Chapter 12 - After Exams

The following months passed uneventfully until after finals were finished. Unfortunately, Chomper was now too big to sit in on classes with Hermione. That duty now belonged to Eshwick. Right after the last final finished, Hermione began having mini panic attacks every couple of minutes because of how worried about her results she was.

Later that evening, Harry approached her with the news that there was a hidden object in the castle that someone was going after. He had overheard Professor Quirrell talking to someone about stealing the object. He didn't know what the object was, just that it had something to do with someone named Nicholas Flamel.

She agreed with him that it needed to be protected, then he told her that the object was in the forbidden corridor. She balked. She told him to take his concerns to their head of house. She had helped her after all, she could probably help him too. He seemed reluctant, but agreed in the end.

Around half an hour later, Harry came back to her and told her that Professor McGonagall had said that the protections on the stone were enough and to not worry about it. Hermione filed the information that the object was a stone away for later pursuit. Hermione was inclined to believe the professor, but then, Harry told her that Professor Quirrell had figured out how to get past all of the obstacles. As a friend, Hermione knew that he wouldn't lie to her. She wanted to help, really, she did, but what could a first year do against a professor?

If the professors wouldn't do anything, then they would have to. They needed help. The two of them alone wouldn't be able to do much. It was time to call in the friends. For Hermione, besides Harry, who was already there, that only meant Neville. For Harry, it was Ron. It took Hermione a while to convince her first human friend that they needed to do this. As soon as he was convinced, the foursome stealthily made their way to the third floor corridor.

Entering the only door on the forbidden corridor was easy. It wasn't even locked! What kind of protection was that? Also, everyone in the school knew which corridor, therefore which door, the stone was located in. That wasn't very good protection.

The foursome came across three dog like Pokemon that Hermione immediately identified for her friends and Ron as the three evolved forms of Rocruff, Lycanroc. Knowing that they were rock types, therefore weak to water types, Hermione told Neville to call out Trever while she called out Myeem. They then both commanded their Pokemon to use Water Pulse. The two simultaneous super effective attacks managed to knock out all three Pokemon at once as they were all standing together.

The children then moved towards the trap door that the three had been standing over. Opening the trap door, they looked downward. It was too dark to see anything. They shrugged and one by one jumped down. The landing was surprisingly soft.

Hermione felt something creeping up her leg. Not being able to see what it was, she asked Harry to call out his Charmeleon so that they could see. As soon as he did as she had asked, she saw several Weepinbell. They seemed to freeze before their vines started to move much faster to wrap around the children.

Thinking quickly, she called out to her Litleo, "Ember on the Weepinbells!" He was fast to follow her order as he saw her plight. The Weepinbells let go as soon as they were hit with the fire type attack.

The humans ran as soon as they were free. They ran down the only hall, the only way to go. Hermione congratulated Eshwick before returning him to his Pokeball. They passed a doorway into a long room. On the opposite side of the room was a closed door. Between them and the door was a Jigglypuff.

Hermione panicked. She remembered what happened to people who fell asleep to the Jigglypuff from 'Ash's Adventures'. "Run!" She shouted before taking off for the door in the distance. The Jigglypuff started to sing. Hermione pushed herself to go even faster.

Suddenly, she heard Neville's voice. "Poison Powder, Aspen!"

Then came a cry of "Ivysaur!" The cry was followed by a large purple cloud of poisonous powder rushing towards the Jigglypuff. Once the cloud had engulfed the Jigglypuff, it stopped singing. Harry called out his Dartrix, Hedwig, to blow the poison out of their way with her wings. They hurried passed the door.

They came to a stop at the sight before them. There was a giant chessboard. Behind the chessboard was a male Meowstic. The tried to pass by the chess set, but the Meowstic moved a chess piece to block their path.

"Do we need to play our way across?" Hermione called out to the Pokemon. He nodded in agreement.

"Great! I'm almost undefeated in chess!" Ron boastfully exclaimed.

The chess match took only half an hour. In the end, Ron sacrificed himself to get the others through. Because of this, he wasn't allowed to pass.

The next obstacle was a riddle, you needed to type the answer in like a passcode to get through to the next part. Hermione figures out the riddle soon after reading it.

The next room the trio came to already held a person. He turned to look at them as they entered the room. "You were right Harry, Professor Quirrell is the one after the object!" Hermione exclaimed, careful not to call the object a stone in case the professor didn't know what it was. Personally, she had thought that Harry had made a mistake because Professors were supposed to be beyond reproach in character.

The professor called out his four Pokemon; an Alola Form Muk, a Honchkrow, a Shiftry, and a Stuntank. In response, the trio each called out their three Pokemon.

"Fire types on the Shiftry!" Called out Harry. Hermione was glad that he had read, and remembered, Battling by Type.

"Do what Harry says!" Hermione and Neville called out to their Litleos. The little felines nedded and moved to stand by Harry.

"Myeem, follow Neville's instructions and focus on the Honchkrow." Hermione told the baby of the group. "Chomper and I will deal with with the Muk and Stuntank, he's the only one with a type advantage."

"Litleos and Flametail," Harry commanded, "Ember on the Shiftry!" The Shiftry retaliated with a Sucker Punch to Flametail the Charmeleon. This move was intercepted by Hedwig. This immediately knocked out Hedwig. Harry had the fire types use Ember again. The attacks hit twice more before the Shiftry used Sucker Punch on Flametail, knocking him out. With one final Ember from the Litleos, the Shiftry fainted.

Meanwhile, Neville had Myeem using Disarming Voice repeatedly with his remaining two Pokemon protecting her. Luckily, the Honchkrow was momentarily distracted by the sudden emotional attack, so it took a while before the Honchkrow attacked. It only managed to knock out Trever before being knocked out.

At the same time as the other battles were taking place, Hermione was battling one on one. "Sand Tomb on the Muk, Chomper!" He was quick to follow her instructions. Her opponents Pokemon was trapped. It couldn't get out of the sandstorm. As it was trapped in a sandstorm, the Muk couldn't attack Chomper since it couldn't see him. "Now use Dragon Rage on it as many times as possible!" Chomper complied. Just as he was going to hit it for the fifth time, the sandstorm faded from view. "Quickly Chomper!" He did the move for the last time as fast as he possibly could. It couldn't take the overwhelming damage and fainted.

Looking around, Hermione saw that she was the last one to finish her battle. Looking to Professor Quirrell, she saw him muttering, trying to figure out how to move the boulder blocking the way forwards. "Hey Quirrell! We defeated all of your Pokemon!" Harry called out. Hermione felt the urge to smack him, he just gave away their element of surprise!

Professor Quirrell whirled around. He gaped at the sight of all three of his Pokemon out cold. He suddenly started to laugh. He called out another Pokemon. This one looked bigger than the others, as if it was bigger than it was supposed to be. He turned back around. A few moments later, the boulder shifted to the side enough that Professor Quirrell was able to simply walk through. The children made to follow, but the Stuntank blocked their way.

Hermione bit her lip. What to do? "Harry, you go on ahead with your remaining Pokemon, Neville and I will keep the Stuntank busy." Hermione decided. The two boys exchanged a glance before nodding. "Chomper, use Sand Tomb!" Chomper complied quickly, obscuring the enemy Pokemon from view. "Now, Harry! Go! Go! Go!" Harry ran around the small sandstorm and into the gap that the boulder had created when it moved with his Litleo.

By the time that the duo had disappeared from sight, the sandstorm had faded. Hermione and Neville commanded their Pokemon to use their ranged attacks. The Stuntank retaliated with a flamethrower at Neville's Ivysaur, Aspen. The move knocked out Aspen. To get revenge for Aspen, the rest of the Pokemon took matters into their own hands and used their attacks again. The Stuntank then ate a berry that they hadn't realized it was holding and used Belch on Myeem. Myeem fainted right away. The remaining Pokemon used their attacks again. Eshwick was next to go down. One last attack from Chomper and Neville's Litleo and the Stuntank was down and out.

With one remaining Pokemon each, the two friends went after their other friend to back him up. They ran down the hall with their remaining Pokemon. As soon as they arrived in the room that held the stone, they saw that Harry and his Litleo were unconscious and Quirrel was gone.

They returned their Pokemon to their Pokeballs, and Hermione searched Harry for his Litleo's Pokeball. Once she found it, she returned him. Then, the Two friends each grabbed an arm and began to drag Harry back the way they had come. A while later, they met up with Ron who helped them drag Harry to the hospital wing.

They were kicked out of the hospital wing as soon as they got Harry onto a bed and their Pokemon were healed.