Author's Note: I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling.
Thanks for all of your continuous support on the story, it means a lot to me.
The new year had come around surprisingly fast and the students of Hogwarts were quickly returning to Scotland for another term at the British school for Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first week back was relaxing but then the Professors started to grill them about their exams. Even though the end-of-year examinations were months away, the majority of the student body had taken the revision advice and done something with it. Hermione took the tests more seriously than anyone else before O.W.L. She was anxious about her tests because muggles used levels to mark students and if they were bad, they would be moved down to the lower class for less-capable people. This was a point that the Professors did not know about that made any muggle-born students worry even further.
During the next few weeks, everyone in the castle had taken to revising when they could, bar a few notable people, Ronald Weasley, Theodore Nott and Malfoy's henchmen from Slytherin were a few offenders but everyone expected this. Though the Professors tried to drill the habit of studying into them, they wouldn't listen or heed the advice if they had. After the incident with Filch and Dumbledore during the holidays, the number of prefects around the castle had doubled, though no-one but Harry and Dumbledore knew why. 'The mirror is the most elusive artefact in the world right now' Harry thought after nearly getting caught out of bed again by Percy Weasley and his puffed-out chest.
At the weekend, Harry and Zoe had gone to find Hermione after she had fallen asleep doing some revision at one of the desks in the library. "Hermione. Wake up, Hermione." Zoe whispered gently. The bookworm didn't budge. "Hold on Zoe. I've got this. Hey- Hermione, Professor Flitwick wants to see you about your grades". Hermione shot up from her slumber with a worried look in her eyes. She looked around for the half-goblin and snarled at Harry for his method of waking her up "Harry! Don't do that. You gave me a heart attack." He apologised but sat down on one side of Hermione and Zoe on the other. "I'm sorry but I need to ask you two a question. I think we need to look down the trapdoor again, now that we know how to deal with fluffy and the large drop.
The girls stared at Harry in disbelief. "Harry, you can't be serious about this. It's incredibly dangerous, plus, how would we get back up from whatever is at the bottom of the trapdoor?" Neville came over and asked about the girls' shocked faces. Harry explained and Neville was with him on this point. "It should be easy to get back up using a seize and pull charm. I looked it up. It's a third-year charm but it should be easy. It can pull the caster to a fixed point if the item is fixed to something, so we aim it at the ceiling of the room above the trapdoor and escape. The incantation is Carpe Retractum. This was one of the points in Neville's life where people considered him being in Ravenclaw. The charm wasn't meant for this but would definitely work. Thanks to Neville's logic and some coaxing from Harry, the girls reluctantly agreed.
The plan was set to take place the next weekend after they had all practised the seize and pull charm along with the cushioning charm: 'Molliare'. The weekend approached and all four had learnt the spells needed off by heart with the plan carefully embedded in their heads. At 1:00 pm on Sunday, whilst everyone else was either outside or in the great hall for lunch, the four people headed off to the third-floor corridor and silently unlocked the door, walked through and closed the door again. It was lucky that Fluffy was already asleep by the time they had got there. The locking charm and disillusionment charm were placed upon the door after it had closed. Zoe charmed a harp in the corner to play softly and Neville opened the trapdoor. All four children peeked through the hole and lit their wands using Lumos. Hermione placed a cushioning charm at the bottom and showing success, it found an object with a loud squishing sound.
Harry spoke up "Alright, I'll call up for the next person to come down when I have landed. Here we go." He jumped down through the trapdoor and fell at least 50 metres down. The hole was merely a small square of light now. He landed on a squishy object and called for the next person to come down. Hermione bravely took a leap and met Harry at the bottom. Neville joined them a minute later and Zoe a further minute later. They lit their wands again and found themselves trapped in a plant with disgusting green tendrils and it covered the entire area of the circle they were trapped in. Then Neville helpfully identified it as the Devil's Snare, except engorged slightly. So he relaxed and simply fell right through to the stone below him. Hermione was next and then Zoe. Harry had tried to relax but it was difficult to say the least, as a tendril had found its way around his neck and was slowly trying to crush his windpipe.
Hermione was distraught and recounted the rhyme that Professor Sprout had told them "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. It's deadly fun… but will sulk in the sun. That's it, we need sunlight or fire. Frigus Incendio!" The plant released its capture and Harry dropped to the stone. "Thanks, Hermione, what would I do without you?" She blushed and helped him up. There were a set of steps leading back up to the Devil's Snare to get out, so that helped them all slightly. There was also a path that led into a larger room that had a layout like a giant chessboard. The pieces of marble were dyed either pearl white or jet black and they were decorated like wizards chess pieces. That was a big mistake in Harry's eyes as a powerful enough redactor curse or exploding curse would demolish any stone structure. Deciding that they had had enough of exploring today, they all went back up to lunch and made sure to keep their adventure a secret.
Yes, they are smart enough to be able to do these more difficult spells and Harry is certainly strong enough. I am gradually heading towards the Harmony relationship and taking small steps like the one here towards it. Also the bluebell flames weren't in the films and the incantation was never in the books, so I went with a Latin translation for Cold Fire (Frigus Ignis) and changed it slightly.