I am sorry for the ridiculously long wait, but real life got in my way for a while. If there is anyone left still reading this story I hope you enjoy it, and as you all already know I don't own the story, or any of the characters.

Chapter 10

The four young students hid as well as they could under the invisibility cloak. They made their way to the third floor corridor as quietly as possible.

"Ouch! You stood on my foot!" Hermione whisper yelled at Ron.

"Sorry." Ron whispered back.

"Let's try not to draw any attention to ourselves over a stubbed toe please." Cedric whispered.

"Sorry." Hermione whispered.

When they made it to Fluffy's room Hermione whispered alohomora and the door unlocked. They all ran inside and were relieved and at the same time alarmed to see Fluffy already asleep to music from a harp with a spell on it.

"Snape has already been here." Harry said as he took the cloak off of all of them.

"We better hurry after him." Ron said running to the trap door.

"Give me a hand with this will you." Ron said to Cedric.

Cedric grabbed the opposite end of the trap door and pulled it open with Ron.

"Alright if we see Snape down there we have to disarm him before anything else. He is much more powerful than all of us combined. Our best chance is to catch him by surprise." Cedric said to the three young Gryffindors around the trap door who all nodded with determination and a glint of fear in their eyes.

"Uhhhh!" Ron shouted as drool dripped down his shoulder.

"Jump!" Harry shouted and pushed Ron into the trap door. Hermione and Cedric went in next and Harry followed quickly before Fluffy could attack them.

They fell into a large plant that began to tangle itself around them.

Cedric knew right away it was Devil's Snare. He just wished he could remember how to defeat it.

"What is this stuff!?" Ron shouted frightened.

"It's Devil's Snare!" I just can't remember how to kill it!" Cedric yelled back.

"Devil's Snare, you're right. We all need to relax. It's the only way to get out of this!" Hermione said as she stopped struggling and began to sink deeper into the snare.

"Hermione no!" Cedric panicked as he saw Hermione disappear.

"What happened to her!" Ron shouted close to hysterics.

"I'm fine. Just relax." Hermione said from somewhere below them.

Harry relaxed and disappeared like Hermione had.

"They're not relaxing are they?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Of course not." Hermione said as she began pacing trying to think of the way to kill Devil's Snare.

"Of course! Deadly fun but will sulk in the sun that's it Devil's Snare hates sunlight!" Hermione shouted excitedly.

She took out her wand and shouted lumos solem at the Devil's Snare. It began to shrivel up and Ron and Cedric fell out of it.

"Phew good think we didn't panic." Ron said as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"If that was you not panicking I think we'd be better off if you waited here." Hermione said.

Cedric laughed and Hermione fixed him with a glare.

"I don't know what you find so funny because you were just as scared as he was." Hermione said.

"Scared, me, no I just didn't want to leave him up there all by himself. I could have got out of that at any time." Cedric said brushing off the danger they were just in.

"Do you realize that if I couldn't remember the devil's snare weakness you would both probably be dead. Please don't take this lightly."

"I'm not. I'm sorry okay. It's not easy to relax when you have plants wrapping themselves around your body."

"You were lucky Hermione pays attention in Herbology." Harry said.

"Yeah we are. Come on lets hurry before Snape gets the stone." Cedric said taking the lead.

They entered a big room with a huge door that turned out to be locked.

"Now what are we going to do?" Ron said.

"Look up there. Are those birds?" Hermione asked pointing high above them.

"No those are… keys." Cedric said.

"Look there's brooms here. We can fly up and find the right one." Harry said wasting no time grabbing a broom mounting it and flying up to the keys.

Ron followed right after Harry and Cedric looked over at a frightened Hermione.

"You can stay here. I'm sure between the three of us we can catch it." Cedric told Hermione gently.

"No I want to help… I'm fine really I am." Hermione said defiantly and jumped into the air.

Cedric followed after her.

"Which one is it? They all look the same." Cedric yelled to the others.

"I don't know I guess we could try them all one at a time." Ron suggested.

"That would take too long." Harry said back.

"Look! It's that one!" Hermione shouted and she took off flying towards one of the keys. She expertly grabbed the key she was after and showed it to the boys.

"Look this one has an injured wing which is probably from being used to open the door."

"Brilliant Hermione! Let's try it." Harry said as they all flew back to the ground.

"I think you better watch out Potter there may be a better seeker in Gryffindor." Cedric said smirking.

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Hermione asked but smiled anyway.

"Who said I was joking. That was some amazing flying you just did." Cedric exclaimed.

"Well I had a good teacher."

"Ugh can we please keep moving." Ron interrupted.

The four students would have never imagined their next task would be to play a board game, but they found themselves on a giant chess board with missing pieces.

"What is this rubbish? Don't tell me we have to be the missing pieces." Cedric complained.

"I think that's exactly what we have to do." Hermione said.

"Alright, look I've been playing chess since I was three. I know I can do this. Harry you be the bishop, Hermione you be the rook, Cedric the pawn, and I'll be the knight."

No one argued with Ron. They all knew he was by far the best chess player of the four of them.

"Do you think this is going to be like wizards chess?" Hermione asked from her spot on the board.

"Well we'll figure that out soon enough." Ron said.

When Ron made a mistake they found out that it was exactly like wizards chess. The piece was smashed by the other teams' piece.

After that first mistake Ron was really impressive moving the pieces by shouting out the space numbers and the pieces names. Everyone did as Ron said without questioning him and he managed not to kill any of them… yet.

"Alright this is almost over, but the only way we win is if I sacrifice myself." Ron said to everyone calmly.

"No Ron you can't!" Hermione shouted.

"It'll be okay. If I'm hurt you guys have to go on without me. The most important thing is that you stop Snape from getting the stone and the only way that will happen is if I do this. Don't worry about me. I couldn't help with the Devil's Snare, or the flying keys, so I'm glad I could get you get through this. Now when the queen attacks me Harry can say checkmate and the game will be over. Are you ready?"

Everyone solemnly nodded. Hermione had tears in her eyes.

"Knight to H3!" Ron shouted and moved to the space. The white Queen then began moving towards him. No one could move including Ron who had to just stand there and take the hit.

The Queen swung her staff and hit Ron over the head. He fell to the floor and didn't move.

"Ron!" Hermione shouted and was about to move.

"No! Don't move. Remember we're still playing." Harry said as he made his move and yelled out checkmate.

The white king's sword fell from his hands and the game was over. They all ran over to Ron.

"Is he dead?" Hermione cried.

"No he's just knocked out." Cedric said after checking for a pulse.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"He'll probably be out for a while. Should we just leave him here like this?" Cedric said with his hand on Ron's shoulder.

"We have to. Ron said it himself. Snape has to be stopped."

"It just doesn't seem right." Cedric said looking at Ron without glaring or joking for maybe the first time ever.

"The faster we stop Snape the faster we can come back for him." Harry said to a crying Hermione and stunned Cedric.

They both nodded and got up to follow Harry to the next room.

In the next room they found a knocked out troll.

"Thank Merlin this was done for us." Cedric said and they kept walking.

They opened the next door afraid of what was on the other side, but the only thing they could see was a table with seven bottles on it.

"This doesn't look that bad." Cedric said.

They stepped across the threshold and purple fire blocked the doorway going back and black fire blocked the doorway going forward.

Harry and Hermione looked at Cedric.

"Never mind." Cedric said looking down sheepishly.

"Look there's a note." Hermione said picking up a piece of paper next to the table.

"What do we have to do?" Harry asked.

Hermione read the note out loud.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."

"It's a riddle. One of the potions will make whoever drinks it be able to cross the flames."

"So, only one of us can go on." Cedric stated.

"I'll do it." Harry volunteered.

"No I'm the oldest I'll do it." Cedric said.

"Let's not argue about this. Let's figure this out first." Hermione scolded the boys.

"There are three poisons, a potion that lets you go back, one that lets you go forward, and two potions that do nothing. " Hermione said.

They were there for a half hour trying to figure out what potion was what.

"If I'm correct them this potion will make you cross the purple flames back and either this small one or this big one will get you through the black flames to go forward." Hermione said.

"You mean you don't know which one is the right one?" Harry asked.

"Do you know where the poisons are?" Cedric asked.

"I'm sorry but I don't know where all the poisons are."

"Well then it looks like we'll both be drinking after all." Cedric said to Harry."

"What! No way. I won't let you do that. One of you will die."

"What else can we do? We are wasting time in here." Harry said.

"Then I'm drinking one." Hermione said.

"Like hell you are." Cedric said.

"Why does it have to be the two of you?" Hermione asked irritated.

"I won't let you drink it." Cedric said taking the two bottles off the table.

"Diggory you are a stubborn…"

"Do you really want those to be your last words to me?" Cedric interrupted trying to joke but his voice cracked.

Hermione's eyes watered and she turned to Harry.

"Please give me more time. Maybe I can figure the riddle out."

"We've been here long enough like Ron said the most important thing is to stop Snape." Harry said taking a bottle from Cedric.

"It's not worth one of your lives." Hermione said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

She threw her arms around Harry and cried even harder. Then she threw her arms around Cedric.

"Don't cry Hermy. One of these is probably just the wine." Cedric said brushing her tears off her cheeks.

"If one of us does get poisoned then Hermione you have to drink the potion that gets you through the purple flames and go get help as fast as possible." Harry told her.

Hermione nodded trembling in fear.

Cedric and Harry nodded to each other and drank their potions quickly while Hermione was near hysterics.

They both stared at each other waiting for the other to collapse on the floor, but nothing happened.

"How do you feel?" Cedric asked cautiously.

"I feel fine." Harry shrugged. "You?"

"I feel grea…"Cedric stopped mid-sentence and fell to his knees holding his stomach.

"Cedric!" Hermione shouted grabbing his shoulders and keeping him from falling to the ground.

"You need to go get help! Hurry Hermione we don't know what kind of poison he drank!" Harry shouted.

Hermione nodded with tears streaming down her face. She laid Cedric's upper body down as gently as she could and drank the potion for the purple flames. Then she ran through them faster than Harry had ever seen her run before.

Harry stood with Cedric who was groaning on the floor. Sweat was dripping off him and he was turning really red.

"You'll be okay Cedric. Hermione is getting help."

"Keep going Harry." Cedric pushed Harry away from him with all the strength he could muster, which wasn't a lot.

"Hurry before your potion wares off. You have to stop Snape. By the time help comes it could be too late." Cedric panted.

"Hermione will kill me if I leave you alone." Harry said earning a small smile from Cedric.

Cedric's smile turned into a grimace and his face turned serious as he spoke to Harry.

"Voldemort will kill us all if you don't." Cedric wheezed out before he passed out.

"Cedric? Cedric?" Harry said shaking his friend.

Cedric didn't wake up, but Harry could still feel a faint pulse at Cedric's wrist, so he knew he wasn't dead… yet.

"Hang on mate. If you die it's all my fault." Harry said to his unconscious friend. He gave Cedric's shoulder a squeeze before getting up and turning towards the black flames.

Harry, who was now alone took one last look back at his friend and hoped Ron, Hermione, and Cedric would be okay. Harry took a deep breath and moved forward through the flames.