Chapter 4

End of term adventures

The months passed, Harry's first adventure with the troll in the girl's bathroom on Halloween earned him a lengthy lecture from his big sister, who had come to fill her role as the big sister quite fully, and a huge hug and a warning never to scare her like that again. Before either of them knew it, it was the end of term and exams were finally over. Alex's and Oliver's relationship deepened and they spoke often of getting together over the summer, confirming it with both Remus and his parents. "So Harry, what are you and your friends planning on doing till the end of the term?" she asked one afternoon, both of them relaxing in the common room after lunch, while Oliver was playing exploding snap.
"I don't know. I supposed we'll play some wizard's chess and exploding snaps or something," he answered.
"I'm sure you'll fine something to do. As for me, I'm off! Gotta go talk to Professor Quirrell about our DADA exam that we just wrote. I'm not quite sure I got this one answer right and I wanted to talk to him about it. I'll see you later!" she said as she rose and left the common room.

She arrived at the defense against the dark arts classroom, knocked and entered. Professor Quirrell looked ragged and tired, almost as if he hadn't slept or ate in awhile. "Professor, are you alright?" she asked. "Q-q-quite al-al-right-t-t. What c-c-can I-I d-d-do for y-you?" he asked. "I just have a question about the test that I was wondering if you could answer for me," she said, not quite convinced that he was alright. "I c-c-can t-try," he said, looking even more nervous than usual. "Well, on the question about Dementors, the patronus charm is used to force the dementors to back off, but can it be also used to kill them?" she asked. "N-n-not t-t-to my kn-kn-knowledge. But if you would come with me, maybe you can answer some questions that I have," he asked, his wand out and pointed at her, all signs of his stutter gone. "What?" Alex said, her brain telling her that this wasn't right and she should do something. 'But what can I do? He has his wand pointed at me!' she thought to herself, quickly becoming frightened and agitated. "Now, now girl, I think it's time that you come with me and I can get some answers myself," he said before motioning that she should go with him out the door. "Don't forget, my wand is at your back. One wrong move and you're dead," he whispered in her ear before she opened the door. She opened the door and stepped out, Quirrell motioning for her to go right. The halls were mostly empty, the students all outside enjoying the freedom of exams being over and the good weather.

They made their way through the empty halls, not once passing another teacher, or anyone who could have helped Alex at all. They reached the third floor corridor on the right, and he motioned for her to open the door.
"But this is offlimits!" she exclaimed.
"I know, why do you think we are coming here?" Quirrell asked as he pushed her inside.
They walked to a small room where barking could be heard. Alex opened the door and was almost eaten alive by a huge three-headed dog. Stepping back quickly, Quirrell called out, "Petrificus totalus!" and Alex fell to the floor, totally unable to move. "Sorry m'dear, but I can't have you running off while I deal with Fluffy, now can I?" he said, an evil smile on his face.
He pulled something out of his pocket, charmed it to return to it's normal size and charmed it to play a melody. Alex looked at the harp and then at Quirrell, wondering if he had completely lost it. 'Well of course he has! Look at where he's taking you!' she scolded herself. He put it in the room and Alex noticed that the huge monster of a dog or three dogs had fallen asleep. "Good trick I learned when I was talking to that imbecilic half-giant groundskeeper here," he said, noticing the direction of Alex's eyes. Removing the curse, he motioned for her to enter the room and go down through the trap door. Realizing that this was possibly her last chance to escape, she quickly attempted to make a run for it, but the door slammed shut and locked as Quirrell began to laugh. "Good try girl, but you'll have to do better than that if you want to outwit me!" he said, laughing before pushing her down through the trapdoor.

"Relax!" he commanded when they landed on what appeared to be a floor of vines. As soon as he said that, Alex felt the vines begin to surround her and hold her tight. She struggled, and became more and more entangled in the vines.
"Lumos Solum!" Quirrell called from somewhere underneath her and a bright light filled the room and she fell through the vines onto a hard stone floor. "Idiot girl! I told you to relax" he said as he dragged her up. "Come on! No time to waste!"

They made their way into a room with a broom suspended in midair and what looked like many small keys with wings flapping above. "Hmm, this must be that tiny fool Flitwick's part," Quirrell said, looking at the scene. Again, he petrified Alex and left her near the door. He mounted the broom once he had spot the appropriate key. Casting a shielding charm around himself as the other keys began to attack him. Once he had the appropriate key, he levitated Alex's petrified body through the door and then released her. "Ah, McGonagall's part, this should be fun," he said wryly. A giant chess board was in the centre of the room and it appeared as if the whites were missing two players. Quirrell took the place of the knight and he motioned for Alex to take that of the Queen. "You will follow my commands or you will die, do you understand girl?" he asked, glaring at Alex from his position. Alex just glared back but nodded. The game began and player after player were taken out on both sides. Finally, Quirrell called out for her to move diagonally and take out the rook that was the only piece left defending the dark king. "Ah ha! Checkmate!" Quirrell called out, and the king's sword fell to the ground. "They really thought that a mere chess game would be enough to keep out the greatest wizard of all time?" he said, laughing. "Come on girl, move!" he commanded, grabbing Alex's arm. Suddenly, her scar burned, and she gasped. That had never happened to her before. Why was it that when he touched her, it burned so? She looked up at him, a mix of pain and horror on her face. "You're-" she started. "Maybe you're not so stupid, girl," he said as he pulled her forward into a room with potions in various bottles on the table in front of him. Once they entered, flames rose around the room and blocked the way to either door. He quickly read the card that was placed in front and chose a bottle. "Now, since I am not willing to die, you are going to be the tester of this potion," he said, holding out a potion. "No, you can't!" Alex exclaimed, fear in her voice. "Oh, but I can do as I like, there is no one to save you now. Not even your precious muggle-loving fool Dumbledore is here," he said, reaching over and pouring some of the potion down her throat. When she didn't collapse, he pushed her through the flames surrounding the room and when she didn't burn, he took a drink of the potion and walked through the flames into a hall with a single mirror in the centre. "Oh now what does Albus want me to do now, I wonder," Quirrell said as he walked towards the mirror. He looked in it. "I can see me getting the philosopher's stone and presenting it to my master, but how do I get the stone?!" he exclaimed. Alex, as quietly as possible, began to inch her way back to the door they had entered in. "No, no, m'dear. You are not going anywhere right now. You have caused my master too much grief to be let go so easily," he said as he cast a charm that pulled her back towards him. "Now, look in the mirror and tell me what you see," he commanded, pinning her arms to her side and holding her in place. Her scar burned, but she looked and saw herself leaving the hall, Oliver waiting for her on the other side of the door with Dumbledore, she was safe! "What do you see?" Quirrell demanded, shaking her. "I-I-I was safe, Dumbledore was here," she said, her voice trembling. "You're no good!" he exclaimed as he threw her against the far wall. "Crucio!" he called. Suddenly, it felt like her body was on fire, it felt like there were thousands of knives stabbing her all at once, it was the worse pain she had ever felt in her life. She screamed and screamed until her throat was raw with screaming, and she continued to scream some more.
Finally, the curse was lifted, and Alex lay there trembling and bleeding from a head wound that she had received when she was flung into the wall. Then there was blackness and she knew no more.

****************************** A few days later . . .

Alex opened her eyes slowly to a bright light. "Wha-" she croaked out, her throat still raw. She blinked and saw Professor Dumbledore sitting at the end of her bed. She opened her mouth to speak again, but he stopped her.
"Shh, don't try to speak now. You're throat is still recovering," he said quietly. "You're wondering what happened, aren't you?" he asked.
She nodded slowly.
"Professor Quirrell was a servant of Lord Voldemort," he said, Alex's eyes widening, "and he was after the philosopher's stone. A stone that could be used to make the elixir of life and would restore Voldemort to his own body and full power once again," he said.
Alex took some deep breathes, and motioned for him to continue. "The streak for attracting trouble seems to run in your family, Alexandria. Harry and his friends entered the trapdoor and made their way through the obstacles, but only Harry entered the final hall. He entered Quirrell revealed that Voldemort was living off him. Harry looked into the mirror and the philosopher's stone was given to him, for you see, the stone could only be given to one who did not want to use the stone. Voldemort realized that Harry had the stone and attacked, but when he went to touch Harry's flesh, he was burned and Voldemort fled that body and attacked Harry directly. I arrived just then and was able to prevent him from killing Harry, but I'm afraid I could not capture him, not could I prevent Harry from being injured," he said, his voice becoming regretful.
Alex's eyes widened and began to get frantic with worry for her brother.
"Don't worry, he is fine, he is recovering and is in the bed beside you. Remus is on his way, and I do believe a certain young Quidditch captain has been very much worried about you. I will leave you to him, but first, I do believe Madame Pomphrey will be wanting to take a look at you, now that you have awoken. Get some rest, we will talk once you have recovered fully," he said as he turned to leave.
Alex took a deep breath and blinked back tears of worry and pain and put her head back on the pillow.
"Good, you're awake. Now how do you feel?" Madame Pomphrey asked, coming from her office in the infirmary.
"Hur-" Alex managed to croak out.
"Well, lets see, I'll give you something for the pain and then you may see your visitor, but for five minutes, and then you are going to get some more sleep." Madame Pomphrey poured a potion down Alex's throat and she began to feel much better. Madame Pomphrey left and Oliver entered quietly. He moved to the side of her bed and sat on the chair there.
"Alex, are you ok? I was so worried, when you were missing, I was so scared, I thought I'd lost you!" Oliver said, emotion clouding his brown eyes. Alex just smiled sadly and took Oliver's hand and pointed it at her throat.

"You can't talk?" he asked. Alex shook her head.
"Temporary?" he asked. Alex nodded. Oliver took her other hand in his and just sat there in silence until Madame Pomphrey came and kicked him out and gave Alex a dose of Dreamless Sleep Potion, and then sleep took her.

Remus arrived at Hogwarts shortly before the end of the year feast and went to the infirmary to see Alex. "How you doing?" he asked, worry apparent on his face. "I'm okay," she said softly, her voice having retuned slowly. "Madame Pomphrey is going to keep you hear for a few more days and then I'll take you home, does that sound good?" Alex nodded. "Professor Dumbledore told me what happened," he said. Alex remained silent. "It's not your fault he got that far. If you had of tried anything, he would have killed you." Alex was still silent. "Alex, look at me," Remus said, taking hold of her hand. She turned her head.
"Everything will be okay. Don't worry. You did everything you could. Harry's fine, and you will be fine, and he didn't get the stone. You did good, kid," Remus said, quoting a line from her childhood. Alex slowly smiled and began to chuckle, which inevitably led to laughter on both her and Remus' part.

Remus had gone to talk to Professor Dumbledore again, and while he was gone, Harry came to visit.
"Hi Alex, how you feeling?" he asked quietly.
"I'm doing okay Harry, how 'bout yourself?" she replied.
"I'm doing okay too. At least I got out of here, but don't tell Madame Pomphrey I said that, she'd have my hide!" he said with a smile.
"I promise," she said laughing. "So how was the feast? Who won the House Cup? Please say it was Slytherin."
"We did!" he exclaimed and began to tell her all about how Professor Dumbledore had awarded them last minute points and they had stolen the victory right out from under the Slytherin's feet. As Alex began to drift off, he got up and made to leave.
"Wait, don't leave yet," she said. She handed him a piece of paper with her home on it. "Owl me, okay? Just tell your owl to go to this address, and I'll get it," she said.
"I promise. Have a good summer, Alex," he said.
"You too Harry, don't let those muggles get you down," Alex said.
"I won't," he replied. He bent down and gave her a soft hug before leaving.

Remus returned and sat by her side once more. "Did I miss much?" he asked.
"Harry came by to say goodbye," she replied.
"And." he prodded. "We're going to owl this summer, try and get to know each other some more. We didn't really have a lot of time this year with OWLs and all. Even though we did get to know each better than I would've hoped," she said with a smile. "That's good, I'm glad for you. I told you it would work out, didn't I?" he said with a smile. "Yeah you did," she replied. "See? What did I tell you, I'm always right!" he said cheekily. "Sure, sure, we'll see about that. I'll get you one day!" she said with a grin. "Ooo, I do believe we have a challenge!" he said. "I do believe we do!" she replied, as they both laughed out loud. She yawned and began to fall asleep. Remus took her in his arms and gave her a hug and he just sat there with her until she was released three days later and took her home.