PascalDragon: I'm glad I've been able to keep your interest, yes Astoria will be a part of the story but I'm not sure how I would write her in yet, though that will be quite some time from now

plums: I'm sorry about that but I didn't plan for a full split from canon for quite a few years (in story time, though I guess real time too considering my story updating frequency) Some things will be the same but the sequence of events or additional scenes may be added just based on how I feel like the characters will react.

"Spoken dialogue or signs"

'Thought'

flashback/''dialogue"/'thought'


Relay

The Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade and the large crowd of returning Hogwarts students slowly piled out and waited for the magical carts that would transport them back to the lit up castle. A few of the first years still stared up at the castle in awe but the rest just conversed among their own groups of friends as it was with the older students.

A short while later and the Great Hall was filled to maximum capacity as the student body took their seats at their respective house tables, many greeting the few who stayed behind, except for Harry of course, though Hermione and Allison gave a friendly wave from their tables. He also made eye contact with Ron who just had an inquisitive look upon his face, as if he was trying to see through the black-haired boy. Ron then shook his head and sat down and resumed his normally boisterous chatter with Seamus and Dean.

'Interesting,' Harry thought. Daphne Greengrass did sit by Tracy Davis as expected but this time she didn't even nod, yet Tracy was unfazed. 'She did say Daphne had responsibilities toward her family name, maybe this is part of it.'

And so the usual Hogwarts atmosphere resumed itself and Harry sat, eating alone silently. Though he would've been perfectly accepting of others who talked to him, he wouldn't bother to try to break the status quo completely, at least not yet. And it seemed like others were willing to do the same, whether they were conscious of that idea or not.

The day after classes had finished, Harry had met with Hermione and Allison in the empty classroom they'd met in a few times before. "I learned who Nicolas Flamel is, thanks to the book you sent me over the holidays, Hermione. Also I may have a new acquaintance in fellow Slytherin Tracy Davis who badgered me constantly, but we did 'communicate' a little bit."

"Did you read that book, Hermione?" Allison asked.

"I did not, though I was planning to borrow it from Harry when he wasn't reading it," Hermione explained, "I guess I'm glad I found that book for you because now we have a lead." They turned back to Harry who continued.

"Dumbledore has dabbled in many fields of magic and also worked with Nicolas Flamel in alchemy, Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone which heals, turns metals to gold, and prolongs life."

"That sounds impossible, but many people think magic is impossible, I wonder what a long life with vast amounts of wealth would be like?" Allison wondered aloud.

"Most likely very lonely, if you lived forever you would outlive all of your loved ones and then you would be all alone, surely that would be a torturous existence," Hermione somberly said in response.

"Though it does depend on the person who has that kind of life, I can't imagine any of us would enjoy it though," Harry replied.

"If I had you two and our families together, I think we'd be fine, at least for a while," Allison said hopefully.

Harry said nothing at this but Hermione agreed with her. "So what should we do about the Philosopher's Stone? If that is indeed what's being guarded by the professors and Dumbledore himself?" He asked, bringing the topic back to what they'd initially come to discuss.

"Well, if the Stone hasn't been placed into the area under Fluffy yet then it would be pointless to go down there right now, and we don't even know how to get passed it yet," Allison pointed out, "We should just keep watch on Quirrell, wait until he makes a move before we try to get at it, or at least find out if he's actually trying to get it first before doing something for nothing."

"You're right, well besides that I didn't really find anything else out during the holidays, just some fun facts about alchemy. It's an ancient art and it isn't as practiced as it used to be and it's also rarely taught at Hogwarts so people don't even know about it nowadays. Muggles attempted it and have made a few things with it such as gunpowder with the Chinese alchemists as they were seeking to create the elixir of life but I'm thinking the reason they never really got anywhere far is because they didn't have the magical touch that we do, though the study of Alchemy was like the precursor to chemistry so the Muggles have come a long way since centuries ago," Harry told them, Allison and Hermione listening raptly. "However, even with the magical touch, magical alchemists have only really managed to figure out how to transmute and manipulate the elements and things and since Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker, there must be something that only he knows and figured out that is far beyond anything anyone has ever thought of in order to create the Philosopher's Stone, though they are certainly still trying."

"Maybe the reason alchemy is rare even in the magical world is not only because of the lack of it being taught but also because our magic alone can be used to do basically what alchemy does, though with less effort," Hermione suggested.

"It seems like the reason alchemy isn't so easy is not only due to the complexity but maybe because people are ignoring something obvious even with this power at our fingertips," Allison added. "Though if it was obvious, you'd think it would've been discovered already."

oOoOo

Slytherin House - Girls' Dormitory - Daphne Greengrass' Room

"Daphne, I get it, your status as a future head of the Greengrass family makes you want to rip your head off, but it's not like you have to shut yourself off from everyone, at the very least, you can always be open with me!" Tracy quietly pleaded to her best friend to stop shutting out everything for the twentieth time since classes resumed. Daphne was so still, at a glance it would seem as if she were a statue and not a living and breathing eleven year old girl. The only noticeable movements she made were her eyes blinking and her chest rising and falling as she breathed and the turning of the pages of one of her class books that she was studiously reading.

Daphne took a deep breath and sighed, turning to look at her best and only friend, she dropped her mask and showed the only emotion she had shown since . "You may be right, Tracy, but if I shut everything out then I also shut out the feelings that my life will bring me, you know this, you know why I've been like this since we were eight."

Tracy balled her hands up into fists, shaking. Clenching and unclenching her hands, she forced herself to calm down. "By the way, there's something I learned about Potter during the holidays."

No response.

"A long time ago, your's and Potter's families had problems with each other because of something that happened with a pig."

Daphne's eye twitched.

"Did you know about that? I wonder what that was all about, you know? What is it about a pig that would cause two families to fly at each other's throats?" Tracy wondered aloud, hoping to get a rise of any kind out of her stone-faced friend. Eventually she resolved to stay as silent as her friend.

The effort lasted for all of a week which was pretty impressive considering how energetic and talkative Tracy was normally and so she resolved to accomplish something else, though she wasn't sure if it was at all possible considering how they were.

oOoOo

Something was different about the students of Hogwarts and no one was quite sure what it was, every other student analyzing the others to see if anything stood out among the masses. Harry Potter, the usual suspect, was no different from his usual blank self. The members of each Quidditch team were also no different and the same went for the most famous or infamous members of other houses. It was such a small difference but this feeling of change yet unknowing of what it was drove the rumour-driven castle mad. Yet it was plain for very specific individuals to see.

'Tracy Davis and Daphne Greengrass sitting by Harry? Why?' were the words that Hermione and Allison were thinking when they glanced toward the Slytherin table. They, along with Harry and Tracy, were surprised that no one realized the one thing that changed was the Slytherin table seating dynamic. Such obvious things throughout the year so far yet somehow no one noticed them.

'How?' Harry thought baffled.

Harry said nothing. Tracy kept speaking about things to Daphne who, as one could expect, said nothing. Though, as she ate, Daphne was wondering what Tracy was up to. Normally she would have sat them at their usual place promptly and without trouble and Daphne followed along as usual but this time, at his usual seating.

Tracy didn't say anything about the why behind any of this. 'Maybe you just can't force good things to happen... or can you?'

The next few weeks was monotonous. Morning exercise, schoolwork, Quidditch practice. Marcus Flint still remembered what Harry had done during the first match and continued to practice in their rough way in preparation for their match against Ravenclaw later on in February.

The logic behind this was that the Ravenclaw team was incredibly skilled, even more so than Gryffindor was and they had an edge over their team in that their seeker, a second year student Cho Chang, was much less distractible and not as easily shaken as the Gryffindor's seeker Calum as well as being very comfortable with flying. In the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw match, she overpowered the other seeker and quickly caught the snitch within fifteen minutes with the Hufflepuff seeker having never even seen the snitch in the first place with the final score being 10 to 180.

Marcus Flint was really smug a short few days before their next match. "Listen up, Professor Snape's specifically requested to referee our match against Ravenclaw, that means we can pull off the small stuff right in front of him and we'll not be penalized for that, he favours Slytherin as you all know so we're in luck."

The day of the Slytherin vs Ravenclaw match, Harry was anxious to get flying for the game, he was hoping Cho Chang could give him a challenge. When the game started, the Slytherins were quite brutal in their play but the Ravenclaws were no pushovers either. Though the Slytherin chasers were constantly outplayed, the way they fought back in return caused the Ravenclaw chasers to not always throw the quaffle accurately.

The Ravenclaw beaters were in better condition though and fought back as often as they could against the Slytherin beaters. With Snape refereeing, the game went slow but steadily for an hour and a half with neither side scoring too many points in succession, though Ravenclaw was slowly starting to pull ahead. The reason neither Harry nor Cho Chang had found the snitch yet was due to the sky being darkened by total cloud wasn't raining but it sure felt like it would be, and therefore there was no light to give any hint of a reflection off of the golden snitch.

Flint even shouted at Harry. "Potter, hurry up and find the snitch before Chang flies into it and swallows the damn thing by accident!" That would certainly be a sight to see in spite of the disgusting image that was put into his mind. It was rough though.

Because of Harry's performance in the Gryffindor match, the Ravenclaw beaters had spent every spare second hitting the bludgers towards him and he certainly had quite a few bruises now. Finally, two hours after the start of the game it seemed like everyone was getting a lucky break because some clouds had thinned out slightly allowing a few muted rays of sunlight to shine down upon the area. The score was now 80 to 110 but it was still in favour of the Ravenclaws and the crowd was getting antsy, especially the Slytherin students, at this point anyone could win. At first everyone was cheering for the Ravenclaws and was hoping that Slytherin would finally lose a match for the first time in years but then, of course, they weren't too far behind yet.

"That snitch is mine, Potter! Like with the Hufflepuffs, you won't even get to see it!" Cho Chang taunted Harry from atop her Comet 260 broom and sped off, looking for any hint of the golden ball with the help of the golden rays from above. It was quite the match but it didn't end with anyone on the edge of their seats either because Harry flew into the snitch by accident and Cho Chang only realized that he had caught the winged gold ball when Lee Jordan announced his team's victory. "Potter's caught the Snitch," Lee Jordan announced to everyone. "Slytherin has won 250 to 120!" Slytherin house exploded with cheers while the students of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw only gave mild applause, dejected that the "dark house" won yet another game.

After that, for a month nothing else interesting happened besides the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff Quidditch match, which meant that even the usual gossip wasn't happening, no new couple that no one thought would happen or anything like that. Hermione and Allison kept sitting by and talking to Harry in spite of some of the professors clearly expressing their disapproval at two hard working and intelligent students hanging around the Potter turned Slytherin (or Potter turned dark wizard traitor) In the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match, their seeker Calum had been at an even pace with the Hufflepuff seeker and due to their equal skill, the game lasted for six hours with both sides excluding the keepers sustaining injuries acquired mostly by the exchanged bludgers, the points being far apart at 290 to 170 before the snitch was caught and after, 440 to 170 in favour of Gryffindor, no one really cheered for either side and only for the fact that it was finally over.

Harry, Hermione, and Allison weren't really focusing on the match, but they did keep an eye on Professor Quirrell who was watching the entire match looking bored, wearing the usual turban and purple robes. He didn't even glance over at Harry once. 'Well it's not like he's going to be entirely focused on me, why would he be? It's not like he knows that I know... right?'

But something did finally change not soon after that last Quidditch match. It seemed like Quirrell was stuttering more than ever, paler, thinner. Sometimes he wouldn't even show up to the Great Hall at night. He wasn't sure what and Hermione and Allison weren't sure either even though they kept an eye on him whenever they could, though he was muttering to himself a lot more, even when he wasn't alone.

"I'm worried, if Quirrell is going to go for the Stone, why hasn't he? He seems like he's ready to outright yell that he's going for it and blasting his way passed Fluffy and through whatever else is beneath the Cerberus," Hermione whispered to them during a study session in the library.

Harry threw up a wall of silence, just in case anyone was nearby. "Maybe we should try to go for the Stone tonight? Find it and return it to Nicolas Flamel without Quirrell knowing or we break it and that way no one will have the method to prolong their life anymore. Also Quirrell won't be able to run off with it when he finally does break, you're right, he does seem close to it."

"Would we be able to? Even if we got passed Fluffy, who knows what other kinds of challenges are down there? Surely the professors would have added their own spells, their own magical defenses and special skills to the mix. You could try blasting through it all if you tried, Harry, but they surely have alarms or some kind of system to alert them to anyone breaking in," Allison asked.

"All of this research and snooping around would've been for nothing if we didn't at least attempt it," Harry reminded them. "So? What should we do?"

"Alright, but how would we get around the castle? The prefects have rounds and even the professors themselves are out and about." Allison posed yet another problem.

"Harry, didn't you turn us invisible back during Halloween? You can just do that again, right?" Hermione said in response.

"I could, but there's something I completely forgot about after I found out about Nicolas Flamel. When I got your presents, there was also another package that I received. It had no name and just said that it was originally my father's but there was also a dark spell that I'm pretty sure it was meant to change me, along with several tracking and compulsion charms placed upon the cloak. I had to completely break those spells before the cloak was safe," Harry told them seriously. "Whoever sent this invisibility cloak clearly meant to control me but now I'm wondering if they realize what I did, it has been a couple months since then and nothing new has happened so either they're still watching me and biding their time before they act again or they just haven't noticed. As for why I'm mentioning this now is because, as Allison said, the professors would have added their own little touches to the defenses for the Stone, I think a basic disillusionment spell could be broken by them but this cloak... It had countless numbers of runes etched into every fiber, every little stitch that made the thing. I feel like this would probably be able to get through without being detected by any basic spells, not that I've tried using it at all but it's probably better than anything else available to us."

"Okay, so we have the cloak, but there's still the whole thing about getting passed Fluffy, clearly Hagrid knows about it since he got it from that Greek person. We could ask him about how to get passed it," Allison suggested.

"Though he does seem to be against telling us or anyone anything related to the Stone, we would have to trip him up in order to get him to spill his secrets, I think that will probably be the easiest part of this whole plan," Hermione added. "Speaking of Hagrid..." She turned around and saw Hagrid shuffling out of the library with something hidden behind his back. "What do you think that's about?"

"I'll go check," Allison replied, and went off to the aisle of shelves that Hagrid had been walking from. She'd seen him the whole time but now she was curious. Harry had been watching as well. Not a minute later and she was back. "He was in the section about dragons, but why would he be hiding a book about dragons? We haven't visited him in over a month, this might be our chance, are we still going for the Stone tonight? Let's figure this out before we head down there at the very least."

"Alright, let's do that," Harry and Hermione agreed.

oOoOo

"Oh hey, what are you three doing here?" Hagrid said, sweaty and somewhat frantic.

"Hi Hagrid, we haven't visited in a while, we were hoping it was alright to come by," Allison said cheerfully. She actually was genuinely happy to see the man, he was friendly and loved animals and she loved talking to him about that.

"It's, er, it's not a good time right now, could you come back later?" Hagrid glanced back into his house before looking back at them.

"Please? Hagrid? We just want to talk and hang around with you, what are you busy with?"

Hagrid seemed to be struggling with himself before he sighed. "Alright, alright, hurry in then." He quickly closed the door behind them.

The trio reeled back the moment they got inside because it was incredibly hot. Not only was it already warm outside but Hagrid had a huge fire going. "What did yeh all want to talk about?"

"Well for one thing, is that an egg underneath your kettle?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, it's a dragon egg, won it off of some cloaked fellow while I was at the village, having drinks and playing cards, I got this book from the library about how to care for it, make it hatch. I'm so glad that I met that man, I've always wanted a dragon for myself, yeh know?" Hagrid said whistling, stoking the fire.

Hearing the last sentence put Harry on edge and he frowned. "That's awesome Hagrid, but aren't breeding dragons illegal?" Hagrid didn't seem to hear Harry. "What did he look like?"

"No idea, he wouldn't take his cloak off." More worry.

"Say Hagrid?" Hermione asked. Hagrid turned to look at them. "Dumbledore trusts you, right? That must mean you know a lot about what happens around Hogwarts right? That's a very important job!" Harry was impressed and Allison stared at her with disbelief. Hagrid didn't notice any of that and puffed up with pride. "Could you tell us who helped guard whatever it is in the Third Floor corridor? We're just curious about who else Dumbledore trusted besides you and it's not like we can do anything about it."

"Well I suppose there's no harm in that. The professor borrowed Fluffy from me then Professors' Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, and Professor Quirrell provided their own enchantments and defenses. Oh, Dumbledore himself personally added something to that and Professor Snape as well, but that's all I know, I don't know what they did so don't try to ask, alright?"

"Absolutely!" Hermione beamed. They now had a few ideas about a few of the defenses that might be available.

"When this man gave you that egg, what did you two talk about?" Harry asked, he had to figure it out. Hagrid, a lover of great creatures of all kinds and especially wanted a dragon, just happened to run into someone who had a dragon egg with him? .

"Ah, well he asked me what I did and I told him I was the gamekeeper here at Hogwarts so then he asked me what kind of creatures I took to and... I can't really remember because he kept buying me drinks, so I mentioned I'd always wanted a dragon and he said he had an egg and that we could play fer it but that he wouldn't give it to me unless he was sure I could handle it so I told him 'Well after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy'," Hagrid spilled to them with no worry about any of this. But, in spite of the stifling heat in Hagrid's hut, Harry, Hermione, and Allison felt cold to the core.

"D-did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Allison asked, worry clear in her voice, but Hagrid didn't notice, he kept on talking.

"Well yeah, how many times do you hear about a three-headed dog even at Hogwarts? So I told him about Fluffy and how I got him and that it's so easy to calm him down, just play a bit of music and he'll go straight off to sleep-." Hagrid looked horrified. "I shouldn't have told you that, I should not have told you that." All of them looked horrified. "You must not tell anyone, especially Dumbledore, that I told you that alright, I shouldn't have said anything I said too much, you all must leave now, go back to your dorms, have lunch, whatever, just don't let anyone know what I told you today!" Hagrid rushed them out of his hut and slammed the door behind them.

Harry threw up another wall of silence. "That is most likely Quirrell, what kind of coincidence is it that Hagrid, always wanting a dragon, just happens to run into some person at Hogsmeade with a dragon egg? We can't take any more chances, we definitely have to try to get at that Stone now. Quirrell is the only professor at Hogwarts that's panicking about something, what could anyone be worrying about? Especially as a 'simple' professor at Hogwarts? Voldemort is gone and it's a time of relative peace."

"Speaking of which, that was quite the acting there, Hermione, though I feel like it wouldn't have taken that much to convince Hagrid to speak, we didn't even really have to trip him up like we thought initially," Allison said with a shaky laugh. Hermione beamed in return.

"So, what's the plan? We know who did what now and we just have to ready ourselves," Harry asked as they walked on the grassy lawn in between Hagrid's hut and the Hogwarts castle.

"You definitely need to get your cloak first, we'll meet up in that empty classroom, hide underneath and then head to the third floor corridor," Hermione spoke quickly, figuring this out aloud.

"We also need to get something that can play music, or do you think we could try singing to Fluffy?" Allison added.

"We could try if we can't find anything, but they play music around Hogwarts sometimes, right? Surely there's a place where instruments are kept, after all, they keep old brooms around," Hermione sped up, Harry and Allison also picking up the pace, urgency in their hearts.

"Okay, I'll meet you guys in the empty classroom in thirty minutes, make sure no one thinks you're up to anything, alright?" Harry whispered to them and almost ran off. He kept repeating to himself to keep calm as he got closer to the Slytherin dungeons. As he entered the common room, he noticed that there were a few older students studying, some were crying, others were just lying face first on the floor and Tracy was sitting, flipping through a book at one of the tables with a far off look. Tracy was also alone which was a surprise considering how often they were around each other. He seriously hoped she didn't have anything to ask or that she wouldn't bother him too much. 'She still keeps making me sit with her and Daphne at every meal, unless I'm sitting with Hermione and Allison at the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw tables, why?'

"Hey Potter, Daphne went to bed early," Tracy had noticed him and her mood brightened considerably and she practically bounced over.

'Early? It's not even time for dinner yet, that's earlier than early,' Harry thought curiously. "And?"

"Well I figured that we could study together, I may as well do that now and you're not busy, right?"

'If I say I'm also going to bed early, she'll probably be suspicious.' Harry cursed his luck. "If you want, I was just going to send a letter off then head back to the library so you can come along if you want."

"Great!" Tracy cheered and ran to get her books.

'Studying? Now? Just because she's bored? What's going on with Daphne?' Harry went to his room to grab the cloak and stuffed it into his bag. He had to send a letter to Hermione and Allison telling them what happened so he had to call Hedwig. Back when Hedwig had come to him out of the blue, he was unsure why, but then he noticed a pattern. Whenever he thought about Hedwig or wanted to just sit with her, she would come flying to him not long after. He wasn't sure if it was a normal thing that happened with magical pets or partners. Harry quickly wrote a note and kept it ready in his pocket.

As Tracy followed Harry into the Entrance Hall, Hedwig came gliding down to him. "Go to Allison and Hermione," he whispered to her, passing the note along and the snowy owl held it tight within her talons.

As she flew off, Tracy told Harry, "Your owl is gorgeous, does she always come to you? My family's owl never arrives without a letter from my parents and the same goes with me to them."

'So maybe it's only unique to me?' Harry wondered. He didn't answer her question and kept walking in the direction of the library. As he entered, nodding to Madam Pince who smiled at him, Tracy took him by the arm and dragged him over to an occupied table. The table was occupied by Daphne.

"I thought you said Daphne went to bed early?" Harry asked suspiciously. Not only was he antsy to get to the Stone but now he wanted to get away from whatever situation he was being forced into by Tracy.

Clearly feigning ignorance, she said, "I don't know what you're talking about, who goes to bed this early in the day?"

"Tracy, I thought you were just going to the bathroom, why is Potter here?" Daphne asked blankly, glancing up only once at Tracy and Harry's approach.

"I just thought he would want to study with us, that's all," Tracy easily said with a smile.

"Ridiculous, he's the top of our year and if he studies with anyone then it would be with Miss Granger and Miss Taylor," she uttered in the same flat tone. "Why is he here?"

"I would like to know that too," Harry said just as flat as Daphne had spoken.

Daphne's eye twitched.

"Oh come on, we're all friends, we can study together without having to ask questions!" Tracy cheerfully said, quietly.

"We're not friends."

"I'm not his friend."

'Wow, they are like two peas in a pod,' Tracy thought as they responded to her last comment. "You could try to be friends?"

"I don't want to be."

"That was never my intention either, Ms. Davis," Harry said.

Another twitch.

"There's nothing wrong with trying to be friends!"

"How about the letters I kept getting about harassing her and that I'd be in legal trouble if I kept doing so?"

Silence from Tracy.

Yet another twitch from Daphne.

Finally, Daphne spoke as they all just sat there in silence. "Those letters were to discourage any irrelevant person from trying to seek a relationship with any noble house heir as that subject is for any current noble house head to decide upon with other such families."

With Daphne revealing that information, Tracy then felt comfortable enough to speak again. "Then that means there's no problem! You can become friends, it's not like you're going to date, it's just impossible!" She felt triumphant, how else could they refute this?

Daphne didn't respond.

Harry didn't respond.

"I still don't want to be his friend."

'The ice of Daphne Greengrass, smiling yet shadowed, I still want to know what that's about, this is probably it but I still want to know more,' Harry thought. "Neither do I, but clearly she's being stubborn for some reason, may as well say yes so that Ms. Davis will stop with this."

A minute passed in silence. "Fine."

Tracy beaming widely said nothing.

"Can I go now?" Harry asked.

"Nope! You're still studying with us!" Tracy answered firmly, her sickeningly wide grin showing no sign of stopping.

Harry sighed. "Fine."

oOoOo

"It's a good thing you sent that letter to us, Harry, otherwise we would've been waiting here for hours," Hermione said with violin in her hand

"I hope that we don't have to sound good to make Fluffy fall asleep," Allison said worriedly, staring at the instrument in the other girl's hand.

"I could try floating it up so that it can't attack us," Harry suggested jokingly. Seeing their disbelief, he added, "I can make myself float if I focus hard enough but that's all I can do, of course, it's easier with the levitation spell."

"Okay, let's just see if this works before you get us killed with anything else Mr. All-Powerful," Allison said, rolling her eyes.

oOoOo

"It worked!" Hermione cheered. "It sounded terrible but it worked!" The giant three-headed dog called Fluffy was sound asleep as Hermione kept on "playing" the violin. Harry ran over and quickly forced the trapdoor open.

"I'll go in first, if I have to, I'll be able to catch you both," Harry uttered before jumping into the pitch black hole. A rush of air and Harry landed with a loud thump on something soft. "What is this?"

Allison jumped and landed beside him in the dark. The faint violin sounds kept coming as Hermione kept "playing" and jumped. The moment she stopped playing the violin, Fluffy had woken up but because it didn't smell anything but itself nor did it see anything, it lied down and waited. Hermione landed with a thump as well but it also caused her to throw the violin and the bow and it smashed against a wall, breaking.

"Well, I just realized what this is," Harry said.

"Devil's Snare," Allison said weakly.

"Hold on, hold on, I know a spell for this, they're weak to light and heat and..." Hermione waved her wand and said, "Incendio!" Flames flew forth from her wand and it caused the Devil's Snare to loosen its grip on all their bodies as it tried to hide away from the light and heat. Standing up and dusting themselves off, the flames from the fire-making spell showed a stone passageway, the only path that was available to them. The fire, in the damp environment, quickly went out and so the trio was engulfed in darkness once more. A short while ahead they noticed a lit room and...

"Do you hear that?" Allison said, straining her ears to hear.

"It sounds like... metal?" Hermione wondered, also straining to hear.

They entered the room and up above, there were hundreds upon hundreds of glittering winged... "Keys?" Harry wondered. They were all gold coloured with multi-coloured wings. "Are we supposed to use one of them to unlock the door?"

"Let's see if we can open it first, this is clearly Flitwick's enchantment," Allison said and crossed the room to try to open the door. She pulled but it didn't budge.

Hermione tried alohomora but it also did nothing.

"There are broomsticks, maybe we have to use one of these keys to unlock the door?" Harry said, walking over to the aforementioned brooms. The old school-issued brooms.

"But there are so many of them! How will we ever know which one to use?"

"Well..." Harry thought, "Maybe it requires a silver key like the handle?"

"No way, Professor Flitwick wouldn't make it that easy," Allison said looking up at the flying keys with apprehension.

"It's better than nothing, come on," Harry shrugged. He grabbed one of the brooms and kicked off, Hermione and Allison following behind not a minute after. Harry's eyes darted all over before finally settling on... a silver key! "There it is!" Harry said pointing. Hermione and Allison then saw the silver key too and they all went after it, Harry in the lead. Any keys in their way kept darting out of the way, just out of reach. The silver key was especially flighty and kept dodging their efforts way in advance. Eventually though, they all surrounded it and closed in on it, it sped towards Allison who reached out but it dodged and sped off towards Harry who did the same but Hermione closed in and roughly gripped the silver key in her hand. They all cheered but the key was struggling to get free and so Hermione dived, landed softly, and quickly unlocked the door before letting go, part of its left wing was rumpled from Hermione's grip but it was still fast and it disappeared in the multicoloured cloud of keys.

Adrenaline coursing through them all, they quickly entered the next room which was dark but as witches and wizard stepped into it fully, torches along the walls lit up suddenly revealing a giant chessboard and they were standing on the edge of it. Huge chess pieces stood on both sides, with another door behind the white pieces.

"Do either of you know how to play chess?" Harry asked.

"No," they both said.

Harry cursed. "Should I try to blast these pieces apart?" He asked aloud. As he said this, the white pieces moved to ready their blades while the black pieces turned around ominously before facing them and also readying their weapons."Okay..." He said and took two steps back, Hermione and Allison also following suit. "What should we do?"

"Er, Ron knows about chess, he plays it whenever he can get anyone to join him," Hermione told them. "I just don't know if we should tell him and if he would even help us considering he has no obligation to help us in the first place, especially..." She looked at Harry.

"Especially me... yeah, I know," Harry said with a sigh. "Should we go back?"

Seeing no other option besides Harry trying to blast the giant chess pieces into rubble and endangering Hermione and Allison in the process, the trio went back through the room of winged keys and up passed the Devil's Snare. Through the trapdoor and running from Fluffy.

"We tried, but we need to get Ron to help us," Harry said to them.

"I'll make him talk to me alone, then we can try to convince him," Hermione gasped.

oOoOo

"Do you need something, Hermione?" Ron asked confused. They hadn't really talked to each other throughout the year and now she was telling him they needed to talk. So far she had said nothing and instead walked off. He was curious so he followed her while Seamus and Dean stayed behind.

She went through a door into an empty classroom and Ron followed. When he saw Harry, he froze.

"Wha-?" Ron began to say but Harry interrupted him.

"Hello Ron, I want to talk."