Chapter Twelve: Through the Trapdoor

Not having a better plan, that was exactly what they did. They worked out a schedule where every day, one of them would periodically go to the forbidden corridor under the Invisibility Cloak to check on Fluffy, even at night.

It was difficult to keep the surveillance up while they also had to work on their schoolwork, which had now become so much that it seemed to fill their every waking moment, until at long last the exams finally begun.

Daphne fought her way through them and felt she'd done pretty well, given that she still had nightmares about the forest from time to time, and that a part of her was worried that Voldemort would, in fact, find a way past the protections around the Stone.

But against her expectations, the exams went by without issue and Fluffy remained unharmed. She was beginning to hope that despite her doubts, Dumbledore had been telling the truth, and that Voldemort really wouldn't manage to get his hands on the Stone.

Then, however, one warm afternoon, while the four of them were lounging by the lake, Harry suddenly yelped and pressed his hands over his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"My forehead just felt like someone was driving a nail into it," Harry said. "I don't know what it means, but it can't be good. Stay here, I'm going to check on Fluffy."

He got up and made his way over to the castle.

"I hope nothing bad has happened," Hermione said anxiously.

"Me too. Harry told me his scar usually only hurts after nightmares," Daphne said.

The lazy, sleepy feeling she'd been feeling just seconds before was completely gone and she furiously hoped that Harry would soon come back with good news, although every second he was gone made her more nervous.

To her great surprise, however, Harry did indeed come back with good news.

"Fluffy's still there," he said. "The door is also still locked. Whatever it was, the Stone is still safe. But I think we'll need to be on our guard tonight. I just wish we could keep Daphne in the loop somehow, so we can all go and check on Fluffy together. It'll be a bit tight to get all four of us under the Cloak, but we should be able to do it."

Daphne thought about that for a moment. "Well…I do have an idea…but I'm not sure if you'll like it," she said.

"If the Stone is in danger, we'll have a lot more to worry about than House points," Harry said grimly.

"Okay, how about this, then: you give me the Cloak for tonight and tell me where your common room is. Then I'll either wait in the hallway outside under the Cloak for you to arrive, or we set a time and one of you lets me into the Gryffindor common room and I'll stay hidden under the Cloak there until it's time to go out," Daphne said.

"We'll need to get under the Cloak inside the common room, so we'll just let you in, then, I think," Harry said, with a glance at Hermione and Ron.

"I don't like this plan," Hermione admitted. "With just one of us going out there isn't much risk of detection, but the four of us together? If we get caught and taken to McGonagall or Snape we'll not only lose a ton of House points, we'll lose time we might not have."

"I think we need to take the risk," Ron said. "I know we're not supposed to take anyone not in Gryffindor into the common room, but she's practically one of us anyway," he added with a grin.

"I almost was, actually. The Sorting Hat considered putting me in Gryffindor instead," Daphne said.

Harry's eyes widened and he gave her a curious look, but before he could say anything, Ron said, "And you chose Slytherin? Blimey, and I thought you were alright."

Daphne laughed, and then became a bit more serious again. "I mostly did it for my parents. You know, so they wouldn't have to answer questions," she admitted.

"The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin," Harry said, and Ron nearly fainted. "But after meeting Malfoy and hearing the stories about it, I begged it for anything but Slytherin."

Daphne winced. She could've been in the same House as Harry twice over, but both had decided not to be, apparently, over perceptions of others. Next year, she'd try to improve Slytherin's general image a bit. It would be hard, with a moron like Malfoy in her year, but she was sure she'd be able to do something.

Ron, meanwhile, had turned to Hermione. "Hermione, you're a true Gryffindor though, right?"

Hermione giggled at Ron's agitation. "Actually, the Hat considered Ravenclaw for me, but it decided I'd be able to learn more in Gryffindor. Given what I've learned this year…I think the Hat was right," she said.

Ron shook his head. "Unbelievable. Am I the only real Gryffindor here, then? When I wore the Hat, it just seemed to sigh, and then it said, 'Another Weasley, another Gryffindor', only it shouted the last word, of course."

They debated the Sorting Hat and its choices a bit longer, until Harry brought them back onto the original topic.

"Okay, so do we all agree on letting Daphne into the common room? For all I know nothing will end up happening tonight, but after that pain just now, I really don't want to take any chances," he said.

They all nodded, Hermione most reluctantly of all, and when Daphne headed back to the Slytherin common room that night she had the Invisibility Cloak in her bag.

She'd borrowed it before, on days when she was on Fluffy duty, but this was the first time she'd be using it to go somewhere else than that one forbidden corridor. In a weird way, she was excited to see the Gryffindor common room. It felt a bit like visiting a friend's house for the first time.

At eight o' clock that evening, Harry would go to return a borrowed book to the library, and Daphne would sneak in to the common room while the door was open, where she'd hide until half past eleven. By that time the others would meet up there as well and they'd go and check on Fluffy.

It sounded like a good plan, and at first it appeared like it would go off without a hitch. Harry left the common room at the designated time, and Daphne headed in. She took some time to look around, and then made sure to position herself in places where there weren't many people. As the evening went on, more and more people went to bed, and eventually Daphne was the only one left.

At various moments, she'd considered simply removing the Cloak and taking a seat. The Gryffindors were so used to her that she didn't think her presence would even be remarked upon. Still, it was safer not to do it, and she remained hidden until her friends came back down…and that was where the plan hit a snag.

See, they weren't alone in the common room. Neville was there as well.

"Where are you going?" he asked suspiciously.

"Er, nowhere," Ron said.

"Are you going to fight another duel?" Neville asked, frowning.

"No, nothing like that," Harry said. "But…we can't tell you what this is about, Neville. If all goes well, we'll be back in just a few minutes."

"But what if you get caught? We're finally about to win the House Cup for a change," Neville said.

"We won't get caught," Ron said impatiently. "But we really don't have time for this, Neville, so could you please just…go to bed?"

Instead, however, Neville moved over to the portrait hole. "Not unless you tell me what you're going to do," he said shakily. "I know you've been breaking the rules all year long. It's gone well so far, but…you can't go out. Not now."

He sounded slightly hysterical now. "My Gran…if Gryffindor wins the House Cup, maybe she'll finally be proud of me. I…I won't let you risk that, not now."

"Neville, we really don't have time for this," Harry pleaded. "This is more important than you realize; it goes way beyond House points."

"No!" Neville said stubbornly. "You've been telling me to stand up for myself all year, so I am."

"Not to us!" Ron said in exasperation.

Daphne knew that this wasn't going to go anywhere, and, even though they didn't know for sure anything had happened to Fluffy, they just couldn't take the risk. She took her wand from her pocket, then stood up and pulled off the Cloak.

"D-Daphne?" Neville stammered.

Daphne nodded and gave him an apologetic look. "Yeah. Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this. If everything turns out alright, we'll tell you why we did this, but for now…"

She aimed her wand at Neville. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board.

Hermione ran to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"I put a full Body-Bind on him," Daphne said. She felt sick that she'd just cursed a friend, but the risks of being late now were just too big.

"I'm so sorry about this, Neville," Daphne said as she stood over him. She hoped he could see she meant it.

"But you'll understand later, we promise," Ron said.

Leaving Neville on the floor of the common room, the four of them pulled the Cloak over themselves and stepped out into the hallway. Because the Cloak really wasn't meant to hide four people at once, even four first-year students, they had to press close together and hunch over deeply to make sure their feet stayed hidden. The biggest downside to this was that their movement was very slow, and hardly soundless because they were constantly jostling each other and stepping on each other's feet.

Eventually, however, they reached the forbidden corridor — and found the door at the end of it ajar.

"That can't be good," Ron whispered.

They snuck closer, and once they were almost at the door they could soft, melodious notes from inside. They looked around the edge of the door and saw that Fluffy was fast asleep. A harp stood a short distance away from him, playing itself.

"We're too late," Harry said grimly. "You guys stay here. I think Fluffy will stay asleep as long as that harp plays. I'm going to run over to Dumbledore's office under the Cloak. I really hate leaving you all here with Fluffy, but the four of us together are just too slow, and there's no time to waste."

Daphne, Hermione, and Ron stood around the corner of the room, warily eyeing Fluffy, while Harry disappeared under the Cloak and ran off.

"I really hope that harp keeps playing," Daphne said nervously.

Hermione and Ron nodded vehemently.

Standing next to a monstrous three-headed dog was quite stressful, and it felt like an eternity before Harry returned. To make matters worse, he had bad news.

"Dumbledore's gone," he said. "The gargoyle at his office said he was away to the Ministry in London on urgent business."

He made an angry sound. "What could possibly be more urgent than Voldemort?!"

He eyed the trapdoor and sighed miserably. "We'll have to go down there ourselves," he said.

"And face You-Know-Who ourselves? Are you mental?!" Ron demanded.

Harry shrugged helplessly. "What else can we do? Every second we waste here talking is a second Voldemort has to get past the defenses. I stopped him before…maybe I can do it again."

Out of nowhere, Hermione wrapped her arms around him.

"Hermione!"

"Harry, you're really a great wizard, you know," she said.

"I'm not as good as you," Harry replied, looking quite embarrassed.

Daphne wasn't sure what to make of the display. Had it also looked like that the two times she'd hugged Harry?

"Me! Books and cleverness! There are more important things…friendship and bravery and–"

"Yes, all well and good, but can we go now?" Ron interrupted. "We're kind of in the middle of something, here."

Hermione nodded quickly. "Y-yeah. Let's go."

They snuck over to the trapdoor and looked down, but all they could see was pitch-black darkness.

"How deep do you think it–" Ron began, but Daphne interrupted, "No time to think about it," and began to lower herself down into the darkness.

She wasn't really sure why she was so determined, but she suddenly felt very irritated by something she didn't understand, and she just wanted to get things over with. Soon she was hanging by just her fingers.

She shot a glance up at the others and said, "If I don't say anything, you probably shouldn't follow me."

Without giving any of them time to protest, she let go. Cold, damp air rushed past her as she fell down, down, and… With a muffled thump she landed on something soft.

She sat up and felt around, her eyes still useless in the gloom. It felt as though she was sitting on some kind of plant.

"It's okay!" she yelled up to a small, square bit of light in the ceiling. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"

She moved out of the way to make sure she wouldn't be hit by the others, but in doing so she discovered that her legs were tangled up in something. Maybe she'd gotten stuck in one of the plant's roots?

She tried to shake the roots off, but the more she moved, the tighter they seemed to become.

Three dull thumps in rapid succession told her the others had landed as well, and she said, "Watch out! This plant is trying to trap us!"

Another root, or vine, or whatever it was began to wrap around her arm as soon as she said that, pulling her in. More and more vines now began to reach out for her, and she struggled to break free.

From the shouts and gasps from the others, it seemed like she wasn't the only one having trouble.

"Stop moving!" Hermione yelled. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," Ron said sarcastically.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Hermione said.

"Well, hurry up! I can't breathe," Harry said, gasping for air now.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare…what did Professor Sprout say? — it likes the dark and the damp —"

"So light a fire!" Harry choked.

"Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell flames she had used on Snape at the plant.

In a matter of seconds, Daphne felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from her body, and she was able to pull free.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," Harry said as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," Ron said. "And lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis — 'there's no wood,' honestly."

"Let's just keep moving," Daphne said.

They'd only just begun and she'd already nearly died. That couldn't be a good sign. They walked down a stone passageway — the only passageway — holding their wands out in case something tried to attack them. The passage seemed to be deserted, however, and all Daphne could hear was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

Daphne listened. There was a soft rustling and clinking noise from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" she asked.

"I don't know, sound like wings to me," Ron said.

"There's light ahead. I can see something moving," Hermione said.

They reached the end of the passageway and found themselves in a brightly lit room, which was almost painful after the gloom of the Devil's Snare. The room's ceiling was far above them, and below it fluttered many colorful birds. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we try to cross the room?" Ron asked.

"Probably," Harry replied. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once…well, there's no other choice…I'll run."

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room, but the birds made no move to attack Harry, and while Harry tried to open the door Daphne and the others crossed the room as well. The door turned out to be locked, and even Hermione's Alohomora Charm did nothing to it.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

"These birds…they can't just be here for decoration," Hermione said.

Daphne looked up at the colorful and glittering birds. Wait, glittering?

"They're not birds," Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys, look carefully. So that must mean…"

He glanced around the room. "Yes! Look, broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there's hundreds of them," Daphne said.

Ron examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one. Probably silver, like the handle."

They all grabbed a broomstick and kick off into the air, but Daphne was hindered by two things: the keys were very fast and agile, and she was neither a good nor a confident flyer. She barely dared to let one hand off her broom, let alone both. And even aside from that, there were just so many keys to choose from.

"Stupid door…stupid keys…Who in his right mind would think this is a good protection?" she muttered angrily to herself.

But she had to admit, it was effective. The keys, no doubt impervious to Summoning Charms, whirled past one another so quickly that it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. Even putting tracking spells on them so you could see which ones you'd already seen would be a hassle.

Fortunately for Daphne, Harry was a very good flyer, and he showed why his appointment as the youngest Seeker in a century hadn't been a fluke.

"That one!" he called to the others. "That big one, there…no, there, with bright blue wings! The feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.

Daphne shuddered and gripped her own broom a bit tighter.

"We've got to close in on it," Harry called. He'd been keeping his eyes on the key the entire time. "Ron, you come at it from above. Hermione and Daphne, you stay below and prevent it from flying down. I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upwards…and Daphne half-heartedly flew towards it.

The key easily dodged both Hermione and Ron, but Harry streaked after it, keeping up with its feints and swerves, and eventually managed to pin it against the wall with a nasty, crunching noise.

They landed quickly, and Daphne felt how shaky she was from having been in the air for only a few minutes.

"I really, really hate this trip," she said to no one in particular.

Fortunately, Harry had caught the correct key, and the door opened. The key flew back up into the air in a crooked pattern, its wings so damaged it could no longer fly straight. Daphne felt a twisted pleasure at seeing it like that.

The next chamber was initially completely dark, but the moment they entered, light flooded the room, revealing they were standing at the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, all of which were much taller than they were. Facing them, across the chamber, stood the faceless white pieces.

"Right," Daphne said. "So we'll need to play the game, then don't we?"

"But how?" Hermione asked.

"I think we'll need to become chessmen," Ron said.

He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. The piece came to life and the knight turned to face Ron.

"Do we, er, have to join you to get across?" Ron asked.

The knight nodded.

Ron turned back to the others. "I think we'll need to take the place of four black pieces. Now, don't be offended or anything, but I think I'm the best at chess here…"

He looked at Daphne, who nodded.

"Absolutely," she agreed. In about twenty games against Ron, she'd won maybe three.

"Okay, so…Harry, you take the place of that bishop. Hermione, you take the place of that rook and Daphne…you'll be the queen. I'll be a knight," he said.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because the pieces Ron had indicated left the board, allowing Daphne and the others to take their places.

As soon as they had assumed their position, a white pawn moved two places forward. The match had begun.

Ron was, as always, a fantastic player. He directed the pieces and they obeyed without question. Very occasionally, Daphne yelled a bit of advice to him if she saw a better move, but for the most part she left Ron to it, until at one point, he paused to think.

Daphne studied the board as well, trying to find a good move to make, but she didn't like what she saw.

Ron seemed to have drawn the same conclusion, however, as he grimaced, glanced at the pile of limp black pieces that had been taken and said, "I'll have to let myself get taken."

"No, wait!" Daphne said.

"You know how the game works, sometimes you need to sacrifice pieces," Ron said.

"Yes, but…there is another move. Let me get taken instead. Then you can move forward to put the king in check, and Hermione can checkmate on the turn after."

She smiled ruefully. "The Devil's Snare and the keys were bad enough, and I don't want to know what'll happen next. Didn't you say you were the only true Gryffindor of us? Then you're the bravest, and Harry and Hermione will need you a lot more than me."

Ron hesitated, and Harry and Hermione gave Daphne uncertain glances.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked, sounding like he would much rather sacrifice himself than let a friend get hurt.

"Yes, damn it, now hurry up before I change my mind, I'm about to wet myself over here," Daphne said.

She was shivering violently. Every time she'd been in danger thus far, she'd been able to do something about it, however little. Now…now she was going to walk straight into her own doom.

She looked at Harry. "You better stop Voldemort, Harry, or so help me," she said.

"I will," he replied. He looked about as sick as she felt.

She looked at Ron, who nodded once and give his order.

Daphne moved forward three squares and stood still. She was taking quick, shallow breaths and her heart was beating a million times per minute. Her throat was dry and she wasn't sure how long her legs would last before turned into jelly.

The white queen slid over to her and briefly regarded her with her blank face.

She raised her stone arm, and Daphne closed her eyes and tensed up.

She felt a massive blow to the side of her head, and everything flashed white and then faded to black…

It would be kind of funny if I just ended things here and marked the story as complete, but I'm obviously not going to.

Couple of remarks, because I like to ramble: Daphne being the queen is a bit of a play on her name originally being Queenie, but it was also a nice way for me to preserve the symmetry of the board.

Neville's 'standing up for himself' scene is one that is so iconic I really didn't want to leave it out, especially since he already didn't have his fight with Crabbe and Goyle. His reasoning…well, isn't that different. Even in canon, it was about points, so I just tweaked it a bit. Daphne takes Hermione's role, because I feel that for Hermione, the moment isn't quite as pivotal as it was for Neville (and certainly not as much as the troll scene), and it would be weird if Daphne didn't act at all despite being under time pressure.

And if anyone's worried that Ron won't get his big moment now that he hasn't sacrificed himself on the chess board…just wait until the next chapter. You can probably guess what I'll do.