Harry Potter and the Silver Dragons

Chapter 11: The House of Riddles

It was still dark out when Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared in front of the rundown old cottage that had once belonged to Frank Brice. It was snowing and they all drew their traveling cloaks around them as they made their way up to the large house that was once home to the muggle family of Lord Voldemort. Hermione lagged behind a little to remove their footprints from the snow, just in case any Death Eaters, or any suspicious muggle police officers showed up.

"Ouch!" Ron shouted as he tripped over a tree root that was sticking out of the ground, "Why we can't light our wands so that we can at least see were we are going?"

"Because," Hermione said as she pointed her wand at the spot were Ron had landed and the imprint instantly vanished, "the last thing we need is for anyone to know that we are here."

"Once we get inside we can light our wands," Harry put in, "but for now Hermione is right, lighting them would only put our mission here in jeopardy."

Though by what light was being allowed in through the trees, it didn't look like Ron was entirely convinced of this, he didn't say another word until they got to the house. After making sure that the door was not still unlocked, Harry pointed his wand at the knob and they heard a click as the door unlocked.

Taking one final look around, Harry led the way into the old kitchen, Hermione, who had made sure that all of their footprints were taken care of, closed the door after she entered. Ron immediately held up his wand and muttered "Lumos!" A narrow beam of light came out of the tip of Ron's wand and illuminated what was obviously the kitchen.

Harry and Hermione lit their own wands and looked around. The room was fairly large, there was a table lying at an angle on the middle of the room. It was obvious that one of the legs had either been broken off somehow, or had rotted off. Between two sets of cabinets there was an old refrigerator, the door on it was slightly ajar. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Ok," Harry said after a moment had passed, "it would make more sense for us to split up, each of us taking two floors of this place," he looked at Hermione, "Hermione you take the basement and the ground floor," he turned to face Ron, "Ron you will take the first and second floors, and I will take the third floor and the attic." Both Ron and Hermione nodded their understanding of this plan, and all three of them pulled out the communication earpieces from their bags, "If any of us finds anything, or run into a situation that you can't get out of," Harry told them as he put his earpiece in, "let the other two know." Both Ron and Hermione nodded their understanding as they put in their own earpieces.

Spotting a door on the other side of the kitchen, Hermione headed for it while Harry and Ron walked out of the kitchen, heading for the main stairway. "So what did you and Hermione do after you left me and Ginny last night?" Harry asked conversationally.

By the dim light being emitted from their wands, Harry could tell that Ron had just gone slightly red in the face. "What do you mean?" He asked Harry. It was obvious that he knew perfectly well what he meant by it.

"Well," Harry began trying to find just the right way of saying what he was planning to, "you and Hermione have been spending a lot of time together lately, and isn't very hard to see that you two have feelings for each other, even if you don't always show them." Ron didn't say anything as they began to climb the steps to the first floor, and before they split up Harry decided that he needed to say something, "Just remember that Ginny and I are very happy for you and Hermione if anything does happen between the two of you."

Ron smiled at Harry, "Thanks Harry." He said before he headed off.

Harry continued to climb up the stairs until he reached the third landing. Casting his wand light down the hallway, he saw that there were only three rooms on this floor. It didn't take him long to search the three rooms. Two of them were bedrooms, the old and moth eaten coverings that one of the previous owners had used were still on the beds, and neither of the rooms wardrobes had anything in them except for some cobwebs and a lot of dust. The third room was obviously at one time a small library. This was made obvious to Harry by the bookshelves that lined the walls. Obviously all of the books that had once adorned the shelves had either been removed, when the families that had lived here after the Riddles moved out or the local library, been sold for one reason or another, or had been stolen. The only thing that was still in the room was a painting of Voldemort's father, Tom Riddle Sr.

Before leaving the room, Harry stood in front of the painting and looked up at it, "Some mess your son has made, I hope that you are proud of what he has become, since it was partly because of you." As he approached the door, Harry thought that he heard a derisive snort coming from the direction of the paining. He turned around and focused his wand light on the paining again and stared at it for a moment. The painting did look like it was somewhat different from she he had looked at it moments before.

Shrugging Harry turned around and left the room to check out the attic area. This however proved to be a bit of a waist of time since all that was in the attic was a lot of dust and spiders. As he made his way back to the third floor, Harry activated his earpiece, "Ron, Hermione, did find anything?"

Hermione was the first to answer, "Nothing Harry, except a painting of an old muggle woman that seemed to be following my movements around the room that I am in right now."

"I found the same thing in one of my rooms," Ron said, "only the painting that I found was of an old muggle man."

'This is too much of a coincidence that both Ron and Hermione would find painting in this place as well.' Harry thought, then said "I found one as well, only mine was of Tom Riddle Sr., and I could have sworn I heard it snort at me when my back was turned."

Hermione must have been thinking along the same lines he was, "Maybe you two should go back to the rooms were you all found those paintings, one of them could be the clue that we have been looking for."

Harry wasted no time getting back to the library that he had found. As he walked into the room he once again shined his wand onto the painting of Tom Riddle Sr. and examined it closely. This time he was sure that this was not the same position that Tom Riddle was in when he had last looked at the painting. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, Harry cleared his throat, "Are you alive?" he asked. The painting did not budge, though he thought that he saw the eyes twitch in his direction briefly.

Harry activated his earpiece, "Ron, Hermione are your paintings doing anything?"

Ron was the first to respond, "Mine is just as still as that poster Dean Thomas hangs up in our dorm every year." Harry of course knew what this meant, Dean Thomas was a muggle born student in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's year at Hogwarts, and from the first year that he was there he had hung a picture of the West Ham football team over his bed. Ron, who had grown up in the wizard world, had always thought it was strange to look at a picture and not have it moving all over the place.

"What about you Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Mine isn't moving either Harry, though I don't think that it is in the same position that it was in the last time I looked at it." Hermione told them.

There was a moment of silence before anyone spoke, then Ron said, "Harry try talking to it in Parseltongue."

"That's not a bad idea Harry, Voldemort could have made it so that only a Parseltongue could get a response from the paintings." Hermione added.

Deciding that it couldn't hurt to try, Harry concentrated on talking what he needed to do, and asked once again in a very slow voice, "Are you alive?"

This time the painting did react to the question, "Indeed I am alive." It told Harry in Parseltongue, for he could hear the spits and hisses as the painting spoke to him.

Harry thought through what he was going to say next, then concentrating on speaking in Parseltongue he asked "Do you know were the Horcrux is hidden at?"

The painting looked down at him, just as Ron's voice came over the earpiece, "Harry I don't know what you are doing, but it is making this painting go berserk, it just started shouting out things in Parseltongue." Indeed, Harry could hear some of what the painting was saying, though he could not make out any of the actual words over the earpiece.

"Mine is doing the same thing Harry." Hermione said. Once again Harry could make out that the painting were saying something but could not make out what it was.

Before Harry could say anything to his painting, it started to speak again, "You did not ask properly, and the others that came with you will pay the price if you ask wrong again."

Harry thought about it, somehow he had asked the painting the wrong question, and if he did so again it sounded like the other paintings would attack Ron and Hermione, or maybe something worse would attack them. But how was he supposed to know how to properly ask were the Horcrux was without setting it off. "Ron, Hermione," he finally said after a momentary pause, "I think that I asked my painting the wrong way, I am going to ask it something else, be ready for anything." When both Ron and Hermione told him that they were ready, Harry looked up at the painting and asked in Parseltongue, "How do I ask you properly?"

Tom Riddle Sr. regarded Harry for a second, then answered, "You must ask three times, but only do it once, then you shall have he information that you seek."

Harry stared at the painting for a moment, and then told Ron and Hermione what the painting had told him. Ron was the first one to say something, "You must ask three times but only once, what kind of bloody help it that?"

"Actually," Hermione said, "it is a great help. It's a riddle that means that we have to ask all three paintings at the same time for the information that we need."

"So how do we do that Hermione?" Harry asked.

There was a slight pause as Hermione thought about what needed to be done. "Well," she finally said a bit tentatively, "there is always a transplantation charm."

"A what?" Ron asked

"A transplantation charm," Hermione said again, "it would allow for Harry to temporarily give you and me the ability to speak Parseltongue, unfortunately it is a very difficult charm to both learn and use."

"How difficult?" Harry asked.

"Along the same lines as the Patronus Charm." Hermione told them.

"Well that's just great," Harry said, "it only took me most of our third year to learn how to properly cast a Patronus."

There was another pause as before anyone spoke again, this time it was Ron that spoke up, "I have an idea, Hermione can the volume on these devices that we are using be turned up any higher?"

"Yeah, there is a control for the volume on the bottom of it." Hermione told them uncertainly, "Brilliant Ron!" she exclaimed as she figured out what his idea was.

"Then turn the volume on it us to as loud as it can go Hermione and place it as close to your painting as you can, and I will do the same on my end." Ron told her, "Harry when we give you the signal that we are ready ask it about the Horcrux again."

"Ok." Harry told them, he had caught onto Ron's plan at the same time that Hermione had. When both Ron and Hermione told Harry that they were ready, he looked at the painting of Tom Riddle again and said in Parseltongue, "Tell me were to find the Horcrux."

There was a slight pause before the painting started to speak again, this time it was in perfect English, "You have passed the first obstacle," it said looking down at Harry, "you must now pass three challenges, the first you must face that which moves around but not on legs and has looks that can kill, second you must walk in the name of the Dark Lord in order to continue on, and last you must figure out the shape of things to come. Once you have completed all of these challenges you will face your final obstacle before you can gain the treasure of my dear son."

"So what the bloody hell does that all mean?" Ron asked.

"They're riddles." Hermione said.

"But what do they mean?" Harry asked before Ron had a chance to say anything.

"Not sure," Hermione said, "they could mean anyth…., what was that?"

"What was what?" Ron asked.

Hermione paused briefly before she continued, "I thought that I just heard something in the kitchen."

"Don't move," Harry said, "Ron and I will be right there."

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on were Hermione was at and spun in place, when he opened his eyes again he found that he was in a sitting room. There was a loud CRACK near him and he knew that Ron had also decided to apperate as well.

Harry wasted no time, "Wands out and be ready for anything." He told Ron and Hermione.

The three of them waited, there eyes on the kitchen door, but nothing came through it. Harry was just about to see if Hermione was hearing things when a loud banging came through the door. "What is it?" Ron asked quietly.

"I've been thinking about that," Hermione told them, "I think that the first of the clues that we were given by the paintings told us exactly what we are up against here."

"How do you figure?" Harry asked.

"Well, think about it," Hermione explained, "we must first face that which moves, but has no legs, just think about it."

Thinking it through, Harry decided that many things can move without legs, a river for one. But he seriously doubted that Voldemort would leave a river to guard his Horcrux, that was just plain stupid. No, it had to be an animal of some kind. He then remembered some of the speech that Voldemort had given to his Death Eater's almost three years ago, 'I sometimes inhabited animals, snakes, of course, being my preference.' And he knew immediately what the creature was that was in the kitchen, "It's a snake." He told them.

Hermione nodded, "But not just any snake either, don't forget about the second part of the clue, 'whose looks can kill', it is referring to a particular type of snake."

"A Basilisk." Ron said.

Another noise came form the kitchen, this one sounding a lot closer to the door. Harry knew exactly what to do. He quickly began to rummage around in his bag for three things, and pulled all three of them out at the same time. "If it is a basilisk," he told them, "then we will need all every advantage that we can get to defeat it."

"The darkness pellets and the goggles to go with them." Ron said with sudden understanding.

"But we still have to take out its most dangerous weapon," Hermione said, "its eyes, then we need to deal with it for good, otherwise it could do some real damage to the village if it were to get out of this house."

At these words Harry reached into his bag once again and pulled out what looked like an ordinary coach's whistle. "Good thinking Harry." Hermione said as he handed it to her.

"I don't understand." Ron said in a confused voice.

With an air of annoyance Hermione explained, "Don't you remember Ron, the crow of a rooster will kill a basilisk."

"And that Sounder that I got from Lee Jordan is the closest thing we have right now to a rooster." Harry said. There was another loud noise from the kitchen, this one seemed like it was right on the other side of the door. With little time to spare Harry decided what to do. "Hermione go and hide behind that old chair, when I give you the signal use the Sounder." He then turned to Ron, "When it enters the room I will use the darkness pellets, then you and I will take out its eyes."

"How are we going to do that?"

"With the only spell that I know that will destroy its eyes, Sectusempera." Hermione looked as if she was going to argue the point, but something hitting the door to the kitchen stop. "Let's move." Harry told them.

Hermione ducked down behind an old chair, while Harry and Ron took up positions in both corners of the room, this would prevent them from accidentally hitting each other with the curse. There was a moment's silence, then suddenly the door burst open and a gigantic snake slithered into the room. The first thing that Harry noticed as he plunged the room into darkness, was that it did not appear to be as large as the one that he had fought in the Chamber of Secrets, but it still have several rows of very sharp, and undoubtedly very poisonous fangs. Without another moment's hesitation, and before it could try to look at him with its deadly eyes, Harry pointed his wand at the giant snake and shouted "Sectusempera!" and heard Ron shout it out as well.

The basilisk screamed in pain as its eyes were replaced by two bloody gashes. Not leaving anything to chance though, Harry and Ron both shouted "Sectusempera!" again, and two more bloody slashes appeared were the snakes eyes had been. "Now Hermione!" Harry shouted. But this was a mistake, even though the snake was now blinded, it could still hear just fine. With a roar and movements that were fast as lighting, the basilisk was soon on top of Harry. As though this was not bad enough, when it had moved its massive tail had hit the chair that Hermione was hiding behind. When the chair fell, it hit Hermione, who dropped the sounder.

Ron, who had seen this immediately, shouted "Stupefy!" shooting a blast of red energy at the basilisk. This however did nothing but enrage the giant snake, who whipped out its tail in Ron's direction, hitting him hard, and sending him flying across the room.

This however was the distraction that Harry needed. Pointing his wand right into the snakes open mouth he shouted, "Expelliarmus!" The disarming charm did what Harry had hopped it would and knocked the basilisk off of him. By this time Hermione had located the sounder. She tapped it with her wand and brought it up to her mouth, took a deep breath, and blew. The room was immediately filled with the sound of a rooster crowing. The basilisk roared in pain as Hermione blew on the sounder again. The basilisk tried feebly to swat at Hermione like it had done to Ron, but it was evident that the crows were draining it of its strength, and Hermione dodged the swipe easily. She then brought the sounder back to her lips and blew into it a third time. With this crow, the basilisk fell over hard onto the floor, defiantly dead.

Harry and Hermione quickly rushed over to were Ron was lying on the floor. It became apparent when they saw the imprint that his body made when it hit the wall, just how hard he had been hit by the snake. "All right Ron?" Harry asked as they helped him up.

"Think so," Ron said giving his head a little shake, "but I don't think that I will want to do that again anytime soon." He then looked over at the lifeless form of the basilisk, "So what are we going to do with that?"

"Leave it to me." Hermione said, as she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the giant snake. With a swish of Hermione's wand the basilisk was gone, in its place was a giant pile of dust.

"I think that I have told you this before," Ron said as Hermione turned back to them, "you're a bit scary, brilliant, but scary." Harry figured that if it wasn't for the fact that the room was still pitch black, he would have seen Hermione blush bright red.

Not wanting to waist any time though, Harry led the other two into the kitchen, were they pulled off their goggles and began to look around. It didn't take them long to find that the old refrigerators door was now wide open, and there appeared to be a passage way of some kind inside of it. Lighting their wands again, they entered the passage.

It was only about half way down the passage that Ron asked, "So what do you think that 'We must walk in the name of the Dark Lord to continue on' means anyway?"

"I guess we will find out what that one means when we get to the end of this passage." Harry said. In no time at all they emerged from the passage into a large chamber. It was evident as soon as they stepped into the chamber that this was where the basilisk had lived. Tiny bones littered the floor, and much to Ron's pleasure, there were no spiders in sight. Spiders considered the basilisk their mortal enemies and often scurried away from them as fast as their little legs could carry them. On the other side of the chamber was a doorway.

As if sensing their presence in the chamber, the door swung open as they approached. "Wand's out!" Harry told Ron and Hermione more out of reflex then anything else since they knew full well to be on guard and ready for anything. But as they entered the next chamber, this one being only a fraction of the size of the one that the basilisk had lived in, all they found was another door on the other side of the room.

Ron made for the door but Harry and Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back just in time to miss a large stone pillar that had shot down from over their heads and smashed into the floor with enough force that it would have crushed him without even slowing down. "Thanks you two." Ron said as he wiped off some sweat that he had just noticed on his brow.

"Just be more careful next time." Hermione said as she stooped down to look at the floor. "Look at this," she told them, "there are letters on the floor."

Harry considered it for a few seconds, "That's it!" He exclaimed, "We have to walk in the name of the Dark Lord in order to continue on."

"Of course," Hermione said, "it all makes sense now."

"What does?" Ron asked obviously having not picked up on what they had to do yet.

"It's quite simple," Harry explained more for Ron's sake than for Hermione's, and pointed to the tiles with letters on them, "each of those tiles represent a letter in a word that we have to spell out in order to get across this room."

Comprehension was evident on Ron's face, "You mean that we have to Spell out You-Know-Who's name in order to get across this room." Harry nodded to Ron, "Well, that sounds simple enough."

"Yes," Hermione said with a touch of concern in her voice, "almost too easy, especially based on what we have had to go through so far in order to get this Horcrux."

Ron gave Hermione his usual exasperated look, "Come off it," he told her, "maybe You-Know-Who was slipping when he made this protection."

"No," Harry told Ron in a matter of fact way, "I think that Hermione is right about this one. Look at how many tiles are on the floor, then count the number of letters in Voldemort's name." Ron gave an involuntary shudder, "Even if we use Lord Voldemort, there are still to many letters."

"Then what does that mean?" Hermione asked.

Harry thought about it for a moment, then it hit him, "Back in our second year, after I destroyed the Horcrux that was in that diary, Dumbledore had told me that not many people knew that Voldemort had been known at one time as Tom Riddle. And earlier in the Chamber he had used my wand to write his name in the air." Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, excitement growing him as he put all of the pieces together. "Don't you see, if you add 'I am' to Lord Voldemort, then rearrange the letters, you get Tom Marvolo Riddle."

With sudden realization Hermione said in an almost awed voice, "Voldemort is an anagram for his real name."

Harry nodded, "And I bet that is what we have to spell out Tom Marvolo Riddle in order to get to that door over to that door."

"It still sounds a bit too easy Harry." Hermione told them.

But before Hermione or Ron could come up with a better idea of what to do, Harry located and stepped onto the tile that had a T on it, and found that it was just barely big enough for him to stand on. Ignoring Hermione's protests that he should have waited for, Harry lit his wand and proceeded to locate the tile with the O on it. He stepped onto it, then proceeded to the tile with the M on it. Before going on he turned to look at the others. "Stay there until I get to the other side, then come over yourselves." The looks on Ron and Hermione's faces told him that they understood his instructions, and he turned back to look for the next letter M. He found it and jump to it, then proceeded to the A-R-V-O-L-O then R-I-D-D-L-E, from the last tile he jumped to solid floor with no tiles on it.

"Ok Hermione you next." Harry called out.

Hermione made to step on the tile with the T on it, when suddenly all of the letters rearranged themselves into a different pattern. Seeing this, Ron called back to Harry, "Harry, there might be an easier way to do this mate." He pulled out of his bag a couple of decoy detonators, and held them up for Harry to see. "Try doing a summoning or levitation charm on one of these."

Harry saw this for what it was, an attempt to see what would happen if they tried an easy solution to this problem. After all he had done the same thing in the cave with Dumbledore, and he and Hermione had tried it as well on the cup in the orphanage. Raising his wand, but at the same time thinking that this would more than likely not work, Harry shouted, "Accio!" and one of the detonators shot from Ron's hand and out over the tiles.

It cleared the first two rows before WAM, a pillar just like the one that had nearly crushed Ron a few moments before shot down at the detonator and smashed it. A muffled BANG could barely be heard from under the pillar. Ron had a disappointed look on his face, but Hermione's expression was just the opposite. "Harry try that again, but this time use a levitation charm."

"Why?" he asked confusion evident in his voice.

"You will see," she told him in her matter of fact tone that reminded him so much of Professor McGonagall, "just be sure that you start it here," she pointed down at the tile that she was standing in front of, "then, as best you can to that one," she pointed to the tile one up and to Harry's right of the first tile, "and finally that one." She pointed at one final tile that was one up and to his left. "I will explain after you do it Harry." Hermione told him.

Shrugging, Harry pointed his wand at the remaining detonator, which Hermione had taken from Ron and was now holding up for him, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The detonator rose up in the air, and Harry guided over the tiles that Hermione had pointed out. After it passed the third tile though its fate was the same as the other detonator as it was smashed by a stone pillar that shot down on top of it. Harry looked back at Hermione, "Now what was that all about?" he asked.

"As we know by now, we have to follow the same path that you did in order to get to the other side of this chamber Harry," Hermione said, but before Harry or Ron could say anything she continued, "naturally Voldemort would have expected anyone that made it this far to have either had very good luck, or an inside knowledge of how he thinks and works, not to mention some information about his background."

"What's your point Hermione?" Ron asked before she could go on.

"My point," Hermione continued giving Ron a dirty look as she did so, "is that he would have made sure that there was only one was across this room, but at the same time force anyone that made it this far to take a different way each time. That was why the letters rearranged themselves when Harry made it to the other side." She paused for a few seconds to let this sink in and give either Harry or Ron a chance to make a comment, but when none came she continued, "He would have also made it so that if one of any group that came after this Horcrux made it over that person could not help the others get over."

"Will you please get to the point already." Ron told her in an exasperated sounding voice.

"The point," Hermione continued, shooting another dirty look at Ron, "is that Voldemort must have placed some sort of magical sensors in the ceiling of this chamber in order to make sure that nobody could do what we just attempted to do, otherwise one of those pillars will come down and crush them."

"But what about the first detonator, it made it to the third row of letters before it was smashed." Harry called to them.

"I think that it only made it that far because it was moving quite fast. As you may recall the second detonator followed the path that I told you to take Harry and it made it to the fourth row before it was crushed." Hermione explained to them, "I think that as Harry suggested the only safe way to get across is to spell out Voldemort's real name, no matter how the letters are arranged on the floor."

"Couldn't you have just said that to begin with instead of giving us a bloody lesson." Ron said a bit heatedly.

This time Hermione didn't say a thing, she just started hoping from tile to tile, until she reached Harry on the other side of the chamber. "Your turn Ron." Harry called over.

Ron waited for the tiles to reset themselves, then after locating the first letter hoped onto it. He was doing just fine until he reached the second letter in Marvolo and froze in place trying to think how to spell it. "Ron, Marvolo is spelled just like it sounds, look for an R, then V-O-L-O." Hermione called to him. Ron in the mean time held his lit wand up so that he could see all the better, and stepped onto the R. After that it didn't take him long to reach the other side were Harry and Hermione were waiting for him.

As soon as he stepped off the final letter the door that was behind them opened to reveal the next chamber. Harry led the way into the chamber and found that the only thing in this room was what looked like and alter. "What was the clue for this obstacle?" Harry asked.

"Just that this obstacle would reveal the shape of things to come." Hermione said as she stepped up next to Harry to look around. All three of them walked up to the alter and looked down at it. There was three items on top of it, all of them covered with a thin layer of dust. The first item was a block with multiple colors on it, the colors all being mixed up. The second were two horseshoes linked together by two short chains with a ring that was looped around the chains. The last one looked like it was nothing but an old jigsaw puzzle. Ron picked up the horseshoe and looked at it closely, "Now this is bazaar." He told them as he held it up for them to see.

"Not really," Hermione said, once again in her matter of fact voice, "my parents have similar things in there office, it helps the patents to get their minds off of the filling that they lost, or the fact that they are going to have to have a root canal done to them."

Harry was barely listening, he had just noticed that there were three shapes on the alter, one was a square shape, the second was a ring shape, and the last one looked like a triangle shape, only it looked like it might be deeper than it appeared to be just by looking at it. Apparently Hermione and Ron had noticed that he was staring at the alter, and when they looked down at it they saw that shapes as well.

"Ok," Harry finally told them, "I think that I have this one figured out." He pointed down at the shapes on the alter, "We have to figure out these puzzles and then place them in the appropriate slots when we finish with them."

"So how do we decide who does what puzzle?" Ron asked.

"Honestly Ron," Hermione told them, "we do the puzzles that we are going to have the easiest time doing. Like for instance, that puzzle that you are holding, I can more than likely figure that one out in no time, ouch!"

"What happened?" Harry asked looking over at Hermione, who was nursing her fingers.

"Don't know, when I reached for the puzzle I got a bit of an electric shock." Hermione explained to them, "The puzzles must be enchanted so that they can only be solved by the person that first touched them."

"You mean that I am stuck doing this thing?" Ron asked.

"Looks like it." Hermione said, she then looked at Harry, "That just leaves the cube and jigsaw puzzles for us to do."

There was no choice as far as Harry was concerned as he reached out and took the cube puzzle. "Dudley got one of these at a party he went to several years ago. I found it in pieces though a couple of days later and was able to put it back together. I actually got quite good at solving it before Dudley found out that I had it and told Uncle Vernon." He explained to Hermione.

"Well then, that just leaves the jigsaw puzzle for me." Hermione said as she pulled the box to her and opened it up.

"YOU HAVE EACH CHOSEN A PIECE OF THAT WHICH YOU NEED TO MOVE TO THE FINAL CHALENGE," a booming voice said out of nowhere, an hourglass then appeared in front of them hanging in midair, "THEREFORE YOU MUST FINISH YOUR RESPECTIVE ITEMS IN THE SET TIME LIMIT, OR YOU WILL BE LOST FOREVER." The hourglass then flipped over and sand began to trickle down.

Not wasting any time, Harry set to work on the cube puzzle. As he worked on it he stole quick glances at Ron and Hermione to see how they were doing. Within minutes Hermione had the outside of the puzzle already put together and was then working on the inside of it. Ron on the other hand was having no luck at all figuring out his puzzle. Harry knew this because Ron's ears were turning red, this meant that though he was working hard to figure out the puzzle, he would much rather have chucked it away. It also didn't help that all of the kept looking at the hourglass every few seconds to see how much time they had left.

Forcing himself to concentrate on the cube, Harry soon hade three of the sides one solid color, and was working on the forth when Hermione had put the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in place and out of it came a pyramid shape. She quickly took the pyramid and placed it in the triangular slot on the alter, and the booming voice came back, "YOU HAVE FINISHED THE FIRST ITEM. TWO ITEMS REMAIN TO BE FINISHED." Hermione then made to help Ron with his puzzle, but was stopped by some sort of barrier, the booming voice then returned, "YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR PART OF THE CHALENGE YOU MAY NOT HELP WITH ANY OTHER PART OF IT!"

With this Harry stole a quick look at the hourglass and saw that over half their time was now used up. He returned to work on the puzzle and soon had the fourth side of the puzzle one solid color. Now came the tricky part, finishing the remaining two sides.

Hermione on the other hand was watching Ron with increasing fear on her face. He had come no closer to figuring out the solution to the puzzle, and the fact that he kept looking at the hourglass was a sure sign that he didn't think that he could figure it out in time. Meanwhile, in what Harry could only consider record time, he gave the cube one last twist and quickly put it into the square slot on the alter.

Once again the booming voice filled the chamber, "YOU HAVE FINISHED THE SECOND ITEM. ONE ITEM REMAINS TO BE FINISHED."

Ron was starting to look really worried by this point, as the hourglass continued to filter down, just over three quarters had already fallen through to the bottom, and there was nothing that Harry or Hermione could do to help him with his puzzle. "What does he have to do to get that ring off?" Harry asked Hermione in as low a voice as he could.

"It's quite simple, all he has to do is to twist the two horseshoes so that the two chains are twisted, and then sliding one of the ends through the ring bring them together. If he did it right, the ring will be completely free of the horseshoe." Hermione explained, "Actually it is quite an ingenuous obstacle for Voldemort to have used, it requires both logic and common sense, and as I told you back in our first year, most wizards don't have or use either one."

"There has to be something that we can do to help him." Harry said as he saw that Ron's ears had turned an even deeper shade of red than before. Then it hit him, something that might very well help Ron to focus on the task at hand. Looking at the hourglass he knew didn't have time to tell Hermione his plan. Hoping that Hermione would pick up on it he took in a deep breath and started to sing, "Weasley is our king, Weasley is our king, he didn't let the Quaffle in Weasley is our king."

Hermione looked at Harry, and then smiling started to sing as well. Ron looked at both of them for a few seconds and smiled himself. He then looked down at the puzzle with a renewed sense of purpose, and just as the last of the sand started to slip though the hourglass, Ron gave the puzzle a twist and slid the ring right off of it. Without wasting any time he moved to the alter and placed the ring in its slot just as the last grain of sand passed through to the bottom of the glass.

The booming voice then returned "YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS CHALENGE, BUT ONLY ONE OF YOU CAN PROCEED TO THE FINAL CHALENGE," another door on the opposite side of the room opened up, "IF THAT ONE FAILS, THE OTHERS WILL BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO DO WHAT THEIR COULIGUE COULD NOT. NOW CHOOSE WHO WILL GO FIRST!"

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, "No choice really, this is my job, so I will go first."

"We know Harry," Hermione said, "just be careful."

"Yeah, good luck mate." Ron told Harry as he slapped him on the shoulder.

Without another word Harry walked up to the door that had just opened, and with one final look at Ron and Hermione, who were both getting out their earpieces just in case, he walked through the door. Expecting another tunnel leading into another chamber, Harry was surprised to find that he had instantly been taken to the room were they had killed the basilisk.

Looking down at his watch Harry realized that it was almost noon. They had been down in those caves for hours. Bringing himself back to the task at hand Harry scanned the room and soon found something odd, all three of the paintings were now floating in midair in front of him.

"You have survived the challenges that were set in front of you." Voldemort's Grandfather said.

"Now your final task is at hand." Said Voldemort's Grandmother.

"Prepare yourself for the final obstacle, for if you solve this final riddle right my dear son's treasure to will receive, but if you guess wrong, you will join those that have come before you in oblivion." Tom Riddle Sr. said, then as if he had been practicing this for a long time recited, "The first of us to see…"

"Was the first of us to know…"

"Was the first of us to die…"

"And was the first one to join this band…"

Harry stared at the three paintings intently, he knew that he had a one in three chance of getting this riddle right on the first try. The clues were obvious, he had to guess which of them was the first one that Voldemort murdered over fifty years ago. His first choice had to be Tom Riddle Sr. He was the one that Voldemort would of hated the most being that he was his father. But there was also the fact that Voldemort could have run across one of his grandparents as well before he got to his father.

As he considered this, Harry caught movement out of the corner of his eye and thought that he saw some sort of shadow outside of the window, but when he looked at it properly, he saw that nothing was there. He turned back to the three paintings, and saw something weird, the painting of Tom Riddle Sr. was glowing brightly. The other two paintings hadn't noticed anything though, and without knowing why he did it, pointed at Tom Riddle Sr.

The other two paintings then fell to the floor, as Tom Riddle's floated over to the wall and attached himself to it. Then swung forward reveling a secret compartment in the wall were a golden medallion sat. Harry rushed over to the compartment and tentatively reached into it and took hold of the medallion and pulled it out. He examined it and saw that there was a picture of an eagle with an R superimposed over it. This item obviously had once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw.

Smiling broadly Harry had just reached into his pocket to pull out his earpiece when there was a loud CRACK and both Ron and Hermione were standing there in front of him. "What happened?" Ron asked as he looked around the room.

"I got it." Harry told them as he held up the golden medallion for them to see.

"Well," Hermione began, "I guess that answers the question of whether Voldemort found anything that belonged to Ravenclaw."

"Yeah," Harry put in, "it also means that we are one step closer to finishing him off for good."

"Then lets get back to Grimmauld Place," Ron told them, "I'm starving."

Smiling at Ron, Harry and Hermione took up positions on either side of him, and concentrating on their destination all three of them closed their eyes and spun in place. When they opened them again they did not find things as they had left them.