant had started twisting around her legs. I looked down at my own feet and saw my legs completely covered with the plant thing. I looked at it closer and realized what it was.

"This is Devil's Snare!" I shouted and Hermione looked frightened. Me, Harry, Fang, Ron and Iggy started fighting against it, trying to free ourselves, but the more we fought against it, the tighter it would get, and it would start moving up our bodies faster too. The plant was at my chest, and I couldn't breath before Hermione suddenly shouted, "Stop moving! I'm trying to think of how to kill it! What did Professor Sprout say...? It likes the dark and the damp..." she trailed off with a thoughtful look on her face, and I started getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. I was the only one with the Devil's Snare this high, or this tight, so I was the only one trying to breath. Ron seemed to notice because he shouted, "Then light a bloody fire! Hurry, Max is going purple!"

I fell onto my back, and I stopped fighting against the plant. I distantly heard Hermione saying, "I would but I can't see any wood..."

"WOOD?" Iggy bellowed. "HAVE YOU GONE INSANE HERMIONE? ARE YOU A BLOODY WITCH OR NOT?" I could tell Hermione was blushing, and she said quietly, "Uh right, yeah..."

The next second, I saw blue fire and I felt the Devil's Snare loosening its hold. I took a shaky breath, then a stronger one, and started getting my breathing back to normal. I stood up and Harry looked at me, concerned. "Are you alright?" I nodded and gave him a small smile. He got a weird look on his face, but I just thought it was shock from nearly being killed by a plant.

Harry looked away and looked at Hermione instead. "Lucky you listen in Herbology, Hermione." She smiled and said, "Well, Max found out it was Devil's Snare before I did, so you should thank her as well." "Well your the one that remembered they hate heat and warmth. I didn't remember that," I said and Hermione shrugged and looked around the room.

"Come on," I said and led the way down the stone passageway, with Harry beside me. It seemed weird, but I relaxed slightly when I saw him walking with me. There was water dripping down from the walls, and the walls were slightly green, which made me think we were under the lake.

"Can you hear that?" Iggy asked, his unseeing eyes wide with excitement. We all listened, and sure enough I heard a familiar sound. "Is it a ghost?" Harry asked, and I shook my head.

"There wings," I said.

We reached the end of the passageway and met a door. The sounds of wings were louder now, coming from the other side of the door. Fang opened the door into a bright chamber, with an arched ceiling. The chamber was full of small, bright birds, fluttering all around the large room. There was a heavy door on the other side of the chamber.

"Would they attack us if we tried to cross the room?" Hermione asked, eyeing the birds. "Maybe," I said, "They might all swoop down together. Well, nothing for it. I'll run," I finished, and covering my head with my hands, ran across the room to the door on the other side. I kept expecting to feel beaks and claws tearing at me, but nothing came. I stopped outside the door and turned around. Everyone was where I left them, and when I beckoned them over, they all ran. I tried opening the door but it didn't open. We tried Alohamora but nothing worked.

"Guys...the birds aren't birds," said Fang. I turned to him and said, "What the hell are you on about?" He pointed at the birds and said, "Look at them. They're keys, not birds. One of them is for this door." Harry's gaze swept around the room, and landed on the broomsticks we handed noticed earlier in the corner. "Yes! Broomsticks! We have to catch the key for the door," he said, his eyes blazing.

"But there are only three," said Ron as we walked over to the brooms. I laughed and Iggy said, "Mate, I think your forgetting something small about the three of us." Me, Fang and Iggy all whipped our wings out, and once again, Harry Ron and Hermione looked transfixed. I hissed impatiently and Harry nodded and said, "Were looking for an old fashioned one, maybe silver like the handle, and it will be big, and if Snape already caught it and stuffed it in the door, then it will be slower then the other keys and a wing might be broken." I saw Fang wince and I laughed. Harry Ron and Hermione looked confused, so I elaborated, much to Fang's annoyance.

"When we were learning how to fly a few years ago, Fang wasn't looking where he was going and he flew straight into a tree. Then he fell to the ground and broke one of his wings. That's why he's not a very good flyer," I added in a carrying whisper and Fang glared at me. Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed onto the broomsticks and Fang, Iggy and I took a running start and joined them in the air.

I hovered in the air for a minute, looking for the key Harry had described. I saw it up by the ceiling, and I was just about to shout to the others when Harry did first. "There! That one! The feathers are all messed up on one side!" Ron started speeding in the direction Harry was pointing. But Ron crashed into the ceiling and nearly fell off his broom.

"Harry- we have to close in on it!" Fang shouted. Harry nodded and shouted, "Ron, Max stay on it from above, Hermione and Iggy stay below and stop it from going down, Fang, try and case it towards me! GO!"

Ron and I dived, Hermione and Iggy shot up, and how Iggy knew what he was doing was a wonder I would never know. Fang shot in from the side, and Harry came from the other side. For a minute, I thought we were all going to crash, but Harry caught it, and we all flew towards the ground. Our cheers echoed around the chamber as Harry pushed the key into the lock. "Ready?" Harry asked, and we nodded.

He pushed the door open into darkness. We walked in one by one, Harry in the front and Fang bringing up the rear. Iggy hooked his finger into the belt loop on my jeans. As we stepped further into the room, light flooded the large room and we all gasped, apart from Iggy who sighed impatiently. I looked at the large chessboard and chessmen, and began telling Iggy where we were. He looked astounded. The black chessmen were closer to us, and way across the chamber, stood the white chessmen. We all shivered when we looked at the pieces- none of them had faces.

"What do we do?" whispered Hermione fearfully.

"Well, its kinda obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We have to play our way across the chessboard and get out on the other side. I can see the door behind the white pieces." Hermione gave the chessmen a scared look and said, "How?"

"I think we have to be chessmen," said Iggy. Ron nodded and walked up to the knight and put out a hand to touch it. As soon as his hand connected with the cold stone, it sprang to life. If Ron was startled, he hid it well.

"Do we have to play to get across?" he asked the knight. I was staring at Ron as if he was insane. He was asking a piece of stone a question- My thoughts stopped when the knight nodded. I felt my mouth drop, but closed it quickly. Ron turned back to us and said, "We have to take the place of three black pieces." We all stayed quiet while Ron looked at the black chessmen, then he turned back to us. "No offence but your all rubbish at chess-" Ron started, but Fang cut across him and said, "Yeah were crap we know, just tell us what to do!"

"Right, Harry and Iggy take the bishops place, Hermione and Max can take the place of the castles at the end, and Fang can take the place of the other knight down there. I'll take this one, " he said pointing to the one he had talked to. The pieces were obviously listening, because all the pieces he called left the board and stood by the wall. We all took the empty squares and waited for Ron to give more orders.

He felt us all looking at him and he said, "White moves first, why are you looking at me?" Sure enough, five seconds later, a white pawn had moved by two squares. Ron directed our pieces around, and the first bad thing happened about five minutes into the game.

The knight was taken out.

Which meant Fang.

Ron was shouting an order for one of the pawns for there next move and didn't notice the white knight gliding towards Fang. Fang saw it going to him, but remained quiet and still. When the other knight was right in front of him, he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, bracing himself for the pain. The knight raised his hand, and I couldn't help myself. I cried, "Fang!" Ron looked over at Fang and shouted something, but it was drowned out by Fang's scream of pain as he fell to the floor. He remained motionless, and the white knight dragged him off the chessboard, and I saw blood on Fang's face, and there was blood on the floor where he lay. Ron swore. I closed my eyes and did my best not to look at him again. But I couldn't help myself looking over every few minutes.

I was relived to see his chest rising and falling slowly. I looked back at the game. Ron was really good, I thought. We were taking almost as much white pieces as they took black pieces. I was looking intently at Ron, trying to figure out what he was planning on doing next.

"I've got to be taken," Ron whispered as the white queen stared at him. "It's the only way."

"NO!" We all shouted together. I looked at Fang again, and he looked so vulnerable. "This is chess!" he shouted back. "You make sacrifices! I go forward and she takes me, then your free to check the king, Harry!"

"Ron, I knew you were crazy but this-" Iggy started but Ron shouted, "Do you want to stop Snape getting the Stone? If you don't hurry up, he'll have it, and then he'll go bring You-Know-who back and they'll go live happily ever after together, while taking over the bloody world!" We stayed silent, and Ron, looking pale and determined, said, "Don't wait long after we've won."

Ron stepped forward, his bright red hair glowing in the torch light, and the queen went up to him and struck him around the head with her stone arm. He crashed to the floor, but it looked like Fang got it worse then Ron. Hermione screamed, and the queen dragged Ron over to the side and threw him down next to Fang like a rag-doll.

Harry was shaking as he stepped in front of the king. The king threw his crown at Harry's feet. We'd won. The chessmen bowed, and left, leaving the door ahead clear. Iggy was staring blindly into the space where he heard Fang and Ron being dropped and he looked back at us with a serious expression that was almost never on his face.

"I'm going to stay here with Fang and Ron. You three go ahead, I'll make sure they're fine." I was about to ask if he meant it, but by the look on his dust covered face, I knew he was.

"Ok, Ig. Please be careful and don't blow anything up. McGonagall still doesn't forgive you for blowing up that toilet on the fourth-floor after Christmas," I said as I hugged him tight. He hugged me back, then hugged Hermione and did a guy-hug with Harry, with all the back-thumping. Iggy walked slowly over to the wall, and we walked over to the door.

"What do you think is going to be next?" Harry asked.

"Well, we've had Sprout with the Devil's Snare, Flitwick must have the keys and McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive. Thats leaves Quirrell and Snape, " Hermione answered, counting off her fingers. We reached the door, and I pushed it open.

A horrid smell was in this chamber, and it made my eyes water. I looked around the chamber, and saw the source of the smell. There was a troll on the ground, out cold with a lump on his head. This one was bigger then the one from Halloween.

"Come, on. I can't breath," I said and we walked passed the troll and through the next door. The only thing in this room was a small table full of potions. Snape's. "What do we have to do?" I asked as we stepped closer to the table. As soon as we stepped away from the door,purple fire sprang up behind them, and black fire in front of the door that would lead us onwards. We were trapped.

"Look! Theres parchment on the table!" Hermione said and she seized a roll of parchment. She read out a complicated riddle, that meant three of the seven bottles on the table were poison, two were wine, one to get us through the black fire and one to get us through the purple fire. The thing was, which were which?

Hermione was beaming at the thought of a logic, and looked at me as if I might know the answer. "Don't look at me," I said, "I grew up in a cage, I know nothing about logic."

Hermione read the riddle over and over again, and finally she said, "Got it!" She moved closer to the table and said, "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire. To the Stone."

Me and Harry looked at the bottle she had pointed at. "There only enough for two."

"Which one gets you through the purple flames?" I asked, Hermione pointed to a rounded bottle. I picked it up and shoved it at Hermione. "You drink this one, and me and Harry will go get the Stone."

She looked offended, and before she could say anything, I said, "Hermione please! You are my best friend and I don't want you to get hurt. Please take the freaking potion before I force it down you throat. Go back to Iggy, he's really upset right now. Fang and Ron are like his brothers. Go back Hermione!"

She seemed reluctant, but after a few seconds silence, but she was going to drink the potion when Harry said, "Hermione!." She lowered the bottle and raised and eyebrow. "Grab the brooms from where all the keys are, go through the trapdoor and go straight to the Owlery. Send Hedwig, Freedom, Grenade or Stygian to Dumbledore, we need him. Me and Max might be able to hold Snape off for a while."

"What if You-Know-Whos with him?" she asked. That never occured to me before. "Well, I was lucky once before, wasn't I? I might get lucky again," Harry said. Hermione's lip trembled and she ran at me and Harry and she threw her arms around the both of us.

"Your a great wizard Harry, and your a great witch Max," she said and held us tighter. I blushed, and I knew Harry was too. "Well- were not anyway near as good as you are, Hermione," I said and she laughed and pulled away.

"Me? Books, and cleverness. There are more important things- better things, like friendship, loyalty, and bravery. And of course, im Max's case we have to add in attitude problem!" we laughed and Hermione drank her potion and hurried to the door. She turned back and said, "Be careful!" We nodded and she walked through the fire and out the door.

Harry picked up the smallest potion and opened it. He took a sip, then handed the bottle to me. I drank what awas left- which wasn't a lot- and together we walked through the black fire and through the door on the other side.

We entered the last chamber, and it was largest of all, but for a minute I thought it was empty. But as I looked around the room, I saw The Mirror of Erised standing in the middle of the room and in front of the mirror, was a man.

It wasn't Snape.

It wasn't Voldemort.

It was Professor Quirrell.

Wow, this is one of the longest chapters I've written... Anyway, what did you guys think? was it good?

was is complete crap? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

next chapter might be up tomorrow or not, but it will be up soon because I have no life so I can do this all day long :D

remember to REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!

-Rach ;) xxx