Chapter Eleven

What can I say about exams? Take the hardest test you've ever had . . . and multiply it twenty times. That should give you a good idea of what they were like.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where we did our written papers. We had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell (can you imagine?).

We had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called us one by one into his class to see if we could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched us turn a mouse into a snuffbox --- points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made us all nervous, breathing down our necks while we tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion that I conveniently, well, forgot. Oh well, not like I was going to be around to find out my results.

Our very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and it would all be over. We would be free, free for a whole wonderful week until the exam results came out. Well, that's what I thought at the time.

When the ghost of Professor Binns told us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment, I couldn't help cheering with the rest.

"That was far easier that I thought it would be," Hermione said as we joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

Hermione liked to go through our exam papers afterward, but Ron said this made him feel ill, so we wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows.

I stood up to stretch and suddenly saw a couple of blonde-headed girls running toward me, one of them jumping as she ran. I laughed as Lisa tackled me to the ground. "No more studying!" she screamed.

"It's over, we're free!" Laura cried. "Sweet, glorious freedom!"

I continued to laugh and everyone couldn't help joining in.

"Lisa?"

"Laura?"

Malfoy and Cedric Diggory were walking toward us.

"Coming!" the twins yelled together. Then they ran over to whichever guy had called their name. They left, waving good-bye over their shoulders.

"For once, I agree with a Slytherin," Ron sighed happily stretching out on the grass. "No more studying." He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he said, "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."
Harry was rubbing his forehead.

"I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting --- it's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," Harry told her. "I think it's a warning . . . it means danger's coming."

"Something like that," I muttered, flopping onto my back in the soft grass, but I think only Harry heard me, and he didn't say anything.

Ron couldn't get worked up, it was too hot.

"Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get pasty Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once; he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."

Harry nodded. He then tried to explain to Hermione and me that he felt like there was something he'd forgotten to do, something important. Hermione said, "That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one." I laughed because it was true. She had woken me up with her shuffling feet.

An owl fluttered toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth.

Harry suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked sleepily.

"I've just thought of something," Harry told him. He had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

"Why?" Hermione panted, hurrying to keep up with him. We all were.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," Harry began explaining, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

"What are you talking about?" Rona asked, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer.

Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

"Hullo," he greeted, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

"Yes, please," Ron said, but Harry cut him off.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," Hagrid replied casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off."

The four of us raised our eyebrows.

"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head --- that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas.

"What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," Hagrid said, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah . . . he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here . . . He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I looked after . . . so I told him . . . an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon . . . an' then . . . I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks . . . Let's see . . . yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted . . . but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home . . . So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy . . ."

"And did he --- did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, his voice just barely calm.

"Well --- yeah --- how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep ---"

"Better get Neville a broomstick, he's playing for England," I muttered. I knew Hagrid hadn't meant to let Dumbledore down, but he had.

Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey --- where're yeh goin'?"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I had all begun running back to the castle. "'Bye Hagrid!" I called, waving. I knew it would be the very last time that I ever saw him.

We didn't speak to each other at all until we came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," Harry said. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak --- it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

We looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing us in the right direction. All I knew was that it was blocked by a stone gargoyle statue, and that didn't help much. We would still need a password.

"We'll just have to ---" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you four doing inside?"

It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," Hermione told her, rather bravely the rest of us thought.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"

I swallowed and kept my mouth shut, hoping someone else would say something.

"It's sort of secret," Harry said. Oh yeah, that was brilliant, I thought to myself. Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone?" Harry asked frantically. "Now?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time ---"

"But this is important."

"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?"

"Look," Harry told her, "Professor --- it's about the Sorcerer's Stone ---"

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.

"How do you know ---?" she spluttered.

"Professor, I think --- I know --- that Sn --- that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

She eyed Harry with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"But Professor ---"

"Potter, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

But we didn't.

"It's tonight," Harry told us, once Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"But what can we ---"

Hermione gasped. Harry, Ron, and I wheeled round.

There was Snape.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly.

We stared at him.

"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he remarked, with an odd, twisted smile.

"We were ---" Harry began.

"You want to be more careful," Snape said. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"

I flushed. We turned to go outside, but Snape called us back. "Be warned, Potter --- any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

He strode off in the direction of the staff room.

Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the rest of us.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape --- wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you'd better do that."

"Why me?"

"It's obvious," Ron replied. "You can pretend to be waiting or Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, " 'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong . . .'"

"Oh, shut up," Hermione told him while Harry and I smiled, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Harry told Ron and me. "Come on."

But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had we reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again, and this time, she lost her temper.

"I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"

We went back to the common room. Harry had just said, "At least Hermione's on Snape's tail," when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in.

"I'm sorry, Harry!" she wailed. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."

"Well, that's it, isn't it?" Harry said.

Hermione, Ron, and I stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.

"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

"You're mad!" Ron exclaimed.

"You can't!" Hermione told him. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

"SO WHAT?" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

He glared at us.

"You're right, Harry," Hermione said in a small voice.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak," Harry told us. "It's just lucky I got it back."

"But will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked.

"All --- all four of us?"

"Oh, come off if, you don't think we'd let you go alone?"

"Of course not," Hermione said briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful . . ."

"But it we get caught, you three will be expelled, too."

"Not if I can help it," Hermione told him grimly. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that."

Before dinner, I sent both Lisa and Laura an owl. They both said the same thing:

Trap door, tonight. The password to Gryffindor tower is "wattlebird." I'll wait for you in the common room. 11:00. ~Courtney

I didn't get a response back from either of my friends, but like I said before, no news was good news.

After dinner I sat in the common room with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Nobody bothered us; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to half of us, after all.

Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to break. Ron sat staring into the fire. Through the silence, however, Harry said, "Courtney, can I talk to you?"

"Sure." We both got up and walked over to a more private area of the common room.

"Can you please tell me what's going to happen tonight?" Harry asked as we sat down.

"Harry, you know I can't," I told him. He hung his head. I took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm not walking down with you guys."

"Why not?" Harry looked up at me.

"Lisa and Laura are going to meet me here at eleven. I'm going down with them."

"Is that safe?"

"Yeah," I replied, thinking about Laura's watch and Lisa's morphing power. We'd be fine.

"Are you going to be all right?"

"Yeah, sure," I told him with a nod. "I don't get scared easily."

"No, I mean . . ." he let the statement hang.

"Oh," I sighed. Then I took both his hands in mine. "I have to die tonight, Harry. I have to."

"No, you don't have to."

"Yes, I do."

"You can stay here, with me."

I looked up to stop the tears.

"I need to go home." I looked back down.

"This can be your home," Harry told me desperately. "I'm sure you can find someplace to stay."

I shut my eyes tightly. When I opened them again, Harry was looking at me.

"You're going to have a tough time tonight," I told him. "I'll help you as much as I can, but when it's time for me to die, Harry, please don't try and save me."

Harry looked a bit shocked to say the least.

"I don't belong here; I never have, I never will."

"Harry, you'd better get the cloak," Ron said from across the room once Lee Jordan had left the common room, stretching and yawning. Harry got up, but I pulled him back.

"You can't tell them, Harry," I told him. "Not until I'm gone."

With a pained expression on his face, Harry nodded. Then he walked up the spiral staircase up to the boys' dormitories. I held my head in my hands.

Why me?

It was ten till eleven when Harry, Ron, and Hermione left. I don't know what excuse Harry gave the other two, but whatever it was it worked. On their way out of Gryffindor tower, however, Neville stopped them. "What are you doing?" Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," Harry lied, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at their guilty faces.

"You're going out again," he said.

"No, no, no," Hermione told him. "No we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"

"You can't go out," Neville said, "you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"You don't understand," Harry insisted, "this is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.

"I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll --- I'll fight you!"

"Neville," Ron exploded, "get away from that hole and don't be an
idiot---"

"Don't call me an idiot!" Neville exclaimed. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not to us," Ron told him in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."

He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" Neville said, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"

Harry turned to Hermione.

"Do something," he said desperately.

Hermione stepped forward.

"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this."

She raised her wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.

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 up at Harry, Ron, and Hermione in horror.

"What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.

"It's the full Body-Bind," Hermione replied miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," Harry told him.

"You'll understand later, Neville," Ron said as they stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak. Before Harry put his head under the cloak, he looked over at me. I smiled and nodded. He nodded jerkily back and then he was gone. They left Gryffindor tower, and five minutes later, the portrait hole opened and in pranced a Mrs. Norris look-alike. "Hey Lisa," I said. Lisa demorphed.

"Do you have a spare robe for me to wear?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied, and quickly ran up to my dormitory and grabbed one of my spare robes. By the time I got back down to the common room, Laura was standing next to Lisa. "Hello, Laura," I said, handing Lisa the robe.

"Thanks," she said.

"Okay, are you two ready to go?" Laura asked.

"Hold on," Lisa said, the robe muffling her voice. She straightened it out and smiled. "Okay!"

Lisa saying, "Hold on," had made me feel as though I was forgetting something, something important. I shrugged it off and looked at Neville.

"See ya Neville," I said miserably. Then Lisa and I each put a hand on Laura's shoulder while Laura pressed the appropriate button on her watch. We sped up so fast that it seemed to us that the whole world had stopped. Without a word we left Gryffindor tower. I got the best backward glance I could of it because I knew I would never be returning to it.

We made it safely to the third-floor corridor and, once we were outside of the door and hidden fairly well, we got out of hypertime. After awhile, Peeves came along and began trying to loosen the carpet so people would trip.

"Who's there?" he asked suddenly. The three of us stood up. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"

He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at the air.

"Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."

"Peeves," we suddenly heard a hoarse voice whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake --- I didn't see you --- of course I didn't, you're invisible --- forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

"I have business here, Peeves," the voice croaked again. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," Peeves said, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."

And he scooted off.

"Brilliant, Harry!" we heard Ron whisper

The door to the third-floor corridor was already ajar, of course. We waited for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to come nearer to us before we showed ourselves.

"If you want to go back, I won't blame you," we heard Harry whisper. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

"Don't be stupid," Ron told him.

"We're coming," Hermione said.

"Which is more than I can say for Courtney," Ron added.

"Hey!" I said hotly, coming out of the shadows. Startled, the three of them dropped the cloak. Harry smiled, the other two seemed stunned.

"How did you get here?" Ron asked.

"With them," I said, jerking my thumb behind me. Lisa and Laura showed themselves.

"A Slytherin?"

"And a Hufflepuff?" Hermione added.

"Did you know about this Harry?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied softly.

"And you didn't tell us?"

"I made him swear he wouldn't," I told them.

"Why?"

"He'll explain later," I said.

"Come on, Snape's already past Fluffy," Harry said. Silently, we slipped through the open door toward Fluffy. It was so dark I doubt the dog's six eyes could have seen anything anyway, but Harry insisted that as many people as possible get under the invisibility cloak. The dog's noses sniffed madly in our direction but couldn't see us.

"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like a harp," Ron said. "Snape must have left it there."

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing," Harry mused. "Well, here goes . . ."
He put the flute that Hagrid had given him for Christmas up to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased --- it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Keep playing," Ron warned Harry as we slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. We could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as we approached the giant heads.

"I think we'll be able to pull the door open," Ron said, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first Hermione?"

"No, I don't!"

"All right." Ron gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs.

"I'll help," Lisa told him. She walked over and they both grabbed the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Nothing --- just black --- there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Ron to get his attention and pointed at himself.

"You want to go first? Are you sure?" Ron asked. "I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to someone so they can keep him asleep."

Harry handed me flute. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment I began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.

Harry climbed over and looked down through the trapdoor. Then he lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right," Ron said.

"See you in a minute, I hope . . ."

And Harry let go.

"It's okay!" he called up a little while later, "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron followed Harry, and Hermione followed Ron.

"Okay, you guys. This is it. We're going home tonight. If I don't get a chance to say it later," Laura smiled, "I'll see you on the other side!" Then she jumped through the hole.

"Have fun getting home!" Lisa laughed. Then she knelt down and patted Fluffy. It didn't occur to me at the time that she was acquiring his DNA, I found that out later. She then followed Laura through the trapdoor.

I walked over to the opening, still playing the flute. I was about to go to my death, no, I prefer to look at it as my ticket home. That sounds better. Anyway, I stopped playing the flute. Then I jumped.

Cold, damp air rushed past me as I fell down, down, down and ---

FLUMP! With a funny, muffled sort of thump I landed on something soft. A plant. I could hear Fluffy's distant barks and growls, but Fluffy didn't matter anymore.

"We must be miles under the school," Hermione said.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," Ron remarked.

"Lucky!" Hermione shrieked. "Look at you all!"

She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing. Laura was wound about pretty well. The plant had wrapped itself around her legs, stomach, chest, throat . . . and she was looking rather pale.

Lisa wasn't as bad off as Laura, but the plant still had a firm grip on her. As for me, I just sat still and looked about me in horror. I didn't have the will to do anything.

Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she was watching the rest of us in horror as we fought to pull the plant off of us, but the more we strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around us. Laura was thrashing pretty wildly, too. She started to turn a grayish color. I hoped she was all right.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered us. "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 snarled, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.

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

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"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!" Hermione said, 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, we all felt the plant loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from our bodies, and we were able to pull free.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," Harry said as we joined her by the wall.

"Yeah," added Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis --- 'there's no wood,' honestly."

I smiled and looked around. "Wait, where's Laura?"

We all looked out at the now still plant. In the center lay Laura's lifeless body. Hermione and Ron gasped. Harry put his hand on my shoulder.

"She's home," I whispered. Lisa looked at me and nodded silently. I knew it must have been hard on her, it was the second time she'd had to deal with her sister dying.

"This way," Harry said silently, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. I walked in the back with Lisa.

"I wonder if the movie's started yet?"

Lisa looked at me, and then she laughed.

We continued down the long, dark, damp passageway. All we could hear apart from our footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, thank God. I wasn't in the mood to climb.

"Can you hear something?" Ron suddenly whispered.

We all stopped and listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"I don't know . . . sounds like wings to me."

We walked down to the end of the passageway and saw before us a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above us. It was full of small, jewel-bright "birds," fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Ron wondered aloud.

"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. He reached the door untouched. Lisa and I looked at one another and burst out laughing. "You could have told me," Harry said.

"What, and miss that?" I laughed. Harry rolled his eyes with a sigh and pulled the handle on the door, but it was locked.

The rest of us followed him over to the door. Hermione, Ron, and Harry tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

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

"They aren't," Lisa told her.

"Look closer," I said.

The other three looked closer.

"They're not birds!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. "They're keys! Winged keys --- look carefully. So that must mean . . ." he looked around the chamber while Ron and Hermione squinted up at the flock of keys. " . . . yes --- look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there are hundreds of them!" Hermione remarked.

Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one --- probably silver, like the handle."

We each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. We grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. I slightly remember ramming into Lisa once, or twice, but I never caught a key.

"That one!" Harry suddenly called to us. He pointed, but we couldn't exactly see what he was pointing at. "That big one --- there --- no, there ---"

Oh, there! I thought sarcastically.

"--- with bright blue wings --- the feathers are all crumpled on one side," Harry finished describing the key.

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

"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called. "Ron, you come at it from above --- Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down. Lisa and Courtney, block it on the sides --- I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, and Lisa and I shot toward each other, scarily enough. The key dodged all of us, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Our cheers echoed around the high chamber.

We landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned --- it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Ready?" Harry asked us, his hand on the door handle. We nodded. He pulled the door open.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as we stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller then we were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing us, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. We all shivered slightly --- the towering white chessman had no faces.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Ron said. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white chess pieces we could see another door.

"I think," Ron said, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

"Do we --- er --- have to join you to get across?"

The black knight nodded. Ron turned to the rest of us.

"This needs thinking about . . ." he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of five of the black pieces . . ."

We all stayed quiet, watching Ron think.

"Hey, Ron?" Lisa said, studying the chessboard.

"Yeah?" Ron looked up at her.

"Courtney and I can take the place of two of the pawns," Lisa told him.

"But pawns get . . ."

"Sacrificed, I know."

Ron looked at Harry, who nodded.

"All right," Ron agreed. "Now, don't be offended or anything, but Harry, Hermione, neither of you are that good at chess ---"

"We're not offended," Harry assured him quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

"Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go next to him instead of that castle."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight," Ron replied.

The chessman seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, a castle, and two pawns turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving five empty squares that the five of us took.

"White always plays first in chess," Ron told us, peering across the board. "Yes . . . look . . ."

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. My knees were trembling. I knew my death was slowly creeping up.

"Harry --- move diagonally four squares to the right."

By now Lisa had moved out near the middle of the board, but I hadn't really moved at all.

The first real shock came when our other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"Had to let that happen," Ron told us, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

Every time one of our men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry, Hermione, Lisa, or I was in danger. He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as we had lost black ones. Suddenly, he looked up at Lisa. She looked around the board and her face turned as white as chalk.

"What's wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"I have to be sacrificed for the rest of you to get across," Lisa replied quietly.

My heart wrenched. No, no, no. This wasn't happening.

Why me?

I just looked at her; I had lost the use of my voice. "Well," Lisa said softly, "good-bye you guys. It's been fun." Then she walked across the board a few paces. One of the white pieces (I don't know which, I wasn't watching it, I was watching Lisa) slid toward my best friend. With one final, worried look at me, Lisa was taken. The white chessman pummeled her to the ground with sickening cracks. I cried out her name, but I knew it was too late. Her limp carcass was flung across the room onto the pile of other demolished black chessmen. I shut my eyes tightly to keep from screaming. Hermione didn't have such luck. She had let out an ear- piercing shriek, and Ron had watched in disbelief, not saying a word. Harry was looking at me when I opened my eyes. I focused my gaze on my feet.

After a minute or so, Ron muttered, "We're nearly there. Let me think --- let me think . . ."

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes," Ron said softly, "it's the only way . . . I've got to be taken."

"NO!" Harry, Hermione, and even I shouted.

"That's chess!" Ron snapped. "You've got to make some sacrifices! Look at Lisa! I take one more step forward and the queen will take me --- that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But ---"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"Ron ---"

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!"

There was no alternative, and we all knew it.

"Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go --- now, don't hang around once you've won."

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor --- Hermione screamed but stayed on her square --- the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.

Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. We had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry and Hermione opened the door. I looked back where Lisa's body had been thrown and smiled when I saw that it was gone. She was home, Laura was home, but I was still with Harry. I followed Harry and Hermione through the door and up the next passageway.

"What if he's ---?" Hermione began.

"He'll be all right," Harry told her. He looked at me, and I nodded.

"And Lisa?"

"She's gone," I replied. There was silence for a few seconds, but then Harry broke it.

"What do you reckon's next?" he asked.

"We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's . . ."

We had reached another door.

"All right?" Harry whispered.

"Go on," Hermione and I said together.

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled our nostrils, making us all pull our robes up over our noses. Eyes watering, we saw, flat on the floor in front of us, a troll even larger than the one we had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as we stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door, all of us hardly daring to look at what came next --- but there was nothing very frightening in there, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing in a line. Little did Harry and Hermione know, this was worse than any of the others.

"Snape's," Harry said. "What do we have to do?"

We stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind us in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading outward. We were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and I looked over her shoulder to read it:

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.

Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry and I, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing either of us felt like doing.

"Brilliant," Hermione said. "This isn't magic --- it's logic --- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?"

"Of course not," Hermione replied. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which one to drink?"

"Give me a minute."

Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she announced. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire --- toward the Stone."

We all looked at the tiny bottle.

"There's only enough there for one of us," Harry said. "That's hardly one swallow."

We all exchanged glances.

"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?"

Hermione pointed at the rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," Harry told her. "No, listen, go back and get Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy --- go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"But Harry --- what if You-Know-Who's with him?"

"Well --- I was lucky once, wasn't I?" Harry told her, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.

"Hermione!"

I smiled.

"Harry --- you're a great wizard, you know."

"I'm not as good as you," Harry told her, his face turning red, as she let go of him.

"Me!" Hermione exclaimed. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things --- friendship and bravery and --- oh Harry --- be careful!" Then she turned to me. "How are you going to get back?"

"I'll figure something out," I told her, forcing a smile. Then we embraced one another. "Good-bye, Hermione."

"Don't say good-bye, it's such a dreadful word." Then we released each other.

"You drink first," Harry said. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"

"Positive," Hermione told him. She took a long drink from the round bottle at the end, and shuddered.

"It's not poison?" Harry asked anxiously.

"No --- but it's like ice."

"Quick, go, before it wears off."

"Good luck --- take care ---"

"GO!"

Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple fire.

Harry looked at me.

"Good-bye, Harry," I said softly. Harry looked at the bottles and shook his head. "I have to drink the poison, it's my only ticket home."

"Stay here, please."

"You know I can't."

"I'll do anything."

"There's nothing either of us can do. I have to die."

Harry took my hands in his.

"Don't leave." He drew me toward him and held me.

"I don't want to, but I have to go home." I looked up at him. "Don't make it any harder than it has to be." He nodded, but before he let me go, he pressed his lips against mine. Before I knew what was happening, he was gone.

Why me?

I looked back down at the bottles on the table. Two were drained; two were wine; three were my death. I looked back at the black fire separating me from Harry. With a sigh, I chose a bottle and drained it.

Wine.

I chose another and drained it, too. My head began to swim as I sat the empty bottle back down. I was going about the whole dying thing better than ever.

Get drunk --- numb the pain!

Now there were four bottles drained, and three left to kill me. I picked one up and held it to my lips. Would it be considered suicide if I drank it? That thought had never crossed my mind before. I sat the bottle, still full, back on the table.

Now I really was trapped. I couldn't go forward, Harry had drained that bottle, and I couldn't go back either, because Hermione had drained that bottle.

Why me?

Why me?

Why me?

I leaned on the table and fought back the urge to throw all of the bottles against the wall. I looked around and something suddenly caught my eyes.

The bottle that Harry had drained was . . .

Full!

Without a second thought, I drained the bottle and walked through the black flames toward Harry, toward the Stone, and more than likely toward my death.

When I got through the fire, a very unsettling scene met my eyes.

"Harry!"