Hey everyone, this is a warning for any younger readers or anyone who may be distressed by violence. I don't believe the rating needs to increase, but just in case, there is some violence in this chapter and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Any likes, comments, questions, suggestions, reviews, etc. are appreciated.
Chapter 7 A Team of Misfits
Harry Potter was pretty sure he'd become "The boy who died" today. He accepted this, only hoping that he wouldn't be leading his friends to their doom as well. He looked back at his fellow students, silently walking through the darkened corridors of the third-floor hall. There wasn't much he would be able to do to dissuade them anyways; they were all stead fast in coming with him to face Snape.
Reaching the door, he took out his wand and turned to face the group.
"Luna, are you ready?"
She nodded, her wand at the ready as well. Turning back to the door, he whispered the charm to unlock it.
"Alohomora."
The door sprang open and Luna marched swiftly inside, already starting the winding conductor-like motions of the spell with each passing step.
"Musica Implementio."
The dog, who was in the process of waking from sleep, heard the soft music from Luna's wand and lay back on the ground, grumbling back to sleep. The rest of group ran to the trap door, carefully lifting the dog's paw off it and looked in. It was nearly pitch black, but the air felt warm, some what like a forest.
Harry gritted his teeth and spoke quietly to the group, "I'll go first, if anything happens get McGonagall and tell her Snape is after something of Dumbledore's." He then lowered himself as far as he could before letting go and dropping into the pit.
To his relief he landed upon a fairly soft plant rather than spikes, or some other booby trap. The room he was in was small and circular, it almost like it was one of the towers that Hogwarts castle was famous for. He stood and called to the group huddled above, "It's alright guys, go ahead and drop down".
Once more he was reminded that standing in Ginny's way was not a terribly intelligent plan. She landed on him with loud THUMP, sending both of them to the ground. The two rolled away from each other, and mumbled apologies, each thankful for the darkness of the room that concealed their blush.
Ron landed next, followed by Dean and Seamus. Harry looked up to the trapdoor and called out to their final member, "Neville, are you coming?"
"Uhm, how big of a drop is it, cause-"
Suddenly he was cut off by a cry from Ron, "HELP! The plant is-". His voice was cut off as the plant began to restrict his breathing by wrapping around him. The others quickly were overwhelmed as tendrils of the deadly plant began to attack them as well.
Hermione used her limited breath to call to Neville, "It's Devil's Snare, Neville. You need to-"
She was cut off as well. Harry began to lose consciousness as stars dominated his vision, but he felt movement beside him, and then there was a bright flash of light.
The plant receded, releasing the students. Now no longer caught halfway down the room, they fell through to the bottom, hitting the stone below as ungracefully as possible. Harry caught his breath and turned to Neville, "Neville, you saved us. Thank you, we all owe you big time."
Dean kicked a vine off Seamus and helped him up. "I never thought we would end up using Herbology in real life; I bet the professors set this up," Dean said.
Seamus glared at the retreating vine and then responded, "Yeah, and that dog must be Hagrid's."
Harry nodded at them and turned to the high wooden door. The door had a strange pattern etched in, making it looking hundreds of years old. He felt Ginny's hand on his shoulder and shared a determined look before squeaking the door open.
They were greeted by a strangely bright chamber, with incredibly high ceilings and archways. But what was most interesting about it was the tiny objects flying about the room.
"What are those, birds?" Ron said walking by him, looking up.
Harry frowned and looked closely at them, "No, they're keys."
Harry hesitated and ran over to the other door and tried the knob.
Locked.
Tried the unlocking charm.
Locked.
Hermione called over, "It must be one of these keys. But which key is it, there must hundreds flying around."
He nodded and looked up again. Ever the keen-eyed seeker, he spotted a strange key, its wings were bent, likely from being caught before. As he watched the key, he noticed that the key was also an old bronze one, very different to the brighter new steel keys.
"Harry," Ginny's voice called to him. She was holding four brooms. "I found some brooms against the wall, three of us can herd the key to you, and then you can catch it."
Dean and Seamus reached out and took two of the brooms. "We'll help too," said Seamus.
Neville, Ron, and Hermione hurried to door to catch the key once the flying group caught it. Harry pointed the broken key to the group.
"It's that one with the bent wings, Snape probably bent them when he caught it earlier."
The four of them mounted their brooms. Harry called out, "On three we go. ONE, TWO, THREE!"
They took off toward the bent keys. To Harry's surprise the keys took off as well. Towards them. The keys were like tiny missiles as they sped towards the flyers. "Split up! It might confuse them." Harry yelled to the group.
This technique worked well, the aggressive steel keys followed Seamus and Ginny, leaving Harry and Dean to go for the bent key without being accosted. As Harry snatched the key, a voice screamed out behind him. He turned and saw Ginny off her broom, falling to the ground, clutching her left arm.
There was a key sticking through her arm, flapping its wing, still attempting to reach her, and injure her more. Seamus swooped in and tackled her in the air, and the two fell to the ground, landing with a loud thump onto the concrete floor. Seamus yelled out in pain as he took the brunt of the fall onto his leg. Harry threw the key to the group on the ground and followed Dean towards the pair in pain.
The rest of the group started running towards him, but Seamus called back to them in tears, "No, keep going! You have to stop Snape."
Harry hesitated, "But you're-"
Dean interrupted him with a bellow, "NO! NOT WITHOUT YOU SEAMUS!" He landed roughly next to Seamus and grabbed his shoulder to steady him. Harry moved again to Ginny but was stopped by her forced angry words, "Get Snape, NOW!"
"Go Harry, I'll get them out," Dean said with a hint of tears in his eyes. Harry nodded and led the bloodthirsty keys around the room one more time before rushing through the door with the others. The one good thing about the keys were that they didn't seem to attack people not on brooms.
He looked at the remaining group of Ron, Hermione, and Neville. They were losing people. They had to move fast.
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Ginny finally understood what it meant by blinding pain.
She felt as though a thousand fires had erupted on her arm. Multiple keys were stuck within her arm alongside the largest key that was completely through her arm.
As they struggled within her limb, the pain increased more and more.
She was only vaguely aware of a pair of speckled glasses looking down at her, until the pain knocked her out completely.
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Harry was never more emotionally exhausted as he was now. Ginny and Seamus were severely injured. Ron had sacrificed himself in that chess game. He was alive when Harry had left him, but his leg was bleeding from the fall of the knight piece. Hermione and Neville were following closely behind as they approached the next imposing door. As quietly as they could they tiptoed into the room.
They were greeted by a hideous surprise. Lying on the floor was what was without a doubt a 30-foot mountain troll. Given the slow rise and fall of its chest it had been knocked out recently, likely by Snape as past through the room earlier that day.
Slowly they creeped across the room. Not quietly enough. The troll stirred. It stood and blinked stupidly at them before its fists curled in anger.
Hermione and Harry drew their wands, but Neville pushed them aside.
"No, Neville, you'll turn green again!" Hermione cried out, reaching forward to stop him.
"I got mistaken for a troll before," Neville said growing taller and greener, "Time to show that a troll is no match for Mimb."
And then Mimb was here and with roar it ran forward, tackling the troll into the side wall. Hermione and Harry sprinted to the door and held it open. Harry yelled over to Neville/Mimb.
"Come on Neville, we'll hold the door for you".
"NO MIMB SMASH!"
Harry glanced at Hermione and they shut the door on the fighters. Hermione turned to Harry, "He'll be okay I think," she said with an unsure voice.
"Better than us in there," Harry replied.
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Harry watched as Hermione disappeared behind the flames of the logic puzzle. Before she had left, she had deduced that the puzzle had been designed by Snape, likely to fool Dumbledore. He drank the potion that she had assigned him, and felt the potion cool his body before he stepped through the flame to continue.
He took a deep breath and stepped through the door to next room.
"You?!" Harry said astonished. It was the Defence against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Quirrell.
"Oh good, Potter, you are here. You were expecting Professor Snape, weren't you? I would have too, he is rather suspicious." Quirrell said with a wicked grin.
"But we saw him! He was limping, the dog-" Harry started.
"Please, this is why he is not working with the Dark Lord. His sloppy mistakes, like getting bit by that mutt, only proves he is not worthy of serving the greatest wizard who has ever lived." Quirrell interrupted, clearly irritated.
Harry looked around the room. It was the same size as all the previous rooms, but yet it was the most intimating of them all. In the center stood Quirrell and a tall mirror, escribed with some saying, perhaps written in Latin.
Harry gestured to the room around him, "Voldemort isn't here," Harry said ignoring the violent twitch that overtook Quirrell when he said Voldemort's name, "He's gone, it's just you left of his order".
"STUPID INSOLENT CHILD! The Dark Lord can not be vanquished, and he is here," He turned around and began to unroll his turban, "He is with me".
A shooting pain hit Harry's scar and he grabbed his forehead. A face beneath the turban was revealed and the bright red eyes blinked coldly at Harry. He spoke to Quirrell next, "Use the boy to get the stone."
"Potter come here, now!" Quirrell yelled reaching out to him. Harry started to run but a light flashed behind him and he fell to the ground tied with conjured ropes. Quirrell lifted him and dragged him to the mirror. "Get the stone, Potter, get it now," Quirrell said, forcing him to look into the mirror.
At first, he saw only himself and Quirrell. But then Quirrell disappeared and he was joined a red-haired woman and man who looked nearly identical to him. Behind them stood many other red heads and bespectacled faces. It was his family. The women in the front, his mother reached out to him and he fought the urge to call to her.
Quirrell interrupted the moment, "Potter, NOW!"
Harry thought frantically, what stone? I need to get it before he figures out how to get this stone.
Suddenly he felt a lump in his pocket. He didn't dare look at it, but he had a feeling that this was the mysterious stone that Quirrell/Voldemort were looking for. He started to back away slightly from Quirrell whose distraction resulted the ropes coming loose and falling to the floor.
"HE'S GOT THE STONE, SEIZE HIM," Voldemort screamed.
Harry grabbed the stone out of his pocket and jumped to the side and knocking over the mirror. It hit the floor and the glass exploded, throwing him and Quirrell to opposite sides of the room. The force of the explosion resulted in the stone impaling its self into his hand and Harry cried out in pain.
Quirrell recovered first and ran across the room, arms out, ready to snatch the stone or throttle him. Dazed from the force of the blow, and the stone within his hand, he found himself to weak to do anything but close his eyes and raise his hands in front of him. To wait for death to arrive.
But it did not come. He looked up at Quirrell. He was hitting his hands against shield like wall in front of him. Had he conjured that? That magical shield? He stood up and the shield expanded, pushing Quirrell back more and more.
Suddenly, in a fit of anger, Quirrell grabbed his wand and lifted a stream of magical glass shards and sent it hurtling at Harry. The glass struck the shield with a large force and Harry was knocked off his feet once more. But as he got up, he saw that Quirrell had also fallen to the floor. One of the shards of glass had ricocheted off his shield and into Quirrell's heart.
"I'm sorry my lord," Quirrell managed to whisper. He slouched onto the floor and Harry was certain that he would not rise again. Harry's shield dropped along with the mystery stone. Kneeling on the ground he inspected the stone. It was bright red and polished. Drops of his blood sat upon the stone, seemingly brightening the stone. Harry briefly wondered the implications of letting his blood touch such a magical object.
But his exhaustion over took him, and once more he saw stars. With no one to revive him, he was left to fall to the floor, unconscious.
