So, in the midst of a lot of things, I completely forgot about posting this on Thursday, my bad... but life has started getting busy with college work and so forth. I do need to get back into editing the chapters for this however, or it might get delayed in the near future... but anyway, here it is, enjoy! ~F
Chapter Ten
Beyond Fluffy
Harry never figured out quite how he made it through his exams that year, especially when he was more than half expecting Snape or Voldemort to come bursting through the door to kill him at any moment. The days slowly crept by, and only Faykan's continual confirmation that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door on the third floor kept Harry's sanity intact.
It was incredibly hot in the large lecture room that the first years had their written exams in, where they had to write with special Anti-Cheating quills. Their practical exams were just as difficult: Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his classroom to see is they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk, while McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox. Snape made them slightly nervous, watching closely as they remembered how to make a forgetfulness potion; Faykan had laughed aloud at the irony of it afterward, although Harry and Ron were less than pleased about being in Snape's dungeon for any amount of time.
Harry did the best that he could, while trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead at the same time, which were bothering him more and more ever since the confrontation with Voldemort in the forest.
Faykan, Ron and Hermione were really worried about him over the course of the exam period, as he started to become jittery and unable to sit still for long periods of time, but the rest of the Gryffindor first years seemed to want to believe it was just exam nerves and nothing more.
Harry could barley sleep, only drifting off if Faykan sang or played the flute that Harry had gotten for Christmas for him, clearly weaving some sort of spell into the melody that cause everyone in the dormitory to become exceptionally drowsy. At first the other boys were a bit put off by the unusualness of it, but even they had noticed that Harry was having a rough time and stopped mentioning it.
Even with the added help however, Harry was still woken by his old nightmare quite often; except now they were even worse because the hooded figure from the forest made appearances, dripping silvery blood as he advanced on Harry.
Strangely enough, only Faykan seemed as worried about the Stone's protection as Harry, probably because of what they had witnessed together in the forest. Ron and Hermione were certainly scared of the idea of Voldemort coming back, but they were far too busy with their studies to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to. It was almost bizarre how they seemed to think that it was only a possibility that an attack on the stone's location could happen, rather than an inevitability.
Their very last exam was History of Magic, which irritated Faykan to no end. After they were finished with the one hour of what seemed to be pure torment; answering questions about batty old wizards and witches that had invented self stirring cauldrons or other nonsense that hardly applied to them now, they would at last be free for one full week before their results came back and the term came to a close. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest of his class.
Hermione was already going over the exam questions as they wandered out of the castle and down toward the lake, like she had done after every written exam they had had. As the four of them sprawled around a shady tree, they saw the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan tickling the tentacles of a giant squid that was basking in the shallows.
"No more studying," Ron sighed contentedly, stretching out on the grass. Faykan was watching Harry, who was still rubbing his forehead in suppressed pain.
"Your scar is still hurting, isn't it?" he asked, concerned, and Harry nodded.
"I wish I knew what it means!" Harry burst out angrily. "It's never happened as often as this."
Hermione suggested that Harry visit Madam Pomfrey, but Harry knew that she couldn't help. His scar felt like… like it was warning him of coming danger or something. Ron just told him to relax, as the Stone was safe as long as Dumbledore was around, and Snape couldn't know how to get past Fluffy anyway. Something in Ron's words seemed to click together in Faykan's mind at the mention of Fluffy, and Harry noticed his best friend's worried, faraway look.
"I just thought of something," Faykan said finally, standing shakily as his voice presented a new bout of worry, "don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wanted more than anything is a dragon, and someone showed up that just happens to have one? I mean, who wanders around with dragon eggs in their pocket," he said slowly, suddenly paling as he came to some sort of realization and started sprinting toward Hagrid's hut, "Why didn't I see it before!" he cried as he ran, and Harry tore after him, starting to see the same problem. Just who had given Hagrid the Dragon egg?
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco had just exited the castle to enjoy a little pre-summer sunshine after the end of his final exam when he spotted Faykan sprinting across the grounds, followed closely by Harry, with Hermione and Ron running to try and catch up to the two boys, all heading in the direction of Hagrid's hut. Sudden fear gripped him, as though something might be terribly wrong, and Draco chased after them, arriving out of breath just as Hagrid had opened the door for the four Gryffindors.
"Hullo," the massive man said, smiling at them all. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"
Draco was about to accept the invitation, as he was very parched from all the work he had put into his exams, followed by the impromptu dash across the grounds, when Faykan cut him off, "No," he said quickly, "we're in a hurry Hagrid, but I've got something important to ask you about. You know the night you won Norbert's egg? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"
"Dunno," Hagrid replied casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off." He took a look at their stunned faces and raised his eyebrows, explaining that there were lots of strange folk that came to the Hog's Head pub out in the village beyond the school's gates, and that he never saw the stranger's face, because the person had kept his hood up the entire time.
Faykan pressed onward still however, seeming to search for anything that might be unusual or suspicious about the mystery person, "What did you talk to him about?" he asked."Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"
"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, 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 took 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..." Faykan seemed to grow more concerned, but didn't interrupt Hagrid, "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..."
Faykan asked immediately how interested the stranger seemed when Hagrid mentioned Fluffy, suddenly going very stiff in suppressed fright.
"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…" Hagrid said, before widening his eyes in horror at what he had just told them.
He started to tell them to forget anything he'd just said, but even Draco realized what this information meant, and the five of them were already sprinting back to the castle as fast as their legs could carry them. None of the students spoke until they were back inside the castle, which was rather vacant when compared to the warm, sunlit grounds. They flew up to Professor McGonagall's office, as none of them knew where the Professor Dumbledore's office was located, and skidded to a halt in front of her desk. Professor McGonagall looked up at them, and frowned at their panicked looks
"We need to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Harry said, rather breathless from all the running.
"Well I'm sorry; Professor Dumbledore received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left straight for London." Professor McGonagall said, almost sounding as though she didn't believe that there was anything they had to say urgent enough to concern the Headmaster.
"He's gone now? Argh, but this is important!" Faykan said frantically, "It's about the Philosopher's Stone."
Whatever Professor McGonagall was expecting, that wasn't it. The book she was holding fell to her desk with a loud thump.
"Sna… Someone's going to try and steal it." Harry continued further baffling the Transfiguration teacher.
"I don't know how you all found out about the stone," Professor McGonagall sai briskly, still very flustered, "but rest assured it is perfectly safe." She picked the book back up from where it had fallen onto her desk, and rose from her seat to gesture at the door, "Now, I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." With that she promptly dismissed than and returned to her book.
As they walked along the corridors, Harry finally spoke up again "It's tonight; Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and he's gotten Dumbledore out of the way. He must have sent that note, and I bet the Ministry will get a real shock when Dumbledore shows up out of the blue.
"But what can just the five of us…" Draco began but stopped and the all turned when Hermione gasped. Professor Snape was standing right behind them.
"Good afternoon," he said smoothly. They all just stared at him.
"You five really shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said with a twisted smile. Turning to look directly at Harry and Faykan he continued, "People might think your… up to something."
He then abruptly strode off in the opposite direction after making another snipe about how Gryffindor really couldn't afford to lose any more points anyway, which they all ignored.
"Well, that's it isn't it?" Harry said as they turned to go outside.
Draco stared at him, as did Ron and Hermione. Faykan kept an eye out for other teachers. Harry was very pale, but his eyes glittered with determination.
"I'm going down the trapdoor, tonight." He said flatly "I'm going to try and get to the Stone before Snape.
"You're mad!" said Ron.
"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what both McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"
Draco thought Harry was going to explode, when he shouted: "SO WHAT Don't you understand? If Snape gets the Stone, Voldemort's coming back…" Harry seemed to trail off and Faykan picked up the line of thought for him, almost seemlessly.
"Losing points doesn't matter anymore, Voldemort needs to be stopped at all costs. Harry and I are going down the trapdoor tonight and you three can either join us or not, because nothing any of you say will change our minds."
Harry found his voice again and added, "Voldemort killed my parents, remember? I'm never going over to the Dark Side, so he will have to kill me too."
Draco spoke up before either of the other two, "Your right Harry,"
"I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry.
"But will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked
"All four of us?"
"Oh come off it, you don't think were going to let you and Fay handle this on you own do you?" Draco added, nodding in agreement to their mad scheme that was already in the works.
"Of course not," said Hermione 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..."
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
So, after dinner that very evening, true to their word Harry, Ron and Hermione waited in the common room for the rest of their housemates to slowly drift away up to bed. Faykan had detoured back in the corridors of the castle to double back and get Draco so they didn't have to go all the way to the dungeons and lose precious time in locating him.
When the last person finally went up to bed, Harry pulled out the invisibility cloak and the three of them crept toward the portrait hole.
"What are you doing?" said a voice suddenly from the corner of the room. Neville Longbottom appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.
"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back, still trying to still his now pounding heart at how blind they had ot have been to overlook the rather pudgy boy there in the corner.
But it was no use, as Neville stared at their guilty faces, reading their intent without needing words. "You're going out again," he declared, somehow getting angry at the thought.
"No, no, no," said Hermione, attempting to reassure the other boy. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville, you must be tired?"
"You can't go out," said Neville, determined, "you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."
"You don't understand," said Harry, imploringly "this is important."
But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate and unfortunately very foolish. "I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole and throwing his arms wide to block the passage. "I'll fight you!"
Harry felt his heart tearing a bit at the fact that they'd have to push their way past the one person that had always gone out of his way to be kind to him, even through the mess with the hundred and fifty point loss. After several moments of tense silence, Hermione finally stepped forward and raised her wand, "Neville I'm really, really sorry about this. Petrificus Totalus!"
Neville's arms and legs snapped together and he toppled to the floor. The three Gryffindors hurried past him, muttering their apologies as they passed. They threw the cloak about them the moment they were outside of Gryffindor Tower, passing swiftly down towards the third floor, and intercepting Draco where they had prepared to meet him in a small dark crevasse behind a statue just inside the third corridor, and ran into Faykan the fox outside the door to Fluffy's room.
The door was ajar as they approached, Faykan changing back into human form as he smelled them, and Harry pulled the cloak off them. Turning to Draco, Ron and Hermione, Harry spoke quickly, "If you want to go back now, I won't blame you. You can take the cloak; we won't need it from here on."
They all complained vehemently at that, and together the five friends pushed the door open fully. Faykan took the flute from Harry as he walked inside ahead of them all, immediately playing the melody of the same song that he had used all year long to help Harry fall asleep. As Harry pushed past the doorway with Ron, Hermione and Draco to catch up, they saw Fluffy fast asleep with one giant paw on top of the trapdoor.
Motioning for Faykan to keep playing, Draco, Ron and Harry strained and grunted as they slowly moved Fluffy's paw out of the way and pulled open the trapdoor, revealing the steep drop into darkness below
"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously from where she stood by Faykan, who continued to play.
"Nothing, just black, not even a means to climb down, we'll have to drop," Harry replied, "I'll go first," he added. There was a flash of movement, and he looked at Faykan, who was still playing, and was given him an assuring nod, as Faykan pointed with one hand at Fluffy, indicating that he would keep the dog asleep until they were all through then follow behind them.
Harry nodded in reply, and quickly lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by only his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and Draco, and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"
"Right," replied Ron, while Draco just looked pale and slightly frightened, but resolute in his commitment to stick with them.
With that, Harry let go. Cold damp air rushed past him as he fell, and after only a few moments he landed with a funnily muffled thump. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.
"It's okay;" he called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"
Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled out next to Harry.
"What's this stuff?" he asked immediately as he felt around at the plant that was cushioning them.
"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall." Harry replied, shrugging in the darkness, "Come on, you lot!"
Draco and Hermione had already jumped however. Hermione landed on Harry's other side while Draco landed next to Ron.
"We must be miles under the school," Hermione said in wonder.
"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.
The distant music stopped. There was a few moments of silence, broken by loud barking from Fluffy, but moments later, Faykan had landed next to Hermione, who shrieked, "Lucky! Look at you both!"
Both Hermione and Faykan leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall at her pronouncement. They had to struggle because the moments they had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around their ankles. Draco, Harry and Ron had their legs already tightly bound in long creepers without even noticing it happening.
Hermione and Faykan managed to free themselves before the plant got any firm grips on them, and they watched in horror as the three boys fought to pull the plant off themselves, but the more they strained, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.
"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!"
She starting to say a rhyme that she had learned in Herbology, but Faykan sprang into action as soon as she said the plant's name. Whipping out his wand, he slashed it in front of him and bellowed "kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth!"
Brilliant white light erupted from his wand and set the tendrils of the Devil's Snare alight with clear red flames, causing it to release the three boys as it fled from the fire threatening to engulf it.
"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," praised Harry as he joined her by the wall, still wiping sweat off his face.
"Yeah," Draco added, "and lucky Fay doesn't lose his head in a crisis, you really need to teach us some of those spells by the way." Faykan pinked slightly at the praise.
"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. After several minutes of following the downward sloping passages, Ron stopped in his tracks, listening hard.
"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered, when they all stopped to look at him. Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.
"It sounds like wings," he said
"There's light ahead, I can see something moving." Draco said, pointing out what looked like an open doorway ahead of them.
Once they reached the end of the passageway, they could see much easier in renewed torchlight, brightly illuminating a brilliantly lit chamber before them, its ceiling arching high above. It was full of small, bright bird-like creatures, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door, while in the center of the room were several brooms. Harry watched the birds for several seconds and they soared glittering overhead.
"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly, recognizing the shapes. "They're keys! Winged keys, I bet one of them fits that door."
Harry, Ron, Draco and Faykan all instinctively took brooms and sped off, snatching at keys, while Hermione studied the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one, probably silver, like the handle." She called up to the boys.
"That one!" Harry called to the others, pointing. "That big one with bright blue wings; the feathers are all crumpled on one side."
The four boys immediately formulated a strategy, coming in at the key from separate directions, pinning it between them all and the wall. Harry dived and with a nasty crunching noise, slammed the body of the key against the wall with one hand, capturing it. They landed quickly and Harry rammed the still struggling key into the lock and turned it. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught again.
The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as soon as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like granite. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces.
"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Draco said, "We've got to play our way across the room."
Behind the white pieces they could see another door.
"How?" asked Hermione nervously.
"I think," guessed Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."
Both Ron and Draco started working together, placing Harry as the king, which he didn't like in the slightest, while Faykan and Draco took the place of the two bishops, Hermione as the king's castle, and Ron becoming the queen side knight. When they took their places, a white pawn moved slowly forward two squares, starting the game. Ron and Draco would conjointly plan out their moves, and then Ron would shout out the commands to their pieces. It was a frightful battle, pieces being lost on obth sides, but both boys working like madmen to prevent any of the pieces that were their friends from being taken at all costs. After what seemed like hours, there were barely any pieces on the white side left.
"We're nearly there," Ron muttered suddenly. "Just let me think let me think..."
The white queen turned her blank face toward him, as though knowing what he was thinking about doing. "Yes..." said Ron softly, "It's the only way... I've got to be taken." He declared suddenly.
"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted in unison.
"That's chess!" snapped Draco. "You've got to make some sacrifices! If he takes one step forward, the queen will take him, which leaves you free to checkmate the king, Faykan!"
"But," Harry started, but Ron cut him off, "Do you want to stop Snape from getting that Stone or not?" he demanded hotly, silencing all protests, as before anyone could argue further, Ron stepped forward into his new position, checking the king, and the white queen pounced.
The statue struck him hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor. Hermione screamed and almost moved off her square, only remaining where she was when Draco commanded her to stay put, as they were still playing. Faykan then moved three squares to the left, casting a spell that shattered the pawn in his way.
"Checkmate!" Fay declared, and the white king removed his crown and threw it down at his feet. Draco dashed to Ron, letting them all know that the other boy was alright, just unconscious, and Faykan transfigured the white king's stone crown to a metal one made of what seemed to be gold, and placed it on Ron's head, smiling appreciatively at the boy's noble sacrifice.
"Take care of Ron, then use the brooms in the previous room to get to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore," Harry told Draco, who nodded, "We'll go onward," With one last look back at unconscious form of Ron, Harry, Hermione and Faykan all charged through the door and up the next passageway.
"All right?" Harry whispered, as they reached the next door.
"Go on," Fay encouraged him, and Harry pushed it open.
A disgusting smell immediately filled their nostrils, making them all pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one Faykan had turned to stone on Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.
"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Faykan whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."
Fay pulled open the next door, them all hardly daring to look at what came next, but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.
"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Faykan studied the bottles while Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder to read it:
'Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, which ever 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 bidden 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 sigh and Harry saw that she was smiling, the very thing he felt like doing. She explained that it was a logic puzzle and studied the paper several times over. Finally she clapped her hands.
"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire, toward the stone."
"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" Faykan asked.
Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.
"You drink that," said Harry, interrupting her as she started to protest, "No, listen… get back and help Draco with 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, as we need him. We 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?" she said, her voice growing very small and frightened.
"That's why I'll be with Harry," Faykan said, his blue eyes glowing in the black fire's reflection.
"Please be careful, both of you," Hermione said finally, as she took a long drink from the round bottle and took off through the purple fire.
Turning to Faykan, Harry steeled his nerve and picked up the small bottle, "only enough for one swallow each," he said. Faykan just nodded, "Okay, here we come," he took one small mouthful and passed the bottle to Faykan, who drained it. It felt as though ice was flooding his body. Faykan put the bottle down and they stood, side by side before the black flames. "Ready Harry?" Faykan asked.
"Ready," he replied.
They jumped through the flames together. There was someone already in the next room, but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.
It was Quirrell.
"You!" gasped Harry; he shot a look to Faykan, who was already gone. Turning back to Quirrell, he saw the small fox circling the room stealthily through the shadows cast by the torches.
Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.
"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."
Harry saw Faykan stealing toward the Mirror of Erised, while Quirrell's back was to him and the mirror, so Harry decided to stall Quirrell from turning back to the mirror as long as he was unaware of Fay.
"But I thought it was Snape." He said, feigning surprise and shock.
"Severus?" Quirrell said, and then laughed, and Harry noticed that it wasn't his usual laugh, but cold and much sharper. "Yes Severus does seem the type doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat like he does. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" the man said mockingly.
Harry had come to that conclusion earlier, all of Draco and Faykan's thoughts about it not being Snape were finally clicking into place while staring at the man, but as Faykan was only halfway to the mirror, Harry continued to play like he was in disbelief.
"But Snape tried to kill me!" he said quickly, trying to think of something that would keep the man talking.
"No, no, no." Quirrell chided, "I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss. Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Severus at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape or you little friend hadn't been muttering counter curses, trying to save you."
Faykan was between Quirrell and the mirror, and was transforming silently back into human form, just as Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry, but still the man didn't turn around yet.
"You and your little friends are too nosy to live, Potter." Quirrell said scathingly, taking a small step toward him, away from Fay and the mirror. "Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew one of you had seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."
"Ah so that's why you let the troll was inside the castle, I was wondering why you stank of it." Faykan said loudly, announcing his presence directly behind Quirrell. As the surprised Professor turned Faykan shot a blinding flash of light at him, knocking the man sideways, away from both Harry and the Mirror. Harry noticed that his bonds loosened dramatically as Quirrell lost his concentration over the spell, allowing him to slip free.
While Faykan dueled with Quirrell, each sending bolts and flashes at each other as they battled across the room, Harry moved to the mirror quickly, his mind racing. What he wanted more then anything right now, was to get the stone before Quirrell. Quirrell sent a blinding blue bolt at Faykan, who sidestepped it and returned to his offensive, pushing Quirrell back further away from Harry, who had to duck as Quirrell's spell reflected off the glossy surface of the Mirror.
Harry quickly stepped directly in front of the mirror. He saw his reflection, pale and scared looking at first with spells and curses flying behind him. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood red stone. Then the mirror version of Harry winked at him and put the Stone back in its pocket, and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow, incredibly, he'd gotten the Stone.
Quirrell was screaming curses at Faykan, when finally a high cold voice sounded from his same direction, but Quirrell hadn't spoken them "Fool, get Potter, he has the stone!" Blasting a final curse at Faykan, Quirrell turned and flew through the air toward Harry, but Faykan cried "neuma goth!" and Quirrell was entangled in a magical net that prevented him from moving, before he was slammed back into the far wall, well away from Harry while Faykan stood between them.
"Master, the boy is too strong, help me, Master!" Quirrell cried out in desperation.
The cold voice spoke again, and it seemed to chill Harry to the bone, "Let me speak to them, face to face."
"Master you are not strong enough!" Quirrell said hesitantly, but the voice replied harshly, and the man twitched as though it caused him pain. "I have strength enough for this…"
Faykan backed away from Quirrell until he was at Harry's side, wand still pointed at the professor, but Harry couldn't muster the will to move his legs or draw his own wand as Quirrell slowly lifted his hands within the net and removed his turban, revealing a horrific sight. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was another face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.
"Harry Potter..." it whispered at him.
Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.
"Voldemort," Faykan hissed, stepping forward and holding his wand up.
"Yes, see what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor… I have form only when I share another's body… Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body on my own… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will finally return to power… Now… why don't you give me that stone in your pocket Harry?" the face said, hissing as it spoke barely above a whisper, but it was enough to carry across the room. So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.
"Don't be a fool," snarled the face, as it stared intently at Harry. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..."
"YOU LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.
"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."
"NEVER!" Harry screamed in sudden rage. He'd rather destroy the stone than let this monster have it.
"KILL THEM!" Voldemort bellowed just as the net around Quirrell was torn into pieces from a sudden spike of magical power, and Quirrell fired a spell at Faykan, blasting him backward, right through the black fire into the potion room. The Professor then leaped at Harry, knocking him off his feet and landing heavily on top of him, both hands around Harry's throat. Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain at the contact, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony as well.
"Master, I cannot hold him. My hands! My hands!" the man whined pitifully. And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms, Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.
"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.
Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by pure instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face with both hands. With an agonizing scream, Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering now too, and then Harry knew what the cause was; Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain. His only chance was to keep a hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse or going for the stone. Faykan was gone, maybe hurt or worse, and he was all there was left to stop Voldemort from getting the Stone.
Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could, digging his fingers in as hard as he dared. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off, while the pain in Harry's head was building. He suddenly couldn't see, only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" and other voices, maybe some only in his own head, crying his name as Harry's vision drifted into blackness and he knew no more.
kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth : light of the sun burn mine enemies
neuma goth : trap my foe
Potential Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned!
So, once again, apologies for forgetting when I was posting, I had all day Thursday off and wasn't thinking about things relative to what week it was. my schedule is still adjusting to being at college rather than at home. but still, better late than never right?
without further interruption then... Surprisingly, there wasn't much I felt this chapter needed to be changed, aside from minor things tightening up the flow here and there, primarily in the beginning. I was rather pleased with the outcome of the trip down the trapdoor, and didn't feel any real need was present to alter it. but there will indeed be big changes to discuss in the next chapter, the epilogue of book one, before we press onward to book 2's storyline.
Until then! ~F