A/N: This is significantly borrowed from Chapter 16: Through the Trap Door. However, there are a few twists and surprises, so hang on! Once again, I do not own the rights to the HP universe, and I will not be making any monetary gains from this piece whatsoever. Not even a single knut.
The time had finally arrived for the end-of-year exams; Kellen had prepared Harry and Ron more than well enough to get respectable marks in all their classes. He went through flash cards with them every night for two hours until it was time to take the exams.
There were of course written exams with special quills that were charmed to prevent cheating, and there were also practical applications of their classes.
Professor Flitwick had the students try to get a pineapple to tap dance on a desk - Kellen couldn't help but show off a bit by having it do the hula as well (of course he got bonus points).
Professor McGonagall had her students transform a mouse into a snuff-box. The nicer looking the box, the more points. If it retained whiskers, points were docked.
Professor Snape had them prepare a Forgetfulness potion - despite prowling around the classroom watching each student with an eagle eye, Harry could have sworn that Snape actually gave him a slight nod of approval after watching him add ingredients.
Finally, they took the History of Magic exam, which wasn't as bad as they had hoped. When all their exams were completed, there was one huge collective sigh of relief in the castle.
After their last exam was complete, Hermione, Kellen, Harry, and Ron all sprinted outside to relax and enjoy the sunshine. Even Ron felt confident that he did well on his exams.
"Glad that's over," Harry said.
"Me too," said Ron. "I actually think I passed everything thanks to Kellen's bloody flash cards."
"I used them all the time as a Muggle," Kellen replied casually. "Great way to memorize things."
"How did they go for you, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Well..." she started. "I suppose I did okay."
"Just okay?" Ron asked. "You probably could give Kellen a run for his money!"
Hermione grinned. "I guess we'll find out in a few days, won't we?"
"Ahhh," Harry said as he clutched his forehead.
"What's wrong Harry? Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked.
"No, I don't feel sick. I feel a very dark, dangerous presence..." Harry closed his eyes. "Hmm... Hagrid!"
"What about Hagrid?" Ron asked.
"Remember the dragon egg he won playing cards? And how that dragons are banned here? I think it's more than mere coincidence that the stranger just so happened to have an egg on his person at the time, don't you think?" Harry asked.
"I dunno," Ron said. "I'll just take your word for it."
"Maybe he has more information on the person he won the egg from," guessed Kellen.
"My thoughts exactly," Harry said.
The four friends bolted to Hagrid's hut, who immediately invited them for a drink.
"Hello, hello! Finished with exams already?" Hagrid chuckled.
"Hi, Hagrid," Harry asked. "We're finished, yes. I was wondering if you remembered anything about the gentleman that you won the egg from."
"Hmm... well, he was cloaked so I don't really remember any distinguishing characteristics... hmm... though I did tell him about myself and that I was the game keeper 'round here. He bought me a few drinks and I told him that I always wanted a dragon, and he just so happened ter have a dragon egg with him. I figured after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy."
Hagrid paused to gather his thoughts. "So he asked me about Fluffy, and I told him that a bit of music could calm him down. Oh, I s'pose I shouldn't have told yer that."
"We've got to tell Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed. The children rushed to Professor McGonagall's office to request an audience with the headmaster.
"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore's been summoned to London earlier today," Professor McGonagall explained. "Ministry of Magic related-business."
"But it's the Philosopher's Stone!" Harry exclaimed. "Someone in league with Voldemort might steal it at any moment!"
Professor McGonagall gasped. "I'm not sure how you caught wind of the stone being on school grounds, but you needn't worry. We have ample security. You need to go back outside and enjoy the sunshine. Go on, off you go."
As the children left her office in disappointment, she called back Kellen.
"Grimseth. A moment of your time, please?"
"Yes, Professor?" Kellen asked.
"I know you are the type that takes matters into their own hands... and I have a hunch that you and your friends are going to try and get the stone yourselves. I also know none of you would use the stone for your own purposes, so that's why... I... I'm not going to stop you, but I urge you to keep your wits about you. The four of you are at your strongest when working as a team, but individually, you also have unique strengths that may be suited to handle certain challenges. I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying this, but even with Gryffindor bringing up the rear in the House Cup, I'm immensely proud of you for all you've done this term, and I'm beyond grateful to have you in my house. Keep being you, Kellen. In the meantime, I will do what I can to reach out to Dumbledore, but I fear he won't be returning to Hogwarts until the morrow."
She produced her wand. "I'm going to cast a very special charm on you. A protective spell, of sorts. I won't elaborate on what it entails, but should my worst fears be realized, Miss Granger should know what to do." She winked at Kellen, then waved her wand. "Good luck, Kellen. Your friends need you to help protect that stone from You-Know-Who!"
That evening, Harry, Kellen, Hermione, and Ron met in the common room.
"Hey, Professor McGonagall basically gave us permission to go after the stone," Kellen said. "She said that she figured we'd go after it ourselves since Dumbledore's in London, and she wasn't going to stop us."
"Well, I guess we can just waltz on over to the third floor corridor then," Ron said.
"No, we still need to be very careful," Kellen said. "That's just between us and McGonagall. We could still get detention if we get caught by Filch or Snape."
"So, are we on for tonight after lights out then?" Hermione asked.
"Sounds good to me," replied Harry. "Meet you here at say, ten thirty?"
"Perfect," said Ron. "I hope the cloak can cover all four of us!"
They returned to the common room as agreed, to put their plan in motion.
"Okay, so music soothes the savage beast. Does anyone here have a musical ear?" Kellen asked.
"Erm, I can play the piano," Hermione said.
"Great, but that isn't going to help us here," Kellen replied. "My acoustic guitar is back in Minnesota so that won't help us either. Can anyone sing maybe?"
"I can sing a fair bit," offered Hermione.
"Do you know any songs?" Kellen asked.
Hermione shrugged. "Greensleeves maybe?"
"I guess we'll find out if it works on Fluffy," Kellen sighed. "Let's get going and get that stone before You-Know-Who does!"
He stuck out his hand, face-down in front of his friends. "For Dumbledore," he murmured.
Hermione put her hand over Kellen's and smiled. "For Dumbledore."
Harry and Ron did the same. "For Dumbledore," they added, before lifting their hands and making a break for the common room exit.
The four friends tiptoed their way to the third floor corridor, and Kellen simply waved his hand to unlock the door.
"You've got to teach me that," Hermione whispered.
They crept in the door, where sure enough, Fluffy the guard dog was sitting on top of what appeared to be a trap door!
A harp stood in the corner of the room, which the children understood as meaning that someone else had been there before them. And of course, Fluffy stood vigilant, right behind what appeared to be a trap door of sorts. Fluffy stood guard, with all three heads fixed on the children, with copious amounts of drool dripping from its massive jaws. One of the heads made a rather aggressive growl, and Fluffy got up to advance towards the children.
"Start singing, Hermione," Kellen murmured through gritted teeth.
Hermione sang Greensleeves in a surprisingly beautiful soprano, which bought time for Kellen to flip open the trap door. The beast was sedated long enough for Harry and Ron to squeeze themselves through the trap door, and then Kellen motioned for Hermione to go next. By this point, she had stopped singing, so Kellen had just barely enough time to slide through the trap door before one of Fluffy's vice-like jaws grabbed hold of him.
The children landed on something soft and squishy to break the fall, but it was anything but comfortable. The four children soon found themselves tangled by twisty tendrils - Ron was even struggling to breathe.
Hermione was quick to recognize this plant as Devil's Snare, and encouraged her friends to stop squirming and flailing in order to get free. It took her just a few seconds to settle down and she found herself free from the Devil's Snare's grasp. However, the three boys found themselves still tightly bound.
"Hang on," Kellen said. "I think I can reach my wand!" After struggling in the tendrils' grasp for a few seconds, he was able to get his wand out, and he cast a slicing spell to cut through the ensnaring tendrils: "Diffindo!" He was able to point his wand and free himself, Harry, and Ron, and they were able to join Hermione before proceeding to the next room.
Thousands of winged creatures fluttered in the room, resembling strange birds.
"I don't think these are birds," Kellen mused.
"I don't think so either," Harry agreed. "Look closely... they're sparkling... they're... keys!"
"There's got to be at least a thousand flying keys in this room! How do we know which one is which?" Ron asked.
"Try looking at the latch and handle," suggested Hermione. "I'm guessing the key would probably match the color and style."
Kellen looked at the door handle on the opposite side of the room. "Pewter," he said. "So something that's a dark silver, and rather tarnished would be our best bet."
"There's some broomsticks in the corner," Harry alerted his friends. "Let's each grab one and see if we can find that key!" The friends all grabbed a broomstick to search for an old, tarnished key that would fit the pewter lock.
"Harry!" Kellen screeched. "I think I see it! It's on your left! The one with the blue feathers - and one of the wings looks wonky!"
"Huh?" Harry asked. He looked to his left and saw a tarnished skeleton key fluttering rather differently than the other keys in the vault. "Oh, I see it!" He pointed his broom and whizzed after it as quickly as he could. The key dropped down toward the floor, and Harry dove after it as fast as he could, and grabbed it just inches from the floor. His broom however hit the ground in the process, so hard that the broom snapped in several pieces. He tumbled over, shaken but not badly hurt, but more importantly, with key in hand.
"You got it, Harry!" squeaked Hermione.
"You've got to try out for Seeker next season, Harry," Kellen said encouragingly. "You're even better at flying than I am!"
Harry took the key and inserted it into the lock on the other side of the room. It was a perfect match! They opened the door, and entered the next room. It was very dimly lit, but when Ron stepped on something, it suddenly brightened up. He suddenly realized that they were in a room with a giant chess board in the middle of it!
Ron turned around, and was staring face-to-face with a black knight. "Oh, hello," Ron said meekly. "Do we... need to join you to proceed?"
The black knight merely nodded.
"I think I know what this means," Ron said. "We have to play... real Wizard's Chess... and win, if we're going to go to the next room. Now with all due respect, except for Kellen, you two aren't exactly chess grandmasters."
"We understand, Ron," Hermione said. "We're not offended."
"Just tell us what we need to do," Harry said.
"Okay. Hermione, you take the rook," Ron said, pointing at a black tower-looking piece. "Harry, you take the bishop. Kellen, you're the one who understands protection better than any of us, so naturally it's our turn to protect you. You're going to be the king."
"And what about you?" Kellen asked.
Ron smirked. "As for me, I'm going to be a knight. Now, remember in chess, white goes first." And just like that, the first white pawn moved forward two spaces.
Ron directed the various pieces across the board. Although the white pieces had the early advantage, Ron deftly directed his own side to return the favor, and gradually advanced to the other side of the board. After each side lost a significant number of pieces, often in brutal fashion, Ron saw an opening, but he knew it would come at a price. The white queen had her eyes on Ron's knight, but it would free up Harry's bishop to capture the white king.
"Harry, it's up to you to checkmate their king," Ron said. "I'm going to have to give myself up in order for you to do that."
"You can't, Ron," Harry protested. "There's got to be another way!"
"There is no other way, Harry," Ron countered. "I'm taking a page out of Kellen's book. Whatever happens, happens, but you three have got to go on without me. This is my choice to make, and you can't stop me." Ron nervously directed his knight toward the white queen. Immediately after Ron made his move, the queen smashed the knight, and Ron tumbled to the floor, unconscious.
"Ron!" Hermione screamed.
"He did what he had to do, Hermione," Kellen said. "I'm really proud of him, for what it's worth. And Harry, we're still playing. Finish this so we can keep going!"
Harry moved his bishop to the white king. "Erm... checkmate," he said softly. The white king then presented his crown to Harry in a gesture of surrender.
"We won!" Harry yelled excitedly.
"Hermione, look after Ron," Kellen said. "He should be fine, but you know... just in case. Harry and I will go on to the next room."
Hermione went to her other two friends. "I'm sorry I was so hard on you after losing all our house points," she said softly. "You were right, there are things that are way more important than house points, or spells, or exams. Like friendship, honesty, and bravery. You two are terrific wizards."
Kellen smiled. "You're an amazing witch."
Hermione returned the smile, and embraced Kellen. "Please take care of Harry." She then embraced Harry. "Good luck - you've got to find that stone!"
"We will," Harry replied.
Harry and Kellen proceeded to the next room.
"So, the Devil's Snare was Professor Sprout's idea," Kellen surmised. "The flying keys must have been Professor Flitwick's, and the chess board I'm guessing was Professor McGonagall's. That leaves - Professors Snape and Quirrell."
As they proceeded to the next chamber, it was another dimly lit room with a small table in the middle of it. On the table were several small bottles, and a piece of parchment in front of them.
As the boys proceeded toward the table, they stepped on some sort of tile which caused dark flames to erupt in all directions surrounding the room - they were trapped, and had no way out, except for what was on the table.
Kellen unfurled the parchment and read aloud the following inscription:
"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind
Two of us will help you, whichever 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 hidden in line
Choose, unless you wish to say 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 move onward, neither is your friend
Third, as you see clearly, all are of different size
Neither dwarf nor giant hold 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."
"This isn't magic, I don't think," Kellen said. "It reminds me of those word problems in arithmetic."
"So, what does that mean?" Harry asked.
"It's a riddle," Kellen clarified. "So, there are seven potions on the table, and only one will let us move forward. Three of them are poison that will kill us if we take a swig, two will do nothing as they're nothing but nettle wine, and one of them will take us back to the previous room."
"So which is which?" Harry asked, still confused.
"I got this," Kellen said confidently. "Take a swig out of that teeny one," he said, pointing to the smallest bottle, which probably didn't contain much more than a few drops.
"Well, you're really good at these things, Kellen... I trust you," Harry said. "But what about you?"
"Don't worry about me, Harry," Kellen replied. "I can drink the one that can take me back to the giant chessboard room and rejoin Hermione and Ron."
Just as Harry grabbed the smallest bottle and put it to his lips, a bright green light flashed behind the table, followed by a piercing shriek that didn't sound human.
A monstrous beast appeared in the room - it had the face of a bearded man, the body of a lion, and a pair of scorpion-like tails - it was a horrific Manticore!
"Run, Harry!" Kellen shouted. "The flame barrier's down. I'll hold off the manticore! Don't worry about me! Run hard, and don't look back!"
Harry darted to the next room as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Kellen drew out his wand and cast his freezing spell: "Immobulus!"
But the manticore was too aggressive, and too quick. It had stung Kellen in the abdomen with one of its stingers, and Kellen tumpled over in the corner of the room, lifeless. And like that, the Manticore had vanished as quickly as it came in.